Sources, Volume IV
The Roman Inheritance
How to weigh the evidence for this room, where to read the texts, and what survives for each of its four bays.
How to read the evidence
Evidence for the civic, domestic, agrarian, and imperial religions of Rome and ancient Italy should be read in a hierarchy: dated and provenanced primary objects first; critically edited literary or ritual texts second; ancient reception and interpretation third; modern synthesis last.
Read the texts online
Further reading
- Beard, Mary, John North, and Simon Price. Religions of Rome. 2 vols. Cambridge University Press, 1998.
- Dumézil, Georges. Archaic Roman Religion. 2 vols. University of Chicago Press, 1970.
- Flower, Harriet I. The Dancing Lares and the Serpent in the Garden. Princeton University Press, 2017.
- North, John A. Roman Religion. Oxford University Press, 2000.
- Rüpke, Jörg. Religion of the Romans. Polity, 2007.
- Scheid, John. An Introduction to Roman Religion. Indiana University Press, 2003.
- Turcan, Robert. The Cults of the Roman Empire. Blackwell, 1996.
- Warrior, Valerie M. Roman Religion. Cambridge University Press, 2006.
- Wiseman, T. P. The Myths of Rome. University of Exeter Press, 2004.
- Ovid. Fasti. Edited and translated by James G. Frazer, revised by G. P. Goold. Loeb Classical Library. Harvard University Press, 1989.
The Indigenous Italic Gods
What survives
- Calendars and priestly formulae
- Festival lists, the Arval records, and preserved prayers offer high-value evidence for ritual names and sequence.
- Inscriptions and coins
- Dedications identify worshippers, epithets, locations, imperial claims, and regional variation.
- Antiquarian prose
- Varro, Cicero, Festus, Macrobius, and related witnesses preserve learned analysis, often through fragments or later excerpts.
- Historical narrative
- Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus organize sacred institutions within retrospective accounts of Rome’s beginnings.
- Poetry
- Ovid, Virgil, and others are major witnesses to Augustan and imperial reinterpretation, not neutral ritual manuals.
- Archaeology
- Temples, household shrines, votives, reliefs, and cult topography test literary claims and show social range.
- Fasti and calendars
- Festival date and priestly responsibility often provide the firmest evidence.
- Agricultural prayers
- Cato and related formulae preserve functional invocation in lived practice.
- Ovid’s Fasti
- A brilliant Augustan literary investigation whose competing explanations should remain competing.
Entry by entry (12)
- Janus §1.1 The principal sources are Ovid, Fasti 1.63–294 (the most extended literary treatment, in which the poet has Janus answer the questions of the curious); Vergil, Aeneid 7.180, 7.610 (the war-and-peace door); Livy 1.19 (Numa's institution of the door); Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.9 (extensive antiquarian discussion); Plutarch, Numa 19.
- Faunus §1.4 The principal sources are Vergil, Aeneid 7.81–106 (the consultation by Latinus); Ovid, Fasti 2.193–474 (the Lupercalia and the Faunus-and-Hercules tale); Horace, Odes 1.4, 1.17, 3.18 (Faunus in the lyric register); Livy 1.5 (the Lupercalia as oldest Roman festival).
- Terminus §1.6 The principal sources are Ovid, Fasti 2.639–684 (the Terminalia, with extensive antiquarian description); Livy 1.55 (the Capitoline-temple anecdote); Dionysius of Halicarnassus 3.69; Plutarch, Quaestiones Romanae 15.
- Flora §1.9 The principal sources are Ovid, Fasti 5.183–378 (the most extensive treatment, including Flora's monologue); Pliny, Natural History 18.286 (the institution of the Ludi Florales in 240 BCE); Varro, De Re Rustica 1.1.6 (the agricultural function); Tertullian, De Spectaculis (the Christian disapproval of the rites).
- Bellona §1.12 Bellona's temple was vowed by Appius Claudius Caecus in 296 BCE during the Third Samnite War (Livy 10.19) and was the regular meeting-place of the Senate when foreign ambassadors or returning generals were involved (Livy 28.9, 30.21, 30.40).
- Mater Matuta §1.14 Mater Matuta is described by Ovid (Fasti 6.473-562, the Matralia entry, with the Ino-Leucothea identification), Plutarch (Camillus 5, Roman Questions 16-17), and Augustine (City of God 4.21).
- Summanus §1.17 Summanus is described by Cicero (De Divinatione 1.16, the head-of-statue incident), Pliny (Naturalis Historia 2.138, on lightning lore), Ovid (Fasti 6.731-732), Augustine (City of God 4.23, the mocking passage), and Festus (s.v. Summanalia, on the wheel-cakes).
- Robigus §1.19 The Robigalia is described by Ovid (Fasti 4.901-942, who describes the procession he himself witnessed), Varro (De Re Rustica 1.1.6), Pliny (Naturalis Historia 18.285), and Tertullian (De Idololatria 14).
