Ovid's Fasti: Historical Readings at Its Bimillennium

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OVID'S FASTI

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Ovid's Fasti Historical Readings at its Bimillennium

Edited by GERALDINE HERBERT-BROWN

OXPORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

This book has been printed digitally and produced in a standard specification in order to ensure its continuing availability

OXJFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective ofexcclen.ee in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan South Korea Poland Portugal Singapore Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam

Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Oxford University Press 2002 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) Reprinted 2007 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover And you must impose this same condition on any acquirer ISBN 978*0-19-815475-4

PREFACE

THAT nearly 5,000 lines of a poem on the Roman calendar should survive for 2,000 years is reason enough for celebration; that that same poem should generate ever-increasing comment and spirited controversy at its bimiUennium is double cause for celebration. This volume of papers on Ovid's Fasti was conceived for that dual purpose. The exact date of the poem's inception of course cannot be known, but it can be narrowed down to the early years of the first decade of our era. Book 4 refers to Augustus' restoration of the temple of Cybele in AD 3, so the poem was in progress after that. Ovid himself claimed that its composition was interrupted by his exile to Tomis in AD 8. He also claimed in the same breath that the entire 12 books existed (Jr. 2. 549-52). Nevertheless he subsequently revised sections of the first six in the period between the death of Augustus in. AD 14 and his own in 17. It is these first six books, covering January to June, which have lived to see their third millennium. This volume is also a tribute to the expanding readership of Ovid's Fasti and the increasingly varied ways of looking at it. During the last two decades of the twentieth century readerresponse criticism, which focuses upon the active engagement of the reader with a text, has developed alongside the more traditional quest for authorial intent and target audience as a valid basis of literary interpretation. The meaning of the text is created by the reader, which makes it open to the play of innumerable meanings and the creating of tension between conflicting yet equally valid interpretations. The advantage of this approach is that it makes the text larger than the personality of the poet and the strictures of his culture, and thus provides a variety of exciting new observation points. As a demonstration of that advantage I have invited Fasti scholars representing a range of different approaches: traditionalist, reader-response,

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and eclectic, to offer a reading on a subject of shared interest: the Fasti as a sign of its times. Ovid's Fasti is the product of a period for which extant contemporary evidence is scarce. Yet even now, despite its growing popularity, the poem has still to make an impact outside the small circle of Ovid devotees. Not enough historians are appreciating the poem as a mine of information about Roman culture in the late Augustan and early Tiberian Principates. The essays here are an attempt to redress the balance. I wish to express my gratitude to all the contributors who have joined in the spirit of this project. Some scholars are well established and internationally known, others are high achievers with a lower profile. Others again are new to the field, but no less insightful for that. They all bring their considerable but diverse talents and interests to bear in trying to reconstruct the value-systems which informed the poem. This project did not arise from a conference and some contributors have not seen all papers. Cross-referencing of subjects and themes is to be found in the index: the calendar, politics, women, mime, myth, cult, religion, astronomy, astrology, intertextuality, gender, speech, time, and space are among such topics discussed. Some papers, while different in approach, may complement each other; others, similar in approach, may contradict each other. There is overlap in some of the passages discussed, but where this occurs, there is no repetition of construction. There is no party line in this collection, no neat tying up of themes. The tension arising from the discrepancy in interpretation and approach is an apt reflection of the tension arising from the contradictory and elusive nature of the Fasti itself. Yet whatever colour lens one chooses to use we are all still, as modern readers trying to make sense of an ancient culture, a sign of our times. The history of interpretation of a text constantly shifts and evolves. The reader-response critic, in constructing either the anonymous 'Augustan reader' working inside the ideological system, or the 'disembodied reader' stationed outside it, always risks imposing a modern western Judaeo-Christian frame of reference upon the poem, or reading a democratic distaste for totalitarianism into what is being said. The same applies to the seeker of authorial intent. Many of Ovid's 'intentions' can be found to be compatible with

PREFACE

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the ideology of animal liberationists, social critics, Marxists, feminists, anti-fascists, or environmentalists, to make the poet come across as a thoroughly modern man. This, of course, is no bad thing in itself, as it simply adds a universal dimension to his work. But whether we focus on the author or the reader, a distorted view of his culture will be inevitable, despite our best intentions. There is no need to despair, however. It is the continued quest, the constant debate, which is keeping the Fasti—and our cultural past—alive. It is hoped that this volume will play its part to that end by inspiring its own readers with the desire to join in the dialogue. So who will those readers be? Everyone who is interested in the early Roman Principate. The undergraduate student or first-time reader of the Fasti, however, would be advised to seek essential background details about Ovid and his environment elsewhere, as there is not the space to include them here. Literature on the subject is vast, but the introduction by Peter Green to his translations of the Erotic Poems (1982), and to the Poems from Exile (1994), and by Elaine Fantham to her commentary to the Fasti Book IV(1998), are especially recommended for that purpose. And as a survey of recent work on the Fastihas been conducted no less than three times in the last decade-by Miller (1992
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literature throughout his life. He himself, as patron and dedicatee, received learned commentaries on the Alexandrian epigoni poets, Valerius Maximus* Facto, et Dicta Memorabilia, Apollonides' commentary on the Silli (Lampoons) of Timon, Getmanieus' translation of the Phaenomena of Aratus, and Manilius' Astronomica. As Pontifex Maximus he should have received the revised version of Ovid's Fasti, but Ovid bypassed him in favour of his heir, Germanicus. Tiberius Caesar was a discerning reader, but not only with regard to quality. During Augustus' lifetime he was more sensitive than Augustus to the way in which the Princeps was portrayed in literature (Suet. Aug. 51. 3). As Princeps himself he became notorious for burning literature which he found politically offensive, and having the authors prosecuted for treason.. Cassius Severus, Cremutius Cordus, L(R)abienus, Clutorius Priscus, Votienus Montanus, Sextus Paconianus, and Mamercus Aemilius Scaurus are some of the unfortunates whose names Seneca, Tacitus, Suetonius, and Dio have handed down. The climate of oppression was such that it was said that a poet was charged with having slandered Agamemnon in a tragedy (Suet. Tib. 61. 3). There could be no better-informed, more sensitive, or more suspicious reader of Ovid's poetry, no reader with a greater vested interest, than Tiberius Caesar. So what did he think of it? His panegyrist, Velleius Paterculus (2. 36. 3), claims that Ovid ranked as one of the most important poets of the age for having achieved perfection in his art. The list excludes Propertius and Horace. Written in a period of book burning and purging, Velleius' testimony to the imperial endorsement of Ovid's poetry is revelatory. Are there other indicators to the truth of it? Despite the charge of immorality for his erotic elegies, Ovid was never silenced in exile, before or after the death of Augustus. In AD 8 the ATS Amatoria was banned from the three public libraries in Rome, but the work was not destroyed. Nothing attracts more attention to a work than a public ban. Meanwhile, in the epistolatory corpus from exile, the Ars Amatoria is present, implicitly or explicitly, in every poem. There could have been no better or more protracted advertisement for the carmen whose pernicious influence was supposed to have; upset Augustus so much. If it was not. already

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so beforehand, the Ars Amatoria must have become the most sought-after and discussed literary work in Rome upon receipt of the exilic poems. Why, then, was Ovid allowed to publicize his didactic work on adultery so blatantly, so relentlessly? Why were his audacious taunts to 'Caesar' that the Ars was not the real cause of his exile allowed to be made public? Was he not jeopardizing its survival by constantly harping upon it? History has shown that using a work of literature as a justification for condemning its author was characteristic more of Tiberius than of Augustus. So, too, was a long-delayed retribution against the perpetrator of an unofficial, offence (Herbert-Brown 1998). In 1 BC, the year the Ars Amatoria was published, Tiberius was out of favour with Augustus, his tribunician power lapsed, and his ostensible retirement was suddenly transformed into involuntary exile. Ovid was safe. In the summer of AD 8, following the death of Messalla, the downfall ofjulia II, and in command of a large army, Tiberius was de facto the most powerful man in the world. Augustus was diminished in the process. A noticeable decline in the freedom of speech and literature begins from this period. Ovid was on his way to Tomis by the end of that year. Yet. the sequel reveals that it was not Ovid's poetry that was the problem, for Tiberius did not allow his animosity for the man to impinge upon his assessment of his work. Perhaps Ovid knew that if he never divulged the nature of the error he could entrust to Tiberius the fate of his art. It certainly seems he had no concerns on that score, because Ms personal disgrace did nothing to diminish his confidence in his posthumous reputation as a poet. On the contrary, the last nine lines of the Metamorphoses are, to the modern mind at least, the greatest challenge imaginable to a Princeps as paranoid as Tiberius, who sought subversion in every written word. Yet it was Tiberius who was prepared to grant that which the poet desired far more than his personal survival: fama. We know how Augustus needed the poets to immortalize his achievements. But it was a two-way thing. Writers also needed the Princeps, as so many under his successor discovered to their cost. The disgraced Ovid, especially, needed Tiberius' endorsement to secure his future glory. He got it, and it seems he never doubted that he would. To understand why, when

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Tiberius denied it to so many others, presents a hefty challenge to all students of this period. Tiberius Caesar, then, is the most important reader Ovid, (has) ever had. For this reason it would seem appropriate to dedicate this bimillennial celebration of the Fasti to the memory of the imperial literary critic, in recognition of his ability to separate the carmen from the error, the artist from the man, and for his willingness to allow the artist to live. Immortality for Ovid meant eternal recognition of the god in him, his creative genius, his meliorpars. It was the dour, vindictive autocrat who gave truth to the prophecy of the bard: 'perque omnia saecula fama, ... vivam'. It was Tiberius Caesar who allowed Ovid's melior pars safe passage through his own era to begin its journey through time, beyond the stars and down the ages, so that we, at the 2,000th anniversary of its composition, can celebrate the Fasti, the poem that was not rededicated to him. I trust Ovid would not begrudge him this latter-day dedication. G.H-B. Macquarie University Kal. Ian. MM.

CONTENTS

List of Contributors List oflllustrations 1. Martial Arts. Mars Ultor in the Forum Augustum: A Verbal Monument with a Vengeance ALESSANDRO BARCHIESI 2. The Fasti as a Source for Women's Participation in Roman Cult ELAINE FANTHAM 3. Vaga Signa: Orion and Sirius in Ovid's Fasti EMMA GEE 4. Varro's Three Theologies and their Influence on the Fasti C. M. C, GREEN 5. Ovid and the Stellar Calendar GERALDI NE HERBERT-BROWN 6. Seen, not Heard: Feminea Lingua in Ovid's Fasti and the Critical Gaze PETER MARK KEEGAN 7. Representing the Great Mother to Augustus PETER E. KNOX 8. imperil pignora certa: The Role of Numa in Ovid's Fasti

xiii xv

1

23

47 71

101 129

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175

R.J, LlTTLEWOOD

9. Ovid's Liberalia JOHN F. MILLER 10. Contesting Time and Space: Fasti 6. 637-48 CAROLE E. NEWLANDS 11. Added Days: Calendiical Poetics and the JulioClaudian Holidays M. PASCO-PRANGER 1.2. Ovid and the Stage T, P. WISEMAN

199 225

251

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References Index Locomm General Index

CONTENTS

300 315 319

LIST

OF

CONTRIBUTORS

ALESSANDRO BARCHIESI, Professor of Latin literature at the University of Siena at Arezzo, works especially on Augustan poetry and the interaction between Classics and contemporary theory. He has published in English on Virgil, Horace, and Ovid, including The Poet and the Prince (1997), Speaking Volumes (2001), and has co-edited Ovidian Transformations (1999) and Iambic Ideas (2001), ELAINE FANTHAM was Giger Professor of Latin at Princeton University from 1986 until her retirement in 2000. Her scholarly output includes Comparative Studies in Republican Latin Imagery (1972), Seneca's Troades: A Literary Commentary with Introduction, Text and Translation (1982), commentaries on Lucan de Bello Civili 77(1992) and Ovid: Fasti 7F(1998), Roman Literary Culture (1996, 1999) and (with Foley, Kampen, Pomeroy, and Shapiro), Wom.en in Classical Antiquity: Image and Text (1994, 1995), She has been writing about Ovid's Fasti since 1983, EMMA GEE is Lecturer in Classics at the University of Exeter and is author of Ovid, Aratus and Augustus: Astronomy in Ovid's Fasti (2000). Her current research interests are Cicero's Aratea and the Roman reception of Greek science, C. M. C. GREEN is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Iowa, and author of numerous articles on Varro, Ovid, and Roman religion. She is in the process of completing a monograph on the evolution of the cult of Diana in Italy. GKRAUHNK HERBERT-BROWN is research fellow in Roman Histoiy at Macquarie University. She is author of Ovid and the Fasti: A Historical Study, and articles on Roman Republican and early Principate history.

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LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

PETER MARK KEEGAN is a postgraduate student at Macquarie University and is working on a gendered rescript of the epigraphic corpora of Rome and its environs. He is the editor of Stele, vol. 5 and has been invited to sit on a panel of the 12th Berkshire Conference for Women's History in 2002. PETER E. KNOX is Professor of Classics at the University of Colorado. He is the author of Ovid's Metamorphoses and the Traditions of Augustan Poetry (1986) and a commentary on Ovid's Heroides(1995}. He has published a number of articles on Latin literature and Hellenistic poetry. R. J. LITTLEWOOD has written a number of articles on Tibullus and Ovid's Fasti Following eighteen years teaching, mainly history, in Oxfordshire, she has now returned to research and is working on historical and iconographic aspects of the Fasti JOHN F. MILLER teaches at the University of Virginia, where he is chairman of the Department of Classics. He is the author of Ovid's Elegiac Festivals: Studies in the Fasti (1991) and numerous articles on various Latin authors. CAROLE E, NEWLANDS is Professor of Classics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She is author of Playing with Time: Ovid and the Fasti (1995), of Statius' Silsae and the Poetics of Empire (2002), and many articles on Latin poetry and medieval literature. M. PASCO-PRANGER is Assistant Professor at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. She is presently writing a book treating the relationship between poetics, calendrics, and politics in the Fasti. T. P. WISEMAN is Professor Emeritus of Classics and Ancient History in the University of Exeter, and a Fellow of the British Academy, His most recent books are Remus: A Roman Myth (1995) and Roman Drama and Roman History (1998).

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1, Plan of the Forum Augustum and the temple of Mars Ultor (after Degrassi in Zanker 1968) 2, Aeneas veiled for sacrifice, Ara Pacis Augustae, Rome (photographer Singer) 3, Statue of Augustus, Termi Museum, Rome (photographer Koppermann)

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Martial Arts Mars Ultor in the Forum Augustum: A Verbal Monument with a Vengeance ALESSANDRO BARCHIESI

In the late Augustan and early Tiberian age, the position of the emperor was defined as a static principis. Being a sentinel, the Princeps mans and controls boundaries, one being that of Roman space of course, but there is also a double temporal boundary: he is the one who stands between the old Republic and a new order, and between the present and a potential return of the civil wars. Ready to attack foreign enemies, he is also ready to stifle the return of internal discord. This is presumably the reason why, so many years after Philippi (and Actium), the Senate in the Senatus Consultum de On. Pisone Patre (46-7), addresses the emperor as the one who has buried the evils of the civil wars, 'iam pridem numine divi August! virtutibusque Tiber! Caesaris August! omnibus civilis belli sepultis malls' ('when all the evils of civil wars had long since been buried through the numen of the divine Augustus and the virtues of Tiberius'),1 This implies that the presence of the civil wars is both hidden and memorialized, precisely the way burial, sepultura, operates on dead people in order to make death acceptable to the community: concealing the corpse, but keeping memory visible. One might say that the civil, wars lie 'beneath' the Augustan order just as the image of universal peace and victory defines its borderlines. 1 See Potter {1998} 70- \; 'my point is to suggest that the specific virtues that are adduced in connection with, the damns Augusta offer a reading of the history of the late Republic that is intended to show how the damns stands between the Roman state and the chaos of Cicero's generation*.

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This official language of burial collides, almost through a visual-verbal pun, with Ovid's image of the battlefield of Philippi, strewn with white bones (3. 707-8): morte iacet merita: testes estate, Philippi, et quorum sparsis ossibus albet humus, , , , lies dead as he deserves. Bear witness, Philippi, and the battlefield white with their scattered bones,2

We return later to the striking style of this passage (sigmatism, assonance, archaic forms). At present, I only need to say that in this moment of his poem, one attached to the Ides of March, Ovid is stretching the tradition of elegy to cover a spectacle that had been an impossible bet to Propertius, In the recusatio of Propertius 2. 1. 27, the image of Philippi-'civilia busta, Philippos*—was clearly presented as the ultimate non-elegiac subject, and one should not underrate the paradox of 'busta*. If Philippi had been the burial site of the civic community of Rome, as well as the funerary monument of the civil wars, it was precisely because of the horror of unburied corpses or mass burials without names.3 Moreover, Ovid is here discarding what ought be the obvious approach to the subject for an elegiac poet: the austere language of witness and punishment surprises the reader, if one considers the familiar patterns of lament and sympathy in Greek epigrams and elegies about great horrors of the past, such as the following example by Polystratos about the destruction of Corinth and its chilling memory (API, 297. 3-4): 'and just one mound keeps together the heap of bones frightened by the spear , , ,'.4 The white bones of Philippi almost have the lasting quality of a memorial. The image, fifty years after the battle, guarantees that there was no death ritual, not even a hasty cremation on the battlefield; nor are we in the healing moment anticipated, in Virgil's Georgics, when the corpses have fattened with '' Translations from the Fasti UK Nagle's (1995), with slight adaptations. All other translations are my own. •' On Roman anxieties about bodies, and the link between the politics of proscription and the treatment of bodies and corpses, see Hinard (1.984). '' The meaning1 of doriptoieta is controversial: 1 suspect ft bold variation on the typology of f/erp-compounds that normally define conquest, and captivity as regular military practice, cf. Ducrey (1J)68) 20-1,

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their blood the dusty plains of Thessaly, land of Mars, and the ploughman marvels at huge bones from another generation (Georg. I. 497):s grandiaque effossis mirabitur ossa sepulcris.

The Virgilian 'sepulcra' are at least a hint of possible reconciliation, but readers of Virgil also know that bones can generate revenge (Aen. 4. 625 'ex ossibus ultor'). The denial of sepultura at Philippi had also defied the basic Roman notion that citizens were different from outsiders in death: Ovid's language recalls Horace's description of a dump for slaves, executed criminals, and dropouts (Sat. 1. 8. 15-16: 'tristes | albis informem spectabant ossibus agram', 'a field made repulsive by white bones, a gloomy panorama, is what they used to see'). Statius will readapt the image to Lucan's project of an accursed epic of Roman self-destruction (Silt), 2. 7. 65-6: "albos ossibus Italis Philippos et Pharsalica bella cletonabis', 'you shall thunderously rehearse Philippi, white with Italian bones, and Pharsalian wars'), and the savage victory of Philippi will be a manifesto for the wicked emperor Nero in Ps.-Seneca's Octavia (515-16): 'pavere volucres et saevas feras diu tristes Philippi', 'for a long time, gloomy Philippi has offered food to birds and wild animals'. Literary studies of texts about public art have paid increasing attention to the fact that monuments can speak their own language. The new, powerful rise of cultural studies stresses ideas like shared response and communal ideology in a way that is unprecedented from the Romantic age onwards. And of course there is no history of a society without some degree of similar assumptions. Here, for example, is Robin Osborne (1987: 102) writing on the Parthenon frieze: 'No Athenian, man or woman, who visited the Parthenon, followed the frieze and absorbed the sculptural programme, could go away without having been compelled to contemplate seriously his or her individual and collective identity' (my tendentious italics). So the reading of the monument in a. cultural context is about the intended reading produced by the figurative programme in a community of viewers. The meaning of the monument '-' For similar dynamics in Ovid's use of the Georgia, see Gee in this volume.

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4

is the thing itself plus its collective reception as directed by the thing itself. This is fine with me, but most people would agree that ideology plays some part in this process of turning images into meanings. And once ideology is perceived in terms of a discourse, there is no way of keeping the discourse simple and monolithic. The meaning of the monument could also be located in the multiple and divergent reactions of a pluralistic community of viewers—more pluralistic than traditional images of the Athenian body politic perhaps allow. The main problem, for a classicist, is how to find evidence of those readings. My discussion is about a poetic text which, being about a monument, is becoming popular among cultural historians. The text is a passage in Ovid, Fasti 5, and the monument is the Forum Augustum. Ovid's description is so detailed, and ideologically loaded, that many interpreters'1 are perfectly happy with it as a source—an authorized version of the intended reception of this giant architectural signifier. The monument is described under the spotlight of a divine epiphany (5. 549-52): Pallor, an anna sonant? Non faUimur, arma sonabant: Mars venit ct venicns bellica signa tleclit. Ultor ad ipse suos caclo descends.! honores templaque in Augusta conspicienda foro. Am I wrong, or are weapons clashing? I'm not wrong, they were clashing. Mars is coming, giving a warlike signal. The Avenger himself is descending from heaven for his own celebration, to his eye-catching temple in the Forum of Augustus.

The clashing arms are, for a moment at least, an alarming signal. They could be identified as the signature soundtrack of Roman Mars through the ritual of the Salii, true, but the sound of arms within a city can also reverberate less positive messages. This is the threatening sound that typically starts, in the Livian strategy of annual prodigy lists, a narrative about danger and crisis, especially civil wars; metallic resonance and arms in the sky mark the onset of civil/social wars in Aeneid 8. The b

Important discussions are banker (1968, 1989); Scheid (1992«); Cresci Marrone (1993); Herbert-Brown (1994); Ncwlands (199.5); Galinsky (1996); Flower (1996); Klodt (1998); Rich (1998).

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Greek king of Rome had just mentioned that Aeneas would be the leader of the Etruscan army that seeks revenge against Mezentius 'praesenti Marte' (8. 495) and the clash of arms in the sky soon announces the first global war in Italian history (8. 520-40).7 The Trojans had lost their city for not listening to the sound of arms in the belly of the Horse (Aen. 2. 243: 'sonitum quater arma dedere'). The urban space of Rome is not a traditional dwelling-place for Mars. But Ovid soon clarifies that Mars the Avenger is a protector in the city of Romulus, not a menace (5, 553-68): Et deus est ingens et opus; debebat in urbe non aliter nati Mars habitare sui. Digna Giganteis haec sent delubra tropaeis: hinc8 fern Gradivum be.Ua movere decet, sen quis ab Eoo nos impius orbe lacesset, sen quis ab occiduo sole domandus eril. Perspicit amtpotens opens fastigia summi, et pnbat invictos sumrna tenere decs; penpicit in foribus diversae tela figurae, armaque terrarum milite victa suo. Hinc videt Aeoean oneratum pondere caro et tot luleae nobilitatis avos; Hinc videt Iliaden urneris duds arma ferentem, claraque dispositis acta subesse viris. Special et Augusta praetextum nomine templum, et visum lecto Caesare maius opus. The god and the structure are both impressive, just the way Mars should dwell in his son's city. This shrine is fit for housing spoils taken from the Giants. From here it suits the Marcher to start fierce wars, whether someone from the Eastern world treacherously provokes us, or someone from the land of sunset must be subdued. The patron of war surveys the gables of his tall building, and approves the presence of Victories at the top. He surveys the weapons of various shapes on the doors, and armour of the world which his troops have won. From here he sees Aeneas loaded with a priceless burden and so many ancestors of the noble Julian line. From here he sees Romulus '" Ou the simultaneous interpretation of the prodigy as a 'Homeric* sign of divine support and as a catastrophic precursor of the civil wars, see Barchiesi (1084) ch. 3. " The line elegantly demonstrates that a war god whose cultic name is Cradtvus (from gradior 'walk', already glossed in. 550; 'Mars veuil et veuiens'), needs a place to start from, and this is the function of the new temple—the function previously assigned by Virgil to lanus Geniiuus, see Aen, 7. 601 ff. and infra, pp. 19f.

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shouldering the spoils of a general, and exploits inscribed beneath a row of statues. He examines the name of Augustus lining the temple. From reading 'Caesar', he thinks the structure even greater.

The importance of Mars' visit to the new Forum is particularly clear if we stop for a moment pretending that we already know how people felt about the monument in Ovid's times. We simply cannot account for the wide range of meanings that were mobilized and circulated by a new monument in Augustan Rome. And we cannot even invoke authorial intention with the same cogency that one attributes to it in literature. But this is different from assuming that those readings do not matter. Can we presume, for example, that, some reactions were arbitrary and eccentric? How many marginal readers of the monument were steeped enough in the counter-cultures and subcultures of love magic and amatory elegy to notice that the association of Mars, Venus, and Eros had a precise function in the private discourse of erotic charms?0 Others, or perhaps the same people, were familiar enough with the Empedoclean theory of Aphrodite-Love and Ares-Strife and ready to make interesting comments on a precinct for Mars intersecting a precinct for Venus, the Forum of Caesar. Others again, or perhaps the same people, will have offered lewd interpretations. We cannot tell. But the problem is an interesting one. If we accept that there is no simple and straightforward 'meaning' attached to the monument, and that every reading is a reduplication of an act of understanding, we can shift our emphasis from the result of the reception to the process of reception and its problems. As we shall see, Ovid's approach 9 Faraone (1999) 52 (my italics): 'a series of Roman-era gemstones from various parts of the Mediterranean ... These gems depict either a fully armed Ares leading a naked Aphrodite whose hands are bound behind her back or the reverse, a, fully clothed Aphrodite who is leading Ares, who is naked {except fm his hairnet), while Eros stands to the side holding Ares' sword and shield': those are persuasive mythological images accompanied by voces magicae, spells of vowels typical of magical texts; the pictures with Aphrodite dominating Ar^s would be for women to use against m0n. On the Algiers relief, Mars is fully armed and dressed, except for the sword, but Cupid is offering a small-sized sword to Venus. It is less likely that some viewers actually perceived the phallic design of the Forum as discussed by Kellum (UW6), because that would require an aerial perspective (although Qvid's Mars^ while landing irom his residence iu the sky, had the appropriate vantage point).

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to the monument implies that the monument cart be seen as a supplement and interpretation of a text, Virgil's Aeneid. The words italicized in my quotation express a relationship between Mars, as the viewer, the language of weapons, and the lexical register of heroic epic. In a moment, I will point out that here, from the viewpoint of a literary critic, intertextuality performs the task of political appropriation of visual art. My approach is made easy by the critical tropes already applied to the Ovidian text by the religious historianJohn Scheid: 'We are in the presence of an exegesis quoting another exegesis. This is a complex relationship of intertextuality'.1" As we shall see, the word 'intertextuality' is even more true than Scheid demonstrates; and, far from using literature as an escape, I am going to take quite seriously issues like: celebratory meaning, seeing celebration in, the monuments, teaching" through poetry how to see visual meaning, making art a textual phenomenon. My intention is not to weaken the political meaning of Augustan poetry in order to assert the poet's independence from, or resistance to, Augustan ideology. On the contrary, I want to deepen our understanding of the nexus 'politics and poetry', exactly because I do not believe in a peaceful relationship of 'the thing itself—ideology as separated from and mirrored by artistic expression—and its 'representation' in poetic language. But first of all let me note, episodically, that Scheid is assuming that Augustan poets put their poetry to the service of a public exegesis of the monument: 'We can see that Ovid, reproduces in his own style the decoration of the Forum, Mars himself perspicit, special, conspicit, videt, he contemplates.'11 This approach begs the question of viewpoint and point of view, exactly like Zanker's brief assessment (1989: 122): 'La descrizione ovidiana del nuovo edificio e come una guida alia lettura, e pud dare un'idea di come il grande pubblico reagisse a quelle sollecitazioni visive.' Both Scheid and Zanker understand the poet's function as a 'teaching to view' the Augustan artefact, and I have found much that is useful in this approach when it wrenches the study of poetiy from pure formalism. But they seem unaware that Mars (the god who 'perspicit', 'spectat', 'conspicit', 'videt', and finally 'legit', 'reads'} is 10

Scheid (WMa) 12S,

u

Scheid (!i»i»2a) 128,

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not a random choice as a focalizer. The poet wants us to see the sanctuary through the eyes of its dedicatee, the Augustan god of war. In Ovid's Fasti, in general, divine informants cannot be lightly dismissed: there is a multiplication of points of view, and even a power struggle, whenever the poet asks the gods to explain the cults in which they are involved. We are taking the exegesis of the temple as a sort of'orthodox' interpretation precisely because the text constructs the monument through the gaze of this particular god; the text is not simply shaped by a particular viewpoint, it actually says that it is shaped by a viewpoint; Rome seen from Mars, This is not just 'Ovid's own style'; this is the god's own imprint on the style of the elegiac poem. There were, of course, other ways of reading the topography of the place: as Geraldine Herbert-Brown reminds me, there is no allusion, to the intersecting structure of the Forum lulium, or to Mars' architectural connection with Venus. The epiphany of Mars in the Fasti can be seen as a revenge in more than one sense. The god had been, rather surprisingly, excluded from an active role in Virgil's Aeneid—a. poem dominated by the idea of revenge in all its versions and transformations12—and now in Ovidian elegy he can appropriate the entire epic tradition of Rome. His name is the last word of the spurious and dispensable pre-proemium of the Aeneidy before the unforgettable 'authentic' beginning 'arma virumque'; the god tends to merge with 'war* and only sneaks in through a shady mos and an acrostic when the war begins (7, 601-4).B In his works, Ovid tends to relegate Mars to the antique store of Ennian epic: both in the Metamorphoses and in the Fasti it is the god, not the narrator, who quotes Ennius by heart (Met, 14, 814 = Fast. 2, 487), and in the Iristia he is to Ennius' Annales what Ares is to Aeschylus' Septem (2, 423). Now the god, precisely when he is entering his new Roman house, demonstrates the changes that he can make to Roman poetry. Accepting his point of view, Ovid identifies Romulus with the lofty and Homeric-sounding matronymic Iliades, and views the inscription on the temple like the purple stripe of a solemn toga praetexla (565-7 'hinc videt Iliaden ... spectat et n 13

The fundamental study is Quint (1993), Now also Spannagel (1999). See Fowler (1983) and" (2000) 182-3.

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Augusto praetextmn nomine templum'), the official garment that was the generic marker of scenic celebrations of victory and communal salvation (fabulae pmetextae or praetextatae).H Of course, if we remember the exercise of visual power in Propertius 2, 31, where the poet-flaneur appropriates both the Augustan monument of Apollo Palatinus and the visibility of women, but denies to Apollo the power to speak, Ovid's achievement must appear a spectacular surrender: this elegiac poet—insofar as the Fasti are still elegy—delivers to the owner of the monument the power to see. If it is true that Augustan monuments are feasts for the eyes, and create a new type of spectator, insatiable and dazzled, then the god himself is the ideal viewer: 'perspicit', 'probat', 'spectat', 'conspicit', Videt'. Yet this way of representing Mars is also suggesting a communication problem between the divine guest and the author of the poem: it is unusual for a god to enter the world of the Fasti without participating in a dialogue with the narrative voice. Both Ovid and Mars will remain silent, in this poem of Callimachean dialogue, and the only voice to speak is that of the princeps (570). Mars is not only the viewer and the silent focalizer: he is also the recipient of a vow made by Augustus, a vow that the poet's voice recuperates as the focal point for the celebration: the temple has a birthday to be commemorated, but the conception goes all the way back to Philippi (5. 569-77): Vbverat hoc iuvenis, turn cum pia sustulit arma; a tantis princeps incipiendus erat. Ille manus tendens, hinc stand milite iusto, hinc conmratis, talia dicta dedit: 'S! MIHF BBLLAND! PATER EST VESTAEQUE SACERDOS AUCTOR, ET ULCISCt KUMEN UTRUMQUE PARC, MARS, ADESETSATIA SCELEMTO SANGUINE

FEKRIJM,

STETQUE FAVOR CAUSA PRO MEL1ORE TUUS. TUMPLA FERKS KT; ME VICTORIi, VOCABfcRIS ULTOR"

The young man vowed this temple when he dutifully took up aims; he had to make such a start as our loading citizen. Gesturing to the loyalist forces 14 The expression is particularly elegant; presumably the letters of the inscription were in colour (golden, purple?), hence the visual analogy wilh the stripe on the toga, On the other hand the proetextum ... templum turns into a celebration analogue to the tradition Q[ fobulti praelextor, see infra.

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standing on one side, the conspirators on the other, he made this vow: 'If my father, Vesta's priest, is my inspiration for going to war, and if I intend to avenge the divinity of them both, be with me, Mars, glut the sword with the criminals' blood, and back the better cause with your support. If I am victorious, you'll get a. temple and be called the Avenger.'

At this point we realize again that we are reading a text as well as a monument. Students of Augustan poetry have very few occasions to hear the living voice of the prince, so I suggest that we read carefully the text, of Octavian's promise: 'Mars ades el satia scelerato sanguine ferrum.*

The short narrative functions as a miniature analogue to the dramatic genre known as fabula praetexta. The generic name alludes, through the idea of ritual clothing, to the sacral nature of imperatorial power, and connects the victorious general to a sacrificer. Not only military victory, but more specifically vow, supplication, deootio, thanksgiving, and ludi seem to have been crucial to this production:15 Romulus, Brutus, Decius, Marcellus, Fulvius Nobilior, and Aemilius Paulus are attested as heroes of praetextae, and some of the Republicans who fought against Octavian at Philippi may have been interested in reviving the tradition,16 In response to the mid-Republican habit of representing military leaders in critical moments, when vow and prayer become crucial and are recuperated through the celebration of victory, and especially in the context of ludi votivi and ludi for the dedication of a temple, Ovid has created for the prince a very specific tone of voice, marked as different in the elegiac context: the prayer sounds old-fashioned, even archaic (talia dicta dedit", the triple alliteration sa-/sc-/sar), and harsh (the density of unpleasant sigmatism and rhotacism). The scanty fragments of Republican praetextae are enough to to

The best accounts of those aspects arc Zorzetti (1980) and Flower {15)95}. '* We know that Brutus tried to have Accius* Brutus performed after the death of Caesar, and there is controversial information on a Bruins composed by Cassius of Parma (see Zurzelti 1980: 104 nn, 5 and 6, with bibliography), lu connection with AogBstus* vow at Philippi and with Ovid's memory of the dedication of the temple in 2 lie, cf, the summing up of Flower (1995) 190 on what made Republican praelextae so precarious as a genre; '[they] were pieces written for a particular patron on a specific occasion, probably special ludi, whether ludi niagni volivi or games celebrating the dedication of a temple ... Their purpose was precise and directly connected with explaining a vow taken by a general in battle.'

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suggest that this style was appropriate to recreate the programmatic moment before a crucial battle (Ace. Pmet 4 R.: Aeneadae sive Decius): 'lue patrium hostili fusum sanguen sanguine' ("expiate through the enemy's blood the paternal blood that was shed'). Mars, who is not going to receive theatrical games (cf. 5. 598: 'non visa est fortem scaena decere deum', and infra, p. 13), has many reasons to be happy with this prayer: Augustus, with his interest in the Arvales cult, knows how to please the god. Mars is traditionally insatiable (NisbetHubbard on Horace, Odes 1. 2. 37 satiate), and the famous and mysterious (and alliterating) litany of the Arvales was (Carm. An. 7-9 Courtney): satur fu, fere Mars . . . satur fu, fere Mars . . . satur fu, fere Mars . . .

Augustas' battle-cry against the murderers of Caesar recalls Romulus' famous words to Remus (Enn. Ann. 95 Sk.):'7 *nam mi calido dabis sanguine poenas' ("you shall give me revenge in hot blood'), as well as Aeneas' revenge on Turnus, itself based on the Ennian fratricide (12, 949): 'poenarn scelerato ex sanguine sumit' ('takes revenge from the criminal blood'). The alliterative and sigmatic style links the three passages with standard patterns in early Roman poetry about celebrations of Republican victory, yet the tradition of praelexlae could also issue a warning about the crucial distinction—domi militiae— between a triumph and a civil war victory. In what was possibly one of the greatest self-reflective moments in the history of Roman literature, Ennius' Sabine women (Enn. Praet. 5 R,: Sabinae) asked: 'when you have taken the spoils from your own sons-in-law, what kind of inscription will you use?' Since a pmetexla is fundamentally a performance sanctioning a victory, Ennius was teaching the Romans how problematic the concept of victory could be. The Ovidian version of Philippi blurs the crucial Republican distinction between war and civil war. As a god of war and of national epic, Mars will, appreciate an Augustus who echoes Ennius and Virgil at their most fierce !

' The construction and the clausula 'sanguine poeuas' is echoed mure precisely at Fasti 4. 239 fmeritas do sanguine poenas1; not very tactfully, in an account of Attis' emasculation).

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and warlike. Seeing Augustus' performative name on the temple, Mars had already perceived the monument as a 'maius opus' a 'grander work' [5. 568), and of course the very name Augustus implies a process of growing bigger. But Galinsky (1996:211-12) is also right in noting that'maius opus' is Virgil's own label for the second, militarized half of his epic poem (Aen. 7. 45). On the other hand, the initial label of the temple as 'ingens opus' (5. 5,53) is the formula that will be used by Eumolpus to introduce an epic on Roman civil war (Petmn. Sat. 118. 6): 'belli civilis ingens opus'. Ovid is certainly no stranger to the idea that the great subject of the Aeneid, the topic that makes Aeneid 7-12 so special, is the underlying idea of civil war. In his short summary of the plot of Aeneid 7—12 in the Metamorphoses, he offers a pre-Lucanian 'worst-case scenario of the Aeneid and of the Roman history that it seeks symbolically to represent' (14. 568-72):"* . . . habetque deos pars utraque, quodque deorum est instar, habent anitnos: nee jam dotalia regna, nee sceptrum soceri, nee te, Lavinia virgo, sed vicisse petunt, deponendique pudore bella gerunt... both sides had the gods to aid them, and what is as good as gods, they had courage too. And now not even a kingdom given in dowry, nor the sceptre of a father-in-law, nor you, virgin Lavinia, did they seek, but only victory, and they kept on warring through sheer shame of giving up.

The experiment is clear. Take the programmatic statement of the Virgilian Nisus, uttered right before the first blood of the war action, in Latium, that either it is the gods who inspire violence and heroism, or it is just a 'dira cupido' (Aen. 9. 185) that becomes a divine inspiration to the individual; then choose the second alternative; a radical rereading of the plot will end up very near to the calm assessment by Mettius Fufetius before the military confrontation between Rome and Alba (Livy 1. 23. 7); 'I know that the war is said to be about violations of a treaty and the intention to recover things (res .,. repetilae), and I do not doubt that the Roman king is able to show similar good reasons; but if we care more about truth than about sounding 18

Quint {1993} 82,

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attractive, 'cupido imperil duos cognates vicinosque populos ad arma stimulat' ('greed for empire is what spurs to war two consanguineous and neighbouring nations'). The process of growth and expansion that culminates in the word Augustus had begun in the previous episode of the Fasti Born in a lowly hut, from origins both divine and unspeakable (532: 'pudor est ulteriora loqui'; the gods squirt bodily fluid on an oxhide), Orion grows up, and up (537: 'creverat immensum'), until the spacious giant is brought to the sky by a catasterism. Ovid must have decided to compose Fasti 5 as a book dominated by ideas of rise and increase, thus slyly suggesting a fourth etymology after the triad explored in the proemium: as the month develops, May is being derived not from 'maiestas', 'maiores' ('elders'), or Maia, but simply from 'mains' (bigger), Carole Newlands must be right that the theme of growth links Orion with Mars Ultor, and perhaps astronomy is a further link,19 but one wonders why continuity of imagery should be automatically linked to subversive irony. The entire episode is bracketed by a reference to Orion facing the Scorpion (5, 537-43) (they are 'frozen in the chase before they could do one another any damage, and become constellations in that position for ever'),20 and by a final reference to Games held for Mars in the Circus (5. 597-8). Ovid points out that the Games are not theatrical because Mars is not just the average god, ready for an honorific stage festival ('non visa est fortern scaena decere deum'). They were therefore held in the Circus. The location is confirmed by inscriptional calendars, and by Dio Cassius (56. 27, 4), who, interestingly, mentions horse races and a wild beast hunt.21 Is Orion, the gigantic hunter facing the monster Scorpio, a celestial precursor of those wild animal shows? If we accept that the continuity of the text enhances the domination of Mars over Rome, however, we should also account for the unreconciled lament of the bloody ghost of Remus (5. 457: 'umbra cruenta Remi'). In fact his bitter question (5, 465: 'heti, ubi Mars pater est? si 111 See Gee in this volume, quoting arid discussing Newlands; and Hannah (IIW7) on the transition between the absence of Orion, the 'descent' of Mars, and the topography of the Augustan forum. *' Gee in this volume (p. 51). 21 For the evidence see Hannah (1997) 528.

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vos modo vera locuti...', 'oh where is my father Mars? unless what you said is false ..,') cannot be easily papered over, since this is the episode that precedes directly the Martial career of the giant Orion, and the text of the poem does not offer secure boundaries between the various thematic units.22 To come back to the effect of 'intertextuality' suggested by Scheid: I think we can enhance it even more. When we recognize Ennius' Romulus and Virgil's Aeneas in Octavian's utterance at Philippi, we should not forget that we are not only 'reading* a text but also a monument. All the actors in the triangulations of poetic intertextuality are also physically 'there', represented in the figurative programme of the Forum: Mars, Augustus, Romulus, and Aeneas, If Mars, the viewer, is looking (from the pediment? where 'he', his image, dominates the Forum) to Augustus, the victor on his quadriga in the middle of the square, then the viewer, and model reader of Ovid's text, will also learn very quickly to glance sideways: and she will discover, on the two sides of the Forum, a Romulus and an Aeneas, united by a second axis,23 perpendicular to the main axis that runs between Mars and Augustus (see Fig. 1). Poetic intertextuality recapitulates and substitutes the architectural meaning created by the intersection of perspectives. Ovid's re-creation of the monument is also the construction of a viewing subject, someone who knows how to construct visual meanings. But, once again, if we identify this exegesis as 'orthodox', exemplary, shared, we minimize the poet's contribution. On the one hand, the narrative on Philippi may be seen as completing the visual impact of die monument: Ovid's Callimachean poetry provides an aetiology for the real thing, a Caesaris ultor for the Mars Ultor complex. The question, on. the other hand, is whether this aetiology is explicitly required by the figurative programme. It could be at least as reasonable to insist that Mars Ultor is a giant signifier of removal: the civil ~"1 The simple life of Faustulus, adoptive father of the twins, is paralleled by the modest lifestyle of Hyrieus, -3 Zaiiker (1068) and (1S)8S)) 215-18, For a salutary reminder of how much remains conjectural and uncertain see la Rocca (2001); on the fascination and danger in Zanker's reconstruction, itself based on Ovid's text, and on its influence on a, scholarship that seems unaware of the limits of material evidence, -see the provocative comments in Beard and Henderson (2001),

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wars are conspicuously absent from the complex of images, and only a statue of Julius Caesar in the cella could serve as a reminder of Octavian's revenge; triumph ideology, the Parthian revenge, and the continuity of Roman military history from Aeneas and Romulus to Augustus, all contribute to the shared representation of Mars Ultor as the link between the Roman army and the prince as a triumphal leader and protector against foreign opposition; all contribute to efface or perhaps to 'trope* the memory of fratricide, set in a recent past. The architectural opposition between external and internal could be read as a key to the relationship between past and present. (Again, Augustan discourse is not something 'simple and straightforward' as opposed to the poet's monopoly of tensions, innuendoes, ambiguity, and rhetorical flexibility.) This is how recent interpreters imagine the rhetoric of the civil wars in the figurative programme: Putnam (1995: 8 n. 7): Tor Augustus the monumentalizing of revenge in the temple of Mars Ultor may have marked a sense of stabilization, a victory over revenge that publicizes it while at the same time announcing its demise'; Cresci Marrone (1993: 171): 'regular triumphal tradition commanded a vow before the battle and a dedication ex manubiis as a closure, but private ultio does not fit the princeps any more ... so private ultio and civil conflict are camouflaged by a foreign ultio'. Yet of course we cannot really conjecture, without having fully excavated a monument so complex, rich in iconography, and also in writing, how many visual and verbal messages may have been available for a more or less direct 'civil war' interpretation. Absence of evidence is not evidence for absence. What is important is that both the programme of the monument and the programme of the Fasti partake in a discussion which is about the collective past, a discussion which alternates between the concepts of dementia and revenge. CMmentia, and revenge are 'strategies for overcoming the past, the first by forgetting, the second by undoing: the first sees repetition of the past as regressive, the second sees in such repetition the possibility of mastery ... the poem, like the regime, has it both ways, but in the process it discloses the contradictions in the regime's ideology: its promise to pardon and avenge at the same time'. David Quint's important comment on the Aeneid (1993: 78)

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can be applied to the Fasti as soon as we realize that the poem is an important contribution to Augustan ideology, not just propaganda. We have the same problem with Ovid's re-creation of the Ides of March with which this paper began (Fasti 3. 699-710). Memoiy of Caesar's assassination is doubtless important for the 'Augustan' meaning of the day; but when Ovid mentions the plain of Philippi strewn with whitening bones, I arn not sure that this is simply an official exegesis of the calendar. True, we have seen that images of civil strife are not extraneous to the ideology of the Principate: the Danaid myth at Apollo Palatinus—the very vision which stimulates Aeneas to kill the suppliant Turnus—could be relevant here. But Ovid connects Octavian's revenge with the two most unpleasant aspects of the tradition of Philippi: all prisoners put to the sword, and no proper burial even for the Roman aristocrats. This is the (disturbing) image that the calendrical poet inscribes in Ms version of the Ides of March, to be re-performed every year. This rotating image of revenge helps Ovid's readers to understand the new ideology of the Principate, one that juggles dementia and ultio, but this is only the visible part of its strategy of selective oblivion. The post-traumatic repetition of Philippi is not a neutral exercise if one remembers alternative reconstructions where Antony would have been the protagonist, not Octavian. However shocking the focus on the killing fields may be, it directs our attention away from the problem of who exactly won that battle. Fifty years after the event, in hindsight, Augustus could be less bloodthirsty and more ecumenical24 (and say something like 'The time of universal peace is near'). But the main problem remains that we are not reading an autonomous poem on Mars Ultor, but a section from a continuous poetic text. Scholars eager to reconstruct a holistic meaning for a monument are sometimes less worried when they extract a poetic segment from a context, to use it as a commentary on their monument. But Ovid's readers—like Mars Ultor's viewersneed to have a knowing eye. Mars, the dedicatee and focalizer ~* Even fifty years later the language of 'fuso ... ab hoste' (5. 578) is not tactful, as it lays bare the problem of representing Philippi as a mstum bettttm.

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in the description of this temple, is also a poetic problem in the Fasti: a difficult god to approach for a poem of peaceful elegiacs,2-5 The poet's voice measures its distance from the epic war god in the address which opens Book 3 of the Fasti: Bellice, depositis clipeo paulisper et hasta Mars ad.es et oitidas casside solve comas. Warlike Mars, put down your shield and spear awhile, remove your helmet from your shiny hair, and. be with me.

Ovid was trying a compromise with the god of March: Mars ades, and put down your arms. This is echoed in May (or is it vice versa?) when the emperor prays '"Mars ades, and bring about a bloodbath.' If we take the fabric of the text by those two extremes, the compromise between the poet and the prince splits apart. Romulus may carry the spolia opima, and Aeneas the burden of Anchises, but in the end it is Remus and Turnus that matter the most to the construction of Roman history. The visual intertextuality that ties Octavian to Romulus celebrating a triumph, and to Aeneas rescuing Anchises, is an effective reading of the texture of images and space created by the Augustan temple, and this is the symmetric arrangement that Mars teaches us to enact in the Forum, looking askance to see Aeneas the pious (5. 563): hinc videt Aenean oneratum pondere caro

and Romulus the military leader (5. 565): hinc videt Iliaden unieris ducis arma ferenlem.

The verbal repetition 'hinc videt . . . hinc videt' is a telling commentary on the sense of political authority created by the geometrical sightlines in the new Forum.26 Yet the events involved in the poetic intertextuality—killing a brother to found a city, killing a suppliant to start an empire—pose a problem for many viewers of Mars Ultor if they try to use Ovid's text as a help towards a shared and communal reading of the architectural complex. The Ovidian synthesis confronts head-on traditional w

Sec Hinds (1<»2). * On the possibility that those two statues were highlighted not only by their pos }sitiotiiug but also by au oversize effect, see Flower (1S)96) 234, 7

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Republican ideas about the ideal leader, the one who stops internal strife and triumphs over foreign enemies: the story of Augustus is about civil bloodshed and bloodless triumph over the Parthians. This is related to the main argument that I was trying to develop in my book The Poet and the Prince, that reading Ovid's poem in historical context does not equal reading it only as conformistic. However much we disagree on individual readings, and on the role of audience response, my work converges with Herbert-Brown (1994) in reading the Fasti as an important text about what it feels like to be a Roman in the Augustan age, and in not accepting the usual disparagement of the Fasti as a frivolous exercise in rococo Hellenism. This volume will further the discussion in many ways. I just need to add that precisely when we try to make the text more serious and respectable in order to reconstruct a political context, we should not forget how swiftly the register can change. Students of Augustan ideology are happy to refer to the lines about Augustus' Parthian triumph that close the Mars Ultor entry as an example of straightforward propaganda (5. 593): Parthe, refers acjuilas, victos quoque ponigis arcus! you return the eagles and also surrender, Parthian, your vanquished bows,

and it is nice that at least one official image, a coin of 16 BC, shows a triumphal monument with a Parthian holding both a bow and a legionary eagle and submitting to Augustus.27 The figure of the Parthian was probably an addition to the triple triumphal arch offered to Augustus after Actium ('the main sculptural additions were doubtless figures of Parthians offering standards above the side-arches, as shown on the coins'},'* The arch was a revolutionary monument, the first monument of that kind set up at Rome by public decree, and this is precisely the time when the elevated vocable arcus supplants the more prosaic Republican fornix.la If the Parthian in Ovid is the Parthian as seen in a refurbished, or brand new, Triumphal '"' See B&KRK 77. On the iconography ol" the kneeling Barbarian see the important study of Schneider (15)86). 28 Rich (1998) JQ9; cf. his reproductions of the coins at 99. 29 See Wallace-Hadrill (1990*) and Rich (1998) 114,

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Arch, the text comments on the monument by disclosing a self-reflective quality, a visual-verbal pun that complements the image management of the emperor: 'Parthe, porrigis arcus* 'you offer to the emperor the Arch/Bow'. It is also important not to restrict our questionnaire to the polarity between consensus and subversion. Two significant effects of the Ovidian creation of a 'verbal monument' could easily go unnoticed if we simply look for propaganda or opposition. The first is the idea that Mars Ultor is the symptom of an increasing 'militarization' of urban landscapes and public architecture, a crucial aspect of the discourse of the early Principate. One great innovation of the Forum, the idea that after a prolonged absence Mars has a house in central Rome now, is accordingly a main focus of Ovid's guided tour. The second is that the emphasis on military power is embedded not only in the textual strategy of the Fasti, but also in the lifestyle of" a generational elite group which is de facto excluded, for the first time in Roman history, from direct and even indirect participation in the military. The estrangement of the poet is not just about Augustus, it is about Mars. Mars is absent in the Aeneid as a divine character because he melts directly into the military action of the poem, and because his figure is loaded with contemporary anxieties; Mars had been on the side of Augustus' just revenge in Philippi but there is also the alternative view that, as a god of violence and a patron god of Thessaly, he is turning the Roman civil wars into pleasure and spectacle in his favourite theatre of operations. Even more primary and insoluble is the duplicity that Mars represents for every soldier: the god inspires the fighting spirit that guarantees victory and, most importantly, survival, then steps aside and allows humans to contemplate war as it were from the outside. In other words, Ovidian ambiguities about Mars as the Augustan war and civil war god cannot be easily separated from collective ambiguities about Mars as the god, who controls the transition from peace to violence, and back. The Aeneid had sought to reorder this useful ambiguity through a striking reinvention of the war ritual: the war in Latium already needs the Gates of War, the institution that activates 'regular' war in. the 'Republican' tradition (i.e. the one

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that Augustus had reinvented)—yet in the narrative the mos is completely perverted by Juno, and Mars is only present in the 'regular' mos through a striking acrostic.3' By smashing open the Gates, Juno had authorized the war in the Aeneid as an exception to the kind of war that Rome will use institutionally, yet of course this is the war that will make possible the invention of Rome. So the ambiguity is represented but also controlled, just as the temple of Janus in Aeneid 1. 293-6 has control over Furor Impius in chains. The image can be seen both as propaganda for Imperial peace and as a talisman, the former because victory is a triumph achieved through war and over war, the latter because of the Spartan tradition of keeping an image of Enyalios in chains (Pans. 3. 5. 7): a prisoner harmless to the community but ready to be unleashed against the enemy. The Ovidian representation, of Mars Ultor is a response to the Imperial politics of supplementing the Aeneid through a monument: the Ovidian Mars is a Virgilian 'missing god' recuperated by Augustus, and the reception of the monument cannot get rid of all the ambiguities entailed by this recuperation. If Servius is right, the image that lies beneath the Furor of Aeneid I can be safely identified with a painting that was visible to all visitors to the Forum Augustum, a triumph of Alexander that included fiellurn, hands tied behind, and Furor sitting over arms, all tied up31 (Virg. Am, I. 294-6):' claudentur Belli portae: Furor Irapfas intus saeva sedens super arroa et centum vinctus aenis post tergum nodis fremot horridus ore cruento, the Gates of War will be closed. The accursed Rage, inside, sitting on a heap of savage arms, hands tied behind by a hundred bronze knots, will roar, frightening, with his gory mouth.

This was situated to your left as you pass the main entrance, we are told. A visual supplement toJupiter's promise in the Aeneid, one might add. By the year 2 BC, the visitors to the new Forum were probably familiar enough with the Aeneid to realize that the prestigious image (by Apelles!) had been relocated, not from another sacred space in Rome, but from the Virgilian text itself, and from the Greek culture that had influenced 30

Fowler (MJ.H3).

31

Stewart (1993) 28 and 33.

MARS ULTOR IN THE FORUM AUGUSTUM

21

it. This painting was probably a spoil from Alexandria, and that adds a nice complexity, later destroyed by Claudius' decision to substitute the face of Augustus for the face of Alexander. The Augustan image now represents the original victory of Alexander over war plus the victory of Octavian over Alexander's memorial metropolis—a double triumph over war, except that this Roman victory is also inextricable from a memory of civil wars. In the new location, the heaps of arms on which Furor is sitting could have directed attention to the arms reproduced on the closed doors of the temple of Mars, and vice versa (5. 561-2). When the language of images achieves this level of complexity and irony, it will not do to juxtapose 'power of images' to poetic allusion and to imply that one is a circulation of straightforward propaganda, the other a texture of innuendo and irony. The containment image in Virgil's prophecy was complemented by the material inclusion of the image within the Belli Portae: the relocation of the painting in the Forum Augustum creates a shift in the reference. Furor Impius is now regulated not by the 'traditional' institution of the Belli Portae, but by the new blend of triumphal ideology and Julian monopoly that dominates the Forum.32 The Julian' rereading of Roman history that Jupiter had offered to Venus in book 1 of the Aeneid is now the master plan of the Forum. The triumphal ideology that dominates the complex lends a new significance to Alexander's triumph in the painting. Since every new triumph will belong to the emperor and to the family, it makes eminent sense that the Greek/Eastern triumph of Alexander is being recontextualized with the decisive help of Virgil It is up to individual readers to decide whether the representation of the monument in the Fasti is complementing the Augustan programme or bringing it to breaking point. The verbalization of the monument scores the self-serving point that poetry is needed even when monuments are able to speak volumes: because only the poetic aetiology can spell out in the form of narrative the re-enactment/atonement of the 3

~ Ou the Forum complex as 'the public atrium of the Juiii* see Flower (liftM)) 226 (her entire book bears witness to the force of this metaphor). See also the breakthrough discussion in Rowell( 1940) 141.

22

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civil wars that is implicated in the Mars Ultor complex as well as in Augustan ideology. (The importance of narrative and diachrony was at least in part a legacy of the strikingly parallel evolution of Apollo Palatinus: a monument vowed and projected in the civil war atmosphere of the Naulochus years, inaugurated and received as a memorial of Actium and Alexandria, The generation of Propertius had learned how to deal with the metamorphosis of civil war into 'Eastern' triumph (i.e. Cleopatra more than Antony), precisely when confronting the monument for Apollo; Ovid capitalizes on this experience, and narrates—over a much longer time gap—the metamorphosis of civil war into Eastern 'triumph'.) But then poetry is also able to defer the closural stabilization suggested by Augustan ideology, and teaches readers of the monument to beware of the Avenger exactly when they accept his martial protection. In so doing they were accepting the challenge offered by the Princeps himself: he had declared in an edict, almost a priere d'inserer for the monument, that the statues in the galleries had been set up 'so that both he, while he lived, and the principes of future ages should be evaluated by the citizens according to the standards fixed by the lives of those men' (Suet. Aug. 31. 5). We do not. know whether the memorial proudly placed at the centre of the new Forum was an image of Augustus riding a chariot, or even an empty chariot (a revolutionary choice for a Roman monument and a striking signifier of modesty and superMa), a riderless chariot with a mise en abyme of Augustus as a triumphal chariot-driver as a bas-relief on the chariot itself.33 Either of these possible choices would have created a vertical link with the image of Jupiter Capitolinus on the apex of his temple, while the arrangement of the new Forum guaranteed a horizontal alignment with Romulus and Aeneas. In any case, Ovid's readers have to decide which image of Aeneas and which image of Romulus are most helpful in imagining or inteipreting the contours of the absent-present driver of this dynamic memorial.34 They are still arguing as I write. .M por j^jjj possibility see Rich (1998) 123-5; compare the amount of viewercooperation required by the absence of a straightforward personification of Peace on the Ara Pads in Settis, Kalatog Berlin (1.988), 423-4. •M I thank Emma Oce, Ann Kuttner, Maud Reydellet, and the editor, for comments. Now mdi, Spanuagel (1999), an important study of the art of revenge in the forum.

2 The Fasti as a Source for Women's Participation in Roman Cult ELAINE FANTHAM

In the (g)olden days of the early nineteenth century, scholars turned to Ovid's Fasti as a precious source for Roman cult and religious practice: it was the primary source for W, Warde Fowler's great Roman Feslivak of the Period of the Republic (1899) and naturally attracted the anthropological learning of SirJames Frazer, who went on to his monumental edition after his commentaries on the Greeks Pausanias and Apollodorus.1 It is ironic that their learning has since made it easier for more sceptical generations to look at Ovid's great poem less as evidence than as rhetoric, whether operating as panegyric or subversion. But is Ovid so worthless as evidence for Roman cult practice? He was neither uninterested nor uninformed. We can even deduce whose calendar researches he consulted: those of Verrius Flaccus, former tutor to the imperial princes Gaius and Lucius Caesar. This can be confirmed directly from the remains of the inscribed public calendar composed by Verrius for his home city of Praeneste, and from excerpts on calendar topics preserved in Pompeius Festus' abridgement of Verrius' lost De Verborum Signifaatu.The problem is more one of Ovid's purposes in composing the poem, both literary and ideological. Certainly Ovid did not write his calendar poem in order to remind Roman readers, still less to instruct posterity, about the duties and ' Frazer began his classical commentaries with Pausanias (1898), then the Loeb Classical Library Apollodorus (1921), then the five volumes of Fasti in 1929. 2 On Verrius* calendar sec references cited in this author's Ovid: Fasti Book IV

(mm'j 29-30.

