Bellona Pulvinensis, Aedes

Sanctuary of the Cappadocian goddess Ma, who was assimilated to Bellona in Rome, located inside the *Porta Collina and known only from epigraphic and literary evidence. The goddess Bellona of this temple was known by two epithets: PVLVINENSIS (CIL VI 490) and PEDISEQVA (CIL VI 3674=30851). Palmer (657) plausibly argues that the temple was dedicated by L. Cornelius Sulla to commemorate his victory over the Samnites at the Colline Gate in 82 B.C. Martial (12.57.9-11) complains that the noisy racket of an inspired throng of Bellona’s worshippers on the *Quirinal deprived him of sleep. More detailed information on the temple’s date, site and architectural form can be derived from the epigraphic evidence. Inscriptions uncovered during the 1872 excavations for the Ministero delle Finanze locate the *Vicus Bellonae near the Porta Collina, and it is likely that the temple stood near the eponymous neighborhood (Palmer 658-59; CIL VI 3674=30851). The shrine was located within a grove and placed on a pulvinus, “a terraced embankment with building and plantings” (Palmer 660), near the Porta Collina and *Campus Sceleratus (LVCVS: CIL VI 2232; PVLVINVS: CIL VI 490). Palmer (659) postulates that the shrine stood atop the area of the Campus Sceleratus, based upon a place-name ‘Centumcellae’ which he suggests derived from an exaggeration of the number of subterranean rooms used for the burial of unchaste Vestal Virgins. Since the toponym could also refer to the extensive system of chambers created during the mining of pozzolana in this area of the Quirinal (Canevari 433-35), Palmer’s placement of the shrine on the Campus Sceleratus is almost certainly over-restrictive. Viscogliosi (LTUR I) was not aware of Palmer’s research, and erroneously located the temple on the mons Vaticanus (s.v. *Trans Tiberim); his addendum acknowledges the agger near the Porta Collina as a possible location for the aedes (LTUR V).