A temple is built on the Capitoline Hill dedicated to Venus Erycina to commemorate the Roman defeat at Lake Trasimene.
The Battle of Lake Trasimene was fought when a Carthaginian force under Hannibal ambushed a Roman army commanded by Gaius Flaminius on 21 June 217 BC, during the Second Punic War. It took place on the north shore of Lake Trasimene, to the east of Cortona, and resulted in a heavy defeat for the Romans.
Following the end of the First Punic War in 241 BC, in 219 BC Hannibal, ruler of the Carthaginian territories in south-east Iberia, besieged, captured and sacked the Roman protected town of Saguntum. The following spring Rome issued a declaration of war and Hannibal left Iberia, crossed the Alps, and arrived in Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy) in autumn 218 BC. The Romans rushed reinforcements north from Sicily but were defeated at the Battle of the Trebia.
Next spring the Romans positioned two armies, one on each side of the Apennines, but were surprised when the Carthaginians crossed the mountains by a difficult but unguarded route. The Carthaginians moved south into Etruria, plundering, razing the villages and killing all adult males encountered. Flaminius, in charge of the nearest Roman army, set off in pursuit. Hannibal arranged an ambush on the north shore of Lake Trasimene and trapped the Romans, killing or capturing all 25,000 of them. Several days later the Carthaginians wiped out the entire cavalry of the other Roman army, who were not yet aware of the disaster. This ambush and destruction of an entire army by another is widely considered a unique occurrence. The Carthaginians continued their march through Etruria, then crossed to Umbria and marched south into Apulia, in the hope of winning over some of the ethnic Greek and Italic city states of southern Italy.
News of the defeat caused a panic in Rome and led to the election of Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus as dictator, but, impatient with his "Fabian strategy" of avoiding pitched conflict and relying instead on guerrilla tactics, the next year the Romans elected Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro as consuls. These more aggressive commanders engaged Hannibal at the Battle of Cannae in 216 BCE, a third disaster for Rome that was followed by thirteen more years of war.
The Temple of Venus Erycina (Latin: Aedes Veneris Erycinae) was a temple on the Capitoline Hill in Ancient Rome dedicated to Venus Erycina. This was an aspect of the goddess Venus. Later this temple was probably called the Temple of the Capitoline Venus (Aedes Veneris Capitolinae). There was another temple with the same name in Rome, the Temple of Venus Erycina (Quirinal Hill).