Chapter IV: Part 4

We may be satisfied, then, that the oldest Ceres was not simply an importation from Greece. It is curious however, that Ceres is not found exactly where we should expect to find her, viz. in the ritual of the Fratres Arvales[229]. Yet this very fact may throw further light on the primitive nature of Ceres. The central figure of the Arval ritual was the nameless Dea Dia; and in a ritual entirely relating to the fruits of the earth we can fairly account for the absence of Ceres by supposing that she is there represented by the Dea Dia—in fact, that the two are identical[230]. No one at all acquainted with Italian ideas of the gods will be surprised at this. It is surely a more reasonable hypothesis than that of Birt, who thinks that an old name for seed and bread (i. e. Ceres) was transferred to the Greek deity who dispensed seed and bread when she was introduced in Rome[231]. It is, in fact, only the name Ceres that is wanting in the Arval ritual, not the numen itself; and this is less surprising if we assume that the names given by the earliest Romans to supernatural powers were not fixed but variable, representing no distinctly conceived personalities; in other words, that their religion was pandaemonic rather than polytheistic, though with a tendency to lend itself easily to the influence of polytheism. We may agree, then, with Preller[232], that Ceres, with Tellus, and perhaps Ops and Acca Larentia, are different names for, and aspects of, the numen whom the Arval brothers called Dea Dia. At the same time we cannot entirely explain why the name Ceres was picked out from among these to represent the Greek Demeter. Some light may, however, be thrown on this point by studying the early history of the Ceres-cult.

The first temple of Ceres was founded, according to tradition, in consequence of a famine in the year 496 B.C., in obedience to a Sibylline oracle[233]. It was at the foot of the Aventine, by the Circus Maximus[234], and was dedicated on April 19, 493, to Ceres, Liber and Libera, representing Demeter, Dionysus, and Persephone.[235] Thus from the outset the systematized cult of Ceres in the city was not Roman but Greek. The temple itself was adorned in Greek style instead of the Etruscan usual at this period[236]. How is all this to be accounted for?

Let us notice in the first place that from the very foundation of the temple it is in the closest way connected with the plebs. The year of its dedication is that of the first secession of the plebs and of the establishment of the tribuni and aediles plebis[237]. The two events are connected by the fact, repeatedly stated, that any one violating the _sacrosanctitas_ of the tribune was to be held _sacer Cereri_[238]; we are also told that the fines imposed by tribunes were spent on this temple[239]. It was under the care of the plebeian aediles, and was to them what the temple of Saturnus was to the quaestors[240]. Its position was in the plebeian quarter, and at the foot of the Aventine, which in B.C. 456 is said to have become the property of the plebs[241].

Now it can hardly be doubted that the choice of Ceres (with her fellow deities of the _trias_), as the goddess whose temple should serve as a centre for the plebeian community, had some definite meaning. That meaning must be found in the traditions of famine and distress which we read of as immediately following the expulsion of Tarquinius. These traditions have often been put aside as untrustworthy[242], and may indeed be so in regard to details; but there is some reason for thinking them to have had a foundation of fact, if we can but accept the other tradition of the foundation of the temple and its connexion with the plebs. It is likely enough that under Tarquinius the population was increased by ‘outsiders’ employed on his great buildings. Under pressure from the attack of enemies, and from a sudden aristocratic reaction, this population, we may guess, was thrown out of work, deprived of a _raison d’être_, and starved[243]; finally rescuing itself by a secession, which resulted in the institution of its officers, tribunes and aediles, the latter of whom some to have been charged with the duty of looking after the corn-supply[244].

How the corn-supply was cared for we cannot tell for certain; but here again is a tradition which fits in curiously with what we know of the temple and its worship, though it has been rejected by the superfluous ingenuity of modern German criticism. Livy tells us that in B.C. 492, the year after the dedication of the temple, corn was brought from Etruria, Cumae, and Sicily to relieve a famine[245]. We are not obliged to believe in the purchase of corn at Syracuse at so early a date, though it is not impossible; but if we remember that the decorations and ritual of the temple were Greek beyond doubt, we get a singular confirmation of the tradition _in outline_ which has not been sufficiently noticed. If it was founded in 493, placed under plebeian officers, and closely connected with the plebs; if its rites and decorations were Greek from the beginning; we cannot afford to discard a tradition telling us of a commercial connexion with Greek cities, the object of which was to relieve a starving plebeian population.

And surely there is nothing strange in the supposition that Greek influence gained ground, not so much with the patricians who had their own outfit of religious armour, but with the plebs who had no share in the sacra of their betters, and with the Etruscan dynasty which favoured the plebs[246]. We may hesitate to assent to Mommsen’s curious assertion that the merchants of that day were none other than the great patrician landholders[247]; we may rather be disposed to conjecture that it was the more powerful plebeians, incapable of holding large areas of public land, who turned their attention to commerce, and came in contact with the Greeks of Italy and Sicily. The position of the plebeian quarter along the Tiber bank, and near the spot where the quays of Rome have always been, may possibly point in the same direction[248].

To return to the Cerealia of April 19. We have still to notice a relic of apparently genuine Italian antiquity which survived in it down to Ovid’s time, and may be taken as evidence that there was a real Roman substratum on which the later Greek ritual was superimposed.

Every one who reads Ovid’s account of the Cerealia will be struck by his statement that on the 19th it was the practice to fasten burning brands to the tails of foxes and set them loose to run in the Circus Maximus[249]:

Cur igitur missae vinctis ardentia taedis
Terga ferant volpes, causa docenda mihi est.

He tells a charming story to explain the custom, learnt from an old man of Carseoli, an Aequian town, where he was seeking information while writing the _Fasti_. A boy of twelve years’ old caught a vixen fox which had done damage to the farm, and tied it up in straw and hay. This he set on fire, but the fox escaped and burnt the crops. Hence a law at Carseoli forbidding—something about foxes, which the corruption of the MSS. has obscured for us[250]. Then he concludes:

Utque luat poenas gens haec, Cerialibus ardet;
Quoque modo segetes perdidit, ipsa perit.

