Εμφανίζονται 100 (επί συνόλου 208) τίτλοι με αναζήτηση: Μυθολογία στην ευρύτερη περιοχή: "ΙΤΑΛΙΑ Χώρα ΕΥΡΩΠΗ" .
ΑΙΟΛΙΑ (Σύμπλεγμα νήσων) ΙΤΑΛΙΑ
ΑΙΤΝΑ (Βουνό) ΣΙΚΕΛΙΑ
Acis (Akis), according t Ovid (Met. xiii. 750, &c.) a son of Faunus and Symaethis. He was beloved by the nymph Galatea, and Polyphemus the Cyclop, jealous of him, crushed him under a huge rock. His blood gushing forth from under the rock was changed by the nymph into the river Acis or Acinius at the foot of mount Aetna. This story does not occur any where else, and is perhaps no more than a happy fiction suggested by the manner in which the little river springs forth from under a rock.
ΛΑΙΣΤΡΥΓΟΝΕΣ (Μυθικοί τόποι) ΙΤΑΛΙΑ
A Sicilian shepherd, son of Hermes by a nymph, and taught by
Pan to play on the flute. He was regarded as the inventor of bucolic poetry. A
Naiad, to whom he proved faithless, punished him with blindness, whereupon his
father Hermes translated him to heaven.
Daphnis, a Sicilian hero, to whom the invention of bucolic poetry is ascribed. He is called a son of Hermes by a nymph (Diod. iv. 84), or merely the beloved of Hermes. (Aelian, V. H. x. 18.) Ovid (Met. iv. 275) calls him an Idaean shepherd; but it does not follow from this, that Ovid connected him with either tile Phrygian or the Cretan Ida, since Ida signifies any woody mountain. (Etym. Magn. s.v. His story runs as follows: The nymph, his mother, exposed him when an infant in a charming valley in a laurel grove, from which he received his name of Daphnis, and for which he is also called the favourite of Apollo. (Serv. ad Virg. Eclog. x. 26.) He was brought up by nymphs or shepherds, and he himself became a shepherd, avoiding the bustling crowds of nen, and tending his flocks on mount Aetna winter and summer. A Naiad (her name is different in different writers, Echenais, Xenea, Nomia, or Lyce,--Parthen. Erot. 29; Schol. ad Theocrit. i. 65, vii. 73; Serv. ad Virg. Eclog. viii. 68; Phylarg. ad Virg. Eclog. v. 20) fell in love with him, and made him promise never to form a connexion with any other maiden, adding the threat that he should become blind if he violated his vow. For a time the handsome Daphnis resisted all the numerous temptations to which he was exposed, but at last he forgot himself, having been made intoxicated by a princess. The Naiad accordingly punished him with blindness, or, as others relate, changed him into a stone. Previous to this time he had composed bucolic poetry, and with it delighted Artemis during the chase. According to others, Stesichorus made the fate of Daphnis the theme of his bucolic poetry, which was the earliest of its kind. After having become blind, he invoked his father to help him. The god accordingly raised him up to heaven, and caused a well to gush forth on the spot where this happened. The well bore the name of Daphnis, and at it the Sicilians offered an annual sacrifice. (Serv. ad Virg. Ecl. v. 20.) Phylargyrius, on the same passage, states, that Daphnis tried to console himself in his blindness by songs and playing on the flute, but that he did not live long after; and the Scholiast on Theocritus (viii. 93) relates, that Daphnis, while wandering about in his blindness, fell from a steep rock. Somewhat different accounts are contained in Servius (ad Virg. Eclog. viii. 68) and in various parts of the Idyls of Theocritus.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Son of Hermes and a nymph, Daphnes was the inventor of pastoral poetry,
himself being a sheperd on Sicily.
According to various myths, he was the lover of the nymph Piplea or
the shepherdess Chloe.
This text is cited Sept 2003 from the In2Greece URL below.
Corythus (Koruthos), an Italian hero, a son of Jupiter, and husband of Electra, the daughter of Atlas, by whom he became the father of Jasius and Dardanus. He is described as king of Tuscia, and as the founder of Corythus. (Cortona; Serv. ad Aen. iii. 167, vii. 207, x. 719.)
ΛΑΤΣΙΟ (Περιφέρεια) ΙΤΑΛΙΑ
Faunus, the son of Picus and father of Latinus, was the third in the series of
the kings of the Laurentes. In his reign Faunus, like his two predecessors, Picus
and Saturn, had promoted agriculture and the breeding of cattle among his subjects,
and also distinguished himself as a hunter. (Plin. H. N. ix. 6; Propert. iv. 2.
34.) In his reign likewise the Arcadian Evander and Heracles were believed to
have arrived in Latium. (Plut. Parall. Gr. et Rom. 38.) Faunus acts a very prominent
part in the mythical history of Latium, for, independent of what he did for agriculture,
he was regarded as one of the great founders of the religion of the country; hence
Lactantius (i. 24.9) places him on an equality with Numa. He was therefore in
later times worshipped in two distinct capacities: first, as the god of fields
and shepherds, and secondly, as an oracular and prophetic divinity. The festival
of the Faumalia, which was celebrated on the 5th of December, by the country people,
with great feasting and merriment, had reference to him as the god of agriculture
and cattle. (Horat. Carm. iii. 18.) As a prophetic god, he was believed to reveal
the future to man, partly in dreams, and partly by voices of unknown origin. (Virg.
Aen. vii. 81, &c.; Cic. de Nut. Deor. ii. 2, iii. 6, de Divin. i. 45.) What he
was in this respect to the male sex, his wife Fauna or Faula was to the female,
whence they bore the surnames Fatuus, Fatua, or Fatuellus, Fatuella, derived from
fari, fatum. (Justin, xliii. 1; Lactant. i. 22.) They are said to have given their
oracles in Saturnian verse, whence we may perhaps infer that there existed in
Latium collections of oracles in this metre. (Varro, de L. L. vii. 36.) The places
where such oracles were given were sacred groves, one near Tibur, around the well
Albunea, and another on the Aventine, near Rome. (Virg. l. c.; Ov. Fast. iv. 649,
&c.) The rites observed in the former place are minutely described by Virgil :
a priest offered up a sheep and other sacrifices; and the person who consulted
the oracle had to sleep one night on the skin of the victim, during which the
god gave an answer to his questions either in a dream or in supernatural voices.
Similar rites are described by Ovid as having taken place on the Aventine. (Comp.
Isidor. viii. 11, 87.) There is a tradition that Numa, by a stratagem, compelled
Picus and his son Faunus to reveal to him the secret of calling down lightning
from heaven, and of purifying things struck by lightning. (Arnob. v. 1; Plut.
Num. 15; Ov. Fast. iii. 291, &c.) At Rome there was a round temple of Faunus,
surrounded with columns, on Mount Caelius and another was built to him, in B.
C. 196, on the island in the Tiber, where sacrifices were offered to him on the
ides of February, the day on which the Fabii had perished on the Cremera. (Liv.
xxxiii. 42, xxxiv. 53; P. Vict. Reg. Urb. 2; Vitruv. iii. 1; Ov. Fast. ii. 193.)
In consequence of the mauner in which be gave his oracles, he was looked upon
as the author of spectral appearances and terrifying sounds (Dionys. v. 16); and
he is therefore described as a wanton and voluptuous god, dwelling in woods, and
fond of nymphs. (Horat. l. c.) The way in which the god manifested himself seems
to have given rise to the idea of a plurality of fauns (Fauni), who are described
as monsters, half goat, and with horns. (Ov. Fast. v. 99, Heroid. iv. 49.) Faunus
thus gradually came to be identified with the Arcadian Pan, and the Fauni as identical
with the Greek satyrs, whence Ovid (Met. vi. 392) uses the expression Fauni et
Satyri fratres. As Faunus, and afterwards the Fauni, were believed to be particularly
fond of frightening persons in various ways, it is not an improbable conjecture
that Faunus may be a euphemistic name, and connected with faveo. (Hartung, Die
Relig. d. Rom. vol. ii.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Latinus (Latinos), a king of Latium, is described in the common tradition as a son of Faunus and the nymph Marica, as a brother of Lavinius, and the husband of Amata, by whom he became the father of Lavinia, whom he gave in marriage to Aeneas (Virg. Aen. vii. 47, &c.; Serv. ad Aen. i. 6; Arnob. ii. 71). But along with this there are a variety of other traditions. Hesiod (Theog. 1013) calls him a son of Odysseus and Circe, and brother of Agrius, king of the Tyrrhenians, and Hyginus (Fab. 127) calls him a son of Telemachus and Circe, while others describe him as a son of Heracles, by an Hyperborean woman, who was afterwards married to Faunus (Dionys. i. 43), or as a son of Heracles by a daughter of Faunus (Justin. xliii. 1). Conon (Narr. 3) relates, that Latinus was the father of Laurina, whom he gave in marriage to Locrus, and that Latinus was slain by Heracles for having taken away from him the oxen of Geryones, According to Festus (s. v. Oscillum) Jupiter Latiaris once lived upon the earth under the name of Latinus, or Latinus after the fight with Mezentius suddenly disappeared, and was changed into Jupiter Latiaris. Hence the relation between Jupiter Latiaris and Latinus is perfectly analogous to that between Quirinus and Romulus, and Latinus may be conceived as an incarnation of the supreme god.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ΛΙΓΥΡΙΑ (Αρχαία χώρα) ΙΤΑΛΙΑ
Cycnus, a son of Sthenelus, king of the Ligurians, and a friend and relation of Phaeton. He was the father of Cinyras and Cupauo. While he was lamenting the fate of Phaeton on the banks of the Eridanus, he was metamorphosed by Apollo into a swan, and placed among the stars. (Ov. Meet. ii. 366, &c.; Paus. i. 30.3; Serv. ad Aen. x. 189)
ΟΙΝΩΤΡΙΑ (Αρχαία χώρα) ΙΤΑΛΙΑ
According to the historians one of the settlers there, a certain Italus, became king of Oenotria, and from him they took the name of Italians instead of that of Oenotrians, and the name of Italy was given to all that promontory of Europe lying between the Gulfs of Scylletium and of Lametus, which are half a day's journey apart.
Italus, (Italos). A fabled monarch of early Italy, said to have
been the son of Telegonus by Penelope.
ΠΟΥΛΙΑ (Περιφέρεια) ΙΤΑΛΙΑ
Daunus. A king of Apulia. He had been obliged to flee from Illyria, his native land, into Apulia, and gave his name to a portion of his new country. (Daunia.) He is said to have hospitably received Diomedes, and to have given him his daughter Euippe in marriage. (Fest. s.v.; Plin. H. N. iii. 11)
ΡΩΜΗ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΙΤΑΛΙΑ
Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome. The legend of this king is so well told
by Niebuhr (Hist. of Rome, vol. i. p. 237, &c.), from Livy and the ancient authorities,
that we cannot do better than borrow his words. "On the death of Romulus the senate
at first would not allow the election of a new king: every senator was to enjoy
the royal power in rotation as interrex. In this way a year passed. The people,
being treated more oppressively than before, were vehement in demanding the election
of a sovereign to protect them. When the senate permitted it to be held, the Romans
and Sabines disputed out of which nation the king should be taken. It was agreed
that the former should choose him out of the latter: and all voices concurred
in naming the wise and pious Numa Pompilius of Cures, who had married the daughter
of Tatius.
"It was a very prevalent belief in antiquity that Numa had derived his knowledge
from the Greek Pythagoras; Polybius and other writers attempted to show that this
was impossible, for chronological reasons, inasmuch as Pythagoras did not come
into Italy till the reign of Servius Tullius; but an inpartial critic, who does
not believe that the son of Mnesarehus was the only Pythagoras, or that there
is any kind of necessity for placing Numa in the twentieth Olympiad, or, in fine,
that the historical personality of Pythagoras is more certain than that of Numa,
will be pleased with the old popular opinion, and will not sacrifice it to chronology.
" When Numa was assured by the auguries that the gods approved of his election,
the first care of the pious king was turned, not to the rites of the temples,
but to human institutions. He divided the lands which Romulus had conquered and
had left open to occupancy. He founded the worship of Terminus. It was not till
after he had done this that Numa set himself to legislate for religion. He was
revered as the author of the Roman ceremonial law. Instructed by the Camena Egeria,
who was espoused to him in a visible form, and who led him into the assemblies
of her sisters in the sacred grove, he regulated the whole hierarchy; the pontiffs,
who took care, by precept and by chastisement, that the laws relating to religion
should be observed both by individuals and by the state; the augurs, whose calling
it was to afford security for the councils of men by piercing into those of the
gods; the flamens, who ministered in the temples of the supreme deities; the chaste
virgins of Vesta; the Salii, who solemnised the worship of the gods with armed
dances and songs. He prescribed the rites according to which the people might
offer worship and prayer acceptable to the gods. To him were revealed the conjurations
for compelling Jupiter himself to make known his will, by lightnings and the flight
of birds: whereas others were forced to wait for these prodigies from the favour
of the god, who was often silent to such as were doomed to destruction. This charm
he learnt from Faunus and Picus, whom, by the advice of Egeria, he enticed and
bound in chains, as Midas bound Silenus in the rose garden. From this pious prince
the god brooked such boldness. At Numa's entreaty he exempted the people from
the terrible duty of offering up human sacrifices. But when the audacious Tullus
presumed to imitate his predecessor, he was killed by a flash of lightning during
his conjurations in the temple of Jupiter Elicius. The thirty-nine years of Numa's
reign, which glided away in quiet happiness, without any war or any calamity,
afforded no legends but of such marvels. That nothing might break the peace of
his days, the ancile fell from heaven, [p. 1213] when the land was threatened
with a pestilence, which disappeared as soon as Numa ordained the ceremonies of
the Salii. Numa was not a theme of song, like Romulus; indeed he enjoined that,
among all the Camenae, the highest honours should be paid to Tacita. Yet a story
was handed down, that, when he was entertaining his guests, the plain food in
the earthenware dishes were turned on the appearance of Egeria into a banquet
fit for gods, in vessels of gold, in order that her divinity might be made manifest
to the incredulous. The temple of Janus, his work, continued always shut: peace
was spread over Italy; until Numa, like the darlings of the gods in the golden
age, fell asleep, full of days. Egeria melted away in tears into a fountain".
The sacred books of Numa, in which he prescribed all the religious
rites and ceremonies, were said to have been buried near him in a separate tomb,
and to have been discovered by accident, five hundred years afterwards, by one
Terentius, in the consulship of Cornelius and Baebius, B. C. 181. By Terentius
they were carried to the city-praetor Petilius, and were found to consist of twelve
or seven books, in Latin, on ecclesiastical law (de jure pontificum), and the
same number of books in Greek on philosophy: the latter were burnt at the command
of the senate, but the former were carefully preserved. The story of the discovery
of these books is evidently a forgery; and the books, which were ascribed to Numa,
and which were extant at a later time, were evidently nothing more than ancient
works containing an account of the ceremonial of the Roman religion (Plut. Numa;
Liv. i. 18-21; Cic. de Rep. ii. 13-15; Dionys. ii. 58-66; Plin. H. N. xiii. 14.
s. 27 ; Val. Max. i. 1. § 12; August. de Civ. Dei, vii. 34).
It would be idle to inquire into the historical reality of Numa. Whether
such a person ever existed or not, we cannot look upon the second king of Rome
as a real historical personage. His name represents the rule of law and order,
and to him are ascribed all those ecclesiastical institutions which formed the
basis of the ceremonial religion of the Romans. Some modern writers connect his
name with the word nomos, " law" (Hartung, Die Religion der Romer), but this is
mere fancy. It would be impossible to enter into a history of the various institutions
of this king, without discussing the whole ecclesiastical system of the Romans,
a subject which would be freign to this work. We would only remark, that the universal
tradition of tile Sabine origin of Numa intimates that the Romans must have derived
a great portion of their religious system from the Sabines, rather than from the
Etruscans, as is commonly believed.
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited Jan 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Lucretia, the wife of Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, whom, according to some accounts, he married after his accession to the throne. (Plut. Num. 21.)
Tulus Hostilius, grandson of Hostus Hostilius (see ancient Medullia),
was the third king of Rome. Thirty-two vears -from about B. C. 670 to 638- were
assigned by the annalists to his reign. According to the legends, his history
ran as follows: Hostilius departed from the peaceful ways of Numa, and aspired
to the martial renown of Romulus. He made Alba acknowledge Rome's supremacy in
the war wherein the three Roman brothers, the Horatii, fought with the three Alban
brothers, the Curiatii, at the Fossa Cluilia. Next he warred with Fidenae and
with Veii, and being straitly pressed by their joint hosts, he vowed temples to
Pallor and Pavor -Paleness and Panic. And after the fight was won, he tore asunder
with chariots Mettius Fufetius, the king or dictator of Alba, because he had desired
to betray Rome; and he utterly destroyed Alba, sparing only the temples of the
gods, and bringing the Alban people to Rome, where he gave them the Caelian hill
to dwell on. Then he turned himself to war with the Sabines, who, he said, had
wronged the Roman merchants at the temple of Feronia, at the foot of Mount Soracte;
and being again straitened in fight in a wood called the Wicked Wood, he vowed
a yearly festival to Saturn and Ops, and to double the number of the Salii, or
priests of Mamers. And when, by their help, he had vanquished the Sabines, he
performed his vow, and its records were the feasts Saturnalia and Opalia. But
while Hostilius thus warred with the nations northward and eastward of the city,
he leagued himself with the Latins and with the Hernicans, so that while he was
besieging Veii, the men of Tusculum and of Anagnia encamped on the Esquiline hill,
and kept guard over Rome, where the city was most open. Yet, in his old days,
Hostilius grew weary of warring; and when a pestilence struck him and his people,
and a shower of burning stones fell from heaven on Mount Alba, and a voice as
of the Alban gods came forth from the solitary temple of Jupiter on its summit,
he remembered the peaceful and happy days of Numa, and sought to win the favour
of the gods, as Numa had done, by prayer and divination. But the gods heeded neither
his prayers nor his charms, and when he would inquire of Jupiter Elicius, Jupiter
was wroth, and smote Hostilius and his whole house with fire. Later times placed
his sepulchre on the Velian hill.
