A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Smith, William

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890

or LOQUENS, a Roman divinity. In the year B. C. 389, a short time before the invasion of the Gauls, a voice was heard at Rome in the Via nova, during the silence of night, announcing that the Gauls were approaching. (Liv. 5.32.) No attention was at the time paid to the warning, but after the Gauls had withdrawn from the city, the Romans remembered the prophetic voice, and atoned for their neglect by erecting on the spot in the Via nova, where the voice had been heard, a templum, that is, an altar with a sacred enclosure around it, to Aius Locutius, or the " Announcing Speaker." (Liv. 5.50; Varro, apud Gell. 16.17; Cic. de Divinai. 1.45, 2.32.)

[L.S]