Post Scriptum: a Number of Observations, with Hindsight
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Post Scriptum: A Number of Observations, with Hindsight Astronomia Etrusco-Romana was first published in Italian in 2003, following Astronomy and Calendar in Ancient Rome—The Eclipse Festivals in 2001, and Le Feste di Venere—Fertilità femminile e configurazioni astrali nel calendario di Roma antica in 1996. In nigh on a decade of ‘‘crazy, desperate’’ study, as Giacomo Leopardi would have it, I have reconstructed a solid framework of the Roman calendar’s astronomical underpinnings, especially the Numan calendar. Stars, Myths and Rituals in Etruscan Rome makes only minimal adjustments to this framework, as well as adding some interesting elements to the fray. Over this time—and at long last—there has been a radical change in our understanding of man’s relationship with the heavens during the time of Rome’s early kings. The eighth century BCE calendars that have survived the centuries are no longer viewed as the basic calendars of an agricultural and pastoral society, lacking in any consideration for heavenly phenomena or the movements of heavenly bodies; calendar feast days are no longer considered simple anniversaries of natural events, such as storing away grain or lambing time. On the contrary, the Romulean calendar demonstrates an awareness of a number of significant celestial phenomena, while the Numan calendar and cycle are a highly advanced—indeed, close to perfect—mechanism for monitoring observable movements in the solar system. The end result of this research is a demonstration not just that Romans in Augustus’ day were mistaken in their belief—asserted time and time again by Ovid, our best witness1—that Romans were uninterested in and had no understanding of astronomy. More importantly still, the end result is an acknowledgement that extraordinary attention was lavished on the heavens, and a specific body of knowledge accrued in the heart of the Mediterranean during ancient times. Ultimately, Etrusco-Roman astronomy has been added to the canon of astronomical traditions, despite the fact that until recently nobody had so much as mentioned it; indeed, nobody had even suspected its existence. Etrusco-Roman astronomy has now taken its rightful place alongside astronomical approaches 1 See Ovid, Fasti, 1.27: ‘‘To be sure, Romulus, thou wert better versed in swords than stars […], Scilicet arma magis quam sidera, Romule, noras […]’’; and Fasti, 3.111-2: ‘‘The stars ran their courses free and unmarked throughout the year […], libera currebant et inobservata per annum / sidera […]’’ Ó Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 153 L. Magini, Stars, Myths and Rituals in Etruscan Rome, Space and Society, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-07266-1 154 Post Scriptum: A Number of Observations, with Hindsight from around the world (the Dogon, Polynesians, American Indians, Maya, and Incas); ancient astronomical bodies of knowledge from the major Eastern civilizations (China and India); and astronomical bodies of knowledge from the classical Mediterranean (Egypt, Babylon, and Greece). In this diverse panorama of astronomical bodies of knowledge, astronomy of Etruscan Rome possesses one unique characteristic: it is completely written in to its calendar. Legendary events that took place in Rome, almost all of which then shifted to the twilight zone between legend and history, were reiterated in the science of heavenly bodies—a science that did not have its own independent existence, but rather overlapped with and was ultimately subsumed by the perpetual repetition of fixed cadences in the Feriale antiquissimum. Equally unique, all of this took place at a time and in a location where writing did not yet exist. Calendar codification and a lack of writing are the two convergent themes that indicate the foreign provenance of this astronomical knowledge, whose traces were lost far before Ovid’s day. Now, twenty-five centuries on, this knowledge is being rediscovered from the ephemeral and still mysterious life of the Numan calendar and its cycles. Questions need to be answered about why this mysterious life was so brief, and why this knowledge disappeared and was utterly eclipsed; we should also look into why it has taken quite so long to rediscover this knowledge. The first of these questions has already been investigated,2 and we return to these issues here in summary, recapping from the very beginning, that is to say, the provenance of the Numan calendar that the Etruscans brought with them from the East, and then passed on to the Romans. The provenance can only be Babylonia; a comparison between the rituals of the ‘‘substitute of the king’’ and Regifugium and Vestalia provides the best evidence of this.3 Babylonia is where astronomy and astrology were born, and where they developed earlier and more completely than in any other culture known today. It was from Babylonia that Pythagoras—Numa’s real or presumed advisor—and other great pioneers of Greek and Western science drew so much of their wisdom. It was from Babylonia, directly or indirectly, that the ‘‘barbarian better than Pythagoras’’ came; if we are to believe Plutarch,4 this barbarian may have tutored Numa in the two divine sciences in a Rome that was only just emerging from the darkness of prehistory. As sciences, they were and remained foreign, before becoming a patrimony restricted to an élite of initiates who held this knowledge and, with it, the power of ‘‘connecting the life of man to the life of the heavens’’. The pontifices—still today, albeit in another guise—continue to do this, as they did then, by transmitting their precious knowledge from mouth to mouth in a tight circle of those privy to sacred matters, and to the most sacred of all: the calendar. The same applies to India, where in the Jyotisavedanga it is explained: 2 Magini 2001, pp. 109–112. 