We are, of course, reminded of Samson burning the corn of the Philistines[251]; and it is probable that the story in each case is a myth explanatory of some old practice like the one Ovid describes at Rome. But what the practice meant it is not very easy to see. Preller has his explanation ready[252]; it was a ‘sinnbildliche Erinnerung’ of the _robigo_ (i. e. ‘red fox’), which was to be feared and guarded against at this time of year. Mannhardt thinks rather of the corn-foxes or corn-spirits of France and Germany, of which he gives many instances[253]. If the foxes were corn spirits, one does not quite see why they should have brands fastened to their tails[254]. No exactly parallel practice seems to be forthcoming, and the fox does not appear elsewhere in ancient Italian or Greek folk-tales, as far as I can discover. All that can be said is that the fox’s tail seems to have been an object of interest, and possibly to have had some fertilizing power[255], and some curious relation to ears of corn. Prof. Gubernatis believes this tail to have been a phallic symbol[256]. We need not accept his explanation, but we may be grateful to him for a modern Italian folk-tale, from the region of Leghorn and the Maremma, in which a fox is frightened away by chickens which carry each in its beak an ear of millet; the fox is told that these ears are all foxes’ tails, and runs for it.

Here we must leave this puzzle[257]; but whoever cares to read Ovid’s lines about his journey towards his native Pelignian country, his turning into the familiar lodging—

Hospitis antiqui solitas intravimus aedes,

and the tales he heard there—among them that of the fox—will find them better worth reading than the greater part of the _Fasti_.

XI KAL. MAI. (APR. 21). NP.[258]

PAR[ILIA]. (CAER. MAFF. PRAEN.)

ROMA COND[ITA] FERIAE CORONATIS OM[NIBUS]. (CAER.)

N[ATALIS] URBIS. CIRCENSES MISSUS XXIV. (PHILOC.)

[A note in Praen. is hopelessly mutilated, with the exception of the words IGNES and PRINCIPIO AN[NI PASTORICII[259]?]]

The Parilia[260], at once one of the oldest and best attested festivals of the whole year, is at the same time the one whose features have been most clearly explained by the investigations of parallels among other races.

The first point to notice is that the festival was both public and private, urban and rustic[261]. Ovid clearly distinguishes the two; lines 721-734 deal with the urban festival, 735-782 with the rustic. The explanations which follow deal with both. Pales, the deity (apparently both masculine and feminine[262]) whose name the festival bears, was, like Faunus, a common deity of Italian pasture land. A Palatium was said by Varro to have been named after Pales at Reate, in the heart of the Sabine hill-country[263]; and though this may not go for much, the character of the Parilia, and the fact that Pales is called _rusticola_, _pastoricia_, _silvicola_, &c., are sufficient to show the original non-urban character of the deity. He (or she) was a shepherd’s deity of the simplest kind, and survived in Rome as little more than a name[264] from the oldest times, when the earliest invaders drove their cattle through the Sabine mountains. Here, then, we seem to have a clear example of a rite which was originally a rustic one, and survived as such, while at the same time one local form of it was kept up in the great city, and had become entangled with legend and probably altered in some points of ritual. We will take the rustic form first.

Here we may distinguish in Ovid’s account[265] the following ritualistic acts.

1. The sheep-fold[266] was decked with green boughs and a great wreath was hung on the gate:

Frondibus et fixis decorentur ovilia ramis,
Et tegat ornatas longa corona fores.

With this Mannhardt[267] aptly compares the like concomitants of the midsummer fires in North Germany, Scotland, and England. In Scotland, for example, before the bonfires were kindled on midsummer eve, the houses were decorated with foliage brought from the woods[268]. The custom of decoration at special seasons, May-day, mid-summer, harvest, and Christmas, is even now, with the exception of midsummer, universal, and is probably descended from these primitive rites, by which our ancestors sought in some mysterious way to influence the working of the powers of vegetation.

2. At the earliest glimmer of daybreak the shepherd purified the sheep. This was done by sprinkling and sweeping the fold; then a fire was made of heaps of straw, olive-branches, and laurel, to give good omen by the crackling, and through this apparently the shepherds leapt, and the flocks were driven[269]. For this we have, of course, numerous parallels from all parts of the world. Burning sulphur was also used:

Caerulei fiant vivo de sulfure fumi
Tactaque fumanti sulfure balet ovis[270].

3. After this the shepherd brought offerings to Pales, of whom there may perhaps have been in the farmyard a rude image made of wood[271]; among these were baskets of millet and cakes of the same, pails of milk, and other food of appropriate kinds. The meal which followed the shepherd himself appears to have shared with Pales[272]. Then he prays to the deity to avert all evil from himself and his flocks; whether he or they have unwittingly trespassed on sacred ground and caused the nymphs or fauni to fly from human eyes; or have disturbed the sacred fountains, and used branches of a sacred tree for secular ends. In these petitions the genuine spirit of Italian religion—the awe of the unknown, the fear of committing unwittingly some act that may bring down wrath upon you—is most vividly brought out in spite of the Greek touches and names which are introduced. He then goes on to his main object[273]:

Pelle procul morbos: valeant hominesque gregesque,
Et valeant vigiles, provida turba, canes.

Absit iniqua fames. Herbae frondesque supersint,
Quaeque lavent artus, quaeque bibantur, aquae.
Ubera plena premam: referat mihi caseus aera,
Dentque viam liquido vimina rara sero.
Sitque salax aries, conceptaque semina coniunx
Reddat, et in stabulo multa sit agna meo.
Lanaque proveniat nullas laesura puellas,
Mollis et ad teneras quamlibet apta manus.
Quae precor eveniant: et nos faciamus ad annum
Pastorum dominae grandia liba Pali.

This prayer must be said four times over[274], the shepherd looking to the east and wetting his hands with the morning dew[275]. The position, the holy water, and the prayer in its substance, though now addressed to the Virgin, have all descended to the Catholic shepherd of the Campagna.

4. Then a bowl is to be brought, a wooden antique bowl apparently[276], from which milk and purple _sapa_, i. e. heated wine, may be drunk, until the drinker feels the influence of the fumes, and when he is well set he may leap over the burning heaps:

Moxque per ardentes stipulae crepitantis acervos
Traiicias celeri strenua membra pede[277].

The Parilia of the urbs was celebrated in much the same way in its main features; but the day was reckoned as the birthday of Rome, and doubtless on this account it came under the influence of priestly organization[278]. It is connected with two other very ancient festivals: that of the Fordicidia and that of the ‘October horse.’ The blood which streamed from the head of the horse sacrificed on the Ides of October was kept by the Vestals in the Penus Vestae, and mixed with the ashes of the unborn calves burnt at the Fordicidia; and the mixture seems to have been thrown upon heaps of burning bean-straw to make it smoke, while over the smoke and flames men and women leaped on the Palatine Hill[279]. The object was of course purification; Ovid calls the blood, ashes, and straw _februa casta_, i. e. holy agents of purification, and adds in allusion to their having been kept by the Vestals:

Vesta dabit: Vestae munere _purus_ eris.

