Rome Exam #2

original location of the Temple of Vesta,

On the Velia hill

Penates and Lares:

Penates and Lares: Vesta was in charge of a group of small household gods who in turn were in charge of the pantry, food and fire within the home.

Rex Sacrificulus and Rex Sacrorum:

Rex Sacrificulus and Rex Sacrorum: These were magistrates assumed the priestly powers that once belonged to the king. When the Republic began in 509 BC, and there no longer was a king, the religious powers of the king were transferred to two magistrates. The Rex Sacrificulus was in charge of the sacra publica (sacred things) or the "king of sacrifice." He was always a patrician, elected for life, had an official residence in the Regia, his religious authority ranked below the pontifex maximus and he could not hold any public office. The other official, the Rex Sacrorum: "king of sacred rites" announced and presided over certain days in the calendar of Roman holy days and he helped train and educate new priests.

Domus Publica

("public house") or the residence of the Pomtifex Maximus (chief priest). right next to Regia

curia julia

- Built by julius caesar and completed by Augustus - Senate house

Clivus Palatinus

: this was a sloping road that led to the top of the Palatine Hill from the Nova Via.

Regia- purpose

Built by 2nd king Numa Pompilius (716 -672 BC)Initially the home (or main headquarters) of the KingsLater, became office of the Pontifex Maximus: chief priest of Rome Cappellaccio and Travertine marble building stones used with tufa to construct the Regia

REGIA

Built by 2nd king Numa Pompilius (716 -672 BC)Initially the home (or main headquarters) of the KingsLater, became office of the Pontifex MaximusLocated next to the Domus Publica Cappellaccio and Travertine stoneArsenal, repository for pontifical archives, Sacrarium Martis (Things sacred to Mars): ie. "figure eight" shields (= ancilia) and the Hasti Martis (spears of Mars)

Pons sublicius

Earliest known Roman bridge in Rome,Jani: Latin for "bridges"

Fasti =

Fasti = records or plans of official and religiously sanctioned events Fasti Triumphales et Consulares, Arch of Augustus,

fasti

Fasti: these were records or plans of official and religiously sanctioned events that were also kept at the Regia

Found within the Regia:

Found within the Regia: chapel, storage area for sacred objects and repository for sacred records

Castor and Pollux

In Roman mythology, Castor and Pollux were the twin demi-god offspring of Jupiter and Leda and equivalent to the Dioscuri of Greek mythology. They are also represented in the constellation Gemini. Pollux was considered immortal while his brother Castor was mortal; both were particularly associated with military cavalry and their cult went back to the mid-6th century BC in Italy. The first temple of Castor and Pollux was erected in 484 BC. It stood in recognition of the importance that the victory at the Battle of Lake Regillus (496 BC) had for the existence of Rome. It recognized that two individuals, Castor and Pollux had played their all-important divine intervention in a battle that determined that Rome, and all that the city stood for, would be the city that would lead the people of Italy and eventually be the leading city of the Roman world.

Purposes of the temple

The temple served as the focal point for the worship of the Dioscuri, but it was also sometimes used as a meeting place for the Senate. According to Cicero the rooms within the podium were sometimes full of senators discussing serious matters or performing specific rituals. From the middle of the 2nd century BC the front of the podium also served as a speaker's platform and as a place for public announcements.

Via Nova ("New Road")

Via Nova ("New Road") was a road built parallel to the Sacra Via in the Forum, but adjacent to the edge of the Palatine Hill. It was curtailed in its length by the construction of the later Lacus Jutura (a shrine to the goddess of springs)

eternal flame

Two of the youngest vestals cared for the cleansing of the Aedes Vestae and the eternal flame. They also cleaned the building once a year of the ashes from the eternal flame. These ashes were called Stercus or "filth" and were carried through a special gate called the Porta Stercoraria ("gate of filthy or dirthy things" such as ashes, dirt or corpses) once per year and dumped into the Tiber River. At the entrance to the Atrium Vestae was a small shrine (aedicula) to Vesta.

Legend of the Battle of Regillus

Roman legend had it that these youthful twin sons of Jupiter appeared on horseback during the battle of Lake Regillus. The mythological story has been preserved in the writing of Dionysius Hallacarnasus. In the preserved myth they were described as far excelling mortals in beauty of form and features. They appeared to Postumius, the Roman leader at the Battle of Lake Regillus, and to those about him, and charged at the head of the Roman cavalry. They were such effective fighters that they killed or wounded all they met and drove the Latins before them, putting the enemy to flight, taking their camp, and ending the battle. A little later, according to legend, there were two youths who appeared at sunset in Rome on the day of the battle and they were dressed in the military attire of soldiers fresh from a battle. They were described as very tall and handsome young men. They and their horses were described as very tired. The twins dismounted and washed themselves in the fountain near the temple of Vesta (this is where the Lacus Juturna is located today). In answer to the many questions of people who were standing about, who were eager to know whether the strangers had brought news from the battle, they announced the Roman victory and related the story of what took place at the battle. They then left the Forum.

