Mariana, while the god to whom Pompey built a temple was called Hercules
Pompeianus. Nor was this phenomenon limited to just the “great men” of late repub-
lican Rome; the temple of Diana Planciana was called after the consul of 55 BCE,
Cn. Plancius. Prior to the late republic, only non-religious buildings, such as the
basilica Aemiliaor columna Minucia, were known by the names of their builders.
As noted above, temples had long served as a means for Roman generals to adver-
tise their prowess and their piety, and it had been sufficient in the middle republic
for the general’s name to appear in the dedicatory inscription. In the late republic,
as the balance between the collective needs of the aristocracy and the desires of
individuals shifted decisively in favor of the latter, a direct connection between the
temple and the individual became more important.
This connection might even take the shape of a direct relationship between the
individual and the gods. This feature is particularly associated with Julius Caesar, as
we shall see in the next section, but it is important to note that Caesar’s generation
was not the first to claim this special connection. As early as the second century,
Scipio Africanus was reported to have cultivated a close personal connection with
the gods, visiting the temple of Capitoline Jupiter every day and doing nothing to
refute stories that “he was a man of divine stock” (Livy 26.19). In the middle repub-
lic, Scipio’s exceptional individualism was checked by the collective body of the
senate, but in the late republic the attempt by individuals to claim a special divine
favor for themselves became a regular feature that the senate was unable to prevent.
Marius carried a Syrian prophetess around with him – a woman whose prophecies
had even been rejected by the senate – and after his great victory over the Cimbri
and Teutones, the people proclaimed that they would make offerings to the gods
and to Marius at the same time (Plutarch, Marius27.9). It is worth noting that
the decision to include Marius was apparently made by “the masses” and not by
the senate, a further sign of the increased role of the populusin religious decision-
making. Sulla took the surname Felix, by which he indicated the good fortune with
which the gods had blessed him, but the Greek translation of this term reveals the
goddess from whom he claimed special favors: Epaphroditus, beloved by Aphrodite,
or Venus (Plutarch, Sulla19.9). If the hegemony of the Romans was to be ascribed
to the favor of the gods bestowed on them, then one logical explanation for the
dominance of individual men was the favor of the gods bestowed upon those men.
The Religious Programs of Pompey the Great and
Julius Caesar
Over the last forty years of the republic, Venus became a focal point of the contest
between the leading Roman politicians, as both Pompey the Great and Julius Caesar
followed the example of Sulla and sought to establish their claims to her special favor.
By the late republic, the legend of Rome’s foundation by the offspring of Aeneas
had become well established, which may account for the prominence of Venus at
this time, for as the mother of Aeneas she was therefore the mother of the entire
Roman race. Venus also had strong military connections in some guises, and the
Urban Religion in the Middle and Late Republic 67