Visidianus
Umbrian · deity · Roman era Umbria; 1st 3rd c. CE · Recorded classification
Visidianus is the god of Narnia, modern Narni in southern Umbria, and like Valentia of Ocriculum he survives in one sentence of Tertullian's Apologeticum, written in 197 CE from a lost work of Varro. Tertullian's argument is that each Italian community had long kept gods of its own by municipal consecration, and he runs through the towns and their deities: Narnia's is Visidianus. No temple, festival, image, genealogy or healing power is attested for him, and the census disposition for this candidate was explicit that none should be supplied. The entry is correspondingly bare — a named local god of a named town, and nothing more.
Domains
- tutelary protection
Sources
- Visidianus is the indigenous god of the Umbrian town of Narnia, named in Tertullian's list of deities held by municipal consecration.: Tertullian, Apologeticum 24.8. (primary); Standard discussion of Apologeticum 24 as a list drawn from a lost work of Varro, used to argue that every community should be free to keep its own gods. (secondary)