Ovid had himself taken part in the rite; had fetched the _suffimen_, and leaped three times through the flames, his hands sprinkled with dew from a laurel branch. Whether the _februa_ were considered to have individually any special significance or power, it is hard to say. Mannhardt, who believed the ‘October horse’ to be a corn-demon, thought that the burning of its blood symbolized the renewal of its life in the spring, while the ashes thrown into the fire signified the safe passage of the growing crops through the heat of the summer[280]; but about this so judicious a writer is naturally not disposed to dogmatize. We can, however, be pretty sure that the purification was supposed to carry with it protection from evil influences both for man and beast, and also to aid the growth of vegetation. The theory of Mannhardt, adopted by Mr. Frazer, that the whole class of ceremonies to which the Parilia clearly belongs, i. e. the Easter and Midsummer fires and Need-fires of central and northern Europe, may best be explained as charms to procure sunshine,[281] has much to be said for it, but does not seem to find any special support in the Roman rite.

It may be noted in conclusion that a custom of the same kind, and one perhaps connected with a cult of the sun,[282] took place not far from Rome, at Mount Soracte; at what time of year we do not know. On this hill there was a worship of Apollo Soranus,[283] a local deity, to which was attached a kind of guild of worshippers called Hirpi Sorani, or wolves of Soranus;[284] and of these we may guess, from the legend told of their origin, that in order to avert pestilence, &c., they dressed or behaved themselves like wolves.[285] Also on a particular day, perhaps the summer solstice, these Hirpi ran through the flames, ‘super ambustam ligni struem ambulantes non aduruntur,’[286] and on this account were excused by a senatus consultum from all military or other service. A striking parallel with this last feature is quoted by Mannhardt, from Mysore, where the Harawara are degraded Brahmins who act as priests in harvest-time, and make a living by running through the flames unhurt with naked soles: but in this case there seems to be no animal representation. Mannhardt tries to explain the Hirpi as dramatic representations of the Corn-wolf or vegetation spirit.[287] On the other hand, it is possible to consider them as survivals of an original clan who worshipped the wolf as a totem[288]; a view adopted by Mr. Lang[289], who compares the _bear_-maidens of Artemis at Brauron in Attica. But the last word has yet to be said about these obscure animalistic rites.

IX KAL. MAI. (APR. 23). FP (CAER.) NP (MAFF.) F (PRAEN.)[290]

VEIN[ALIA] (CAER.) VIN[ALIA] (MAFF. PRAEN. ESQ.)

Praen. has a mutilated note beginning IO[VI], and ending with [CUM LATINI BELLO PREME]RENTUR A RUTULIS, QUIA MEZENTIUS REX ETRUS[CO]RUM PACISCEBATUR, SI SUBSIDIO VENISSET, OMNIUM ANNORUM VINI FRUCTUM. (Cp. Festus, 65 and 374, where it appears that libations of all new wine were made to Jupiter.)

VENERI (CAER.)

[V]EBERI ERUC. [EXTR]A PORTAM COLLIN[AM]. (ARV.)

This day was generally known as Vinalia Priora, as distinguished from the Vinalia Rustica of August 19. Both days were believed to be sacred to Venus[291]; the earlier one, according to Ovid, was the foundation-day of the temple of Venus Erycina, with which he connected the legend of Aeneas and Mezentius. But as both Varro and Verrius are agreed that the days were sacred, not to Venus but to Jupiter[292], we may leave the legend alone and content ourselves with asking how Venus came into the connexion.

The most probable supposition is that this day being, as Ovid implies, the dies natalis of one of the temples of Venus[293], the Vinalia also came to be considered as sacred to the goddess. The date of the foundation was 181 B.C., exactly at a time when many new worships, and especially Greek ones, were being introduced into Rome[294]. That of the Sicilian Aphrodite, under the name of Venus, seems to have become at once popular with its _Graecus ritus_ and _lascivia maior_[295]; and the older connexion of the festival with Jupiter tended henceforward to disappear. It must be noted, however, that the day of the Vinalia Rustica in August was also the dies natalis of one if not two other temples of Venus[296], and one of these was as old as the year B.C. 293. Thus we can hardly avoid the conclusion that there was, even at an early date, some connexion in the popular mind between the goddess and wine. The explanation is perhaps to be found in the fact that Venus was specially a deity of gardens, and therefore no doubt of vineyards[297]. An interesting inscription from Pompeii confirms this, and attests the connexion of Venus with wine and gardens, as it is written on a wine-jar[298]:

PRESTA MI SINCERU[M] ITA TE AMET QUE
CUSTODIT ORTU[M] VENUS.

The Vinalia, then, both in April and August, was really and originally sacred to Jupiter. The legendary explanation is given by Ovid in 11. 877-900. Whatever the true explanation may have been, the fact can be illustrated from the ritual employed; for it was the Flamen Dialis[299] who ‘vindemiam auspicatus est,’ i. e. after sacrificing plucked the first grapes. Whether this auspicatio took place on either of the Vinalia has indeed been doubted, for even August 19 would hardly seem to suit the ceremony Varro describes[300]; but the fact that it was performed by the priest of Jupiter is sufficient for our purpose.

Of this day, April 23, we may guess that it was the one on which the wine-skins were first opened, and libations from them made to Jupiter. These are probably the libations about which Plutarch[301] asks ‘Why do they pour much wine from the temple of Venus on the Veneralia’ (i. e. Vinalia)? The same libations are attested by Verrius: ‘Vinalia diem festum habebant quo die vinum novum Iovi libabant’[302]. After the libation the wine was tasted, as we learn from Pliny[303]; and it seems probable that it was brought from the country into Rome for this purpose only a few days before. Varro has preserved an interesting notice which he saw posted in vineyards at Tusculum: ‘In Tusculanis hortis (MSS. sortis) est scriptum: ‘Vinum novum ne vehatur in urbem ante quam vinalia kalentur’[304]; i. e. wine-growers were warned that the new wine was not to be brought into the city until the Vinalia had been proclaimed on the Nones. It must, however, be added that this notice may have had reference to the Vinalia in August; for Verrius, if he is rightly reported by Paulus[305], gives August 19 as the day on which the wine might be brought into Rome. Paulus may be wrong, and have confused the two Vinalia[306]; but in that case we remain in the dark as to what was done at the Vinalia Rustica, unless indeed we explain it as a rite intended to secure the vintage that was to follow against malignant influences. This would seem to be indicated by Pliny (_H. N._ 18. 284), where he classes this August festival with the Robigalia and Floralia[307], and further on quotes Varro to prove that its object was to appease the storms (i. e. to be expected in September).

