The numerous epithet

Epithet

An epithet or byname is a descriptive term accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, divinities, objects, and binomial nomenclature. It is also a descriptive title...

s of Jupiter

Jupiter (mythology)

In ancient Roman religion and myth, Jupiter or Jove is the king of the gods, and the god of the sky and thunder. He is the equivalent of Zeus in the Greek pantheon....

indicate the importance and variety of the god's cult in ancient Roman religion

Religion in ancient Rome

Religion in ancient Rome encompassed the religious beliefs and cult practices regarded by the Romans as indigenous and central to their identity as a people, as well as the various and many cults imported from other peoples brought under Roman rule. Romans thus offered cult to innumerable deities...

.

Major epithets

Jupiter's most ancient attested forms of cult belong to the State cult: these include the mount cult (see section above note n. 22). In Rome this cult entailed the existence of particular sanctuaries the most important of which were located on Mons Capitolinus (earlier Tarpeius). The mount had two tops that were both destined to the discharge of acts of cult related to Jupiter. The northern and higher top was the arx

Arx (Roman)

Arx is the Latin word for citadel. In the ancient city of Rome, the Arx, not always capitalized, was located on the northern spur of the Capitoline Hill, and is sometimes specified as the Arx Capitolina. Sentries were posted there to watch for a signal to be displayed on the Janiculum if an enemy...

and on it was located the observation place of the augurs (auguraculum) and to it headed the monthly procession of the sacra Idulia. On the southern top was to be found the most ancient sanctuary of the god: the shrine of Iuppiter Feretrius allegedly built by Romulus, restored by Augustus. The god here had no image and was represented by the sacred flintstone (silex). The most ancient known rites, those of the spolia opima and of the fetials which connect Jupiter with Mars and Quirinus are dedicated to Iuppiter Feretrius or Iuppiter Lapis. The concept of the sky god was already overlapped with the ethical and political domain since this early time. According to Wissowa and Dumézil Iuppiter Lapis seems to be inseparable from Iuppiter Feretrius in whose tiny templet on the Capitol the stone was lodged.

Another most ancient epithet is Lucetius: although the Ancient, followed by some modern scholars as e. g. Wissowa, interpreted it as referred to sunlight, the carmen Saliare shows that it refers to lightning. A further confirmation of this interpretation is provided by the sacred meaning of lightning which is reflected in the sensitivity of the flaminica Dialis to the phenomenon. To the same atmospheric complex belongs the epithet Elicius: while the ancient erudites thought it was connected to lightning, it is in fact related to the opening of the rervoirs of rain, as is testified by the ceremony of the Nudipedalia, meant to propitiate rainfall and devoted to Jupiter. and the ritual of the lapis manalis, the stone which was brought into the city through the Porta Capena and carried around in times of draught, which was named Aquaelicium. Other early epithets connected with the amospheric quality of Jupiter are Pluvius, Imbricius, Tempestas, Tonitrualis, tempestatium divinarum potens, Serenator, Serenus and, referred to lightning, Fulgur, Fulgur Fulmen, later as nomen agentis Fulgurator, Fulminator: the high antiquity of the cult is testified by the neutre form Fulgur and the use of the term for the bidental, the lightningwell digged on the spot hit by a lightningbolt.

A group of epithets has been interpreted by Wissowa (and his followers) as a reflection of the agricultural or warring nature of the god, some of which are also in the list of eleven preserved by Augustine. The agricultural ones include Opitulus, Almus, Ruminus, Frugifer, Farreus, Pecunia, Dapalis, Epulo. Augustine gives an explanantion of the ones he lists which should reflect Varro's: Opitulus because he brings opem (means, relief) to the needy, Almus because he nourishes everything, Ruminus because he nourishes the living beings by breastfeeding them, Pecunia because everything belongs to him.
Dumézil maintains the cult usage of these epithets is not documented and that the epithet Ruminus, as Wissowa and Latte remarked, may not have the meaning given by Augustine but it should be understood as part of a series including Rumina, Ruminalis ficus, Iuppiter Ruminus, which bears the name of Rome itself with an Etruscan vocalism preserved in inscriptions, series that would be preserved in the sacred language (cf. Rumach Etruscan for Roman). However many scholars have argued that the name of Rome, Ruma, meant in fact woman's breast. Diva Rumina, as Augustine testifies in the cited passage, was the goddess of suckling babies: she was venerated near the ficus ruminalis and was offered only libations of milk. Here moreover Augustine cites the verses devoted to Jupiter by Quintus Valerius Soranus

Quintus Valerius Soranus

Quintus Valerius Soranus was a Latin poet, grammarian, and tribune of the people in the Late Roman Republic. He was executed in 82 BC while Sulla was dictator, ostensibly for violating a religious prohibition against speaking the arcane name of Rome, but more likely for political reasons...

