M. Moravius Piscinus cultoribus Deorum et omnibus salutem plurimam
dicit: Di vos salvas et servatas volunt.

Hodie est Kalendae Maesiae; haec dies fastus est: DIE SEPTIMI TE
KALO, IUNO COVELLA: Floralia; Laribus; Bonae Deae in Aventino;
lustratio ad flumen Casilino; hoc biduo sol unam dicitur tenere
particulam, Sucula cum sole exoritur.

The month of May, sacred to Maia, holds a number of festivals for the
Manes. The most important of these are the three days of Lemuria
later in the month. But tonight would see a special ceremony where
lamps were lit at the tombs of the ancestors.

In conjunction with the ceremony this evening, today celebrates the
dedication of the Temple of the Lares Praestites by Augustus, circa
16 BCE, "at the highest point of the Sacra Via" (Fasti Venusia,
Apulia, CIL 9.421; Res Gestae Divi Augusti 19). The altar of the
Lares Praestites was said to have been first dedicated by King Titus
Tatius (Ovidius Naso, Fasti 5.129-132; Terrentius Varro, Lingua
Latinae 5.74) They were depicted as two young men, possibly in
reference to Romulus and Remus, or else to Titus Tatius and Romulus
when they were both Kings, wearing dog-skins and bearing spears. At
their feet was a dog.

Plutarch, Roman Questions 51:

"Why is a dog placed beside the Lares that men call by the special
name of praestites, and why are the Lares themselves clad in dog-
skins? Is it because 'those that stand before' are termedpraestites,
and, also because it is fitting that those who stand before a house
should be its guardians, terrifying to strangers, but gentle and mild
to those who live there, even as are dogs? Or is it the truth rather,
as some Romans affirm, that, just as the philosophic school of
Chrysippus think that evil spirits stalk about whom the Gods use as
executioners and avengers upon unholy and unjust men, even so the
Lares are spirits of punishment like Furies and supervisors of men's
lives and houses? Wherefore they are clothed in the skins of dogs
and have a dog as their attendant, in the belief that they are
skillful in tracking down and following up evil-doers."


Today also commemorates the dedication of the Aventine Temple of the
Bona Dea. In 123 BCE Vestal Virgin Licinia added an aedicula,
pulvinar, and ara to the Aventine Temple of Bona Dea. Licinia was the
daughter of Tribunus Plebis G. Licinius Crassus (145 BCE). In 114
BCE she was condemned on a charge of incestus and put to death, and
her dedication of the temple was disavowed (Cicero, Domus 136). No
longer a "public temple," exactly, rites were paid to Her none the
less, pro populi. Men, for the most part, were prohibited from
entering Her temple (G. Aelius Gallus, GRF 18). She had a special
priestess instead, called the Damiatrix at Rome (Festus p.68M).
However, according to Ovid, some men, selected by the Goddess
Herself, were allowed into Her temple precinct and on the kalends of
May it was the flamen Volcanalis who offered sacrifice. The Bona Dea
was so called because She provided the herbs used in medicinal
simples. Servius Honoratus in commenting on the Aeneid stated that
the true name of the Bona Dea was unknown (8.314), and Lactantus
agreed (1.22). Macrobius instead wrote, Hanc eadem Bonam Deam
Faunamque et Opem et Fatuam pontificum libris indigitari (Saturnalia
1.12.16). Fatua was the Sabine name for Fauna, while the Samnites
called Her Fuusa. Paulus mentions that Her name was Damia among the
Messapic tribes west of Tarentum. Among the Marrucini the Bona Dea
was called Angitia, Angitina, or Anaceta Ceria. This Daughter of
Ceres, like Her counterpart at Rome, had a temple from which
medicinal herbs were distributed to women. At Rome Her temple became
the main distribution center for abortives, which may have had
something to do with the condemnation of Licinia. Her temple was not
dedicated again until Livia did so with a restoration of the temple
under Augustus. The flamen Vocanalis might have been involved in Her
annual rite because, originally, Volcanus was a Roman version of
Vertumnus, the God who ripens the earth with inner warmth.
Vertumnus is associated with Flora, who appears on the Tavolo Agnone
in Samnite territory as Fluusa Kerriiai and where another Goddess is
called Futrei Kerriiai, like Marrucini Angitia, the Daughter of
Ceres. The rededication by Livia, and this seemingly identification
of the Bona Dea and Flora, may explain why the Floralia was expanded
in the reign of Augustus to cover these early days of May. By the
way, another feature of Her Roman temple had the Bona Dea's sacred
herbs guarded by an enormous serpent. And among the Marrucini this
day saw a "Procession of the Serpents," which, although now
attributed to a Christian saint, is still conducted in some towns of
Abruzzo


At Capua, this day saw a lustratio performed by the banks of the
river Casilinus to purify the second largest city of Italy before
spring planting.


AUC 1058 / 305 CE: Abdication of Diocletianus and Maximianus

In the system of the Tetrarchy initiated by Diocletian, the two
Augusti selected their successors by appointing them Caesari. This
was the first time that the system of succession was put into
effect. G. GaleriusValerius Maximianus in the East and Fl. Valerius
Constantius in the West became Augusti, with Galerius Valerius
Maximus Daia, nephew of Galerius, and Fl. Valerius Severus as
Caesari. The system quickly began to unravel as young Fl. Valerius
Constantinus had to flee from Galerius to his father Constantius in
the following year. When Constantius died in July 306, his troops
proclaimed his son Constantinus emperor. Meanwhile in Rome, the
Praetorians declared Maxentius, the son of Maximianus, as Augustus.
Maximianus returned as colleague to his son, and Diocletianus was
recalled to resolve all the disputes over who should hold what titles
and provinces. Eventually this all led to Constantinus defeating
Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge six years later.


Our thought for today comes from Epictetus, fr. 30:

A ship ought not to be fixed to one small anchor, nor life to a
single hope.

Salve Gnaeus Caelius Ahenobarbus

The land in Texas is first and foremost a symbol of our commitment to have,
at some time in our future, at least 108 acres on which we will build a
capital city.

I would also support doing something with the land, but we need people to
live near it
or on it to maintain it.

"If there are no plans to ever use it, why have it? Why pay the
macro national taxes on it?

On the tax question.

We should look into why a non-profit organization is paying taxes on the
land in the first place.

For 2761 the amount of the taxes have been donated by a citizen and so Nova
Roma will not have to spend any money on the land this year. It's paid for.

Vale

Tiberius Galerius Paulinus

>From: "Gnaeus Caelius Ahenobarbus" <cn.caelius@...>
>Reply-To: Nova-Roma@yahoogroups.com
>To: Nova-Roma@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [Nova-Roma] Ager Publicus - Its Use, Disuse, and Future
>Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:15:31 -0000
>
>
>Valete omnes.
>
> I am replying to messages from a few months ago. I guess that is
>what a newbie gets for going through the archives. :-)
>
> > > Question - if I may - On the land in Texas, are there/is there
> > > plans to ever have a working ranch, community, or the like,
> > > where people can actually go and visit and/or stay?
> >
> > No. It's very desolate land, and there are no public utilities
> > available.
>
> If there are no plans to ever use it, why have it? Why pay the
>macronational taxes on it? ( USD$35.00/annus according to
>http://www.onlineera.com/nr/PrelimBudget2761.htm ).
>
> I grew up in Texas, and I have voluntarily chosen to live in a
>desert (Tucson, Arizona). I love the desert. Anyone who has lived
>there for any period of time knows that it is not desolate.
>
> "Desolate" is an interesting word. It is from Latin "desolatus",
>past participle of "desolare" to abandon, from "de- + solus" alone. My
>friend Webster, who gave me the previous information, says that it
>means, "devoid of inhabitants and visitors". He also gives another
>meaning, "barren, lifeless". Now, most people seem to assume the
>latter about the Ager Publicus. Having been in that area and in
>deserts for years, I know otherwise. "According to the World Wide Fund
>for Nature, the Chihuahuan Desert may be the most biologically diverse
>desert in the world, whether measured on species richness or endemism"
>(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chihuahuan_desert ). People live in
>the area. The southwestern deserts of North America have the
>fastest-growing population in the United States. In other words, I
>suggest that the Ager Publicus not be discarded due to "isolation",
>"desolation", or the like. Plenty of food crops can be grown in that
>area very successfully, and there are plenty of wild edibles (plant
>and animal).
>
> By developing the Ager Publicus, it would no longer be desolate, in
>any sense of the word.
>
> As for "public utilities", you do what everyone else does: drill a
>well for water or have it trucked in, and if you can't get power lines
>run there (often very expensive), you use solar or wind. West Texas
>has commercial wind farms and plenty of sun. Propane and butane can be
>used for heating and cooking.
>
> I've lived, long-term, in rural environments with "no public
>utilities". It's actually quite nice not having the bills that come
>with such utilities. :-) Most people need less than they think, and
>they enjoy it when the upkeep requirements of those unneeded things
>are reduced.
>
> My suggestion: use the Ager Publicus. Nova Roma already owns it, so
>use it. It's not perfect, but nothing is, and it's another aspect of
>Nova Roma's existence. I would be glad to help in any way I can, if
>requested.
>
>Valete.
>
>Cn. Caelius Ahenobarbus
>Provisional Citizen
>
>

Cn. Cornelius Lentulus, sacerdos Concordiae, sacerdos Pannoniae, quaestor, legatus pro praetore: consulibus, praetoribus, tribunis plebis, senatui populoque Romano, Quiritibus: salutem plurimam:


Salvete, Quirites!

May Harmony shine upon you brightly! Nova Roma is 10 years old, and to honour this anniversary I follow my vow and pray to Concordia constantly on every Kalends and Ides.

This has been the ritual for the Kalends of May.

In this Sacred Year of the Tenth Anniversary, I encourage everybody to pray Goddess Concordia of Nova Roma, the Goddess of the Nova Roman Creative Peace and Cooperation. With Her help and support we can be a great, worldwise and world-class movement: the modern Roman Movement for the restoration of classical Roman religion, culture and virtues.

PLEASE SEND YOUR PRAYERS TO MY E-MAIL ADDRESS!

I especially ask our Magistrates and Senators: send me your prayers to Concordia and I will allocate them in the Virtual Temple of Concordia of the Nova Roman People:

http://www.novaroma.org/nr/Aedes_Concordiae_Populi_Novi_Romani_%28Nova_Roma%29

Visit the Virtual Temple of Concordia and leave a personal, public prayer!

PLEASE SEND YOUR PRAYERS TO MY E-MAIL ADDRESS!


Today's sacrifice has been done before my home altar. I worshiped Concordia for the unity, strengthen and harmony of the New Roman People and I have given Her wine and incense. The ritual has been this:


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

SACRIFICIUM CONCORDIAE KALENDIS MAIIS ANNI SACRI X NOVAE ROMAE CONDITAE


Favete linguis!

(Beginning of the sacrifice.)

PRAEFATIO

Concordia Populi Novi Romani Quiritium,
te hoc ture commovendo
bonas preces precor,
uti sies volens propitia
Populo Novo Romano Quiritibus,
Reique Publicae Populi Novi Romani Quiritium,
mihi, domo, familiae!

(Incense is placed in the focus of the altar.)


Concordia Populi Novi Romani Quiritium,
uti te ture commovendo
bonas preces bene precatus sum,
eiusdem rei ergo
macte vino inferio esto!"

(Libation of wine is made.)

INVOCATIO

Dea Concordia Populi Novi Romani,
Concordia Novae Romae,
dea pacis et fortitudinis Senatus Populique Novi Romani,
hisce Kalendis Maiis anni decimi Novae Romae conditae
te precor, veneror, quaeso, obtestor:

PRECATIO

uti pacem concordiamque constantem
societati Novae Romae tribuas;
utique Rem Publicam Populi Novi Romani Quiritium
confirmes, augeas, adiuves,
omnibusque discordiis liberes;
utique Res Publica Populi Novi Romani Quiritium semper floreat;
atque hoc anno anniversario decimo Novae Romae conditae convalescat;
atque pax et concordia, salus et gloria Novae Romae omni tempore crescat,
utique Populo Novo Romano Quiritibus,
Reique Publicae Populi Novi Romani Quiritium,
mihi, domo, familiae
omnes in hoc anno decimo Novae Romae eventus bonos faustosque esse siris;
utique sies volens propitia Populo Novo Romano Quiritibus,
Reique Publicae Populi Novi Romani Quiritium,
magistratibus, consulibus, praetoribus Populi Novi Romani Quiritium,
tribunis Plebis Novae Romanae,
Senatui Novo Romano,
omnibus civibus, viris et mulieribus, pueris et puellabus Novis Romanis,
mihi, domo, familiae!

SACRIFICIUM

Sicut verba nuncupavi,
quaeque ita faxis, uti ego me sentio dicere:
harum rerum ergo macte
hoc vino libando,
hoc ture ommovendo
esto fito volens propitia
hoc anno anniversario decimo Novae Romae conditae
Populo Novo Romano Quiritibus,
Reique Publicae Populi Novi Romani Quiritium,
magistratibus, consulibus, praetoribus Populi Novi Romani Quiritium,
tribunis Plebis Novae Romanae,
Senatui Novo Romano,
omnibus civibus, viris et mulierbus, pueris et puellabus Novis Romanis,
mihi, domo, familiae!


(Libation is made and incense is sacrificed.)


REDDITIO

Concordia Populi Novi Romani Quiritium,
uti te ture commovendo
et vino libando
bonas preces bene precatus sum,
earundem rerum ergo
macte vino inferio esto!

(Libation of wine is made)

Ilicet!

(End of the sacrifice.)


PIACULUM

Iane,
Concordia Populi Novi Romani Quiritium,
Iuppiter Optime Maxmime, Iuno, Minerva,
Omnes Di Immortales quocumque nomine:
si quidquam vobis in hac caerimonia displicet,
hoc vino inferio
veniam peto
et vitium meum expio.

(Libation of wine is made.)



Valete cum Concordia!
May Concordia be with you!


Tante idee per la salvaguardia del nostro Pianeta su Yahoo! For Good
http://it.promotions.yahoo.com/forgood/environment.html

Gnaeus Caelius Ahenobarbus Tiberio Galerio Paulino S.P.D.

>The land in Texas is first and foremost a symbol of our commitment
>to have, at some time in our future, at least 108 acres on which
>we will build a capital city.

And a good symbol it is! It would be an even better symbol if it had buildings on it, things to visit, and people. :-)

>I would also support doing something with the land, but we need people to
>live near it or on it to maintain it.

I completely agree. I would be willing to commit to living there for a period to do such a thing.

>We should look into why a non-profit organization is paying taxes on the
>land in the first place.

I agree. I found:

http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/taxforms/50-115.pdf

That seems to be an exemption form. A quick glance at it showed that Nova Roma performs some of the actions listed on the form (education, archaeological restoration, etc.).

>For 2761 the amount of the taxes have been donated by a citizen and so Nova
>Roma will not have to spend any money on the land this year. It's paid for.

That's generous! What a wonderful -- and Roman! -- thing to do. :-) Yet, in my opinion, it still makes no sense to pay it (no matter who writes the check) if it lies unused. There truly are many options!

Gnaeus Caelius Ahenobarbus


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Caeso Fabius Buteo Modianus Gnaeo Caelio Ahenobarbo salutem dicit

The land in Texas is arid, without water and sewage.  It is also far from any reasonable infrastructure and for all practical purposes it is unusable land.  The donation was a token gesture, but not a workable measure to make Nova Roma more accessible to its citizens.  It really needs to be sold and perhaps an endowment established for the establishment of real property.  There is a reason why Romulus didn't settle in the desert!

