only quote two very vague and doubtful passages from late writers in
support of the view that the shields were symbols of the months; Lydus
4. 2. who says that the Salii sang in praise of Janus, κατὰ τὸν τῶν
Ἰταλικῶν μηνῶν ἀριθμόν; and Liber glossarum, Cod. Vat. Palat. 1773 f.
40 v.: Ancilia: scuta unius anni.
Footnote 97:
For the evidence on this point, and others connected with the Salii, I
must refer the reader to Mr. G. E. Marindin’s excellent article
‘Salii’ in the new edition of Smith’s _Dict. of Antiquities_, the most
complete and at the same time sensible account that has appeared in
recent years. (The article ‘Ancilia’ in the new edition of Pauly’s
_Real-Encycl._ is disappointing.) Dionysius, Varro, and Plutarch are
all at one about the shape of the shields, and Mr. Marindin is quite
right in insisting that Ovid does not contradict them. (See the
passages quoted in the article.) The coins of Licinius Stolo and of
Antoninus Pius (Cohen, _Méd. Cons._ plate xxiv. 9, 10, and _Méd. Imp._
ii, no. 467) give the same peculiar shape. The bronze of Domitian,
A.D. 88 (Cohen, _Méd. Imp._ i. plate xvii), and the coins of
Sanquinius, B.C. 16 (both issued in connexion with ludi saeculares),
on which are figures supposed to be Salii with round shields, have
certainly been misinterpreted (e. g. in Marq. 431). See note at end of
this work.
Footnote 98:
Jordan, in _Commentationes in hon. Momms._ p. 365. There could not b
_feriae_ on this day, as it was a _dies fastus_.
Footnote 99:
_Fast._ 3. 429 ‘Una nota est Marti Nonis; sacrata quod illis Templa
putant lucos Vediovis ante duos.’
Footnote 100:
Aust, _de Aedibus sacris_, p. 33.
Footnote 101:
Polyb. 21. 10 (13); Liv. 37. 33.
Footnote 102:
See his article in _Dict. Ant._ He further suggests that in
Philocalus’ note _ancilia_ is an adjective, and that _arma ancilia_
means the shields only, as the spears of Mars do not seem to have been
used by the Salii.
Footnote 103:
The day is of course not given in these almanacs; but the position is
between Isidis navigium (March 5) and Liberalia (March 17).
Footnote 104:
_de Feriis_, ix. foll. Cp. _C. I. L._ 311.
Footnote 105:
The usual sacrifice to Jupiter on the Ides is also mentioned by
Wissowa in this connexion; but I should hardly imagine that it would
have had a sufficiently popular character to cause any such alteration
as he is arguing for. But the first full moon of the year may have
become over-crowded with rites; and it was the day on which at one
time the consuls entered on office, B.C. 222 to 154 (Mommsen, _Chron._
102 and notes).
Footnote 106:
Wissowa takes both as lustrations of cavalry. Mommsen, _C. I. L._ 332,
disapproves of Wissowa’s reasoning about this day.
Footnote 107:
_C. I. L._ 311.
Footnote 108:
_C. I. L._ 254.
Footnote 109:
Cf. Usener’s article on Italian Myths in _Rhein. Mus._ vol. xxx—a most
interesting and suggestive piece of work, which, however, needs to be
read with a critical mind, and has been too uncritically used by later
writers, e. g. Roscher in his article on Mars. Frazer (_G. B._ ii.
208) adopts his conclusions about Mamurius, but, with his usual care,
points out some of the difficulties in a footnote.
Footnote 110:
Usener, p. 211.
Footnote 111:
Lydus, 3. 29 and 4. 36. The words are rather obscure, but the meaning
is fairly obvious. See Usener’s paraphrase, p. 210.
Footnote 112:
See above, p. 38.
Footnote 113:
Cp. what he says of the Salii singing of Janus κατὰ τὸν τῶν Ἰταλικῶν
μηνῶν ἀριθμόν (4. 2).
Footnote 114:
e. g. in Numa 13.
Footnote 115:
_Aen._ 7. 188. Thilo and Hagen seem to think that Servius wrote
_peltas_ (shields) on the evidence of one MS, wrongly, I think.
Footnote 116:
_Octavius_, 24. 3.
Footnote 117:
What is the meaning of _vetera_ here?
Footnote 118:
_Golden Bough_, ii. 208.
