Arv._ 136 foll.; Marq. 456.
Footnote 774:
See below, p. 312.
Footnote 775:
See a passage in Frontinus (_Grom. Vet._ 1. 56: cp. 2. 263).
Footnote 776:
_Röm. Jahr_, p. 221, and note 81 on p. 222.
Footnote 777:
Festus, 377 ‘Umbrae vocantur Neptunalibus casae frondeae pro
tabernaculis.’ Wissowa (_Lex._ s. v. Neptunus, 202) compares the
σκιάδες of the Spartan Carneia (also in the heat of summer), described
in Athenaeus, 4. 141 F.
Footnote 778:
Müller-Deecke, _Etrusker_, ii. 54, with Deecke’s note 51 b. The
Etruscan forms are Nethunus and Nethuns. The form of the word is
adjectival like Portunus, &c.; but what is the etymology of the first
syllable? We are reminded of course of Nepe or Nepete, an inland town
near Falerii; and to this district the cult seems specially to have
belonged. Messapus, ‘Neptunia proles,’ leads the Falisci and others to
war in Virg. _Aen._ 7. 691, and Halesus, Neptuni filius, was eponymous
hero of Falerii (Deecke, _Falisker_, 103). There is no known connexion
of Neptunus with any coast town.
Footnote 779:
13. 23. 2: cp. Varro, _L. L._ 5. 72.
Footnote 780:
See above, p. 60.
Footnote 781:
Cp. Serv. _Aen._ 5. 724 ‘(Venus) dicitur et Salacia, quae proprie
meretricum dea appellata est a veteribus.’
Footnote 782:
Gell. 5. 12; Henzen, _Act. Fratr. Arv._ 124. Wissowa, in his article
‘Neptunus,’ goes too far, as it seems to me, when he asserts that the
‘pater’ belonged to all deities of the oldest religion. See below, p.
220.
Footnote 783:
Liv. 5. 13. 6; Dionys. 12. 9. Wissowa, _Lex._ s. v. Nept. 203, for his
further history as Poseidon.
Footnote 784:
Wissowa in _Lex._ l. c. I doubt if much can be made of the argument
that the Neptunalia on the 23rd is necessarily connected with the
Lucaria on the 17th and 19th—i. e. three alternate days, like the
three days of the Lemuria in May.
Footnote 785:
Varro, _L. L._ 5. 84 ‘Furinalis (flamen) a Furina quoius etiam in
fastis Furinales feriae sunt’: cp. 6. 19 ‘Ei sacra instituta annua et
flamen attributus: nunc vix nomen notum paucis.’
Footnote 786:
See Wissowa’s short and sensible note in _Lex._ s. v. Furrina. For the
confusion with Furiae, Cic. _de Nat. Deor._ 3. 46; Plut. _C. Gracch._
17; _Lex._ s. v. Furiae. Jordan, in Preller, ii. 70, is doubtful on
the etymological question.
Footnote 787:
p. 71.
Footnote 788:
In Preller, ii. 121.
Footnote 789:
_Röm. Jahr_, 221.
MENSIS SEXTILIS.
August is with us the month when the corn-harvest is begun; in Italy it
is usually completed in July, and the final harvest-festivals, when all
the operations of housing, &c., have been brought to a close, would
naturally have fallen for the primitive Roman farmer in the sixth month.
The Kalends of Quinctilis would be too early a date for notice to be
given of these; some farmers might be behindhand, and so cut off from
participation. The Kalends of Sextilis would do well enough; for by the
Nones, before which no festival could be held, there would be a general
cessation from labour. No other agricultural operations would then for a
time be specially incumbent on the farmer[790].
Before the Ides we find no great festival in the old calendar, though
the sacrifice on the 12th at the _ara maxima_ was without doubt of great
antiquity. The list begins with the Portunalia on the 17th; and then
follow, with a day’s interval between each, the Vinalia Rustica,
Consualia, Volcanalia, Opeconsivia, and Volturnalia. The Vinalia had of
course nothing to do with harvest, and the character of the Portunalia
and Volturnalia is almost unknown; but all the rest may probably have
had some relation to the harvesting and safe-keeping of crops, and the
one or two scraps of information we possess about the Portunalia bear in
the same direction. Deities of fire and water seem to be propitiated at
this time, in order to preserve the harvest from disaster by either
element. The rites are secret and mysterious, the places of worship not
familiar temples, but the _ara maxima_, the underground altar of Consus,
or the Regia; which may perhaps account for the comparatively early
neglect and decadence of some of these feasts. We may also note two
other points: first, the rites gather for the most part in the vicinity
of the Aventine, the Circus Maximus, and the bank of the Tiber; which in
the earliest days must have been the part of the cultivated land nearest
the city[791], or at any rate that part of it where the crops were
stored. Secondly, there is a faint trace of commerce and connexion
between Rome and her neighbours—Latins and Sabines—both in the rites and
legends of this month, which may perhaps point to an intercourse,
whether friendly or hostile, brought about by the freedom and
festivities of harvest time.
