Chapter IX: Part 9

This last point supplies us with a possible clue both to the origin of the custom and the explanatory legend. One of the most frequent customs at harvest-time used to be, and still is in some places, for the harvesters to mock at, and even to use roughly, any stranger who appears on the field; frequently he is tied up with straw, even by the women binding the sheaves, and only released on promise of money, brandy, &c.; or he is ducked in water, or half-buried, or in pretence beheaded[734]. The stranger in such cases is explained as representing the spirit of the corn; the examples collected by Mannhardt and Mr. Frazer seem fairly conclusive on this point[735]. The wearing of the matron’s dress also seems to be a combination of the familiar practices of the winter Saturnalia with harvest customs, which in various forms is by no means uncommon[736], though I have not found a case of exchange of dress after harvest.

Thus it would seem possible that we have here a relic of Italian harvest-custom; and this is confirmed by the statement of Tertullian that there was on this day a sacrifice to the harvest-god Consus[737], at his underground altar in the Circus Maximus, of which we shall have more to say under Aug. 21 (Consualia). It is worth noting here that just as the legend of the Rape of the Sabines was connected with the Consualia[738], so the analogous story of the demand of the Fidenates for Roman women is associated with the _Ancillarum Feriae_, and the day of the sacrifice to Consus. This not only serves to connect together the two days of Consus-worship, but suggests that harvest was a favourable opportunity for the practice of capturing wives in primitive Italy, when the women were out in the fields, and might be carried off by a sudden incursion.

This day was also known as Nonae Caprotinae, because the women, presumably those who had been helping at the harvest, both bond and free[739], sacrificed to Juno Caprotina under a wild fig-tree (caprificus) in the Campus Martius[740]. Juno Caprotina was a Latin goddess, of great renown at Falerii[741], where the goat from which she took her name appears in the legend of her cult. The character of Juno as the representative of the female principle of human life[742] suits well enough with the prominence of women both in the customs and legends connected with the day; and the fig-tree with its milky juice, which was used, according to Macrobius, in the sacrifice to Juno instead of milk, has also its significance[743]. Varro adds that a rod (virga) was also cut from this tree[744], without telling us for what purpose it was used; and it has been ingeniously conjectured that it was with this that the handmaids beat each other as Plutarch describes, to produce fertility, just as at the Lupercalia the women were beaten with strips cut from the skins of the victims (amiculum Junonis). But this is mere conjecture, and Varro’s statement is too indefinite to be pressed[745].

VIII ID. QUINCT. (JULY 8). N.

‘Piso ait vitulam victoriam nominari, cuius rei hoc argumentum profert, quod postridio nonas Iulias re bene gesta, cum pridie populus a Tuscis in fugam versus sit (unde Populifugia vocantur), post victoriam certis sacrificiis fiat _vitulatio_[746].’

I must be content with quoting this passage, and without comment; it will suffice to show that the meaning of the word ‘vitulatio’ was entirely unknown to Roman scholars. Why they should not have connected it with _vitulus_ I know not: we may remember that in the Iguvian ritual _vituli_ seem to have performed the function of scapegoats[747]. If the vitulatio is in any way to be connected with the Poplifugia, as it was indeed in the legend as given by Macrobius above, it may be worth while to remember that that day is marked in one calendar as ‘feriae Iovi,’ and that the _vitulus_ (heifer) was the special victim of Jupiter[748].

PRID. NON. QUINCT.—III ID. QUINCT. (JULY 6-13).

LUDI APOLLINARES.

All these days are marked ‘ludi’ in Maff. Amit. Ant.; the 6th ‘ludi Apoll[ini],’ and the 13th ‘ludi in circo.’

