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The Temple of the Three Gauls

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Duncan Fishwick
Duncan Fishwick
Affiliation:
University of Alberta, Edmonton
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Extract

Almost nothing is known of the provincial temple at Lugdunum beyond the bare fact of its existence within the federal sanctuary. For this information we are dependent upon the titles of the provincial sacerdotes, which at some undetermined period begin to define the high priesthood as ad templum; until then the priest had served ad aram: that is, at the celebrated altar dedicated by Drusus in 12 B.C. at the confluence of the Rhone and the Saône. Apparently the temple stood in the near vicinity of the altar, for inscriptions from the turn of the second century now give the priestly title as ad aram … apud templum … or a variant. But confirmation depends in the long run upon archaeological exploration, which has so far been precluded by the circumstance that the presumed site of the temple now lies beneath an area of dense habitation. The only other possible evidence is a medallion from the Rhone Valley that depicts games (a venatio) in progress around a central podium, bearing a small round temple, a larger gabled temple, and a column supporting a statue. Alföldi stresses the abstract nature of this composition and has suggested that the complex may represent provincial monuments at Lugdunum. If this identification is correct, the medallion would appear to confirm the existence of these structures under Hadrian or very shortly after.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 62 , November 1972 , pp. 46 - 52
Copyright
Copyright ©Duncan Fishwick 1972. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 Audin, A., Essai sur la topographie de Lugdunum 3 (1964), 154Google Scholar, noting that two fragments of a marble architrave discovered east of the amphitheatre have usually been attributed to the temple.

2 Dio LIV, 32; Livy, Epit. CXXXVII; cf. Suet., Cl. 2. For discussion of the titles see Kornemann, E., ‘Zur Geschichte der antiken Herrscherkulte’, Klio I, 1901, 108–110.Google Scholar Unless otherwise stated, references to CIL denote Vol. XIII.

3 This suggests a scheme closely resembling that at Camulodunum, where an altar similarly flanked by Victories was immediately adjacent to the Temple of Claudius: Hull, M. R., Roman Colchester (1958), 175–77Google Scholar; cf. xxv–xxviii (Introduction by I. A. Richmond).

4 I am much indebted to A. Audin for an illuminating letter confirming that preliminary geological soundings have encountered building stones certainly belonging to the temple. There seems no hope of further progress in the foreseeable future. For earlier discussion see Grenier, A., Manuel d'Archéologie Gallo-Romaine iv, 2 (1960), 512, n. 1 with refs.Google Scholar

5 Audin, A. and Binsfeld, W., ‘Medaillons d'applique rhodaniens du Musée de Cologne’, Kölner Jahrbuch für Vor- und Frühgeschichte VII (1964), 14–18Google Scholar; Alföldi, A., ‘Ein Festgeschenk aus den Töpfereien des römischen Rhonetals’, Helvetia Antiqua (Festschrift Emil Vogt: 1966), 247–52.Google Scholar Prof. Alföldi kindly drew my attention to this medallion.

6 Could one recognize a statue of Victory mounted on the column and the provincial temple in the gabled edifice? The small round temple might conceivably be the shrine dedicated to the numina Augustorum, though this appears not to have been directly linked with the federal centre; cf. Audin, Essai 129, with map p. 151; see further below p. 47. For a different interpretation see Audin-Binsfeld, o.c. 15, who take the podium to be a spina crowned by two small fana and a column bearing a statue.

7 On the approximate date of the medallion see the arguments of Audin-Binsfeld, 17.

8 Cerfaux, L. and Tondriau, J., Le Culte des Souverains (1957), 316Google Scholar with refs. The municipal temple in the forum at Vienne may originally have been to Roma and Augustus but was later dedicated to divus Augustus amd diva Augusta (Livia): Formigé, J., CRAI (1924), 275 ff.Google Scholar (= AE, 1925, no. 75); cf. A. Bruhl in P-W VIII A (1958), 2120, s.v. Vienna; Grenier, Manvel III, 1 (1958), 396 f.

