PIETAS, AEDES
(templum, Plin.) :
a temple in the forum Holitorium, vowed
by M'. Acilius Glabrio in the battle of Thermopylae in 191 B.C., and begun
by him, but dedicated in 181 by his son of the same name, who was
appointed duumvir for the purpose (
Liv. xl. 34. 4; Val.
Max. ii. 5. I;
cf. Cic. de leg. ii. 28). Mancini conjectures that a fragmentary entry:
.. .]tati in Fast. Ant. (ap.
NS 1921, 117), under 13th November, should be
referred to this temple. It contained a gilded statue of the elder Glabrio,
the first of its kind in Rome (locc. citt.). This temple stood at the east
end of the area afterwards occupied by the theatre of Marcellus, and was
destroyed by Caesar in 44 B.C. when he began preparations for the erection
of that building (Plin.
NH vii. 12, who is mistaken in his date of the building of the temple; Cass.
Dio xliii. 49. 3 ; cf. Delbrueck, Die Drei Tempel
am Forum Holitorium in Rom,
Rome 1903, 6, for an erroneous theory).
1
With this temple was afterwards connected the Greek story of the
daughter who supported her imprisoned father with milk from her own
breasts (Fest. 209; Val.
Max. v. 4. 7 ; cf.
Mitt. 1901, 351;
1904, 259-
263;
1905, 188-192, for a Pompeian fresco and epigram). Possibly the
COLUMNA LACTARIA (q.v.) in the forum Holitorium may have caused the
localisation of this legend in the temple (HJ 510; WR 331, 332;
Rosch. iii.
2500-2501;
Gilb. iii. 94).