DIS PATER ET PROSERPINA, ARA
an altar in the extreme north-western part
of the campus Martius, the
TARENTUM (q.v.), said to have been found by
a Sabine from Eretum, Valesius, who, at the command of an oracle, was
seeking water to heal his children of a plague (Val.
Max. ii. 4. 5; Fest.
329, 350). It was also said to be twenty feet below the surface of the
ground. On this altar were offered the sacrifices at the
ludi Tarentini,
which were afterwards merged with the
ludi saeculares (Liv. Ep. 49;
Phlegon, Macrob. 4; cf. Censorin. de die nat. 17. 8;
Zos. ii. 4). The
altar of the time of the empire was discovered in 1886-1887, behind the
Palazzo Cesarini, 5 metres below the level of the Corso Vittorio Emanuele.
Two blocks of the altar itself, which was 3.40 metres square, were found
resting upon a pedestal which was approached by three steps, and a
large pulvinus belonging to it was also found (Cons. 13). Behind it
was a massive wall of tufa and round it a triple wall of peperino. Not
far away, in a mediaeval wall, were found large portions of the marble
slabs containing the inscriptions that record the celebration of the ludi
saeculares by Augustus in 17 B.C., and by Severus in 204 A.D. The
altar itself is no longer visible (HJ 477-478;
Mitt. 1891, 127-129; Mon.
L. i. 540-548;
NS 1890, 285;
BC 1887, 276-277;
1894, 325;
1896,
191-230;
EE viii. 225-309;
CIL vi. 32323-32337; PT 135-137; Cohen,
Aug. 188=BM Aug. 431; Wissowa, Ges. Abh. 189-209).
