View source for Honos

{{Short description|Deity}}
[[File:Aureus-Honos.png|thumb|right|[[Aureus]] depicting Honos bearing an [[olive branch]] and a [[cornucopia]].]]
'''Honos''' ({{IPA|la|ˈhɔnoːs̠|lang}}) or '''Honor''' ({{IPA|la|ˈhɔnɔr|lang}}) was the [[Roman mythology|Roman]] [[God (male deity)|god]] personifying [[honor]].  He was closely associated with [[Virtus (deity)|Virtus]], the [[goddess]] of [[Virtus|manliness]], or bravery, and the two are frequently depicted together.  Honos is typically shown wearing a [[laurel wreath|chaplet of bay leaves]], while Virtus is identified by her helmet.<ref name="Harper's">[https://archive.org/stream/cu31924027019482#page/n861/mode/2up "Honor or Honos"], in ''Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities'', pp. 841, 842.</ref>

In 234 BC, [[Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus]] dedicated [[Temple of Honor and Virtue|a temple to Honos]] just outside the [[Porta Capena]], one of [[Ancient Rome|Rome's]] principal gates, following his victory over the [[Ligures]].<ref>Cicero, ''De Natura Deorum'', ii. 61.</ref><ref name="Platner Ashby HV">[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/Rome/_Texts/PLATOP*/Honos_et_Virtus.html Samuel Ball Platner & Thomas Ashby, "Honos et Virtus, Aedes"], in ''A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome''.</ref>  Twelve years later, after [[Marcus Claudius Marcellus]] defeated and slew the [[Insubres|Gallic]] king, [[Viridomarus]], at the [[Battle of Clastidium]], to win the ''[[spolia opima]]'', he vowed a temple to Honos and Virtus.<ref>Livy, ''History of Rome'', xxvii. 25, xxix. 11.</ref>  He renewed this vow after [[Siege of Syracuse (213–212 BC)|capturing Syracuse]] in 212 BC, during the [[Second Punic War]], and while [[Roman consul|consul]] in 208 he attempted to fulfill it by rededicating the existing temple in the name of both gods.  The [[College of Pontiffs]] refused to allow this, so Marcellus restored the temple of Honos, and built a second, adjoining shrine to Virtus, making a double temple.<ref>Livy, ''History of Rome'', xxvii. 25.</ref><ref name="Plutarch Marcellus 28">Plutarch, "The Life of Marcellus", 28.</ref><ref>Symmachus, ''Epistulae'', i. 20.</ref>  Marcellus was slain in an ambush near [[Venosa|Venusia]] later that year, so the temple was dedicated by [[Marcus Claudius Marcellus (consul 196 BC)|his son]] in 205.<ref>Livy, ''History of Rome'', xxv. 40, xxvii. 27, xxix. 11.</ref> It was richly adorned with treasures that Marcellus had brought from Syracuse, although many of these disappeared over the next two centuries.<ref>Livy, ''History of Rome'', xxv. 40.</ref><ref>Cicero, ''De Republica'', i. 21, ''In Verrem'', iv. 121.</ref><ref>Valerius Maximus, i. 1. § 8.</ref><ref name="Plutarch Marcellus 28"/>  The temple was restored by [[Vespasian]], and was still standing in the fourth century AD.<ref>Pliny, ''Historia Naturalis'', xxxv. 120.</ref><ref name="Platner Ashby HV"/>

Another temple to Honos and Virtus was built by [[Gaius Marius]] during his fifth consulship in 101 BC, using the spoils he had captured from the [[Cimbri]] and the [[Teutons|Teutones]].<ref name="Platner Ashby HV"/>  The shrine was probably built on the slopes of the [[Capitoline Hill]], and [[Vitruvius]] praises the work of its architect, Gaius Mucius.<ref>Vitruvius, ''De Architectura'', vii. ''praef.'' 17, iii. 2. § 5.</ref>  It was here that the [[Roman Senate]] voted to recall [[Cicero]] from exile in 57 BC.<ref>Cicero, ''Pro Sestio'', 116, ''Pro Plancio'', 78, ''De Divinatione'', i. 59.</ref><ref name="Platner Ashby HV"/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* [[Cicero|Marcus Tullius Cicero]], ''[[De Divinatione]]'' (On Divination), ''[[De Natura Deorum]]'' (On the Nature of the Gods), ''[[De re publica|De Republica]]'' (On the Republic), ''[[In Verrem]]'', ''Pro Sestio'', ''[[Pro Plancio]]''.
* [[Vitruvius|Marcus Vitruvius Pollio]], ''[[De architectura|De Architectura]]'' (On Architecture).
* Titus Livius ([[Livy]]), ''[[Ab Urbe Condita Libri (Livy)|History of Rome]]''.
* [[Valerius Maximus]], ''Factorum ac Dictorum Memorabilium'' (Memorable Facts and Sayings).
* Gaius Plinius Secundus ([[Pliny the Elder]]), ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Historia Naturalis]]'' (Natural History).
* Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus ([[Plutarch]]), ''[[Parallel Lives|Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans]]''.
* [[Quintus Aurelius Symmachus]], ''Epistulae'' (Letters).
* ''[[Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities|Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities]]'', [[Harry Thurston Peck]], ed. (Second Edition, 1897).
* [[Samuel Ball Platner]] & [[Thomas Ashby (archaeologist)|Thomas Ashby]], ''[[A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome]]'', Oxford University Press (1929).

{{Roman religion}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Justice gods]]
[[Category:Roman gods]]
[[Category:War gods]]
[[Category:Personifications in Roman mythology]]