Huck wrote: 04 Apr 2020, 20:58 The upper 2 rows (virtues and riches) contain 7 male figures. This looks, as if somebody had originally the idea to have 8 male figures in the 2 top rows and 8 female figures im the 2 bottom rows.

The Dii consentes in Livy were six male-female pairs, and Vesta's companion was Vulcan. Marziano replaces Vulcan with Bacchus, for reasons we can speculate on. But I think the Dii consentes sufficiently explain the choices for the first twelve, and why they are so equally sex-balanced.

The last four are ad hoc, and we have to explain those choices much more carefully. Daphne in particular points to Petrarch, whose Canzoniere we know was one of Filippo Maria's favorite books.

Aeolus is an obscure figure no matter when, so he stands out particularly. Phaeded has argued that his role in the Aeneid explains his place in Marziano's sequence of heroes.

Ross G. R. Caldwell wrote: 05 Apr 2020, 16:56 My confirmation bias is getting the better of me; I've found yet other reasons to prefer 1412, more precisely late 1412, for the composition of DSH.

Filippo Maria seems to have been profligate in spending in the early days....

If he were so profligate in his spending early on, this might help explain the huge sum of 1500 gold pieces (=ducati?) Decembrio says Filippo Maria paid for the DSH.

As I've stated, despite a lean towards 1418 I'm open to either that year or 1412, both having sound rationales:
1412: Filippo takes the Duchy and wants to assert his proper claims to it (e.g., continuing dear ol' dad's cultural works) but is forced to take the expedient measure of marrying Cane's widow, Beatrice.
1418: In the same year of his most recent dalliance with the Emperor for formal ducal recognition, that is postponed yet again, he has Beatrice executed. Now more than ever the dynastic claims in Giangaleazzo cultural works (e.g., the Visconti Hours) needed to be played up in lieu of imperial recognition. Part of placing the duchy on a sound footing is producing an heir.

In either case, part of the problem is Beatrice. Whether Filippo was actively trying or not, Beatrice does not produce an heir, and at all events Decembrio describes the match as "forced." So working towards common ground I have to ask: do we agree Beatrice is a subtext behind Marziano's choice of deities, at least some of them?

My primary argument for Beatrice, the unsuitable widow , is that she parallels Dido in that regard - a dalliance for Aeneas (the grandfather of Anglus "Visconti"), that was but a distraction from his true destiny, which is what Beatrice would be for Filippo (whether or not he had moved on to someone else or not; e.g. Agnese).

The problem: Dido is not featured in Marziano. I've instead argued that the inclusion of Aeolus points to the series of events that blew Aeneas and his men from Sicily (home of Aeolus) to Dido. If Daphne is the chaste example that Filippo should be pursuing (like a flesh and blood Apollo - again, his radiant sun impresa indicates that), then the negative example is Dido, but symbolized by the cosmic, and, natural even, force of wind that misdirected Aeneas to her (many humanists used the Latin turbo - whirlwhind - and its variants to describe such fate-altering forces in their works, often in a negative sense). And Aeolus is inserted right before Daphne, arguably in contrast to her.

The evidence is the predilection of the Visconti to privilege the Aeneid in their court since it speaks to their ethnogenic roots, and that Aeolus only occurs once there in the Aeneid, therefore marking the aforementioned episode.

The only thing unique in Marziano's handling of 16 deities was his fourfold approach of thematic suits, and thus we should we contextualize Aeolus. First, a word about the other three suits, starting with the two uncontroversial ones:
Virginities/Turtledoves: Pallas ,Diana, Vesta, Daphne - all virgins.
Pleasures/Doves: Venus, Bacchus, Ceres, Cupido - all related to the Epicurean pleasures of the flesh, as sex or food (or both in the case of Bacchus).

Next is more problematic as there is no Greek myth tying these four together:
Virtues/Eagles: Jove, Apollo, Mercury, Hercules.