NON. SEXT. (AUG. 5). F. (NP. ANT.)
SALUTI IN COLLE QUIRINALE SACRIFICIUM PUBLICUM. (VALL.)
SALUTI IN COLLE. (AMIT. ANT.)
NATALIS SALUTIS. (PHILOC.)
The date of the foundation of the temple of Salus was 302 B.C., during
the Samnite wars[792]. The cult was probably not wholly new. The
_Augurium Salutis_, which we know through its revival by Augustus, was
an ancient religious performance at the beginning of each year, or at
the accession of new consuls, which involved, first the ascertaining
whether prayers would be acceptable to the gods, and secondly the
offering of such prayers on an auspicious day[793]. Two very old
inscriptions also suggest that the cult was well distributed in Italy at
an early period[794]. Such impersonations of abstract ideas as Salus,
Concordia, Pax, Spes, &c., do not belong to the oldest stage of
religion, but were no doubt of pontifical origin, i. e. belonged to the
later monarchy or early republic[795]. We need not suppose that they
were due to the importation of Greek cults and ideas, though in some
cases they became eventually overlaid with these. They were generated by
the same process as the gods of the Indigitamenta[796]—being in fact an
application to the life of the state of that peculiarly Roman type of
religious thought which conceived a distinct _numen_ as presiding over
every act and suffering of the individual. This again, as I believe, in
its product the Indigitamenta, was an artificial priestly exaggeration
of a very primitive tendency to see a world of nameless spirits
surrounding and influencing all human life.
The history of the temple is interesting[797]. Not long after its
dedication its walls were painted by Gaius Fabius, consul in 269 B.C.,
whose descendants, among them the historian, bore the name of Pictor, in
commemoration of a feat so singular for a Roman of that age[798]. It was
struck by lightning no less than four times, and burnt down in the reign
of Claudius. Livy[799] tells us that in 180 B.C., by order of the
decemviri a supplicatio was held, in consequence of a severe pestilence,
in honour of Apollo, Aesculapius, and Salus; which shows plainly that
the goddess was already being transformed into the likeness of the Greek
῾Υγίεια, and associated rather with public health than with public
wealth in the most general sense of the word.
VI ID. SEXT. (AUG. 9). F. (ALLIP.) NP. (AMIT. MAFF. ETC.)
SOLI INDIGITI IN COLLE QUIRINALE. (AMIT. ALLIF.)
SOL[IS] INDIGITIS IN COLLE QUIRINALE SACRIFICIUM PUBLICUM. (VALL.)
There was an ancient worship of Sol on the Quirinal, which was believed
to be of Sabine origin. A _Solis pulvinar_ close to the temple of
Quirinus is mentioned, and the Gens Aurelia was said to have had charge
of the cult[800].
But the Sol of August 9 is called in the calendars _Sol Indiges_. What
are we to understand by this word, which appears in the names Di
Indigetes, Jupiter Indiges, or Indigetes simply? The Roman scholars
themselves were not agreed on the point; the general opinion was that it
meant ‘of or belonging to a certain place,’ i. e. fixed there by origin
and protecting it[801]. This view has also been generally adopted, on
etymological or other grounds, by modern writers, including
Preller[802]. Recently a somewhat different explanation has been put
forward in the _Mythological Lexicon_, suggested by Reifferscheid in his
lectures at Breslau. According to this view, _Indiges_ (from _indu_ and
root _ag_ in _agere_) was a deity working in a particular act, business,
place, &c., of men’s activity, and in no other; it is of pontifical
origin, like its cognate _indigitamenta_, and is therefore not a
survival from the oldest religious forms[803].
The second of these explanations does not seem to help us to understand
what was meant by Sol Indiges; and its exponent in the _Lexicon_, in
order to explain this, falls back on an ingenious suggestion made long
ago by Preller. In dealing with Sol Indiges, Preller explained Indiges
as = _index_, and conjectured that the name was not given to Sol until
after the eclipse which foretold the death of Caesar, comparing the
lines of Virgil (_Georg._ 1. 463 foll.):
Sol tibi signa dabit. Solem quis dicere falsum
Audeat? ille etiam caecos instare tumultus
Saepe monet, fraudemque et operta tumescere bella.
