IUPPITER FERETRIUS, AEDES
(templum,
Liv. i. 10; Prop., Fest. 92;
νεώς,
Dionys., Cass. Dio):
a temple, said to have been the first in Rome,
on the Capitoline hill, erected and dedicated by Romulus to commemorate
his winning of the spolia opima from Acron, king of the Caeninenses, and
to serve as a repository for them (
Liv. i. 10. 5-6;
iv. 20. 3; Plut. Rom. 16;
Dionys. ii. 34; Val.
Max. iii. 2. 3; Flor. i. I. ii; Serv.
Aen. vi. 859;
CIL ia. 283, Elog. 22=x. 809). Twice afterwards these spoils were said
to have been won and placed in this temple-in 428 B.C. when A. Cornelius
Cossus slew Lar Tolumnius, the king of Veii, and brought his spoils to
Rome (
Liv. iv. 20; Fest. 189; Plut. Rom. 16; Serv.
Aen. vi. 859;
Val.
Max. iii. 2. 4;
Diodor. xii. 80;
Dionys. xii. 5; Flor. i. I . 9; de vir.
ill. 25), and in 221 by C. Claudius Marcellus, who killed Viridomarus,
the Insubrian king (Liv. Ep. 20; Serv.
Aen. vi. 859;
Prop. iv. 10. 45;
Plut. Marc. 8; Rom. 16). This temple was probably within the later
limits of the area Capitolina, and was said to have been enlarged by
Ancus (
Liv. i. 33. 8: amplificata), but was very small, for according to
Dionysius (ii. 34) it measured not more than 15 feet on the longest sides.
A denarius (Babelon, Claudia II;
BM.Rep. i. 567, 4206-8) struck by
P. Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus (
RE iv. 1390) about 44 B.C., represents
Marcellus, the conqueror of Viridomarus and Syracuse, standing on the
high stylobate of a rectangular tetrastyle temple with the spolia opima
in his hand. The columns support an entablature with plain pediment.
This undoubtedly represents the actual structure before Augustus, but
it had been sadly neglected and had even lost its roof. At the suggestion
of Atticus, Augustus restored it, probably about 31 B.C. (Nep. Att. 20. 3:
ex quo accidit, cum aedes Iovis Feretri in Capitolio ab Romulo constituta
vetustate atque incuria detecta prolaberetur, ut Attici admonitu Caesar
ear reficiendam curaret; Mon.
Anc. iv. 5;
Liv. iv. 20. 7). To Augustus
it seems that the right of depositing spoils that should be regarded as
spolia opima was then granted (Cass.
Dio. xliv. 4. 3).
Dionysius, writing almost certainly after Augustus' restoration, says
(ii. 34):
ἔτι γὰρ αὐτοῦ σῴζεται τὸ ἀραχαῖον ἴχνος, a statement that
seems open to three interpretations, either that the dimensions of the
restored temple were the same as those of the original (
Gilb. iii. 399), or
that the second was larger and enclosed the earlier (
Jord. i. 2. 47), or that
the lines of the earlier were simply marked on the floor of the later. The
statement of Cassius Dio (liv. 8) that Augustus built on the Capitol a
temple of
MARS ULTOR (q.v.)
κατὰ τὸ τοῦ Διὸς Φερετρίου ζήλωμα, refers
only to the use of the new temple, not to its form, for it was round (Altm.
50).
There is no mention of any statue of the god in this temple but only
of a sceptre and flint (Fest. 92:
ex cuius templo sumebant sceptrum per
quod iurarent et lapidem silicem quo foedus ferirent, see below), an
evidence of its early date. Within the temple was an altar (
Prop. iv.
10. 48:
hinc Feretri dictast ara superba Iovis), unless this passage may
be interpreted as referring simply to the very first shrine.
Various explanations of the epithet feretrius were given by the
ancients, who derived it from fero, feretrum, the frame on which the
spolia were fixed, or from ferre pacem, or from ferire, either in the sense
of striking in battle or striking a victim in making a treaty-foedus ferire
(
Liv. i. 10. 5;
Prop. iv. 10. 46; Fest. 92;
Dionys. ii. 34; Plut. Marc. 8,
Rom. 16), or they regarded it as equivalent to
ὑπερφερέτης (Dionys. loc.
cit.:
ὅτι πάντων ὑπερέχει). It is probably connected with ferire, the
stroke of ritual as illustrated in foedus ferire, of which the silex in the
temple is evidence, and Iuppiter Feretrius was therefore equivalent to
Iuppiter Lapis, the latter used as a specially solemn oath-Cic. ep. vii.
12. 2;
Gell. i. 21. 4 (
Jord. i. 2. 47;
Gilb. i. 253-254;
ii. 225-226;
iii. 399;
Rosch. ii. 670-674; WR 117-119, 551, 552;
BC 1914, 84-85;
RE x. 1128-1129;
RL 1907, 504-516).