, while hypothesising Iuno (more adept in his view as a breastfeeder), i. e. Rumina instead of Ruminus, might be nothing else than Iuppiter: Iuppiter omnipotens regum rerumque deumque Progenitor genetrixque deum....

In Dumézil's opinion Farreus should be understood as related to the rite of the confarreatio the most sacred form of marriage, the name of which is due to the spelt cake eaten by the spouses, rather than surmising an agricultural quality of the god: the epithet means the god was the guarantor of the effects of the ceremony, to which the presence of his flamen is necessary and that he can interrupt with a clap of thunder.

The epithet Dapalis is on the other hand connected to a rite described by Cato and mentioned by Festus. Before the sowing of autumn or spring the peasant offered a banquet of roast beef and a cup of wine to Jupiter : it is natural that on such occasions he would entreat the god who has power over the weather, however Cato' s prayer of s one of sheer offer and no request. The language suggests another attitude: Jupiter is invited to a banquet which is supposedly abundant and magnificent. The god is honoured as summus. The peasant may hope he shall receive a benefit, but he does not say it. This interpretation finds support in the analogous urban ceremony of the epulum Iovis, from which the god derives the epithet of Epulo and which was a magnificent feast accompanied by flutes.

Epithets related to warring are in Wissowa' s view Iuppiter Feretrius, Iuppiter Stator, Iuppiter Victor and Iuppiter Invictus. Feretrius would be connected with war by the rite of the first type of spolia opima

Spolia opima

Spolia opima refers to the armor, arms, and other effects that an ancient Roman general had stripped from the body of an opposing commander slain in single combat...

which is in fact a dedication to the god of the arms of the defeated king of the enemy that happens whenever he has been killed by the king of Rome or his equivalent authority. Here too Dumézil notes the dedication has to do with regality and not with war, since the rite is in fact the offer of the arms of a king by a king: a proof of such an assumption is provided by the fact that the arms of an enemy king captured by an officer or a common soldier were dedicated to Mars and Quirinus respectively.

Iuppiter Stator was first attributed by tradition to Romulus, who had prayed the god for his almighty help at a difficult time the battle with the Sabines of king Titus Tatius. Dumézil opines the action of Jupiter is not that of a god of war who wins through fighting: Jupiter acts by causing an inexplicable change in the morale of the fighters of the two sides. The same feature can be detected also in the certainly historical record of the battle of the third Samnite War in 294 BC, in which consul Marcus Atilius Regulus

Marcus Atilius Regulus

Marcus Atilius Regulus , a general and consul in the ninth year of the First Punic War...

 vowed a temple to Iuppiter Stator if "Jupiter will stop the rout of the Roman army and if afterwards the Samnite legions shall be be victouriously massacred...It looked as if the gods themselves had taken side with Romans, so much easily did the Roman arms succeed in prevailing...". in a similar manner one can explain the epithet Victor, whose cult was founded in 295 BC on the battlefield of Sentinum

Sentinum

Sentinum was an ancient town of currently located in the Marche region in Italy, lying a kilometre in the low ground at the east of the existing town of Sassoferrato. Its ruins were identified in 1890 and published by T...

 by Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges

Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges (consul 292 BC)

Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges was the son of Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus and a Consul in 292 and 276 BC.In 295 BC he was curule aedile, and fined certain matrons of noble birth for their disorderly life. With the proceeds of the fines built a temple to Venus near the Circus Maximus.He was...

 and who received another vow again in 293 by consul Lucius Papirius Cursor

Lucius Papirius Cursor

Lucius Papirius Cursor was a Roman general who was five times consul and twice dictator.In 325 BC he was appointed dictator to carry on the second Samnite War. His quarrel with Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus, his magister equitum, is well known...

 before a battle against the Samnite legio linteata. Here too the religious meaning of the vow is in both cases an appeal to the supreme god by the Roman chief at a time when as a chief he needs divine help from the supreme god, even though for different reasons: Fabius had remained the only political and military responsible of the Roman State after the devotio of P. Decius Mus, Papirius had to face an enemy who had acted with impious rites and vows, i. e. was religiously reprehensible.

