But there are two caves. The reason why there are two has never been shown, nor does Delbrueck have proof enough to settle which is the older cave.[[104]]
The cave to the west is made by Delbrueck the shrine of Iuppiter puer, and the temple with its cave at the east, the ædes Fortunæ. This he does on the authority of his understanding of the passage from Cicero which gives nearly all the written information we have on the subject of the temple.[[105]] Delbrueck bases his entire argument on this passage and two other references to a building called ædes.[[106]] Now it was Fortuna who was worshipped at Præneste, and not Jupiter. Although there is an intimate connection between Jupiter and Fortuna at Præneste, because she was thought of at different times as now the mother and now the daughter of Jupiter, still the weight of evidence will not allow any such importance to be attached to Iuppiter puer as Delbrueck wishes.[[107]]
The two caves were not made at the same time. This is proved by the fact that the basilica[[108]] is below and between them. Had there been two caves at the earliest time, with a common precinct as a connection between them, as there was later, there would have been power enough in the priesthood to keep the basilica from occupying the front of the place which would have been the natural spot for a temple or for the imposing facade of a portico. The western cave is the earlier, but it is the earlier not because it was a shrine of Iuppiter puer, but because the ancient road which came through the forum turned up to it, because it is the least symmetrical of the two caves, and because the temple faced it, and did not face the forum.
The various plans of the temple[[109]] have usually assumed like buildings in front of each cave, and a building, corresponding to the basilica, between them and forming an integral part of the plan. But the basilica does not quite align with the temple, and the road back of the basilica precludes any such idea, not to mention the fact that no building the size of a temple was in front of the west cave. It is the mania for making the temple cover too large a space, and the desire to show that all its parts were exactly balanced on either side, and that this triangular shaped sanctuary culminated in a round temple, this it is that has caused so much trouble with the topography of the city. The temple, as it really is, was larger perhaps than any other in Latium, and certainly as imposing.
Delbrueck did not see that there was a real communication between the caves along the so-called cryptoporticus. There is a window-like hole, now walled up, in the east cave at the top, and it opened out upon the second story of the cryptoporticus, as Marucchi saw.[[110]] So there was an unseen means of getting from one cave to the other. This probably proves that suppliants at one shrine went to the other and were there convinced of the power of the goddess by seeing the same priest or something which they themselves had offered at the first shrine. It certainly proves that both caves were connected with the rites having to do with the proper obtaining of lots from Fortuna, and that this communication between the caves was unknown to any but the temple servants.
There are some other inscriptions not noticed by Delbrueck which mention the ædes,[[111]] and bear on the question in hand. One inscription found in the Via delle Monache[[112]] shows that in connection with the sedes Fortunæ were a manceps and three cellarii. This is an inscription of the last of the second or the first of the third century A.D.,[[113]] when both lower and upper temples were in very great favor. It shows further that only the lower temple is meant, for the number is too small to be applicable to the great upper temple, and it also shows that ædes, means the temple building itself and not the whole precinct. There is also an inscription, now in the floor of the cathedral, that mentions ædes. Its provenience is noteworthy.[[114]] There were other buildings, however, belonging to the precinct of the lower temple, as is shown by the remains today.[[115]] That there was more than one sacred building is also shown by inscriptions which mention ædes sacræ,[[116]] though these may refer of course to the upper temple as well.
There are yet two inscriptions of importance, one of which mentions a porticus, the other an ædes et porticus.[[117]] The second of these inscriptions belongs to a time not much later than the founding of the colony. It tells that certain work was done by decree of the decuriones, and it can hardly refer to the ancient lower temple, but must mean either the upper one, or still another out on the new forum, for there is where the stone is reported to have been found. The first inscription records a work of some consequence done by a woman in remembrance of her husband.[[118]] There are no remains to show that the forum below the town had any temple of such consequence, so it seems best to refer both these inscriptions to the upper temple, which, as we know, was rich in marble.[[119]]
Now after having brought together all the usages of the word ædes in its application to the temple of Præneste, it seems that Delbrueck has very small foundation for his argument which assumes as settled the exact meaning and location of the ædes Fortunæ.
From the temple itself we turn now to a brief discussion of a space on the tufa wall which helps to face the cave on the west. This is a smoothed surface which shows a narrow cornice ledge above it, and a narrow base below. In it are a number of irregularly driven holes. Delbrueck calls it a votive niche,[[120]] and says that the "viele regellos verstreute Nagelloecher" are due to nails upon which votive offerings were suspended.
This seems quite impossible. The holes are much too irregular to have served such a purpose. The holes show positively that they were made by nails which held up a slab of some kind, perhaps of marble, on which were displayed the replies from the goddess[[121]] which were too long to be given by means of the lettered blocks (sortes). Most likely, however, it was a marble slab or bronze tablet which contained the lex templi, and was something like the tabula Veliterna.[[122]]