The Resilience of Diana's Cult at Lake Nemi in Contrast To
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Surviving Roman Influence: The Resilience of Diana’s Cult at Lake Nemi in Contrast to their Latin Neighbors. Christopher William Kelly UVA MASTERS THESIS 2019. Amsterdam . Statement of Originality This document is written by Christopher William Kelly who declares to take full responsibility for the contents of this document. I declare that the text and the work presented in this document are original and that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating it. The Faculty of Economics and Business is responsible solely for the supervision of completion of the work, not for the contents. Index Chapter 1: Introduction - Part1: Objectives. - Part 2: Defining Identity. - Part 3: Meeting Diana. - Part 4: Contemporary Academic Context. - Part 5: Methodological Issues. - Part 6: Livy & The Romanao-centric record. - Part 7: Introducing The Effects on Religious Activity. Chapter 2: Diana Nemorensis – How & Why did her Cult Survive ? - Part 1: Diana as Artemis Tauropolos. - Part 2: Diana’s Arrival in Latium and Her First Worshippers. - Part 3: Renunciation of the Rex. - Part 4: The Site of Lake Nemi. - Part 5: First Inhabitant & The Sacred Landscape. - Part 6: Speculum Diana - Part 7: The Nemoralia & The Lamps of Nemi. - Part 8: Concluding Lake Nemi Chapter 3: Tumultuous History of Latin Sanctuaries. - - Part 1: The Formation of Diana Aventensis on the Aventine Hill. - Part 2 : Political Motivations of Servius. - Part 3: The Growing Roman interest in Latin Sanctuaries. 340 -180 B.C.E. - Part 4: Sanctuary abandonment after the Social Wars: 91 – 45 B.C.E. - Part 5: Augustan Intrusion on Diana Nemorensis. Chapter 4: Conclusion. Topography of Latium Figure 1: TCI, Italy's Automobile Association, Lazio, 2019. Figure 2: Rodney Paul: Environs of Rome, Lidnesy Davis Publishing 2019. Chapter I: Introduction. Figure 3: Wilson. Etching: Landscape with Diana expelling Calisto, British Museum.1764.. Part 1: Objectives. Identity and ‘Romanisation’ are two intensely debated topics among the current academic field. However, little attention has been paid toward the relationship between these two cornerstones of religious life within the context of the region of Latium. This investigation’s primary window of study is from the beginning of the early eight century to the fall of the Republic due to the longevity of religious activity in the Latin Peninsula. The last two centuries of the republic will be analysed with special attention due to the increased rate of Roman influence throughout Italy due to the massive societal transformations that defined this time. Roman religious life and practices underwent a mass dissemination outward toward the provinces and the larger empire as part of a process widely termed ‘Romanisation’. Upon incorporation into the Roman empire a pattern of religious repatriation and delocalisation ensued that often impacted the religious activity of small and rural Latin communities. Many sanctuaries in the Latin region of the Italic peninsula became shrouded with new Romanised identities or where given new sanctuaries within the religious boundary of Rome known as the Pomerium. Over the discourse of these two centuries, the identities of local religious cults and deities became blurred and had their core characteristics altered. An outcome that was almost inevitable after prolonged centuries of Roman interest in controlling the often volatile Latin communities closest to its boundary lines. The purpose of this study is twofold, firstly I am to ascertain whether the identity of the goddess Diana and her cult at Lake Nemi was preserved despite the intrusion of Roman culture on the surrounding Latin regions. Secondly, I will investigate whether the identity of Diana at Lake Nemi continued to draw the religiously active communities of the Latin plain despite a pattern of abandonment of rural sanctuaries elsewhere in the Latin region. I will draw particular attention to the consecration of new sanctuaries within the city of Rome to deities who previously resided in the Latin provinces. I will do this by analysing literary evidence to see if the consecration of a temple, within the self-proclaimed religious heart of the empire, effected the original Latin sanctuary. I have chosen to narrow the scope of this investigation to the Latin region as I feel we are best served to observe the relationship between Roman and ‘non-roman’ sanctuaries (as defined by the Pomerium) at their closest point of contact. In order to examine a large enough time frame that allows us to gain a perspective of relevant patterns and trends I shall be focusing between 800 B.C.