However, the Virgilian myth of the Aenieid does - Apollo is the tutelary god of Troy (yet another link between Aeneas/Anglus and the Visconti - the sun symbol), and in Book IV, lines 173-237, Fama spreads the word of the union between Dido and the Trojan Aeneas to which Jupiter sends Mercury to Aeneas to tell him to leave Carthage, for his destiny awaits him in Italy....where the way has already been cleared by Hercules (i.e., the Cacus/Aventine Hill episode that Marziano added to Hercules 12 labors, already discussed). And to put an exclamation point on these associations, Jove's eagle (Iovis āles), cuts through a sky made turbulent by other birds (turbābat caelō, thus Jupiter cutting through Aeolus) to greet Aeneas when he enters Carthage (1.395-5). The "Virtues" then can all be linked Aeneas via either the Dido episode or his ultimate destiny in setting up the founding of Rome, of which Did was the primary diversion.

The most disparate collection of deities is where Aeolus himself has been placed:
Riches/Phoenixes: Juno, Neptune, Mars, Aeolus

Again, the same events in Aeneid surrounding the Dido episode in Carthage explains the selection of these four: Juno rouses Aeolus, who in turn upsets Neptune’s realm of the sea (Virgil notes Neptune is mad at Aeolus for this), which blows Aeneas detouring to Carthage, which he "escapes" to his ultimate destiny: the founding of Rome via Romulus and Remus (whose mother is a Vestal virgin), their father being Mars (involving the Aventine Hill, which we have already seen connected to Hercules by Marziano). Also noteworthy is that Aeneas meets Dido when she is in her temple for Juno. I would admit Mars is a bit of an outlier here - Juno-Neptune-Aeolus all being connected to the same scene - and not withstanding Romans are the "sons of Mars", Mars' spoils of war was especially appropriate to the suit of riches, and thus he belongs here. Marziano actually mention that in his ipeoning line for Mars: "distinguished by so many spoils and chariots taken from the enemy," and later"promising the best rewards, both of riches and rich stipends." But all of that results from the functioning Roman Empire, set up by Aeneas.

But why is the Phoenix used for this suit of riches? Dido is "Sidonian" in Virgil, i.e., hailing from Sidon, Phoenicia, the ethnicity of the Carthaginians (she in fact has founded Carthage).

The classical etymology for the word Phoenix was derived from Phoenicia due to phonetic similarities. Ovid specifically linking the mythical bird to “Assyria”, a term which included Syria proper, which in turn could stand for the older place name of Phoenicia, then become the Roman Province of Syria (her legions ultimately destroyed Jerusalem during the Jewish Revolt of 66–70 CE, so famously featured in the New Testament):

It seems likely that by Assyrians Ovid meant the Phoenicians, since in Classical times no great distinction was made between Phoenicia, Syria and Assyria, particularly by the poets. It may even be assumed that Ovid chose the word Assyrians for stylistic reasons, to avoid juxtaposition of the words Phoenices and phenica….Whereas Ovid seems to have thought that the bird owed its name to Phoenicia, Lactantius conveys the reverse. He states that the phoenix goes to Syria to die, and that this is how the region came to be called Phoencias. (R. Van den Broek, The Myth of the Phoenix: According to Classical and Early Christian Traditions, 1971: 52).

Lactantius, partially basing himself on Ovid, goes onto explain the bird builds it nest in a high palm tree that also owes it this name (Ovid leaves out the name part).

The whole story of the flight of the phoenix to Syria and its death there in a palm tree – which does not occur anywhere else in the phoenix literature – was developed by Lactantius [Narr. fab. Ovidianarum XV, 69-70] under the influence of Ovid [Met. XV, 396-397), from the homonymy of Greek words for phoenix, Phoencian, and palm.” (ibid, 52)

So associated was the Phoenix with the palm that in the SS. Cosmas and Damian church attached to the ruins of Rome’s fora, has within its 6th century apse mosaic a phoenix sitting atop a palm tree (Cosimo de Medici sent funds of the restoration of this namesake church) https://roma-nonpertutti.com/storage/im ... b7c9e.jpeg

Isidore of Seville also connected the bird to the famous Phoenician reddish-purple (made from the murex shell found in the coast there) to the Phoenix, which became a commonplace reference (Isidore, Etymol., XII.7.22).

