745, thought it probable that Volturnus might be a god of whirlwinds;
and Huschke[929] has an even wilder suggestion, which need not here be
mentioned.
Footnote 790:
Varro, _R. R._ I. 33, has only the following: ‘Quinto intervallo,
inter caniculam et aequinoctium auctumnale oportet stramenta desecari,
et acervos construi, aratro offringi, frondem caedi, prata irrigua
iterum secari.’
Footnote 791:
This is the natural position for the _ager_ of the oldest community on
the Palatine. The Campus Martius was believed to have been ‘king’s
land’ of the later developed city (Liv. 2. 5).
Footnote 792:
Liv. 10. 1. 9; Aust, _de Aedibus sacris_, p. 10.
Footnote 793:
Marq. 377; Dio Cass. 37. 24 and 25; Tac. _Ann._ 12. 23.
Footnote 794:
_C. I. L._ i. 49 and 179.
Footnote 795:
See Preller, ii. 228; and article ‘Sacerdos’ in _Dict. of
Antiquities_, new edition.
Footnote 796:
On this difficult subject see _Dict. of Antiquities_, s.v.
Indigitamenta; and the long and exhaustive article by R. Peter in
Roscher’s _Lexicon_ (which is, however, badly written, and in some
respects, I think, misleading).
Footnote 797:
See the valuable summary of Aust (in ten lines).
Footnote 798:
Plin. _N. H._ 35. 19.
Footnote 799:
40. 19.
Footnote 800:
Paulus, 23; Quintil. 1. 7. 12; Varro, _L. L._ 5. 52 (from the ‘sacra
Argeorum’), if we read ‘adversum Solis pulvinar cis aedem Salutis.’
The name is said to be connected with the Umbrian and Etruscan god of
light, Usil, a word thought to be recognizable in Aurelius (=
Auselius, Varro, l. c.), and in the Ozeul of the Salian hymn
(Wordsworth, _Fragments and Specimens of Early Latin_, p. 564 foll.).
Footnote 801:
So e. g. Virgil, _Georg._ 1. 498 ‘Di patrii indigites et Romule
Vestaque Mater.’ Peter, in _Lex._ s. v. Indigitamenta, 132.
Footnote 802:
i. 325.
Footnote 803:
_Lex._ s. v. Indigitamenta, 137.
Footnote 804:
Wissowa, _de Romanorum Indigetibus et Novensidibus_ (Marburg, 1892).
Footnote 805:
Merkel, _Praef. in Ov. Fastos_, cxxxv; Mommsen, _C. I. L._ 324.
Footnote 806:
_Lex._ s. v. Hercules, 2903 foll., where R. Peter has summarized and
criticized all the various opinions.
Footnote 807:
Liv. I. 7.
Footnote 808:
Dionys. I. 40, who says that the duties were performed by slaves in
his day. See _Lex._ 2925 for a long list of conjectures about this
part of the legend. The Potitii never occur in inscriptions; and I
think with Jordan (Preller, ii. 291) that the name is imaginary,
invented to account for the functions of the slaves.
Footnote 809:
_C. I. L._ vi. 312-319, found on the site of the _aedes_.
Footnote 810:
Macrob. 3. 12. 2; Varro, _L. L._ 6. 15. The uncovered head also occurs
in the cult of Saturnus; and R. Peter argues that the custom may after
all be old-Italian (_Lex._ 2928).
Footnote 811:
Marquardt, _Privatalterthümer_, vol. i, p. 291.
Footnote 812:
See above, p. 142 foll. Plut. _Qu. Rom._ 60; Macrob. 1. 12. 38. In _Q.
R._ 90 Plutarch notes that no other god might be mentioned at the
sacrifice, and no dog might be admitted.
Footnote 813:
_de Re Rustica_, 83.
Footnote 814:
The word was _profanatum_, opposed to _polluctum_ (see Marq. 149).