Sacellum Streniae:

Sacellum Streniae: a small shrine that was at the beginning of the Sacra Via and located on a hill called the carinae near the spot where the Colosseum would later be built. From this Sacellum (shrine) certain priests carried the sacra (sacred things) when the religious parades and marched began down the Sacra Via.

Salii

Salii: type of priests who participated in a wide range of religious rites. The Latin name of these priests is associated with "jumping." They were sometimes associated with the Regia

Salii:

Salii: type of priests. The Latin word is associated with "jumping."

Odd things associated with the temple.

Some later historians and poets made comment on some of the odd things that took place at the temple. Some of these accounts was made by the ancient authors Suetonius and Dio who commented on the temple and the emperor Caligula (one of the worst emperors): "Eventually Caligula began to claim for himself a divine majesty; ... He extended a part of the Palatine palace all the way out to the Forum, transforming the Temple of Castor and Pollux into an entrance hall for the Palace. There in the temple he would often take his seat between the twin gods, presenting himself for worship to those who approached." (Suetonius, Caligula 22.1-2 )Caligula went so far as to divide in two the Temple of the Dioscuri in the Roman Forum, making a passageway to the Palatine that went right between the two cult statues. As a result, he was fond of saying that he regarded the Dioscuri as his gate-keepers." Dio, History 59.28.5

Tabula Dealbata

Tabula Dealbata (white tablets on which were regularly written annual records of the greatest events of that year. The tabula was kept at the Regia

Tabula Dealbata (white tablets):

Tabula Dealbata (white tablets): Annales Maximi

tarpeia

Tarpeia: She was the daughter of the Roman commander and a Vestal virgin who betrayed the city of Rome to the Sabines. When the Sabine women were first abducted by the Romans, she helped the Romans in the belief that she would receive a great reward in the form of gold jewelry. Instead, she was crushed to death by piles of golden artifacts for her treachery and her body was thrown over the steepest cliff of the Capitoline Hill and thus the cliff was thereafter called Tarpeian Rock (Rupes Tarpeia.)

Curia Cornelia

The Curia Cornelia was a place where the Roman Senate assembled beginning c. 52 BC.[1] It was the largest of all the Curiae (Senate Houses) built in Rome. Its construction took over a great deal of the traditional comitium space and brought the senate building into a commanding location within the Roman Forum as a whole. It was the Senate House of the time of Julius Caesar and is significant because its location was moved by him to diminish the Senate's dominance within the City and Republic.

Curia Hostilia

The Curia Hostilia was one of the original senate houses or "curia" of the Roman Republic. It is believed to have begun as a temple where the warring tribes laid down their arms during the reign of Romulus (r. c. 771-717 BC). During the early monarchy, the temple was used by senators acting as council to the king. Tullus Hostilius (r. 673-641 BC) is believed to have replaced the original structure after fire destroyed the converted temple. It may have held historic significance as the location of an Etruscan mundus and altar. The Lapis Niger, a series of large black marble slabs, was placed over the altar (known as the Volcanal) where a series of monuments was found opposite the Rostra. This curia was enlarged in 80 BC by Lucius Cornelius Sulla during his renovations of the comitium. The building burned down in 53 BC when the supporters of the murdered Publius Clodius Pulcher used it as a pyre to cremate his body.

Description of the temple of C + P

Today in the Roman Forum, near the Temple of Vesta, stands what is left of the temple that was erected in honor of Castor and Pollux in 484 BC. These huge temple remains only hint at the massive size of the former building. All that specifically remains of the temple are three massive forty-eight feet high columns and the inner core of the podium for the temple. The facades had 8 Corinthian columns whilst the sides each had 11. The original front entrance was composed of a grand staircase with a speaker's platform with two additional sideways staircases (discovered through archaeology), but this arrangement was changed in the 3rd century AD to a single staircase. The new temple was constructed in white marble and tufa and was massive in size. It measured 32 x 50 m and reached a height of almost 19 m. Over time the temple underwent restorations due to fire or age.

Curia Julia

The Curia Julia (Latin: Curia Iulia, Italian: Curia Iulia) is the third named Curia, or Senate House, in the ancient city of Rome. It was built in 44 BC, when Julius Caesar replaced Faustus Cornelius Sulla's reconstructed Curia Cornelia, which itself had replaced the Curia Hostilia. Caesar did so to redesign both spaces within the Comitium and the Roman Forum. The alterations within the Comitium reduced the prominence of the Senate and cleared the original space. The work, however, was interrupted by Caesar's assassination at the Theatre of Pompey, where the Senate had been meeting temporarily while the work was completed. The project was eventually finished by Caesar's successor, Augustus Caesar, in 29 BC.[1] The Curia Julia is one of a handful of Roman structures that survive mostly intact. This is due to its conversion into the basilica of Sant'Adriano al Foro in the 7th century and several later restorations. However, the roof, the upper elevations of the side walls and the rear façade are modern and date from the remodeling of the deconsecrated church, in the 1930s.

