Rome, when translations of Greek literary works began to attain popularity. Augustus chose him as the divine patron of his régime and dedicated to him a beautiful temple on the Palatine.
Aesculapius.—The outbreak of a pestilence at Rome In 292 B.C. turned the Romans to a consultation of the Sibylline books, where they discovered directions enjoining them to send a deputation of citizens to the healing shrine of Askleplos at Epidauros, the envoys bringing back a serpent as a living symbol of the god, and at the same time Instructions for establishing the new worship. It happened that when their ship reached the city, the serpent leaped overboard and swam to the Island In the Tiber, where the new shrine was built, the god's name being given the Latin form of Aesculapius. When Salus, originally an abstract divinity of well-being In general, became recognized as the same as Hyglela ("Health"), the matter-of-fact Roman mind made her the official consort of the new god of healing.
Mercurius.—In the early fifth century, on the occasion of a failure of crops which necessitated the Importation of foreign food-stuffs, the Romans borrowed one phase of the character of Hermes, and, exalting It to the dignity of godhead, used It to protect the maritime routes which the grain ships must follow. Naturally, this phase was the favour which Hermes accorded to trade and traders, and Mercurius, the name of the new god, connected as It is with the Latin words merces ("merchandise") and mercator ("tradesman"), served as a permanent register of his function. While Mercurius always took the place of Hermes in the Romanized Greek legends, his character in cult remained unaltered through the centuries. In art he was generally distinguished by the chief symbols of Hermes—the caduceus, the pouch, and the winged hat.
Castor and Pollux.—The worship of Kastor and Polydeukes, as Castor and Pollux, came to Italy at so early a date that when the Romans accepted it, apparently from Tusculum, they