Ille etiam exstincto miseratus Caesare Romam:
Cum caput obscura nitidum ferrugine texit,
Impiaque aeternam timuerunt saecula noctem.
Preller may be right; and if he were, we should have no further trouble
in this case. In the pre-Julian calendar, on this hypothesis, the word
Indiges was absent. This is also the opinion of the last scholar who, so
far as I know, has touched the question; but Wissowa[804], with reason
as I think, reverts to the first explanation given above of the word
Indiges (‘of or belonging to a certain place’), and believes that the
word, when added to Sol in the Julian calendar, was simply meant to
distinguish the real indigenous Sun-god from foreign solar deities.
PRID. ID. SEXT. (AUG. 12). C.
HERCULI INVICTO AD CIRCUM MAXIM[UM]. (ALLIF. AMIT.)
[HERCULI MAGNO CUSTODI IN CIRCO FLAMIN[IO] (VALL.) is generally taken as
a confusion with June 4[805].]
This is the only day to which we can ascribe, on the evidence of the
calendars, the yearly rites of the _ara maxima_, and of the _aedes
Herculis_ in the Forum boarium. These two shrines were close together;
the former just at the entrance of the Circus maximus, the latter, as
has been made clear by a long series of researches, a little to the
north-east of it[806]. We are led to suppose that the two must have been
closely connected in the cult, though we are not explicitly informed on
the point.
The _round_ temple indicates a very ancient worship, as in the case of
the aedes Vestae, and the legends confirm this. The story of Hercules
and Cacus, the foundation-legend of the cult, whatever be its origin,
shows a priesthood of two ancient patrician families, the Potitii and
Pinarii[807]. Appius Claudius, the censor of 312 B.C., is said to have
bribed the Potitii, the chief celebrants, to hand over their duties to
public slaves[808]; but in the yearly rites, consisting chiefly in the
sacrifice of a heifer, these were presided over by the praetor urbanus,
whose connexion with the cult is attested by inscriptions[809]. That
there was at one time a reconstruction of the cult, especially in the
direction of Greek usage, seems indeed probable; for the praetor wore a
laurel wreath and sacrificed with his head uncovered after the Greek
fashion[810]. But there is enough about it that was genuine Roman to
prove that the foundation-legend had some of its roots in an ancient
cult; e. g. at the sacred meal which followed the previous sacrifice in
the evening, the worshippers did not lie down but sat, as was the most
ancient practice both in Greece and Italy[811]. Women were excluded,
which is in keeping with the Italian conception of Hercules as Genius,
or the deity of masculine activity[812]. The sacrifice was followed by a
meal on the remainder, which was perhaps an old practice in Italy, as in
Greece. In this feature, as in two others, we have a very interesting
parallel with this cult, which does not seem to have been noticed, in
the prescription given by Cato for the invocation of Mars on behalf of
the farmer’s cattle[813]. After prescribing the material of the offering
to Mars Silvanus, he goes on as follows: ‘Eam rem divinam _vel servus,
vel liber licebit faciat_. Ubi res divina facta erit, _statim ibidem
consumito_. _Mulier ad eam rem divinam ne adsit_, neve videat quomodo
fiat. Hoc votum in annos singulos, si voles, licebit vovere.’ Here we
have the eating of the remainder[814], the exclusion of women, and the
participation in the cult by slaves; the exclusion of women is very
curious in this case, and seems to show that such a practice was not
confined to worships of a sexual character. It is also worth noting that
just as Cato’s formula invokes Mars Silvanus, so in Virgil’s description
of the cult of the _ara maxima_[815], we find one special feature of
Mars-worship, namely the presence of the _Salii_[816]. It is hardly
possible to suppose that Virgil here was guilty of a wilful confusion:
is it possible, then, that in this cult some form of Mars is hidden
behind Hercules, and that the Hercules of the _ara maxima_ is not the
Genius after all, as modern scholars have persuaded themselves?
But what marks out this curious cult more especially from all others is
the practice of offering on the _ara maxima_ ‘decumae’ or tithes, of
booty, commercial gains, sudden windfalls, and so on[817]. The custom
seems to be peculiar to this cult, though it is proved by inscriptions
of Hercules-cults elsewhere in Italy—e. g. at Sora near Arpinum, at
Reate, Tibur, Capua and elsewhere[818]. But these inscriptions, old as
some of them are, cannot prove that the practice they attest was not
ultimately derived from Rome. At Rome, indeed, there is no question
about it; it is abundantly proved by literary allusions, as well as by
fragments of divine law[819]. Was it an urban survival from an old
Italian rural custom, or was it an importation from elsewhere?
