Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
An inscription found in 1912 near Praeneste,1 and now easily accessible in the new edition of Vol. I. of the Corpus of Latin inscriptions (CIL. I. pars 2, fasc. 1, 1918, No. 2439), records a dedication in honour of Juno PALOS-CARIA(e) (dat. sg.), an epithet previously unknown, and not yet, I believe, satisfactorily explained. Rosenberg's attempted explanation (palus -i sens, obsc.—an extremely rare meaning, it should be observed—and stigare in the sense of ‘instigare,’ referring to Juno as the goddess of motherhood) will not secure many adherents, while that of Lommatzsch (CIL. l.c.), who would connect the word with palus -udis, and see an allusion to the ‘paludes Pomptinae,’ involves us in serious, though not insuperable, phonetic and morphological difficulties. If we were reduced to accepting the derivation from palus ‘marsh,’ I should prefer to see rather a reference to the festival of Juno on the Nonae Caprotinae (July 7), which took place near the Caprae (or Caprea) palus in the Campus Martius. There would then be at least a definite connexion of the goddess with the palus, whereas there is no such connexion, so far as I know, of Juno with the Pomptine Marshes.
1 , Mancini, Notizie degli Scavi, 1914, p. 195Google Scholar.
2 Rh. Mus. LXXI. (1916), p. 117Google Scholar.
3 Plut. Rom. 29: cf. Cam. 33, Dion. Hal. 2,56.
4 l.c.
5 Rosenberg, Rh. Mus. l.c.; , Marucchi, Bull. Comm. XLI. (1913), p. 22Google Scholar.
6 Sat. 3, 20, 1.
7 , Wissowa, R.K., ed. 2, p. 184Google Scholar, Fowler, Warde, R.F., p. 173Google Scholar. The significance of this tree in the rites of Juno will be discussed in an essay on the cult of Juno to be published elsewhere.
8 L.L. 6, 18. For the worship of Juno at Praeneste see CIL. XIV. 2867, I., ed. 2, 563 sq. 551; , OvidFasti, 6, 62Google Scholar