As the Lares were the departed spirits of the ancestors of each family
who watched over their descendants, so the Penates were the gods
selected by each family as its special protectors. And as there were
the Lares of the city, so there were the Penates, whose chapel was
termed Ædes Deum Penatium, and the gods were called Penates Populi
Romani. These Penates were supposed to have been the gods brought from
Troy by Æneas.
We learn from the "Monumentum Ancyranum," that Augustus rebuilt the
Ædem Deum Penatium in Velia; and Solinus (i.) tells us that Tullus
Hostilius lived on the Velia, where afterwards was the Chapel of the
Penates. Dionysius thus describes it:--"For the things which I myself
know, by having seen them, and concerning which no scruple forbids me
to write, are as follows. They show you a temple at Rome, not far from
the Forum, in the street that leads the nearest way to the Carinæ,
which is small, and darkened by the height of the adjacent buildings.
This place is called by the Romans, in their own language, _Veliæ_; in
this temple are the images of the Trojan gods exposed to public view,
with this inscription, ΔΕΜΑΣ , which signifies Penates. For, in my
opinion, the letter Θ not being yet found out, the ancients expressed
its power by the letter Δ. These are two youths, in a sitting posture,
each of them holding a spear; they are pieces of ancient workmanship"
(Dionysius, i. 68).