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The Site of Lucus Feroniae

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

L. R. Taylor
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Extract

Lucus Feroniae, the scene of a great yearly assemblage in honour of the goddess Feronia and subsequently the site of an Augustan colony which took the name of the ancient grove, lay somewhere in the territory of Capena in south-eastern Etruria. The region presents great topographical difficulties. Except for Capena itself, which has been located with some degree of certainty on the hill of Civitucola, none of the ancient settlements, of which there are several in the city's extensive ager, has been definitely identified. This paper has been written in the belief that a fresh consideration of the evidence for the goddess's shrine will aid in determining its location and will present material of value for its bearing on the history of Capena and the origin of Feronia's cult.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 10 , November 1920 , pp. 29 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © Miss L. R. Taylor 1920. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

I am indebted to the American Academy in Rome for the opportunity to pursue, in Rome, as Fellow in Classical Archaeology, investigations, the results of which are partially embodied in this paper.

page 29 note 1 The map of the region about Capena (fig. 2) was prepared by Mr. James H. Chillman, Fellow in Architecture of the American Academy in Rome.

page 29 note 2 The identification of Capena, first suggested by Galletti, , Capena, Municipio dei Romani, Rome, 1756Google Scholar, is made practically certain by the inscriptions of Capena found on the site and by the existence of an extensive necropolis. It has been seriously questioned only by De Rossi, (Ann. dell'Inst. 1883, pp. 253–284)Google Scholar who believed that the hill of Civitucola was the site of Lucus Feroniae. Against this view see Bormann's, remarks, C.I.L. xi, p. 571.Google Scholar

page 29 note 3 Livy i, 30; Dionysios iii, 32.

page 29 note 4 C.I.L. ix, 4873–4875. Fabretti, Inscr. Ant. pp. 452–453 first suggested this view which has been accepted by Preller-Jordan, , Röm. Mythol. i, p. 427Google Scholar; Steuding, s.v. Feronia in Roscher's Lexicon; J. A. Hild in Daremberg and Saglio, Dict, des Ant.; Fowler, W. Warde in Roman Festivals, p. 253Google Scholar. Wissowa, however (Religion und Kultus der Römer2, p. 285, and s.v. Feronia, Pauly-Wissowa), accepts the identification with Lucus Feroniae.

page 31 note 1 Strabo here erroneously attributes to Feronia's cult ceremonies that belonged to Apollo Soranus on Soracte.

page 31 note 2 Livy xxvi, II, 8–9: inde ad lucum Feroniae pergit ire, templum ea tempestate inclutum divitiis; Capenates aliique qui accolae eius erant primitias frugum eo donaque alia pro copia portantes multo auro argentoque id exornatum habebant; iis omnibus donis turn spoliatum templum, aeris acervi cum rudera milites religione inducti iacerent post profectionem Hannibalis magni inventi. On this passage is based Silius Italicus's account, Punica, xiii, 83–91.

page 31 note 3 Livy xxvii, 4, 14; xxxiii, 26, 8.

page 31 note 4 C.I.L. xi, 3199. The fact that in the slightly earlier collections of Accursius and Smetius this inscription is quoted with no indication that it was not found at Nepi causes one to doubt whether Orsini may not have been led to make his statement through his knowledge of the existence of Feronia's shrine near Soracte.

page 31 note 5 Such a plan on Caesar's part is probable from Cicero, , ad Fam. ix, 17, 2Google Scholar.

page 31 note 6 The mention of Lucus Feroniae as a colony in Pliny's, list of Augustan communities (N.H. iii, 51Google Scholar) shows that Augustus had some share in establishing the colony either as triumvir or as sole ruler, The title Iulia that the colony had (C.I.L. xi, 3938, cf. Notizie degli Scavi, 1911, p. 450) is further support for its foundation by Augustus. Cf. also Ptolemy iii, I, 43; Gromatici veteres, ed. Lachmann, p. 46, 17; p. 47, 19; p. 256, 19. Strabo's reference (v. 2, 9) to Φερωνία πολις shows that there was an independent community at the grove in his day.