That the story of Tullus Hostilius in Dionysius and Livy is the prose
form of an heroic legend there seems little reason to doubt. The incidents of
the Alban war, the meeting of the armies on the boundary line of Rome and Alba,
the combat of the triad of brethren, the destruction of the city, the wrath of
the gods, and the extinction of the Hostilian house, are genuine poetical features.
Perhaps the only historical fact embodied in them is the ruin of Alba itself;
and even this is misrepresented, since, had a Roman king destroyed it, the territory
and city would have become Roman, whereas Alba remained a member of the Latin
league until the dissolution of that confederacy in B. C. 338. Yet, on the other
hand, with Hostilius begins a new era in the early history of Rome, the ytho-historical,
with higher pretensions and perhaps nearer approaches to fact and personality.
As Romulus was the founder and eponymus of the Ramnes or first tribe, and Tatius
of the Titienses or second, so Hostilius, a Latin of Medullia, was probably the
founder of the third patrician tribe, the Luceres, which, whatever Etruscan admixture
it may have had, was certainly in its main element Latin. Hostilius assigned lands,
added to a national priesthood, and to the patriciate, instituted new religious
festivals, and, according to one account at least, increased the number of the
equites, all of which are tokens of permanent additions to the populus or burgherdom,
and characteristics of a founder of the nation. Consistent with these glimpses
of historical existence are his building the Hostilia curia, and his enclosure
of the comitium. He was not therefore, like Romulus, merely an eponymus, nor,
like Numa, merely an abstraction of one element, the religious phase of the commonwealth,
but a hero-king, whose personality is dimly visible through the fragments of dismembered
record and among the luminous clouds of poetic colouring.
(Dionys. iii. 1-36; Liv. i. 22-32; Cic. de Rep. ii. 17).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Jan 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Ancus Marcius, the fourth king of Rome, is said to have reigned twenty-three or
twenty-four years, from about B. C. 638 to 614. According to tradition he was
the son of Numa's daughter, and sought to tread in the footsteps of his grandfather
by reestablishing the religious ceremonies which had fallen into neglect. But
a war with the Latins called him from the pursuits of peace. He conquered the
Latins, took many Latin towns, transported the inhabitants to Rome, and gave them
the Aventine to dwell on. These conquered Latins, according to Niebuhr's views,
formed the original Plebs. (Dict. of Ant. s. v. Plebs.) It is related further
of Ancus, that he founded a colony at Ostia, at the mouth of the Tiber; built
a fortress on the Janiculum as a protection against Etruria, and united it with
the city by a bridge across the Tiber; dug the ditch of the Quirites, as it was
called, which was a defence for the open ground between the Caelian and the Palatine;
and built a prison to restrain offenders, who were increasing.
(Liv. i. 32, 33; Dionys. iii. 36-45; Cic. de Rep. ii. 18; Plut. Num. 21)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Jan 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Tarquinius, the name of a family in early Roman history, to which the fifth and
seventh kings of Rome belonged. The table on the following page represents the
genealogy of the family according to Livy.
The legend of the Tarquins ran as follows. The Tarquins were of Greek
extraction. Demaratus, their ancestor, belonged to the noble family of the Bacchiadae
at Corinth, and fled from his native city when the power of his order was overthrown
by Cypselus. He settled at Tarquinii in Etruria, where he had mercantile connections,
for commerce had not been considered disreputable among the Corinthian nobles.
He brought great wealth with him, and is said to have been accompanied by tile
painter Cleophantus, and by Eucheir and Eugrammus, masters of the plastic arts,
and likewise to have introduced among the Etruscans the knowledge of alphabetical
writing (Plin. H.N. xxxv. 5. s. 43; Tac. Ann. xi. 14). He married an Etruscan
wife, by whom he had two sons, Lucumo and Aruns. The latter died in the lifetime
of his father, leaving his wife pregnant; but as Demaratus was ignorant of this
circumstance, he bequeathed all his property to Lucumo, and died himself shortly
afterwards. 1 But, although Lucumo was thus one of the most wealthy persons at
Tarquinii, and had married Tanaquil, who belonged to a family of the highest rank,
the was excluded, as a Stranger, from all power and influence in the state. Discontented
with this inferior position, and urged on by his wife, he resolved to leave Tarquinii
and remove to Rome, where a new eitizen had more chance of obtaining distinction.
He accordingly set out for Rome, riding in a chariot with his wife, and accompanied
by a large train of followers. When they had reached the Janiculum and were already
within sight of Rome, an eagle seized his cap, and after carrying it away to a
great height placed it again upon his head. Tanaquil, who was skilled in the Etruscan
science of augury, bade her husband hope for the highest honour from this omen.
Her predictions were soon verified. The stranger was received with welcome, and
he and his followers were admitted to the rights of Roman citizens. He took the
name of L. Tarquinius, to which Livy adds Priscus. His wealth, his courage, and
his wisdom, gained him the love both of Ancus Marcius and of the people. The former
appointed him guardian of his children; and, when he died, the senate and the
people unanimously elected Tarquinius to the vacant throne.
The reign of Tarquinius was distinguished by great exploits in war,
and by great works in peace. The history of his wars is related very differently
by Livy and Dionysius. According to the former writer lie waged war with the Latins
and Sabines with great success. lie first destroyed the wealthy town of Apiolae,
which belonged to the Sabines, and subsequently took the Latin towns of Cameria,
Crustumerium, Medullia, Ameriola, Ficulnea, Corniculum, and Nomentum. But his
most memorable exploit was the defeat of the Sabines, who had advanced up to the
very gates of Rome. They were at first driven back after a doubtful struggle,
but were subsequently overthrown with great loss upon the Anio, and compelled
to sue for peace. They ceded to the Romans the town of Collatia, where Tarquinius
placed a strong garrison, the command of which he entrusted to Egerius, the son
of his deceased brother Aruns, who, with his family, took the surname of Collatinus.
Several traditions are connected with this war. The king's son, a youth of fourteen,
slew a foe with his own hand, and received as a reward a golden bulla and a robe
bordered with purple; and these remained in after times the ornaments and dress
of youths of noble rank. In this war, also, Tarquinius is said to have vowed the
building of the Capitol.
Livy says nothing more respecting the wars of this king, but Dionysius
relates at great length his wars with the Etruscans. According to the latter writer
five of the great Etruscan cities sent assistance to the Latins, which proved
ineffectual; and subsequently all the twelve cities united their forces against
Rome, but were overcome by Tarquinius, and compelled to submit to his authority.
They are further stated to have done homage to him by presenting him with a golden
crown, an ivory throne and sceptre, a purple tunic and robe figured with gold,
and other badges of kingly power, such as the Etruscans used when their twelve
cities chose a common chief in war (Dionys. iii. 57, 59, 61). Thus, according
to this story, Tarquinius ruled over the Latins, Sabines, and Etruscans, as well
as Romans; but no Latin writer mentions this war with the Etruscans, with the
exception of Florus (i. 5), and the compiler of the triumphal Fasti. Cicero (de
Rep. ii. 20) and Strabo (v. p. 231) relate that Tarquinius also subdued the Aequi
but this war is not mentioned by Dionysius, and is referred by Livy (i. 55) to
Tarquinius Superbus.
Although the wars of Tarquinius were of great celebrity, the important
works which he executed in peace have made his name still more famous. Many of
these works are ascribed in some stories to the second Tarquinius, but almost
all traditions agree in assigning to the elder Tarquinius the erection of the
vast sewers by which the lower parts of the city were drained, and which still
remain, with not a stone displaced, to bear witness to his power and wealth (See
Cloaca).
The quay by which the Tiber is banked, and through which the sewer opens into
it, must clearly have been executed at the same time, and may therefore be safely
ascribed to the elder Tarquinius.
The same king is also said in some traditions to have laid out the
Circus Maximus in the valley which had been redeemed from water by the sewers,
and also to have instituted the Great or Roman Games, which were henceforth performed
in the Circus. The Forum, with its porticoes and rows of shops, was also his work,
and he likewise began to surround the city with a stone wall, a work which was
finished by his successor Servius Tullius. The building of the Capitoline temple
is moreover attributed to the elder Tarquinius, though most traditions ascribe
this work to his son, and only the vow to the father.
Tarquinius also made some changes in the constitution of the state.
He added a hundred new members to the senate, who were called patres minorum gentium,
to distinguish them from the old senators, who were now called padres majorum
gentium. He wished to add to the three centuries of equites established by Romulus
three new centuries, and to call them after himself and two of his friends. His
plan was opposed by the augur Attus Navius, who gave a convincing proof that the
gods were opposed to his purpose. Accordingly he gave up his design of establishing
new centuries, but to each of the former centuries lie associated another tinder
the same name, so that henceforth there were the first and second Ramnes, Titles,
and Luceres. He increased the number of Vestal Virgins from four to six.
Tarquinius had reigned thirty-eight years, when lie was assassinated
by the contrivance of the sons of Ancus Marcius. They had long wished to take
vengeance upon him on account of their being deprived of the throne, and now fearing
lest he should secure the succession to his son-in-law Servius Tullius, they hired
two countrymen, who, feigning to have a quarrel, came before the king to have
their dispute decided; and while he was listening to the complaint of one, the
other gave him a deadly wound with his axe. But the sons of Marcius did not secure
the reward of their crime, for Servius Tullius, with the assistance of Tanaquil,
succeeded to the vacant throne. Tarquinius left two sons and two daughters. His
two sons, L. Tarquinius and Aruns, were subsequently married to the two daughters
of Servius Tullius. One of his daughters was married to Servius Tullius, and the
other to M. Brutus, by whom she became the mother of the celebrated L. Brutus,
the first consul at Rome. The principal authorities for the life of Tarquinius
Priscus are Livy (i. 34-41), Dionysius (iii. 46-73, iv. I), and Cicero (de Rep.
iii. 20).
The life of Servius Tullius is given under Tullius. There it is related how he
was murdered, after a reign of forty-four years, by his son-in-law, L. Tarquinius,
who had been urged on by his wicked wife to commit the dreadful deed. The Roman
writers represent the younger Tarquinius as a cruel and tyrannical monarch, and
the fact of his being the last king of Rome has doubtless contributed not a little
to blacken his character. The estimation in which he was held by the Romans is
shown by his surname of Superbus.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Jan 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Tullius, Servius, the sixth king of Rome. The account of the early life and death
of Servius Tullius is full of marvels, and cannot be regarded as possessing any
title to a real historical narrative. According to the general tradition, he was
of servile origin, and owed his elevation to the favour of the gods, and especially
to the protection of the goddess Fortune, with whom he was always a favourite.
During his life-time she used to visit him secretly in his chamber as his spouse;
and after his death, his statue was placed in her temple, and remained unhurt
when the temple itself was once destroyed by fire (Ov. Fast. vi. 573, foll., 625;
Val. Max. i. 8.11). The future greatness of Servius was announced by a miracle
before his birth. His mother Ocrisia, a female slave of the queen's, and one of
the captives taken at Corniculum, was offering cakes to the Lar or the household
genius, when she saw in the fire on the hearth an apparition of the deity. Tanaquil,
who understood the portent, commanded her to dress herself as a bride, and to
shut herself up in the chamber. There she became pregnant by the god. whom some
Romans maintained to be the household genius, and others Vulcan; the former supporting
their opinion by the festival which Servius established in honour of the Lares,
the latter by the deliverance of his statue from fire (Ov. Fast. vi. 625, foil.;
Dionys. iv. 2). There are two other legends respecting the birth of Servius, which
have more of an historical air, and may therefore be regarded as of later origin.
One related that his mother was a slave from Tarquinii, that his father was a
client of the king, and that he himself was brought up in the palace with the
other household slaves, and waited at the royal table (Cic. de Rep. ii. 21). The
other legend, which gives Servius a nobler origin, and which is therefore preferred
both by Dionysius and Livy, states that his father, likewise called Servius Tullius,
was a noble of Corniculum, who was slain at the taking of the city, and that his
mother, then in a state of pregnancy, was carried away captive to Rome where she
gave birth to the future king in the royal palace. The prodigies which preceded
the birth of Servius accompanied his youth. Once as he was sleeping at mid-day
in the porch of the palace, his head was seen surrounded with flames. Tanaquil
forbade their being extinguished, for her prophetic spirit recognised the future
destiny of the boy : they played around him without harming him, and when he awoke,
the fire vanished. From this time forward Servius was brought up as the king's
child with the greatest hopes. Nor were these hopes disappointed. By his personal
bravery he gained a battle which the Romans had nearly lost; and Tarquinius placed
such confidence in him, that he gave him his daughter in marriage, and entrusted
him with the exercise of the government. His rule was mild and beneficent ; and
so popular did he become, that the sons of Ancus Marcius, fearing lest they should
be deprived of the throne which they claimed as their inheritance, procured the
assassination of Tarquinius. They did not, however, reap the fruit of their crime,
for Tanaquil. pretending that the king's wound was not mortal, told the people
that Tarquinius would recover in a few days, and that he had commanded Servius
meantime to discharge the duties of the kingly office. Servius forthwith began
to act as king, greatly to the satisfaction of the people; and when the death
of Tarquinius could no longer be concealed, he was already in firm possession
of the royal power. Servius thus succeeded to the throne without being elected
by the senate and the curiae; but the curiae afterwards, at his own request, invested
him with the imperium. (Cic. de Rep. ii. 21; Dionys. iv. 12)
The reign of Servius Tullius is almost as barrel of military exploits
as that of Numa. The only war which Livy mentions (i. 42) is one against Veii,
which was brought to a speedy conclusion. This war is magnified by Dionysius (iv.
27) into victories over the whole Etruscan nation, which is said to have revolted
after the death of Tarquinius Priscus; and these pretended triumphs have found
their way into the Fasti, where they are recorded, with the year and date of their
occurrence. But the great deeds of Servius were deeds of peace ; and he was regarded
by posterity as the author of all their civil rights and institutions, just as
Numa was of their religious rites and ordinances. Three important events are assigned
to Servius by universal tradition. First he established a constitution, in which
the plebs took its place as the second part of the nation, and of which we shall
speak more fully below. Secondly, he extended the pomoerium, or hallowed boundary
of the city (see Pomoerium),
and completed the city by incorporating with it the Quirinal, Viminal and Esquiline
hills. He surrounded the whole with a stone wall called after him the wall of
Servius Tullius; and from the Porta Collina to the Esquiline Gate where the hills
sloped gently to the plain, he constructed a gigantic mound, nearly a mile in
length, and a moat, one hundred feet in breadth and thirty in depth, from which
the earth of the mound was dug. Rome thus acquired a circumference of five miles,
and this continued to be the legal extent of the city till the time of the emperors,
although suburbs were added to it. Thirdly, Servius established an important alliance
with the Latins, by which Rome and the cities of Latium became the members of
one great league. As leagues of this kind were always connected among the ancients
with the worship at some common temple, a temple of Diana or the Moon was built
upon the Aventine, which was not included in the pomoerium, as the place of the
religious meetings of the two nations. It appears that the Sabines likewise shared
in the worship of this temple. There was a celebrated tradition, that a Sabine
husbandman had a cow of extraordinary beauty and size, and that the soothsayers
had predicted that whoever should sacrifice this cow to Diana on the Aventine,
would raise his country to rule over the confederates. The Sabine, anxious to
secure the supremacy of his own people, had driven the cow to Rome, and was on
the point of sacrificing her before the altar, when the crafty Roman priest rebuked
him for daring to offer it with unwashed hands. While the Sabine went and washed
in the Tiber, the Roman sacrificed the cow. The gigantic horns of the animal were
preserved down to very late times, nailed up in the vestibule (Liv. i. 45). From
the fact that the Aventine was selected as the place of meeting, it has been inferred
that the supremacy of Rome was acknowledged by the Latins; but since we find it
expressly stated that this supremacy was not acquired till the reign of Tarquinius
Superbus, this view is perhaps not strictly correct.
After Servius had established his new constitution, he did homage
to the majesty of the centuries, by calling them together, and leaving them to
decide whether he was to reign over them or not. The body which he had called
into existence, naturally ratified his power, and declared him to be their king.
The patricians, however, were far from acquiescing in the new order of things,
and hated the man who had deprived them of their exclusive rule, and had conferred
such important benefits upon the plebeians. In addition to his constitutional
changes in favour of the second order in the state, tradition related, that out
of his private wealth, he discharged the debts of those who were reduced to indigence;
that he deprived the creditor of the power of seizing the body of his debtor,
and restricted him to the seizure of the goods of the latter; and that he assigned
to the plebeians allotments of lands out of the territories which they had won
in war (Cic. de Rep. ii. 21 ; Dionys. iv. 9; Liv. i. 46). The king had good reasons
for mistrusting the patricians. Accordingly, when he took up his residence on
the Esquiline, he would not allow them to dwell there, but assigned to them the
valley, which was called after them the Patricius Vicus, or Patrician Street (Festus
s. v.). Meantime, the long and uninterrupted popularity of the king seemed to
deprive L. Tarquinius more and more of the chance of regaining the throne of his
father. The patricians, anxious to recover their supremacy, readily joined Tarquinius
in a conspiracy to assassinate the king. The legend of his death is too celebrated
to be omitted here, although it perhaps contains no further truth than that Servius
fell a victim to a patrician conspiracy, the leader of which was the son or descendant
of the former king. The legend ran as follows. Servius Tullius, soon after his
succession, gave his two daughters in marriage to the two sons of Tarquinius Priscus.