In favour of the first of these explanations is the fact that the
offering of _first-fruits_ was common, if not universal, in rural
Italy[820]. They are not, indeed, known to have been offered specially
to Hercules; but the date, Aug. 12, of the sacrifice at Rome might
suggest an original offering of the first-fruits of the Roman ager,
before the growth of the city had pushed agriculture to some distance
away. Now first-fruits are the oldest form of tribute to a god as ‘the
lord of the land,’ developing in due time into fixed tithes as
temple-ritual becomes more elaborate and expensive[821]. In their
primitive form they are found in all parts of the world, as Mr. Frazer
has shown us in an appendix to the second volume of his _Golden
Bough_[822]. It is certainly possible that in this way the August cult
of the _ara maxima_ may be connected with the general character of the
August festivals; that the offering of the first-fruits of harvest gave
way to a regulated system of tithes[823], of which we find a survival in
the offerings of the tenth part of their booty by great generals like
Sulla and Crassus. As the city grew, and agriculture became less
prominent than military and mercantile pursuits, the practice passed
into a form adapted to these—i. e. the _decumae_ of military booty or
mercantile gain[824].
But there is another possibility which must at least be suggested. The
myth attached to the _ara maxima_ and the Aventine, that of Hercules and
Cacus, stands alone among Italian stories, as the system of tithe-giving
does among Italian practices. We may be certain that the practice did
not spring from the myth; rather that an addition was made to the myth,
when Hercules was described as giving the tenth of his booty, in order
to explain an unusual practice. Yet myth and practice stand in the
closest relation to each other, and the strange thing about each is that
it is unlike its Italian kindred.
Of late years it has become the fashion to claim the myth as genuine
Italian, in spite of its Graeco-Oriental character, on the evidence of
comparative mythology[825]: but no explanation is forthcoming of its
unique character among Italian myths, all of which have a marked
practical tendency, and a relation to some human institution such as the
foundation of a city. They are legends of human beings and practices:
this is an elemental myth familiar in different forms to the Eastern
mind. Again, the Hercules of the myth has nothing in common with the
genuine Italian Hercules, whom we may now accept as = genius, or the
masculine principle—as may be seen from the sorry lameness of the
attempt to harmonize the two[826]. Beyond doubt there was an Italian
spirit or deity to whom the name Hercules was attached: but there is no
need to force all the forms of Hercules that meet us into exact
connexion with the genuine one. We have seen above that the Hercules of
the _ara maxima_ may possibly have concealed Mars himself, in his
original form of a deity of cattle, pasture, and clearings. But there is
yet another possible explanation of this tangled problem.
The Roman form of the Cacus-myth, in which Cacus steals the cattle from
Hercules, and tries to conceal his theft by dragging them backwards into
his cave by their tails, has recently been found in Sicily depicted on a
painted vase, whither, as Professor Gardner has suggested, it may have
been brought by way of Cyprus by Phoenician traders[827]; and the
inference of so cautious an archaeologist is, apparently, that the myth
may have found its way from Sicily to the Tiber. Nothing can be more
probable; for it is certain that even before the eighth century B.C. the
whole western coast of Italy was open first to Phoenician trade and then
to Greek. And we are interested to find that the only other traces of
the myth to be found in Italy are located in places which would be open
to the same influence. From Capua we have a bronze vase on which is
depicted what seems to be the punishment of Cacus by Hercules[828]; and
a fragment of the annalist Gellius gives a story connecting Cacus with
Campania, Etruria, and the East[829]. At Tibur also, which claimed a
Greek origin, there is a faint trace of the myth in an inscription[830].
Now assuming for a moment that the myth was thus imported, is it
impossible that the anomalies of the cult should be foreign also? That
one of them at least which stands out most prominently is a peculiarly
Semitic institution; tithe-giving in its systematized form is found in
the service of that Melcarth who so often appears in Hellas as
Herakles[831]. The coincidence at the Aventine of the name, the myth,
and the practice, is too striking to be entirely passed over—especially
if we cannot find certain evidence of a pure Italian origin, and if we
_do_ find traces of all three where Phoenicians and Greeks are known to
have been. We may take it as not impossible that the _ara maxima_ was
older than the traditional foundation of Rome, and that its cult was
originally not that of the characteristic Italian Hercules, but of an
adventitious deity established there by foreign adventurers.
ID. SEXT. (AUG. 13). NP.
FER[IAE] IOVI. (AMIT. ALLIF.)
DIANAE IN AVENTINO. (AMIT. VALL. ANT. ALLIF.)
SACRUM DEANAE. (RUST.) NATALIS DIANES. (PHILOC.)