Footnote 815:
_Aen._ 8. 281 foll.
Footnote 816:
Salii are found in the cult of Hercules also at Tibur: Macrob. 3. 12.
7. See a note of Jordan in Preller, i. 352.
Footnote 817:
_Lex._ 2931 foll.; _C. I. L._ i. 149 foll.
Footnote 818:
The examples are collected by R. Peter in _Lex._ 2935.
Footnote 819:
Festus, 253, s. v. pollucere merces; Plut. _Qu. Rom._ 18; _Vita
Sullae_, 35; _Crassi_, 2; _Lex._ 2032 foll.
Footnote 820:
Marq. 469; Festus, p. 318, s. v. sacrima.
Footnote 821:
Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, p. 233.
Footnote 822:
_G. B._ ii. 373 foll.
Footnote 823:
In the legend Hercules gave a tenth part of his booty to the
inhabitants of the place (Dionys 1. 40).
Footnote 824:
See Mommsen in _C. I. L._ i. 150.
Footnote 825:
e. g. in Bréal, _Hercule et Cacus_.
Footnote 826:
See _Lex._ 2286 (R. Peter, quoting Reifferscheid).
Footnote 827:
_Journal of Hellenic Studies_, vol. xiii. 73. Professor Gardner is
inclined to consider the myth as Phoenician rather than Greek, and
attached to the Phoenician Melcarth = Herakles. The vase is in the
Ashmolean Museum, and was found by the Keeper, Mr. Arthur Evans.
Footnote 828:
_Mon. dell’ Inst._ v. 25. But the character of the vase is archaic
Ionian, as Prof. Gardner tells me; _Lex._ 2275.
Footnote 829:
H. Peter, _Fragmenta Hist. Rom._ p. 166 (= Solinus, i. 7).
Footnote 830:
_C. I. L._ xiv. 3555; _Lex._ 2278.
Footnote 831:
Robertson Smith, op. cit. pp. 228 foll., and additional note F.
Footnote 832:
The day of the festival at Aricia is thought to have been also Aug. 13
(_Lex._ s. v. Diana, 1006).
Footnote 833:
Beloch, _Italischer Bund_, 180; Cato (ap. Priscian, 7. 337, ed.
Jordan, p. 41) gives the names of the towns united in and by the
Arician cult—Aricia, Tusculum, Lanuvium, Laurentum, Cora, Tibur,
Pometia, Ardea.
Footnote 834:
Liv. I. 45 Dionys. 4. 26; Varro, _L. L._ 5. 43.
Footnote 835:
Dionys. l. c. See Jordan, _Krit. Beiträge_, 253.
Footnote 836:
So Liv. l. c.: other temples of Diana had deers’ horns, according to
Plutarch, _Q. R._ 4. The cow was Diana’s favourite victim (Marq. 361);
but we cannot be sure that this was not a feature borrowed from the
cult of Artemis (Farnell, _Greek Cults_, ii. 592).
Footnote 837:
The passages from Livy quoted by Steuding (_Lex._ 1008) are hardly to
the point, as the cult is not mentioned in them.
Footnote 838:
Plut. _Q. R._ 100.
Footnote 839:
Serv. _Aen._ 8. 564: cp. Liv. 22. 1, 26. 11.
Footnote 840:
Mannhardt, _A. W. F._ 328 foll.
Footnote 841:
Festus, 343, ‘Servorum dies.’
Footnote 842:
See above, p. 75.
Footnote 843:
Strabo, Bk. 4, p. 180; Farnell, _Greek Cults_, ii. 529 and 592.
Footnote 844:
Liv. 5. 13: Apollo and Latona, Diana and Hercules, Mercurius and
Neptunus.
Footnote 845:
_Lex._ 1007. The excavations at Nemi have produced several votive
offerings in terra cotta of women with children in their arms. Cp.