24

ELAINE FANTHAM

privileges of participation in different cults. With rare exceptions like the women's cult of Bona Dea, Ovid's readers knew what laymen and priests were expected to do on feast days or temple anniversaries.3 Nor, of course, did he set out to provide a representative portrait of specifically female participation in cult. Women's rites find their way into the Fasti because they are good elegiac material, offering colourful or emotionally appealing vignettes. As an imaginative and erudite poet Ovid aimed to enrich the essential calendar structure with aetiological legends from Greek myth and Roman prehistory, diversifying his text with the rising and setting of constellations, and evoking ceremonies through picturesque details. From a more 'political' point of view he also aimed, I believe, to please (or appease?) Augustus by honouring the new Imperial and dynastic anniversaries and assimilating them into the traditional Republican calendar. Indeed it is debatable whether the dead Callimachus4 or the living and later deified Augustus was more present as a source of authority to the poet engaged in his partly aetiological and partly encomiastic elegiac poem, Thus what can be learned about the role of laymen, let alone laywomen, in contemporary cult is incidental to Ovid's purpose. Readers will best judge his reliability on women's participation in Roman cults by comparing the passages discussed in this chapter with information about women's religious activities in comprehensive studies like the new history and sourcebook, Religions of Rome (1998), or John Scheid's authoritative chapter on 'The Religious Roles of Roman Women'.5 Ovid's first reference to any woman in Fasti comes on the Carmentalia of 11 January with his pious prophecy of the future godhead of Augusta Julia.6 'Who?' you may ask. Certainly not the first Julia, daughter of Augustus, publicly damned and exiled in 2 uc. Let me provide another clue; the same Augusta J

On this cult see most recently Staples (199ft) 11 -54. Fen: the influence of Callimachus in the Fasti tite discussion in Fantham (1998) 7-18 owes much to Miller (1982) 371-417; set- also Miller (1991) 7-19, •' Beard, North, Price (1998). Scheid (1992*) 377-408. For a more general investigation of Ovid's credibility a,<s a source for religion see Schilling (1968) 9-24. c> Fasli 1. 536: 'sic Augusta novuin lulia uuineti erit'. 4

WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION IN ROMAN CULT

25

appears again on 16 January, as 'tua genetrix' and restorer of the altar of Concordia,7 This is Livia herself, adopted in Augustus' will as Julia Augusta, so both passages originate in Ovid's remodelling after AD 14. Livia of course was unique, and no other Augustan lady, not even Augustas' sister Octavia, who shared her extraordinary religious status as 'sacrosanct',8 had any prospect either of becoming a deity or of dedicating an altar. Just as Ovid himself returns to Livia Augusta towards the end of the extant poem, so this discussion will need to return at the end to the woman extraordinary, Livia, and her contribution to Roman cult. Perhaps these two honorific references are sufficient to explain why Ovid does not again mention Livia on 30January, her own birthday, and the commemorative anniversary of the Ara Pads Augustae. Instead he follows his brief tribute to the altar by turning" to the deity Pax herself: at the imagined moment of sacrifice he addresses her priests with a request that they ask the favourable gods for the perpetuation of both Peace and the imperial dynasty: (1. 721): ' u t , . . domus quae praestat earn cum pace perennet'. Where Ovid is silent, however, we can turn to one of Rome's best-preserved monuments to see Livia with other women of the imperial family in the procession of dedication depicted on either of the long sides of the Ara Pacis: there, Livia,9 Augustas' sister Octavia,10 his married daughterJulia," and his ' 1. 649: 'hanc tua constituit genetrix et rebus etara'. In this revised section of Book 1, Ovid's addressee is Germanicus, Livia's grandson, adopted by her son and his uncle Tiberius to be joint heir with Tiberius' natural son Drusus. Appropriately, the most recent authorities to cite I jvia's interest in Concordia. are women: Flory (1984) and Herbert-Brown (1JW4) ch. 4, esp. 162-7. Both treatments build on Levick (1078). * On their early elevation to sacrosanctity in 36 tic:, and Livia's subsequent preeminence in Roman secular and religious life, see Purcell (1986), 9 Livia is surely the woman wearing a laurel wreath over her head, veiled like that of Augustus, perhaps because of her role as 'regina sacrorum'. She follows Agrippa and the 'flamioes* on the relief of the right long waif; see Simon (1SM>8} 16 and pi. 13. For other, more controversial identilications, see following notes. 19 Simon (1968) 21, ps. 15 suggests that the matronly woman on the left long wall could be Octavia, u Simon (1!)68) 21 (ps, 17, 1, ID, I) identifies as Julia the 'heavily veiled young woman ... wearing a thin diaphanous veil through which the folds of her garment are visible*, in the procession of the left long wall. She is wearing the widow's fringed garment, the 'ricinium', but the figure is damaged, and faceless, so Simon bases her deduction on the figure's position in the procession. By an ironic twist her figure has

26

ELAINE FANTHAM

daughter-in-law, Antonia Minor,12 proceed with their children to make offerings in thanks for the Augustan peace at the altar's dedication in 9 BC, just as Horace describes them in Odes 3. 14.3-12: Caesar Hispana repetlt penates victor ab ora. unico gaudens mulier niarito prodeat iustis operata sacris et soror clari duds et decorae supplice vitta iarn virginum mates, iuvenumque nuper sospitum. vos o pueri et puellae iam virum expertae, male nominatis parcite verbis, Caesar is returning to his household gods as victor from the Spanish shore. Let his wife, rejoicing in her exceptional husband come forth, after performing the due rites, with the sister of the glorious leader and adorned with suppliant headband the mothers of maidens and the young men newly restored. As for you, boys and girls innocent of a man, avoid ill-named [or 'ill-omened': the text is contested] words.

But these women of the imperial family are still laypersons, 'profani', and would normally be expected, to stop short of either altars or temples at a moment of public sacrifice. Apart from Livia13 none of them is 'iustis operata sacris': like the boys and girls, their contribution to the cult occasions will have been only to abstain from words of ill omen, and any sacrifices they have made will be private and domestic.14 It is rather their male kinsmen, many of them augurs, priests, been replaced in plaster on the Altar itself, but the original has found its way to the Louvre, (I like to think of Julia escaping from the dynasty to end up in Paris,} 12 Simon (1968} 19 and pi. 15 notes that the figures behind Livia and Tiberius on the right long wall have been generally identified as Dnisus and his wife Antonia Minor. ^ If she is *opefata' it will he in her special capacity as 'regina sacroruni*, who is known to have performed sacrifices on the Kalends oi each month, 14 To quote Beard, North, Price (1998) i, 297; 'In general, however, although the eiMsndMnce \$i(\ of women at most religious occasions (including ludi] was not prohibited, they had little opportunity to take any active religious role hi stale cute . . . niuch more fundamentally (although the evidence is not entirely clear) they may have been banned... from carrying out animal sacrifice; and so prohibited from any officiating role in llw central defining ritual of civic religious activity.1 On the ancient tradition excluding women from blood sacrifice, see de Cazenove (1987),

WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION IN ROMAN CULT

2J

15

and flamines, who would be officiating. Certainly women were encouraged to supplicate the gods, and to give them thanks—also referred to by the same word 'supplicatio'. The married women of the Roman elite were even authorized after the Gallic sack of Rome in 390 to ride to the temples in thanksgiving in their special covered wagons (carpenta, pilenta). This is how Vulcan in Aeneid 8 depicts the ladies on the shield of Aeneas, riding in their wagons arnid the rejoicing Salii after the Gauls had been driven off in defeat.1'1 In the alarms and triumphs of the Hannibalic War the Senate decreed on several occasions that women and children should go together in procession as suppliants or in thanksgiving. But their participation in thanksgiving can be and often is taken for granted by ancient writers. We more often hear of such processions—found also in the heroic world of Homer—in times of emergency when supplication is a desperate appeal: thus Virgil describes the Latin women, led by Queen Amata and her daughter Lavinia, riding to supplicate the goddess Athena to restore her favour and victory, just as Hecuba and the Trojan women had supplicated in Iliad 6, This is so typical of women's role in cult that the only scene in which women are represented on the reliefs of Dido's temple in Aeneid 1 is the Homeric supplication of Hecuba and the women to Athena.17 When the women supplicated, it was, of course, for the whole community, not just for themselves, and we should also imagine their private devotions as being made on behalf of their whole household, rather than just their personal needs. The ordinary woman seems to have been free to visit temples privately to make a personal offering of incensew or flowers, even if Ovid in another less devout poem ironically 1/1 Simon (1968) 18 distinguishes Livia, perhaps in the role as 'regitia sacrorum' (the altar was even dedicated on her birthday), together with Augustus, Agrippa, and the flamines from 'the latter part of the procession, which also includes women and children*. She suggests that, this, like the procession of the opposite wall, is of a less official nature, "' Aen. 8. 66,5-6: 'castae ducebant sacra per urbem pifentis mattes in mollibus'. '' See Aen. 1. 479-82 (the relief showing Trojan suppliants) and II. 477-82 for the Latin queen riding to the temple escorted by the matrons 'nee mm ad tumplum surnrnasque ad Palladia arces I subvehitur magria matrum regina catcrva dona ferens.,, succedunt matres et lemptuin lure vaporaut | et maestas alto fimduut de limine voces.* " Cf. Aen. II. 481 quoted n. 17 above,

28

ELAINE FANTHAM

suggests to Augustus (Tristia 2, 287-300) that visits to the temples of Venus or Jupiter Optimus Maximus or Mars Ultor, or even the virgin Pallas, might provoke respectable matrons with dangerous or envious thoughts about the mythical sexual adventures of the gods. But when women's role in public religion at Rome is raised for discussion we probably think first of the special category of the Vestals, those six selected women of noble birth who were taken up before puberty (usually aged 10) to give thirty years of service to the virgin goddess of generation and the hearth: they naturally feature at Ovid's celebration of the Vestalia,19 but he also mentions their ritual acts at the Fordicidia, when the chief Vestal burned the embryos of the sacrificial pregnant heifers, and six days later, when the people celebrated the Parilia with a compound based on. the ash from, these embryos.a" But Vestals lie outside the limited religious role of ordinaiy women. Their special status as neither wife nor maiden, female nor male, has received two full scholarly treatments in recent years.21 The calendar brings Ovid to some of the most important aspects of religion in women's lives in the books of February and March, Books 2 and 3. I am talking about marriage, chastity, fertility, and childbirth. Chastity naturally appealed less to Ovid than the positive aspects of sexuality. But he gives prominence, like his older contemporary Livy, to the great Roman foundation myth of chastity, the voluntary suicide of the raped victim Lucretia.22 Lucretia's vindication of her honour supposedly caused the fall of the monarchy and origin of the Republic, just as the chastity of another woman, the girl Virginia, caused the revolution that ended the powers of the Decemviri in the fifth century. Livy is also the primary source for the original patrician cult of Pudicitia, chastity, or better fidelity in marriage, attested from the early Republic, and the >y On !) June Ovid explains Vesia's choice of virgin attendants because of her own choice of virginity in 6. 283-90. M For the Fordicidia. see Fasti 4. 629-4-0; Ovid's commemoration of the Parilia mentions Vesta rather than her human ministers, the Vestals: 4. 725-34. 21 See Beard 1980, 1995. Staples (1!)96) 129-56 does not really advance beyond Beard. 22 Fasti'2, 721-852. But Lucretta's last words (82.5-30) omit her mural message to the women of Rome as celebrated by Livy 1. 59: 'no woman henceforth will be immoral hecaase of my ex*t0ip!0**.

WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION IN ROMAN CULT

5>Q

foundation of a rival cult of Pudicitia Plebeia in the late fourth century.23 But fertility was even more vital to society and to the woman's self-respect than fidelity. In his account of the festival of the Lupercalia in February Ovid turns to the Roman bride who wants to become pregnant, urging her to welcome the fertile blows from the goatskin whips of the Luperci, and so gratify her father-in-law.24 The poet's account of the origin of this practice conveys the urgent need for fertility in those days of heavy infant mortality. According to his aetiology, after Romulus had procured wives for his Romans by the rape of the Sabines he found that there was still a dearth of pregnancies, so he sent husbands and wives to the sacred grove of Juno on the Esquiline.25 There husbands and wives alike prayed to the goddess and her voice was heard to order with oracular ambiguity 'Italidas matres sacer hircus inito' ('let the sacred he-goat penetrate the Italian mothers'). The suppliants were naturally shocked, until an augur, guessing the riddle, slew and skinned a he-goat so that women could offer their backs to be lashed with strips of its hide: as Ovid tells it, in ten lunar months the 'vir' and 'nupta' of 437 became a father and mother (2. 445-8): ille cuprum mactat; iussae sua terga puellae pellibus exsectis percutienda dabant. luna resumebat decimo nova cornua rnotu, virque pater subito nuptaque mater erat.

K> See Livy 10. 23. Virginia, daughter of a patrician, had married a, plebeian and was excluded from the patrician cult ol Pudicitia. She retaliated by founding her own cult of 'Pudicitia Plebeia*. However, as we will see below, there is good reason to identify the cult of Fortmia discussed by Ovid in Fasti 6. 561) f. (the 'Aedes Forlunae in foro Boario') with 'Fortuna Virgo', also identified with the original 'Pudicitia Patricia*. 24 2, 427-8: 'excipe fecundae patienter verbera dextrae, | iam socer optaturn nomen babe-bit avi*. Women are usually seen in terms of male interests; when a man has no sons, he must hope that his daughter will, give him a grandson. As for his daughter-inlaw, unless she conies from an important family with whuni a political bond is desired, she has no other function. '^ 2, 4-25—52. Mote that concern for fertility is used as a,n alternative fiiiion for the feast ol" Carmenla in L 619-3b. According to this talc- the matrons were so angry when deprived of the use of their padded vehicles (an etymological pun on Carmenta/Carpenta) that they refused to carry their babies full term (i.e. aborted them}-. So the Senate restored their privilege and instituted two rites, one for boys and one for girls, to Carmetila and the midwife goddesses Porrima and Postverta.

go

ELAINE FANTHAM

He ends his account with a choice of etymologies for Juno Lucina, protectress of childbirth, either because she was goddess of the 'lucus' or because she controlled the child's first experience of the light ('lucis').28 This tale of barrenness must surely be Ovid's own fiction. Certainly from at least the time of Ennius* historical drama The Sabine Women, the legend was canonical at Rome that when the parents of the Sabine women 'raped' by Romulus attacked Rome in retaliation, the new brides rushed onto the battlefield clutching their babies to stop the fighting between their fathers and husbands: and Ovid himself had exploited the tale in An Amatoria, 1. 101-32. The women's infertility cannot be reconciled with their legendary role as intercessors, yet Ovid has woven the battlefield reconciliation scene into his double celebration, of 1 March, when the anniversary of the dedication of Lucina's temple coincides with the Matronalia. March was the month of Mars and Ovid opens the book by addressing the god and retelling the story of his son Romulus. He passes from the god's rape of Silvia and fathering of Romulus and Remus, to their adolescence and Romulus' establishment of the Roman calendar, in which he made his divine father patron of the first month. All this is leading up to a puzzle based on a paradox: 'since you are so fitted to manly activities', Ovid asks the god, 'why do the married women observe your feast day?' (3, 169-70): cum sis officiis, Gradive, virilibus aptus, die mihi matronae cur lua festa colant.

Unfortunately for our concerns, although Mars offers a full and vivid narrative of both the rape and the reconciliation—neither of which were supposed to have occurred on 1 Marchhe adds nothing to the understanding of women's rites at the Matronalia. Instead, the god's speech offers both rape and reconciliation as unlikely explanations for the women's celebration: 'The wives of Italy have no frivolous duty in celebrating my Kalends, either because they terminated the wars of Mars by their tears, or in thanks for Ilia's successful -'' Forjuno Lucina and her connection with the moon, see Plutarch, Roman Questitms 77, which may also derive from the learning of Ovid's chief source, Verrius Flaccus.

WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION IN ROMAN CULT

31

motherhood.' Through a hymn to the fertility of spring, season of their service as childbearers,27 Ovid glides back to Lucina, and the anniversary of her temple at the site of the Esquiline grove. The women should bring her flowers and pray for ease in labour. As a nice instance of the merging of religion and magic he adds an injunction: if any woman is already pregnant when she prays to Lucina, she should unbind her hair so as to release her child with ease.28 How literally can Ovid's language be interpreted? He claims that Lucina's temple was dedicated (or given to the people) by the Latin 'daughters-in-law': 'a nuribus lunoni templa Latinis | hac sunt... publica facta die' (3. 247-8). But there were strict controls in Rome of the historical period over who could vow or dedicate a temple—it required official authorization from the Senate—and very few instances of any woman being associated with this honour.*" And when are they supposed to have done this? The poet has already reported the new mothers assembling in this temple ('conveniunt nuptae dictam lunonis in aedem': 3. 205) before the battle in the year after their rape. The tale is neatly told, but it is no use looking to Ovid for a historical record. We have seen that Ovid tends to pass over what women actually do on public festivals, but he does describe a women's custom on the Ides of March at the popular festival of Anna Perenna—a goddess associated with the renewal of the year. At this early spring festival couples went picnicking at Anna's shrine by the Tiber setting up tents, dancing, singing songs ^ 3, 243—4; 'Ternpora itirts coiuni Laiiae lucunda parentes | cruarurn niiMtiam votaque partus hahet', formally answers 170 'cur tua festa, colant?' hut glosses several questions. Spring is fertile, but not necessarily Ihe human breeding season. On the other hand it is a fair analogy to present childbirth as woman's 'militia'> national service, and so time for the making and fulfilment of vows: one is reminded of Medea's boast in Euripides that she would rather fight three times in battle line than bear one child, "^ 3, 255—8: 'dicite "tu uobis lucetn, Lueina, dedistT': [ ditlie "iu votu parturientis ades." | siqua tamen gravida est, resolute crine precetur ut solvat partus molltter ilia suos'. Unbinding was normal before attempting to perform prayers and spells. For the negative corollary—deliberate binding to delay an enemy's childbirth—compare the gesture of Juno crossing her arms to hold back the birth of Hercules in Alemene's tale of her labour at Met. 9. 281-315. ^ See below for the legendary dedication by women of the temple of Fortuna Publica in the 5th cent.

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from the theatre, and praying for long years as they drink abundantly (3. 523-40). All this sounds more like a party than a cult act, but the poet adds that he should explain (3. 675-6): 'cur cantent... obscena puellae ... | . . . certaque probra' ('why girls sing dirty songs and traditional abuse'). This is his pretext to tell a comic tale about old Anna's deception and frustration of the lecherous Mars, but there is surely something more specific here than the general partying; there must have been some kind of fescennine song, mocking men and wishing or forecasting the frustration of misplaced lust. More than that we cannot say.3" Since the month of April is so rich in festivals of goddesses— for Venus (Veneralia, 1 April, and Vinalia, 23 April), for Cybele (4-10 April), and for Ceres (12-19 April), there is rather more evidence for women's cult activities in Ovid's fourth book. Ovid gives the fullest attention to the major festivals of Cybele and Ceres, each including" public games which both men and women attended. He opens his account of Cybele's festival with the goddess's ritual procession and the games in theatre and circus—all part of her public celebrations, but of no specific concern to women. Then he introduces two mythical narratives, for the Greek origin of the cult of Cybele as Rhea when she saved Zeus by deceiving Kronos, and for the Phrygian origin of Attis worship. But the largest part of his attention is given to the coming of the goddess to Rome, as a frame for a miracle performed by the goddess on behalf of a woman. Ovid 's account agrees with that of Livy in many respects. When the Senate formally decreed the invitation to the goddess, it was delivered by a distinguished group of envoys to her shrine at Pessinus in Asia Minor. The temple kingdom gave them an aniconic symbol of the goddess, a meteoric stone, which they escorted on shipboard from the Asian coast to the seaport of Rome at Ostia. But once the ship arrived at Ostia Ovid's and Livy's narratives diverge. According to Livy the elite women of Rome collectively proceeded to Ostia to welcome the sacred symbol of the goddess; it was * See now the chapter on 'The Poet, the Plebs, aud the Chorus Girls' in Wiseman (1998). Cf. Miller (1991) 138; 'the word certa makes it clear that the obscene verses were traditional in a "fixed" form, like other religious formulae'.

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taken from the ship by the most virtuous man in Rome, young Scipio Nasica, and then passed to the matrons, who reverently passed it from hand to hand until it reached the city some ten miles inland,35 But the version Ovid tells is far better known, and was known even before him. Propertius alludes in his last elegy to the miracle of Claudia Quinta pulling the sacred barge: Ovid gives a full narrative in which the sacred ship sticks at the shallow mouth of the Tiber until it is dislodged when Claudia prays to the goddess to vindicate her chastity32 by following her as she towed the barge. This timely miracle was probably a Claudian family legend, and Ovid himself claims that it was staged in the theatre. Peter Wiseman has argued cogently that it was part of a drama regularly offered to the goddess at the theatre games of the Megalesia.33 But near the end of Ovid's more or less historical account of Claudia escorting Cybele to Rome he introduces a diversion for a cult ceremony by the little river Almo, where the image and ritual equipment of Cybele were washed under Claudia's supervision. Ostensibly only the report of what happened on this first occasion, the washing of the goddess, relates awkwardly to what we know of the full ritual in imperial times. By the time of the emperor Claudius, there was a whole long festival of Attis and Cybele held in March, at which amongst other things, the goddess's image was washed in the pure running water of the river. This may well have happened in Ovid's time too; it is not marked in the calendar, but as John Scheid has convinced me, religious acts would not be listed in any calendar unless they were a public responsibility, and such an act by women, and women who were not public priestesses,34 31 See Livy 29. 14, 10-14 and Fantharn (1998) with introductory note on Fasti 4. 255-349 for more detail, J ** Prop. 4. 11.51 -2. Claudia Quinta is a matron in Livy and Ovid, but seems to have been thought of by Propertius, as by several, later sources, as a Vestal virgin {'minislra deae'); for a Vestal the issue would be suspicion, not of adultery, but of *ineest'—any sexual contact at all. 33 See Wiseman (W85) 36; (1979) !»4~1J; (1SWH) 3, 23. ^ Unlikt' the Greek cities Rome had no priestesses for her native cults. Apart from the Greek priestesses of Ceres/Dcrnetcr mentioned below, we know priestesses only of Cybele and Dionysus: the Bacchanalia banned in the, early '2nd cent, had originally been women's rituals conducted by women priests; the scandal arose from the inclusion of men as priests and votaries. But there were women priests of Dionysus like

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would not be recorded: if this is so, Ovid's only distortion is to report in April a cult act which was normally performed by the women in late March.35 But this is not the only ritual washing ascribed by Ovid to this month. Partly as homage to Augustus, Ovid has made Venus patron of the whole month of April as Venus Genetrix, ancestress of the Julian imperial family. But 1 April is a festival of not one but two Venuses, In the thirty lines that celebrate the religious activities of the day Ovid uses these two rites for different aspects of Venus to frame another women's rite in honour of a most unlikely deity—Fortuna Virilis, or Manly Fortune, His account of the day's rituals is framed by an address to the women of Rome ('Latiae matresque nurusque': 133) and a parting request to Venus to protect the women in their capacity as her daughters-in-law ('tuas . , , nurus': 162), and descendants of Aeneas/* To recall Mars' approving" explanation of women's cult in the previous book he begins this whole section with an echo of 3. 234 'rite colunt matres sacra diemque rneum'. 'Rite deam colitis', the poet affirms at 4. 133-4, 'Latiae matresque nurusque | et vos, quis vittae longaque vestis abest.' 'You are acting properly to worship the goddess, both you mothers and daughters-in-law, and you others who go without the vittae and long stola.."1 So there are two kinds of women, the respectable ones, brides and their mothers-in-law, wearing the formal ribbons binding their hair and long over-gown, and the others. The poet exploits this group address and his speech of instruction in the successive rituals to blur asocial issue; did all women perform each of the three rituals he will describe, or were they socially stratified? First he honours the Veneralia by giving instructions (4. 135-8: 'dernite, lavanda est, reddite, danda est') for the AgrippiniUa, leader of a thiasus of over 400 recorded on a 2nd-cent. AD inscription south'of Rome. (See Beard, North, Price {1.998} i. 271, 298.) 35 See, however, Forte (ii)84a). at> Since 'Aencadae' in Latin is the regular m. plural echoing the Greek patronymic, ^Aeneadas* ace- in 151 must come from Greek V^oeadejs'. W^ note again 'nums\ dciughiers-in-law, where Ovid could have distinguished ihc young brides as I0upta€\ He may have had in mind the foreign origin of Rome's first Sabine wives, hut since he cells the women 'descendants of Aeneas' it is more likely that lie thinks of the 'nurus' as under the authority of their dowager mothers-in-law. 'Matres* is commonly used as a synonym of 'inatronae', and can be applied to all but the newest brides.

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ritual washing of the goddess's cult image. The women must remove the golden necklaces of the goddess and all her jewellery so that she can be washed all over. Once she is dry, they are to replace her golden necklace, and give her fresh flowers and a new supply of roses. And the women must wash themselves too, but clutching myrtle branches, 'because she once had to hide from peeping satyrs and used the myrtle to cover her body; that is why you must repeat her action now'.37 So Ovid describes two different rituals of washing a goddess's image in this single book-one of them not attested in any other Roman source. And he seems to be inviting all the women to join in bathing the image, though this kind of ritual was usually only performed by a few attendants, often indeed by virgins. We noted in connection with the washing of Cybele's image that women's rituals would not be listed in public calendars, because they were not required of public officials. But what makes the washing of Venus suspect is less the lack of corroborating evidence than Ovid's close imitation in the consciously stylized artificial language of his instructions of a famous literary model-Callimachus' elegiac hymn called 'the Bathing of Pallas' which celebrates an equally unattested ritual in which women bathe the image of Pallas Athene in Argos. Could he have invented the whole episode as a pretext to imitate the famous Hellenistic hymn? At 145 fdiscite nunc') Ovid begins a new set of instructions to the women. He explains why they give incense to Fortuna Virilis (Manly Fortune), *in a place moist with hot water'.38 What is he talking about? The inscribed Fasti Praenextini of Ovid's expert source, Verrius Flaccus, though damaged, reports this offering to Fortuna Virilis on 1 April: 'women supplicate in crowds to Fortuna Virilis, and the humbler ones even do so in the baths'. When I attempted my own interpretation of these rituals in rny recent commentary,39 I tried to resolve the conflicting implications of Ovid's notice and that of his learned friend Verrius by stressing the normality of women J7 There are other festivals on which women should particularly practise washing themselves, notably 15 Aug.; cf. Hut. Roman Questions 100, '* Here 1 tentatively read 'calida' with Fra/er and Bomer, against the variant 'gclida' adopted by Castigtioni Landi and most recently Alton el at. (1988). 39 There I have ventured to differ from the simpler account given by Sdieict (19924).

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using public baths in Ovid's time. But of course this fits Ovid better than Verrius. It was indeed normal for women to use the public baths, but Verrius obviously envisages his 'humiliores' as doing something too daring for their respectable sisters. I have now been persuaded by Charnpeaux's specialized study of Roman Fortuna40 that we must divide the rites offered to Fortuna Virilis—essentially a fertility deity—so that the respectable women do indeed bathe in the public baths, but at a time set aside for women, while the 'lower' kind of women uninhibitedly bathed along with the men: hence the explanatory footnote in the Fasti Praenestini: 'for this is where men are attracted to the women'. Ovid's last instalment of instructions to the women, marked by a new imperative 'nee pigeat' (151) bids them take a ritual drink of milk, honey, and poppy seeds," because this is what Venus herself drank on her bridal night. When they drink they must pray to Venus, because she preserves beauty and good behaviour and reputation. This surely introduces the third ritual, performed as worship of the aspect of Venus called Verticordia, 'the Changer of Hearts'.42 The phases of this cult are clearly recorded by Ijvy and other sources. As Ovid indicates (4. 157-60), the cult was created in response to a decline in morality 'proavorum ternpore' (more likely towards the end of the third century): one of those lapses which happened periodically in Rome, and which the authorities used to counter *' Cb.ampea.ux (1987) j, ch. 6, 375-409, here 384. She sees the old. cull of Fortuna Virilis in which all the women would have bathed together, probably in the Tiber itself, gradually being displaced by the mid-Republican cult of Verticordia, to which the myrtle and the drinking of the ritual cocetutn belong. By the time of Plutarch (Nianii 19. 3), then Macrobius (Sat 1. 12. 15} and John I.ydus (4, f»5) the cult of Fortuna Virilis is no longer observed and the rituals are fused into homage to Venus Verticordia alone. On the larger issue of why Virile Fortune should apparently be worshipped only by women, Champeaux uses the analogous Fortuna Barbata to argue for an originally masculine cult in which women came to share because of its benefit of fertility: this would then have been abandoned by the men, when the feminine cult of Venus was assigned to the same date. 41 The so-called cocetum, not unlike the Attic kukeon (on which see N. J. Richardson 1974), consumed as part of the cult of Demeter. 'ij 1 have translated as it Venus' new epithet denoted her power to change the hearts or attitudes of others (the women), since this moral improvement was what the Roman elite needed. Ovid himself derives it from Venus' change of her own heart 'verso... corde', that is, her softening of heart towards Rome. I suspect him of deliberate reinterpretatiou, but can offer no conclusive argument.

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43

by establishing yet another cult of Venus. The issue was of course keeping the women under control: there were few limits on male sexual activity. This time the Sibylline Books ordered the Roman Senate to give new honours to Venus, and as a result Venus relented towards them and was named after this change of heart. Here our knowledge of the phases of this cult can be supplemented from Valerius Maximus and Plutarch. When the statue of Venus Verticordia was authorized, the affair was put into the hands of the elite women, who devised a way to choose who would dedicate it. First a hundred married ladies were chosen, then ten out of these were selected by lot, from whom finally the consul's wife Sulpicia was appointed to dedicate the statue for her meritorious chastity.44 A century later, in 114 BC, the Vestal virgin Licinia—herself later accused of unchastity—gave Verticordia, a temple for her worship.4"5 So did all the women observe all these rituals? Hardly. Only a very few women could be involved in washing the goddess's image in the river's running water, but surely anyone could frequent the baths, and do so without loss of respectability: recent studies seem to have established that women did have their own public baths at this time, and so might bathe in respectable circumstances. But would the women who wanted to appeal sexually to men also be concerned to protect their good reputation? It seems that Ovid has deliberately wrapped the three different celebrations together so as to confuse the women's roles in association with each cult or offering. What is he up to? My own suspicion is that he is reacting against the bourgeois insistence on distinguishing honest women from elegiac mistresses, ladies of the night, or even simple working women,. By addressing all the women together with, the same imperatives for each cult in turn he can associate all women together in what may well have been practised by only some of them. We can measure his indulgence for the less respectable ladies in, the care with which he celebrates that other Venus festival, 43 Compare Ijvy's account (10, 31. 9) of Fabius Gurges' new shrine of Venus erected with the proceeds offings for worn^ivs immorality in 29f> BC. 44 See Valerius Maximus 8. IS. 12 and Faolham (1998) on 155-62. 45 See Plutarch, Roman Questions $'& and Fautham (I1W8) on 155-62,

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of Erycina by the Colline Gate, on 23 April.46 For this the street women (volgares paellae) are to honour Venus, who is well disposed to the earnings of licensed ladies (professarum quaestibus). There was only one 'profession' for women in those days: 'profited' means to declare yourself on a public list, and the only public list for women was the aedile's register of public prostitutes. According to the reformed poet of love, 23 April is the day when these loose-living ladies offer incense and garlands of myrtle and mint and roses, and pray for beauty and popular favour and seductive gesture and language. To my mind Ovid has carefully balanced the two feast days of Venus and their celebration within his poetic book, designing the objects of their prayers on 1 and 23 April as complementary; while the well-born ladies ask Verticordia for 'mores' and 'bona lama', the others ask for the seductive airs and graces that are far more to the point and will ensure their continued popularity. I have postponed treating the Cerialia, or feast of Ceres. This was one of Rome's oldest festivals, consisting of a day of cult and sacrifice, followed by three to four days of theatrical performances and a final day of chariot races in the Circus. In Athens the Thesmophoria, one of the major festivals of Ceres' counterpart, Demeter, was exclusively for women, and concerned with the fertility of crop and woman. And women could share with men initiation into the rites at Eleusis, in which, as far as we know, the loss and recovery of Persephone was enacted, at least in symbolic form. Rome had imported a plebeian cult of Ceres with Libera (Proserpina) and Liber (Bacchus or lacchus), as early as the fifth century, giving them a temple on the Aventine. Because of Ceres' association with the grain crop and the later public dole of wheat, she was a favourite image on Republican coins, which may show her wearing a crown of wheat or holding an ear of wheat: some celebrate the games of Ceres, and others illustrate two phases from her search for Proserpina: a myth so significant for cult and so popular that it was told twice by Ovid. In the longer version in 4tl Erycina is Aphrodite of Ml Eryx in Sicily, a cult employing sacred prostitutes, which was brought to Rome by Fabius Maximus during the Hannibalic war as a political gesture towards Sicily.

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Metamorphoses 5 the muse Calliope recounts Ceres' adventures in Sicily as she searched for her daughter. But it is Fasti that tells the version truer to the Greek narrative as we know it from the Homeric hymn.*7 Here Ceres first searches in Sicily by night and day, taking up torches which she kindles from Etna, then flies in her chariot drawn by serpents to Eleusis in Greece, where she is welcomed to the home of young Triptolemus and forecasts his role as inventor of the plough.48 Only after her stay at Eleusis, according to Ovid's version as told here in Fasti, does Ceres discover that Jupiter has agreed to give her daughter to his brother Dis in the underworld. Both here in the Fasti and in Ovid's other version, however, Ceres is given powerful arguments against Jupiter, justifying her right to share in deciding on the choice of her daughter's husband. It is these arguments, rather than,, as in Ovid's other version, the damage inflicted by Ceres on the crops on earth, which determine Jupiter's bargain that Proserpina shall spend part of each year on earth with her mother.49 The symbolic meaning of the myth is taken to be the sowing and spring growth of the grain, but the narrative of Ceres' search and complaints would have a more literal significance for women, who would almost all know the time when they had to lose their daughters to marriage, when they would no longer control their access to a beloved child. Oddly, however, the only references to contemporary ritual acts within Ovid's Proserpina narrative are to Greek practices.-™ Stranger still, our poet has actually anticipated in April the divine narrative which Roman women celebrated much later, after midsummer—the 'sacrum Anniversarium Cereris'.51 This 47

This has been established in detail by Hinds (1998). The bulk of the narrative in Metamorphoses is concerned with Ceres' wanderings in Sicily before she learns of Proserpina's rape and approaches Jupiter to demand her daughter's restoration. Her visit to Attica, and gift of the plough to Triptolemos is only reported parenthetically at the end in Met. 5. 642-56. 4!j Cf. Fasti*. 587-618 with Met. 5. 514-71. '''" The lighting of torches (4. 493) and the breaking of fast at evening (4. 535-6). We might add the ritual drink kukfon which seems to be described by Ovid at 4. 547-8. 51 OB this occasion, which occurs at a point in the calendar, after the six months covered by Ovid, see Spaeth (1996) 12, 13, 105-7, and Fantham (1998) 393 n. This was a night vigil, and the only one expressly approved in Cicero's religions law code of De Leg. 2. 21 and 36. But he also allows for 'those made on behalf of the people in proper form". This category would include the uoctural 'sellistenuuni* of Juno offered 48

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was a specifically women's cult, and Cicero, who calls it a Greek ritual, confirms elsewhere that its priestesses had to be Greeks and were imported from the Greek cities of Velia or Naples.-52 On this summer vigil the Roman matrons re-enacted the loss of Proserpina, crying out to her repeatedly at the street intersections of the city. The Greek practices—of lighting torches at evening, of the ritual drink of milk, honey, and barley—would belong not to the April Cerialia but to this women's summer ritual. In another poem, Amores 3. 10, Ovid throws more light on the ritual. After honouring Ceres for her benefactions he reproaches her because Ms girl is obliged to sleep away from him: 'a feast day calls for sex and song and wine! These are the offerings men should bring to the gods.'53 So the women's vigil probably entailed abstinence from wine as well as from sexual intercourse. Propertius complains about similar sexual abstinence by Ms mistress in honour of Isis, and an earlier passage in the Fasti reports the same 'secubitus' in preparation for the worship of Bacchus.54 It was understood at Rome as in most cultures that men were impure for religious purposes after intercourse, but there is so little interest in women's religion that this seems to be our only evidence for prohibitions affecting them. This is perhaps the best place to mention another restriction on women's sexual activity which Ovid highlights and even personalizes. As he approaches the June Vestalia he claims that he was about to give his own daughter in marriage, and so made inquiries about the right time to do so: (6. 221-2: 'tempera taedis | apta... quaeque cavenda forent'}. Women apparently should not many between 6 and 13 June (the Ides) during the period, when Vesta's shrine was being spring-cleaned, and Ovid's authority is no less than the wife of the flamen Dialis, who confirms that she herself cannot even at the Ludi Saeculares of 17 BC and AD 204, Nocturnal rituals had been part of the indictment against the Bacchanalia in 186 ne. 32

Cic. Verr. 2. 4. 115, Bath, 55. ~'f On tltts poem and distich see Miller (1.991) 4-5—6. '''' Sleeping apart to be pure for Isis, Prop. 2. 31; for Bacchus, fasti 2. 328-30: *p0sitls iuxta secubuere tons J causa, repertory vitis qtsia sacra parabant, | quae facerent pure, cum foret orte dies'.

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consort with her wedded husband, the flamen, at that time.55 Given that Plutarch cites other such restrictions, how many of these taboos on marrying, or married intercourse, may have gone unmentioned in our sources?56 Ovid's half-year of festivals marks one other day which was specially celebrated by women, and this for two different but related cults. On 11 June women gathered to celebrate the Matralia in honour of Mater Matuta, but it was also the day for honouring the shrine of Fortuna in the Forum Boarium: indeed the temples of the two goddesses were adjacent, and both cults were associated with the same legendary king, Servius Tullius. As Ovid expresses it after he has told the legend of the goddess's coming to Rome (6. 569): 'The same day and founder and location are yours, Fortuna', 'lux eadem, Fortuna, tua est, auctorque locusque'. There is evidence in other elders and contemporaries of Ovid, in Varro, Livy, and Festus' epitome of Verrius Flaccus, that associates the two female deities more closely.57 But Ovid treats their cults separately and serially; first he summons the women to worship on this anniversary of Servius' temple to Mother Matuta

55 Why does Ovid use the 'flaminica' as his informant? The flaminica' and her husband the 'ilamen DiahV were subject to multiple taboos, (According to Gellius 10, 1.5 and Plutarch, Roman Questions 40 and 109-13, he would forfeit office on her death.) Besides other taboos affecting her (cf. Gellius 10. 15. 26-7), Plutarch, Roman Questions 86, reports that the 'flaminica' may not bathe or adorn herself during the period of the rite of the Argei in May, a time in which other women may not many; hence perhaps the other requirement mentioned by Plutarch, that she must adopt a stern demeanour ('skuthropazein'). ft is part of Ovid's search for variety that he should not mention this restriction in his discussion of the Argei in May, but introduce it only in one of the two periods concerned. •"' Plutarch actually implies a much wider taboo in stating (Roman Questions 105} that it is not customary for maidens to marry on a public holiday, only for widows. This would seem to exclude even Kalends, Nones, and Ides; see Macrobius, Sat. I . 15. 21, :ii Livy 5. 19, (> confirms Servius as founder of the temple of Mater Matuta: Varro ap. Nonius 189 reports that the Fortuna of the Forum Boariurn was also called * Fortuna Virgo'; who, according to Festus 282 L, was also construed as 'Pydicilia': 'Pudicitiae signum in foro Boario est uhi Aemiliana aedis est Herculis. F.am tjuidam Fortututni esse existimani. Item via Latina ad milliarium 1111 Fortunae Muliebris, nelas est attingi, nisi ab ea quac seme! nupscrit.' It is not clear to what aspect of the two cults 'Hera* applies. As Wissowa (1912) 207 argues, this is also the 'Fudicilia Patricia' from which Virginia was excluded in the narrative of Livy 10. 23. 3f. (see n. 23 above).

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(6. 475-80): Ite bonae matres (vestrum Matralia festum) flavaque Thebanae reddite liba deae: pontibus et magno iuncta est celeberrima Circo area quae poslto de bove nomen habet. hac ibi luce ferant Matutae sacra parent! sceptriferas Servi templa dedisse maims. Go then, good mothers (the Matralia is your feast day), and offer golden honeycakes to the Theban goddess. There is a much-frequented area near the bridges and the great Circus which takes its name from the statue of an ox; men say that there in this day the sceptre-bearing hands of Servius dedicated a holy temple for Mother Matata,

Matuta is called 'Thebana dea' because she was equated with Ino, nurse of her nephew Dionysus. Cicero, who reports the Identification of Matuta with Leucothea, the deified form of the Theban queen Ino, does not try to explain the equation,58 In Greek myth Hera vindictively maddened Ino so that she threatened her children: Phrixus and Helle escaped on the golden ram, but she caught up Melicertes and jumped with him into the sea. Together they were saved from drowning by being transformed into the sea deities Leucothea and Palaemon. Building on this Ovid confects a mythical coming of mother and child to Rome in the time of Evander: persecuted by Roman Bacchantes, Ino is rescued by Hercules and heralded as the Roman goddess Matuta by Evander's prophet mother Carmenta.-59 The poet thus incorporates into his fiction two types of female religiosity—Maenadic worship and prophetic inspiration—more acceptable in the heroic period than in the late Republic and his own time.60 However, Ovid is also more informative than usual on the form of cult observed. He notes the ritual practice of driving ;8 ' See ND 3. 39 and 48: 'Ino dea ducctur et Leucothea a Graecis, a nobis Matuta dicetur, cum sit Cadmi filia?' See now Smith (2000). 59The persecution is instigated by a disguised Junu (6, 507—22/; lor Carrnenta's prophetic frenzy (she swells with inspiration like Virgil's Sibyl "sanctior et tanto, quam inodo, maior') see 6. 541-8 at 545: 'Leucothea Grais, Matuta vocabere nostris*; Ovid echoes Cicero's distinction. w) qppg Maenadic cult of Bacchus was banned throughout Italy by decree of the Senate in 186 BC, though individual worship remained licit, Prophecy too wass restricted to official consultation of the written texts attributed to the Sibyl and controlled by the .Docenivifi,

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out a slave girl from the celebration, and another anthropologically interesting feature: the women do not pray to Matuta for their own child, but for their sisters' children. This is probably a trace of an older matrilineal element in Italic society, but Ovid associates both practices with Ino's mythical biography (6. 551-62): she was nurse to her sister's son, and she hated slave girls because a slave girl informed on her to her husband. The poetic narrative is fantasy, but the ritual taboos are also discussed in Plutarch's Roman Questions 16 and 17; indeed Plutarch cites the local Greek practice of banning slaves (and Aetolians too) from the shrine of Leucothea. Who was Matuta and what did she do for women? Dumezil has argued from the root 'matutinus' that she was a Dawn goddess,t!l but the Romans themselves did not know her origin, and saw her only as a protecting goddess like Fortuna. And even Fortuna was a deity they preferred to particularize by defining genitives or adjectives,'1" Wissowa lists along with Fortuna Virilis, whom we met in the women's baths, a number of Fortunes associated with a particular family or college, Fortune the Favourer or Watcher ('Obsequens, Respiciens'), and two Fortunes associated with women: the Fortune of the temple attributed to King Servius Tullius in the Forum Boarium, probably Fortuna Virgo, and Fortuna Muliebris.63 The distinctive feature of the Forum Boarium temple was its cult statue, heavily veiled in a toga of mysterious weave. Ovid identifies this as King Servius himself (6. 571 'hoc constat enim'),"4 but reports that others construed it as Fortuna or Pudicitia. Ovid relishes alternatives, and provides not one but three explanations why the statue was veiled: Fortune herself t!1 Dumezil {1970} i. 50-5. For other sources see Beard, North, Price (1998) 62 i, 51 n. 157. Cf. Dumezil (11)70) i. 42. (3 ' See Wissowa (1912) 208-12. Are these complementary? Did the girl pas from the cult of Fortutia Virgo as she niarried to come under the protection of Fortuna Muliebris? Both female fortunes are listed by Plutarch, Roman Questions 74 in a discussioin of Servius' many foundations for the goddess that is expanded in On the Fortune of the Romans 10. But he does not include the cult of Fortuna Muliebris there, perhaps because he has already reported the legend of its foundation (on which see below) in On the Fortune of the Romam 5. 1)4 Ovid's view is shared by Dionysius 4. 40. 7, Valerius Maximus 1. 8. 11, and Pliny, Nil 8, 194. But in 8. 197 Pliny reports a contradictory claim that the statue was Fortuna, herself.

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covered the king's face in shame (573-80); or the Roman people did so to put an end to their grief after his assassination (581-4); or Servius covered his own head before death to avoid looking his murderous daughter in the face (584-620). The poet has devoted attention to this oddity in order to justify a women's cult practice or taboo: married women must not touch the statue's drapery, because the day on which Servius' face is exposed will bring the abandonment of all modesty (620): 'haec [sc. lux] positi prima pudoris erit'. Did women come collectively to pray here on this anniversary? Or was this a general warning to any woman who might come alone? Understanding the various cults of Fortuna is one of the most baffling problems in approaching Roman cult. But that of the Fortune of women (Fortuna Muliebris), though not considered in Ovid's calendar poem,'" is known to have been, founded by and for women, and inaugurated at least by an officiating priestess. According to Dionysius 8. 55-6, when Coriolanus' stern mother led the matrons of Rome to confront him and shame him from attacking the city in 493, the Senate honoured them by erecting an altar and temple to Fortuna Muliebris at the point where he was turned back. The married women were authorized to nominate a priestess and chose a woman, Valeria, who had helped to organize the deputation to Coriolanus.™ Dionysius reports that she officiated at the sacrifice, uniquely on this occasion performed by the women on behalf of the Roman people. Indeed the goddess's statue actually spoke her approval of the women's act, saying, in language we have also read in Ovid: 'you have dedicated me in proper fashion'."7 Why did they need divine confirmation? Since, properly speaking, women had no property, they were not in a position to dedicate anything beyond their personal effects-such as the

' •' Ovid's calendar does not go beyond 30 June. The temple anniversary falls in July and ihe feast day on 1 December, '* This detail suggests that Dionysius* source was Valerius Aulias. See uow 'Valerius Antias and the Palimpsest of History' in Wiseman (I!)98) 88. But leaving aside her name, the story of the priestess is authenticated by Livy, Valerius Maximus, and Plutarch in On Ihe Fortune of the Romans 5. '"' The same miraculous speech is reported in Val. Max. 1. 8. 14 'Rite me, matronae, vidistis, rileque dedicastis.'

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maiden clothes which the bride would dedicate to Fortuna Virgo.68 This temple, set outside Rome, provides a link back to my point of departure through Livia, who restored it, because of its association with chastity and marital respectability: only 'univirae' might enter the temple of Fortuna Muliebris,69 and it spoke for Livia's concern for marital harmony. So too did the dedication that follows immediately after the story of Fortuna and Servius Tullius, as Ovid brings the Fasti towards its early closure: we saw Livia restore the temple of Concord and enrich it with an altar in January (1. 650-1), an act marking her worthiness of her unique husband.70 In June again (6. 637-4-4) he describes how she presented Concord with a glorious temple and portico on the site of Vedius Pollio's scandalous mansion; it now became her offering to her husband: 'te quoque magnifies, Concordia, dedicat aede Livia, quam caro praestitit ipsa viroV1 As Nicholas Purcell (1986) has shown, Livia set herself up as a model for the women of Rome, and the embodiment of Augustus' moral policies, Ovid has skilfully distributed the record of her actions over the calendar to make her stand for women's religious role at both his beginning and as nearly as possible his ending. As he declares of Augustus' actions, so we may say of Livia's pointed choice of shrines to set a noble ''* Wissowa's evidence for this practice (1912) 207 is partly Virginia's reference in Livy I0S 23 to her own dedication to Pudicitia on marriage, and partly irotn the" Christian Arnobius 2. fi7, who refers to the goddess as Fortuna Virginalis. <>!) Cf. Festus 282 quoted n. 57 above. Livia's act of restoration is known from the fragmentary inscription; Purcell (1986) 88 and n. 58, /a i. 650; 'sola tero reagni digna reperta lovis* lavishes on Augustus an honorific Ovid might have withheld when he wrote the first draft of Fasti bk. 1. See HerbertBrown (1994) 1.62-7 for a full discussion of this passage. '•'• On this portico see Herbert-Brown (1994) 145-56. She rightly insists on the coherence of this passage with the preceding passages honouring the women's cute of Matuta and Fortuna, but points out that according lo Dio 55. 8, ) the Porticua was dedicated in January and jointly with her son Tiberius, Thus Ovid has taken a gesture of family concord between mother and son and reinterpreted it as a confirmation of concord between husband and wife, reinforcing this message by associating the event with Che women's festivals oi Mater Matuta and Fortuua. As she points out (148), Ovid out of tact towards Livia passes over the normal requirement that no one except 'uuivirae* should participate in the Matralia (also true of the cult of Fortuna Muliebris}, By linking these three cults Ovid can focus attention on wifely virtue and I jvia's role in providing the model of that virtue,

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example: 'sic exempla parantur'.78 If Ovid tells us less than we would like about the ordinary woman's religious life and practice, one woman at least has been given credit for all her public religious acts, and her religious roles and honours reflect the cults and ideals set before elite women in the days of poet and emperor. 72 pjQjy (1984) made this the title of her excellent study.

3

Vaga Signa; Orion and Sirius in Ovid's Fasti EMMA GEE

(i) Introduction In this chapter two episodes of the Fasti will be studied, both of which contain astronomy: the Robigalia of fasti 4. ,901—42, where Sirius, the Dog-Star, is present, and the part of Fasti 5 in which Orion and Mars Ultor are juxtaposed, lines 493-598.' Although, these two pieces of text may at first seem dissimilar in structure, content, and programme, it will become clear that they share elements, and that these common features can help to shed light on the way in which astronomical material functions in its immediate context in the Fasti, and on the place of astronomy in the work as a whole. Orion and Sirius are astronomical entities with credentials which go back as far as the beginnings of epic and didactic poetry in Greece.2 They belong also in the tradition of the agricultural calendar, as it is found in Hesiod's Works and Days, Aratus' Phaenomena, Virgil's Georgics, Varro's De Re Rmtica, Columella's ResRusticae, and Pliny the Elder's Naluralis Historia, book 18.3 In particular, the first two couplets in Ovid's record of the strange festival of Mildew (the Robigalia) at Fasti-i. 901-4, in which Sirius occurs, reflect this tradition; they look like advice on astronomy and meteorology addressed to

' Thanks to John Henderson, Elaine Faotha.ni, Geraldine Herbert-Brown, and Michael Reeve. 2 Sirius: Homer, A 22. 29, Hesiod, WD 582-96; Orion: Homer, //. 18. 486, Hesiod, TO598, filS. 3 On the Fasti and the agricultural calendar, see Gee (2000; 9-20).

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the watchful farmer: Sex ubi, quae restant, luces Aprilis habebit, In medio cursu tempora veris erunt, Et frusta, pecudem quaeres Athamantidos Helles, Sigiiaque dant imbres, exoriturque Canis. When April has only six days remaining. Springtime will be in mid-course, And your search for the Ram of Athamantic Helle will fail. The signs bring rain, and the Dog, Canis, rises.4

Both in their injunction to the second person addressee and in their astronomical content, these opening lines of the Robigalia may be likened to Georgics 1. 219-21: At si triticeam in messern robustaque farra exercebis humum solisque imtabis aristis, ante tibi Eoae Atlantides abscondantur. But if for a wheat harvest or crop of hardy spelt You work your land, and are keen on bearded corn alone, Let first the Aflantid Pleiads come to their morning setting.s

The idea of observing the Signs which indicate a particular kind of meteorological phenomenon ('signaque dant imbres', Fasti 4, 904) is part of the agricultural tradition, as exemplified at Georgics 1. 351-5: atque haec ut certis possemus discere signis, aestusque pluviasque et agentis frigora ventos, ipse pater statuit quid menstrua luna tnoneret, quo signo cadercnt Austri, quid saepc videntes agricolae propius stabulis annenta tenerent. So that we might be able to predict from manifest signs These things—heatwaves and. rain and winds that bring cold weather, The father himself laid down what the moon's phases should mean, The cue for the south wind's dropping, the sign that often noted Should warn a fanner to keep his cattle near the shippon.

The similarity in tone of the beginning of the Robigalia to Virgil's agricultural calendar situates the Ovidian festival in the agricultural calendrical tradition. If we explore this tradition, 4 Translations of the Fasti in this chapter are from Boyle and Woodard (2000), except where otherwise noted. 3 All translations of the Georgics ui this chapter axe from Day Lewis (W83).

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through Pliny, NH18, for example, it can help us to shed light on problems of astronomical accuracy in the Fasti. Exploration of issues of astronomical accuracy in the Fasti can at the same time help us gain a better understanding of the nature of Ovidian 'ingenium' as it manifests itself through principles of linking, selection, and construction. If his astronomical references are inaccurate in relation to the Julian calendar, either Ovid must be excused on the grounds of his astronomical ignorance, and the reader must pass over these astronomical oversights and concentrate on other material, or we must make room for the theoiy that the astronomical references are arranged as they are not purely as a result of error, but in order to fit in with their surrounding context, and perhaps comment on it. Exploration of thematic links between the stars and the material with which they are juxtaposed becomes a possible methodology once it has become apparent that such juxtaposition is not an arbitrary result of date, but is a device achieved at the expense of chronological accuracy. The question of astronomical accuracy cannot therefore be divorced from the question of whether we should treat the different kinds of material in the Fasti in isolation, or whether the reader should look for thematic links across the different parts of the poem.* This chapter exemplifies the latter methodology. The Ovidian episodes containing Sirius and Orion are related to the agricultural calendar, but are also parts of the complex organism that scholarship and close reading show the Fasti to be. In exploring the importance of the agricultural calendar, and in particular Virgil's Georgics, as model for the Fasti, one cannot ignore the status of the Georgics as literature of the most complex kind; if Ovid alludes to such a model, we must also explore the literary complexity of his poem. So I shall also consider allusion to the Georgics as a programmatic marker in the Fasti, and in this line of inquiry I shall be indebted to Elaine Fantham for clearing the undergrowth, in her splendid article on the Fasti and the Georgics.7 6

A debate exemplified by Herbert-Brown (1997).

7

Fanthain (1392),

EMMA GEE 5° Much can be gained in our understanding of the text by applying to the astronomical material the same techniques regarding intertextuality and allusion as have been practised on the rest of the poem. This is not, however, to ignore historical context. Once it is apparent that patterns of allusion to the Georgics extend to both of the episodes under exploration, linking them thematically, these patterns of allusion may be seen to allow Ovid, here as elsewhere in the Fasti, to develop and reapply the political themes of his early Augustan predecessor to his own situation in the later Principate.

(ii) Stars and Gods Both of the episodes to be considered here contain bizarre pairings of stars with deities: Robigo, the goddess of Mildew, and Sirius, the Dog-Star; Orion and Mars. How can we reconcile these gods with their accompanying celestial entities? The problem is more crucial for the Robigalia, where the festival seems somehow contingent on a connection with a star, rather than, just concomitant with it, as in the case of Orion and Mars. Let us begin by looking at both stories in brief, taking first the pairing of Robigo and Sirius in Fasti 4. The Robigalia begins with the meteorological and astronomical indications mentioned above (Fasti 4, 901-4). What follows is surprising if one expects agricultural advice: Ovid's narrator recounts his own experience of the festival (Fasti 4. 905-10), substituting a Callimachean aetiological voice for the persona of Hesiodic and Virgilian didactic. At Fasti4. ,911-32, the 'flamen Oj.iirinaJ.is' (Priest of Quirinus) prays to Robigo to leave the corn to grow ripe. The priest carries out the ritual of expiation of Robigo, which involves the sacrifice of a dog and a sheep at Fasti 4. 933-6. In response to a question from the narrator, he explains that the sacrifice is for the propitiation of Sirius, the Dog-Star (Fasti 4. 937-42). FastiS. 493-598 juxtaposes Orion and Mars Ultor. At Fasti5. 493-544, the aition for the constellation Orion is given, as follows. Mercury, Jupiter, and Neptune visit a pious old man, Hyrieus, who entertains them with rustic hospitality. In due course the gods reveal their identity and grant Hyrieus' wish

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5I

to have a son despite the death of his wife. This son they conceive jointly, by urinating on an oxhide, from which Orion is eventually born. His life, death, and eatasterism are briefly described in 537-44. Of the versions of the giant's death, Ovid chooses that most favourable to Orion as a catasterized hero:s he became Latona's bodyguard and protected her from a scorpion sent by Tellus. The scorpion and Orion were frozen in the chase before they could do one another any damage, and became constellations in that position forever. Next,9 an astronomical transition (545-8) is made to the games for the anniversary of the foundation of the temple of Mars Ultor. There follows the epiphany of Mars and description of the temple to which he descends (549-68). In 569-78 there is a flashback to the battle of Philippi, at which Octavian, under the patronage of Mars, avenged Caesar's murder. Line 579 brings us to the Parthian campaign of Augustus, and Mars as the Avenger of the massacre of Crassus' army in 53 BC. In 595-8 the god's temple, title, and games are summed up, and in 599 we return to astronomy, with the rising of the Pleiades and Taurus, the latter of which generates the myth of the catasterized Europa (603-20). In both episodes, Robigo/Sirius and Orion/Mars, there are 'errors' of date and puzzles of progression. The illogicality of the Robigalia inheres in two problems: Ovid's astronomical error—the Dog-Star in fact rises in August, rather than April— and the fact that the poet's aetiology of dog-sacrifice by the Dog-Star does not appear to answer the question posed in line 937, why the priest of Quirinus sacrifices a dog to Robigo. These problems were isolated as long ago as 1899, by Warde Fowler: 'Sirius does not rise, but disappears on 25 April, at sunset, and it is almost certain that the sacrifice of the dog has nothing to do with the star.'10 Why does Ovid choose to connect the two at the cost of astronomical error? Elaine Fantham calls this 'the strangest of Ovid's astronomical inaccuracies'." We shall 8 For the different versions of Orion's death (most far less flattering to the hunter), see Hygittus, Astr, 2, 26 and 34, On Ovid's selectivity, see Newlaods (19S)5) 110-15. 9 We should remember that the date markings which break up Ovid's text as we 10 have it are editorial. Warde Fowler (181)9} 90, " Fantham (1998) ad Fasti 4. 904. Her explanation of Ovid's error is that he has confused the rising of Sirius with its evening setting. She comments, 'This is all the

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attempt an explanation in a moment, but let us first outline the problems of the Orion/Mars passage. Here the situation is, if anything, more complex. At Fasti 4, 387f. Ovid has the setting of Orion on 9 April, just before the Games of Ceres. In Book 5 the setting of the constellation may be dated to 11 May. The astronomical dates here, surprisingly, are fairly accurate, since Orion, as a very large constellation, takes some time to set, and does in fact set at this time of the year.12 The problem in this case is that the reader's aetiological expectations are tinkered with in several respects. First, Orion in lines 493 f. is a 'non-constellation'. The constellation is no longer visible in the sky; none the less, Ovid goes on to expound its origin. The paratactic structure typical of astronomical didactic is odd here, considering that the second idea is a. non sequitur: 'You won't find Orion: I'll tell you his cause.'13 If Orion is not there in the first place, what is he doing hurrying to set before the Games of Mars in Fasti 5. 545? The question is an astronomical one; the ensuing passage, however, is the aetiology, not of astronomical material, but of the anniversary of the founding of the temple of Mars Ultor. The anniversary itself is not unproblematic, as scholars ha,ve shown.14 Ovid is the first to record the vow of Octavian at Philippi, but also records a tradition of Mars as avenger of the Roman people over the Parthians: that is, over a foreign enemy, rather than over fellow Romans. As Zanker put it, 'Identifying Mars Ultor with this later occasion, as well as with other deeds of Augustus' armies and generals, was a convenient way of forgetting the association with the civil war,'14 Why does more surprising as Virgil Geo. 1. 217-18 clearly marks the entrance of the sun into Taurus in late April as the time when the Dog Star sets.' Similarly, Ovid's dating of the evening getting of Aries diverges from the true evening setting of that star by about three weeks, and. the apparent evening setting by about a month. Fanthatn leaves the reasons for Ovid's inaccuracy open, saying merely, 'While Ovid's intermittent astronomical references are both inaccurate and arbitrary, he does try to note either rising {real or apparent) or setting of most signs of the zodiac,* '" Although Ideier (1825} 161-3 suggested that he may have used two different parapegniato. H On parataxis as a stylistic marker in astronomical didactic, see Sa.nti.nt (197,5). 14 On the problems, see (for example) Bonier (1957-8) ad Fasti 5. 550, and Herbertt5 Brown (1994) 95-108. Zanker (1988) 194,

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16

Ovid include the Philippi vow at all? Let us now take a closer look at our two passages, exploring the problems further, and trying to see how the different elements in them can be fitted together into an interpretable whole.