VORTUMNO IN AVENTINO. (AMIT. ALLIF.)
HERC[ULI] INVICTO AD PORTAM TRIGEMINAM. (ALLIF.)
CASTORI POLLUCI IN CIRCO FLAMINIO. (AMIT. ALLIF.)
FLORAE AD C[IRCUM] MAXIMUM. (ALLIF.)
All Ides, as we have seen, were sacred to Jupiter; and it does not seem
that there is here any further significance in the note ‘feriae Iovi.’
Though there was a conjunction here of many cults, this day was best
known as that of the dedication of the temple of Diana on the Aventine,
which was traditionally ascribed to Servius Tullius. There are
interesting features in this cult, and indeed in the worship of this
goddess throughout Latium and Italy. For the most famous of all her
cults, that of Aricia[832], I need only refer to Mr. Frazer’s _Golden
Bough_—the most elaborate and convincing examination of any ancient
worship that has yet appeared. Of the goddess in general it will be
sufficient to say here that whatever be the etymology of her name or the
earliest conception of her nature—and both are very far from certain—she
was for the old Latins second only to Jupiter Latiaris in the power she
exercised of uniting communities together and so working in the cause of
civilization. This was the ease with the cult on the Aventine, as it was
also with that at Aricia[833].
About the political origin of the temple on the Aventine tradition was
explicit[834]. Livy says that Servius Tullius persuaded the chiefs of
the Latins to build a temple of Diana in conjunction with the Romans;
and Varro calls it ‘commune Latinorum Dianae templum.’ The ‘lex templi,’
or ordinance for the common worship of Romans and Latins, was seen by
Dionysius—so he declares—written in Greek characters and preserved in
the temple[835]. The horns of a cow[836], hung up in front of this
temple, gave rise to legends, one of which is preserved by Livy, and
seems to bring the Sabines also into the connexion. This temple was,
then, from the beginning in some sense extra-Roman, i. e. did not belong
to the purely Roman gentile worship. And it had other characteristics of
the same kind; it was specially connected with the Plebs and with
slaves, and as, in the case of the neighbouring temple at Ceres, there
was a Greek character in the cult from the beginning.
I. _The Connexion with the Plebs._ The position on the Aventine would of
itself be some evidence of a non-patrician origin; so also the
traditional ascription to Servius Tullius as the founder. More direct
evidence seems wanting[837], but it is not impossible that the temple
marks a settlement of Latins in this part of the city.
II. _The Connexion with Slaves._ The day was a holiday for slaves[838],
perhaps after the work of harvest. There was one other Latin goddess,
Feronia, who was especially beloved by emancipated slaves[839]; and as
Feronia was a deity both of markets and harvests, there is something to
be said for the suggestion[840] that both slave holidays and slave
emancipation would find a natural place on occasions of this kind. It
would seem also that this temple was an asylum for runaway or criminal
slaves—a fact which slips out in Festus’ curious reproduction of a gloss
of Verrius Flaccus[841]: ‘Servorum dies festus vulgo existimatur Idus
Aug., quod eo die Servius Tullius, natus servus, aedem Dianae
dedicaverit in Aventino, cuius tutelae sint cervi, a quo celeritate
fugitivos vocent servos.’ The stag, as the favourite beast of Diana, may
perhaps have a Greek origin; but the inference from the false etymology
remains the same.
III. _The Greek Character in the Cult._ As in the case of Ceres, the
temple-foundations of this age might naturally have a Greek character,
owing to the foreign relations of the Etruscan dynasty in Rome[842]. We
have already noticed the lex templi, said to have been written in Greek
characters. It is a still more striking fact that there was in this
temple a ξόανον, or wooden statue of Diana, closely resembling that of
Artemis at Massilia, which was itself derived from the famous temple at
Ephesus[843]. The transference to Diana of the characteristics of
Artemis was no doubt quite natural and easy; for, hard as it is to
distinguish the Greek and Italian elements in the cult, we know enough
of some at least of the latter to be sure that they would easily lend
themselves to a Greek transformation. This transformation must have
begun at a very early period, for in B.C. 398 we find Diana already
associated with Apollo and Latona, in the first _lectisternium_
celebrated at Rome, where she certainly represented Artemis[844].
On the whole this temple and its cult seem a kind of anticipation of the
great temple on the Capitol, in marking an advance in the progress of
Rome from the narrow life of a small city-state to a position of
influence in Western Italy. The advance of the Plebs, the emancipation
of slaves, the new relations with Latin cities, and the introduction of
Greek religious ideas are all reflected here. New threads are being
woven into the tissue of Roman social and political life.