DEA SURIA, TEMPLUM
a temple of the 'Syrian goddess' (Atargatis, the
paredros of Hadad) situated on the right bank of the Tiber. Suet. Nero
56 calls Nero '
religionum usque quaque contemptor praeter unius Deae
Syriae' ; but this is not sufficient to prove the existence of the temple at
that time; and we must pass on to the mention of it, under the corrupt
form
templum lasurae,
1 in the time of Alexander Severus (Chron. 147).
The provenance of the inscriptions relating to the cult-
CIL vi. 115
(=30696; Cap. 92), 116, 117, 32462-is uncertain.
The goddess is also represented on a base which bears a dedication
to Jupiter Heliopolitanus (
CIL vi. 423; Amelung, Kat. Vat. i. p. 280,
n. 152), found in the temple of the latter divinity (q.v.), which was superimposed on the lucus Furrinae, where a dedication in his honour under
the Syrian name Hadad was also found (
Mitt. 1907, 230; for the identification, see Cumont, Religions orientales dans le paganisme romain 165;
RE vii. 2163;
viii. 57); so that she was actually worshipped there.
But we know that Syrian deities were also worshipped on the Via Portuensis, where the rest of the inscriptions may have been found (HJ 645-646).
See
RE iv. 2236-2243;
Mitt. 1907, 248-249;
DE ii. 1466-1473; WR
359-36 ;
Rosch. iv. 1641-1642; PT 123.