The Sacravienses

The Sacravienses were the people who inhabited homes along the Sacra Via where many shops were located that sold expensive Mercandise. The Suburanenses were the people who lived in the Subura, the "red light" district of Rome and an area noted for people of lowest social standing. Each year these two neighborhoods participated in a chariot racing contest called the 'October Horse' (held on the 15th or the Ides of October). The winning team chose the best horse of their racing team, killed it, cut off its head, and played a type of "rugby" with the head. The winner could place the head on a pedestal in their community and held the "championship" for a year

The Tarpeian Rock

The Tarpeian Rock was a steep cliff on the Capitoline Hill. It was used during the Roman Republic as an execution site for murderers, traitors, perjurors, and untrustworthy slaves. The convicted were thrown from the cliff to their deaths.

The Vestal Virgins

The Vestal Virgins were six priestesses who tended the state cult of Vesta, who was the goddess of the hearth. The cult dated from the 7th century BC to its destruction in AD 394 by Theodosius I.As young girls they were chosen between the ages of 6 and 10 by the pontifex maximus ("chief priest") and served for 30 years. Afterward they could marry, but apparently few did.

peristyle courtyard of the Curia Julia

The peristyle courtyard was perhaps the "Chalcidicum" (perhaps also known as the Atrium Minerva in later years); the small adjoining building was perhaps the "Secretarium Senatus", a special law court for trying senators. Both parts were considered part of the Curia and both may date from the Augustan rebuild.

leaders of the vestal virgins

The senior Vestal was the Vestalis Maxima (greatest vestal) or the Maxima Virgo (meaning something like 'the greatest stem' (i.e. of a tree branch).

Pool of Juturna

The small pool of spring water where the Dioscuri cleansed themselves and their horses after the Battle of Lake Regillus, became a small area dedicated to the goddess Juturna (Iuturna), who was the goddess of springs. Her name appears to have come from the Latin verb, iuvare, meaning "the Helping One." It also seems associated with the word diuturna, "the Immortal One. Because of the healing waters, the area dedicated to Juturna also became a place sacred to the healing god, Aesculapius. Later, the spot became the location for the office of the "curators of the water" the "curatores aquarum" and their offices known as the Statio Aquarum (Water Board). board for Rome.

vestal virgin practices, festivals, etc.

The youngest vestals also made a holy salty bread (mola salsa) that was used in religious rites and festivals. In addition to the Vestalia festival to Vesta, the Vestals celebrated two other important festivals. One was the Fordicidia, a festival of fertility, held on the Ides of April (April 13), that pertained to farming and animal husbandry. It involved the sacrifice of a pregnant cow to Tellus, the ancient Roman goddess of the Earth. The fetus was burned and the ashes were mixed with the blood from the tail of the sacrificed horse who had won the race called the "October Horse." The other festival was the Lupercales. This festival was associated with the she-wolf that nursed the babies Romulus and Remus. It was a pastoral festival that was held to avert evil spirits and purify the city. The site that honored Romulus and Remus was the Lupercal, a cave situated on the Palatine Hill. The Latin name for a she-wolf is Lupa, and is thus in the name Lupercal. The festival is related to Romulus because he was supposedly the founder of Rome. They also supervised a festival called the Paliliae that was dedicated to shepherds, because a shepherd named Faustalus had found the babies Romulus and Remus being nursed by the she-wolf. Another important festival which the vestals helped supervise was the Robigalia (April 2) a festival for the protection of grain fields from disease such as mold on a crop. It involved the sacrifice of a red-haired dog.

duties of vestal virgins

Their duties included tending the perpetual fire in the Atrium Vestae, keeping their vows of chastity, fetching water from a sacred spring (because they could not drink or use water from the city water-supply system), prepare ritual food, caring for objects in the temple's inner sanctuary (stored in the Penus Vestae: a niche for storage), and officiate at Vesta's principal religious festival, the Vestalia (June 7-15). Within the Penus was stored a small statuette from Troy called the Palladium, which was a figure of Athena (known as the Pallas Athena). The word Pallas means "little maiden," and is related to another word pallake "concubine," and probably somehow connected to pairika "beautiful women seducing pious men." Both the goddess Athena and Minerva were sometimes identified with the attributes of wisdom. It the vestals failed to attend to their duties they could be punished by a beating. If they violated their vows of chastity, they were by burial alive. They had to be buried because their blood could not be spilled They could marry after their term of service, be freed from their father's rule and own property after they retired. They supervised the records of will, treaties and official documents stored in a room called the Tablinum, which was an office within the Atrium Vestae.

