Surviving Roman Influence: The Resilience of Diana’s Cult at Lake
Nemi in Contrast to their Latin Neighbors.
Christopher William Kelly
UVA MASTERS THESIS 2019. Amsterdam .Statement of Originality
This document is written by Christopher William Kelly who declares to take full responsibility for the contents of
this document.
I declare that the text and the work presented in this document are original and that no sources other than those
mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating it.
The Faculty of Economics and Business is responsible solely for the supervision of completion of the work, not for
the contents.
Index
Chapter 1: Introduction
- Part1: Objectives.
- Part 2: Defining Identity. - Part 3: Meeting Diana.
- Part 4: Contemporary Academic Context. - Part 5: Methodological Issues.
- Part 6: Livy & The Romanao-centric record.
- Part 7: Introducing The Effects on Religious Activity.
Chapter 2: Diana Nemorensis – How & Why did her Cult Survive ?
- Part 1: Diana as Artemis Tauropolos.
- Part 2: Diana’s Arrival in Latium and Her First Worshippers. - Part 3: Renunciation of the Rex.
- Part 4: The Site of Lake Nemi.
- Part 5: First Inhabitant & The Sacred Landscape. - Part 6: Speculum Diana
- Part 7: The Nemoralia & The Lamps of Nemi. - Part 8: Concluding Lake Nemi
Chapter 3: Tumultuous History of Latin Sanctuaries.
-
- Part 1: The Formation of Diana Aventensis on the Aventine Hill. - Part 2 : Political Motivations of Servius.
- Part 3: The Growing Roman interest in Latin Sanctuaries. 340 -180 B.C.E. - Part 4: Sanctuary abandonment after the Social Wars: 91 – 45 B.C.E. - Part 5: Augustan Intrusion on Diana Nemorensis.
Topography of Latium
Figure 1: TCI, Italy's Automobile Association, Lazio, 2019.
Chapter I: Introduction.
Part 1: Objectives.
Identity and ‘Romanisation’ are two intensely debated topics among the current academic field. However, little attention has been paid toward the relationship between these two cornerstones of religious life within the context of the region of Latium. This investigation’s primary window of study is from the beginning of the early eight century to the fall of the Republic due to the longevity of religious activity in the Latin Peninsula. The last two centuries of the republic will be analysed with special attention due to the increased rate of Roman influence throughout Italy due to the massive societal transformations that defined this time. Roman religious life and practices underwent a mass dissemination outward toward the provinces and the larger empire as part of a process widely termed ‘Romanisation’. Upon incorporation into the Roman empire a pattern of religious repatriation and delocalisation ensued that often impacted the religious activity of small and rural Latin communities. Many sanctuaries in the Latin region of the Italic peninsula became shrouded with new Romanised identities or where given new sanctuaries within the religious boundary of Rome known as the
Pomerium. Over the discourse of these two centuries, the identities of local religious cults and deities became blurred and had their core characteristics altered. An outcome that was almost inevitable after prolonged centuries of Roman interest in controlling the often volatile Latin communities closest to its boundary lines.
The purpose of this study is twofold, firstly I am to ascertain whether the identity of the goddess Diana and her cult at Lake Nemi was preserved despite the intrusion of Roman culture on the surrounding Latin regions. Secondly, I will investigate whether the identity of Diana at Lake Nemi continued to draw the religiously active communities of the Latin plain despite a pattern of abandonment of rural sanctuaries elsewhere in the Latin region. I will draw particular attention to the consecration of new sanctuaries within the city of Rome to deities who previously resided in the Latin provinces. I will do this by analysing literary evidence to see if the consecration of a temple, within the self-proclaimed religious heart of the empire, effected the original Latin sanctuary. I have chosen to narrow the scope of this investigation to the Latin region as I feel we are best served to observe the relationship between Roman and ‘non-roman’ sanctuaries (as defined by the Pomerium) at their closest point of contact. In order to examine a large enough time frame that allows us to gain a perspective of relevant patterns and trends I shall be focusing between 800 B.C.-A.D. 161. This is because such a time frame encompasses all know religiose activity at Lake Nemi as proven by numismatic evidence found dating until the reign of Antonius Pius.1 This study should prove to be particularly interesting when we consider a larger amount of attention has been given to the identity of italic cult places post incorporation into the empire. Rather then devoting attention to evaluating their ability to retain their original character and rituals despite a strong Roman dominion. This is perhaps due to the dominant academic focus on the expansion and hegemony of Roman identity rather than the impacts on rural religious communities.
The first half of this essay regards the identity of Diana Nemorensis and her conceptualisation within the Latin plain from the eight to the sixth century. Then we will be looking to see how Diana arrived in the Latin plain and how she interacted with Rome from the sixth century to the reign of Augustus. We will establish how Diana Nemorensis was represented differently to her Roman adaptation on the Aventine. In the second half of this study we will closely examine the cult site of Lake Nemi to establish if the identity of her cult changed during Roman occupation. Via examination of the political and moral context of the Republic we will establish how Diana Nemorensis survived Augustan intrusion despite often colliding with the values of the Roman Republic. We will then go onto to assess how the majority of Latin sanctuaries dealt with intrusion from the Roman state by studying the patterns of rural sanctuary abandonment. It will become clear through uninterrupted votive evidence at the site, that Lake Nemi remained popular as an active site of worship throughout the entirety of pagan religious worship in the italic region. The primary objective of this study is to ascertain why Lake Nemi survived throughout Roman rule when similar Latin sanctuaries either had almost all their defining characteristics changed or became lost to the annals of history.
Part 2: Defining Identity.
When generic terminology such as identity are used in discussions on Roman society it is imperative to establish what factual evidence is used to define what is termed ‘identity’. Cult specific ritualistic activity, unique mythology and lineage, architectural environments, sacred natural landscapes and votive deposits are all individual components that when collectively viewed form the identity of cults and sanctuaries. It is through balanced investigation into each of these aspects that we will see how the identity of sanctuaries inside and outside the Pomerium were viewed differently to their respective worshippers despite being to deities with the same name . The region known as Latium Vetus housed the oldest sanctuaries in the Latin peninsula. It is a common tendency to think of the eastern
empire and Britain when discussing Roman provinces. However, the neighbouring regions of Latium and the long-intertwined history of the area with the capital allows us to best understand how the Roman elite valued the identities of local Latin cultures from Rome’s conception to its supremacy.
The Pomerium played a large part in defining the value of sanctuaries during the later Republic. It was initially meant to represent the original boundary lines of the city of Rome as determined by Romulus and drawn out with an ox and cart.2 However, in later society it was widely accepted as being the spiritual boundary within which only true Roman deities could reside and outside of which the people and deities are barbarian in nature and nurture. The topic of the Pomerium and its centrality in defining Latin religious identity will be covered throughout this essay, For now, it is imperative that we understand that the religions of Latium were viewed unfavourably based on the barbarian origins of their genesis or rituals, in comparison to the exclusivity and civility of religious decorum within the Pomerium.