More recently Dario Sabbatucci has given a different interpretation of the meaning of Stator within the frame of his structuralistic and dialectic vision of Roman calendar, identifying oppositions, tensions and equilibria: January is the month of Janus

Janus

-General:*Janus , the two-faced Roman god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings, and endings*Janus , a moon of Saturn*Janus Patera, a shallow volcanic crater on Io, a moon of Jupiter...

, at the beginning of the year, in the uncertain time of winter (the most ancient calender had only ten months, from March to December). In this month Janus deifies kingship and defies Jupiter. Moreover January sees also the presence of Veiovis

Veiovis

Vejovis or Vejove is a Roman god.-Representation and worship:Vejovis is portrayed as a young man, holding a bunch of arrows, pilum, in his hand, and is accompanied by a goat. Romans believed that Vejovis was one of the first gods to be born. He was a god of healing, and became associated with...

 who appears as an anti-Jupiter, of Carmenta

Carmenta

In ancient Roman religion and myth, Carmenta was a goddess of childbirth and prophecy, associated with technological innovation as well as the protection of mothers and children, and a patron of midwives...

 who is the goddess of birth and like Janus has two opposed faces, Prorsa and Postvorta (also named Antevorta and Porrima), of Iuturna, who as a gushing spring evokes the process of coming into being from non-being as the god of passage and change does. In this period the preeminence of Janus needs compensating on the Ides through the action of Jupiter Stator, who plays the role of anti-Janus, i. e. of moderator of the action of Janus.

Juppiter Tonans ("Thundering Jove") was the aspect (numen) of Jupiter venerated in the Temple of Juppiter Tonans, which was vowed in 26BCE by Augustus

Augustus

Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...

 and dedicated in 22 on the Capitoline Hill

Capitoline Hill

The Capitoline Hill , between the Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the seven hills of Rome. It was the citadel of the earliest Romans. By the 16th century, Capitolinus had become Capitolino in Italian, with the alternative Campidoglio stemming from Capitolium. The English word capitol...

; the Emperor had narrowly escaped being struck by lightning during the campaign in Cantabria

Cantabria

Cantabria is a Spanish historical region and autonomous community with Santander as its capital city. It is bordered on the east by the Basque Autonomous Community , on the south by Castile and León , on the west by the Principality of Asturias, and on the north by the Cantabrian Sea.Cantabria...

. An old temple in the Campus Martius

Campus Martius

The Campus Martius , was a publicly owned area of ancient Rome about in extent. In the Middle Ages, it was the most populous area of Rome...

 had long been dedicated to Juppiter Fulgens. The original cult image

Cult image

In the practice of religion, a cult image is a human-made object that is venerated for the deity, spirit or daemon that it embodies or represents...

 installed in the sanctuary by its founder was by Leochares

Leochares

Leochares was a Greek sculptor from Athens, who lived in the 4th century BC.-Works:Leochares worked at the construction of the Mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnassus, one of the "Seven Wonders of the Ancient World". The Diana of Versailles is a Roman copy of his original...

, a Greek sculptor of the 4th Century BCE. The sculpture at the Prado (illustration) is considered to be a late first century replacement commissioed by Domitian

Domitian

Domitian was Roman Emperor from 81 to 96. Domitian was the third and last emperor of the Flavian dynasty.Domitian's youth and early career were largely spent in the shadow of his brother Titus, who gained military renown during the First Jewish-Roman War...

. The Baroque-era restoration of the arms gives Jupiter a baton-like scepter in his raised hand. .

List of epithets

Unless otherwise noted, epithets listed below are those compiled by Carl Thulin for the 1890 Paulys Real Encyclopädie. The abbreviaton O.M. stands for Optimus Maximus, one of the most common epithets for Jupiter.

