DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0801
Gradual elimination of the thunderbolt 725
{urfeta = orbita) in his hand {Tabulae Iguvinae \\b, 22 ff. pune seste, | urfeta manuve
habetu. estu iuku habetu : | ' Iupater Sase, tefe estu vitlu vufru sestu,' which C. D. Buck
op. cit. p. 297 translates 'Cum sistis, orbitam in manu habeto. Istas preces habeto :
" Iuppiter Sanci, tibi istum vitulum votivum sisto" '). Cakes called summaualia, and
presumably sacred to Iupiter Summanus, god of the nocturnal sky and sender of lightning
by night (R. Peter in Roscher Lex. Myth. iv. 1600), were made in the shape of a wheel
(Fest. p. 348 b 5 f. Muller, p. 474, 17 f. Lindsay, Paul, ex Fest. p. 349, 9 Miiller, p. 47;,
7 Lindsay). Lyd. de mens. 4. 90 p. 138, 1 f. Wtinsch to ^ayKos oeoyua ovpavbv <jt)\xo.iviei rrj
~Lafiiv<av yXuxro-rj is not conclusive (R. S. Conway op. cit. i. 357). But, on the whole, it
seems clear that Dius Fidius was a specialised form of Iupiter, the sky-god by whom men
swore. Now Iupiter was believed to sanction treaties with his thunderbolt (Yerg. Aen. 12.
200 audiat haec genitor, qui foedera fulmine sancit with Serv. ad loc.). And Dius Fidius
appears to have stood in very special relations to the lightning-flash. G. Wissowa in
Fig. 660. Fig. 661.
Roscher Lex. Myth. iv. 318 points out that of the inscriptions mentioning him the three
most important are all dedications by the decuria sacerdotu?n bidentalhmi (Dessau op. cit.
nos. 3472, 3473) or decuria biJentalis (ib. no. 3474), on which see E. de Ruggiero
Dizionario epigrafico di antichita romane Roma 1894 i. 1005 f. One of these inscriptions
(Dessau op. cit. no. 3472 Semoni | Sanco | Sancto Deo Fidio | sacrum | decuria sacerdot. |
bidentalium) occurs on the base of a marble statue, found at Rome in 1879 and representing
Dius Fidius himself in the guise of an archaic Apollon (H. Jordan 'Statua Vaticana di
Semone Sanco ' in the Ann. d. Lnst. 1885 lvii. 105—126 pi. A. =my fig. 660 f., W. Helbig
Ftihrer durch die offentlichen Sammlungen klassischei- Altertiimer in Ro7ii 'i Leipzig 1912
i. 226 f. no. 351, G. Wissowa in Roscher Lex. Myth. iv. 318 fig.). C. O. Thulin Die etrus-
kische Disciplin i Die Blitzlehre (Gbteborgs Hogskolas Arsskrift 1905 v) Goteborg 1906
p. 42 f. thinks that the statue once held a thunderbolt in its left hand, an orbis aeneus in
{urfeta = orbita) in his hand {Tabulae Iguvinae \\b, 22 ff. pune seste, | urfeta manuve
habetu. estu iuku habetu : | ' Iupater Sase, tefe estu vitlu vufru sestu,' which C. D. Buck
op. cit. p. 297 translates 'Cum sistis, orbitam in manu habeto. Istas preces habeto :
" Iuppiter Sanci, tibi istum vitulum votivum sisto" '). Cakes called summaualia, and
presumably sacred to Iupiter Summanus, god of the nocturnal sky and sender of lightning
by night (R. Peter in Roscher Lex. Myth. iv. 1600), were made in the shape of a wheel
(Fest. p. 348 b 5 f. Muller, p. 474, 17 f. Lindsay, Paul, ex Fest. p. 349, 9 Miiller, p. 47;,
7 Lindsay). Lyd. de mens. 4. 90 p. 138, 1 f. Wtinsch to ^ayKos oeoyua ovpavbv <jt)\xo.iviei rrj
~Lafiiv<av yXuxro-rj is not conclusive (R. S. Conway op. cit. i. 357). But, on the whole, it
seems clear that Dius Fidius was a specialised form of Iupiter, the sky-god by whom men
swore. Now Iupiter was believed to sanction treaties with his thunderbolt (Yerg. Aen. 12.
200 audiat haec genitor, qui foedera fulmine sancit with Serv. ad loc.). And Dius Fidius
appears to have stood in very special relations to the lightning-flash. G. Wissowa in
Fig. 660. Fig. 661.
Roscher Lex. Myth. iv. 318 points out that of the inscriptions mentioning him the three
most important are all dedications by the decuria sacerdotu?n bidentalhmi (Dessau op. cit.
nos. 3472, 3473) or decuria biJentalis (ib. no. 3474), on which see E. de Ruggiero
Dizionario epigrafico di antichita romane Roma 1894 i. 1005 f. One of these inscriptions
(Dessau op. cit. no. 3472 Semoni | Sanco | Sancto Deo Fidio | sacrum | decuria sacerdot. |
bidentalium) occurs on the base of a marble statue, found at Rome in 1879 and representing
Dius Fidius himself in the guise of an archaic Apollon (H. Jordan 'Statua Vaticana di
Semone Sanco ' in the Ann. d. Lnst. 1885 lvii. 105—126 pi. A. =my fig. 660 f., W. Helbig
Ftihrer durch die offentlichen Sammlungen klassischei- Altertiimer in Ro7ii 'i Leipzig 1912
i. 226 f. no. 351, G. Wissowa in Roscher Lex. Myth. iv. 318 fig.). C. O. Thulin Die etrus-
kische Disciplin i Die Blitzlehre (Gbteborgs Hogskolas Arsskrift 1905 v) Goteborg 1906
p. 42 f. thinks that the statue once held a thunderbolt in its left hand, an orbis aeneus in