PENATES DEI, AEDES
a temple on the Velia, on the site formerly occupied
by the house of Tullus Hostilius (Varro ap. Non. 531;
Solin. i. 22;
Donat. ad Ter. Eun. 256). This was not far from the forum, on a short
street leading to the Carinae (
Dionys. i. 68. 1:
νεὼς ἀγορᾶς οὐ πρόσω κατὰ τὴν ἐπι Καρίνας φέρουσαν ἐπίτομον ὁδόν,
from which street the temple was probably reached by the scalae deum
Penatium mentioned by Varro (ap. Donat. loc. cit.). There is no record
of its building, but it is first mentioned in the list of Argei (
Varro v. 54:
Veliense sexticeps in Velia apud aedem deum Penatium) of the second
half of the third century B.C. Dionysius (loc. cit.) describes it as
ὑπεροχῇ σκοτειϝὸς ἱδρυμένος οὐ μέγας, and its foundation was probably a
little earlier than the first Punic war.
In 167 B.C. it was struck by lightning (
Liv. xlv. 16. 5), and in 165 the
opening of its doors at night was listed among the prodigia (Obseq.
13). It was restored by Augustus (Mon.
Anc. iv. 7; cf. vi. 33). In
it were archaic statues of the Dioscuri as dei Penates
1 (Dionys. loc. cit.),
an identification that is further supported by the evidence of coins of
M'. Fonteius, about 104 B.C. (Babelon,
Monnaies i. 503, No. 8),
2 C. Sulpicius,
about 94 (ib. ii. 471, No. 1), and C. Antius Restio 49-45 (i. 155, No. 2).
A temple of the Penates seems also to be represented on one of the reliefs
of the ara Pacis Augustae (
OJ x. 1907, 186-188; SScR 25).
This temple is sometimes thought to have been removed by Vespasian
when he built the forum Pacis (see
PACIS TEMPLUM), sometimes to have
occupied the site of the so-called ' templum Romuli ' (
Jord. i. 2. 416-417 ;
Rosch. iii. 1889-1890;
Gilb. ii. 81-84, where the identification of this
temple with the actual rotunda is ridiculous; WR 165). But, according
to the most recent theory, the rectangular building which forms the main
part of the church of SS. Cosma e Damiano is the enclosure wall of the
temple of the Penates as restored by Augustus (
AJA 1923, 414), which
is hidden under the church.
The brick wall at the back, which served to carry the forma Urbis
(see
PAX, TEMPLUM), is, in its present condition, even later than Septimius
Severus: while the rotunda belongs to the time of Maxentius (see URBIS
FANUM). The whole subject has been carefully studied by Whitehead
and Biasiotti (
RPA iii. 83-122;
AJA 1927, 1-18; cf. also Leclercq in
Cabrol,
Dict. iii. 2350-2367; Mem. Am.
Acad. v. 120).
