How to Design Your Own Roman Votive Altar + How to Read Latin Inscriptions on Roman Altars in Museums

Do you want to be able to read the Latin inscriptions on Roman altars in museums? Or perhaps you want to design your own votive altar to you favourite deity?
In the short overview below, I will tell you what you need to know to get started!

 

Fig. ❶ Emperor Tiberius making a libation (offering of wine) at an altar with an inscription (or Germanicus making an offering to the Genius of Tiberius?), with the Goddess Victoria holding a wreath above his head, Roman relief found at Nijmegen, early 1st century CE. Museum Het Valkhof, Nijmegen (Netherlands).

What is a Roman Votive Altar?

Roman votive altars were usually dedicated to a Deity by a supplicant as the conclusion of a "religious contract". In the first stage of this agreement, the supplicant would ask a particular Deity for help or protection for the duration of a certain venture (e.g. a journey to a distant place or a battle against a fierce enemy).

In return, the supplicant vowed to dedicate an altar to this Deity. If the requested help or protection was received, the supplicant would fulfil his part of the deal and commission an altar with an inscription which typically contained the following information:

Ⅰ　  Name of God(s) Ⅱ　 Name (and position) of the supplicant Ⅲ　Formulaic phrase

Ⅰ　Name of the God(s)　 

The names of the Gods are put in the Dative case.

Sometimes “the God” or “The Goddess” is added and some Deities are often described as “the venerable” (augusto/augustae), “the sacred” (sancto / sanctae), “the invincible” (INVICTO) or “the best and greatest”.

 Here are some examples of invocations used at the beginning of votive altars (in the dative case):

APOLLINI or DEO APOLLINI	To Apollo
D I M or DEO INVICTO MITRAE or DEO INVICTO MITHRAE	To the Invincible God Mithras
D M   or DIS MANIBVS	To the Di Manes (standard beginning of funerary stele)
DEO MARTI	To the God Mars
DEO MERCVRIO	To the God Mercurius (Mercury)
DEO SILVANO	To the God Silvanus
DEO SOLI INVICTO	To the Invincible Sol
DIANAE or DEAE DIANAE   or DEAE DEANAE or DIANAE REGINA	To Diana or To the Goddess Diana “ or To Diana, the queen
DIANAE APOLLINI	To Diana and Apollo (twins)
DITI PATRI	To Dis Pater
FORTVNAE or DEAE FORTVNAE	To Fortunae or To the Goddess Fortuna
GENIO LOCI	To the Genius Loci (guardian spirit of a location)
HERCVLI or DEO HERCVLI or DEO INVICTO HERCVLI or HERCULI VICTOR	To Hercules or To the God Hercules or To the Invincible God Hercules or To Hercules, the victor
I O M (short for IOVI OPTIMO MAXIMO)	To Iuppiter (Jupiter), the best and greatest
LARIBVS	To the Lares
LIBERO PATRI	To Liber Pater (=Bacchus/Dionysus)
LIBERO PATRI ET LIBERAE	To Liber Pater and Libera
MATRIBVS or DEABVS MATRIBVS	To the Matres (=mothers) or To the Goddesses the Matres
MINERVAE or DEAE MINERVAE or DEAE MENERVAE or DEAE SANCTAE MINERVAE	To Minerva or To the Goddess Minerva or To the Sacred Goddess Minerva

(If you cannot find the Deity you are looking for, check out this database: https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/) 

Ⅱ　Name of the Supplicant

The name of the supplicant is simply in the Nominative case. Note that the name is often abbreviated drastically to save space or keep the costs of the commissioned altar down. For example the name Publius Aulius could be abbreviated as P・AVL・.

Sometimes, the place of origin, military rank, profession or even father’s name were also included. Was it to make sure the Gods knew who exactly dedicated the altar? Or perhaps these supplicants wanted to show of their power and wealth to the other temple visitors?

Ⅲ　Formulaic Phrase

 The most common ending would be VSLM which stands for "Votum Solvit Libens Merito". In English, this means “has fulfilled his vow willingly and deservedly”.

The shorter alternatives SL, LM and VSL are also sometimes used.

Examples

The altar on Fig. ❷ is dedicated to Lady Fortune and has a very simple inscription.

Fig. ❷ Altar with the inscription "FORTVNAE DACCIVS SABINVS VOTVM SOLVIT LIBENS MERITO", Römisch-Germanisches Museum Köln (Germany).

 

Altars dedicated to Iuppiter Optimus Maximus are probably the most common of all. They can be recognised by the abbreviation IOM (Fig. ❸).

Fig. ❸ Altar with the inscription "I(OVI) O(PTIMO) M(AXIMO) M(ARCVS) SABINIVS CANDIDVS V(OTVM) S(OLVIT) L(IBENS) M(ERITO)", Museum Het Valkhof, Nijmegen (Netherlands).

Fig. ❹ and ❺ show an altar to Hercules I commissioned myself. It was made by an artist from the United Kingdom called Simon Jameson. You can order your own altar with personalised inscription over at his website.

Simon Jameson based the shape of this votive altar on an original that was found along Hadrian’s wall and can currently be seen at Chesters Roman Fort Museum. The orignal seems to have an inscription saying it was dedicated to the Goddess Minerva.

I chose to have the letters painted red, as there have been instances where traces of red pigmentation were found on votive altars, but the red paint you can see on most altars in museums is actually restored to increase legibility [i]. Details apart from the lettering may have been painted as well.

Fig. ❹　Altar to Hercules with votive altar by Simon Jameson from 1066 Creations.

 

Fig. ❺　Altar to Hercules with votive altar by Simon Jameson from 1066 Creations.　The shallow depression at the top is used for burning offerings like incense, as can be seen on Roman reliefs.

References:

[i] Adkins, Lesley and Roy A. Adkins (2014) Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome. Infobase Publishing: p259.