These games[749] were instituted in 212 B.C., for a single occasion only, at the most dangerous period of the war with Hannibal, when he had taken Tarentum and invaded Campania. Recourse was had to the Sibylline books and to the Italian oracles of Marcius, and the latter answered as follows[750]:

‘Hostes Romani si expellere voltis, vomicamque quae gentium venit longe, Apollini vovendos censeo ludos, qui quotannis Apollini fiant,’ &c. The games were held, as we may suppose, on the analogy of the ludi plebeii, originally on the 13th day of the month[751], and were, in course of time, extended backwards till in the Julian calendar we find them lasting from the 6th to the 13th. They had a Greek character from the first; they were superintended by the Decemviri sacris faciundis, who consulted the Sibylline books and organized the ritual of foreign cults; and they included scenic shows, after the Greek fashion, as well as chariot races[752].

It was matter of dispute whether in this year, 212, Apollo was expected to show his favour to Rome as a conqueror of her foe or as an averter of pestilence in the summer heats; both functions were within his range. But in 208 we are told that the ludi were renewed by a lex, made permanent, and fixed for July 13 in consequence of a pestilence[753]; and we may fairly assume that this was, in part at least, the cause of their institution four years earlier. What little we know of the traditions of Apollo-worship at Rome points in the same direction. His oldest temple in the Flaminian fields, where, according to Livy, a still more ancient shrine once stood[754], was vowed in 432 B.C. in consequence of a pestilence; and the god had also the cult-title Medicus[755]. The next occasion on which we meet with the cult is that of the first institution of a lectisternium in 397 B.C., Livy’s account of which is worth condensing[756]. That year was remarkable for an extremely cold winter, which was followed by an equally unhealthy summer, destructive to all kinds of animals. As the cause of this pestilence could not be discovered, the Sibylline books were consulted; the result of which was the introduction of a _lectisternium_, at which three couches were laid out with great magnificence, on which reposed Apollo and Latona, Diana and Hercules, Mercurius and Neptunus, whose favour the people besought for eight days.

The cult of Apollo, though thus introduced in its full magnificence at Rome in historical times, was, ‘so old in Italy as almost to give the impression of being indigenous[757].’ Tradition ascribed to Tarquinius Superbus the introduction from Cumae of the Sibylline oracles, which were intimately connected with Apollo-worship; and that Etruscan king may well have been familiar with the Greek god, who was well known in Etruria as _Aplu_[758], and who was worshipped at Caere, the home of the Tarquinian family, which city had a ‘treasury’ at Delphi[759]. The Romans themselves, according to a tradition which is by no means improbable, had very early dealings with the Delphic oracle.

It does not seem certain that Apollo displaced any other deity when transplanted to Rome. It has been thought that the obscure Veiovis became clothed with some of Apollo’s characteristics, but this is extremely doubtful[760]. The mysterious deity of Soracte, _Soranus_, is called Apollo by Virgil[761]; this, however, is not a true displacement, like that, e. g., of the ancient Ceres by the characteristics of Demeter, but merely a poetical substitution of a familiar name for an unfamiliar one which was unquestionably old Italian.

It does not seem probable that in the Republican period the cult of Apollo had any special influence, either religious or ethical, for the Roman people generally. It was a priestly experiment—a new physician was called in at perilous times, according to the fashion of the Roman oligarchy, either to give advice by his oracles, or to receive honours for his benefits as ἀλεξίκακος. It is in the age of Augustus that the cult begins to be important; the family of the Caesars was said to have had an ancient connexion with it[762], and after the victory at Actium, where a temple of Apollo stood on the promontory, Augustus not only enlarged and adorned this one, but built another on the Palatine, near his own house, to Apollo Palatinus. But for the ‘Apollinism’ of Augustus, and for the important part played by the god in the _ludi saeculares_ of B.C. 17, I must refer the reader to other works[763].

XIV KAL. SEXT. (JULY 19). NP.

LUCAR[IA]. (MAFF. AMIT.)

XII KAL. SEXT. (JULY 21). NP.

LUCAR[IA]. (MAFF. AMIT.)

