that gave the coastal cities of the Mediterranean a genealogy, a place in Greek history. Thus Rome was understood to have been founded, as Varro worked out on the basis of these traditions, four hundred and thirty years after the fall of Troy. That is where the dates 754/753 for the foundation of Rome came from; year 1 in the history of the city is a date from Greek history. At the same time, religion, and the gods, offered a framework to recenter Rome again. It is the gods with Roman names, not Zeus but Iuppiter, not Hera but Iuno, not Ares but Mars, who received a history, a genealogy, within the plays. Even the demanding and destructive god Dionysos of the Lycurgos was a god so native that his followers only a short time later, in 186, were suspected of being members of a mass movement to overthrow the state.43
Here, in the genealogical ordering and in the working out of the dramatic character of the gods of Roman polytheism, a moment of theoretical rationalization can be detected. The systematization that commenced consolidation from this moment is more recognizable in other types of texts, such as Latin epic, which began with the same two authors. Its content was an “Odyssey” and a “Punic War,” which reach back to Troy and Aeneas. Another example is Roman historiography, which began in the same generation with the work of Fabius Pictor, written in Greek. Both genres were aimed at a mass audience. The epic was most probably recited at upper-class banquets.44 Considering that the language of historiography was changed to Latin only in the second third of the second century, private reading is the most probable form for its reception. The exclusivity of the circulation and performance audience of these latter genres makes it clear that history lessons at Rome took place in the theater.45
Comedy had a quite different goal and effect with its everyday plots. Here the problems of ordinary Roman people were played out, literally, in Greek costumes:46 conflicts about love and money, the superior intelligence of dependent slaves, the laziness of rich heirs, the reckless abandon of soldiers enriched by booty. Thus it comes as no surprise that allusions to daily political life occurred in this context rather than in the tragedies,47 and that these texts, rather than high tragedy, have survived. However, it was not local color but the universalization achieved here that was decisive. That may sound a bit much to attribute to performances that served primarily as light entertainment, but we must not forget that even as light entertainment, just as much as in the soothing of anger, the pieces had to fulfill the standards of graecified gods and were consciously artistic, written in the elevated language of the leading Roman families rather than in everyday Latin.48
Within the period considered, religious rituals had gained a significant and growing share in public communication. The notion of publicus, as used to bring together the members of the nobility, was an expanding concept. This development changed the character of the religious field. When public and private interests clashed over the institutionalization of the cult of Liber Pater, it was not the establishment of private religious groups, but the public attention given to that cult and what it represented, in the form of the decree of the Senate on the Bacchanalia, that was the more important development. From the perspective of this inquiry, some forms of systematization in the organization of the rituals, as well as a systematization of the procedures in deciding about the establishment of rituals, are the most important finding. Whereas the latter will be analyzed more closely through specific examples in Chapter 5, the former is the subject of the next chapter.
Chapter 3
Changes in Religious Festivals
As sketched in the previous chapter, the mixture of Roman festivals changed from the fifth and fourth to the second and first centuries, a “long” third century being the turning point. How is this change related to the religious and political development of the Republic? I contended that the ritual changes are related to the changing role of the Senate and the nobility and to the changing notion of “public” in the term res publica. As most of our sources stem from the last century of the Republic—the exceptions being imperial, not earlier—reconstruction of historical change in the Republic is a notoriously difficult problem. And yet the attempt has to be made, helped by historico-critical approaches toward the texts, nontextual evidence, and models informed by results of comparative research. In order to keep these difficulties in the forefront of our perspective, my analysis will not follow a chronological narrative but will proceed by focusing on different traits of the festivals. Following the overview of developments provided in the previous chapter, I will argue that many of the observable changes can be interpreted as a systematization of religion, in practices of religious communication in particular. The actual character of the changes suggests that we may speak about a rationalization of religion as a public affair.
A Multitude of Occasions
Political interpretations of festivals (such as I will myself soon offer) are often inadequate, because they concentrate on the content and meaning of a single event. So particularist an approach will not suffice for the cultic reality of the Roman Republic. I start by taking a closer look at the Fasti Antiates maiores, the only extant republican calendar.1 On the Idus Sextiles (the calendar antedates the Augustan period and hence the month Augustus), several entries in smaller letters are to be found that refer to the dies natales of the temples of Diana, Vortumnus, Fortuna Equestris, Hercules Victor, and Castor and Pollux, and to a sacrifice to the Camenae. These anniversaries of dedications would have been celebrated by opening the temples and performing sacrifices. These deities were not obscure, but were frequently well-known. We would expect that each of these events would attract onlookers, pious venerators as well as mere spectators—that is to say, active participants in the ritual as well as curious children or passersby only momentarily halting their step. Given the length of time necessary for sacrifices and the preparation of meat from a sacrifice, it must be assumed that the rituals would start roughly at the same time—there is no evidence of any detailed temporal coordination. As the locations involved included the Aventine, the Porta Capena, and the Forum, people who wished to take a significant part in the ritual must have had to make a selection. Such a choice was necessary on many days.
The public character of these events was not a given. It resulted, in its realization and its degree, from a variety of factors. Many temples were built on the initiative of victorious generals, even if built with public money and by senatorial consent.2 In their choice of a day for the dedication, dedicators struggled for a maximum of public awareness, and the Ides—free from various burdensome duties and everyday routines (like school)3—would offer a splendid opportunity to stage a number of additional attractive rituals. We do not know how large an audience would be gathered for the anniversaries. Individually initiated temple dedications and their annual recurrence were not the only events in competition for an audience. Concurrence of rituals was sharp on the Ides of March, for example. As on every Ides, the Flamen Dialis (and some other nonspecified priests)4 would sacrifice a castrated ram to Iuppiter. The day was Feriae Martis according to later calendars, which implies a sacrifice to Mars somewhere. The popular rite of the Mamuralia, the Salian priests’ beating of a fur, was dated to March 15 by Ioannes Lydus in the sixth century, but to March 14 by the mid-fourth-century Fasti Filocali; any resolution of this conflict in our data must remain hypothetical.5 Many people, however, decided to spend the day not in the center of the city, but on the banks of the Tiber. Ovid describes the day as popular for outings and the drinking of wine in honor of Anna Perenna, whose cult place has now been located in the north of the city.6
Concurrence was even sharper on the Ides of October. Whereas the ludi Capitolini attracted Romans to the Capitoline summit,7 the rites of the Equus October took place on the Field of Mars, after the staging of a horse race, a sacrifice, and an ensuing race to the Forum (passing the foot of the Capitoline); the ritual contest between the inhabitants of the Subura and the via Sacra would find an end in the Regia in the center of the Forum Romanum.8 Whereas the Capitoline Games were organized by a college, the sacrifice of the October Horse seems to have been performed by the Flamen Martialis. The complex topographic and calendrical structure of Roman religion necessitated
