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Religion in ancient Rome
Marcus Aurelius (head covered) sacrificing at the Temple of Jupiter
Practices and beliefs
libation votum temples festivals ludi funerary practices cult (imperial) mystery religions
Priesthoods
Pontifices Augures Vestales Flamines Fetiales Epulones Fratres Arvales
Deities
Dii Consentes Capitoline Triad Aventine Triad Indigitamenta underworld gods agricultural gods childhood gods divine emperors
Related topics
Glossary of ancient Roman religion Roman mythology Ancient Greek religion Etruscan religion Gallo-Roman religion Interpretatio Graeca Decline
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TheDii Consentes, also known asDi orDei Consentes (onceDii Complices^[1]), orThe Harmonious Gods, is an ancient list of twelve major deities,six gods and six goddesses, in thepantheon of Ancient Rome. Their gilt statues stood in theRoman Forum, and later apparently in thePorticus Deorum Consentium.^[2]

The gods were listed by the poetEnnius in the late 3rd century BCE in a paraphrase of an unknown Greek poet:^[3]

Juno,Vesta,Minerva,Ceres,Diana,Venus
Mars,Mercurius,Iovis,Neptunus,Vulcanus,Apollo

Livy^[4] arranges them in six male-female pairs: Jupiter-Juno, Neptune-Minerva, Mars-Venus, Apollo-Diana, Vulcan-Vesta and Mercury-Ceres. Three of theDii Consentes formed theCapitoline Triad: Jupiter, Juno and Minerva.

The grouping of twelve deities has origins older than theGreek or Roman sources.

The Greek grouping may haveHittite origins viaLycia, inAnatolia. A group of twelveHittite gods is known both fromcuneiform texts and from artistic representation. All the Hittite Twelve are male, with no individualizing features. TheRoman Empire period group is a possible reflex of the Lycians' twelve gods: By 400 BCE, a precinct dedicated to twelve gods existed at the marketplace inXanthos, Lycia.^{[5]: 144–186}

Herodotus mentions a group of twelve gods in Egypt, but this cannot be confirmed in anyEgyptian sources.^{[citation needed]}

The Greek cult of theTwelve Olympians can be traced to 6th century BCEAthens and has no apparent precedent in theMycenaean period. The altar to the Twelve Olympians at Athens is usually dated to thearchonship of theyounger Pesistratos, in 522–521 BCE. By the 5th century BCE, there are well-attestedcults of the Twelve Olympians inOlympia and at theHieron on theBosphorus.^{[5]: 144–186}

The references to twelveEtruscan deities come from later Roman authors, writing long afterthe influence of the Greek pantheon had become dominant, and must be regarded with skepticism.Arnobius states that theEtruscans had a set of six male and six female deities which they calledconsentes andcomplices because they rose and set together, implying anastronomical significance, and that these twelve acted as councillors of Jupiter.^[5]: 232

Scholarly evaluation of this account depends on the hypothesis that the Etruscans originally immigrated toItaly fromAnatolia. In this case, the Etruscan Twelve might have been cognate to the Hittite Twelve. However, Etruscan artifacts show extensive use of Etruscan translations of Greek mythology; it is just as likely that both the Etruscan Twelve and the Roman Twelve were simply adaptations of the Greek Twelve.^[5]: 232

In the Japanese mangaFuture Diary bySakae Esuno, each Future Diary Holder is named after one of the Dii Consentes.^[6]

• Di indigetes
• Interpretatio graeca § Greco-Roman equivalents
• Proto-Indo-European mythology
• Twelve Olympians, the equivalent grouping of the Greek pantheon

• Dii Consentes
• Roman deities
• Cultural lists
• 12 (number)

• CS1 Japanese-language sources (ja)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles containing Latin-language text
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from January 2024