(iii) Mildew and the Dog-Star The agricultural theme of Fasti 4. 901—42 fits the predominantly agricultural nature of Book 4. Robigo nestles happily in her surrounding context. The problem, as we have noted, is that Ovid combines the celebration of a rustic rite with the (incorrect) rising of a star. Why is a dog sacrificed to Robigo? Why is it important that Sinus should be present rather than absent at this date? We may attempt an explanation of this problem by consulting the agricultural calendar. Evidence for the association of dogs with the Robigalia conies from Pliny. Discussing diseases of crops at NH18. 154, Pliny describes Blight as a 'caeleste rnalum' which affects both corn and grapes. The Robigalia is among the festivals instituted by men of old to cope with periods of agricultural danger (NH 18. 284), which also include the Vinalia and Floralia (as we have them in Fasti 4 and 5). The Robigalia was instituted by Numa in the eleventh year of his reign, and falls on 25 April, because at about that time the crops are subject to mildew ('quondam tune fere segetes robigo occupat'). But the true cause is the setting of Canis and Canicula at this time: Vera causa est quod post dies undetriginta ab aequinoclio verno per id quatriduum varia gentium observatione in IV Kal. Mai. Canis occidit, sidus et per se vehemens et cui praeoccidere caaiiculam 16 According to Herbert-Brown (1994) 107: 'The absence of any real justification for Mars Ultor is Ovid's challenge as he celebrates the dedication of the temple in the fasti after the death of Gaius, For all his profession to stick to peaceful themes at the outset, of his work (Fasti I. 13} he is DOW obliged to adopt a military tone. Yet all that he is left to work with is the settlement of 20 nc and die memory of Augustus' determination to celebrate the occasion as a military triumph. Or was it after the death ot Gaius, and during a possible upsurge ot popularity tor the memory ol Julius that the vow at Philippi for the revenge of Julius was invented to refurbish the inadequate camouflage of Augustus* peaceful settlement in 20 BC? If this is so, it is not surprising that Ovid, composing his calendar in the years AD 4-8, should he the first Roman to report the vow at Philippi,'

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necesse sit' (NH18. 285), From this it seems that propitiation of the setting Dog-Star, at the time when the wheat was about to come into ear (i.e. spring), coincided with the Robigalia, the purpose of which was also the protection of the crescent corn. At Fasti 4. 901-4 Ovid gives the rising of the Dog for Pliny's setting, possibly to make a stronger connection between the sacrifice of a dog to Robigo, and the Dog-Star. The cause of the dog sacrifice, like the constellation, is present in the Fasti', but Ovid neglects to tell the aition of the sheep sacrifice which also takes place at Fasti 4. 935, nor does the constellation of the Ram preside over the ceremony (Fasti 4. 903). It is the Dog that Ovid seerns to want us to concentrate on here.17 The agricultural calendar is important not only for explaining apparent logical anomalies in Ovid's Robigalia, but also in trying to determine the moral thrust of the passage. Broadly speaking, this might be defined as the celebration of rural peace. One might see Ovid's Robigalia as indicative of nostalgia for the virtuous state of rustic early Rome, a sort of Golden Age in which the arms of war are the only entities subject to corruption, as the priest prays they will be at Fasti 4. 921-30: Parce, precor, scabrasque manus a messibus aufer, Neve noce cultis; posse nocere sat cst. Nee teneras segetes, sed durum amplectere ferrum, Quodque potest alios perdere perde prior, Utilius gladios et tela nocentia carpes: Nil opus est illis; otia mundus agit. Sarcula nunc durusque bidens et vonier aduiicus, Ruris opes, niteant; inquinet arma situs, Conatusque aliquis vagina ducere terrain Adstrictum longa sentiat esse mora. 'Spare us, I pray, keep scabrous hands from the harvest. Harm no crops. The power to harm is enough, '7 He has the priest, taking for a moment the role of mythographer, allude to the mythology of the Dog-i>tar at Fasti 4, 1)3!); 'cst Cairo, Icariuin dicunl.,.'. In this version of the myth, the Dog-Star is the dog Maera, who discovered the body of his niasler Icarus, murdered by drunken shepherds to whom he had given wine, a gilt from Dionysus to mankind through him. The dog wasted away beneath the feet of Icarus' daughter Erigoue, who had hanged herself with grief at her father's death, until they were all eatasterized hy Zeus, Icarus becoming Bootes or Arctophylax, Erigone Virgo, and Icarus' dog Canieula (Hyginua, Astr, 2. 4).

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Do not grip the delicate corn, but hard iron. And destroy what is destructive, first. It is better to devour swords and lethal spears. They have no use: the world practises peace, Now let the hoe, hard fork and arcing plow shimmer; They are the field's wealth. Let neglect rust amis; And let any attempt to unsheathe the sword Feel the iron clogged from long disuse.'

The theme of rural peace is consonant with the Pax Augusta of the established Principate. Ovid's 'otia mundus agit' at Fasti 4. 926 recalls the post-civil war scene of Virgil's first Eclogue'. *deus nobis haec otia fecit' (line 6).18 Successful agriculture was an important indicator of the success of Roman institutions, and indeed Pliny, in the agricultural book 18 of his Naturals Historia, asserts that agricultural life is the foundation of Roman institutions (NH18. 6). The work which best exemplifies the morality and sociology of Roman agriculture in the generation before Ovid is of course Virgil's Georgia. Ovid's prayer to Robigo brings to mind a passage of Virgil's Georgia in which a similar combination of agricultural and military imagery occurs, Georg. 1. 160—70: Dicendum el quae srint duris agrestibus arum quis sine nee potuere sen nee surgere messes: vomis et inflexi primum grave robur aratri, tardaque Eleusinae matris volventia plaustra, tribulaque traheaeque et iniquo pondere rastri; virgea praeterea Celei vilisque supellex, arbuteae crates et mystica vannus lacchi. omnia quae multo ante memor provisa repones, si te digna manet divini gloria runs. continue) in silvis magna vi flexa domatur in burim et curvi formam aceipit ulmus aratri. I'll tell you too the armoury of the tough countryman, For without (his the harvest would never be sown nor successful: The ploughshare Erst and heavy timbers of the curving plough, 18 See also Pastil. 08,28,5-8, 701-4; 'lr. '2.224,235. Elaine Fanlham points out (1998 ad Fasti 4. 926) that "otium* was a panegyrical theme in Roman poetry since Horace, noting especially Odes 4, 15. 17-19, 'custode rerun) Caesare nou furor j civilis aut vis cxiget otium, non ira, f|uae ptocudit enses*. On 'otium' as an Augustan concept, see also Galinsky (UWti) 243, 258 f.

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The ponderous-moving waggons that belong to the Mother of harvest, Threshers and harrows and the immoderate weight of the mattock; Slight implements, too, of osier, Arbutus hurdles, the Wine-god's mystical winnowing-fan. Be provident, lay by a stock of them long beforehand If you wish to remain worthy of the land and its heaven-sent honour. Early in woods the elm, by main force mastered, is bent Into a share-beam and takes the shape of the curving plough.

At Fasti 4, 927 Ovid gives an abbreviated version of Virgil's list of agricultural implements. In, particular, Ovid's 'vomer aduncus' might recall Georg, I. 162, Vomis et inflexi grave robur aratri'. In both passages 'arma' are mentioned. In Virgil 'arma* is a military metaphor applied to the tools of the fanner, reinforced by words such as 'gloria' and 'domatur'. The violence of war is transferred by Virgil to agricultural endeavour, which becomes a battle with natural forces, in which, the farmer strives for militaristic triumph. This imagery is appropriate for a description of agriculture which belongs to the generation which had seen the civil wars. By appropriating the terminology of war for agricultural activity, Virgil at once indicates how agriculture might eclipse war, but also how the cultivation of the land in the Age of Jove partakes of the aggression of war. However, as we saw above, Ovid's is a new Golden Age. In the Robigalia, Ovid keeps the two separate, referring to agricultural tools as 'ruris opes' and saving 'arma' for weapons of war (Justi 4.928). Agriculture in this passage of the Fastil&cks the element of aggression it has in Virgil's theodicy of 'labor', and is perhaps more suited to the world of the later Principate, in which agricultural peace is an established fact, and battle imagery is less relevant to all spheres of human activity.

(iv) Orion and Mars But the god of war is not altogether absent from Ovid's aetiological didactic poem: he is addressed in the Proem to Fasti 3,"' and has his own episode at Fasti 5. 545 ff., following 19

On which see Hinds (1992).

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the story of Orion, told at Fasti 5. 493 ff. Let us now consider in more detail Orion and Mars in Fasti 5, The story of Orion is similar in tone and moral thrust to the Robigalia. At Fasti5. 497 f. the reader is plunged into a pastoral world: Tempus erat quo versa iugo referuntur aratra, Et pronus saturae lac bibit agnus ovis, It was the time when yokes bring back the upturned plough And stooping lambs milk their bursting ewes.

Here Ovid may allude to Virgil, Eclogue 2. 66, 'aspice, aratra iugo referunt suspensa iuvenci' ('Look, the bullocks bring back the hanging ploughs with the yoke'}. This story is not going to be the wider campus of epic, but a small piece of pastoral territory. Homely details are present, like the pots of beans and cabbage in Fasti 5, 509, Here again, a key model is Virgil's Georgics. The poor but horticulturally successful old Corycian man in Georgics 4, 125-46 also has cabbage ('holus', Georg. 4. 130). Like the worthy old man in the Georgics, Hyrieus is 'angusti cultor agelli' (499), 'cultorem pauperis agri' (515): compare the 'pauca iugera' of Georgics 4. 127 f. The poverty of the fare in Fasti 5 may remind us of Georg. 4. 132 £, 'seraque revertens | nocte domum dapibus mensas onerabat inemptis' ('He could go indoors at night | To a table heaped with dainties he never had to buy'). In the Georgia, the simple lifestyle of the old man renders him worthy to keep fruitful bees (who are given divine characteristics in what follows); in the Fasti the implication is that the rustic simplicity of Hyrieus, as well as his piety, is what makes the gods disposed to grant his wish for a son. A connection between Ovid and Virgil is the topos of agricultural simplicity as generating virtue. Continuing the theme of virtue, Ovid chooses the version of Orion's death which marks him out as virtuous. In most cases, Orion's death was a result, not of his pittas, but of his hubris.™ The fact that Ovid chooses to manufacture a different version of the giant's death here would indeed seern to indicate that he wished to continue the theme of virtue set up in the episode of Hyrieus and the gods. 7 " See Hyginus, Astr. 1, 26 (Orion boasts that he can kill every beast on the face of the earth), and CaUimachuti, Hymn 3. 2641*. (an attempt by Orion to seduce Diana).

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Newlands comments on the Orion passage: 'The reference to Hyrieus' straitened circumstances makes clear that Ovid is not stretching elegy's bounds with serious Roman themes like Augustus' reform of religion and revision of history', and on Ovid's version of Orion's death: 'Whereas the Temple of Mars Ultor provides official sanction for revenge as a noble expression of filial or patriotic duty, in the Greek myth of Orion Ovid presents revenge as a brute, unintelligent force that can be exaggerated and unjust.'21 This scholar sees a disparity between the martial nature of Mars and the pacific nature of the surrounding episodes, including Orion: 'Read in isolation, the passage on Mars Ultor presents itself as a totalizing discourse, providing a positive view of war and revenge and reproducing the concept of national identity as proudly male and martial. Read in relation to the myth of Orion , , , the exegesis of the cult of Mars Ultor becomes one possible view of Roman identity only, and not a canonical one. Thus, although this passage celebrates Rome's military successes, the ideology enshrined in the Forum Augustum is questioned by the invitation of other perspectives that prioritize the arts of peace rather than the art of war.'22 The implication is that one would expect the passage on Mars Ultor to be very different from both the Orion passage which precedes it, with allusions to the Georgics, for example, being excluded from Fasti 5. 545 ff., but not from the preceding passage on Orion. Following Newlands's reasoning, one would expect a clash between the tone and moral thrust of 21

Newlands (Was) ll'l, ~* Newiands (1995) 20, l°his vitvw is ill tune with Nt'wlaods's broad assertion thai the stars often introduce material which undercuts that presented by the Roman religious calendar, staled in several places in her monograph, e.g. (1995) 25: "within this poem Greek myth and astronomical lore in particular often run counter to the ideals emblematized by the monuments and festivals whose origin and character Ovid attempts to explain'. I have argued elsewhere (Gee 2000: 126-53) that there is not an obvious disparity between astronomy and panegyric, rather the reverse: Hellenistic astronomical writing such as Aralus* PhtmunnaM and Callimacfaus' Lock of Berenice could he seen as to some degree a product of the desire of the Hellenistic monarchies to insert themselves into the cosmos and to dominate it, &$ well as their earthly realm, by their scientific knowledge- If this is the ca.se, it was appropriate to his time that Ovid should attempt its synthesis with archaic and contemporary Roman cult, the festivals of which were devised or revived by the monarch Augustus in his role as Rome's second founder, who also tried to insert himself into the cosmos (see Hardie 1986/Kira'm; Herbert-Brown 1997),

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the Orion episode and that of the Mars Ultor passage which follows it. Is this true? Let us explore further. It may prove possible to modify to some extent Newlands's stark dichotomy between Orion and Mars, and to come up with a different kind of reading of the passage, especially if it can be tied in with the Robigalia also. Certainly, the Mars Ultor passage is predominantly epic in tone. In epic contrast to the predominantly agricultural treatment of Orion in the preceding episode, the heavenly bodies, including the invisible Orion, hasten their course at Fasti 5. 545 to make way for the epiphany of Mars, and for commemoration of the deeds of his victorious descendant Augustus, the anniversary of whose imperium Ovid has already prefaced with the same cosmological conceit (Fasti 4. 673-6): hanc quondam Cytherea diem properanlius ire iussit et admissos praecipitavit equos, ut titulum imperil cum pritnum luce sequenti Augusto iuveni prospera bella darent. Cytherea once commanded this day to rush, And quickly sank its galloping horses, So the next day's triumph might more quickly name The young Augustus as imperator.

Ennius, in the longest extant fragment of his Scipio, used a similar image:23 mundus caeli vastus constitit silentio et Neptunus saevus undis aspens pausani dedit, Sol equis iter repressit ungulis volantibus, constitere amnes perennes, arbores vento vacant. The huge dome of the heavens stood still in silence and harsh Neptune checked die rough waves, the Sun held back the course of his horses with their winged hooves, the ever-iowing rivers stopped, the trees are devoid of wind.

Programmatic value may be ascribed to Fasti 5. 545-98, where the epiphany of Mars generates martial and patriotic subjects meriting epic treatment.24 Line 575 in particular 23

Vahlen (1928) 214, Varia fr. 6. (My translation.) Barchictii (1997) 126: 'Ovid shows us that when he wants to he is perfectly able to write in the antique style used by Virgil in his epic.* 74

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supports this view, where Octavian prays at Philippi, 'Mars, ades et satia scelerato sanguine ferrum.'25 The sigmatic nature of the verse imparts added solemnity, reminiscent of the speech of Aeneas in Aeneid VI. 948 f., 'Pallas ... poenam scelerato ex sanguine sumit,' The motif of vengeance in Ovid seems to fit; Augustus, the new Aeneas, exacts revenge as a prelude to his re-foundation of Rome. The Princeps has donned for Ovid the mask of an epic hero, and his temple to Mars contains the gateway to epic poetry. At Fasti 5. 567 f., the god looks down on his temple, which the name of Caesar renders greater: special et Augusta praetextum nomine templutn, et visum lecto Caesare nmius opus. He gazes at the temple fringed with Augustus' name, And thinks the work greater when Caesar's read.

Maius opus can also signal a move towards Iliadic subject matter, as it does in the second proem of the Aeneid (Aen. 7. 44 £, 'maior rerum mihi nascitur ordo, mains opus moveo'). The wars which follow fulfil this programme; the temple, itself a 'maius opus', acts as a metaphor for Ovid's attempt at a 'maius opus' in the poetic sense. Here, however, we run into a possibility which begins to break down Newlands's strict opposition between Mars and Orion. If one were to think of a model for a temple as metaphor for epic poetry, as the temple of Mars Ultor in the Fasti may be, the one that springs to mind iinrnediately is again from the Georgia: the proem to Georgia 3, where Virgil projects an imaginary work of art, a temple which is a metaphor for an epic with Caesar as its centrepiece. It is interesting to ponder the relationship between Virgil's metaphorical temple and its 'real' counterpart in Ovid. At first sight, the general structure of the passages is dissimilar. The Ovidian passage is ternary in form [constellation Orion/Games of Mars/constellation of Pleiades), with the two introductory couplets forming a miniature 'cosmic setting*-1' for Ovid's record of historical events and their contemporary 25 26

On this speech, see Barchiesi (1997) 126-HO. Bardie (198ft) 64 for the term.

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associations; in Virgil the temple begins a book, and is an extended development of the divine invocation with which each book of the Georgia begins. Initially, the function of each passage seems different also: the proem to Georgics 3 is programmatic, while the Ovidian passage records the advent of the Games of Mars in the Roman year. But we have already seen the programmatic nature of Ovid's temple in the Fasti; and allusion to the proem of Georgics 3 is particularly appropriate at this point in the Fasti, since the proem to Georgics 3 represents the intersection of epic and didactic poetry, the presence of a projected epic (incorporating epic subjects and language in microcosm) in a didactic poem. There are individual similarities too. For example, Caesar's victories occupy the centre of each tableau. In Fasti 5. 557 L conquest of the East is a step towards total domination, of East and West; in Georg. 3, 22—33, the Britons woven into the curtains of Virgil's festal stage, and the figures on the temple doors cover between them East and West, in the context of domination by Rome. The stock motif of fleeing Parthian archers occurs in both authors (Fasti 5, 581, 591; Georg, 3. 31). The real Parthian wars in the Fasti, which led to the foundation of the temple there commemorated, parallel the wars which act as decorative elements in Virgil's temple. Likewise, the statues in Ovid's temple parallel the imaginary" ancestral statues of Georg, 3. 34-6, Martial games occur in both passages (Fasti 5. 597 f., Georg. 3, 17-22), Ovid's are real games, Virgil's metaphorical. The division, however, is blurred, for, as Mynors points out in his commentary, Virgil may have had in mind the Ludi victoriae Caesaris, or the games for the dedication of the Aeries Veneris Genetricis in 46 BC, or the five-yearly Actian Games inaugurated at Augustus' augmentation of the temple of Apollo at Actium and founding of the town of Nicopolis.27 In Virgil there is a blurring between ekphrasis and history. Virgil's symbolic temple and precinct have other features which might be recognizable from edifices in Rome. The structure of the temple may be loosely based, according to Mynors, on Julius Caesar's temple, of which Virgil may have 27

Mynors (1990) ad Georg. 3.

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seen the dedication in August 29 DC, or on that of the Palatine Apollo, dedicated in October 28 BC, the doors of which, as in Georgics 3. 26, were decorated in gold and ivory ('et valvae, Libyci nobile dentis opus', Propertius 2. 31. 12).28 Thus poetic fabrication in Virgil takes its inspiration from reality. Conversely, if Ovid has this passage of Virgil in mind, his vision of the temple of Mars Ultor is inspired by poetic art. Ovid and Virgil are united here by slippage between poetic imagery and Roman topography. But there is one difference between Ovid's temple of Mars Ultor and Virgil's temple of Octavian. Virgil mentions the Parthian wars only; Ovid couples them with Philippi, making Mars twofold avenger (Fasti 5. 595), Virgil did not count Philippi among the subjects for his military panegyric of Octavian.-8 In fact, Philippi in the Georgics belongs in quite a different run of imagery, the portents at the end of Georgia I (461-97; the passage is quoted in full as the Appendix to this chapter). This passage develops out of Virgil's explication of sun-signs, aimed at the watchful farmer, and culminates, via portents for the murder of Caesar and the battle of Philippi, in a scene of farmers in a later time of peace unearthing rusty weapons and greater-than-human bones. Here is the Philippi sequence at Georg. 1. 487-92: non alias caelo ceciderunt plura sereno fulgura nee diri totiens arsere cometae. ergo inter sese paribus concurrere telis Rotnanas acies itcrutn videre Philippi; nee fuit indignum superis bis sanguine nostro Emathiam et latos Haemi pinguescere campus. Never elsewhere have lightnings flickered so constantly In a clear sky, or baleful comets burned so often. Thus it ensued that Philippi's field saw Roman armies Once again engaged in the shock of civil war; And the High Ones did not think it a shame that we should twice Enrich with our blood Emathia and the broad plains of Haemus. 2 * On the possible relationship of the temple in Georgia 3 with the Palatine temple of Apollo, see also Hardie (1986) 123. *"' lliis might support the argument of Herbert-Brown (1994) 107 that the vow at Philippi was invented after the death of Gains in 2 Be (see n. Mi above),

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There is nothing glamorous about the Philippi which follows Virgil's set of portents: the weapons come from the same side ('paribus telis'), and the blood is Rome's own ('sanguine nostro'). Mars, the 'deo ... bis ulto' of Fasti 5, 595, is also the god who, in Virgil, presided over the twofold shedding of Roman blood by Romans in Macedonia in 42 Bc.3<> In fact, Virgil's Mars is impius, the reverse of Ovid's Mars Ultor, and instead of bringing about agricultural peace, he deprives the fields of their rightful occupants, as the bellicose corruption of Rome spreads across the world in the apocalypse of Georg. 1. 505-11: tot bella per orbem, Tarn multae scelerum fades, non ullus aratro Dignus honos, squalent abductis arva colonis, E(, curvae rigidurn ("alecs conflantur in ensem. Hint movet Euphrates, illinc Germania bcllum; Vicinae ruptis inter se legibus urbes Arma ferunt; saevit toto Mars impius orbe. There's so much war in the world, Evil has so many faces, the plough so little Honour, the labourers are taken, the fields untended, And the curving sickle is beaten into the sword that yields not. There the East is in arms, here Germany marches: Neighbour cities, breaking their treaties, attack each other: The wicked war-god runs amok through all the world.

In the Mars Ultor passage, Ovid runs into a problem: for whatever reason, he wants the Philippi vow as one reason for the dedication of the temple of Mars Ultor, but at the same time, his didactic predecessor, whom the astronomical passage which forms the 'cosmic setting' for the temple evokes, presented Philippi in a profoundly negative light. Not only that, but if one reads the Mars Ultor passage with the VirgiMan sequence from the end of Georgi.cs 1, we are reminded that war must be seen as a profoundly damaging influence on agriculture. There is another point at which the end of Georgics 1 may underlie Ovid's Mars episode, and this may help us to show how the passages we have looked at in Fasti 4 and 5 are M>

'Bis' in the Virgilian context refers to the battles of 27 Oct. 42 IK: and 16 Nov. 42 BC, in which Cassius and Brutus were defeated.

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linked with one another by a common model and a common ethical concern, a concern present throughout the Fasti but particularly evident through study of astronomy and agriculture. At Fasti 5. 549-50, the sound of Mars' arrival is the thunder-like clash of arms, 'bellica signa': Fallor, an arma sonant? Non fallimur, arma sonabant: Mars venit et veniens bellica signa cledit, Am I deceived, or is there a sound of arms? 1 aim not deceived: arms did sound. He has come, and has given the signs for war,"

The iunctura of signum and dare occurs twice in this passage from the end of the first book of Virgil's Georgics (Georg. 1. 463, 'sol tibi signa dabit', and 470 f., 'obscenaeque canes importunaeque volucres signa dabant'}, A heavenly clash of arms, like Mars' 'bellica signa* in the Fasti, also occurs in this passage of the Georgics, After the death of Caesar, which led to the civil wars, the clash of arms was heard over Germany: 'armorum sonitum toto Germania caelo | audiit', Georg. 1, 474 f. This is like the clash of arms which precedes the advent of Mars in Fasti 5. Does Fasti 5, in which Philippi is turned into a triumphant episode in the consolidation of the Principate, serve to update Virgilian pessimism in the light of the security of the later Augustan period? Or, by recalling Virgil's Philippi, must we see Augustus' patron Mars in a less positive light? One would expect martial imagery in the Mars Ultor passage, whether or not it rings alarm bells in relation to Philippi; one might also expect such imagery to differentiate the Mars passage, not only from the Orion passage which precedes It, but also from agricultural passages such as the Robigalia. In fact, this may not be the case. The same Virgilian passage may be present at a substrate level in Ovid's Robigalia, an episode we have previously thought of as being, straightforwardly, about agricultural peace. The iunctura of signum and dare also occurs in the Robigalia: 'signaque danl imbres, exoriturque Cards' (Fasti 4. 904). This alone would not be enough to make the reader recall Virgil's '*' My translation.

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32

apocalypse; but there may be more. Compare Fasti 4. 936, 'turpiaque obscenae (vidimus) exta cants' ('the disgusting entrails—I saw them—of a filthy dog'), with Georgia I. 471-2, ^obscenaeque canes importunaeque volucres [ signa dabanf ('Filthy dogs and birds of ill omen gave the signs'). In Fasti 4. 92330 the flamen prays that Robigo will attack weapons, not tools; but, having read the end of the first book of the Georgia we know that rusty weapons are only bought at the price of internecine carnage at the battle of Philippi (Georg. 1. 493-5): scilicet et tempus veniet cum finibus illis, agricola incurvo terrain molitus aratro exesa inveniet scabra robigine pila. Surely the time will come when a farmer on those frontiers Forcing through die earth his curved plough Shall find old spears eaten away with flaky rust,

Ovid ties us in very closely at the end of the fourth book of the Fasti with the end of the Erst book of Virgil's Georgics. In Virgil, the transition through meteorological signs and heliological portents of Caesar's murder to civil war leads to the apocalyptic end of the first book of the Georgics, What is the effect of this on the interpretation of the Robigalia? The Robigo episode may be related to the agricultural aftermath of civil war at the end of the first book of the Georgicy, does this serve to reinforce the rhetoric of peace, or to fracture the idyll? Is Newlands in fact right to postulate a clash between pastoral Orion and warlike Mars, and is Mars also in opposition to the pastoral peace of the Robigalia? Or does a Virgilian vision of the fragility of agricultural peace underlie Mars, Orion, and the Robigalia together? It would be possible to argue that war in fact unites the passages we have studied from Fasti 4 and Fasti 5. Astronomy can prove helpful here too. Is there, for a start, such an opposition between Orion and Mars as Newlands postulates? Certainly Ovid's version of the Orion tale may underplay Orion's warlike aspects, but in fact the huge constellation is a fitting analogue for the martial Augustus who follows in the Mars ;

'~ The iunctuniis probably common in prognostic literature in the Aratean tradition; see also Cicero, Anita 190, for example.

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Ultor episode. Epic credentials can be found for Orion. He expresses the size and might of Mezentius entering battle at Aeneid 10. 762-5; he is described in the Virgilian epic as 'magnus, saevus, ninibosus, aquosus', and—like Mars—he carries weapons, being 'armatus'.*3 Manilius, Astronomica 1. 501-5, written perhaps at the same time as the revision stage of the Fasti and therefore reflecting astrological beliefs roughly contemporary with Ovid, M may hint at Orion presiding over the Trojan War: iara turn, cum Graiae verterunt Pergama gentes, Arctos et Orion adversis frontibus ibant, haec contenta suos in vertice flectere gyros, ille ex diverse vertentem surgere contra obvius et toto semper decurrere mundo. Already when the Greeks overthrew Troy the Bear and Orion moved with fronts opposed, she content to describe her gyrations at the pole, he rising to i'ace her in opposition as she wheels on the other side and to traverse forever the whole sky,8'5

Manilius (Astron. 5. 12) describes Orion as 'magni pars maxima caeli* (the greatest part of the great heaven). In Fasti 5. 537, "creverat immensum', the giant's size is the only piece of information we are given about his life. It is enough, however, to enable us to see a continuity between his episode and the Mars Ultor passage which follows, in which the size of the temple matches the size of the god: 'et deus est ingens et opus* ('Both the god and the work are massive', Fasti 5. 553). Orion is the 'dux* ('general') of all the other stars at Astronomica 1. 395: 'hoc duce per totum decurrunt sidera mundum'. Perhaps this shows why he might also be an. appropriate celestial analogue for Augustus, mention of whom just precedes Orion in the Astronomical and follows Orion in the Fasti. 3-3 Aen. 7. 71.9 f.: 'saevus ubi Orion hiberois conditur undis, | vel cum sole novo densae torrentur'; Aen, 1. 535: 'nimbosus Orion'; Aen, 4. 52t: 'dura peiago desaevit hierns et aquosus Orion, | quassataeque rates, dorn non tractabile caelum'; Aen, 3. .517 f,; 'Hyadas geminosque Triones, | armaluinqut; auru eireumspidl Oriona.' 44 On the comparability of Manilius arid Ovid, see Herbert-Brown in this volume. :w Trans. Goold( 1977)." •to Manilius, Astron. 1. 385 f,: 'Augusto, sidus nostro qui contigit orbi, legurn nunc terris post caelo maximus auctor' ('Augustus, who like ft star has fallen to the fortune of our world: greatest lawgiver is h<» now on earth, in heaven will be hereafter*). For Orion's natives, see Ast. 5, 57 IT.

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The huge, armed constellation of Orion is a good one to precede martial subjects. Orion is an epic constellation, introducing Mars, an epic god. Both are savage, although Mars is more successful in being so. The opposition between Orion and Mars is weakened if one takes a more holistic view of the astronomical material in the poem, comparing astronomical material with other astronomical texts of a kind that Ovid and his readers may have been able to bring to bear on the Fasti Sirius too has epic credentials, appearing in a martial simile at Aeneid 10. 269-75, for example. Here Sirius is a plaguebringer, on a par with portentous comets, and suitable for describing a wrathful warrior. Indeed, his astrological significance is related to war: he causes war and brings back peace ('bella facit pacemque refert': Manilius 1. 405). He is thus also an appropriate constellation in the context in, which he is placed in the Fasti, in a passage which involves an opposition between agricultural peace and war, an opposition not as clear as it might be. The 'otium* of Fasti 4. 926, a celebration of the Pax Augusta which follows the catastrophe of civil war, may be complicated by the opening and closing motif of the passage, the violent and vacillating star Sirius.

(v) Conclusion The stars point us toward the Georgics as a model for the Fasti Virgil's work provides a didactic subtext that unites Mars, Orion, and the Robigalia. But there are two ways of interpreting the relation between Ovid and his agricultural didactic model: either Ovid is presenting a sequel to the Georgics which modifies Virgilian pessimism in the light of Augustan peace, or the Geofgic subtext to the passages of the Fasti we have studied forces on the reader the fragility of that peace. The associations of both of the constellations we have studied might seem to give war the upper hand. Astronomical 'errors', such as Ovid's note of the rising of the Dog-Star when it actually sets, might help us to interpret the poem, insofar as they could be considered as evidence that Ovid intended to create certain effects in his poem, choosing

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and positioning stars and even festivals according to the dictates of theme and allusive potential rather than of technical accuracy. In the case of both Sirius and Orion, it is notable that an absent star is made to be present, although in two different ways: in Fasti4, Ovid has Sirius rise instead of set, and in Fasti 5 Ovid notes that Orion sets, but gives the aetiology of the constellation anyway. This may be because in both instances the constellation adds to our understanding of Ovid's programme in the respective episodes, and in the Fasti as a whole. For example, as we have seen, in the Robigalia Ovid chooses to emphasize the Dog rather than the Rani. This may be because the Dog had warlike associations, whereas the Ram did not;37 and Ovid may have wished to bring warlike associations to the otherwise peaceful Robigalia, which, when, read also with Virgil's Georgics in mind, can function as a moral commentary on the Pax Augusta,

Appendix: Virgil, Georgics L 461-97, with translation (C. Day Lewis) Denique, quid Vesper serus vehat, uncle serenas ventus agat nubes, quid cogitet urnidus Auster sol tibi signa dabit. solem quis dicere falsum aucteat? ille etiam caecos instare tumultus saepc tnonet fraudemque ct operta turnescere bclla. ille etiam exstincto miseratus Caesare Ronuun, cum caput obscura nitidutn ferrugine texit itnpiaque aetcrnam timucrunt saccula noctcni. lernpore quarnquam illo tellus quuquc el aequora ponli obscenaeque caees importunaeque volucres signa dabant. quotiens Cyclopum effervere in agros vidimus undantcm ruptis fornacibus Aetnam, flammarumquc globos liquefaetaque volvere saxa! armorurn sonitnin tolo Germania caelo audiit, insolitis tremuerunt motibus Alpes,

46.5

470

47,5

;w Unlike Sirius and Orion, who appear at Aeneid 10. 269-75 and 10. 762-5, he does not seem to figure in the astronomical repertoire of Vtrgiliaa epic. His natives in Manilius, Astron. 4. 124-39 are skilled in crafts like wool-working (unsurprisingly) and other peaceful pursuits.

ORION AND SIRIUS IN OVID'S FASTI vox quoque per lucos vulgo exaudita silentis ingens, et simulacra modis pallentia miris visa sub obscurum noctis, pecudesque locutae (infandum!); sistunt amnes terraeque dehiscunt et maestum inlacrimat tempiis ebur aeraque sudant. proluit insano contorquens vertice silvas fluviorum rex Eridanus camposque per omnis cum stabulis armenta tulit. nee tempore eodem tristibus ant extis fibrae apparere minaces aut puteis manare craor cessavit, et altae per nocteni resonare lupis ululantibus urbes, non alias caelo ceciderunt plura sereno fulgura nee diri totiens arsere cometae. ergo inter sese paribus concurrere telis Rotnanas acies iterum videre Philippi; nee fuit indignum superis bis sanguine nostro Ematbiatn el lalos Haemi pinguescere campus. scilicet et tempus veniet cum finibus illis agricola incurvo terrain molitus aratro exesa inveniet scabra robigine pila, aut gravibus rastris galeas pulsabit inaois, grandiaque eflbssis mirabitur ossa sepulchris,

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485

490

495

Lastly, what the late evening conveys, from whence the wind drives Fine-weather clouds, and what damp south wind is brooding. The sun discloses. Who dares call the sun a liar? Often too he warns you of lurking immanent violence. Of treachery, and wars that grow in the dark like a cancer, 46,5 The sun, when Caesar fell, had sympathy for Rome— That day he hid the brightness of his head in a rusty fog And an evil age was afraid his night would last for ever: Though at that time the earth as well, the waves of the sea, 470 Mongrels and birds morose Gave tongue to the doom. How often we saw Mount Aetna deluge The fields of the Cyclops with lava from her cracked furnaces, Rolling up great balls of flame and molten rocks! In Germany they heard a clash of fighting echo Through the whole sky: the Alps shook with unnatural shudders, 475 Likewise in stilly woods a voice was heard by many— A monster voice, and phantoms miraculously pale Were met at the dusk of night, and cattle spoke—an omen Unspeakable! Rivers stopped, the earth gaped, and ivories In temples wept sad tears and brazen images sweated, 480 Po, the king of rivers, in maniac spate whirled round

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Forests, washed them away, swept all over the plains Herds and their byres together, A time it was when the guts of Woe-working victims never failed to reveal the worst Nor wells to seep with blood 485 Nor high-built cities to sound all night with the wolves' howling, Never elsewhere have lightnings flickered so constantly In a clear sky, or baleful comets burned so often. Thus it ensued that Philippi's field saw Roman armies Once again engaged in the shock of civil war; 490 And. the High Ones did not think it a shame that we should twice Enrich with, our blood Emathia and the broad plains of Haemus. Surely the time will come when a farmer on those frontiers Forcing through the earth Ms curved plough 495 Shall find old spears eaten away with flaky rust, Or hit upon, helmets as he wields the weight of his mattock And marvel at the heroic bones he has disinterred.

4

Varro's Three Theologies and their Influence on the Fasti C. M. C. GREEN

This chapter is an attempt, based on a re-examination of Varro's Rerum Divinamm, to reconstruct the religious thought that lies behind Ovid's Fasti, a work which, despite the sensitive and complex readings of the most recent scholarship,1 nevertheless remains difficult, because its true subject, Roman religion, has not been adequately engaged as such (Johnson 1992; Phillips 1992: 73). It is my contention that, even from the relatively few surviving fragments of the RD, we can derive at least part of a recognizable Roman theology—that is, a ratio, an accounting of the divine from a specifically Roman perspective—and that this theology underlies Ovid's elegiac poem on the calendar. Educated men (and not a few of the uneducated) had long ceased to believe in the anthropomorphic gods; but that did not mean that they ceased to find significance in the religious phenomena of inherited cult, ritual, and prayer. The Hellenistic tradition on which Varro based his work maintained to a great extent, and in a multiplicity of ways, the significance of these phenomena, most often through rationalization or by metaphorical transference to serve the higher needs of philosophy. The result was that while gods and cults retained their place in Rome's widening physical and intellectual world, just how that divine element was understood kept constantly changing (Beard 1987: 3). In Roman, religion, the coexistence of competing", contradictory narratives and rituals inherited from both Italic and Greek 1

In particular, the monographs of Miller (1991), Herbert-Brown (1994), Newlands (1995), and Barchiesi (1997).

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cultural tradition did not inspire the need to organize, or privilege, on any absolute rational basis (Beard 1987: 7; Feeney 1998: 137—43), Roman religion to an extraordinary degree was, and always had been, a religion of interpretation, as the competition of auguries between Romulus and Remus dramatizes so well: is the sign given to the one who is first, with six vultures, or to the one who, though second, has twelve? The virtue of each interpretation remains strictly relative to its use (Scheid 1992a: 129), being determined by the function a philosopher like Varro, a poet like Ovid, or a politician like Augustus will assign to it. There is also in the RD, as we shall see, a critical theory, which, though rudimentary, surely guided a poet like Ovid when treating the cult and religion of his ancestors. Homer, Hesiod, and the tragedians had always been considered sources of religious knowledge. Poets therefore had a necessary, if often uncomfortable, part in any discourse on religion. To see how Ovid assumes this poet's approach to religion, I will take Book 4, covering the month of April, to demonstrate how this Varronian theology fed Ovid's vision. In particular, I will demonstrate how it guided his selection of narratives, and his choice of poetic imagery within those narratives, with the object of creating a unified poetic vision of Roman religion. I

Varro himself was not concerned with the calendar as such,2 but with a presentation of the grand scheme of Roman religious life (Cic. Acad. post. fir. 22 Miiller; Cardauns, Testimonia 1 j: Turn ego, 'Sunt', inquam, 'ista, Varro; nam BOS in nostra urbe peregrinantis errantisque tamquara hospites tui libri quasi domura reduxerunt, ut possemus aliquando qui et obi esserous agnoscere. Tu aetatem patriae, tu discriptioues temporiitn, lu sacrorurn iura, tu saterdotuni, tu dotneslic.ain, tu bellicam disciplinam, lu sedeni regionum, locorum, tu omnium divinarum humanarumque rerum nomina, genera, ofiicia, causas aperuisti.' * The arrangement oi the 1U) has been preserved by Atigusline. There wt'tc tour subjects, each treated in three books: the first triad dealt with the men involved, the second with the places, the third with the times, the fourth with the actual rites, The last three books treated the gods themselves with a separate hook as the introduction (August. CD (), 3).

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Then I said: 'These are the [important] things, Va.no: your books have led us as it were home, when we were wandering and going astray like new arrivals, so that we 'were able to recognize who we were and where we were. You have revealed to us the life of our fatherland, the descriptions of the seasons, the laws of sacred rituals, die disciplines of the priests, the conduct of domestic and military affairs; you have clariied the position of the regions and districts, as well as the names, kinds, functions, and causes of all divine and human matters.'3

Cicero's estimation of Varro's work, though perhaps effusive, is supported by the evidence. This was no mere written rehearsal of the details of cult and priesthood, Varro provided a new way of looking at Rome and her gods. In some way he had the effect of revealing their world to the Romans, and presenting Rome itself as a city both divinely distinguished, and marked out by sacred spaces which had meaning and purpose in both the micro- and the macrocosm (Cancik 1985-6). Varro's work, moreover, as well as looking back to the religion of the past, looked forward to the new rulers rising from the chaos of civil war. Varro had been born a few years after the death of Gaius Gracchus; he served Pompey in the war against the pirates (Pliny, NH16. 3); he opposed and satirized the triumvirate (Men. 556, TpiKapavos, ['The Three-Headed Monster']), and served Pompey in the civil war (Caes. BC 2. 17-22). Although Caesar pardoned him, Antony remained bitter, possibly because of Varro's satirical attacks, and after Caesar's death had him proscribed (Cic. Phil 2. 102-5). This was not the life of a man who despised politics. The books of the Antiquitates Rerum.were dedicated to the Pontifex Maximus, Julius Caesar.1 He and Augustus were without question the benefactors of Varro's creation: a theological, concept of Rome grounded in her inherited civic, intellectual, and religious traditions.5 ' All translations are aw own, unless otherwise noted. 4 The Antiquilntei is conventionally dated to the period allt'r Pharsalus. Jocelyn {1982} 164—74 prefers a date between 58 and 55, and sees Varro as a detached cynic; conlro, Boissier (1861) and Zauker (1!)88) 103, supported now by Lehmann (1997), who makes the case for Varro with clarity. •'Johnson (1978) 13 is correct in calling Augustas 'the Roman Ptolemy', and in perceiving thai Augustan religion was 'in fact the old religion of the Ptolemies made new for Rome and her renewed empire' (14, with notes). He errs greatly, however, as do most scholars, in supposing that this sort of religion was cynically political {16).

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Varro's understanding of divinity was what we would have expected from so deeply educated and civilized a man. Anthropomorphism, like so many other aspects of religion as practised in his world, was a survival which, he acknowledged, encouraged contempt as often as respect (Cardauns 12): non se ilia iudicio stio sequi, quae civitatem Romanam instituisse... si earn civitatem novam constitueret, ex naturae potius formula deos nominaque eoruni se fuisse dedicaturum.,. sed iam quoniam in vetere populo esset, aeceptam ab antiquis nominurn et cognoniinum historiam tenere, ut tradita est, debere se... et ad eum finera ilia scribere ac perscrutari, ut potius eos magis colere quam despicere vulgus velit, [He said] his own judgement did not concur with the institutions the Roman state had established... if he were to found a new state, he would have dedicated the gods and their names rather from a formula of nature... but since it already existed for people in antiquity, he ought to retain the traditional history of the names and titles received from antiquity, as handed down,... and to that end wrote up and assessed these matters in such a way that the common people might prefer to cultivate them [the gods] rather than despise them.

Varro, however, wrote for men like himself, and thus assumed that intellectual history from Xenophanes to Posidonius would be reasonably familiar to them (Cardauns 8). Furthermore, he expected his readers to be guided by a philosophic rationale like his own, which took it for granted that gods, cults, ritual, and all their artistic and interpretative offshoots were human constructs. The Antiquitateswere organized so that human affairs were treated first, and divine affairs second, both being centred on Rome (Cardauns 5). There is no mistaking the importance he attached to the connection between the state—Rome—and divinity. His intention in writing the RD was to rescue the inherited sacred structure—gods, ritual, and priesthood—from the indifference of the people (Cardauns 2a): se timere ne pereant \sc. dei], non incursu hostili, sed civium neglegentia, de qua illos velut ruina libcrari a se jdicit] et in mcmoria bonorum per eius modi libros recondi atque servari utiliore cura, quam (qua) Metellus de ineendio sacra Vestalia et Aeneas de Troiano excidio penates liberasse praedicatur. He said that he feared that the gods might perish, not through hostile encroachment, bat because of negligence on the part of the citizens, from

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which (he says) they were rescued by him as from a collapsing building, and refounded in the memory of good men through his books and preserved by a more practical kind of care than that by which Metellus is said to have rescued the sacred items of the Vestals from the fire, and Aeneas when saving the Penates from Troy's destruction.6

Yet it would be a serious error to suppose that Varro was writing in the hope of somehow persuading the 'vulgus' to embrace religion: his work was for the 'boni', the men of his own class. His intention, in terms of religion, was one recognized by most natural philosophers: ocu^ew rd tj>aiv6(j^va, 'to save the appearances'.7 The appearances, after all, were where one began.8 His more immediate purpose, drawing on philosophy, comparative anthropology, and the work of poets and artists, was to explain to the Romans themselves what they did, and how it made sense in the greater scheme of things. To a great extent he must have achieved his purpose. The accumulated remnants of an old (therefore provincial, primitive and, probably, embarrassing), non-Greek (therefore barbarian), and non-philosophical (therefore not capable of logical explication) religious tradition, now had ratio, that untranslatable hallmark of Roman respectability, one key part of which was, precisely, systemization. Varro organized his source material into three categories: the poetic, the civic, and the philosophical (Cardauns 7/August CD6. 5): tria genera theologian,,. esse, id est rationis, quae de diis explicate, eommque unum mythicon appellari, alterum physicon, tertium civile... rnythicon appellant, quo roaxime utuntur poetae; physicon, quo philosophi; civile, quo populi. [He said) there are three kinds of theology, that is, of a logic seeking to explicate the gods. Of these one is called 'mythic', the second, 'natural', and " Reading Hoffmann's emendation quam (tjun), which is necessary to the meaning. This passage i n itself refutesjocelyn's view of Varro and the RD (cf. above, n. 4). Varro here casts himself in the heroic mould proper to saviours of Roman 'sacra'. These are not the words of a detached cynic. 7 Lloyd's observations (1978; repr. 1991) 251-2, on the methodology of scientific philosophy, are equally applicable to religious philosophy. * Contemporary with Ovid, or perhaps a little later, is the mysterious Heraditus, who assembled the rationalizing explanations for Homer's gods (Buffiere 1!M>2).

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the third, 'civic'... the one they call 'mythic' is that most especially used by poets; the 'natural', by the philosophers; and the 'civic', by the people.

In particular, he seems to have been concerned that literature and art—the theology of myth—undermined the 'dignitas' of the gods, and provided a representation contrary to the 'natura' of the divine (Cardauns 7), Varro's concern is old: it can be traced back at least as far as Xenophanes, who vigorously criticized the immorality of Homer and Hesiod (Kirk and Raven 1971: 169). Plato too had banished poets from the polis because of the baleful effect on the people (Rep. 10. 605-8). Certainly Varro's concern to mitigate the apparent immorality of the gods as found in literature and art would have appealed to Augustus, even if it did not actively shape his opinions on the matter. Nevertheless, despite the fact that he disapproved of the 'theology of the poets' and placed a higher value on philosophical explanations than, on inherited ritual or practice, he excluded no material arbitrarily. There is one other aspect of Varro's view of the gods and their presentation in the management of the state that we must consider, before we turn to the use Ovid made of the AD (Cardauns 20f): Utile esse dvitatibus . . . ut se viri fortes, etiarasi faLsum sit, diis gcnitos esse credant, ut eo modo animus humanus velut divinae stirpis fiduciam gerens res magnas adgrediendas praesuraat audacius, agat vehementius et ob hoc impleat ipsa securitate felicius. |He said| it is useful for states thai strong men should—even if it is untrue— believe that they are descended from gods, so that in this way the human spirit, bearing, as it were, the guarantee of divine ancestry, might the more daringly anticipate great deeds that are worthy to be done, perform them with greater determination, and thus carry them out the more successfully by reason of their own confidence.

So, although Varro held no brief for the anthropomorphism of the gods—on which single premiss any political argument for divine descent must rest-and despite the fact that he regarded human claims to divine ancestry as patently false, he readily acknowledged the advantages inherent in both these concepts for promoting the well-being of the state. This adaptiveness was part of the legacy the Romans received from the historians of

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the Pharaohs and the Persian kings, supported by Euhernerism (which held that the gods were originally men who had benefited their people) and the self-deification of Alexander the Great, all filtered down in terms of practical politics through the ruler-cults of the Ptolemaic and other, lesser, Hellenistic dynasties. That Varro, a Republican through and through, could take this stand is very important for our understanding of Augustus, his much-touted Julian descent from Venus, and the ways in which men from the ruling class—of whom Ovid was one—were expected to deal with it" Thus there are three things that we can be reasonably certain Ovid found in Varro, First, a tripartite classification which divided the material on the divine into the theology of the poets (including Homer, the tragedians, and the rest of Greek as well as Latin poetry), the theology of the state, and the theology of the philosophers."' Second, some sort of arrangement of" those theologies in a system primarily intended to explicate Roman religion for the benefit of Rome and its ruling class. Finally, an underlying tension, acknowledged by Varro, between the immoralities of poetic theology and the moral needs of civic theology, on the one hand, and on the other, between the philosophers' explication of the divine, and the combined peculiarities of civic theology and the theology of the poets (Cardauns 228): De diis... populi Roman! publicis, quibus aedes dedicaverunt eosque pluribus signis omatos notaverunt-, in hoc libro seriham, scd ut Xenophanes Colophonios scribit, quid putern, non quid contendam, ponatn, Horninis est enim haec opinari, dei scire. In this book I will write about the public gods of the Roman people, to whom they have consecrated temples and whom they have distinguished by the setting up of numerous statues, but, as Xenophanes of Colophon writes, I will put down what I think is the case, not what I would argue for [ ? The distinction between, conclusions drawn from the evidence and the logical argument of philosophy?]. It is for man to have opinions, and for god to know. w Varro is thus proposing to the ruling class that they practise collusion with Viri fortes' in a mild but necessary deception. Alexander is clearly in his mind, as are men like Scipio Africaitus, 10 Schilling rightly claimed (1954: 152} that Ovid frequently presents a 'triple point of view'; but has missed the Varronian source, and its implications.

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How Varro himself resolved these tensions is unrecoverable; but by now it should at least be clear that Ovid did not undertake to write the Fasti without a generic model for dealing with them: Varro's tripartite system, well known among his educated readers, and already established as acceptable to the Princeps. II

The fragments of the Remm Dwinarum concerning specific deities and rituals are frustratingly sparse, but those we do possess, backed up with the Lingua Latino and the Res Rusticae, at least permit us to ascertain something about Varro's treatment of the goddess Venus and several of the other deities whose festivals fall in April, and to observe the influence of this material on the Fasti11 First, the most important revelation offered by Varro's discussion of Venus is the fact that he clearly performed a kind of structural analysis of the gods, equating divinities with similar qualities. This is an extension of common Roman practicerecognizing that Zeus, for instance, andJupiter were 'the same'. The 'mother goddesses'—Cybele, Ceres, and Venus—were commonly linked, and it would be no surprise if these goddesses were on his list. Varro's equations, however, are in fact far less predictable. The fragments tell us that he equated Venus and Libera (Cardauns 93); Venus and Luna (Cardauns 179); and Venus and Vesta (Cardauns 283). Libera, he said, is Ceres (Cardauns 260, where Ceres is named, instead of Libera, as the female aspect of Liber); Ceres is Terra, the Earth (Cardauns 270); Tellus, the Earth, is Magna Mater (Cardauns 167, 268), Proserpina, and Vesta (Cardauns 268). We know from the LL that Varro connected the etymology of Venus with Victory through the root 'vincire', in their common sense of 'to bind', and he says that Tellus is called Victory (LL 5. 61-2). Victory and a Sabine goddess Vacuna are the same (Cardauns 1; Vacuna means 'goddess of free time'), and the context of this fragment supports the supposition that Victory 11 Throughout I use the text of Faiitbam (1SW8). Her commentary is a paradigm of the best kind of scholarship, a thoughtful guide through the maze of previous exegesis, and an encouraging aid to the development of one's own.

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7Q

and Venus were equated in the RD as well. Rightly did he say 'sed potest... fieri ut eadem res et una sit, et in ea quaedam res sint plures' (Cardauns 268) ('but it can happen that a thing is unitary, while at the same time certain things in it are multiple'). Thus we can see at once that several of the deities whose festivals fall in the month of April are identified with Venus by Varro. We must in particular notice the inclusion in this group of Proserpina, Vesta, and Victoria—all unexpected, but to be important for Ovid's narrative. Since Vesta is included, we have to recognize further that in Varro's system the 'mother' goddess and chastity/virginity are not mutually exclusive: or rather, that our category of 'mother goddess' is not Varro's, and therefore, not Ovid's. Mother and daughter (Ceres and Proserpina) are aspects of the same goddess, and here we see the effect of Varro's rejection of anthropomorphism—it is their function, rather than their quasi-human relationship, that determines the analysis. This, then, was the paradigm for Ovid when he began working on the month of April. Venus, Ceres, Cybele, Tellus, Proserpina, Vesta, and Victory are equated. These several identities are the Many contained in the One, which we can, at least for now, call 'Venus', Next, we know how Varro defined the essence of Venus, that is, the philosophical nature he assigned to her. The most elaborate explanation, deriving ultimately from Presocratic cosmologies, is found in the LL, and there is enough in the RD to make us confident Varro was consistent in this view (Cardauns 280). Venus is born from fire and water, through the conjunction of fire, the highest of the four elements, and water, the lowest (LL 5, 61), She, Venus, is the force of conjunction that leads to generation. This very Pythagorean/Empedoclean notion belongs, of course to the 'theology of the philosophers'. The poetic theology, Varro says, holds that the fiery semen of Zeus fell on the sea, and Venus was then born from the foam, by the conjunction of fire and water (LL 5. 63). Thus when Ovid says (4. 61-2): *Sed Veneris mensem Graio sermone notatum auguror' ('but I surmise/auspicate that the month of Venus is named from the Greek language'), he signals to us with the verb 'auguror' what he is doing. As poetic augur, '- Of. the apparatus crUicus to Cardauns 1,

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he is taking the auspices, and choosing the signs for the month that he will interpret. As a poet, Ovid very properly selects the poetic theology of Venus, thus defining the paramount value of his religious interpretation. This does not mean he rejects alternative views—it is clear he does not—but that he employs them only when and as they serve his purpose. He is selecting from the same cornucopia of source-material as Varro, but since his purpose is different, his selections differ too. Furthermore, Greek derivation allows him to connect his poetic interpretation with philosophic/scientific theology: Zeus is fire/semen, while Earth as water provides the nurturing fluid. Ovid can thus utilize both the poetic ancestry of Venus and the philosophical/scientific tradition associated with the imagery of fire and water. He also accuses those who, like Varro, preferred, an etymology deriving from the Latin 'aperire' ('to open', LL 6. 33) of envy and a desire to deny Venus the honour of the month's name (4. 85-6). Implicitly, of course, he is portraying his own motivations—he intends to honour Venus-but he is also affirming, here as elsewhere, what we have learned from Varro: the decisive factor governing choice of narrative is not 'the truth'.13 Venus, the name of the month, and its nature—that of generation from fire and water—are closely linked in Ovid's chosen etymology. It is important, then, that he still rehearses the Varronian etymology from 'aperire' (87—90), which (as we shall see) he will use as a significant subsidiary imagistic theme, to mark the process ('opening') through which generation occurs. He therefore Integrates it, after restating the principal idea of generation in its most natural form (91-114), into his description of Venus' month (125-8). Having thus identified the month's natural signs—that is, the elements characteristic of that month that will provide Ovid's linking imagery—let us now see how he reports and interprets these signs when shaping his account. The principle of generation, and its ultimate cosmological source, the conjunction of fire and water, as well as the secondary process of'opening', are 13 As Newlands (1995) 69 sees. Herbert-Brown (1994) 89-91 argues for a specific attack on Cincius and Varro. She is right to recognize that Ovid does iii fact accept the conceptual connection between Venus, AptO, and 'aperire', 'The language of growth is replaced by the language of openness* (Fantham 19518 ad 11, 87-8).

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both readily discernible in the text once they are recognized as signs. To begin with, once Ovid has asked for Venus' blessing (15-16), he turns immediately to Augustus, and recalls his descent from Venus, that is, the generation that led to Augustus (19-24). An elegant nod backwards to the month of March and Mars (25-6) connects April with its immediate predecessor. Ovid takes the opportunity, in passing, to touch on generation again by showing Romulus in the act of creating the calendar, which he decides to begin with March, Mars being 'sibi nascendi proxima causa' ('the immediate cause of his own birth': 26). This tactful depiction of the calendar as a record of Romulus' piety—a son honouring his divine fatherhas a very Roman colour. We can almost see it as a tableau, or a scene in a relief or wall-painting: in one frame Romulus turns back, to honour his father and make the (visual, gestural, intellectual) connection to the previous month; in the next he turns forward, toward Venus and the month of April. Venus, Lucretius' 'Aeneadum genetrix' (Lucr. 1. 1), of course is the principle of generation. So we watch Romulus seeking out and finding the beginning of his race (29), a minor dramatization of a primitive search for first causes, as Ovid leads his readers back to beginnings, to the generative source, and traces the (Greek epic) genealogy to Venus, Anchises, and Aeneas (31-8), followed by their Latin descendants (39-56). He closes with the assertion that Romulus always claimed Mars and Venus as his ancestors (though Ovid uses the more intimate word, 'parentes'), and that his words deserve 'fides' (57-8). This statement, of course, calls attention to the existence of its opposite, the potential lack of *fides' in such a statement (and, indeed, in the existence of Romulus himself, or, supposing" he did exist, in the likelihood of his having said anything of the sort). Ovid's allusive inclusion of disbelief both acknowledges the nature of the poets' theology, and finesses it, since while allowing Romulus to affirm the morally questionable relationship of Venus and Mars—the account in Homer (Od, 8. 267—366) being the 'locus classicus' of the sort of immorality disseminated by poets—he also takes advantage of that other weakness inherent in poetic treatment of the divine, the sheer unbelievability of it. He then interprets the mythic story as being there to assure the 'Romuli nepotes' that they are indeed

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descended from the gods (59-60). Thus, I would argue, Ovid turns the whole question of the Julian house's divine ancestry back to Varro. Augustus, Germanicus, are the *viri fortes' of whom so much is expected that they are, as it were, from the creation of the calendar, entitled to appropriate divinity to themselves.14 Having thus dealt with the generations from Mars and Venus, Ovid arrives at the point where he assigns the etymology of April to the foam from which Venus/Aphrodite was mythically born. This is another kind of generation, that of words and names, and they are the creation of humankind. In this case, since the original word for foam (a(f>p6s) is Greek, the hurnans must be Greek too; and after the interesting statement that Italy was a Greater Greece, the Greekness of Italy likewise gets its genealogy, by way of the Greek heroes—Hercules, Odysseus—who visited Italy, and the mythic Greek and Trojan founders who created the Italian city states: Evander (Rome), Telegonus (Tusculum), the Argives (Tibur), Halaesus (Falerii), Antenor (Patavium), Aeneas (Rome), and the mysterious Solymus, the eponymous founder of Sulmo. Solymus and Sulmo allow Ovid—'auctor' as 'actor'—to place himself in the genealogy, slipped in, neatly, if somewhat unexpectedly, between Aeneas and Germanicus.15 Ovid then proceeds to demonstrate the conceptual connection between 'aperire' (which comes from natural philosophy, the theology of the 'physici') and the month of Venus. He defines 'opening' as the opening for, the revealing of, generation (87-90): Nam, quia ver aperit tune omnia densaque cedit Frigoris asperitas fetaque terra patet, Aprilem memorant ab aperto tempore dictum Quern Venus iniecta vindicat alma manu.