• Adventus O. M. (arrival, birth)
• Aetetus O. M.
• Almus
• Amaranus
• Anxurus ("of Anxur, now Terracina
  Terracina
  Terracina is a town and comune of the province of Latina - , Italy, 76 km SE of Rome by rail .-Ancient times:...
  
  ")
• Appenninus ("of the Appennines")
• Arcanus (protector of the arca, arcane: at Praeneste)
• Balmarcodes O. M.
• Beellefarus
• Bronton (thundering)
• Cacunus
• Caelestis O. M. (Heavenly)
• Caelus O. M.
• Capitolinus O. M. ("of the Capitol")
• Casius ("of Mount Casius"; worshipped at Antioch
  Principality of Antioch
  The Principality of Antioch, including parts of modern-day Turkey and Syria, was one of the crusader states created during the First Crusade.-Foundation:...
  
  ia)
• Ciminius (of Mount Ciminus, now Mount Cimino)
• Clitumnus (of river Clitumnus)
• Cohortalis O. M.
• Conservator ("preserver")
• Culminalis O. M.
• Cultor ("cultivator")
• Custos ("protector, warden")
• Damascenus O. M. ("of Damascus
  Damascus
  Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
  
  )
• Dapalis (from daps: dinner, banquet)
• Defensor O. M.
• Depulsor O. M.
• Depulsorius O. M.
• Dianus
• Dolichenus ("of Dolichus"; it is the ancient Teshub
  Teshub
  Teshub was the Hurrian god of sky and storm. He was derived from the Hattian Taru. His Hittite and Luwian name was Tarhun , although this name is from the Hittite root *tarh- to defeat, conquer.- Depiction and myths :He is depicted holding a triple...
  
   of the Hittites
  Hittites
  The Hittites were a Bronze Age people of Anatolia.They established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia c. the 18th century BC. The Hittite empire reached its height c...
  
  )
• Domesticus
• Diovis
• Elicius (who sends forth, elicits)
• Epulo (who gives or takes part in banquets)
• Exsuperantissimus O. M.
• Fagutalis (of the Fagutal: the god had a temple near an old oak there)
• Farreus (from the confarreatio
  Confarreatio
  In ancient Rome, confarreatio was a traditional patrician form of marriage. The ceremony involved the bride and bridegroom sharing a cake of spelt, in Latin far or panis farreus, hence the rite's name. The Flamen Dialis and Pontifex Maximus presided over the wedding, and ten witnesses had to be...
  
  , according to Wissowa and Dumézil.)
• Feretrius (who is carried around or whom spoils are carried to on a frame or litter)
• Fidius (fusion with Dius Fidius)
• Flagius (worshipped at Cuma)
• Frugifer (who bears fruits)
• Fulgur
• Fulgurator
• Fulmen
• Fulminator
• Grabovius (in the Iguvine Tables
  Iguvine Tables
  The Iguvine Tablets are a series of seven bronze tablets discovered at Iguvium , Italy, in the year 1444. They are also known as Eugubian tablets...
  
  : who is carried around on a cerimonial litter, from Etruscan crapis cerimonial litter)
• Hammon O. M. (worshipped in the oasis of Siwa
  Siwa Oasis
  The Siwa Oasis is an oasis in Egypt, located between the Qattara Depression and the Egyptian Sand Sea in the Libyan Desert, nearly 50 km east of the Libyan border, and 560 km from Cairo....
  
  )
• Heliopolitanus (of Heliopolis, present day Baalbek
  Baalbek
  Baalbek is a town in the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon, altitude , situated east of the Litani River. It is famous for its exquisitely detailed yet monumentally scaled temple ruins of the Roman period, when Baalbek, then known as Heliopolis, was one of the largest sanctuaries in the Empire...
  
  )
• Hercius
• Imbricitor (who soaks in rainwater)
• Impulsor
• Indiges (later the divine identification of Aeneas
  Aeneas
  Aeneas , in Greco-Roman mythology, was a Trojan hero, the son of the prince Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite. His father was the second cousin of King Priam of Troy, making Aeneas Priam's second cousin, once removed. The journey of Aeneas from Troy , which led to the founding a hamlet south of...
  