page 31 note 7 C.I.L. vi, 2584, which shows that the tribe of Lucus Feroniae was the Voltinia; Notizie degli Scavi, 1911, p. 450.Google Scholar

page 32 note 1 Cf. the vicani of the vicus Martis Tudertium who, though dwelling nine miles from Tuder, were nevertheless regular citizens of the community: C.I.L. xi, 4742–4765.

page 32 note 2 The identification with Nazzano was first proposed by Lanciani, Bull, dell'Inst. 1870, pp. 26–32.

page 32 note 3 Bormann, , C.I.L. xi, p. 571Google Scholar.

page 32 note 4 Kiepert, , Formae Orbis Antiqui, pl. xx, with text.Google Scholar

page 32 note 5 Nissen, , Italische Landeskunde, ii, I, pp. 369–370Google Scholar.

page 32 note 6 Solari, , Topografia storica dell'Elruria, i, pp. 133 ffGoogle Scholar. Cf. however, the Appendice containing the Bibliografia of the same work, p. 78, where the identification with Nazzano is accepted.

page 32 note 7 Tomassetti, , Campagna Romana iii, p. 279Google Scholar, goes back to the opinion of Dennis, , Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria3, i, pp. 128 ffGoogle Scholar. and places the shrine at Sant'Oreste.

page 32 note 8 Il Regesto di Farfa compilato da Gregorio di Catino, edited by Giorgi, and Balzani, , published by the Reale Societá Romana di Storia Patria, vol. i–v, 1879–1914Google Scholar. For Nazzano compare vol. iv, p. 19, 164, 326; v, 5; vol. iii, p. 302, where the name is written Mazanus.

page 32 note 9 Ibid. iv, p. 43. Furcam quae venit a sancto Antimo.

page 33 note 1 On the identification of this stream see Nissen, op. cit. ii, 2, 606Google Scholar.

page 33 note 2 On the site of Eretum see Ashby, , Papers of the British School in Rome, iii, 1906, pp. 27 ffGoogle Scholar. and accompanying map; Persichetti, , Röm. Mitth. 1909, p. 127.Google Scholar

page 33 note 3 The Tiber could easily have been forded at a number of points, as for instance at the mouth of the Farfa. The existence of a ford near Eretum is indicated by Dionysios iii, 59. For the importance of the Tiber basin as an early line of communication, see below.

page 34 note 1 Notizie degli Scavi, 1878, p. 260Google Scholar; 1879, p. 1 12; 1880, p. 378.

page 34 note 2 Stefani, , Notizie degli Scavi, 1911, pp. 433–442Google Scholar. The finds from Nazzano are in the same·room of the Museo di Villa Giulia with the objects from Civitucola and the similarity of the tomb furniture is readily apparent. Most striking are the boatshaped fibulae and those with large semicircular arcs (ad arco ingrossato) which frequently have bronze rings inserted in the pins. See Della Seta, Museo di Villa Giulia, p. 355;. It is noteworthy that neither at Nazzano nor at Civitucola are there finds from the Villanova period.

page 34 note 3 C.I.L. xi, 3859, 3861, 3866, 3867–3870, 3871, 3874–3876, 3879–3880, 3883a, 3910–3913, 3922–3929, 3937, 3947–3949, 3951, 3953, 3966, 3986, 3988, 3991, 3997, 4001, 4005, 4008, 4019–4020, 4022–4023. The inscription C.I.L. xi, 4000, recorded as existing in a house belonging to the Principe del Drago at Nazzano, really comes from the neighbourhood of Forum Novum across the Tiber. It is identical with C.I.L. ix, 4834, which is said to have been stolen.

page 34 note 4 C.I.L. xi, 3871, dated in 199 A.D.

page 34 note 5 C.I.L.. xi, 3859, 3861, 3866. To the cult of Bona Dea seem also to belong 3867–3870. The curious name Sepernas occurring in these inscriptions has been thought to refer to a pagus or vicus and has given rise to the suggestion that Nazzano was called vicus Sepernatium. Cf. De Rossi, l.c.

page 34 note 6 C.I.L. xi, 3874–3876.