Vale;

Caeso Fabius Buteo Modianus

On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 5:04 PM, Gnaeus Caelius <cn.caelius@...> wrote:

Gnaeus Caelius Ahenobarbus Tiberio Galerio Paulino S.P.D.

>The land in Texas is first and foremost a symbol of our commitment
>to have, at some time in our future, at least 108 acres on which
>we will build a capital city.

And a good symbol it is! It would be an even better symbol if it had buildings on it, things to visit, and people. :-)

>I would also support doing something with the land, but we need people to
>live near it or on it to maintain it.

I completely agree. I would be willing to commit to living there for a period to do such a thing.

>We should look into why a non-profit organization is paying taxes on the
>land in the first place.

I agree. I found:

http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/taxforms/50-115.pdf

That seems to be an exemption form. A quick glance at it showed that Nova Roma performs some of the actions listed on the form (education, archaeological restoration, etc.).

>For 2761 the amount of the taxes have been donated by a citizen and so Nova
>Roma will not have to spend any money on the land this year. It's paid for.

That's generous! What a wonderful -- and Roman! -- thing to do. :-) Yet, in my opinion, it still makes no sense to pay it (no matter who writes the check) if it lies unused. There truly are many options!

Gnaeus Caelius Ahenobarbus

Gnaeus Caelius Ahenobarbus Caeso Fabio Buteo Modiano S.P.D.

> The

land in Texas is arid

I've commented on this already.

> without water and sewage

And I've commented on the water issue. Sewage is easy, too: septic system or composting toilets (the latter would be preferable, especially in that area).

> It is also far from

any reasonable infrastructure

Water: well
Sewage: composting toilets
Electricity: depends, but could be wired, solar, or wind
Phone: available; cell coverage probable
Internet: satellite, high-speed

I have some friends who live in the middle of the Gila wilderness area in western New Mexico. It is an extremely remote place, surrounded by a HUGE undeveloped wilderness sanctuary (they have a grandfathered parcel). They have all of the above except cell phone coverage.

> and for all practical purposes it is

unusable land.

I disagree.

> The donation was a token gesture

I've not seen any texts (on the ML, NRLand, NRWiki, or elsewhere) reporting the actual donation. Are there details? What purpose(s) did the donor envision, if any? Why was the donation accepted if the land seems unusable?

> but not a workable

measure to make Nova Roma

> more accessible to its citizens.

A physical location will always be convenient for some and inconvenient for others.

And, to be honest, I think that you may be surprised. Were Nova Roma to have an operating little "village" -- even part-time -- I think many people would visit it. We really have no idea either way, though, until it actually exists. But, as an example, the friends I mention above have retreats, classes, etc., on their land throughout the year, and people come from all over the country to go to them, even though it's remote.

> It really

needs to be sold and perhaps an

> endowment established for the

establishment

> of real property.

This is also not a bad idea. But, with the amount of money Nova Roma deals with on a yearly basis, buying land is really going to be difficult -- if not impossible -- unless another donation occurs. West Texas is very inexpensive compared to pretty much anywhere else in the U.S., for example.

> There is a reason why Romulus didn't

settle in the desert!

Because his raft got stuck in the reeds on the Tiber, and that happens to not be a desert? :-)

Please forgive me if I sound disrespectful; my words are not meant that way. I just believe that Nova Roma should have a "place".

Gnaeus Caelius Ahenobarbus
Provisional Citizen, Nova Roma


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Caeso Fabius Buteo Modianus Gnaeo Caelio Ahenobarbo salutem dicit

This discussion comes up every so often.

As a senator I'm not going to support the Texas land.  I'm going to advocate that it is sold and that Nova Roma move on to purchasing what I consider usable land. 

Certainly it is possible to make "our land" usable.  Look at what the Jews did with the Negev.  However, the resourced needed are simply too much for Nova Roma to absorb -- the making the arid land of our in Texas usable. 

Aside from that, how would those on the land support themselves?

I know of a communal group in Ohio that purchased an old strip mine and restored the land.  The where somewhat close to "civilization" and where therefore able to support themselves financially.  Now the land is host to various festivals throughout the year and I believe the mortgage on the land is paid up.  This is the route NR could try, however, there is a lot of politics in Nova Roma that might stand in the way (at least at this time) to anything like that happening.  What would probably work best is if several Nova Romans banned together and did it on their own.  Saving Nova Roma from getting into obtaining mortgages, etc...

An endowment fund does seems like a possible endeavor.

What NR needs is for our leadership to meet more often -- both our North American (and South American) and European (and elsewhere) citizens.  There are many senatores and pontifices (and sacerdotes, flamine, etc...) who have never met, and getting our leaders to meet would make Nova Roma a better run organization with (hopefully) less politics, less fighting, and more progress.

Vale;

Caeso Fabius Buteo Modianus

On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 5:38 PM, Gnaeus Caelius <cn.caelius@...> wrote:

Please forgive me if I sound disrespectful; my words are not meant that way. I just believe that Nova Roma should have a "place".

Gnaeus Caelius Ahenobarbus
Provisional Citizen, Nova Roma

M. Hortensia Gn.Caelio K. Fabio spd;
for sure we need to meet each other in real life Conventi; in
Europe, North and South America first.
I've always been keen for our colonia to be in Europe; and I
agree if individuals want it, make it..I'd live half the year in a NR
colonia. So I'd better make some money;-)
optime vale
Maior

>
> Caeso Fabius Buteo Modianus Gnaeo Caelio Ahenobarbo salutem dicit
>
> This discussion comes up every so often.
>
> As a senator I'm not going to support the Texas land. I'm going to

advocate

> that it is sold and that Nova Roma move on to purchasing what I consider
> usable land.
>
> Certainly it is possible to make "our land" usable. Look at what

the Jews

> did with the Negev. However, the resourced needed are simply too

much for

> Nova Roma to absorb -- the making the arid land of our in Texas usable.
>
> Aside from that, how would those on the land support themselves?
>
> I know of a communal group in Ohio that purchased an old strip mine and
> restored the land. The where somewhat close to "civilization" and where
> therefore able to support themselves financially. Now the land is

host to

> various festivals throughout the year and I believe the mortgage on

the land

> is paid up. This is the route NR could try, however, there is a lot of
> politics in Nova Roma that might stand in the way (at least at this

time) to

> anything like that happening. What would probably work best is if

several

> Nova Romans banned together and did it on their own. Saving Nova

Roma from

> getting into obtaining mortgages, etc...
>
> An endowment fund does seems like a possible endeavor.
>
> What NR needs is for our leadership to meet more often -- both our North
> American (and South American) and European (and elsewhere) citizens.

There

> are many senatores and pontifices (and sacerdotes, flamine, etc...)

who have

> never met, and getting our leaders to meet would make Nova Roma a

better run

> organization with (hopefully) less politics, less fighting, and more
> progress.
>
> Vale;
>
> Caeso Fabius Buteo Modianus
>
> On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 5:38 PM, Gnaeus Caelius <cn.caelius@...> wrote:
>
> >
> > Please forgive me if I sound disrespectful; my words are not meant

that

> > way. I just believe that Nova Roma should have a "place".
> >
> > Gnaeus Caelius Ahenobarbus
> > Provisional Citizen, Nova Roma
> >
>

Gnaeus Caelius Ahenobarbus M. Hortensiae Maior S.P.D.

>for sure we need to meet each other in real life Conventi; in
>Europe, North and South America first.

Indeed! So, who's up for something in August? I should be a citizen by then. :-)

>I've always been keen for our colonia to be in Europe; and I
>agree if individuals want it, make it..

What if there was one in the U.S.?

>I'd live half the year in a NR
>colonia. So I'd better make some money;-)

That's the spirit! I'd commit to live there, too. A few more people like that and we have the start of a village!

Vale.

Gnaeus Caelius Ahenobarbus



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Gnaeus Caelius Ahenobarbus Caseo Fabio Buteo Modiano S.P.D.

>This discussion comes up every so often.

I've noticed. It seems like many people are supportive of the idea and would like to do it.

>As

a senator I'm not going to support the Texas land.

>I'm going to

advocate that it is sold and that Nova Roma

>move on to purchasing what

I consider usable land.

I would not argue against this idea. It is a valid option. I do agree that there are places that would be "more centralized", have a bit more hospitable climate, and be easier to reach.

>Certainly it is possible to make "our land" usable.
>Look at what

the Jews did with the Negev. However,

>the resourced needed are simply

too much for Nova

>Roma to absorb -- the making the arid land of our in
>Texas usable.

You could be correct in this assumption.

>Aside from that, how would those on the land support
>themselves?

The site could be run as a "thematic village" where Roman life is reenacted for various purposes (picture a Roman "ren faire" as an example), as well as being a Nova Roma "intentional community". Also, residents could create Roman crafts and sell them, both on-site and via the Macellum or Internet-based storefronts. There are also ways to work from home via the Internet. Worst case, people could work in Van Horn (the closest town), but it would be very difficult to find work in that manner. In other words, people would have to create things themselves, sell them themselves, and work together.

>I

know of a communal group in Ohio that purchased an

>old strip mine and

restored the land. The where

>somewhat close to "civilization" and

where therefore

>able to support themselves financially. Now the land
>is host to various festivals throughout the year and I
>believe the

mortgage on the land is paid up. This is

>the route NR could try

This is an excellent story and a good example of a possible path.

>however, there is a lot of politics in Nova Roma that
>might stand in

the way (at least at this time) to

>anything like that happening.

That is unfortunate, but I'm sure that those who would oppose such a venture have their reasons. This has to be done "as Nova Roma", as one, or it will fail.

>What

would probably work best is if several Nova

>Romans banned together and

did it on their own.

>Saving Nova Roma from getting into obtaining

mortgages, etc...

If Novi Romani did this as you suggest, I'm not sure that Nova Roma would have enough interest in the project to really support it.

>An endowment fund does seems like a possible endeavor.

Are you suggesting a fund which would pay people who are actually pursuing the project? Isn't there a Land Fund? I'm not a proponent of this idea; I believe that communal land should be developed communally, as "Nova Roma", not "supported by Nova Roma".

>What

NR needs is for our leadership to meet more often --

>both our North

American (and South American) and

>European (and elsewhere) citizens.

There are many

>senatores and pontifices (and sacerdotes, flamine,

etc...)

>who have never met, and getting our leaders to meet
>would make

Nova Roma a better run organization with

>(hopefully) less politics,

less fighting, and more progress.

You have my wholehearted support for this! I am a very strong believer that the Internet can bring people together, but then, after a period of time, seems to push them apart. Maybe Nova Roma could offer to pay a part (however small; every bit helps!) of such expenses as would be incurred during such a gathering. In ancient Rome, most Senators and magistrates were independently wealthy AND they all lived in the same city; in Nova Roma's case, I think both are rare and we have to make exceptions and come up with new ideas to further Nova Roma.

Maximus gratias tibi ago!

Optime vale.

Gnaeus Caelius Ahenobarbus
Provisional Citizen


____________________________________________________________________________________
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M. Moravius Piscinus cultoribus Deorum et omnibus salutem plurimam
dicit: Bonam habete Fortunam.

Hodie est ante diem VI Nonas Maias; haec dies fastus aterque est:
Floralia in circo; Septentrionales venti.

AUC 515 / 238: Institution of Floralia

"The life led by the ancients was rude and illiterate; still, as will
be readily seen, the observations they made were not less remarkable
for ingenuity than are the theories of the present day. With them
there were three set periods for gathering in the produce of the
earth, and it was in honour of these periods that they instituted the
festive days, known as the Robigalia, the Floralia, and the
Vinalia. ... The same people also, in the year of the City 513,
instituted the Floralia, a festival held upon the fourth before the
calends of May (28 April), in accordance with the oracular
injunctions of the Sibyl, to secure a favourable season for the
blossoms and flowers. Varro fixes this day as the time at which the
sun enters the fourteenth degree of Taurus. If there should happen to
be a full moon during the four days at this period, injury to the
corn and all the plants that are in blossom, will be the necessary
result." ~ Plinius Secundus, Historia Naturalis 18.69

Pliny places the year when the Floralia was first instituted as AUC
513 because, like Varro, he reckoned the Founding of Rome from 751
BCE. When first begun, the Floralia was held in the Forum. Later it
moved, in 173 BCE, to the Circus Maximus beneath the Aventine where
the Temple of Flora was located. The Floralia, having begun on 28
April, continued today with a release of rabbits and deer into the
crowds. Ovid linked this part of the celebration to the fact that
Flora is a Goddess of gardens rather than of wild meadows. Thus Ovid
posed the offering of rabbits and deer for their offending the
providence of Flora.

Flora had Her own priest at Rome, the flamen Floralis. It is
assumed, therefore, that worship of Flora appeared very early in
Rome's history. The location of Her temple on the Aventine, being
outside the poemerium, might instead pose Her introduction at a much
later period. There is, however, a parallel to be made at another
site. At Monte de Cerro, Molise, a bronze tablet was found in
Samnite territory. Written in Oscan, and dating to circa 250 BCE,
the Tavolo Agnone refers to a Garden of Ceres. This sanctuary held
fourteen stations or altars, each dedicated to different deities, and
an Altar of Fire where upon sacrifices were made every other year.
Inside the Garden, Ceres appears with Jupiter as Her consort. Flora
appears as the "Daughter of Ceres" and as "Flora of Ceres." Thus
there is posed a triune relationship of Ceres, Jupiter, and Flora
that is similarly found among other Italic tribes, and may also
relate to the Aventine triad of Ceres, Liber, and Libera as a
plebeian alternative to the Capitoline triad. Of special interest at
Monte de Cerro is that the altar of Flora, along with three other
altars, are said to have been outside the Garden proper. These were
for Perna of Ceres, Amma of Ceres, Flora of Ceres, and Pater Euclus.
Perna has been associated with a Goddess of birthing, while Amma is a
nutrix, or mothering form of Ceres. They represent Ceres as
genetrix, obstetrix, and nutrix in relation to Flora as the Daughter
of Ceres. Euclus is a chthonic form of Mercurius, associated with
the luminal aspect of Ceres as a psychopomp. Unlike the rite that
took place inside the Garden every other year, a rite was performed
each year at these extramural altars. The rite would seem to have
been a type of lustratio to bless the surrounding fields. Flora is
not a Goddess of garden flowers, as is Venus, or even of
wildflowers. Rather She is a Goddess of the flowering grain, and of
flowering orchards. It is thus that She is a Daughter of Ceres, and
also fitting that She is found outside the City's poemerium, and
outside the Garden, as She is a Goddess of the cultivated lands
surrounding a city. Samnite Fluusa Kererii is thereby somewhat
different than how Ovid presented Her in his Fasti.


Our thought for today is from Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 3.4.1:

"Do not waste the remainder of thy life in thoughts about other
people, when thou dost not refer thy thoughts to some aspect of the
common good."

----- Original Message -----

From: marcushoratius

To: Nova-Roma@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Friday, May 02, 2008 2:52 AM

Subject: [Nova-Roma] a. d. VI Nonas Maias: Floralia

M. Moravius Piscinus cultoribus Deorum et omnibus salutem plurimam
dicit: Bonam habete Fortunam.

Hodie est ante diem VI Nonas Maias; haec dies fastus aterque est:
Floralia in circo; Septentrionales venti.

