Fisus Sancius

Fisus Sancius is the second god of the inner triad of Iguvium, receiving three suckling pigs behind the Tesenacan Gate together with mead, a mefa cake and a libation poured by the kneeling officiant. His name ties him to the Fisian Mount, the sacred height for whose safety the whole lustration is performed, and the epithet Sancius places him with the Italic gods of sanction and sworn faith. He is the only member of the inner triad whose cult is corroborated beyond Iguvium, which is why the comparison with Semo Sancus and Dius Fidius is regularly made; the registry records that comparison without collapsing the figures into one.

Variant accounts

• Fisus Sancius is comparable to Sabine Semo Sancus and Roman Dius Fidius.The element Sancius is repeatedly compared with Sabine Semo Sancus and with Roman Dius Fidius, the aspect of Jupiter concerned with sworn good faith; of the three inner-gate gods this is the one whose existence is corroborated outside Iguvium, at Rome and elsewhere in Italy. The comparison is recorded here as a comparison. No Semo Sancus figure is merged with this record, and the registry's practice of keeping Umbrian, Roman and Etruscan counterparts as separate entries is followed.'Iguvine Tablets', encyclopedic summary: of the inner triad only Fisus Sancius is known with any certainty from attestations elsewhere in Italy, where he appears as Semo Sancus Dius Fidius. (secondary)
• Fisus and Fisovius are one god under two name-forms.The tablets use both Fiso Sansie and Fisouie Sansie. The census consolidated them into a single record while acknowledging that the interpretive distinction between the forms is discussed in the philological literature; that consolidation is carried into the corpus here.Reference summary of the Tablets: 'Fisovius Sancius and Fisus Sancius are the same god'. (secondary)

Domains

• civic lustration
• protection

Powers

• to receive the suckling pigs, the mefa cake and the libation offered within the Tesenacan Gate

Epithets

• SansieIguvine Tablets, Tabula Ia 15-19 (Fiso Sansie, dative). (primary)
• FisoviusReference summary of the Tablets: 'Fisovius Sancius and Fisus Sancius are the same god'. (secondary)

Relations

• ally: Trebus JoviusCo-invoked with Trebus Jovius, who opens the inner-gate series at the Trebulan Gate.Iguvine Tablets, Tabula Ia 8-19; VIb 3-18 — consecutive recipients of the three inner-gate sacrifices in one liturgical sequence. (primary)
• ally: Tefer JoviusCo-invoked with Tefer Jovius, who completes the inner-gate series at the Veian Gate.Iguvine Tablets, Tabula Ia 15-34; VIb 3-42 — the following recipient in the same sequence. (primary)

Sources

• Fisus Sancius (also Fisovius Sancius, Umbrian Fiso Sansie) receives three suckling pigs, mead, a mefa cake and a kneeling libation behind the Tesenacan Gate of Iguvium, for the Fisian Mount and the state of Iguvium; the two name-forms denote one god.: Iguvine Tablets, Tabula Ia 15-19; VIb 3-18. (primary); J. W. Poultney, The Bronze Tables of Iguvium (American Philological Association, 1959) — the English translation from which these tablet references were recorded; see data-sources/audits/lane-1/umbrian-census.tsv. (secondary); Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. 'tabulae Iguvinae'. (secondary)