January 16th | Fastorum Liber Primus: Ianuarius
H C | XVII Kal. | I.637-650, Ovid celebrates the foundation of the temple of Juno Moneta.
Candida, te niveo posuit lux proxima templo,
qua fert sublimes alta Moneta gradus:
nunc bene prospicies Latiam, Concordia, turbam,
ut te sacratae constituere manus. 640
Furius antiquam populi superator Etrusci
voverat et voti solverat ille fidem.
causa, quod a patribus sumptis secesserat armis
volgus, et ipsa suas Roma timebat opes.
causa recens melior: passos Germania crines 645
porrigit auspiciis, dux venerande, tuis;
inde triumphatae libasti munera gentis
templaque fecisti, quam colis ipse, deae.
hanc tua constituit genetrix et rebus et ara,
sola toro magni digna reperta Iovis. 650
637 Fair goddess, thee the next morning set in thy snow-white fane, where high Moneta lifts her steps sublime:1 well shalt thou, Concord, o’ersee the Latin throng, now that consecrated hands have stablished thee. Furius, the vanquisher of the Etruscan folk, had vowed the ancient temple, and he kept his vow.2 The cause was that the common folk had taken up arms and seceded from the nobles, and Rome dreaded her own puissance. The recent cause was better: Germany presented her dishevelled locks at thy command, leader revered; hence didst thou offer the spoil of the vanquished people, and didst build a temple to that goddess whom thou thyself dost worship. That goddess thy mother3 did stablish both by her life and by an altar, she who alone was found worthy to share the bed of mighty Jupiter.
The new temple of Juno Moneta was on the Capitol, and a flight of steps led up from the Forum, near which was the old temple of Concord.
M. Furius Camillus, 367 B.C. The temple was rebuilt by Tiberius out of the spoils of Germany, A.D. 10.
Livia. See vi. 637 below.