In addition to the terms identity and Pomerium, the expressions pilgrim and pilgrimage will feature frequently in our discussion and can prove to be problematic in their application if they are not well defined. This is especially true in the context of Roman religion due to the popularity of pilgrimage as a concept during the rise of Christianity and the automatic associations of pilgrimage with the Christian, Jewish and Islamic faiths. Alan Morinis offers us a suitable starting place to begin to understand how we define pilgrimage in a Roman context. He states: ‘A pilgrimage is a journey undertaken by a person in quest of a place or state that he or she believes to embody a sacred ideal’.3 Due to the proximity to Rome, it would be logical to assume that the composition of pilgrims in Latium Vetus would be the indigenous communities and the inhabitants of Rome. Therefore, it is my hypothesis that pilgrims would visit different sanctuaries to fulfil different religious ideals. Not all desired religious experiences, cults or rituals could be found in Rome and therefore the inhabitants of the capital during the Republic travelled to the Latin region in search of sacred spaces with alternative identities. As will become apparent, it was often the alternative and often vindicated cult identities of Latin sanctuaries that fulfilled more specific pilgrim desires.
Dillon outlined the role of pilgrimage in polytheistic societies: ‘accordingly pilgrims travelled beyond their local boundaries and visited sanctuaries which for one reason or another transcended the sanctity of local cult areas’.4 A part of the explanation for this trend is because of the availability of cults within the Latin region that were open to members of Roman society who were often shunned from mainstream religious activity. For example, the cult of Diana Nemorensis at Lake Nemi had a long-established mythology and legacy of excepting women and runaway slaves from the capital who had fled from slavery. The formation of a common bond between members is one reason that we shall return to in order to explain the continued popularity of the cult of Diana at Nemi compared to some of the other sites of Latium. Victor and Edith Turners offer an intriguing hypothesis on the definition of pilgrimage that legitimise identity as being a reason for Lake Nemi’s continued visitation. They suggest that pilgrimage is a denunciation of usual social structures and the celebration of socially undifferentiated ‘communitas’.5 The Turner’s raise the crucial factor of a rejection of societal structures as being a core principal in defining the ancient pilgrim.
However they also introduce us to the notion of communitas and the adoption of a new societal framework and bond that it formed when engaging in a pilgrimage .They define communitas as a relationship that was dependent on the shared experiences and memories exchanged during a pilgrimage.6 In essence, they believed that pilgrimage formed a bond between those who partake in it
2Livy I.44.
3 Alan Morinis 1992, 4. 4 Dillon 1997, 14.
5 Tuner & Turner 1978, 8. 6 Tuner & Turner 1978, 1.
because they all are unified by their absence from home and the events they attend while on the road. This is similar to Maurice Halbwachs theory that cultic identity is defined by its ability to create and to relate to a collective shared memory of share experience. He believes that the memory of shared experiences ‘creates cohesion and defines individuals as well as collective identity’.7 In its purest form the religious act of pilgrimage is a unifying experience that creates a special relationship through its unfamiliarity and the uniformity of the experience to all those who partake in it. The notion of communitas is the last jargon that must be introduced in the discussion as it too plays an important role in assessing the identity of Diana Nemorensis and her longevity in the Latin plain.
Part 3: Meeting Diana.
The cult of Diana Nemorensis at Lake Nemi could be found along the Via Appia, 40km outside of the Roman pomerium from 400BC – AD 300. It was a full days walk before a pilgrim leaving Rome would reach the volcanic lands of the Alban Hills and the clear waters of Lake Nemi beneath them. Aricia is the nearest administrative town to the region and it remains one of our strongest case studies on the effects of Romanisation. Although Diana had existed in the dominion of Roman religion for a long time, Lake Nemi was home to a much older and darker religious identity than the capital. This is shown in Ovid’s description of the region as ‘a lake surrounded by shady forests held sacred by a religion from the olden times’.8
The secluded and sacred nature of the landscape of Nemi plays an integral role in its longevity as a religiously active sanctuary, despite its proximity to the self-proclaimed religious epicentre of the empire. The sacred landscape will play a prominent role in our explanation of continued pilgrim activity in the Latin region after assimilation into the empire. Jane Webster argues that it is sometimes difficult to discern the original identities of Latin cults after their incorporation. She writes, ‘this part of Imperial discourse raises the question if the foreign and original elements of cults can be identified amongst the later hybrid’.9 Nevertheless, continued cult visitation to Lake Nemi until A.D.200 would suggest that the identity of the original Latin cult spot was still firmly identifiable and attractive. This is despite a temple being consecrated to Diana and a new identity bestowed on her within the Roman pomerium during the reign of King Servius Tullius.
Study into votive deposits, anatomical votives, rituals that revolve around the lake and the long mythology that ties Diana to Lake Nemi will show how Diana’s adoption as a Roman deity did not halt pilgrimage to the Latin sanctuary. Diana’s state constructed temple on the Aventine was intended to represent her new residence in the epicentre of the city and the empire. The identity that became associated with her ignored the ‘barbaric’ qualities previously despised in the capital. However, the construction of a new sanctuary to Diana did not halt religious activity at Nemi as a persistent flow of Roman pilgrims formed an affinity with the true barbarous and sacred identity of Diana. I do not aim to suggest that the sanctuaries within the Pomerium are not valued by the religiously active communities of Latium rather that the areas outside of city of Rome may have been valued more to the Latin people than is often anticipated.
7 Halbwachs 1950, 78-84. 8 Ovid, Fasti. 3.259-275. 9 Webster 2001, 209.
Part 4: Contemporary Academic Context.
Before we begin to apply questions of cultic identity and the Roman pomerium to archaeological research it is imperative to outline the place of this investigation within contemporary academic argumentation. Professor Tesse Stek, in his work ‘Cult places and cultural change in Republican Italy’, highlights the drastic need for new approaches toward Roman religious action in the provinces, especially in the Latin region. He suggests that many studies on Italic religion have focused on the similarities, and not their differences and alternate reactions of Italic religions to Roman control.10 He writes: ’Diversity in response to Roman dominion is an important possibility for entire communities…Romanisation does not necessarily mean the new order was always accepted’.11 The dogmatic attention granted to Roman religious identity and its spread has left little room for the examination of local provincial sanctuaries whose identities were rebranded as Roman upon incorporation despite many differentiating origins.
If we consider the bibliographical depth of study dedicated to Eastern and Hellenic provincial Romanisation in juxtaposition to Italic and Latin sanctuaries, the need for further scholarly notice becomes stark. Revel states that there is a ‘trend of polarising Roman and foreign cultic worship, one that is exacerbated by separate personnel looking at Roman religion and in the provinces’.12 It is therefore evident that a cross examination of the relationship between sanctuaries within the walls of Rome and those in the Italic provinces is needed. The likes of Scheid 1999,Webster 1995 & Frankfurter 1998 have extensively pondered the relationship between the pomerium and the pilgrim from a purely Roman perspective. In Rome itself, ‘sanctuaries were the symbol par excellence for the whole community’.13 Whilst I shall return to the perception of Roman sanctuaries in a moment it is important to take away from the current academic debate that there is void that must be filled when it comes to identity and pilgrimage to Latin cult sites. Green submits a strong criticism of this intellectual void stating, ‘The historical and archaeological testimonial has demonstrated that the sanctuary of Diana at Lake Nemi was a centre of vital Latin religion from the early Iron age on through the second century’. She adds, ‘That fact has been known for a hundred years or so and yet it has never yet been properly integrated into our understanding of religion in Rome and in Latium’.14
Contemporary debate is continuing Rome’s dominance in the nexus of religious discussion. For inland Italic sanctuaries, Steck states: ‘the situation is rather different and only few attempts have been made to theorise the identity or activity of italic sanctuaries’.15 Scholarly neglect of Italic sanctuaries is reflected in the studies of Elsner and Rutherford who suggest ‘pilgrimage plays a smaller role in Roman society due to the appropriation of deities and the process of evocatio’.16 In essence they are theorising that the process of ritualistic deity repatriation to Rome known as evocatio dwindled the need for pilgrimage to the original Latin sanctuaries. This thinking echoes Eric Orlin hypothesis that evocatio of a Latin deity to Rome ‘left little reason to worship the weaker god’.17 It has been assumed as factual that evocation to Rome makes pilgrimage to original sanctuaries redundant in the following centuries because the majority of our evidence has made us falsely assume that the masses agreed with the elite in recognising the spiritual supremacy of land within the pomerium.
