Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T05:50:07.644Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Poetic Artistry and Dynastic Politics: Ovid at the Ludi Megalenses (Fasti 4. 179–372)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

R. J. Littlewood
R. J. Littlewood
Affiliation:
Oxford
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Aetiological poetry tends to be mature poetry in both a literary and a political sense. Interest in antiquarian lore belongs in general to a poet's middle and later years when youthful and audacious quests for what is avant-garde and anti-establishment have yielded to conservatism and a desire to preserve the past. Propertius and Ovid both turned to aetiological poetry after a long apprenticeship in amatory ‘nugae’ which enabled them, like their predecessor, Callimachus, to embellish their work with a diversity of artistic devices founded on considerable poetic skill and literary experience. With this, a vital ploy to engage the sympathy of a sophisticated audience, went the poise and urbanity with which the aetiological poet found humour in the pose of earnest researcher, in the naivety of primitive cult and in clever literary adaptations. Moreover, dedication to a form of writing essentially nationalist and conservative encouraged a tone of patriotic pride and allusions, even compliments, to the ruling powers. In the light of such considerations we may examine Ovid's account of the ‘Ludi Megalenses’.

The ‘Megalensia’ furnished Ovid with a goddess who had enjoyed fame and even notoriety in the pages of Roman literature. In addition to showing a poetic and neoteric interest in the orgiastic elements of her cult and the alien music of her retinue Roman poetry could reflect too the awe and reverence inspired of old by the Great Mother and expressed in the Greek poets, whom Lucretius claimed as his sources in his powerfully beautiful excursus on Cybele worship. Again, Cybele's importance in Rome had been augmented by her Trojan origins, concerning which a canonical Augustan theology had been established by Vergil in the Aeneid.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , December 1981 , pp. 381 - 395
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1981

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Catullus, whose Attis poem (63) sets forth the terrible aspect of the goddess, alludes to a Magna Mater composed by his friend Caecilius (35. 13). Varro's Menippean satire Eumenides incorporates a few Galliambic lines on Cybele's noisy Phrygian company (fragg. 131 f. Bücheler) and comments on the festival (fragg. 143 f. Bücheler). In the same vein and metre Maecenas invokes Cybele (fragg. 5 f. Morel). Lucretius, ostensibly offering from the Epicurean point of view an explanation for her power and worship (2. 606 ff.), conveys the majesty of Vergil's splendid picture of the Berecyntian Mother enthroned (Aen. 6. 784 ff.). Throughout the Aeneid Cybele figures as a tutelary goddess of the Trojans; a Trojan goddess with Roman connections since 205 b.c. when she arrived in Rome, she fits nicely into the Troy-Rome historiomythography of the Augustan period.

2 See Hom. Hymn 14 (to the Great Mother), Sophocles, , Philoct. 391Google Scholar, Euripides, , Bacch. 58 ff.Google Scholar, Anth. Pal. 6. 51. There is also a hymn honouring the Mother of Olympus which was found in the sanctuary of Asclepius at Epidaurus dating from the third century b.c. (IG 4. 1. 131). The poet Hermesianax apparently gave the story a somewhat different emphasis in his elegiac poem on the love of Attis and Cybele (Paus. 7. 17. 5).

3 Lucr. 2. 600, ‘hanc (sc. Cybelen) veteres Graium docti cecinere poetae’.

4 The importance of Cybele in the Aeneid is noteworthy. Creusa is taken into the care of the ‘magna deum genetrix’ (2. 788). Anchises carefully traces Cybele's origin and cult appendages to Crete (3. 104–13). With hymnic solemnity she is invoked by Aeneas as his native goddess on the site of Lanuvium (7. 139) and later (10. 252). It is she who confers with Jupiter, her son, to save the Trojan ships made of wood from the sacred trees of Ida (9.82 ff.) and later transforms them into nymphs (10. 234). Finally, in a magnificent simile which forms the high point in Anchises' catalogue of Roman heroes, ‘incluta Roma’ and her sons are compared to none other than ‘Berecyntia Mater…centum complexa nepotes’ (6. 784–6). For identification of Cybele with Roma see Boyancé, P., ‘Cybèle aux Mégalésies’, Latomus 13 (1954), 339–42Google Scholar.

