Romans attributed lightning to divine intervention

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A Roman marble slab unearthed in Hadrian’s Villa suggests Romans revered lightening strikes, attributing them to divine intervention.

 

 

Archaeologists working at Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli uncovered a marble slab still buried in its original ancient position, engraved with the Latin phrase FVLGVR SVBMANIVM. This inscription refers to Summano, the Roman god associated with nocturnal lightning.

The slab marks the exact spot where lightning struck, and its deliberate burial reflects a Roman ritual known as fulgur conditum, in which materials hit by lightning were collected and interred to sacralize the site.
 

Researchers say that the find was important because it provides physical evidence of Roman religious practice, showing how Romans believed lightning represented the intervention of a deity and turned the struck location into divine space. 
 

Roman sources distinguished daytime lightning (attributed to Jupiter) from nighttime lightning (attributed to Summano), and the slab’s inscription confirms the strike occurred at night. 
 

https://www.discovermagazine.com/a-marble-slab-at-hadrian-s-villa-records-a-lightning-strike-romans-believed-came-from-a-god-49659