Prayer to Diana

A verse inscription from Capua, from the sanctuary of Diana Tifatina — one of the oldest and richest in Campania; the temple on Mount Tifata stood there before Roman rule.

The dedicant does not hide himself: "a man known to all, and himself a worshipper of the woods". Self-praise in a votive inscription is ordinary enough, but here it is offered as an argument: I too am one of yours, I too am a man of the woods, and my gift is therefore fitting.

What he set up are miracula — wonders. The word is chosen for the passer-by: not "gifts" and not "statues" but something worth stopping to look at. The inscription is touting.

A note on the translation. Latona here, to judge from the masculine apposition cunctis notus homo, is the dedicant's own name, not the goddess. The card's English reads it as "Daughter of Latona" and attributes to Diana what is said of a man.