- Egeria §1.22 Egeria appears in Livy (1.19, 1.21), Ovid (Fasti 3.275-276, Metamorphoses 15.482-551), Plutarch (Numa 4, 8, 13, 15), Cicero (De Legibus 1.4, De Republica 2.26-28), and Juvenal (Satire 3.10-20, the famous passage on the grove of the Camenae).
- Portunus §1.25 Portunus is described by Varro (De Lingua Latina 6.19, where the Portunalia is entered), Festus (s.v. Portunalia), Ovid (Fasti 6.547, alluded to in connection with Mater Matuta whose temple stood nearby), and Cicero (De Natura Deorum 2.66, the equation with Palaemon).
- Angerona §1.27 Angerona is described by Macrobius (Saturnalia 1.10.7-8, 3.9.4-5, the secret name passage), Varro (De Lingua Latina 6.23, the Angeronalia), Pliny (Naturalis Historia 3.65, the secret name passage with the death-penalty rule), Solinus (1.4-6), Festus (s.v. Angerona), and Augustine (City of God 1.30 — sneering at the secret name).
- Proserpina §1.30 Proserpina appears in Ovid (Fasti 4.417-620, Metamorphoses 5.341-661), Cicero (In Verrem 2.4.107, on the Locrian sanctuary), Lactantius (Divinae Institutiones 1.21), Servius (commentary on Aeneid 6.138), and Claudian (De Raptu Proserpinae).
The Household and Ancestral Spirits
What survives
- Calendars and priestly formulae
- Festival lists, the Arval records, and preserved prayers offer high-value evidence for ritual names and sequence.
- Inscriptions and coins
- Dedications identify worshippers, epithets, locations, imperial claims, and regional variation.
- Antiquarian prose
- Varro, Cicero, Festus, Macrobius, and related witnesses preserve learned analysis, often through fragments or later excerpts.
- Historical narrative
- Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus organize sacred institutions within retrospective accounts of Rome’s beginnings.
- Poetry
- Ovid, Virgil, and others are major witnesses to Augustan and imperial reinterpretation, not neutral ritual manuals.
- Archaeology
- Temples, household shrines, votives, reliefs, and cult topography test literary claims and show social range.
- Lararia and domestic archaeology
- Findspot and household layout reveal use beyond literary definition.
- Inscriptions
- Dedications distinguish household, crossroads, military, and imperial Lares.
- Festivals and funerary practice
- Lemuria, Parentalia, and burial evidence map relations with the dead.
Entry by entry (8)
- Lares §2.1 The principal sources are Plautus's Aulularia (the prologue is spoken by the Lar Familiaris of the household); Cato, De Agri Cultura 143 (the Lares of the farm); Tibullus 1.10.15–28; Ovid, Fasti 5.129–146 (the Lares Praestites); Apuleius, Apologia 32.
- Penates §2.2 The principal sources are Vergil, Aeneid 1.378, 2.293, 2.717 (the Trojan Penates rescued from the burning city); Cicero, De Natura Deorum 2.68; Macrobius, Saturnalia 3.4 (an extensive antiquarian treatment); Varro fragments.
- Genius §2.3 The principal sources are Censorinus, De Die Natali 3 (the most extensive ancient discussion); Horace, Epistles 2.2.187–189; Tibullus 2.2; the inscriptional record (immense) of Genius dedications.
- Manes §2.4 The principal sources are Ovid, Fasti 2.533–616 (the Parentalia and Feralia, with extensive description); Cicero, De Legibus 2.55 (the prohibition on marriage during the Parentalia); the universal D.M.
- Lemures §2.5 The principal source is Ovid, Fasti 5.419–492, who attributes the description to Roman antiquarian sources now lost; the rite is also mentioned by Persius (5.185) and by Augustine (City of God 9.11).
- Bona Dea §2.6 The principal sources for the Bona Dea cult are Cicero (De Domo Sua, the speeches De Haruspicum Responsis and Pro Caelio, all referring to the Clodius scandal), Plutarch (Caesar 9–10, Cicero 28–29), Juvenal (Satire 6.314–345, with characteristic invective against women's secrets), and Macrobius (Saturnalia 1.12.20–29).
- Mania §2.7 Mania is described by Macrobius (Saturnalia 1.7.34-35, the Compitalia and the Brutus reform), Varro (De Lingua Latina 9.61, the maniae effigies), Festus (s.v. Maniae), and Augustine (City of God 4.16).
- The Indigitamenta §2.8 What we know of them comes from quotations in Varro (much of it preserved only in Augustine's City of God 4-7, especially 4.8-11, 6.9, 7.2-3), Tertullian (Ad Nationes 2.11.10-12, the great catalog), and the late mythographers and Christian polemicists.
The Deified Virtues and the Imperial Mystery Cults
What survives
- Calendars and priestly formulae
- Festival lists, the Arval records, and preserved prayers offer high-value evidence for ritual names and sequence.
- Inscriptions and coins
- Dedications identify worshippers, epithets, locations, imperial claims, and regional variation.
- Antiquarian prose
- Varro, Cicero, Festus, Macrobius, and related witnesses preserve learned analysis, often through fragments or later excerpts.
- Historical narrative
- Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus organize sacred institutions within retrospective accounts of Rome’s beginnings.
