VORTVMNVS TEMPORIBVS DIOCLETIANI ET MAXIMIANI: IN MARGINE A CIL, VI 804*

Abstract

Some ancient authors mention the existence of the god Vertumnus/Vortumnus statue in the vicus Tuscus,
behind the Castor and Pollux Temple. We also know from the Dutch epigrapher Martinus Smetius that a
base inscribed VORTVMNVS TEMPORIBVS DIOCLETIANI ET MAXIMIANI was discovered on that
site in the Roman Forum in 1549 (CIL VI 804). However, from the late Renaissance period until today, all
traces of it had been lost. Only recently has it been possible to recognize the base of Vortumnus in a stele
included, albeit with some doubt, in CIL VI 40841 among the funerary inscriptions of the Diocletian age
and currently kept in the storerooms of the National Roman Museum (inv. 72678).