Aius Locutius

Aius Locutius (Latin: āius locūtius, spoken affirmation), or Aius Loquens (Latin: āius loquens, speaking affirmation), was a Roman deity or numen associated with the Gallic invasions of Rome during the early 4th century BC.

According to legend, a Roman plebeian named M. Caedicius heard a supernatural, nocturnal voice that issued from Vesta's sacred grove,[1] at the base of the Palatine hill.

Officially, the gods might speak through the cryptic writings and utterances of specialised oracles, or through a complex system of signs in answer to the specific questions of State augurs.

Aius Locutius gave clear, urgent instructions of great importance to the State, in a voice "clearer than human", but in everyday Latin, to an ordinary plebeian passer-by.

Beard (2012) places Aius Locutius at the "extraordinary limit" of such sounds, for the unequivocal clarity of the warning, and the consequences of its rejection by Roman authorities; a god "defined by his voice alone".