Ovid, _Fasti_, 3. 269. Plutarch tells us (_Q. R._ 3) that men were
excluded from a shrine of Diana in the Vicus Patricius; but of this
nothing further is known.
Footnote 846:
Plut. _Q. R._ 100; Jevons, _Introduction_, p. lxviii.
Footnote 847:
Frazer, _Golden Bough_, i. 187.
Footnote 848:
_C. I. L._ vi. 656, 658.
Footnote 849:
Frazer, _G. B._ i. 105: cp. Robertson Smith, _Religion of the
Semites_, p. 128 foll. Serv. _Georg._ 3. 332 ‘Ut omnis quercus Iovi
est consecrata, et omnis _lucus_ Dianae.’ (Hor. _Od._ 1. 21.) The
reclaiming of Diana from the woodland to the homestead is curiously
illustrated by an inscription from Aricia (Wilmanns, _Exempla_, 1767)
in which she is identified with Vesta.
Footnote 850:
Aust, _de Aedibus sacris_, p. 15.
Footnote 851:
5. (4.) 2.
Footnote 852:
_Metaph._ 14. 623 foll.; Preller, i. 451.
Footnote 853:
Varro. _L. L._ 7. 45. A god Pomonus (gen. Puemones) occurs in the
Iguvian ritual (Bücheler, _Umbrica_, 158); who may have been identical
with Vortumnus.
Footnote 854:
Varro, _L. L._ 5. 46.
Footnote 855:
Preller, i. 452, and Jordan’s note.
Footnote 856:
Festus, 217, s. v. persillum. All we know of his duties is that he
‘unguit arma Quirini’; the word for the oil or grease he used was
‘persillum.’ Quirinus had his own flamen, who might be supposed to do
this office for him; hence Marq. (328 note) inferred that the god in
this case was a form of Janus, Janus Quirinus. But there is no other
sound evidence for a Janus Quirinus, though Janus and Portunus may be
closely connected.
Footnote 857:
_L. L._ 6. 19.
Footnote 858:
_C. I. L._ 325. He thinks that the _atria Tiberina_ mentioned by Ovid
(_Fasti_, 4. 329) were a station on the route of the procession.
Footnote 859:
Mommsen has not convinced other scholars, e. g. Jordan on Preller, ii.
133, and Marq. 328, who points out that if Volturnus is an old name
for the Tiber, that river-god was already provided with a flamen
(Volturnalis), and a festival in this month (see below on
Volturnalia). I am disposed to think that Mommsen’s critics have the
best of the argument.
Footnote 860:
On _Aen._ 5. 241.
Footnote 861:
_Röm. Jahr_, p. 250. Jordan restored the passage thus: ‘Quo apud
veteres aedes in portu et feriae institutae’ (Preller, i. 178 note).
Footnote 862:
See Marquardt, _Privatalterthümer_, p. 226.
Footnote 863:
Paulus, 56.
Footnote 864:
In Festus, 233, _portus_ is said to have been used for a house in the
Twelve Tables.
Footnote 865:
_Topogr._ i. 430; Marq. agrees (327 note).
Footnote 866:
Preller, i. 177.
Footnote 867:
It was a late foundation, vowed by C. Duilius in the First Punic War
(B.C. 260). When rebuilt by Tiberius (Tac. _Ann._ 2. 49) the
dedication-day became Oct. 18. See Aust, _de Aedibus sacris_, p. 18.
Footnote 868:
See above on April 23, p. 85.
Footnote 869:
Livy, 10. 31; Aust, _de Aedibus sacris_, p. 12.
Footnote 870:
See above, p. 86.
Footnote 871:
Paulus, 264.
Footnote 872:
Preller, i. 196; Marq. 333 note.
Footnote 873:
Varro, _L. L._ 6. 16 ‘Vinalia a vino; Hic dies Iovis, non Veneris;
huius rei cura non levis in Latio; nam aliquot locis vindemiae primum
a sacerdotibus publicae fiebant, ut Romae etiam nunc; nam flamen
Dialis auspicatur vindemiam, et ut iussit vinum legere, agna Iovi
facit, inter quoius exta caesa et porrecta flamen primus vinum legit.’