14 Zankcr (1988) 195-201 well summarizes the difficulties that the adulterous relationship between Venus and Mars presented to the moral and dynastic aims of Augustus, and the ways in which those difficulties were resolved. l:> Scythia is indeed a long way away from all of that—it has no place in the traditional genealogies. We notice, as a result, how elegantly Ovid calls attention to his proper place (in his view) in the order of things, and the utter marginalization and disconnectedness inflicted by his exile,

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For, because at that time spring opens everything and the dense harshness of cold yields and the breeding earth lies open, they say that April is named from the aperient season, which nourishing Venus claims as her own by placing her hand on it.

The process is threefold: spring 'opens' everything; the dense harshness of cold yields, and the teeming earth is revealed. This is the pattern for what follows, a descriptive 'ratio' of generation in nature (95—132). Ovid takes us from the creation of the gods to the generation of trees (95-6), further elaborating the idea that Venus' power lies in the process of creation through the transformation of 'asperitas', moving from the cold force of 'contractere' (97), to the gentler 'iungere' (98), then to Voluptas' (99), and finally to 'amor' (100). The transition is from the act ('iungere') to the emotion ('amor'). Venus teaches males to modify their innate combativeness (101-4) for the sake of attracting a female, the consequence being abundance of life (105-6). She likewise improves the uncultivated character of human males (106-7), and this produces poetry and a thousand other 'antes', hidden before but now discovered—that is, 'opened' and thus revealed (108-14). The introduction to Book 4 is a statement of the month's major themes. After the proem (1-18), there follow three parts: the Roman generations descended in Greek epic tradition from Venus (19-60); the creation of Italian place-names and 'civitates' by Greeks (61-84); and Venus' power of generation in the natural world (85-114). That is, we have the three Varronian theologies; that of the poets (epic, Homer, and Virgil particularly); that of the state (foundation myths); and that of the natural philosophers. These theologies are not rigid, much less are they rigidly separated from each other: "cui bono' is the criterion for choosing one over the other. In the restatement, Ovid begins with Venus and the state, that is, Rome, moving thence to the epic tradition, Venus' defence of Aeneas, and her wound received before, and on behalf of, Troy (117-22). He then reiterates the line of descent from Venus to the Caesars (123-4). The introduction is concluded with a harking back to the natural theology of Venus and spring (125-8), the third of the three theologies. The closing couplet reminds us that Venus is the one who softens the harshness of the cold (131-2).

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There are, as Fantliara (1998: 37) observes, three major panels in Book 4: the festivals of Cybele, Ceres, and the Parilia, Once we understand how Ovid deals with the elements of these festivals in relation to the themes he has established, we will be in a better position to understand his treatment of the lesser festivals, and his inclusion of other, apparently irrelevant, accounts such as that of the foxes of Carseoli. We have also seen how complex is the list of goddesses whom Varro equates with Venus: Liber a, Luna, Vesta, Ceres, Terra (and Tellus), Magna Mater, Proserpina,Vesta, Victory, and Vacuna. Varro argued, that one concept could have many aspects contained in it (Cardauns 268), a statement clearly true of this goddess. Ovid is thus working in an intellectual tradition that had already incorporated most of the divinities in Book 4. Let us begin with Cybele. Ovid's account of the Great Mother and Attis is clearly adapted from Catullus 63 (223-44). We notice immediately that it is Erato, the Muse, who tells this tale, and the Muses, mythologically speaking, are, from Homer on, the interpreters par excellence of the theology of the poets. Erato is particularly appropriate, because her name links her both (by false, but very poetic, etymology) to Venus, as Ovid says (195-6), and also to the character of Attis' story, which is a tale of love and devotion gone wrong. The second part of this account, belonging also to the theology of the poets, is the retelling of the play in which the Great Mother vindicates Claudia Quinta's chastity after Claudia has rescued, the ship carrying the Magna Mater up the Tiber to Rome (291-336)."* This is a tale of devotion rewarded. Ovid acknowledges that the story might raise doubts (326); improbability is again acknowledged as a characteristic flaw of the theology of the poets, The stories of Attis and of Claudia form the two outer frames of a triptych. On the one side is Attis, who swears fidelity and chastity to the Great Mother, but lies and violates his vow, 1(1

Cf. Wiseman (1995) 129-50 on the use of the theatre to create as well as commemorate a Roman mythology.

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85 On the other is Claudia Quinta, a virgin, bound to chastity by her devotion to Roman social mores. Yet she is suspected of Attis' crime of unchastity. She tells the truth, and is lied about. The castration of Attis, the paradigm of the eastern cult of Cybele, is the punishment for his infidelity. Claudia, the paradigm of the Roman cult of Cybele, has her fidelity publicly vindicated by her miraculous power to tow the goddess's ship. Between these two figures we find an inner narration of Cybele's translation from Asia Minor to Rome (249-78). This comes under the theology of the state, with its own interwoven poetics—a process replicating Varro's claim that he appropriated many things from philosophy and poetry to the civic theology (Cardauns 11). For any Roman, of course, there is a shadow discourse going on. behind Ovid's account. His triumphant statement (2.55-6) that Rome raised her head over the conquered world at the time (205-204 BC) when Cybele was brought to Rome must instantly have called up a very different image, that of Rome after more than a decade of war, desperate for the final defeat of Hannibal. There is not one word about the conflict which drove the priests to consult the Sibylline Books. As a result, the state myth seems strikingly truncated. There Is a reason. What is missing is war; and war, of course, is the proper sphere of Mars, who was left behind in the previous month, but not of Venus. The opening line of this book, with its emphasis on nurturing and love, establishes the fact clearly. Venus is nourishing, and she is the source of beneficence for mankind. The absence of war is the necessary predicate of fertility and abundance, as Augustan iconography amply testifies,17 The absence of the Hannibalic War creates a vivid and direct characterization of Cybele, portrayed here in accordance with the theology of the philosophers, for, as a mother goddess, she is one icon of the peace and fertility that 'Venus' represents. Thus the particular importance of Claudia18 is that she exemplified a Roman standard of chastity based on 'fides', '' Cf. /.anker (1988) 172-7 Cor a discussion of the figure of fertility on the Ara Pads. 18 Contra, Boyle (1997) 13-14, who argues that Claudia's virtues have little or nothing to do with the religious aspect of the cult of Cybele.

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that very quality on which Romans particularly prided themselves, and thought everyone else notably lacked. Attis represents the potential for faithlessness and destruction in the world the Great Mother rules; Claudia represents the worship of the Mother through 'fides', which is a concomitant of peace. Thus she symbolizes the new, Roman, worship of Cybele, The importation of the "xoanon' from Mt Ida is in fact a repatriation of the goddess (272), and her journey from Phrygia to Rome (277-94), by way of Sicily, Africa, 'Ausonia* (alluding to Aeneas), and, finally, the Tiber, is a poetic voyage. The mention of Sicily looks forward, as Fantham says (1998; 287-90 ad loc.), to Ceres and her journey; but it also connects Cybele, Ceres, and Venus—whose island, Cyprus, Cybele also visits (285-6), and who of course will be herself brought to Rome from her famous shrine at Eryx, in Sicily. The second major panel is that of Ceres (393-620). Ceres' cult is easily adaptable to the theology of Venus, and Ovid reinforces this with his claim that Ceres is responsible for teaching men how to cultivate natural crops by instructing them on opening up the earth (401-4). 'Opening', we remember, is a principal part of the process of which Venus is the representation. Fertility and abundance are possible in the absence of war. Farmers are particularly called upon to pray to Ceres for perpetual peace and a pacific leader (407—8). Peace and fertility are linked, as is implicit in Ovid's account of Cybele, and Ceres is so intertwined with, peace that 'pax' itself, or its derivation, occurs three times in the couplet. Between the lines which identify Ceres as the divinity responsible for teaching" men, cultivation, and those which praise her as a goddess who rejoices in peace, there is a couplet which, introduced by the image of Ceres teaching men to break the ground open in order to plant (404), shifts to the mining of precious metals, bronze and iron (405-6). These two metals—bronze, which feeds greed, and iron, which provides weapons—between them bring about war. The very act, then, of cultivation, of learning how to open the earth, brings out into the open what ought to be hidden: the generation-denying possibility of death and destruction, Death, like ground-breaking, has more than one visage, and opening the earth is going to

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reveal another road to death (449-50): panditur interea Dili via, namque diurnum lumen inadsueti vix patiuntur equl. In the meantime the way is laid open for Dis; for his horses, being unaccustomed to the light of day, can scarcely endure it,

The rape of Persephone by Dis, the taking of Persephone to the Underworld through an opening In the earth, and the triumph of life over death when she is returned for part of the year, form an integral part of the religious meaning of Ceres' cult,19 which, among other things, introduces death and sexuality into Ovid's narrative. Yet while Persephone's chastity is violated, her 'fides' is not in question. Just as the Cybele panel introduced the theme of chastity and fidelity, so the Ceres panel will take on this theme, and reintroduce violence, though in a different form from Attis' 'furor' and his resultant castration. The Persephone passage brings out the pain associated with the loss of innocence and chastity. But it also defines the essential union of male and female by violence. That too is an integral meaning of Ceres' cult—and Venus', as Varro makes clear (Cardauns 155): 'Venus... ab hoc etiam dicitur nuncupata, quod sine vi femina virgo esse non desinat' ('Venus, they say, is thus invoked also because of the fact that a woman does not cease to be a virgin without violence'). Ceres' journey is not to rejoin her lost people, as Cybele's was, but to find her lost daughter. In that journey she wanders all across Sicily (467-94) and comes to Greece, to Attica (502). In Attica occur the events that must have formed part of the Eleusinian mysteries. Ceres (Demeter) disguises herself as an old woman, and as such, is taken in by Celeus, a shepherd whose son is dying. The goddess saves his life, and at night tries to burn away his mortality in the fire. The child's mother foolishly interrupts the process out of fear of the loss of her son; as a result the child, who is Triptolemus, remains mortal, but with a divinely assigned destiny, to be the first to practise I!) There was a goddess Panda or Pantica, 'The Opening/Open One' (Cardanns 221), who was thought to be a, form of Ceres, Once again the ingenious false etymologies confirm the underlying perception that Ceres and the idea of opening were intimately connected.

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cultivation (507-60), the first to perform for the human race an art equivalent to the rape of Persephone. Thus, on the one side of Ceres' tale we find the lost divine daughter, Persephone, and on the other, the saved mortal boy, Triptolemus. These are the reverse images of Attis (the lost beloved divine boy) and Claudia (the discovered, mortal girl, who saves and is saved). Moreover, the story has moved from Attis as a symbol of failed male chastity, through the constant (and mortal) female chastity of Claudia, to the violent rape of Persephone, and thence to the cultivation pioneered by Triptolemus, through whom the act of rape is transformed into the nurturing art of agriculture. The mortality and beneficence of Triptolemus parallel Claudia's: the opening of the earth and the softening of cold, death-bringing masculine violence are both successfully accomplished. Ceres then goes on another journey, still searching for her daughter (563-74). Her wandering over the entire earth leads her at last to the Tiber (572), whence she ascends the sky (575). From the stars and the sun she is directed to Jupiter, who is called Tonans (585), This evidence, taken as a whole, clearly relocates Ceres in the (divine) vicinity of Rome. Thus, indirectly, Ovid has her travel to Rome, like Cybele, to find what she needs. There, on Jupiter's command, Persephone, who has eaten three seeds of the pomegranate in the Underworld, is restored to her mother for twice three months (613—14), and the productivity of the earth is assured as death (Dis) and life (Persephone) are united, Our earlier analysis of the Cybele panel allows us to make two farther observations about that of Ceres, First, there is no state theology for Ceres included in Ovid's account, and the reference to Rome, while implied by the Tiber (so significant in Cybele's account) and Jupiter Tonans, remains oblique. This has to be a conscious choice on Ovid's part. The temple of Ceres, founded and dedicated in the earliest years of the Republic, was the symbolic centre of plebeian, power in, Rome. It had burned down in 31 uc, and Augustus, at the end of his life, began its restoration, but. did not live to dedicate it, an act which fell to Tiberius in AD 17. Because of the Cerialia, and because of her intimate connection with the principle of generation, Ceres could hardly have been passed over, but that aspect of

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her worship which appertained to the state clearly could be. Ovid seems here to be respecting the intentions of the Princeps, who declined either to rebuild the temple himself, or to allow it to be rebuilt by others, until the very end of his reign. What we have left is a magnificent recasting of the Hymn to Demeter (Hinds 1987s: 51-71}—the theology of the poetsenriched by thematic connections to the other mother goddesses provided by the theology of the philosophers. And this leads us to a second important observation. Ovid has introduced a new element into the theme, that of fire, which first appears as hearth fire and torches (409-12): farra deae micaeque licet salientis honorem detis et in veteres turea grana focos; et, si tura aberunt, unetas accendite taedas; You may give the goddess spelt and the honour of spitting sail and grains of incense on old hearths, and if there is no incense, kindle torches smeared with pitch.

Fire reappears in the red-hot Sicilian volcanoes (473); again as torches which Ceres lights by means of Aetna's volcanic flames (492-3); and once more as the hearth fire in which Ceres attempts to burn away Triptolemus' mortal substance to make him immortal (509-54). Further, winding in and around these fires are the waters of Earth's rivers and seas. The vale where Persephone gathers flowers is wet with the spray of a waterfall (427-8); Ceres searches for her daughter through Sicily's rivers and springs (467-70) to the Sicilian sea (472), to the Mediterranean and 'two-sea'd Corinth* (498-501). After she has left Triptolemus she travels the Aegean and the Hellespont (563-7); and after the dry lands of Arabia, India, and Libya, she turns to the great rivers of Gaul and northern Italy (571), arriving, at last, at the Tiber (572). From there, as we have seen, she ascends the sky, finds Jupiter, and is finally rewarded with the return of her daughter for six months of eveiy year. Fire and water are thus both pervasive elements in Ovid's narration of Ceres' cult. Yet, intertwined though they are, they never actually come together, to unite in the moment of creation. For that, we must move forward to the third panel, that of the Parilia.

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The interconnection between the various aspects of the divinities of April is made clear once again as Ovid summons Pales (721—4) in virtually the same language as that in which he addressed Venus in the opening of Book 4. Pales is twice characterized as 'alma'; and 'faveo' also appears twice in two lines, recalling the first two words of the first lines devoted by Ovid to April, "Alma fave', there addressed to Venus. Ovid here repositions himself as the poet-singer of sacred things for Pales as well. We cannot tell if there was a poetic ancestor to Ovid's account of the Parilia. The ritual, described as a humble one for shepherds, is important precisely because to all appearances it is not a state ritual such as we might expect for Rome's birthday. The only mention of what could be the state ritual as Ovid describes it is the use of the ashes of the October Horse mixed with those from the Fordicidia, the sacrifice of the unborn calf, both preserved by the Vestals (731-3). This raises an important question. Why, on a most sacred day for the Roman state, is there no mention whatsoever of a ritual celebration of the birthday of Rome? Varro (Schol. Pers. 1. 72) confirms, as we would expect, that there was a state ritual on this day and he says that the Parilia is as much a private festival as a public one.ai How do the two rituals differ? Why does Ovid virtually ignore the public celebration, which surely involved the Vestals, the sacred ashes carried by designated citizens (such as Ovid claims to have been once), and the other religious colleges, in favour of a private, rural, festival? Of course Ovid is throughout the poem concerned with the aetiology of ritual; but, in a month symbolized by generation, origins have even greater importance. Over and above this, I would suggest, Ovid expects his audience to recognize a set of allegorical connections between the shepherds and Rome that are not obvious to us. The first link between the state festival and a rural festival involving the purification of herds and family is of course to be discovered in the character of Rome's founders. Romulus and Remus were both shepherds themselves, and the leaders of those men who became the first Romans: that is, they 20

Beard (1987) is crucial as the foundation for the following part of my argument.

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were the shepherds of their people. There were also actually sheep-pens in Rome itself, critical to the city's ritual and civic existence. These were the 'ovilia', located by the Villa Publica on the Campus Martius, the pens where Romans voted as the 'comitia centuriata', Varro makes telling use in the RR of the Villa Publica and its sheep-pens as allegorical figures for Rome of the Republic (Green 1997). Here Rome itself figures as a homestead, a villa, in which the governing class are both the bailiffs and the animal inhabitants.21 This could have been merely an amusing conceit, but in book 3 Varro turns it into a powerful critique of Octavian's Rome, there allegorized as a beautiful aviary where the birds have everything, a fine home, bread, and circuses—everything in fact, except their freedom. It is worth noting, further, that as a naval commander against the pirates, Varro has himself addressed as Trot/xeVa Aawv (RR 2. 5. 1), summoning up all the power of the Homeric allusion to apply to his office—appropriately, of course, since pirates raid ships and coastal settlements just as predators such as wolves raid flocks. The symbolism of the shepherd as leader of the people' is older than Homer and can hardly have been ignored in traditional accounts of Romulus and Remus, the quintessential shepherds. This allegorical connection, by transforming a rural ritual for herds into the paradigm of a civic ritual for Rome's citizens, would have given depth and meaning to both. Yet the description of the ritual (both private and public) is only the beginning, and the aetiologies (783-806) make Ovid's narratological focus clear, demonstrating that he is most directly concerned with water and fire as they appear in the ritual. The first aetiology Ovid presents is a philosophical explanation for the use here both of fire (harking back to Ceres' attempt to purge Triptolemus' 'human burden') and of water (785-90). He then refers to two other rituals: first one where the exile is denied fire and water, and then one where these elements are presented to a bride entering her new home (791-2). Both emphasize the symbolic and the elemental nature of fire and water, their capacity to make, or break, a union. 71 In book 3, as citizen-birds, in Aristophanes' manner; but note that throughout, characters in the dialogue have names appropriate to their subject

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Then Ovid presents two further aetiologies. The first, that of Phaethon and the flood of Deucalion (793-4), is drawn from Greek myth, and again concerns fire and water (but has nothing to do with either Rome or shepherds). The second is a more generic kind of explanation, which assimilates the shepherd by attributing the discovery of fire to his striking rocks together, and thus accidentally igniting straw (795-8). The aetiology that remains is for the state ritual. Ovid asks whether Aeneas began it with his escape from burning Troy, but discards this in favour of an unheroic aetiology derived from the moment when the Romans-to-be, colonists and flocks, jumped through the fires of their abandoned homes en route to the new city (799-806). Behind 'per flammas saluisse pecus', 'the herd jumped through the flames' (805), we sense Varro's allegorical connection between the people as a. flock, Rome as the Villa, and her leaders as shepherds, that is, sacred caretakers. The 'pecus' and the 'colonos* of this line are surely identical—that is, the colonists jumped through the flames as a herd. This fits the Varronian allegory well, and also removes a small but important difficulty: how would even the most accomplished shepherd get sheep (or indeed most animals not trained for a circus) to walk, run, or jump through a fire? Ovid then turns to a masterful retelling of the tale of Romulus and Remus. The pleasure of Variatio' is not just in making changes, but in adjusting details so that a contrast between the familiar and the unexpected creates its own counterpointed narrative. We get the combat of augury between the brothers (808-18), the digging of the trench, Romulus' prayer for the fruition of his city and its conquest of the world, the approving omens, and the erection of the wall (819-36). Then Remus jumps the wall and is killed. Romulus hides the tears that rise in him in order to maintain the appearance of bravery (845—8). His tears, which at first do not appear, function as the element of water in the act of generation. They, and then those of the Quirites (the 'pecus', the 'coloni') at last provide the sprinkled water at precisely the right time—just before the fire is put to Remus' funeral pyre (849-58). Moreover, Romulus' piety is revealed, laid open ('patet') as he weeps; and opening, as we have seen, is the process that

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allows generation to occur. The Quirites weep with him, their weeping wets the pyre, the pyre is set alight. Fire meeting water is the very act of creation—it is 'Venus'—and at that moment, as fire meets water, the city emerges, 'urbs oritur'. This is Venus' city indeed. The elements of the month, the fire and water that are the creation of Venus, have been slowly assembled, until, at the given moment, they come together for the greatest creation of all: Rome iteelf. The dreadful act of fratricide has become the necessary prerequisite for the transforming act by which is generated the city that the brothers founded together. Also, as with Persephone, violence and death ritually precede new life. Remus is as inseparable from Romulus, fratricide as inseparable from the foundation of the city, as Persephone is inseparable from Dis, or spring from her rape. Ovid, displaying great subtlety, has blended the traditional poetic theology of Rome's foundation with the magnificent philosophical theology of generation. The state ritual now has become a celebration that incorporates the primitive countryman's festival and reaches beyond it to re-enact the creation of the city. Further, since Ovid has just told us how Ceres attempted to burn away the human dross of the first farmer, Triptolemus, we see how this primitive ritual of jumping through fires is now elevated to a purification akin to that of the Eleusinian mysteries. This does not mean that Ovid himself believed the Parilia to be in a literal sense parallel to the mysteries, much less that he expected his readers to think so. He is simply exerting his poetic right as a 'vates' to interpret the signs.

IV We are now in a position to examine Ovid's account of the more minor festivals, and see how he incorporates them in his poetic view of April's divine nature. The month opens with the celebration of Fortuna Virilis. We are told that women of every class worship her (133-5) and the goddess's image is washed on 1 April (135-8). The poetic aetiology envisages her as just having emerged from the water, hair still dripping wet, when she is surprised by Satyrs who are (as always) of Evil Intent (139-44). The subject of generation, which requires

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both male and female, is thus introduced. It is, of course, the wrong sort of generation, and therefore is not accomplished. The branch of the myrtle tree, behind which the goddess hid herself, now symbolizes her command to women to likewise conceal themselves (143-4). That she is too wet (that is, it is too early in the month, so that the conditions for generation are not quite right) is made clear. The worshippers bring incense to the baths, which are perpetually damp, again with too much water, thus being cold as well as wet (145-6). The baths connect Fortuna Virilis with three things: the lavatio' of Cybele (837-40), the waters through which Ceres wanders in her search for Persephone, and the water that is sprinkled on the sheep in the Parilia. Since the sacrifice for this festival, poppy, milk, and honey (a notable soporific), is the drink Venus took on the night of her marriage (151-4), this implies Venus' reluctance to enter upon the sexual act. Venus, the unwilling, unready bride, is therefore, by nature, Varro's chaste goddess, and her chastity permits comparisons with Cybele (who punishes the unchaste Attis), Claudia, and, of course, Persephone. The concluding reference, to Venus Verticordia (155-62), should perhaps be read as a promise to the women worshippers that her function is to change their hearts. Venus shares their desire for chastity, and at the appropriate time she helps them to conceal themselves from the desire of men; but in the necessary process of life, when the time is right, they will be violated (and Ovid, following" Varro, believed that no woman would submit without violence: Cardauns 155). When that time has come, their hearts will be changed, as Persephone's nature is changed, as Ceres' mind and anger are changed. According to Varro, Earth is both soil and water, and its own qualities are that of wet and cold. It must have fire and heat for generation to occur (LL 5. 59). Thus when excessive dampness characterizes the earliest part of the month, it is a seasonable dampness, for the earth is not yet quite ready for regeneration. Later in the month, either too much wet or too much dry is liable to produce disaster. Two festivals before the Parilia illustrate this. First, the Fordicidia (629-72). The slaying of the pregnant cow has, of course, an obvious meaning (covered in eleven

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lines) for the month of generation (629-40). The remaining thirty-two lines are devoted to Numa, who must discover a ritual which responds to the alternate excess of water or dryness (643-4), when the Earth herself is out of balance. Numa stands for human reason, above all for masculine wisdom, and he is inspired by his wife Egeria (66,9), who as a nymph is the divine representative of water. The generation of ritual is thus portrayed as human reason in creative response to the divine. Among the restrictions Numa observes in his ritual is abstention from 'the placing of animals on the table' (657-8), that is, he refuses to eat meat (cf. Met. I. 72-142). Ovid thus preserves Varro's view that the phenomena of ritual are human constructs, and shows us how, if properly understood, they remain valid signifiers of divinity. The second account, the strange narrative of the foxes of Carseoli (681-712),-- follows immediately. It likewise dramatizes the generation of a ritual, and as it begins from the mistreatment of an animal, it seems to be in antithesis to the narrative of Numa, who ritually respects animals. These foxes have no place in the official calendar, and may not even have formed part of the ritual at Rome: they represent the generative fire, but in its excessive, destructive, aspect. According to Ovid's story, though the farm's crops are well advanced, an imbalance between the elements results in no generation, only destruction. As Frazer realized (1929: iv. 332), the fox is, through his red colouring, the flame-shape of his tail, not to mention his destructive consumption of young creatures, both the agent and the symbol of fire. The old woman and the son of the story recall the family Ceres meets in her search for Persephone, but the son is no Triptolemus: for by mistreating the fox he sets the fields ablaze. The animal, violated with fire, spreads this violation so that it consumes the land. The sacrifice -*' We may here see part of Varro's sacred landscape (Cancik 1985-6). He; claims thai at some point the walls between the Cottitie and. laquiline gates were particularly prone to portents. Alter the Sibylline Books were consulted, 'Tareiitine Games' were vowed to T)ts and Proserpina as a. result (Cardatins, Appendix ad Mbrum X 0j. This suggests that the Escjuiiine Gate (which is where Ovid or Varru wuuld approach coining from Carseoli on the Via Tihurtina}, and the Coljjnc Gate (where they would approach from Nomentum on the Via Nomentana), are boundaries of significance for the Proserpina aspect of this month. Ovid meets the priest of Quirinus on the road from Nomentum (90,5-10).

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of the fox is a ritual ceremoniaJizing the sterility of fire which (on its own) is no less hostile to generation than too much dampness and water. We are thus prepared to understand the real meaning—the theology of the philosophers—inherent in the perfect balance between dry and wet as it appears in the Parilia, and how, therefore, the rituals of the Parilia represent creation and the proper fulfilment of Venus' month. The foxes of Carseoli also prepare us for another kind of destruction, that of Robigo. Robigo, as 'rust' on plants (i.e. mould), is the result of too much wet on growing crops (915-19). As the Ovidian word-play has it, the festival properly should shift the 'rust' from crops to weapons (920-5). Rusted weapons are the correlative of peace, and peace is the correlative of Venus and her nourishing abundance (Fantham 1998 ad 11. 902-42). Victory is another aspect of Venus and is therefore appropriately celebrated in April. Thus the victory at Thapsus (376-86) follows Fortuna Publica (372-5), War itself is not mentioned, and Thapsus is commemorated by a survivor, the veteran soldier whom Ovid meets at the games (376-8). Since Vacuna— 'Leisure'— was Victory, because in victory men were at leisure, as Varro tells us (Cardauns 1), the freedom enjoyed by both the soldier and the poet to attend the games is evidence of Caesar's victory. Moreover, Thapsus, we are reminded, was in Africa (dry) while the conversation between Ovid and the veteran is ended by a sudden downpour (wet). The next day is introduced by Dawn looking upon Roma Victrix (389). Roma Victrix is balanced by Jupiter Victor, celebrated on the Ides of April (621-4) and directly preceding another stormy passage, in which the seasonal tempests and hailstorms of mid-April lead to the victory at Mutina, won by Octavian 'with his military hailstorm' (625-8). So again, Ovid commemorates only the victory, and he again ends with a (very cold) downpour. There remains one last festival to be placed in Ovid's grand pattern for April, and that is the Vinalia. As Varro makes clear (LL 6. 13), the Vinalia is a state festival belonging to Jupiter, but Ovid is, again, more concerned with his poetic values, and so chooses his narrative to associate it with Venus. First, and most significantly, he brings Venus to Rome from Eryx in Sicily

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(871-6}, a journey that specifically echoes the similar voyages to Rome undertaken by Cybele and Ceres. He presents it as the result of an abduction—Claudius carried off ('abstulit', 'win', but also 'abduct') Arethusan Syracuse and Eryx. Thus Venus' abduction must recall that of Persephone, and reiterates the main implication of this goddess's innate chastity: she does not go with a man except when forced. The force that brought Venus Erycina to Rome was war, and at the Vinalia war almost enters the narrative. But not quite. In the aetiology for the Vinalia, both Aeneas and Mezentius get as far as putting on their armour (891-2), but then Ovid gives only Aeneas' prayer (893-4) and the victory (895). The trodden grapes are implicitly compared to the defeated Mezentius who has fallen to earth (895). So Victory is celebrated and Ovid honours Venus-as-Victory, even, if it's Jupiter who receives the sacrifices. There follows the discussion of Robigo, with its message of weapons peacefully rusting. The closing five days of April are without religious festivals. Venus Erycina, seized and carried away like Proserpina, has been brought to Rome. Now we come to Vesta (945): 'mille venit variis florum dea nexa coronis' ('the goddess comes plaited with varied garlands of a thousand flowers'). This surely is drawn from the passage of Varro in which he discusses the many goddesses (Venus included) linked to Tellus (Cardauns 268): 'Tellurem.., putant esse... Vestam, quod vestiatnr herbis' ('They think Tellus is... Vesta, because she is "vested" in. flowers'). Since we know that Varro derived Venus from Vincire', 'to bind', Ovid's use of 'necto', 'to plait, to twine, to bind' is surely no accident. Venus and Vesta are entwined, as it were, and the troublesome relationship between Vesta and the house of her relative Augustus (949) becomes less difficult, for since Augustus is the descendant of Venus, Vesta-as-Venus is indeed a relative. Vesta is the final step in the process which occurs in Venus' month. Vesta's flowers, signifying the end of April's function, also connect April and May, as Ovid says (947). That Vesta is chaste does not distance her at all from Venus, since, as we have seen, Ovid affirms Venus' natural chastity throughout. Lacking Varro's account, we can only guess that the connection between Vesta and Venus was reasoned perhaps in the

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following way. Nothing, as Varro says, is born from fire alone, just as nothing is born from a virgin (which is why the Vestals are virgins). But fire also purifies, just as it burned away the human burden of Triptolemus. For Venus Genetrix, fire meeting water marks the moment both of her creation and of her purification. She ends as she begins, a virgin, and is thus both mother and daughter, Ceres and Persephone, Venus and Vesta.

Conclusion The month of April then, is dedicated to Venus, and through Ovid's sophisticated and subtle manipulation of the interrelated, conceptual links provided by Varro's three theologies, the name of the month is appropriated to her, along with most of its festivals. Venus is Vesta, Victory, Ceres, Cybele, and Proserpina; she is Genetrix and Victrix. She is the creation that is the union of fire and water, the semen of Zeus and the seafoam; she is the natural force that created Rome. Arguably, Ovid is presenting a poem on religion to refute the longstanding accusation against poets that they saddle the gods with human immorality; but he is also defending the poet's, the vales', right to use and interpret those supposedly 'immoral' narratives, because they are the signs, along with cult and ritual, through which mankind comes nearest to apprehending the divine world. Examination of the Fasti's other months suggests a similar conceptual unity: January and Beginnings (which, of course, are not the same as engenderings); February and Ends; March and Strife. These obvious associations are supported both by religious philosophy and by the fragments of Varro. May and June are more difficult, but their problems are not insoluble (if Venus is Vesta, Vesta is alsoju.no), though if we remain unreceptive to the multiplicity and fluidity of Roman, religion, insisting that one particular interpretation alone is right, or true, we will be unable to read the religion at all. Above all, though, we must recognize that Ovid's religious thought is much more complex than has been assumed, much richer and more varied. There is no received or established or canonical version; there are only signs and interpretations. His

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right, his ritual duty as votes, is to name the signs for his work, and then to interpret them as they occur. There are many conclusions to be drawn from this; but the notion that the discourse of religion should exclude or replace those readings of the Fasti occasioned by political or literary criteria is most certainly not amongst them. A work of this sort embodies many signs, many interpretations, and those of religion are never exclusive.

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5

Ovid and the Stellar Calendar GERALDINE HERBERT-BROWN

In the first pentameter of the Fasti, Ovid signals his intention to incorporate a stellar calendar as a central motif of the poem in parallel with a temporal, earthly calendar: Tempera cum causis Latlum digests per annum lapsaque sub terras ortacjue signa eanam. The order of the calendar throughout the Latin year, its causes, and the starry signs that set beneath the earth and rise again, of these I'll sing,1

Ovid fulfils his promise by punctuating the earthly entries with stellar notices and tales of catasterisms throughout the six books. In the first book he also incorporates a dazzling encomium to the 'felices animae' who founded the stellar calendar (1. 295-310), The Fasti's celestial theme is unusual, however, as the stars were not a part of the traditional Roman calendar, nor was star-gazing a part of traditional Roman religious practice.2 Why Ovid chose to incorporate a stellar calendar into the Fasti cannot be understood until the identity of his anonymous stellar founders is first established. The encomium, however, is arguably the most mysterious passage in the entire poem. Scholars working on the problem have usually proceeded by seeking out intertextual allusions to Ovid's poetic predecessors and read the encomium through them. This methodology has led to a general consensus that the 'felices animae' are apolitical astronomers or philosophers, remote from the Roman world, or are even an allegory for the literary predecessors 1 This chapter was adumbrated in Herbert-Brown (1997). Thanks go to Elaine Fanlhani and Edwin Judge for suggesting improvements, Text and translation of the FastinK Eraser's (1931), with slight adaptations, 'l Riipke (ISI94) 129,

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with whom Ovid engages.3 Another recent view is that Ovid's 'felices animae' include Numa, Caesar, and Germanicus.4 My argument with this approach is that the conclusions drawn from it leave more mystery than they solve. The character peculiarities of the stellar founders are still not accounted for; neither is their connection with the stellar calendar itself, nor is it with the poet's programmatic statement that the Fasti was a gift, first to Augustus (2, 15-18), then to Germanicus (1. 8-26). These are the issues to be addressed in this chapter. It is hoped that my conclusion will clear the mystery and provide a fresh insight into the stellar calendar in the Fasti. I

Ovid begins the passage by posing a question: Quis velal el stellas, ut quaeque oriturcjue caditque, dicere? promissi pars fuit ista mei. Who forbids me from also telling of the stars, their risings, and their settings? That was part of my promise.

The 'promissum' harks back to the declared stellar motif of the poem 295 lines earlier, which had acknowledged his debt to Aratus (I. 1-2).'" But now, his first resumption of that motif separates him from his astronomical predecessor by introducing those who founded the celestial calendar (1. 297-8):6 felices animae, quibus hacc cognoscere primis inqu.e domus su.peras scandere cura fuit! Ah happy souls, who first took thought to know these things, and scale the heavenly mansions!

Ovid then introduces the theme of moral, intellectual, and spiritual segregation between these first star-gazers and ordinary 3 Frazer (1929) ii. 135-6; Sajitini (1975) J-26; Martin (1985) 261-74; Newlands (1995) 27-50; Bardbiesi (1997) 177-80. '' Gee (2000) 61, 64. 5 Phum. 17. ** Aratus5 stellar poem begins with an encomium to Zeus as creator of the stars and their benevolent influence upon the earth.

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humans (299-300): credibile est Illos pariter vitiiscjue locisque altius humanis exeruisse caput. Well may we believe they lifted up their heads alike above the frailties and the homes of men,

and he proceeds to claim for them a sacred and ascetic nature: their sublime hearts ('sublimia pectora*) were unbroken by lust and drunkenness ('Venus et vinum'), by preoccupations with forensic duty and military toil ('officiumque fori, militiaeque labor'), and were impervious to the temptations of petty ambition, glitzy glory, and craving for great wealth (303-4): nee levis ambitio perfusaque gloria fuco magnarumque fames sollicitavit opum.

It was these incorruptible characters, Ovid asserts, who brought the distant stars close to the eyes of the mind, and who subjected heaven itself to their intellect (305-6): admovere oculis distantia sidera mentis aetheraque ingenio supposuere suo.

Turning from the past to the present, he claims that it is through that intellect that one seeks the sky, not by physical exploits such as the ineffectual attack upon the gods by the giants (307-8): sic petitur caelum: non ut ferat Ossan Olympus, surnrnaque Peliacus sidera tangat apex.

Under these guides, he says, we will map out the sky and assign the wandering signs their days (309-10): nos quoque sub ducibus caelum metabimur illis ponemusque suos ad vaga signa dies.

Ovid's introduction to the first star-gazers contains certain features which connect it to the rest of the poem, and others which seem quite at odds with it. First, the points of contact. The second line of the encomium harks back to the first pentameter of the entire poem, as we have seen. Then the final couplet, claiming that the 'felices animae' would be the 'duces' under whose leadership Ovid would chart the heavens and

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place the days according to the Vaga signa',7 is followed immediately with the first two of the poem's many zodiacal notices, the sign of Cancer on 3 January, and the Lyre on the 5th (1.311-16). And the wandering nature of the stars introduced in the encomium is implied in the calendar itself to reflect the constantly changing appearance of the heavens: those who look for Cancer do so in vain, as it has in fact disappeared (1. 313-14). It re-emerges in June, after the departure of Gemini (6. 727). The Lyre, rising on 5 January (1. 315-16), disappears on the 23rd (1, 653) and is sought in vain on 2 February (2. 76) (and so forth). This gives the impression that the celestial risings and settings are measuring time and fixing the dates of the earthly festivals and events. The connection between the encomium and the opening pentameter of the poem and subsequent star notices is clear, and confirms Ovid's statement that his 'felices animae' were the founders of the heavenly calendar which is woven into the overall fabric of the Fasti, Anomalous features about the passage in its context, however, cannot be ignored. First, the religious, philosophical, and revelatory vocabulary, and the hymnic, didactic tone borrowed from Lucretius,8 make the encomium a stark contrast to Ovid's lightweight introductions to Romulus andJulius Caesar, founder and reformer respectively of Rome's earthly calendar. The introduction to Romulus at 1. 27-8 ('tempora... in anno') contains verbal echoes which link him to the first hexameter and raison d'etre of the poem itself, yet Ovid's first address to Romulus exposes the founder as an unsophisticated rustic: in drawing up a ten-month calendar for the first Romans (I. 29-30): scilicet arum nrngis quam sidera, Rornule, noras, euraque finitimos vincere maior erat To be sure Romulus, you were better versed in swords than stars, and to conquer your neighbours was your main concern. ' Internal evidence from the Fasti suggests that 'vaga signa' mean the signs of the zodiac and the 36 constellations iu the decans list (Sirius, Orion, etc.): see lester (11)87) 20, This, however, is not correct. Ovid's omission of the real Vaga signa*, or planets, is discussed in Section IV. 8 For thematic and verbal echoes of Lucretius (URN 1. (i6-7, 79), Virgil (Gearg. 2. 490-540), and Ovid's Metamorphoses (15. 63-4), see Newlands {1995) 34-5 and Gee (2000) 47-58.

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Ovid offers homespun excuses to Caesar for the founder's blunder in giving this defective calendar to the 'rudibus populis' (31 -8). It was (the more pious) Nunia who added the two extra months belonging to Janus and the ancestral shades (1. 43-4).9 The theme of rustic ignorance in Romulus and the first Romans is taken up again and expanded in the proem to the month of Mars, the month the eponymous hero had made the first of his calendar (3. 71-134). The reason given for his ten-month year was his unfamiliarity with the Greek art of star-gazing (3. 101-4): nondum tradiderat victas victoribus artes Graecia, facundum sed male forte genus. cjui bene pugnabat, Romanam noverat artem: mittere qui poterat pila, disertus era! Conquered Greece had not yet transmitted her arts to the victors; her people were eloquent but hardly brave. He who knew how to fight, knew Roman art. He who could throw spears, was eloquent.

The early Romans had not noticed the Hyades, Pleiades, the two Bears, and other signs of the zodiac (3. 105-8). The stars ran free and unobserved throughout the year (3. 111-12). The setting signs ('labentia signa') of heaven, says Ovid, harking back to the first pentameter of the poem, were beyond their reach (3. 113). Thus through their ignorance and lack of science they reckoned inaccurate lustres, each of which was short by ten months (3. 119-20). This lack of knowledge of the stars caused Romulus to construct a. calendar two months short of a year. Even despite Numa's addition of the extra two months, the calendar continued in error down toJulius Caesar's reform (3. 152-6). Caesar, too, is cut down to size, even if not to the same degree as Romulus. In his introduction to the author of the Julian calendar, Ovid injects some humour by saying that the god and founder of a mighty dynasty did not consider the calendar too small for his attention because heaven had been promised him, and he wanted to know what it was like beforehand; he would not enter as a stranger-god unknown " Nmna was usually credited with having established the year of 12 months. For sources, see F'razer {1S)29) ii, 35-6.

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palaces (3. 158-60). A description of Caesar's reform is then dispensed with in a mere six lines, although the dictator's intimate knowledge of astronomy is nevertheless imparted (3. 161-6).10 It is noteworthy that Ovid does not make more of that knowledge, especially when it was Romulus' ignorance of astronomy which he had already made so much of. And he does not mention the epochal significance of Caesar's reform. The terseness of this lone description is a surprising contrast with the discursiveness of the two devoted to the defective calendar of Romulus, It is even more surprising, in view of the fact that it was the Julian calendar upon which Ovid's Fasti itself is based." Both Romulus and Caesar then, are denied the scientific and religious authority accorded the founders of the celestial calendar, and fare badly in comparison to them. Caesar's knowledge of astronomy, essential to his caJendrical reform, brings us to another anomaly. In the encomium, Ovid introduces and then sustains the divide between those who are privy to knowledge of the heavens, and those who are not. Line 309 makes it clear that he is among those who are not. The inclusion of forensic oratory, military service, and the quest for 'gloria' on his list of essential renunciations of the star-gazer,12 furthermore, categorically denies to the Roman senator any aspiration to this hallowed vocation as well, and thus a true knowledge of the heavens. Ovid's exclusion of the Roman senator from that knowledge is striking when historical precedents had shown that astronomy/astrology could be pursued by a respectable Roman, and given practical application while he was still engaged in public life. Famous senatorial star-gazers before Caesar included G. Sulpicius Gallus (cos, 166 uc],13 P. Nigidius Figulus (praetor 58 tic),14 and Marcus Terentius Varro.1-' Caesar's 10 See also Dio 43. 26. 1-3; Appian, BC 2. 21. 154; Pliny, NH 18. 57. 2lOt; Macrob. Sal. !. 14, 2, 11 Ovid's treatment of Julius Caesar is discussed in Herbert-Brown 1191)4) ch. 3. '" The virtue in renouncing public life is reminiscent of Virgil, Georg, 2. 458-74, and Lucretius, DRN, proem tobk. 2. See Hardie (1986) 34; Newlands (1995) 34. 13 Cic. DeSenect. 49; DeRePub. I, 23-4; Pliny, NH'L 53, 83. 14 Rawson (1985) 94, 309-12. L ' Despite Varro's erudition in matters astronomical, however, he had to rely on the technical skill of others, such as Tarutius Firrnanus for its practical application. See Rawson (W85) 244-5; Cic, DeDin 2. 47, >M,

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interest was apparently not restricted to the reform of the Roman calendar either. Pliny repeatedly cites his De Astris, a treatise which predicted the seasons, weather patterns, and even the fate of certain crops, as decreed by the stellar calendar."> These famous senatorial star-gazers, however, are clearly not the model for Ovid's 'felices animae'. Even the founder of the Julian calendar itself, who himself had been raised to heaven by Augustus (Fasti 2. 144), is no 'felix anima'.17 The study of the stars then, is not, in itself, enough to make one privy to knowledge of the heavens, according to Ovid. Chastity and sobriety, and total renunciation of senatorial duty to the res publics, are just as important. Such character eligibility thus excluded every Roman senator as a candidate for the role. And Ovid does not stop there. He asserts that the way to the stars is to be sought through the 'ingenium' of the 'felices animae', not by physical means such as the giants' attack upon the gods (I. 307-8).m This claim, imitating Lucretius* advocacy of an intellectual approach to the heavens (DRN1. 79), implies a challenge to the Hellenistic mode of deification, or belief that the way to astral immortality for the individual was by performing heroic or beneficial exploits during life on earth, as Hercules, Castor and Pollux, Aesculapius, and Liber had done. This concept, applied to Romans such as Scipio Africanus, Romulus, and Caesar Augustus, was present in the works of Ennius, Cicero, and Virgil.19 Virgil even had Anchises and Aeneas reject the study of the stars and fate (among other arts) as an unworthy activity for Roman conquerors anticipating apotheosis (Aen, 6. 847-53; 12. 435 £}. His Apollo addresses the victorious lulus after a bloody battle (Aen. 9. 641 -2): 'macte nova virtutc, puer: sic itur ad astra, dis genite et geniture deos' ('Blessed be your new virtue, child. That's the way to the stars, son of gods and sire of gods to be'). Ovid's 'sic petitur caelum' seems to mimic this, which makes his contrary claim that the i« JV/f 18. 214. See Rawson (1985) 112, 165; Cramer (1954) 76. 17

18

Pact Gee (2000) 61,64,

The Titans' attack on the gods was as old as Homer (CM 11. 315-16), See Virgil, Geurg. I. 281-2; Horace, Odes L 3. 38-40; 3, 4. 42-8, '" Ennius, Epigram- 1-2, 3-4, Cic. De Re Put. 6. 13, Hi Virgil, Gmrg, 1. 32-5; 4, 5.59-66, See Bosworth (1998) 5 IT.

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way to the stars is only to be achieved through the mediation of his astronomical "duces' all the more striking. The Virgilian ideal is turned on its head: whereas Virgil's heroes had to abstain from a study of the stars, Ovid's must abstain from res Romanaeas a condition of their power of accessing the heavens, Yet another anomalous feature about the encomium is that Ovid's subsequent treatment of the heavenly calendar does not sustain the hymnic tone in which he had introduced its founders. Many of the constellation notices are presented in the form of mere two-line interjections. Others add briefly the influence of the stars' effects on weather patterns (e.g. 1. 315-16).2n Others again are accompanied by an elaborate aetiology of how a person, animal, or object was transformed into a star.21 Many of these catasterisms contain bawdy tales of divine seduction and betrayal which were conventional themes of erotic elegy, Greek and Roman comedy, and the visual arts.22 Such themes comply both with Ovid's treatment of tales pertaining to the earthly calendar, and with the elegiac nature of the poem. While it is made clear that the stars are divinities (another point of contact with the encomium: even Romulus' ignorant tribe attributed deity to the stars (3. 111-12), and Romulus himself Venit in astra' (3.186)), that does not safeguard them from Ovid's irreverence. Although clear links are forged between his encomium and his stellar calendar, his treatment of the stars is not consonant with the intellectual themes and lofty tones in the encomium, nor are his stellar observations those of an astronomer or philosopher. It is Ovid's way to the stars then, not the stars themselves—or any concept of heaven implicit there—that differs so markedly from that present in Ennius, Cicero, and Virgil. Ovid is not denying an understanding of the stars to ordinary mortals, however (809-10). He insists rather that it must be achieved through the mediation of those whose incorruptibility and exclusive devotion to scanning the skies had marked them out as uniquely worthy to be the interpreters of 20 Ovid, like Pliny after him, may have been following' Caesar's DeAstris (see n. 16). The Fasti Venmini contain four references to astronomical signs and the Fasti Antiatts MinKlmmm Damns Attgustae, one. See Degrassi (ISHiS) 201-12, 323-4, 21 e.g. Callisto and the Bear (2, 153-92); Europe and the Bull (5. 603-18); Ariadne and the Crown (3. 460-516), 'l~ Fantham (IHS'3) and Wiseman in this volume,

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the heavenly signs for the benefit of mankind. But who are these people? Did they exist in Ovid's world, or were they figments of his imagination? II

Little more can be ascertained for the moment from Ovid's poem. Yet assistance in this regard presents itself in the form of the Astronomies by the Stoic poet Manilius, dedicated first to Augustus, then to Tiberius, composed between AD 9 and 16, and contemporary with the revised Book 1 of the Fasti dedicated to Germanicus.23 Nothing is known about Manilius, although it has been posited that he was a descendant of the slave Manilius Antiochus, who is thought to have come to Italy during the Mithridatie Wars, whom Pliny describes as 'conditorem astrologiae' at Rome (NH35- 199). Because the art. ran in families (Diod 2. 29. 4), it has been suggested that Ovid's contemporary was his grandson. Whether Manilius himself was a practising astrologer or not, he adopts the persona of one, and, in contrast to Ovid who needs to be led, claims to lead his reader to the stars,24 In ancient writings, the terms astronomia and astrologia were often interchangeable and barely distinguished from each other.2"1 It is therefore significant that late in the Augustan age a distinction between the two was being drawn by Manilius. Manilius distinguishes astrology from astronomy to the detriment of the latter. He claims that knowledge of the constellations in the boundless skies and of the contrary motions of the planets (astronomy) is not enough: a more thorough knowledge of heaven is knowing how it controls the destiny of all living things through its signs (astrology) (Astron, I. 15-18).26 23

2 For Manillas' dates, see Goold (1,977) p. xii, "< Astron. 1, 13-15, 118-20. ** For the varied tiiid generally indiscriminate use of the terms (istronowi® and a$lwhgia in the ancient sources, see Cramer (1.954) 3; Tester (1987) 19; Barton (1994) 5. The distinction was furthermore blurred (or confused) between the arts of astrology, geometry, and philosophy. The practitioners of astrology as a science of divination were called mathematici or Chaldaei, who could also be called priests or philosophers. Lucretius (DRN 5. 727-8), and Cicero (De Div. 2. 88-9), distinguish Chaldarf from astronomers. z6 The translations of Mauilius 1 use axe taken or adapted from Goold (1977).

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He claims to be the first to sing of astrology, and draws a distinction between himself and his poetic predecessors (including Aratus) who told of the stars (2. 25-59). It is astrology which is announced as the principal theme of his work (1. 2). At the time the Fasti and the Astnnomica were being composed, astrology in the sense that Manilius was using it was being taken very seriously by Augustus and Tiberius (see below). Yet astrology in that same sense is absent from the Fasti Before addressing this anomaly, let us look at the many themes in the Astronomica which can be found to correspond directly to those in the Fasti Manilius eulogizes the first astrologers, their royal and priestly origins, their piety and mystical powers. First they were kings (he says), whose minds reached out to heaven, then priests, whose piety secured them special favour with the gods, Divine presence kindled their chaste minds ('castam mentem'), and they, as its servants, had the secrets of heaven disclosed to them. These were the men who founded the noble art and were the first to see how fate hangs on the wandering stars ('hi tantum movere decus primique per artem sideribus videre vagis pendentia fata' 1. 40-52), Before the first astrologers, says Manilius, man lived in ignorance and did not know how to calculate time: he did not know why days varied in duration, why the period of darkness fluctuated, nor why the lengths of shadows differed as the sun retreated or drew nearer (1. 66-72). But ingenuity taught him, over the ages, the arts of husbandry, mining, seafaring, war and peace, divination, and hamspicy, even to control nature. But only when man's reason scaled the skies ('caehim ascendit ratio') did he grasp the innermost secrets of the world by its understanding of their causes, and behold all that anywhere exists (1. 96-9). It freed men's minds from wondering at portents ('rniracula rerum') and the mysteries of nature and weather patterns. The journey of man's reason, upwards beyond the atmosphere released him from earthly matters and allowed him to contemplate the heaven in all its vastness, to discover that all things moved to the will and disposition of heaven, as the constellations by their varied array assign different destinies (1. 73-112).

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In the proem to book 2 (105-27), Manillas further emphasizes the divine inspiration of (the first) astrologers, and claims the superiority of their art over that of others (109-10). How could man, he asks, know heaven except by heaven's own gift, or discover god if he had not in himself something of the divine?... How could he hold within his narrow mind that vast deep if nature had not given him holy eyes ('sanctos oculos'), a kindred intelligence, and turned it to herself? Surely from heaven must come the call to heaven, to a sacred commerce with nature. In the proem to book 4 (1-121), Manilius expounds the futility of desiring a long life, wealth, and luxury when all men's fortunes are predestined from birth by the stars. At 390-407 he underlines the superiority of astrology over all worldly pursuits. The quest of astrology is god, he says ('quod quaeris, deus est'). It is to seek to scale the skies ('conaris scandere caelum'), to gain knowledge of fate (390-1). It is to pass beyond understanding and to make oneself master of die universe. The toil involved matches the reward to be won, unlike that of fortune hunters, war-mongers, and gluttons, who are willing to pay such a high price for perishable goods (404). What then shall we give for heaven? M'an must expend his very self before god can dwell in him ('impendendus homo est, deus esse ut possit in ipso' 407). At the conclusion to book 4, Manilius says: The mind of man has the power to leave its proper abode and penetrate to the innermost treasures of the sky (877-8); man alone stands with the citadel of his head raised high and, triumphantly directing to the stars his star-like eyes ('sidereos oculos'), looks ever more closely at Olympus and inquires into the nature of Jove himself; nor does he rest content with the outward appearance of the gods (astronomy), but probes into heaven's depths (astrology) and, in his quest of a being akin to his own, seeks himself among the stars (905—10). Manilius requests for astrology a faith as great as that accorded the arts of divination and haruspicy (911-14). He asserts that god reveals himself in the revolutions of the heavens, that he can be truly known, that he can teach his nature to those who have eyes to see, and can compel them to mark his laws (915-19). The universe summons our minds to the stars (920), Be not slow to credit man with vision of the divine, he concludes, for man himself is now

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creating gods and raising godhead to the stars, and beneath the dominion of Augustus will heaven grow mightier yet (933-5). Now it is unlikely that Ovid and ManiHus saw each other's work, given that the Astronomica was begun after Ovid and the unfinished Fasti went to Tomis,27 Although each poem is essentially different in genre, intention, and scope, and although Ovid does not share Manilius' proselytizing zeal for Stoic cosmology, it is apparent that the two poems exhibit striking similarities in their encomia to the first star-gazers: (1) both invoke facets of Pythagorean and Epicurean philosophy and imitate the didactic tone and language of Lucretius in their depiction of the star-gazer who reaches the sky through metaphysical contemplation;28 (2) both insist that the favour of the gods is necessary to study the stars; (3) both indicate the sacerdotal, role of the first star-gazers by invoking their selfless dedication, moral superiority, and renunciation of worldly pursuits as a prerequisite for heavenly knowledge;29 (4) both use antiquity as authority for their art;30 (5) both insist that it is through the agency of the star-gazer that mankind has access to knowledge of the stars. And outside their encomia, Manilius and Ovid share other important points of similarity: (I) both assert that before the first star-gazers, man lived a primitive existence and did not know how to calculate time; (2) both identify the zodiacal constellations and the mythical catasterisms pertaining to them;31 (3) both see the risings and settings in the stellar -'* Ovid omits the name of Manilius in his catalogue of poetic contemporaries (Pout. 4, Mi), although he says be did not include all names or mention younge pods whose work was as yet unpublished (37-!)}, 28 See Ovid, Mti. 15. 60-72; Lucretius, DRN i. 65-79; 5. 110-49. ~J Newlands (1995) 34 shows the similarity between Ovid's star-gazers and Virgil's ideal fanner/natural philosopher, who rejects ambition, wealth, vanity, war, and public life (Georg, 2. 490-512), Manilius, too, rejects such earthly distractions for the astrologer (4, 400-7), Virgil's farmer is entirely earth-bound, however, lacking the lofty intellectual and mystic elements of the heaven-bound astrologers. Manilius actually includes the prayers of the fanner amongst his list of futile activities in searching for Ihu will of heaven. J " Tester (1987) 22, says it was common for astrological writers to claim peat antiquity for their art. 31 e.g. Taurus and Europa: Astron. 'i, 487-91, 4, 681-5; Fasti 5. 605-17; Aquarius (Ganymede): Astmn. 5. 486-90; Fasti 2, 145-8; Aries: Astnm. *. 514-17, 744-8; Fasti 3, 851-76 (etc,).

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calendar as being the cause of seasonal changes and weatherpatterns;32 (4) although both insist that the star-gazers reach the sky through reason, not metaphorically through physical exploits, they also endorse the concept of catasterism as a reward for human achievement;33 (5) both assert that the stars are gods, and that humans create gods;:M (6) both, make glaring errors in their own calculations of celestial time; (7) both eschew the planets as a stellar category in their depiction of the skies. Ill

The affinities between Manilius' astrologers and Ovid's 'felices animae', and the conceptual similarities between the two poems overall, are too numerous to ignore. It is those similarities, however, which also highlight the essential difference between the two: that sidereal fatalism is absent from the Fasti, That absence is remarkable if we consider the significance accorded astrology by Augustus, the dedicatee of the poern, from the beginning of his career. The 19-year-old Octavian had identified a comet, sighted, at Caesar's funerary games, as Caesar's soul on its way to heaven. Pliny, Suetonius, and Dio note that it was not the Roman elite who were convinced of Caesar's catasterism, but the majority, the common people.33 This was, as Cramer has noted,3'1 the first time in Roman history that there was a widespread mood which saw in a cornet the tangible proof of a catasterism, the elevation of a mortal to become a star among stars. Octavian from the outset clearly understood the potency of belief in religious astrology amongst the populace. His subsequent career demonstrates that he increasingly exploited it. :w

e.g. Astntn. I, 99-102; 2, 87-109; Fasti I. 315-16; 2. 149-52. *! Manilius (1. 758-99} provides a catalogue of those who ascended to the Milky Way after death. But a special area, higher than the Milky Way, was reserved for the gods. At 1, 800-4 he claims that Augustus will one day ascend to the assembly of the gods to join Romulus and Julius Caesar, gods because they had equalled gods in jiirlus. Ovid has Romulus (Fnsti'2. 496} and Julius Caesar (3. 156—60) deified, also, and implies Augustus will he one day (2. 144). 34 Astnn.4. 933-5; Fasti'i. 143-4. 35 i!li Pliuy, NH'i. 93-4; Suet, M, 88; Dio 45. 7. 1. Cramer (W54) 78,

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Two astrological prophecies allegedly predicted supreme power for Octavian himself, at his birth in 63 BC, and in 44 EC.37 Suetonius says that Octavian. henceforth believed so much in his destiny that he published his horoscope and struck a silver coin stamped with the constellation of Capricorn, his natal sign.38 It is not known when these predictions were first circulated. And Suetonius' chronology is somewhat misleading.39 What is important is the currency of the stories (which Suetonius said everyone believed), which highlighted Augustus' reliance on astrology, reinforced its credibility, and gave it a role in Roman imperial politics.4" Octavian's interest in Capricorn is tentatively dated to 41/40 BC, eve though the zodiacal sign made an official public appearance on coinage only after Actium, But it was with this coinage that Augustus allusively gave official sanction to the art.41 Augustus' interest in the stars received architectural expression in the Pantheon, built by Agrippa, in the Campus Martius between 27 and 25 BC, and consisting of a gigantic circula chamber covered with a cupola which Dio says resembled the vault of the sky, A statue of Julius Caesar stood within.42 It also found grandiose embodiment in the Horologium, dedicated to the Sun in 9 BC (ILS 91). This was an immense monument which, had an obelisk as the gnomon, and on the pavement around it were inscribed in Greek the mythical names of the four winds, the seasons, and the signs of the zodiac. Its astrological function was to mark the progress of the sun through the zodiac. Pliny (NH36. 72) says that the

37

Suet Aug. 94. 5; Dio 45. !. 3-4. * Suet Aug. 94, 12, Augustas* association with Capricorn is analysed by Barton (1995). * Dio 56, 25. 5 assigns the publication of Augustus* horoscope to AD 11. See below, 4(> Hopkins (1978) 198: 'Political power and legitimacy rest... in the perceptions and beliefs of men. The stories told about emperors were part of the mystification which elevated emperors and the political sphere above everyday life. Stories circulated. They were the currency of the political system, just as coins were the currency of the fiscal system. Their truth or untruth is only a secondary problem ...'. •« Barton (1995) 46, 48-51. 42 Dio (53. 27. 2-3) only knew the Hadrianic restoration of the Pantheon, hut as Hadrian himself was also a devotee of astrology, it was probably based on the original. 3

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project was devised by the astrologer ('mathematicus'), Novius Facundus.43 Augustus' astral aspirations and the popularity of astrology received endorsement in literature. Virgil (Eel. 9, 46-9) supports Octavian's claim that Caesar had become a star. Vitruvius' De Architecture dedicated to Octavian, endorses the notion that Caesar was given an abode in heaven by the 'concilium caelestium'.44 In the ninth book, Vitruvius gives Chaldaeans his unqualified sanction (9. 6. 2): 'For the rest, as to "astrologia", the effects produced by the 12 signs on the human course of life, the five planets, the sun and moon, we must give way to the calculations of the Chaldaeans, because the science of astrology ("ratio genethlialogiae") is their field so that they can explain the past and the future from astronomical calculations ("ratiocinationibus astrorum"). Those who have sprung from the Chaldaean nation have handed on their discoveries about matters in which they have proved themselves of" great skill and subtlety.'45 Horace, too, advertised the officially proclaimed catasterism ofjulius Caesar in his ode dedicated to Augustus.46 In Ode 2. 17, written in 26 BC when the Pantheon was being constructed, he endorses the power of astrology by asserting that he and Maecenas had the same dominant planet in their respective horoscopes, and that their fate was therefore linked. The fact that Maecenas' death in 8 BC was soon followed by Horace' own, made Horace's assertion that it was neither the will of the gods nor his own that he should die before Maecenas (2-4) indeed seem 'a coincidence comforting alike to astrologers and to Romantic critics'.47 In Ode 3, 25 he acknowledges his 43 There is ongoing debate about the reconstruction of the Horologium: see Buchner (1982); Wallace-Hadrffl (1985) 246-7; Schiitz (1990) 453-5; Barton (1995) 44-7, Budiner's reconstruction is reproduced in Favro (1996) 263. 44 I. pref. 2, For the dedication lo Octavian, see I. pref. 3, *'"'Trans. Granger (Loeh, 1934). Cramer (1954) 84, summarizes the work of Vitruvius and notes that his approach is animated by an intensity of feeling reminiscent of Lucretius and anticipating Manillas. For the mistakes and idiosyncrasies inherent in the work of Vitruvius, see Rawson (1985) 165. •|(i Odes 1. 12. 47-8 dated before the death of Marcellus in 23 r,c. * Nisbet and Hubbard (1970) p, xxxviii, Cramer (1954) $7; 'Ever after readers of Horace's ode of 26 lie must inevitably have been impressed with the accuracy of his astrological interpretation of the horoscopes of both men.'