AUC 515 / 238: Institution of Floralia

"The life led by the ancients was rude and illiterate; still, as will
be readily seen, the observations they made were not less remarkable
for ingenuity than are the theories of the present day. With them
there were three set periods for gathering in the produce of the
earth, and it was in honour of these periods that they instituted the
festive days, known as the Robigalia, the Floralia, and the
Vinalia. ... The same people also, in the year of the City 513,
instituted the Floralia, a festival held upon the fourth before the
calends of May (28 April), in accordance with the oracular
injunctions of the Sibyl, to secure a favourable season for the
blossoms and flowers. Varro fixes this day as the time at which the
sun enters the fourteenth degree of Taurus. If there should happen to
be a full moon during the four days at this period, injury to the
corn and all the plants that are in blossom, will be the necessary
result." ~ Plinius Secundus, Historia Naturalis 18.69

Pliny places the year when the Floralia was first instituted as AUC
513 because, like Varro, he reckoned the Founding of Rome from 751
BCE. When first begun, the Floralia was held in the Forum. Later it
moved, in 173 BCE, to the Circus Maximus beneath the Aventine where
the Temple of Flora was located. The Floralia, having begun on 28
April, continued today with a release of rabbits and deer into the
crowds. Ovid linked this part of the celebration to the fact that
Flora is a Goddess of gardens rather than of wild meadows. Thus Ovid
posed the offering of rabbits and deer for their offending the
providence of Flora.

Flora had Her own priest at Rome, the flamen Floralis. It is
assumed, therefore, that worship of Flora appeared very early in
Rome's history. The location of Her temple on the Aventine, being
outside the poemerium, might instead pose Her introduction at a much
later period. There is, however, a parallel to be made at another
site. At Monte de Cerro, Molise, a bronze tablet was found in
Samnite territory. Written in Oscan, and dating to circa 250 BCE,
the Tavolo Agnone refers to a Garden of Ceres. This sanctuary held
fourteen stations or altars, each dedicated to different deities, and
an Altar of Fire where upon sacrifices were made every other year.
Inside the Garden, Ceres appears with Jupiter as Her consort. Flora
appears as the "Daughter of Ceres" and as "Flora of Ceres." Thus
there is posed a triune relationship of Ceres, Jupiter, and Flora
that is similarly found among other Italic tribes, and may also
relate to the Aventine triad of Ceres, Liber, and Libera as a
plebeian alternative to the Capitoline triad. Of special interest at
Monte de Cerro is that the altar of Flora, along with three other
altars, are said to have been outside the Garden proper. These were
for Perna of Ceres, Amma of Ceres, Flora of Ceres, and Pater Euclus.
Perna has been associated with a Goddess of birthing, while Amma is a
nutrix, or mothering form of Ceres. They represent Ceres as
genetrix, obstetrix, and nutrix in relation to Flora as the Daughter
of Ceres. Euclus is a chthonic form of Mercurius, associated with
the luminal aspect of Ceres as a psychopomp. Unlike the rite that
took place inside the Garden every other year, a rite was performed
each year at these extramural altars. The rite would seem to have
been a type of lustratio to bless the surrounding fields. Flora is
not a Goddess of garden flowers, as is Venus, or even of
wildflowers. Rather She is a Goddess of the flowering grain, and of
flowering orchards. It is thus that She is a Daughter of Ceres, and
also fitting that She is found outside the City's poemerium, and
outside the Garden, as She is a Goddess of the cultivated lands
surrounding a city. Samnite Fluusa Kererii is thereby somewhat
different than how Ovid presented Her in his Fasti.


Our thought for today is from Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 3.4.1:

"Do not waste the remainder of thy life in thoughts about other
people, when thou dost not refer thy thoughts to some aspect of the
common good."

M. Hortensia Cn. Caelio spd;
if you search for a post by A. Gratius Avitus, who is an expert in
Modern Spoken Latin and teaches at Academia Thules, you'll find his
suggestion that we look into abandoned villages in Hispania, (he's
from there). It was around the new year I believe. People love to go
to Europe, there are Roman ruins there and you can always come down
from the colonia and have a drink at a nearby cafe:)

I thought this was extremely sound, as our big concern is skills.

We'd need cives who could design buildings, pour concrete, lay cable.
Where would we get our power from?

I entirely agree that a Roman town would be a huge draw and
self-sustaining. But we need some infrastructure to get us going.
optime vale
Maior

>
> The site could be run as a "thematic village" where Roman life is

reenacted for various purposes (picture a Roman "ren faire" as an
example), as well as being a Nova Roma "intentional community". Also,
residents could create Roman crafts and sell them, both on-site and
via the Macellum or Internet-based storefronts. There are also ways to
work from home via the Internet. Worst case, people could work in Van
Horn (the closest town), but it would be very difficult to find work
in that manner. In other words, people would have to create things
themselves, sell them themselves, and work together.

>

--- In Nova-Roma@yahoogroups.com, "Maior" <rory12001@...> wrote:

>
> M. Hortensia Cn. Caelio spd;
> if you search for a post by A. Gratius Avitus, who is an expert in
> Modern Spoken Latin and teaches at Academia Thules, you'll find his
> suggestion that we look into abandoned villages in Hispania, (he's
> from there). It was around the new year I believe. People love to go
> to Europe, there are Roman ruins there and you can always come down
> from the colonia and have a drink at a nearby cafe:)
>
> I thought this was extremely sound, as our big concern is skills.
>
> We'd need cives who could design buildings, pour concrete, lay cable.
> Where would we get our power from?
>
> I entirely agree that a Roman town would be a huge draw and
> self-sustaining. But we need some infrastructure to get us going.
>

we would need way more then 5 ac to run a "thematic village"




optime vale

> Maior
>
>
>
> >
> > The site could be run as a "thematic village" where Roman life is
> reenacted for various purposes (picture a Roman "ren faire" as an
> example), as well as being a Nova Roma "intentional community". Also,
> residents could create Roman crafts and sell them, both on-site and
> via the Macellum or Internet-based storefronts. There are also ways to
> work from home via the Internet. Worst case, people could work in Van
> Horn (the closest town), but it would be very difficult to find work
> in that manner. In other words, people would have to create things
> themselves, sell them themselves, and work together.
> >
>

M. Moravius Piscinus cultoribus Deorum et omnibus salutem plurimam
dicit: Di vos inculumes custodiant

Hodie est ante diem V Nonas Maias; haec dies comitialis: Floralia;
Centaurus totus apparet, tempestatem significat.

The Sabine Deities

"Feronia, Minerva, the Novensides are from the Sabines. With slight
changes we say the following, also from the same people: Pales,
Vesta, Salus, Fortuna, Fons, Fides. There is the scent of the speech
of the Sabines about the altars also, which by the vow of King
Tatius were dedicated at Rome: for, as the Annales tell, he vowed
altars to Ops, Flora, Vediovis, and Saturnus, Sol, Luna, Vulcanus,
and Summanus, and likewise to Larunda, Terminus, Quirinus,
Vertumnus, the Lares, Diana and Lucina." ~ Terrentius Varro, Lingua
Latina 5.74

Among the most ancient deities of Rome, attributed to the Sabines by
Varro, who was himself from a Sabine gens, are the enigmatic
Novensides, or Novensiles. They are rarely found. They appear as
the Novesedes in one inscription from Umbria. They appear one time
in Livy in what is clearly a very ancient rite, the devotion of
Decius Mus in the Latin War of 340 BCE:

"Janus, Jupiter, Father Mars, Quirinus, Bellona, Lares, You divine
Novensiles and You divine Indigetes, deities whose power extends
over us and over our foes, and to You, too, Divine Manes, I pray, I
do You reverence, I crave Your grace and favour will bless the Roman
People, the Quirites, with power and victory, and will visit fear,
dread and death on the enemies of the Roman People, the Quirites.
In like manner as I have uttered this prayer so do I now on behalf
of the commonwealth of the Quirites, on behalf of the army, the
legions, the auxiliaries of the Roman People, the Quirites, devote
the legions and auxiliaries of the enemy, together with myself to
Tellus and the Divine Manes." ~ Livy 8.9.6-8

As for the Novensiles who They may have been evoked some discussion
among Roman antiquarians:

"Piso believes that the Novensiles are nine gods, set up among the
Sabines at Trebia. Granius thinks that they are the Muses, agreeing
with Aelius; Varro teaches that they are nine, because, in doing
anything, that number is always reputed most powerful and greatest;
Cornificius, that they watch over the renewing of things, because,
by their care, all things are afresh renewed in strength, and
endure; Manilius, that they are the nine gods to whom alone Jupiter
gave power to wield his thunder. Cincius declares them to be deities
brought from abroad, named from their very newness, because the
Romans were in the habit of sometimes individually introducing into
their families the rites of conquered cities, while some they
publicly consecrated; and lest, from their great number, or in
ignorance, any god should be passed by, all alike were briefly and
compendiously invoked under one name - Novensiles." ~ Arnobius 3.38


Our thought for today is from the Golden Sayings of Democritus 6:

"The felicity of a man does not consist either in body or in riches,
but in upright conduct and justice."

Compare a comment by Cornelius Nepos, Eumenes 1.1:

"We measure great men by their virtues, not by their luck."

Salve Lusitane

It has been one thing after another. First it began with computer
problems; a virus that among other things destroyed all of the files
on which I rely to make such posts. So while dealing with that and
trying to recover some files, one of my sons had a serious neck injury
and required emergency surgery. I had to cancel my trip to Texas for
the feria Latinae due to the need to care for him afterward, and there
has since been complications. Then, the day after my son's surgery, a
very close friend had a massive heart attack while driving on the
freeway, went into a coma, and died a few days later. His widow has
been a second mother to me since childhood, so I had been tending to
her.

I have not been able to be online often for over a month. And without
my own PC I couldn't write up the daily posts. When I was online I
was fielding emails and dealing with matters as Consul. Uhm, if I
haven't replied to anyone's email you should probably write again. I
have almost caught up to those I received since returning, but the
rest were dumped, along with much else, by my server. Now though I
have received a second computer, so I can get my main one restored.
Things have not settled down here, but I am starting to get back into
the swing of things, except that the new lappie keeps distracting me
with feeds from Balliwood. I still have to familarize myself with its
nuances.

Vale optime
Piscinus


--- In Nova-Roma@yahoogroups.com, "Bruno Cantermi" <brunocantermi@...>
wrote:

>
> Salve horatius!
>
> Man, where have you been?! I haven't seen your posts about the days

for the whole april! It's incredible!

>
> Vale
>
> LVSITANVS.SPD.

Reminder from:		Nova-Roma Yahoo! Group
Title:		Lord Apollo
Date:		Saturday May 3, 2008
Time:		12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Repeats:		This event repeats every month on the first Saturday.
Notes:		Apollo is worshiped by many, including Romans. His most famous temple, the now-ruined Temple of Delphi, is once each week, at dawn on Sunday, the geographic axis of "Kyklos Apollon". At that time-Delphi dawn-we may perform the brief, potent ritual delineated in the group site. We may perform some other gesture, perhaps as simple as a nod of acknowledgment, a quick libation poured from a cup. But for this one moment, as the Sun first shines upon the ancient columns, we are together. Even though we are few, and scattered across the world, we are in that one moment *together*, a great Kyklos in the light of Apollon. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KyklosApollon/ Hint: If you set your membership to "Special Notices", you will get only the group reminders with the correct sunrise time at Delphi each week. "Hestia, you who tend the holy house of the lord Apollo, the Far-shooter at goodly Pytho, with soft oil dripping ever from your locks, come now into this house, come, having one mind with Zeus the all-wise -- draw near, and withal bestow grace upon my song." (Homeric Hymns - XXIV) "We ask the blessing of ancient Hecate, faithful and awesome, daughter of the Titans Coeus and gold-crowned Phoebe. 'Great honor comes full easily to him whose prayers the goddess receives favorably'" (Hesiod, Theogony - VII) "Lord Apollo, How, then, shall I sing of you... who in all ways are a worthy theme of song?" (Homeric Hymn: to Delian Apollo)
Get reminders on your mobile, Yahoo! Messenger, and email. Edit reminder options

Copyright © 2008  Yahoo! Inc. All Rights Reserved | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy

Reminder from:		Nova-Roma Yahoo! Group
Title:		A group dedicated to new or prospective citizens
Date:		Saturday May 3, 2008
Time:		12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Repeats:		This event repeats every month.
Notes:		NewRoman http://groups.yahoo.com/group/newroman/ is a group where new and prospective citizens can meet and ask questions of some experienced citizens in a safe, moderated and low-traffic environment.
Get reminders on your mobile, Yahoo! Messenger, and email. Edit reminder options

Copyright © 2008  Yahoo! Inc. All Rights Reserved | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy

----- Original Message -----

From: marcushoratius

To: Nova-Roma@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Saturday, May 03, 2008 7:14 AM

Subject: [Nova-Roma] Re: a. d. VI Nonas Maias: Floralia

Salve Lusitane

It has been one thing after another. First it began with computer
problems; a virus that among other things destroyed all of the files
on which I rely to make such posts. So while dealing with that and
trying to recover some files, one of my sons had a serious neck injury
and required emergency surgery. I had to cancel my trip to Texas for
the feria Latinae due to the need to care for him afterward, and there
has since been complications. Then, the day after my son's surgery, a
very close friend had a massive heart attack while driving on the
freeway, went into a coma, and died a few days later. His widow has
been a second mother to me since childhood, so I had been tending to
her.

I have not been able to be online often for over a month. And without
my own PC I couldn't write up the daily posts. When I was online I
was fielding emails and dealing with matters as Consul. Uhm, if I
haven't replied to anyone's email you should probably write again. I
have almost caught up to those I received since returning, but the
rest were dumped, along with much else, by my server. Now though I
have received a second computer, so I can get my main one restored.
Things have not settled down here, but I am starting to get back into
the swing of things, except that the new lappie keeps distracting me
with feeds from Balliwood. I still have to familarize myself with its
nuances.

Vale optime
Piscinus

--- In Nova-Roma@yahoogrou ps.com, "Bruno Cantermi" <brunocantermi@ ...>
wrote:
>
> Salve horatius!
>
> Man, where have you been?! I haven't seen your posts about the days
for the whole april! It's incredible!
>
> Vale
>
> LVSITANVS.SPD.

Gnaeus Caelius Ahenobarbus M. Hortensiae Maior S.P.D.

>if you search for a post by A. Gratius Avitus, who is an expert in
>Modern Spoken Latin and teaches at Academia Thules, you'll find his
>suggestion that we look into abandoned villages in Hispania, (he's
>from there). It was around the new year I believe. People love to go
>to Europe, there are Roman ruins there and you can always come down
>from the colonia and have a drink at a nearby cafe:)

I saw that. I don't know anything about the abandoned villages, but it could be an idea. I guess my main concerns about that include the fact that the architecture may not be "Roman enough" to be reasonably authentic.

>We'd need cives who could design buildings, pour concrete, lay cable.

Indeed. Nova Roma seems to have a wide range of people and skills. I don't see a problem if only people will get involved.

>Where would we get our power from?

I know nothing about Spain or the locations of these villages, but they may already have power. If not, there may be power nearby. Otherwise, solar or wind. I'm a bit of a primitivist, so thinking of how to get electricity (which has been mentioned more than once now during these past few days) is one of the least of my concerns. The main questions are where to do this, and who is willing to help.

>I entirely agree that a Roman town would be a huge draw and
>self-sustaining.

I agree. It could be not only a wonderful educational tool but could also potentially make money for Nova Roma.

>But we need some infrastructure to get us going.