So we have the Phoenix connected to Dido’s homeland of Phoenicia (also "punic" as in The Punic War) in classical and early Christian sources, but Marziano most likely relied on Boccaccio, who not only makes all of the aforementioned connections, including naming Lactantius as a source, but links the genealogy of ‘Sidonian’ Dido to a Phoenician ancestor with the very name Phoenix:

And so for the Assyrians and Phoencians, for whom the reverence for Venus and Adonis was considerable….

…and as Lactantius says in his Divine Institutions, the Sacred History contains the report that [Venus] instituted the practice of prostitution….

As a long-lasting consequence of this, the Phoenicians gave their daughters over to prostitution before they married them off, [273-274] as Augustine bears witness in his City of God, and Justin in his Epitome of Pompeius Trogus, where describes on the Cypriot shore Dido had taken away seventy virgins who had come for profit.

Phoenix, as Lactanius says, was the son of Agenor…came with his brother Cadmus from Egyptian Thebes to Syria and ruled at Type and Sidon….
Eusebius explains that he as a skillful man because he first gave the Phoenician some letters and their shapes. Then for writing them he made vermillion, whence that color is also called ‘phoenician’ [pheniceus]; it is named, I believe, after the inventor of the color which later, with the letters changed, was called “punic” [puniceus].

Synchaeus, according to Theodontius, was the son of Philistine [which makes Phoenix the grandfather of Dido]. (Genealogia deorum gentilium, libri II.53-57., tr. Solomon, 2011: 273-77,).

Knowing his Boccaccio well, Marziano had every reason to link Dido with the Phoenix via her Phoenician roots.

I would also point out that Phoenicia, more often “Syria” in Roman sources, was a place of fabulous wealth. For a Roman senator to be assigned the Proconsulship ("governor") of Syria (annexed in 64 BC) was usually the apex of one’s career, such were it riches, with the spices of Arabia and India flowing through her. Syria’s capital of Antioch was one of the four largest cities of the Empire (along with Rome, Alexandria and eventually Constantinople), and her main luxury villa suburb named, oddly enough, Daphne, was “ the scene of an almost perpetual festival of vice.” http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/tex ... daphne-geo

Although descriptions of Roman Syria are anachronistic in regard to the Phoenicia of the Aeneid (although written in early Roman imperial times of course), the geographical place had already become proverbially known as rich – references to the province in Roman literature would have only reinforced that trope; ergo, Dido hails from a place that is the embodiment of “riches”, the key attribute of the suit of Phoenixes.

Do all of these indirect allusions to the Aeneas-Dido episode in the Aeneid really point us to Beatrice Cane? Whom else could it possibly?

The ultimate problem then is finding a bride (a chaste Daphne, versus a widowed Dido) that could propagate the line of Anglus; would that need have been most acute in 1412 or 1418?

Phaeded

Phaeded wrote: 05 Apr 2020, 20:12 In either case, part of the problem is Beatrice. Whether Filippo was actively trying or not, Beatrice does not produce an heir, and at all events Decembrio describes the match as "forced." So working towards common ground I have to ask: do we agree Beatrice is a subtext behind Marziano's choice of deities, at least some of them?

I tend to agree with that. In fact I can see it no other way, in view of your presentation for these last few days. I'm working through the rest of your remarkable insights, so give me a few minutes at least.

Part of the problem with post-September 1418 is that you defeat your own argument about the importance of Beatrice for the choices. Aeolus loses all significance once she is gone, as well as all the allusions to Phoenicia. He is free. And, as we know, he was in no hurry, and would soon have a paramour. And legal marriage did not matter, as late as 1429, when he was already married. He chose his own way.

the Roman Province of Syria (her legions ultimately destroyed Jerusalem during the Jewish Revolt of 66–70 CE, so famously featured in the New Testament):

I should point out, as a one-time New Testament student, that the Jewish War is nowhere referenced in the New Testament. In fact its absence is remarkable, given that most scholars date every writing but Paul's letters after these events. This led John Robinson, in Redating the New Testament, to argue that all of the NT was in fact written before that war. In my opinion, admittedly influenced by my own teacher, Steve Mason, his arguments remain to be confuted.