- Poetry
- Ovid, Virgil, and others are major witnesses to Augustan and imperial reinterpretation, not neutral ritual manuals.
- Archaeology
- Temples, household shrines, votives, reliefs, and cult topography test literary claims and show social range.
- Temple dedications and coinage
- Primary for official virtues and imperial visual programs.
- Mithraea and initiatory inscriptions
- Archaeology defines Roman Mithraism more securely than speculative Persian continuity.
- Apuleius and other literary witnesses
- Rare extended narratives of initiation, framed by literary genre.
Entry by entry (12)
- Concordia §3.1 The principal sources are Ovid, Fasti 1.637–650 (the Tiberian dedication); Plutarch, Camillus 42 (the original 367 BCE foundation, though some modern scholars doubt the early date and place the original temple later); Cassius Dio 55.8 (Tiberius's reconstruction); the abundant numismatic record.
- Pietas §3.3 The principal sources are Pliny, Natural History 7.121 (the filial-piety tale and the temple's foundation); Festus 209L; Livy 40.34.
- Sol Invictus §3.4 The principal sources are the Historia Augusta's Life of Aurelian (a notoriously unreliable text but the principal narrative source for the establishment of the cult); Aurelius Victor, De Caesaribus 35; the Notitia Dignitatum and other administrative texts (for the priestly college); the abundant numismatic record.
- Serapis §3.6 The principal ancient source for Serapis's establishment is Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 28 (giving the tale of Ptolemy's vision and the importation of a statue from Sinope, a tale that may be more aetiological than historical); Tacitus, Histories 4.83–84 (a similar account); Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticus 4.42 (Christian polemical treatment).
- Hermes Trismegistus §3.7 The Corpus Hermeticum is best read in the modern critical edition of A.
- Roma §3.9 The cult of Roma is documented from the Greek east (Tacitus, Annals 4.56 — Smyrna's claim of priority; OGIS 437 — the inscription of the temple) and from Rome itself (Cassius Dio 51.20, the development under Augustus; Suetonius, Augustus 52).
- Victoria §3.10 Victoria is described in many sources: Livy (10.33.9, 29.14.13), Cassius Dio (51.22.2, the Altar of Victory), Suetonius (Augustus 100), Symmachus (Relatio 3, 384 CE — the appeal for restoration), Ambrose (Epistles 17 and 18, the response).
- Libertas §3.12 Libertas is described in many sources: Livy (24.16.19, the temple foundation), Cicero (De Domo Sua 108-114, the famous occupation of his demolished house by Clodius's shrine of Libertas), Tacitus (Annals 13.49, 15.52), Suetonius.
- Pax §3.13 The Augustan cult is documented in the Res Gestae 12.2 (Augustus's own account), in Ovid (Fasti 1.709-722, the prayer for Pax), in the Ara Pacis itself.
- Spes §3.15 Spes is described in Livy (2.51.2, 25.7.6, 40.51.6), Tacitus (Annals 2.49), Cicero (De Legibus 2.28, listing the deified virtues), and the imperial coinage.
- Virtus §3.16 Virtus is paired with Honos in the sources cited under that entry.
- Dius Fidius §3.18 Dius Fidius / Semo Sancus is described by Varro (De Lingua Latina 5.66), Livy (8.20.8 — the temple), Ovid (Fasti 6.213-218), Festus (s.v. Sancus), and Lactantius (Divinae Institutiones 1.15.5-7).
The Founders
What survives
- Calendars and priestly formulae
- Festival lists, the Arval records, and preserved prayers offer high-value evidence for ritual names and sequence.
- Inscriptions and coins
- Dedications identify worshippers, epithets, locations, imperial claims, and regional variation.
- Antiquarian prose
- Varro, Cicero, Festus, Macrobius, and related witnesses preserve learned analysis, often through fragments or later excerpts.
- Historical narrative
- Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus organize sacred institutions within retrospective accounts of Rome’s beginnings.
- Poetry
- Ovid, Virgil, and others are major witnesses to Augustan and imperial reinterpretation, not neutral ritual manuals.
- Archaeology
- Temples, household shrines, votives, reliefs, and cult topography test literary claims and show social range.
- Livy and Dionysius
- Parallel retrospective foundation histories with differing rationalizations.
- Virgil’s Aeneid
- Augustan epic and theological statecraft, not a pre-literary chronicle.
- Ovid and cult evidence
- Preserve apotheosis traditions and calendar associations.
Entry by entry (2)
- Aeneas §4.1 Aeneas appears in Homer (Iliad 5.297–317, 20.79–352, where his rescue by the gods establishes his future role); the early Greek Aeneas-traditions (Stesichorus, Hellanicus, others) connect him with various Italian foundations and are sometimes preserved by Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Roman Antiquities 1) and other antiquarian sources.
- Romulus §4.2 The principal sources for Romulus are Livy 1.4–16; Plutarch's Romulus (one of his Lives, paired with Theseus); Dionysius of Halicarnassus 1.76–2.56; Ovid, Fasti 2.381–512, 4.807–862; Cicero, De Republica 2.4–10.