Editing Verminus

{{Short description|Roman god}}
In [[Roman mythology]], '''Verminus''' was the Roman god who protected cattle from disease. The god may have been inherited from the [[Indigetes]], whom the Romans conquered in 218&nbsp;BC during the [[Roman conquest of Hispania]].<ref name="spanisharts">{{cite web|url=http://www.spanisharts.com/arquitectura/i_roma.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070310062212/http://www.spanisharts.com/arquitectura/i_roma.html|url-status=usurped|archive-date=March 10, 2007|website=spanisharts.com|title=Roman Architecture in Hispania |access-date=2021-01-15}}</ref> An altar dedicated by consul (or duovir) [[Aulus Postumius Albinus (consul 151 BC)|Aulus Postumius Albinus]] in 151&nbsp;BC to Verminus was discovered in 1876,<ref>{{cite book |author1=Adkins, Roy |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofroma00adki |title=Dictionary of Roman religion |author2=Adkins, Lesley |publisher=Facts on File |year=1996 |isbn=0-8160-3005-7 |location=New York |quote= |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Elizabeth Rawson |author-link=Elizabeth Rawson |year=1973 |title=Scipio, Laelius, Furius and the Ancestral Religion |journal=The Journal of Roman Studies |volume=63 |pages=161–74 |doi=10.2307/299175 |jstor=299175 |quote=}}</ref> and was housed in the museum of the Antiquarium Comunale in Rome.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Frothingham  AL |year=1917 |title=Vediovis, the Volcanic God: A Reconstruction |journal=The American Journal of Philology |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=370–91 |doi=10.2307/288964 |issn=0002-9475 |jstor=288964 |quote=}}</ref>

A 2nd century inscription dedicated to the god has been considered to be a reaction to increased worm infections among humans. However, Spanish veterinary scientist M. Cordero del Campillo has concluded that it was due to an epidemic infectious disease affecting both humans and animals.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Cordero-del-Campillo M |title=On the Roman god Verminus |journal=Hist Med Vet |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=11–9 |year=1999 |pmid=11623710 }}</ref>

An altar to Verminus was discovered on [[Viminal Hill]] in Rome.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Jesse Benedict Carter |date=Jan–Mar 1909 |title=The Death of Romulus |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=19–29 |doi=10.2307/496877 |jstor=496877 |quote=}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Agricultural gods]]
[[Category:Animal gods]]
[[Category:Health gods]]
[[Category:Roman gods]]


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