In the joint publication of Beard, North and Price a valuable summation of the migration of religion from the capital outward and their changes in identity can be found. It reads ‘imitation of the religion of the capital must in practice always have been a creative process, involving adaptation and 10 Stek 2008, 14-15. 11 Stek 2008, 16. 12 Revell 2009: 112. 13 Stek 2009, 30. 14 Green 2007, 292. 15 Stek 2008, 21.
16 Elsner & Rutherford 2010. 3. 17 Orlin 2010, 32.
change”.18 Steck cross examines this summation with the archaeological evidence presented by Price to suggest that ‘two altars of Augustan date, where elements of Roman monuments are adapted, shows how the Colonia of Carthage was “expressing its own version of Roman identity”, adding “different Colonia were Roman in very different ways’.19 It is clear that adaption and change of Roman religion presents a different religious experience and therefore a different perceived identity to pilgrims and local residents of provinces.
However, what has not been given due attention is the adaption of provincial religions by Rome and how core characteristics of deities and their cuts were changed to fit the Roman way of life. The evocation of Magna Mater by the senate during the prelude to the Carthaginian Wars resulted in a complete change of her identity. Her Anatolian ancestry was cloaked by the Roman senate and presented to the public as being of Trojan origin. For the purpose of this study, I shall largely be analysing the goddess Diana and her home in Lake Nemi. However, the evocation of Magna Mater presents some intriguing parallels. Pausanias records her earliest physical depiction at a cultic site in Lydian as being ‘carved into a rock-spur of Mount Sipylus’, now in modern day Turkey.20 Magna
Mater, once a local cult deity firmly etched into the Turkish landscape, became unrecognisable from the original. It will become clear that this was not a rare occurrence within the Roman discourse for the perception and base characteristics of a deity to change once within the Pomerium. The notion that deities can be relocated and have their identities transformed undermines the fixity of sacred land and the cultural identities surrounding them. Despite persistent Roman intrusion and full adoption and reinterpretation of Diana by Rome, Lake Nemi continued to draw a steady pilgrim attendance from its earliest beginnings in eight century to its fall at the hands of Christianity in the third century AD.
Part 5: Methodological Issues.
There are several paths of investigation that will guide us through this study. Firstly, we must establish if the identity of a sanctuary is perceived differently once its patron deity has been incorporated into the Roman Pantheon. One of the potential methodological problems that must be addressed is how we measure change in reference to identity. The Latin plain is relatively unique in that through the archaeological record we can see a remarkable level of continuity in ritual practice at cultic sanctuaries. Professor Herman’s comments on the plentiful archaeological record stating, ‘After the Roman takeover of the region and reconstructions in the second and first centuries B.C., Latin sanctuaries continued to flourish, surviving well into the second and third century AD’.21 Such a long window of operation is synonymous with leaving behind large amount of archeologically and literary evidence. The accounts of Livy, Cicero and Ovid will be cross examines with our archaeological record of Latin cults to ground our understanding of changes in identity.
Professor Herman’s study of the cultic sites of the Alban mount in the oldest part of Latium known as Latium Vetus is an irreplaceable compendium to this study of Latin religion. However, there is one key omission from her comprehensive study that I hope to explore in this thesis. Her study is introduced stating that the aim is not to create a pre Roman understanding of the cults identity for the focal point of her examination was the post Republican era.22 I believe that through comparisons of the core components of a cultic identity before and after Roman control we can establisher a firmer understanding of religious activity in the Latin peninsula and the way in which Latin cults responded to the implications of Roman rule. We will also be able to better understand the motivation of early Roman
18 Beard, North and Price 1998, 19 Steck 2009, 26.
20 Roller 1999: 45. 21 Hermans 2018, 31. 22 Hermans 2018, 1-4.
pilgrims by establishing how identity changes in cultic behaviour attract a different audience to the juxtaposing cults depending on the identities offered.
An obstacle that may arise as we progress through this study is our understand of ‘perceptions’. I am attempting to understand how Roman perceptions of Latin cult sites fluctuate depending on the political environment between themselves and their Latin neighbours. It will become apparent that certain sanctuaries were favoured to others based on the core difference between them. These differences included their location in relation to the Pomerium, their ritualistic behaviour and their roles as epicentres for political conspiracy among the Latin communities. The evidence I shall largely be using in order to understand their perception is based on primary literary evidence. For example, the accounts of Strabo and Ovid are key in understanding the perceptions of more ordinary citizens, particularly in relation to the Nemoralia festival. Literary evidence will be our predominant tool in analysing the perceptions of the Roman elite towards Latin cults throughout the entirety of their relationship, allowing us to cross examine their often diatribic rhetoric with the archaeological record of continuous religious activity in the often despised cults sites of Latium. Additionally, smaller artefacts such as deposits, souvenirs and pottery will give us a more realistic interpretation of an ordinary pilgrims mindset.
Finally, we must then look into how incorporation effected religious activity at the original sanctuaries located within Latium. We will measure this effect through analysis of votive deposits, inscriptions and literary accounts of continued worship at original cult sites. In theory, pilgrimage to sanctuaries outside the pomerium had a different spiritual appeal because of their often contrasting identities compared to Roman endorsed sanctuaries. As previously alluded too this is evident in the importance of a natural sacred landscape that reflected and was entwined in the mythology of the deity and the location specific rituals that could only be conducted in spaces outside of the pomerium.
Part 6: Livy and the Romano-Centric Record.
Thus far I have largely introduced concepts in relation to Latin cult, as that is where I believe most attention is required. However, the identity that was crafted for a cult by Rome upon inclusion within the Pomerium was not always more appealing to the followers of a deity in comparison to the original sacred landscapes. This hypothesis goes against the grain of the Romano centric narrative established in or primary literary record. It is at this point that we must begin to delicately question the prejudice of our sources. It is a widely understood that the literary record of the Republic presents Rome as the religious heart of the empire that pumps the stoic and steadfast principles of Roman decorum to all those under their control. The sanctuaries contained with the boundary of its Pomerium were built to reflect the divine fortune and favouritism that Rome had been bestowed. For instance, Cicero heralds that the disposition of the Romans towards piousness was a defining characteristic of Rome, stating: ‘We surpass all in Piety and Religion’.23 Livy’s records of the infamous Speech of Camillus is a perfect example for the context of our discussion as the speech itself took place within our window of study. After the fall of Rome at the hands of the Gaul’s, Camillus addressed the surviving Roman citizenry and made his case for rebuilding the capital instead of relocating. He states: ‘We possess a City which was founded with the divine approval...there is not a spot which is not full of religious associations and the presence of a god’. 24 Rome is viewed by Camillus, and by proxy Livy, as being religiously unique in its significance, suggesting that the land on which it stands is matchless in its sacred stature.