As above, I believe that it can be done at a more sustainable level and be built one piece at a time. Infrastructure such as power lines, underground sewers, etc. really aren't the first thing that needs to happen. They (or, better yet, more sustainable replacements) can be built as needed, over time.

Vale et valete

Gnaeus Caelius Ahenobarbus


____________________________________________________________________________________
Be a better friend, newshound, and
know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ

Gnaeus Caelius Ahenobarbus Marco Cornelio Felix S.P.D.

>

we would need way more then 5 ac to run a "thematic village"

I agree, but one has to start somewhere. The Ager Publicus is 10 acres; again, more would be great, but if Nova Roma built such a village on 10 acres, it would be an amazing achievement.

Vale et valete

Gnaeus Caelius Ahenobarbus



____________________________________________________________________________________
Be a better friend, newshound, and
know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ

Salve Varro,

Appius Claudius Varro <philippe.cardon01@...> writes:

> i M GLAD PROUD AND HAPPY TO ANNOUNCE YOU ALL MY NEW CITIZENSHIP AS
> APPIUS CLAUDIUS VARRO

Welcome to Nova Roma!

Vale,

CN-EQVIT-MARINVS

M. Hortensia Maior Ap.Claudio Varroni spd;
salve et gaudeo:) soyez et bienvenu!
I wish you well and rejoice as I've known of Phillipos for some
years from the religio and Hellenic lists. It makes me very happy to
see such devoted cives join Nova Roma, there is not only Provincia
Gallia (small and growing) but come this summer to the Conventus in
Dacia!
http://www.novaroma.org/nr/VI_Conventus_Novae_Romae

Sabinus is not only this year's consul but a devoted cultor and
sacerdos to Mercurius. (Hermes) I think you will find the community
you have been looking for here in Nova Roma, amice. I do hope you
apply to the priesthood, too.

we also have a sodalitas devoted to Greek culture:) so please join,
and I hope and think this fall at Academia Thules we will have a
course in Introduction to Ancient Greek,
Khaire!
Maior
sacerdos Mentis

producer 'Vox Romana' podcast
http://www.novaroma.org/nr/Vox_Romana

>
> i M GLAD PROUD AND HAPPY TO ANNOUNCE YOU ALL MY NEW CITIZENSHIP

AS APPIUS CLAUDIUS VARRO

>
> SALVE
> I HOPE TO DO MANY THINGS AND GREAT THINGS WITH YOU ALL
>
> PHILIPPE CARDON
> KNOW AS PHILIPPOSHELIOS
> APPIUS CLAUDIUS VARRO
>

M. Moravius Piscinus cultoribus Deorum et omnibus salutem plurimam
dicit: Di vos inculumes custodiant

Hodie est ante diem IIII Nonas Maias; haec dies comitialis: Floralia
in circo.


AUC 740 / 13 BCE: Theater of Marcellus dedicated.

"On ground purchased for the most part from private owners I built
the theatre near the temple of Apollo which was to bear the name of
my son-in law Marcus Marcellus." ~ Caesar Augustus, Res Geste

The Theater of Marcellus lies in the Campus Martius. Originally the
theater was planned by Julius Caesar as the first stone theater in
Rome. He had removed the Temple of Pietas and other shrines, as
well as some private houses, to make room for the theater.
Marcellus, for whom it came to be named, had died in 23 BCE.
Construction on the theater may have begun shortly before his death,
but from that point on Augustus made it a memorial for his son-in-
law. Construction had advanced where some of the performances for
the Ludi Saeculares were held there in 17 BCE. The dedication,
according to Cassius Dio, was in 13 BCE, accompanied by games.

"He next dedicated the theatre named after Marcellus. In the course
of the festival held for this p351purpose the patrician boys,
including his grandson Gaius, performed the equestrian exercise
called 'Troy,' and six hundred wild beasts from Africa were slain. 2
And to celebrate the birthday of Augustus, Iullus, the son of
Antony, who was praetor, gave games in the Circus and a slaughter of
wild beasts, and entertained both the emperor and the senate, in
pursuance of a decree of that body, upon the Capitol." ~ Cass. Dio
54.26.1-2

In 370 CE some of the traventine blocks were taken from the Theater
of Marcellus for the restoration of the pons Cestius. This may be
when the theater began to be torn down, although parts of it
remained for several centuries afterward. Part of an outer wall
still stands today.


Today's thought comes from Publilius Syrus, Sententia 610:

"Even the thorn bush is pleasant, from which is seen the rose."

--- In Nova-Roma@yahoogroups.com, "Maior" <rory12001@...> wrote:

>
> M. Hortensia Maior Ap.Claudio Varroni spd;
>
> Sabinus is not only this year's consul but a devoted cultor and
> sacerdos to Mercurius. (Hermes) I think you will find the community
> you have been looking for here in Nova Roma, amice. I do hope you
> apply to the priesthood, too.
>
>
> Maior
> sacerdos Menti

Salve Maior

As it says on the website novaroma.org
Cultus Deorum Romanorum is an attempt to reconstruct the ancient
religion of the Romans as closely as possible. The Cultus Deorum
Romanorum, cannot be approached by inserting Roman deity names into
Greek religion or any other system, for it is a unique product of the
culture that created it.

So with beening said and that you are not a Sacerdos Templi Mercurius
,and you call out any others who do not folllow the MOS the way you
see it. I ask you not to say things that would seen to say Mercurius
is Hermes , I follow both and under Cultus Deorum Romanorum/MOS/ Lex
Templi Mercurius they are not the same God pls do not say things that
mite show that they are.as a priest in the Cultus Deorum Romanorum.
thats what a Romon Recon is about the Roman Gods are not just greek
Gods under other names.

Vale

Marcus Cornelius Felix
Sacerdos Templi Mercurius
Sacerdotus Provincia America Boreoccidentalis

Ex officio praetorum:

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II. Topics of discussion

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Discussions may sometimes go into subjects beyond these topics, but such digressions should be brief and related to the listed topics. Messages of this kind must be clearly marked as �off topic�.



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Speak and write for yourself, not others.



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Insulting the religious beliefs of others, and the historical basis for those beliefs, is off limits.



This edict takes effect immediately.



Given under our hands this 20th day of January 2761 from the founding of Roma



M. Curiatius Complutensis

M.Iulius Severus



Praetores Novae Romae

Nova Roma's official business language is English, and its official ceremonial language is Latin. There are other non-official languages that must be considered as common use languages, due to the international nature of the Nova Roman community. To insure timely posting, write your posts in English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Latin, Portuguese or Spanish.

So Pray tell me then how different excactly is Mercurius from
Hermes;..not a psychopomp?
vale
M. Hortensia Maior

> So with beening said and that you are not a Sacerdos Templi

Mercurius

> ,and you call out any others who do not folllow the MOS the way you
> see it. I ask you not to say things that would seen to say

Mercurius

> is Hermes , I follow both and under Cultus Deorum Romanorum/MOS/

Lex

> Templi Mercurius they are not the same God pls do not say things

that

> mite show that they are.as a priest in the Cultus Deorum Romanorum.
> thats what a Romon Recon is about the Roman Gods are not just greek
> Gods under other names.
>
> Vale
>
> Marcus Cornelius Felix
> Sacerdos Templi Mercurius
> Sacerdotus Provincia America Boreoccidentalis
>

M. Moravius Piscinus cultoribus Deorum et omnibus salutem plurimam
dicit: Dea vos porrigat opitula.

Hodie est ante diem III Nonas Maias; haec dies comitialis est. Idem
sidus pluviam significat.

The Senator's shoes

"Luck makes you handsome and brave, luck brings brains and breeding,
a splendid pedigree, plus the senatorial crescent to sew on your
black shoe straps." ~ Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis. Satura 7.190-192


Plutarch, Roman Questions 76:

"Why do they who are reputed to have distinguished lineages wear
crescents on their shoes? Is this, as Castor says, an emblem of the
fabled residence in the moon, and an indication that after death
their souls will again have the moon beneath their feet? Or was this
the special privilege of the most ancient families, the so-called Pre-
Lunar People? Or does this also, like many another custom, remind
the exalted and proud of the mutability, for better or worse, in the
affairs of men, and that they should take the moon as an illustration?

When out of Darkness first She comes anew
Her face She shows increasingly fair and full;
And when She reaches once Her brightest sheen
Again She wanes away and comes to naught.

"Or was it a lesson in obedience to authority, teaching them not to
be disaffected under the government of kings, but to be even as the
moon, who is willing to give heed to Her superior and to be a second
to him,

"Ever gazing in awe at the rays of the bright-gleaming Sun God.

"As Parmenides puts it; and were they thus to be content with their
second place, living under their ruler, and enjoying the power and
honor derived from him?"


AUC 536 / 217 BCE: Aftermath of Flaminius' Defeat at Lake Trasieme

"Q. Fabius Maximus was now Dictator for the second time. On the very
day of his entrance upon office he summoned a meeting of the senate,
and commenced by discussing matters of religion. He made it quite
clear to the senators that C. Flaminius' fault lay much more in his
neglect of the auspices and of his religious duties than in bad
generalship and foolhardiness. The gods themselves, he maintained,
must be consulted as to the necessary measures to avert their
displeasure, and he succeeded in getting a decree passed that the
decemvirs should be ordered to consult the Sibylline Books, a course
which is only adopted when the most alarming portents have been
reported. After inspecting the Books of Fate they informed the senate
that the vow which had been made to Mars in view of that war had not
been duly discharged, and that it must be discharged afresh and on a
much greater scale. The Great Games must be vowed to Jupiter, a
temple to Venus Erycina and one to Mens; a lectisternium must be held
and solemn intercessions made; a Sacred Spring must also be vowed.
All these things must be done if the war was to be a successful one
and the republic remain in the same position in which it was at the
beginning of the war. As Fabius would be wholly occupied with the
necessary arrangements for the war, the senate with the full approval
of the pontifical college ordered the praetor, M. Aemilius, to take
care that all these orders were carried out in good time." ~ Titus
Livius 22.9

Our thought for the day is from Cornelius Nepos, Eumenes 1.1:

"We measure great men by their virtues, not by their luck."

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----- Original Message -----

From: Maior

To: Nova-Roma@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2008 6:48 PM

Subject: [Nova-Roma] Re: NEW CITIZEN

So Pray tell me then how different excactly is Mercurius from
Hermes;..not a psychopomp?
vale
M. Hortensia Maior

> So with beening said and that you are not a Sacerdos Templi
Mercurius
> ,and you call out any others who do not folllow the MOS the way you
> see it. I ask you not to say things that would seen to say
Mercurius
> is Hermes , I follow both and under Cultus Deorum Romanorum/MOS/
Lex
> Templi Mercurius they are not the same God pls do not say things
that
> mite show that they are.as a priest in the Cultus Deorum Romanorum.
> thats what a Romon Recon is about the Roman Gods are not just greek
> Gods under other names.
>
> Vale
>
> Marcus Cornelius Felix
> Sacerdos Templi Mercurius
> Sacerdotus Provincia America Boreoccidentalis
>

Salvete Omnes,

After an extended absence I have returned to Nova Roma (I can hear the
sound of champagne being broken out...).

I fully intend to return to the level of involvement I was at almost
three years ago. I haven't forgotten the Latin greetings, so I'm
already off to a flying start...

valete

T. Octavius Salvius

Salve Salvi,

t_octavius_salvius <fin37@...> writes:

> Salvete Omnes,
>
> After an extended absence I have returned to Nova Roma

Welcome back!

Vale,

CN-EQVIT-MARINVS

Hi,

In case anyone is interested here is one of the clips of interview I
did for CH4.

Regards,
Nabarz
--------------------------------------------------
London Mithraeum was founded c240-50AD. Its remains were rediscovered
in 1952.

Filmed in remains of Temple of Mithras in London.

Payam Nabarz is interviewed by Dr Robert Beckford for Channel 4,
filmed by Juniper TV.

The video gives an overview of some aspects of Mithraism, the ancient
Roman mystery religion popular in the Roman Legions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKBSl_-gIUc

Mon cher Varro;
ah tu posséde un esprit plein d'espièglerie! Connais tu
Minervalis? Aussi un civis de Gaule et cultor très fort et drole...
Maior

>
> "Do not speak to a fool,
> for he will scorn the wisdom of your words. "
>
> proverbs 23:9
> for times to times even the Bibel can speak right lol
>
> A. Claudius Varro
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Maior
> To: Nova-Roma@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2008 6:48 PM
> Subject: [Nova-Roma] Re: NEW CITIZEN
>
>
> So Pray tell me then how different excactly is Mercurius from
> Hermes;..not a psychopomp?
> vale
> M. Hortensia Maior
>
> > So with beening said and that you are not a Sacerdos Templi
> Mercurius
> > ,and you call out any others who do not folllow the MOS the

way you

> > see it. I ask you not to say things that would seen to say
> Mercurius
> > is Hermes , I follow both and under Cultus Deorum

Romanorum/MOS/

> Lex
> > Templi Mercurius they are not the same God pls do not say

things

> that
> > mite show that they are.as a priest in the Cultus Deorum

Romanorum.

> > thats what a Romon Recon is about the Roman Gods are not just

greek

> > Gods under other names.
> >
> > Vale
> >
> > Marcus Cornelius Felix
> > Sacerdos Templi Mercurius
> > Sacerdotus Provincia America Boreoccidentalis
> >
>

----- Original Message -----

From: Maior

To: Nova-Roma@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 7:15 PM

Subject: [Nova-Roma] Re: NEW CITIZEN

Mon cher Varro;
ah tu posséde un esprit plein d'espièglerie! Connais tu
Minervalis? Aussi un civis de Gaule et cultor très fort et drole...
Maior

>
> "Do not speak to a fool,
> for he will scorn the wisdom of your words. "
>
> proverbs 23:9
> for times to times even the Bibel can speak right lol
>
> A. Claudius Varro
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Maior
> To: Nova-Roma@yahoogrou ps.com
> Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2008 6:48 PM
> Subject: [Nova-Roma] Re: NEW CITIZEN
>
>
> So Pray tell me then how different excactly is Mercurius from
> Hermes;..not a psychopomp?
> vale
> M. Hortensia Maior
>
> > So with beening said and that you are not a Sacerdos Templi
> Mercurius
> > ,and you call out any others who do not folllow the MOS the
way you
> > see it. I ask you not to say things that would seen to say
> Mercurius
> > is Hermes , I follow both and under Cultus Deorum
Romanorum/MOS/
> Lex
> > Templi Mercurius they are not the same God pls do not say
things
> that
> > mite show that they are.as a priest in the Cultus Deorum
Romanorum.
> > thats what a Romon Recon is about the Roman Gods are not just
greek
> > Gods under other names.
> >
> > Vale
> >
> > Marcus Cornelius Felix
> > Sacerdos Templi Mercurius
> > Sacerdotus Provincia America Boreoccidentalis
> >
>

M. Moravius Piscinus cultoribus Deorum et omnibus salutem plurimam
dicit: Vos vivatis atque floreatis ad plurimos annos.

Hodie est die pristine Nonas Maias; haec dies comitialis est: Nepa
medius occidit, tempestatem significat.

