SUMMANUS, AEDES
(templa, Ovid):
a temple near the circus Maximus (Fast.:
ad circum Maximum; cf. Plin.
NH xxix. 57: inter aedem Iuventatis et
Summani), which probably replaced an altar ascribed to Titus Tatius
(Varro,
LL v. 74). It was built during the war with Pyrrhus (Ov.
Fast.
vi. 731-732:
reddita quisquis is est Summano templa feruntur/ tum cum
Romanis Pyrrhe timendus eras), and the hypothesis is plausible that
this was done because the terracotta figure of Summanus in the pediment
of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus was reported to have been struck
by lightning and hurled into the Tiber (Cic. de div. i. 10; Liv. per. xiv.;
Jord. i. 2. 14-15, 98-100). The temple of Summanus was itself struck
by lightning in 197 B.C. (
Liv. xxxii. 29. I). Its day of dedication was
20th June (Ov. loc. cit.; Fast. Esquil. Venus. Amit. ad xii Kal. Iul.,
CIL i². p. 211, 221, 243, 320). There is little doubt that it stood on the
west side of the circus towards the Aventine. The temple of
DIS PATER
(q.v.), mentioned only in Not. (Reg. XI; om. Cur.), is perhaps to be
identified with this temple of Summanus (HJ 119; WR 135;
Rosch. iv.
1600-1601).