As regards the connexion of the vine-culture with Jupiter, it should be observed that the god is not spoken of as Jupiter Liber, but simply Jupiter; and though the vine was certainly introduced into Italy from Greece, we need not assume that Dionysus, coming with it, was from the beginning attached to or identified with Jupiter. The gift of wine might naturally be attributed to the great god of the air, light, and heat; the Flamen Dialis who ‘vindemiam auspicatus est’ was not the priest of Jupiter Liber; nor does the aetiological legend, in which the Latins avoid the necessity of yielding their first-fruits to the Etruscan tyrant Mezentius by dedicating them to Jupiter, point to any other than the protecting deity of Latium.[308]

VII KAL. MAI. (APRIL 25). NP.

[ROB]IGALIA. (CAER. ESQ. MAFF. PRAEN.)

Note in Praen: FERIAE ROBIGO VIA CLAUDIA AD MILLIARIUM V NE ROBIGO FRUMENTIS NOCEAT. SACRIFICIUM ET LUDI CURSORIBUS MAIORIBUS MINORIBUSQUE FIUNT. FESTUS EST PUERORUM LENONIORUM, QUIA PROXIMUS SUPERIOR MERETRICUM EST.

Robigo means red rust or mildew which attacks cereals when the ear is beginning to be formed[309], and which is better known and more dreaded on the continent than with us. This destructive disease is not caused by the sun’s heat, as Pliny[310] tells us was the notion of some Italians, but by damp acting in conjunction with a certain height of temperature, as Pliny himself in fact explains it.

Robigus[311] is the spirit who works in the mildew; and it has been conjectured that he was a form or indigitation of Mars[312], since Tertullian tells us that ‘Marti et Robigini Numa ludos instituit’[313]. This is quite consistent with all we know of the Mars of the farm-worship, who is invoked to avert evil simply because he can be the creator of it[314]. The same feature is found in the worship of Apollo, who had at Rhodes the cult-title ἐρυθίβιος[315], or Apollo of the blight, as elsewhere he is Apollo Smintheus, i. e. the power that can bring and also avert the pest of field-mice.

Robigus had a grove of his own at the fifth milestone on the Via Claudia; and Ovid relates in pretty verses how, as he was returning from Nomentum (doubtless by way of his own gardens, which were at the junction of the Via Claudia with the Via Flaminia near the Milvian bridge[316]), he met the Flamen Quirinalis with the _exta_ of a dog and a sheep to offer to the god[317]. He joined the procession, which was apparently something quite new to him, and witnessed the ceremony, noting the _meri patera_, the _turis acerra_, and the rough linen napkin[318], at the priest’s right hand. He versified the prayer which he heard, and which is not unlike that which Cato directs the husbandman to address to Mars in the lustration of the farm[319]:

Aspera Robigo, parcas Cerialibus herbis,
Et tremat in summa leve cacumen humo.

Tu sata sideribus caeli nutrita secundi
Crescere, dum fiant falcibus apta, sinas.

Parce, precor, scabrasque manus a messibus aufer,
Neve noce cultis: posse nocere sat est, &c.

Ovid then asked the flamen why a dog—_nova victima_—was sacrificed, and was told that the dangerous Dog-star was in the ascendant[320]:

Est Canis, Icarium dicunt, quo sidere moto
Tosta sitit tellus, praecipiturque seges.
Pro cane sidereo canis hic imponitur arae,
Et quare pereat, nil nisi nomen habet.

In this, however, both he and the priest were certainly mistaken. Sirius does not rise, but disappears on April 25, at sunset; and it is almost certain that the sacrifice of the dog had nothing to do with the star. The real meaning of the choice of victim was unknown both to priest and poet: but modern research has made a reasonable attempt to recover it[321].

We are told[322] of a sacrifice of reddish sucking whelps, and of augury made from their _exta_, which must have been closely connected with the Robigalia, if not (in later times at least) identified with it. Originally it was not on a fixed day, as is proved by an extract from the _commentarii pontificum_ quoted by Pliny[323]; but it is quite possible that for convenience, as the religio of the urbs got more and more dissociated from the agriculture in which it had its origin, the date was fixed for April 25—the rites of the Robigalia being of the same kind, and the date suitable. The whelps were red or reddish; and from the language of Festus, quoting Ateius Capito, we gather that this colour was supposed to resemble that of the corn when ripe: ‘Rufae canes immolabantur, ut fruges _flavescentes_ ad maturitatem perducerentur’ (p. 285). We should indeed naturally have expected that the rufous colour was thought to resemble the red mildew, as Mannhardt explains it[324]; but we do not know for certain that these puppies were offered to Robigus. In any case, however, we may perhaps see in them an animal representation of the corn, and in the rite a piece of ‘sympathetic magic’[325], the object of which was to bring the corn to its golden perfection, or to keep off the robigo, or both. If we knew more about the dog-offering at the grove of Robigus, we might find that it too, if not indeed identical with the _augurium_, had a similar intention.

The red mildew was at times so terrible a scourge that the Robigalia must in early Rome, when the population lived on the corn grown near the city, have been a festival of very real meaning. But later on it became obscured, and gave way to the races mentioned in the note in the Praenestine calendar[326], and under the later empire to the Christian _litania maior_, the original object of which was also the safety of the crops[327]. The 25th is at present St. Mark’s day.

IV KAL. MAI. (APR. 28). NP.

LOEDI FLOR[AE] (CAER.) LUDI FLOR[AE]. (MAFF. PRAEN.)

V NON. MAI. (MAY 3). C.

FLORAE (VEN.).

On the intervening days were also ludi (_C. I. L._ 317).

Note in Praen. (Apr. 28): EODEM DIE AEDIS FLORAE, QUAE REBUS FLORESCENDIS PRAEEST, DEDICATA EST PROPTER STERILITATEM FRUGUM.