5 See especially Vermaseren, M. J., Cybele and Attis, the myth and the cult (London, 1977), pp. 71–81Google Scholar.

6 Cicero, , de Har. Res. 27Google Scholar. Cf. ibid. 24: ‘qui (sc. Ludi Megalenses) sunt…maxime casti, sollemnes, religjosi’.

7 A picture of Ovid's relationships with the men around Augustus and their relative warmth is built up in the exile poetry. See especially Ex Pont. 1. 2, 3. 3 to Paullus Fabius Maximus, at whose house Ovid was a sometime guest and where he met his third wife; Tr. 4. 4, Ex Pont. 1. 5, 1. 7, 1. 9, 2. 2, 2. 8, 3. 2, 3. 5, 4. 16 to Messalla's two sons, Messallinus and Cotta Maximus; and, for overtures to the circle of Germanicus, Tr. 4. 2, Ex Pont. 2. 1, 2. 5, 4. 8. Although Ovid attempts to make capital of family connections with Paullus Fabius Maximus (through his third wife's association with the Fabii and her ‘friendship’ with Marcia) and P. Suillius Rufus (husband of his third wife's daughter), he cannot disguise the distance that separates him from these friends of Augustus and Germanicus. Real intimacy has to be looked for in his letters to the youthful Cotta Maximus, whose political importance was to come only after Ovid's death and within the faction of Tiberius. Flattering references to Augustus are not wanting in the Fasti (e.g. 2. 119–30, 3. 415–28), although to our ears the glib ingenuity of Ovid's compliments occasionally borders on disrespect, as for instance his famous comparison with Romulus (Fasti 2. 133–44).

8 The dating of the Fasti is discussed fully by Syme, R. (History in Ovid (Oxford, 1978), pp. 21–36)Google Scholar, who concludes that the work must have been written between a.d. 1 and 4. It is probable that Ovid continued to work over the six books that he had already composed in the years leading to his banishment in a.d. 8. Whilst technical difficulties would have impeded his ‘research’ at Tomi, even if he had had the spirit to continue the work, there is clear evidence that he took it with him and rewrote sections (e.g. 1. 1–25, 1. 461–542). That the Fasti was intended to appease the emperor is evident both from numerous courtly allusions to the imperial family (e.g. 1. 531–5, 2. 127–44, 3. 709–10, 6. 637–40, 6. 801–10) and from the poet's reproachful statement in his ‘Defence to Augustus’: ‘sex ego Fastorum scripsi totidemque libellos | cumque suo finem mense volumen habet. | idque tuo nuper scriptum sub nomine Caesar, | et tibi sacratum sors mea rupit opus’ (Tr. 2. 549–52).

9 Valerius Maximus 1. 8. 11.

10 Res Gest. 4. 19.

11 On Agrippa Postumus' character see Suetonius, Aug. 65, Velleius Paterculus 2. 112. 7, Dio Cassius 55. 32. 1–2. Cf. too Tacitus, Ann. 1. 3. Agrippa Postumus was adopted by Augustus at the same time as Tiberius, but was by virtue of his youth and inexperience the ‘junior partner’.

12 The betrothal of Claudius, Germanicus' younger brother and the future emperor, to Aemilia Lepida did not result in a marriage presumably because of the disgrace in a.d. 8 of Aemilia's parents, the younger Julia and L. Aemilius Paullus.

13 This is discussed by Perret, J., Les origines de la légende troyenne de Rome (Paris, 1942)Google Scholar, on which see Momigliano, A., JRS 35 (1945), 99 ffGoogle Scholar.

14 Livy 29. 10. 5. Further military involvement of the Magna Mater is discussed by Lenaghan, J. O., A Commentary on Cicero's Oration de Haruspicum Responso (Amsterdam, 1969), pp. 135 fGoogle Scholar.

