Iuno Sospita of Lanuvium Author(S): E
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Iuno Sospita of Lanuvium Author(s): E. M. Douglas Source: The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 3, Part 1 (1913), pp. 60-72 Published by: Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/296022 . Accessed: 14/05/2014 12:42 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of Roman Studies. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 178.17.21.110 on Wed, 14 May 2014 12:42:01 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 1~A -- - ~ . FIG. I. ARCHAIC AMPHORA FROM CERVETRI, NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM (B. 57), REPRESENTING HERCULES AND IUNO SOSPITA, POSEIDON AND ATHENA. This content downloaded from 178.17.21.110 on Wed, 14 May 2014 12:42:01 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions IUNO SOSPITA OF LANUVIUM. By Miss E. M. DOUGLAS. The city of Lanuvium, now called Civita Lavinia, stands on a beautiful site looking out westwards over its vine-clad slopes across the plain to the sea, and eastwards to the mountains beyond Velletri. The oldest city stood on the crest of the hill; on the central of the three summits was the arx and near were remains which have been connected with a temple. Moreover, excavation has disclosed something of the ancient plan of the city, a theatre, an underground aqueduct and other structures. Founded according to one Roman legend by a Trojan hero, it was certainly in the earliest times one of the allied cities of Latium Vetus. In 338 B.C. Rome conquered it, and its citizens were incorporated into the Roman state. They first received the inferior status of cives sine sugragio, and later, although at a comparatively early date, the full franchise. The city was prosperous, and much of this prosperity seems to have come from its many temples, " plurima sacrificia et fana" as Cicero calls them, and it was especially connected with the worship of Juno Sospes or Sospita 1 whose temple may have stood on the hill-top, near the arx. The worship of this manifestation or variety of Juno goes back to very ancient days. When Rome conquered the city it was ordered, as Livy expressly records, 2 that the temple and grove of Juno should henceforward be common to the people of Lanuvium and the people of Rome, and as a consequence should be placed under the supervision of the Roman pontifices. In the history of the third and second centuries B.C. the temple is frequently mentioned. Many portents and omens were observed in it and expiations for them were celebrated in Rome. 3 The temple treasury grew rich until in the Civil War of 42 B.C. Octavian pillaged it with other wealthy shrines. 4 Under the empire we have many further references. Pliny saw what he took to be a fine early painting showing two nude female figures, Atalanta and* Helen. 5 He mentions that although the picture survived unhurt, the temple itself was more or less in ruins. 1 The former (Sospes, Seispes, Sispes) is the 3 Livy, xxi, 62, 4; xxiii, 3I, I5; xxii, II, I7, older, the latter by far the commoner form; on etc. coins Sispita also occurs. 4 Appian, V, 24. 2 Livy, viii, I4, z; Roscher, Lexikon, art. 5 Jex Blake and Sellers, Elder Pliny's Chapters Iuno Sospita, ii, p. 595. on Art, p. 87, note I3. This content downloaded from 178.17.21.110 on Wed, 14 May 2014 12:42:01 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 62 IUNO SOSPITA OF LANUVIUM. In A.D. I36 Hadrian dedicated there a statuette made up, " ex donis aureiset argenteisvetustate corruptis,"1 and a fragmentaryinscription records that he repaired some fallen building, which may possiblv be connected with a restorationof the temple. Antoninus Pius, who was born and frequently resided in Lanuvium, is also recorded to have helped in the restorationof the temple. 