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Regnator Omnivm Devs *) XII REGNATOR OMNIVM DEVS *) According to the evidence of Tacitus, the Germans had no temples 1), only sacred woods, in which was feit the presence of a deity (Germania 9) 2), and where the cult-ceremonies took place. One of these sacred forests was in the territory of the Semnones, whom Tacitus (ibid. 39, I) styles uetustissimos nobilissimosque Sue­ borum. The Semnones, of whom we he ar for the first time in the Res Gestae of Augustus (Mon. Ancyranum v, 17), appear originally placed in the region between the EIbe and Oder (Velleius Paterculus ii, 106) 3), and there, in the woods of what is now the Mark of Bran­ denburg, or still further south-east in Lausitz 4), they seem to have had their religious centre, the very ancient grove (siluam auguriis patrum et prisca formiJine sacram) 5) where periodically at an ap- *) The original of this article appeared in S.M.SR. xix-xx (1943-46), 142-56. Cf. Rendiconti deli' Acad. dei Lincei, CIasse di scienze morali, storiche e filo­ logiehe, Sero viii, Vol. i, fase. 11-12 (Rome 1946), 379-86. I) The celeberrimum templum of the goddess Tamfana among the Marsi (TAC., Ann. i, 51) razed to the ground by Germanieus in 14 A.D., may have been due to Roman or GaIIo-Roman influenees. The templum of the goddess Nerthus, Germ. 40, 5 is the same as her castum nemus, ibid. 3, even if it had in it some sort of building for eult-purposes. 2) lueos et nemora, Germ. 9, 3 (nemoribus ac lucis, 10, 4). Cf., besides the nemus of Nerthus already eited, n. I, Germ. 43, 4, apud Nahanarualos antiquae religionis lucus; Ann. ii, 12, in siluam Hereuli sacram, in the territory of the Cherusci; Ann. iv, 73, lucum quem Baduhennae uocant, in the Frisian territory. 3) In 17 they were allies of Arminius, T ACIT., Ann. ii, 45; in the time of Antoninus their habitat was farther south, as they were neighbours of the Quadi, DION CASS. lxxi, 20, 2, while from 213 on they appear as Alamanni on the Helvetian limes, cf. Suid. s.u. Ke:ATOL 4) Cf. the ~7JfLotVa ÖA7J of PTOLEMY, ii, 11, 5. 5) It has been proposed by SCHUCHHARDT and others and variously discussed that the sacrer! grove of the Semnones may be identifiable with the spot near Lossow (Frankfurt a/Oder), where some forty "saerificial pits" have been found, fuII of human and other animal bones, espeeiaIIy erania. Cf. B. VON RICHTHOFEN, Zur religionswissenschaftlichen Auswertung vorgeschichtlicher REGNATOR OMNIVM DEVS 137 pointed time, stato tempore 6), the delegations and representatives of all the clans of the Suebi came together, omnes eiusdem sanguinis populi legationibus coeunt, for a great religious celebration which began (barbari ritus horrenda primordia) with a human sacrifice (caeso homine), carried out in the name of the community, publice. No one might enter the sacred grove save in bonds, uinculo ligatus, to show his inferiority to and entire dependence on the deity (ut minor et potestatem numinis prae se ferens) , and if he happened to fall (si forte prolapsus est), he might not rise nor lift hirnself (attolli et insurgere), but must roll along the ground (per humum euoluuntur), to the edge of the wOdcls. Ibi, adds Tacitus, regnator omnium deus, cetera subiecta atque parentia. Who then was this god of the Semnones, the power in the sacred wood, whose German name Tacitus does not mention nor give its interpretatio Romana, but contents hirnself with indicating his sovran supremacy (regnator omnium)? The problem thus stated has given rise to many debates, without any definite result being reached. There are two principal identifications proposed, some holding that the regnator omnium deus is Ziu, others that he is Wotan 7). The former identification found its chief supporter a century aga in K. Müllenhoff (2; cf. 8, 460). But even before hirn, in 1837, K. Zeuss (I, 22, 72) had thought of Wotan, whom he identified with Tuisco, the god par excellence, father of Mannus (Germ. 2, 3) and ancestor of the three great ethnic groups of the Ingaevones, Hermi­ nones (who include the Suebi also, and consequently the Semnones ), and the Istaevones (cf. Pliny, N.H. iv, 99). The identification of the regnator omnium deus with Wotan, omitting the equation with Tuisco, was taken up by A. Baumstark (3, 158 fol1., cf. also Gudeman, 16, 2°3), approved by Güntert (18, 152), and later defended especially by G. Neckel (19, 141 fol1.), who was followed by B. Kummer (20, 113 Altertümer, in Mitt. der anthrop. Gesellschaft in Wien 1932; A. CLOSS 23, 614 foll. 6) Some, as MÜLLENHOFF 8, 457 and others, put it in autumn, but only by conjecture, cf. HELM 13, 307. From the text we cannot even say that the cele­ bration was annual. 7) The other identifications (with Tuisco, ZEUSS I, p. 22; with Hodr, F. DETTER in PAUL-BRAUNE'S Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache U. Literatur 1894, 455 foll. quoted by CLOSS 23, p. 598) fall under these two chief ones, for Tuisco is a doublet of Ziu, Hodr of Odin. .
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