This was not a very ancient festival and is not marked in the Calendars in those large letters which are believed to indicate extreme antiquity[328]. Its history seems to be as follows: in 238 B.C. in consequence of a dearth, the Sibylline Books were consulted, and games in honour of Flora were held for the first time by plebeian aediles[329]; also a temple was dedicated to her _ad circum maximum_ on April 28 of that year[330]. There seems to be a certain connexion between the accounts of the institution of the Floralia and the Cerialia. Dearth was the alleged cause in each case; and the position of the temple of Flora near that of Ceres: the foundation by plebeian magistrates, in this case the two Publicii[331], who as aediles were able to spend part of the fines exacted from defaulting holders of _ager publicus_ on this object[332]: and the coarse character of the games as Ovid describes them, all seem to show that the foundation was a plebeian one, like that of the Cerialia[333].

There may, however, have been something in the nature of ludi before this date and at the same time of year, but not of a regular or public character. Flora was beyond doubt an old Italian deity[334], probably closely related to Ceres and Venus. There was a Flamen Floralis of very old standing[335]; and Flora is one of the deities to whom piacula were offered by the Fratres Arvales[336]—a list beginning with Janus and ending with Vesta. There is no doubt, then, that there was a Flora-cult in Rome long before the foundation of the temple and the games in 238; and though its character may have changed under the influence of the Sibylline books, we may be able to glean some particulars as to its original tendency.

In the account of Ovid and from other hints we gather—

1. That indecency was let loose[337] at any rate on the original day of the ludi (April 28), which were in later times extended to May 3. The numen of Flora, says Ovid, was not strict. Drunkenness was the order of the day, and the usual results followed:

Ebrius ad durum formosae limen amicae
Cantat: habent unctae mollia serta comae.

The prostitutes of Rome hailed this as their feast-day, as well as the Vinalia on the 23rd; and if we may trust a story told by Valerius Maximus[338], Cato the younger withdrew from the theatre rather than behold the mimae unclothe themselves, though he would not interfere with the custom. Flora herself, like Acca Larentia, was said by late writers to have been a harlot whose gains enabled her to leave money for the ludi[339]. These characteristics of the festival were no doubt developed under the influence of luxury in a large city, and grew still more objectionable under the Empire[340]. But it is difficult to believe that such practices would have grown up as they did at this particular time of year, had there not been some previous customs of the kind existing before the ludi were regularly instituted.

2. We find another curious custom belonging to the last days of the ludi, which became common enough under the Empire[341], but may yet have had an origin in the cult of Flora. Hares and goats were let loose in the Circus Maximus on these days. Ovid asks Flora:

Cur tibi pro Libycis clauduntur rete[342] leaenis
Imbelles capreae sollicitusque lepus?

and gets the answer:

Non sibi, respondit, silvas cessisse, sed hortos
Arvaque pugnaci non adeunda ferae.

If we take this answer as at least appropriate, we may add to it the reflection that hares and goats are prolific animals and also that they are graminivorous. Flora as a goddess of fertility and bloom could have nothing in common with fierce carnivora. But we are also reminded of the foxes that were let loose in the Circus at the Cerialia[343], and may see in these beasts as in the foxes animal representations of the spirit of fertility.

3. Another custom is possibly significant in something the same way. From a passage in Persius we learn that vetches, beans, and lupines were scattered among the people in the circus[344]. The commentators explain this as meaning that they were thrown simply to be scrambled for as food; and we know that other objects besides eatables were thrown on similar occasions, at any rate at a later time[345]. But it is noticeable that among these objects were medals with obscene representations on them; and putting two and two together it is not unreasonable to guess that the original custom had a meaning connected with fructification. Dr. Mannhardt[346] has collected a very large number of examples of the practice of sprinkling and throwing all kinds of grain, including rice, peas, beans, &c., from all parts of the world, in the marriage rite and at the birth of children; amply sufficient to prove that the custom is symbolic of fertility. Bearing in mind the time of year, the nature of Flora, the character of the April rites generally, and the occurrence of the women’s cult of the Bona Dea on May 1, viz. one of the days of the ludi, we may perhaps conjecture that the custom in question was a very old one—far older than the organized games—and had reference to the fertility both of the earth and of man himself[347].

Feriae Latinae.

A brief account may be here given of the great Latin festival which usually in historical times took place in April. Though it was not held at Rome, but on the Alban Mount, it was under the direct supervision of the Roman state, and was in reality a Roman festival. The consuls on their entrance upon office on the Ides of March had to fix and announce the date of it[348]; and when in 153 B.C. the day of entrance was changed to January 1, the date of the festival does not seem to have been changed to suit it. The consuls must be present themselves, leaving a _praefectus urbi_ at Rome[349]; or in case of the compulsory absence of both consuls a dictator might be appointed _Feriarum Latinarum causa_. Only when the festival was over could they leave Rome for their provinces.

It was therefore a festival of the highest importance to the Roman state. But the ritual will show that it must in fact have been much older than that state as we know it in historical times; it was a common festival of the most ancient Latin communities[350], celebrated on the lofty hill which arose in their midst, where dwelt the great protecting deity of their race. At what date Rome became the presiding city at the festival we do not know. The foundation of the temple on the hill was ascribed to the Tarquinii, and this tradition seems to be borne out by the character of the foundations discovered there, which resemble those of the Capitoline temple[351]. No doubt the Tarquinii may have renovated the cult or even given it an extended significance; but the Roman presidency must conjecturally be placed still further back. Perhaps no festival, Greek or Roman, carries us over such a vast period of time as this; its features betray its origin in the pastoral age, and it continued in almost uninterrupted grandeur till the end of the third century A.D., or even later[352].

The ritual as known to us was as follows[353]. When the magistrates or (their deputies) of all the Latin cities taking part had assembled at the temple, the Roman consul offered a libation of milk, while the deputies from the other cities brought sheep, cheeses, or other such offerings. But the characteristic rite was the slaughter of a pure white heifer that had never felt the yoke. This sacrifice was the duty of the consul, who acted on behalf of the whole number of cities. When it was concluded, the flesh of the victim was divided amongst all the deputies and consumed by them. To be left out of this common meal, or sacrament, would be equivalent to being excluded from communion with the god and the Latin league, and the desire to obtain the allotted flesh is more than once alluded to[354]. A general festivity followed the sacrifice, while _oscilla_, or little puppets, were hung from the branches of trees as at the Paganalia[355]. As usual in Italy, the least oversight in the ceremony or evil omen made it necessary to begin it all over again; and this occasionally happened[356]. Lastly, during the festival there was a truce between all the cities, and it would seem that the alliance between Rome and the Latins was yearly renewed on the day of the Feriae[357].