Here, as in the next two festivals we have to consider, we are but ‘dipping buckets into empty wells.’ The ritual, and therefore the original meaning of this festival, is wholly lost to us, as indeed it was to the Romans of Varro’s time. Varro, in his list of festivals, does not even mention this one; but it is possible that some words have here dropped out of his text[764]. The only light we have comes at second-hand from Verrius Flaccus[765]. ‘Lucaria festa in luco colebant Romani, qui permagnus inter viam Salariam et Tiberim fuit, pro eo, quod victi a Gallis fugientes[766] e praelio ibi se occultaverint.’ This passage reminds us of the story explanatory of the Poplifugia, and might suggest, as in that case, an expiatory sacrifice and flight of the people from a scapegoat destined to carry away disease. But here we know of no _vestigia fugae_ in the cult, such as Varro tells us were apparent at the Poplifugia.

The only possible guess we can make must rest on the name itself, taken together with what Festus tells us of the great wood once existing between the Via Salaria and the Tiber, in which the festival was held—a wood which no doubt occupied the Pincian hill, and the region afterwards laid out in gardens by Lucullus, Pompeius, and Sallust the historian. Lucaria is formed from _lucar_ as Lemuria from _lemur_; and _lucar_, though in later times it meant ‘the sum disbursed from the _aerarium_ for the games[767],’ drawn probably from the receipts of the sacred groves, may also at one time itself have meant a grove. An inscription from the Latin colony of Luceria shows us _lucar_ in this sense[768]:

IN · HOCE · LUCARID · STIRCUS · NE · IS · FUNDATID, &c.

Now there can be no doubt about the great importance of woods, or rather of clearings in them, in the ancient Italian religion. ‘_Nemus_ and _lucus_,’ says Preller[769], ‘like so many other words, remind us of the old Italian life of woodland and clearing. _Nemus_ is a pasturage, _lucus_ a “light” or clearing[770], in the forest, where men settled and immediately began to look to the interests of the spirits of the woodland, and especially of Silvanus, who is at once the god of the wild life of the woodland and of the settler in the forest—the backwoodsman.’ The woods left standing as civilization and agriculture advanced continued to be the abodes of _numina_, not only of the great Jupiter, who, as we shall see, was worshipped in groves all over Italy[771], and of Diana, who at Aricia bore the title of Nemorensis, but of innumerable spirits of the old worship, Fauni, Silvani, and other manifestations of the idea most definitely conceived in the great god Mars[772]. But men could not of course know for certain what spirits dwelt in a wood, whose anger might be roused by intrusion or tree-felling; and old Cato, among his many prescriptions, material and religious, gives one in the form of an invocation to such unknown deities if an intrusion had to be made. It is worth quoting, and runs as follows[773]: ‘Lucum conlucare Romano more sic oportet. Porco piaculo facito. Sic verba concipito: Si Deus, si Dea es, quoium illud sacrum est, uti tibi ius siet porco piaculo facere, illiusce sacri coercendi ergo. Harumce rerum ergo, sive ego, sive quis iussu meo fecerit, uti id recte factum siet. Eius rei ergo te hoc porco piaculo immolando bonas preces precor, uti sies volens propitius mihi, domo familiaeque meae, liberisque meis. Harumce rerum ergo macte hoc porco piaculo immolando esto.’

Applying these facts to the problem of the Lucaria, though necessarily with hesitation, and remembering the position of the wood and the date of the festival, we may perhaps arrive at the following conclusion; that this was a propitiatory worship offered to the deities inhabiting the woods which bordered on the cultivated Roman ager. The time when the corn was being gathered in, and the men and women were in the fields, would be by no means unsuitable for such propitiation. It need not have been addressed to any special deity, any more than that of Cato, or as I believe, the ritual of the Lupercalia[774]; it belonged to the most primitive of Roman rites, and partly for that reason, partly also from the absorption of land by large private owners[775], it fell into desuetude. The grove of the Fratres Arvales and the decay of their cult (also addressed to a nameless deity) offers an analogy on the other side of Rome, towards Ostia.