The majority of Livy’s account of Camillus speech focuses on the land of Rome being the place in which the gods feel most at home. He records that Camillus proclaimed:
23 Cicero, De Haruspicium Responsis , 9.19. 24 Livy, 5.52.
Not without good reason did gods and men choose this spot as the site of a City, with its bracing hills, its commodious river, by means of which the produce of inland countries may be brought down and over-sea supplies obtained; a district in the very centre of Italy - in a word, a position singularly adapted by nature for the expansion of a city….. This has hitherto been your Fortune; what sense can there be - perish the thought! - in making trial of another Fortune? Even granting that your valour can pass over to another spot, certainly the good Fortune of this place cannot be transferred. Here is the Capitol where in the old days a human head was found, and this was declared to be an omen, for in that place would be fixed the head and supreme sovereign power of the world. Here it was that whilst the Capitol was being cleared with augural rites, Juventas and Terminus, to the great delight of your fathers, would not allow themselves to be moved. Here is the Fire of Vesta; here are the Shields sent down from heaven; here are all the gods, who, if you remain, will be gracious to you.25
Camillus’s argumentation as presented by Livy clearly assimilated the foundations of Rome and all of its subsequent affluence on the actions of the gods as a result of the sacred nature of the regions topography. Livy’s account mentions the supremacy of Rome both in terms of religious value (‘here are all the gods) and in topographical and political terms (‘a district in the very centre of Italy’). This is perhaps a powerful foreshadowing of Roman expansion in the proceeding centuries. However it is unquestionably an insight into the value placed on Rome as a sacred landscape by both Camillus and Livy in comparison to anywhere else. The sacred superiority of Rome was valued so highly to Livy that he was certain ‘the good Fortune of this place cannot be transferred’. Though these words are delivered through the medium of Camillus, they are almost certainly of Livy’s conception as such a disposition towards highlighting Roman religious superiority appears frequently in his cannon of oratory. Livy draws particular attention to the popular opinion of Rome’s dominant religious significance:
What conditions existed before the founding of the city (Rome) or when it was being built are passed down as the fanciful tales of poets rather than the tested truths of history. It is the license of the ancient past to make the city more prominent by mixing human origins with the divine. And if it is permitted for any people to claim their own origins as sacred and to make their founders gods, then the glory of the Roman people in war is so great that, when they claim that most powerful Mars is the father of their own founder, surely the races of man can endure it as easily as they do Roman empire.26
Whether a ‘sacred origin’ actually meant that the Roman populis believed in their religious superiority over surrounding areas is up for debate. What is even less certain is if ‘the races of man’ who ‘endure the Roman Empire’ perceived Rome as superior because of the states weaving of human and divine origins. However, what is for certain is that the elite members of the Roman establishment desired Rome to be regarded as first among lesser cities. This is evident in Pliny’s Panegyric where he states, ‘How fortunate for all the provinces to have come into our trust and power, now that there is an emperor who feeds and protects an foreign as if they were part of the Roman people’.27 Suggestions that the provinces are lucky or are indebted to Rome for their incorporation into the empire are fraught and echoe the same associations of Roman superiority. When a narrative of subordination and control is constructed over a prolonged period of time it is easy to understand how pilgrimage to sanctuaries within the Pomerium have traditionally been understood as more important than to anywhere else because of the sanctity of the capital
25 Livy, 5.54.
26 Livy, Praefatio 1,7-9. 27 Pliny, Panegyricus, 32.1.
What does this disposition mean to our study? It means that discussion on Latium identity is foregrounded with an tendency to value Roman endorsed cults and sanctuaries over provincial deities. Later discussion on the diatribic demonization of Latin cults by Roman authors will prove that their unfavourable depictions are not realistic in their summations of Latin cultic identity or their popularity. Larger quantities of archaeological evidence unearthed in more recent centuries has resulted in a cleared understanding of the true nature of Latin religious life. Professor Hermans agrees with this assertion, stating that excavations of the late 20th century have added to our ‘knowledge of the religious landscape of ancient Latium offering us a view on the Latin cults that supplement or corrects the often anachronistic or Romano-centric narratives of Livy’.28
Part 7: Introducing the Effects on Religious Activity.
It will become apparent in our discussion on Latin cuts and identity that there are a few conclusive patterns of behaviour in relation to religious activity after incorporation into the empire. The effects of deity endorsement by Rome on Italic sanctuaries have been categorised into either desertion or continuation. However this is not a bipolar issue that can be so easily summated as there is clear evidence to suggest that both patterns are evident within the Latin plain. Revell summates the dangers of relying on a uniform theory of desertion and continuation. He states: ‘Assuming that worship to cultic deities remained static and unchanging as a direct reflection of their pre-existing condition upon importation to Rome ignores the dynamic nature of religion and the complex nature of social change’.29 In this study I will outline both sides of the evidence before rounding off our discussion by concluding how cultic identities in Latium Vetus before and after ‘Romanisation’ can better in from our understanding of religious activity in the region.
To conclude this introduction I feel we are best served by summating the overall objectives of this study. Core measurable aspects of Latin cult sites that comprise identity; sacred natural landscape, specific ritualistic activity, unique mythology and lineage will be analysed. This analysis will show us that there are numerous effects on the patterns of continued religious activity and visitation of Latin cult sites and sanctuaries. Firstly, we will see that incorporation into the Roman Pantheon often changed the identity of Latin cults. Secondly, we will see that this resulted in some Latin sanctuaries being completely abandoned due to direct action by the Roman senate. Thirdly, we will see that others continued to attract more Roman and foreign pilgrims due to a preference for the surviving alternative and original identities presented by Latin cult in comparison to the state endorsed identity. Finally, it will become clear that the superior sacred nature of Rome as recorded by our primary evidence is not reflected in the actions of ordinary religiously active people. Now that the academic context, basic terminology, literary bias and primary objectives have been introduced we can now begin to dissect each component of identity, beginning with the sacred landscape and the cult of Diana Nemoresis at Nemi.
28 Hermans 2010, 30. 29 Revell 2009: 113.
Chapter 2: Diana Nemorensis – How & Why did her Cult Survive ?
Part 1: Diana as Artemis Tauropolos.