15 See Aurigemma, S., ‘La protezione speciale della Gran Madre Idea per la nobiltà romana e la leggende dell'origine troiana di Roma’, BACR 37 (1909), 31–65Google Scholar; Graillot, H., Le culte de Cybèle, mere des dieux, à Rome et dans l'empire romain (Paris, 1912), pp. 42–4, 93–7Google Scholar; Lambrechts, P., ‘Cybèle, divinité étrangère ou nationale’, Bull. Soc. Anthrop. Préhist. 62 (1952)Google Scholar; M. J. Vermaseren, op. cit. pp. 38 ff.; Henkel, O., De Komst van de Mater Magna naar Rome (Amsterdam, 1979), pp. 119–31Google Scholar.

16 The patrician feasts are referred to by Cato (in Cic. de Sen. 45) and Gellius 18. 2. 11. See, too, Graillot, op. cit. pp. 57 f. and Boyancé, op. cit. pp. 337–42. Augustus had a special interest in the patriciate: ‘patriciorum numerum auxi consul iussu populi et senatus’ (Res gest. 8. 1). On this see Salmon, E. T., ‘Augustus the Patrician’, in Essays on Roman Culture (Toronto, 1976)Google Scholar. Lenaghan, op. cit. p. 117, suggests that the aristocratic and patrician traditions of the cult were very much alive in 56 b.c. when Clodius occasioned scandal by introducing into the sacred theatricals a band of low-class toughs.

17 Vermaseren, op. cit. p. 75. Lambrechts discusses (‘Livie-Cybèle’, La Nouvelle Clio 4 (1952), 251–60Google Scholar) the representation of Livia on the Vienna onyx with a turreted crown, tympanum and ears of corn. He also sees, on the Gemma Augustea, the woman behind Augustus as Livia, possibly Livia-Cybele. See too Graillot, op. cit. p. 347 and Grether, G., ‘Livia and the Roman imperial cult’, AJPh 67 (1946), 243 fGoogle Scholar.

18 Our first historical source for the arrival of Cybele in Italy names a Valeria as the recipient of the divine stranger (D.S. 34. 33. 2). Claudia Quinta takes Valeria's place in Cicero (de Har. Res. 13. 27) and Livy (29. 14. 12), who first mentions Claudia's bad reputation and does not indicate that she was chosen for her moral excellence. That the Valeria tradition and the tale of Claudia's immorality derive from historians hostile to the Claudii is argued by Wiseman, T., Clio's Cosmetics (Leicester, 1979), pp. 98 ffGoogle Scholar. Ovid's fuller version of the story is followed by Seneca, , de Matr. fragg. 80 f.Google Scholar, Pliny, , HN 7. 120Google Scholar, Statius, , Silv. 1. 2. 245–6Google Scholar, Silius Italicus, 17. 1–45, Suetonius, , Tib. 2. 3Google Scholar, Appian, , Hann. 56Google Scholar, Herodian 1. 11. 4, Lactantius, , Div. Inst. 2. 8. 12Google Scholar, Julian, , Or. 5. 2Google Scholar, Vir. Ill. 46. 1 f., Solinus 1. 126, Macrobius, , Sat. 2. 5. 4Google Scholar. Lambrechts (op. cit. p. 258) sees Livia as a supporter of a Claudian Cybele at the expense of the Julian Venus, and emphasizes the Claudian associations of the Cybele cult in the later empire — e.g. the emperor Claudius' organization of the Attis festival (Lydus, J., De Mens. 4. 59Google Scholar) and the elevation of Claudius II Gothicus on the ‘Day of Blood’ (Vit. Claud, ap. Script. Hist. Aug. 4. 2: cf. Suet. Otho 8).

19 Livia's first husband, Ti. Claudius Nero, belonged to the less famous branch of the Claudii, the Nerones, whilst her father, M. Livius Drusus Claudianus, son of Appius Claudius Pulcher, descended from the more illustrious Claudii Pulchri (see Levick, B., Tiberius the Politician (London, 1976), pp. 11 and 228, n. 2Google Scholar).