Footnote 119:
Mr. Frazer is careful to point out in a note that Lydus only mentions
the name Mamurius. But as we know that Mamurius was called Veturius in
the Salian hymn, and as Veturius may perhaps mean _old_, it is
inferred that the skin-clad man was ‘the old Mars.’ The argument is
shaky; its only strength lies in the Slavonic and other parallels.
Footnote 120:
Lydus is thought to have made a mistake in attributing it to the 15th
(Ides); if so, he may have confused other matters in this curious
note. But he is certainly explicit enough here (4. 36), and refers to
the usual sacrifice to Jupiter on the Ides, and to ‘public prayers for
the salubrity of the coming year,’ which we may be sure would be on
the Ides, and not on a day of even number. I do not feel at all sure
that Lydus was wrong as to the date, the more so as the Ides of May
(which month has a certain parallelism with March) is the date of
another curious ceremony of this primitive type, that of the _Argei_.
Footnote 121:
This was first noticed by Grimm (_Teutonic Mythology_, Eng. Trans.,
vol. ii. 764 foll.). Since then Mannhardt (_Baumkultus_, 410 foll.)
and Mr. Frazer (_G. B._ i. 257 foll. and 264 foll.) have worked it out
and explained it (see especially i. 275). It is generally believed
that Death, or whatever be the name applied to the human being or
figure expelled in these rites, signifies the extinct spirit of
vegetation of the past year. I agree with Mr. Frazer, as against
Usener and Roscher (_Lex._ s. v. Mars), that it is not any abstract
conception of the year, or at least was not such originally.
Footnote 122:
This fusion of two apparently different ideas in a single ceremony has
previously been explained by Mr. Frazer, pp. 205 foll. On p. 210 he
notices the curious and well-authenticated rite of driving out hunger
at Chaeronea (Plutarch, _Quaest. Conviv._ 6. 8), which would offer an
interesting parallel to the Roman, if we could but be sure of the
details of the latter. Another from Delphi (Plut. _Quaest. Graec._ 12,
mentioned by Usener, does not seem to me conclusive); but that of the
‘man in cowhide’ from the Highlands (_G. B._. ii. 145) is singularly
like the Roman rite as Lydus describes it, and took place on New
Year’s eve.
Footnote 123:
See above, p. 47.
Footnote 124:
I am the more disposed to suspect Lydus’ account, as in the same
sentence he mentions a sacrifice which is conducted by priests of the
Magna Mater Idaea: ἱεράτευον δὲ καὶ ταῦρον ἑξέτη ὑπὲρ τῶν ἐν τοῖς
ὄρεσιν ἀγρῶν ἡγουμένου τοῦ ἀρχιερέως καὶ τῶν κανηφόρων τῆς μητρόχου·
ἤγετο δὲ καὶ ἄνθρωπος κ.τ.λ. For the difficulties of this passage, and
suggested emendations, see Mommsen, _C. I. L_. 312, note on Id. Mart;
Marq. 394, note 5. What confusion of cults may not have taken place,
either in Lydus’ mind or in actual fact?
Footnote 125:
Both these notes are _additamenta_: Anna does not appear in the large
letters of the Numan calendar. We cannot, however, infer from this
that her festival was not an ancient one; for, as Wissowa points out,
the same is the case with the very primitive rite of the ‘October
horse’ (_de Feriis_, xii). The day is only marked EID in _Maff. Vat._,
the two calendars in which this part of the month is preserved; i. e.
the usual sacrifice to Jupiter on the Ides was indicated (cp. Lydus,
4. 36), and the Ides fixed for the 15th. The additional notes,
according to Wissowa, were for the use of the priests; but,
considering the popular character of the festival, I am inclined to
doubt this rule holding good in the present instance.
Footnote 126:
Ovid, _Fasti_, 3. 523 foll.
Footnote 127:
‘Via Flaminia ad lapidem primum’ (Vat.): this would be near the
present Porta del Popolo, and close to the river.
Footnote 128:
See Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, p. 240, for the jovial
character of some primitive forms of religion, and the absence of a
sense of sin.
Footnote 129:
Ov. l. c. 541 ‘Occurri nuper: visa est mihi digna relatu Pompa. Senem
potum pota trahebat anus.
Footnote 130:
_Sat._ 1. 12. 6. Cp. Lydus, _de Mens_. 4. 36.
Footnote 131:
_Annare perennare_ is to complete the circle of the year: cp. Suet.
