A uncommon marble inscription referring to a fulgur submanium, a nocturnal lightning strike attributed to Summanus, has been found at Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli. The discover emerged throughout archaeological investigations by the Division of Humanities (DISTUM) of the College of Urbino Carlo Bo, led by archaeologist Fabio Giorgio Cavallero, in collaboration with the Istituto Villa Adriana e Villa d’Este.
The workforce made the invention in a sector between the so-called Amphitheatre and a pure financial institution of tufa. Right here, the archaeologists uncovered a small quadrangular construction manufactured from tufa parts sure with mortar. Set into its entrance is a marble slab measuring 40 × 35 cm, nonetheless preserved in its unique place. The inscription, organized in two traces of capital letters, reads FVLGVR SVBMANIVM.
Picture: Ministero della Cultura, CC BY 3.0.
Picture: Ministero della Cultura, CC BY 3.0.
The inscription FVLGVR SVBMANIVM refers to a nocturnal lightning strike related to Summanus, the Roman god of thunder and lightning by night time. Pliny the Elder (Pure Historical past 2.138) distinguishes between lightning throughout the day and at night time, attributing the previous to Jupiter and the latter to Summanus. Summanus was an historical Roman deity of obscure origin. A temple (Aedes Summani) devoted to him stood close to the Circus Maximus and was historically stated to have been constructed throughout the struggle with Pyrrhus within the early third century BC. His pageant, the Summanalia, was celebrated on 20 June. Historical sources additionally relate {that a} terracotta statue of Summanus which stood on the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus was struck by lightning, and that its head was later discovered within the River Tiber.
For the Romans, a spot struck by lightning acquired particular non secular standing. The bottom was thought of religiosus and set other than strange use. Objects and supplies affected by lightning had been gathered and buried, accompanied by the suitable rites and sacrifices. This ritual was generally known as condere fulgur, actually “to bury” or “lay away” the lightning, whereas the deposit itself was known as a fulgur conditum. The ritual was carefully linked to Etruscan non secular observe. Decoding lightning was an necessary a part of the Etrusca disciplina. It was handled within the libri fulgurales, the sacred books that handled the various kinds of lightning and their significance. Roman haruspices, drawing on this custom, had been known as upon to interpret such indicators and prescribe the suitable rites of expiation. Pliny notes that Etruscan teachings recognised 9 gods able to sending eleven various kinds of lightning.
Picture: Cleveland Museum of Artwork. Open Entry.
The sacred space related to the strike was generally known as a bidental. Folks might enclose or mark out such locations, they usually had been to not be disturbed. The title was historically linked with the sacrifice of a two-year-old sheep, or bidens, throughout the purification of the location. At Hadrian’s Villa, the small quadrangular construction into which the inscribed slab was set could have marked or delimited such a bidental. The inscriptions marking these locations didn’t observe a single mounted method. Some learn Fulgur conditum, whereas others distinguished daytime lightning (Fulgur Dium conditum or Fulgur Divom conditum) from nocturnal lightning related to Summanus, expressed in types corresponding to Fulgur Summanum conditum, Fulgur conditum Summanium or Fulgur Summani. The FVLGVR SVBMANIVM from Hadrian’s Villa stands out as one other variant, because it offers the nocturnal classification however doesn’t embrace conditum on the slab itself.
Picture: Damien Tournay, CC BY-NC 2.0
Different archaeological examples of this observe are identified. The most effective identified is the colossal gilded bronze statue of Hercules, found close to the Theatre of Pompey in Rome in 1864. The statue had been laid horizontally in a pit and lined with travertine slabs inscribed with the letters F C S, usually interpreted as Fulgur Conditum Summanium. The statue had apparently been struck by lightning and was subsequently buried in line with ritual observe, along with the stays of a lamb. One other parallel comes from Ostia Antica within the so-called Domus Fulminata (III, VII, 3–4), or Home of the Thunderbolt. Within the south-west nook of its courtyard is a small masonry bidental, the place a marble plaque inscribed F D C, usually expanded as Fulgur Dium Conditum, marked the place the place lightning had struck, and the affected objects had been ritually buried. Fragments of vessels, terracotta statuettes and lamps had been reportedly discovered beneath the slab. The invention gave the constructing its fashionable title, Domus Fulminata.
Picture: Camelia.boban / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
The invention at Hadrian’s Villa is particularly necessary as a result of the inscribed slab remains to be in its unique location throughout the construction to which it belongs. This construction could have outlined a bidental, a sacred space linked to a web site struck by lightning. The archaeological context of this discovering additionally provides to its significance.
The so-called Amphitheatre lies on the foot of Piazza d’Oro, one of the elaborate architectural complexes of Hadrian’s Villa. The monument is an elliptical construction whose unique perform stays unsure. From the sixteenth century onwards, it was interpreted as a big basin, maybe meant for bathing or for protecting fish. Cleansing of the realm within the Nineteen Nineties, nevertheless, revealed architectural parts that led to the suggestion that the construction could as a substitute have been an amphitheatre. The identification has by no means been firmly established, therefore the continued use of the title “so-called Amphitheatre”.
New archaeological investigations started right here in 2024, when the Division of Humanities (DISTUM) of the College of Urbino Carlo Bo opened a stratigraphic excavation underneath the route of Fabio Giorgio Cavallero. Just some centimetres under the floor, the workforce uncovered the partitions of a beforehand unknown constructing relationship to the Hadrianic interval. The constructing measured greater than 25 metres lengthy and 15 metres extensive. It consisted of a big rectangular corridor surrounded by eight rooms opening onto a terrace supported by pillars, a few of which survive to greater than three metres excessive. Fragments of white marble, inexperienced serpentine, and crimson porphyry, along with painted plaster in crimson, yellow, and inexperienced, revealed the richness of its ornament, that includes intertwined bands, acanthus leaves, and pomegranates. (see right here)
Sooner or later, a part of this constructing was deliberately demolished to make means for the elliptical construction now generally known as the Amphitheatre. As a substitute of eradicating the particles, the builders utilised it to boost the muse for the brand new construction’s flooring. This observe explains why many fragments of marble revetment and painted plaster from the sooner constructing had been discovered throughout the fill. The excavation revealed that the so-called Amphitheatre was not a part of a single development part, because it changed an earlier, richly adorned Hadrianic advanced.
Investigations continued in 2025 as a part of the College of Urbino excavation mission. A marketing campaign was carried out in September and October, though detailed outcomes from that season haven’t but been revealed. The work targeted on exploring the assorted phases of development and transformation on this little-known a part of the Villa. It’s inside this more and more advanced archaeological context that the FVLGVR SVBMANIVM inscription was found.
Additional excavation and stratigraphic evaluation could finally make clear the place of the fulgur conditum throughout the sequence of modifications that affected this a part of the Villa. (see right here)
