Salus

Salus is the Roman religion, the personification of well-being. The female deity was usually depicted enthroned with scepter, shell, snake or with ears of corn. Salus has been associated primarily with the welfare and safety of the Roman state, its inhabitants and in the imperial period and the rulers. Accordingly, the deity was also known as Salus Salus populi Romani publication or as.

In the oldest Roman history the Festival of Salus was first of each year, then at irregular intervals celebrated as Augurium Salutis. Gaius Junius Bubulcus Brutus vowed to 311 BC during the second Samnitenkrieges the establishment of a Salus Temple, which was 307 BC commissioned and consecrated on 5 August 302 BC on the Collis Quirinalis. Perhaps there was previously a senior Salus cult on this hill.

Frequently Salus was worshiped in conjunction with Semonia and can therefore probably be regarded as Saatgöttin. Influenced by Greek and Hellenistic models and associated with the introduction of Asclepius cult Salus has been connected since the 2nd century BC, the Greek goddess of healing goddess Hygieia, but not thereby lost its character as a general protective goddess of the Roman state. Augustus built another 10 BC, the Salus Populi Romani, an altar.

In the time of Augustus the feast of Augurium Salutati was celebrated in honor of the emperor. A corresponding feast of the Emperor Claudius is attested for the year 49. The goddess heard as Salus Augusta great veneration as the goddess of the state and imperial welfare. Especially under Galba and Vespasian there was another renaissance of this cult, but now as a sign of the state recover from the rule of the emperors of the Julio- Claudian dynasty. Up until the time of Hadrian often representations of Salus be detected in the context of the welfare of the provinces as part of the empire. Particularly widespread they were in Lusitania, and in the Baetica.