ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

, Appias was a statue of a nymph near the Appiades Fountain in the

Forum of Caesar The Forum of Caesar, also known by the Latin Forum Iulium or Forum Julium, Forum Caesaris,Hornblower, Simon and Antony Spawforth. ''The Oxford Classical Dictionary''. 3d Ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. was a forum built by Julius Caes ...

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

wrote that the fountain was in the middle of the

Temple of Venus Genetrix The Temple of Venus Genetrix () is a ruined temple in the Forum of Caesar, Rome, dedicated to the Roman goddess '' Venus Genetrix'', the founding goddess of the Julian gens. It was dedicated to the goddess on 26 September 46 BCE by Julius Caes ...

and surrounded by statues of nymphs who were called "The Appiades" (; plural form of Appias). Traditionally the Appiades are said to be of Concordia,

Minerva Minerva (; ; ) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. She is also a goddess of warfare, though with a focus on strategic warfare, rather than the violence of gods such as Mars. Be ...

, Pax,

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

, and Vesta. In

Roman mythology Roman mythology is the body of myths of ancient Rome as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans, and is a form of Roman folklore. "Roman mythology" may also refer to the modern study of these representations, and to th ...

, Appias was a

naiad In Greek mythology, the naiads (; ), sometimes also hydriads, are a type of female spirit, or nymph, presiding over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of fresh water. They are distinct from river gods, who embodied ...

who lived in the Appian Well outside the temple to

Venus Genitrix The Venus Genetrix (also spelled ) is a sculptural type which shows the Roman goddess Venus in her aspect of ''Genetrix'' ("foundress of the family"), as she was honoured by the Julio-Claudian dynasty of Rome, which claimed her as their ancest ...

in the

Roman Forum A forum (Latin: ''forum'', "public place outdoors", : ''fora''; English : either ''fora'' or ''forums'') was a public square in a municipium, or any civitas, of Ancient Rome reserved primarily for the vending of goods; i.e., a marketplace, alon ...

. In one of his letters,

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

, ''Ad familiares'', 3. 1

refers to a statue of Minerva as "Appias". In this case, he derived this surname from the name of Appius Claudius Pulcher, whom he intended to flatter.

References

Sources

* Characters in Roman mythology Naiads {{AncientRome-myth-stub