0821-07_Babesch_83_08 23-09-2008 16:06 Pagina 111 BABESCH 83 (2008), 111-132. doi: 10.2143/BAB.83.0.2033102. A Roman cult in the Italian countryside? The Compitalia and the shrines of the Lares Compitales T.D. Stek Abstract The Roman religious festival of the Compitalia (‘cross-roads festival’) was celebrated in both city and coun- tryside. It is generally assumed that it originated as a rural cult which was later incorporated in the city, where it became the principal festival of the vici or urban quarters. In this paper it will be argued that the spread of the Compitalia might have been in the opposite direction; in this view the Compitalia, a Roman urban festi- val with administrative aspects, was spread outside Rome alongside Roman influence. It is not known where the Compitalia were celebrated in the countryside. It will be suggested that ancient ‘Italic’ sanctuaries have been re-used for celebrating the Roman rite of the Compitalia, apparently by now functioning within a Roman administrative and religious system.* the separation between city cult and family or farm cult should not be exaggerated (Beard/North/Price 1998, 50) INTRODUCTION. THE COMPITALIA: A PARADOXICAL both to what we would define the ‘private’ and PICTURE to the ‘public’ domain. Another paradoxical aspect regards the location At the end of a letter to Atticus (2.3), Cicero of the Compitalia. The festival is often associated writes, probably from his country house, after with the urban plebs, and therefore placed in an having referred to the political situation in Rome urban setting. On the other hand, passages in and Cicero’s own position within it: sed haec am- Roman authors refer to a rustic setting of the bulationibus Compitaliciis reservemus. Tu pridie Compitalia. Modern historiography has subse- Compitalia memento. Balineum calfieri iubebo. Et quently translated this situation in various ways. Pomponiam Terentia rogat; matrem adiungemus (‘But Most popular is the conception of the Compitalia this point must be reserved for our strolls at the as a festival of agricultural or rural origin which Compitalia. Do you remember the day before the was only later incorporated in the city. Not much festival: I will order the bath to be heated, and attention has been paid to the celebration of the Terentia is going to invite Pomponia. We will Compitalia in the countryside however. Most dis- make your mother one of the party’).1 In this way, turbingly, it is actually not known in what places Cicero informs us on how he imagines spending the festival was celebrated in the countryside. the Compitalia or cross-roads festival, writing as it The aim of this contribution is to delineate a seems in December of the year 60 BC. The impres- possible historical development of the Compitalia sion that arises, on a private level, is that of a re- and to shed light on its rural cult places, by re- laxed holiday, with time for family and friends viewing these apparent oppositions of public vs. alike. private and urban vs. rural. The conception of this At the same time, the moveable feast of the development proposed here may have conse- Compitalia constituted the most important reli- quences for current ideas on the ‘religious roman- gious festival associated with the vici or wards of isation’ of Italy, the very existence of which tends Rome. According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, to be minimised in recent studies.2 writing in the Augustan period, the festival was After a short introduction of the Compitalia the installed together with the urban vici as a means attention will be focused on three main aspects: of administrative control, in order to be able to 1) In the first place, the character of the commu- count the inhabitants of Rome. Other evidence nity that participated in the cult will be dis- confirms this public or civic character of the fes- cussed. Often, the Compitalia are seen as ‘very tival. Apparently, the Compitalia were relevant much a family-affair’.3 On the other hand there 111 0821-07_Babesch_83_08 23-09-2008 16:06 Pagina 112 seems to be a strong civic or public aspect to that had no fixed date but were to be established the festival. The relevant textual evidence will anew each year. At least in the Late Republic, be discussed, and it will be argued that this they were announced eight days beforehand, in ‘double’ image of public and private emerges December, by the praetor.6 Normally, the Compita- from the archaeological record as well. It will lia were celebrated some days after the Saturnalia be suggested that it is precisely this all-embrac- (17 December), probably most often at the very ing quality of the Compitalia, cutting through end of December or the beginning of January.7 these distinctions and including all inhabitants, As to the cult