page 34 note 7 Lanciani, l.c.; Altmann, Die italischen Rundbauten, p. 43.

page 34 note 8 C.I.Etr. 8429–8448. On the excavations at Rignano see Gabrici, , Notizie degli Scavi, 1912, pp. 75–81Google Scholar; Giglioli, ibid. 1914, pp. 265–281. Cf. especially the latter's comments p. 265 on the boundary between the territories of Capena and Falerii and on the impossibility of locating Lucus Feroniae at Rignano.

page 34 note 9 C.I.L. xi, 3860, 3872, 3884; 3886–3887, 3891–3892, 3894, 3930–3931, 3943, 3954, 3957, 3962–3963, 3980–3981, 3983–3984, 3993, 3995, 4002, 4006, 4010, 4012, 4014, 4018,4021. The inscriptions 4028–4075 are from the Christian cemetery of Theodora.

page 35 note 1 Aeneid vii, 695; Festus-Paulus, p. 76 L; Porphyrio on Horace, , Ep. ii, 1, 145Google Scholar; Pliny, , N.H. iii, 52Google Scholar; Dionysios, i, 21.

page 35 note 2 Cf. di Monale, Buglione, Röm. Mitth. ii, 1887, pp. 21–36Google Scholar; Gamurrini, , Rend. dei Licei, iii, 1894, pp. 145–149Google Scholar.

page 35 note 3 See the most recent publication of the inscriptions of Capena, Herbig, , C.I.Etr. ii, 8449–8547Google Scholar; Lommatzsch, , C.I.L. i 2, 476, 1–10Google Scholar.

page 35 note 4 Servius on Aen. xi, 785; Paulus-Festus, p. 93 L. Cf. Strabo vi, 4, 12. The evidences of Sabine influence in this region which led Niebuhr to maintain that the Faliscans were a Sabellic people have often been exaggerated. It is improbable for instance that Juno Curritis the chief divinity of Falerii, was a Sabine goddess. The characteristic Sabine names ending in -iedius, -edius and -idius are almost totally absent in the district. Cf. Schulten, , Klio, ii, 1902, pp. 167–193Google Scholar; 440–465; iii, 1903, 235–267.

page 35 note 5 Pinza, , Bull. Com. 1912, pp. 15–102Google Scholar; see Frank's, recent survey, Economic History of Rome, 1920, chap, ii, and iii.Google Scholar

page 35 note 6 Cf. Paribeni's admirable study of the necropolis of Capena, , Mon. Ant. xvi, 1906, col. 277–490Google Scholar, especially col. 489, where the objects that suggest relations with other Italic sites are listed. Resemblances between the finds of Capena and other places in Latium (cf. for instance the fibulae in which large bronze rings are inserted) may readily be observed in the Museo Kircheriano. Cf. also Seta, Della, Museo di Villa Giulia, pp. 311–356Google Scholar.

page 36 note 1 Cf. Paribeni, l.c. col. 489; Pinza, l.c. pp. 58–59.

page 36 note 2 This suggestion was made by Paribeni, l.c. col. 490.

page 36 note 3 Schulze, , Zur Geschichle der lateinischen Eigennamen, p. 165.Google Scholar Cf. Herbig, , C.I.Etr. ii, p. 3Google Scholar, who notes that the Etruscan name fere which Schulze posited has actually been found in an inscription of the ager Faliscus (8399).

page 36 note 4 Varro, , L.L. v, 74Google Scholar. The Sabine origin of the goddess, which one would hesitate to accept on Varro's authority, is favoured by the early cults at Trebula Mutuesca and at Amiternum and by the fact that the nomen Fercnius occurs chiefly among Sabellic peoples. It is found in two inscriptions from Sabinum, one from the Vestini, five from Picenum, two from Aquileia (where there was an important cult of Feronia), one from Rome, and on a brick stamp from Naples. It does not occur either in Etruria or in greater Latium.

page 36 note 5 On the cult of Feronia see Wissowa, s.v. Pauly-Wissowa, and Religion und Kultus der Römer 2, pp. 285 f.