20 Ap. Claudius Pulcher, father of the notorious P. Clodius Pulcher, held the games in 91 b.c. and his brother, C. Claudius Pulcher, even more splendidly in 99 b.c. (Cic, , Verr. 4. 6, 4. 133Google Scholar, de Har. Res. 26). P. Clodius himself was responsible as praetor in 56 b.c., whose ‘sacrilegious’ behaviour at the Megalensian theatricals Cicero could castigate thus: ‘parentum nomen, sacra, memoriam, gentem…obruit’ (de Har. Res. 57). Clodius' sacrilege is ingeniously linked to Lucretius' description of the Galli as those ‘qui violarint | Matris et ingrati genitoribus inventi sint’ (Lucr. 2. 614 f.) by Michels, A. Kirsopp, ‘Lucretius, Clodius and the Magna Mater’, Mélanges Jérome Carcopino (Paris, 1966), pp. 675–9Google Scholar.

21 Conspicuous is Ex Pont. 3. 1 where Ovid urges his wife to plead before a Livia ‘quae Veneris formam, mores Junonis habendo | sola est caelesti digna reperta toro’ (117 f.). Marcia's reputation, he claims, was such that with her approbation even Claudia Quinta could have done without divine proof of her chastity (Ex Pont. 1. 2. 137–42).

22 Propertius 4. 11. 51–4.

23 See note 21 above.

24 M. Valerius Messalla Barbatus Appianus, whose uncle was the notorious P. Clodius Pulcher.

26 P. Quinctilius Varus (cos. 13 b.c.) appears by his career, steady advancement and dynastic marriage to have been a loyal supporter of the ‘princeps’ (see PIR Q 27), and had useful connections among the Roman aristocracy (see Syme, , The Roman Revolution (Oxford, 1939), p. 434Google Scholar). The impact on Augustus of his murder with three legions in the forests of Germany in a.d. 9 is well known (e.g. Suet. Aug. 23. 2). It seems perfectly reasonable to set the marriage between Varus and Claudia Pulchra in a.d. 2–4. Claudia Pulchra (PIR C 1116) was born probably in 13 or 12 b.c., the year of her father Barbatus' death. An earlier date is impossible since her mother, Claudia Marcella Minor (PIR C 1103), had first to pass through a marriage with Paullus Aemilius Lepidus (PIR A 373) who was not available until the death of his first wife Cornelia in 16 b.c. Claudia Pulchra must have been eighteen or nineteen in a.d. 6 when Varus left for Germany, an age beyond that at which a Roman imperial princess might expect to be married. It is more likely that she was betrothed and married some three years earlier, perhaps in a.d. 3, a date which would give topical relevance to Ovid's tale of Claudia Quinta.

26 Ovid, , Fasti 4. 305Google Scholar (cf. Vergil, , Aen. 7. 707Google Scholar).

27 Dion. Hal. (Ant. Rom. 2. 19. 3–5) describes how the rites of Cybele were adapted to suit Roman religious convention.

28 At the root of ‘eviratio’ was undoubtedly the ancient belief that the sacred offices should be performed only by the pure. Eunuchs consecrated to perpetual continence furnished perfect ministers and for this reason figured in the worship of mother and fertility goddesses such as Cybele, Dea Syria, Aphrodite of Aphaca and the Scythian mother goddess. Isidore actually derives the word ‘castus’ from this permanent achievement of chastity: ‘castus primum a castratione dicitur; postea placuit veteribus etiam eos sic nominare qui perpetuam libidinis abstinentiam pollicebantur’ (Orig. 10. 33: cf. Claudian, , In Eutrop. 1. 468Google Scholar). A discussion of this may be found in Nock, A. D., ‘Eunuchs in Ancient Religion’, now conveniently reprinted in Essays on Religion and the Ancient World (Oxford, 1972), pp. 7–15Google Scholar.

29 cf. Catullus 63. 9 f., 64. 261 f., Lucretius 2. 618–20, Ovid, , Met. 4. 29Google Scholar.

