Page:Archaeologia volume 38 part 1.djvu/248

 218 Recent Excavations at Carthage. when with his father Hamilcar in the temple of Jupiter, where the latter was performing the customary sacrifices previously to taking the command in Spain. This, no doubt, was at the temple of the god Baal; while Silius seems to indicate that the event took place in the temple of Saturn." Here were kept the archives of the Republic. What more appropriate place could there be for so solemn a sacrifice ? On the other hand, if Baal-Hamon can be identified with Helios or Apollo, his temple was situated at no great distance from the Forum ; for when Scipio, having made himself master of the Cothon and Forum, was encamping in the latter, preparatory to commencing his attack on the Byrsa, his soldiery broke into the neighbouring temple of Apollo, and cut off with their swords the gold plates which covered the statue and shrine of the god." The statue seems to have been carried to Rome, and to have been placed in the Circus, where it remained in the time of Plutarch. Falbe and Bureau de la Malic place the temple of Saturn to the west of the supposed site of the temple of Juno, led, perhaps, to do so by the inscribed tablets having been found at Malkah. If the temple of Apollo mentioned by Appian and the temple of Saturn noticed by Roman writers should ultimately prove to be the same, it should be looked for to the east, between the site of the temple of Juno and the sea ; which would likewise place it near the Forum, and not far from the spot where the inscribed tablets were found by Mr. Davis. This would agree equally well with a passage in the Acts of St. Cyprian ; d where we are told that he was in the custody of the strator of the Proconsul, who lived "in vico qui dicitur Saturni, inter Veneream et Salutariam," that is, between the temples or streets of Cojlestis and yEsculapius. This street was also called Vicus Senis, possibly from a superstitious dread of mentioning the ancient god whose grove and temple were the scene in Punic and even in Roman times of human sacrifices. If the two divinities jointly mentioned in the inscriptions be the Coelestis and Saturn of the Romans, we can understand the temple of the latter having been in the hieron of the former deity. This combined worship of the Sun and Moon has been alluded to in the case of Anaitis and Omanes as worshipped in Persia. At Dodoua Dione was associated with Zeus ; at Coronaea we hear of Hades being associated with Minerva, /card TWO, w? aa-t, HVVTHCTJV al-riav-' Lucian, in his treatise De Dea Syria, speaks of Jupiter and Juno being worshipped together Silius Italicus, Punica, lib. i. 80. 1 Appian, viii. 127. 1 Vita Flaminini, c. i. He tells us that the statue of Flamininus stood rupd ror ptyar 'ArdXAwra rot eV oc ayrncpi TOV 4 S. Augustin. de conscnsu Evang. lib. i. c. zziii. 36. ' Acta Proconaularia S. Cypriani, c. ii. ' Strabo. ix. 2, 29.