The history of Diana Nemorensis is a long and complex story that spans over various parts of the larger empire. In this study we are focusing on her cult identity and history within the Latin peninsula. However, her establishment within the Latin region cannot thoroughly be explained without consideration of her origins and mythology. I am aware that the origin story of Diana is a well-known and often repeated tale amongst those studying Latin religion however I feel it is imperative that we understand her beginnings to be able to comment on her later identity. Diana’s early incarnations revolved around the natural world and the protection of hunters. She was the native goddesses of several small towns in the Tauris region of modern-day Crimea, who guarded over the sacred natural environment. Although, in the eighth century this hunting deity was not known to the Tauric people as Diana, the core characteristic of the deity would later form a core component of the Latin
Figure 4: Head copy of a bronze tri-corpus votive statue symbolising Diana, found in 18th century in Vallericcia Valley. Lake Nemi Museum, Lazio. Chris Kelly Photography 2019.
conceptualisation of her. Later known as Artemis Tauropolos, meaning ‘Artemis worshipped at Tauris’, this early inspiration for Diana was supposedly brought to the Latin plain from Taurians by the mythical daughter of King Agamemnon, Iphigenia and her brother Orestes.30
The name Artemis Tauropolos became the known moniker for this deity amongst the Greek and Roman populations of the early sixth century. It is possible that the obvious associations between this Tauric deity and the Hellenic Artemis resulted in the name Artemis Tauropolos. In its Roman usage the link to Artemis would indeed emphasise the role of the Greek heroes Orestes and Iphigenia in bringing Latin Diana to the sanctuary at Aricia. However, Orestes first physical incorporation into the mythology of Diana’s arrival in the Latin plain came when the region of Latium and the Alban Hills of Aricia began trading with the cities of Magna Graecia. Oreste’s involvement in the transportation of Diana must have become commonplace during the late 6th century. This is demonstrated by the vast quantities of fifth century Etruscan red figure vases that have been found in the Latin Plain such as the red figure of the myths of Orestes and Elektra.31 A large quantity of these vases were produced in the Latin town of suggesting that they were a key player in the producing of Orestean artefacts and trinkets such as the famous Citrus depicting the sacrifice of Iphigenia known as LIMC Agamemnon 35.32
Orestes and his myths became widespread as did his associations with Diana as shown by Ovid’s later moniker for the goddess ‘Orestean Diana’.33 Servius of the 3rd century gives us an important account of the myths formation and how precisely Diana arrived in the region of Latium according to her mythology. He writes: “Orestes, after the slaying of King Thoas in the Tauric region, fled with his sister Iphigenia, and erected the statue of Diana carried from there, not very far from Aricia”.34 Oreste’s actions in slaying the King of the Tauris would later become the ritualistic selection process for all later Rex Nemorensis. Green summates the importance of Orestes in introducing Diana to Aricia stating ‘Orestes embodied the myth that the Arician’s chose to explain the meaning of Rex Nemorensis’.35 However, despite the influence of Orestes on the origin story of Diana, the cult at Lake Nemi would be far more likened to the barbaric deity of the Tauric people then the Hellenic hunting goddess Artemis.
30 Gordon 1934, 11-12. 31 McCoskey 2010, 314. Fig.6 . 32 Knoefler 1993, fig 72. 33 Ovid, Metamorphosis, 15. 488-91. 34 Servius. 6.136. 35 Green. 2007.201.
Figure 5 : Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, Aigisthos, nos. 6. An example of the vases created that depict Orestes dating to the late sixth and early fifth centuries. This is one of twenty seven in this particular series.
Part 2: Diana’s Arrival in Latium and Her First Worshippers.
The Taurian cult that worshipped the deity known as Artemis Tauropolos largely inspired the ‘Scythian’ and ‘barbaric’ qualities that defined Diana’s cult at Lake Nemi. The most identifiable similarities between the two cults is the centrality of the Rex Nemorensis within the cult at Nemi. A role that was inherited from the original cult of Artemis Tauropolos in Tauris. Strabo gives us an important description of the links between the Latin cult to Diana at Lake Nemi and the early cults of the Tauric people. He writes:
Above it [Aricia] lies, first, on the right hand side of the Appian Way, Lanuvium, a city of the Romans, from which both the sea and Antium are visible, and, secondly, to the left of the Way as you go up from Aricia, the Artemisium, which they call Nemus. The temple of the Arician, they say, is a copy of that of the Tauropolos. And in fact a barbaric, and Scythian, element predominates in the sacred usage.36
Strabo’s reference to the close resemblance of Diana’s sanctuary at Nemi and Tauris is indicative of the closely resembled identity of the Goddess in the Latin plain and her barbarian origins. Thus far I have made several allusions to the ‘barbaric’ appearance of Diana Nemoresis in the Latin region. It is crucial that we therefore understand what components of Diana’s Latin cultic identity were drawn from the Tauric people and were perceived as barbaric by the Roman elite and why. It begins with the mythology surrounding the formation of the first cult at Lake Nemi. Sir James Frazer gives us an easy starting place in summating the cults barbaric appearance in his fictional dissection of the origins of world religions, The Golden Bough:
In the sacred grove there grew a certain tree around which at any time of the day, probably far into the night, a grim figure might be seen to prowl. In his hand he carried a drawn sword, and he kept peering warily about him as if at every instant he expected to be set upon by an enemy. He was a priest and a murderer; and the man for whom he looked was sooner or later to murder him and hold the priesthood in his stead.37
Frazer’s work is expertly crafted and eclectic in its dealing of world religion in several time frames and is not written with the intention of academic scrutiny. However, it is correct in is descriptions of a ritual conducted by the cult of Diana at the sacred grove at Lake Nemi that aimed to select a new priestly-king known as the Rex Nemorensis. The Rex Nemorensis and his selection process is describes by Strabo as being one of “a run-away slave who has slain with his own hand the man previously consecrated to that office”.38 As previously stated, this ritual originated with the murder of the first high priest of Diana, King Thoas of the Tauric region by Orestes. A process of succession by blood sacrifice of the previous Rex Nemorensis became a core pillar of the Latin cults ritualistic identity much as it had been to the Tauric worshipers of Artemis Tauropolos. The ritual symbolised the slaves freedom from servitude by killing his master much as Orestes had done within his own mythology. This cemented Lake Nemi’s favourability amongst the slave populations of the Latin region.
The later popularity of the cult at Nemi amongst the slave populations of Latin region can be explained by their centrality in the identity of Diana and her arrival in the Latin plain. Strabo’s reference to a ‘run-away’ slave is a reference to a Roman law recorded in the Digests that states that: ‘If they (a slave) escape from the mastery of their enemy then they regain their original freedom’.39 Through absconding the clutches of servitude and slaying the former Rex Nemorensis, a runaway slave proved himself worthy of fulfilling the newly available office. Herman’s states that ‘with a mad murderous
36 Strabo. 5.3.12. 37 Frazer 1911, 8-9. 38 Strabo. 5.3.13.
priest as her consort and a sanctuary in a cave that was a refugium for escaped slaves, Diana Nemorensis was quickly interpreted as a curious form of the Greek Goddess Artemis’. She adds ‘ in her appearance Diana was a process of wildlife and nature who over time incorporated Scythian elements from her illustrious namesake Artemis Tauropolos’.40 The addition of these Tauric elements such as the Rex Nemorensis will help us explain both the favourability of the cult with the Latin people and the distain for it by the upper echelons of Roman society. In tandem to this, Servius’s account of the Rex Nemorensis selection process further highlights the centrality of slaves in the cult at Nemi:
After the rite of the sacrifices had been changed, there was a certain tree in this temple from which it was forbidden to break off a branch. However a power was granted to fugitives so that if anyone were able to carry away a branch from that place, he would contend with the fugitive priest in a duel, for the priest there was [also] a fugitive to symbolize the ancient flight.41
Green in her analysis of Diana’s origins suggest that several parts of her mythology are key in explaining the cults later ‘barbaric’ perception. For example, she writes: ‘The fact that Thoas ( the original protector of Diana and victim of Orestes) was a barbarian was essential for it confined the idea of barbarianism in the ritual identity of Rex Nemorensis’.42 Orestes slaughter of the barbarian king of the Taurians enshrined the tradition of a barbarian leader for the cult for centuries to come especially as Orestes himself had been enslaved for the killing of his mother. To mainstream Roman, the thought of a cult that rewarded and heralded the virtues of murder, barbarianism and liberation from mastery earned Diana Nemorensis an unfavourable reputation for barbaric religious acts due to the Roman abjuration of human sacrifice. The infamy for barbarity that the cult of Nemi has attained in the capital because of their preference for foreign rituals is illustrated by Ovid in the Metamorphosis as he repeatedly names Diana Nemorensis, ‘The Scythian Diana in her forest kingdom”.43
Part 3: Renunciation of the Rex.
