Tacitus, Annals, 15.20-23, 33-45. Latin Text, Study Aids with Vocabulary, and Commentary, 2013a
Tacitus, Annals, 15.20-23, 33-45. Latin Text, Study Aids with Vocabulary, and Commentary, 2013a
Tacitus, Annals, 15.20-23, 33-45. Latin Text, Study Aids with Vocabulary, and Commentary, 2013a
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<strong>and</strong> the variation in constructions <strong>and</strong> choice of words. To flesh out the<br />
special significance of the buildings under consideration <strong>Tacitus</strong> starts<br />
out <strong>with</strong> two relative clause (quod ... Lunae; quae ... sacraverat), then moves<br />
on to a perfect passive participle (vota Romulo), details one item <strong>with</strong>out<br />
any further specification (Numae regia), <strong>and</strong> finishes <strong>with</strong> a prepositional<br />
phrase (cum penatibus populi Romani). To refer to holy sites, he piles up four<br />
different words, which are more or less synonymous <strong>with</strong> one another:<br />
templum (implied from the previous sentence), fanum, aedes, delubrum.<br />
quod Servius Tullius Lunae [sc. sacraverat] Servius Tullius was the sixth<br />
(<strong>and</strong> penultimate) king of Rome. This is the only place in which he is the<br />
founder of the temple of Luna on the Aventine, whereas other sources<br />
(Livy 1.<strong>45.</strong>2 <strong>and</strong> Dionysius Halicarnassus 4.26) have him as founder of the<br />
famous temple of Diana, also located on the Aventine. Since Diana was<br />
also goddess of the Moon, we may be dealing <strong>with</strong> a conflation of the two<br />
temples here. Koestermann prefers the alternative reading Lucinae (another<br />
name of Diana: see e.g. Catullus 34.13). 174 Irrespective of the textual problem<br />
<strong>and</strong> the identity of the temple, it is apparent that <strong>Tacitus</strong> wishes to insist<br />
on the heavy toll taken on the most ancient <strong>and</strong> religious edifices, <strong>and</strong> in<br />
so doing to suggest the corruption of modern Rome <strong>and</strong> its fall from its<br />
ancient roots.<br />
<br />
The Ara Maxima, situated towards the north west of the Circus, was an<br />
ancient sanctuary dedicated to Hercules. Ev<strong>and</strong>er was a pre-historic/<br />
mythical hero who founded a settlement on the site of Rome after he came<br />
to Italy from Arcadia (hence Arcas) in Greece. He famously plays host to<br />
Aeneas in Aeneid 8. Virgil <strong>and</strong> other sources recount that Ev<strong>and</strong>er dedicated<br />
the altar after Hercules slew Cacus, the monster-in-residence at the future<br />
site of Rome. Again, the extreme antiquity of this shrine (which predates<br />
even the foundation of Rome) emphasises the loss.<br />
<strong>Tacitus</strong> name-checks two of the greatest<br />
<strong>and</strong> most revered of figures: Jupiter, king of the gods, <strong>and</strong> the city’s founder<br />
Romulus. Romulus was said to have dedicated this temple to Jupiter after<br />
he stopped the Romans from fleeing during their war <strong>with</strong> the Sabines –<br />
hence the epithet Stator (‘the Stayer’). See, for instance, Livy 1.12.4–5. The<br />
174 Koestermann (1968) 243.
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