30 Ovid, 's ‘tympana tundent’ (Fasti 4. 183Google Scholar) reflects Lucretius' ‘tympana tenta tonant’ (2. 618), while Catullus' ‘tereti tenuis tinnitus aere’ (64. 262) seems to be the source for Ovid, 's ‘aeraque tinnitus aere repulsa’ (Fasti 4. 184Google Scholar).

31 For a description of the Roman festival see Vermaseren, op. cit. pp. 124 f.

32 Cybele's official title in Rome was ‘Mater Deum Magna Idaea’.

33 The following dates are generally accepted for performances of Terence's comedies at the ‘Ludi Megalenses’: 166 b.c. (Andria), 165 (Hecyra), 163 (Heautontimoroumenos), 161 (Eunuchus).

34 cf. Terence, , Hecyra, Prol. 1. 4, 2. 33Google Scholar.

35 Cicero, , de Har. Res. 24Google Scholar: ‘quos in Palatio nostri maiores arte templum in ipso Magnae Matris conspectu Megalensibus fieri celebrarique voluerunt’. Cf. Arnobius 7. 33. A temporary theatre seems to have been erected in front of the Palatine ‘aedes Magnae Matris’ with the goddess in the form of her own turreted crown present in a seat of honour (see Taylor, L. R., CPh 30 (1935), 22–30Google Scholar and Hanson, J. A., Roman Theatre Temples (Princeton, 1959), pp. 14 f., 24 f., 81–5Google Scholar).

36 For Cybele's traditional association with the Circus Maximus see Vermaseren, op. cit. pp. 51–3. Correct formalities and their neglect at the ‘Ludi Megalenses’ are discussed by Wiseman, T., ‘Clodius at the Theatre’ in his Cinna the Poet and other Roman Essays (Leicester, 1974), pp. 159–69Google Scholar.

37 In the later empire erotic tales of Cybele and Attis were staged to the disgust of the Christian writers Arnobius (4. 35, 7. 33) and Augustine, (Civ. Dei 2. 4)Google Scholar. Lascivious verses evidently graced the ‘Floralia’ where Ovid suggests that Flora's doings and personality gave occasion for risqué sketches (Fasti 5. 331–54).

38 Fasti 1. 416–40, 2. 303–58, 3. 675–96, 6. 319–48. Among these the tale of Anna/Mars/Minerva on the feast day of Anna Perenna would appear to have all the necessary ingredients of a mime, whilst the Lupercalia story of Hercules/Omphale/Faunus has affinities with the satyr drama. On the dramatic character of these two pieces see respectively Littlewood, R. J., ‘Ovid and the Ides of March’ in Deroux, C. (ed.), Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History (Collection Latomus 168, Brussels, 1980), ii 316 f.Google Scholar; idem, ‘Ovid's Lupercalia’, Latomus 34 (1975), 1063 fGoogle Scholar.

39 Callimachus, , Hymn 5. 1–54Google Scholar.

40 For Callimachean appeals to the Muses or other probable sources of information see fragg. 43. 56 f., 114. 4–11, 178. 13–34 Pfeiffer.

41 This legend is alluded to in the Aratea of Germanicus (lines 34–8, Bährens, , PLM i. 148Google Scholar) to whom Ovid dedicated the Fasti after the death of Augustus in a.d. 14 and whose poetry Ovid praises in his allusions to Germanicus in his exile poetry (Ex Pont. 2. 9. 65, 4. 8. 67–82). It would be tempting to posit a compliment to the literary prince, were it not that, first, Germanicus' poem with its dedication to his adoptive father, Tiberius, must be dated after a.d. 4 (date of the adoption of Germanicus by Tiberius), by which time this part of the Fasti should have been written, and, second, the thematic unity of the whole Cybele section (Fasti 4. 179–372) argues against any suggestion that Ovid might have interpolated the legend of Rhea at a later date.

42 Lucretius 2. 633 ff., Vergil, , Aen. 3. 111–13Google Scholar.

43 ‘Expedit esse deos, et, ut expedit, esse putemus;…’ (Ovid, , A.A. 1. 637–42Google Scholar: see note ad loc, in edition of A. S. Hollis (Oxford, 1977)).