During the later existence of the cult at Lake Nemi, the Rex Nemorensis continued to operate as an often despised autonomous political entity despite the region of Aricia falling to Rome in the third century B.C.E. Suetonius in his account of the life of Caligula, briefly mentions the Rex Nemorensis. He writes: “In short, there was no one of such low condition or such abject fortune that he did not envy him such advantages as he possessed. Since the King of Nemi had now held his priesthood for many years, he [Caligula] hired a stronger adversary to attack him”.44 This extract is significant because it highlights the unfavourable attitude held by the highest rungs of the Roman state as a result of the Rex Nemorensis’s wide popularity and affluence. Suetonius’s well known distain for Caligula is worthy of note as he may have included this comment to suggest that Caligula is paranoid about a threat to his popularity. Nevertheless, this account demonstrates the willingness of the Roman state to influence the cults of the Latin region if they did not approve of its character.
The dark side of Diana’s worship at Nemi is most vivid in the preceding rituals after the old Rex Nemorensis had been killed. Virgil in his Aeneid describe a ritual of necromancy that was enacted in the caves of the sacred grove that sought to unite the dead with the underworld. Death is of course a part of the natural world and therefore was a part of becoming a priest to Diana. The body of the fallen Rex Nemorensis was set alight on a funerary pyre and cremated. Then as Green states ‘The new Rex would place the bones of his predecessor in the cave-tomb and then await his vision of the underworld 40 Hermans 2010, 39. 41 Servius. 6.137. 42 Green 2007. 204. 43 Ovid. Meta. 14.331. 44 Suetonius. Cal. 35.3.
there’.45 Left alone in a cave with the remains of all previous leaders of the cult, the new Rex would undergo a period of solitude as a show of dedication to Diana as part of a ritual of ‘sacred pain’.46 He would emerge from the cave days later a welcome proponent of the cult of Diana. This ritual is common in societies that accept necromancy as a practice such as Herekleia or Tainaron.47 However, for such a ritual to occur 30km from the city’s boundaries would seem to elite Roman society to be a hubristic breach of proper religious conduct. The Roman abortion of magic or rituals of necromancy is well documented in the accusations of the second sophistic who utilises accusations of witchery to slander their rhetorical rivals.
What is particularly significant about the role of Rex Nemorensis is that it did not appear in the sanctuary later constructed by the city of Rome on the illustrious Aventine hill. This is known through the account of Servius who comments on the transferal of the rite of Rex Nemorensis to a Spartan sanctuary after the Arcian sanctuary collapsed in the third century A.D. He suggests that the rite was transferred to Sparta as a result of their familiarity with violence and ritualistic killings.48 The implication of this transferal was that the rite of Rex Nemorensis was to move outside of Lake Nemi for the first time in history and it was not to the closest Roman temple of Diana on the Aventine. Servius’s suggestions that this was due to the Spartans more appropriate ritualistic palate, would suggest that the acts of Rex Nemorensis were never thought to be reflective of Roman religious rites. Therefore the Rex Nemorensis was not to be welcomed into the Pomerium upon Lake Nemi’s collapse.
The barbarian and Scythian elements of the Tauric cult seem to have survived Diana’s transportation to Nemi. As a result, the whole region of Latium continued to draw hatred from the capital because of their failure to adhere to the traditional morals of social decorum and Republican values that became the Modus Operandi for third and second century Roman society. Cicero in his accounts of a dispute between Mark Anthony and Gaius states that the insults hurled by Anthony were aimed at Gaius barbarian blood line. He writes: ‘He, Anthony, taunts Gaius with his humble birth though even his farther had he lived would have been a consul. “A mother from Aricia”: you might think he was speaking of a woman from Tralles or from Ephesus’.49 Cicero expresses deep abjuration for Anthony’s remarks that suggest that a family from Aricia, the region of Lake Nemi, was of a laughable social status despite the political success of Gaius’s farther.
Cicero chooses this instance to interject with his own opinion on the quickness of the Roman elite to deem anyone not of longstanding Roman birth a barbarian. He responds to Anthony, stating:
‘Do you see how we who come from Municipia are looked down upon that is just about all of us: for how few of us do not come from such a town. And if an ancient community such as Aricia a Roman ally under treaty so close as to adjoin the Roman boundaries, what municipality does he not despise’.50
Cicero’s decision to include this retort suggest that this opinion was more widespread than just Anthony. Rather, Anthony’s elitist exclamation was symptomatic of a republican society that viewed the surrounding Latin plain as barbaric compared to civilised Rome. It is therefore easy to understand how the ritual practice of Rex Nemorensis at the cult of Diana at Lake Nemi added to the already barbaric appearance of the provinces.
A similar comparison of the vindication received by the Arcian people and the willingness of Rome to change the identity of local Italy cults can be seen in the Roman attitudes toward the cult of Erycine. Originally, Venus Erycine was worshiped in the small localised areas of provincial Sicily. 45 Green 2007, 175. 46 Glucklich 2001,149. 47 Ogden 2001, 61-8. 48 Servius. 2.116. 49 Cicero. Phil. 315. 50 Cicero. Phil. 316.
However, in 217 BC Rome suffered a heavy loss at the battle of Lake Trasimene during the Carthaginian war and was therefore ordered by the Sybiline Oracle to capture the deity Venus Erycina from Carthage’s allied city, Eryx. Venus Eryx became Venus Genetrix and was given a home on Rome’s Aventine, much like that of Diana’s.51 This sanctuary became exclusive to select members of the Roman elite, however a version of the deity that was more comparable to the original fertility goddess of the Eryxian people was established in 181BC.52 It was constructed in the plebeian regions of the city toward the Colline Gate and outside the religious boundary line of the city, the Pomerium.
Ovid gives us an insight into the relationship between temples existing to the same deity within close proximity. He writes: ‘The real Erycine cult, retaining the oriental practice of the hierodouleia or ‘sacred prostitution’ peculiar to the Sicilian model, took place in the sanctuary near the Porta Collina and was therefore relegated to a location outside the pomerium’.53 It was because of a specific ritual that the Romans rejected this interpretation of the deity and instead centralised their version within the heart of the city. It would be logical to suggest that the identity of the two sanctuaries and their cults were very different. This is evident in Strabo’s accounts of Venus Eryx as he ‘designated only the temple near the Porta Collina and not the one on the Capitoline Hill as a true subsidiary branch of the sanctuary in Erxy’.54 To Strabo, the temple consecrate to Venus Erxya on the Aventine did not qualify as a true temple derivative of the original as it lacked certain aspects of her ritualistic identity.55 The same question of validity of worship will be raised and answered in relation to Lake Nemi.