Pliny's story about the Regia

There is a story in the ancient author Pliny about a set of columns that were kept in the Regiathat were apparently used with the tent of Alexander. The story involves an argument between a great general named Cnaeus Domitius Calvinus and Octavian (Augustus) over who should possess the columns.

rooms of the temple

While the temple itself consisted of only one cella, the interior of the podium of the temple was quite complex and consisted of some 25 small chambers (loculi) where were located numerous offices. Sealed by metal doors and thick walls, the loculi served as repositories for the emperor's imperial treasury (fiscus) and as a safe deposit for the wealth of private individuals. Although the Temple of Saturn held the State Treasury (Aerarium) some of the aerarium treasury could occasionally be stored in one or more of the chambers within the podium. Thus, the temple served as a bank because some of the chambers served as money vaults. The poet Juvenal regarded these "bank rooms" were more secure than the Temple of Mars the Avenger built later by Augustus. The unsavory reputation of the nearby street called the Vicus Tuscus cannot have been reassuring for the protection of precious things stored in the chambers within the podium. Here too was kept the official office of weights and measures. These weights formed the standard not only for the intense trading and banking business of the Roman Forum, but as the central standard for the weights of other cities as well. Finally, one chamber seems to have been used by a dentist! The temple not only had a religious function it was used for military ceremonies. Every 15th of July the temple was the focus of a cavalry parade - the transvectio - of 5,000 men led by two impersonators of the heroes who commemorated the victory at Regillus. Renovations to the temple, which came to be more associated with Castor because the Roman knights (equites class) had adopted him as the leader of their class in the 2nd century BC. Later, in the early first century AD the emperor Augustus had the temple rebuilt after a fire had damaged it and at this time he initiated a new feast day in honor of the Dioscuri on the 27th of January. Before the death of his own two sons (Gaius and Lucius) Augustus had even associated his own two sons with the Dioscuri and their temple.

Fordicidia,

a festival of fertility, held on the Ides of April (April 13), that pertained to farming and animal husbandry. It involved the sacrifice of a pregnant cow to Tellus, the ancient Roman goddess of the Earth. The fetus was burned and the ashes were mixed with the blood from the tail of the sacrificed horse who had won the race called the "October Horse."

Sections within the Regia

an Arsenal room, a repository for pontifical records, the Sacrarium Martis (Things sacred to Mars) ie. "figure eight" shields (= ancilia) and the Hasti Martis (spears of Mars) Another room that was found within the Regia that was a chapel and a room for the storage area for sacred objects.

A reconstruction of Rome showing the location of the Curia

curiae

Fasti Triumphales et Consulares

lists kept at the Regia of military triumphs and of the annual Consuls of Rome. They were originally kept at the Regia but were later found in association with a nearby arch built to honor Augustus,

Lupercales

the other festival was the Lupercales. This festival was associated with the she-wolf that nursed the babies Romulus and Remus. It was a pastoral festival that was held to avert evil spirits and purify the city. The site that honored Romulus and Remus was the Lupercal, a cave situated on the Palatine Hill. The Latin name for a she-wolf is Lupa, and is thus in the name Lupercal. The festival is related to Romulus because he was supposedly the founder of Rome. They also supervised a festival called the Paliliae that was dedicated to shepherds, because a shepherd named Faustalus had found the babies Romulus and Remus being nursed by the she-wolf. Another important festival which the vestals helped supervise was the Robigalia (April 2) a festival for the protection of grain fields from disease such as mold on a crop. It involved the sacrifice of a red-haired dog.

where did the vestal virgins live

they lived in the House of the Vestal Virgins (Atrium Vestae) in the Roman Forum near the Temple of Vesta (Aedes Vestae) where they cared for the eternal flame that burned in the temple. The only male who could enter the Aedes Vestae was the Pontifex Maximus. The house of the vestals was next to the Temple of Castor and Pollux (Temple of the twins (the Dioscuri), the Domus Publicus (public house) and the Regia. Before the Atrium Vestae was constructed the site was the location of a sacred grove called a Lucus. Around their home, as around temples, there was a small holy area called a Temnos which could not be violated.

Fornix Fabianus:

this was a small arch located along the Sacra Via before reaching the Regia. It was built in honor of a general named Q. Fabius Allobrogicus in 121 BC in honor of his victory over a German tribe named the Alloboges. The small type of arch (fornix) was associated with haunts of prostitutes. It name is the origin for the word fornication

Horatius Cocles

was an early Roman general who became famous for defending the Pons Sublicius Ca. 642 BC against King Ancus Martius who was expelled from Rome but who tried to regain entry to Rome over the bridge. King Ancus Martius lost the battle.