Tiberinalia

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The Tiber, in the characteristic reclining posture of a river god, on the Mattei sarcophagus, in a detail from the scene of Mars approaching Rhea Silvia for the union that produced Romulus and Remus 0457 - Roma, Museo d. civilta romana - Sarcofago Mattei Foto Giovanni Dall'Orto, 12-Apr-2008.jpg
The Tiber, in the characteristic reclining posture of a river god, on the Mattei sarcophagus, in a detail from the scene of Mars approaching Rhea Silvia for the union that produced Romulus and Remus

The Tiberinalia is a Roman festival of late antiquity, recorded in the Calendar of Filocalus (354 AD), on August 17 (XVI Kal. Sept.), the same day as the archaic Portunalia. As a festival honoring Father Tiber, it may reflect renewed Imperial patronage of traditional Roman deities, in particular the dedication made to Tiberinus by the emperors Diocletian (reigned 284–305) and Maximianus. [1]

August's festivals deal with themes of agricultural bounty ensured by sun and water, centering on the Volcanalia of Volcanus (Vulcan) on August 23. [2] The Portunalia, like the Volcanalia, was represented in large letters on extant fasti, indicating that it was regarded as among the most ancient holidays that were on the calendar before 509 BC. [3]

Portunus was originally a guardian of gateways and only later by extension a harbor god, and his relation to Tiber or Tiberinus as god of the Tiber river is debatable; some have seen the Tiberinalia as assimilating the archaic Portunalia. [4] Theodor Mommsen inferred that the two gods were the same, but other scholars have rejected the identification. [5] Varro says that the Portunalia marks the institution of a shrine (aedes) to Portunus in portu Tiberino, but the meaning of portus here is unclear; Ovid mentions atria Tiberina ("halls of Tiberinus"). [6]

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Argei

The rituals of the Argei were archaic religious observances in ancient Rome that took place on March 16 and March 17, and again on May 14 or May 15. By the time of Augustus, the meaning of these rituals had become obscure even to those who practiced them. For the May rites, a procession of pontiffs, Vestals, and praetors made its way around a circuit of 27 stations, where at each they retrieved a figure fashioned into human form from rush, reed, and straw, resembling men tied hand and foot. After all the stations were visited, the procession, accompanied by the Flaminica Dialis in mourning guise, moved to the Pons Sublicius, the oldest known bridge in Rome, where the gathered figures were tossed into the Tiber River.

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In ancient Roman religion, the Fordicidia was a festival of fertility, held two days after the Ides of April, that pertained to farming and animal husbandry. It involved the sacrifice of a pregnant cow to Tellus, the ancient Roman goddess of the Earth, in proximity to the festival of Ceres (Cerealia) on April 19.

<i>Fasti Ostienses</i> A fragmentary calendar or fasti from Ostia

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Mamuralia

In ancient Roman religion, the Mamuralia or Sacrum Mamurio was a festival held on March 14 or 15, named only in sources from late antiquity. According to Joannes Lydus, an old man wearing animal skins was beaten ritually with sticks. The name is connected to Mamurius Veturius, who according to tradition was the craftsman who made the ritual shields (ancilia) that hung in the temple of Mars. Because the Roman calendar originally began in March, the Sacrum Mamurio is usually regarded as a ritual marking the transition from the old year to the new. It shares some characteristics with scapegoat or pharmakos ritual.

<i>Aprilis</i> original fourth month of the Roman calendar

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References

  1. CIL 6.773 (= ILS 626; Michele Renee Salzman, On Roman Time: The Codex Calendar of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity (University of California Press, 1990), pp. 156 and 164, concurring with Degrassi and citing Varro, De lingua latina 5.7.29–30 and 6.19–20.
  2. Douglas Boin, Ostia in Late Antiquity (Cambridge University Press, 2013), p. 211.
  3. H.H. Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic (Cornell University Press, 1981), pp. 41, 176.
  4. Boin, Ostia in Late Antiquity, p. 211.
  5. William Warde Fowler, The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic (London, 1908), pp. 202–203.
  6. Ovid, Fasti 4.329; Fowler, Roman Festivals, p. 203.