Note - I just read the first review of Robinson on Amazon, and I have to agree with it. This book has never received its due, or proper criticism, perhaps because it is so soundly argued, I would almost say irrefutable. At least I have not been able to refute it, and I like to do that kind of thing.

Steve has looked briefly at the sky over Milan at 9am, 16 June 1412.
"As Saturn is very strong in FMVs chart, to the extent I would consider it his chart ruler - I just looked at the position of Saturn, as a sort of general significator of FMV himself on June 16 1412 @ 9 am, Milan. As with his own chart it is diurnal triplicity ruler. It is the highest planet, in the 10th house (of social status) rising ahead of the others towards a conjunction with the MC (an elevation to the heights, propelling towards a high status), its closest and strongest aspect is a close trine with Jupiter in the Second house, further strengthened by Jupiter being in the Term of Saturn, signifying a large increase in wealth, property and resources. Saturn is also signicator of the seventh house of marriage, so elevation consolidated via marriage."

I'm pretty sure that Filippo Maria's astrologers saw the same thing.

Note that I accused Steve of having studied Filippo Maria's biography because of this reading.

Phaeded wrote: 05 Apr 2020, 20:12 (many humanists used the Latin turbo - whirlwhind - and its variants to describe such fate-altering forces in their works, often in a negative sense).

Can you give me some references for that? It is a crucial observation.

(it's getting late here, sorry, it'll be tomorrow before I can address the rest. Note Psalm 92:12 as well for phoenix, "the righteous shall flourish like the palm/phoenix." I looked for the possibility that Michelino had illustrated it with a phoenix, given the tradition, but couldn't find one).

Ross G. R. Caldwell wrote: 05 Apr 2020, 20:37

Phaeded wrote: 05 Apr 2020, 20:12 In either case, part of the problem is Beatrice. ...

Ross: Part of the problem with post-September 1418 is that you defeat your own argument about the importance of Beatrice for the choices. Aeolus loses all significance once she is gone, as well as all the allusions to Phoenicia. He is free. And, as we know, he was in no hurry, and would soon have a paramour. And legal marriage did not matter, as late as 1429, when he was already married. He chose his own way.

I view that a little differently - Beatrice was a mistake, and if not a damnatio memoriae at least a demonization of sorts was in order, thus the comparison with Dido. So on the flip side of that argument, would they have done that pre-1418?[/quote

Phaeded:
the Roman Province of Syria (her legions ultimately destroyed Jerusalem during the Jewish Revolt of 66–70 CE, so famously featured in the New Testament):

Ross: I should point out, as a one-time New Testament student, that the Jewish War is nowhere referenced in the New Testament. In fact its absence is remarkable, given that most scholars date every writing but Paul's letters after these events. This led John Robinson, in Redating the New Testament, to argue that all of the NT was in fact written before that war. In my opinion, admittedly influenced by my own teacher, Steve Mason, his arguments remain to be confuted.

I was thinking of Revelations (which calls for a New Jerusalem and the 666 reference to Nero), and the Gospels' references to the future destruction of Jerusalem, which I see as after the fact. I was once especially taken up with this article (even wrote the author years ago, arguing that Titus performed an evocatio, calling out the Jewish god - equated to Saturn by Tacitus - before laying waste to the city; and then the Jewish treasures were duly deposited in the Temple of Saturn back in Rome, as an evocatio always included the promise of a new home for the called out god): John S. Kloppenborg, "Evocatio Deorum and the Date of Mark", Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 124, No. 3 (Fall, 2005), pp. 419-450. https://www.jstor.org/stable/30041033?seq=1
The author's voluminous Academia.edu webpage where you can also access the article (just scroll down forever to get to it - looks arranged chronologically):
https://utoronto.academia.edu/JohnKloppenborg

But I'll insist on that less than 1418. ;-)

Phaeded

FMVs Natal Chart

{Based on time, date and place of birth provided by Ross}

If he was born just 6 minutes after sunrise, taking the suns position itself as the ascendant should be close enough for most general purposes. The ascendant shifts approx a degree around every 4 minutes - so within 6 to 12 minutes the Sun will be around 1.5 to 3 degrees above the ascendant.
Saturn is the strongest of the planets in his chart, being in its exaltation and diurnal triplicity ruler, and as with Mars, the Moon and Jupiter, the Sun & Saturn depose to a mutual disposition between Venus and Mercury, but Mercury is conjunct Saturn in its exaltation, and Sun, Venus and Mercury are together with Saturn in the 12th house, the Joy of Saturn.

