Rediculus is an ancient Roman divinity. His cult had a temple near the Porta Capena, and a campus on the Appian Way.
This divinity is probably one of Rome's lares, a protector-god of the city. He is said to have appeared to Hannibal as he was camped outside Rome in 211 B.C., urging him to return (redire) to Carthage. [1] [2] Festus' account of the incident reports that Hannibal, nearing the city, saw apparitions in the air, filling him with dread and causing him to turn back immediately: [3]
Rediculi fanum extra portam Capenam fuit, quia accedens ad Urbem Hannibal ex eo loco redierit quibusdam perterritus visis. [4]
The [temple] of Rediculus was [outside] the Porta Capena; it was so called because Hannibal, when on the march from Capua, turned back at that spot, being alarmed at certain portentous visions. [5]
One account has the god's entreaty taking the form of a shower of hail. [6] After Hannibal's retreat, the Romans erected an altar at the site to "Rediculus Tutanus", the god "who turned back and protected". [7]
Others[ who?] derive the name of the god from the word ridiculus, signifying a thing to be laughed at. [3] Hannibal's failure to enter Rome made him an object of scorn for the Romans, and in order to perpetuate his shame, they erected a temple to the god of laughter. Varro gives the god the epithet Tutanus (protector), having him speak in his Saturae Menippeae (Hercules tuam fidem, XXXIX):
Noctu Hannibalis cum fugavi exercitum,
Tutanus hoc, Tutanus Romae nuncupor.
Hoc propter omnes, qui laborant, invocant.When in the night great Hannibal I beat,
And forc'd his troops from Latium to retreat,
From my defense, Tutanus was my name:
By this the wretched my protection claim. [3]
Other authors, such as Robert Burn, say that this legend is "altogether unworthy of credit". [8] Travelers leaving the city would pray at the temple before embarking on the Appian Way. [9]
The Tomb of Herodes and Regilla, near the Church of Domine Quo Vadis, has been confused with the Temple of Rediculus; the temple, however, is described by Pliny as having been on the opposite side of the Appian Way. [10] The temple was dedicated in about A.D. 65. [10]
There was a tomb in the campus Rediculi (English: field of Rediculus) dedicated to a talking crow. Pliny the Elder gives the story in his Natural History (Book X, chapter 60): [10] A cobbler had a stall in the Roman Forum and possessed a tame crow who, being a favorite among the younger Romans, eventually became a sort of public character. When it was killed by a rival of the cobbler, they executed the rival and gave the bird a public funeral, carrying it on a bier to its burial place in the field of Rediculus. [10]