_Vespas_. 5 ‘puella nata non _perennavit_.’ Anna Perenna herself is
probably a deity manufactured out of these words, and the idea they
conveyed (cf. Janus Patulcius and Clusius, Carmenta Prorsa Postverta);
not exactly a _deity of the year_, but one whom it would be desirable
to propitiate at the beginning of the year.
Footnote 132:
Ov. l. c. 545 foll. Sil. Ital. 8. 50 foll. Ovid also says that some
thought she was the moon, ‘quia mensibus impleat annum’ (3. 657): but
this notion has no value, except as indicating the belief that she
represented the circle of the year.
Footnote 133:
_Aeneas und die Penaten_, ii. 717 foll. The cautious Merkel long ago
repudiated such fancies; preface to Ovid’s _Fasti_, p. 177.
Footnote 134:
Liv. 1. 2. The Punic Anna is now thought to be a deity = Dido =
Elissa: see Rossbach in the new edition of Pauly’s _Encyl._ i. 2223.
Footnote 135:
Her grove was not even on the Tiber-bank, but somewhere between the
Via Flaminia and the Via Salaria, i.e. in the neighbourhood of the
Villa Borghese: as we see from the obscure lines of Martial, 4. 64. 17
(he is looking from the Janiculum):
Et quod virgineo cruore gaudet
Annae pomiferum nemus Perennae.
Illinc Flaminiae Salariaeque
Gestator patet essedo tacente, &c.
There is no explanation of _virgineo cruore_: but I would rather
retain it than adopt even H. A. J. Munro’s _virgine nequiore_. See
Friedländer, ad loc.
Footnote 136:
This seems to be Usener’s suggestion, p. 207.
Footnote 137:
_Fasti_, 3. 675.
Footnote 138:
No doubt this should be Nerio: see below on March 17.
Footnote 139:
There is some ground for believing that the two words implied two
deities on occasion or originally: Varro, _Sat. Menipp._ fr. 506 ‘Te
Anna ac Peranna’ (Riese, p. 219).
Footnote 140:
Wissowa (_de Feriis_ x) thinks Ovid’s tale mere _nugae_: but this
learned scholar never seems to be able to comprehend the significance
of folk-lore.
Footnote 141:
_Fasti_, 3 661 foll.
Footnote 142:
Varro (_L. L._ 6. 14) calls them ‘sacerdotes Liberi,’ by courtesy, we
may presume: and it is noticeable that Ovid describes this old Anna as
wearing a _mitra_, which, in Propert. v. (iv.) 2. 31, is
characteristic of Bacchus: ‘Cinge caput mitra: speciem furabor
Iacchi.’
Footnote 143:
Op. cit. 208.
Footnote 144:
See Pauly, _Encycl._ vol. i. 2223. This is Wissowa’s opinion.
Footnote 145:
See on Jan. 9.
Footnote 146:
Cic. _ad Fam._ 12. 25. 1; _Att._ 9. 9. 4; _Auct. Bell. Hisp._ 31.
Footnote 147:
Varro, _L. L._ 6. 14 ‘In libris Saliorum, quorum cognomen Agonensium,
forsitan his dies ideo appellatur potius Agonia.’ So Masurius Sabinus
(in Macrob. _Sat._ 1. 4. 15), ‘Liberalium dies a pontificibus agonium
Martiale appellatur.’
Footnote 148:
See above, p. 53, where I have expressed a doubt whether this custom
originally belonged to the Liberalia. It is alluded to in Ovid,
_Fasti_, 3. 725 foll., and Varro, _L. L._ 6. 14.
Footnote 149:
This is the view of Wissowa in _Myth. Lex._ s. v. Liber, 2022. Cp.
Aust, _Lex._ s. v. Iuppiter, 662.
Footnote 150:
It is only once attested of Roman worship, viz. in the calendar of the
Fratres Arvales (Sept. 1 ‘Iovi Libero, Iunoni Reginae in Aventino,’
_C. I. L._ i. 214); but is met with several times among the
Osco-Sabellian peoples.
Footnote 151:
So Hehn, _Kulturpflanzen_, &c., p. 70 foll. But Hehn is only thinking
of the later Liber, whom he considers an ‘emanation’ from Jupiter
Liber = Dionysus, introduced with the vine from Greece. See Aust,
_Lex._ s. v. Iuppiter, 662.
Footnote 152:
See on April 23.
Footnote 153:
Ovid, _Fasti_, 3. 771 foll.
Footnote 154:
Marq. _Privatleben_, i. 122 note 2.