Such a hypothesis seems not unreasonable, though it is based rather on general than particular evidence. It is at any rate better than the wild guessing of one German inquirer, who is always at home when there is no information. Huschke[776] believes that the words _Lucaria_ and _Luceres_ (the ancient Roman tribe-name) are both derived from _lucus_ because the Lucaria take place in July, which is the auspication-month of the Luceres. And there are two days of this festival, because the Luceres owed protection both to the Romani and Quirites (Rhamnes and Tities) and therefore worshipped both Janus and Quirinus.

X KAL. SEXT. (JULY 23). NP.

NEPT[UNALIA]. (PINC. MAFF.)

FERIAE NEPTUNO. (PINC. ALLIF.)

The early history of Neptunus is a mystery, and we learn hardly anything about him from his festival. We know that it took place in the heat of summer, and that booths or huts made of the foliage of trees were used at it, to keep the sun off the worshippers—and that is all[777]. Neither of these facts suggests a sea-god, such as we are accustomed to see in Neptune; yet they are hardly strong enough to enable us to build on them any other hypothesis as to his character or functions. Nor does his name help us. Though it constantly appears in Etruscan art as the name of a god who has the characteristics of the Greek Poseidon, it is said not to be of genuine Etruscan origin[778]. If this be so, the Etruscans must have borrowed it from some people who already used it of a sea-god when the loan was made; but one does not see why this great seafaring people should have gone outside the language of their own religion for a name for their deity of the sea.

In the ancient cult-formulae preserved by Gellius[779], Neptunus is coupled with a female name Salacia; and of this Varro writes ‘Salacia Neptuni a salo’—an etymology no doubt suggested by the later identification of Neptunus with Poseidon. Salacia is in my opinion rather to be referred to _salax_ (‘lustful,’ &c.), and, like Nerio Martis[780], to be taken as indicating the virile force of Neptunus as the divine progenitor of a stock[781]. This seems to be confirmed by the fact that this god was known as Neptunus pater, like Mars, Janus, Saturnus, and Jupiter himself[782]; all of whom are associated in cult or legend with the early history of Latin stocks.

When Neptunus first meets us in Roman history, he has already put on the attributes of the Greek Poseidon; this was in B.C. 399, at the first lectisternium, where he is in company with Apollo and Latona, Diana and Hercules, and is specially coupled with Mercurius (= Hermes)[783]. What characteristics of his suggested the identification, either here or in Etruria, we cannot tell. We find no trace of any evidence connecting him with the sea; and the coupling with Hermes need mean no more than that both this god and Poseidon found their way to Rome through the medium of Greek trade.

It has recently been conjectured[784] that the object of both the Lucaria and Neptunalia was to avert the heat and drought of July, and to propitiate the deities of water and springs, of whom Neptunus (judging from his identification with Poseidon) may possibly have been one; but this is no more than a vague guess, which its author only puts forward ‘with all reserve.’

VIII KAL. SEXT. (JULY 25). NP.

FURR[INALIA]. (PINC. ALLIF. MAFF.)

FERIAE FURRINAE (PINC. ALLIF.)

It seems to be the lesson of the festivals of July that there was an early stage of the Roman religion which had lost all meaning for the Romans themselves when they began to inquire into the history of their own religion. Of this last festival of the month we know no single item in the cult, and therefore have nothing substantial to guide us. It seems almost certain that even Varro and Verrius Flaccus[785] knew nothing of the festival but its name as it stood in the calendar. Nor did they know anything of the goddess Furrina or Furina. Varro is explicit; he says that she was celebrated ‘apud antiquos,’ for they gave her an annual festival and a flamen, but that in his day there were hardly a dozen Romans who knew either her name or anything about her.

Varro is no doubt right in arguing from the festival and the flamen to the ancient honour in which she was held; and these facts also tend to prove that she was a single deity, and quite distinct from the Furiae with whom the later Romans as well as the Greeks naturally confounded her—an inference which is confirmed by the long _u_ indicated by the double _r_ in the calendars[786].

