the drawing of a templum (sacred space) for the practice of augury. Mithraic syncretism The name Caelus occurs in dedicatory inscriptions in connection to the cult of Mithras. The Mithraic Caelus is sometimes depicted allegorically as an eagle bending over the sphere of heaven marked with symbols of the planets or the zodiac. In a Mithraic context he is associated with Cautes and can appear as Caelus Aeternus ("Eternal Sky"). A form of Ahura-Mazda is invoked in Latin as Caelus Aeternus Iupiter. The walls of some mithrea feature allegorical depictions of the cosmos with Oceanus and Caelus. The mithraeum of Dieburg represents the tripartite world with Caelus, Oceanus, and Tellus below Phaeton-Heliodromus. Jewish syncretism Some Roman writers used Caelus or Caelum as a way to express the monotheistic god of Judaism (Yahweh). Juvenal identifies the Jewish God with Caelus as the highest heaven (summum caelum), saying that Jews worship the numen of Caelus; Petronius uses similar language. Florus has a passage describing the Holy of Holies in the Temple of Jerusalem as housing a "sky" (caelum) under a golden vine. A golden vine, perhaps the one mentioned, was sent by the Hasmonean king Aristobulus to Pompeius Magnus after his defeat of Jerusalem, and was later displayed in the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. References Bibliography Roman gods Sky and weather gods Arts gods