SEMO SANCUS. - Semo Sancus Dius Fidius, an Italic deity of the sky of Jupiter whose name recalls a) the Semones of the Arval cult; b) the characteristic of sanctioning, that is, guaranteeing oaths, and c) the epithet proper to Jupiter as guardian of oaths; cf. Σάος πίναος and the Fisos Sancios of the Eugubine Tables.

S. S. had in Rome a temple on the eastern slope of the Quirinal hill, called for that reason Sanqualis, just as the local gate of the Servian wall was called Sanqualis. The temple was dedicated in 446 B.C., and the dedication fell on June 5 (Ovid, Fasti, VI, 213). Two of its ritual peculiarities are known, which suit well a deity of oaths: namely, part of its roof was left open for the immediate view of the sky; and it preserved in its interior some bronze discs (orbes aenei), a symbol of the solar disc, which recalled the analogous urfeta (= orbita) of the Umbrian ritual. Treaties were kept in the temple. In the garden adjoining the church of St. Silvester on the Quirinal, epigraphs relating to the god were found. The most important (though of unknown provenance, discovered in 1879) bears the dedication « Semoni Sanco sancto deo Fidio » set up under the care of the « decuria sacerdotum bidentalium » (CIL, VI, 30.994), a priestly college charged with the discipline of lightning, and which for that very reason had custody of the temple of that god qui foedera fulmine sancit (Virgil, Aen., XII, 200).

The statue (found in the same place as the base, now in the Vatican Museum, and which represents an Apollo of the archaic type) has no connection with the base. On the Tiber island there was another sanctuary of the god, known for the erroneous attribution that the Christian apologists (Justin, Apol., I, 26; Tertullian, Apol., 13) made of it to Simon Magus, misled by the dedicatory inscription.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: C. L. Visconti, in Studi e documenti di storia e diritto, 2 (1881), p. 105 ff.; G. Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Römer, 2nd ed., Munich 1912; A. Platner, A topographical Diction. of ancient Rome, Oxford 1929, p. 469 ff.; F. Altheim, Römische Religionsgesch., I, Berlin 1931; for the relation between S. and the Semones see M. Nacinovich, Carmen Arvale, II, Rome 1934, p. 8 ff.

Nicola Turchi

@incollection{ec11_semo_sanco, author = {Turchi, Nicola}, title = {Semo Sanco}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XI}, pages = {297}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/semo-sanco} }

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