Footnote 155:
Ovid, l. c., 783 foll.; Marq. l. c. and 123, 124. Military service
began anciently at seventeen (Tubero, ap. Gell. 10. 28): though even
praetextati sometimes served voluntarily (Marq. op. cit. 131). Even if
not called out at once, the boys would begin the practice of arms from
the assumption of the toga virilis.
Footnote 156:
Marq. op. cit. 124. Libero in Ca[pitolio], Farn. For Iuventas, Dion.
Hal. 3. 69, 4. 15.
Footnote 157:
This result is obtained by comparing Ovid, _Fasti_, 3. 791
Itur ad Argeos—qui sint, sua pagina dicet—
Hac, si commemini, praeteritaque die.
(where he refers to his description of the rite of May 15, and appears
to identify the _simulacra_ and _sacella_), with Gell. _N. A._ 10. 15,
who says that the Flaminica Dialis, ‘cum it ad Argeos’ was in mourning
dress: also with the fragments of the ‘Sacra Argeorum’ in Varro, _L.
L._ 5. 46-54. These have been shown by Jordan (_Topogr._ ii. 271
foll.) to be fragments of an itinerary, meant for the guidance of a
procession, an idea first suggested by O. Müller. The further
questions of the route taken, and the distribution of the sacella in
the four Servian regiones, are very difficult, and need not be
discussed here. See Mommsen, _Staatsrecht_, iii. 123 foll.
Footnote 158:
_L. L._ 5. 85 ‘Salii a salitando, quod facere in comitio in sacris
quotannis et solent et debent.’
Footnote 159:
i. p. 81 (Keil). Why the _Comitium_ was the scene does not appear.
Preller has suggested a reason (i. 364), which is by no means
convincing.
Footnote 160:
It was adopted by Usener (p. 222, note 6), but has obtained no further
support. For another curious etymology of the latter part of the word
_latrus_, which, however, does not assist us here, see Deecke,
_Falisker_, p. 90 (_Dies ater = dies alter = postridie_).
Footnote 161:
Wissowa, _de Feriis_, ix.
Footnote 162:
Mommsen, in _C. I. L._ 312.
Footnote 163:
Mommsen, _R. H._ i. 78, note 1.
Footnote 164:
Festus, 254 ‘Quinquatrus appellari quidam putant a numero dierum qui
fere his (? feriis iis) celebrantur: qui scilicet errant tam hercule
quam qui triduo Saturnalia, et totidem diebus Compitalia; nam omnibus
his singulis diebus fiunt sacra. Forma autem vocabuli eius exemplo
multorum populorum Italicorum enuntiata est, quod post diem quintum
Iduum est is dies festus, ut apud Tusculanos Triatrus,’ &c.
Footnote 165:
Wissowa, _op. cit._ viii. We find one in April, between the Fordicidia
(April 15) and Cerialia (April 19).
Footnote 166:
Ovid, _Fasti_, 3. 809 ‘Una dies media est, et fiunt sacra Minervae,’
&c.
Footnote 167:
Ovid, _Fasti_, 3. 835 foll.
Caelius ex alto qua mons descendit in aequum,
Hic ubi non plana est sed prope plana via,
Parva licet videas Captae delubra Minervae
Quae dea natali coepit habere suo.
As from the note in Praen. we learn that March 19 was also the
dedication-day of Minerva on the Aventine, there must either be a
confusion between the two, or both had the same foundation-day. About
the day of Minerva Capta there is no doubt; for that of Minerva on the
Aventine see Aust, _de Aedibus_, p. 42.
Footnote 168:
Preller, i. 342; Usener, _Rh. Mus._, xxx. 221; Roscher, _Myth. Lex._
s. v. Mars, 2410; _Lyd. de Mens._ 4. 42; Gell. 13. 23 (from _Gellii
Annales_) is the _locus classicus_ for Nerio.
Footnote 169:
Nerio gen. Nerienis (Gell. l. c., who compares Anio Anienis).
Footnote 170:
Ovid, _Fasti_, 3. 850: ‘_forti_ sacrificare deae,’ though clearly
meant to refer to Minerva, is thought to be a reminiscence of a
characteristic of Nerio (‘the strong one’), attached to her
supplanter.
Footnote 171:
Aul. Gell. l. c.
Footnote 172:
Usener, l. c., _passim_.
Footnote 173:
H. Jordan expressed a somewhat different view in his _Symbolae ad
hist. Ital. religionum alterae_, p. 9. He thinks that ‘volgari
opinione hominum feminini numinis cum masculo coniunctionem non
potuisse non pro coniugali aestimari.’ But this would seem to imply
that the _opinio volgaris_ was a mistaken one: and if so, how should
it have arisen but under Greek influence?