But this note, coming between others on the Cerialia and Robigalia,
clearly refers to April 23, and the latter part of it must be taken as
simply explaining ‘huius rei cura non levis’ without reference to a
particular day.
Footnote 874:
See above, p. 110.
Footnote 875:
p. 264.
Footnote 876:
_L. L._ 6. 20. The passage in 6. 16, quoted above, ends thus: ‘In
Tusculanis hortis (sortis in MS.) est scriptum: Vinum novum ne vehatur
in urbem antequam Vinalia calentur,’ which may refer to a notice put
up in the vineyards. Another reading is ‘sacris.’
Footnote 877:
_C. I. L._ 316 and 326; Varro, _R. R._ 1. 65.
Footnote 878:
Cf. Pliny, _N. H._ 18. 284. ‘Tria namque tempora fructibus metuebant,
propter quod instituerunt ferias diesque festos, Robigalia, Floralia,
Vinalia.’ I do not see why the Vinalia here should not be the Vinalia
Rustica. Cp. Virg. _Georg._ 2. 419 ‘Et iam maturis metuendus Iuppiter
uvis.’ Hartmann, _Röm. Kal._ 137 foll.
Footnote 879:
Vol. ii. 379.
Footnote 880:
B.C. 272 (Festus, 209; Aust, p. 14).
Footnote 881:
For this altar, Tertull. _Spect._ 5 and 8; Dionys. 1. 33; Tac. _Ann._
12. 24; Serv. _Aen._ 8. 636.
Footnote 882:
No correction of this word seems satisfactory: see Mommsen, _C. I. L._
326.
Footnote 883:
Wissowa, _Lex._ s. v. Consus, 926.
Footnote 884:
Suggested by Mommsen, _C. I. L._ 326, and accepted by Wissowa.
Unluckily Columella (r. 6), in alluding to the practice, says nothing
of its occurrence in Italy. The alternative explanation was suggested
to me by Robertson Smith (_Religion of the Semites_, 107): see also a
note in Müller-Deecke, _Etrusker_, ii. 100; and below on Terminalia
(p. 325).
Footnote 885:
The underground altar of Dis Pater in the Campus Martius, at which the
ludi saeculares were in part celebrated (Zosimus, 2. 1), may have had
a like origin.
Footnote 886:
_Qu. Rom._ 40: cf. Dionys. 1. 33.
Footnote 887:
Fast. Praen.; _C. I. L._ 237.
Footnote 888:
2. 31, where he says that they were kept up in his own day: cf.
Strabo, Bk. 5.3. 2.
Footnote 889:
p. 148.
Footnote 890:
Friedländer in Marq. 482. For the connexion of games with harvest see
Mannhardt. _Myth. Forsch._ 172 foll.
Footnote 891:
Varro (ap. Non. p. 13) quotes an old verse which seems to the point
here: ‘Sibi pastores ludo faciunt coriis consualia.’
Footnote 892:
Varro, _L. L._ 6. 20; Serv. _Aen._ 8. 636; Dionys. 2. 31; Cic. _Rep._
2. 12.
Footnote 893:
See above, p. 178.
Footnote 894:
Vol. ii. 171 foll., 372 foll.
Footnote 895:
_de Spect._ 8.
Footnote 896:
See above, p. 89; Ovid, _Fasti_, 4. 908.
Footnote 897:
Festus, p. 210, s. v. piscatorii ludi (Varro, _L. L._ 6 20). The
latter uses the word ‘animalia,’ and does not mention fish. The fish
were apparently sacrificed at the domestic hearth; but it is doubtful
whether Volcanus was ever a deity of the hearth-fire (see Schwegler,
_R. G._ i. 714; Wissowa, _de Feriis_, xlv).