No Marriage Ceremonies held in the Month of May

Plutarch, Roman Questions 86:

"Why do men not marry during the month of May? Is it because this
month comes between April and June, of which they regard April as
sacred to Venus and June as sacred to Juno, both of them divinities
of marriage; and so they put the wedding a little earlier or wait
until later? Or is it because in this month they hold their most
important ceremony of purification, in which they now throw images
from the bridge into the river, but in days of old they used to throw
human beings? Wherefore it is the custom that the Flaminica, reputed
to be consecrate to Juno, shall wear a stern face, and refrain from
bathing and wearing ornaments at this time. Or is it because many of
the Latins make offerings to the departed in this month? And it is
for this reason, perhaps, that they worship Mercury in this month and
that the month derives its name from Maia. Or is May, as some relate,
named after the older (maior) and June after the younger generation
(iunior)? For youth is better fitted for marriage, as Euripides also
says:

"Old age bids Love to take her leave for aye
And Aphroditê wearies of the old.

"They do not, therefore, marry in May, but wait for June which comes
next after May."


AUC 537 / 217 BCE: Vow for a Sacred Spring (Ver sacrum)

"After these resolutions had been passed in the senate the praetor
consulted the pontifical college as to the proper means of giving
effect to them, and L. Cornelius Lentulus, the Pontifex Maximus,
decided that the very first step to take was to refer to the people
the question of a "Sacred Spring," as this particular form of vow
could not be undertaken without the order of the people. The form of
procedure was as follows: "Is it," the praetor asked the
Assembly, "your will and pleasure that all be done and performed in
manner following? That is to say, if the commonwealth of the Romans
and the Quirites be preserved, as I pray it may be, safe and sound
through these present wars-to wit, the war between Rome and Carthage
and the wars with the Gauls now dwelling on the hither side of the
Alps-then shall the Romans and Quirites present as an offering
whatever the spring shall produce from their flocks and herds,
whether it be from swine or sheep or goats or cattle, and all that is
not already devoted to any other deity shall be consecrated to
Jupiter from such time as the senate and people shall order.
Whosoever shall make an offering let him do it at whatsoever time and
in whatsoever manner he will, and howsoever he offers it, it shall be
accounted to be duly offered. If the animal which should have been
sacrificed die, it shall be as though unconsecrated, there shall be
no sin. If any man shall hurt or slay a consecrated thing unwittingly
he shall not be held guilty. If a man shall have stolen any such
animal, the people shall not bear the guilt, nor he from whom it was
stolen. If a man offer his sacrifice unwittingly on a forbidden day,
it shall be accounted to be duly offered. Whether he do so by night
or day, whether he be slave or freeman, it shall be accounted to be
duly offered. If any sacrifice be offered before the senate and
people have ordered that it shall be done, the people shall be free
and absolved from all guilt therefrom." To the same end the Great
Games were vowed at a cost of 333,333 1/3 ases, and in addition 300
oxen to Jupiter, and white oxen and the other customary victims to a
number of deities. When the vows had been duly pronounced a litany of
intercession was ordered, and not only the population of the City but
the people from the country districts, whose private interests were
being affected by the public distress, went in procession with their
wives and children. Then a lectisternium was held for three days
under the supervision of the ten keepers of the Sacred Books. Six
couches were publicly exhibited; one for Jupiter and Juno, another
for Neptune and Minerva, a third for Mars and Venus, a fourth for
Apollo and Diana, a fifth for Vulcan and Vesta, and the sixth for
Mercury and Ceres. This was followed by the vowing of temples. Q.
Fabius Maximus, as Dictator, vowed the temple to Venus Erycina,
because it was laid down in the Books of Fate that this vow should be
made by the man who possessed the supreme authority in the State. T.
Otacilius, the praetor, vowed the temple to Mens." ~ Titus Livius
22.10


Today's thought is from Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.5.2:

"Let us live by ancient morals, but let us speak with today's words."

--- In Nova-Roma@yahoogroups.com, "Maior" <rory12001@...> wrote:

>
> So Pray tell me then how different excactly is Mercurius from
> Hermes;..not a psychopomp?
> vale
> M. Hortensia Maior

Again I quot from the NOVAROMA website
URL http://www.novaroma.org/nr/Cultus_deorum_Romanorum

where it says

"The modern practice of the religion of the Romans, the Cultus Deorum
Romanorum is an attempt to reconstruct the ancient religion of the
Romans as closely as possible. The Cultus Deorum Romanorum, cannot be
approached by inserting Roman deity names into Greek religion or any
other system, for it is a unique product of the culture that created
it. It demands steadfastness, devotion to duty and working in harmony
with the eternal gods and with universal order, for the benefit not
only of ourselves but also the world around us. With right action and
attitudes towards the gods, both the State and the individual will
prosper. Yet the cultus deorum involves more than pious action and
worldly power; there are also mystery traditions which focus on inner
spiritual growth"

and at http://www.novaroma.org/nr/Declaration_of_Roman_Paganism

"We affirm that the Roman Pagan Religion embodies the spiritual
beliefs, practices, virtues and philosophies of ancient Pagan Rome.
These constitute and express a clear and separate form of religion and
spirituality that is unique and different from all other spiritual
paths. We hold that our practices today are the spiritual successor of
the ancient ways, reborn anew."

pls to note where it says "These constitute and express a clear and
separate form of religion and spirituality that is unique and
different from all other spiritual paths."

what part of "clear and separate form of religion and spirituality
that is unique and different from all other spiritual paths"

do you not get, and no at the start of romae Mercurius and Hermes did
not have the same list of titles nor offices .










Marcus Cornelius Felix
Sacerdos Templi Mercurius
Sacerdotus Provincia America Boreoccidentalis

Maior Varroni sal;
right now many senators are working on a plan to purchase access
right to a big archive of scholarly journals called JSTOR for NR
assidui.
I have 'Roman Questions II' by Prof J. Linderski out from the
university library and in a footnote he mentions this excellent
monograph with a section on Mercurius. Punic Mercury, so surprising.
You can read a review here in the Bryn Mawr Review:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/1998/1998-08-02.html.

If we had JSTOR we could read a review by Prof. Mary Beard
of 'Mercure Romain' by Bernard Combet-Farnoux.
http://www.jstor.org/pss/300095 and discuss it. I dont know how
Roman or Etruscan he is, but from above he had a Punic influenced
cultus too. When I go to the library Friday, I'll take a look
at "Mercure Romaine" and see. In Italy Hercules became a big patron
of travellers and merchants, so we'll see. Certainly psychopompus
was incredibly important.
optime vale
Maior

>
> more seriously I dont think that marcury was an original God of

the romans he had no flmen like th most ancient ones

>
> he name itsefl shoms the Romans took the Good from out (marcury

comes from merx, merchandise)

> the name is not ancien so the god is not ancien because it can be

explained by the latin

>
> probably Marcury was an estrucean God of mercahnts who cme from

greece to italy, so he is the same a hermes

>
> the difference i see is hermes was not primary a god of merchants

but of wanderers and travlleres who was adopted by the merchants as
they were at first people who travelled and webt from place to place

> but mercury as his name shows, was from the very beginning a God

of merchants

>
> Vale Varro
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Maior
> To: Nova-Roma@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 7:15 PM
> Subject: [Nova-Roma] Re: NEW CITIZEN
>
>
> Mon cher Varro;
> ah tu posséde un esprit plein d'espièglerie! Connais tu
> Minervalis? Aussi un civis de Gaule et cultor très fort et

drole...

> Maior
>
> >
> > "Do not speak to a fool,
> > for he will scorn the wisdom of your words. "
> >
> > proverbs 23:9
> > for times to times even the Bibel can speak right lol
> >
> > A. Claudius Varro
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Maior
> > To: Nova-Roma@yahoogroups.com
> > Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2008 6:48 PM
> > Subject: [Nova-Roma] Re: NEW CITIZEN
> >
> >
> > So Pray tell me then how different excactly is Mercurius from
> > Hermes;..not a psychopomp?
> > vale
> > M. Hortensia Maior
> >
> > > So with beening said and that you are not a Sacerdos Templi
> > Mercurius
> > > ,and you call out any others who do not folllow the MOS the
> way you
> > > see it. I ask you not to say things that would seen to say
> > Mercurius
> > > is Hermes , I follow both and under Cultus Deorum
> Romanorum/MOS/
> > Lex
> > > Templi Mercurius they are not the same God pls do not say
> things
> > that
> > > mite show that they are.as a priest in the Cultus Deorum
> Romanorum.
> > > thats what a Romon Recon is about the Roman Gods are not

just

> greek
> > > Gods under other names.
> > >
> > > Vale
> > >
> > > Marcus Cornelius Felix
> > > Sacerdos Templi Mercurius
> > > Sacerdotus Provincia America Boreoccidentalis
> > >
> >
>

Salve;
the website is sensitively done, but I suggest you read this:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/1998/1998-08-02.html. Mercury and
many other gods had Punic influences

Rome did not grow in a vacuum, It was influenced by and did
influence other cultures.
The temple of Venus on the Capitoline was dedicated to Venus Eryx,
Astarte, a Punic goddess; Cybele- Magna Mater came from Anatolia.
Apollo and Hercules are direct imports from Greece.

Liber who was indeed Italic took on qualities of Bacchus, and
ancient Fortuna, a goddess of plenty, was conflated with Greek
Tyche, a capricious goddess of luck.

I hope with the JSTOR project that we all can educate ourselves to
know more about the cultus deorum.
optime vale
Maior

>
> Again I quot from the NOVAROMA website
> URL http://www.novaroma.org/nr/Cultus_deorum_Romanorum
>
> where it says
>
> "The modern practice of the religion of the Romans, the Cultus

Deorum

> Romanorum is an attempt to reconstruct the ancient religion of the
> Romans as closely as possible. The Cultus Deorum Romanorum, cannot

be

> approached by inserting Roman deity names into Greek religion or

any

> other system, for it is a unique product of the culture that

created

> it. It demands steadfastness, devotion to duty and working in

harmony

> with the eternal gods and with universal order, for the benefit not
> only of ourselves but also the world around us. With right action

and

> attitudes towards the gods, both the State and the individual will
> prosper. Yet the cultus deorum involves more than pious action and
> worldly power; there are also mystery traditions which focus on

inner

> spiritual growth"
>
> and at http://www.novaroma.org/nr/Declaration_of_Roman_Paganism
>
> "We affirm that the Roman Pagan Religion embodies the spiritual
> beliefs, practices, virtues and philosophies of ancient Pagan Rome.
> These constitute and express a clear and separate form of religion

and

> spirituality that is unique and different from all other spiritual
> paths. We hold that our practices today are the spiritual

successor of

> the ancient ways, reborn anew."
>
> pls to note where it says "These constitute and express a clear and
> separate form of religion and spirituality that is unique and
> different from all other spiritual paths."
>
> what part of "clear and separate form of religion and spirituality
> that is unique and different from all other spiritual paths"
>
> do you not get, and no at the start of romae Mercurius and Hermes

did

> not have the same list of titles nor offices .
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Marcus Cornelius Felix
> Sacerdos Templi Mercurius
> Sacerdotus Provincia America Boreoccidentalis
>

----- Original Message -----

From: Maior

To: Nova-Roma@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 7:30 PM

Subject: [Nova-Roma] Re: NEW CITIZEN

Salve;
the website is sensitively done, but I suggest you read this:
http://ccat. sas.upenn. edu/bmcr/ 1998/1998- 08-02.html. Mercury and
many other gods had Punic influences

Rome did not grow in a vacuum, It was influenced by and did
influence other cultures.
The temple of Venus on the Capitoline was dedicated to Venus Eryx,
Astarte, a Punic goddess; Cybele- Magna Mater came from Anatolia.
Apollo and Hercules are direct imports from Greece.

Liber who was indeed Italic took on qualities of Bacchus, and
ancient Fortuna, a goddess of plenty, was conflated with Greek
Tyche, a capricious goddess of luck.

I hope with the JSTOR project that we all can educate ourselves to
know more about the cultus deorum.
optime vale
Maior
>
> Again I quot from the NOVAROMA website
> URL http://www.novaroma .org/nr/Cultus_ deorum_Romanorum
>
> where it says
>
> "The modern practice of the religion of the Romans, the Cultus
Deorum
> Romanorum is an attempt to reconstruct the ancient religion of the
> Romans as closely as possible. The Cultus Deorum Romanorum, cannot
be
> approached by inserting Roman deity names into Greek religion or
any
> other system, for it is a unique product of the culture that
created
> it. It demands steadfastness, devotion to duty and working in
harmony
> with the eternal gods and with universal order, for the benefit not
> only of ourselves but also the world around us. With right action
and
> attitudes towards the gods, both the State and the individual will
> prosper. Yet the cultus deorum involves more than pious action and
> worldly power; there are also mystery traditions which focus on
inner
> spiritual growth"
>
> and at http://www.novaroma .org/nr/Declarat ion_of_Roman_ Paganism
>
> "We affirm that the Roman Pagan Religion embodies the spiritual
> beliefs, practices, virtues and philosophies of ancient Pagan Rome.
> These constitute and express a clear and separate form of religion
and
> spirituality that is unique and different from all other spiritual
> paths. We hold that our practices today are the spiritual
successor of
> the ancient ways, reborn anew."
>
> pls to note where it says "These constitute and express a clear and
> separate form of religion and spirituality that is unique and
> different from all other spiritual paths."
>
> what part of "clear and separate form of religion and spirituality
> that is unique and different from all other spiritual paths"
>
> do you not get, and no at the start of romae Mercurius and Hermes
did
> not have the same list of titles nor offices .
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Marcus Cornelius Felix
> Sacerdos Templi Mercurius
> Sacerdotus Provincia America Boreoccidentalis
>

M. Moravius Piscinus cultoribus Deorum, Quiritibus et omnibus salutem
plurimam dicit: Diis bene iuvantibus sitis

Hodie est Nonae Maesiae; haec dies fastus est: Vergiliae exoriuntur
mane, Favonius

Vestal Virgins Prepare Mola Salsa

On the alternating days from the Nones of May until the day before
the Ides (that is, 7, 9, and 11 May), the three senior-most Vestales
Virgines prepare the mola salsa that is used at the Vestalia of June,
on the Ides of September for the commemoration of the dedication of
the Capitolium, and again at the Lupercalia of February (Servius,
Commentary on Virgil's Eclogue 8.82). The Vestales would pick the
first ripening heads of grain with their own virgin fingers. The
grain was then soaked in a brine. The salt for this brine was taken
from far out at sea in the fall. To the salt-water was added fresh
water, both sealed in clay jars and baked in an oven. The result was
blocks of salt that the Vestales cut by using an iron saw (Veranius
Flaccus GRF 6; Paulus, Festus p. 159, 10: muries). After the grain
soaked in the sea-salt brine, it was roasted in an oven. The Vestales
next ground the roasted grain with a mortar and pestle rather than
use a mill. To this "salted" grain flour was then added just enough
water to make a sticky dough to form the mola salsa cakes. Crumbled,
the mola salsa was used to sanctify offerings before sacrifice, and
was often an offering in itself. A sacrifice is not properly
sanctified and dedicated without first sprinkling mola salsa on it.


This evening sees the lighting of candles and offering of roses at
the tombs of the ancestors.

Plutarch, Roman Questions 75:

"Why did they (the Romans) not extinguish a lamp, but suffered it to
go out on its own? Did they reverence it as akin and closely related
to the inextinguishable and underlying fire, or it this also a
symbolic indication that we should not destroy nor do away with any
living thing, if it does us no harm, since fire is like a living
thing? For it needs sustenance, it moves of itself, and when it is
extinguished it gives out a sound as if it were being slain. Or does
the custom teach us that we should not destroy fire, water, or any
other necessity when we have enough and to spare, but should allow
those who have need of these things to be used by them, and should
leave them for others when we ourselves no longer have any need over
them?"