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own role in setting amongst the stars the immortal glory of Caesar. Propertius, in the second part of his first elegy to book 4 (71 if.), has the 'vates' Horos divert him from singing about 'fata' because he does not have the sanction of the gods. To justify his intervention, Horos tells him that it is he who has the weight of authority in such matters, and proceeds to provide both his own and his science's credentials to remove any doubt about his qualifications. He claims an ancient and impeccable pedigree, invokes the gods as witness that he has not disgraced his kin, and swears the truth of his writings (79-80). Horos distances himself from the charlatans who used astrology to gain filthy lucre (81-6), and affords proof by example of the validity of his own prophetic powers (89-102). He rejects the more traditional means of divination in favour of astrology (103-8), and cites Calchas as a diviner of the past who had not used astrology, with disastrous consequences for Greece (109-18). Propertius then turns Horos' astrological credentials and credibility to his own poetic advantage by invoking his authority as his own justification for renouncing a political career and epic themes in, favour of a career as love elegist. Propertius' invocation of a non-Roman astrologer was no doubt done with an eye for the contemporary popularity of this foreign art.48 The first part of the elegy, however (1-70), endorses the traditional Roman gods and methods of divination, as do his subsequent elegies. Like Horace,49 Propertius seems to be reflecting contemporary eclecticism in religion without privileging any one system over another. Astrological themes in coinage, literature, and architecture point to the extent of contemporary preoccupation, with the subject. Then AD 8 was to prove perhaps the most important year to date in the history of astrology at Rome. That year the initial errors of intercalation in the Julian calendar made by the pontifices after the death of Caesar were finally phased out,4" and it began to function without error for the first time. Greater precision in the dates of the rising and setting of the stars would 4X

For Propertius and astrology, see Cramer (1954) 88-9, 91. At Ode I. 17. 27-32 Horace attributes his own good fortune of a lucky escape no to the planet Jupiter but to the god Faunus. •'"" Suet, lul, 40, Aug, 31. 2, 49

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serve to provide new impetus for astrologers by enabling them to make more accurate predictions based on the calculations of regular recurrences which necessitated a strict chronology. Just three years later, in AD 11, Augustus published his horoscope in an edict.51 As Barton says, 'with the publication of his horoscope there could be no more public fashion of proclaiming astrology's importance as part of his image-making, no more official endorsement of legitimating Ms power by encouraging the idea that no one could become ruler without the backing of the stars. It was a profoundly monarchical action.'52 It was possibly in AD 11 that Maniiius began his astrological poern, dedicated to Augustus.53 Yet the use of astrology by one who had, since 28 BC, promoted himself as the champion and restorer of Italian religion/'4 was not without its difficulties. Traditionally, astrology was a foreign, eastern art. Star-gazing was never included in Roman divination,5-' which was, like the religion, firmly earthbound. Diviners were drawn from, and strictly controlled by, the Senate.58 Upon its introduction into Rome in the late third or early second century BC, astrology was subjected to ridicule and sceptical onslaughts by the intellectual elite, and was linked with the unsavoury lower strata of society.57 In 139 BC •''" Dio 56. 25. 5. Potter (1994) 147 believes Augustus published his horoscope as early as 27 BC, In my view this would have been too radical a move at a time when Augustus was adopting the role of Restorer of the traditional religion of Rome. 52 Barton (1994) 40-). 5:4 Maniltus (1, 899, 922-6), writing after the defeat of Varus, claimed that Discord was now eternally leashed in prison, which suggests he was anticipating Tiberius' triumph in AO 12, 54 Livy 4. 20. 7; Ovid, Pastil. 63; Aug. RC, 19. 2, 20. 4; Suet. Aug. 30. 2. •'"Tester (1987) 49. ;1|> These diviners were more concerned with averting danger than, with prophecy, and with the State rather than the individual. The augures read omens from birds, and the guindeciniuiri lacrisfaciundis interpreted pndigia by consulting the libri nbyllini, Members of both colleges were drawn from the Senate (Augustus was both augur and tjuinflgcinwir, Aug. RG \. 7). The Etniscan hiiruspiMS, concerned with extispicy, wei'e apparently not drawn from the Senate, but tlie Senate retained control: it deeided when they were to be consulted, whether their readings were to be heeded or not, and if so, what action should be taken (although by the late Republic, men such as Gracchus, Sulla, and Caesar were acquiring their personal kanafiicesj. See North (1990) 49-71; Potter (1994) 150-8. 37 See Ennuis (Scam. 242 IT,); Cato (Agr. 5, 4). The Academic philosopher, Carneades of Gyrene (214—129 BC), and the Stoics Panaethis (185-109 BC) arid Scylax of Halicarnassus (ap, Cic. De Din 2, 9-10, 88—90, 97), claimed that astrologers were

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Chaldaean astrologers were expelled from Rome. The later influence of Posidonius (135-50 BC), however, did much to accord respectability to astrology, and had a decisive impact upon its acceptance amongst the elite by allying it with Stoic philosophy and Pythagorean mysticism.51* Yet anti-astrological sentiment still found powerful voices. The Epicurean Lucretius (c.97-55 BC), opposed those who claimed to read the will of the gods in the stars. 'Do not imagine under the spell of religio*, he says, 'that the earth, sun and sky, sea, stars and moon are endowed with a divine body and are immortal, and think that anyone who challenges that notion with reason is like the impious Giants who dared to attack the gods; that like the Giants, they will suffer eternal punishment for it. Mind cannot be separate from the body and cannot arise alone without a body, nor be distant from sinews and blood,... we must deny that it can abide... in the sun's fire or in the lofty regions of air. For the nature of the gods... is hardly to be seen by the mind's intelligence.'*9 And Cicero, far from being influenced by his Stoic magister Posidonius (De Fato 3, 5} and his Pythagorean astrologer friend, Nigidius,60 reproduced the philosophical arguments of others against astrology and heaped ridicule upon those which defended Chaldaean prophecies based on natal influences. He declared Tarutius' attempt to cast the horoscope of Romulus and Rome itself evidence of the power of delusion {De Div. 2. 87—97). He also cited examples of mistaken astrological predictions given to prominent Romans (DeDiv. 2.47,99). Even at the end of the first book of OH Divination, in which Quintus provides arguments in favour of divination, Cicero had his brother include astrologers amongst the quacks associated with 'superstitio' whom he excluded from genuine diviners. Astrologers, then, lose out twice in Cicero's arguments for and against divination.

exploiting gullible Romans with a fraudulent craft. For arguments for and against astrology in Cameades, ses Bouche~Lecl€t'cc| (1H99) 570 ff. ;>fi Augustine (CD!>. 2). Octavius (cos. 88 BC) and Sulla were believers (Pint. Mm. 42, 4, Sulla 5. 5-6, 37. I). *9 DRN5. 110-49. Trans. Rouse (Loeb, 1982), 60 Hut. Cie. 20. 1-2, 27; Cic. AdFam. 4. 13.

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Diatribes against astrology seem to peter out with Augustus' ascendancy. Horace's Ode 1. 11, which warns against 'consulting Chaldaean calculations', may have been written around the time of the expulsion of astrologers in 33 BC (see below), so does not necessarily temper his apparent service to astrology in his later poetry. But cynicism toward astrology is unequivocally exhibited by the rhetor Arellius Fuscus, one of Ovid's own teachers of oratory.01 Among Fuscus' classroom topics was Alexander the Great (a conventional rhetorical exeniplum), and his deliberation whether or not to enter Babylon.'2 Referring to the Chaldaeans who warned Alexander against it, Fuscus says:63 "What sort of man is he who claims for himself knowledge of the future? Extraordinary must be the lot of the man who prophesies at the bidding of god... There must be some overt sign of divinity in a man who reveals the orders of god. So it is: for he compels so great a king, ruler of so vast a world, to feel fear. The man who can frighten Alexander must be great, high above the common lot of humanity; he must place his ancestors among the stars, trace his genealogy back to heaven; god must acknowledge him as his prophet.' Then he adds: 'If all these prophecies are true, why do not men of every age apply themselves to this study? Why do we not, from infancy, penetrate to the gods and to nature ("rerum naturam deosque") along the road that is open to us, seeing that the stars lie before us and we can take our places beside divinities? Why do we thus sweat away at useless eloquence, why are our hands calloused by weapons that only bring us danger? Could talents ("ingenia") have a better guarantee for their thriving than knowledge of what is to come?' Fuscus proceeds to illustrate their patent errors in predicting the future by the stars and concludes that the destiny under which we live is uncertain, that destinies devised for individuals are fictions (Suasoriae 4. 3). The vocational similarities between Ovid's astro-mystics who relinquished oratory and warfare and those described (il

Seneca, Contrw. 2. 2. 8-9. ~ The context of the declamation is unknown, as Seneca has reproduced it in his collection of stuisoriae, possibly as an example of deliberative oratory: Winterbottom (1.974) p. xx, f>!i Reported by Seneca, Suasoriae 4, Tram. Wiuterbottooi (Lueb, 1974}, b

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by his former teacher are unmistakable. Fuscus, Ovid, and Manilius seem to have invoked, in their different ways, the same tradition by which mathematid of the Roman empire saw themselves as the successors of the ancient Chaldaean priests, the holy, incorruptible prophets, who stressed the purity of their morals and enumerated all the qualities which brought them near to divine nature: chastity, sobriety, integrity, selfrenunciation which combined metaphysics, astral religion, and scientific pantheism.64 Whether a rhetorical exercise or not, Fuscus' condemnation of Alexander's astrologers could have been an oblique criticism of Augustus' reliance on astrologers, for Augustus was known to have likened himself (however incongruously) to Alexander.65 And the evidence of Fuscus suggests that, despite Augustus' increasing promotion of it, the validity of astrology continued to be challenged, and that not all educated, Romans were prepared to accept it, If an occasional challenge to the validity of astrology was a problem for Augustus, there also remained the danger that an opponent might use it against him. Antony consulted practitioners,"6 and others must have been doing so too during the lead-up to the confrontation between him and Octavian, because Agrippa expelled them from Rome in 33 BC (Dio 4-9. 43. 5). This is the first attempt of Octavian to control the use of prophecy. The second was in 12 BC, when Augustus made a rigorous selection for retention or burning of prophetic writings and of the Sibylline Books; the third was when, with the publication of his horoscope in AD 11, he issued the first empire-wide legal curb of astrological and other divinatory practices. The edict made illegal the holding of any private or secret consultation with seers and the predicting of anyone's death (Dio 56. 25. 5), In so doing, it both validated astrology and prohibited its primary use to others. Now, for the first time, consultation with astrologers and other diviners could be invoked as incriminating evidence."7 It was not long before this happened. In AD 16, astrologers seem to have given Libo Drusus reason to believe he could 84 Curoont (1960) 82-3, *' Plut. Ant. 33. '2.

rfl

K Syme (1939) 305. Suet Aug. 50. Cramer {19.54} 248-51 discusses the edict.

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8

aspire to great things." His trial, suicide, and posthumous conviction proved them wrong, but nevertheless Tiberius saw the need to resort to the expulsion, technique of the past, even while he himself remained an avid user of their skills.69 It was perhaps with contemporary events in mind that Valerius Maximus, now thought to have begun his Facta et Dicta Memorabilia in AD 16,7(l said that the edict of 139 BC was proclaimed because through their lies and fallacious interpretation of the stars the Chaldaeans were fomenting in unstable and shallow minds a fervour from which they themselves profited financially (1. 3. 3).

IV It is against this background of controversy concerning the validity of astrology and the integrity of astrologers, and of the need of the Princeps to achieve a balance between promoting and suppressing them to legitimate his power, that Ovid's encomium and stellar calendar should be set. In his poetic 'militia', first to Augustus, then to Germanicus, how could he incorporate astrologers into Roman politics and religion where they had never existed before, and at the same time do It in such a way that would not encourage anyone but the ruler to use their prophetic powers? Let us see how he does it. First, the tone. Unlike Romulus and Julius Caesar, who had an unassailable claim on the Roman calendar, the founders of a stellar calendar had no name and no claim to anything Roman. The former could be treated with humour and irrevei~en.ee, first because they were inextricable from Roman history, and secondly because they were both inferior (Romulus the more so to symbolize Rome's small beginnings) to their successor, Augustus. The notion of the eastern art of astrology occupying a place at the heart of Roman, government and religion, on the other hand, was a brand new concept (which Ovid conceals by retrojecting '•'* Tacitus, Ann. "2. 27-32, Seneca, Hpisl. 70, 10, Faali amileniini (13 Sept.): Degrassi «li)63) 509; Veil. Pat. 2. 130, 3. li:! Tac. Ann. 6. 20; Suet. 71. 14. 2, 4; 36; 63. J; Dio 57. K. 4, 7-9. 70 Beilemore (1989).

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star-worship to Romulus and his subjects), was thus very vulnerable, and had to be treated with the greatest care.71 The hymnic tone adopted by Ovid for this passage is to disguise its innovatory character and its susceptibility to challenge, and to have this monarchic bulwark endowed with trappings of venerable antiquity and dignitas, and treated with respect, Next, the details. 'Quis vetat et Stellas ut quaeque oriturque caditque dicere?' This question seems to anticipate an objection to the fact that the incorporation of the stars into the Roman calendar was a novelty. The hexameter draws attention to the break in tradition, while the pentameter— and subsequent eulogy—proceed to rationalize that break. This couplet must belong to the original text, if so. If, on the other hand, the question alludes to Augustus' ban on consulting astrologers and diviners generally,7'-1 which would allocate it to the revised text, then it is a clever attention-getting device of adopting a defiant pose which, having achieved its aim, is not sustained. 'Felices animae', and 'primis' encapsulate the astrologers' favour by the gods and the antiquity of their art (297-8), which immediately establishes their hallowedness and authority. Their mediatory role between gods and men is suggested in the subsequent assertion of their station above ordinaiy mortals, which is accented in the list of vices and activities from which they remained aloof. The location of 'Venus et vinum' at the top of Ovid's list of their renunciations, highlighting their sobriety and chastity, serves to repudiate any charge of their foreignness. This is important, as Romans traditionally associated un-Roman religious practice with drunkenness and debauchery.7'1 (At 6. 785-90 a drunkard looks at the stars and misreads them.) Ovid's assertion of the astrologers' incorruptibility both counters their disreputable association with and manipulation of the lower classes found, in the writings of Ennius, Carneades, and Cicero, rebuts any charge of charlatanism and greed, found also in Cicero, and in Horos' apologia to Propertius, and negates 71 Cicero, De Dip. "2, 89, and Diodorus Sicuhis 2. 30. 3 challenged the notion that astrology was a doctrine of vast antiquity. n See also where the 'praeseia lingua' of Carmentis, 'felix vates* (1. 538,585), stops short at Ovid's own time. '"' Livy 39. 8,

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the anti-astrological arguments of his own teacher, Arellius Fuscus. The astrologers' rejection of the senatorial activities of forensic oratory and military service exploits the Epicurean creed which withdrew men from politics, and serves to justify the fact that they, unlike the old diviners of the Republic, were not drawn from or controlled by the Senate. (A senator who could read the stars was far too dangerous to tolerate.) Ovid's claim that heroic deeds were futile in attempting to reach the stars reflects the fact that military heroes such as Cicero's Scipio and Virgil's lulus no longer had claim to apotheosis as they once had in the past. Military glory was open only to the Prineeps, under whose auspices a battle was won. Ovid's insistence that the way to the stars was now only through the intelligence of these priest-like astrologers (turning Lucretius on his head), is because it is these unofficial advisers, elevated not by the cursus Imnorum, but by their usefulness to the Prineeps, who are the new ruler-makers, and god-makers.74 But the end of the encomium is an anticlimax. Despite explicitly assigning them an expert knowledge of Vaga signa' (see below), Ovid stops short of according these men a prophesying role. The key to this anomaly must lie partly in the fact that Ovid's new dedicatee was not Tiberius, the current Pontifex Maximus and Prineeps. In choosing Germanicus, Ovid created difficulties for himself which did not arise for Manillas.75 Germanicus could not be associated with sidereal diviners without his being put at risk of a charge of treason and a fate similar to Libo's.76 And Ovid could not allude to his destiny as Prineeps in astrological terms without appearing to anticipate the death of Tiberius. Had he done so, he could ha.ve implicated himself on a similar charge.77 It must have been /4 Ovid's unique reference to Tiberius' supporting, with celestial mind ('cae)esti mente'}, the burden of empire (1.534), is surely an allusion to his reliance on astrology. '* Why Ovid dedicated his revision to Germanicus is discussed by Herbert-Brown (1.994) ch, 5. '" Germaaieus" interest in astrology cannot be proved, even though he added astral mythology to his translation of the Phaenamena of Aratus. Like Manilius (1. 385-98), Germanicus (Amtea 532-60} places Augustus in the sky with, zodiacal constellations, and refers to his natal sign which transported him to heaven. '"' Germanicus' future is implied in the prediction for the damns Augusta by the goddess of prophecy, Cannentis (1, 531-6), and iu Ovid's prayers for the heir to the

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for fear of compromising both Germanicus and himself that Ovid deleted the prophesying role of the founders of the stellar calendar from the original version dedicated to Augustus, If Ovid had to expurgate the most identifiable feature of astrology in the encomium, then what of the stellar calendar itself? Books 2 to 6 were written before AD 8, so it is remarkable, given Augustus' passion for the subject, that there is no celebration, indeed even mention, of astrology. In those books there is evidence for later interpolation from Tomis/8 What about excision? It is perilous to argue from silence, but I believe there are hints to that effect which might prove telling. The first is that Ovid's plan of scanning the skies 'sub ducibus.. illis' is never followed through. In contrast to the oft-mentioned founders of the Roman calendar, the stellar founders mysteriously disappear. Yet an indication outside the encomium that they were originally accorded a divinatory role is discernible if we connect their encomium with the subsequent extended passage containing etymologies of the Agonia, which comprise unsympathetic aitiafoT animal sacrifice (1. 317 ff.; 337-456), the ritual upon which the Roman priesthoods and divination depended. Ovid says animal sacrifice was more recent (inferior) than the old (superior) way, which had no victims, only spelt and salt (337-48)./if The passage is bracketed by zodiacal notices (311-16, 457-8). At Metamorphoses 15. 60 ff., Ovid makes a connection between Golden Age bloodless sacrifice and astrology by attributing condemnation of animal sacrifice to Pythagoras, whom he casts as an astral voyager and astrologer (145—52).80 There are distinct similarities between Ovid's Pythagoras at Met. 15. 62-4 and his 'felices anirnae' at Fast, I. 305. It is possible then, that the placement of these aitia so near to the encomium in the Fasti is a residue of Ovid's attempt to connect name 'Augustas' (1. 615). It is an important distinction that it is the future of the domus rather than that of & particular individual that is being predicted, 7S e.g. 4. 81-4 and 305-12 with Fantham (1998) ad Joe. See also Lefevre (1980), 7i Fantham (1985), and Feeney (1.992) 16. 'Cf. Horace, Ode 3. 23. 16-20. HO p-ytJia^oras here is not unlike M.ani!ius traversing the skies at Astwn. 1. 13—15. We rt'nierabt'r thai Nigidius Figulus was both Pythagorean and astrologer, and Ovid's association of Pythagoras with astrology may reflect the popularity of a particular brand of Pythagoreanism at the time. For Pythagoras iu Ovid, see Galinsky (1998). Later writers also attributed bloodless sacrifice to Pythagoras (Pint Numa 8. 8; Porphyry, De Abstin. 2.28).

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the astrologers with the more ancient form of bloodless sacrifice, to accord them the higher status of antiquity over the more recent. Senate-controlled diviners and priests who sacrificed animals.81 The second indication of excision is the disappearance of the Vaga signa' which Ovid had promised to include under the guidance of his astronomical 'duces'. Ovid's choice of 'signa' for stars here sustains the military metaphor, but his choice of the epithet Vaga', situated uniquely and strategically in the final pentameter of this programmatic passage, distinguishes these 'signa' from the fixed stars, the signs of the zodiac which are manifest throughout the poem, and places them in a category of wandering stars, or 'planetai', which are not,82 What happens to them? It is odd that Ovid's celestial calendar would neglect this stellar category, especially when Aratus had presented the challenge by admitting that his own daring had failed him in including it in his astronomical work (Phaen. 454-61). It was a challenge even Germanicus, translating Aratus, could not resist.83 'Vaga signa', then, must surely be a relic of his pre-AD 8 astrological design, for we leam that it was the planets (Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, and. Venus), that were the stars possessing the most potent influence over destiny,84 and so were of vital importance to astrology. Like Horace (Ode 2. 17), Vitravius (9. 6. 2), Propertius (4. 1. 834), and Arellius Fuscus (Suasoriae 4. 2), Ovid was aware of that fact (Ibis 207-16). At Metamorphoses 15. 789-90, he gives Lucifer (the planet Venus or Morning Star), astrological significance by having it try to warn mortals of the impending murder of Caesar. So too, at Tristia 1. 3. 71, he speaks of Lucifer as baneful to him. It is strange then, that Lucifer, as the one planet which is mentioned in the Fasti,*-' is deprived of fatalistic 81 I don't propose that Ovid relentlessly privileged astral, divination over traditional divination and sacrifice, however, any more than Horace or Propertius had done (p. 116). See also Met. 15. 779-800, where astrology and traditional divination are brought together. The religious eclecticism of the age was aptly exemplified by Tiberius, who was both ^ddicUis mathematics*, and afraid of thyr&dei" (Suet. Tib. 69). m 8;! Cic. De Re Pub. \. 22; 6. 17. Amtea 4.34-45 with Gain (1976) at 444-5. 8t Cic. De.Div.2. 89; Manil. 1. 51-2; H. 101: Vaga sidera'; also Germanicus 1.17. 85 ' Lucifer is more often used as a. metonym for 'morning* or 'day* to mark the passage of time (1. 46; 2. 150, 568; 3. 772, 877; 4. 677; 6. 211, 791), but the planet and 'dies' are distinguished at 5, 548, and perhaps at (i. 474 ('vigil Lucifer'). See now

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influence there. But Manilius also omits the planets, despite his repeated promise not to.87 As a result, it is impossible to cast a horoscope or interpret one from his work,88 Was omission of the planets Manilius* way of foiling any accusation of providing procedures which could incite subversion? If so, the same consideration would not apply to the Fasti, which was begun years before Augustus' edict. Which brings us back to the question of excision from Tomis. The fact that Ovid's 'felices animae' can be identified as mathematid^ or astrologers, despite the absence of a prophesying role, and the fact that the poet's promise to include the planets under their guidance remains unfulfilled, suggest that the Fasti's extant stellar calendar is a scissors and paste patchwork of what was originally an astrological calendar founded by astrologers. The idea has recently been advanced that the stars were added to the Fasti during the revision to Germanictis.89 I am proposing the opposite, that that revision entailed radical expurgation after the edict of AD 11 had rendered an astrological calendar potentially pernicious to its author. The poem's episodic nature made excision feasible. The stellar material following the encomium in Book 1, for instance, is surprisingly meagre, being limited to one four-line and five two-line notices. Why does the first constellation to appear, the eight-footed crab ('octipes Cancer'}, point directly to an astrological sign in Propertius (4.1. 149-50), yet possess no similar divinatory power? And why is the sign of Capricorn denied any astrological significance and given such short shrift (1. 651-2) when Augustus had spent a lifetime promoting it? If astrology did not now pose a problem for Ovid, why is there no astral panegyric to Germanicus' grandfather ?y" It could be argued that the importance of Capricorn would have belonged to December, the month of Augustus'

Hannah (11)97), 530-3 who detects evidence of the- planet Mars in Ovid's celebration of 12 May and allows for the possibility of an astrological reading. s " In the Consulatio ad Lisiam, Lucifer failed to appear on the day Drusus died K7 (406-10). Astron, '2. 750, 965; 3. 156-8, 587; 5, 26, 88 Cramer (1954) <)7-8 and Tester (1!)H7) 44-5. 89 Gee (2000) 67, 90 Cf, Pont, 4, H. 63: 'et modo, Caesar, avum, quern virtus addidil astris*.

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conception, or that of Libra, his natal sign, to September,91 and that the absence of sidereal fatalism in the remaining extant books is because they comprise February-June only. But the disappearance of the promised 'vaga signa' undermines that notion. So, too, does the imbalance between the stellar and earthly material in general. One would think that Julius Caesar's destiny as a star, for example, would provide a splendid opportunity for a Callimachean-style catasterism.92 The opportunity is missed, and his catasterism barely rates a mention (3. 155-64, 697-710). The reluctance of Julius to enter 'nee... ignotas demos' in the 'caelum' promised to him at 3. 160, on the other hand (by whom Ovid is not saying), may be a residual connection to the mental journey to the 'domus superas' by the astrologers at 1. 298 or the physical destination 'superas,,, domes' for Callisto and Areas at 2. 188. Further scrutiny may produce more clues. Otherwise, vestiges of an astrological calendar are discernible only in the causal links between the risings and settings of the zodiac, weather patterns, and the dates of festivals, and in the constellations which are endowed with personalities. Although these associations were important to astrologers,93 they were not original in literature,91 and the Fasti's stellar calendar is useless both to any aspiring delator against its author, or to any aspiring subverter of the domus Augusta for practical application. 1b conclude: Ovid's stellar calendar bears the scars of the surgery inflicted upon it by its author as he reacted to the risks and restrictions imposed by Augustus' edict of AD 11 which rendered the original version impolitic. The remaining six books

91 Astrologers tended to base horoscopes on conception rather than birth: Rawson (198,5) 307, Libra was Augustus' birth sign (VIrg. Georg, 1. 33-5; Mauil. 4. 547-52). bat it was also (confusingly) shared by Tiberius, born in November (Manil. 4. 773-6). See Goold (1977)284n. 92 Cf. Ma, 15, 840-8. Calliinachus' Lock of Berenice (Aelia fr. 11 FI) would have 93 provided a bandy model. See Gee (2000) 168-& Uebeschuete (1979) 120. 94 These leaturtvs wt're present in literature going back Lo Hesiod's W®rfa awl D&js and possibly to that same author's lost Astrwumia (Athen. Dip, 11. 491 c). Eratosthenes' Catastmsms provided futia for the constellations, and the Aslrmomica of the Augustan mythographcr Hyginua, a prose compilation of astral myths. Virgil's Georgia used the stars as a guide for the annual activities of fanners.

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of the Fasti, which Ovid claims existed (Jr. 2. 549-52), possibly contained so much astrological material in the months from July to September that he deemed them inoperable, and so discarded them. The transferral of anniversaries from the latter half of the year to the first half, such as the foundation legend of Hercules' Ara Maxima from 12 August to 11 January (1. 54386), and the slaughter of the Fabii from 18 July to 13 February (2. 195-242), or even of brief notices such as the Dog Days of July/August to April/May (4. 904, 937-40; 5. 723), indicates not only that those books had been written; it also makes one suspect that Ovid was papering over large gaps created by the removal of inappropriate material in an effort to salvage as much of his poern as he could. Ovid's Fasti is not only half missing; that which we have is also a provisional text, begun twice and abandoned twice in two different political, climates, and approached from two different personal and geographical perspectives. Such a text, like a diary, cannot represent a coherent pattern or a fixed perception. Its historical value lies in its unfinished state, in its record of the immediacy of its author's attempts to negotiate his way around each landmine as he saw it planted in a rapidly changing political terrain. The text we have cannot have been circulated earlier than the principate of Tiberius. But if Ovid was celebrated as a poet who achieved perfection in his art (Veil. Pat. 2. 36. 3) in the very decade that Tiberius was conducting purges of subversive literature (see p. vii), then the political antennae of the Fastfs author must have been picking up the right signals.

6

Seen, not Heard: Feminea Lingua in Ovid's Fasti and the Critical Gaze PETER MARK KEEGAN

adnue conanti per laudes ire tuorum.

(Fasti 1. 15)

The starting point for this study is an observation by selfconfessed 'sedentary literary critic' Leslie Cahoon (1991). In a recent number of the methodological journal Helios, Cahoon was struck by the degrees of difference in 'understandings of the interpretative task'1 brought to bear on classical literature in general and the Ovidian corpus in particular. This apprehension of critical perspectives should not necessarily surprise the reader of ancient (or modern) texts, but its implications for the continuing appraisal of gender relations, sexuality, and the body are considerable and warrant discussion, The intention of this chapter is to explore the praxis underlying different interpretative understandings of canonical narratives, with, particular reference to the first two books of Ovid's Fasti; and the extent to which these variations illuminate or occlude the (con)textualized female figures which often feature as entrees to critical exegesis. Specifically, 1 would contend that the ways by which Ovid engages in the process of meaningproduction regarding I'autre femme are reflected (refracted?) in the interpretative practices of certain modern literary-critical commentators. In other words, it is possible to draw a parallel between the ideological topography which tempered Ovid's textual artefact and that which (similarly?) constrains modern criticism's hermeneutic. The historical contingencies and aesthetic 1

Cahoon (MJiH} 202,

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dependencies delimiting Ovid's chosen (required?) oeuvre were indelibly rooted in a kyriarchie2 and explicitly reactionary cross-cultural 'reality'. The marked discursive forces operating within this social-cultural Wirklichkeitextend from the so-called 'power polities' and abusive hierarchies of the developing Augustan milieu to the morally/legislatively repressed material circumstances and perceptible experiences of marginalized individuals/populations (slaves, foreigners, the poor, socialsexual deviants of any gender, women, and so on). Here, the excision of feminea lingua (on so many levels) may be shown to operate as a convincing litmus test for the degree to which a literary work like Ovid's "tempera digesta' (Fasti 1. 1) was immersed in (and co-opted by) the prevailing masculinist standpoint. However, a parallel annihilation of the female subject-position in the preoccupations of some modern literary analyses of work may be viewed (on a sliding scale) as the product of unwitting accomplices or thinking perpetrators of scientia sexualis. While not wishing to have this (type)cast as another humourless overinterpretion of intentio auctoris/opens, I believe the study of a work so integral to the (?self-)definition of such an epistemically significant period in Roman history should acknowledge the enforced silencing of women (poetic constructs or Imperial consorts alike), and attempt to redress the continuing imbalance. In this light, the following survey will include commentary on select excerpts from Fasti 1. As well, a 'rereading' of the successive aitia in Fasti '2 will seek to uncover the discursive imperatives which Ovid and his critics link to ritual(ized) female activity. To conclude the discussion, I append a gendered exploration of Ovid's account of the Regifugium (Fasti 2. 685-852). The rape of Lucretia has proven a fruitful narrative field for ancient (e.g. Livy, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Diodorus Siculus)' and modern (e.g. Donaldson, Moses, Joshel, Newlands,4 et aL) (re)configurations of traditional discourses. The focus will linger on the manifold registration ' The terms 'kyriarchy' and 'kyriocentrism' relate to a socio-political system of domination and subordination based ou the power and rule of the lord/master/father, These neologisms are explained in Flor^n/a (1995). J AUC1. 5.H-60; Dionysius of Halicamassus 4. 64-8.r»; Didorus Siculus 10. 20-2. 4 Donaldson (1982); Moses (1993);Joshel (1992); Newlands (1995).

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of feminea lingua muta, the (often contradictory) strategies by which that voicelessness was/is constrained, and a reading which proffers a parallel (re)construction designed to coexist with (not subsume or suborn) extant interpretations. It is hoped that such a reading will interpenetrate the already circulating matrix of differing explanatory standpoints, and suggest a methodology for delimiting and abnegating the perpetuation of the Philomela/Tacita syndrome in contemporary literary-critical (and histori(ographi)cal) practices. (i) II Poeta e il Critico: Ovidio e U Discorso Fallogocentrico5 tune sic ego nostra jora] resolvi voce mea voces eliciente dei. Then I opened [my lipsj ('broke silence*) thus, drawing out the god's words with my (human) voice.

(Fasti 1. 255-6)

An example offers. Over against the 'traditional interpreters' of the Fasti (giving priority to literary motivations in Ovid's treatment of cult and theology), a review of recent academic 'readings' of the Roman poet singles out a 'brilliant presentation' at the 1990 Cambridge University Laurence Seminar by Alessandro Barchiesi.6 Let's look at what this distinguished contributor to intertextual Ovidian studies does to the metaphorical (metalinguistic?) female abstractions, the 'goddesses [who] disagreed' (dissensere deae) of Fasti 5. 9, Barchiesi's 'new vision' of Ovid's calendar7 sees the pre-exilic poet's discordant chorus of Muses as 'a perfect analogy or illustration for the traditional range of literary forms'. That is, Polyhymnia may give voice to a hymnic tradition, Calliope conforms to a narrative tradition, and Urania may be in line with a tradition of Roman didactic poetry. But, Barchiesi adds to (his interpretation of) Ovid's discursive 'intention', the goddesses are (it would seem) inadequate to the literary programme of the work. As he tells us, the Muses' songs can, 'only reproduce the :>

I borrow this rubric from the title of Barchiesi (1!)!~)4). *' The review: Fa.nlha.ro (1.995) 51; the paper; Barchiesi (1991). 7 Fantfaam (1995).

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repertory of what has already been said, and cannot offer suggestions for a new literary genre'.8 On functional, thematic, and literary levels, the god Janus displaces the discordant female convocation as a far more effective alternative voice. Without straining the analogy, one cannot help noting the operation of a parallel intertextuality between the criticized and the critic. The same masculinist imperative (which seeks at every turn to slay the 'fearsome woman'} would also appear superordinate in the regulatory strategies of sociolinguistic aetiology (Ovid's or Barchiesi's). In a similar vein, Ovid's first mention of mortal and divine female protagonists is given over to the selfsame lanus biceps, originary deity of the calendrical cycle. The poet's declaration of narrative strategy is explicit, and an appropriate analogue for the alleged complicity of poetic-critical speaking voices (I. 255-6 cited above). In technical terras, Ovid elides the primary and secondary focalizers of his narrative by blurring" the distinction between Janus' voice and his own. How the poet deploys gender here neatly mirrors his structural suppression. The two-headed god's response to Ovid's query about the location of his temple associates the topographical loci of 'arx', 'valles', and "fora' (Romanutn and luliumj with a gendered account of the Sabine assault on Rome during Romulus' reign. Janus foregrounds the implements of war carried by the quasi-Spartan Sabine king (260: '[file] protinus Oebalii rettulit anna Tati' ('[Janus] forthwith recalled the arms of Tatius of Oebalia'). In doing so, he (god and poet) contrasts militaristic Tatius with the anonymous, 'light-minded' guardian who took (as a bribe) bracelets in exchange for betraying her charge (261: 'levis custos armillis capta' ('capricious guardian, captivated by (Sabine) armlets')). To name Tarpeia is (it would seem) unnecessary. The scientia sexualis of this legendary 'traitress keeper' is common knowledge.9 So, too, is the prejudicial epithet of 'Saturnia invidiosa*, invoked to describe the mythopoeic opponent of protective Janus. Although Livy accords Romulus the privilege of defending Rome from the Sabine attack, Ovid allots the lion's share 8 9

Barchtesi (1991) 15. Fritter's equally complicit translation of levis custos* (1931) 21,

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to his divine interlocutor. Moreover, Livian Romulus vows a temple to Jupiter, but Ovidian Janus thwarts Saturn's 'envious daughter'. Like Tarpeia, Juno is unnamed and lacks physical description. However, the poet's only other oblique reference (267: *cum tanto veritus committere numine pugnam' ('afraid to engage in a hand-to-hand fight with so great a deity')) is enough to picture the goddess's martial iconography (wearing a goatskin and carrying a shield and spear). How much of the character of Greek Hera is subsumed in this (re)presentation can only be guessed. Yet the poet (likeJanus) manages to divert whatever agency she might possess through the ingenuity of his craft. In less than a dozen couplets, Ovid/Janus has reviled Tarpeia, subverted Juno, expunged any vestige of the un-Roman, and elevated, masculinist cunning to the status of superordinate godhead. The allusive elegance of the poet's end-stopped, self-contained narrative should not blind us to its hegemonic economy. Consequently, when Barchiesi notes that this story 'could be seen as containing the poetics of the Fastiin a nutshell','" I concur. However, his argument (that the 'elegiac reduction' of Ovid's epic project in 1. 260 ff. sets up 'a new kind of poetic exercise') seems to rehearse the poet's gendered discourse in a manner analogous to the previously identified narrative strategy. Though named, we (the modern reader) are reminded that Tarpeia was 'killed with "armis" (in Met[amorphose$ 14. 777)'; though it is 'her story', 1. 260 ff. 'recalls Properfius 4. 4'." Juno fares equally poorly. Her picture is 'far less grandiose [than we expect]*, and her epithet is noted only for the abrupt reduction of its epic quality. In the penultimate paragraph of his critique, Barchiesi observes that 'it is not so easy to see the connection between Janus and the formal structure of the poem, the choice of elegiac metre'.12 Against this, I would argue that the relationship is readily apparent, but only if the critical sensorium is attuned to sociolinguislic as well as metalinguistic references. After all, the bicapital gaze of Janus/Ovid may be just as much a desiring as an authoritatively reasonable one. 101 Barchiesi (1991) 15. 11 Barchiesi (1991) 15, 12 a Barchiesi (1996) 16,

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A final discordant musing. Barchiesi views Ovid's treatment of dissensen deae in 5. 9 and the first hundred lines of Book 6 as 'iconoclastic', 'irreverent', and 'detached',13 To account for the poet's 'juxtaposition of alternative and incompatible versions' of aetiological explanation, Barchiesi invokes a 'mischievous inversion' of Callimachean technique and an aporetic aversion to the 'traditional range of literary forms'.14 This literary-critical evaluation of the Muses' stylistic and didactic worth effectively metastasizes the singers to the song.15 Compare such an interpretative metamorphosis of the syncretic female (as poetic voice and intention) with Ovid's exposition of 'concordia' under the sign of 16 January (1. 637-50). In this entry, Ovid invests the 'templa' and 'ara' of Concord with an all-encompassing array of personal, familial, civic, and national insignia. For a start, much could be made of the poet's expressly gendered alignment of exempla, past and present, and virtutes, emblematic of harmonious social relationsRome's steadfast military tribune, interrex, and dictator, 'populi superator Etrusci' (M. Furius Camillus); Germany's conquering 'dux venerandus* (Tiberius); and the idealized 'genetrix' (Livia). Consider, further, the explicitly gendered context of this citation. Under the Ides of January, Ovid celebrates the exclusively male prerogative of martial honour. Elegy is assimilated to elogium, and a catalogue of indelibly foundationalist family portraits is elucidated.!fi Viewing the imprimatur of military command is as imperative as attending to the memory of the dead (591: 'perlege dispositas generosa per atria ceras' ('survey the waxen Images arranged through the noble entrance halls')). 'But nevertheless*, Ovid sings, 'all these [Fabii] are praised with human honours' (607: 'sed tamen hutnanis celebrantur honoribus omne/}. Male-referential 'omnes' is reinforced by species-exclusive 'humanis'. If we 13

Barchiesi (1991) 7. >'* Barchiesi (li««) H, 14, Wc Cc«i now bt'gin iy understand why Qvid, unlike CalMmachus, makes & limited use of the Muses as informants. The Musts differ from other divinities in that they are associated with certain forms of speech; we might even say that they are tied to certain literary genrei (Barchiesi (1991) 10-11; italics added). "' P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus and P, Scrvilius Vatia tsauricus (593), Q. Caecilius Mctellus Creticus (594), P, Cornelius Scipio Aeniilianus Africanus Nunientious (590), Nero Claudius Dmsus (597), T. Manlius Torquatus (601), M. Valerius Corvus (602), Cn. Pompeius Magnus (COS), the Fabii (605). 15 l

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'read' Ovid's version of the 'imagines' in this way, his list may then logically be seen to culminate in the 'leading man', that is, hypermasculine Augustus. Moreover, signifier and signified (like the discordant Musae) are one: 'sancta augusta' (609). This business of imperial (1st) subordination (whether res gestae or Romanae) is unequivocally (and univocally) Man's workone man's (Augustus, Tiberius, Germanicus), all men's. The equation is simple and ideologically rigid (613-16; 'imperium nostri duels... orbis onus' ('the imperium of our leader... the weight of the world')), and exposes the 'Law of the Father' as the founding principle against which the burden of rule is measured (deis, heres, pater). Interestingly, this normative explication of masculinist priority gives over under 15 January to a deviant aetiology firmly embedded in gendered, elegiac terrain. In sharp contrast to the founding myth of 1. 468-542,l7 Ovid confounds reader expectations of further traditional topoi with a terse, evocative vignette of abortifacient mothers and capitulating fathers (621: 'matronaque destinat omnis' ('every married woman resolved'); 625-6: 'patres.,, | ius tamen ereptum restituisse ferunt' ('the fathers [that is, the senators] are said to have restored the right taken from [the mothers]'). ContextuaUy and thematically, including this episode represents a poetic inversion as mischievous (in gendered terms) as Barchiesi's previously noted anti- Callimachean twist. No longer a sacred mother giving voice to divine truths (472: 'sacrae sanguine matris' ('by the blood of a holy mother'); 474: 'ore dabatpleno carmina vera del' ('with sonorous voice, she continued to give utterance to the actual prophecies of the deity')), but rather a sceptical. Ovid ('ferunt') retailing a story of expropriated honour, sexual abstinence and abnegation, baseless reprimand, and just restitution, enshrined in calendrical ritual. This scenario could not be further from the charted topographies of res Romanae (Evander > Pallas > Aeneas > Caesar > Augustus) and the economy of deified motherhood (536: lulia Augusta = Livia apotheosized) foretold, by Carmentis. Dynastic certitudes ! ' A qua.si-e.kphra.stic lay of dynastic guardianship (along resolutely Virgiliao lines), sung to the poet by Evander's prophetic mother, Carmentis herself, full of divine incantation ('carmen').

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and imperial sureties are problematized (531-2: 'et penes Augustas patriae tutela nianebit hanc fas imperil frena tenere domum' ('and guardianship of the fatherland will remain in the power of Augustus; it is proper that this house control the bridle of imperiunf)). Instead, Ovid interweaves his aetiology of the two Carmentes (Porrima and Postverta) and the renewal of a reproductive social ethos with the twin stigmata of ritual prohibition and appeasement of indeterminate female entities (633-4: 'sive sorores | sive fugae comites Maenali diva tuae' ('whether sisters or companions of your exile, Maenalian goddess')}. As such, the 'ternpora digesta' may register the new 'templa' of Juno Moneta (629: 'scortea non illi fas est inferre sacello' ('it is not right to introduce leather things into her little shrine')) and its proximity in spatial and programmatic terms to Concordia. However, by then, the problematic nature of social relations and the fractured networks of exchange underpinning any vision of a normative Roman ideal have been exposed. Ovid's calculated contrast between the alternative entries for the Carmentalia cuts across specifically literary implications to highlight the integral relationship of sexuality and the body to any 'reading' of Roman social-cultural history.

(ii) Reviewing and Rereading the Agenda: Ovid and the 'New* Scholarship18 hacc mea militia est: ferimus quae possumus arma, This is rny military service; I take up the weapons that I can.

(Fasti 2. 9)

In the course of delivering the 1994- Todd Memorial Lecture at the University of Sydney, Elaine Fantham gave a checklist of approaches intended to supplement contemporary 'readings' of the Fasti.19 While an otherwise embracing catalogue of evaluative tools was elegantly unpacked, the interpretative category of gender was not included as part of Fantham's literary-critical roster. Given the (at least reasonable) significance of the latter as a subdivision of textual explanation, w 19

This heading is a, paraphrase of the title of Fantham (1995), Fanlhatn (1995) 52-3.

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one could remark at the absence. With a mind to instating the implications of the sex/gender sociolinguistic system, let's briefly consider Fantham's four-point guide to 'an informed neutral reading' of Ovid's text, with reference to a selection of aitia in Fasti 2. We are first encouraged to examine the poet's historical choices, measuring these against prior and subsequent historiographical versions as well as the contemporary epigraphical record. In this regard, recognizing Ovid's criteria for his treatment of social-sexual episodes in Graeco-Roman mythopoeic and histori(ographi)cal tradition would seem an equally useful exercise preparatory to any 'reading'. In the same light, a case can be made for gendered studies of other members of the elite (male) literary canon, and even of the epigraphic corpus.20 J. G. Frazer's 1931 translation21 of 2.41-2 provides some idea of" the need for extending the ambit of this initial approach. vectam frenatis per inane draconibus Aegeus credulus inmerita Phasida fovit ope: Wafted through the void by bridled dragons, the Phasian witch received a welcome, which she little deserved, at the hands of trusting Aegeus.

Interestingly, Frazer interpolates the less-than-oblique 'Phasian witch' (with explanatory footnote) for the suffixed feminine abstraction Pliasida(m), Medea's monstrous choice and extraordinary flight (from the 'dead hearts' consequent on that choice) were deservedly notorious. Yet the poetry (re)presents her in terms which (at one and the same time) demark a locus prior to the distressing teleology of desire, murder, and sorcerous escape, and which place her within the protective embrace of a(nother) foster-male ('Aegeus credulus... fovit ope'). She is caught in the lyric spotlight of before-and-after, and all else (which might distinguish her humanity) is (like the vacuum of space across which she is drawn) inane-empty, lifeless, without. Superimposed on this paradigmatic template (passive female/bestial consort > active male/naive protector), Ovid 20 For an example of the former, see Keegan (1997); for an extended study of the 2J latter, see id. (forthcoming'}. Frazer (1931) 59,

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associates the deviant infamy of Euripidean motherhood (Medeanhood?) with the matricidal son of Eriphyle and Amphiaraus. In each case, the female (as monster or victim) is unnamed; she is rendered through allusion only (aetiological or patronymic). Both women are already the stuff of mythopoeic invention, and thus apt for the receptive function of creative metonymy. Ovid further reduces them to the status of masculinist guilt-objects (Aegeus' help; 'inmerita'; Alcmaeon's murder (45): 'tristia crimina caedis'). If one hoped for anything approaching a sympathetic or rounded allusion to female agency or participation, 'a! nimium faciles" (45). Medea and Eriphyle are signifiers of betrayal for Ovid. Perversely rejecting the sureties of the reproductive and patriarchal economies, they are marked with/for death by the poet. The intertextual citation of Jason's and Achelous' responses to deviant female treachery puts paid to any suggestion that Ovid's choice was anything but deliberate. As such, Ovid's 'choices' must be regarded (at least in this instance) as well and truly embedded in a sociolinguistic discursive system. In relation to Ovid's gendered allusions, it is perhaps apt to note a subsequent aside of the elegist (47): 'antiqui ne nescius ordinis erres', 'Lest you, ignorant of the ancient order, go astray' is trenchant advice; and just as expedient in light of antiquity's regulatory idealization of sex/gender as when viewing the succession of the months and the significances of their rituals. This leads into Fantham's second item, reading Ovid against the previous poetic tradition. Here, the need to take into account Virgil's Georgics as much as the Aeneid is given as exemplary practice. If, however, we were to attach a. sexualized dimension to that poetic tradition, the modern interpreter might well catch sight of certain strategies employed by the poet in aid (or as a part) of the prevailing discursive system. Adopting this plan of attack might elicit a 'different narrative' indeed from the conventional reading of 'Aeneas's colonising achievement'.-a Arion's tale (2. 79-118) clarifies the narrative thrust already observed in the preceding entries. It is (once more) said 22

Fantham (HW5) 53.

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(fertur') that the reputed author of the dithyramb could still the running water, the ravening wolf, and the chattering crow alike with his music; likewise, the naturalized) instincts of hound, lioness, and hawk are reversed by his song (84-90). In the same mode, Cynthia (one of Ovid's allusive references to the goddess of the light and moon, the huntress Diana) is consistently struck dumb when Arion raises his voice. Just as she does (it is suggested) when exposed to her twin-brother Apollo's measured strains (91-2: "Cynthia saepe tuis fertur vocalis Arion tamquam fraternis obstipuisse modis' ('Cynthia is said to have been struck dumb often by your melodies, sonorous Arion, as if by her brother's measures')). Like the wild things of the world, even a goddess is astounded and stupefied ('obstipescit') at the sound of 'her master's voice'. Bestial nature now senseless, Ovid is (as in 2. 55—66) at liberty to pursue his encomiastic subtext: 'di pia facta vident' (117: 'the gods see devout acts'). It is a familiar theme. And whose res gestae does the Ovidian muse extol? Arion, the lyre's master (82)—and, more importantly for Ovid's project here, the heir to Phoebus' crown (1056: 'capit ille coronam quae possit crines Phoebe decore tuos' ('he took the crown which might become the hair on your head, Phoebus'))—stands firm against the venality and greed of the mob, in order that he might bring home the wealth his art had won (96: 'quaesitas arte ferebat opes'). Complementarity, Ovid, self-styled elegiac Homer (119-20: 'mihi... vellem Maeonide pectus inesse tuum' (*I could wish that your spirit, Maeonid.es, belonged to me')), sings of the super-Father-sancte pater patriae (127), pater orbis (130), hominum pater (132), notnen principis (142). And, if in any doubt, Ovid assures his audience that his previous intimations of divine consecration for Caesar—this guardian of Rome's boundaries (134-5), the conqueror of the known world (138), wrong's avenger (140), and foeman's pardoner (143)—were deliberate (144: 'caelestem fecit te pater'). The 'Law of the Father' reigns supreme (141: 'florentsub Caesare leges' ('under Caesar, laws flourish')). Even the reproductive economy is colonized by the kyriarchy's song; the discourse of appropriation completes the multiple inversions of Alien's (ironically) Lesbian lyre.

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Fantham's third suggestion-not to forget Ovid's earlier work—follows closely on from the preceding supplementary approach. But by glossing 'the mindset of an erotic poet and a sympathy for sexual enjoyment' only in terms of the poet's relationship with the Augustan mentalite, Fantham's 'reading' seems inadequate (or, at the least, unnecessarily limiting). What does Ovid's deployment of 'a developed elegiac tradition' which 'left his readers with an expectation of eroticism' require of the (post-)modern literary-historical interpreter's 'reading' of episodes like, say, the previously discussed abortifacient Ausonian mothers of Fasti 1. 617-86? In this light, the metamorphosis of the hamadryad Callisto (2. 153-92) is an explicitly eroticized narrative which extends Fantham's interrogation of the poet's earlier oeuvre into disturbing territory. The teleology of the account is clear-cut: • vowed chastity (Diana = Cynthia = Phoebe sanctions Callisto's sexual renunciation) > • divine rape (162: 4de love crimen habet' ('on account of Jupiter, she bears the offence')) > • personal shame (168: 'erubuit false virginis ilia sono'; 170: 'hanc pudet') > • community repudiation (173-4: Diana's rejection of Callisto) > • divine anger (177: 'laesa furit luno formarn mutatque puellae' (Vexed Juno is furious, and changes the young woman's form)). The creative permutations of the story slot neatly into Laura Mulvey's definition of'voyeurism'.23 Under this rubric, sexual difference is (re)presented as 'woman's castration'; the complicit author constructs a plot exposing her crime and justifying her penalty. So, when Ovid poses the question, 'quid facis? Invito est pectore passa loveno' (178: 'Why do you do this [Juno]? Though her spirit was unwilling, she submitted to

~"' Mulvey (1989), In the context of voyeuristic interplay between author aud audiencCj Mulvey notes that 'pleasure lies in ascertaining guilt... asserting control and subjugating the guilty person through punishment or forgiveness' (22).

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Jupiter'), we must measure his deceptively liberal rhetoric against the following citations: *puer furto conceptus' (183: 'the boy conceived by trickery') 'gemitus verba parentis erant' (186: 'his parent's words were a groan') 'hanc puer ignarus iaculo fixisset acuto' (187: 'the unknowing boy would have pierced her with his sharp javelin'). Underpinning Callisto's transformation is a masculinist imperative naturalizing female speech as animal-like and evoking her polluted alterity in brutish physical terms. Callisto may be innocent, but she is powerless to defend herself against the desire of a (man-made) god, the intractable exclusionist fury of a (woman-hating?) goddess-consort, and the threatened initiate manhood of a (mother-fearing?) son. It is simply impossible to accommodate an individual woman within so many deviant categories. The very suspicion that 'she, believed to be a maiden, was a mother' (176: 'virgo credita mater erat') resulted in outrage, relegation, and inversion. So all that is left for the aition to subside once more into semantic and sociolinguistic equilibrium is Ovid's stellar sleight of hand. Callisto and her son are translated into the astral plane, beyond (it would at first seem) the attitudmal tensions of the material world. Yet even here, Juno 'frets and begs' the wife of Ocean, Tethys (191: 'saevit, rogat') never to pollute her waters by touching and washing Maenalus' bear (192: 'tactis ne lavet Arcton aquis'). Because, in the mythological realm (and, by extension, the social-cultural 'reality' of the poet and his audience), that's the way it is. Finally, Fantham suggests that her audience take into account the only partly revised nature of Ovid's text (whether pre- or post-exilic). This request does not preclude (and, in point of fact, implicitly encourages) an exploration of any developments in (or deviations from) the regulatory idealizations of class, ethnicity, wealth, ideology, gender, and so on; for example, the conceptualization of the (fe)male-ascategory in the Lucretia episode culminating liber secundus (see the 'rereading' of this story in Section (iv) below). After all, gendered discourses may be just as revisionist as ideological (read: politico-civic) ones.

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(iii) The Metamorphosis of Lara: Ovid and the Self-Conscious Inquirer24 voltu pro verbis ilia precatur et frustra muto oititur ore loqui. In place of words, [Lara] entreats [Mercury] with a look, And in vain makes an effort to speak with speechless mouth. (Fasti 2. 613-14)

A corollary to the foregoing study of gender-exclusive literary criticism can be found in other treatments of Ovid. The superordination of Quellenfrage over gendered critique is particularly evident in a recent study by Stephen Hinds. His discussion of the relationship between the archaic Greek poem the Homeric Hymn to Demeter and Ovid's version of the rape of Persephone in Fasti 4 focuses on structural and material influences; his priority is artistic formulation, not sexualizing formations. This is not to gainsay Hinds's philological pursuit of sources and motivations or underrate his substantial critical exegeses. But the Homeric Hymn to Demeter may legitimately be viewed as an archetypal textual treatment of ancient gender relations (divine and human) situated within an equally sexed ritual context (the Eleusinian Mysteries). Consequently, it would seem apt to consider what Ovid does-or, as Fantham*5 puts it, 'what Ovid always did by selection, combination, modification and choice of scale to emphasise or de-emphasise at will'—with the Homeric/Hesiodic tradition. To cite Hinds26 with this 'new' emphasis in mind, 'half of the story of the Homeric Hym.ris influence on Ovid has yet to be told'. Let's look first at the topological association between old women and sorcery prefacing Lara's tale (2. 571-82). 'Behold', says Ovid, 'an old woman, sitting down in the midst of girls, performs old riles for Tacita' (571-2: 'ecce anus in mediis residens annosa puellis | sacra facit Tacitae'). After the mysterious ritual actions are played out (in almost theatrical detail; compare the pantomimic conclusion to this Ovidian set-piece— 582: 'exit anus'), the ostensible reason for the performance is 24 26

1 take this heading from the title of Hinds (1987«). Hinds (iy»7«) 71."

2a

Fantham (1995) ,r>2.

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revealed; to bind fast ('vincire'} hostile tongues and unfriendly mouths (581: 'hostiles linguas inimicaque vinximus ora'). The female community is seen to enact a self-censorship which complements masculinist repressions: a policing of the 'enemy within' by those who *speak~among-women',27 The phallogocentric imperative underlying such an interpretation of ritual female activity is emphatic. It (almost) goes without saying that wine is involved. It is shared by old and young women alike (580: 'aut ipsa aut comites . . . bibit'), and the prime celebrant departs drunk. It doesn't get any more stereotypical than this, Women are innately magical, indubitably bibulous, and prone to malicious gossip. It is important to note the contradictory deferral of meaning Ovid invests in women's inherent relationship with natural, religious, and magical spaces. Women may be associated with the negative implications of these symbolic, social-cultural, and supernatural abstractions, but they are seldom allowed to use these abilities positively to effect change, especially regarding their own circumstances. In his aetiology of Juno Lucina (2, 425-52), for example, brides are incapable of achieving parthenogenetic or heterosexual conception, despite herbal lore, prayer, or magic spell (425-6: 'non tu pollentibus herbis | nee prece nee magico carmine mater eris' ('neither by strong herbs nor prayer nor magical incantation will you be a mother')), Only unsympathetic magic is deemed apt: a leather strap wielded by the reproductive male state (427: 'excipe fecundae patienter verbera dextrae* ('receive submissively the lashes of a prolific right hand!')). The (inescapable) condition of female submission to male will is distressingly (en)gendered in Ovid's succeeding aition. By now, in the poet's enumeration of celestial libido, Jupiter's insatiable desire is (with apologies) legendary. As this discrete scenario unfolds (2. 583-616), Turnus' sister (Juturna) is the thunderer's object(ive). In a perhaps intentionally ironic twist, the lustful god's immoderate desire causes him to suffer ^ This formulation draws on the philosophical insights of Luce Iriganty, particularly her focus on recovering the history of women and lost or marginalized traditions of female cultural production. 'Speakiug-among-woineu' relates to Mgaray's work in identifying essentially feminine modes of (representation as a challenge to the patriarchal symbolic order. A starting point for entry into this project is Irigaray {ISftd).