Some of the leading characteristics of the Italian Jupiter will be considered further on[358]. But this festival may teach us that we are here in the presence of the oldest and finest religious conception of the Latin race, which yearly acknowledges its common kinship of blood and seals it by partaking in the common meal of a sacred victim, thus entering into communion with the god, the victim, and each other[359]. The offerings are characteristic rather of a pastoral than an agricultural age, and suggest an antiquity that is fully confirmed by the ancient utensils dug up on the Alban Mount[360]. As Helbig has pointed out, the absence of any mention of wine proves that the origin of the festival must be dated earlier than the introduction of the grape into Italy. The white victim may be a reminiscence of some primitive white breed of cattle. The common meal of the victim’s flesh is a survival from the age when cattle were sacred animals, and were never slain except on the solemn annual occasions when the clan renewed its kinship and its mutual obligations by a solemn sacrament[361].

As Rome absorbed Latium, so Jupiter Latiaris gave way before the great god of the Capitol, who is the symbol of the later victorious and imperial Rome; but the god of the Alban hill and his yearly festival continued to recall the early share of the Latins in the rise of their leading city, long after the population of their towns had been so terribly thinned that some of them could hardly find a surviving member to represent them at the festival and take their portion of the victim[362].

Footnote 186:

Varro, _L. L._ 6. 33; Censorinus, 2. 20. Verrius Flaccus in the
heading to April in Fasti Praen.: ... ‘quia fruges flores animaliaque
et maria et terrae aperiuntur.’ Mommsen, _Chron._ 222. Ovid quaintly
forsakes the scholars to claim the month for Venus (Aphrodite),
_Fasti_, 4. 61 foll. I do not know why Mr. Granger should call it the
boar-month (from _aper_), in his _Worship of the Romans_, p. 294.

Footnote 187:

_Segetes runcuri_, Varro, _R. R._ I. 30. Columella’s instructions are
of the same kind (II. 2).

Footnote 188:

_C. I. L._ 280.

Footnote 189:

_Röm. Jahr_, 216.

Footnote 190:

February has thirteen, all but two between Kal. and Ides. The Nones
and Ides are NP. April has thirteen between Nones and 22nd; or
fourteen if we include the 19th, which is NP in Caer. The Ides are NP,
Nones N.

Footnote 191:

See the fragmentary heading to the month in Fasti Praen.; Ovid, l. c.;
Lydus, 4. 45; Tutela Veneris, in rustic calendars; Veneralia (April
1), Philocalus.

Footnote 192:

Varro, _R. R._ 1. 1. 6: ‘Item adveneror Minervam et Venerem, quarum
unius procuratio oliveti, alterius _hortorum_.’ Cp. _L. L._ 6. 20
‘Quod tum (Aug. 19) dedicata aedes et horti ei deae dicantur ac tum
fiant feriati _holitores_.’ Cf. Preller, _Myth._ i. 434 foll. The
oldest Venus-temple was in the low ground of the Circus Maximus (B.C.
295). “Venus, like Ceres, may have been an old Roman deity of the
plebs, but she never entered into the State-worship in early times.”
Macrob. 1. 12. 12 quotes Cincius (_de Fastis_) and Varro to prove that
she had originally nothing to do with April, and that there was no
_dies festus_ or _insigne sacrificium_ in her honour during the month.

Footnote 193:

4. 45 Ταῖς τοίνυν καλάνδαις ἀπριλλίαις αἱ σεμναὶ γυναικῶν ὑπὲρ
ὁμονοίας καὶ βίου σώφρονος ἐτίμων τὴν Ἀφροδίτην· αἱ δὲ τοῦ πλήθους
γυναῖκες ἐν τοῖς τῶν ἀνδρῶν βαλανείοις ἐλούοντο, πρὸς θεραπείαν αὐτῆς
μυρσίνη ἐστεμμέναι, κ.τ.λ. Cp. Macrob. 1. 12. 15.

Footnote 194:

_C. I. L._ 315.

Footnote 195:

We shall find some reason for believing that in the early Republican
period new cults came in rather through plebeian than patrician agency
(see below, on Cerealia). But in the period of the new nobilitas the
lower classes seem rather to have held to their own cults, while the
upper social stratum was more ready to accept new ones. See below, on
April 4, for the conditions of such acceptance. The tendency is to be
explained by the wide and increasing sphere of the foreign relations
of the Senatorial government.

Footnote 196:

_Fasti_, 4. 133-164.

Footnote 197:

Ovid, l. c. 149 foll.

Footnote 198:

Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, p. 456.

Footnote 199:

_Quaest. Rom._ 74.

Footnote 200:

Ovid, l. c., 4. 160 ‘Inde Venus verso nomina corde tenet.’

Footnote 201:

Aust, _de Aedibus sacris_, p. 28. About a century earlier a statue of
this Venus was said to have been erected (Val. Max. 8. 15. 12; Plin.
_H. N._ 7. 120), as Wissowa pointed out in his Essay, ‘de Veneris
Simulacris,’ p. 12.

Footnote 202:

See above, p. 67, note 2.

Footnote 203:

_Religion of the Semites_, p. 450 foll.

Footnote 204:

Preller, i. 446.

Footnote 205:

Livy, 29. 10 and 14; Ovid (_Fasti_, 4. 259 foll.) has a fanciful
edition of the story which well illustrates the character of his work,
and that of the legend-mongers; cp. Preller, ii. 57.

Footnote 206:

Preller, ii. 55.

Footnote 207:

Plin. _H. N._ 18. 16; Arnobius, 7. 49.

Footnote 208:

Livy, 29. 10, 14.

Footnote 209:

See above, Introduction, p. 7.

Footnote 210:

_de Harusp. Resp._ 12. 24 ‘Qui uni ludi ne verbo quidem appellantur
Latino, ut vocabulo ipso et appetita religio externa et Matris Magnae
nomine suscepta declaretur.’

Footnote 211:

Dion. Hal. 2. 19. A very interesting passage, in which, among other
comments, the historian points out that in receiving the goddess the
Romans eliminated ἅπασαν τερθρείαν μυθικήν.