AUC 558-559 / 195-194 BCE: The Vow of the Sacred Spring carried out

"Before the consuls left the City they were required, in accordance
with a decree of the pontiffs, to proclaim a Sacred Spring. This was
in fulfilment of a vow made by the praetor A. Cornelius Mammula at
the desire of the senate and by order of the people twenty-one years
previously in the consulship of Cn. Servilius and C. Flaminius. C.
Claudius Pulcher, the son of Appius, was at the same time appointed
augur in place of Q. Fabius Maximus, who had died the year before." ~
Titus Livius 33.44

"In the previous year a Sacred Spring had been observed, and the
Pontifex Maximus P. Licinius reported to the pontifical college that
its observance had not been properly carried out. The college
authorised him to bring the matter to the notice of the senate, and
they decided that there should be an entirely fresh observance under
the direction of the pontiffs. The Great Games, which had been vowed
at the same time, were also ordered to be celebrated, and the usual
outlay incurred upon them. The victims to be offered included all the
cattle born between 1st March and 1st May during the consulship of P.
Cornelius and Tiberius Sempronius." ~ Titus Livius 34.44


AUC 918 / 165 CE: Birth of diva Iulia Maesa Augusta avia Augusti

Julia Maesa was the sister-in-law of Septimius Severus, sister to
Julia Domna, aunt to Caracalla and Geta, and grandmother to
Elagabalus and Alexander Severus. She raised a revolt of the Syrian
legions against Macrinus, the usurper who had murdered Caracalla, and
first placed Elagabalus on the throne. But when her grandson proved
such a disaster as emperor and thus threatened her own position, she
had him assassinated and placed her other grandson, Alexander
Severus, on the throne.


Our thought for today is from Epictetus, Fragment 2:

"He who is discontented with what he has and what has been granted to
him by fortune is a layman in the art of life. But he who bears it
nobly, and acts rationally with regard to all that arises from it,
deserves to be acknowledged as a good man."

Salvete omnes!

I've had Skype running all week. I've chatted with a couple of people,
but no one else has popped in to say hi. Market Day starts in half an
hour; if you see this post, it's Market Day!

Let's try Skype again, either via text or audio/video.

If you don't have Skype installed, do so ( skype.com ). When you have
it installed, click this massive link:

http://www.skype.com/go/joinpublicchat?skypename=cn%2ecaelius%2eahenobarbus&topic=Nova%20Roma&blob=I0hxE6WVOky3cKfNyxwWvH55U05ID4r2qsrvbtx3ws4J8RsUvO93svdgYX_BbPBuEFp47oblKsRbrifwbVwQ08fuaF85iw

I'll see you there!

Valete omnes!

Gnaeus Caelius Ahenobarbus

M. Moravius Piscinus cultores Deorum, Quiritibus et omnibus salutem
plurimam dicit: Bene omnibus nobis

Hodie est ante diem VIII Eidus Maesiae; haec dies fastus aterque
est:: Mensi.

AUC 538 / 215 BCE: Dedication of a Temple to Mens

"Meanwhile the two commissioners were appointed for the dedication of
temples: T. Otacilius Crassus dedicated the temple to Mens, Q. Fabius
Maximus the one to Venus Erycina. Both are on the Capitol, separated
only by a water channel." ~ Titus Livius 23.31

"Let them worship as deities those who have always been recognized as
heavenly beings; and those who have won a place in heaven through
their merits: Hercules, Liber, Aesculapius, Castor, Pollux, Quirinus;
and those qualities through which men may gain access to heaven –
Mens, Virtus, Pietas, Fides, of these virtues let there be shrines,
but none of any of the vices." ~ M. Tullius Cicero, De Legibus 2.19

"Sometimes a deity is named after a particular quality that contains
some force, like Fides and Mens. We can see shrines on the Capitol
recently dedicated to this pair by Marcus Aemilius while Fides had
beenconsecrated before that by Aulus Atilius Calatinus. You can see
the temple of Virtus as well, and the temple of Honos restored by
Marcus Marcellus, but dedicated many years before in the Ligurian War
by Quintus Maximus. And what of Ops, what of Salus, what of
Concordia, Libertas, Victoria? In the case of all these, because
they have such force that they could not possibly be controlled
except by a God, the quality itself has been designated divine. In
the same category the name Cupido and Voluptas and Venus Lubitina
have been consecrated. They may be corrupting and unnatural
qualities, although Vellius thinks otherwise, yet those very vices
often have a stronger impact on our character. Accordingly, those
deities who gave rise to various benefits owed their deification to
the size of the benefits they bestowed; and indeed those names that I
just mentioned make clear the power that resides in each God." ~ M.
Tullius Cicero, De Natura Deorum 2.60-62


Before Incense and Perfumes

"Touching on the invention of ointments, it is not well known who was
the first to devise them. Certain it is, that during the reign of the
Trojans, and while Ilium stood, perfumes did not yet exist: nor was
incense used in sacrifice and divine service. The fume and smoke of
the cedar and the citron trees only, the old Trojans were acquainted
with when they offered sacrifice: their fuming and wafting fume (more
truly I may term it, than any odoriferous perfume) they used: which
they might easily come by, since they were plants growing among them,
and thus familiar; notwithstanding they had found out the juice of
roses, wherewith yet they would not correct the foresaid strong fumes
in those days; for that also was known to be a commendable quality of
Oile Rosate." ~ Plinius Secundus, Historia Naturalis 13.2


Today's thought is from Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.11.1:

"Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life at any
moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly. If there are
Gods, departure from the world of men is nothing to fear, for the
Gods will not involve thee in evil. But if indeed They do not exist,
or if They have no concern about human affairs, then what is life to
me to live in a universe devoid of Gods or devoid of Providence?"

M. Moravius Piscinus cultores Deorum, Quiritibus et omnibus salutem
plurimam dicit: Diis bene iuvantibus simus.

Hodie est ante diem VII Eidus Maesiae; haec dies nefastus est: LEMURIA

With tulips and crocus and the other flowers of spring beginning to
fade, as columbine, daisies and the flowers of early summer beginning
to bloom, it might seem a little odd to celebrate a feast of the
dead. But it is serves as a reminder of the eternal spring of the
Blessed Isles that awaits most. We do not really know the thoughts
of early Romans on an afterlife. Only by inference of such festivals
as the Lemuria are we certain that they held a belief in an
afterlife. As Ovid tells it, "An ancient rite, the nocturnal
lemuria, will be celebrated, bringing offerings to silent ghosts...
Yet even (in the earliest times) people brought offerings to the
ashes of the dead, as is their due. The grandson paid his respects
at the tomb of his grandfather (Fasti 5.421-426)." Our earliest
references on how Romans thought about the dead living in an
afterlife come from the comedies of Plautus. In "The Pot of Gold" we
are addressed first by the Lar of the house (1-27). He tells us how
in each generation of the family the pater familias has more miserly,
and he in turn has been less benevolent to them. But the daughter of
the current occupant prays to him every day and offers him gifts of
wine and incense. By the story's end the Lar repays her kindness to
him by revealing the lost Pot of Gold to provide her with a handsome
dowry. With "Captivi" we find a different type of spirit of the
dead, the Larvae who "goad men" (598), and there is mention of a
Greek notion on the torments of the dead in the Underworld (998-
999). In "Casina" (592) a man complains of how a deceased former
lover torments him and his wife, calling this ghost a larva. In
Amphitryon (777) a place is said to be "infested with Larvae." There
is a distinction between the Lares who can be beneficial if given
their proper due from the Larvae who are always harmful shades of the
dead. In "Mostellaria" (499-500) Platus speaks of an entirely
different kind of ghost, who explains his own situation as, "but for
me, Orcus refuses to receive into Acheruntem, because prematurely am
I without life." This is a Lemur. Pomponius Porphyrio, commenting
on Horace, Epode 2.2.209, describes Lemures as "Shades of the Dead
wander the world of men before day break and in fact for this reason
are they feared." Thus are three general categories among the Manes.
There are the helpful Lares, the always evil Larvae, and something in
between, the Lemures who are detached from a family's worship of the
Lares, but not necessarily evil. However, bot "Lemures and Larvae
are nocturnal and terrifying apparitions of ghosts and beasts (Nonius
p. 135)."

The main shrine for worshiping the family Lares is at the lararium
near the front door, or else at the hearth. Of course inviting Lares
into the home can attract some unwanted spirits as well. Thus for
the first night of Lemuria we are reminded of a ritual to chase out
the Larvae and send away the Lemures from within the house itself.

"When midnight comes, lending silence to sleep, and all the dogs and
hedgerow birds are quiet, he who remembers ancient rites, and fears
the Gods, rises, no fetters binding his two feet, and makes the sign
with thumb and closed fingers, lest an insubstantial shade meets him
in the silence. After cleansing his hands in spring water, he turns
and first taking some black beans, throws them with averted face:
saying, while throwing: `With these beans I throw I redeem me and
mine.' Haec ego mitto, his redimo meque meosque fabis.

"He says this nine times without looking back: the shade is thought
to gather the beans, and follow behind, unseen. Again he touches
water, and sounds the Temesan bronze, and asks the spirit to leave
his house. When nine times he's cried: Manes, exite
paterni. 'Ancestral spirit, depart!' He looks back, and believes the
sacred rite's fulfilled." ~ Ovidius Naso, Fasti 5.429-444

The ritual described by Ovid for Lemuria is one with which I can
especially relate. I recall in the years before I went to school how
my mother would rush us indoors before sunset on these days. She
would lock the doors, pull down the shades, turn mirrors to the
walls, do everything to prevent the Lemures from seeing us, for, as
we were told, if the Lemures saw us, they would carry us away. Then
my nonna would have us bang pot lids, rather than the gong of Temesan
bronze, and howl like wolves to frighten the Lemures away, while she
would spin about, aspersing all around with a wooden ladle filled
with boiling water. The water sometimes splattered onto us, making
us howl all the more. This was a rite that we performed three times
a year. In winter, before my birthday in March, so I assume
corresponding to Feralia. And I especially remember the time in
fall, just after Halloween, so probably corresponding to the day in
early November when the mundus was opened. And of course in May,
when the evenings were beginning to get noticeably longer, and
warmer, so naturally we children wished to play outside rather than
be pulled indoors before the Lemures arrived. Besides, we sort of
wished to see these terrible creatures of the night that so
frightened my mother and hers.

Prior to performing this ritual one would perform a normal ritual
before the lararium, calling upon Lares to aid in chasing out the
unwanted guests. After all, the Lemures are struggling to find a
home by squatting where properly the Lares alone belong. The gesture
which Ovid describes is called the fica. The thumbs protruding
through the fingers of the fists represent the genitalia of Genita
Manua, Mother of the Manes, and call upon Her for protection against
the Larvae. Beans, as we have seen earlier, are associated with the
Underworld. Festus even describes them as something "thrown to the
Larva at Lemuria (s. v. fabia)." You might think of it as a kind of
spiritual spring cleaning. But of course this only the first night
of Lemuria, and there is more to the festival than just this rite.


Today's thought is from the Pythagorean Ethical Sentences in Stobaeus
53:

"Nor will I be silent as to this particular, that it appeared both to
Plato and Pythagoras that old age was not to be considered with
reference to an egress from the present life, but to the beginning of
a blessed life."

Salvete Omnes! Quid agitis hodie?

An interesting book to check out on one aspect of the Hermes myth would
be: Hermes the Thief by Norman O. Brown.

Aula Ovidia Naso
(April Spratley)

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Date:		Saturday May 10, 2008
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M. Moravius Piscinus cultores Deorum, Quiritibus et omnibus salutem
plurimam dicit: Di vos salvam et servatam volunt.

Hodie est ante diem VI Eidus Maesiae; haec dies comitialis est:
Rosalia; Vergiliae totae apparent, Favonius aut Corus, interdum et
pluviae.

AUC 957 / 214 CE: Birth of Marcus Aurelius Claudius Gothicus, Emperor
268-270 CE.

Rosalia

Noted on the military calendar from Dura Europa, the Rosalia was held
on the tenth and thirty-first of May. Military standards were kept
in the aedes at the center of a camp. It was the temple of the
military unit. And like other temple at Rome, an altar was set up
outside the aedes. At the Rosalia the standards were brought forth
from the aedes and placed by the altar. They were crowned with
wreaths of roses and a supplication, or thanksgiving, was performed
before them. Beyond that one detail, nothing else is certain about
this military ritual. But from its nature we can surmise something
of its intent.

When someone died far from home, whether while serving in the army or
away at sea, and thus was unable to be buried by his family, a
cenotaphium would be erected as a dwelling place for his soul. His
Lar was called three times, invited to enter the cenotaphium, as
where Aeneas, upon meeting Deiphobus in the Underworld says, "Then I
myself on the Rhoetean shore erected a hollow tomb, and with loud
voice thrice called upon thy spirit (Aeneid 6.505-506)." Much of the
month of May was devoted to the honored dead, and we have seen days
earlier how on the Nones a rite was held whereby the tombs of the
ancestors were decorated with wreaths of roses. Similar to the
practice of dusting the dead with red ochre, a practice seen in
various cultures from the time of the Neolithic or even earlier, or
even with the practice of painting the statue of Jupiter Capitolinus
with cinnabar, or how Camillus was painted red for his triumph, red
roses were offered to the dead as a gesture of reviving them. Or at
least to remember them while still alive. Red roses were the flowers
of Venus, who held providence over the Blessed Isles. So offering
them to the Manes was a way of wishing their safe journey on to the
gardens of Venus.

There is not much doubt that the Rosalia was intended to honor the
military dead. The standards were being adorned in the same manner
as tombs. With the Romans I think you would also have to consider
that they thought of the standards as cenotaphia, carrying the Lares
of their fellow soldiers into battle with them. This also explains
why the loss of the eagles would be taken as such a tragedy. The
second century Christian writer Tertullian criticized this veneration
of the standards, but it was to continue well afterward and something
of the Rosalia remains even to day in the parading of the colors of
modern armies.


Our thought for this season of Lemuria is taken from Marcus Aurelius,
Meditations 5.33:

"Soon, very soon, thou wilt be ashes, or a skeleton, and either a
name or not even a name; but name is sound and echo. And the things
which are much valued in life are empty and rotten and trifling, and
like little dogs biting one another, and little children quarrelling,
laughing, and then straightway weeping. But fidelity and modesty and
justice and truth are 'fled up to Olympus from the wide-spread
earth.' What then is there which still detains thee here? If the
objects of sense are easily changed and never stand still, and the
organs of perception are dull and easily receive false impressions;
and the poor soul itself is an exhalation from blood. But to have
good repute amidst such a world as this is an empty thing. Why then
dost thou not wait in tranquility for thy end, whether it is
extinction or removal to another state? And until that time comes,
what is sufficient? Why, what else than to venerate the gods and
bless them, and to do good to men, and to practise tolerance and self-
restraint; but as to everything which is beyond the limits of the
poor flesh and breath, to remember that this is neither thine nor in
thy power."

M. Moravius Piscinus cultores Deorum, Quiritibus et omnibus salutem
plurimam dicit: Ditis ego omnis ut fortunas sint precor

Hodie est ante diem V Eidus Maesiae; haec dies nefastus est: LEMURIA.

For the first day of Lemuria I mentioned how one first tends to one's
own Lares who they wish to remain in the home, and secondly Ovid's
rite by which unwanted Larvae and Lemures were chased from the home.
Now we must look at the other part of rites for these days, or nights
really. That is, appeasing the Lemures. Earlier I said that the
Lemures are Manes who are not necessarily evil as are the Larvae.
However, they are also not necessarily friendly towards you and your
family as are your Lares. Thus you would not wish Lemures to remain
in your home, but they are to be given their due, and tending to them
can benefit your household. One difference between Lares and Lemures
is thus where you tend to their rites.