There is therefore nothing but the etymology to tell us anything about the goddess, and from this source we cannot expect to learn anything certain. Preller plausibly suggested a connexion with _fur_, _furvus_, and _fuscus_, from a root meaning dark or secret; and if this were correct she might be a deity of the under-world or of the darkness. Bücheler in his _Umbrica_[787] suggested a comparison with the Umbrian _furfare_ = februare (‘to purify’), which will at least serve to show the difficulty of basing conclusions on etymological reasoning. Jordan conjectured that the festival had to do with the averting of dangerous summer heat[788]—a conclusion that is natural enough, but does not seem to rest on any evidence but its date. Lastly, Huschke[789], again in his element, boldly asserts that the Furrinalia served to appease the deities of revenge who hailed from the black region of Vediovis—wrongly confusing Furrina and the Furiae. It will be quite obvious from these instances that it is as hopeless as it is useless to attempt to discover the nature of either goddess or festival by means of etymological reasoning.

Footnote 708:

Bk. 47. 18. We owe the reference to Merkel, _Praef. in Ovidii Fastos_,
clix.

Footnote 709:

His real birthday seems to have been the 12th, which, was already
occupied by the ludi Apollinares.

Footnote 710:

Mommsen in _C. I. L._ 321 (on July 7).

Footnote 711:

Varro, _L. L._6. 18; Marq. 325.

Footnote 712:

See Introduction, p. 7. This anomaly led Huschke to the inadmissible
supposition that this was the single addition made to the calendar of
Numa in the republican period. He accepts Varro’s explanatory story,
_Röm. Jahr_, p. 224.

Footnote 713:

See below, p. 327.

Footnote 714:

_R. G._ i. 532: see Mommsen’s criticism in _C. I. L_ 321 f.

Footnote 715:

Macrob. 6. 11. 36; Plut. _Rom._ 29, _Camill._ 33. See also O. Müller’s
note on Varro, _L. L._ 6. 18.

Footnote 716:

_L. L._ 6. 18.

Footnote 717:

This is Varro’s account; the Etruscans are a variant in Macrobius, l.
c.

Footnote 718:

Dionys. 2. 56; Plut. _Rom._ 29. See Lewis, _Credibility of Early Roman
History_, i. 430.

Footnote 719:

Introduction, p. 15.

Footnote 720:

Cic. _de Rep._ 1. 16; Plut. _Rom._ 27.

Footnote 721:

Liv. 1. 16 ‘Ad exercitum recensendum.’ Lustratio came to be the word
for a review of troops because this was preceded by a religious
_lustratio populi_.

Footnote 722:

e. g. Gilbert, i. 290; Marq. 325.

Footnote 723:

_L. L._ 6. 18. Details have vanished with the great work here quoted,
the _Antiquitates divinae_.

Footnote 724:

Schwegler suggested the parallel, i. 534, note 20. For the Bouphonia
see especially Mannhardt, _Myth. Forsch._ 68. For other such rites,
Lobeck, _Aglaophamus_, 679, 680.

Footnote 725:

Bücheler, _Umbrica_, 114.

Footnote 726:

The idea of the scapegoat was certainly not unknown in Italy; Bücheler
quotes Serv. (_Aen._ 2. 140) ‘Ludos Taureos a Sabinis propter
pestilentiam institutos dicunt, _ut lues publica in has hostias
verteretur_.’ See on the Regifugium, below, p. 328.

Footnote 727:

See examples in Frazer, _Golden Bough_, ii. 160 foll. The one from the
Key Islands is interesting as including a flight of the people.

Footnote 728:

Nissen, _Landeskunde_, 406.

Footnote 729:

_C. I. L._ p. 269.

Footnote 730:

Macrob. 1. 11. 36; Plut. _Camill._ 33.

Footnote 731:

Aug. _de Civ. Dei_, 4. 8.

Footnote 732:

_de Feriis_, 9.

Footnote 733:

The last point is in _Camill._ 33-6: cp. _Rom._ 29. 6.

Footnote 734:

The bearing of these customs on the Nonae Caprotinae, and on the Greek
story of Lityerses, was suggested by Mannhardt, _Myth. Forsch._ 32.
Mr. Frazer gives a useful collection of examples, _G. B._ ii. 363
foll. The custom survives in Derbyshire (so I am told by Mr. S. B.
Smith, Scholar of Lincoln College), but only in the form of making the
stranger ‘pay his footing.’