Footnote 174:
Mommsen, in a note on the Feriale Cumanum (Hermes, 17. 637), calls
them _weibliche Hilfsgöttinnen_; and this is not far removed from the
view I have expressed in the text. The other alternative, viz that we
have in these names traces of an old Italian anthropomorphic age, with
a mythology, is in my view inadmissible. I see in them survivals of a
mode of thought about the supernatural which might easily lend itself
to a foreign anthropomorphizing influence.
Footnote 175:
Ovid, _Fasti_, 3. 835 foll.
Footnote 176:
Wissowa in _Lex._ s. v. Minerva 2986: a model article, to which the
reader must be referred for further information about Minerva.
Footnote 177:
Lydus, 4. 42, adds ‘Nerine,’ and further tells us that this was the
last day on which the _ancilia_ were ‘moved’ (κίνησις τῶν ὅπλων). The
Salii were also active on the 24th (Fest. 278).
Footnote 178:
The note is thus completed by Mommsen from Varro, _L. L._ 6. 31 ‘Dies
qui vocatur sic, Quando Rex Comitiavit Fas, is dictus ab eo quod eo
die rex sacrificulus itat [we should probably read _litat_] ad
comitium, ad quod tempus est nefas, ab eo fas’ (see Marq. 323, note
8). The MS. has ‘_dicat_ ad comitium.’ If we adopt _litat_ with
Hirschfeld and Jordan, we are not on that account committed to the
belief corrected in Praen., that it was on this day and May 24 that
the Rex fled after sacrificing in _comitio_ (see Hartmann, _Röm. Kal._
162 foll.). The question will be discussed under Feb. 24.
Footnote 179:
_Röm. Chronol._ p. 241; _Staatsrecht_, iii. 375.
Footnote 180:
Gaius, 2. 101 ‘Comitia calata quae bis in anno testamentis faciendis
destinata erant.’ Cp. Maine, _Ancient Law_, 199.
Footnote 181:
It may have been of Etruscan origin: Müller-Deecke, _Etrusker_, ii.
206. A special kind of _tuba_ seems to have been used at funerals:
Gell. _N. A._ 20. 2; Marq. _Privatleben_, i. 341.
Footnote 182:
For the military use, Liv. ii. 64. They were also used in _sacris
Saliaribus_ Paul. 19, s. v. Armilustrium. Wissowa (_de Feriis_ xv)
mentions a relief in which the Salii are preceded by _tubicines
laureati_ (published in St. Petersburgh by E. Schulze, 1873).
Footnote 183:
_C. I. L._ 313. He is of opinion that the note was among those ‘non
tam a Verrio scriptas quam male ex scriptis eius excerptas.’
Footnote 184:
_de Div._ i. 17. 30.
Footnote 185:
Varro, _L. L._ 5. 91.
MENSIS APRILIS.
There can hardly be a doubt that this month takes its name, not from a
deity, but from the verb _aperio_; the etymology is as old as Varro and
Verrius, and seems perfectly natural[186]. The year was opening and the
young corn and the young cattle were growing. It was therefore a
critical time for crops and herds; but there was not much to be done by
man to secure their safety. The crops might be hoed and cleaned[187],
but must for the most part be left to the protection of the gods. The
oldest festivals of the month, the Robigalia and Fordicidia, clearly had
this object. So also with the cattle; _oves lustrantur_, say the rustic
calendars[188]; and such a _lustratio_ of the cattle of the ancient
Romans survived in the ceremonies of the Parilia.
Thus, if we keep clear of fanciful notions, such as those of
Huschke[189], about these early months of the year, which he seems to
imagine was thought of as growing like an organic creature, we need find
no great difficulty in April. We need not conclude too hastily that this
was a month of purification preliminary to May, as February was to
March. Like February, indeed, it has a large number of _dies
nefasti_[190], and its festivals are of a cathartic character, while
March and May have some points in common; but beyond this we cannot
safely venture. The later Romans would hardly have connected April with
Venus[191], had it been a sinister month; it was not in April, but in
March and May, that weddings were ill-omened.
