Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 2,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (thunder and lightning): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1925)

The Column of Mayence 99

Verticordia1, the former with sceptre and patera setting her foot on
a cow's head, the latter holding the scales of justice. Plenty,
typified by Ceres with patera and corn-topped sceptre, is com-
panioned by a pair of more martial virtues—Honour grasping a
sheathed sword and a suit of captured armour, Prowess proudly
displaying her banner2. Below these in turn is Victor}', who having
won her triumphs by land and sea stands with her palm-branch
midway between Mars and Neptunus. The back of the column was
designed with equal care. Diana figures next to her brother Apollo.
Above her come two other deities closely associated in Gallic in-
scriptions3—Volcanus and Vesta4. Volcanus is aptly placed between

flame of a torch is visible against her right shoulder. But it is more likely that she is
Iuno Sancta, the consort of Iupiter Dolichcnus (supra i. 610 f.). The fragment of a
triangular bronze plate, originally gilded, which was found at Aalen, shows this goddess
standing on her cow {supra i. 619, O. von Sarwey—E. Fabricius Der obergermanisch-
raetische Limes des Roemerreichcs Lieferung xxiii no. 66 Heidelberg 1904 p. 15 f. with fig-).

1 K. Korber saw in this figure lustitia ; A. von Domaszewski, Aequitas. A. Oxe
took her to be Gallia Lugudunensis, the scales symbolising her trade and her mint.
Quilling surmised a Parca Gallica for the same reason. S. Reinach in the Kei'. Arch.
1913 i. 29 f. first showed that she is Venus Verticordia by comparing the denarii of the
gens Cordia, on which Venus appears as here with a sceptre in her left hand and the
scales in her right (Babelon Monn. rep. rom. i. 383 nos. 1 f. fig., Brit. Mus. Cat. Rom.
Coins Rep. i. 523 f. pi. 51, 11 f.). Scales are an attribute that has come to Venus as
mistress of hearts from the great mythological type of the -ipvxoaraa'ia (on which see
O. Crusius in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 1143 f., R. Holland ib. ii. 2674 ft"., O. Waser ib. iii.
3224 ft*"., F. Studniczka in the Jahrb. d. kais. deutsch. arch. Inst. 1911 xxvi. 131ft".), itself
based ultimately on a religious conception of the Otherworld (Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel.
pp. 681 n. 6, 863, Sir G. Maspero The Dawn of Civilization* London 1901 p. 190 f.,
A. Erman A Handbook of Egyptian Religion trans. A. S. Griffith London 1907 pp. 102,
230, A. Jeremias Handbuch der altorientalischen Geisteskultur Leipzig 1913 p. 113 f.).
It is, however, probable that in imperial times Venus with the scales was regarded as a
goddess meting out just measures like Aequitas or lustitia or Moneta, who on Roman
coins often have scales and comu copiae, sceptre and patera, etc. (Aequitas : E. Aust in
Pauly—Wissovva Real-Enc. i. 604 f., Rasche Lex. Num. i. 135 ft"., Suppl. i. 282 ff.
lustitia : Stevenson—Smith—Madden Diet. Rom. Coins p. 499, Rasche Lex. Num. iv.
1243 ff., Suppl. iii. 28; f. Moneta : II. W. Stoll and W. Drexler in Roscher Lex. Myth.
ii. 3200 f., Stevenson—Smith—Madden Diet. Rom. Coins p. 560 f., Rasche Lex. Num. v.
786—832). So, after all, K. Korber and A. von Domaszewski were not far wrong.

'-' The only dissentient is Quilling, who holds that these figures stand for Roma deleta
and Roma restituta—a queer notion.

J Corp. inscr. Lat. xiii no. 1676 Lyon, an epistylium dedicated Marti Vestae Volkano,
no. 2940 = Dessau Inscr. Lat. set. no. 7050 Sens, the site of Agedincum Senonum, a
stylobates dedicated by the same persons to Mart. Volk. et deae saucti[s]s. Vestae. On
Vesta as paired with Volcanus see further Wissowa Rel. Kult. Rom.'1 p. 231.

4 A. von Domaszewski makes this goddess Demeter to suit his neighbouring Per-
sephone. A. Oxe completes his ires Galliae by interpreting her as Gallia Belgica, famous
for its horse-breeding, chariot-making, etc. ; Quilling, his tres Parcae by inventing a
Parca Germana to serve as one of the Norns with her horse ! There was more to be said
(pace Mrs Strong) for the Epona of K. Korber. But I do not doubt that S. Reinach was
right to insist in the Rev. Arch. 1913 i. 29 that the disputed figure is simply Vesta with
her ass (on which see G. Wissowa Gesammelle Abhandliengeu zur romischeu Religions-

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