In Roman literature we come upon Lemures in ghosts stories where a
person has died, unknown to his family, and thus not given proper
burial rites. They may appear to close friends, asking for their
due. In one story a Roman comes upon the body of a dead sailor along
the shore. The Roman has the man given proper burial rites, and the
ghost appears to him that night to thank him. One story that Pliny
the Younger tells is about the philosopher Athenoodorus and a haunted
house. Athenodorus follows the ghost, realizes that he is a Lemur,
and on the following day has the place indicated by the ghost on the
night before to be dug up. There the remains of a man in chains is
discovered, and when given proper burial, the house is no longer
haunted. In other cases it is a matter of a family neglecting to
continue rites for their Lares, or it can be that a family dies out
and thus the Lares are left without someone to tend to their cultus.
Thus the Lemures roam the earth, looking for someone else to take up
their rites. Ovid, recall, offered them beans, and then ordered them
from his house. Lemures were there because they wished to be
included in the family's cultus for their own Lares. Of course you
could adopt a Lemur among your Lares, but then you can never be quite
certain what you will get. Thus the proper place to offer the
Lemures their due is outside the home.

For the Lemures one should offer water that they may clean
themselves, three piles of grain, milk, honey, salt and oil all on
pottery shards or broken crockery. Nothing fancy for dinnerware, and
no meat or wine, as the idea is to offer them their due and then have
them off on their way to continue roaming elsewhere. The places to
leave such offerings are at crossroads where one road dead-ends into
another, or on the boundary of your property, or you could set up a
special altar just for the Lemures if you so choose. You could look
at it this way. In your home you keep a cultus for your family and
friends who are your Lares, those whom you have invited into your
home. They in turn watch over your home. Outside you tend to the
Lemures, who are not known to you either as friends or family, or
whether they are friendly or not. An assumption, though, is that
they will be friendly, or at least not disturb you and yours, if you
give them what is rightfully theirs, even though you have not an
obligation to tend their proper cultus. Thus the Lemures are tended
to care for your property and land that is outside your house.

Because Lemures roam about looking for a place to call home, if you
provide a cultus for them they may decide to stay. Thus if you leave
offerings at a crossroads, Lemures may become Lares Viales. Left at
your property line, they may become Lares compitales. On your
property, then a Lemur may settle in as a genius loci. Each night of
Lemuria you perform Ovid's ritual, commanding your unwanted spiritual
guests to leave your home. But then think about where they shall go
and whether you ought to tend to their due as well.


Our thought for today is from Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.70:

"The Gods who are immortal are not vexed because during so long a
time They must continually tolerate men such as they are and so many
of them bad; and besides this, the Gods also take care of them in all
ways. But thou, who art destined to end so soon, art thou wearied of
enduring the bad, and this too when thou art one of them, too?"

With moderator`s permission,

Hi everyone,

I`m from IRAN and I`ve created a new group about my beautiful
country, it`s culture of 6000 years and the history of mysterious
PERSIAN EMPIRE era. in this group you can read about PERSIAN
EMPIRE, Kings of IRAN and also you may find many many pictures of
IRAN`s magnificent tourist attractions, from PERSEPOLIS to stunning
view of SHOMAL.we also have good discussions about everything.

If you`d like to join us ,you can have the access to the group with
this link:

http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/Persian_empire/



I`m looking forward to see you in the group.

NOTE: IF YOU HAVE STRONG FEELINGS AGAINST IRAN , PLEASE DO NOT JOIN
OR REPLY.

I will be out of the office starting 12-05-2008 and will not return until 15-05-2008.

I will respond to your message when I return.

M. Moravius Piscinus cultores Deorum, Quiritibus et omnibus salutem
plurimam dicit: Di vos servavissent semper.

Hodie est ante diem IV Eidus Maesiae; haec dies comitialis est: Ludi
Marti.

AUC 734 / 19 BCE: Dedication of the Temple of Mars Ultor

AUC 751 / 2 BCE: Dedication of the Forum of Augustus

"Mars comes, giving the sign for war as he comes, the Avenger himself
descends from the sky to view his shrine and honours in Augustus'
forum. The God and the work are mighty: Mars could not be housed
otherwise in his son's city." ~ Ovidius Naso, Fasti 5.

"On my own ground I built the Temple of Mars Ultor and the Augustan
Forum from the spoils of war." ~ Caesar Augustus, Res Geste 21.1

This temple was vowed before the Battle of Philippi. Octavius called
upon Mars Ultor to avenger the assassination of Julius Caesar against
the Republicans. But it was not until much later that the temple was
built and dedicated. The temple was located at the northeastern end
of the Forum of Augustus. On its pediment, according to Zanker's
iconographical scheme, Mars appeared with Venus and Romulus on His
right side, with Fortuna and Roma on His left. Inside, the image of
Mars Ultor had Venus at His right hand and divus Julius on His left.
The Forum itself was flanked by two terraces where niches held
statues of famous Romans, the viri summi. These were expanded upon
by two hemicycles extending out on either side of the temple. To the
left, on Mar's right hand were shown Aeneas, the Kings of Alba Longa,
and the Iulii. In the eastern hemicycle stood Romulus, flanked by
viri summi. At roughly the center of the Forum, on the main axis of
Mars Ultor, was a statue of Augustus in the triumphal quadriga as
Pater Patriae. Ludi Marti were instituted at the time this temple
was dedicated.


At Cumae on this day was held a different celebration. Rather than
Mars the Avenger, we hear of a festival for the Strength of Mars, or
Mars Moles. Elsewhere Moles is distinguished as a distinct deity, as
a companion of Mars, much as Pallor might be thought a distinct
companion to Mars:

"Prayers to the immortal Gods, which are offered according to the
Roman ritual, are set forth in the books of the priests of the Roman
people, as well as in many ancient books of prayers. In these we
find: Lua, of Saturnus; Salacia, of Neptunus; Hora, of Quirinus; the
Virites of Quirinus; Maia of Vulcanus; Heries of Juno; Moles of Mars;
and Nerio of Mars." ~ Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 13.23.1-2

Lua is mentioned along with Mars and Minerva as a Goddess who
receives spoila (Livy45.33.2). What Her connection would be with
Saturnus is not exactly known, but She is presented here as wife to
Saturnus in the same way as some of the other Goddesses appear. Lua
is a Goddess of purification. Hersilia appears as the Sabine wife of
Romulus; only later was she deified as Hora when Romulus was
identified as Quirinus (Ovid, Metamorphoses 14.830-851). Nonius,
however, said that Hora was a Goddess of Youth. Nerio is found as
wife of Mars in a fragment from Licinius Imbrex and in a play by
Plautus, as well as with Gellius (13.23.13). The names of these
Goddesses came from Italic tribes. It is possible therefore that
Moles was once a distinct deity of the Sabellians, whether a God of
War as Mars might suggest, or as a God of Virility as the context
above could suggest.


Today's thought is from the Stoic Musonius, who taught Epictetus and
won the latter his freedom. This fragment is from Gellius, Noctes
Atticae 16.1.2:

"If you accomplish anything noble with toil, the toil passes but the
noble deed endures. If you do anything shameful for pleasure, the
pleasure passes but the shame endures forever."

Well Thomas Vogel should put his yahoo group setting to 'no email' when he's out of the office.

LOL

-Annia Minucia Marcella

Thomas Vogel wrote:

I will be out of the office starting 12-05-2008 and will not return until 15-05-2008.

I will respond to your message when I return.

M. Moravius Piscinus cultores Deorum, Quiritibus et omnibus salutem
plurimam dicit: Di Deaeque vos ament.

Hodie est ante diem III Eidus Maiae; haec dies nefastus est: LEMURIA;
Rosaria; Fidis mane oritur, significat tempestatem.

At the very core of the religio Romana is the family devotion for the
Lares. In the Lemuria we see yet another aspect of the Romans'
implicit belief in an afterlife. In practice the dead were regarded
in some way to remain close to their tombs. Food and drink were
offered to them in a way that desired that they continue to live on.
Such practices can be found in Latium centuries before Rome was
founded. At Gabii, for example, among graves dating between 1000-900
BCE there are remains of deer and goats suggesting that a portion of
a meal was offered to the dead. But then what did the Romans believe
about the afterlife? One example comes from a funerary dedication.

"Whole-heartedly I pray to you, most holy Manes, may you admit my
dear husband among you, and, may you want to be most indulging in
this, that in the hours of the night I may see him and also be
advised by him on what to do, in order that I may be able to swiftly
and sweetly come stand by his side." ~ Corpus Inscriptiones Latinae
6.18817

There are a couple of ideas here of interest. It is assumed that the
deceased must be accepted among his Lares, or in other words that he
shall be judged. The wife, too, looks towards being judged herself
some day. That poses the question on what might happen to those who
were not accepted among the holy Manes, or one's family Lares? The
other important idea here is that the deceased can communicate with
the living, guiding us, advising us, and helping in various ways.
What is interesting here is that the wife seeks guidance on how to
attain her own redemption among the Lares.

"Now if virtue is rewarded among the Manes, within the changeable
shadows, then I pray that the Mother may give honor and gratitude to
you." ~ Anthologia Latina II 1147.2


Certain philosophical schools, most notably the Epicurians, fostered
a skeptical view towards an afterlife. Among Romans there are some,
but very rare expressions of this skepticism. Among tens of
thousands of funerary inscriptions attesting to belief in an
afterlife you will find one that says, "When life ends, all things
perish and turn to nothing (Carmina Latina Epigraphica I 1895, no.
420)." When it is voiced, the skepticism is often coupled with a
notion that a memory of the person would live on within his family
cultus.

"If there is a dwelling place for the Manes; if, as the wise believe,
noble souls do not perish with the body, rest thou in peaceÂ… Over
many indeed, of those who have gone before, as over the ignoble and
inglorious, the waves of oblivion shall roll; Agricola, known to
posterity through history and tradition, will live forever." ~ P.
Cornelius Tacitus, Agricola 46

"The Dream of Scipio," written by Cicero, takes this idea further in
that Scipio Africanus is portrayed as have climbed to a heavenly
home, one reserved for heroes. Ovid likewise speaks of the heavenly
homes of heroes along a celestial Via Sacra:

"There is a high track, seen when the sky is clear, called the Milky
Way, and known for its brightness. This way the Gods above pass to
the palaces and halls of the mighty Thunderer. To right and left are
the houses of the noble gods, doors open and crowded. The lesser gods
live elsewhere. Here the powerful and distinguished have made their
home. This is the place, if I were to be bold, I would not be afraid
to call high Heaven's Palatine." ~ Metamorphoses 1.168-176

No less than the elite, the classes below also sought their places in
the heavens. This is seen most often in funerary iconography that
depicts the deceased in the form of a God or Goddess. We see this
more often in later imperial eras that commonly Romans sought to
become deities; i. e. Lares. Occasionally this is also brought out in
funerary inscriptions as well.

"Mother Earth, indeed to You I pray, settle lightly on these bones,
as she knew that piety is the reward of she who merits it, and
whoever sincerely stands out in performing her own pious duties may
be carried on that happy path to the Gods above." ~ Corpus
Inscriptiones Latinae 6.9204

If not along the celestial Via Sacra, then other places for the
worthy to live were thought to be in the hemispheres, represented by
the Dioscuri, or in the sublunar atmosphere under the care of Diana,
or else on the moon. But what is most often depicted in funerary art
are the Blessed Isles beyond the Western Seas. The souls of the dead
were depicted as small children, at times with butterfly wings.
Cupid carrying Psyche is a common enough representation of the soul's
travel to the Blessed Isles, for there was where the dead would live
in the Garden of Venus. In other representations the deceased is
seen in carriages or on ships with Cupids and Nereids and a host of
creatures from the realm of Neptunus. The Blessed Isles themselves
are portrayed with the dead as putti engaged in idyllic labors –
harvesting grapes, making wine, carrying bee's nests, and so on. The
dead are thus portrayed as children of Venus, who for the Romans is
Venus Genetrix. Thus the journey to the Blessed Isles is a journey
home to what is described as a perpetual springtime.

"Grant, O Gods, that the earth may lie soft and gently upon the
shades of our ancestors, and may their urns be filled with a
perpetual springtime blooming with the sweet scents of crocus." ~
Persius, Satires 7.207-8 (see also Juvenal, Satires 7.207-8)


Another school of thought, originating from Orphism,t is expressed in
Plato by the Myth of Er in the Republic. In Roman literature it first
appears with Virgil. In Book VI of the Aeneid the Underworld is
divided into three parts. Just inside the portals to Hades is a
Limbo in which infants and others who had died before their time
reside. A lower region is one of punishment, where Tartarus is the
lowest region and reserved to torment criminals of legend. Third are
the Elysian Fields. In the Myth of Er one is first judged and must be
purged of any sins before being reincarnated. With Vergil, Aeneas
finds his father in the Elysian Fields where some cavort in pleasure,
but others await their turn to leave.

What yonder rivers be; what people press,
Line after line, on those dim shores along.
Said Sire Anchises: "Yonder thronging souls
To reincarnate shape predestined move.
Here, at the river Lethe's wave, they quaff
Care-quelling floods, and long oblivion.
~ P. Vergilius Maro, Aeneid 6.715-722


While most funerary art expressed a hope in journeying to the Blessed
Isles or to some other paradise in the afterlife, everyone must
expect a reckoning of their deeds in life. Dis Pater and Proserpina
ruled over the realm wherein those who had to be chastised would
dwell until their punishments had purged them of their misdeeds.

"O Proserpina, may Your clemency remain merciful on the souls You
keep, and may You Dis Pater, Proserpina's consort, not desire to be
stern." ~ Propertius Eligiae 2.28c.1-2

In some instances it is expressed that an individual must stand trial
in Hades in order to determine his fate. An example is where
Propertius lists the virtues and good deeds of Cornelia, daughter of
Scribonia and deceased wife of L. Aemilius Paullus, censor in 22 BCE.
He concludes her defense:

"The case for my defense is done. Rise up my witnesses, who weep for
me, while kindly Earth requites my life's just deserts. Even heaven
has unbarred its gates to virtue. May I be found worthy that my
bones be borne to join my honored ancestors." ~ Propertius, Eligiae
6.11

The genius of a man, and the juno of a woman, was said to come in
part from one's sacred ancestors, and the other part from the Gods.
Ultimately one returned home, redeemed back among the Gods as a
lesser god. Deprived of proper rites, deprived of a family cultus,
one was not given an opportunity to state his or her case as to why
she or he was worthy to join with the Lares. This was the fate of
the Lemures, barred from crossing the River Styx and left to wander
until they might find someone to provide for them. For the most
part, however, Romans believed that by living a virtuous life,
performing the duties that fate had assigned to them, that they would
be rewarded in an afterlife of bliss among their family members in
the Garden of Venus, across the Western Seas, on the Blessed Isles.


Today's thought is from the Pythagorean sentences of Stobaeus 54.

"The ancient theologists and priests testify that the soul is
conjoined to the body through a certain punishment, and, that it is
buried in this body as in a sepulchre."

A. Tullia Scholastica quiritibus, sociis, peregrinisque bonae voluntatis S.P.D.

    Today it was reported that a new bust of Caesar and some other statuary has been found in the Rhone river.  The link is:  

    <http://start.localnet.com/article.php?article=D90L72R80.html>

Valete.   

