Iuppiter Optimus Maximus

Reading notes

• Ad M. Brutum 1.12 §1 which Jupiter avert the omen

  "Quod Iuppiter omen avertat" is a standard Roman religious formula for disavowing an ill-omened word just spoken, calling on Jupiter to prevent the feared event from materialising.

• Ad Familiares 7.12 §2 Jupiter of the Stone

  The oath 'per Iovem Lapidem' was the most solemn Roman oath, sworn holding a flint stone sacred to Jupiter. Cicero's barb: how can Trebatius administer this oath when Epicurean theology denies that the gods feel anger and so could punish a perjurer?

• Ad Familiares 9.16 §8 an octopus to match a red-leaded Jupiter

  The cult-statue of Jupiter Capitolinus was traditionally painted with red lead (minium) on festal days; Cicero jokes that Paetus's purple-red boiled octopus is as garishly crimson as the god's painted face, mocking the showy dishes of provincial gourmandise.

• Ad Quintum Fratrem 2.10 §3 Jove the Host, and summon all the Greeks

  A playful tag, half-quotation of an epic line: Jupiter Hospitalis was the god guaranteeing the bond of host and guest, and Appius (a noted philhellene) might call on him and on his Greek friends, who had brokered Cicero's reconciliation with Appius.

• Aratea (Translation of Aratus' Phaenomena) §Proem (From Jupiter) From Jupiter let us take the Muses' first beginnings

  The famous opening of Aratus's Phaenomena ("Let us begin from Zeus"), rendering the Stoic conception of Zeus/Jupiter as the providential power pervading the world. Cicero's youthful verse translation begins here.

• Aratea (Translation of Aratus' Phaenomena) §The Bears (Arcti) they laid in the welcome cave of Dicte

  The Cretan birth-myth of Jupiter: hidden in a cave on Mount Ida (or Dicte) and nursed there while the Curetes (Corybantes) drowned his cries so Saturn would not devour him. The two Bears were said to be his nurses, set in heaven.

• Aratea (Translation of Aratus' Phaenomena) §The Charioteer (Erichthonius / Auriga) the still-small Thunderer

  The Auriga (Charioteer), holding the She-goat (the bright star Capella) and the Kids. The goat was the Olenian goat Amalthea, said to have suckled the infant Jupiter (the "Thunderer") in Crete.

• On His Consulship §2 the sacred image of Jupiter should look toward the bright sunrise

  The haruspices prescribed that a great statue of Jupiter be set on a high column facing east; while it was raised in 63 BC the conspiracy was exposed, a coincidence Cicero presses as proof of divine providence.

• On Divination §1.16 Jupiter Best and Greatest

  Iuppiter Optimus Maximus, the supreme state god of Rome, worshipped in the great temple on the Capitoline. The statue of Summanus stood on the gable of his temple.

• On the Ends of Good and Evil §2.88 Jupiter is no more blessed than Epicurus

  Jupiter, the supreme Roman god, stands here for divine blessedness. Cicero argues that if pleasure is the highest good and time adds nothing to it, then strip away eternity and the god is no happier than Epicurus.

• On the Ends of Good and Evil §3.66 we call Jupiter Best and Greatest

  The cult titles of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, here joined to Salutaris ('Preserver'), Hospitalis ('of Hospitality'), and Stator ('Stayer of the Line'). Cicero reads them as expressing that human safety rests in the god's protection, reinforcing the duty of mutual care.

• On the Nature of the Gods §2.64 the helping father, whom by a change of cases we call Jove from "helping"

  The (false but traditional) etymology deriving Iuppiter/Iovis from iuvare, "to help," hence "helping father." Balbus adds that the Romans call him Optimus (most beneficent) before Maximus (greatest).

• On the Nature of the Gods §3.11 the Jupiter of the Capitol

  Jupiter Optimus Maximus, whose great temple stood on the Capitoline hill and was the centre of Roman state cult. Cotta contrasts this concrete cult-Jupiter with the Stoic 'Jupiter' who is merely the bright sky.

• On the Nature of the Gods §3.53 those who are called theologians count three Jupiters

  Cotta now numbers the gods systematically: three Jupiters, three sets of Dioscuri, three sets of Muses, five Suns, four Vulcans, five Mercuries, three Aesculapii, four Apollos, three Dianas, five Dionysi, four Venuses, five Minervas, three Cupids. The catalogue shows that the same name covers many different figures, so the Stoics cannot say which is the god.

• On the Nature of the Gods §3.87 Jupiter Best and Greatest

  Jupiter Optimus Maximus, the supreme god of the Roman state. Cotta observes that men call on him for safety, wealth, and honour, but never thank him for making them good, since virtue is credited to ourselves alone.

• On Duties §3.102 an angry Jupiter

  Jupiter Optimus Maximus, chief of the Roman gods, by whom oaths were sworn. Cicero argues that the binding force of an oath rests not on fear of divine anger - which the gods do not feel - but on justice and good faith.

• Against Catiline, Third Speech §20 the new statue of Jupiter

  The new statue of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitol, set up by the haruspices' direction with its face turned towards the Forum, had been raised that very morning, on 3 December 63 BC --- the very day of the conspirators' arraignment in the Forum below. Cicero presents this as the prodigy that exposed the plot.

• Against Verres, Second Hearing, Book V §184 you, Jupiter Optimus Maximus

  The closing peroration: a sustained invocation, in solemn ritual style, of the gods Verres has plundered. Each god is called by name and place; the rhetorical effect is that of a long curse-tablet, with Verres pinned to it by the catalogue of his victims.

• Eleventh Philippic §11 this detestable omen may Jupiter avert

  Bestia's standing for the consulship "in Brutus's place" implied Brutus would be dead; Cicero deflects the ill-omened idea with a ritual formula of aversion to Jupiter.

• For Gaius Rabirius on a Charge of High Treason §31 Jupiter Best and Greatest

  Iuppiter Optimus Maximus, the supreme state god whose temple crowned the Capitol; Marius is praised for cutting off the water-pipes to the Capitoline temple to dislodge the armed followers of Saturninus.

• Tusculan Disputations §2.24 the satellite of Jupiter

  The eagle of Zeus/Jupiter, sent daily to tear at Prometheus's liver, which regrew each night to prolong his torment. 'Satelles' (attendant, henchman) marks it as the agent of Jupiter's punishment.