40.52
One of
the censors, M. Aemilius, asked the senate for a sum of money to be decreed
for the Games on the occasion of the dedication of Queen Juno and Diana,
which he had vowed eight years previously, during the Ligurian war. A sum
of 20,000 ases was granted. He dedicated the temples which both stood in
the Circus Flaminius, and exhibited scenic Games for three days after the
dedication of the temple of Juno, and for two days after the dedication of the
temple of Diana. He also dedicated a temple to the Lares Permarini in the
Campus Martius. This temple had been vowed by L. Aemilius Regillus
eleven years previously, during the naval action against the commanders of
King Antiochus. Above the folding-doors of the temple a tablet was affixed
with this inscription: "When Lucius the son of Marcus Aemilius went out to
battle to put an end to a great war and to subdue kings . . . The chief cause
of obtaining peace . . . under his auspicious command and fortunate
leadership the fleet of Antiochus, ever before invincible, was defeated,
shattered and put to flight between Ephesus, Samos and Chios, before the
very eyes of Antiochus and of his whole army, his cavalry and elephants. On
that day forty-two ships of war were captured there, with all their crews; and
after that battle had been fought, King Antiochus and his realm . . .
Wherefore, because of this action he vowed a temple to the Lares
Permarini." A similar tablet is fixed above the doors of the temple of Jupiter
on the Capitol.
