Editing Summanus (section)

==Temple and cult==
The temple of Summanus was dedicated during the [[Pyrrhic War]] c. 278 BCE on June 20.<ref>Ovid ''fasti'' VI 729-731; Fasti Esquil.,  Venus., Amit.: ad XII Kal. Iul.; CIL I 2nd p. 211, 221,243, 320</ref><ref>Pliny ''Nat. Hist.'' XXIX 14; Livy ''Periochae'' XIV. For dedication year, see 
Orlin, Eric M., "Foreign Cults in Republican Rome: Rethinking the Pomerial Rule", ''Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome'', Vol. 47 (2002), p. 5.</ref> It stood at the west of the [[Circus Maximus]], perhaps on the slope of the [[Aventine Hill|Aventine]]. It seems the temple had been dedicated because the statue of the god which stood on the roof of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus had been struck by a lightning bolt.<ref>S. Ball Platner, T. Ashby ''A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome'' Baltimore 1928 p. 408, citing Cicero ''de Div.'' I 10; Livy ''Periochae'' XIV; Iordanes I 2, 14-15; 98-100</ref>
Every June 20, the day before the [[summer solstice]], round cakes called ''summanalia'', made of flour, milk, and honey and shaped as wheels,<ref>Festus p.557 L</ref> were offered to him as a token of propitiation: the wheel might be a solar symbol. Summanus also received a sacrifice of two black oxen or wethers. Dark [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#victima|animals]] were typically offered to [[chthonic]] deities.<ref>[[John Scheid]], "Sacrifices for Gods and Ancestors", in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'' (Blackwell, 2007), p. 264; Raffaele Pettazzoni, "The Wheel in the Ritual Symbolism of Some Indo-European Peoples," in ''Essays on the History of Religions'' (Brill, 1967), p. 107.</ref>
[[File:Comic History of Rome p 145 Discovery of the Head of Summanus.jpg|thumb|"Discovery of the Head of Summanus" ([[John Leech (caricaturist)|John Leech]])]]
[[Augustine of Hippo|Saint Augustine]] records that in earlier times Summanus had been more exalted than Jupiter, but with the construction of a temple that was more magnificent than that of Summanus, Jupiter became more honored.<ref>Augustine, ''City of God'' IV 23</ref>

Cicero recounts that the clay statue of the god which stood on the roof of the [[Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus]] was struck by a lightning bolt: its head was nowhere to be seen. The [[haruspice]]s announced that it had been hurled into the [[Tiber River]], where indeed it was found on the very spot indicated by them.<ref>Cicero ''De Divinatione'' I 10</ref>

The temple of Summanus itself was struck by lightning in 197 BCE.<ref>Livy ''AUC'' XXXII 29, 1</ref>