Bident Jupiter (also known as Jove, Etruscan Tinia), the trident or bident thus represents a forked lightning bolt. In ancient Italy, thunder and lightning were read as signs of divine will, wielded by the sky god Jupiter in three forms or degrees of severity (see "manubia"). The Romans drew on Etruscan traditions for the interpretation of these signs. A tile found at Urbs Salvia in Picenum depicts an unusual composite Jove, "fairly bristling with weapons": a lightning bolt, a bident, and a trident, uniting the realms of sky, earth, and sea, and representing the three degrees of ominous lightning (see also
Homosexuality in ancient Rome discreet or more open: male concubines sometimes attended dinner parties with the man whose companion they were. Martial even suggests that a prized "concubinus" might pass from father to son as an especially coveted inheritance. A military officer on campaign might be accompanied by a "concubinus". Like the catamite or "puer delicatus", the role of the concubine was regularly compared to that of Ganymede, the Trojan prince abducted by Jove (Greek Zeus) to serve as his cupbearer. The "concubina", a female concubine who might be free, held a protected legal status under Roman law, but the "concubinus" did not, since