Footnote 735:

_G. B._ i. 381.

Footnote 736:

It was the custom, says Macrobius (i. 10) ‘ut patres familiarum,
frugibus et fructibus iam coactis, passim cum servis vescerentur, cum
quibus patientiam laboris in colendo rure toleraverant.’ The old
English harvest- or mell-supper, had all the characteristics of
Saturnalia (Brand, _Pop. Antiq._ 337 foll.).

Footnote 737:

Tertullian, _de Spect._ 5.

Footnote 738:

See below, p. 208.

Footnote 739:

This point—the union of free- and bond-women in the sacrifice—seems to
prove that Nonae Caprotinae and ancillarum feriae were only two names
for the same thing. Macrobius connects the legend of the latter with
the rite of the former (i. II. 36).

Footnote 740:

Plut. _Rom._ 29. Varro, _L. L._ 6. 18 writes ‘in Latio.’

Footnote 741:

Deecke, _Die Falisker_, 89; Roscher, in _Lex._ s. v. Juno, p. 599.

Footnote 742:

See above, p. 143.

Footnote 743:

One naturally compares the ficus Ruminalis and the foundation-legend
of Rome.

Footnote 744:

It is curious that the practice in husbandry called _caprificatio_, or
the introduction of branches of the wild tree among those of the
cultivated fig to make it ripen (Plin. _N. H._ 15. 79; Colum. II. 2)
took place in July; and it strikes me as just possible that there may
have been a connexion between it and the Nonae Caprotinae.

Footnote 745:

Mannhardt, _Myth. Forsch._ l. c.

Footnote 746:

Macrob. 3. 2. 11 and 14. Macrobius also quotes Varro in the 15th book
of his _Res Divinae_ ‘Quod pontifex in sacris quibusdam vitulari
soleat, quod Graeci παιανίζειν vocant.’ Perhaps we may compare
_visceratio_: Serv. Aen. 5. 215.

Footnote 747:

Above, p. 176.

Footnote 748:

Marq. 170.

Footnote 749:

See Marq. 384, and _Lex._ s. v. Apollo 447.

Footnote 750:

Liv. 25. 12.

Footnote 751:

The MSS. of Livy (27. 23) have a.d. iii _Nonas_, no doubt in error for
a.d iii Idus. Merkel, _Praef._ xxviii.; Mommsen, _C. I. L._ 321.

Footnote 752:

Liv. 25. 12; 26. 33; Festus, 326; Cie. _Brutus_, 20, 78, whence it
appears that Ennius produced his _Thyestes_ at these _ludi_. Cp. the
story in Macrob. 1. 17. 25.

Footnote 753:

Liv. 27. 23.

Footnote 754:

Liv. 3. 63. This older shrine Livy calls Apollinar. The temple that
followed it was the only Apollo-temple in Rome till Augustus built one
on the Palatine after Actium; this is clear from Asconius, p. 81 (ad
Cic. in toga candida), quoted by Aust, _de Aedibus sacris_, 7. It was
outside the Porta Carmentalis, near the Circus Flaminius. A still more
ancient Apollinar is assumed by some to have existed on the Quirinal;
but it rests on an uncertain emendation of O. Müller in Varro, _L. L._
5. 52.

Footnote 755:

Liv. 40. 51. The Romans seem originally to have called the god
_Apello_, and connected the name with _pellere_. Paulus, 22; Macrob.
1. 17. 15.

Footnote 756:

Liv. 5. 13.

Footnote 757:

_Lex._ s. v. Apollo, 446.

Footnote 758:

Müller-Deecke, _Etrusker_, ii. 69.

Footnote 759:

Strabo, p. 214; Herodotus, 1.167.

Footnote 760:

Jordan on Preller, i. 265.

Footnote 761:

_Aen._ 11. 785 ‘Summe deum, sancti custos Soractis Apollo,’ &c.