Footnote 212:

Aust, _de Aedibus sacris_, pp. 22 and 49.

Footnote 213:

Gell. 18. 2. 11 (patricii); cp. 2. 24. 2 (principes civitatis). Cp.
Lydus, 4. 45; Verrius’ note in Praen., ‘_Nobilium mutitationes
cenarum_ solitae sunt frequenter fieri,’ &c.

Footnote 214:

See Marq. 370 foll. The Ludi eventually extended from the 4th to the
10th inclusive (_C. I. L._ 314).

Footnote 215:

Or Hordicidia, Fest. 102; Hordicalia, Varro, _R. R._ 2. 5. 6;
Fordicalia, Lydus, 4. 49. ‘Forda ferens bos est fecundaque, dicta
ferendo,’ Ovid, _Fasti_, 4. 631.

Footnote 216:

Ovid, l. c. 635 ‘Pars cadit arce Iovis. Ter denas curia vaccas
Accipit, et largo sparsa cruore madet.’ Cp. Varro, _L. L._ 6. 15.
Preller, ii. 6, understands Ovid’s ‘pars’ as meaning more than one
cow.

Footnote 217:

Ovid, l. c. 633 ‘Nune gravidum pecus est, gravidae nunc semine terrae;
Telluri plenae victima plena datur.’

Footnote 218:

Ovid, l. c. 637.

Ast ubi visceribus vitulos rapuere ministri,
Sectaque fumosis exta dedere focis,
Igne cremat vitulos quae natu maxima Virgo,
Luce Palis populos purget ut ille cinis.

Footnote 219:

See below, p. 83.

Footnote 220:

This appears plainly in Ovid’s account (_Fasti_, 4. 633 foll.), and
also in that of Lydus (4. 49): περὶ τὰ σπόριμα ὑπὲρ εὐετηρίας
ἱεράτευον. Both doubtless drew on Varro. Lydus adds one or two
particulars, that the ἀρχιερεῖς (?) scattered flowers among the people
in the theatre, and went in procession outside the city, sacrificing
to Demeter at particular stations; but he may be confusing this
festival with the Ambarvalia.

Footnote 221:

See Mannhardt, _Myth. Forsch._ 190; cp. Frazer, _G. B._ ii. 43.

Footnote 222:

Fasti Praen.; _C. I. L._ 235, and Mommsen’s note (where Apr. is
misprinted Aug.). ‘[Hoc biduo sacrific]ium maximum Fortunae Prim[i]g.
utro eorum die oraclum patet, II viri vitulum I.’

Footnote 223:

Liv. 30. 39; Friedländer in Marq. 500; Mommsen, _Münzwesen_, p. 642,
note; _Staatsrecht_, i. 586.

Footnote 224:

_C. I. L._ 298.

Footnote 225:

In the Salian hymn _duonus cerus = creator bonus_ (of Janus): cf.
Varro, L. L. 7. 26; Mommsen, _Unteritalische Dialekten_, 133. See
articles _cerus_ (Wissowa) and _Ceres_ (Birt) in _Myth. Lex._;
Bücheler, _Umbrica_, 80 and 99.

Footnote 226:

‘Ceres a creando dicta,’ Serv. Georg. 1. 7. It is worth noting that in
Nonius Marcellus, 44, _cerriti = larvati_, where _cerus_ seems to mean
a ghost. If so, we have a good example of a common origin of ghosts
and gods in the animistic ideas of early Italy.

Footnote 227:

Arnob. 3. 40, quoting one Caesius, who followed Etruscan teaching, and
held that Ceres = Genius Iovialis et Pales. See Preller-Jordan, i. 81.

Footnote 228:

Preller-Jordan, i. 62. They were not even certain whether the Genius
Urbis was masculine or feminine; Serv. _Aen._ 2. 351.

Footnote 229:

Henzen, _Acta Fr. Arv._ p. 48. In later times Ceres took the place of
Mars at the Ambarvalia, under Greek influence.

Footnote 230:

So Henzen, l. c. and his Introduction, p. ix.

Footnote 231:

_Myth. Lex_, s.v. Ceres, 861. He does not, however, dogmatize, and has
little to adduce in favour of his opinion, save the statement of
Servius (Georg. 1. 7) that ‘Sabini Cererem Panem appellant.’

Footnote 232:

Preller Jordan, ii. 26.

Footnote 233:

Aust, _de Aedibus_, pp. 5 and 40. Preller-Jordan, ii. 38.

Footnote 234:

Birt (_Myth. Lex._ 862) gives the authorities.

Footnote 235:

The _trias_ of itself would prove the Greek origin: cf. Kuhfeldt, _de
Capitoliis_, p. 77 foll.

Footnote 236:

Plin. _H. N._ 35. 154. The names of two Greek artists were inscribed
on the temple.

Footnote 237:

Mommsen, _Staatsrecht_, ii. 2, 468, note.

Footnote 238:

Dion. Hal. 6. 89; 10. 42; Liv. 3. 55 says _sacer Iovi_, but the
property was to be sold at the temple of Ceres, Liber, and Libera. The
corn-stealer also was _sacer Cereri_.

Footnote 239:

Liv. 10. 23; 27. 6; 33. 25.

Footnote 240:

Mommsen, _Hist_. i. 284, note. Cp. Schwegler, _Röm. Gesch._ ii. 275,
note 3, who thinks of an _aerarium plebis_ there. See also i. 606 and
ii. 278, note 3. According to Liv. 3. 55 senatus consulta had to be
deposited in this temple.

Footnote 241:

Burn, _Rome and the Campagna_, p. 204; Liv. 3. 31 and 32 fin.; cp. 10.
31.

Footnote 242:

e. g. by Ihne, vol. i. p. 160.

Footnote 243:

Schwegler, _R. G._ i. 783 foll.

Footnote 244:

Mommsen, _Staatsrecht_, ii. 2. 468, note 2, is doubtful as to the date
of the _cura annonae_ of the plebeian aediles. But Plin. _H. N._ 18.
3. 15 attributes it to an aedile of earlier date than Spurius Maelius
(B.C. 438); and though the Consuls may have had the general
supervision, the immediate _cura_, as far as the plebs was concerned,
would surely lie with their officers. Two points should be borne in
mind here—(1) that the plebeian population to be relieved would be a
surplus population _within the city_, not the farmer-population of the
country; (2) that it would probably be easier to transport corn by sea
than by land, as roads were few, and enemies all around.