We may note the prevalence in this month of female deities, or of those
which fluctuate between male and female—a sure sign of antiquity. These
are deities of the earth, or vegetation, or generation, such as Tellus,
Pales, Ceres, Flora, and perhaps also Fortuna. Hence the month became
easily associated in later times with Venus, who was originally,
perhaps, a garden deity[192], but was overlaid in course of time with
ideas brought from Sicily and Greece, and possibly even from Cyprus and
the East. Lastly, we may note that the Magna Mater Idaea found a
suitable position for her worship in this month towards the end of the
third century B.C.
KAL. APR. (APRIL 1). F.
VENERALIA: LUDI. (PHILOC.)
Note in Praen.: ‘FREQUENTER MULIERES SUPPLICANT FORTUNAE VIRILI,
HUMILIORES ETIAM IN BALINEIS, QUOD IN IIS EA PARTE CORPOR[IS] UTIQUE
VIRI NUDANTUR, QUA FEMINARUM GRATIA DESIDERATUR.’
Lydus[193] seems to have been acquainted with this note of Verrius in
the Fasti of Praeneste; if so, we may guess that some words have been
omitted by the man who cut the inscription, and we should insert with
Mommsen[194], after ‘supplicant,’ the words ‘honestiores Veneri
Verticordiae.’ If we compare the passage of Lydus with the name
Veneralia given to this day in the calendar of Philocalus, we may guess
that the cult of Venus on April 1 came into fashion in late times among
ladies of rank, while an old and gross custom was kept up by the
humiliores in honour of Fortuna Virilis[195]. This seems to be the most
obvious explanation of the concurrence of the two goddesses on the same
day; they were probably identified or amalgamated under the Empire, for
example by Lydus, who does not mention Fortuna by name, and seems to
confuse her worship on this day with that of Venus. But the two are
still distinct in Ovid, though he seems to show some tendency to
amalgamation[196].
Fortuna Virilis, thus worshipped by the women when bathing, would seem
from Ovid to have been that Fortuna who gave women good luck in their
relations with men[197]. The custom of bathing in the men’s baths may
probably be taken as some kind of lustration, more especially as the
women were adorned with myrtle, which had purifying virtues[198]. How
old this curious custom was we cannot guess. Plutarch[199] mentions a
temple of this Fortuna dedicated by Servius Tullius; but there was a
strong tendency, as we shall see later on, to attribute all
Fortuna-cults to this king.
The Venus who eventually supplanted Fortuna is clearly Venus
Verticordia[200], whose earliest temple was founded in 114 B.C., in
obedience to an injunction of the Sibylline books, after the discovery
of incest on the part of three vestal virgins, ‘quo facilius virginum
mulierumque mens a libidine ad pudicitiam converteretur[201].’ Macrobius
insists that Venus had originally no share in the worship of this day or
month[202]; she must therefore have been introduced into it as a
foreigner. Robertson Smith[203] has shown some ground for the conjecture
that she was the Cyprian Aphrodite (herself identical with the Semitic
Astarte), who came to Rome by way of Sicily and Latium. For if Lydus can
be trusted, the Roman ceremony of April 1 was found also in Cyprus, on
the same day, with variations in detail. If that be so, the addition of
the name Verticordia is a curious example of the accretion of a Roman
cult-title expressive of domestic morality on a foreign deity of
questionable reputation[204].
PRID. NON. APR. (APRIL 4). C.
MATR[I] MAG[NAE]. (MAFF.)
LUDI MEGALESIACI. (PHILOC.)
Note in Praen.: LUDI M[ATRI] D[EUM] M[AGNAE] I[DAEAE]. MEGALESIA
VOCANTUR QUOD EA DEA MEGALE APPELLATUR. NOBILIUM MUTITATIONES CENARUM
SOLITAE SUNT FREQUENTER FIERI, QUOD MATER MAGNA EX LIBRIS SIBULLINIS
ARCESSITA LOCUM MUTAVIT EX PHRYGIA ROMAM.
The introduction of the Magna Mater Idaea into Rome can only be briefly
mentioned here, as being more important for the history of religion at
Rome than for that of the Roman religion. In B.C. 204, in accordance
with a Sibylline oracle which had previously prophesied that the
presence of this deity alone could drive the enemy out of Italy, the
sacred stone representing the goddess arrived at Rome from Pessinus in
Phrygia[205]. Attalus, King of Pergamus, had acquired this territory,
and now, as a faithful friend to Rome, consented to the transportation
of the stone, which was received at Rome with enthusiasm by an excited
and now hopeful people[206]. Scipio was about to leave with his army for
Africa; a fine harvest followed; Hannibal was forced to evacuate Italy
the next year; and the goddess did everything that was expected of
her[207].