Footnote 762:

Serv. _Aen._ 10. 316 ‘Omnes qui secto matris ventre procreantur, ideo
sunt Apollini consecrati, quia deus medicinae est, per quam lucem
sortiuntur. Unde Aesculapius eius fingitur filius: ita enim eum [esse]
procreatum supra (7. 761) diximus. Caesarum etiam familia ideo sacra
retinebat Apollinis, quia qui primus de eorum familia fuit, exsecto
matris ventre natus est. Unde etiam Caesar dictus est.’

Footnote 763:

A concise account by Roscher, _Lex._ s. v. Apollo 448; Boissier,
_Religion Romaine_, i. 96 foll.; Gardthausen, _Augustus_, vol. ii, p.
873. For the _ludi saeculares_ see especially Mommsen’s edition of the
great but mutilated inscription recently discovered in the Campus
Martius (_Eph. Epigr._ viii. 1 foll.); Diels, _Sibyllin. Blätter_, p.
109 foll.; and the _Carmen Saeculare_ of Horace, with the commentaries
of Orelli and Wickham.

Footnote 764:

_L. L._ 6. 18 fin. and 19 init.

Footnote 765:

Festus, 119. s. v. Lucaria.

Footnote 766:

The battle of the Allia was fought on the 18th, the day before the
first Lucaria. This no doubt suggested the legend connecting the two,
especially as the Via Salaria, near which was the grove of the
festival, crossed the battle-field some ten miles north of Rome.

Footnote 767:

See Friedländer in Marq. 487; Plutarch, _Q. R._ 88.

Footnote 768:

Mommsen in _Ephemeris Epigraphica_, ii. 205.

Footnote 769:

i. III; Liv. 24. 3; Cato, ap. Priscian, 629. Much useful matter
bearing on _luci_ as used for boundaries, _asyla_, markets, &c., will
be found in Rudorff, _Gromatici Veteres_, ii. 260.

Footnote 770:

‘Light’ is not uncommon in England for a ‘ride’ or clearing in a wood.

Footnote 771:

Below, pp. 222, and 228.

Footnote 772:

On the whole subject of the religious ideas arising from the first
cultivation of land in a wild district I know nothing more instructive
than Robertson Smith’s remarks in _Religion of the Semites_, Lecture
iii.; I have often thought that they throw some light on the origin of
Mars and kindred numina. The most ancient settlements in central Italy
are now found to be on the tops of hills, probably once forest-clad
(see Von Duhn’s paper on recent excavations, _Journal of Hellenic
Studies_, 1896, p. 125). For a curious survival of the feeling about
woods and hill-tops in Bengal, see Crooke, _Religion, &c., in India_,
ii. 87.

Footnote 773:

_R. R._ 139. For _piacula_ of this kind see also Henzen, _Acta Fratr.
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.

The close relation of Diana to human life is not very difficult to explain. Like Fortuna, Juno Lucina, Bona Dea, and others, she was a special object of the worship of women; she assisted the married woman at childbirth[845]; and on this day the Roman women made a special point of washing their heads[846]—an unusual performance, perhaps, which has been explained by reference to the sanctity of the head among primitive peoples[847]. But Diana, like Silvanus, with whom she is found in connexion[848], was no doubt originally a spirit of holy trees and woods, i. e. of wild life generally, who became gradually reclaimed and brought into friendly and useful relations with the Italian farmer, his wife, and his cattle[849].

This was also the _dies natalis_ of another temple on the Aventine, that of Vortumnus, which was dedicated in B.C. 264 by the consul M. Fulvius Flaccus[850]. About the character of this god there is fortunately no doubt. Literature here comes to our aid, as it too rarely does: Propertius[851] describes him elaborately as presiding over gardens and fruit, and Ovid[852] tells a picturesque story of his love for Pomona the fruit-goddess, whose antiquity at Rome is proved by the fact that she had a flamen of her own[853]. The date, August 13, when the fruit would be ripe, suits well enough with all we know of Vortumnus.