-A.D. 161. This is because such a time frame encompasses all know religiose activity at Lake Nemi as proven by numismatic evidence found dating until the reign of Antonius Pius.1 This study should prove to be particularly interesting when we consider a larger amount of attention has been given to the identity of italic cult places post incorporation into the empire. Rather then devoting attention to evaluating their ability to retain their original character and rituals despite a strong Roman dominion. This is perhaps due to the dominant academic focus on the expansion and hegemony of Roman identity rather than the impacts on rural religious communities. The first half of this essay regards the identity of Diana Nemorensis and her conceptualisation within the Latin plain from the eight to the sixth century. Then we will be looking to see how Diana arrived in the Latin plain and how she interacted with Rome from the sixth century to the reign of Augustus. We will establish how Diana Nemorensis was represented differently to her Roman adaptation on the Aventine. In the second half of this study we will closely examine the cult site of Lake Nemi to establish if the identity of her cult changed during Roman occupation. Via examination of the political and moral context of the Republic we will establish how Diana Nemorensis survived Augustan intrusion despite often colliding with the values of the Roman Republic. We will then go onto to assess how the majority of Latin sanctuaries dealt with intrusion from the Roman state by studying the patterns of rural sanctuary abandonment. It will become clear through uninterrupted votive evidence at the site, that Lake Nemi remained popular as an active site of worship throughout the entirety of pagan religious worship in the italic region. The primary objective of this study is to ascertain why Lake Nemi survived throughout Roman rule when similar Latin sanctuaries either had almost all their defining characteristics changed or became lost to the annals of history. Part 2: Defining Identity. When generic terminology such as identity are used in discussions on Roman society it is imperative to establish what factual evidence is used to define what is termed ‘identity’. Cult specific ritualistic activity, unique mythology and lineage, architectural environments, sacred natural landscapes and votive deposits are all individual components that when collectively viewed form the identity of cults and sanctuaries. It is through balanced investigation into each of these aspects that we will see how the identity of sanctuaries inside and outside the Pomerium were viewed differently to their respective worshippers despite being to deities with the same name . The region known as Latium Vetus housed the oldest sanctuaries in the Latin peninsula. It is a common tendency to think of the eastern 1 Guldager Bilde 1997, 167. empire and Britain when discussing Roman provinces. However, the neighbouring regions of Latium and the long-intertwined history of the area with the capital allows us to best understand how the Roman elite valued the identities of local Latin cultures from Rome’s conception to its supremacy. The Pomerium played a large part in defining the value of sanctuaries during the later Republic. It was initially meant to represent the original boundary lines of the city of Rome as determined by Romulus and drawn out with an ox and cart.2 However, in later society it was widely accepted as being the spiritual boundary within which only true Roman deities could reside and outside of which the people and deities are barbarian in nature and nurture. The topic of the Pomerium and its centrality in defining Latin religious identity will be covered throughout this essay, For now, it is imperative that we understand that the religions of Latium were viewed unfavourably based on the barbarian origins of their genesis or rituals, in comparison to the exclusivity and civility of religious decorum within the Pomerium. In addition to the terms identity and Pomerium, the expressions pilgrim and pilgrimage will feature frequently in our discussion and can prove to be problematic in their application if they are not well defined. This is especially true in the context of Roman religion due to the popularity of pilgrimage as a concept during the rise of Christianity and the automatic associations of pilgrimage with the Christian, Jewish and Islamic faiths. Alan Morinis offers us a suitable starting place to begin to understand how we define pilgrimage in a Roman context. He states: ‘A pilgrimage is a journey undertaken by a person in quest of a place or state that he or she believes to embody a sacred ideal’.3 Due to the proximity to Rome, it would be logical to assume that the composition of pilgrims in Latium Vetus would be the indigenous communities and the inhabitants of Rome. Therefore, it is my hypothesis that pilgrims would visit different sanctuaries to fulfil different religious ideals. Not all desired religious experiences, cults or rituals could be found in Rome and therefore the inhabitants of the capital during the Republic travelled to the Latin region in search of sacred spaces with alternative identities. As will become apparent, it was often the alternative and often vindicated cult identities of Latin sanctuaries that fulfilled more specific pilgrim desires.