9 For the temple at Tarraco see ‘Flamen Augustorum’ HSCP 74 (1970), 307 f. On the status of the temple at Camulodunum see now ‘Templum divo Claudia constitutum’ Britannia III (1973), forthcoming. The same point would apply to the temple of divus Augustus at Narbo, though this must be municipal rather than provincial; cf. ‘The Development of Provincial Ruler Worship in the Western Roman Empire’, in Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt (Festschrift J. Vogt) III (1973), forthcoming. The original status of the ‘Maison Carrée’ erected by Agrippa at Nemausus (16 B.C.) is unclear, but it would appear to have been rededicated to C. and L. Caesar in A.D. I (CIL XII, 3156); see in general J. C. Balty, Études sur la Maison Carrée de Nîmes (1960); cf. Grenier, o.c. 148.

10 Suet., Aug. 52; Tac., Ann. IV, 37; cf. Wuilleumier, P., Lyon, Métropole des Galles (1953), 33 f.Google Scholar; Deininger, J., Die Provinziallandtage der römischen Kaiserzeit (Vestigia: Beiträge zur alten Geschichte, Band VI, 1965), 100.Google Scholar

11 Grenier, l.c. (misrepresenting Hirschfeld, C. p. 229), gives the formula sacerdoti ad templum Romae et Augusti with reference to C. 1691, 1706 (where the plural Augustorum is explicit), 1714 (where the title has the abbreviation Aug.) and 1702, 1712, 1716 (where some form of the word has to be restored).

12 o.c. (above n. 2), 109.

13 See Kornemann's list, to which add C. 11174:…. sa]cerdoti apud ar[am] / Cae[sar]um / [a]d templum Rom[ae] / [e]t Augustoru[m] / … All commentators have followed Kornemann in taking the altar of the Caesar(s) to be the same structure as that originally dedicated to Roma and Augustus. There seems no reason to doubt this identification. On the cult of the Caesar(s) see ‘The Severi and the Provincial Cult of the Three Gauls’, Historia 23 (1974), forthcoming.

14 For parallels see Wissowa, RuKR 2 470.

15 Deininger, Provinziallandtage 153.

16 The cult of Roma and divus Augustus is, of course, fairly common under the early principate; cf. ILS III1, p. 572; CIL XII, 3180; cf. 3207. I take this to mean an original cult of Roma and Augustus which continued to flourish after Augustus' death.

17 ‘Flamen Augustorum’ (above, n. 9), 304 f.

18 ‘Numina Augustorum’, CQ XX, 1970, 191–97. The thesis argued in this paper would be further confirmed by the view taken above of C. 1677 f.

19 cf. Audin, Essai 129 f., and above, n. 6.

20 Bruhl, A. and Audin, A., ‘Inscription du Lyonnais Tiberius Aquius Apollinaris’, Gallia XXIII, 1965, 267–72 (= AE 1966, no. 252).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

21 Torelli, M., ‘The Cursus Honorum of M. Hirrius Fronto Neratius Pansa’, JRS LVIII, 1968, 170–75.Google Scholar

22 Étienne, R., Le Culte impérial dans la péninsule ibérique d'Auguste à Dioclétien (1958), 178–89, 291, 453.Google Scholar

23 ‘Flamen Augustorum’ (above, n, 9), 307–10.

24 ibid. 310 f.; Historia XIX, 1970, 97 f., III.

25 Deininger, Provinziallandtage 112.

26 Kornemann, o.c. 109.

27 Beaujeu, J., La Religion romaine à l'apogée de l'Empire (1955), 415–18Google Scholar, quoting Appian's observation that the Antonines respected the principle of divinization after death: Bell. Civ. II, 20, 148. The only exception to this would be Trajan's policy in the Danube region, see below, n. 36.

28 JRS, LIX , 1969, 87.

29 op.cit. 109.

30 The main clue is the circumstance that the stone appears to have been placed against the wall of the Odeon which dates from the middle of the second century: Bruhl-Audin (above, n. 20), 269, 272. The fact that Apollinaris is designated iudici in quinque decuriis sublecto would put this post before the death of Commodus at the latest, the municipal flaminate having been held earlier; cf. Duncan-Jones, R. P., ‘Equestrian rank in the cities of the African provinces under the Principate’, PBSR XXXV, 1967, 152, n. 25Google Scholar, noting that in Africa adlection to the decuriae appears to have virtually stopped after Commodus; see further H. G. Pflaum in Ant. Afr. II, 1968, 153–95. We also know for what it is worth that Q. Aquius Antonianus, apparently another member of the family Aquia, offered a taurobolium in A.D. 184 (CIL XII, 1782 = ILS 4130) presumably in the sanctuary of Cybele at Lugdunum.