Though Saturn is the strongest planet in the chart, it is eclipsed by the Sun - behind which traditionally a planet lies hidden, weak and debilitated. However, the Sun in Libra is in its fall, a weak position, and Saturn in Libra is strong in its exaltation; and as the Sun is separating from the combustion with Saturn [and will continue to do so by progression] - this would indicate that if he can survive a period of debilitation and weakness, hidden as it were 'behind the scenes' (as Saturn, his ruling planet, is hidden at the moment of birth behind the Sun), then he will rise and be revealed from behind the Sun in all his power. {That is from a predictive sense, based on progressions - tendencies such as suspicion, paranoia, secrecy, social withdrawal - are likely more permanent character traits exasperated by Saturn's placement in the 12th house}.

Saturn being his ruling planet is why I focussed my attention on the position of Saturn in the Mundane Chart for the event of his becoming Lord of Milan.

SteveM

*I am not quite sure how they measured minutes at the time, so I may be working here on the wrong presumptions.

Perhaps OT: In the Semideus, presented to Filippo Maria Visconti in 1438, the author writes that just as the Virgin Mary was the 60th generation from Adam, so FMV was the 60th generation from Saturn: it is illustrated by a family tree, with Saturn at the root and FMV at the top. This is the mythological Saturn of course, not the planetary one - but perhaps they may have been conflated in FMVs mind... the return of the Golden Age, the Age of Saturn - was a propaganda theme used by other rulers of the time, such as the d'Este for example, and was perhaps a theme he was attracted to given his interest in astrology and the position of Saturn in his chart.

Ross G. R. Caldwell wrote: 05 Apr 2020, 18:55

Huck wrote: 04 Apr 2020, 20:58 The upper 2 rows (virtues and riches) contain 7 male figures. This looks, as if somebody had originally the idea to have 8 male figures in the 2 top rows and 8 female figures im the 2 bottom rows.

The Dii consentes in Livy were six male-female pairs, and Vesta's companion was Vulcan. Marziano replaces Vulcan with Bacchus, for reasons we can speculate on. But I think the Dii consentes sufficiently explain the choices for the first twelve, and why they are so equally sex-balanced.

The last four are ad hoc, and we have to explain those choices much more carefully. Daphne in particular points to Petrarch, whose Canzoniere we know was one of Filippo Maria's favorite books.

Aeolus is an obscure figure no matter when, so he stands out particularly. Phaeded has argued that his role in the Aeneid explains his place in Marziano's sequence of heroes.

Livius, XXII, 9. 10., probably reporting the year 217 BC

9
Hannibal marched in a straight course through Umbria as far as Spoletum, and after laying the country round utterly waste, he commenced an attack upon the city which was repulsed with heavy loss. As a single colony was strong enough to defeat his unfortunate attempt he was able to form some conjecture as to the difficulties attending the capture of Rome, and consequently diverted his march into the territory of Picenum, a district which not only abounded in every kind of produce but was richly stored with property which the greedy and needy soldiers seized and plundered without restraint. He remained in camp there for several days during which his soldiers recruited their strength after their winter campaigns and their journey across the marshes, and a battle which though ultimately successful was neither without heavy loss nor easily won. When sufficient time for rest had been allowed to men who delighted much more in plundering and destroying than in ease and idleness, Hannibal resumed his march and devastated the districts of Praetutia and Hadria, then he treated in the same way the country of the Marsi, the Marrucini, and the Peligni and the part of Apulia which was nearest to him, including the cities of Arpi and Luceria. Cn. Servilius had fought some insignificant actions with the Gauls and taken one small town, but when he heard of his colleague's death and the destruction of his army, he was alarmed for the walls of his native City, and marched straight for Rome that he might not be absent at this most critical juncture.