L. Tarquinius the elder was married to a quiet and gentle wife; Aruns, the younger,
to an aspiring and ambitious woman. The character of the two brothers was the
very opposite of the wives who had fallen to their lot ; for Lucius was proud
and haughty, but Aruns unambitious and quiet. The wife of Aruns, enraged at the
long life of her father, and fearing that at his death her husband would tamely
resign the sovereignty to his elder brother, resolved to destroy both her father
and her husband. Her fiendish spirit put into the heart of Lucius thoughts of
crime which he had never entertained before. Lucius murdered his wife, and the
younger Tullia her husband; and the survivors, without even the show of mourning,
were straightway joined in unhallowed wedlock. Tullia now incessantly urged her
husband to murder her father, and thus obtain the kingdom which he so ardently
coveted. It was said that their design was hastened by the belief that Servius,
in order to complete his legislation, entertained the thought of laying down his
kingly power, and establishing the consular form of government. The patricians
were no less alarmed at this scheme, as it would have had the effect of confirming
for ever the hated laws of Servius. Their mutual hatred and fears united them
closely together; and when the conspiracy was ripe, Tarquinius entered the forum
arrayed in the kingly robes, seated himself in the royal chair in the senate-house,
and ordered the senators to be summoned to him as their king. At the first news
of the commotion, Servius hastened to the senate-house, and standing at the door-way,
ordered Tarquinius to come down from the throne. Tarquinius sprang forward, seized
the old man, and flung him down the stone steps. Covered with blood, the king
was hastening home; but, before he reached it, he was overtaken by the servants
of Tarquinius, and murdered. Tullia drove to the senate-house, and greeted her
husband as king; but her transports of joy struck even him with horror. He bade
her go home; and as she was returning, her charioteer pulled up, and pointed out
the corpse of her father lying in his blood across the road. She commanded him
to drive on; the blood of her father spirted over the carriage and on her dress;
and from that day forward the street bore the name of the Vicus Sceleratus, or
Wicked Street. The body lay unburied, for Tarquinius said scoffingly, "Romulus
too went without burial"; and this impious mockery is said to have given rise
to his surname of Superbus (Liv. i. 46-48; Ov. Fast. vi. 581, foll.). Servius
had reigned forty four years. His memory was long cherished by the plebeians,
and his birth-day was celebrated on the nones of every month, for it was remembered
that he was born on the nones of some month, but the month itself had become a
matter of uncertainty. At a later time, when the oppressions of the patricians
became more and more intolerable, the senate found it necessary to forbid the
markets to be holden on the nones, lest the people should attempt an insurrection
to restore the laws of their martyred monarch. (Macrob. Sat. i. 13)
The Roman traditions, as we have seen, were unanimous in making Servius
Tullius of Latin origin. He is universally stated to have been the son of a native
of Corniculum, which was a Latin town; and Niebuhr, in his Lectures, supposes
that he may have been the offspring of a marriage between one of the Luceres and
a woman of Cornienlum, previously to the establishment of the connubium, and that
this may be the foundation of the story of his descent. His name Tullius also
indicates a Latin origin, since the Tullii are expressly mentioned as one of the
Alban gentes which were received into the Latin state in the reign of Tullus Hostilius.
(Liv. i. 30.) His institutions, likewise, bear all the traces of a Latin character.
But the Etruscan tradition about this king was entirely different, and made him
a native of Etruria. This Etruscan tradition was related by the emperor Claudius,
in a speech which he made upon the admission of some Lugdunensian Gauls into the
senate; and the fragments of which are still preserved on two tables discovered
at Lyons in the sixteenth century. and since the time of Lipsius have been printed
in most editions of Tacitus. In this speech Claudius says "that, according to
the Tuscans, Servius was the faithful companion of Caeles Vibenna, and shared
all his fortunes: that at last being overpowered by a variety of disasters, he
quitted Etruria with the remains of the army which had served under Caeles, went
to Rome, and occupied the Caelian Hill, calling it so after his former commander:
that he exchanged his Tuscan name Mastarna for the Roman one of Servius Tullius,
obtained the kingly power, and wielded it to the great good of the state".
This Caeles Vibenna was well known to the Roman writers, according to whom he
came himself to Rome, though the statements in whose reign he came differed greatly.
All accounts, however, represent him as a leader of an army raised by himself,
and not belonging to any state, and as coming to Rome by the invitation of the
Roman kings, to assist them. (see Caeles)
There can be no question that the emperor Claudius drew his account from Etruscan
annals; and there is no reason for disbelieving that Caeles Vibenna and Mastarna
are historical personages, for, as Niebuhr observes, Caeles is too frequently
and too distinctly mentioned to be fabulous, and his Etruscan name cannot have
been invented by the Romans. The value of the tradition about Mastarna would very
much depend upon the date of the Etruscan authorities, from whom Claudius derived
his account; but on this point we are entirely in the dark. Niebuhr, in the first
edition of his history, inclined strongly to the opinion that Rome was of Etruscan
origin, and in his lectures, delivered in the year 1826, he adopted the Etruscan
tradition respecting the origin of Servius Tullius, on the ground "that Etruscan
literature is so decidedly more ancient than that of the Romans, that he did not
hesitate to give preference to the traditions of the former". In the second edition
of his history, however, Niebuhr so completely abandoned his former idea of the
Etruscan origin of Rome, that he would not even admit the Etruscan origin of the
Luceres, a point in which most subsequent scholars dissent from him; and in his
Lectures of the year 1828, he strongly maintains the Latin origin of Servius Tullius,
and asserts his belief that "Etruscan literature is mostly assigned to too early
a period, and that to the time from the Hannibalian war down to the time of Sulla,
a period of somewhat more than a century, most of the literary productions of
the Etruscans must be referred". But the fact is that whether we are to follow
the Etruscan or the Roman tradition about Servius is one of those points on which
no certainty can be by any possibility obtained. So much seems clear, that Servius
usurped the throne : he seized the royalty upon the murder of the former king,
without being elected by the senate and the comitia, and he introduced great constitutional
changes, apparently to strengthen his power against a powerful faction in the
state. It is equally clear that his reign came to a violent end: he was dethroned
and murdered by the descendants of the previous king, in league with his enemies
in the state, who sought to recover the power of which they had been dispossessed.
Now if we are right in our supposition that Tarquinius Priscus and Tarquinius
Superbus were both of Etruscan origin, and represent an Etruscan sovereignty at
Rome, it seems to follow that the reign of Servius Tullius represents a successful
attempt of the Latins to recover their independence, or in any case the sovereignty
of an Etruscan people different from the one to which the Tarquins belonged. Further
than this we cannot go; and it seems to us impossible to determine which supposition
has the greatest preponderance of evidence in its favour. K. O. Miller adopted
the latter supposition. He believed that the Etruscan town of Tarquinii was at
the head of the twelve cities of Etruria at this time, that it conquered Rome,
and that the reign of Tarquinius Priscus represents the supremacy of the state
of Tarquinii at Rome. He further supposed that the supremacy of Tarquinii may
not have been universally acknowledged throughout Etruria, and that the army of
Caeles and of his lieutenant Mastarna perhaps belonged to the town of Volsinii,
which wished to maintain its independence against Tarquinii; that it was with
the remains of this army that Mastarna eventually conquered Rome, and thus destroyed
the dominion of Tarquinii in that city.
CONSTITUTION OF SERVIUS TULLIUS.
The most important event connected with the reign of Servius Tullius is the new
constitution which he gave to the Roman state. The details of this constitution
are stated in different articles in the Dictionary of Antiquities, and it is therefore
only necessary to give here a general outline, which the [p. 1187] reader can
fill up by references to the work just mentioned. The two main objects of the
constitution of Servius were to give the plebs political independence, and to
assign to property that influence in the state which had previously belonged to
birth exclusively; and it cannot be questioned that the military and financial
objects, which he secured by the changes he introduced, were regarded by him as
of secondary importance. In order to carry his purpose into effect Servius made
a two-fold division of the Roman people, one territorial, and the other according
to property. He first divided the whole Roman territory into Regiones, and the
inhabitants into Tribus, the people of each region forming a tribe. The city was
divided into four regions or tribes, and the country around into twenty-six regions
or tribes, so that the entire number of Tribus Urbanae and Tribus Rusticae, as
they were respectively called, amounted to thirty (Liv. i. 43; Dionys. iv. 14,
15). Livy does not mention the number of the country tribes in his account of
the Servian constitution, and we are indebted to Fabius Pictor, the oldest of
the Roman annalists (Dionys. l. c.), and to Varro (ap. Non. p. 43), for the number
of twenty-six. Moreover Livy, when he speaks of the whole number of the tribes
in B. C. 495, says that they were made twenty-one in that year (Liv. ii. 21; comp.
Dionys. vii. 64). Hence the statements of Fabius Pictor and Varro might appear
to be doubtful. But in the first place their account has the greatest internal
probability, since the number thirty plays such an important part in the Roman
constitution, and the thirty tribes would thus correspond to the thirty curiae;
and in the second place Niebuhr has called attention to the fact that in the war
with Porsena, Rome lost a considerable part of her territory, and thus the number
of her tribes would naturally be reduced. When, however, Niebuhr proceeds to say
that the tribes were reduced in the war with Porsena from thirty to twenty, because
it was the ancient practice in Italy to deprive a conquered nation of a third
part of its territory, he seems to have forgotten, as Becker has remarked, that
the four city tribes could not have been taken into account in such a forfeiture,
and that consequently a third part of the territory would not have been ten tribes.
Into this question, however, it is unnecessary further to enter. The conquest
of Porsena had undoubtedly broken up the whole Servian system; and thus it was
all the easier to form a new tribe in B. C. 504, when the gens Claudia migrated
to Rome (Liv. ii. 16). It would appear that an entirely new distribution of the
tribes became necessary, and this was probably carried into effect in B. C. 495,
soon after the battle of the lake of Regillus. In fact the words of Livy (ii.
21) already referred to state as much, for he does not say that before this year
there were twenty tribes, or that the twenty-first was then added for the first
time, but simply that twenty-one tribes were then formed (Romae tribes una et
viginti factae). The subsequent increase in the number of the tribes, till they
reached that of thirty-five, is related in the Dictionary of Antiquities (s. v.
Tribus). But to return from this digression to the Servian constitution. Each
tribe was an organised body, with a magistrate at its head, called Phularchos
by Dionysius (iv. 14), and Curator Tribus by Varro (L. L. vi. 86), whose principal
duty appears to have consisted in keeping a register of the inhabitants in each
regio, and of their property, for purposes of taxation, and for levying the troops
for the armies. Further, each country tribe or regio was divided into a certain
number of Pagi, a name which had been given to the divisions of the Roman territory
as early as the reign of Numa (Dionys. ii. 76); and each Pagus also formed an
organised body, with a Magister Pagi at its head, who kept a register of the names
and of the property of all persons in the pagus, raised the taxes, and summoned
the people, when necessary, to war. Each pagus had its own sacred rites and common
sanctuary, connected with which was a yearly festival called Paganalia, at which
all the Pagani took part. Dionysius says that the Pagi were fortified places,
established by Servius Tullius, to which the country people might retreat in case
of an hostile inroad ; but this is scarcely correct, for even if Servius Tullius
established such fortified places, it is evident that the word was used to indicate
a local division, and must have been given to the country adjoining the fortified
place as well as to the fortified place itself (Dionys. iv. 15; Varr. L. L. vi.
24, 26 Macrob. Saturn. i. 16; Ov. Fast. i. 669) As the country tribes were divided
into Pagi, so were the city tribes divided into Vici, with a Magister Vici at
the head of each, who performed duties analogous to those of the Magister Pagi.
The Vici in like manner had their own religious rites and sanctuaries, which were
erected at spots where two or more ways met (in compitis); and consequently their
festival, corresponding to the Paganalia, was called Compitalia. (Dionys. iv.
14)
The main object which Servius had in view in the institution of the
tribes was to give an organisation to the plebeians, of which they had been entirely
destitute before; but whether the patricians were included in the tribes or not,
is a subject of great difficulty, and has given rise to great difference of opinion
among modern scholars, some regarding the division into tribes as a local division
of the whole Roman people, and consequently of patricians and their clients as
well as of plebeians, while others look upon it as simply an organisation of the
second order. The undoubted object of Servius Tullius in the institution of the
tribes led Niebuhr to maintain that the patricians could not possibly have belonged
to the tribes originally ; but as we find them in the tribes at a later period
(Liv. iv. 24, v. 30, 32), he supposed that they were admitted into them by the
legislation of the decemvirs. But probable as this might appear, all the evidence
we possess goes the other way, and tends to show that the tribes were a local
division of the whole Roman people. In the first place, if Servius had created
thirty local tribes for the plebs alone, from which the patricians were excluded,
it is not easy to see why the three ancient tribes of the Ramnes, Tities, and
Luceres, should not have continued in existence. This we know was not the case;
for it is certain, that the three ancient tribes disappear from the time of the
Servian constitution, and that their names alone were retained by the Equites,
and that henceforward we read only of the division of the patricians into thirty
curiae : indeed it is expressly said that the phulai genikai were abolished by
Servius, and that the Phulai topikai were established in their place. (Dionys.
iv. 14.) Secondly, it is certain that all the tribes of the year B. C. 495, with
the exception of the Crustumina, take their names from patrician gentes. Thirdly,
the establishment of the Claudian tribe, consisting as it did mainly of the patrician
Claudia gens, is almost of itself sufficient to prove that patricians were included
in the Servian tribes. Niebuhr lays great stress upon the fact that in no instance
do we find the patricians voting in the Comitia Tributa before the time of the
decemvirs ; but as Becker very justly remarks, this does not pros e any thing,
as we have no reason for supposing that the Comitia Tributa were established by
Servius along with the tribes. Such an assembly would have had no meaning in the
Servian constitution, and would have been opposed to its first principles. The
Comitia Tributa were called into existence, when the plebs began to struggle after
independence, and had tribunes of their own at their head; and it is certainly
improbable that patricians should have been allowed to vote in assemblies summoned
by plebeian magistrates to promote the interests of the plebs. The Comitia Tributa
must not therefore be regarded as assemblies of the tribes, as Becker has justly
remarked. but as assemblies of the plebeians, who voted according to tribes, as
their natural divisions. Hence as the same writer observes, we see the full force
of the expression in the Leges Valeria Horatia, Publilia and Hortensia: "quod
tributim plebes jussisset".
The tribes therefore were an organisation of the whole Roman people,
patricians as well as plebeians, according to their local divisions; but they
were instituted, as we have already remarked, for the benefit of the plebeians,
who had not, like the patricians, possessed previously any political organisation.
At the same time, though the institution of the tribes gave the plebeians a political
organisation, it conferred upon them no political power. no right to take any
part in the management of public affairs or in the elections. These rights, however,
were bestowed upon them by another institution of Servius Tullius, which was entirely
distinct from and had no connection with the thirty tribes. He made a new division
of the whole Roman people into Classes according to the amount of their property,
and he so arranged thee classes that the wealthiest persons, whether patricians
or plebeians, should possess the chief power and influence. In order to ascertain
the property of each citizen, he instituted the Census, which was a register of
Roman citizens and their property, and enacted that it should be taken anew from
time to time. Under the republic it was taken afresh, as is well known, every
five years, Lists of the citizens were made out by the curator tribus or magistrate
of each tribe, and each citizen had to state upon oath the amount and value of
his property. According to the returns thus obtained a division of the citizens
was made, which determined the tax (tributum), which each citizen was to pay,
the kind of military service he was to perform, and the position he was to occupy
in the popular assembly. The whole arrangement was of a military character. The
people assembled in the Campus as an army (exercitus, or, according to the more
ancient expression. classis), and was therefore divided into two parts, the cavalry
(equites), and infantry (pedites). The infantry was divided into five Classes.
The first class contained all those persons whose property amounted at least to
100,000 asses: the second class those who had at least 75,000 asses the third
those who had at least 50.000 asses: the fourth those who had at least 25,000
asses: and the fifth those who had at least 10,000 asses, according to Bockh's
probable conjecture, for Dionysius makes the sum necessary for admission to this
class 12,500 asses (12 1/2 minae) and Livy 11,000 asses. It must be recollected,
however, that these numbers are not the ancient ones. when the as was a pound
weight of copper, but those of the sixth century of the city. The original numbers
were probably 20.000, 15.000, 10,000, 5000. and 2000 asses respectively, which
were increased fivefold, when the as was coined so much lighter. Further, for
military purposes each of the five classes was divided into elder (Seniores) and
younger (Juniores) men : the former consisting of men from the age of 46 to 60,
the latter of men from the age of 17 to 45. It was from the Juniores that the
armies of the state were levied : the Seniores were not obliged to serve in the
field. and could only be called upon to defend the city. Moreover, all the soldiers
had to find their own arms and armour; but it was so arranged that the expense
of the equipment should be in proportion to the wealth of each class.
Servius however did not make this arrangement of the people for military
purposes alone. He had another and more important object in view, namely, the
creation of a new national assembly, which was to possess the powers formerly
exercised by the Comitia curiata, and thus become the sovereign assembly in the
state. For this purpose he divided each classes into a certain number of centuriae.
each of which counted as one vote. But in accordance with the great principle
of his constitution, which, as has been several times remarked, was to give the
preponderance of power to wealth, a century was not made of a fixed number of
men; but the first or richest class contained a far greater number of centuries
than any of the other classes, although they must at the same time have contained
a much smaller number of men. Thus the first class contained 80 centuries. the
second 20, the third 20, the fourth 20, and the fifth 30, in all 170. One half
of the centuries consisted of Seniores, and the other half of Juniores; by which
an advantage was given to age and experience over youth and rashness, for the
Seniores, though possessing an equal number of votes, must of course have been
very inferior in number to the Juniores. Besides these 170 centuries of the classes,
Servius formed five other centuries, admission into which did not depend upon
the census. Of these the smiths and carpenters (fabri) formed two centuries, and
the horn-blowers and trumpeters (cornicines and tubicines) two other centuries:
these four centuries voted with the classes, but Livy and Dionysius give a different
statement as to which of the classes they voted with. The other century not belonging
to the classes, and erroneously called the sixth class by Dionysius, comprised
all those persons whose property did not amount to that of the fifth class. This
century, however, consisted of three subdivisions according to the amount of their
property, called respectively the accensi velati, the proletarii and capite censi:
the accensi velati were those. whose property was at least 1500 asses, or originally
300 asses, and they served as supernumeraries in the army without arms, but ready
to take the arms and places of such as might fall in battle : the proletarii were
those who had at least 375 asses, or originally 75 asses, and they were sometimes
armed in pressing danger at the public expense : while the capite censi were all
those whose property was less than the sum last mentioned, and they were never
called upon to serve till the time of Marius. Thus the infantry or Pedites contained
in all 175 centuries.
The cavalry or Equites were divided by Servius Tullius into 18 centuries,
which did not comprise Seniores or Juniores, but consisted only of men below the
age of forty-six. The early history and arrangement of the Equites have given
rise to much discussion among modern scholars, into which we cannot enter here.
It is sufficient for our present purpose to state that Tarquinius Priscus had
divided each of the three ancient centuries of equites into two troops, called
respectively the first (priores) and second (posteriores) Ramnes, Tities, and
Luceres. These three double centuries Servius Tullius formed into six new centuries,
usually called the sex suffragia : and as they were merely a new organisation
of the old body, they must have consisted exclusively of patricians. Besides these
six centuries, Servius formed twelve others, taken from the richest and most distinguished
families in the state, plebeian as well as patrician. There can be little question
that a certain amount of property was necessary for admission to all the equestrian
centuries, as well in consequence of the timocratic principle of this part of
the Servian constitution, as on account of the express statement of Dionysius
(iv. 18) that the equites were chosen by Servius out of the richest and most illustrious
families, and of Cicero (de Rep. ii. 22) that they were of the highest census
(censu maximo). Neither of these writers nor Livy mentions the property which
was necessary to entitle a person to a place among the equites; but as we know
that the equestrian census in the later times of the republic was four times the
amount of that of the first class, it is probable that the same census was established
by Servius Tullius. Niebuhr indeed supposed that the sex suffragia comprised all
the patricians, independent of the property they possessed; but this supposition
is, independent of other considerations, disproved by the tact, that we have express
mention of a patrician, L. Tarquitius, who was compelled on account of his poverty
to serve on foot.
The 175 centuries of pedites and the 18 of equities thus made a total
of 193 centuries. Of these, 97 forced a majority of votes in the assembly. Although
all the Roman citizens had a vote in this assembly, which was called the Comitia
Centuriata, from the voting by centuries, it will be seen at once that the poorer
classes had not much influence in the assembly; for the 18 centuries of the equites
and the 80 centuries of the first class, voted first; and if they could come to
an agreement upon any measure, they possessed at once a majority, and there was
no occasion to call upon the centuries of the other classes to vote at all. This
was the great object of the institution, which was to give the power to wealth,
and nut either to birth or to numbers.
The preceding account of the centuries has been taken from Livy (i.
43) and Dionysius (iv. 16, foll.), who agree in all the main points. The account
of Cicero (de Re Publ. ii. 22) cannot be reconciled with that of Livy and Dionysius,
and owing to the corruptions of the text it is hopeless to make the attempt. The
few discrepancies between Livy and Dionysius will be seen by the following table,
taken from Becker, by which the reader will also perceive more clearly the census
of each class, the number of centuries or votes which each contained, and the
order in which they voted.
LIVY. EQUITES.--Centriae 18
I. CLASSIS.--Census 100,000 asses.
Centuriae Seniorum 40
Centuriae Juniorum 40
Centuriae Fabrum 2
II. CLASSIS.--Census 75,000 asses.
Centuriae Seniorum 10
Centuriae Juniorum 10
III. CLASSIS.--Census 50,000 asses.
Centuriae Seniorum 10
Centuriae Juniorum 10
IV. CLASSIS.--Census 25,000 asses.
Centuriae Seniorum 10
Centuriae Juniorum 10
V. CLASSIS.--Census 11,000 asses.
Centuriae Seniorum 15
Centuriae Juniorum 15
Centuriae accensorum, cornicinum, tubicinum 3
Centuria capite censorum 1
Sum total of the Centuriae 194
DIONYSIUS. EQUITES.--Centuriae 16
I. CLASSIS.--Census 100 minae.
Centuriae Seniorum 40
Centuriae Juniorum 40
II. CLASSIS.--Census 75 minae.
Centuriae Seniorum 10
Centuriae Juniorum 10
Centuriae Fabrum 2
III. CLASSIS.--Census 50 minae.
Centuriae Seniorum 10
Centuriae Juniorum 10
IV. CLASSIS.--Census 25 minae.
Centuriae Seniorum 10
Centuriae Juniorum 10
Centuriae cornic. et tubic. 2
V. CLASSIS.--Census 121/2 minae.
Centuriae Seniorum 15
Centuriae Juniorum 15
VI. CLASSIS.
Centuria capite censorum 1
Sum total of the Centuriae 193
There can be little doubt that the number in Dionysius is the correct one. According
to Livy's number cases might have arisen in which it was impossible to obtain
a majority, as ninety-seven might have voted for a measure and ninety-seven against
it. Moreover, Cicero (de Rep. ii. 22) describes ninety-six as the minority. The
other discrepancies between Livy and Dionysius are of no great importance, and
need not be discussed further in this place.
The Assembly of the Centuries, or Comitia Centuriata, was made by
Servius, as we have already remarked, the sovereign assembly of the nation, and
it accordingly stept into the place formerly occupied by the Comitia Curiata.
Servius transferred to it from the latter assembly the right of electing kings
and the higher magistrates, of enacting and repealing laws, and of deciding upon
war, and jurisdiction in cases of appeal from the sentence of a judge. He did
not, however, abolish the Comitia Curiata, but on the contrary he allowed them
very great power and influence in the state. He not only permitted them to retain
the exercise of such rights as affected their own corporations, but he enacted
that no vote of the Comitia Centuriata should he valid till it had received the
sanction of the Comitia Curiata. This sanction of the Curiae is often expressed
by the words patrum auctoritas or patres auctores facti, in which phrase patres
mean the patricii. In course of time the sanction of the Curiae was abolished,
or at least became a mere matter of form; but the successive steps by which this
was accomplished do not belong to the present inquiry, and are related elsewhere.
Although Servius gave the plebeians political rights and recognised
them as the second order of the Roman people, it must not be supposed that he
placed them on a footing of equality with the patricians. From the time of Servius
they were cives, they had the jus civitatis, but not in its full extent. The jus
civitatis included both the jus publicum and the jus privatum ; but of each of
these rights they possessed only a portion. Of the jus publicum Servius gave to
them only the jus suffragii, or right of voting in the comitia centuriata, but
not the jus honorum, or eligibility to the public offices of the state. Of the
jus privatum Servius conferred upon them only the commercium, by virtue of which
they could become owners of land and could appear before the courts without the
mediation of a patronus, but he did not grant to them the connubium, or right
of marriage with the patricians. Moreover, they had no claim to the use of the
public land, the possessio of which continued to be confined to the patricians,
although the conquered lands were won by the blood of the second order as well
as of the first; but, as some compensation for this injustice, Servius is said
to have given to the poor plebeians small portions of the public land in full
ownership (Dionys. iv. 9, 10, 13; Liv. i. 46 ; Zonar. vii. 9).
The laws of Servius Tullius are said to have been committed to writing,
and were known under the name of the Commentarii Servii Tullii. Dionysius says
(iv. 13) that he regulated the commercium between the two orders by about fifty
laws; but the commentaries of Servius Tullius, which are cited by later writers,
such as Verrius Flaccus, can only have contained the substance of the laws ascribed
to him; since the original laws, if they were ever committed to writing, must
long since have perished.
The principal modern writers who have treated of the Servian constitution are:
Niebuhr, Hist. of Rome, vol. i.; Goittling, Geschichte der Romischen Staatsverfassung;
Gerlach, Die Verfassung d. Servius in ihrer Entwickelung, Basel, 1837; Huschke,
Die Verfassung d. Kon. Serv. Tull., Heidelberg, 1838; Peter, Epochen d. Verfassungsgesch.
der Romisch. Republ., Leigzig, 1841; Walter, Gesch. d. Romisch. Rechts; Becker,
Handbuch d. Romisch. Alterthumer, vol. ii.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Jan 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
L. Tarquinius Superbus commenced his reign without any of the forms of election.
He seized the kingdom as a recovered inheritance, and did not wait to be elected
by the senate or the people, or to receive the imperium from the curiae. One of
the first acts of his reign was to abolish all the privileges which had been conferred
upon the plebeians by Servius, since the patricians had assisted him in obtaining
the kingdom. He forbade the meetings of the tribes, and repealed the laws which
had conferred civil equality upon the plebeians, and which had abolished the right
of meizing the person of a debtor. He also compelled the poor to work at miserable
wages upon his magnificent buildings, and the hardships which they suffered were
so great that many put an end to their lives. But he did not confine his oppressions
to the poor. All the senators and patricians whom he mistrusted, or whose wealth
he coveted, were put to death or driven into exile. The vacant places in the senate
were not filled up, and this body was scarcely ever consulted by him. He surrounded
himself by a body-guard, by means of which he was enabled to do what he liked.
But, although a tyrant at home, he raised the state to great influence and power
among the surrounding nations, partly by his alliances and partly by his conquests.
He gave his daughter in marriage to Octavius Mamilius of Tusculum, the most powerful
of the Latin chiefs, and by his means he acquired great influence in Latium. Under
his sway Rome became eventually the acknowledged head of the Latin confederacy.
According to Cicero (de Rep. ii. 24) he subdued the whole of Latium by force of
arms; but Livy and Dionysius represent his supremacy as due to his alliances and
intrigues. Any Latin chiefs, like Turnus Herdonius, who attempted to resist him,
were treated as traitors and punished with death. At the solemn meeting of the
Latins at the Alban Mount, Tarquinius sacrificed the bull on behalf of all the
allies, and distributed the flesh to the people of the league. So complete was
the union of the Romans and the Latins that the soldiers of the two nations were
not kept separate, but each maniple in the army was composed of both Romans and
Latins. The Hernici also became members of the league, but their troops were kept
apart from the Roman legions.
Strengthened by this Latin alliance, and at the head of a formidable
army, Tarquinius turned his arms against the Volscians. He took the wealthy town
of Suessa Pometia, with the spoils of which he commenced the erection of the Capitol
which his father had vowed; but great as these were, they were scarcely sufficient
even for the foundations of this magnificent edifice, and the people were heavily
taxed to complete the building. In digging for the foundations, a human head was
discovered beneath the earth, undecayed and trickling with blood; and Etruscan
soothsayers expounded the prodigy as a sign that Rome was destined to become the
head of the world. In the vaults of this temple he deposited the Sibylline books,
which the king purchased from a sibyl or prophetess. She had offered to sell him
nine books for three hundred pieces of gold. The king refused the offer with scorn.
Thereupon she went away, and burned three, and then demanded the same price for
the six. The king still refused. She again went away and burnt three more, and
still demanded the same price for the remaining three. The king now purchased
the three books, and the sibyl disappeared.
In order to secure his Volscian conquests, Tarquinius founded the
colonies of Signia and Circeii. He was next engaged in a war with Gabii, one of
the Latin cities, which refused to enter into the league. Unable to take the city
by force of arms, Tarquinius had recourse to stratagem. His son, Sextus, pretending
to be ill-treated by his father, and covered with the bloody marks of stripes,
fled to Gabii. The infatuated inhabitants intrusted him with the command of their
troops, and when he had obtained the unlimited confidence of the citizens, he
sent a messenger to his father to inquire how he should deliver the city into
his hands. The king, who was walking in his garden when the messenger arrived,
made no reply, but kept striking off the heads of the tallest poppies with his
stick. Sextus took the hint. He put to death or banished, on false charges, all
the leading men of the place, and then had no difficulty in compelling it to submit
to his father.
In the midst of his prosperity, Tarquinius was troubled by a strange
portent. A serpent crawled out from the altar in the royal palace, and seized
on the entrails of the victim. The king, in fear, sent his two sons, Titus and
Aruns, to consult the oracle at Delphi. They were accompanied by their cousin,
L. Junius Brutus. One of the sisters of Tarquinius had been married to M. Brutus,
a man of great wealth, who died, leaving two sons under age. Of these the elder
was killed by Tarquinius. who coveted their possessions; the younger escaped his
brother's fate only by feigning idiotcy. On arriving at Delphi, Brutus propitiated
the priestess with the gift of a golden stick enclosed in a hollow staff. After
executing the king's commission, Titus and Aruns asked the priestess who was to
reign at Rome after their father. The priestess replied, whichsoever should first
kiss his mother. The princes agreed to keep the matter secret from Sextus, who
was at Rome, and to cast lots between themselves. Brutus, who better understood
the meaning of the oracle, fell, as if by chance, when they quitted the temple,
and kissed the earth, mother of them all. The fall of the king was also foreshadowed
by other prodigies, and it came to pass in the following way:
Tarquinius was besieging Ardea, a city of the Rutulians. The place
could not be taken by force. and the Roman army lay encamped beneath the walls.
Here as the king's sons, and their cousin, Tarquinius Collatinus, the son of Egerius,
were feasting together, a dispute arose about the virtue of their wives. As nothing
was doing in the field, they mounted their horses to visit their homes by surprize.
They first went to Rome, where they surprized the king's daughters at a splendid
banquet. They then hastened to Collatia, and there, though it was late in the
night, they found Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus, spinning amid her handmaids.
The beauty and virtue of Lucretia had fired the evil passions of Sextus. A few
days he returned to Collatia, where he was hospitably received by Lucretia as
her husband's kinsman. In the dead of night he entered the chamber with a drawn
sword; by threatening to lay a slave with his throat cut beside her, whom he would
pretend to have killed in order to avenge her husband's honour, he forced her
to yield to his wishes. As soon as Sextus had departed, Lucretia sent for her
husband and father. Collatinus came, accompanied by L. Brutus; Lucretius, with
P. Valerius, who afterwards gained the surname of Publicola. They found her in
an agony of sorrow. She told them what had happened, enjoined them to avenge her
dishonour, and then stabbed herself to death. They all swore to avenge her. Brutus
threw off his assumed stupidity, and placed himself at their head. They carried
the corpse into the marketplace of Collatia. There the people took up arms, and
resolved to renounce the Tarquins. A number [p. 979] of young men attended the
funeral procession to Rome. Brutus, who was Tribunus Celerum, summoned the people,
and related the deed of shame. All classes were inflamed with the same indignation.
A decree was passed deposing the king, and banishing him and his family from the
city. Brutus now set out for the army at Ardea. Tarquinius meantime had hastened
to Rome, but found the gates closed against him. Brutus was received with joy
at Ardea; and the army likewise renounced their allegiance to the tyrant. Tarquinius,
with his two sons, Titus and Aruns, took refuge at Caere in Etruria. Sextus repaired
to Gabii, his own principality, where, according to Livy, he was shortly after
murdered by the friends of those whom he had put to death. Tarquinius reigned
twenty-five years. His banishment was placed in the year of the city 244, or B.
C. 510 (Liv. i. 49-60; Dionys. iv. 41-75; Cic. de Rep. ii. 24, 25).
The remainder of the story may be told with greater brevity. The history
of the establishment of the republic and of the attempts of Tarquinius to recover
the sovereignty, has already been related in detail in other articles. L. Brutus
and Tarquinius Collatinus were the first consuls ; but the people so hated the
very name and race of the dethroned king, that Collatinus was obliged to resign
his office, and retire from Rome. P. Valerius was elected consul in his place.
Meantime ambassadors came to Rome from Tarquinii, to which city Tarquinius had
removed from Caere, demanding the restitution of his private property. The demand
seemed just to the senate and the people; but while the ambassadors were making
preparation for carrying away the property, they found means to organize a conspiracy
among the young Roman nobles for the restoration of the royal family. The plot
was discovered by means of a slave, and the consul Brutus ordered the execution
of his two sons, who were parties to the plot. The agreement to give up the property
was made void by this attempt at treason. The royal goods were abandoned to the
people to plunder, and their landed estates were divided among the poor, with
the exception of the plain between tile city and the river, which was reserved
for public uses. This plain was consecrated to Mars, and called the Campus Martius.
Tarquinius now endeavoured to recover the throne by force of arms.
The people of Tarquinii and Veii espoused his cause, and marched against Rome.
The two consuls advanced to meet them. A bloody battle was fought, in which Brutus
and Aruns, the son of Tarquinius, slew each other. Both parties claimed the victory,
till a voice was heard in the dead of night, proclaiming that the Romans had conquered,
as the Etruscans had lost one man more. Alarmed at this, the Etruscans fled, and
Valerius, the surviving consul, entered Rome in triumph.
Tarquinius next repaired to Lars Porsena, the powerful king of Clusium,
who likewise espoused his cause, and marched against Rome at the head of a vast
army. The history of this memorable expedition, which was long preserved in the
Roman lays, is related under Porsena.
After Porsena quitted Rome, Tarquinius took refuge with his son-in-law,
Mamilius Octavius of Tusculum. Under the guidance of the latter, the latin states
espoused the cause of the exiled king, and eventually declared war against Rome.
The contest was decided by the battle of the lake Regillus, which was long celebrated
in song, and the description of which in Livy resembles one of the battles in
the Iliad. The Romans were commanded by the dictator, A. Postumius, and by his
lieutenant, T. Aebutius, the master of the knights ; the Latins were headed by
Tarquinius and Octavius Mamilius. The struggle was fierce and bloody, built the
Latins at length turned to flight. Almost all the chiefs on either side fell in
the conflict, or were grievously wounded. Tarquinius himself was wounded, but
escaped with his life ; his son Sextus is said to have fallen in this battle,
though, according to another tradition, as we have already seen, he is said to
have been slain by the inhabitants of Gabii. It was related in the old tradition,
that the Romans gained this battle by the assistance of the Dioscuri (Castor and
Pollux), who were seen charging the Latins at the head of the Roman cavalry, and
who afterwards carried to Rome the intelligence of the defeat of the Latins. A
temple was built in the forum on the spot where they appeared, and their festival
was celebrated yearly on the Ides of Quintilis (the 15th of July), the day of
the battle of Regillus, on which all the knights passed in solemn procession to
their temple. According to Livy the battle of the lake Regillus was fought in
B. C. 498, but he says that some of the annals placed it in B. C. 496, in which
year it is given by Dionysius (vi. 3) and in the Fasti Capitolini.
The Latins were completely humbled by this victory. Tarquinius Superbus
had no other state to whom he could apply for assistance. He had already survived
all his family; and he now fled to Aristobulus at Cumae, where he died a wretched
and childless old man. (Liv. ii. 1-21; Dionys. v. l-vi. 21).
In the preceding account we have attempted to give the story of the
Tarquins as nearly as possible in the words of the ancient writers. But it is
hardly necessary to remark in the present day that this story cannot be received
as a real history, or to point out the numerous inconsistencies and impossibilities
in the narrative. It may suffice as a sample to remind the reader that the younger
Tarquinius who was expelled from Rome in mature age, was the son of the king who
ascended the throne 107 years previously in the vigour of life ; and that Servius
Tullius, who married the daughter of Tarquinius Priscus, shortly before he ascended
the throne, immediately after his accession is the father of two daughters whom
he marries to the brothers of his own wife. It would be a fruitless task to endeavour
to ascertain the real history of the later Roman monarchy; for although the legend
has doubtless preserved some facts, vet we have no criteria to determine the true
from the false. The story of the Tarquins has evidently been drawn from the works
of several popular poets, and there can be little doubt that one at least of the
writers must have become acquainted with Greek literature from the Greek colonies
in southern Italy. The stratagem by which Tarquinius obtained possession of Gabii
is obviously taken from a tale in Herodotus (iii. 154), and similar cases might
easily be multiplied. Hence we may account for the Greek origin of the Tarquins.
There is, however, one fact in the common tale which it is impossible to disbelieve,
although it has been questioned by Niebuhr, we mean the Etruscan origin of the
Tarquins. Niebuhr [p. 980] attempts to establish the Latin origin of Tarquinius
by several considerations. He remarks that we read of a Tarquinia gens; that the
surname Priscus of the elder Tarquinius was a regular Latin surname, which occurs
in the family of the Servilii and many others; and lastly, that the wife of the
elder Tarquinius was called in one tradition, not Tanaquil. but Caia Caecilia,
a name which may be traced to Caeculus, the mythic founder of Praeneste. These
arguments, however, have not much weight, and certainly are insufficient to refute
the universally received belief of antiquity in the Etruscan origin of the Tarqnins,
which is, moreover, confined by the great architectural works undertaken in the
time of the last Roman kings, works to which no Sabine or Latin town could lay
claim, and which at that time could have been accomplished by the Etruscans alone.
Moreover the tradition which connects Tarquinius with the Luceres, the third ancient
Roman tribe, again points to Etruria; for although Niebuhr looks upon the Luceres
as Latins, most subsequent scholars have with far more proability supposed the
third tribe to have been of Etruscan origin. The statement of Dionysius that Tarquinius
Priscus conquered the whole of Etruria, and was acknowledged by the twelve Etruscan
cities as their ruler, to whom they paid homage, must certainly be rejected, when
we recollect the small extent of the Roman dominions under the preceding king,
and the great power and extensive territory of the Etruscans at that time. It
is far more probable that Rome was conquered by the Etruscans, and that the epoch
of the Tarquins represents an Etruscan rule at Rome. This is the opinion of K.
O. Miller. He supposes that the town of Tarquinii was at this time at the head
of Etruria, and that the twelve Etruscan cities did homage to the ruler of Tarquinii.
He further supposes that Rome as well as a part of Latium acknowledged the supremacy
of Tarquinii; and that as Rome was the most important of the possessions of Tarquinii
towards the south, it was fortified and enlarged, and thus became a great and
flourishing city. Many Tarquinian nobles would naturally take up their abode at
Rome, and one of them might have been entrusted by Tarquinii with the government
of the city. Muller however thinks that L. Tarquinius is not the real name of
the Etruscan ruler, but that Lucius is the Latinized form of Lucumo, and that
Tarquinius merely indicates his origin from Tarquinii. According to Miller the
banishment of the Tarquins was not an isolated event confined to Rome, but was
connected with the fall of the city of Tarquinii, which lost at that time its
supremacy over the other Etruscan cities.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Jan 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ΣΙΚΕΛΙΑ (Αρχαίοι Ελληνικοί τόποι) ΙΤΑΛΙΑ
A mythical king of Sicily, the friend of Aeneas (Verg. Aen. v. 757).
ΟΙΝΩΤΡΙΑ (Αρχαία χώρα) ΙΤΑΛΙΑ
An ancient people in the south of Italy. According to Strabo,
they dwelt in the neighbourhood of Rhegium, but being driven out of Italy by the
Oenotrians crossed over to Sicily and there founded the town of Morgantium. According
to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Morges was the successor of the Oenotrian king
Italus, and hospitably received Siculus, who had been driven out of Latium by
the Aborigines, in consequence of which the earlier Oenotrians were called Italietes,
Morgetes, and Siculi; according to this account, the Morgetes ought to be regarded
as a branch of the Oenotrians.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Morgetes, an ancient people of southern Italy, who had disappeared before the period of authentic history, but are noticed by several ancient writers among the earliest inhabitants of that part of the peninsula, in connection with the Oenotrians, Itali, and Siculi. Antiochus of Syracuse (ap. Dionys. i. 12) represented the Siculi, Morgetes and Italietes as all three of Oenotrian race; and derived their names, according to the favourite Greek custom, from three successive rulers of the Oenotrians, of whom Italus was the first, Merges the second, and Siculus the third. This last monarch broke up the nation into two, separating the Siculi from their parent stock; and it would seem that the Morgetes followed the fortunes of the younger branch; for Strabo, who also cites Antiochus as his authority, tells us that the Siculi and Morgetes at first inhabited the extreme southern peninsula of Italy, until they were expelled from thence by the Oenotrians, when they crossed over into Sicily. (Strab. vi. p. 257.) The geographer also regards the name of Morgantium in Sicily as an evidence of the existence of the Morgetes in that island (Ibid. pp. 257. 270); but no other writer notices them there, and it is certain that in the time of Thucydides their lame must have been effectually merged in that of the Siculi. In the Etymologicon Magnum, indeed, Merges is termed a king of Sicily: but it seems clear that a king of the Siculi is intended; for the fable there related, which calls Siris a daughter of Merges, evidently refers to Italy alone. (Etym. M. v. Siris.) All that we can attempt to deduce as historical from the legends above cited, is that there appears to have existed in the S. of Italy, at the time when the Greek colonists first became acquainted with it, a people or tribe bearing the name of Morgetes, whom they regarded as of kindred race with the Chones and other tribes, whom they included under the more general appellation of the Oenotrians. Their particular place of abode cannot be fixed with certainty; but Strabo seems to place them in the southern peninsula of Bruttium, adjoining Rhegium and Locri. (Strab. vi. p. 257.)
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ΑΚΡΑΓΑΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΣΙΚΕΛΙΑ
Γιος του Δία και της Ωκεανίδας Αστερόπης.
ΑΡΔΕΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΙΤΑΛΙΑ
Ardeas, a son of Odysseus and Circe, the mythical founder of the town of Ardea in the country of the Rutuli. (Dionys. i. 72 ; Steph. Byz. s. v. Anteia)
ΒΡΕΝΔΕΣΙΟΝ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΠΟΥΛΙΑ
Brentus, (Brentos), a son of Heracles, who was regarded as the founder of the town of Brentesium or Brundusium, on the Adriatic. (Steph. Byz. s. v. Brentesion.)
ΕΡΥΞ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΣΙΚΕΛΙΑ
Eryx (Erux). A son of Butes and Aphrodite, who, relying upon his
strength, challenged all strangers to fight with him in the combat of the caestus.
Heracles accepted his challenge after many had yielded to his superior dexterity,
and Eryx was killed in the combat, and buried on the mountain where he had built
a temple to Aphrodite.
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ΙΑΠΥΓΙΑ (Αρχαία χώρα) ΙΤΑΛΙΑ
Iapyx (Iapux). Son of Lycaon and brother of Daunius and
Peucetius, who went as leaders of a colony to Italy. According to others, he was
a Cretan and a son of Daedalus.
Iapyx (Iapux), a son of Lycaon and brother of Daunius and Peucetius, who went
as leaders of a colony to Italy (Anton. Lib. 31). According to others, Iapyx was
a Cretan, and a brother of Icadius (Serv. ad Aen. iii. 332), or a son of Daedalus
and a Cretan woman, from whom the Cretans who migrated to Italy derived the name
of Iapyges (Strab. vi.; Athen. xii.; Herod. vii. 170; Heyne, ad Virg. Aen. xi.
247).
ΚΟΡΤΩΝ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΤΟΣΚΑΝΗ
Koruthos. An Italian hero, son of Iupiter, husband of Electra, and father of Dardanus, is said to have founded Corythus, afterwards called Cortona.
(Koruthos). An Italian hero, son of Iupiter, husband of Electra, and father of Dardanus, is said to have founded Corythus, afterwards called Cortona
Κόρυθος : Γιος του Δία και της Ηλέκτρας, κόρης του Ατλαντα. Ιδρυτής της Κορύθου και πατέρας του Δάρδανου της Τροίας (Perseus Project).
ΟΙΝΩΤΡΙΑ (Αρχαία χώρα) ΙΤΑΛΙΑ
(Oinotros). A son of Lycaon. He was fabled to have passed with
a body of followers from Arcadia into Southern Italy, and to have given the name
of Oenotria to that part of the country where he settled.
Οίνωτρος : Γιος του Αρκάδα Λυκάονα (Παυσ. 8,3,5).
ΕΡΥΞ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΣΙΚΕΛΙΑ
A descendant of Amycus, king of the Bebryces. He was one of the Argonants, and on passing the island of the Sirens leaped overboard in order to swim to it, but was caught up by Aphrodite, who conveyed him to Lilybaeum in Sicily. Here she became by him the mother of Eryx. He was renowned as a boxer.
(Anchises). The son of Capys, of the royal house of Troy by both parents, ruler of Dardanus, on Mount Ida. Aphrodite loved him for his beauty, and bore him a son, Aeneas; but having, in spite of her warnings, boasted of her favour, he was (according to various versions of the story) paralyzed, killed, or struck blind by the lightning of Zeus. Vergil represents the disabled chief as borne out of burning Troy on his son's shoulders, and as sharing his wanderings over the sea, and aiding him with his counsel, till they reach Drepanum, in Sicily, where he dies, and is buried on Mount Eryx.
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Echephron, (Echephron), a son of Heracles and Psophis, the daughter of Xanthus or Eryx. He was twin-brother of Promachus, and both had a heroum at Psophis. (Paus. viii. 24.1, 3)
ΙΤΑΛΙΑ (Αρχαία χώρα) ΕΥΡΩΠΗ
Garanus, a shepherd of gigantic bodily strength, who is said to have come from Greece into Italy in the reign of Evander, and slew Cacus. (Serv. ad Aen. viii. 203.) Aurelius Victor (Orig. Gent. Rom. 6) calls him Recaranus, but both writers agree in identifying him with the Greek Heracles.
Autoleon, an ancient hero of Croton in southern Italy, concerning whom the following story is related : It was customary with the Opuntian Locrians, whenever they drew up their army in battle array, to leave one place in the lines open for their national hero Ajax. Once in a battle between the Locrians and Crotoniats in Italy, Autoleon wanted to penetrate into this vacant place, hoping thus to conquer the Locrians. But the shade of Ajax appeared and inflicted on Autoleon a wound from which he suffered severely. The oracle advised him to conciliate the shade of Ajax by offering sacrifices to him in the island of Leuce. This was was done accordingly, and Autoleon was cured. While in the island of Leuce, Autoleon also saw Helen, who gave him a commission to Stesichorus. This poet had censured Helen in one of his poems, and had become blind in consequence. Helen now sent him the message, that if he would recant, his sight should be restored to him. Stesichorus composed a poem in praise of Helen, and recovered his sight. (Conon, Narra. 18). Pausanias (iii. 19.11) relates precisely the same story of one Leonymus.
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Lacinius (Lakinios). An Italian hero and fabulous robber, by whom Heracles, on his expedition in Italy, is said to have been robbed of some of the oxen of Geryones, and who was killed by the hero in consequence. After the place of the murder was purified, Heracles built a temple to Hera (Juno), surnamed Lacinia. (Diod. iv. 24 ; Serv. ad Aen. iii. 552.)
Lacinius. A son of Cyrene and king among the Bruttians, by whom, according to some, the temple of Juno Lacinia was built. (Serv. l. c.)
ΛΙΓΥΡΙΑ (Αρχαία χώρα) ΙΤΑΛΙΑ
Albion or Alebion, a son of Poseidon and brother of Dercynus or Bergion, together
with whom he attacked Heracles, when he passed through their country (Liguria)
with the oxen of Geryon. But they paid for their presumption with their lives
(Apollod. ii. 5.10; Pomp. Mela, ii. 5.39). The Scholiast on Lycophron (648) calls
the brother of Alebion, Ligys. The story is also alluded to in Hyginus (Poet.
Astr. ii. 6) and Dionysius (i. 41).
ΠΡΑΙΝΗΣΤΗ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΛΑΤΣΙΟ
ΡΩΜΗ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΙΤΑΛΙΑ
Faustulus, the royal shepherd of Amulius and husband of Acca Laurentia. He found Romulus and Remus as they were nursed by the she-wolf, and carried the twins to his wife to be brought up. (Liv. i. 5), He was believed to have been killed, like Remus, by near relatives, while He was endeavouring to settle a dispute between them, and to have been buried in the forum near the rostra, were a stone figure of a lion marked his tomb. Others, however, believed that Romulus was buried there. (Festus, s. v. Niger Lapis; Dionys. i. 87)
Acca Laurentia or Larentia, a mythical woman who occurs in the stories in early Roman history. Macrobius (Sat. i. 10), with whom Plutarch (Quaest. Romn. 35; Romul. 5) agrees in the main points, relates the following tradition about her. In the reign of Ancus Martius a servant (aedituus) of the temple of Hercules invited during the holidays the god to a game of dice, promising that if he should lose the game, he would treat the god with a repast and a beautiful woman. When the god had conquered the servant, the latter shut up Acca Laurentia, then the most beautiful and most notorious woman, together with a well stored table in the temple of Hercules, who, when she left the sanctuary, advised her to try to gain the affection of the first wealthy man she should meet. She succeeded in making Carutius, an Etruscan, or as Plutarch calls him, Tarrutius, love and marry her. After his death she inherited his large property, which, when she herself died, she left to the Roman people. Ancus, in gratitude for this, allowed her to be buried in the Velabrum, and instituted an annual festival, the Larentalia, at which sacrifices were offered to the Lares (Comp. Varr. Ling. Lat. v.). According to others (Macer, apud Macrob. l. c.; Ov. Fast. iii. 55, &c.; Plin. H. N. xviii. 2), Acca Laurentia was the wife of the shepherd Faustulus and the nurse of Romulus and Remus after they had been taken from the she-wolf. Plutarch indeed states, that this Laurentia was altogether a different being from the one occurring in the reign of Ancus; but other writers, such as Macer, relate their stories as belonging to the same being (Comp. Gell. vi. 7). According to Massurius Sabinus in Gellius she was the mother of twelve sons, and when one of them died, Romulus stept into his place, and adopted in conjunction with the remaining eleven the name of fratres arvales. According to other accounts again she was not the wife of Faustulus, but a prostitute who from her mode of life was called lupa by the shepherds, and who left the property she gained in that way to the Roman people (Valer. Ant. ap. Gell. l. c.; Livy, i. 4). Whatever may be thought of the contradictory statements respecting Acca Laurentia, thus much seems clear, that she was of Etruscan origin, and connected with the worship of the Lares, from which her name Larentia itself seems to be derived. This appears further from the number of her sons, which answers to that of the twelve country Lares, and from the circumstance that the day sacred to her was followed by one sacred to the Lares.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ΦΟΡΜΙΩΝ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΛΑΙΣΤΡΥΓΟΝΕΣ
Son of Poseidon and king of the Laestrygones, said to have founded Formiae in
Italy.
ΕΡΥΞ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΣΙΚΕΛΙΑ
The founder of Psophis, according to some, was Psophis, the son of Arrhon, the son of Erymanthus, the son of Aristas, the son of Parthaon, the son of Periphetes, the son of Nyctimus. Others say that Psophis was the daughter of Xanthus, the son of Erymanthus, the son of Arcas. Such are the Arcadian traditions concerning their kings, but the most accurate version is that Eryx, the despot of Sicania, had a daughter named Psophis, whom Heracles, though he had intercourse with her, refused to take to his home, but left with child in the care of his friend Lycortas, who lived at Phegia, a city called Erymanthus before the reign of Phegeus. Having been brought up here, Echephron and Promachus, the sons of Heracles and the Sicanian woman, changed the name of Phegia to Psophis, the name of their mother.
ΛΑΤΣΙΟ (Περιφέρεια) ΙΤΑΛΙΑ
Faula or Fauna was, according to some, a concubine of Heracles in Italy; while, according to others, she was the wife or sister of Faunus. Latinus, who is called a son of Heracles by a concubine, was probably considered to be the son of Faula; whereas the common tradition describes him as a son of Faunus. Faula was identified by some of the ancients with the Greek Aphrodite (Verr. Flacc. ap. Lactant. de Fals. Relig. i. 20, Inst. Ep. ad Pentad. 20)
ΠΡΙΒΕΡΝΟ (Πόλη) ΛΑΤΣΙΟ
Camilla, a daughter of king Metabus of the Volscian town of Privernum. When her father, expelled by his subjects, came in his flight to the river Amasenus, he tied his infant daughter, whom he had previously devoted to the service of Diana, to a spear, and hurled it across the river. He himself then swam after it, and on reaching the opposite bank he found his child uninjured. He took her with him, and had her suckled by a mare. He brought her up in pure maidenhood, and she became one of the swift-footed servants of Diana, accustomed to the chase and to war. In the war between Aeneas and Turnus she assisted the latter, and was slain by Aruns. Diana avenged her death by sending Opis to kill Aruns, and to rescue the body of Camilla. (Virg. Aen. vii. 803, &c., xi. 432, &c., 648, &c.; Hygin. Fab. 252.) Servius (ad Aen. xi. 543 and 558) remarks, that she was called Camilla because she was engaged in the service of Diana, since all youthful priestesses were called Camilla by the Etruscans. That there were such Camillae as well as Camilli at Rome is expressly stated by Dionysius. (ii. 21, &c.; Fest. s. v. Camillus.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ΡΩΜΗ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΙΤΑΛΙΑ
Entoria, the daughter of a Roman countryman. Cronos (Saturn) who was once hospitably received by him, became, by his fair daughter, the father of four sons, Janus, Hymnus, Faustus, and Felix. Cronos taught the father the cultivation of the vine and the preparation of wine, enjoining him to teach his neighbours the same. This was done accordingly, but the country people, who became intoxicated with their new drink, thought it to be poison, and stoned their neighbour to death, whereupon his grandsons hung themselves in their grief. At a much later time, when the Romans were visited by a plague, they were told by the Delphic oracle, that the plague was a punishment for the outrage committed on Entoria's father, and Lutatius Catulus caused a temple to be erected to Cronos on the Tarpeian rock, and in it an altar with four faces. (Plut. Parall. Gr. et Rom. 9)
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ΑΔΡΑΝΟΝ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΣΙΚΕΛΙΑ
Adranus Adranos), a Sicilian divinity who was worshipped in all the island, but especially at Adranus, a town near Mount Aetna. (Plut. Timol. 12; Diodor. xiv. 37.) Hesychius (s. v. Palikoi) represents the god as the father of the Palici. According to Aelian (Hist. Anim. xi. 20), about 1000 sacred dogs were kept near his temple. Some modern critics consider this divinity to be of eastern origin, and connect the name Adranus with the Persian Adar (fire), and regard him as the same as the Phoenician Adraimelech, and as a personification of the stun or of fire in general.
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ΑΙΤΝΑ (Βουνό) ΣΙΚΕΛΙΑ
Aetnaeus (Aitnaios), an epithet given to several gods and mythical beings connected with Mount Aetna, such as Zeus, of whom there was a statue on mount Aetna, and to whom a festival was celebrated there, called Aetnaea (Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vi. 162), Hephaestus, who had his workshop in the mountain, and a temple near it (Aelian. Hist. An. xi. 3; Spanheim, ad Callim. hymn. in Dian. 56), and the Cyclops. (Virg. Acn. viii. 440, xi. 263, iii. 768; Ov. Ex Pont. ii. 2. 115.)
(Enkelados). Son of Tartarus and Gaea, and one of the hundred-armed giants who made war upon the gods. He was killed by Zeus, who buried him under Mount Aetna.
Enceladus, (Enkelados), a son of Tartarus and Ge, and one of the hundred-armed giants who made war upon the gods. (Hygin Fab. Praef.; Virg Aen. iv. 179; Ov. Ep. ex Pont. ii. 2. 12, Amor. iii. 12. 27.) He was killed, according to some, by Zeus, by a flash of lightning, and buried under mount Aetna (Virg. Aen. iii. 578); and, according to others, lie was killed by the chariot of Athena (Paus. viii. 47.1), or by the spear of Seilenus. (Eurip, Cyclops, 7.) In his flight Athena threw upon him the island of Sicily. (Apollod. i. 6.2.) There are two other fabulous beings of this name. (Apollod. ii. 1.5; Eustath. ad Hom.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ΑΝΤΣΙΟ (Πόλη) ΛΑΤΣΙΟ
Equester, and in Greek Hippios, occurs as a surname of several divinities, such as Poseidon (Neptune), who had created the horse, and in whose honour horse-races were held (Serv. ad Virg. Georg. i. 12; Liv. i. 9; Paus. v. 15.4), of Aphrodite (Serv. ad Aen. i. 724), Hera (Paus. v. 15.4), Athena (Paus. i. 30.4, 31.3, v. 15.4, viii. 47.1), and Ares. (Paus. v. 15.4). The Roman goddess Fortuna bore the same surname, and the consul Flaccus vowed a temple to her in B. C. 180, during a battle against the Celtiberians. (Liv. xl. 40, xlii. 3). Tacitus (Ann. iii. 71) mentions a temple of Fortuna Equestris at Antium.
ΑΡΙΚΙΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΛΑΤΣΙΟ
Aricia (Arikine), a surname of Artemis, derived from the town of Aricia in Latium, where she was worshipped. A tradition of that place related that Hippolytus, after being restored to life by Asclepius, came to Italy, ruled over Aricia, and dedicated a grove to Artemis (Paus. ii. 27.4). This goddess was believed to be the Taurian Artemis, and her statue at Aricia was considered to be the same as the one which Orestes had brought with him from Tauris (Serv. ad Aen. ii. 116; Strab. v.; Hygin. Fab. 261). According to Strabo, the priest of the Arician Artemis was always a run-away slave, who obtained his office in the following manner: -The sacred grove of Artemis contained one tree from which it was not allowed to break off a branch; but if a slave succeeded in effecting it, the priest was obliged to fight with him, and if he was conquered and killed, the victorious slave became his successor, and might in his turn be killed by another slave, who then succeeded him. Suetonius (Calig. 35) calls the priest rex nemorensis. Ovid (Fast. iii. 260, &c.), Suetonius, and Pausanias, speak of contests of slaves in the grove at Aricia, which seem to refer to the frequent fights between the priest and a slave who tried to obtain his office.
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ΕΝΝΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΣΙΚΕΛΙΑ
For Perseus Project information on Persephone, see Ades location.
Leukippe. One of the nymphs who was with Persephone at the time she was carried off. (Hom. Hymn. in Cer. 418; Paus. iv. 30. 4.)
ΕΤΡΟΥΡΙΑ (Αρχαία χώρα) ΙΤΑΛΙΑ
Falacer, or, more fully, divus pater Falacer, is mentioned by Varro (de L. L. v. 84, vii. 45) as an ancient and forgotten Italian divinity, whom Hartungi is inclined to consider to be the same as Jupiter, since falandum according to Festus, was the Etruscan name for "heaven".
Mania, an ancient and formidable Italian, probably Etruscan, divinity of the lower world, is called the mother of the Manes or Lares. (Varro, de Ling. Lat. ix. 61; Arnob. adv. Gent. iii. 41; Macrob. Sat. i. 7.) The festival of the Compitalia was celebrated as a propitiation to Mania in common with the Lares, and, according to an ancient oracle that heads should be offered on behalf of heads, boys are said to have been sacrificed on behalf of the families to which they belonged. The consul Junius Brutus afterwards abolished the human sacrifices, and substituted garlick and the heads of poppies for them. Images of Mania were hung up at the house doors, with a view to avert all dangers. (Macrob. l.c.) As regards her being the mother of the Manes or Lares, the idea seems to have been, that the souls of the departed on their arrival in the lower world became her children, and either there dwelt with her or ascended into the upper world as beneficent spirits. (Muller, Die Etrusk. iii. 4.) In later times the plural Maniae occurs as the designation of terrible, ugly, and deformed spectres, with which nurses used to frighten children.
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ΙΤΑΛΙΑ (Αρχαία χώρα) ΕΥΡΩΠΗ
Vesta. An Italian goddess of the hearth, and more especially of the fire on the
hearth, both in name and in nature akin to the Greek Hestia (q.v.), but worshipped
by the Italian nations, particularly by the Latins, from ancient times independently
of any connection with Greece. It has been shown that the worship of Vesta had
its origin in the difficulty and the necessity of obtaining fire in primitive
times. Hence, as even in the present time among savage tribes, arose the custom
of keeping a fire always alight somewhere for the use of the community and of
carrying fire thence for any new settlement. This custom was preserved by the
conservatism of religion among civilized Greeks and Romans, after the necessity
had ceased to exist, and the State-hearth was preserved in each Latin State, just
as in Greece in the Prytanea; and in like fashion an outgoing settlement carried
its sacred fire from the parent city. It was natural that from these observances
the sacred flame itself should become personified as a goddess (Ovid, Fast.vi.
291) who presided over the hearth of each house, and in the State-hearth or sanctuary
of Vesta over the whole commonwealth. Vesta was thus intimately connected with
the Penates as deities of the household and of the State (see Penates); and the
fact that the sacred fire was brought from the parent city made the Romans trace
back the origin of the cult to the more ancient Latin settlements, first to Lanuvium
and Alba, and, after the idea of a Trojan origin prevailed, to Troy itself, whence
it was supposed the sacred fire of Vesta as well as the Penates had come ( Verg.
Aen.ii. 296). To this cause belongs the ancient custom at Rome that praetors,
consuls, and dictators, before they began their functions, sacrificed at Lanuvium,
that town having been an ancient religious centre of the Latins. At Rome, as in
other Latin cities, the sacred fire was tended and the service of Vesta maintained
by a body of virgin priestesses, who lived together in a house (Atrium Vestae)
to the southeast of the Forum, and under the northwest side of the Palatine, abutting
on the Via Nova. This house, as rebuilt under Hadrian, was excavated in 1883,
and from its character and the inscriptions (as late as the beginning of the fourth
century A.D.) and sculptures found in it much additional light has been thrown
on the Vestal service. See Jordan, Das Tempel der Vesta und d. Haus der Vestalinnen
(Berlin, 1886); and Lanciani, in his Ancient Rome, ch. vi. (Boston, 1888).
It is no doubt right to assume that the Vestals represented the daughters
of the chief in the primitive tribe, who maintained the State-fire in their father's
hut. When Vesta was recognized as a personal deity it became necessary that the
priestesses should dwell in a sort of nunnery, and that the goddess should have
a separate temple; but this Aedes Vestae preserved the shape of the primitive
chief's hut, and was a round building (see illustration under Roma). The public
worship of Vesta was maintained in this temple: her private worship belonged to
every domestic hearth --in the earliest Roman houses in the atrium. In her aspect
as a benign goddess of fire Vesta seems to have been akin to or identical with
Stata Mater (q. v.). See Preuner, Hestia-Vesta (Tubingen, 1864); Maes, Vesta e
Vestali (Rome, 1883); the discussion by Frazer in the (English) Journal of Philology,
vol. xiv., and the articles Lares, Penates, and Vestales, in this Dictionary.
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Feretritis, a surname of Jupiter, which is probably derived from ferire, to strike; for persons who took an oath called upon Jupiter, if they swore falsely, to strike them as they struck the victim they sacrificed to him. (Fest. s. v. Lapidem Silicem.) Others derived it from ferre, because he was the giver of peace, or because people dedicated (ferebant) to him spolia opima. (Fest. s. v. Feretrius; Liv. i. 10; Propert. iv. 10. 46)
Diana, an original Italian divinity, whom the Romans completely identified with the Greek Artemis. The earliest trace of her worship occurs in the story about Servius Tullius, who is said to have dedicated to her a temple on the Aventine, on the ides of Sextilis. It is added that, as Diana was the protectress of the slaves, the day on which that temple had been dedicated was afterwards celebrated every year by slaves of both sexes, and was called the day of the slaves (dies servorum; Fest. s. v. servorum dies; Plut. Quaest. Rom. 100; Martial, xii. 67). Besides that day of the slaves, we hear of no festival of Diana in early times, which may be accounted for by supposing that either she was a divinity of inferior rank, or that her worship had been introduced at Rome without being sanctioned or recognized by the government, that is, by the ruling patricians. The former cannot have been the case, as the goddess was worshipped by the plebeians and the Latins as their patron divinity; for a tradition related that the plebeians had emigrated twice to the Aventine, where stood the temple of Diana (Liv. ii. 32, iii. 51, 54; Sallust, Jug. 31); and the temple which Servius Tullius built on the Aventine was founded for the benefit of the Latin subjects, who assembled and sacrificed there every year (Dionys. iv. 26; comp. Liv. i. 45; Plut. Quaest. Rom. 4). The Sabines and Latins, who formed the main stock of the plebeians, were thus in all probability the original worshippers of Diana at Rome. Now s we know that the Aventine was first occupied by the conquered Sabines who were transplanted to Rome (Serv. ad Aen. vii. 657; Dionys. iii. 43), and as it is stated that shortly before the decemviral legislation the Aventine was assigned to the plebeians, and that the law ordaining this assignment was kept in the temple of Diana (Dionys. x. 32; Liv. iii. 54), it seems clear that Diana's worship was introduced at Rome by the Sabines and Latins on their becoming plebeians, and that she was worshipped by them in particular without the state taking any notice of her, or ordaining any festival in honour of her. Varro (de L. L. v. 74) moreover expressly attests, that the worship and name of Diana had come from the Sabines. Now, as the religion of the Latins and Sabines did not differ in any essential point from that of the Romans, we may ask what Roman divinity corresponded to the Sabine or Latin Diana? Diana loved to dwell in groves and in the neighbourhood of wells; she inspired men with enthusiasm and madness; she dreaded the very sight of male beings so much, that no man was allowed to enter her temple, and she herself remained a virgin (Horat. Epist. ii. 1. 454; Plut. Quaest. Rom. 3; Fest. s. v. Juvenilia; Augustin, de Civ. Dei, vii. 16); and these characteristics at once shew a striking resemblance between Diana and Feronia or Fauna Fatua. This circumstance, and the fact that Diana was the goddess of the moon, also render it easy to conceive how the Romans afterwards came to identify Diana with the Greek Artemis, for Fauna Fatua bore the same relation to Picus and Faunus that Artemis bore to Apollo.
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Fascelis, a surname of Diana in Italy, which she was believed to have received from the circumstance of Orestes having brought her image from Tauris in a bundle of sticks (fascis, Serv. ad Aen. ii. 116; Solin. i. 2; Sil. Ital. xiv. 260). Fascelis, however, is probably a corruption, for the purpose of making it allude to the story of Orestes bringing her image from Tauris: the original form of the name was probably Facelis or Facelina (from fax), as the goddess was generally represented with a torch in her hand.