Overall, the Tauric identity of Diana at Lake Nemi appears unsaturated and firmly identifiable and stands in stark contrast to the values expressed throughout he Roman religious system. If the region of Aricia was mocked for its uncivilised ways then the question still remains, why did they add the most prominent local deity to their pantheon ? And what was it bout the Cult of Diana Nemorensis that meant that it survived despite Roman distain of the rite of Rex Nemorensis. The answers can be found in the analysis of the unique topographical factors of Lake Nemi in comparison to any other worship spot of Diana, including the Aventine.
Part 4: The Site of Lake Nemi.
Lake Nemi is as startling a landscape now as it was for pilgrims visiting both in early Roman history and the years following the fall of the Republic . The lake sits in a thirty meter deep volcanic crater that is skirted by thick forest and vegetation. The site can be found slightly removed from the crossroads that branch off of the Via Appia. Diana’s sanctuaries were often found at cross-road sites as a result of her secondary function as a patron of travellers and journeys.56 Professor Herman’s suggest that throughout Lake Nemi’s existence ‘part of the region remained rather isolated with dense wood on the steep sided crater, lakes and dozens of little streams.’57 The seclusion and absence of any building must have been a clear juxtaposition with the noise and pollution of the capital. This solitude from an industrialising empire would have surely presented itself as a perfect landscape for the worship of the goddess of the natural world. Both to the Latin people of the sixth century onwards to whom she was known as Diana Nemorensis and to the indigenous Etruscan and other rural communities of the eight and seventh centuries.
A vivid description of the natural beauty of Lake Nemi can be found In a poetic dialogue of Grattius, He writes: ‘…the deity [Diana] must be summoned from high Olympus and the protection of the gods 51 Livy. 23.32. 52 Lipka 2009,72-73. 53 Ovid. Fasti. 4.865-72. 54 Strabo. 6.2.6. 55 Anguissola 2007, 645. 56 Green 2007, 7. 57 Hermans 2010, 3.
invoked by suppliant ritual. For that reason we construct cross-road shrines in groves of soaring trees and set our sharp-pointed torches hard by the woodland precinct of Diana, and the whelps are decked with the wonted wreath, and at the centre of the cross-roads in the grove the hunters fling down among the flowers the very weapons which now keep holiday in the festal peace of the sacred rites.58 The description of the soaring trees and flowers that now hold the torches carried by the hunters to the grotto creates an atmosphere of a wild natural landscape that houses the rituals that bring Diana down from Olympus. His specification that it is ‘For this reason that we construct cross-road shrines in groves of soaring trees’ suggest that the location of Lake Nemi is in essence a part of the ritual of worshiping her. Therefore, the construction of their sanctuaries in an area of thick vegetation and the undisturbed conduction of their cult rituals amongst the natural world was of paramount importance to establishing a strong connection between Diana and her follower in the Latin region. We shall return to the nature of these rituals once we have fully established the topography of the landscape and the elements of Lake Nemi that created its sacred reputation.
To the North side of the crater lies a triangular segment of flat land that a small sanctuary would later be constructed. However, in the dawn of religious activity at Nemi in the eighth centuries, the cult site remained untouched from man-made buildings and relied on the natural splendour of the creator, forest and vegetation. The serene environment at Lake Nemi was a natural pairing for a cult wishing to worship Diana the protector of the natural world. Varro describes the site as a place that ‘unites the three cosmic levels- the earth, the canopy of the heavens and through the depths of the lake and the caves at it shores the underworld’.59 Diana’s early Latin identity and that of her cult was synonymous with the sacred landscape of Nemi. Varro’s description of a cosmically surreal environment at the sacred grove is indicative of the importance of the location to the religious experience to be had at on the shores of lake Nemi. Varro introduces too us the first notions of the importance of the sacred land of cultic site, and how it created an intimate connection between the deity and its followers.
Part 5: First Inhabitant & The Sacred Landscape.
Cultural historian Pierre Nora defines the sacred landscape as a ‘place of memory of past events and actions of historical significance that shaped the social and religious identity of their population’.60 Through repeated actions over long instances of time a special bond is created with the landscapes that house centuries of memories and rituals. In the Christian and Jewish faiths areas and items ordained as sacred are demarked as Holy relics of a divine nature. Comparatively, the landscapes of the Roman era organically became sacred and designated as so by the people who worshipped there. I agree with Greens position that ‘sacred space is defined by use’, as opposed to being defined by a constructed and often benefaction funded sanctuary.61 The cult places of Latium were valued as sacred by their surrounding communities, long before Roman occupation and construction ensued.
To the people of the Latin plain the spiritual nature of the location of Nemi did not begin with Orestes’s delivery of Tauric Artemis. Rather it began with the discovery of this land in the first place. If sacred space is defined by usage and not be construction then, as Green suggests ‘buildings represent only one way to define the places where men and women could worship their gods’.62 Therefore, it is logical to suggest that some form of spiritual or sacred status had been place on the natural splendour of the sacred grove and its lake from the first time the region was inhabited. This is evident in Gierow’s 1964 analysis of religious activity at Lake Nemi. He illustrates that small ornamental artefacts have been recovered that suggest settlements began to spread across the region of Aricia from 800BC onward. Specifically, 58 Grattius. Cynegetica. 481-496. 59 Varro. 5.17. 60 Nora 1984, 18. 61 Green 2007, 10. 62 Green 2007, 10.
burials in the first graveyards of Aricia and animal bones in the context of human habitation have been uncovered dating to the eight century.63
This suggests that human contact with the natural wonder of Lake Nemi began at least five centuries before the first known construction of a temple structure within the sacred grove at Nemi. The first constructed sacred environment to be found on the banks of Lake Nemi was a wall of a temple that dated at its earliest to the Republican era that was later rebuilt twice in the first and then again first century.64 Similarly, only a handful of brooches and statues have been recovered that date between the eight and seventh centuries. This suggests early visitation was limited to the local communities as opposed to being a pilgrimage destination to those wishing to worship with the cult of Diana.65 This has been explained by Blagg as being due to a lack of any constructed buildings until the end of the archaic period.66 Some scholars have suggested that a small sanctuary was erected on the slope of the volcanic creator during the late archaic period as opposed to the later construction of the second century at the foot of the slope.67 However this side has never been excavated and therefore as far as is known, the sacred nature of Lake Nemi was wholly reliant on the serene environment until the at least the end of the archaic period.