31 An earlier municipal cult of Roma and the living emperor is very probably attested at Lugdunum by a fragmentary funerary inscription that Hirschfeld dated, principally by its letter-forms, to the first century (C. 1927). The cursus certainly includes a local priesthood of Roma and there seems no reason to doubt that with Roma would have been included the living Augustus as at the federal centre. As the municipal title was later flamen, Hirschfeld's restoration…flaminis] Romae / [et] Aug(usti) seems justified; cf. C. 548. It is even possible that from a purely technical point of view flamen divorum can include Roma and the living emperor. Flamen divorum is an unusual title but a municipal example from Pax Iulia (Lusitania) is instructive: CIL II, 53 (= ILS 6897); cf. CIL II, 34 (= ILS 6894: Salacia); Étienne, Culte impérial 200. If one compares CIL II, 53 with CIL, II, 51 (also from Pax Iulia), it is clear that flamen divorum is simply a variant on flam(en)] divo[ru]m Aug[. Now as I have argued in detail elsewhere (above, n. 9, 304–7), in the provincial cult of Hither Spain flamen divorum Augustorum is a variant on flamen divorum et Augustorum, flamen Romae, divorum et Augustorum, and the short form flamen Augustorum. All these varying titles denote one and the same thing: a high priest charged with the cult of Roma, the living Augustus, and the divi. The same need not necessarily be true of municipal priesthoods, but the point holds good that priestly titles do not always give a complete picture. If, therefore, the municipal cult at Lugdunum had already been directed in the first century to Roma and the living Augustus, and if flamen divorum (at least in Spain) can be a shortened form of flamen divorum Augustorum with all that this implies, it is not impossible that Roma and the living Augustus were still included in the civic cult at the time Ti. Aquius Apollinaris was municipal flamen divorum.

32 cf. CIL II, 473 and my discussion in AJP XCI, 1970. 79–82. Although the province certainly paid worship to both divus Augustus and diva Augusta, the priest's title reads flamen divae Aug(ustae) pro-vinciae Lusitan(iae)—in all probability because Livia had only recently been consecrated.

33 Étienne, Culte impérial 296 f., 488, dates the Spanish municipal cult of the divi collectively from the time of Trajan—Hadrian. Letter-forms seem to provide the only basis for beginning this development under Trajan; ibid. 199–212.

34 The practice apparently ceased with M. Aurelius and from the middle of the second century a temple on the Palatine served the cult of the divi collectively, each divus having his own aedicula: Wissowa, RuKR 2 345–47.

35 As Traianus pater was never on the list of consecrated divi in the fasti publici, he was clearly never a divus in the same sense that Augustus and other deified emperors were. His rank can therefore be properly defined as second-class; cf. Pliny, Panegyricus LXXXIX, 2 and the cogent discussion by Oliver, J. H., ‘The Divi of the Hadrianic period’, HThR XLII, 1949, 36 f.Google Scholar

36 Deininger, Provinziallandtage 32 f. The worship focused uncompromisingly on the living emperor at an altar—apparently without the inclusion of Roma; so also in the Pannonias and Lower Moesia, where the provincial cults look decidedly Trajanic in character. Full discussion in ‘The Development of Provincial Ruler Worship…’ (above, n. 9).

37 Matidia was consecrated in A.D. 119. Oliver, op. cit. 35–40, argues that her mother Marciana, diva cognominata in A.D. 112, also cannot have been consecrated until early in Hadrian's reign. Both appear in the fasti publici as reconstructed for A.D. 183, 218, 224. Beaujeu (who atttributes to Oliver the consecration of Marcian specifically in A.D. 119) follows the communis opinio that Marciana was con secrated already in A.D. 112: Rel. romaine 416. Yet he draws a parallel with the divinization of Traianus pater, whom he agrees cannot have been of equal rank with divinized emperors. The only real objection to Oliver's view that Marciana remained a second-class diva until consecrated by Hadrian is the two series of coins honouring diva Augusta Marciana with the legend CONSECRATIO. Strack and Mattingly date the beginning of both issues under Trajan, Bickermann puts one at the beginning of Hadrian's reign: Beaujeu, o.c. 89, n. 2 with refs.; Mattingly–Sydenham, RIC II, pp. 299 f. Oliver would date both under Hadrian. There seem to be no conclusive numismatic arguments either way.

38 Fink, R. O., Hoey, A. S., Snyder, W. F., The Feriale Duranum, YCS VII, 1940, 145, 154Google Scholar; cf. 174 f., 182 f., 187. The cults of Matidia and in all probability of Plotina begin early under Hadrian. That of Marciana, even if she had been consecrated under Trajan, must have been stressed for its propaganda value by Hadrian.

39 RIB 1051 quoting Richmond, I. A. and Wright, R. P.: ‘Stones from a Hadrianic War Memorial on Tyneside’, Arch. Ael. 4 XXI, 1943, 93–106.Google Scholar But see Birley's reservations, Research on Hadrian's Wall (1961), 159. If the inscription is rather to be assigned to the early third century on the score of its lettering, the formula divorum ] omnium films (surely the only possible restoration) could very well echo Severus' fictitious adoption into the Antonine family as son of M. Aurelius, thus giving his dynasty additional legitimation through the support of an illustrious line of deified emperors; cf. Hasebroek, J., Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des Kaisers Septimius Severus (1921), 88–93Google ScholarBirley, A., Septimius Severus the African Emperor (1971), 184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The unparalleled use of omnium would be not incompatible with such a view.

40 Oliver, o.c. 37 f. Fishwick, , Phoenix XV, 1961, 228.Google Scholar When Plotina died, Hadrian wrote hymns in honour of ‘her to whom he owed the Empire’: Dio LXIX, 10, 3. For the significance of the title divi filius, see Alföldi, , Die monarchische Repräsentation im römischen Kaiserreiche (1970), 200 f.Google Scholar; Hammond, M., ‘Imperial elements in the formula of the Roman Emperors during the first two and a half centuries of the Empire’, Mem. Amer. Acad. Rom. XXV, 1957, 55–58.Google Scholar

41 Fer. Dur. 103–112; Beaujeu, Rel. romaine 133–36.

42 Wissowa, RuKR 2 340 f. The distinction should not be pressed too far; cf. Fer. Dur. 104, n. 374; Weinstock, , ‘Treueid und Kaiserkult’, Mitt, deutsch. arch. Inst., ath. Abt. LXXVII, 1962, 311 f.Google Scholar

43 Beaujeu, Rel. romaine, 128–33.

44 Labrousse, M., ‘Note sur la chronologie du premier voyage d'Hadrien’, Mélanges Soc. Toul. d'Étud. Class. II, 1948, 130, 135.Google Scholar

45 His itinerary would probably have taken him along the Rhone valley; cf. SHA Hadr. X, I: post haec profectus in Gallias omnes civitates variis liberalitatibus sublevavit. An inscription set up by the nautae Rhodanici near Tournon (CIL XII, 1797: A.D. 119) is too early to coincide with his passage, as suggested by Wuilleumier, Lyon 21.

46 Henderson, B. W., The Life and Principate of the Emperor Hadrian (1923), 82 f.Google Scholar

47 Quoniam, P., ‘Hadrien et le théatre de Lugdunum’, Bull. des Musées et Monuments Lyonnais, 1959, 67–76Google Scholar; cf. Gallia XVIII, 1960, 57–82; XIX, 1961, 437.

48 cf. Wuilleumier, Lyon 21 f., 72, 102. The Odeon is now dated to the reign of Antoninus Pius by the similarity of its construction to that of the sanctuary of Cybele: Bruhl-Audin, above, n. 30; Audin, A., Les Fouilles de Lyon (1968), 17.Google Scholar

49 The principal chronological indication is the simplified Doric style of the columns: Audin, A. and Quoniam, P., ‘Victoires et colonnes de l'autel fédéral des Trois Gaules: données nouvelles’, Gallia XX, 1962, 116.Google Scholar A. Audin gives me to understand that in his view the columns were certainly replaced under Hadrian, and that in the opinion of Mr. Ward-Perkins they may have come from the quarries of the Mons Claudianus, exploitation of which had hardly begun before the end of the first century.

50 Guey, J. and Audin, A., ‘L'Amphithéatre des Trois Gaules’, Gallia XXI, 1963, 152 f.Google Scholar; XXII, 1964, 49; Audin, A. and Leglay, M., Gallia XXVIII, 1970 67–89Google Scholar. For the date see Pflaum, H. G., Les Carriéres procuratoriennes équestres sous le Haut-Empire Romain (1960), no. 106 bis (135), pp. 253–57 (add. 969–72).Google Scholar

51 Could one recognize the podium of the amphitheatre in the podium at the centre of the Rhone-Valley medallion (above, n. 5)?

52 Dio LXIX, 10, 3; SHA Hadr. XII, 2; cf. CIL XII, 3232. Strack conjectures that the ναός mentioned by Dio (as opposed to the basilica given in the Vita) was rather one built in Rome following the consecration of Plotina, Untersuchungen zur römischen Reichsprägung des zweiten Jahrhunderts II: die Reichsprägung zur Zeit des Hadrian (1933), 113.Google Scholar Nemausus may have been the home of Plotina's family, cf. Syme, Tacitus 11, 604.

53 Her name is very probably to be restored in Fer. Dur., col. I, line 10; YCS, l.c 73; cf. Oliver (above, n. 35), 35, 40.

54 Étienne, Culte impérial 485. For the chronology see Labrousse, above n. 44, 135–38.

55 Above, n. 23. Roma offers a Victory to Vespasian on coins struck at Tarraco, A.D. 69–70: RIC II, no. 265, cf. no. 385.

56 This cannot have been the occasion when Roma was added to the provincial cult of Hither Spain for she was already included under Vespasian; cf. CIL 11, 4225 (= ILS 2714). Contra Krascheninnikoff, M., Philologus LIII, 1894, 169, 175, n. 132Google Scholar; Kornemann, l.c III f. What seems very possible is that the cult of Roma already existing within the provincial worship now began to receive greater emphasis than hitherto. This would explain her more frequent mention within the titles of the provincial priests: cf. CIL II, 4249 (= ILS 6933), 4235. It could also be the case that both at Tarraco and Lugdunum Roma now became in practice Roma aeterna, though at neither centre do the titles of the provincial priests ever give urbs Roma / urbs Roma aeterna, this particular formula being restricted to the sacerdotium of Eternal Rome; cf. Wissowa, RuKR 2 341, n. 3.

57 The dedication of the temple would presumably have taken place when construction was completed; cf. Wissowa, RuKR 2 473 f.; Beaujeu, Rel. Romaine 129 with nn. 8, 9. Whereas the great temple of Roma and Venus took almost ten years to erect, rebuilding of the much smaller Capitoline temple lasted five years (A.D. 70–75).

58 All that is certain is that the building stones found on the presumed site of the temple (above, n. 4) are of a material not used before the reign of Claudius.

59 Cf. Bruhl-Audin, above, n. 20, 272 (à propos the inscription of Ti. Aquius Apollinaris): ‘… mais les lapicides lyonnais sont restés fidèles à une bonne écriture jusqu' à une époque tardive: ce n'est done pas un moyen de dater avec certitude’.

60 For the medallion to be relevant it is necessary only that one of the temples it portrays could have been inspired by the provincial temple. As Felix, the artist responsible, certainly worked at Lugdunum, this is quite possible. For example, another medallion of Felix, two copies of which are preserved, portrays a composite harbour scene with the words portus Augusti: Audin-Binsfeld, o.c. (above, n. 5), 14 f. At least one winged victory is included in the scene, while on either side of the central group stands a column bearing a divinity, much resembling the column topped by a statue in the venatio medallion. In both cases, the artistic composition could have been influenced by the Victories flanking the federal altar at Lugdunum.