Continuing our investigations into the theological choices made by the authorities of the Augustan Colony of the Trevires, we have analyzed a number of divine figures attested to by inscriptions in the Altbachtal "cult park" in Trier: Mercury, who has an aedicula near one of the entrances to this group of places of worship, and whom one inscription describes as "the Mercury of peregrines", i.e. of those who are passing through, rather than of the city's citizens. This designation reflects a reflection on Mercury's function as patron of passage and displacement. Another deity, Pisinthus, undeniably local, is interpreted as "Vertumnus". More precisely, the god is called Vertumnus siue Pisinthus. This siue is significant. Vertumnus was the god of metamorphosis, he was metamorphosis. And so siue corresponds to his way of being and appearing. Vertumne was a rare divinity, best known to Propertius and Ovid. The Trevire who wrote the text of this dedication was therefore well aware of the theology of the city of Rome, and no doubt of the literary texts that disseminated it.
The same type of source is undoubtedly behind a defixion tablet from Cambodunum (Kempten) in Rhetia, which addresses the Mutae Tacitae, asking them to silence a certain Quartus and lead her to the gates of Hell. This is the rite to Muta Tacita (a singular in the poet's work) that Ovid reports in the Fastes for the day after the Parentalia, and also the etiological myth that comments on the rite. So, once again, the ritual and theological culture of the provincial populations is attested by a modest curse slat.
