Source Verification: Apollo in Rome
Every claim below is either what a named ancient source attests, in its own line or section, or a point where the sources themselves disagree.
What the Sources Attest
What is the difference between Greek Apollo and Roman Apollo?
They are one god under one name. The difference lies in what Rome asked of him. The first state temple was vowed for the people's health in a plague (Livy 4.25.3). His games were ordered from the Sibylline books and sacrificed in the Greek manner (Livy 25.12.11-13). Under Augustus he became the god of Actian victory, with a temple built beside the emperor's house (Suetonius, Divus Augustus 29.3). This page covers that Roman side. For his myths, see Greek Apollo.
Source: Livy, Ab Urbe Condita 4.25.3
Did Romans believe in Apollo?
Yes. Romans worshipped Apollo as a state god from at least the fifth century BCE. Livy says a temple to him was vowed for the people's health in a plague (Ab Urbe Condita 4.25.3), and the Apollinare already stood on the Flaminian meadows in 449 BCE (Ab Urbe Condita 3.63.7). In 212 BCE the senate ordered annual games for him (Ab Urbe Condita 25.12.9-13). Augustus later placed the Sibylline oracles beneath the statue in his Palatine temple (Suetonius, Divus Augustus 31.1).
Source: Livy, Ab Urbe Condita 3.63.7
Why does Apollo have the same name in Greek and Roman?
Rome took the god over with his Greek name instead of giving him a Latin one. Cicero's Stoic speaker says plainly that the name of Apollo is Greek (De Natura Deorum 2.68). Livy shows the Greek rite at work: the senate ordered sacrifices to Apollo and Latona in the Greek manner (Ab Urbe Condita 25.12.13). The sources checked here give no separate Latin name. Latona, by contrast, is a Latin form of the Greek goddess Leto.
Source: Cicero, De Natura Deorum 2.68
Is Helios the Roman version of Apollo?
No. Helios is the Greek sun god, and his Roman counterpart is Sol. In Horace's Carmen Saeculare, Sol has his own stanza (Carmen Saeculare 9-12), while Apollo is invoked later, as a separate god (Carmen Saeculare 33-36). The idea that Apollo is the sun is a later equation. Cicero's Stoic speaker reports it as a view held by some (De Natura Deorum 2.68), and Macrobius argues it at length in his Saturnalia (1.17.1-4). See Helios for the Greek sun god.
Source: Horace, Carmen Saeculare 9-12
Where Accounts Differ
- the dates of the temple of Apollo Medicus
- why the Ludi Apollinares began
- who urged the Ludi Apollinares
- whether Apollo is the sun in Roman thought
- Augustus as the son of Apollo or Apollo the Tormentor
- how the Palatine temple came to be built
- The temple's dates rest on Livy's text plus a modern conversion. Livy places the vow in the year of the consular tribunes Fabius Vibulanus, Folius and Sergius Fidenas (Ab Urbe Condita 4.25.1-3) and the dedication under the consul Julius (Ab Urbe Condita 4.29.7). The BCE years 433 and 431 are the conventional equivalents. The English translation on Perseus omits the vow sentence in 4.25.3, which the Latin has, and numbers the dedication as 4.29.6 rather than 4.29.7. The Latin numbering is used here.
- The sources disagree on why the Ludi Apollinares began. Livy says the games were vowed for victory, not for health as many believed (Ab Urbe Condita 25.12.15). Macrobius agrees that they were instituted for victory (Saturnalia 1.17.27), but also reports a battle story: the crowd rose to arms during the games and a cloud of arrows put the enemy to flight (Saturnalia 1.17.25). He records a view that the games belong to the summer sun (Saturnalia 1.17.26), and says other annalists thought of a plague (Saturnalia 1.17.27). Livy makes the games annual only later, after a plague (Ab Urbe Condita 27.23.5-7).
- Who was behind the games differs as well. Livy credits the seer Marcius and the board of ten priests (Ab Urbe Condita 25.12.9-13). Macrobius adds that the decemvir Cornelius Rufus, nicknamed Sibylla, urged the games, and that Sulla's name is a corruption of it (Saturnalia 1.17.27). Macrobius is a writer of about 400 CE and the story is not in Livy.
- Sources differ on how far Apollo is the sun. Cicero's Stoic speaker says people identify Apollo with the sun and Diana with the moon (De Natura Deorum 2.68). Macrobius has a character argue that Apollo is the sun (Saturnalia 1.17.1-4; 1.17.30). Horace's chorus addresses Sol and Apollo in separate stanzas (Carmen Saeculare 9-12; 33-36). The Greek Apollo page notes that Homer and Hesiod do not make him the sun.
- Suetonius's stories about Augustus and Apollo are reports, not proof. He says Atia's serpent encounter is taken from a book by Asclepias of Mendes, called Theologumena (Divus Augustus 94.4). He says the banquet of the twelve gods was known from Antony's letters and from anonymous verses, and that Augustus's critics used it to mock him (Divus Augustus 70.1-2).
- The Palatine temple has two accounts of its origin. Suetonius says lightning struck part of Augustus's house and the soothsayers read it as the god's wish for a temple there (Divus Augustus 29.3). Augustus himself only lists the temple among his buildings (Res Gestae 19). The dedication date of 28 BCE is a modern editor's note, not a statement by Augustus or Suetonius.
Sources
- Livy, Ab Urbe Condita 3.63.7
- Livy, Ab Urbe Condita 4.25.3
- Livy, Ab Urbe Condita 4.29.6-7
- Livy, Ab Urbe Condita 5.13.5-6
- Virgil, Aeneid 3.274-280
- Virgil, Aeneid 6.9-13
- Virgil, Aeneid 6.35-36
- Virgil, Aeneid 6.69-74
- Virgil, Aeneid 8.678-681
- Virgil, Aeneid 8.698-706
- Horace, Carmen Saeculare 5-12
- Horace, Carmen Saeculare 33-36
- Horace, Carmen Saeculare 61-76
- Suetonius, Divus Augustus 18.2
- Suetonius, Divus Augustus 29.3
- Suetonius, Divus Augustus 31.1
- Suetonius, Divus Augustus 70.1-2
- Suetonius, Divus Augustus 94.4
- Augustus, Res Gestae 19
- Augustus, Res Gestae 21
- Augustus, Res Gestae 24
- Cicero, De Natura Deorum 2.68
- Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.17.1-4
- Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.17.25-30
- Ovid, Fasti 2.711-720