PUTEAL LIBONIS
PUTEAL SCRIBONIANUM
* a stone kerb, like that of a well, built
around a spot in the forum, that had been struck by lightning, by a
certain Scribonius Libo, to whom the senate had entrusted the business
of looking up such spots and enclosing them in this way (Fest. 333).
It was a resort of moneylenders (Pers. 4. 49, and Schol.; Cic. pro Sest.
18; Ov. Rem. 561), and near the tribunal of the praetor (Hor.
Ep. i. 19. 8,
and Porphyr.;
Sat. ii. 6. 35), the arch of Fabius (Pers. Schol. loc. cit.)
and the porticus Iulia (supra, 73). It is shown on coins (Babelon, Monnaies, Aemilia 1 ; Scribonia 8),
1 and perhaps the round base from Veii
in the Lateran Museum is an imitation of it (Benndorf und Schoene, Die
antike Bildwerke d. Lateran. Museums, No. 440; HF 1210;
CIL xi. 3799).
Six blocks of travertine lying near the arch of Augustus, which seem to
belong to a circular kerb, have been identified with this puteal, but
without any good reason (
Jord. i. 2. 210, 403-404;
Gilb. iii. 159; HC
160; Thed. 147-148; DR 72; RE
Suppl. iv. 511;
BC 1914, 104). It
has also been suggested with very considerable probability that it
is the early well found in the basilica Aemilia, or porticus Gai et Luci
(
AJA 1913, 24, 27;
1928, 165-177; HFP 34).