2 There was also at Lanuvium, perhaps on the west side of the hill, a cave where a sacred serpent dwelt. This cave and snake have been connected with Juno Sospita, and although no ancient writer actually says this, the occurrence of a snake on the coins of Juno Sospita seem fair proof of it. Recent writers have, however, argued that the Lanuvium snake was connected rather with Vesta than with Iuno. 3 The most complete account of the art type of Juno Sospita is given by Cicero4: "illam vestram Sospitam quam tu numquam . vides nisi cum pelle caprina, cum hasta, cum scutulo, cum calceolis repandis." Her attributes were a bird (crow ?) or a snake. The worksof art which representher are few in number and mostly of small dimensions. A statue in the Capitoline Museum5 was once supposed to represent Juno Sospita on the unauthenticated grounds that the work was found at Lanuvium, and that she wore a goatskin. But the skin has been shown to be a swine's skin, and therefore more applicable to Demeter; and the treatment of the drapery is Greek rather than Roman. Therefore this statue must be withdrawn from the small number of works believed to portray Iuno Sospita. It is in reality a Roman copy of a fifth-century Greek work, labelled with an erroneousand comparativelymodern title. (i) The best known work is the statue in the Vatican,6 a good example of the Antonine period, but derived from some earlier model, to judge by the stiff treatment of the folds and the pose of the body, although the head has the developed fullnessadmired in the age of the copyist. The arms are restorations,and so are the feet and plinth; but the goddess wears the. traditional goatskin,7 drawn as a helmet over her head, and knotted by the forelegs upon her breast, over the long matronly tunic. She steps forward with dignified haste, ready to defend her people or assail their foes. 1 C.I.L. xiv, no. zo88. Buchelerin Berliner phil. Woch. i908, p. 5i8, and Dessau, Eph. epigr. ix, p .331. 2 The authorities for the history of Lanuvium and 4 Cicero, de Nat. Deor. i, z9, 8z. its temple may be found in any account of the town, 5 Cat. Cap. Museum, pl. I7, no. 6, text, p. 84; for ex. C.I.L. xiv, p. i9i, and Eph. epigr. ix, p. 381, Clarac, 418; Reinach, Rip. Sculp. i, p. zoo, no. 732; ff. G. B. Colburn, Amer. Journ. Arch. I9I2, Locatelli, Museo Cap. iii, pl. 5; Fred. Mori, p. I04. Notizie degli Scavi, I882-I908. There Museo Cap. i; Scala, pl. 2. were also temples in Rome dedicated to Iuno 6 Rotonda, no. 552; Reinach, Repert. Sculp. i, Sospita (Delbriick, Tempel am Forum Holitoriurn, p. zoo, no. 731; Helbig, Fiihrer, i, p. 20I, no. 314. etc.). Overbeck, Kunstmythologie, ii, i, i 6o gives a list 3 Coins of the gens Procilia (Babelon, ii, 385) *of the monuments. and of Pius (Cohen, 473). With respect to Vesta see 7 Visconti, Pio Clem. ii, p. I58. This content downloaded from 178.17.21.110 on Wed, 14 May 2014 12:42:01 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions IUNO SOSPITA OF LANUVIUM. 63 (2) There is another statue, formerlyin the Collection Vescovale, which represents her. 1 She stands frontally to the spectator in queenly pose, a patera in her lowered left hand, and the sceptre in her right. She wears a simple peplos fastened on the shoulders, and over this the goatskin arranged as on the Capitoline statue, aegis-wise, over one shoulder only, but here the girdle passes over the skin. Her feet are shod with sandals. (3) Iuno Sospita is figured with several of her fellow Olympians upon a base2 in the garden of the villa Doria Pamfili. no.' no. z no. 3 [E FIG. 2. COINS WITH REPRESENTATIONS OF IUNO SOSPITA. (4) More valuable as reminiscent of the cult type are the long series of coins,3 both of the republic and of the empire, which show her standing with or without her attendant serpent and crow, driving in a chariot drawn by goats or crowning her worshipper (fig. 2). Sometimesher head is stamped on the obverse, but always covered with the goatskin in the characteristicmanner. I Clarac, pl. 419; Reinach, Repert. Scuip. i, Coins of the Roman Reptblic, pl. 31, 22; pl. 4I, 5-I4, p. 20o, no. 733. nos. i8, I9; pl. 43, i6-20; pl. 44, I-14; pl. 50, 2 Mllon.d. Inst. vi and vii, pl. 76. no. 22. For imperial coins see Cohen's index 3 Babelon,Alonnaies de la rip. romaine,i, p. 434; s.v. Iuno. ;i, pp. 223, 280, 283, 386, 402, 488; Grueber, This content downloaded from 178.17.21.110 on Wed, 14 May 2014 12:42:01 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 64 IUNO SOSPITA OF LANUVIUM. (5) In the British Museum is an archaicamphora from Cervetri' (fig. I). On the right is Hercules, bearded, with the lion's skin and armed with a sword and the club which he brandishesin his right hand.