SIGNUM VORTUMNI
the statue of the Etruscan deity Vortumnus, which
stood from very early times in the Vicus Tuscus behind the temple of
Castor (Varro,
LL v. 46;
Liv. xliv. 16. 10; Cic. in
Verr. i. 154 and Asc. ad
loc. (Or. p. 199);
Prop. iv. 2. 1-10; Hor.
Epist. i. 20. i and Porphyr. ad
loc.; cf. Plaut. Curc. 481-482). Popular etymology derived the name
' a verso amne' (
Prop. iv. 2. 10; Ov.
Fast. vi. 410), as the god was believed
to have checked the inundation of the Tiber at this point (Jord. i. I.
126-127;
i. 2. 373; HC 13, 164; Th6denat 145, 174;
Gilb. i. 103-104).
In 1549 a pedestal with the inscription: Vortumnus temporibus Diocletiani et Maximiani (
CIL vi. 804;
LS ii. 204-205), was discovered in the
Vicus Tuscus near the temple of Castor, which may have belonged to a
late restoration of the original statue (cf. ad Vortumnum on an inscription
in the crypt of S. Peter's,
CIL vi. 9393).
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