  )
• Inventor
• Invictus
• Iurarius (of oaths)
• Iutor (benefictor, beneficient)
• Iuventas
• Lapis (flintstone: the f. sends sparkles similar to lightning)
• Latiaris
• Liber (who is free, or who frees, also the semen)
• Liberator
• Libertas
• Lucetius (shining, for his lightningbolts)
• Maius (majestic, great) at Tusculum
• Maleciabrudes
• Monitor O. M. (leader, warner)
• Nundinarius (patron of the nundinae)
• Obsequens (agreeable, complacent)
• Opitulator or Opitulus (reliever)
• Optimus Maximus (O. M.)
• Paganicus
• Pantheus
• Patronus
• Pecunia
• Pistor (baker)
• Pluvialis (of the rains)
• Poeninus
• Praedator
• Praestes (present, protector) at Tibur
• Praestabilis
• Praestitus
• Propagator O. M.
• Propugnator
• Puer (child)
• Purgator (purifier)
• Purpurio O. M.
• Quirinus (fusion with Quirinus)
• Rector (who rules)
• Redux
• Restitutor
• Ruminus (who breastfeeds)
• Salutaris O. M.
• Savazios (fusion with Sabatius)
• Sempiternus
• Serapis (fusion with Serapis
  Serapis
  Serapis or Sarapis is a Graeco-Egyptian name of God. Serapis was devised during the 3rd century BC on the orders of Ptolemy I of Egypt as a means to unify the Greeks and Egyptians in his realm. The god was depicted as Greek in appearance, but with Egyptian trappings, and combined iconography...
  
  )
• Serenator (who clears the sky)
• Serenus ("clear, serene, calm; happy")
• Servator O. M. ("saviour, preserver, observer")
• Sospes ("saviour")
• Stator
• Striganus
• Succellus (fusion with Celtic god Succellus)
• Summanus
• Tempestas
• Terminus
• Territor (who scares)
• Tifatinus (of Mount Tifata near Capua
  Capua
  Capua is a city and comune in the province of Caserta, Campania, southern Italy, situated 25 km north of Naples, on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain. Ancient Capua was situated where Santa Maria Capua Vetere is now...
  
  )
• Tigillus (beam of the universe)
• Tonans (thundering)
• Tonitrator (who generates thunder)
• Tutator (warden)
• Valens (strong, sound, effective)
• Versor (who overthrows or who pours rain)
• Vesuvius (worshipped at Capua
  Capua
  Capua is a city and comune in the province of Caserta, Campania, southern Italy, situated 25 km north of Naples, on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain. Ancient Capua was situated where Santa Maria Capua Vetere is now...
  
  )
• Viminus (of the Viminal Hill
  Viminal Hill
  The Viminal Hill is the smallest of the famous seven hills of Rome. A finger-shape cusp pointing toward central Rome between the Quirinal Hill to the northwest and the Esquiline Hill to the southeast, it is home to the Teatro dell'Opera and the Termini Railway Station.At the top of Viminal Hill...
  
   place in which the god had a temple)
• Vindex (protector, defensor)
• Vircilinus

Epithets from Augustine

St. Augustine

Augustine of Hippo

Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...

 names eleven epithets of Jupiter in his work De civitate Dei.

• Victor: he who conquers all things.
• Invictus: he who is conquered by none.
• Opitulus: he who brings help to the needy.
• Impulsor: he who has the power of impelling.
• Stator: he who has the power of establishing, instituting, founding.
• Centumpeda: he who has the power of rendering stable, lasting.
• Supinalis: he who has the power of throwing on the back.
• Tigillus: he who holds together, supports the world.
• Almus: he who nourishes all things.
• Ruminus: he who nourishes all animals.
• Pecunia: he to whom everything belongs.

Iuppiter Latiaris

The cult of Iuppiter Latiaris was the most ancient known cult of the god : it was practised since very remote times on the top of the Mons Albanus on which the god was venerated as the high protector of the Latin League, which was under the hegemony of Alba Longa.

After the destruction of Alba by king Tullus Hostilius the cult was forsaken. The god manifested his discontent through the prodigy of a rain of stones: the commission sent by the senate to inquire into it was also greeted by a rain of stones and heard a loud voice from the grove on the summit of the mount requiring the Albans to perform the religious service to the god according to the rites of their country. In consequence of this event the Romans istituted a festival of nine days (nundinae). However a plague ensued: in the end Tullus Hostilius himself was affected and lastly killed by the god with a lightningbolt. The festival was reestablished on its primitive site by the last Roman king Tarquin the Proud under the leadership of Rome.