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decidedly undivine ignominies (585-6; 'luppiter immodico luturnae victus amore | multa tulit tanto non patienda deo' (Jupiter, overcome by immoderate love for Juturna, bore many things which ought not to be suffered by so great a deity')). The vocabulary of passive receptivity is singularly inappropriate when applied to the king of rapists. Such an offence will not be borne lightly. As we have already seen in the account of Callisto's transformation, the intended victim's female companions (here, Juturna's sister-nymphs) are co-opted to the penetrator's gambit.28 Thus, we (the modern reader, not Ovid's intended audience)29 are treated to the unpalatable suggestion that the Tiberine nymphs collectively assent to the following syllogism. 'What is my great satisfaction', Jupiter declares, 'will be to your sister's advantage' (593-4: 'nam quae mea magna voluptas utilitas vestrae magna sororis erit'). Masculinist Voluptas' is identified with female 'utilitas'. Compelled union is (re)presented by the desiring god as 'for (Juturna's) good' (591: quod expedit illi), It is at this point that the subordinationist3* tradition takes a darker turn—and, given the plethora of twisted precedents, that's saying something. A Naiad nymph, Lara (or Lala) by name, unwilling to submit to such specious rationalization of manifest rape, spills the proverbial beans. Not only does this recidivist female speaker31 inform Juturna of Jupiter's compact with a compliant sorority, but she sympathizes with, the adulterer's/rapist's wife, Juno. Jupiter's vengeance is swift and terrible. Like Tereus, Jupiter is incapable of dealing with such 28 We might also cite Livy's retelling of the compact forged between Romulus and the Sabine women (I. 9. 1-13. 6). ^ 1 draw this distinction because many in Ovid's (male) audience would not have found 'Jupiter's1 syllogistic argument 'unpalatable' at all. This is not meant to essentialfae Ovid's gender-peers (elite and non-elite Craeco-Rornan men of rnid- to late Augustan Rome), but only to highlight a clear-cut discontinuity between ancient and modern perceptions of normative gender-relations, * The 'subordinationist' standpoint avows domination of the Other (= any marginalized population}. In relation to gender, it may be glossed as male domination of women's minds and bodies, and reflects a familial-social, ideological, political system of oppression. 31 Ovid tells us that Lara's father cannot compel requisite silence (602;' "oata, lene linguam": nee tamen ilia tenet* ('"Hold your tongue, child!" And still she does not control it*).

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a blatant truth-telling. Swelling up, this time in the heat of anger, he tears out Lara's indiscreet tongue (607-8: 'luppiter intumuit quaque est non usa modeste | eripit huic linguarn*). The destructive force of tumescent rapine is vivid and excruciatingly visceral. And, once again, the 'Law of the Father' intervenes (611: 'iussa lovis fiunt'}. This site of female subjection is well suited to the speechlessness of the dispossessed and deviant (609: locus ille silentibus aptus' ('that place is appropriate for those who are silent')). Disfigured and depersonalized, Lara is condemned to act out the role spared Juturna (612: 'dicitur ilia duel tarn placuisse deo [Mercuric]' ('it is said that she satisfied her guide the god')). Here, the disturbing voyeurism of the Callisto episode is revisited with scopophilic clarity and purpose.32 Mercury's resolution to use force (613: 'vim parat hie'), in apposition to Lara's desperation and ultimately futile supplication (613—14 cited above), seems explicitly formulated to arrest and even stimulate an (inter-) active male imagination. Bereft even of the growl left to ursine Callisto ('gemitus verba parentis erant*), Lara is reduced to an assortment of coveted fragments (Voltus precans', 'os mutum'), qualified by vulnerable terminology ('pro verbis, frustra'). The irony of her name's etymological association (Lala, as if from 'lalein', 'to prattle') is intensified by the twin male burden she bears to her 'divine leader' (615: 'geminosque parit'). The 'prima syllaba' spoken twice (599— 600) has been excised and recast as the paired guardians of the city (the Lares Compitales or Praestiles), The final erasure of identity (Lara) through masculinized appropriation (Lares) completes this sordid episode.33 •w Mulvey (1989) 21 notes thai scopophiha "builds up the beauty of the object, transforming it into something satisfying in itself. One might compare this to Ovid's (re/presentation of the (unnamed) mistress of Hercules in the 'antiqua fabula plena ioci' of 2, 303-58, This "mistress1 (305; 'dominae iuveois'}, 'Maeuniati damsel* \309, 352: 'Maeonis'), and 'Lydian wvncK (356: 'Lyds pueila*)--Fra7er's instructive translations (1931) 81, 83 art1 italicized—is portrayed as a collection o! desirable fragments suggest' ing hut still concealing the anatomical differences between the sexes. For instance, "scented locks', 'shoulders' (309: 'odoratis eapillis, humeros'}; 'bosom* (310; 'sinn'); 'gauzy timici' (819: 'tennis tunicas'); and so on. ;U Newlands (1.995) 165 notes that, in Ovid's text, 'the Lares commemorate an act of sexual violence and the power of divine authority to restrict speech*. In doing so, she limite the impact of 'erotic and voyeuristic interest' by tying the generic expectations to 'the major founding myths* (160); in this instance, Augustus* restoration of the Lares

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(iv) The (Other) Silence of Lucretia34 recordanti [imaginem] plura magisque [sensus] placent By remembering [her image], more and more [his senses) give him pleasure.

(FastiZ. 770)

Inter alia, Fantham35 and Newlands36 recommend the 'new' reader to compare Ovid's version of events with that found in the Livian corpus. The 'historical romance' of the Regifiigiumconcluding the poet's treatment of February and the historiographer's account of pre-Republican Rome (Fasti 2. 685-852; AUC 1. 53-60)—seems most susceptible to analysis in this context. Ovid's claim to sing of a theme removed from the standpoint of annalistic prose (I. 1-2, 13-14), and the intervening years between publication of his work and Livy's (30 or more since the first edition of Ab Urbe Condita), argue the importance of noting any marked similarities or differences. We may safely bypass the first two elements of this narrative (Sextus at Gabii, Brutus at Delphi). Ovid treads a similar path to Livy's variant, and follows the patavinitasofhis retelling (if not in style or tone, then certainly in sequence and content). The fact that these episodes revolve around pivotal exploits and characterological expositions of male protagonists (the sons of lawless and tyrannical Tarquin and the un-Roman king's sister, Tarquinia) may reflect the social-cultural space within which certain stereotypical or idealized behaviours ('tyrannis', 'libertas') remained embedded over time, at least in the cult I have no difficulty in accepting the interdependency of the discourses of sexuality and power. What I am suggesting is that the affective, psyefaosexual dimension of this extremely (unusually?) brutal pattern of mutilation, rape, and silencing (as it relates to performative elegiac elaboration) cannot be glossed simply as an appropriated genericploy. Ovid's annihilation of the female 'plays* as much with the (male) audience's psyche as its ideological complicities. "l!<1 This is a reworking of the rubric, 'The Silence of Lucretia', ch. 5 of Newiands (Witt) 146-72. Fantham (1995) 52. 36 I'or a close parallel 'reading' of Livy's and Ovid's dramatizations of the downfall of thcTarquins in extents, see Newlands (1995) 146-55.1 should add that her treatment only touches on (172) Lucretia's oratie tvetttmOvid (see below), and makes no mention of the import of Tarqtiin'.s parallel speech (apart from its stereotypical masculinist controlling imagery).

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(re)presentations of transgeneric literary modes like poetry and history. Bringing each item to a climax, a comparison of the treatments given to the third anecdote (Lucretia's story) reveals a tell-tale deviation. This anomaly is bound up with the notions of freedom of female speech and gendered expression, masculinist description and the desiring gaze. For the first time in the second book, Ovid introduces a leading human female actor, and provides her with a fragment of oratio recta (Fasti 2, 745-54):* 'mittenda est domino (nunc mine properate puellae) quamprimum nostra facta lacema manu. quid tamen auditis (nam plura audire potestis)? quantum de bello dicitur esse super? postmodo vicla cades; melioribus, Ardea, restas, improba, quae nostros cogis abesse viros. sint tantum reduces, sed enim temerarius ille est rneus, et stricto qualibet ense ruit. mens abit et morior quotiens pugnantis imago me subit, et gelidum pectora frigus habeL' 'The military cloak made by our hands must be sent to (y)our master—now! go quickly now, girls!—as soon as possible. But what do you hear (for you are able to hear a great many things)? How much do they say of the wa,r is to come? After a while, you will fall in battle defeated, Ardea, you resist your betters. Shameless city, you who compels our men to be absent. Let them be! So greatly (do I wish) you to bring them back! But my husband is rash, and with two-edged sword he rushes wherever he wishes. Reason departs, and 1 die, whenever the image of fighting conies to me, and an icy-cold chill possesses rny heart.*

At first glance, commonplace images of zealous domesticity and single-minded devotion are foremost. The twin decorum of women's work and mode of discourse (742: 'calathi lanaque mollis'; 744: 'tenui sono') are situated within binary spatial correlations (742: 'ante torurn'; 744: 'inter quas'). 'these interdependent associations amplify and confirm the traditional domestic resonances of the reproductive (e)state and the phenomenon known as 'speaking-among-women'. 3/ Goddesses and supernatural female beings also speak in Fasti '2—Calltsto and Cynthia (1,57-60, 167, 173-4, 180); Juno (180); Juno Lucina (441); Dione (469-70); Lara (606), The singularity of Lucretia's speech is, therefore, explicit.

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What is there beyond the 'wicker baskets of soft wool' and Lucretia's 'delicate (read also: inferior) tone (or, character)', deposited 'before the bridal bed' and 'among her female servants' (cf. 743: 'famulae'}? For a start, even if her attention is intimately related to her husband's survival, Ovid's Lucretia is passionate about the war. Her chauvinistic parochialism is the product of affective attachments over against those of the adult male citizen for the state, Ardea is a rival for Lucretia's female desiring gaze; 'improba' personifies the axis of sexualized tension on which Lucretia's evocative plaint hinges. In a similar vein, while it may be the only tangible link (so Lucretia believes) remaining to her, Collatinus' 'lacerna' is a poor substitute for the man. One cannot help recalling the poet's professed stance as Fasti 2 began—'haec mea militia esf, Just as Ovid 'bears the only arms he can* (9: 'ferimus quae possumus arina'), in pursuit of Caesar's train, so Lucretia rehearses her husband's ventures on the battlefield. In a sense, Lucretia's hypersensitive condition38 reifies in a feminized construct the raw psychic nerve of a people too long exposed to the inanitions (separation, trauma, grief) of internecine rivalries. In other words, we may postulate (along with recent feminist 'rereadings' of Roman literature)39 that Ovid articulates here a few of the intense masculinist misgivings of his age through an act of female ventriloquism.40 The preceding narratives in Fasti 2 transmit many of the established social-cultural topoi associated with the active male-passive female binarism via multiple divine and supernatural female voices. On the other hand, Lucretia's speech encodes a deviant gendered discourse depending only partially on the revolutionary use of elegiac verse as the vehicle for res Romanae. This sociolinguistic subterfuge is further illuminated in the meditations and (sub-?)vocalizations given over to Sextus in Ovid's (certainly not in Livy's) treatment of the pre-rape scenario. The desiring gaze of poet, characters, and audience is a tangible presence. It sets the Ovidian version apart, and "°18 Demarked by her anxious demands for news of the conflict, her fears for Collalinus' safety, and her paralysing premonitions of tragedy. *' A recent example from the field of classics is Skinner (1998) esp. 4 ft'. 40 poj. an exploration of this concept irt relation to Augustan and Renaissance appropriations of Sappho's poetic voice, see Harvey (1989) 219-30; see also (199*2},

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prepares us ('we' as interpreters and sympathetic readers) for an(other) unravelling of the Fasti's discursive formation. For Collatinus and his soldier-companions (as well as those others participating with Ovid in the exchange), Lucretia's meticulously choreographed collapse into grief (755—6: 'desinit in lacrimas intentaque fila remittit in gremio voltum deposuitque suum' ('she ends in tears, and releases the stretched threads, and lays her face in her lap')) is a scopophiliac's 'dream' (read: 'fantasy'). Her aspect is 'becoming', and her modest tears are 'seemly' (757: 'hoc ipsum decuit lacrimae decuere pudicae'). The countenance (it would seem) is indeed the mirror of the soul (758: 'fades animo dignaque parque fuit'). Unsurprisingly, then, Collatinus' mere presence (759: ' "pone metum, veni", coniunx ait'41 (' "Lay aside your fear! I have come!" her husband said')—Aw choice, his registration) restores Lucretia in thought and spirit ('ilia revix.it'). The female conforms to a subordinationist logic. She is (literally) a dependent burden, agreeable and soft ('dulcis'); and she is attached in metaphorical 'servitium' to her husband's neck (760: 'deque viri collo dulce pependit onus'). Nothing new so far under the elegiac sun. Yet, in the space of a couplet, Ovid manages to insinuate himself into the mindset of an implacable rapist. Lucretia's physical and characterological virtues ('forma', 'color', 'capilli', 'verba', Vox', 'decor', 'place (n)t,' 'corrumpere non est') suffer the same deconstruct ive emphasis here as in Ovid's explicit love poetry. This synecdochic dismemberment of Lucretia is a familiar ploy of otherwise amatory verse. But the sum of her parts (763-5) forms the subject of a far more dangerous 'amator praeceps' (not 'praeceptor'). The measure of this predators desire is inversely proportional to the legitimacy of his object (766: 'quoque minor spes est hoc magis ille cupit' ('the smaller the hope, the more completely he desires it')). And in deliberate contrast to Lucretia's fearful imaginings, her likeness—that foregoing (re)presentation ('absentis imagine')—'gnaws at his senses' (769: 'carpitur sensus'). While Lucretia was frozen, Tarquin burns with anticipation (779: 'ardet'). '" The will of the speaker is male; the agency of voice is active and complete.

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At this point, Ovid openly declares his narratological ploy (770): "reeordanti plura magisque placent'. As for the poet, so his audience; as for Tarquin, so the reader. By calling these things (that is, the scopophilic fragments comprising Lucretia's (re)presentation) to mind, the pleasure principle of anticipated possession is intensified. Therefore, Tarquin rehearses the constellated matrix of his masculinist cupidity. By addressing himself in a travesty of Lucretia's hypernormative oratio recta (771-4), he gives voice to his audience's impulses. His express(ed) catalogue of desires—Voltus', 'verba', 'color*, 'fades', 'decor oris' (773-4)—neatly recapitulates and enhances the focus and affect of sexualized pleasure forestalled and foregrounded in his prior internal reflections. Certainly, the archetypal shadow of inherited 'tyrannis' hangs heavy in Ovid's depiction, as in Livy's. Violence, guile, and unrighteous love attest to Tarquin's turpitude and ignominy (779—80: 'iniusti... amoris ... indigno vimque dolumque...'). However, in the same way that Ovid tests the strictures of Augustan mores, so he alludes to a relationship between the militaristic forays lauded in Livy and the mimetic rivalries of a more personal battlefield. This is not so much a conceptualization of co-active love as of the individualistic male libido's desire for the essentialized female form. Under this schema, Lucretia can only look to her own resources (782: Viderit'). The female is cut adrift from the safety-nets of legislation and customary practice alike (782: laudmtes forsque deusque iuvat' ('Luck and the divine help the bold')). Who dares wins (781: 'audebimus ultima' ('we'll risk the extreme'); 783: 'cepimus audendo Gabios quoque' ('By daring, we took Gabii too'))! Ovid departs from Livy's annalistic account once more— at the moment when Lucretia is confronted by her assailant (801-3). Here, Wf confront the opposition between traditional female duty and voyeuristic male desire; in this case, to be the victim as well as the victor (811). Ovid utilizes the subjunctive of will to express what ought to be done by Lucretia as a matter of propriety ('quid faciat?' 'pugnet?' 'clamat?' 'effiigiat?' ('What is she to do? Should she fight? Call out? Flee?')). But the deliberative force of the poet's questions is repudiated by the superordinate 'vis' of the independent, volitive male.

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First, the normative equation (801: 'vincetur femina pugnans' ('a fighting woman will be "mastered"'}); then, the deviant insertion of military might (802: 'at in dextra qui vetet ensis erat' ('but in his right hand was a two-edged sword to oppose her*}). Note how the kind of sword which caused Lucretia such heartache when carried into battle by her imprudent husband ('stricto qualibet ens/) may just as easily be turned against her ('in dextra qui vetet ensis erat'). By placing Lucretia's thoughts in the third person, and on the cusp of subjunctive will and desire, Ovid affords himself and his audience access to a. psychological omniscience—the thoughts and verbal activities of hunter and prey rarely entertained, except perhaps on the stage.4'2 And while the poet ensures that the consequences of such deviant behaviour are explicitly flagged (811: 'quid victor gaud.es? haec te victoriaperdet' ('Why, victor, are you pleased? This triumph will ruin you!'), by that point the audience has participated vicariously in the complete experience of rape (from precognition to consummation). Further indications of this 'virtual' participation may be located. In rapid succession, Ovid presents us with: • the abandonment of Lucretia's father and husband to grief (835-6: 'ecce super corpus communia damna gementes obliti decoris virque paterque iacent' ('Behold! Indifferent to decorum, father and husband lay prostrate on her body, lamenting their common loss')), • Brutus' violent and peremptory withdrawal of the deathdealing blade (838: 'semianimi corpore telarapit' ('he tore the weapon from her half-alive/dead body')}, and • the (notionally male) community's display of the penetrated body (849: 'volnus inane patef ('the hollow wound is exposed')). Newlands43 notes the sexualized force of Brutus' savage extraction at 2. 838 ('rapit'), but in the context of suggesting a relationship between Brutus and Sextus Tarquinius. In this light, I would assign significant freight to Ovid's treatment 42

For a typically dear-sighted discussion of the extent to which poetry, mime, and satyr-play intersected in popular performance spaces, see Wiseman, 'Ovid and the Stage', in this volume, '*3 Newlands (1995) 154,

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of the still-living 'anlmi matrona virilis' (847) by sire, spouse, and surrogate avenger. These linked elements (the indecorum of the men she summoned, the brutality of the man rehearsing revolution, and the desiring gaze of the adult male citizen population (Quirites) of Collatia) seem to be performative and participatory echoes of an amatory scenario deviant in extremist Nevertheless, we might 'read' Ovid categorizing this self-conscious scenario as the object(ive) of a(nother) kind of'virtus dissiinulata' (844). Lucretia concurs (2. 845-6): ilia iacens ad verba oculos sine lumine movit visaque concussa dicta probare coma. Lingering still, Lucretia moved her lightless eyes to [Brutus'] words, and seemed to approve his remarks with her shaken hair.

(v) Recentring Gender: The Case of Ovld*s Fasti" Unless gender definitions (sexual differences as enforced by culture) are explicated by feminist critics, traditional texts will remain entrusted with patriarchal interpretation. (Phyllis Culham, (1990) 172)

This discussion took as a starting point the considerable degree to which the Fasti is immersed in and co-opted by the prevailing masculinist culture of Augustan Rome. In doing so, it became clear that the interpretations of certain recent scholarship examining Ovid's calendrical formulations revealed some collusion with his conservative phallogocentric standpoint on ritual(ized) female activity. Indeed, select heimeneutic practitioners seem to have assimilated the ways by which the poet engages in negating, inhibiting, silencing, or slaying women—an intertextuality between the criticized and the critic. I would argue that modern 'readers' of the Fasti need to be sensitive to Ovid's sexual(ized) nuances, primarily as a " ' In a paper delivered at Sydney University on 22 Sept. 1999 (now Wiseman 2000), T, P. Wiseman drew attention to the interpenetration of Greek and Roman {representations of mythological scenarios within ft variety of aesthetic spaces (including early to mict-Rcpuhhcan onto, mirrors, arid the 'contaminated* dramatic compositions of Gnesippos and Rhinthon). That these kinds of (representation suggest performative contexts is an inviting corollary. 4;> I adapt this heading from the title of a pivotal discussion-paper in fhliiis (Ciifham 1990).

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means of delimiting and abnegating the perpetuation of the Philomela/Tacita syndrome in contemporary literary-critical studies. Gender as a category of social-cultural and historical interpretation deserves a central role in 'revising and rereading' a work so embedded in the regulatory sociolinguistic system of ancient Mediterranean Rome. Otherwise, the 'dialogic imagination' of today's 'readership' is in danger of succumbing (intentionally or not) to those 'complicitous games of interpretation' by which Ovid sought to explore Roman identity in a period of transition and adjustment.1* In other words, negotiating the serio-ludic quality of the Fasti is a treacherous pastime, and failing to recognize the importance of an anchoring explanatory principle (in this instance, sex/gender analysis) invites problematic interpretative engagement. I hope that this study has cleared, a few of the critical pitfalls adhering to gender-exclusive 'readings' of one ancient text, and demonstrated the advantages of admitting a common focus into the praxis of meaning-production and reception.47 411 Newlands (1,995) 8. Drawing on the work ofjohan Huizinga, Wolfgang Iser, and Mikhail M, Bakhtin, Newlands notes the interplay of 'unexpected, mimetic, subversive, and agonistic' elements in Ovid's text. However, I see the 'interactive readership* assumed to underpin Ovidian 'playfulness' as susceptible to the same power relations permeating all discursive practices. The potential for assimilation or appropriation by a modern audience is an aspect of this 'feedback-loop1 rec|tiiriiig careful treatment 47 For close readings of the relationships among gender, silence, language, and power in the Metamorphoses arid the love poetry, see de Luce (1993), Hardy (1995), and James (1!)97), For a non-gendered treatment of episodes in the Fasti (seen as an exercise in the creation of put'iic mid political authority], sec Feeney (1992).

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7 Representing the Great Mother to Augustus PETER E. KNOX

When Ovid died in exile on the shores of the Black Sea a few years into the reign of Tiberius, among his papers, we may imagine, someone found and rescued six papyrus rolls containing the Fasti, his half-finished poem on the Roman calendar, or, as some would have it, his finished poem on half the Roman calendar. Literary historians will continue to speculate as to whether it was death, desperation, or design that interrupted the composition of the Fasti, but the critical challenge presented by the surviving work is only little affected by the answer to that question. Until recently this challenge has rarely been accepted. With the notable exception of Richard Heinze, the Fastih&d attracted little attention from literary critics since it found its way back to Rome from Tomis. In his much cited monograph 'Ovids elegische Erzahlung*,1 Heinze attempted to characterize Ovid's style in the Fasti, the only surviving example of large-scale narrative in Latin elegiac verse. This characterization was framed from the first by way of contrast with narrative style in epic as Heinze had defined it in his celebrated, earlier book on Virgil.2 Heinze started, with a comparison of Ovid's two versions of the rape of Persephone, the one found in the fifth book of the Metamorphoses, the other in the fourth book of the Fasti, From this comparison Heinze drew up a set of criteria which he proceeded to apply to analyses of other episodes. His study had a more immediate impact on criticism of the Metamorphoses than of the jRw.fi. For the most part, critics have accepted Heinze's observations about the epic quality of the Metamorphoses and have demonstrated an almost obsessive 1

Heiitze {1919},

2

Heinze (1915).

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concern with reconciling the poem's non-epic characteristics with Heinze's definition.3 The consequences of this approach to the Metamorphoses for a reading of the Fasti have become apparent only recently, as critics have shifted the focus of their attention to the elegy. In his influential book The Metamorphosis of Persephone^ Stephen Hinds embraced Heinze's argument about the impact of generic differences between the Fasti and the Metamorphoses and took it one step further, arguing that the narratives of Persephone in the two poems develop a sophisticated intertextual play that alludes to a generic conflict between epic and elegy. Hinds's argument has been widely accepted, and it looms large in the latest efflorescence of criticism of the Fasti, which further presses the question of genre. On this reading, the Fasti stands in pointed contradistinction to epic, as signalled by the text itself at crucial points of intersection. As elegy, it inevitably incorporates the defining characteristics of the genre which, in the words of Alessandro Barchiesi, is Alexandrian, unstable, destructuring', but its content, the Roman calendar, is, again in his words, 'Augustan and traditional'.5 In other words, at the risk of seeming to caricature rather than characterize this approach, while the Fasti might seem to be verging toward epic because of its subject matter, in. reality, because of its form, it is waging subtle generic war.6 What are the bases of such a reading? Begin with the opening lines of the poem: Tempera cum causis Latium digesta per annum lapsaque sub terras ortaque signa canam.' The order of the calendar throughout the Latin year, its causes, and the starry signs that set beneath the earth and rise again, of these I'll sing,

This couplet performs a dual function, identifying both subject matter and literary affiliation, 'tempora.,. digesta per annum' J My own views on die matter have metamorphosed over the years, hut in its essential outlines the reading I offered in Kuux (11)86) remains unchanged. 4 :i Hinds (108?a). Barchiesi (I<»7) 48,' b Cf, Barchiesi (1997} 52-3: 'If we look at its poetic form, however, the constitution of the Fasti is bifocal and highly ambiguous. The poem is permeated by a continual tension between the realm of elegy and that of epic.' ' All translations of the Fasti are taken from the Loeh edition of J. G. Frazer. Other translations axe my own, unless otherwise noted.

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specify both content and arrangement, much as the proem to the Metamorphoses identifies 'in nova.,. mutatas . . , forrnas corpora' as the subject of the poem, with a temporal framework for the narrative specified in 'primaque ab origine mundi/ad mea,., tempora'. In the Metamorphoses Ovid signals his aesthetic stance in the clever parenthesis at the end of line 2: In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas corpora; di, coeptis (nam vos mutastis et ilia) adspirate nieis, primaque ab origine mundi ad mea perpeluum dedueite tempera carmen, Of bodies changed to new forms my mind moves to tell; you gods, inspire my undertakings, for you have changed them as well, and lead my song continuously from the first beginnings of the world to my own times.

The gods have changed Ovid's coepta by causing him to write hexameter narrative: the point is made at the end of the second line, precisely where a reader would first notice that Rome's most celebrated elegist is not writing couplets. In the opening of the Fasti Ovid employs different pointers: causis is the Latin translation of Greek ama, which should surely lead us to think of Callimachus and his influential elegy of the same title. Likewise, the pentameter—'lapsaque sub terras ortaque signa'—evokes, if not Aratus specifically, at least the tradition of Hellenistic astronomical poetry. So far our reading accords well with contemporary interpretations of the Fasti as an elegy of Hellenistic inspiration in form and style. But many critics nowadays merely take this observation as a point of departure for an interpretation of alleged subversive elements in the poem, Of all the elements upon which to focus in the proem the privileged item these days is the word Latium: it is Italian and Roman elements in the Fasti that draw critical attention and the degree to which Ovid reflects negatively upon Augustan culture. This is a natural consequence of the point argued by Hinds that not only is there a crucial distinction between the genres of epic and elegy, as Heinze tried to show, there is also a crucial opposition between them. Thus Ovid's treatment of epic themes in the Fasti is a challenge to epic, to Rome, and to Rome's epic, the Aeneid, Some scepticism is warranted. Particularly when this line of argument leads critics to play

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down other aspects of the poem which Ovid sets squarely in the foreground. In short, we should consider the possibility that the Fastiis more than a simple nod in the direction of Callimachus, employing the Hellenistic background to undermine the ideology of Augustan Rome and Augustan epic; it is a complex intertextual play on the Aetia, and as cultural commentary it has more to offer on the fusion of Greek and Roman elements than on contemporary Roman politics. An example. The first episode of the poem is an epiphany.8 Ovid represents himself beginning" the composition of the Fasti, with the month of January of course, and musing over the nature of the god Janus. The moment is replete with echoes of the Prologue to the Aetia, especially in the image of the poet with his writing tablets about to begin his work when interrupted by an epiphany (Fasti 1. 89-98;: Quern lamcn esse deutn te dicam, lane biformis? nam tibi par nullum Graecla numeo habet. ede simul causam, cur de caelestibus unus sitque quod a tergo sitque quod ante vides. haec ego cum sumptis agitarem mente tabellis, lucidior visa est quam fuit ante domus. turn sacer ancipiti mirandus imagine lanus bina repens oculis obtulit ora meis. extitnui sensique tnetu riguisse capillos, et gelidum subito frigore pectus erat. But what god am I to say you are, Janus of double shape? For Greece has no divinity like you. The reason, too, unfold why alone of all the heavenly ones you see both front and back. While 1 pondered this, with tablets in my hand, I thought the house grew brighter than it was before. Then of a sudden sacred Janus, in his two-headed image presented his double aspect to my wondering eyes. A terror seked me, I felt rny hair stiffen with fear, and with a sudden chill, my breast froze.

But while imitating Callimachus, Ovid also rather pointedly calls attention to the differences. The parenthetical pentameter— 'nam tibi par nullum Graecia numen habet'—is a striking statement of his independence: Greece has no god like Janus, 8 Critics agree that the encounter withjauus is important for the pattern it establishes in the poet's self-representation throughout the poem. Cf, e.g. Harries (1989) 168; Hardie (1.991) 47.

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hence Ovid has no Greek source for his account, which is, paradoxically enough, modelled closely on Callimachus.9 Janus proceeds to provide Ovid with a number of different, and not always consistent explanations of his form. Few fail to note the parallel with the Aetia, in which the first two books were structured as a question and answer session with the Muses. But critics are now all too eager to write this off as mere Callimachean colouring.10 On the contrary, Ovid's intertextual play with the Aetia is pervasive and significant. Unfortunately, no surviving portion of Callimachus' first two books is extensive enough to allow us to form a direct judgement of how the dialogue was managed in Ovid's model; but we do have a precious piece of evidence in the Florentine Scholia (fr. 1 Pfeiffer) which summarize for us the first episode of the poem:

He says that he heard these tilings from Clio as well as the story of die birth of the Charites from Dionysus and Koronis, a nymph of Naxos, after first remarking that by some they are said lo be daughters of Hera and Zeus, by others of Eurynome, daughter of" Oceanus, and Zeus, and by others of Euanthe, daughter of Oceanus, and Zeus. He took the story from Agios and Dercylus. It is also in Aristotle's Parian Constitution.

In other words, Callimachus apparently began by relating to the Muses three different explanations of the origins of the " Cf. Wallacc-Hadrill (1987) 227 on Ovid's method: 'It is patent that Ovid drew directly ou the scholar [sc. Verrius Maccus)... In particular, Ovid lakes care to give the right scholarly air to his handling of the various rites: six alternative etymologies of the Agonalia, and only one of them may we suspect of being his own work (the agony of the sacrificial victim) in that it incorporates an allusion to Callimachus, the role-model for a scholarly poet (I. 32? (.).' 10 e.g. Miller (1991) 35; Bardie (19M) 58-9; Harries (W89) 164 n. 2,

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Graces, When he finished, one of the Muses supplied the correct version. As Alan Cameron notes,11 in the Aetia 4it appears that he [Catlimachus] addressed them [the Muses] collectively, but that just one replied'. This scenario suits the persona of the narrator in the Aetia—learned, inquisitive, controlling the discourse. The contrast with Ovid is highlighted in another encounter with a divinity at the beginning of Book 5, which again plays off the opening sequence of the Aetia. Ovid does not merely mimic the Callimachean pose, he clearly subverts it (5, 1-8): Quaeritis unde putem Maio data nomina mensi? non satis est liquido cognita causa itiihi, ut stat et incertus qua sit sibi nescit eundum, cum videt ex omni parte, viator, iter, sic, quia posse datur diversas reddere causas, qua ferar ignore, copiaquc ipsa nocet. dicite. quae fontes Agariippidos Hippocrenes, grata Medusaei signa, tenetis, equi. You ask whence I suppose die name of the month of May to be derived. The reason is not quite clearly known to me. As a wayfarer stands in doubt, and knows not which way to go, when he sees roads in all directions, so, because it is possible to assign different reasons, I know not where to turn; the very abundance of choice is an embarrassment. Declare to me, vou who haunt the springs of Aganippian Hippocrcne, the dear traces of the Medusaean steed.

At issue is the origin of the name for the month of May. Like Callimaehus, Ovid addresses his inquiry to the Muses collectively. Unlike Callimaehus, however, he ventures no speculations of his own before receiving a reply, and it is the Muses, not the poet, who offer contradictions (5. 9—10): dissensere deae; quarum Polyhymnia coepit prima (silent aliae, dictaque mente notant). The goddesses disagreed; of them Polyhymnia began the first; the others were silent, and noted her sayings in their mind.

The other Muses are silent—no surprise for readers familiar with Callimaehus, but Ovid introduces a twist at the end of 11

Cameron (1995) 107-8.

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Polyhymnia's recitation (Fasti 5. 53-6): finierat voces Polyhymnia: dicta probarunt Clioque et curvae scita Thalia lyrae. excipit Uranie: fecere silentia cunctae, et vox audiri nulla, nisi ilia, potest, Polyhymnia ended. Clio and Thalia, mistress of the curved lyre, approved her words. Urania took up the tale; all kept silence, and not a word but hers could be heard.

Two of the Muses indicate their approval of Polyhymnia's account while a fourth begins a different version. She is in turn followed by Calliope and when she is finished, her account too has its supporters (fasti 5. 107-10): haec quoque desierat: laudata est voce suarura. quid faciam? turbae pars habet omnis idem. graiia Pieridum nobis aequaliiet adsit, nullaque laudetur plusve minusve mihi. She too eoded and was praised by her supporters. What am I to do? Each side has the same number of votes. May the favour of the all the Muses attend me, and let me never praise any one of them more or less than the rest.

The Muses are divided equally into three camps and Ovid professes himself unwilling to choose one over the others, thus leaving all options open.12 Ovid's myths can be less stable than those in Callimachus, the narrator less determining, but when this is the case, the distinction is highlighted by the play with the model text in the Aetia and thus unambiguous. Ovid's Fasti is a sustained evocation of the Aetia and this aspect of the poem cannot be wished away by critics who would prefer to focus on its Roman aspects. Indeed, it is essential to incorporate this into our readings of the Roman elements. It has long been known that the four books of the Aetia consisted of two parts. For the first two books Callimachus provided a unifying structure in the form of a dialogue with the Muses, while the last two books seem not to have had any formal links between the stories. Rudolf Pfeiffer observed long 12

Contrast Harries (1989) 172-3, who reaches similar conclusions without, however, noting the iatertextual link to CaUiinachua that reinforces this reading.

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ago that in the Fasti Ovid took the first half of the Aetia as his model.13 That is certainly a valid observation for our six books (who knows what might have been in the second half); but to what extent is the evocation of Callimachus limited to form? There are some parts of the poem which suggest a broader scope. Ovid's Callimachean narratives in the Fasti are in apparent conflict with what is seen as the preoccupation of the poern with something vaguely described as the Augustan programme.14 Such narratives can hardly be read as part of a plan by Ovid to challenge seriously the values of Rome and Augustas. Of course, this is not inconsistent with treating the Fasti as a serious poern, whatever that may mean. In the Tristio, Ovid cites the Fasti, along with his lost tragedy and the Metamorphoses, as proof that not all of his poetry is trivial (2. 549-56). And in the proem to the second book, he refers to the Fasti in terms of 'setting great sails' to his poetry (2. 3-4): mine primum veils, elegi, maioribus itis: exiguurn, memini, nuper eratis opus. Now for die first time, my elegies, sail with ampler canvas spread: as I recall, you were just recently a slender work.

As Cameron notes, it is at least in part the panegyrical component of the Fasti that defines its status. Citing Fasti 2. 3-4, u Pfeiffer (11)53) p. xxxv: *!D universum Ovidius in Fastorum libris exemplum Aetiorum lib. T/II sccutus essc videtur...'. 14 For example, the long account of the constellation Orion in the fifth hook (5. 493-544) rarely elicits comment from critics. Ovid's account perhaps derives from Euphorion, who is cited %K a source by the scholiast on Iliud 18. 4$6 (Schol. AI> 1.8. 486). Some security is lent to this attribution by the brief account of Hyrieus given by Nonnus [Dion, 13, 96-103), with which it coincides. O%'id ha,s introduced some significant changes to produce a story of a different type, on the hospitality theme as represented by Callimachus in bis Hecate. In short, Ovid has apparently altered his source in Euphorion to produce a more Callimachean result Earlier scholars have little to say shout Ovid's rendition here, due to embarrassment over the 'conception*, so to speak, of Orion. Meineke (1843) 133, for example, refers to this as 'spurcissirnam . , . fabuiam1. The seeming embarrassment of contemporary scholars who havenothing to say ahout this tale doubtless has a different motivation. On this point T should note that Newiainfe (111115) is a sigTuiieunt exception—she doe^ try to account for this story in its context, although I do not agree with her on its relationship to the following narrative of the foundation of the temple of Mars Ultor. See now iimma Gee's chapter in this volume, which explores a different aspect of this episode in its intertexlual relationship with. Virgil's Geot'gi-ts,

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he asks, 'In what respect are the Fasti more elevated? Having already written the Metamorphoses, it cannot be a higher genre Ovid has in mind,' Citing lines 15-16: at tua prosequimur studioso pectore, Caesar nomina, per titulos ingredimurque tuos Still with an enthusiastic heart I rehearse your titles, Caesar, and enter upon the path opened by your glory

he concludes, 'The key respect in which the Fasti outstrip Ovid's earlier work (or so he disingenuously protests) is in their treatment of the honours of Augustus.'1-5 But in the intervening lines Ovid sounds another note as well (2. 5—6): ipse ego vos habui faciles in amore ministros, cum lusit numeris prima iuventa suis, Myself I found you compliant servants in love, when my early youth toyed with verse,

The contrast is between Ovid's large-scale elegy ('maioribus veils'), the Fasti, and his earlier elegies on a small scale, Ovid neatly reverses the rhetorical stance of the Aetia prologue and, being Ovid, points out the irony (8): 'ecquis ad haec illinc crederet esse viani?' ('who could believe that the path would lead to this?'). Ovid employs the critical terminology derived from Callimachus to describe his approach to the issue of genre, which was central for him and his contemporaries in a way that it was not for Callimachus. The Metamorphoses is a poem, Ovid tells us, in the tradition of hexameter narrative, which is none the less deductum. The poet of the Fasti, we hear from Juno in Book 6, deals with epic content ('magna referre'), but still composes 'per exiguos modes'. The challenge posed by the Fasti, therefore, is to interpret the poem in the context of its relationship to Callimachus and in the process also to account for its distinctly Roman and Augustan, elements. The festival of the Magna Mater has largely escaped analysis in the recent efflorescence of criticism devoted to the Fasti, so it may be considered a test case in recontextualizing Roman 15

Cameron (1995) 470.

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ritual as it is represented in the poem.1* The first foreign cult to be incorporated into the official Roman calendar poses particular problems of interpretation, and yet offers some unique opportunities to evaluate the political orientation of Ovid's representation of ritual. In his account of the institutions established by Romulus, Dionysius of Halicarnassus remarks upon the resistance of the Roman state to accepting foreign cults and singles out the cult of Cybele as the exception that proves his rule.17 But even in that case, Dionysius notes, the Romans suppressed publicly the more outrageous aspects of her worship and limited service in her priesthood to Phrygians;

But, even though she has, in pursuance of oracles, introduced certain rites from abroad, she celebrates them in accordance with her own traditions, after banishing all fabulous clap-trap. The rites of the Idaean goddess are a case in point,

'Fabulous clap-trap' is the tendentious translation in the Loeb of which might better be rendered as the 'finer points of mythology',1" As 'I', P. Wiseman remarks, the Roman version of the cult featured 'no castration of Uranus, no Cronos devouring his children—and we may add, no Attis, whose self-mutilation was essential to the Phrygian goddess's kieros logos'.w Of course it is precisely the mythology that interests the Roman poets who write of her cult—Lucretius, Catullus, and Ovid, who gives the fullest account in Book 4 of the Fasti, in. the section attached to 4 April.20 Ovid's narrative devotes little space to the 'public' or 'official' aspects of the cult—the procession of the eunuch priests of Cybele, the washing of the goddess's image, or the celebration of the Ludi Megalenses. He is interested in the mythological justification for the rites, in their aetiology. Ovid prays for an ^' A notable exception is Littlewood (1981). '7 Dion. Hal. 2. 19. 3, On Roman antipathy to castrated Galli and other aspects of the cult, cf. e.g. Beard (11)94) 176-8; Beard, North, and Price (1998) i. 96-8. w m Cf. LSJ, s.v. npOptia. Wiseman (1984) 117. -° But contrast Summers (1996), who argues that Lucretius represents only Roman manifestations of (he cult.

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informant and is provided with one by Cybele herself, who commands the Muses to be at the poet's disposal (4. 189-92): quaerere multa libet, sed me sonus aeris acuti terret et horrendo lotos adunca sono. 'da, dea, quern sciter', doctas Cybeleia neptes vidit et has curae iussit adesse meae, I want to ask many questions, but the noise of the shrill cymbal and the bent flute's thrilling sound frighten me. 'Grant me, goddess, someone whom 1 may question.' The Cybelcan spotted her learned granddaughters and. told them to attend to my concern.

Ovid's inquiries about the aetiology of the musical accompaniment of Cybele's worship are answered by Erato. For Barchiesi this use of the Muse as informant destabilizes the narrative. As he puts it, 'This filtering of information through a secondary informant introduces a mediatory element into the various narratives concerning the Great Mother.'2' But it requires some degree of special pleading to demote the Muses to the status of 'secondary informant'. To do so, one must ignore the literary background that also informs the narrative of the Fasti. The structure of Ovid's dialogue with Erato again clearly evokes the framework of Aetia 1-2, in which the Muses serve not as 'secondary informants' but as arbiters of truth. And Ovid's tone is distinctly Callimachean. The form of Ms request, 'da . . . quern sciter', is rather matter of fact: 'scitari' is pegged by Axelson as an epic verb, but there is nothing particularly 'epic' about its distribution in Roman poetry, particularly in the limited use made of it by Virgil and Ovid.22 It establishes the tone for the familiar back and forth banter between Ovid and his Muse. Compare Callimachus, fr. 7. 19 ff.

21

Barchiesi (1<»7) 194. ™Cf. Axelson (1945) 6,5; Knox (1986) 27-8; Austin on Ann. 2. 105. Littlewood {1981} c!88 correctly catches the tone.

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And, O Goddesses, how is it that a man of Anaphe sacrifices with shameful words, and the city of Lindos with blasphemy.., pays honour to Heracles?... Calliope began...

with the opening of Ovid's exchange here. He also addresses all the Muses, but naturally only one can respond (Fasti 4. 193-6) :M 'pandite rnandati mernores, Helieonis alumnae, gaudeat assiduo cur dea Magna sono.' sic ego. sic Erato (mensis Cythereius illi cessit, quod teneri no men arnoris habet): 'Remember her command, you wards of Helicon, and disclose the reason why the Great Goddess delights in a perpetual din,' So I spoke and Erato replied as follows (the month of Aphrodite fell to her, because she takes her name from tender Love).

Ovid has ten questions for the Muse concerning specific practices in the cult of the Magna Mater. His first query concerns the aetiology of the loud musical accompaniment of the goddess's ritual. In response, Erato relates a version of the myth of Zeus. Here, as elsewhere in this part of the Fasti, Barchiesi sees the use of the Muse as informant as destabilizing: 'We have an external narrator, Erato, who calls attention to the antiquity of the event, and insidiously indicates this same antiquity as the principal guarantee for the event itself.'24 But an examination of the lines in question, 203-4, yields a different meaning in the context of Ovid's investigation of the cult, even If we concede that there is, as Barchiesi also suggests, an 'insidious allusion' to Callimachus: luppiter ortus erat: (pro magno leste vetustas creditor; acceptam parce movere fidern). Jupiter was born. Antiquity counts as a powerful witness: do not shake the accepted belief.

It is indeed the case, as Barchiesi notes, that in his Hymn to Zeus Callimachus remarks that ancient poets are not always truthful." But if that hymn is the subtext here, does the allusion undercut the information imparted by Ovid's Erato? That 2S 25

Cf. also 4. 222 below: 'ut tacui, Pieris arsa loqui', Call, H, 1. 60

''"' Barchiesi (1997} 194.

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hardly seems to be the thrust of these lines. Ovid's Muse establishes a framework of credibility for her narrative. She appeals not to ancient authorities, but to antiquity. Callimachus is refuted by one of his own Muses. It does not matter that there are other versions of the myth because in the telling, Ovid's Muse has established the parameters of belief. And there is nothing in the text to indicate that we should not believe. Indeed, there are several points on which the narrative would seem to compel belief by reason of special authority. The story of Attis is one. It occupies 22 lines (223-44) of narrative by Erato, in which Barchiesi sees 'an occasion for Ovid to measure himself against a famous Catullan model'.26 And it is also, on his reading, another instance of Ovid's use of the Muse to undercut the information imparted by the poem: 'it would be almost impossible even to imagine a version of Catullus 63 as narrated by Cybele in person'. It is unlikely, however, that Ovid's proximate model in this part of Erato's narrative is Catullus 63. The story of a Greek boy overwhelmed by enthusiasm for the mother-cult is part of the end-game: Ovid is interested in origins, and the story of Attis, the companion of the Great Mother, is not quite the story of Catullus 63. It is likely that Ovid does have some model; it is also likely that we will never be able to identify it. One indication of general provenance, however, is provided by the text. Erato summarizes the story that Cybele fell in love with a youth named Attis and enjoined a life of celibacy in her service. When he succumbed to the charms of a tree nymph, Cybele punished them both (229-30): fallit, et in nympha Sagaritide desinit esse quod fuit: bine poenas exigit Ira deae. He broke his word and with the nymph Sagaris he ceased to be what he had been.. For this the anger of the goddess exacted a. penalty.

This basic story-Attis betrays Cybele by falling in love—is attested in a number of variant forms. This one is unique, and the conclusion is naturally drawn by commentators that it is 2li

Barchfesi (1997) 195,

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Ovid's invention. That hardly seerns likely. Identifying the nymph by name, for example, is either an instance of specious specificity to mask the invention, or it has genuine authority. Ovid's nymph is clearly a patronymic derived from Sagaris, a name securely associated with the cult's home in Pessinus in Phrygia.28 Most ancient sources give ^ayydpto? as the name of the river arising just south-west of Pessinus and emptying north into the Black Sea.29 But the alternative name Udyapis is also attested,30 and Ovid includes it under this name in a catalogue of rivers that empty into the Black Sea (Pont, 4. 10, 47). Virgil gives a bit part in the Aeneid to a Trojan named Sagaris, a further indication of the pedigree of the name.31 It is unlikely that Ovid would seize upon the variant name of a Phrygian river upon which to hang a divergent form of the Attis myth. Ovid is probably also playing off some other associations of the name, o&yapts is a Scythian weapon, a single or double-edged hatchet, well attested in Greek sources. In one Greek epigram it is identified as the instrument used to castrate a Gallus.32 This complex of associations is not entirely Ovid's invention. His sources cannot be identified specifically, but we can describe a context for them. Shortly before 300 BC Ptolemy Soter engaged the services of the Eumolpid Timotheus in establishing the new cult of Serapis.33 According to Arnobius, writing some six hundred years later, Timotheus also authored a definitive work on Cybele and the origins of her cult.34 The account of the myth attributed by Arnobius to Timotheus agrees in the main with a version recounted by Pausanias, which he attributes to the local tradition (e-mxtoptos Aoyo?) of

~'7 e.g. Bomer (lS)57-8) ad Joe.; Schilling (!!»3) \ 13 n. 84. Fantham (1998) ad loc. is .silent. -s Cf. e.g. Gralllot (1912) 46,227, 361. -' e.g. Horn. 11 H.187, Hes. Theog. H44, Strabo 12. 3. 7, 12, 5. 3; Steph. Byz. s.v. 30 Pint. Fluv. 12. I, Et. Mag. s.v. On the name of the river, see Grailiot (1912) 15 n. 5; m Tischler (W77) s.vv. AM. 5.263; <). 57.5. y ' Philip, APb, 94 (=xiv G-P) "two-edged veindissolving hatchet'. Cf. Cow-Page ad loc., who do not, however, note the homonymy :H with Cybele'sriver. Plot Mm, 362a, Tac. Hist. 4. 83. w Arnob. Ado. Nat, 5. 5-7,

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3S

Pessinus (7, 17. 10-12):

Zeus, it is said, let fall in his sleep seed upon the ground, which in course of time sent up a demon, with two sexual organs, male and female. They call the demon Agdistis. But the gods, fearing Agdistis, cut off the male organ. There grew up from it an almond tree with its fruit ripe and a daughter of the river Sangarius, they say, took of the fruit and laid it in her bosom, when it at once disappeared, but she was with child. A boy was born and exposed, but was tended by a he-goat. As he grew up his beauty was more than human, and Agdistis fell in love with him. When he had grown up, Attis was sent by his relatives to Fessinus, that he might wed the king's daughter. The marriagesong was being sung, when Agdistis appeared, and Attis went mad and cut off his genitals, as also did he who was giving his daughter in marriage. But Agdistis repented of what she had done to Attis, and persuaded Zeus to grant that the body of Attis should neither rot at all nor decay, (trans. Loeb)

Although Pausanias characterizes this as the most current version of the Attis myth—perhaps because of its diffusion by Tirnotheus—he knew of others. He refers to a somewhat sanitized account by Hermesianax, which would have been roughly contemporary with Tirnotheus.3'5 References to Cybele and her consort are quite common in poetry of the Hellenistic period, especially poetry written in an Alexandrian context. Apollonius includes an excursus on the cult of Cybele at Cyzicus in book 1 of the Arg&nautica (1. 1092-1152), The cult of Cybele is the best-attested of the non-Egyptian cults in the archaeological record in Alexandria,37 and this is true of the literary remains of the period as well, in epigrams by Dioscorides and others.3" Callirnachus makes a passing reference to her cult in the third Iamb (fr. 193 Pf.}, and again in one of his epigrams (40 Pf.). Ambitious claims have been made by Wilamowitz-Moellendorfw and others for two galliambics cited by Hephaestion, which may or may not be by Callirnachus 33 There is a helpful discussion of Timothcus in Turcan (1992) 44-8. Cf. also Vermaseren (1977) 90-2 and Fantham on Fasti 4-. 224. •* Hermes., fr. 7 P (=Paus. 7. 17. 9} on Attis. Presumably these are some of the authors among Lucretius' 'vetercs Graiurn docti.,, poelac' (2. 600). 37 Fraser (1972) 277-9. M Al'f). 217-20 are a scries of four epigrams on GaJii, by 'Sirnonides' (it G-P), Alcaeus (xxi G-P), Antipater (uxiv G-P), and Dioscorides (xvi G-P), Cf. also the anonymous APf>, 51 (=xi,i! G-P) and Erucius, AP6. 234 (=x G-P). atf Wilamowitz-Moellendorf (1924) 294-5, identifying Callirnachus as Catullus' model,

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(fr. 761 Pf.):

The roaming Gallai of the mountain mother, loving the thyrsus, whose bronze instruments and rattles make a clatter.

Hephaestion tells us only that Cailimachus wrote galliambics; that he wrote these galliambics is only an inference of his commentator, though it may be true. The minimal deduction is that these lines are at home in a context in which Alexandrian scholars and poets are engaged with the cult of Cybele and its attendant myths. It seems very likely that Ovid's sources for Cybele and Attis are to be located in this nexus. The text of the Fasti offers one more clue. Ovid's penultimate question to Erato concerns the eunuch attendants of the cult. Why, he wants to know, are they called Galli when Phrygia is so distant from Gaul? Erato's response connects the name of the Galli with a Phrygian river named Gallus. Other sources identify this stream as a tributary of the Sangarius, which we have already encountered in connection with Cybele's cult.40 The elder Pliny (NH3L 9) is our source for the information that Callimachus somewhere referred to the curious properties of this stream, both salutary and otherwise.41 And the same Timotheus who was Arnobius' source on the Magna Mater cult apparently wrote about this river as well.42 It can hardly be Ovid who is the sole source for the association of her priests with this river,43 That is more likely to be located in the literature that grew up surrounding this cult in Alexandria, That Ovid should employ such literature in the process of appropriating the myth of Cybele to a Roman context should hardly surprise. The alien details of the myth are artfully 40

Strabo 12. 3. 7. Pliny, AV/31, 9 'in Aenaria tnsula calculoais mederi . . . idem contingit in Velino lacii pota.nti.bus, item in Syriae fonle iuxta Taurum montetn auctor est M. Varro et in Pbrygiae Gallo (lumiue Callitnachun. sed ibi in potando neeessarius modus, ne lymphatos agat, quod in Aethiopia accklere his qui e fonte Rubro biberint Ctesias gcribit*. ' ~ C4. Steph, By>^- S=v. F'iiAAp^; ( ara^os *Ppi*yias. ol TrzpwiKoi Kara, ;,i€s.' Ti^o(ho¥ //ora/,ioyaAArra.(. 43 Cf. Lane (191)6) 117-33, for further sources on the name of the river. 41

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incorporated into a Roman context that focuses on the mir acles attendant upon the arrival of Cybele in Rome in 204. The Hellenistic material is used to validate the Roman association of the cult, not subvert it. The central panel in the narrative is the story of Claudia Quinta. For Barchiesi this construction offers us a 'deviant centre of interest' by which Ovid further undercuts the authority of the narrative.41 On my interpretation, it is a crucial component in fusing the Phrygian and Alexandrian material into a Roman context, one in which both the religious and political aspects of the cult—not meaning to imply a division between the two-are in play. The process of incorporating the mother goddess into the iconography of the Augustan regime began many years before Ovid set the irst roll of the Fasti upon his lap. Wiseman has documented how her Augustan rehabilitation is reflected in the Aeneid,45 where Cybele is represented as a 'Trojan goddess, protecting Creusa, providing the fleet... The bringer of victory [in the war against Hannibal] brings it also for Aeneas; like the Roman generals who paid their vows to her, he too prays to the Great Mother before going into action.'46 Cybele had a secure place in the Augustan religious order, or whatever we might want to call it. Her temple on the Palatine was destroyed by fire in AD 3. Its reconstruction by Augustus was duly entered in the log of the Res Gestae and acknowledged by Ovid in the Fasti: 'templi non perstitit auctor: \ Augustus nunc est, ante Metellus erat' (347-8), referring to its reconstruction after an earlier fire in 111 BC. In the years following the Augustan conflagration, which probably coincided with one phase in the composition of the Fasti, the role of Cybele in the religious and political order must have seemed relatively clear.47 Ovid's focus on the miracle of Claudia Quinta plays into the evolution of the cult's association with the Claudian branch of the family.4* In the period of the new temple'ssconstruction, AD 4 and following, Tiberius' position in the regime and Augustus' '" Barchiesi (1997) 196. 45 Wiseman (1984), Of. also Graillot (1912) 108-15; Wilhelm (1989); Bomer (1964) 4(i 138-43. Wiseman (1984) 123. '" Thus, rightly, Littlewood (1981) 382-3. 48 Ou Claudia'Quinta, see Graillot (1912) 52-5, 60-6; Bomer (1964) 146-51.

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dynastic arrangements for Germanicus would dovetail neatly into the prominent role now assumed by Claudia in the myth of the cult, The last ten years of Augustus' rule before the accession of Tiberius in 14 are a dark period. As one scholar puts it, 'Books began to be burned and penalties imposed on their writers during the last decade of Augustus' principate, when Tiberius was de facto and in the end de iure co-regent,'49 The theory that Tiberius now played a more important role in setting and implementing policy during that decade has a powerful advocate in Sir Ronald Syme,-50 One of the first acts of Tiberius as emperor was to transfer the elections from the people to the Senate,51 but changes in the consular elections began in 5, the year after Tiberius returned to power, with the suggestion that ten years later he only formalized the policy he had set in motion earlier.02 The consular lists of Augustus' last years are filled with his adherents, illustrating also that Tiberius, with Augustus' support, was moving to consolidate his position,53 There are perils in treating 'Augustan' as a straightforwardly comprehensible term, describing a monolithic concept.54 But so far as we can discern, Ovid's Cybele coincides almost precisely with what we can identify as the Princeps' aims for the cult in AD 4 or thereabouts. 'Subversive' readings of the Fasti, as I shall call them, seem to me all to be based upon one historical and empirical fact: the relegation of Ovid in AD 8. Suppose for a minute that Ovid had died peacefully in his bed in Rome, in full possession of his rights. Under such circumstances it would be difficult—though not impossible, alas—to make out a case for the Fasti as a destabilizing assault on contemporary political-religious culture. Further complicating the situation is another historical and empirical fact, that the Fasti as we have it belongs to the early years of Tiberius' reign. Ovid's reworking of the poem, it might be reasonably assumed, would be designed to adapt it to the ideology of the new regime. In ideal 49

Goodyear (1984) 603. Of. Syme (1974) 484: 'No! AD. 14 but AD, 4, Ural was the decisive year.' Syme often repeated this: cf. e.g. (I.958) 367-71, 427; (1978) 197-8. 51 Tac. Ann, 1. 15. 1. " ' ra Syme (1958) 389-90, 756-60; Brunt {1961} 71-83. 33 Syme (1939) 434-5; (1958) 369. s '' Cf, Kennedy (1932), The same point is made in Feewey (1992), esp, 1-9. 50

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circumstances we would examine the Fasti against the evidence for the ideological bases of the Tiberian programme. Unfortunately, our circumstances are less than ideal on that score, for, as Frank Goodyear once put it, 'Tiberius most directly influenced literature by inhibiting it.'5-' We have little evidence from which to reconstruct the prevailing ideologies of those years, and Ovid, working in Tomi, might easily have misread the signs. Of the subsequent fate of the cult of Cybele under Tiberius, there is not much to tell. Our sources are late and probably exaggerated, but there are indications that Claudius took an active role in organizing the cult and according it the prominent role it held in subsequent centuries,513 Nothing at all can be said about Tiberius except that he did not suppress the cult and was perhaps indifferent to it Under the year 27 Tacitus (Ann. 4. 64) relates that a statue of Tiberius miraculously survived a fire on the Caelian hill when all the surrounding structures were destroyed. People drew an analogy with the statue of Claudia Quintet in the temple of the Magna Mater, which miraculously survived two fires. It was suggested that the spot be consecrated: 'augendam caerirnoniam loco in quo tantum in principem honorem di ostenderint'. It is hard to imagine Augustus not capitalizing on a similar opportunity; there is no evidence that Tiberius did. In the poem that opens the collection of Epistulae ex Panto, Ovid asks a rhetorical question (Pont, I. 1. 37-40): ecquis ita est audax, ul limine cogat abire iactantern Pharia linnula sistra manu? ante deum matrem cornu tibicen adunco cum canit, exignae quis stlpis aera negat?

K

Goodyear {1984) 603, Of. Graillot (1!)12) 114-16, 142-4; Vermaseren {1977) 113 on Claudius and the M.arch festival for Attis, Further evidence of Claudiau support for the cult (and for Tiberius' aversion?) may be found In contemporary identifications of Livia with Cybcle, on which see Vermaseren (1.977) 75 and Littlewood (1981) 384. Here, too, Ovid may be found incorporating late Augustan ideology concerning the Augusta in a manner out of step with the early Tiberian era: cf, Herbert-Brown (1994) 130-72 on the complications inherent in including Livia, in the Fasti. 56

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Is there anyone so brazen as to force from his door one who shakes the ringing sistra of Pharos in his hand? When before the Mother of the Gods the piper plays upon his curved horn, who denies him a few coppers?