3 See Chap. 16. 4 Plutarch, Life of Numa 1. Post Scriptum: A Number of Observations, with Hindsight 155 The Veda have been revealed for the purpose of completing the sacrificial rites and these rites have been placed according to a temporal order. Thus, whoever is versed in astronomy, which is the science of the computation of time, knows the sacrifices.5 It applied in Rome as well, where the pontifex minor—the youngest and least experienced—was responsible for observing the first lunar crescent marking the kalends. It is not known what observations, registrations, computations and predictions were the preserve of the pontifex maximus. In any case, the deep meaning of Cicero’s words is clear: Once few knew whether it was permitted or not to proceed according to the law; in reality, public festivals were not public. Those who were responsible for them held great power, and they were asked even the day, as was asked of the Chaldeans.6 The terse tamquam a Chaldeis is worth more than a hundred treatises on history, archeology and linguistics put together. We should not forget that climate influences such matters: the climate in Italy and Rome is not the same as the climate in Mesopotamia or Egypt. The consequence of this it that it was no longer practically possible to keep the extended, ramified, and perhaps even obsessive activity of observation up endlessly, for a thousand and one nights and a thousand and one years; an activity which had made every city in the Near East a focal point for the observation, measurement, recording and prediction of celestial events. The science declined until it fell into obscurity, and the scientists dwindled in number until they disappeared. The pontifices were followed by the decemvirs, who were barely able to keep alive a simulacrum of a calendar, chock full of errors and omissions, and characterized as full of uncertainties and approximations by the historians of Rome. The coup de grace finally came in 304 BCE with the publication of a new calendar, which was greatly desired and needed by the lower classes of merchants and peasants. After its announcement in its roughest and most simplified form— how else could it be made public?—the calendar was no longer subject to the corrections and adjustments it would periodically need, either by adding or subtracting days. Even if anybody had retained the skills necessary to work on the delicate and complex mechanism of the calendar, he would no longer have been allowed to do so because the political and economic interests at stake were so huge. The opinion and caprice of those in charge of managing the calendar of which Censorinus7 writes represent but one part of the truth; the rest is, without doubt, the effective loss of the knowledge needed to maintain the calendar in working order. 5 Cited from Bezza, Introduction to al-Biruni, Gli astri, il tempo, il mondo,p.8. 6 Cicero, Pro Murena, 11.25: posset agi lege necne pauci quondam sciebant; fastos enim vulgo non habebant. erant in magna potentia qui consulebantur, a quibus etiam dies tamquam a Chaldeis petebatur. 7 Censorinus, de die natali, 20.7. 156 Post Scriptum: A Number of Observations, with Hindsight So much for the ‘‘brief and happy life’’ and subsequent unravelling of the relationship between astronomy and the Numan calendar. As for its rediscovery, one may legitimately wonder why it took quite so long, especially compared to how long ago similar scientific discoveries were made in the 20th century: more than 100 years have elapsed since Strassmeier, Epping and Kugler’s discovery of Babylonian astronomy; over 70 years since Dogon and Polynesian astronomy were discovered; 50 years since Mayan astronomy was discovered, and so on. Indeed, there have been times between 304 BCE (which we may assume to be the date of the disappearance) and 1996 (when this rediscovery was first mooted) when it may have occurred but didn’t: for example, in Julius Caesar’s time, when a decision was made to reform the calendar; between the third and fourth centuries CE, when the Empire was attempting to stave off decline and ultimate collapse; after the Italian Renaissance, when classical heritage as a whole underwent reassessment; in the 19th century, when modern classical studies truly began; or in the latter half of the 20th century, after ‘‘hypercriticism’’ had run its course, and new, well-founded faith was vested in ‘‘sources’’, that is to say, tangible evidence from classical times.