17Ze Festival Calendar the Flamen Martialis, the Flamen Qjlirinalis, the Twelve Flamines Minores Publica Consisted of Sacra Roma

CHAPTER ONE

THE ROMAN STATE RELIGION

17ze Festival Calendar

Roman state religion, rooted in the agricultural calendar, was dom• inated by fertility and harvest festivals and stemmed from concern to ensure the safety and well being of family and community (espe• cially the community of the Roman state). 1 The Romans, further• more, were highly syncretic in matters of religion, adapting the Greek pantheon and myth to their own, and borrowing from other cul• tures as they saw fit. In 204 BC, for example, the Romans imported the cult of the Magna Mater from Phrygia in the hope that the god• dess would help Rome against Hannibal (Cicero Har. Resp. 22-24; Dionysios Halicarnasus 2.19.4; Livy 29.10, 14; 34.54.3; 36.36.3; Ovid Fasti 4.179-372; Aulus Gellius 2.24). During the Republic, the state cult or sacra publica comprised the ritus Romanus and the ritus Graecus. The ritus Romanus consisted of those cults thought to be native Roman (Mars, Quirinus, the Lares, and the Genii), or Italic (Venus, Hercules, and the Dioscuri). These cults fell under the charge of the Pontifical College, whose membership, by the end of the Republic, consisted of sixteen Pontifices and the Pontifex Maximus, the flamen Dialis attached to the cult of Jupiter, the flamen Martialis, the flamen Qjlirinalis, the twelve Flamines Minores and the Vestals. The ritus Graecus included cults from Greece (Apollo, for example) and the East (the Magna Mater). Temples of these gods were not permitted inside the pomerium until the late third century BC. The Qjlindecimviri took charge of the ritus Graecus and were responsible especially for keeping and consulting the Sibylline oracles. Early in the imperial era, a shift in terminology occurred: the sacra publica consisted of sacra Romana and sacra peregrina. The sacra Romana

1 Scullard, Festivals, 17. Spirits were associated with various parts of the house. Vesta protected the hearth, the Penates looked over the penus, the cupboards, and the Lares, closely associated with the Penates, received daily prayers and offerings at the family Lararium. 14 CHAPTER ONE represented the traditional republican state cult, both ritus Romanus and ritus Graecus. The sacra peregrina included new, foreign (largely Eastern) cults, such as those oflsis, Ma-Bellona, and Serapis. 2 Although sacra publica included both sacra Romana and sacra peregrina, only tem• ples of those gods worshipped under the sacra Romana were built inside Rome's pomerium, their rites conducted inside the city walls. The distinction between sacra Romana and sacra peregrina appears to have been rendered obsolete by the constitutio Antoniniana in AD 212. 1 Much of the information on Roman religious practices survives in the festival calendars, among which the most complete and significant are the Fasti of P. Ovidius Naso. 4 The poet's versified account, organ• ized chronologically by month, includes discussion of myth and his• tory, public and private cult practices and festivals, etymology, and the etiologies behind some cultic practices. Ovid's Fasti survive only for the months from January to June, ending abruptly at the end of the latter." Surviving official calendars include the Jeriale attached to the Fasti Guidizzolcnses (GIL I, 253; ILS 491 7),6 the Feriale Cumanum,7 the Feriale of Oslo,8 the Feriale Capuanum. 9 Of singular importance for the study of Roman military religion, finally, is the Feriale Duranum. 111

17ze Feriale Duranum In 1931-32, an excavation team from Yale University recovered a papyrus roll from the temple of Artemis Azzanathkona from Dura-

2 Fink, Hoey, and Snyder, "Fcriale," 32. By the reign of Gaius, the cult of Isis was among the sacra publica (peregrina) (Wissowa, Religion, 88 and 351 -59). The cult of the l'vfagna i\llater had been included in the fasti puhliri since Republican times (Fast. Ant. Vet., Notizze degli Scavi, 1921, Tav. I and 91 2). 3 Caracalla built his temple of Serapis on the Quirinal (\Vissowa, Relz[J,ion, 355). + Frazer, Fasti, English translation and commentary. Bomer, Die Fasten, German translation and commentary. 5 Internal references to· later dates in the festival year indicate that the poet intended to complete the Fasti to the end of the year (3.5 7-8; 3.199-200; 5.14 7-8). Ovid stated that he composed twelve books of Fasti dedicated to Augustus, but that his fate (relegation to Tomi) interrupted the work (Tristia 2.549-52). " Agricultural workers, primarily, used this private compilation of Augustan date. 7 G1L I, 229: Mommsen, Gesammelte 4.259 70. This municipal document dates to AD 3 13. " S.P. Eitrem Os!. III, #77. This calendar, dating to Marcus Aurelius, pertained only to Egypt. " !LS 4918; Mommsen, Gesammelte Schrifien 7.14-24. A local festival list, AD 387. 111 Nock, "Roman Army," 187 252; Gilliam, "l\[ilitary Feriale," 183-96; Welles, Fink, and Gilliam, Final Report, 191--212.