Q. Fabius Maximus was now Dictator for the second time. On the very day of his entrance upon office he summoned a meeting of the senate, and commenced by discussing matters of religion. He made it quite clear to the senators that C. Flaminius' fault lay much more in his neglect of the auspices and of his religious duties than in bad generalship and foolhardiness. The gods themselves, he maintained, must be consulted as to the necessary measures to avert their displeasure, and he succeeded in getting a decree passed that the decemvirs should be ordered to consult the Sibylline Books, a course which is only adopted when the most alarming portents have been reported. After inspecting the Books of Fate they informed the senate that the vow which had been made to Mars in view of that war had not been duly discharged, and that it must be discharged afresh and on a much greater scale. ]The Great Games must be vowed to Jupiter, a temple to Venus Erycina and one to Mens; a lectisternium must be held and solemn intercessions made; a Sacred Spring must also be vowed. All these things must be done if the war was to be a successful one and the republic remain in the same position in which it was at the beginning of the war. As Fabius would be wholly occupied with the necessary arrangements for the war, the senate with the full approval of the pontifical college ordered the praetor, M. Aemilius, to take care that all these orders were carried out in good time.

10
After these resolutions had been passed in the senate the praetor consulted the pontifical college as to the proper means of giving effect to them, and L. Cornelius Lentulus, the Pontifex Maximus, decided that the very first step to take was to refer to the people the question of a "Sacred Spring," as this particular form of vow could not be undertaken without the order of the people. The form of procedure was as follows: "Is it," the praetor asked the Assembly, "your will and pleasure that all be done and performed in manner following? That is to say, if the commonwealth of the Romans and the Quirites be preserved, as I pray it may be, safe and sound through these present wars - to wit, the war between Rome and Carthage and the wars with the Gauls now dwelling on the hither side of the Alps - then shall the Romans and Quirites present as an offering whatever the spring shall produce from their flocks and herds, whether it be from swine or sheep or goats or cattle, and all that is not already devoted to any other deity shall be consecrated to Jupiter from such time as the senate and people shall order. Whosoever shall make an offering let him do it at whatsoever time and in whatsoever manner he will, and howsoever he offers it, it shall be accounted to be duly offered. If the animal which should have been sacrificed die, it shall be as though unconsecrated, there shall be no sin. If any man shall hurt or slay a consecrated thing unwittingly he shall not be held guilty. If a man shall have stolen any such animal, the people shall not bear the guilt, nor he from whom it was stolen. If a man offer his sacrifice unwittingly on a forbidden day, it shall be accounted to be duly offered. Whether he do so by night or day, whether he be slave or freeman, it shall be accounted to be duly offered. If any sacrifice be offered before the senate and people have ordered that it shall be done, the people shall be free and absolved from all guilt therefrom." To the same end the Great Games were vowed at a cost of 333,333 1/3 ases, and in addition 300 oxen to Jupiter, and white oxen and the other customary victims to a number of deities. When the vows had been duly pronounced a litany of intercession was ordered, and not only the population of the City but the people from the country districts, whose private interests were being affected by the public distress, went in procession with their wives and children. Then a lectisternium was held for three days under the supervision of the ten keepers of the Sacred Books. Six couches were publicly exhibited; one for Jupiter and Juno, another for Neptune and Minerva, a third for Mars and Venus, a fourth for Apollo and Diana, a fifth for Vulcan and Vesta, and the sixth for Mercury and Ceres. This was followed by the vowing of temples. Q. Fabius Maximus, as Dictator, vowed the temple to Venus Erycina, because it was laid down in the Books of Fate that this vow should be made by the man who possessed the supreme authority in the State. T. Otacilius, the praetor, vowed the temple to Mens.

Although the six god pairs of the year 217 BC are similar to the 6 pairs of Manilius (from c 18 AD; only 4 pairs are identical), they are not the same ... and they don't have a relation to the zodiac or don't show a relation to astrology/astronomy according Livius.


The 6 pairs of Livius lead also not to new insights in the Visconti order.

I wrote:

The 6 pairs of Livius lead also not to new insights in the Visconti order.