Footnote 898:
See below, p. 309; Ovid, _Fasti_, 2. 571 foll.
Footnote 899:
See above on May 23, p. 123; Varro, _L. L._ 5. 84; Macrob. 1. 12. 18;
_C. I. L._ vi. 1628.
Footnote 900:
ii. 149.
Footnote 901:
In the mutilated note in Fast. Praen. given above. For Wissowa’s views
as to the mistake of supposing Volcanus to have been a god of smiths,
see above, p. 123 (May 23).
Footnote 902:
Ennius, _Fragm._ 5. 477; Virg. _Aen._ 5. 662.
Footnote 903:
_C. I. L._ vi. 826.
Footnote 904:
Liv. 24. 10. 9.
Footnote 905:
Vitruv. 1. 7. 1.
Footnote 906:
_Roman Questions_, xviii.
Footnote 907:
_de Aedibus sacris_, p. 47 foll.
Footnote 908:
What this was we do not really know: there were several of them
(Preller, ii. 150).
Footnote 909:
Fest. 154, from Ateius Capito; Macrob. 1. 16. 17.
Footnote 910:
Plut. _Rom._ 11; Ovid, _Fasti_, 4. 821. Plutarch wrongly describes it
as being in the Comitium.
Footnote 911:
This seems to be meant by Cato’s words quoted by Festus, l. c. ‘Mundo
nomen impositum est ab eo mundo quod supra nos est ... eius inferiorem
partem veluti consecratam dis Manibus clausam omni tempore nisi his
diebus (i. e. the three above mentioned) maiores c[ensuerunt
habendam], quos dies etiam religiosos judicaverunt.’
Footnote 912:
Fest. 128. So Varro, ap. Macrob. 1. 16. 18 ‘Mundus cum patet, deorum
tristium atque inferum ianua patet.’ _Lex._ s. v. Dis Pater, 1184;
Preller, ii. 68.
Footnote 913:
Müller-Deecke, _Etrusker_, ii. 100. Plutarch is explicit: ἀπαρχαί τε
πάντων, ὅσοις νόμῳ μὲν ὡς καλοῖς ἐχρῶντο, φύσει δὲ ὡς ἀναγκαίοις,
ἀπετέθησαν ἐνταῦθα. See above on the Consualia for the practice of
burying grain, &c.
Footnote 914:
Macrob. 1. 16. 17. For similar ideas in Greece see A. Mommsen,
_Heortologie_, 345 foll.
Footnote 915:
_de Feriis_, vi.
Footnote 916:
Varro, _L. L._ 6. 21; Festus, 187.
Footnote 917:
Varro, _L. L._. 5. 57 and 64; Festus, 186; Macrob. 1. 10. 19. So
Preller, ii. 20. The keen-sighted Ambrosch had, I think, a doubt about
it (_Studien_, 149), and about the conjugal tie generally among
Italian deities. See his note on p. 149.
Footnote 918:
Gell. 13. 23. Ops Toitesia (if the reading be right) of the Esquiline
vase (Jordan in Preller, ii. 22) may be a combination of this kind
(toitesia, conn. tutus?): cf. Ops opifera.
Footnote 919:
Wissowa himself goes so far as to say that male and female divinities
were joined together ‘non per iustum matrimonium sed ex officiorum
adfinitate,’ op. cit. vi.
Footnote 920:
Op. cit. vii.; Mommsen, _C. I. L._ 327 declines to follow him here.
Footnote 921:
_L. L._ 6. 20. The MSS. read Ope Consiva; so Mommsen in _C. I. L._
327. Wissowa adopts the other form.
Footnote 922:
See Mommsen, l. c., and Marquardt, 212.
Footnote 923:
See on Vestalia above, p. 147, and Marq. 251.