The feriae Latinae, or Latiar as they were known originally, were the common festival (panegyris) of the so called Priscan Latins and of the Albans. Their restoration aimed at grounding Roman hegemony in this ancestral religious tradition of the Latins. The original cult was reinstated unchanged as is testified by some archaic features of the ritual: the exclusion of wine from the sacrifice the offers of milk and cheese and the ritual use of rocking among the games. Rocking is one of the most ancient rites mimicking ascent to heaven and is very widespread. At the Latiar the rocking took place on a tree and the winner was of course the one who had swung the highest. This rite was said to have been instituted by the Albans to commemorate the disappearence of king Latinus

Latinus

Latinus was a figure in both Greek and Roman mythology.-Greek mythology:In Hesiod's Theogony, Latinus was the son of Odysseus and Circe who ruled the Tyrsenoi, presumably the Etruscans, with his brothers Ardeas and Telegonus...

, in battle against Mezentius

Mezentius

In Roman mythology, Mezentius was an Etruscan king, and father of Lausus. Sent into exile because of his cruelty, he moved to Latium. He reveled in bloodshed and was overwhelmingly savage on the battlefield, but more significantly to a Roman audience he was a contemptor divum, a "despiser of the...

 the king of Caere

Caere

Caere is the Latin name given by the Romans to one of the larger cities of Southern Etruria, the modern Cerveteri, approximately 50-60 kilometres north-northwest of Rome. To the Etruscans it was known as Cisra and to the Greeks as Agylla...

: the rite symbolised a search for him both on earth and in heaven. The rocking as well as the customary drinking of milk was also considered to commemorate and ritually reinstate infancy. The Romans in the last form of the rite brought the sacrificial ox from Rome and every participant was bestowed a portion of the meat, rite known as carnem petere Other games were held in every participant borough. In Rome a race of chariots (quadrigae) was held starting from the Capitol: the winner drank a liquor made with absynth. This competition has been compared to the Vedic rite of the vajapeya: in it seventeen chariots run a phoney race which must be won by the king in order to allow him to drink a cup of madhu, i. e. soma. The feasting lasted for at least four days, possibly six according to Niebuhr

Niebuhr

Niebuhr is a German surname.* Barthold Georg Niebuhr, 19th century German statesman and historian* Carsten Niebuhr, 18th century German traveller, explorer and surveyor, and father of Barthold Georg Niebuhr * Reinhold Niebuhr and H. Richard Niebuhr, brothers and American Christian scholars...

, one day for each of the six Latin and Alban decuriae. According to different records 47 or 53 boroughs took part in the festival (the listed names too differ in Pliny NH III 69 and Dionysius of Halicarnassus AR V 61). The Latiar became an important feature of Roman political life as they were feriae conceptivae, i. e. their date varied each year: the consuls and the highest magistrates were required to attend shortly after the beginning of the adminitration. They could not start campaigning before its end and if any part of the games had been neglected or performed irritually the Latiar had to be wholly repeated. The inscriptions from the imperial age record the festival back to the time of the decemvirs.
Wissowa remarks the inner linkage of the temple of the Mons Albanus with that of the Capitol apparent in the common association with the rite of the triumph

Roman triumph

The Roman triumph was a civil ceremony and religious rite of ancient Rome, held to publicly celebrate and sanctify the military achievement of an army commander who had won great military successes, or originally and traditionally, one who had successfully completed a foreign war. In Republican...

: since 231 BC some triumphing commanders had triumphed there first with the same legal features as in Rome.

Iuppiter Arcanus

Arcanus was the epithet of one of the Jupiters worshipped at Praeneste. His theology and cult are strictly connected to that of the Fortuna

Fortuna

Fortuna can mean:*Fortuna, the Roman goddess of luck -Geographical:*19 Fortuna, asteroid*Fortuna, California, town located on the north coast of California*Fortuna, United States Virgin Islands...

