PRESTA MI SINCERU[M] ITA TE AMET QUECUSTODIT ORTU[M] VENUS.
PRESTA MI SINCERU[M] ITA TE AMET QUECUSTODIT ORTU[M] VENUS.
PRESTA MI SINCERU[M] ITA TE AMET QUECUSTODIT ORTU[M] VENUS.
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 seemto 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 provethat 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]
[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 theextaof 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 themeri patera, theturis 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 secundiCrescere, dum fiant falcibus apta, sinas.Parce, precor, scabrasque manus a messibus aufer,Neve noce cultis: posse nocere sat est, &c.
Aspera Robigo, parcas Cerialibus herbis,Et tremat in summa leve cacumen humo.Tu sata sideribus caeli nutrita secundiCrescere, dum fiant falcibus apta, sinas.Parce, precor, scabrasque manus a messibus aufer,Neve noce cultis: posse nocere sat est, &c.
Aspera Robigo, parcas Cerialibus herbis,Et tremat in summa leve cacumen humo.
Aspera Robigo, parcas Cerialibus herbis,
Et tremat in summa leve cacumen humo.
Tu sata sideribus caeli nutrita secundiCrescere, dum fiant falcibus apta, sinas.
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.
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 motoTosta sitit tellus, praecipiturque seges.Pro cane sidereo canis hic imponitur arae,Et quare pereat, nil nisi nomen habet.
Est Canis, Icarium dicunt, quo sidere motoTosta sitit tellus, praecipiturque seges.Pro cane sidereo canis hic imponitur arae,Et quare pereat, nil nisi nomen habet.
Est Canis, Icarium dicunt, quo sidere motoTosta sitit tellus, praecipiturque seges.Pro cane sidereo canis hic imponitur arae,Et quare pereat, nil nisi nomen habet.
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 theirexta, 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 thecommentarii pontificumquoted 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 gatherthat this colour was supposed to resemble that of the corn when ripe: ‘Rufae canes immolabantur, ut frugesflavescentesad 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 theaugurium, 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 Christianlitania maior, the original object of which was also the safety of the crops[327]. The 25th is at present St. Mark’s day.
LOEDI FLORÆ (CAER.) LUDI FLORÆ. (MAFF. PRAEN.)
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 238B.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 herad circum maximumon 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 ofager publicuson 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 FratresArvales[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 amicaeCantat: habent unctae mollia serta comae.
Ebrius ad durum formosae limen amicaeCantat: habent unctae mollia serta comae.
Ebrius ad durum formosae limen amicaeCantat: habent unctae mollia serta comae.
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]leaenisImbelles capreae sollicitusque lepus?
Cur tibi pro Libycis clauduntur rete[342]leaenisImbelles capreae sollicitusque lepus?
Cur tibi pro Libycis clauduntur rete[342]leaenisImbelles capreae sollicitusque lepus?
Cur tibi pro Libycis clauduntur rete[342]leaenis
Imbelles capreae sollicitusque lepus?
and gets the answer:
Non sibi, respondit, silvas cessisse, sed hortosArvaque pugnaci non adeunda ferae.
Non sibi, respondit, silvas cessisse, sed hortosArvaque pugnaci non adeunda ferae.
Non sibi, respondit, silvas cessisse, sed hortosArvaque pugnaci non adeunda ferae.
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, andthe 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].
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 153B.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 apraefectus urbiat Rome[349]; or in case of the compulsory absence of both consuls a dictator might be appointedFeriarum 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 wasascribed 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 centuryA.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, whileoscilla, 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 itwould 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].