Additionally, statues known to be votive deposits by comparing them to others in the region have been found dating to the seventh century. These, alongside of a bronze fibula dated to the same age, were found in the region that would become the terrace of the sanctuary constructed in the third and second century. The discovery of artefacts of religious activity proves the shores of Lake Nemi were valued for their natural sacred environment before manmade structures became the primary space of worship. It also demonstrates the vast expanse of time were sacred space was defined by its usage and housed in the natural world. Once again the analysis of Professor Hermans proves vital in highlighting the unique longevity of worship at the site, concluding that ‘It has more than once been noticed that the cult sites on the Alban mount show remarkable continuity with cultic activity often going back to the archaic period or even to proto-urban times’.68
The importance of Lake Nemi to the early settlements of the Latin people due to its unique landscape is exhibited in the accounts of Cato. In his work ‘Origines’ he records how the sacred grove of Diana came intro fruition as an official place of sacred value in the fourth century. He records that the grove was dedicated to Diana by a joint coalition of Latin cities, information that he had received by a fourth century grammarian known as Priscian.69 He writes:
‘Egerius Baebius of Tusculum, the Latin dictator, dedicated the grove of Diana in the wood of Aricia. The following peoples took part jointly: people of Tusculum, Aricia, Lanuvium, Laurentum [i.e. Lavinium], Cora, Tibur, Pometia, Rutulan Ardea’.70
Such a show of uniformed appreciation for the religiously active site demonstrates how the importance of Nemi as a sacred landscape transcended the cult members themselves and became accepted amongst a large share of the inhabitants of the Latin plain. Green states that we should draw particular attention to this example because as far as we can tell Rome was not included within this dedication. The absence of Rome within such a collective dedication would suggest that in 500 BC lake Nemi was homogeneously valued and beloved as the home of Diana by the native regions of Latium before any buildings were added as the region became a part of the expanding Roman Empire. Gierow 63 Gierow 1964, 354-6. 64 Green 2007, 9. 65 Bouma 1996, 61-62. 66 Blagg 1986, 211. 67 Coarelli 1987, 187-8. 68 Hermans, 2010, 29. 69 Hermans 2010, 50. 70 Cato. Or. Fr. 58.
states that during the time of this joint dedication large quantities of terracotta figures, anatomical votives, coins and ‘small statues mostly of Diana’ have been found in the sacred grove’.71 Therefore highlighting the long amount of time that Lake Nemi was active as the only place of worship within the Latin plain and how such vestige was placed on the region because of its natural landscape.
In summation, it is clear that the early Latin people of Aricia believed that Lake Nemi’s natural environment within the volcanic creators was a perfect place for the worship ‘for a goddess whose domain is the wild’.72 Diana’s Hellenic association as a hunting deity and protector of the natural world makes her worship in the wild, free from the constraints of manmade structures particularly appropriate. Green ends this discussion on the fitting nature of Lake Nemi as a cult site for Diana by stating ‘the absence of building must also have defined a certain religious quality for her worshippers that must be preserved when small constructions were later added’.73 This undefinable religious quality became manifested in the rituals conducted in honour of Diana that revolved exclusively around the topography of the Arcian sanctuary and the lake itself.
Part 6: Speculum Diana
The lake at Nemi was known to many of the inhabitants of the Latin Region as ‘Speculum Diane’ or Diana’s Mirror. Statius records that this was due to the way that the moonlight, Diana’s earthly form,
71 Gierow 1966, 39-40. 72 Green 2007, 10. 73 Green 2007, 11.
would reflect on the lake at certain points of the year causing the lake to shimmer incandescently.74 This natural phenomenon became a corner stone of the cults yearly religious calendar in the form of a festival known as the Nemoralia, that we shall return to in due course. However, the fusion of the moonlight on the lake and the haunting volcanic vegetation established Lake Nemi’s role as a contact point between the deity and her cult members. To the people of the Latin peninsula, Diana’s earthly manifestation was the Moon itself. We know this from a strong and repeated association of the goddess in the accounts of prominent primary authors. For example in Seneca’s Phaedra the character of the Nurse prays to Diana by calling forth: 'bright star of heaven, glory of the night, by whose changing beams the universe shines clear'.75 Similarly, Diana connection to the moonlight appears in a multitude of other Roman poetic works suggesting that Diana’s association with the lunar deities ‘was the established notion of the goddess in Italy from the early Roman Republic onwards’.76 The likes of Varro, Cicero and Horace all speak of Diana intimate connection with the moon and even begin to use the name Diana as a synonym in its place.77
It is reasonable to imagine that the glow of the moonlight reflecting on the Lake as worshiped looked on through the thick woodland would make for a very atmospheric landscape to worship the protector of the natural world. I believe that the unique and irreplaceable combination of wild forest, moonlight and volcanic Lakeland made Lake Nemi a more momentous place of worship for the people of the Latin plain. The notion that certain temples had a more prominent and often indescribable spiritual significance than others is attested to by Plutarch. In relation to the sanctuary at Delphi, he states that: ’No Visit delighted us more than a visit to this temple… It believes and conceives most firmly that the god is present, more there than anywhere else’.78 In the case of Diana, it is sensible to suggest that the natural phenomenon of the moon dancing on the lake would convince the inhabitants of the Latin plain that Diana was most present within the sacred grove than anywhere else.
Part 7: The Nemoralia & The Lamps of Nemi.
The hallowed way in which the moonlight shone on the landscape of Nemi was worshipped by the cult of Diana Nemorensis in an annual festival that allowed its followers to converse with Diana through the medium of the lake. The Nemoralia is estimated to have taken place on the Ides of August,
74 Statius. Silvae. 3. I.56. 75 Seneca. Phaedra. 1.410-411. 76 Alföldi 1960, 137-144. 77 Varro. 5.68. Hor. Odes. 4.6.38. 78 Plutarch. 1101E.
beginning around 150BC during a time in which the cult at Nemi had increased in public awareness and begin to catch the attention of the slave and female populations of the city of Rome. The festival begins with a daylong pilgrimage to the Lake whilst carrying a burning torch. Propertius describes a vast number of pilgrims travelling from Rome to Lake Nemi in the first century BC: ‘I see you hurrying in excitement with a burning torch to the grove of Nemi where you bear light in honour of the Goddess Diana’.79 In this account we are introduced to the notion that the torches carried to Lake Nemi are a part of the ritualist process of honouring Diana during this festival. Similarly, Ovid offers us a parallel description, stating ‘Often does a woman whose prayers Diana answered walk from Rome carrying a burning torch’.80 Ovid’s specification of a female procession to the sacred grove is a reflection of the cults growing popularity amongst sectors of Roman society that where often misrepresented or even rejected by more exclusive and affluence based cults of the Republic. Often Roman women are specifically mentioned as participants in the procession to Lake Nemi. However, it is not known if the Nemoralia was a women-only ritual as Propertius does not specify.81
The aforementioned lamps that light the path of the worshippers route along the Via Appia where an essential tools in worshiping the moon deity Diana during The Nemoralia. Diosono and Cinaglia define this relationship thus: ‘The importance of light and lighting tools within the sanctuary must be attributed to the very nature of Diana Nemorensis’.82 In essence, it appears as though the bringing of light to the sanctuary was a form of offering that was conducive in evoking Diana to shine on the lake and interact with her followers. The importance of the lamps is evident in the archaeological record that was found during excavations on the Lake in the 1930’s. The excavation was primarily carried out with the intention of recovering the two pleasure barges of Caligula.83 However, Diosono and Cinaglia suggests that the vast quantity of lamps that where recovered as part of this excavation adhere to the accounts of Ovid that they were part of the ritual activities of the cult of Diana. They suggest that the light they bared was crucial to the rituals conducted once the pilgrimage to Nemi had been completed.
79 Propertius.2. 80 Ovid: Fasti. 3.27. 81 Prop. 2.32.14-16.
82 Diosono & Cinaglia 2016, 459. 83 Diosono & Cinaglia 2016, 460.
5 6 7 13 38 38 60 28 21 24 29 1 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
TIMELINE OF RITUAL LAMP DEPOSITS IN LAKE NEMI.
Timeline of Deposits.