44 Callimachus, , Hymn 1. 6–8Google Scholar.

45 Disinclination among the Romans to practise ‘eviratio’ in Cybele worship is attested by the fact that not until the time of Domitian was it necessary to legislate against the practice (Digest. 48. 8. 4. 2, Cod. lust. 42. 1). Whilst most commonly showing the familiar, hooded Attis figure standing near to the Great Goddess, the plastic arts represented also Attis' self-mutilation or drew attention to his hermaphroditic physique. For descriptions of such art works see Vermaseren, op. cit. pp. 93–5. The poets shared an attitude of revulsion for this un-Greek lack of reverence for the male form, tending scornfully to refer to the Galli as ‘semimares’ (Ov. Fasti 4. 183) and ‘semiviri’ (Min. Fel., Oct. 22. 4, Paulinus of Nola, Carm. 32. 88) or more damningly to allude to them in the feminine gender (Cat. 63. 8, 11 f. et passim). Only a few saw in it a mystic and pure sacrifice as did Julian (Or. 8. 5. 9). The bad reputation of the Galli is described by Apuleius (Met. 8. 24 ff.), which is appositely quoted by P. Parsons in a discussion of a Greek papyrus (P. Oxy. 3010) which deals with the unsavoury underworld of the Eastern Galli (‘A Greek Satyricon?’, Univ. of London, Institute of Class. Stud., Bulletin 18 (1971), 53–68Google Scholar).

46 Cogent argument for the propriety of Ovid's Fasti as opposed to the poet's ‘umoristico-salaci’ (Trissoglio, F., ‘Leggendo Ovidio, Fisionomia di un poeta’, RSC 6 (1958), 123–44Google Scholar) is offered by Porte, D., ‘Les Fastes d'Ovide et le sourcil latin’, Latomus 37 (1978), 851–73Google Scholar.

47 Catullus' repetition of ‘Attis’, ‘Phrygius’ and other key words is discussed by Elder, J. P., ‘Catullus' Attis’ in Quinn, K., Approaches to Catullus (New York, 1972), pp. 401–3Google Scholar.

48 In addition to the two instances in this section of the Fasti, the nominative ‘Phryx’ is found at Fasti 6. 475, Her. 15. 199, 201, 203 and insultingly at Ibis 508. In the Aeneid ‘Phryx’, its oblique cases and the adjective ‘Phrygius’ tend to take on unflattering suggestions of effeminacy in the mouths of those hostile to the Trojans — e.g. Juno (4. 103, ‘liceat Phrygio servire marito’), Turnus (12. 77 f., ‘Phrygio mea dicta tyranno | haud placitura refer’), Latin matrons (11. 484), Amata (7. 362) and the Rutulian Numanus (9. 599–620, ‘bis capti Phryges… | O vere Phrygiae, neque enim Phryges…’).

49 The transgression of Ovid's Attis is exactly that of Lucretius' Galli, who have merited their physical abnormality ‘quia numen qui violarnt | matris et ingrati genitoribus inventi sunt | significare volunt indignos esse putandos | vivam progeniem, qui in oras luminis edant’ (2. 614–17).

50 The tale is told in Vergil, , Aen. 9. 77–122Google Scholar and Ovid, , Met. 14. 50 ffGoogle Scholar. Cybele's bond with Nature is particularly strong in the Ovidian version where the goddess refers to the ships/trees as ‘nemorum partes et membra deorum’.

51 Traditional victims of the Furies were Athamas, Orestes and Alcmaeon, listed by Cicero (Tusc. 3. 11, Pis. 47, de Har. Res. 39) whose madness followed the murder of their mother or (in the case of Athamas) children. Through lèse-majesté towards the Great Mother Attis is in a sense associated with Alcmaeon and Orestes, tragedy's famous matricides. Again cf. Lucretius, 2. 614–17.