Footnote 245:

Dion. Hal. 7.1, exposes the absurdity of Roman annalists in
attributing the corn-supply to Dionysius; but he himself talks of
Gelo. Cp. Ihne, i. 160. Ihne disbelieves the whole story, believing it
to be copied from events which happened long afterwards.

Footnote 246:

Ambrosch, _Studien_, p. 208. Tradition told that the Tarquinii had
stored up great quantities of corn in Rome, i. e. had fed their
workmen. Cp. Liv. 1. 56 and 2. 9.

Footnote 247:

Mommsen, _R. H._, bk. i. ch. 13 fin.

Footnote 248:

See under August 13 (below, p. 198) for the parallel foundation of the
temple of Diana on the Aventine, which also had a Greek and plebeian
character.

Footnote 249:

_Fasti_, 4. 681 foll. Ovid does not distinctly say that the foxes were
let loose in the Circus, but seems to imply it.

Footnote 250:

‘Factum abiit, monimenta manent; nam vivere captam
Nunc quoque lex volpem Carseolana vetat.’

The best MSS. have ‘nam dicere certam.’ Bergk conjectured ‘namque
icere captam.’ The reading given above is adopted from some inferior
MSS. by H. Peter (Leipzig, 1889), following Heinsius and Riese. Mr. S.
G. Owen of Ch. Ch., our best authority on the text of Ovid, has kindly
sent me the suggestion _namque ire repertam_, comparing, for the use
of _ire_, Ovid, _Am_. 3. 6. 20 ‘sic aeternus eas.’ This conjecture,
which occurred independently to myself, suits the sense and is close
to the reading of the best MSS.

Footnote 251:

J. Grimm, _Reinhardt der Fuchs_, cclxix (quoted by Peter). Ovid’s
explanation is of course wrong; the story is beyond doubt meant to
explain the ritual, or a law to which the ritual gave rise.

Footnote 252:

Preller-Jordan, ii. 43. See under Robigalia.

Footnote 253:

_Myth. Forsch._ 107 foll.

Footnote 254:

Ovid’s word is _terga_, but he must, I think, mean ‘tails.’

Footnote 255:

Mannhardt, op. cit. 185. Cp. Frazer, _Golden Bough_, i. 408; ii. 3 and
28 (for fertilizing power of tail).

Footnote 256:

_Zoological Mythology_, ii. 138.

Footnote 257:

It may be as well to note that the custom of tying some object in
straw—wheel, pole with cross-piece, man who slips out in time, &c.—and
then burning it and carrying it about the fields, is common in Europe
and elsewhere (Frazer, _G. B._ ii. 246 foll.). At the same time
animals are sometimes burnt in a bonfire: e.g. squirrels, cats, foxes,
&c. (_G. B._ ii. 283). The explanation of Mannhardt, adopted by Mr.
Frazer, is that they were corn-spirits burnt as a charm to secure
sunshine and vegetation. If the foxes were ever really let loose among
the fields, damage might occasionally be done, and stories might arise
like that of Carseoli, or even laws forbidding a dangerous practice.

Footnote 258:

In _C. I. L._ 315 this mark is confused with those of the 23rd.

Footnote 259:

The letters _an_ also appear in a fragment of a lost note in Esq.
Mommsen quotes Ovid, _Fasti_, 4. 775, and Tibull. 2. 5. 81 for the
idea of an _annus pastorum_ beginning on this day. I can find no
explanation of it, astronomical or other. Dion. Hal. 1. 88 calls the
day the beginning of spring, which it certainly was not.

Footnote 260:

For the form of the word see Mommsen, _C. I. L._ 315. (In Varro, _L.
L._ 6. 15, it is Palilia.) Preller-Jordan, i. 416.

Footnote 261:

‘Palilia tam privata quam publica sunt.’ Varro, ap Schol. in Persium,
1. 75. See on Compitalia, below, p. 279.

Footnote 262:

Serv. _Georg._ 3. 1: ‘Pales ... dea est pabuli. Hanc ... alii, inter
quos Varro, masculino genere vocant, ut hic Pales.’ There can be no
better proof of the antiquity of the deity in Italy.

Footnote 263:

_L. L._ 5. 53.

Footnote 264:

There was a _flamen Palatualis_ (Varro, _L. L._ 7. 45, and Fest. 245)
and an offering _Palatuar_ (Fest. 348), connected with a _Diva
Palatua_ of the Palatine, who may have been the urban and pontifical
form of Pales.

Footnote 265:

Ovid is borne out or supplemented by Tibull. 2. 5. 87 foll.; Propert.
4. 4. 75 foll.; Probus on Virg. _Georg._ 3. 1; Dionys. 1. 88, &c.

Footnote 266:

It is noticeable that sheep alone are mentioned in the ritual as Ovid
describes it.

Footnote 267:

_A. W. F._ p. 310. Cp. Frazer, _G. B._ ii. 246 foll.

Footnote 268:

_Chambers’ Journal_, July, 1842. For the custom in London, Brand,
_Pop. Antiquities_, p. 307.

Footnote 269:

So I understand Ovid: but in line 742 _in mediis focis_ might rather
indicate a fire in the _atrium_ of the house, and so Mannhardt takes
it. In that case the fire over which they leaped (line 805) was made
later on in the ceremony.

Footnote 270:

Cp. Hom. _Od_. 22. 481 Οἶσε θέειον, γρηύ, κακῶν ἄκος, οἶσε δέ μοι πῦρ,
Ὄφρα θεειώσω μέγαρον.

Footnote 271:

Tibull. 2. 5. 28 ‘Et facta agresti lignea falce Pales.’ Tib. seems
here to be transferring a rustic practice of his own day to the
earliest Romans of the Palatine. But he may be simply indulging his
imagination; and we cannot safely conclude that we have here a rude
Italian origin of anthropomorphic ideas of the gods.

Footnote 272:

Ovid, _Fasti_, 4. 743-746. esp ‘dapibus resectis.’ We can hardly
escape the conclusion that the idea of the common meal shared with the
gods was a genuine Italian one; it is found here, in the Terminalia
(Ovid, _Fasti_, 2. 655), and in the worship of Jupiter. See on Sept.
13 and Feb. 23.

Footnote 273:

_Fasti_, 4. 763 foll.

Footnote 274:

Four is unusual; three is the common number in religious rites.

Footnote 275: