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IV. Gods, Goddesses, and their Temples
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2016
Extract
Roman deities are not very easy to classify. They were never organized into a pantheon in ancient Rome, so that we cannot say there was a fixed number of them or that they fulfilled particular functions divided between them. Some of them are clearly part of the Roman tradition from the earliest periods of the city; some are later additions, introduced at specific dates with specific ceremonies, which the Romans carefully recorded. Some have very complicated histories, having multiple associations with different areas of life and often different additional names, defining a particular aspect of the deity. Others seems to exist only because of a particular function or particular moment. Some have special priests, or in the single case of Vesta, priestesses; many, however, do not, but fall within the ambit of the major college of the pontifices.
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References
1 Livy 29.10.4-11.8; 14.5 = RoR Iii.2.7a; Ovid, Fasti 4.247-348; Bremmer and Horsfall (1987), 105–11; Gruen (1990), 5–33; Beard (1994).
2 See below, p. 56.
3 For these controls, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities 2.19 = RoR ii.8.7a. The regulations are not dated, but it seems very unlikely that they would have been imposed at any time other than the first arrival of the cult.
4 The cult of Rome (dea Roma) seems to have been introduced instead of ruler-cult: Mellor (1975); Price (1984), 40–43; RoR i. 158–60.
5 Above pp. 4–7.
6 There are very rare exceptions: e.g. the appearance of Castor and Pollux at the battle of Lake Regillus (496 BC), Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities 6.13.1-2, and again at Pydna (168 BC), Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods 2.6.
7 So Scheid (1985), pp. 51–7.
8 Triumphs: Versnel (1970); Scullard (1981), 213–18; RoR ii.5.8.
9 State vows: RoR i.32-5.
10 e.g. Livy 26.2.2-5 (191 BC).
11 Livy 22.10 = RoR ii.6.5; Heurgon (1957).
12 On prodigies in general: MacBain (1982); Rosenberger (1998).
13 The lists derive either from Livy or from Julius Obsequens, whose work preserved the lists from many years where Livy’s text itself is lost; between them they provide a steady flow from 218 BC to 43 BC.
14 See above, pp. 27–9 and Table 2.
15 See Gordon (1980).
16 This is the response of the haruspices to which Cicero’s speech. On the Response of the Haruspices, is devoted. He quotes it section by section, discussing each as he goes along: for a composite text, RoR ii.7.4a.
17 For discussion of the whole issue, see Jason Davies (unpublished dissertation, UCL).
18 See Table 4, for a selection: full lists (apart from temples to the Divi) in Latte (1960), 415–18; Gros (1976); Ziolkowski (1992); Orlin (1997); RoR i.87-91; 121–4; 196–201; 253–9; RoR ii.4-2; 7;9.
19 Cicero, On his House 136, quotes two occasions on which attempted dedications were cancelled by the pontifices on the grounds that they had not been approved by act of the people. The conflict over Cicero’s house is in the same category.
20 On the procedure, Orlin (1997).
21 For such a group, see the temples in the Largo Argentina in Rome, Ziolkowski (1992); Claridge (1998), 215–19.
22 Mars: RoR ii.4.2.
23 Above p. 34.
24 RoR i. 198–9.
25 Weinstock (1971), 385–401.
26 Tacitus, Annals 1.9-10; Steinby (1993-) i. 145–6; RoR i.208-9.
27 Steinby (1993-), i.277-8; ii.348-56; RoR i.253.
28 The most visible foreign cult was dedicated to Isis and Sarapis in the Campus Martius. Steinby (1993-), iii.107-9; RoR i.264-5.
29 Claridge (1998), 113–15; 201–7; RoR i.257-8.