Consentes Dii

The name which the Romans gave to the twelve superior deities, or Dii Maiorum Gentium. The best derivation of the name is that which traces it to the participle of the obsolete verb conso, “to advise” or “counsel,” the Dii Consentes (quasi Consentientes) being they who formed the council of the sky. Ennius has given their names in the two following lines: Iuno, Vesta, Ceres, Diana, Minerva, Venus, Mars, Mercurius, Iovi', Neptunus, Vulcanus, Apollo.

The conception is, however, originally Etruscan (Müller, Etrusk. ii. p. 81 foll.). The Romans also called them Dii Complices. See Arnob. iii. 123; and Corssen, Nachricht. 281.