But good, that I looked for the background. In 217 BC the temple of the Venus Erycina was founded, as described by Livius.
On this Dutch map we see the first temple of the Venus Erycina marked with a big red "I" close to a small "Capitolijn" (a dutch expression), which indidicates that this is a Capitol region, which honours the 3 highest Roman gods Jupiter-Juno-Minerva. And the Venus Erycina temple is very close to it ... as in the Visconti playing card deck with Roman gods "1. Jupiter - 2. Juno - 3. Minerva - 4. Venus".
A model of the Capitoline Hill:
Large picture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitolin ... 10278).jpg

The Temple of Venus Erycina on the Capitoline Hill was built by the dictator Quintus Fabius Maximus. He was appointed dictator after the disastrous Battle of Trasimeno in 217 BC and promised this temple to Venus after consulting the Sibylline Books, hoping thereby to reverse his fate.Template:Livy 22.9-10, 23.30-31) The temple was inaugurated in 215 BC.
The temple was probably in the Area Capitolina, by the great Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of ... line_Hill)

A second temple of the Venus Erycina appeared in the East of Rome at the Quirinal Hill.

The Temple of Venus Erycina on the Quirinal Hill was built by the consul Lucius Porcius Licinius. He promised the temple to Venus in 184 BC during the war against the Ligurians in the north of Italy. Porcius Licinius (or his younger brother) dedicated the shrine in 181 BC. The temple was possibly included in the 1st century BC in the complex of the Gardens of Sallust.

Possibly one may assume, that the Romans were content with the results of the magical temple-building in 217 BC (in 202 BC the war was finished with a great victory, after the situation in 2017 had been very dangerous). So the trick was repeated in 184 BC.

The name Venus Erycina developed from the mountain Eryx (751 meters) far in the West of Sicily. A Phoenician foundation was altered there to a Karthagian stronghold, which in the 1st Punic war was taken by the Romans and then declared as a place, where Aeneas founded a temple in honor of his mother Venus. It's said, that the place were known for sacred prostitution. Likely also the places in Rome.
Still there is a Castello di Venere on top of the mountain.
https://www.google.de/maps/place/91016+ ... 12.5873511

SteveM wrote: 06 Apr 2020, 00:44 Perhaps OT: In the Semideus, presented to Filippo Maria Visconti in 1438, the author writes that just as the Virgin Mary was the 60th generation from Adam, so FMV was the 60th generation from Saturn: it is illustrated by a family tree, with Saturn at the root and FMV at the top. This is the mythological Saturn of course, not the planetary one - but perhaps they may have been conflated in FMVs mind... the return of the Golden Age, the Age of Saturn - was a propaganda theme used by other rulers of the time, such as the d'Este for example, and was perhaps a theme he was attracted to given his interest in astrology and the position of Saturn in his chart.

I think we have to see this genealogy, because the much better-known one is that of Pietro Castelletto, in 1402, which makes Filippo Maria the 60th generation from Anchises and Venus, which would be 61 from Jupiter and 62 from Saturn. If you have this book, Steve, can you photograph or scan page 480 for us, with the genealogy?

Unfortunately the Semideus is in Russia, and I can't find a reproduction of it online. It was once in the French royal library, where if it had remained, it would now be online. The best I can do is Christopher de Hamel's Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts, pp. 466-504 https://books.google.fr/books?id=CxccDg ... 22&f=false

Hamel shows the genealogy on page 480, but this is not shown in the Google selection. The caption runs:

"LEFT: The ancestry of Filippo Maria Visconti shown in the Semideus manuscript rising from Saturn, Jupiter and Venus, at the foot of the page, up to Filippo Maria at the top below the Virgin Mary."

Found five pages of it, beginning of Liber Tertius, at the Russian National Library, St Petersburg, Lat. Q.v.XVII.2
https://primo.nlr.ru/primo-explore/full ... d&offset=0

It is listed under numbers 230 and 231 in the search for Latin manuscripts -
https://primo.nlr.ru/primo-explore/sear ... d&offset=0

The most they have put online seems to be these first five pages of book three. You can get a PDF here -
https://rusneb.ru/catalog/000200_000018 ... GIT_11144/