The answer was supplied about five years later, when Tiberius expelled the adherents of Isis from Rome. An important presupposition in current readings of the Fasti is that Ovid must have been undercutting the message that the Princeps wanted to hear. They may be right about the reaction of the emperor; but they might not have the right emperor. And it is worth considering that the real problem of the Fasti consists in locating an Augustan poem in a Tiberian age.57 "" Earlier versions of this chapter were delivered at the Leeds International Latin Seminar, 13 Feb. 1998 and at the Universities of Pisa, and Padua in May 1999. I am grateful to the audiences on those occasions for sage observations and sound advice, not always heeded. Prof. Sergio Casali, who translated the paper into Italian, also tried to dissuade me from error, as did Prof. Julia T. Dyson.

8

imperil pignora certa: The Role of Numa in Ovid's Fasti R. J. LITTLEWOOD

The complex formalism of Roman religion was traditionally, if inaccurately, attributed to Rome's second king, Numa Pompilius.1 Consequently the dual Roman qualities of military valour and pietas could be exemplified in the antithetical but complementary personalities of Rome's first two kings, Romulus and Numa, whose achievements Livy measures in terms of contrast (1. 21. 6): alius alia via, ille bello hie pace civitatem auxerunt They advanced the state, each in his own way, one by war, the other by peace.

This dual conception of the royal role is described by Georges Dumezil as a diptych:2 'Romulus is a young demigod, impetuous, creative, violent, unhampered by scruples, exposed to the temptation of tyranny; Numa is a completely human, old man, moderate, an organiser, peaceful, mindful of order and legality,' Crucially relevant here is his contrast of Romulus 'the demigod* with Numa, the 'completely human old man'. Though Augustus might seem, by his policies of religious restoration, of Concordia and the Pax Augusta, to resemble the 5 Many of ^NuroaV religious institutions, including the dance of the Salii, appear to have emerged under the Tarc|uin dyiuisiy, when there was a flowering of cult and monumental religious building in early Rome in the wake of orientalizing influence from Greece, Particularly relevant to the discussion of possible cross-currents from Etruria to early Latium are Cristofani {1990} and Cornell (1995). '2 Dumezil (1970) 198 traces this duality bach to its Indo-European origins. In a further article, he shows how in Vedic India the same duality exists iu the two gods Mitra and Varuna. As Romulus parallels the violent Vanina, so Numa mirrors Mitra, the peaceful upholder of law and divine covenant (Dumezil, 1988).

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wise priest-king Numa, this image hardly accorded with the fulminant triumphatorofAetium, who had in all seriousness toyed with the appellation of Romulus,3 and who, as the adopted son of Divus lulius, promoted the legend of his divine ancestry. Essential to the iconography of the Forum Augusts was the clear-cut dual paradigm offered by Aeneas, ancestor of the Julii, and Romulus, offspring respectively of Venus and Mars. From these demigods—iconographically, at any ratewas descended the godlike Augustus whose statue, heroic in its imposing quadriga, dominated the forum. It was significant that when Augustus approached the Ara Pacis Augustae, he faced the sculpted figures of Aeneas garbed for sacrifice on one side and Rornulus and Rernus with Mars on the other. This chapter aims to demonstrate, first, how Numa fits into the essential duality of Augustan iconography exemplified in the statuary of the Forum Augusti. Secondly, since Ovid follows Virgil and Livy closely in casting Numa in his canonical role as founder of Roman law and religion on the site of Rome, it is worth considering to what extent Ovid represents Numa, in the hierarchy of Roman founder figures, as a precursor of Augustus, templorum restitutor et conditor. After, thirdly, briefly setting the story of Numa and the ancile in its literary context, we come to the fourth and most important point: how, using as his intertext the Aristaeus episode in Georgic 4, Ovid imposes on the story of the heaven-sent ancile an intricately constructed Augustan ideological message. By associating the ancile, a Roman shield and pignus imperil, with Virgil's shield of Aeneas and, by implication, the Clupeus Virtutis of Augustus, we shall see that Ovid aligns Numa with Aeneas and Augustus, as defenders of the Roman, state through, their pietas and devotion to Rome's gods. At this point, characteristically, Ovid's elevated homage gives way to comedy in Numa's duel of words with Jupiter, which leads us, finally, to consider the extent to which Ovid's Fasti trifles dangerously with the contemporary, late Augustan issues of dynastic power struggles and restricted freedom of speech, adducing from Fasti 6 Ovid's chilling version of the story of Servius Tullius' daughter Tullia's usurpation of regal power. ;i

Weinstoek (1971) 190,

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FIG. 1, Plan of the Forum Augusti and the temple of Mars Ultor (after Degrasn in V, Zanker, Forum Augustum (Tubingen, 1968)}

The duality recurrent in Roman mythology and political institutions4 is prominently expounded in the perspicuous iconography of the temple of Mars Ultor and the surrounding Forum Augusti, which express, with clarity and unequivocal symbolism, the Augustan mission statement personified by Rome's dual descent from Venus and Mars.3 Rome's dual foundation legend is didactically reiterated, first in the cello, '* On the dnal organization of Roman institutions see especially Bremmer and. Horsfali (1987) 34-6, Dumezil (1!)70) 260-3, Wiseman (il»9S) discusses divine twins in detail as well as Roman duality in various aspects, offering an excellent bibliography. Alfoldt (11)74) discusses the widespread Eurasian twin stories as well as the importance of the two bands of Luperci in connection with the dual founder legend. See also Cornell (1975). 3 Zanker (1987) 110-14 aptly contrasts the lucidity of the Augustan icouogtaphic message with the exuberant and erudite mythology of the Hellenistic Altar of Perganium,

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where Mars, divine father of Romulus and Remus, stands between Venus, ancestress of the Julian line, and her descendant Divus Julius. On the pediment, Mars is grouped with Venus and Forfuna while Romulus and Roma occupy the outer spaces. Below, in the Forum Augusts, the temple is flanked by two lines of summi mri, each dominated by a larger statue set in an apse. On the side of the Julii is Venus' son, Aeneas, supporting his household gods, his aged father, and his young son, as token of his pietas. In the centre of the opposite apse is Mars' son, Romulus, Ms martial valour represented by his spolia opimaf The statues of the summi viri, ranged around the Forum Augusti, like imagines around a Roman atrium,7 testified to the survival and continuity of the Roman race through loyal service to the Roman state, respect for Roman values, and, above all, the devotion to their gods which had ensured, their superiority over other races.8 In a perceptive analysis of the role of cult in the political science behind Augustus' propaganda, Gunter Gottlieb makes the point that consensus/concordia, pax and pietas, arguably the most important components of Augustus' post-civil war ideology,9 were 'preconditions for Rome's greatness', symbolically condensed in, the practice of Roman state cult. The concordia of the political community was strengthened by Augustus' integration of pietas into Roman politics. Whilst the populace could be emotionally and patriotically stirred by the awe-inspiring spectacle of ceremonial and sacrifice1" led by the emperor, the b These two statues arc estimated to he twice the size of the other xummi niri See Kockel {1983} 421-H. ' Flower (195)6) 226 describes the Forum Augusti as 'the public atrium of thejulii'. 8 Livy (5. 51. 5} neatly sums up in the words of M, Furius Camillus this essential Augustan ideological belief: Hnvenietis omnia prospera evenisse sequentibus deo.s, adversos spementibus' ('You will discover that success attends men who honour the gods, hut quite the reverse if they reject them'}. See too Virg. Am. 838-40. 9 Gottlieb (1998) 27. '" The act of sacrifice, of slaughtering a. noble ox in public, was in itself awe-inspiring. The dramatic impact of successful sacrifice1 of strong and healthy oxen is underlined by Virgil's description of the gloom engendered by the spectacle of diseased or puny sacrificial victims (Virg. Georg, 3. 486-93). Eisner (195)1) 50-61 discusses the ititvrpenetration of Augustan religion and politics, and highlights the dual ancestry depicted on the Ara Pads, Scenes of sacrifice are in the forefront on Augustan monuments. See also Hor. Car/a. Saec. 47-51. It is noteworthy that Numa in the Fasti sacrifices meticulously before making a request of divine powers,

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senatorial elite had their own particular role, since it was they who held the priesthoods, seeking places in the priestly colleges as emulously as they canvassed for public office." In this way the whole apparatus of Roman religion was closely integrated into the Roman political system. Among the summi viriof the Foram Augusti, we may assume that Numa's role was to furnish an exemplum of a Roman priest-king and lawgiver, his royalty mitigated by his remote antiquity within Rome's quasi-mythological past In Anchises' pageant of heroes Numa receives a longer description than any other Roman king (Vug. Aen. 6. 808-12) : H Quis procul ille autem ramis insignis olivae Sacra ferens? Nosco crinis incanaque menta Regis Romani primam qui legibus urbem Fundabit, Curibus parvis el paupere terra Missus in imperiuni magnum. Who is the man over there, crowned with olive, carrying sacred emblems? I recognize the white hair of that Roman king who endowed our early city with laws, summoned to mighty empire from the humble land of insignificant Cures.

This is the Augustan iconographic portrait of the white-haired Numa, leading his people, Moses-like, in the paths of religion and law. The factual substance of this is elaborated by Livy, whose Numa, as founder of Roman religious cult, belongs among the great alteri conditores of Rome who, after Romulus' foundation of the city, had advanced Roman civic life by some significant contribution.13 If Aeneas provided an iconographic prototype of pietas in the Julian family, Numa, on the other " Beard (1989). 12 Austin (1977) gives several references to olive branches being used as a sign of priesthood and observes thai Virgil's words "legibus urbem fundabit* are appropriated by the character of Augustas hi Senecs's Apf}cg.locjntosi^ 10. Nurna's institution of law in early Rome was part of the Augustan iconography of Rome's second king: Ovid, Fasti 3. 278-9. ^ Other fditfi conditoTas are Servius Tullliis, who ordered the first census and divided the people into orders (^conditoreni ornnis in civitate discriniinis et ordiiiuin', Livy 1. 42. 4), L. Brutus, who. through his part in the expulsion of the Tarquin dynasty, was considered the founder of Roman liberty ('couditorein Romaiiae libertatis", Livy 8, 34. 3), and Appius Claudius, who codified Roman law for the first time ('conditorem Romani iuris', Livv 3. 58. 2).

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hand, furnished the earliest possible example of an indigenous lawgiver and founder of Roman cult. Born, according to tradition,14 on the very day of Rome's foundation, Numa, inspired by Egeria, a numenofihe early Roman landscape, represents the very source of religion on the site of Rome, Belief in the sanctity of cult within their sacred city, founded augusto augurio, was the essence of M. Furius Camillus' ringing appeal at the end of Livy's first pentad, where he urges the Romans not to migrate from Rome to Veii.15 His success in preventing this move constitutes the first part of the elogium which was inscribed below his statue in the Forum August!.16 Behind Livy's wording of Camillus' speech lay a recent contemporary danger, for the Battle of Actium had been a proud vindication not only of Augustus' defeat of Antony and Cleopatra but of Augustus' removal of any threat of dilution, if not extinction., of Roman religion among the monstrous gods of Egypt had the capital been moved from Rome to Alexandria.1' Considered in this context, Numa's role as founder of Roman cult on the site of Rome had especial importance, paving the way for both Camillus, 'diligentissimus religionum cultor',18 and Augustus himself, 'templorum omnium restitutorern ac conditorem',19 In the Fasti Ovid associates with both Numa and Augustus two sacred institutions, Vesta's hearth and the ancilia, which Camillus in his peroration selects as Rome's most sacred cult objects (Livy 5. 54. 7): hie Vestae ignes, hie ancilia demissa, hie atones prupitii manentibus vobis di. So long as you remain here (in Rome), Vesta's flame, the heaven-sent shields and every Roman god will protect you.

As Numa's palace had sheltered the Vestal flame,20 so too Augustus, on becoming Pontifex Maximus and Vesta's priest, 14

Plut Numa f>. '•' Livy 5. 52. 2: 'Nullus locus in ca non religionum deorurnque est plenus. Sacrifidis solemnibus uon dies magis stati quam loca sunt in quibus iiant' ('There is no part of Rome which is not permeated with the presence of our gods. Not only the days hut even the precise places are designated for the performance of our sacred rites'). * The full text of Camillus' flogiutn is conjectured from fragments in Degra-ssi (1963) 38-i), no, 61. '' This contemporary danger is discussed in Ceausescu (1976). 18 w m Livy 5, 50, 1, Livy 4. '20. 7. Ovid, Fasti 6. 2,58-60,

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transferred Vesta's shrine to his Palatine residence. As Augustus penetrated the cult of Vesta, so too he associated himself with the cult of the ancilia. When the Salii danced, chanting a hymn reputedly composed by Numa himself, they included the name of Augustas. Fasti 3, consecrated to Mars, presented Ovid with a generic dilemma in the essential problem of an elegiac poet writing about the god of war. Ovid solved this by seeking out, within the exigencies of the Roman calendar, festivals and aitia in March which might be given an unmartial slant and celebrating those exploits which feature the war god inermis,23 such as Mars' liaison with Silvia and his sudden passion for Minerva on the feast of Anna Perenna. This piquant approach is instantly apparent in the programmatic opening invocation where Mars is urged to lay down his weapons and remove his helmet.23 The founder of the priesthood of the Salii, Numa, answers perfectly to the generic contingency, for he is above all a peace-loving (placidusj and god-fearing king in whose reign the newly founded temple of Janus reputedly remained closed24 and whose god-given shield, the andle, was an instrument of worship, not of war. The emotive style of elegy is also evident in Ovid's engaging portrait of a younger Numa, a vigorous and resourceful ruler whose wit, nerve, and courage do not fail him when he is confronted even by Jupiter himself. Near the beginning of the Numa story there would seem to be a clear indication of Ovid's allegiance to Callimachus. Describing the Arician lake and grove, Ovid claims that he has himself drunk from the spring of Egeria, 'but in small sips' (*sed exiguis haustibus*, 274). Exiguus occurs elsewhere in the Fasti in the literary and specifically Callimachean sense of slender and delicate, as opposed to epic bombast.-5 We are immediately faced with the problem that Egeria's stream ('rivus') is no •' Vesta's cult was given especial prominence and sanctity by Augustus on account of Vesta's Trojan origins, on which see Herbert-Brown (191)4-) Mi—80. The Augustus— Numa link is reinforced by Nutria's foundation of the cult of Vesta (Plut. Numa 10; Dion. Hal. 2. 67. I; Featus 468 L; Cell. \. 12. 10). "' Hinds (1992) 90 points out that 'all the narrative characteristics of elegy are deployed to mitigate the suggestively upic anna which the mouth of March produces: elegiac rejection of war, elegiac love... 0ven elegiac lament1 23 24 Ovid, Fasti a. 1-2. Livy I. 19. 4; Plut. Num. 20. 2. 25 e.g. Fasli'L 4; 6. 22,

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thundering epic river. It is, however, 'lapidosus' and tumbles along 'ineerto murmure' through a dark grove surrounding a lake of ancient sanctity. If, led on by the literary connotations of 'exiguus' we were to cast about for a literary source for Ovid's inspiration, we would find a craggy candidate among the fragments of Ennius (Ann., ft. 113 Sk,): Olli respondit suavis sonus Egeriai, The melodious voice of Egeria answered him.

If 'Egeriai' were not proof enough that 'ollf refers to Numa, fr. 144 contains a reference to the ancilia which suggests that Ennius may have provided Ovid with a prototype of this story.26 As symbols of war the ancilia belong to the cult of Mars and, as cult objects, they are properly entrusted to Numa in his capacity as priest-king. Ovid's story of Numa and the ancilia, with its emphasis on numinous Roman groves, rustic Roman deities, the awesome epiphany of Jupiter, and the piety and courage of King Numa, would seem to focus on the aetiology of ritual in Mars-worship, which would be in keeping with Ovid's treatment of Fasti 3. However, the presence of Mars Ultor himself is evoked by an unexpected but unmistakable intertext The first half of the Salii passage, I would suggest, is modelled upon the first half of the extended epyllion with which Virgil closes his fourth Georgic. Thus, in a passage dealing with the most sacred emblem of the worship of Mars, our thoughts are focused, by way of the destruction and subsequent regeneration of Aristaeus' bees, on the restoration of peace and the restitution of Roman religion and values after the Battle of Actium ended the destructive years of civil war.27 An early clue that Ovid's Salii passage consciously reflects the elaborate ending of Georgic 4 is the metrical ~s> I fun indebted to Stephen Harrison of Corpus Chrisii College^ Oxford for this idea, which has clear affinities with the now well-known Virgilian intertext *itur in antiquain gilvam' explored by Hinds (1998) 10-14. 27 The moral and politic**! significance of tht1 ending of GVor^tt" 4 is discussed by Wilkinson (1969) 182; Griffin (1979); Miles (1980) 291-4; Habinek (1990) 21118; Thomas (1991); Farreli (1991} 328-9; and Morgan (1999) 1, who goes so far as to describe the Aristaeus episode as 'a thorough-going exercise in Octavia,nic propaganda*.

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correspondence of Ovid's opening appeal for aetiological guidance, 'quis mihi mine dicet' with Virgil's sonorous 'quis deus hanc, Musae'? (Georg, 4, 315). Invoked in her capacity as 'coniunx Numae', Egeria is elevated by Ovid's elaborate formal ekphrasis of her haunt in the valley of Aricia, where she presides over a murmuring brook which runs through a sombre and mysterious grove, fringing a pool of ancient sanctity.28 The grove's association with the mutilated Hippolytus and the priest-king of the Golden Bough inspires a sense of dread. The essentially Roman features of this numinous retreat deep in the countryside of Latium accentuate the religiosity of the context. This is sharply contrasted with Virgil's grandiloquent Homeric description of the grandeur of Gyrene's underwater palace and the opulence of her banquet. Ovid's King Numa and Virgil's Aristaeus, faced with portents of divine displeasure, both have recourse to divine intermediaries with whom they have intimate connections. Aristaeus' mother, Cyrene, and Numa's 'coniunx consiliumque', Egeria, are both water nymphs. If Ross is correct in his interpretation of Cyrene as symbolic of water as a life principle, the same criterion might equally be extended to Egeria.29 It is clear that Aristaeus' self-indulgent complaints are based on Achilles' two appeals to Thetis.30 Achilles laments first the injustice of Agamemnon and, secondly, the death of Patroclus; Aristaeus, on the other hand, bitterly complains about the unfairness of his deprivation in the death of his bees. Gyrene's response and her reception of Aristaeus in her watery palace exude the theatricality of heroic epic. The opulence and refinement described in his Virgilian model serve to accentuate the primitive severity of Ovid's image of early Latium, where, it appeal's, the martial aggression of Romulus' day has been replaced by fear of the law and the gods, and Numa's Romans pour libations and place offerings of grain and salt on their altars. The words Ovid uses to describe their former 'M On the relationship between ekphrasis and narrative see Fowler (1991). '"' Ross (1987) 220-1 sees Cyrene as an appeal to the principle of life inherent in water. J " Horn. //, I. 357-63 and 18. 35-137, The correspondences between Homer's and Virgil's versions are discussed by Parrel! (1991) 104-13,

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state belong to descriptions of savage tribesmen worthy only of conquest by Roman armies.31 Like Aristaeus, Numa is faced with preternatural disaster, in his case in the form of an unremitting rain of thunderbolts which unite king and people in awe and dread: 'rex pavet et volgi pectora terror habef (288), From Egeria Numa receives prompt reassurance (289-90): ne nimium terrere; piabile fulmen | est. Don't worry; there's a rite of atonement for lightning.

It is practical 'professional' advice for the priest-king who simply needs to know whether there exists a rite of expiation for dispelling lightning. This contrasts sharply with Proteus' menacing warning to the guilty Aristaeus (Virg. Georg. 4. 453): non te Tiullnis exereent, numinis irae. Divine wrath pursues you.

Whilst their styles differ entirely, Gyrene's grandiose and Egeria's almost laconic, the two water nymphs have the same advice to offer as the first step in the 'ritus piandi*. A seer must be sought out in a remote retreat, caught and firmly bound32 in order that he may be forced to give up his secret knowledge. Since both Faunus and Picus are rural numina who have claims to prophetic arts in Latin literature, they offer a Roman counterpart to the Homeric seer Proteus.33 Once again Ovid exchanges Virgil's Homeric description of Proteus coming to land, surrounded by Ms fantastic flock of boisterous seals, and his metamorphosis into fire, water, and monstrous beasts for another Roman locus religiosus,3* this time a shadow}' grove •!1 Fasti 3, 281-3: 'exuitur feritas, arrnisque potentius aequum est.,. atque aliquis, modo trux, visa iam vertitur ara' ('They gave up their wild ways; justice became more potent than brute force and the former savages now observed religious ritual'). Cf. Veil. 2. 95. 2, 'geotes... feritate truces'. Such a description of Romulus' followers hardly fits Ovid's description of Romulus' meticulous observance of the proper rites of foundation in Fasti 4. 819-46, "'- Fasti 'A. 293. Mynors {1990), in his edition of Virgil's Georgia, comments on line 396 that in this passage Virgil mentions 'vincula' five times and 'vis' twice. •H Both Faunus and Picus belong within the lineage of King Latinus: Picus, father of Faunus, is grandfather of Latinus. Picus is associated as a woodpecker with the cult of Mars and is depicted with the 'litaus' and 'trabea* of Romulus Quirinus in Virg. Aat, 7, 187. See too Ovid, Met. U. 320, "l!<1 On the relationship between ekphrasis aud narrative see Fowler (1991).

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of oak below the Aventine. Since Numa desires a favourable response from Faunus and Picus, he first sacrifices a sheep beside the spring where the woodland deities come to drink, before setting out for them goblets of wine. The nearby cave, where Numa decides to await the rustic deities, recalls not only the 'specus ingens' where Proteus is forced to give up his secrets in Georgic 4, but also, in Eclogue 6, the cave where Silenus, enjoying an inebriated snooze, is found and bound by the country rustics who intend to compel him to sing for them. Whilst Virgil's 'iuvenum confidentissirnus' rushes upon the old man with a battle-cry and offers neither explanation nor apology, the canny king, in contrast, waits until Faunus and Picus have fallen into a wine-drugged sleep whereupon he quietly manacles them both, begs forgiveness for his temerity, and comes straight to the point (Fasti 3. 311): Qpoque modo possit fulrncn, rnonstrale, piari! Show me by which rite lightning may be expiated!

Ovid's Numa is in possession both of the seer's cave and of the situation. When Faunus replies, tossing his horns ('quatiens cornua', 312), Ovid humorously echoes the Virgilian Proteus' extravagant gnashing of teeth and the aquamarine glitter in his eye, which evoke mythological epic as much as the heroic periphrasis (Georg. 4. 452): sic fatis ora resolvit. Thus he surrendered his voice to Fate.

Before embarking upon his own story, Ovid offers a final clear signpost to his Virgilian model in the words which open Faunus' first hexameter: 'magna petis' (3. 313) clearly reflects Proteus' 'magna luis' (Virg. Georg, 4. 454). Because Numa protects his primitive kingdom by scrupulously obeying the will of the gods, we can see in Ovid's use of the Aristaeus intertext an allusion to the regeneration of Roman society through Augustus' restoration of Roman religion after the Battle of Actium. Nevertheless, from a literary point of view there would have been little to be gained for a poet of Ovid's stature in adapting such a memorable Virgilian text, unless Ovid could himself fashion it into something novel and interesting. Closer examination suggests that

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this takes the form of a web of allusion to Augustan iconography depending on the motif of the divinely transmitted shield. The complexity of allusion enhances Ovid's celebration of the achievements of Numa. The year 29 BC, when Virgil completed the Georgics and first read it to Octavian, saw the closing of the temple of Janus in January and Octavian's triple triumph on 13-15 August. During the period 28-27 BC Octavian became Augustus, his new title was inserted into the hymn of the priests of Mars, the Salii,35 and he received from the Senate a golden shield inscribed with his personal virtues (virtus, dementia, iustitia, and pietas).36 The Salii are, then, associated with the immediate post-Actiurn period. As the temple of Janus was closed in peacetime and opened to signify war, so too the ritual of the dance of the Salii was performed in March and October to mark the beginning and end of the military year. Both the temple of Janus and the rites of the Salii were instituted by Numa,37 the latter to consecrate to Mars-worship the archaic shield wafted to earth by Jupiter himself. The legend of the shields which fell from the sky, 'lapsa ancilia caelo', is prophetically depicted on another Augustan icon, the shield of Aeneas. Its prototype, the shield of Achilles, the god Hephaestus crafted with pictures describing the cycle of human life, whilst the images on Aeneas' shield represent the world of Rome.38 As the Homeric shield shows a city at war and a city at peace, Virgil's shield shows Augustus at the Battle of Actium and Augustus at his subsequent triumph, vowing to restore Roman temples. These two images, reflecting the dual legacy of Romulus, son of Mars, and Aeneas, son of Venus,39 are evident on Augustus' Clupeus Virtuiis where virtus clearly refers to Augustus' military valour and pietas to his restoration of temples as well as to his piety in avenging his adoptive father's murder. Given by the gods, the shield of Aeneas and the ancile of the Salii have a common aim; to aid Venus' and Mars' progeny in their imperial mission. They are 35

3tl S7 Aug. RG 10. J. Aug. RG'M, 2. Livy I. 19. 2; I. 20. 4. An analysis of the cosmic significance of the shield of Aeneas in relation to that of its Homeric antecedent is found in Hurdle (1986) 336-76. A useful exegesis of Aeneas' shield in relation to Roman monuments is McKay (1998), 39 Virgil, Am. 8. 714-16, 38

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instruments of Rome's destiny: imperil pignora, Venus gives Aeneas his shield with words that imply it will ensure that he conquers Turnus in battle (Virg, Aen. 8. 613-14): Ne raox aut Laurentis, nate, superbos Aut acrem dubites in proelia poscere Tiirnum. So that in future, my son, you may not fear to challenge either the haughty Laurentines or fierce Turnus.

Jupiter gives Numa the ancile as a promise of the power which Rome will later enjoy: 'iniperii pignora certa' (Fasti 3. 346). Finally, in the very last line ofAentidS, when Aeneas shoulders his shield, there is a fleeting but unmistakable recollection of the hero supporting his father and household gods (Virg. Aen. 8. 731): Attollens umero famamque et fata nepotum. Shouldering the glorious destiny of his descendants.

Ovid's description of Numa picking up the ancile echoes this in the assonance of the first two words, while the rest of the line points to Numa's iconographic role as priest-king (Fasti3.375): Tollit humo muniis caesa prius ille iuvenca. He picked up his gift, after having first sacrificed a heifer.

In Georgic4 Virgil's Homeric description of Gyrene's response to her son's plea recalls Achilles' two appeals to Thetis and her gift of divinely crafted armour. This allusion, in turn, is evoked in its Virgilian counterpart in Aeneid 8 where Venus brings a gift of armour to Aeneas, including the shield with its prophetic pictures.40 It is clearly the shield which furnishes the vital link between the Aristaeus episode and Ovid's story of Numa and the ancile. Both shields are 'pledges of empire' and as such they belong to the iconography of Rome's divine mission. While Aeneas' shield will physically protect him in battle, Numa's, consecrated to the worship of the war god, contributes to the bulwark of Roman religion which 'shields' 40 Hardie {1986) 336-76, succinctly describes it as "a blend of cosmic allegory and political ideology*, Harrison (11W) 70-6 emphasizes the importance of the themes of Rome's divinely ordained destiny arid survival in the* face of seemingly insuperable dangers.

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the Romans as chosen people because of their dutiful regard for religious observance. By using this particular Virgilian intertext, linked with the post-Actium years, as an integral part of his story of Numa, Ovid has included Augustus, too, in the tradition of great Roman shield-bearers. Up to this point Numa mirrors Augustus in the years immediately following Actium, shielding his people by instituting a restoration of temples and a revival of Roman religion.41 At the moment where Proteus and Faunus begin to speak, Ovid abandons his Virgilian intertext. It has served its purpose. In the second half of the Salii passage Ovid brings into play, instead, the sensitive issue of speech in the Fasti, what may be said and what must be left unsaid.42 At this point with an elusiveness and ambiguity that is characteristic of the Fasti, Ovid seems to alter his subtext so that not Numa, but Jupiter himself now appears to take on the features and power of Augustus, whilst Numa engages our sympathies as a Roman of accomplished verbal dexterity adroitly talking his way out of trouble. Since Numa's role in Roman legend is that of the cult founder and priest-king, meticulously observant of correct form in Roman religious ritual, Ovid highlights the theme by showing how Numa's immediate problem is circumscribed by the strictures of Roman religion governing what might be said (fas) and what might not (nefas). Numa wishes to perform an act of atonement. It is not fas for diagrestessueh. as Faunus and Picus to describe the ritual of expiation themselves. Jupiter alone can do that. Although Faunus and Picus are prophetic deities,4" their powers are limited to their own sphere of influence; they do know the light spells to lure Jupiter down to earth,44 but it '" Eisner (1,991) appositely quotes Gordon (1990) 207, who claims that religion is 'a naked instrument of ideologic*! domination'. 42 This is discussed by Feeney (19i>2), 43 King Latinus consults Faunus' oracle in Virg. An, 7, 81. This is the model for Numa's visit to Faunus* oradc, a short passage giving the aetiology of the Fordiddia {Ftuti4, 641-76'): Numa, seeking divine counsel for infertile fields and barren animals, receives an ambiguous response from Faunus. When Egeria solves the riddle, Numa sacrifices a pregnant cow and its foetus and normality returns to the forms. 44 The cult of Jupiter Elieius on the Aventine was believed to have been founded by Nnroa for the express purpose of clarifying religious observance including that of averting lightning (Livy I. 20, 7). Ogilvie (1965) comments that Livy's source for the

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is not permitted for them to reveal them: 'scire nefas homini' (Fasti 3. 325). At this point in the story Ovid appends a rather extended protestation that he will only say what is permitted, which has an autobiographical ring discernible elsewhere in theFarti(3.325-6}:« Nobis concessa canentur Quaeque pio did vatis ab ore licet I will relate what is permissible and what a law-abiding poet is allowed to say.

As Ovid is here directly concerned with matters fas and nefas, he is touching on the question of the emperor's increasing control over freedom of speech in the last decade of Augustus' life when the Fasti was being written.4" Whilst it is inconceivable, from the point of view of Ovid's self-interest, that any direct allegory lies behind such stories as the forcible silencing and rape of Lara and Lucretia,47 their nightmarish inability to cry out heightens the drama and sends out a strong message of the impotence of being denied the right to speak in one's defence. The words of Tarquin to Lucretia, Tarquinius loquor',*8 carry an unmistakable warning: 'I speak. I command.' With this in mind we should consider the interchange between Jupiter and Numa in the context of a terrifying battle of wits and words in which a Roman life hangs in the balance. When Jupiter appears, the treetops shiver and the ground lurches. Sheet-white, with, heart thumping and hair stiff with terror, Numa nevertheless stands his ground, observing an immaculate formula of address. But Jupiter disobligingly obscures his message in riddles ('ambage remota', 337). The contest seems unfair, but Numa with enviable aplomb successfully fences Jupiter's demand for a human sacrifice,

cult ofjupiter Elicius was Valerias Antias (fr. 6 P), who uses the Proteus story in Homer as his model. *'' Autobiographical references to Ovid's own exile Include I. 54-0; 4. 81—4; (i. 666. •'" On this see Synie (1978) 20.5-14 and Feeney (1992). 47 48 Fasti 2. 608-16, 777-812. Fasli 2. 796.

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manipulating the dialogue with rapier-like repartee (Fasti 3. 339-42):« Jupiter: Numa: Jupiter; Numa: Jupiter: Numa:

Cut off the head... I'll cut... an onion! A man's.,, Hair! The life,.. Of a fish!

Caede capttt... Caedenda est... cepaf Hominis... Capillos! Animant... Pads!

Numa's wit and self-mastery have paid off, Jupiter laughs ('risk', 343) and applauds the nerve of a man who is not to be deflected from dispute with a god: 'o vir conloquio non abigende deum* (3. 344). Numa correctly diagnoses the recurrent lightning bolts as an indication of divine displeasure. Bearing in mind the multilayered significance of the Virgilian intertext in, the first part of the Salii passage and the ubiquitous dynastic undertones of the Fasti, we cannot ignore the connection between Jupiter's thunderbolts and imperial displeasure*' which runs like a leitmotif through Ovid's Tristia." Augustus'divine power is plainly stated by Ovid in his very next entry, the anniversary of Augustus becoming Pontifex Maximus on 6 March 12 BC (Fasti 3. 421): ignibus aeternis aeterni numina praesunt. An eternal god guards the eternal flame.

We must now return to Numa and the outcome of his confrontation with Jupiter, Jupiter has promised that his reward, 'imperil pignora cerfa', will appear at the very moment when 4J In his verbal acuity no less than his meticulous attention to Roman cult and calendar Numa, indeed, seems to be, as Hinds (1992) 129 suggests, Ovid's 'own ideological prototype'. 3s ' The association of Augustus with fupiter Tona.ns dated back to Augustas' fortuitous escape1 from a lightning boil which killed several slaves (Suet Aug. 29. 3), Interpreting this as a sign of his persona! connection with the Thunderer, he founded a small but richly adorned marble temple to Jupiter Tonans not far from two other shrines close to his heart, the temple of Jupiter Feretrius and the round shrine to Mars Ultor. Zanker (1987) 64 shows the identification luppiter Tonans—Augustus on a coin of 31 nc. •'*' Barchiesi (1!)94) 25 finds no fewer than 30 occurrences of this particular imagery in the JHstitt,

FIG, 2. Aeneas veiled for sacrifice, Ara Fads Atigusti, Rome (photographer Singer)

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the morning sun clears the horizon. An atmosphere of antique Roman piety is evoked in the archaic picture of the king seated on. his maple throne outside his palace in the dewy dawn surrounded by his anxious people. The obtuse disbelief of these untutored Romans ('tarda.. .difficilisque fides', 350} may allude to the tradition that Numa founded a temple to Dius Fidius.52 The picture of Numa at prayer, with head correctly veiled and hands upraised, resembles both the image of Aeneas on the Ara Pacis and images of Augustus himself, veiled before sacrifice. This is the prescribed attitude for communication with the gods and nicely prefigures Ovid's next entry, the anniversary of Augustus becoming Pontifex Maximus.53 At last triple thunder rumbles and lightning flashes across a cloudless sky, the heavens yawn open allowing the ancile to waft gently down. A shout goes up from the waiting crowd. It is a formulaic miracle sequence which recurs in Ovid's Fasti,54 'Memor imperil', Numa's immediate concern is to protect the original ancile by concealing it among multiple copies. When the craftsman, Mamurius, accomplishes this task so well that the original shield becomes indistinguishable from the eleven facsimiles, Numa offers him any reward he cares to choose. Since he is a man whose moral rectitude matches his craftsmanship/* Mamurius replies simply that he wants his name always to be chanted at the end of Numa's newly composed hymn of the Salii;-56 Augustus, like Mamurius, it

•a Livy 1. 21. *; Dion. Hal. 2. 7,5. 3; Pint Numa 16. 1; Floras 1. 2. 3. Dius Fidius, it seems, was an old god who watched over the keeping of oaths, s * This was an honour that Augustus particularly valued, judging from his claim that his election was supported by a large number of voters streaming into Rome from all Italy: 'cuncta ex Italia ad cornitia niea confluente multitudine quanta Romae numquam fertur ante id tetnpus fuisse', RG 10. 2. ;4 ' Fasti 3. 369-74. The same sequence is repeated at the Megalensia in 4. 321-8, where Claudia Quinta prays to Cybele for vindication of her chastity aud immediately succeeds in dislodging Cyhele's ship, stranded on a shoal, with a gentle tug, at which a joyful shout goes up from the bystanders, M Fasti 3. 383-4: 'Mamurius—morum fabraeoe exactior artis difficile est ulli dicere' ('Mamurius! It's hard to say whether he was more scrupulous as a man or as a, smith'}. J(> Varro offers the more realistic explanation that the words 'Mainuri Veturi' are a corruption of 'niemorem veterem'. Varro, LL 6. 49: 'Salii quod cantant Mamuri Veturi significant veterem tnemoriam.' This accords with the theory of Duniezii (1947)

1 if,, ,5. Sldtuc o! Augustus wall) head fointalK veiled Cor religious ritual, 'If rail Museum, Rome (photoglapher Koppeimannj

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should be recalled, took immense pride in his inclusion in the Salian hymn/' In this extended Numa passage Ovid has included some reference to most of the cults associated with Numa which are mentioned by Livy; the reform of the calendar, the Salii, Jupiter Elicius, and Dius Fidius.-58 Numa is also remembered on the Vestalia for having, like Augustus, received Vesta's flame into his own palace (Fasti 6, 257-60): Dena quarter rnemorant habuisse Parilia Romam, Cum flammae custos aede recepta dea est, Regis opus placidi, quo non metuentius ullum Numinis ingenium terra Sabina tulit. They say Rome hacl celebrated the Parilia forty limes when the goddess, guardian of the flame, was received irtlo her temple. This service was performed by the peace-loving king, whose god-fearing character surpassed all others from the Sabine land,

Numa's reception of the Vestal hearth is described as 'the service of the peace-loving king' ('regis opus placidi'), a description which is applied to Augustus earlier in Fasti 6, where Ovid describes the beneficent effects of Concordia as 'the very spirit and duty of the peace-loving ruler' ('placidi numen opusque duds', Fasti 6. 92). Concordia was necessarily much celebrated in Augustan ideology, particularly through the years of dynastic power straggles which followed the naming of Tiberius as Augustus' successor in AD 4. Ovid's references to Concordia generally chime in with Livia's initiatives to celebrate the imperial marriage and family unity.59 239-46, that the 12 ancilia and the 12 Salii, whose hymn begins with an invocation to Janus, are connected with the cycle of the year. Although Numa's reform of the calendar made March the third month instead of the first we should recall that both Mamurius Vettiriias and Anna Perenoa, both of whose names ma,v allude to the cyclic passing oi time, art1 mentioned hi this month. Bonier (1958) 161 recalls a later antique tradition where Matnurius, as an old man dressed in a, sheepskin, was driven out in springtime as the spirit of the old year, "" Aug. RG 10. 1: 'nomen meuin senatus coosulto irtclusum est in saliare carmen'. 58 Livy 1. 20. 4; 1. 21. 1; \. 21. 4. The temple of fanus is mentioned in Livy I. 19. 6-7 and Numa's foundation of the priesthoods, which included the Vestals, in Livy 1. sg 20, S. Especially relevant is Flory (1984) 309-30,

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The word 'placidus' is characteristically used of gods (propitious), of winds (favouring), and of weather (clement). Accordingly it is no surprise to find Ovid wishfully applying it to both Germanicus (1. 17) and Augustus (2. 17) in his respective dedications of the first and second books of the Fasti. He uses it again of Augustus in two pleading letters from Tomis.w 'Placidus' would seem to denote a kindly and affable generosity of spirit which would, at this period, have been considered an appropriate demeanour for a ruler.61 The meaning of 'placidus' would seem to have a sharper edge in the Concordia passage (Fasti 6. 92). The context is the naming of Mensis lulius. Following the personal claim of Juno and Hebe on behalf of the 'iuniores', Concordia, defined as the very spirit of Augustus ('placidi numen opusque duels'), associates lunius with joining ('iunctis') the two kingdoms of Sabine Tatius and Roman Romulus so that sons and fathers-in-law might share a common home: *lare communi soceros generosque receptos' (fasti 6. 95), On its own this would not be particularly significant but when the expression 'placidi ducis* resurfaces later in Fasti 6 in the context of a 'gentle ruler's' death as a result of gener/socer conflict, I think we should consider the subtext more carefully.62 The 'gentle ruler' in question, is King Servius Tullius, whose death is caused by his impious daughter, Tullia. After murdering her husband and her sister, she goads her new husband/former brother-in-law into usurping her father's throne, making the shocking claim that crime is a royal prerogative: 'regia res scelus est' (595). Dysfunctional family relationships (i(l Ovid, Pont. \. 2. 103: 'Placido iudice'; Pont. 2, 2. 1.15-16: 'sed placidus facilisque pares veniaeque paratus | el qui fulmiiieo saepe sine igne tonat'. ''' A useful paper on imperial condescension in the early Empire is Wallace-HadriD (1982) 32-48, See also Wallace-HadriH (1981). '*- In recent studies Barchiesi (1994) 228-9 focuses on the veil which in screening Scrviua Tullius from his lover Fortuoa puts him in the role of a 'representative of transgression' but in shielding him from his unnatural daughter 3.? "an arbiter of morality", Herbert-Brown (11W4-) 14S-5C focuses on the contrast belween Tullia, in her role as sower of familial discord, a.nd the virtuous Livia, whose shrine to Concwditi is celebrated in the directly subsequent passage, suggesting that Augustus* daughter may have been regarded 'as potentially analogous to Tullia*. Finally, Newlands {1995} 222-3, highlighting the Impiety of father/daughter, gmer/socerxiiite, relates the uneasiness of Fasti 6 to the contemporary 'troublesome web of family relations and political allegiance*.

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here abound. Besides the recurrent Roman abuse of the socer— gener bond, Tullia herself, vowing to stain her hands with her father's blood, drives her chariot wheels over the very visage of her murdered father. Since Tullia is a Roman girl, her impiety cannot be blamed on Etruscan arrogantia or, like the treachery of Propertius' Tarpeia, on the madness of love. Her crimes are, of course, excessive in comparison with the contemporary power struggles among the Julians and Claudians, nevertheless there is an ominous note in the couplet where the statue of Servius Tullius demands that his face be veiled so that he may never set eyes on his daughter again (6. 615-16): voltus abscondite nostros, ne natae videant ora nefanda meae! Cover tny gaze so that I may not see the unspeakable face of my daughter!

At a time when two Julian princesses had so recently been banished from the sight of their imperial father/grandfather, it is hard to read this story without suspecting some allusion to the dynastic tensions in Augustus' feuding family, particularly as Ovid diverges from Livy's version of this story in making Tullia the instigator of the palace plot. Numa stands out as the most sympathetic character in Ovid's Fasti, an exemplary Augustan icon of a wise ruler and scrupulous priest to set among the summi viri of the Forum August! By using the Virgilian intertext, the Aristaeus episode, Ovid elevates and enriches the symbolism of three Roman shields: Venus' gift to Aeneas, the entile of Nurna, and the Clupeus Virtutis of Augustus. Through its associations with the postActium period, this intertext enhances the status of Numa as conditor of Roman religion. He is clearly seen as the precursor of Augustus, as he is, by implication, of Livy's heroic alter conditor, M. Furius Camillus, both of whom upheld the belief in Rome as a sacred site. But, Ovid's complex use of intertext and multi-faceted allusions, no less than his tantalizing shifts of mood,63 make it difficult at times to gauge his position. The sharp wit Numa displays in his confrontation with Jupiter gives him the sagacity of a folk hero, but one whose hi

See esp. Hinds (1992) 148, who appositely concludes 'Ovid's Fasti has the potential to be a, very unsettling poem*.

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Odyssean guile is tempered by his straightforward loyalty to his subjects. When Numa, by his skilful manipulation of words, extricates himself from offering a human life to placate Jupiter Tonans, the adumbration of imperial displeasure suggests an ambiguous recasting of the clever king. To compare Numa's predicament with that of the exile of Tomis, however, would presuppose a more extensive post-exilic revision of the Fasti than is generally allowed, despite autobiographical hints in this passage (3. 325-6), Finally, unsettling analogies lurk insidiously in the unfortunate tale of Servius Tullius and his impious daughter. Through the appellation 'placidus', Ovid has, seemingly, associated Augustus with both Numa and Servius Tullius, so that the priestly guardian of Vesta's hearth and the champion of Concordia might also appear to be associated with a daughter's treachery, a degree of innuendo which seems dangerously incompatible with the diminishing freedom of speech that marked Augustus' last years. Whilst Ovid evokes the tranquil harmony of Numa's Rome, where, loyally supported by indigenous numina, the wise king governs his timorous people with unwavering integrity, the familiar archaic tapestry is shot with contemporary allusion and we are left uneasily suspicious that all is not as it appears.

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9 Ovid's Liberalia JOHN F. MILLER

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'Tertia post Idus lux est celeberrima Baccho' ('On the third day after the Ides Bacchus is honoured with great festivity', Fasti 3. 713), In Ovid's calendar, as elsewhere, 17 March is marked above all else by the Liberalia, the ancient feast held in honour of the god Liber Pater (and his female counterpart Libera), whom the Romans had long ago identified with the Greek Dionysus. Inhabitants of Augustan Rome could have witnessed other celebrations taking place on this day. The contemporary fasti from Caere record, besides the Liberalia, an Agonalia and the anniversary of Julius Caesar's victory at Munda in 45 BC.1 Both of these Ovid passes over in silence. One may speculate on why he omits the Caesarian feriae— perhaps suppressing an ugly chapter from the civil wars still full of painful memories for citizens and of potential embarrassment for Caesar's adoptive son, Augustus?2 Perhaps avoiding a cluster of similar notices for aesthetic reasons (two dislichs before he had recalled Caesar's assassination on the Ides)? Or sidestepping the challenge to treat a notoriously despotic chapter in Roman history3 on a day whose major festival 1 Degrassi (1963) 66 'Lib(eralia), Ag(onalia), op. Libero, Lib(erae) Fer(iae), quod cj'o) dfie) C. Caes(ar) vic(it) in Hisp(ania) ult(eriore).' Agonium also in Fasti Vemlani (AD 14-37) and Valicani {AD 15-37), Munda also in the early Imperial Fasti Fa.rnma.ni, 2 See Herbert-Brown (101)4), 117-1!), who observes thai Octaviau himself had subsequently employed a similar military despotism to fulfil his own ambitions. Note that the aetiological poet 'was about to pass over* (A. 697 'praeterilurus eram*) the assassination of Caesar on the Ides when Vesta intervened; immediately thereafter he does skip a Caesarian anniversary, 3 More than 30,000 of the troops lighting on the side of Pompey's sous fell in the battle (Plot. Cats, 56. 3; cf. Dio 43, 38. 4); there was great resentment that Caesar celebrated a triumph for this victory in a civil war {Plul. Cats. 56, 7-9', Dio 43. 41.

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evoked 'freedom' in the popular imagination? The Agonalia4 does not even merit a cross-reference back to the full treatment of this repeated rite in January (1. 317—36), as will the Agonalia on 21 May (5. 721-2). Once he completes his discussion of the Liberalia, as an afterthought Ovid does fleetingly mention another ritual, a procession to the shrines of the Argei which had begun the previous day,-5 but the single couplet in effect brushes aside this sacral event, pointing ahead as it does to the rites of the Argei in May (5.621-62). The entry's opening verse (3, 713) declares that this Very festive day' belongs to Bacchus. Little is intruded to distract attention from liber's feast, the one festival constantly recorded in the eight calendars with surviving entries for 17 March," which in Ovid's March ranks among the most expansively celebrated sacra.7 We do not know much about the urban Liberalia. Once the feast included games;*1 Ovid notes (3. 785-6) that by his day these have been conflated with the Ludi Ceriales in April. The fasti from Caere report that both Liber and Libera were honoured. One would presume that the ceremony was traditionally held at the impressive temple at the foot of the Aventine that those two deities shared with Ceres, the most important inhabitant, except that another calendar (Fasti Famesiani) specifies sacrifice to Liber on the Capitoline, where, however, we have no other firm evidence of a shrine 3-42, 2). Plutarch notes that the battle fell on the festival day of Bacchus, which happened to be the very day that Pompey set out for war four years previously. Thus in Ihe iale Republic the Liberalia took place on a day full of Pompuiau associations. 4 In priestly circles this Agonalia was important; Varro, LL 6. 14 and Mastirius in Macrob. Sat. I A. 15. a Ovid is the sole witness to the date of the procession, whose existence is known also from Gellius 10. 15. 30, and whose route is reconstructed from the listing of Argeomm mcraria in Varro, LL5. 46-54; see Warde Fowler (1908) 56 n. 5. 6 Ant. Mai,, Caer., Maff, Vend,, Vat., Farn., Filoe, ('Liberalici'}. Absent only in Fasti Pokmii Silvii, which date to AI> 449. Both of the Imperial rustic almanacs mention the Liberalia in their list of events for March. Summary in Degrassi (15)63) 425. At the end of a letter to Atticus Cicero gives the date as 'D. LiberaJibus' (Att. 9. !). 4; cf. 14. 10. 1, Fam. 12, '2ft. 1, and Auct Bell. Hisp. 31. 8 for other instances of referring to the day as the Liberalia}. '' Its length of treatment (78 verses} groups the Liberalia with the Matronalia (92}, Salii (134), and Anna Perenna (1.34), as opposed to the events in March accorded less attention, namely Equirria (6), Caesar's assassination (14), Augustus pontifex maxinius (14), Veiovis {20}, Tubilustrium (28), and Quinquattus {40}. 8 Cf, Naevius, Inurt, Fab. fr, 27 W. 'Libera lingua, loquirnur ludis Liberaiihus.'

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to the deity. In any case the Aventine temple of Ceres, Liber, and Libera lay in ruins for most of the Augustan age, destroyed by fire in 31 BC (Dio 50. 10. 3) and dedicated in restored fashion only after Augustus' death, in AD 17 by Tiberius (Tac. Ann. 2. 49. 1). According to Varro, on the Liberalia old women crowned with ivy whom he calls Liber's priestesses sat all over town selling sacrificial cakes, Itba, which they would then sacrifice for the purchaser on their portable grills.10 A wall-painting from Pompeii seems to depict such an exchange.11 Apparently a group of poets gathered in Rome on the Liberalia. In exile at Tomis Ovid will lament (in allusion to his Fasti's account of the festival) that he is missing the annual meeting.12 In the countryside throughout Italy Liber's festival included the procession of a phallus carried in a wagon round about the crossroads and eventually into the city. Augustine excoriates this fertility custom which he found recorded in Varro's Anliquilates.13 Virgil in the Georgia (2. 385-96) describes a rural Italian celebration in honour of Bacchus, with an emphasis on the joyful, unsophisticated songs ('versibus incomptis... carmina laeta.., carminibus patois') sung by the 9 Two military diplomats of An 70 mention a statue of Liber Pater on the Capitoline (CIL 16. 10 and 11). Evidence is none the less extremely thin for the temple of Liber which some scholars locate on the Capitoline: Simon (1090) 127; Radke (1!W3) 136. E, Rodrigez Almeida speculates on a Palatine sanctuary of Bacchus in Augustan limes (cf. Prop. 3. 17. 35, Magna Mater and her chorus adjacent to ['iuxta'] the Maenads and Pans in Bacchus' entourage, with Martial 1, 70. 9-10, 'tecta Lyaef juxtaposed with 'Cybeles... tholus'): in Steinby (1993) 1. 153-4. " LL&M 'Liberalia dicta, quod per lotum oppidum eo die sedcnt saeerdotes Liberi anus hedera coronatae cum ibis et foculo pro emptore sacri.fiea.nles,' Goetz-Scboell add before 'sacerdotes'. Oppidum is rarely used in reference to Rome (TiJL 9. 757. 58-f»7); in an Italian context the word not infrequently contrasts with the Urtis (OLD I). The TLL explains the usage as the antique Rome or as the City bounded by its walls. Here the word perhaps suggests that Rome shared the custom on the Liberalia with Italia (1990) 127, pi. 154. 12 Iristia 5. 3. The day in question can only be the Liberalia, unless Ovid is speaking of 'sacra* (33) metaphorically. On the allusion to the Fasti's euiry for the Liberalia, see Hinds (19H7(z) 20-1. u August, CD 7. 21 'in ItaJiae compitis quaedam dicit [Varro] sacra Liberi celebrate turn tanta licentia turpiiudinis,,. Nam hoc Lurpe membrum per Liberi dies festos cum honore rnagno postellis inpositum prins nrre in compitis et usoue in urbem postea veetabaiur'. Whether 1'he Urbs, Rome, saw this spectacle is unclear from Augustine's passage. Radke (1979) 175 interprets the passage thus. However, Augustine goes on to single out the worship of liber in Laviuium, which may have been the focus of Varro's account of the fertility procession: see Cancik-Lindemaier and Cancik {1985} 51 n. 66.

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peasants (which he parallels with primitive Athenian plays offered to the same god at the Ur-Dionysia, 2. 380-4). Such rough-hewn verses and merrymaking could be found at any number of rural feasts, and some believe that Virgil has no single festival in view, that he renders a composite or generalized rustic celebration." Since Bacchus is the honorandus, however, it is difficult to believe that the passage would not evoke Liber's age-old Italian feast at least in part.15 The goat sacrifice (2. 380-1, 395-6) is most probably fictitious in the Roman context,16 but the honey-cakes ('liba', 2. 394) were characteristic offerings on Liber's day (see Varro in n, 10). The phrase 'compita circum' ('at the crossroads', 2. 382), often felt to allude to the Compitalia, corresponds to the setting of the rustic Liberalia in Varro's account (via Augustine, CD 7. 21: 'in Italiae compitis quaedam,., sacra Liberi celebrata', 'at the crossroads in Italy certain rites of Liber were celebrated'). The Virgilian feast ensures a comprehensive abundance in nature (2. 390-1 'hinc ornnis largo pubescit vinea fetu, | cornplentur vallesque cavae saltusque profundi', 'as a consequence of the rustics* worship every vineyard ripens with generous increase, and hollow valleys and deep glades are filled with abundance'), precisely the goal of the annual Roman festival in honour of Liber—Bacchus.17 Liber and the Liberalia had a long history of ideological associations,18 most deriving from the fact that 'freedom,' libertas, was thought to be encoded in the god's name. This link may stretch back to Rome's achievement of libertas at the Tarquins' expulsion.13 Servius, admittedly a late witness, 14 See esp. Mynors (1990) on 2, 380 IT.; also Thomas (1.988) ad loc. and Wilkinson (1969) 149-50, both of whom accept MeuJi's argument (1955: 206-34) that Virgil had 1S the Compitalia in view, Saint-Denis (1949) 702-12; Shechter (1975) 376-7. 16 See Mynors (1990) on 2. 380ff. At Varro, RR\. 2. 19-20, the passage which Virgil took as hts point of departure, goats are sacrificed to Bacchus on the Athenian Acropolis, "" August. CD 7. 21 'Liberi sacra, quern liquids scminibus ac. per hoc non solum liquoribus fructuurn, quorum quodam niodo primauim vinum tenet, verum etiani senjinibus animaiium praefecerunt.' The reference to liquids may be Augustine's Hellenizing touch; see Bnibl (1953) 17, citing Plot, hid, el Osir. 35, who notes that the Greeks consider Dionysus the god not only of wine bul of all liquid nature, '* See Wiseman (1998) 35-51 and (2000) 265-99. K> Libertas and the foundation of the Republic: Sail. Cat. 7. 3, Livy 2, 1, Tac. Ann. 1. 1; Wirszubski (1950) 5; Brunt (1988) 291-2.

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reports that Italian cities set up in their fora a statue of Marsyas, Liber's servant, as a token of their liberty.20 The Marsyas in the Forum Romanum probably served as a model. That Liber's feast on 17 March occurred just two days after magistrates of the Republic took office in the early periods (before 153 BC) may be significant in this regard. The focal point of Liber's worship in Rome, the Aventine temple which also honoured Ceres and Libera, was a great plebeian centre. As headquarters for the plebeian aediles and repository of their archives the shrine will have symbolized the political Itbertas for which the plebs had struggled. Naevius (n. 8 above) characterized the games at the Liberalia as a locus of free expression, no doubt in reference to his own plays' criticism of the nobility. In the late Republic, Cicero notes the irony that it was on the Liberalia in 44 that the Senate was compelled to implement the written agenda, of the recently assassinated Julius Caesar, thereby continuing a kind of servitude only two days after they removed that threat to Roman liberty, the perpetual dictator, on the Ides of March: on Liber's day they were virtually forced to come when Antony summoned the Senate; at the meeting they could not speak freely,21 One of Caesar's opponents, Marcus Cato, at his base in Africa, struck coins with the head of Liber to suggest that the Pompeian side was fighting to free the state from Caesarian tyranny.'M Under Augustus, in the immediate wake of the diplomatic success with the Parthians in 20 BC, one of the monetary triumvirs, P. Petronius Turpilianus, styled the Princeps as the god Liber. In one such issue picturing the head of Liber, the reverse features Augustus riding in triumph (holding a laurel wreath and sceptre) with clear reference to Dionysus' victorious return from the East (elephants pull the car).23 Here the figure of Liber not only signifies the recent liberation of the Roman captives and standards from the eastern enemy but may also allude to Augustus' claim to 20

On Am. 4, 58, Cf. his note on Am. 3. 20. 'll Aft, 14. 14. 2. On Caesar's perpetual dictatorship and the loss of Itbertas, see Wtrszubski (1950) R Africa 19 = IIRC 462, 2, -3 BMCRE 7 (= f,W113~I4 = RIC 280-4: in either 19 or 18 tic:, the opinions respectively of Giard and Maltiogly).

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be 'libertatis populi Roman! vindex'.24 But this casting of the Princeps in Bacchic terms was an experiment, perhaps inspired by the god's ancestral role in the moneyer's gensf1 there was no widespread association of Augustus with Liber.26 Horace compares Augustus with the deity but among several others in a standard list of those who earned their immortality, Romulus, Liber Pater, Castor, Pollux, and Hercules.27 In the sphere of traditional religion, it is striking that the Princeps chose not to restore the Aventine temple of Liber, Libera, and Ceres until quite late in his reign. Memories of the shrine's fiery destruction in 31 would have been fresh three years later when Octavian famously rebuilt eighty-two temples in Rome. According to Augustus' own Res Gestae, that great effort was supposed to have passed over none worthy of restoration at the time (20. 4 'nullo praetenmisso quod eo tempfore] refici debebaft]*). Yet only under Tiberius, many years later, was Augustus' renewal of this temple completed.23 Wiseman has convincingly argued that Augustus began to repair the shrine only after the disastrous famine which Rome 24 Aug. Res Gestae 1. 1; BMCRR 691; for the republican background of the phrase libertatis vindex, see Wirszubski (19.50) 100-6. 2a Thus interpret Mattingly in BMCRR i. cii and Bruht {1953} 43, Some coins in the same series include the head of Feronia—(apparently) a Sabine goddess and so expressive of the Sabine heritage of (he Petronian gens. It is argued that the parallel figure of Liber had similar associations. M> Pace Bruhl (1953) 183, who would connect Turpilianns* coinage and the (much later) restoration of the temple of Ceres, Liber, and Libera. Kellurn (1.990) 282-3 draws attention to the painting of Dionysus by the 4th-ceot Athenian master Nicias which, was displayed in the temple of Concordia Augusta. (Pliny, M//35. 131} dedicated in AD 10, We know nothing else about the painting but Keilurn speculates, OH the basis of the temple's overall significance, that the god was represented in his beneficent aspect, If thai is so, the harmonious Liber Pater need not have been directly associated with Augustus. It is hazardous to connect a. painting about which we know next to nothing with unique numismatic imagery issued nearly thirty years previously, Pbilini (1993) 182-217 argues that the prominent acanthus decoration on the Ara Pads was designed to evoke both Bacchus and Augustus' patron deity Apollo, a numen mixltmi Again, in the harmonious blend of divine motifs one need not symbolically connect each and every motif directly with Augustus, 'a Epist, 2, 1, 5-17. Same list (minus Castor) in the same context at Odes'A. 3,9-16 and Cic. ND2. 62 (adding Aesculapius}—numerous other parallels cited by Pease ad loc. "8 Tac. Ann. 2. 49. i 'Tsdem temporibus [AD 17] deurn aedis vetustate aut igni abolitas coeptasque ab Augusto dedicavit, Libero Libera.eque el Cereri iuxta circuni maximum ...'. Note that Tacitus mentions Liber at the head of the trio whose temple was frequently abbreviated to aedes Cereris,

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suffered from AD 5 to 7 or 8;29 it had been originally erected to placate the agricultural deities after another famine (Dion. Hal. 6. 17. 2-4). For much of his Principate the ruined temple of Ceres, Liber, and Libera was neglected, perhaps because of lingering memories of Antony's notorious identification of himself with Dionysus.30 The last place in the City that Augustus would want to risk a positive evocation of Ms greatest antagonist was within sight of his own grand temple of Apollo on the Palatine hill. Located at the north-western end of the Circus Maximus, the formerly magnificent Roman home of Liber-Dionysus31 could have indeed ideologically skewed the imperial sight-lines emanating from the Augustan Palatine. II

Against these political and cultic backgrounds, the aetiological poet approaches the god directly (3. 714): 'Bacche, fave vati, dum tua festa cano' ('Bacchus, be propitious to me, your poet, while I sing of your festival'). Such openings are familiar in the J%rft-eompare the request for Pales' favour at the start of the Parilia (4. 723): 'alma Pales, faveas pastoria sacra canentf ('Kind Pales, favour the poet singing of your pastoral rites'). Bacchus, however, is a regular patron deity of the vates, whom Roman poets jointly celebrate at the Liberalia. Accordingly, Ovid here proceeds to talk simultaneously about the deity and his own poetry in a roundabout introduction of the present subject (3. 715-26): nee referam Semelen, ad quam nisi fulmina securn luppitcr adferret, partus incrmis eras; nee, puer ut posses mature lempore nasei, expletum patrio corpore raatris opus. Sithonas et Scythicos longum nanrare triumphos et domitas gentes, turifer Inde, tuas. tu quoque Thebanae mala pracda taccbere matris, 29 Wiseman (2000) 29,5-7. On the famine see Dio 55. 22. 3, 26. 1-3, 27. 1, 31. 3-4, and 3'i. 4, :l • " Veil. Pat. 2, 82. 4 with Woodman, ad loc., Plut Ant. 24. 3-4 with Scuderi ad foe, (also 26. 3 and 75. 3-4), and Dio 50. 5. 3. See also Mannsperger (1973) 381-40.5. J1 Cic. Verr. 2. 4. 108 'in urbe nostra Cereris pulcherrimum et magnificentissimum templum'.