 Primigenia worshipped in the famous sanctuary there. He is the protector of the lots sortes stored in the arca, whence his epithet. G. Dumézil attempted a purely Indoeuropean interpretation of the theology of Fortuna and of her relationship with Juppiter and Juno, other scholars see the subcessive accretion of a Greeek-Etruscan and then a later Greek influence on Fortuna and the theological structure underlying her relationship to Jupiter, i. .e. earlier the child and then the parent of Fortuna. Jacqueline Champeaux interprets the boy represented on the cista of the III century BC from Praeneste, now at the Archaeological Museum of Villa Giulia in Rome, as Jupiter puer and arcanus: the image engraved on it represents a boy sitting in a cave, reading a lot inscribed on a tablet. This might be a mythic illustration of the working of the oracle, in which Jupiter is at one time the child (puer) who ritually draws the rods of the lots (here while decyphering one) and their keeper, arcanus.

The sortes of Praeneste were inscribed on rods of chestnut wood: they had sprung out of earth fully inscribed when a certain Numerius Suffustius cut the earth open with his spade, under the indication of some dreams.

Iuppiter Appenninus

The god was venerated in a sanctuary at the mountain pass between Umbria and Marche now named Scheggia Pass

Scheggia Pass

The Scheggia Pass is a pass in Italy that marks the division between the Central and Northern Apennines. It is in northern Umbria and lies between Gubbio and Cagli at 575 meters ....

, about eight miles North-East of Iguvium along the Via Flaminia

Via Flaminia

The Via Flaminia was an ancient Roman road leading from Rome over the Apennine Mountains to Ariminum on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, and due to the ruggedness of the mountains was the major option the Romans had for travel between Etruria, Latium and Campania and the Po Valley...

, on Mount Petrara. He had a famous oracle there which gave his responsa by means of sortes (lots). Its reputation was great during the Empire and it was consulted by emperor Aurelian

Aurelian

Aurelian , was Roman Emperor from 270 to 275. During his reign, he defeated the Alamanni after a devastating war. He also defeated the Goths, Vandals, Juthungi, Sarmatians, and Carpi. Aurelian restored the Empire's eastern provinces after his conquest of the Palmyrene Empire in 273. The following...

. Dedications have been excavated on the place and in Algeria on the top of a hill near Philippeville. Claudian

Claudian

Claudian was a Roman poet, who worked for Emperor Honorius and the latter's general Stilicho.A Greek-speaking citizen of Alexandria and probably not a Christian convert, Claudian arrived in Rome before 395. He made his mark with a eulogy of his two young patrons, Probinus and Olybrius, thereby...

 mentions the oracle in his description of the travel of Honorius

Honorius

Honorius may refer to:* Honorius , western Roman emperor 395–423* Honorius of Canterbury , archbishop of Canterbury 627–653* Honoratus of Amiens , bishop of Amiens...

 from Fanum Fortunae.

As was the case for the sanctuary of Iuppiter Poeninus on the Great St. Bernard, the mountain pass held a religious significance as a point of communication between different geographic areas, a passage to a different and unknown world that required a religious protection for the traveller.

Other Italic Jupiters

Jupiter was worshipped also under the epithets of Imperator Maximus in Praeneste, Maius in Tusculum

Tusculum

Tusculum is a ruined Roman city in the Alban Hills, in the Latium region of Italy.-Location:Tusculum is one of the largest Roman cities in Alban Hills. The ruins of Tusculum are located on Tuscolo hill—more specifically on the northern edge of the outer crater ring of the Alban volcano...

, Praestes in Tibur, Indiges at Lavinium

Lavinium

Lavinium was a port city of Latium, to the south of Rome, at a median distance between the Tiber river at Ostia and Anzio. The coastline then, as now, was a long strip of beach. Lavinium was on a hill at the southernmost edge of the Silva Laurentina, a dense laurel forest, and the northernmost...

 and Anxurus at Anxur (now Terracina

Terracina

Terracina is a town and comune of the province of Latina - , Italy, 76 km SE of Rome by rail .-Ancient times:...

), where he was represented as a young man without beard.

In Umbro-Oscan areas he was Iuve Grabovius in the Iguvine Tables, Iuppiter Cacunus (of the top of mountains, cf. Latin cacumen and Iuppiter Culminalis), Iuppiter Liber (see section on Liber above), Diuve Regature in the Table of Agnone that Vetter interprets as Rigator, he who irrigates, and Dumézil as Rector, he who rules and Diuve Verehasus tentatively rendered by Vetter as Vergarius.