god
Erucine Venus
also: Veneri Erycinae, Veneri Erucinae
Venus of Eryx, in her great mountaintop sanctuary above Drepanum in western Sicily — one of the most famous shrines of the western Mediterranean, served by sacred slaves and the source of Sicilian revenue. Verres's exactions from the Erycine sanctuary slaves and his pillage of its ornaments figure throughout In Verrem 2 (2.1 and 2.4).
Reading notes
- Against Caecilius (Divinatio) §55 Erucine Venus
The temple of Venus on Mount Eryx in western Sicily, one of the most famous shrines in the Mediterranean, owned slaves and freed dependants who could claim the goddess's protection. Agonis was such a freedwoman.
- Against Verres, Second Hearing, Book I §27 Erucine Venus
Venus of Eryx, the great sanctuary on Mt. Eryx in western Sicily; her temple held vast treasure and slave-priestesses, and was a frequent pretext for Verres's confiscations from rich Sicilians.
- Against Verres, Second Hearing, Book II §21 Erucine Venus
Verres's standing pretext: any inheritance with even a side-mention of Venus could be claimed for the goddess of Mt. Eryx (whose temple revenue went to Rome), and Verres was the praetor who would adjudicate. The Naevius Turpio device made the temple a perpetual money-laundering shell.