Footnote 924:
Colum. 12 4. Cited in De Marchi, _Il Culto privato di Roma Antica_
(Milan, 1896), p. 56. See my paper in _Classical Review_ for Oct.
1896: vol. x. p. 317 foll.
Footnote 925:
_C. I. L._ 327.
Footnote 926:
Preller, ii. 142.
Footnote 927:
_Aen._ 8. 330.
Footnote 928:
In Preller, ii. 143. In the passage of Lucretius Volturnus is coupled
with Auster: ‘Inde aliae tempestates ventique secuntur, Altitonam
Volturnus et Auster fulmine pollens.’ Columella (11. 2. 65) says that
some people use the name for the east wind (cp. Liv. 22. 43).
Footnote 929:
_Röm. Jahr_, 251.
MENSIS SEPTEMBER.
The Calendar of this month is almost a blank. Only the Kalends, Nones
and Ides are marked in the large letters with which we have become
familiar; no other festival is here associated with a special deity. But
the greater part of the month is occupied with the ludi Romani (5th to
19th)[930], and the 13th (Ides), as we know from two Calendars, was not
only, like all Ides, sacred to Jupiter, but was distinguished as the day
of the famous ‘epulum Jovis,’ and also as the _dies natalis_ of the
great Capitoline temple.
The explanation of the absence of great festivals in this month is
comparatively simple. September was for the Italian farmer, and
therefore for the primitive Roman agricultural community, a period of
comparative rest from urgent labour and from religious duties; for no
operations were then going on which called for the invocation of special
deities to favour and protect. A glance at the rustic calendars will
show this well enough[931]. The _messes_ which figure in July and August
have come to an end, and the vintage does not appear until October.
There is of course work to be done, as always, but it is the easy work
of the garden and orchard. ‘Dolia picantur: poma legunt: arborum
oblaqueatio.’ Varro, who divides the year for agricultural purposes into
eight irregular periods, has little to say of the fifth of these, i. e.
that which preceded the autumn equinox. ‘Quinto intervallo inter
caniculam et aequinoctium autumnale oportet stramenta desecari, et
acervos construi, aratro offringi, frondem caedi, prata irrigua iterum
secari[932].’
This was also the time when military work would be coming to an end. In
early times there were of course no lengthy campaigns; and such fighting
as there was, the object of which would be to destroy your enemies’
crops and harvest, would as a rule be over in August. Even in later
times, when campaigns were longer, the same would usually be the case;
and the performance of vows made by the generals in the field, and also
their vacation of office, would naturally fall in this month. We find,
in fact, that the ludi which occupied so large a number of September
days, had their origin in the performance of the _vota_ of kings or
consuls after the close of the wars[933]; and we have evidence that the
Ides of September was the day on which the earliest consuls laid down
their office[934]. There was, in fact, every opportunity for a
lengthened time of ease; the people were at leisure and in good temper
after harvest and victory; even the horses which took part in the games
were home from war service or resting from their labours on the
farm[935].
It is not strictly within the scope of this work to describe the ludi
Romani, which in their fully organized form were of comparatively late
date; but their close connexion with the cult of Jupiter affords an
opportunity for some remarks on that most imposing of all the Roman
worships.
The ludi Romani came in course of time, as has been said above, to
extend from the 5th to the 19th; they spread out in fact on each side of
the Ides[936], the day on which took place the ‘epulum Jovis’ in the
Capitoline temple. As this day was also the _dies natalis_ of the same
temple, and that on which the nail was driven into the wall of the cella
Jovis[937], we have a very close connexion between the ludi and the cult
of Jupiter. The link is to be found in the fact that in the _ludi
votivi_, which were developed into ludi Romani, the vows were made and
paid to the supreme god of the State[938]. We have from a later time the
formula of such a vow preserved by Livy[939]. ‘Si duellum quod cum rege
Antiocho sumi populus iussit id ex sententia senatus populique Romani
confectum erit, tum tibi, Iuppiter, populus Romanus ludos magnos dies
decem continuos faciet, donaque ad omnia pulvinaria dabuntur de pecunia,
quantam senatus decreverit: quisquis magistratus eos ludos quando ubique
faxit, hi ludi recte facti donaque data recte sunto.’
