Part 9
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: