City of God (Penguin Classics) (188 page)

31
. cf. Virg.,
Ecl
. 3, 60 (ch. 9, above), and
Aen
. 6, 727. The ‘world-soul’ is typical teaching of Stoic Pantheism; cf. Bk VII, 6.

32
. Virg.,
Georg
., 4, 221f.

33
. cf. Bk VII, 22.

34
. On
Janus
, and the following minor gods, see note 45.

35
. cf. ch. 23; Bk VI, 9; VII, 2.

36
. cf. Bk VII, 2.

37
. cf. ch. 8.

38
. cf. Bk VII, 22.

39
. cf. ch. 8.

40
. cf. ch. 16.

41
. cf. ch. 23.

42
. cf. ch. 19.

43
. cf. Bk VI, 9.

44
. cf. Bk II, 14n.

45
.
Janus
: the god of beginnings. Originally one of the chief Roman gods. His temple in the forum was in the shape of an archway; cf. Bk III, 10, for the dosing of the temple doors in time of peace; cf. also Bk VII, 4; 7–10; 28.

Terminus
: the sacred boundary stone in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. Festival of Terminalia on 23 February.

Bellona
. In 296
B.C
., after a victory over Etruscans and Samnites, the consul Appius Claudius (‘the blind’) dedicated a temple to Bellona on the Campus Martius.

Liber
: an old Italian fertility god, later identified with Bacchus. The festival of the
Liberalia
(March 17) was the traditional day for the assumption by young men of the toga
virilis
. Libera, his female counterpart, is identified by St Augustine with Venus (
Bk VII, 2
) and with Ceres (
Bk VII, 3
). There was a joint temple to Liber and Ceres near the Circus Maximus; cf.
Bk VI, 9
.

Diespiter
: = Jupiter. Dies, Ju-, Jove, Zeus are all related to a Sanscrit word for the bright sky.

Mena
: = Gk mên, the moon or month.

Lucina
: an epithet of Juno, in her obstetric capacity, rather than a distinct deity.

Opis
: apparently distinguished from Ops (personification of
ops
, ‘power’, Vealth’) the wife of Saturn; identified with Terra, Cybele, and other powers of fertility.

Levana
. A new born child was laid on the floor. If the father acknowledged it as his, he lifted it up, thus accepting responsibility for its upbringing.

Carmentes
. In classical times there was one goddess, Carmentis (Carmenta), a prophetic deity, associated with birth, and with a festival on 11 and 15 January. One of Rome’s gates was the Porta Carmentalis.

Fortuna
. Fors Fortuna had at least two temples in Rome, one in the Forum Boarium and one in Caesar’s gardens; and three temples outside, on the right bank of the Tiber. Her festival was a river carnival, on 24 June. Fortuna Publica had three shrines on the Quirinal, and a festival there on 25 May. For Fortuna Muliebris cf. ch. 19.

Rumina. Varro tells of a shrine at the
ficus Ruminalis
, the fig-tree under which, in the legend, the wolf suckled Romulus and Remus. Ruminus was a title of Jupiter (
Bk VIII, 11
).

Educa
appears as Edusa in Varro, De Liberis
Educandis
(quoted by the early fourth-century grammarian Nonius Marcellus). She assisted Potina and Cunina in the care of weaned infants.

Venilia
. Diva Venilis was the mother of Turnus (Virg., Aen., 10, 76). The Venilia of Bk VII, 22 is apparently a different goddess.

Stimula. Ovid, (Fast., 6, 503) mentions a grove ‘of Semele or Stimula’. It was the scene of the Bacchanalian orgies which led to the suppression of Dionysiac rites in 186
B.C
.

Strenia
. A shrine on the Via Sacra is recorded by Varro (
De Ling. Lot
., 5,47).

Numeria: the goddess of quick birth, according to Varro (quoted by Nonius Marcellus).

Camena
: normally found in the plural; prophetic water nymphs, having a sacred spring outside the Porta Capena, where the Vestals drew water for their ceremonies; identified with the Greek Muses, first by Livius Andronicus (the third-century poet) who built them a temple (Ovid, Fast., 3,275).

Consus
: god of fertility, and of counsel. Festival of Consualic on 21 August

Juventas: a deified personification, identified with the Greek Hebe (‘youth’). In 218 a lectisteroium (see Bk II, 12 and n.) was offered to her, and in 191 her temple was dedicated in the Circus Maximus; cf. ch. 23 for her cult on the Capitol.

Mutumw or
Tutunus
(elsewhere Mutunus Tutunus or Mutinus): a phallic god, perhaps the Etruscan equivalent of Priapus.

Paventia, Agenoria, Sentia, Jugatinus,
Virginensis, Fortuna Barbota
, were presumably recorded in Varro. They are not found in extant classical literature.

46
. Stars: The belief in the divinity of the stars was common in antiquity. It is found in Neoplatonism, and it was consonant with the Stoic equation of deity and light St Augustine himself is not prepared to deny sentience and intelligence to the heavenly bothes; cf. Bk XIII, 16.

47
. There was a temple built for Victory on the Palatine in 294. Here was taken the image of Cybele in 204
B.C
. (cf. Bk I, 30; Liv., 29, 14); and Victory’s image led the procession at the Megalensia, Cybele’s festival, on 4 April. In St Augustine’s time occurred the removal by Gratian of the famous image of Victory from the Senate house (
A.D
. 382), and the pagan reaction to it, led by Symmachus (cf. Bk II, 3n.)

48
. cf. ch. 23; Bk II, 14, n. 36; Bk VI, 10.

49
. cf. Bk II, 29, n. 79.

50
. Rev. 19, 16.

51
. cf. ch. 11.

52
.
Murcia:
Her shrine is mentioned by Livy (1, 33). She was identified with Venus, who had the epithets Murcia, Myrcia, or Myrtea, supposedly because of her connection with the myrtle (Ovid, Fast., 4, 141ft.; Plin., 15, 121; Varro,
De
Ling. Lot, s, 154).

53
.
Pomponius:
probably Lucius Pomponius (fl.
c.
A.D. 90), a writer of
fabulae Atellanae
, a kind of farce originally acted by amateurs. In the first century A.D. they attained literary form, keeping the traditional stock characters (like those of the
commedia dell’arte)
, and were acted by professionals.

54
.
Quies
had a temple on the Via Laticana (Liv., 4, 41). There is no mention elsewhere of a shrine outside the Colline gate.

55
. Matt. 11, 29.

56
. Felicity: a late cult, the first temple being built by L Lidnius Lucullus consul in 74
B.C
. in the Velabrum. The goddess is often depicted on coins.

57
. cf. n. 45 on ch. 11.

58
. Rp., 2, 379B.

59
.
Feminine Fortune
. Tradition said that a temple to Fortuna Muliebris was erected in 488
B.C
. on the spot where Coriolanus turned back at the intercession of Volumnia and Veturia.

60
. Val. Max., 1, 8, 4.

61
. cf. ch. 11.

62
.
Virtue
(Valour). After the capture of Syracuse, in 212
B.C
., Marcellus dedicated a temple at Rome to Honour and Virtue (Valour).

63
. Faith. There was a temple of Faith on the Capitol (Cic.,
De Nat. Deor
., 3, 24, 104) built originally, it was said, by Numa, but rebuilt in the third century
B.C
. The three Flamens (cf. Bk II, 15) were in charge of her cult (Liv., 1, 21,4). Her image is often shown on coins.

64
. Hab. 2,4; Rom. 1,17; Gal. 3,11; Heb. 10,38.

65
.
Mutius Scaevola
so impressed Lars Porsenna by his fortitude that the Etruscan made peace with Rome (Liv., 2, 12).

66
.
Marcus Curtius
hurled himself, on horseback and in arms, into a chasm which had opened in the Forum, because the soothsayers declared that it could be closed only if Rome’s chief strength were cast into it. Rome’s chief strength, said Curtius, lay in courage and arms (Liv. 7,6; Val. Max. 5,6).

67
. P.
Decius Mus
. consul, 340
B.C
., in the Latin’ War, secured victory for Rome by devoting himself and the enemy to destruction, and then rushing to certain death. His son and namesake repeated the feat in 295, in the Third Samnite War. This family habit was observed by his grandson in 280, during the war against Pyrrhus (Liv. 8,9; Val. Max. 5, 6).

68
.
Modesty
. There was a shrine of Pudicitia Patricia in the Forum Boarium (Liv., 10, 23). But there seems to be here a mistaken identification of the veiled statue of Fortune in her temple in that place.

69
.
Catus, Catius, Opis
: cf. ch. 11.

70
.
Ars-oretê
. The two words in fact both derive from an Indo-European root
at
, which has the sense of ‘fitting’.

71
. cf. ch. 11.

72
. cf. Bk VII, 3.

73
.
Volumnus
and Volumna may be a mistake for Voltumnus, Voltumnia; foi Voltumnus was apparently the earlier form of Vertumnus (Vortumnus) an agricultural God (cf. Bk VII, 3).

74
.
Nuptial deities
, Plutarch (Quoest. Rom., 2) mentions Jupiter, Juno, Venus, Persuasion, Minerva. But the reference here is probably to the ‘minute gods’ described in Bk VI, 9.

75
.
Fructesa, Acsculanus, Argentines, Fessona, Pellonia, Spiniensis
, are all unknown.

76
.
Honour
: see note 62 on ch. 20 for the Temple of Honour and Virtue.

77
.
Pecunia
. In the second century
A.D
. Juvenal says: ‘Accursed Money (
pecunia
) does not yet live in a temple. We have erected no altars to Cash as we have to Peace, Faith, Victory, Virtue, Concord.’ (1,113ff.)

78
. The festival of Robigalia (21 April) was intended to avert mildew(
robigo
) from the growing crops by means of the sacrifice of a sheep and a redpuppy (Ovid, Fast., 9, 907–32; Varr.,
De Re Rust
., 1, 1, 6; Plin., 18, 285).

79
. cf. ch. 18 n. 56.

80
.
Picus
: a mythical king, son of Saturn. Perhaps invented to explain a cult of the woodpecker (
picus
).

Faunus
: son of Picus, a rural deity sometimes equated with Pan. According to Ovid (Fast., 2, 267) he was the god of the Lupercalia (15 January). A temple to Picus was dedicated in 194
B.C
. on an island in the Tiber (Ovid, Fast., 2,193; Liv., 33, 42, 10).

Tiberinus
(Father Tiber) was the object of an ancient cult, for he is mentioned in the litany of the pontiffs and the augurs’ prayer (Cic,
De Nat Deor
., 3, 20, 52). He had a sanctuary on an island in the Tiber, and games in his honour on the Campus Martius in June (Ovid, Fast., 6, 237).

81
.
Titus Tatius
: a legendary Sabine king, co-ruler with Romulus after the Rape of the Sabines and the union of Romans and Sabines. Varro (
De Ling. Lat
., 5, 74) mentions his introduction of these and other deities, except Light, for whose worship we have no other evidence.

82
. cf. ch. 9 n. 20.

83
. cf. ch. 15.

84
. cf. Bk 11,14, n. 36.

85
.
Consentes
: twelve superior gods with statues in the Forum: ‘Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars/Mercurius, Iovi’, Neptunus, Vulcanus, Apollo’ (Ennius, quoted in Apul.,
De Deo Socr
., 2). The connection with
con-silium
is fanciful.