52 cf. Catullus 64. 224 (Aegeus grieving for Theseus: ‘canitiem terra atque infulso pulvere foedans’), Vergil, , Aen. 10. 844Google Scholar (Evander for Pallas: ‘canitiem multo deformat pulvere’), ibid. 12. 611 (Latinus for the destruction of his city: ‘canitiem immundo perfusam pulvere turpans’). Homeric antecedents are Il. 18. 23–5, 24. 163–5. A particularly apt parallel which Ovid perhaps intended his Roman audience to recall would be Turnus' prayer, ‘da sternere corpus | loricamque manu valida lacerare revulsam | semiviri Phrygis et foedare in pulvere crinis | vibratos calido ferro murraque madentis’ (Vergil, , Aen. 12. 97–100Google Scholar).

53 Whether the black stone came from Pessinus, an independent state at that time (Livy, 39. 10. 7, Strabo 12. 4. 3), or from the Megalension in Pergamum (Varro, , LL 6. 15Google Scholar) is discussed with general preference for Varro by Bloch, L., Phil. 52 (1893), 580 f.Google Scholar, Graillot, op. cit. pp. 46–51, Habel, , RE Suppl. 5, pp. 626 ff.Google Scholar, Magie, D., Roman Rule in Asia Minor to the end of the Third Century after Christ (Princeton, 1950), ii, pp. 770 ffGoogle Scholar.

54 See note 28 above.

55 Roman readers might be reminded of another divine portent following the notorious Megalensia of 56 b.c.: ‘in agro Latiensi auditus est strepitus cum fremitu’ (Cic. de Har. Res. 20), which indication of the god's displeasure derived, according to Cicero, from Clodius' recent sacrilege and portended future disaster (ibid. 24).

56 Ovid was to allude to the holiness of Rome in Tr. 1. 5. 70.

57 Vergil, , Aen. 3. 103–17Google Scholar.

58 For the tradition that the Trojans stopped at Cythera on their way from Delos see Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1. 50. 1.

59 Vergil, , Aen. 3. 569 ff.Google Scholar, 8. 423 ff. The Cyclopean smiths are, of course, an adaptation of Vergil's ‘Brontesque Steropesque et nudus membra Pyragmon’ (ibid. 8. 425).

60 Ovid alludes to a real problem familiar to his Roman readers, the silting of the Tiber which obliged larger vessels to lie at anchor beyond the Tiber mouth and discharge their cargo by means of small boats (see Meiggs, R., Roman Ostia 2 (Oxford, 1973), p. 52Google Scholar. For factual information on the bend in the Tiber to which Ovid refers in line 329 see ibid. p. 484).

61 cf. Vergil, , Aen. 7. 707Google Scholar for the origins of the Claudian gens. Livy's version of the tale of Claudia Quinta is relatively basic: ‘matronae primores civitatis, inter quas unius Claudiae Quintae insigne est nomen, accepere; cui dubia, ut traditur, antea fama clariorem ad posteros tam religioso ministeπo pudicitiam fecit’ (29. 14. 12). The political implications and faction activity behind the respective choice of P. Scipio Nasica and Claudia Quinta to receive the goddess are fully discussed by Koves, T., Historia 12 (1963), 335–47Google Scholar and Wiseman, T., Clio's Cosmetics, pp. 79 ffGoogle Scholar.

62 For a detailed examination of the literary adaptation of Callimachus' fifth hymn see Floratus, C., ‘Veneralia’, Hermes 88 (1960), 197–216Google Scholar.

63 cf. Callimachus, , Hymn 5.2, 14Google Scholar.

64 Callimachus specifically mentions the Inarchus as the place for Athene's bath (ibid. 50).

65 cf. ibid. 49 f. Ovid, is more specific: ‘nunc alii flores, nunc nova danda rosa est’ (Fasti 4. 138)Google Scholar.

66 Callimachus, ibid. 33 f. Cf. Ovid who adds, however, ‘quis vittae longaque vestis abest’ (ibid. 134).

67 Some remarks on structure in the Fasti may be found in Littlewood, opp. citt. n. 38, ‘Ovid's Lupercalia’, 1072, ‘Ovid and the Ides of March’, 321.

68 I am indebted to Professor R. G. M. Nisbet for constructive criticism through the phases of the writing of this article.