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inque tuum furiis acte Lycurge genus. ecce libet subitos pisces 'lyrrhenaque monstra dicere; sed non est carminis huius opus, carminis huius opus causas exponere quare vitisator populos ad sua liba vocet. I will tell neither of Semele, without whose visit from Jupiter's thunderbolts you would have been born defenceless (?), nor of the mother's work performed by your father's body, so that you could be born a boy at the proper time. It would take a long time to narrate your triumphs over the Sithoniam and Scythians, and how your peoples, too, were subdued, incense-bearing India. You who were the sorry prey of your Theban mother will also receive no mention, and you too, Lycurgus, driven by madness against your own son. Look, 1 would like to speak of the Tyrrhenian monsters, men suddenly turned into fish, but that is not the task of this song. The task of this song is to explain the reasons why the Vine Planter calls the population to his cakes.

His task is not to speak of the god's many myths but to expound aitia (3. 725 'causas exponere quare')32 for the custom of offering sacrificial cakes on the Liberalia, which Varro reports are hawked by old women throughout the city. For both Varro and Ovid this custom seems to be the urban Liberalia's signature feature, Ovid imagines the vine-god rather than the women summoning the population to the liba33 in order to keep the focus on Bacchus. The cakes are 'his' in two senses, distributed by his representatives and then offered to the deity. Although we know in general terms how the praeteritio will conclude—the poet tells Bacchus at the start that he is singing of his festival (3. 714 'tua festa cano')—after the five-couplet build-up the climax strikes a, bathetic, humorously self-deprecatory note: he will not sing of the grand, fabulous Greek stories of Bacchus but of a decidedly less glamorous matter, a real-life sacral practice on the streets of Rome. He declares histrionically (3. 723 'ecce') that he would like ('libet') 12 I]*]"j0 ynysual placement of the clause's Introductory word S<|i>ar0' at the end of the verse underscores the aetiologictii theme; in all Ovid only here
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to address the final topic passed over, Dionysus' famous transformation of the Tyrrhenian pirates into dolphins. In fact, Ovid is around this time recounting this very episode at length in his hexametric Metamorphoses (3. 592-691), along with others of the Bacchic myths here disclaimed (Semele and the second birth, 3. 259-315; Pentheus, 3, 513-733). Earlier in Fasti 3 he relates two other tales of Bacchus, neither demanded by the calendar, which thematically anticipate Liber's feast later in the month. Both of those are erotic stories ending in catasterism—the beloved boy Ampelos (3. 407-14) and the god's wife Ariadne (3. 459-516)—topics at home in the elegiac calendar.34 In contrast, the myths catalogued at the start of the Liberalia have an epic or tragic quality: the deity's wondrous conception and birth, the horrific punishments of Pentheus and Lycurgus, Bacchus' conquest of the East, the marvellous transformation of the 'Tyrrhena monstra'. If he feels a twinge of attraction to the last of these, the antiquarian elegist must restrain himself. Likewise in April Ovid cuts short a lament of his exile in Tomis (4. 83-4): 'sed supprime, Musa, querellas: | non tibi sunt maesta sacra canenda lyra' ('But check your complaints, O Muse. You must not sing of sacred rites on a sorrowful lyre'). Sacra do not mix with personal lament; there will be time enough for Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto, The initial address to Bacchus tarns into a modified recusatio using the contemporary Metamorphoses as a foil, a playful redefinition of this entire calendar-poem (3. 724 and 725 'carminis hums') devoted to religious aetiology. We tend to expect ideological resonance in a recusatio but it is difficult to pin down such a dimension here. To one reading these lines when, Ovid probably composed them, during the great Roman famine in the first decade AD, the emphatic attention to Liber's call for food might point up the need to restore the long-ruined temple that he shared with Libera and Ceres.:w A reader in the subsequent period when that dutiful project was well under way might find Augustan significance in the contrast between religious observance (the people called to offer the '*'* Note, too, that in the latter tale Ovid has Liber-Bacchus change the deified Ariadne's name to Libera (A. 512), his partner in Roman cult. 35 Wiseman (2000) 295-6,

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cakes) and the typical panegyrical topic of military conquests (3. 719 'triumphos'}—remember the victory over the Parthians figured in Bacchic terms on Turpilianus' coinage. In the proem Ovid declares his preference for Caesar's altars over his wars (1. 13): 'Caesaris anna canant alii: nos Caesaris aras.' On the other hand, we should be wary of allegorizing willy-nilly. One could argue that Ovid here suppresses latent ideological or historical significance in the annual distribution of Liber's cakes. Shortly before the present entry (at Anna Perenna's feast on the Ides of March), in a story evidently spun out of the custom at the Liberalia,36 such meaning lies on the surface of the text: when the plebeians began to starve during their secession on the Mons Sacer, a poor old woman saved them by serving up the liba which she had made (3. 661-74). In explaining his topic—or rather, the topic 'forced' upon him—the poet stops addressing Bacchus after five verses.37 Yet throughout the praeleritio he keeps the god and his achievements in full view. In spite of the negative formulation, the movement has a quasi-hymnic force. The several subjects listed are all the regular stuff of hymns: the deity's parentage and birth, his triumphant travels and other spectacular deeds.38 Moreover, hymnists sometimes preface their praises by mentioning tales about the god which they will not take up at the present time.'*1 To celebrate Liber's festival Ovid first indirectly celebrates the god himself, The contemporary Metamorphoses also experiments with the hyrnnic form in reference to Bacchus.40 Comparison is instructive. Book 4 opens with a group of Theban Bacchants honouring their god. Their summons to the deity (4. 11 'Bacchumque vocant') metamorphoses into a. five-line hymnic 36

Warde Fowler (1908) 53. "*' I assume that the corrupt couplet 3. 715-16 is addressed to Bacchus, like the lines immediately before and after it. •** In the hymn to Bacchus opening Metamorphoses 4 (discussed in the following paragraph), oriental conquests, Pentheus, Lyeurgus, aud the Tuscan pirates are listed 3a in the same order as here (4, 20-4). Cf. Horn, hy, Apollo 207-13, K s ' ' St € broad perspective? on the Metamorphoses and the Homeric Hymns in particular, seeBarchiesi (1999) 112-26. Jristia, 5. 3 also addresses Bacchus in hyrruiie terms, listing the god's hard-won 'merita* (19-26)—to which the poet compares his own exilic plight—and enumerating Bacchus' various attributes, attendants, and notable episodes io the prayer for help (35-46),

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epiklesis (listing various cult titles) in indirect speech, which the narrator doubly climaxes with the usual catch-all formula and by apostrophizing the divine honoranclus. Here he pointedly domesticates the god of many exotic Hellenic names (Nyseus, Thyoneus, Lenaeus, Nyctelius, Eleleus, etc.) by addressing him in Italic guise, as Liber (4. 16-17 'et quae praeterea per Graias plurima gentes nomina, Liber, habes', 'and all the names besides. Liber, which you have throughout the regions of Greece').41 Rather than simply punctuate the reported hymn, however, the apostrophe becomes the speaker's springboard to appropriate the hymnic voice; he drops Ms narrative mode to enumerate, in thirteen and a half verses spoken directly to Bacchus, the deity's qualities, achievements, and entourage. This address then modulates back to narrative for a capping quotation of the women's actual petition (4, 31): '"placatus mitisque" rogant Ismenides "adsis"' ('The Theban women petition, "come to us, merciful and mild"'). The calendrical poet invokes Bacchus' aid (3. 714 'fave vati') and then starts to tell the god the ways in which he will not sing his praises, listing the various hymnic topics he is passing over. Soon the hymnic voice fractures into a peculiar narrative mode, a dizzying sequence of apostrophes to the rejected subjects. Instead of awkwardly admitting to the god that it would take too long to tell of his foreign conquests,42 the speaker directs this idea to one of the Indian victims (3. 719-20). Likewise, in rapid succession (3. 721—2), he apostrophizes two sinners against Dionysus about whom he will be silent, Pentheus and Lycurgus—in the former instance that silence wittily extends to omission of the sinner's name. It is unclear whether the grandstanding wish, to sing about the pirates is spoken to Bacchus43 or us, but by the end the poet is addressing the reader and the god is third-person subject. The antiquarian announces the aetiology which he will consider this time. Throughout there runs a continuum of hymnic 41

Barkan(l»86)2iWti. 26. One could take this as indirect praise of the extensive triumphs (cf, Nepos, ffann, 5, 4 'longum est oninia enumerare proelia*}, as an elegist excusing himself from epic topics which would demand lengthy epic treatment, or as a declaration that such poetry would be boring (Holzberg 1995: 13S)). 43 Does 'libet' (3. 723) play on the name Libe ber.' 42

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content, while the presentational modes—hymnic, narrative, didactic—merge into one another. As in the passage from Metamorphoses 4, the Roman cult of Liber has a punch-line effect after itemized Dionysiaca; here that close returns to the starting point from which Ovid has playfully digressed, Bacchus' day in the Roman calendar (3. 713 Tertia post Idus lux est celeberrima Baccho'), his festival in Rome (3. 714 4tua festa'). Where the Theban women hymn the god with the traditional aim of summoning his presence (Met. 4. 11 'Bacchurnque vocant'; 4. 31 'adsis'), the aetiologies] poet envisions Bacchus calling the people to his feast In February he had the task of explaining the reasons why Faunus beckons naked worshippers to the Lupercalia (2. 358 'nudos ad sua sacra vocat'). Echoing that phrasing at the end of another pentameter, the poet's concern now is with aitiaioi Liber's insistence on another curious ritual practice, why this god, a god of viticulture ('vitisator'), calls the Romans to offer him cereal cakes (3. 726 'populos ad sua liba vocef).

Ill The first answer to that question—Ovid promises us more than one aition (3, 725 'causas')—is that Liber invented44 ritual offerings to the gods (3, 727-34): ante tuos ortiis arae sine honore fuerunt, liber, et in gelidis faerba reperta focis, te memorant, Gange totoque Oriente subacto, primitias magao seposuisse lovi: cinnama tu primus captivaquc tura dedisti deque triumphalo viscera tosta bove. nomine ab auctoris ducunt libamina nomen libaque, quod sanctis pars datur inde focis; Before your birth. Liber, altars lacked offerings; one found grass growing on cold hearths. They report thai after you conquered Ganges and the whole East, you set aside the Erst fruits for great Jupiter. You were the first to offer cinnamon and incense from the captive land and the roasted flesh of a bull 44 Or perhaps reinvented them, since altars were already in existence. 3. 727-8 imply either that early humans had built altars but then knew not what to do with them or that proper worship of the gods had declined.

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led in ttiumph. Libations derive their name from the inventor's name, as do libation cakes, because part of them are offered on sacred hearths.

This sweeping claim is found only here. In celebration of his eastern conquests he piously dedicated to Jupiter the first fruits of the spoils, cinnamon, incense, and a bull. So the word for all such ritual oblations ('libarnina') derives from the divine originator's name. In particular (emphatic enjambment at 3. 734), the sacrificial cakes called 'liba' are named for Liber, even though these do not explicitly figure in the mythologized rites executed by the god. This new movement recapitulates and intensifies the previous section. The poet resumes his direct address to the god, turning again at the close to the reader (3. 733-4). Topics from the praeteritio recur—the deity's birth, oriental victories, and his father Jupiter—as the speaker now hymns Liber-Bacchus in earnest. He honours the deity as a protos heuretes (3.731 'primus'; 3.733 'auctions'),45 much as at the Cerialia in April he will praise Liber's partner in cult, Ceres (4. 401-4, the origin of agriculture). If the pointer to traditional opinion (3. 729 'memorant') reminds us that an antiquarian is speaking, his repeated second-person pronouns and adjective (3. 727 'tuos', 3, 729 'te', 3. 731 'tu') follow canonical hymnic style.46 Liber's sacrifices are repeatedly contextualized in terms of his victories (3. 729 'Gange totoque Oriente subacto'; 3. 731 'captivaque tura' recalling the vanquished 'turifer Inde' apostrophized just above at 3. 720; 3. 732 'triumphato., .bove'). From a metaliterary point of view, this may reflect the fact that Ovid's Fasti concentrates on the aftermath or commemoration of victories rather than on the conquests themselves (cf. again 1. 13, 'arae' instead of 'arrna* for this poem). The more immediate rhetorical purpose is to enhance the god's glory: Liber subdued the entire East, then celebrated that noble achievement with another, by inaugurating ritual sacrifices. Two etymologies for 'libum' are entertained in 3. 733—4. The cake takes its name from Liber and from the fact that part of it 4 '' Thereby partly revising his account of sacrificial origins in 1. 337-456. There he attributes various origins to particular animal sacrifices; the offering of cattle started with Arislaeus. 46 Cf. Met. 4. 17-24 (to Bacchus), Cat. 34. 13-17, Lucr. 1.4-16, Virg. Arm. 8. 293-302; Norden (1913) 149-60.

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is ritually offered ('datur' = 'libatur') on a sacred hearth. The latter agrees with Varro (1X5. 106, 7. 44); the former Ovid has concocted, along with the derivation libamina > Liber, in order to heighten further the god's achievement as auclor sacrificandi, The echo of 'focis' from 3. 728, even if it occurs in the second etymology, underscores the fact that Liber has solved the problem of unused, overgrown sacral hearths. The repeated word also calls to mind the scene repeated all over Rome on the Liberalia, old priestesses sacrificing 'liba' on their 'foculi' for customers (Varro in n. 10 above). Other Roman accents colour this section, even while Greek myth continues to provide the vocabulary. Ovid in general uses the names Liber and Bacchus interchangeably, but here the Latin name first occurs (3. 728) immediately after the subject turns to the Roman cult (3. 726).47 Liber's triumphal sacrifice of a bull follows the etiquette of a Roman triumphus,4* not Dionysiac cult. His offerings honour Jupiter (highlighted by the word-play 'lovi... bove' endingsuccessive pentameters, 3. 730 and 732), who is at once his father and the god to whom the imperator triumpham sacrifices the animal(s) upon ceremonially returning to Rome.

IV Bacchus calls the people to his cakes, then, because they belong to the class of sacrificial offerings that he invented, and because 'liba', like 'libamina* in general, have his Latin name inscribed in. theirs. The second etymology for 'libum' suggests a third reason for the summons, that a portion of these cakes be offered to himself. All this provides complex closure to the account of Liber's inventive triumphal sacrifices and apparently satisfies the aetiological question, 'the work of this poem' (3. 725). But there is more. Ovid adds that 'liba' are prepared for Bacchus because he enjoys sweets and because he is reported to have invented honey (3. 735-6 'liba deo fiunt, sucis quia dulcibus idem gaudet, et a Baccho mella reperta ferunt'). These ailia, *7 Cf. the Roman resonance of Liber in the hymn to Bacchus at Met. 4. 17, noted above. 48 Bulls sacrificed at the triumph: Virg. Georq. '2. 146-8 and Servius ad loc.; Hor. Epod. 9, 22; W. Ehlers, RE 7 (1!)39) 503.

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an apparent afterthought at first glance, are fleshed out in what becomes the day's featured narrative (24 verses: 3. 737-60), the story of Liber's discovery of honey and Silenus* failed attempt to duplicate his master's achievement. As far as we know, Ovid fabricated the idea of Bacchus inventing honey; the discovery is more usually credited to Aristaeus.49 The claim continues the theme of Bacchic inventio and makes this another hymnic narrative celebrating the god's power (and rivalling the traditional tales of Semele, Pentheus, and so forth, which the aetiological poet has explicitly passed over). The story exhibits Ovid's customary indirection and asymmetrical design. After a single introductory verse the narrator intrudes with a parenthetical comment to pique our interest, promising that joking is in store (3. 738 'non habet ingratos fabula nostra iocos'). Then he quickly tells how bees were accidentally attracted to the Bacchic entourage's loud clashing of bronze cymbals, and how the god then collected these 'novae.,. volucres' ('strange winged creatures', 3. 741, so called as if they materialized out of thin air) into a hollow tree, whereby he invented honey. In the space of four distichs (3. 737-44) we have another noble discovery by Liber, but where are the anticipated loci'? The humour arises from the second phase of the tale, unfolded at twice the length of the first (16 verses: 3. 745-60), Silenus propped up on his ass tracking the buzzing sounds into another hollow tree trunk, then falling headlong when attacked by a swarrn of hornets. Bacchus comes on at the end to share the satyrs' laughter at the old man and to set things right by showing Silenus how to soothe the stings with mud. The Renaissance artist Piero di Cosimo offers a painted version of Ovid's tale. He follows the structure of the Ovidian diptych by devoting a pair of paintings to the subject, now housed, respectively, in Worcester and Cambridge, Massachusetts/1" The former, 'The Discoveiy of Honey', depicts satyrs intentionally luring bees into a mammoth hollow tree at the middle of the composition. The other details 49 50

Ap, Rhod. 4. 1132-3, Ov. Punt, 4, 2, 9, Diod. Sic, 4. 81, 2. See Bacci (1966) 92-3 and plates 35 and 36. Good discussion by Panofsky (1939)

r
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the funny sequel, 'The Misfortunes of Silenus', likewise centres around a large tree trunk. Piero parodically outfits his satyrs with realistic rustic implements for the noise-making—bones and cudgels beat on pots and pans and shovels—instead of Ovid's more typical cymbals. On the other hand, his symbolic landscape—part wilderness, part organized town—figures the merry band's discover)' of honey as 'a pleasant advance in civilization', this apparently inspired by the Ovidian Liber's inauguration of proper sacrifices earlier in the entry.51 The painter's most important alteration for the present discussion is to expand the role of Silenus. Where the old man's comic catastrophe certainly weighs most heavily in the balance of Ovid's overall narrative, Piero goes so far as to make Silenus a central figure of both scenes. Ovid does not even mention him during the phase of creating honey; the painted version of that episode positions a chubby Silenus prominently riding on from the right, surrounded by satyrs and women. The other panel shows three separate moments of his misadventure: falling from the donkey (3. 755 'ille cadit praeceps'}, helped to his feet by his mates (cf. 3. 756 'inclamatque suos auxiliumque rogat', 'he calls to his comrades, asking for their aid'; 758 his knee was shattered), and receiving the muddy medicament (cf. 3. 759-60). Liber himself stands off to the side in both pictures, accompanied by Ariadne. Satyrs, not Bacchus, administer the production of honey. Satyrs apply the soothing rnud, not Silenus himself as instructed by Bacchus. Looking" back from this pictorial reception to Ovid's narrative, we notice that, in spite of the asymmetry, the latter revolves more closely around Liber, appropriately so, as the god celebrated at the Roman festival. In the first stage the noisy satyrs are more directly associated with the god (3. 737 'satyris comitatus'; 740 'comitum'); he alone performs the crucial acts of collecting and shutting up the bees (3. 743 'colligit... claudit'}, and he first of all enjoys the reward of his enterprise (3. 744 'inventi praemia mellis habef). This first scene is refracted in the second, where Silenus is a kind of anti-Liber. He, too, appears initially in the company of satyrs, hunting everywhere for honeycombs (3. 745-6), before the 31

Fanofeky (1939) (i5.

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spotlight likewise falls on him alone. The old man steals away from his companions, pretending not to hear or see any evidence of the bees (3, 748 'dissimulat'), a taste of whose honey the god apparently afforded them (3. 745 'tetigere saporemj. Where Liber earned sweet 'praemia' from the hollow tree,-'2 bald old Silenus' greed (3. 752 'avide') merits pain and ridicule. The wondrous gathering of bees (3. 741 'ecce novae eoeunt volucres') tamed by Bacchus becomes the countless hornets which converge to attack Silenus (3. 753 'milia crabronum eoeunt'},53 He suffers no lasting damage, however, because the god shows him how to treat the wounds (3. 759 'monstrat'; 760 'monitis'). 'melle pater fruitur, liboque infusa calenti iure repertori splendida mella damus' (3. 761-2). 'Father enjoys honey', not pater Silenus,54 frustrated with his attempt to do so, but the inventor of the golden substance, Liber Pater (the god's standing epithet).5-' This closing couplet picks up the story's aetiological lead-in (3. 735-6) point by point: 'melle... mella ~ mella; fruitur ~ gaudet; libo ~ liba; repertori ~ reperta; damus ~ deo fiunt'. Now the honey is explicitly put in (or on)56 the cakes, and the 'liba' have their most appetizing description, 'piping hot' ('calenti'; cf. old Anna of Bovillae's 'fumantia liba', 'steaming cakes', reported on the Ides of March, 3. 671, and Hor, Sat. 2. 7, 102 ssi ducor libo fumante', 'if I am enticed by a steaming cake'), filled with glistening honey ('splendida mella'). At the Liberalia we rightly ('iure') offer ('damus') the god his pleasant discovery, as we simultaneously dedicate part of his namesake 'liba' to Liber

s2 3. 750 'corticibusque cavjs' recalls a phrase from Virgil's rustic festival of Bacchus, 'corticibus... cavatis' (Georg, 2,387, describing the material of the masks worn by the celebrants). 1)3 This also literalizes the proverb about not stirring up hornets; cf. Plaut, Arnph. 707 'inrttabis crabrones', in reference to the consequence of upbraiding one's wife. 54 Ov. An Am. I 548; Prop, 2. 32. H8; H. 3. 29. l3 * Serv. on Georg, 2, 4 ' "pater" licet generate sit omnium deorum, Umien pruprie Libero semper cohaeret: narn Liber pater vocatur'. ;>h 'Infuaa' refers either to cakes filled with honey like the 'liba' at Atbenaeas 125f126a, or else to honey applied on top. Servius on Atn. 7. 109 seems to mix the honey into the dough. On the sweetness of'liba' see Hor. Eput. 1, 10. 10-11. Cato's recipe (Agr. 75) is altogether less sweet, calling for cheese, flour, and egg.

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(3. 734 'datur'), an annual gesture which harks back to the auctor's own originating sacrificial gifts (7. 731 'dedisti').

V

The two cultic aitia for the Liberalia taken up so far—why cakes? why honey-cakes?-~Ovid elaborates with successively longer narratives. The next four aetiologies rapidly cascade forth (in eight verses, 3. 763-70). The poet twice notes outright that he can dispense with these matters easily (7. 763 'non est rationis opertae', 'the reason is self-evident'; 3. 768 "discere nulla rnora est', 'one may quickly learn'). Although his pace changes, he keeps the focus on the 'liba', only now he ushers into view one of the old women who supervise the sacrifice of those cakes at the festival, the 'anus hedera coronatae cum libis et foculo pro emptore saerifieantes' (Varr. LL 6. 14). The calendrical antiquarian briefly explains the reason for female supervision of the event, why an old woman in particular, and why she wears an ivy wreath; for good measure he adds that Bacchus favours ivy in memory of the Nysan nymphs who used that plant to hide his infant cradle from his hostile stepmother, Juno. Until now the popular sacra of the Liberalia have been presented in terms of'Liber and his worshippers: 'the vine-god calls the people to his cakes' (3. 726); 'cakes are made for the god* (3. 735) by no one in particular; 'we give honey' to its inventor (3. 762). Finally the reader catches a glimpse, albeit a fleeting one, of the doubtless picturesque old women, the priestly intermediaries at these sacral cake-offerings to Liber. Mention of these women evokes most clearly the scenes relived by Romans every 17 March, but the poet's explanations continue in rigorously Bacchic terms. The female presiders in Rome he justifies with the revelling Bacchantes (3. 764). Old women participate because of their 'vinosior aetas' ('bibulous old age', 3, 765), their proverbial fondness for the gifts of Bacchus' vine (3. 766 'munera vitis'; cf. 726 'vitisator'). Likewise their ivy derives from an attribute of the god (3. 767 'hedera est gratissima Baccho', 'ivy is especially pleasing to Bacchus'), The final aition heightens this Bacchic element, even as it digresses logically from the series. In the

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overall context the story of the Nysan nymphs is another bit of hymnody, yet another chapter in the featured deity's biography. This one follows up his boyhood anticipated in the praeteritio (3. 769 'puerum'; cf. 717 'puer*), just as the narrative on sacrifices continued the untold tale of his eastern victories, For all the apparent balance in this neatly packaged aetiological quartet—cf. 'cur... cur.,. cur,.. cur', the key word alternating chiastically between position after the opening dactyl (3. 763 and 768) and the line's first word (3. 765 and 767)—the last aetiology's differences from the rest set it apart as a coda: here we have a mythical episode, 'footnoted' in the fashion of a scholarpoet (3. 770 'ferunt'; cf, 729 and 736), given the most expansive treatment in the series (3 verses, after 2, 2, and 1 verse respectively). The return to the entry's start via the theme of boyhood (cf. 3, 715-18) adds to the closural effect. Here we end with the god as 'puer'; the previous movement concluded with Liber as 'pater*. Ovid will combine these two perspectives in his ensuing, final disquisition on the Liberalia.

VI

'Restat ut inveniam quare toga libera detur | Lucifero pueris, candide Bacche, tuo' ['It remains for me to discover, O radiant Bacchus, why the toga of liberty is given to boys on your day', 3. 771—2), Ovid makes countless choices about what to include or exclude in his Fasti, but his persona, the aetiological poet, feels pressured to be complete. About to pass over Caesar's assassination on the Ides of March, the calendrical researcher is chastised by Vesta (3. 699 'ne dubita meminisse', 'do not hesitate to recall'). At the Cerialia he announces that 'the context demands that I tell of the rape of the virgin' (4. 4-17 'exigit ipse locus raptus ut virginis edam'). After he unfolds the Parilia's rites, it 'remains' for him to discuss their origin (4. 783 'expositus mos est; moris mihi restat origo'). What 'remains' at the Liberalia for the aetiologist who has explored in detail the cakes offered to Liber is to discover why boys assume the toga libera on that day. A Roman youth set aside the symbols of boyhood, his golden locket and purple-bordered toga, and put on the all-white toga of manhood in a private ceremony before

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his household gods, after which family and friends formally escorted him to the Forum and the Capitoline, where he sacrificed at an. unknown place and probably was registered as afull citizen at the Tabularium/7 17 March was not the only allowable day for these rituals but was quite common, Cicero, for instance, writes to Atticus that he intends to give his nephew Quintus the 'toga pura' at the Liberalia (while the boy's father is posted abroad),58 Cicero uses one of the regular designations for the garment, 'toga pura', thus differentiating it from the bordered children's garb; the other is toga virilis, signifying the passage to manhood.59 Ovid calls it 'toga libera', adopting an apparent coinage of Propertius, who himself thereby evoked the god of the Liberalia.60 At the same time, Ovid's punning address to the god as 'radiant' ('candide', a quality intensified by the brilliant signifier for 'day', 'Lucifero') suggests the plain white toga worn on ceremonial occasions (OLD 4a, s.v. 'candidus'}, and for the first time by the youth come of age. The new beginning recalls the whole entry's start, where (and only where) the divinity is explicitly addressed as Bacchus on his day (3. 714 'Bacche... tua festa'; cf. 772 'Lucifero... Bacche, tuo').61 Here Ovid's aetiological riff on 'Liber/liba/libare' gives way to the much more common "" Domestic ceremony: Prop, 4. 1. 131-2 (below n. 60) and Pers. 5. 30-2, Deductio in forum: Aug. RG 14. 1, Sen. Ep. 4. 2, Suet Aug. 26, 2. In Capitoiiutn: VaL Max, 5. 4, 4, Suet. Claud. 2, 2, Serv. on Eel 4. 49. Frienda^Cic. Mar. 69, App. BC4, 30, Pliny Ep. 1. 9. 2. Sacrifice: App. BC4, 30, Dion. Hal. 4. 15. 5 (offering at temple of Juventas); some would have the youth sacrifice at the statue or alleged temple of Liber on the Capitoline (seen. 9above). Registration: Dio55. 22. 4.Tabularium: Marquardt(1886) J25-6 n. 10. 'w Alt. 6, 1. 12, See in general Marquardt (1886) 124 and n. 2. 59 'Virilis': Cic, nil. 2. 44, Hor. Sat. 1. 2. 16, Livy 42. 34. 4, 'Pura': Cat. 08. IS, Phaedr. 3. 10. 10, Pliny NH 8, 194. 60 p^op. 4. 1. 131-4 'mox ubi bulla nidi dirnissa est aurea cotto, matris et ante decs libera gumpta toga, | turn Ubi pauca suo de carmina dictat Apollo | et vetat insano verha tonan? Foro'. The Calliniachea,n Apollo pre-empts the god presiding over this dciy at Rome, Liber-Bacchus (typically, Ovid makes the implicit association explicit, addressing Bacchus directly). Ijkewise, the adolescent poet is tarned away from the very place where his family would have taken him for his formal introduction to society, the Forum Romanum. Tt is unclear whether the toga ceremony had anything to do with Liber other than coincide with the day of his festival; for the controversy see Bonier (1957-8) on 3. 771. M Note, too, 'quare' (3. 771) posing this aition like the first (725)—thereafter, such indirect aetiological questions thrice introduced by *cur' (763, 765, 768).

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association of the deity's name with 'libertas'. The calendrical poet dispensed with the previous set of questions (3. 765-70) instantly, but this one is not so easy. We may be surprised at that after the heavy hint of the god's Roman name in the term 'toga libera'. The poet none the less proposes four possible aitia. Such variant explanations, found throughout the Fasti in various formulations, do not style Ovid's persona an incompetent nor express a general Ovidian belief that one cannot determine things with certainty.63 They reflect a procedure found in ancient scholarship on religion and illustrated well in the contemporary Praenestine Fasti. 'Exegesis was a sport without limits.. .the best that Roman society could expect from a scholar or a poet was his capability of producing the greatest number of interpretations.'64 With the present, carefully structured group of multiple aetiologies Ovid allows us to view both the ceremony and the god from complementary perspectives. He presents the first three interpretations in equal proportions (3. 773-8): sive quod ipse puer semper iuvenisque videris, et media est aetas inter utrumque tibi; seu quia tu pater es, patres sua pignora, nates, commendant curae numinibusque tuis: sive, quod es Liber, vestis quoque libera per le sumitur et vitae liberioris iter: Whether it is because you yourself appear always to be both boy and youth, and your age is midway between the two; or because you are a father, fathers entrust their beloved sons lo your care and power; or because you are the Liberator, the vestment of liberty is assumed and the path of a freer life begun with your help. '•'•' Some examples: At Plaut, Ca.pt. 577-8, to the question 'tun te gnatum memoras liberirm?' comes the response 'HOB equideni rne Liberum, sed Philocratern esse aio'. Cicero gives a political spin to the idea (see above, n. 21) in lamenting the Senate's servile posture on Liber's day in 44 we. Petronius' Trimalchio punningly literalizes the god's name in ait episode featuring his slave Dionysus (41. 8): ' "BOB negabitis me", inquit "hahere libenim patrem" '—the phrase means both 'that I own Liber Pater' and 'that I have a free man for a, father'. Plutarch, Q Rom- 104 includes among the possible reasons for Liber's name that 'he is the father of freedom to drinkers'. See Maltby (1.991) 337, (a See Martin (1985) 264-7; Newlands (1992) 38-9, 47; and Miles (1995) 20-31. w Scheid 11992a) 123. Recenliv this feature of the poem has been much discussed; see also Porte (1.985) 220-30; Beard (1987); Miller (1992A) 11-31; Lochr (1996), esp. 192-365; and Feeoey (1998) 127-31,

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They derive from three sources, artistic depictions (3. 773 'videris') of Bacchus as youthful, his main Latin epithet (3, 775 'pater'), and his Roman name (3. 377 'Liber'), Note that the balance here, as throughout this section, falls to the god in his Roman context. His sometimes boyish look (3. 773 *ipse puer') mirrors the recipients of the toga virilis (3, 772 'pueris*, again at the main caesura) and continues the theme of Bacchus' childhood from just above (3. 769 'puerum', protected by the Nysan nymphs) and near the start of the praeteritio (3. 717 'puer ut posses mature tempore nasci'}. In resuming his direct address to Bacchus, the poet returns to a style with hymnic accents. We again hear the emphatic use of the second person characteristic of hymns and prayers ('tuo... tibi... t u . . . tuis.., te'). The phrasing 'sive . . . seu... sive' reflects both hymnic and aetiological modes of expression; the pattern appears commonly in lists of a deity's multiple roles or spheres of influence.'-" In effect, the poet is singing the god's praises at the same time that he explains the custom which takes place on his festal day: you are a 'puer* and 'iuvenis', you are 'pater', you are Liber. The alternative explanations, though in part mutually contradictory, show the ceremony from varying angles. First of all its meaning in general (3. 773-4), transition from boyhood to youth, emblematized in the deity who is both 'puer' and 'iuvenis'. Next (3. 775-6) we get the perspective of the paterfamilias who is initiating his son. To entrust his boy to the god figures the widespread practice of assigning a son to a family friend for political apprenticeship, the tirocinium fori, a period which commenced with the assumption of the toga virilis,66 Then the poet concentrates on the toga ceremony itself (3. 378 'sumitur') in terms of the 'freedom' experienced by the initiate: 'Liber... liber a . . . liberioris'. The youth enters upon the

65 Hymnic: Hor. Od. 3. '21, 2-4, Caw, Saec. 15-16; Norden (1913) 149-60. Aetiological variants expressed thus: Fa*' 2. 81.-2 and 477-80, 3. 123-6, 4. 171-8. Ovid similarly mingles hymnic and aetiologieal modes in the next day's entry, devoted to the Quinquatrus; see Miller (1992*) 24-8, '"' Cic. Amic. \ 'ego autem a patre Ha cram deductus ad Seaevolam sumpta virili toga'; cf. Brut, 306, Gael. II, andTac. Dial. 34,

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path of a 'freer life', the path of adulthood; he no longer has constant and direct parental supervision. Although no decision is made among the aitta, this one's emphatic restatement of the original question's term 'toga libera' rhetorically clinches the series of three alternatives. But, as we have seen before in this entry, Ovidian closure can be elusive. The particle introducing the fourth possible explanation straightway marks a divergence from the rest of the series. After the elegant patterning *sive quod' (3. 773)... 'seu quia' (775)... 'sive, quod (777) comes 'an quia' (779). The final variant then abruptly switches tenses (from present to past) and modes of address (from second to third person). It runs five times the length of the previous aitia (3. 779—88, 10 lines vs. 2). The speaker here shifts from the god himself to the history of his festival. He imagin.es the Uberalia in olden, simpler times, when Liber had his own 'ludi', which have since merged with the Ludi Ceriales, when senators and consuls toiled in the countryside, whence the rural population would journey to Rome for Liber's games. As elsewhere in the Fasti (cf. 1. 191226), the idealized past comes with a satiric edge directed at the present: then 'it was no crime to have rugged hands' (3. 782 'nee crimen duras esset habere manus'); then games were 4an honour paid to the gods, not a concession to popular tastes"* (3. 784 'sed dis, non studiis ille dabatur honor'). The unsettling implication is that ludi in more recent times aim first of all to please the masses, not the divinities. This idea is juxtaposed with Liber's loss of his own games. And readers will know that Liber's ruined home on the Aventine has remained unrestored since 31 DC. Overtones of religious decline at Rome suddenly darken Ovid's celebration of the Uberalia. This discordant note is sounded at precisely the moment when the entry achieves resolution in another area, the ongoing interplay between the Greek and Roman dimensions of Liber-Bacchus.1'9 At the start the deity has a Greek name (3. 713-14 'Baccho/Bacche') in. his Roman festal context tl?

At Jr. 4, 10, 28 Ovid applies the comparative to the symbolic garment itself, f 'liberior fratri sumpLa mihique toga est', * Frazer's translation, ts!i por Kerne's dialogue with Greece concerning its religious self-identity, see most recently Feeney (1998), esp. 12-46,

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('Tertia post Idus lux/tua festa'}. The poet then rejects the god's Hellenic mythological biography (chapter by chapter) in favour of local causae. In the first such explanation he partly patterns Liber's sacrifices following his (i.e. Dionysus') well-known oriental victories after the Roman triumph. The honey in the Liberalia's liba' he traces back to mythical events at Mt. Pangaea in Thrace. The clustered aitia concerning the 'anus sacerdotes* sacrificing around Rome are all strictly Dionysian. The final movement opens with another apostrophe to Bacchus but then totally erases Dionysus and his Hellenic world from view. We hear now of Liber pater (3. 775 and 777), of 'senator' (780), 'fasces', 'consul' (781), 'populus' and 'Urbem' (783). The title 'inventor of grapes* (3. 785) is culturally neutral, since the god's Italian cultic identity has long (even if not originally) included wine.70 Liber partners closely with Ceres (3. 785-6} in Roman cult. 'Tironern' (3. 787) is the technical term for a Roman youth come of age. Reflection on the togate Roman has taken us a world away (and irrevocably) from Bacchus in India and Silenus in Thrace. In the last aition proper the poet proposes that the toga ceremony was held during Liber's games so that a crowd could celebrate the youth (3. 787-8 'ergo ut tironem celebrare frequentia possit, visa dies dandae non aliena togae?' 'And so, did the day seem appropriate for bestowing the toga, so that a throng could honour the young man come of age?'). He poses this as a question, one alternative among several, but accords it greatest weight with the lengthy treatment, final position, and by echoing the opening query at the close (3. 788 'dies dandae... togae'; cf, 771-2 'quare toga... detur | Lucifero... hio'). One has the sense that in archaic times the whole rustic population witnessed the boy's induction to manhood in the Forum. However many citizens in Ovid's day attend the event, they do so still against the backdrop of the festive crowds at the Liberalia, called 'lux celeberrima' at the entry's outset (3. 713; cf, 787 'celebrare frequentia'). To the aetiologist, however, the honorific toga given (3. 771 'detur', 788 'dandae'} on this day also nostalgically calls to mind the 70 Wissowa (IM2) 298, 302-3. 'Uvae commcntor' continues the leitmotif of Bacchic invention {cf. 3, 731 'primus*, 733 'aucturis', 736 'reperta', and 762 'repertori'}.

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honours formerly (but no longer) given to the gods (3. 784 'dis.,. dabatur honor').

VII

Ovid's hyninic meditation on the Liberalia ends aptly with a traditional envoi: 'mite caput, pater, hue placataque comua vertas, et des ingenio vela secunda meo' ('Father, turn here your horned head, mild and propitious, and give my talent's sails favourable breezes' 3. 789-90). The intended recipients of the god's blessings ('hue') are at first unspecified—does the speaker mean the youth earning his 'toga libera'? all Romans at the feast?—but the pentameter narrows the focus to the poet himself. The prayer forms a ring composition with that at the entry's beginning. There the Vates' (3. 714) asked, Bacchus to support him while he sang of his festival. Now, in return for that song of the Liberalia, he requests continued progress for his poetic journey through the calendar. Here he uses Liber's Roman appellation, 'pater'. In closing, the text looks allusively to two other literary celebrations of Bacchus. The complex hymn opening Metamofphoses 4 concludes by inviting the deity in exactly the same terms: ' "placatus mitisque" rogant Ismenides "adsis"' (' "Come to us propitious and mild", call the Theban women', 4.31). As we noted earlier, this climactic quoted speech rounds off the narrator's extended apostrophe to the god, which in turn took off from his indirect report of the Theban women's ritual utterance. The closural distich in the Fasti changes voices in reverse fashion, restoring (again) the poet's interrupted direct address to the divinity. The awestruck Theban Bacchants call upon Bacchus to be kind and mild, having just witnessed contemptuous King Pentheus' demise and now with the sacrilegious daughters of Minyas in their midst. If the calendrical poet likewise feels an urgency—the adjectives are predicative here too—perhaps it is a momentary anxiety as he hopes for a divine gift ('des') while in mind of the Romans' corrupted ludic gifts to the gods (3. 784'dis.. .dabatur honor'); in the entry as a whole, this neglect taints the otherwise dutiful offerings to Bacchus (3, 762 'damns'), which imitate the god himself as inventor of

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sacrifices (3. 731 'primus . , . dedisti'). However, such a reading would seem to rely on the intertextual dynamic rather than arise from the conventional prayer language, which does not imply a speaker under stress.71 The benefaction anticipated by the poet plays more directly off the previous couplet (3. 787-8). This is the day for a father to bestow the toga mrilis on his son ('dandae. . . togae'; cf. 3. 775); so do you, 'pater', give ('des') favourable breezes to rny sails. The final hexameter conjures up Virgil's georgic feast of Bacchus" as well as Ovid's own Theban celebration. The Virgilian festivities included masks of Bacchus suspended from trees (2. 389 'oscilla'). Virgil brings these to life when concluding his list of rural areas which the god benefits in return for the Italian rustics' worship. Vineyards flourish, as do valleys and daJes 'and wherever the god has turned his handsome head' (2. 392 'et quoeumque deus circum caput egit honestum'}. Ovid describes more precisely, acknowledging the horns on Bacchus' head. He would have the god extend his beneficent gaze from the 'rus' to the urban Liberalia, and to himself, poet of Rome's religious calendar. The Virgilian intertext seems to assure that those blessings, too, are forthcoming from Liber-Bacchus. '' Cf. the similar dosing prayers to Venus at Fasti 4. 161-2 'semper ad Aeneadas plactdo, pulcherrima, voltu | respite* and to Bacchus himself at [Caesius Bassus] fr. 2 Morel-Buechner 'placidus ades ad aras, | Bacche Bacche Bacehe' (for the attribution see Courtney 1993; 351), neither of which registers deep fear. See further Stat, Sihi, 3. 1. 39 spa,catas rnitisfjiie veni5 (to Heracles); Appel (1909) 123. a Fantharo (1992: 39—.r>6) explores Ovid's engagement with the Georgia in his treatment of Ceres and Flora.

10

Contesting Time and Space: Fasti 6. 637-48 CAROLE E. NEWLANDS

When the rich equestrian Vedius Pollio died in 15 BC, he bequeathed substantial property to Augustus: a villa on the Bay of Naples and a mansion in Rome. The latter was razed to make way for a new public monument, the Porticus of Livia, which contained a shrine that was dedicated to Concordia in 7 BC.1

Since the second Punic War, the Roman porticus had proved an architectural form specifically apt for the splendid combination of public munificence with political visibility.2 Magnificent colonnades enclosing precious paintings and sculptures made available to the general public the fruits of empire. But although the Porticus of Livia is preserved on the Marble Plan, there are no archaeological remains, and we have very little information about its appearance.3 Pliny the Elder tells us that a notable feature of the Porticus was a prolific, fruit-bearing vine that shaded the walkways; his nephew tells us that it was a good place to meet with a friend.4 Ovid provides our only contemporary, and indeed our fullest, references to the Porticus. The monument appeal's twice in Ovid's poetry, first in the Ars Amatoria and then in the Fasti. In each instance the Porticus conveys a very different social message. 1 Our ancient sources for the Porticus of Livia are Dio Cass. 55. 8. 1; 0v. An Am. I . 71-2; Pliny, AW 14. 3. 11; Plitiy, Ep. 1. 5. U8; Strabo 5. 3, 8; Suet. Dili. Aug. 29, 4, - On the development of the porticus in Rome see Richardson (1991) 396-402. 3 On the Porticus of Livia see Frazer (1929) iv. 345; Platncr-Asbby (1929} 423; Richardson (1992) 314-15; Zanker (19H8) W7-9. Zanker includes a figure of the section of the Marble Plan showing the layout of the Porticus of Livia. 4 Pliny, AW 14. 3. 11; Pliny, Ep. \. 5. 9. We arc better informed about the Porticus of Pontpey, which closely integrated museum and garden. See KuUuer (liWil) 343-73,

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In AA 1. 71-2 Ovid recommends the Portions of Livia as one of the best sites in Rome for picking up girls. He describes the Porticus as famous for its works of art, specifically its ancient paintings, 'priscis sparsa tabellis' (71 )/• The use of the verb spaTsa, 'sprinkled', imparts a casualness to the description and invites us to view the Porticus from the point of view of the dilettante and would-be lover, who uses the art gallery as a mere backdrop for erotic dalliance. Priscis, 'ancient', also suggests an antiquity that is morally at variance with the viewer's chief purpose in visiting the Porticus, He seeks not moral edification but physical pleasure. In Fasti 6. 637-48, Ovid seems to correct his earlier assessment of the Porticus of "Livia,. There is no mention of its art collection; rather, it is referred to through its inner 'aedes' or shrine of Concordia, a deity closely connected, with the 'concord' of the Imperial family." Indeed, it is described as a gift from Livia to Augustus. The Porticus now enshrines monogamy, not promiscuity. This passage in the Fasti will be the focus of my chapter, for even though it is brief, it illuminates an issue at the heart of the poem, Augustas' rewriting of Rome's past and shaping of its present through control of the city's monuments and calendar. The erasure of a Republican house and the erection of an Augustan monument provide Ovid with the occasion for a subtle yet provocative meditation on the changing values of space and time. For, as the passage on the Porticus of Livia and the ill-fated house of Vedius Pollio suggests, Ovid's poem implicitly contests the 'universalizing culture' that Augustus attempted to establish in order to define his empire and fashion

"' Flory (1984) 328 assumes that the Porticus was famous for its works of art. See, however, Hollis (1977) 46. Apart from Ovid's passage here, Strabu (5, 3, 8) aloue niakc^ oblique reference to a. possible art collection in the Porticus. We know more certainly about the tamous fit! collection in Tiberius' temple ofCorteordiaiu the Forum Romanurn. On the decoration of this temple see Keltum {1990} 276-307. ^ Ptory {1.984) 309-30 points out that Ovid's Ones do not make clear the relationship between the shrine io Concordia and the Poriicus. However > the Marble Pfan» which shows the layout of the Porticus of Livia, reveals a small rectangular structure in the centre. This has been generally accepted to mark the shrine in question since, as Flory argues, 'the term aedes, of course, does not imply a building of any particular size and can refer to modest shrines as well as to imposing temples' (310).

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7

a new sense of Roman identity. The Fasti provides its own complex monument to mutability. The shrine of Concordia, then, and the fate of the house of Vedius Pollio, are central to Ovid's discussion of the Porticus of Livia in the Fasti. The dedication of this shrine is the third commemorative event that Ovid discusses as falling on 11 June, a day that is devoted to festivals honouring three goddesses: Mater Matuta, Fortuna, and Concordia. The reference to Concordia emphasizes the close connection between the shrine and stable marriage (637-8): Te quoque magnifica, Concordia, dedicat aede Livia, quara earo praestltit ipsa viro. To you too, Concordia, Livia makes dedication with a magnificent shrine, which she presented to her beloved husband,

Livia, we are told, presented this shrine to her beloved husband. It therefore functions as a sign of domestic harmony at the highest level. Like Ovid's poetry, the Porticus of Livia has undergone a metamorphosis. For Ovid proceeds to tell us that the Porticus stands on the site of the pretentious house of Vedius Pollio. Augustus, believing luxury harmful, razed the immense mansion bequeathed to him in order to construct his wife's monument (639-48): Disce tamen, veniens aetas: ubi Livia nunc est porticus, immensae lecta, fuere domus; urbis opus domus una fait spatiumque tenebat quo brevius muris oppida multa tenent. Haee aequata solo est, nullo sub crimine regni, sed quia luxuria visa nocere sua. Sustinuit tantas operum subvertere moles totque suas heres perdere Caesar opes: sic agitur censura et sic exempla parantur, cum index, alios quod monet, ipse facit. Learn then, future age: where Livia's Porticus is now was the expanse of an. enormous house: a single house, as big as a city, covered a broader stretch of ground than many cities enclose within their wails. This house was '' On the specific ways in which Augustus exerted ideological control over the city and helped bring about a 'cultural revolution' see WaLLace-Hadrill (1997) 3-22,

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levelled to the ground, not because of any crime of treason but because it seemed harmful in its luxury. Caesar, the heir of the property, undertook to overturn such an enormous architectural mass and to destroy so much of his own wealth: this is how the censorship is conducted and examples are provided when the judge himself does what he counsels others to do.

The didactic tone of this passage and its protreptic purpose is emphasized by the opening 'disce' (689) and the concluding reference to 'exempla' (647), Here, in one of the relatively rare Augustan moments of the Fasti, the narrator assumes a highly moralizing, censorious voice. The Porticus of Livia appears as a monument to domestic stability and traditional virtues: loyalty, moral and economic restraint, philanthropy in the service of the state. Whereas in the Ars Amatoria Ovid undermines the connection between morality and the Augustan monument, here he seems to go out of his way to reinforce it. Such a strong didactic voice is unusual in the Fasti, where Ovid frequently plays the role of student rather than teacher.8 But even as he adopts a censorious voice, with 'disce tamen' he mischievously reminds his reader, perhaps, of his previous authoritative, didactic voice in the Ars Amatoria and the role of the Porticus of Livia there as a site for erotic dalliance.9 But Ovid's poetry, like the Porticus itself, now embodies a different set of values. As Barchiesi points out, the text of the Fasti here falls in line with Augustus' censorship of the house by correcting the improper use to which the monument was put in the Ars Amatoria,10 Yet the authoritative ring of 'disce tamen' none the less teasingly suggests continuity as well as change within his poetry. Indeed, the passage in the Fasti on the Porticus of Livia is a curious one. Vedius Pollio is the only equestrian of the Augustan age referred to in the Fasti As Syme points out, Ovid's passage on the Porticus of Livia and the house of Vedius Pollio represents 'one of his rare allusions to contemporary transactions'.11 Moreover, the passage is oddly asymmetrical. Livia's shrine of Concordia is ascribed two lines of epigrammatic brevity (637-8), whereas the house of Vedius Pollio is 8 On Ovid's didactic persona in the Fasti see Harries (1989) 164-85; Miller (1982) !) 400-13; Newknds (1995) 51-86. See Barchiesi (1997) 92, 10 Barchiesi (1997) 92, " Syine (1961) 23-30,

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ascribed ten lines (639-48). This is a rather surprising conclusion to a day, 11 June, that has been devoted for nearly two hundred lines to the discussion of the female cults of Mater Matuta (475-568) and Fortuna (569-636), The text's chronological arrangement of the festivals, moving from Mater Matuta, whose arrival in Italy pre-dates that of Aeneas, to Fortuna, whose cult was developed by Servius Tullius, and ending with Livia's Concordia and Augustus, structures a view of time as linear, ideological, and dominantly partriarchal. The spatial movement too, from the flat area of the Forum Boarium, where the temples of Mater Matuta and Fortuna were situated side by side, to the upper slopes of the Oppian hill with its Porticus, mirrors the temporal progress and suggests the climactic distance of the Augustan present from the past,12 Even so, as a ideological climax to the lengthy discussion of women's cults, the passage on the Porticus itself and its shrine is surprisingly short and asymmetrical; attention is diverted from Concordia to the moralizing disquisition on the enormous house of Vedius Pollio which formerly stood on the site. The entire discussion of 11 June then ends by turning away from images of female authority to Augustus* dominance over the calendar and the cityscape of Rome as he co-opts a day of female celebration along with his wife's monument. The climax of 11 June falls upon Augustus and his building programme, Why then is the house of Vedius Pollio of such relative importance here at the end of 11 June? Herbert-Brown has suggested that these last ten lines form an aetiological red herring, a diversion from the dynastic difficulties that at the time of the shrine's dedication, 7 BC, underlay the official discourse of Concordia and that were still troublesome at the time of the writing of the Fasti.13 Although Dio tells us, for instance, that the dedication of the Porticus was performed jointly by Livia and her son Tiberius, Ovid makes no mention of Tiberius, that

la The temples of Mater Maluta arid Fortuna were believed to have been founded by Servius Tullius. See Ov. Fasti ft. 479-80 and .%9; Bonier (1958) 372-H. a ' Herbert-Brown (1994) 150-5.

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controversial son, stepson, and heir.14 Livia appears here solely as wife, not as mother. Ovid's lines then certainly perform a diversionary function, But, I believe, they do more than that. Barchiesi, for instance, has pointed out the importance of reading this passage on the Porticus in conjunction with the following major discussion of the Quinquatrus Minores, the flute-players' festival (6. 651710). Here a story is told (651-92) of how censorship of a different sort is exercised by a Republican censor, who aims to protect and promote the arts,15 As Barchiesi suggests, 'for the reader who has an ear for the switches in tone between the two consecutive passages, the destiny of the poet of the An Amatoria, resonates in the balance'.16 Yet the issue goes beyond censorship and Ovid's own controversial poetry. The passage on the Porticus of Livia is, I suggest, central to the whole concept of Ovid's poem. For while the passage diverts the reader from concordia to tuxuria, it also, despite its brevity, provides a blueprint for an issue at the heart of the Fasti, the contest between poet and emperor over time. I am influenced in my thinking here by Morson's book on time, which begins with a meditation on the temporal dimension to politics,1' The Utopian vision of a perpetual Golden Age with certain and unchanging values was central to Augustan ideology. By asserting control over civic time, Augustus in effect claimed to have put an end to time itself, with its essential unpredictability, Ovid's fragmented poem, the Fasti, on the other hand, offers a fluctuating view of time present as well as past; nor does it progress towards a definite, certain future. Through its very form and style, the poem contests the Utopian dream promulgated by the emperor. Competing notions of time and space run throughout the entire discussion of 11 June and are embedded in the short passage at the end through the tension between Porticus and mansion. Understood within the immediate context of 11 June, the final passage on Porticus and 14 Die Cass. 54, 23, 6; 5.5, 8. 2. Although the Purlieus was dedicated in early January, the shrine of Concordia was, it seems, dedicated in June in order to link the cult with the two female cults that bad been established by Servius Tullius in the Forum Boarium, Herbert-Brown, (11)1)4) 151-3, suggests that the Porticus of Ijvia was on or close by the site of the old Servian palace on the Esqiiilirie, 15 lfi a Barchiesi (1997) 90-2, Barchiesi (1997) 1)2. Morson (1994) 1-1).

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mansion plays upon the mutability of human experience, the potential dislocation between morality and monument, and the tension between the closed view of Augustan time and the exuberant openness of Ovid's calendar. Before we look at the house and the Porticus, however, let us begin by looking at the controversial figure of Vedius Pollio.

Vedius Pollio: Master or Monster? Ovid tells us that Augustus, disliking luxuria, razed the mansion Vedius Pollio had bequeathed to him. Here in Fasti 6 Ovid provides our first testimony of the luxury for which Vedius Pollio in subsequent history was notorious.18 But we must be careful not to attribute to Ovid the colourful and outrageous reputation that the equestrian acquired in the first century AD. Dio for instance, our chief source for Vedius' life, says that Vedius Pollio was distinguished for nothing except luxury and cruelty (Dio 54. 23. 1). Indeed, his name became associated exclusively with the scandal of his fishponds, into which he was said to throw errant slaves as live bait for lampreys. One particular story, told by both Seneca and Dio, vividly illustrates the equestrian's character.19 According to this narrative, while Augustus was paying Vedius Pollio a visit at his house, a cupbearer broke a crystal goblet and was destined for the fatal fishponds. But Augustus broke all the crystal goblets so that Vedius Pollio could not punish the slave for what the emperor had done. This stoiy is a moralizing fable that presents Vedius Pollio as a monster of excess in both wealth and cruelty. He could afford, it seems, to lose crystal goblets and slaves alike. He is a bad master, profligate and swift to anger. Augustus, on the other hand, appears in this story as a model of the good leader 18 Tacitus makes tantalizing reference (for the text is both elliptical and corrupt here) to Vedius Pollio in his passage assessing Augustus* reign (Ann, 1. 10, 14); all that can be understood with certainty is the phrase, 'Vedii Pollionis tuxus', luxury, it seems, being the hallmark of the man. But, as Syme astutely notes (1961: 29), Vedius Pollio is listed here among those who suffered from Augustus' single-minded pursuit of power; there is clearly more to him than tradition reveals. 19 Sen. Delm'A. 40. 2-5; Clem. I. 18. 2; Dio Cass. 54. 23. 2-4,

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who refrains from excessive anger and unjust punishments. Augustus assumes a didactic role, teaching his subject by example to exercise moderation and clemency in rule, However, the story also suggests that Augustus and Vedius Pollio were on good enough terms of acquaintance for the emperor to enjoy hospitality at the equestrian's home. Pliny the Elder mentions that Vedius Pollio was indeed an 'amicus' of Augustus,2" Significantly, as Atkinson has detailed, the name Vedius Pollio occurs on two honorific inscriptions of the Augustan age from cities of Asia; it appears on coins attributed to Tralles from the beginning of Augustus' reign; there are also several references to a "constitutio' of Vedius Pollio at Ephesus.21 If the Pollio in question is in fact the notorious magnate of later tradition, as Atkinson has strongly argued, then we have tantalizing evidence that Vedius Pollio was an important 'amicus' of Augustus early in the emperor's reign. Indeed, he probably made a permanent financial endowment for local games at Ephesus in honour of Augustus. He therefore would have played an important part in the establishment of imperial cult in Asia.22 It seems likely then that he was a more influential political figure than Dio allows. As an 'amicus' of Augustus too, Vedius Pollio would have been expected to mention Augustus in his will when he died in 15 BC, for this was an accepted way of acknowledging the generosity of the emperor during the 'friend's' lifetime.23 Dio (55. 7, 5) tells us that Maecenas willed his estate to Augustus, a bequest that greatly pleased and moved the emperor, Valerius Maximus (7. 8. 6) provides the cautionary example of a certain T. Marius Urbinas, who caused a scandal by failing to mention Augustus in, his will.3'1 Vedius Pollio left his Campanian villa at Pausilypon and his town house in Rome to the emperor (Dio 54. 23. 5).2S There is little reason to assume that this was 'an embarrassing bequest', as Flory interprets it; indeed, Augustus -° Hiuy, NH !). 39. 77, -1 AUunsou (19C2) 261-80. a 2S ' Atkinson (1962), 279-85. Garnsey and Sailer (1987) 149-50. - 4 Garnsey and Sailer (1987) 150. ~'~' On the history of the site of the Campanian villa see Gunther (1913) 6-12. Gunther (8) notes that it was by means of such bequests that the emperors of the first two centuries, beginning with Augustus, acquired substantial property around the Bay of Naples.

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