Janus and Jana, a pair of ancient Latin divinities, who were worshipped as the
sun and moon, whence they were regarded as the highest of the gods, and received
their sacrifices before all the others (Macrob. Sat. i. 9; Cic. de Nat. Deor.
ii. 27). The name Janus is only another form of Dianus, and Jana of Diana; but
the ancients connected it also with janua (door), for it was also applied to a
covered passage with two entrances, as the Janus medius in the forum (Heindorf,
ad Horat. Sat. ii. 3. 18). The fact of Jana being identical in import with Luna
and Diana is attested beyond a doubt by Varro (de Re Rust. i. 37). We stated above
that Janus was regarded as identical with Sol, but this does not appear to have
been the case originally, for it is related that the worship of Janus was introduced
at Rome by Romulus, whereas that of Sol was instituted by Titus Tatius (August.
de Civ. Dei, iv. 23), and the priority of the worship of Janus is also implied
in the story related by Macrobius (Sat. i. 9). Hence we must infer that the two
divinities were identified at a later period, and that in such a manner that the
separate idea of Sol was lost in that of Janus, for we find few traces of the
worship of Sol, while that of Janus acquired the highest importance in the religion
of the Romans. Numa in his regulation of the Roman year called the first month
Januarius, [p. 551] after Janus, the highest divinity, presiding over the beginning
of all things: the same king dedicated to Janus the passage called Janus, which
was opened in times of war, and closed when the Roman arms rested. (Liv. i. 9;
Varro, de Ling. Lat. v. 164.) This passage (commonly, but erroneously, called
a temple), with two entrances, was usually called Janus Geminus, Janus Bifrons,
Janus Quirinus or Portae Belli (Horat. Carm. iv. 15. 8; Virg. Aen. vii. 607),
and stood ad infimum Argiletum, close by the forum. Atemple of Janus was built
by C.Duilius in the time of the first Punic war: it was restored by Augustus,
and dedicated by Tiberius. (Tacit. Ann. ii. 49.) Niebuhr (Hist. of Rome, vol.
i. p. 292, 3d edit.) explains the objects of the earliest Janus (and those of
the others in a similar manner) as follows: " When the two cities (that of the
Romans on the Palatine, and that of the Sabines on the Quirinal) were united on
terms of equality, they built the double Janus, on the road leading from the Quirinal
to the Palatium, with a door facing each of the cities, as the gate of the double
barrier which separated their liberties. It was open in time of war, that succour
might pass from one to the other, and shut during peace; whether for the purpose
of preventing an unrestricted intercourse, out of which quarrels might arise,
or as a token that, though united, they were distinct." But if this had been the
case, the two gates would necessarily have faced the north and south, whereas,
according to the express testimony of Procopius (Bell. Goth. i. 25), the two gates,
as well as the two-faced statue of Janus, which stood in the passage, faced the
east and west. It is therefore more probable that the Janus Geminus originally
was not an ordinary gate of the city, but, like the later porta triumphalis, used
only on certain occasions, viz. armies marching out against an enemy and returning
from their campaign, passed through it: hence it was open in war, indicating symbolically
that the god too had gone out to assist the Roman warriors, and shut in time of
peace that the god, the safeguard of the city, might not escape. (Ov. Fast. i.
281 ; Macrob. Sat. i. 9.) This covered gate is in later times often called a temple,
but probably in a wider sense of the word, that is, as a sacred place, containing
the statue of Janus. A bronze statue of the god, five cubits in height, existed
as late as the time of Procopius. The earliest representations, however, appear
to have been the two-faced heads, which are frequently seen on Etruscan medals
found at Volaterrae. A statue with four faces was brought to Rome after the conquest
of the Etruscan town of Falerii (Serv. ad Aen. vi. 607; Macrob. l. c.), and was
there imitated, for one of the same kind existed at Rome in the forum of Nerva
as late as the time of Laurentius Lydus (De Mens. iv. 1). Whether the Etruscan
divinity with two or four faces was originally the same as the Roman Janus is
uncertain, but it was at any rate very natural for the Romans to see in him their
own Janus, and to identify the two. The identity of Janus with the Sun was commonly
expressed by his indicating with the fingers of the right hand the 55 (Plin. H.
N. xxxiv. 7), and in later times by his counting in his right hand 300 pebbles,
and in his left 65 (L. Lydus, de Mens. i. 4). In some representations he held
in his right hand a staff or sceptre, and in his left a key (Ov. Fast. i. 99;
comp. L. Lydus, l. c.), by which he is symbolically described as the god who had
power over the entrance of heaven (Ov. Fast. i. 125); hence he had the surnames
of Patulcus or Patulcius, and Clusius or Clusiviuns (Ov. Fast. i. 129; Serv. ad
Men. vii. 610; Macrob. l c.; L. Lydus, de Mens. iv. 1). Although in the classical
age the Romans them-selves avowed that Janus was peculiar to them-selves (Ov.
Fast. i. 90), yet we find at a later period, when Janus was regarded as the god
of all entrances and gates, that he was identified with Apollo thurais. (Macrob.
l. c.) We pass over a series of arbitrary etymological and philosophical speculations
(see Varro, ap. August. de Civ. Dei, vii. 9; Festus, s. v. Chaos), and merely
remark, that no nation of antiquity attributed such importance to the beginning
of a work or undertaking as the Romans, who believed that the progress and success
of a thing had some magic connection with its beginning (Gellius, v. 12; Plin.
H. N. xxxvi. 5). Janus was the god of the beginning of everything: he protected
the beginning of all occupations and actions as well as of human life, whence
he was called Consivius (a conserendo, or consationibus, Macrob. Sat. i. 9; Tertull.
ad Nat. ii. 11). Hence, whenever a civil or military undertaking did not succeed,
it was attributed to some fault in the manner of beginning it, and was frequently
commenced afresh (Ov. Fast. i. 179). It was indeed Jupiter who by augury sanctioned
every undertaking, but its beginning depended on the blessing of Janus; hence
these two divinities were invoked first in every undertaking, and in all prayers
their names were mentioned first. The fact of the name of Janus being pronounced
even before that of Jupiter, and that according to tradition Janus was in Italy
before any of the other gods, and that he dedicated temples to them (Macrob. l.
c.; Ov. Fast. i. 70; L. Lydus, de Mens. iv. 2; Aur. Vict. de Orig. Gent. Rom.
3), is perfectly in accordance with the idea of the god, he being the beginning
of every thing; but it does not follow that on this account he was considered
superior or more powerful than all the other gods. As he presided over the beginning
of the year, the people offered sacrifices to him on the first day of the year,
and priests offered sacrifices to him on twelve altars, as the beginner of the
twelve months, and prayed to him at the commencement of every day (Varro, ap.
Macrob. l. c.; P. Vict. Reg. Urb. xiv.). As the kalends of every month were sacred
to Juno, Janus was surnamed Junonius, and in reference to his presiding over the
beginning of every day, he was called Matutinus pater. On new year's day, which
was the principal festival of the god, people took care that all they thought,
said, and did, was pure and favourable, since every thing was ominous for the
occurrences of the whole year. Hence the people wore festive garments, abstained
from cursing, quarrelling; they saluted every one they met with words of a favourable
import, gave presents to one another, and performed some part of what they intended
to do in the course of the year, auspicandi causa (Columella, de Re Rust. xi.
2; Senec. Epist. 83; Ov. Fast. i. 169). The presents connumber 300, and with those
of the left the number sisted of sweetmeats, such as gilt dates, figs, honey cakes,
and copper coins, showing on one side the double head of Janus and on the other
a ship (Ov. Fast. i. 185, &c., 230; Plin. H. N. xxiii. 3, 13; Martial, viii. 33,
xiii. 27; Plut. Quaest. Rom.; Macrob. Sat. i. 7; L. Lydus, de Menes. iv. 2). The
general name for these presents was strenae. The sacrifices offered to Janus consisted
of cakes (called janual), barley, incense, and wine.
(Ov. Fast. i. 75, 128, 172; Festus, s. v. janual; L. Lydus, de Mens. iv. 2)
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Curitis, a surname of Juno, which is usually derived from the Sabine word curis, a lance or spear, which according to the ancient notions was the symbol of the imperium and mancipium, and would accordingly designate Juno as the ruling goddess. (Ov. Fast. ii. 477, vi. 49; Macrob. Sat. i. 9). Hartung (Die Relig. der Rom. ii.72) finds in the surname Curitis an allusion to a marriage ceremony, in which some of the bride's hair was either really or symbolically cut off with the curved point of a sword. (Plut. Quaest. Rom. 87 ; Ov. Fast. ii. 560)
Gradivus, i. e. the striding or marching, a surname of Mars, who is hence called gradivus pater and rex gradivus. Mars Gradivus had a temple outside the porta Capena on the Appian road, and it is said that king Numa appointed twelve Salii as priests of this god. The surname is probably derived from gradior, to march, or march out, and we know that the soldiers, when they marched out, sometimes halted near his temple. (Liv. i. 20, vii. 23; Serv. ad Aen. iii. 35; Ov. Fast. vi. 191, &c.; Fest. s. v. Gradivus)
Fascinus, an early Latin divinity, and identical with Mutinus or Tutinus. He was worshipped as the protector from sorcery, witchcraft, and evil daemons; and represented in the form of a phallus, the genuine Latin for which is fascinum, this symbol being believed to be most efficient in averting all evil influences. He was especially invoked to protect women in childbed and their offspring (Plin. Hist. Nat. xxviii. 4, 7); and women wrapt up in the toga praetexta used to offer up sacrifices in the chapel of Fascinus. (Paul. Diac.). His worship was under the care of the Vestals; and generals, who entered the city in triumph, had the symbol of Fascinus fastened under their chariot, that he might protect them from envy (medicus invidiae), for envy was believed to exercise an injurious influence on those who were envied. (Plin. l. c.) It was a custom with the Romans, when they praised any body, to add the word praefiscine or praefiscini, which seems to have been an invocation of Fascinus, to prevent the praise turning out injurious to the person on whom it was bestowed.
Februus, an ancient Italian divinity, to whom the month of February was sacred, for in
the latter half of that month great and general purifications and lustrations
were celebrated, which were at the same time considered to produce fertility among
men as well as beasts. Hence the month of February was also sacred to Juno, the
goddess of marriage, and she was therefore surnamed Februata or Februtis (Fest.
s. v. Februarius; Arnob. iii. 30). The name Februus is connected with februare
(to purify), and februae (purifications) (Varro, de L. L. vi. 13; Ov. Fast. ii.
31, &c.). Another feature in the character of this god, which is however intimately
connected with the idea of purification, is, that he was also regarded as a god
of the lower world, for the festival of the dead (Feralia) was likewise celebrated
in February (Macrob. Sat. i. 4, 13; Ov. Fast. ii. 535, &c.); and Anysius (ap.
J. Lydum, de Mens. i.) states, that Februus in Etruscan signified the god of the
lower world (kaatachthonios). Hence Februus was identified with Pluto. When the
expiator sacrifices were burnt, the people threw the ashes backwards over their
heads into the water (Serv. ad Virg. Georg. i. 43; Isidor. Orig. v. 33; Voss.
in Virg. Eclog. viii. 101).
Feronia, an ancient Italian divinity, who originally belonged to the Sabines and Faliscans, and was introduced by them among the Romans. Greek writers, as usual, describe her as of Greek origin. Dionysius (ii. 49) thus relates, that the Lacedaemonians who emigrated at the time of Lycurgus, after long wanderings (pheromenoi), at length landed in Italy, where they founded a town Feronia, and built a temple to the goddess Feronia. But, however this may be, it is extremely difficult to form a definite notion of the nature of this goddess. Some consider her to have been the goddess of liberty, because at Terracina slaves were emancipated in her temple (Serv. ad Aen. viii. 465), and because on one occasion the freedmen at Rome collected a sum of money for the purpose of offering it to her as a donation. (Liv. xxii. 1.) Others look upon her as the goddess of commerce and traffic, because these things were carried on to a great extent during the festival which was celebrated in honour of her in the town of Feronia, at the foot of mount Soracte. But commerce was carried on at all festivals at which many people met, and must be looked upon as a natural result of such meetings rather than as their cause. (Dionys. iii. 32; Strab. v.; Liv. xxvi. 11, xxvii. 4; Sil. Ital. xiii. 84.) Others again regard her as a goddess of the earth or the lower world, and as akin to Mania and Tellus, partly because she is said to have given to her son three souls, so that Evauder had to kill him thrice before he was dead (Virg. Aen. iii. 564), and partly on account of her connection with Soranus, whose worship strongly resembled that of Feronia. Besides the sanctuaries at Terracina and near mount Soracte, she had others at Trebula, in the country of the Sabines, and at Luna in Etruria. (Comp. Serv. ad Aen. xi. 785; Varro, de L. L. v. 74; Muller, die Etrusker, vol. i., vol. ii.)
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Lua, also called Lua mater or Lua Saturni, one of the early Italian divinities, whose worship was forgotten in later times. It may be that she was no other than Ops, the wife of Saturn; but all we know of her is, that sometimes the arms taken from a defeated enemy were dedicated to her, and burnt as a sacrifice, with a view to avert punishment or any other calamity. (Liv. viii. 1, xlv. 33 ; Gellius, xiii. 22; Varro, de Ling. Lat. viii. 36, with Miiller's note.)
Mana or Mana Genita, an ancient Italian divinity. When a sacrifice was offered to her, the people used to pray that none of those born in the house should become pious, that is, that none should die. (Plut. Quaest. Ronm. 52.) The name Mana is of the same root as Manes, and like manis (whence immanis) originally signified good. (Comp. Macrob. Sat. i. 3; Serv. ad Aen. iii. 63; Isidor. Orig. viii. 11.) It is not impossible that Mana may be the same divinity as Mania.
ΚΡΟΤΩΝ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΚΑΛΑΒΡΙΑ
Lacinia (Lakinia), a surname of Juno, under which she was worshipped in the neighbourhood of Croton, where she had a rich and famous sanctuary. (Strab. vi.; Liv. xxiv. 3.) The name is derived by some from the Italian hero Lacinius, or from the Lacinian promontory on the eastern coast of Bruttium, which Thetis was said to have given to Juno as a present. (Serv. ad Aen. iii. 552.) It deserves to be noticed that Hannibal dedicated in the temple of Juno Lacinia a bilingual inscription (in Punic and Greek), which recorded the history of his campaigns, and of which Polybius made use in writing the history of the Hannibalian war. (Polyb. iii. 33; comp. Liv. xxviii. 46.)
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ΛΑΤΣΙΟ (Περιφέρεια) ΙΤΑΛΙΑ
Fascinus, an early Latin divinity, and identical with Mutinus or Tutinus. He was worshipped as the protector from sorcery, witchcraft, and evil daemons; and represented in the form of a phallus, the genuine Latin for which is fascinum, this symbol being believed to be most efficient in averting all evil influences. He was especially invoked to protect women in childbed and their offspring (Plin. Hist. Nat. xxviii. 4, 7); and women wrapt up in the toga praetexta used to offer up sacrifices in the chapel of Fascinus. (Paul. Diac. p. 103.) His worship was under the care of the Vestals; and generals, who entered the city in triumph, had the symbol of Fascinus fastened under their chariot, that he might protect them from envy (medicus invidiae), for envy was believed to exercise an injurious influence on those who were envied. (Plin. l. c.) It was a custom with the Romans, when they praised any body, to add the word praefiscine or praefiscini, which seems to have been an invocation of Fascinus, to prevent the praise turning out injurious to the person on whom it was bestowed.
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Latialis or Latiaris, a surname of Jupiter as the protecting divinity of Latium. The Latin towns and Rome celebrated to him every year the feriae Latinae, on the Alban mount, which were proclaimed and conducted by one of the Roman consuls. (Liv. xxi. 63, xxii. 1; Dionys. iv. 49; Serv. ad Aen. xii. 135; Suet. Calig. 22 )
ΛΟΥΚΕΡΙΑ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΠΟΥΛΙΑ
Achaea. A surname of Minerva worshipped at Luceria in Apulia where the donaria and the arms of Diomedes were preserved in her temple. (Aristot. Mirab. Narrat. 17.)
ΝΑΞΟΣ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΣΙΚΕΛΙΑ
Archegetes. A surname of Apollo, under which he was worshipped in several places, as at Naxos in Sicily (Thuc. vi. 3; Pind. Pyth. v.80), and at Megara. (Paus. i. 42. Β§ 5.) The name has reference either to Apollo as the leader and protector of colonies, or as the founderof towns in general, in which case the import of the name is niearly the same as Deos patrooiot
ΠΑΔΟΣ (Ποταμός) ΙΤΑΛΙΑ
Eridanus, (Eridanos). A river-god, on the banks of whose river amber was
found. In later times the Eridanus was supposed to be the same as the Padus (Po),
because amber was found at its mouth. Hence the Electrides Insulae, or "Amber
Islands," are placed at the mouth of the Po, and here Phaethon was supposed
to have fallen when struck by the lightning of Zeus.
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Eridanus, (Eridanos), a river god, a son of Oceanus and Tethys, and father of Zeuxippe. (Hesiod. Theog. 338; Hygin. Fab. 14.) He is called the king of rivers, and on its banks amber was found. (Virg. Georg. i. 482; Ov. Met. ii. 324.) In Homer the name does not occur, and the first writer who mentions it is Hesiod. Herodotus (iii. 15) declares the name to be barbarous, and the invention of some poet. (Comp. Strab. v.) The position which the ancient poets assign to the river Eridanus differed at different times.
ΠΑΛΕΣΤΡΙΝΑ (Πόλη) ΛΑΤΣΙΟ
Imperator, a surname of Jupiter at Praeneste. After the conquest of that town in B. C. 376, T. Quinctius brought his statue to the capitol at Rome, where it was placed between the chapels of Jupiter and Minerva. (Liv. vi. 29.) According to Cicero (in Verr. iv. 57), he was identical with Jupiter Urius (i. e. the sender of favourable wind), of the Greeks.