The epulum Jovis, thus occurring in the middle of the ludi, is believed
by some writers to have originally belonged to the Ides of November and
to the ludi plebeii, as it does not happen to be alluded to by Livy in
connexion with the ludi Romani, and our first notice of it in September
is in the Augustan calendars[940]. But it is surely earlier than B.C.
230, the received date of the ludi plebeii, and of the circus Flaminius
in which they took place. We may agree with the latest investigator of
the Jupiter-cult that the origin of the epulum is to be looked for in a
form of thanksgiving to Jupiter for the preservation of the state from
the perils of the war season, and that no better day could be found for
it than the foundation-day of the Capitoline temple[941]. This epulum
was one of the most singular and striking scenes in Roman public life.
It began with a sacrifice; the victim is not mentioned, but was no doubt
a heifer, and probably a white one[942]. Then took place the epulum
proper[943], which the three deities of the Capitol seem to have shared
in visible form with the magistrates and senate. The images of the gods
were decked out as for a feast, and the face of Jupiter painted red with
_minium_, like that of the triumphator. Jupiter had a couch, and Juno
and Minerva each a sella, and the meal went on in their presence[944].
Now an investigator of the Roman religious system is here confronted
with a difficult problem. Was this simply a Greek practice like that of
the lectisternium, and one which began with the Etruscan dynasty and the
foundation of the Capitoline temple with its triad of deities? Or is it
possible that in the cult of the Roman Jupiter there was of old a common
feast of some kind, shared by gods and worshippers, on which this
gorgeous ritual was eventually grafted?
Marquardt has gone so far as to separate the epulum Jovis altogether
from the lectisternia, and apparently also from the inundation of Greek
influence[945]. It answers rather, he says, to such domestic rites as
the offering to Jupiter Dapalis described thus by Cato in the _De Re
Rustica_[946]: ‘Dapem hoc modo fieri oportet. Iovi dapali culignam vini
quantum vis polluceto. Eo die feriae bubus et bubulcis, et qui dapem
facient. Cum pollucere oportebit, sic facies. Iupiter dapalis, quod tibi
fieri oportet, in domo familia mea culignam vini dapi, eius rei ergo
macte hac illace dape pollucenda esto. Manus interluito. Postea vinum
sumito. Iupiter dapalis, macte istace dape pollucenda esto. Macte vino
inferio esto. Vestae, si voles, dato[947]. Daps Iovi assaria pecuina,
urna vini lovis caste.’
I confess that I do not see wherein lies the point of the comparison of
this passage with the ceremony of the epulum; and Marquardt himself does
not attempt to elaborate it. There is no mention here of a visible
presence of Jupiter in the form of an image, which is the one striking
feature of the epulum. Marquardt, as it seems to me, might better have
adduced some example from old Italian usage of the _belief_ that the
gods were spiritually present at a common religious meal—a belief on
which might easily be engrafted the practice of presenting them there in
actual iconic form. Ovid, for example, writes thus of the cult of the
Sabine Vacuna[948]:
Ante focos olim scamnis considere longis
Mos erat, _et mensae credere adesse deos_.
Nunc quoque cum fiunt antiquae sacra Vacunae,
Ante Vacunales stantque sedentque focos.
Or again in the sacra of the curiae, if Dionysius reports them
rightly[949], we find a clear case of a common meal in which the gods
took part. He tells us that he saw tables in the ‘sacred houses’ of the
curiae spread for the gods with simple food in very primitive
earthenware dishes. He does not mention the presence of any images of
the gods, but it is probable from his interesting description that each
curia partook with its gods of a common meal of a religious character,
and one not likely to have come under Greek influence[950].