personnel, magistri who were that distinguishes it from other festivals. allowed to wear the toga praetexta presided over 2) Secondly, the location of the celebration of the the Compitalia.8 For the rustic environment, Cato Compitalia as indicated in literature and epig- (Agr. 5.3) informs us on the modus operandi at the raphy will be considered. The situation for ideal villa: the bailiff (vilicus) of the agricultural both city and countryside will be surveyed. enterprise could assume the presiding role over Here, the issue of the presumed rural origin of the activities on behalf of his master.9 the Compitalia comes up. It will be shown that In the literary tradition, the origin of the Com- the evidence for a development from an agri- pitalia is connected to the creation of the four cultural, rural cult to an urban Roman cult is urban regions by King Servius Tullius (cf. infra). meagre. As regards the evidence for the spread Historically on some firmer ground, it appears that of the Compitalia in Italy at least, a develop- colleges of magistri that organised the Compitalia ment in the opposite direction is proposed. It in Rome became a focus of popular political activ- will be argued that the Compitalia could have ity around the middle of the last century BC. Fear been exported from Rome to other areas influ- for ‘subversive’ political activities and riots of the enced or inhabited by Romans at least as early collegia that were made up mainly of freedmen as the second half of the 2nd century BC. and slaves can explain the suppression of the col- 3) In the third place, the argument on the location legia and the connected ludi Compitalicii in 64 BC of the Compitalia will be directed further to the by the senate.10 The consequent attempts, not cult places themselves: what exactly constituted always successful, to re-establish them attest to a compitum-shrine, and where were they located? the political struggles of this period. Several urban compitum-shrines have been un- It was exactly this political connotation, and earthed, and their different architectural forms association with the plebs, that made the cult at will be discussed briefly. The rural cult places the compita of each vicus an attractive focus of where the Compitalia were celebrated in the attention for Augustus.11 Between 12 and 7 BC countryside have never been identified how- Augustus restructured the city in fourteen urban ever. It will be suggested that the problematic regions and an unknown number of vici.12 A description in a scholion on Persius has dis- number of 265 vici becomes clear from the census tracted scholarly research on the shrines of the of 73 AD.13 The objects of veneration were two Lares Compitales from the question where the Lares who are now associated with the Genius Compitalia were actually celebrated. Tentatively, Augusti.14 it will be argued that ancient rural sanctuaries In this way, the compita were effectively used built by ‘Italic’ peoples were suitable sacred to disseminate the emperor cult over a wide and places to be re-used later within a Roman reli- specifically popular audience. It is often assumed gious, social and political system. There is evi- that Augustus deliberately revived and promoted dence to suggest that some of the resumed or the Compitalia in order to bring the emperor cult continued religious activities in ancient ‘Italic’ (in the form of the genius) amongst the people also sanctuaries related to the Compitalia. in the realest sense: absorbing him, as it were, be- tween the ancestors.15 In the same vein, Augustus THE FESTIVAL OF THE COMPITALIA rededicated the old temple of the Lares in summa Sacra Via.16 The Augustan reform is important The Compitalia consisted of sacrifices at compita here, because all evidence dating after 12-7 BC (cross-roads and by extension the shrines placed may have been influenced by it. there; from competere or ‘coming together’ cf. Having introduced the Compitalia, a festival with infra) and games, the ludi Compitalicii. Certainly, possibly archaic origins, which was organised by meals were part of the festival,4 and as has been magistri (vicorum) and centred upon compita, the seen Cicero muses on strolls.5 The Compitalia were cult places of the vici, it is time to turn to some part of the feriae conceptivae; that is the festivals specific elements of the ritual and the festival. 112 0821-07_Babesch_83_08 23-09-2008 16:06 Pagina 113 1. AN INTEGRATIVE CULT travel to his villae, instead of staying at befriended elite persons in the countryside, - as was common For any analysis of its social and political signifi- practice according to the custom of capitalising cance, it is of central importance to ask to which personal hospitia.21 But Cicero insisted - in almost group in society the Compitalia catered.