VENUS ERUCINA, AEDES
(templum, Ovid;
ἱερόν, Strabo, Appian):
a temple
of the Venus of Mt. Eryx in Sicily (Ov.
Fast. iv. 872; Rem. Am. 550)
vowed during the war with the Ligurians by L. Porcius Licinus when
consul in 184 B.C., and dedicated by him as duumvir in 181 (
Liv. xl. 34. 4).
It was outside the porta Collina but not far from it (Ov.
Fast. iv. 871;
Rem. Am. 549;
Liv. xxx. 38. io; App.
BC i. 93; Fast. Arv. ad ix Kal.
Mai, CIL i². p. 214, 215, 316;
Strabo vi. 2. 5 (p. 272) ), and probably on
the west side of the via Salaria, perhaps near the present Via Belisario.
Festivals were celebrated here on 23rd April, the Vinalia (Ov. Fast. loc. cit.;
Fast. Ant. ap.
NS 1921, 94), and on 24th October (Fast. Praen., cf.
Hulsen in DAP 2. xv. 326 sqq.). According to Strabo (loc. cit.), it was
a copy of the temple at Mt. Eryx, and surrounded by a noteworthy
porticus. This seems to have been a resort of questionable characters (Ov.
locc. citt.; cf.
CIL vi. 2274: sortilegus ab Venere Erucina). As this
inscription contains the only post-Augustan reference to the temple, it is
not unlikely that during the empire it was called the temple of
VENUS
HORTORUM SALLUSTIANORUM (q.v.), which name occurs on three inscriptions. The gardens of Sallust extended as far as the via Salaria, and it
has been held (but wrongly) that the so-called Ludovisi throne may have
belonged to the temple (HJ 415-416;
Gilb. iii. 91 ; WR 290;
Mitt. 1889,
270-275;
1892, 32-80; HF 1288 (see ii. p. 78);
BC 1914, 397).