ΡΩΜΗ (Αρχαία πόλη) ΙΤΑΛΙΑ
Jupiter or perhaps more correctly, JUPPITER, a contraction of Diovis pater, or
Diespiter, and Diovis or dies, which was originally identical with divum (heaven);
so that Jupiter literally means "the heavenly father." The same meaning is implied
in the name Lucesius or Lucerius, by which he was called by the Oscans, and which
was often used by the poet Naevius (Serv. ad Aen. ix. 570; comp. Fest. s. v. Lucetium;
Macrob. Sat. i. 15; Gell. v. 12.) The corresponding name of Juno is Lucina. It
is further not impossible that the forgotten name, divus pater Falacer, mentioned
by Varro (de L. L. v. 84, vii. 45), may be the same as Jupiter, since, according
to Festus (s. v. falae), falandum was the Etruscan name for heaven. The surname
of Supinalis (August. de Civ. Dei, vii. 11) likewise alludes to the dome of heaven.
As Jupiter was the lord of heaven, the Romans attributed to him power
over all the changes in the heavens, as rain, storms, thunder and lightning, whence
he had the epithets of Pluvius, Fulgurator, Tonitrualis, Tonans, Fulminator, and
Serenator. (Appul. de Mund. 37; Fest. s. v. prorsum; Suet. Aug. 91.) As the pebble
or flint stone was regarded as the symbol of lightning, Jupiter was frequently
represented with such a stone in his hand instead of a thunderbolt (Arnob. vi.
25); and in ancient times a flint stone was exhibited as a symbolic representation
of the god. (Serv. ad Aen. viii. 641; August. de Civ. Dei, ii. 29.) In concluding
a treaty, the Romans took the sacred symbols of Jupiter, viz. the sceptre and
flint stone, together with some grass from his temple, and the oath taken on such
an occasion was expressed by per Jovem Lopidem jurare. (Fest. s.v. Feretrius;
Liv. xxx. 43; Appul. de Deo Socrat. 4; Cic. ad Fam. vii. 12; Gell. i. 21; Polyb.
iii. 26.) When the country wanted rain, the help of Jupiter was sought by a sacrifice
called aquilicium (Tertull. Apol. 40); and respecting the mode of calling down
lightning. These powers exercised by the god, and more especially the thunderbolt,
which was ever at his command, made him the highest and most powerful among the
gods, whence he is ordinarily called the best and most high (optimus maximus),
and his temple stood on the capitol; for he, like the Greek Zeus, loved to erect
his throne on lofty hills. (Liv. i. 10, 38, xliii. 55.) From the capitol, whence
he derived the surnames of Capitolinus and Tarpeius, he looked down upon the forum
and the city, and from the Alban and sacred mounts he surveyed the whole of Latium
(Fest. s. v. Sacer Mons), for he was the protector of the city and the surrounding
country. As such he was worshipped by the consuls on entering upon their office,
and a general returning from a campaign had first of all to offer up his thanks
to Jupiter, and it was in honour of Jupiter that the victorious general celebrated
his triumph. (Liv. xxi. 63, xli. 32, xlii. 49.) The god himself was therefore
designated by the names of Imperator, Victor, Invictus, Stator, Opitulus, Feretrius,
Praedator, Triumphator, and the like. (Liv. i. 12, vi. 29, x. 29; Ov. Fast. iv.
621; August. de Civ. Dei, viii. 11; Serv. ad Aen. iii. 223; Appul. de Mund. 37;
Festus, s. v. Opitulus; Cic. de Leg. ii. 11, in Verr. iv. 58.) Under all these
surnames the god had temples or statues at Rome; and two temples, viz. those of
Jupiter Stator at the Mucian gate and Jupiter Feretrius, were believed to have
been built in the time of Romulus. (Liv. i. 12, 41; Dionys. ii. 34, 50.) The Roman
games and the Feriae Latinae were celebrated to him under the names of Capitolinus
and Latialis.
Jupiter, according to the belief of the Romans, determined the course
of all earthly and human affairs: he foresaw the future, and the events happening
in it were the results of his will. He revealed the future to man through signs
in the heavens and the flight of birds, which are hence called the messengers
of Jupiter, while the god himself is designated as Prodigialis, that is, the sender
of prodigies. (Plaut. Amphitr. ii. 2, 107.) For the same reason Jupiter was invoked
at the beginning of every undertaking, whether sacred or profane, together with
Janus, who blessed the beginning itself (August. de Civ. Dei, vii. 8; Liv. viii.
9; Cato, de R. R. 134, 141; Macrob. Sat. i. 16); and rams were sacrificed to Jupiter
on the [p. 660] ides of every month by his flamen, while a female lamb and a pig
were offered to Juno on the kalends of every month by the wife of the rex sacrorum.
(Macrob. Sat. i. 15; Ov. Fast. i. 587; Fest. s. v. Idulis Ovis.) Another sacrifice,
consisting of a ram, was offered to Jupiter in the regia on the nundines, that
is, at the beginning of every week (Macrob. Sat. i. 16; Festus. s. v. nundinas);
and it may be remarked in general that the first day of every period of time both
at Rome and in Latium was sacred to Jupiter, and marked by festivals, sacrifices,
or libations.
It seems to be only a necessary consequence of what has been already
said, that Jupiter was considered as the guardian of law, and as the protector
of justice and virtue: he maintained the sanctity of an oath, and presided over
all transactions which were based upon faithfulness and justice. Hence Fides was
his companion on the capitol, along with Victoria; and hence a traitor to his
country, and persons guilty of perjury, were thrown down the Tarpeian rock. Faithfulness
is manifested in the internal relations of the state, as well as in its connections
with foreign powers, and in both respects Jupiter was regarded as its protector.
Hence Jupiter and Juno were the guardians of the bond of marriage; and when the
harmony between husband and wife was disturbed, it was restored by Juno, surnamed
Conciliatrix or Viriplaca, who had a sanctuary on the Palatine. (Fest. s. v. Conciliatric;
Val. Max. ii. 1. 6.) Not only the family, however, but all the political bodies
into which the Roman people was divided, such as the gentes and curiae, were under
the especial protection of the king and queen of the gods; and so was the whole
body of the Roman people, that is, the Roman state itself. The fact of Jupiter
being further considered as the watchful guardian of property, is implied in his
surname of Hercius (from the ancient herctum, property), and from his being expressly
called by Dionysius (ii. 74), horios Zeus, i.e. Jupiter Terminus, or the protector
of boundaries, not only of private property, but of the state.
As Jupiter was the prince of light, the white colour was sacred to
him, white animals were sacrificed to him, his chariot was believed to be drawn
by four white horses, his priests wore white caps, and the consuls were attired
in white when they offered sacrifices in the capitol the day they entered on their
office. (Festus, s.v. albogalerum pileum.) When the Romans became acquainted with
the religion of the Greeks, they naturally identified Jupiter with Zeus, and afterwards
with the Egyptian Ammon, and in their representations of the god they likewise
adopted the type of the Greek Zeus.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Elicius, a surname of Jupiter at Rome, where king Numa dedicated to Jupiter Elicius an altar on the Aventine. (Liv. i. 20.) The same king was said to have instituted certain secret rites to be performed in honour of the god, which were recorded in his Commentarii. (Liv. i. 31.) The origin of the name as well as the notion of Jupiter Elicius is referred to the Etruscans, who by certain prayers and sacrifices called forth (eliciebant or evocabant) lightning or invited Jupiter to send lightning. (Plin H. N. ii. 54; Ov Fast. iii,327, &c.; Varro, de Ling. Lat. vi. 94.) The object of calling down lightning was according to Livy's explanation to elicit prodigies ex mentlibus dicinis; and when the god appeared or sent his lightning in anger, it was an unfortunate sign to the person who had invited it. Seneca (Quaest. Nat. ii. 49) attests that the ancients distinguished a kind of lightning or fulmina, called fulmina hospitalia, which it was possible for man to draw down, and Pliny mentions Numa, Tullus Hostilius, and Porsena, among the persons who in early times had called down lighstning, though Tullus and his family perished in the attempt. Some modern writers think that the belief in the pos sibility of calling down lightnings arose out of certain observations or experiments in electricity, with which the ancients were acquainted, and some have even ventured upon the supposition that the ancients, and the Etruscans in particular, knew the use of conductors of lightning, which, though they cannot draw lightning from heaven, yet conduct it towards a certain point. Servius (ad Virg. Eclog. vi. 42) goes even so far as to say that the art of drawing down lightning was known to Prometheus.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Hospitalis, the guardian or protector of the law of hospitality. We find the title of dii hospitales as applied to a distinct class of gods, though their names are not mentioned. (Tacit. Ann. xv. 52; Liv. xxxix. 51; Ov. Met. v. 45.) But the great protector of hospitality was Jupiter, at Rome called Jupiter hospitalis, and by the Greeks Zeus xenios. (Serv. ad Aen. i. 140; Cic. ad Q. frat. ii. 12; Horn. Od. xiv. 389)
Lucerius, Luceria, also Lucetius and Lucetia, that is, the giver of light, occur as surnames of Jupiter and Juno. According to Servius (ad Aen. ix. 570) the name was used especially among the Oscans. (Macrob. Sat. i. 15; Gellius, v. 12)
Lapis, the stone, a surname of Jupiter at Rome, as we see from the expression Jovem Lapidem jurare. (Cic. ad Fam. vii. 12; Gell. i. 21 ; Polyb. iii. 26.) It was formerly believed that Jupiter Lapis was a stone statue of the god, or originally a rude stone serving as a symbol, around which people assembled for the purpose of worshipping Jupiter. But it is now generally acknowledged that the pebble or flint stone was regarded as the symbol of lightning, and that, therefore, in some representations of Jupiter, he held a stone in his hand instead of the thunderbolt. (Arnob. adv. Gent. iv. 25.) Such a stone (lapis Capitolinus, August. De Civ. Dei, ii. 29) was even set up as a symbolic representation of the god himself. (Serv. ad Aen. viii. 641.) When a treaty was to be concluded, the sacred symbols of Jupiter were taken from his temple, viz. his sceptre, the pebble and grass from the district of the temple, for the purpose of swearing by them (per Jovem Lapidem jurare ; Liv. i. 24, xxx. 43; Fest. s. v. Feretrius). A pebble or flint stone was also used by the Romans in killing the animal, when an oath was to be accompanied by a sacrifice; and this custom was probably a remnant of very early times, when metal instruments were not yet used for such purposes. (Fest. s. v. Lapidenm Silicem ; comp. Liv. i. 24, ix. 5; Polyb. iii. 26; Plut. Sull. 10.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Liberator, a surname of Jupiter, answering to the Greek Eleutherios, to whom Augustus built a temple on the Aventine. (Tac. Ann. xv. 64, xvi. 35)
Juno. The name of Juno is probably of the same root as Jupiter, and differs from
it only in its termination. As Jupiter is the king of heaven and of the gods,
so Juno is the queen of heaven, or the female Jupiter. The Romans identified at
an early time their Juno with Hera, with whom she has indeed many resemblances,
but we shall endeavour here to treat of the Roman Juno exclusively, and to separate
the Greek notions entertained by the Romans, from those which are of a purely
Italian or Roman nature. Juno, as the queen of heaven, bore the surname of Regina,
under which she was worshipped at Rome from early times, and at a later period
her worship was solemnly transferred from Veii to Rome, where a sanctuary was
dedicated to her on the Aventine. (Liv. v. 21, 22, xxii. 1, xxvii. 37; Varr. de
L. L. v. 67.) She is rarely described as hurling the thunderbolt, and the main
feature of her character is, that she was to the female sex all that Jupiter was
to the male, and that she was regarded as the protectress of every thing connected
with marriage. She was, however, not only the protecting genius of the female
sex in general, but accompanied every individual woman through life, from the
moment of her birth to the end of her life. Hence she bore the special surnames
of Virginalis and Matrona, as well as the general ones of Opigena and Sospita
(Ov. Fast. vi. 33; Horat. Carm. iii. 4, 59; Serv. ad Aen. viii. 84; August. de
Civ. Dei, iv. 11; Festus, p. 343, ed. Muller), under which she was worshipped
both at Lanuvium and at Rome. (Liv. xxiv. 10, xxvii. 3, xxxii. 30; Ov. Fast. ii.
56; Cic. de Div. i. 2.) On their birthday women offered sacrifices to Juno surnamed
natalis, just as men sacrificed to their genius natalis (Tibull. iv. 6. 13. 15);
but the general festival, which was celebrated by all the women, in honour of
Juno, was called Matronalia (Dict. of Ant. s. v.), and took place on the 1st of
March. Her protection of women, and especially her power of making them fruitful,
is further alluded to in the festival Populifugia (Dict. of Ant. s.v.) as well
as in the surname of Februarius, Februata, Februta, or Februalis. (Fest. s.v.
Februarius, p. 85, ed. Muller; comp. Ov. Fast. ii. 441.) Juno was further, like
Saturn, the guardian of the finances, and under the name of Moneta she had a temple
on the Capitoline hill, which contained the mint. (Liv. vi. 20.) Some Romans considered
Juno Moneta as identical with Mnemosune, but this identification undoubtedly arose
from the desire of finding the name Moneta a deeper meaning than it really contains.
The most important period in a woman's life is that of her marriage, and, as we
have already remarked, she was believed especially to preside over marriage. Hence
she was called Juga or Jugalis, and had a variety of other names, alluding to
the various occasions on which she was invoked by newly-married people, such as,
Domiduca, Iterduca, Pronuba, Cinxia, Prema, Pertunda, Fluonia, and Lucina. (Virg.
Aen. iv. 166, 457, with Serv. note; Ov. Heroid. vi. 43; August. de Civ. Dei, vi.
7, 11, vii. 3; Arnob. iii. 7, 25, vi. 7, 25; Fest. s. vv.) The month of June,
which is said to have originally been called Junonius, was considered to be the
most favourable period for marrying. (Macrob. Sat. i. 12; Ov. Fast. vi. 56.) Juno,
however, not only presided over the fertility of marriage, but also over its inviolable
sanctity, and unchastity and inordinate love of sexual pleasures were hated by
the goddess. Hence a law of Numa ordained that a prostitute should not touch the
altar of Juno, and that if she had done so, she should with dishevelled hair offer
a female lamb to Juno. (Gell. iv. 3.) Women in childbed invoked Juno Lucina to
help them (Plaut. Aulul. iv. 7, 11; Plut. Quaest. Rom. 77; Propert. v 1, 95; Arnob.
iii. 9, 21, 23), and after the delivery of the child, a table was laid out for
her in the house for a whole week (Tertull. de Anim. 39), for newly-born children
were likewise under her protection, whence she was sometimes confounded with the
Greek Artemis or Eileithyia. (Catull. xxxiv. 13; Dionys. Hal. iv. 15)
As Juno has all the characteristics of her husband, in so far as they
refer to the female sex, she presides over all human affairs, which are based
upon justice and faithfulness, and more especially over the domestic affairs,
in which women are more particularly concerned, though public affairs were not
beyond her sphere, as we may infer from her surnames of Curiatia and Populonia.
In Etruria, where the worship of Juno was very general, she bore the surname of
Cupra, which is said to have been derived from the name of a town, but it may
be connected with the Sabine word cyprus, which, according to Varro (de L. L.
v. 159), signified good, and also occurs in the name of vicus Cyprius. At Falerii,
too, her worship was of great importance (Dionys. i. 21), and so also at Lanuvium,
Aricia, Tibur, Praeneste, and other places. (Ov. Fast. vi. 49, 59; Liv. v. 21,
x. 2; Serv. ad Aen. vii. 739; Strab. v. p. 241.) In the representations of the
Roman Juno that have come down to us, the type of the Greek Hera is commonly adopted.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Empanda or Panda, was, according to Festus (s. v. Empanda), a dca paganorum. Varro (ap. Non.; comp.
Gell. xiii. 22; Arnob. iv. 2) connects the word with pandere, but absurdly explains
it by panem dare, so that Empanda would be the goddess of bread or food. She had
a sanctuary near the gate, called after her the porta Pandana, which led to the
capitol (Festus, s. v. Pandana; Varro, de Ling. Lat. v. 42). Her temple was an
asylum, which was always open, and the suppliants who came to it were supplied
with food from the funds of the temple. This custom at once shews the meaning
of the name Panda or Emlpanda: it is connected with pandere, to open; she is accordingly
the goddess who is open to or admits any one who wants protection. Hartung (die
Religion der Rom. ii.) thinks that Empanda and Panda are only surnames of Juno.
Juga or Jugadelis, that is, the goddess of marriage, occurs as a surname of Juno, in the same sense as the Greek zugia. She had a temple under this name in the forum at Rome, below the capitol, and the street which there took its commencement was called vicus Jugarius. (August. dei, iv. Dei, iv. 8, 11, vi. 9; Festus)
Lucina the goddess of light, or rather the goddess that brings to light, and hence the goddess that presides over the birth of children; it was therefore used as a surname of Juno and Diana, and the two are sometimes called Lucinae. (Varro, de Ling. Lat. v. 69; Catull. xxxiv. 13; Horat. Carm. Saec. 14, &c.; Ov. Fast. ii. 441, &c., vi. 39; Tibull. iii. 4. 13.) When women of rank gave birth to a son, a lectisterniumn was prepared for Juno Lucina in the atrium of the house. (Serv. and Philarg. ad Virg. Eclog. iv. 63.)
Libentina, Lubentina or Lubentia, a surname of Venus among the Romans, by which she is described as the goddess of sexual pleasure (dea libidinis, Varr. de Ling. Lat. v. 6; Cic. de Nat. Deor. ii. 23; August. de Civ. Dei, iv. 8; Nonius, i. 324; Plaut. Asin. ii. 2. 2; Arnob. adv. Gent. i. p. 15, who however speaks of Libentini dii.)
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