Annia Minucia Marcella wrote:

> Well Thomas Vogel should put his yahoo group setting to 'no email' when
> he's out of the office.

Salve, Annia Minucia Marcella.

Seeing as how this is the only auto-reply e-mail sent to this list, I'm
betting he did change the setting to "no email" but received a mail from
a spammer with a forged "from" or "reply-to" address of this list.

I.e., someone in NR probably has some interesting virii (viruses?) on
their computer and should get better anti-virus and firewall programs. :)

Vale, Titus Octavius Pius.

M. Moravius Piscinus cultoribus Deorum et omnibus salutem plurimam
dicit: Dei vos annuant oro.

Hodie est die pristine Eidus Maiae; haec dies comitialis est: sacra
Argeorum

"On this day too, the Vestals throw effigies made of rushes, in the
form of men of old, from the oak bridge." ~ Ovidius Naso, Fasti 5.621

"Why is it that in the month of May at the time of the full moon they
throw into the river from the Pons Sublicius figures of men, calling
the images thrown Argives? Is it because in ancient days the
barbarians wholived in these parts used to destroy thus the Greeks
whom they captured? But Hercules, who was much admired by them, put
an end to their murder of strangers and taught them to throw figures
into the river, in imitation of their superstitious custom, The men
of old used to call all Greeks Argives; unless it be, indeed, since
the Arcadians regarded the Argives also as their enemies because of
their immediate proximity, that, when Evander and his men fled Greece
and settled here, they continued to preserve their ancient feud and
enmity." ~ Plutarch, Roman Questions 32

On March 16 and 17 a procession was conducted throughout the City to
the various sacella of the Argei. Varro said that there were twenty-
seven sacella, of which he gives the location for several though not
all, divided among the four divisions of the Servian City( Lingua
Latinae 5.45-54). At each a puppet made of rushes was deposited.
Next, on 14 May these rush puppets were taken from their sacella and
brought to the Pons Sublicius from which they were thrown into the
Tiber, or otherwise submerged into the water. Present at this ritual
were magistrates, in particular the praetor urbanus, the pontifices,
Vestales Virgines, the flamenica Dialis, and a class of priests
called tutulati. Of the latter, Varro explains:

"The Argei are made of rushes, human figures twenty-seven in number;
each year these are thrown into the Tiber from the Pons Sublicius by
the sacerdotes, acting on behalf of the public. These priests are
called tutulati since at the sacrifice they are accustomed to have
something like a conical marker on their heads; this is called a
tutulus from the fact that the twisted locks of hair which the
matrons wear on the tops of their heads wrapped with a woolen band,
used to be called tutuli, whether named from the fact that this was
done for the purpose of protecting (tueri) the hair, or because that
which is the highest in the City, namely the Arx, was called
tutissimum (the safest)." ~ M. Terrentius Varro, Lingua Latinae 7.44

Different stories were told to explain this rite, projecting it back
into a time before Rome. In one story, Hercules teaches the
aboriginal people of the seven hills to use men made of rushes as
substitutes for human sacrifices. In another it was said that young
men use to throw old men from the bridge when passing over to vote in
comitia. The rite was then thought to have been made to placate the
murdered old men. There is very little evidence that human
sacrifices were practiced at Rome, and what there is comes from a
later period than the legends suggests. That is, Livy tells us of
two instances during the era of the Punic Wars where two couples in
each instance, one of Greeks and one of Etruscans, were sacrificed.
Also Carandini has discovered the remains of four individuals that
appear to have been sacrificed in a rite related to Remus at a time
when the poemerium was extended. The Romans themselves speculated
that such a use puppets as found with the argei, and also the oscilla
hung in trees at the feriae Latinae and the Paganalia, had been
substituted for an earlier practice of human sacrifice. There is no
evidence in any remains ever found at such places that such was true;
whereas the puppets would seem more likely to correspond to bronze
votives of human and animal forms as have been found in favissa on
the Capitoline Hill, in Sabine territories and elsewhere. Something
like the paintings found in Val Camonica, dating from the Bronze Age
and into the early Iron Age, the votives represent participants in
the rites rather than any sacrificial victims.

Another story told is that the Argei represent those Greek heroes who
travelled with Hercules to Italy and settled at Rome. When in old
age and nearing death they requested that they be returned by sea to
their native land, and thus the puppets represent sending their souls
down river, to the open sea, where they might be carried to their
fatherland. This story, too, is a later invention and lends no real
explanation for the ritual.

Working from such ideas Wissowa proposed that the rite was introduced
by the decemviri sacris faciundis in response to a pestilence that
occurred between the first and second Punic Wars. In his theory,
twenty-seven (or twenty-four, or thirty after Dionysius of
Halicarnassus) Greeks were taken to different stations in the City,
and held for a while before being sacrificed by drowning. Wissowa's
ideas have been refuted for the same reasons as disputes the Romans
own speculations, but also because the decemviri did not participate
in this rite, and no mention is made of the Sibylline Oracles in
relation to the Argei. Nevertheless there may be some merit to his
ideas on when this rite was introduced. It does not appear in any
calendar, and does not appear to have been one of the early state
rites. Thus it would seem to have originated sometime after the
fourth century, and the Greek elements in legends about the rite's
origin may suggest an introduction as late as the mid second
century.

The origin and purpose of the ritual is uncertain among our sources.
The presence of the Vestales along with the pontifices, and the fact
that a procession was conducted from the various sacalla to the Tiber
suggest that this was a purification ritual. Another feature is seen
with the flamenica Dialis.

"When she goes to the Argei, that she neither combs her head nor
dresses her hair." ~ Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 10.15.30

In other words, she presents herself in public as though she is in
mourning. On two other occasions she is seen in the same manner;
when the Salii perform a purification of the City in March and when
the Vestales perform a purification of the Temple of Vesta in June.
There is another rite with something similar. The lapis manalis, a
large stone that sounded like thunder when rolled through Rome, was
brought from the Campus Martius to the Capitolium. This was a rite
of sympathetic magic to induce Jupiter to send rain. The rite of the
argei is a dramatic performance rather than a sacrifice. So it
shares in something common with the ritual where the lapis manalis is
brought out. Also in Ptolemaic Egyptwhere images of Adonis were
immersed in the Nile amid a weeping crowd in a ritual to secure the
flooding of the river and fertility of the land. Tacitus describes
how images of the Germanic Goddess Nerthus was immersed in rivers for
a similar reason (Germania 40). Other examples of such rites among
Teutonic, Slavonic, and Greek traditions are cited by W. W. Fowler as
parallels. Behind the legends, and some modern assumptions as well,
the ritual of immersing the rush puppets into the Tiber has features
that show it, too, is a rite involving sympathetic magic, a
purification of the City, in order to secure rain and fertility.

"The magic elements in the rite are clear: The straw puppets, made to
look like men, were as good as men themselves in a magic rite,
whether or not the rite originated in human sacrifice. Again, if the
straw represented the products of the earth, `the corn spirit,' as it
has been called, these puppets, when drenched in water, were
sufficient to cause the rain to fall, just as the lapis manalis, when
drenched with water, could cause the heavens to overflow. Further,
this view is strengthened by the prominent part taken in the rite by
the Vestals, who, in all their public religious duties, were
concerned with rites to produce fertility in crops and flocks and
who, as we know, were possessed of magic powers. The procession
itself involved purification – a magic rite itself – as was the case
with all Roman processions." ~ Eli Edward Burriss, The Classical
Journal, Vol. 24, No. 2 (Nov., 1928), pp. 112-123.


Today's thought is from Seneca, On Tranquility 10:

"We are all chained to Fortune. Some chains are golden and loose,
some are tight and made of base metal; but what difference does it
make? All of us are in custody, the binders and the bound – unless
you suppose the left end of the chain is lighter. Some are chained
by office, some by wealth; some are weighed down by high birth, some
by low; some are subject to another's tyranny, some to their own;
some ar confined to one spot by banishment, some by a priesthood.
All life is bondage. Man musttherefore habituate himselfto his
condition, complain of it as little as possible, and grasp whatever
good lies within his reach. No situation is so harsh that a
dispassionate mind cannot find some consolation in it."

P. Memmius Albucius omnibusque s.d.

Yes, and in order to complete Scholastica's important communication,
it is a main discovery made last autumn, and that the Ministry of
Culture had agreed to keep "secret" till a T.V. broadcast, scheduled
on French 3rd (public) channel next 21th May.

The statue of Neptune has been dated on 210 ad / 963 auc. Marsyas's
one seems to be close to this datation.

OnMarsyas, you can see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsyas

About Arles (Roman 'Arelate'): the place existed already before the
Romans, and has welcome Gaul population and a Greek (6e c. bc) small
city. What have created the veterans of the Sixth Legion is the
Roman "colony".

General view of Arles, ideally located at the crossroads of the Rhone
(north-south) and the road coming from Italy (right=east) and going
(left=west)to Narbo (today Narbonne) and Spain.

http://maps.google.fr/maps?
f=q&hl=fr&geocode=&q=arles&ie=UTF8&ll=43.676811,4.746094&spn=0.423115,
1.378784&t=h&z=10

View of today Trinquetaille neighborhood, at the foot of the dock of
which has been discovered the statues, is just in front (north-west)
the center of the city, reachable by the old bridge that you can
still see on the photo. You can see that this part of Arles is built
between the two arms of the Rhone river, the "small" Rhone at north:

http://maps.google.fr/maps?
f=q&hl=fr&geocode=&q=arles&ie=UTF8&ll=43.684384,4.603786&spn=0.026441,
0.086174&t=h&z=14

You can see on the left bank (right, west) the typical form of the
amphitheater, still used today for ferias and corridas (23,000
people).

Valete omnes,


P. Memmius Albucius
Leg. pp. Galliae


--- In Nova-Roma@yahoogroups.com, "A. Tullia Scholastica"
<fororom@...> wrote:

>
> A. Tullia Scholastica quiritibus, sociis, peregrinisque bonae

voluntatis

> S.P.D.
>
> Today it was reported that a new bust of Caesar and some other

statuary

> has been found in the Rhone river. The link is:
>
> <http://start.localnet.com/article.php?article=D90L72R80.html>
>
> Valete.
>

I might think that too, but this isn't the first time it's happened.

-Annia Minucia Marcella

Kristoffer From wrote:

>
> Annia Minucia Marcella wrote:
> > Well Thomas Vogel should put his yahoo group setting to 'no email' when
> > he's out of the office.
>
> Salve, Annia Minucia Marcella.
>
> Seeing as how this is the only auto-reply e-mail sent to this list, I'm
> betting he did change the setting to "no email" but received a mail from
> a spammer with a forged "from" or "reply-to" address of this list.
>
> I.e., someone in NR probably has some interesting virii (viruses?) on
> their computer and should get better anti-virus and firewall programs. :)
>
> Vale, Titus Octavius Pius.
>
>

A. Apolónius Fl. Galérió sal.

Scripsistí Fl. Galerí:

> 1. An opinion on the legal definition of confarreatio and
> diffarreatio for use within Nova Roma. My recent research has shown
> that by the Middle Republic it was no longer confined to patricians
> whose parents had been married confarreatio. This clearly changed
> at one point, because Scipio Africanus presumably married his wife
> Aemilia Tertia by conferratio, because their elder son was Flamen
> Dialis; yet Scipio's mother Pomponia was a plebeian. Likewise,
> Julius Caesar married Cornelia Cinna Minor by conferreatio, but
> neither had patrician mothers, and Caesar's parents had not married
> by conferreatio.

I support this analysis with one reservation. The conclusion that Cn. Caesar's parents were not married by confarreátió is, as far as I know, based solely on the fact that his mother was plebejan and it is generally thought that only patricians could marry by confarreátió. Obviously if both these things are true then they can't have been married by confarreátió. But, as you've correctly identified, the evidence does not support the idea that only patricians could marry by confarreátió. If plebejans could marry by confarreátió then there is no longer any reason to think that Caesar's parents were not married by confarreátió. Indeed there is every reason to believe they were, because he was nominated as flámen Diális. But this doesn't undermine your general conclusion: marriage by confarreátió was open to plebejans as well as patricians.

> ... On this basis, it is possible for the CP to issue
> a legal definition of this form of marriage and to define diffar-
> reatio (divortium) based on our available knowledge.

I'd discourage the collégium from trying to issue a *legal* definition of confarreátió. I know the collégium has the power under the léx cónstitútíva to make law, but this is not historical and it would be a pity to exercise it unnecessarily, especially since you would be exercising an unhistorical power in order to reconstruct a historical institution (confarreátió). There is no need, I suggest, to issue any "legal" definition. The law recognizes confarreátió as a means of creating a legally binding marriage cum manú, as Cn. Equitius has already said. There is no need for further legal steps. All that is necessary is for the collégium to give a *ritual* description of confarreátió so that the relevant legal authorities can identify whether a given ceremony is confarreátió or not.

> It is important for our membership to have available a form of
> marriage that embraces the most profound caerimonia of this
> institution.

Agreed, although we should be careful (and I'm sure you will be careful) not to give people the impression that confarreátió is somehow the best or most pious or highest method of getting married. It is a certain way of doing it that has certain legal and religious consequences.

Having said all that, let me try to be more helpful. Gaius (1.112) says:

"Farreó in manum convenit per quoddam genus sacrificií quod Joví Farreó fit; in quó farreus panis adhibétur, unde etiam confarreátió dícitur. Complúra praeterea hújus júris ordinandí grátia, cum certís et sollemnibus verbís, praesentibus decem testibus, aguntur et fiunt."

Zulueta translates as follows:

"Entry of a woman into manus by confarreátió is effected by a kind of sacrifice offered to Jupiter Farreus, in which a spelt cake is employed, whence the name confarreátió. In the performance of this ceremony a number of acts and things are done, accompanied by special formal words, in the presence of ten witnesses."

Zulueta's commentary says that there are more details known from other sources, but unhelpfully omits to mention which sources these are. He does say, however, that no source preserves the "special form of words" mentioned by Gaius. As to diffareátió, I know of no source that says anything more than that it was the ceremony by which marriage by confarreátió was dissolved and that it, too, involved spelt (or, rather, emmer) cakes: we can probably presume that it was similar to confarreátió with the appropriate alterations to the gestures and words. I shall let you know if I discover any more.

> A legal opinion on what constitutes a coemptio (manus)
> should also be issued for those wishing a less elaborate marriage
> among plebeians; plebeians and peregrinii (non-citizens); or
> cultores deorum and those of a different faith and practice.

I'd like to sound a few notes of caution here. First, the same point as above as to "legal opinion". Secondly, and more broadly, I should like to point out that coemptió was in ancient times a legal procedure without any significant religious element, so it really need not concern the collégium at all. We should be careful not to assume, looking at things from a modern western Judaeo-Christian perspective, that marriage is something to do with religion. In Roman culture marriage had relatively little to do with religion. Thirdly, I'm concerned about your calling coemptió "a less elaborate marriage". I don't think it entirely accurate to describe coemptió in this way. Although it does not require the personal presence of the pontifex maximus, it is still a pretty elaborate procedure involving bronze scales and the repetition of certain formal words in the presence of witnesses. It also has almost the same legal consequences, namely the
creation of manus; the only difference in consequence is that it does not qualify one's children to become fláminés. Those wanting a "less elaborate" way of getting married under Roman law need to look at free marriage, which is very much less formal (i.e. no particular ceremony is required at all) or, if they want to create manus, at marriage by úsus. Fourthly, you seem to suggest that coemptió might be appropriate for marriages between a citizen and a non-citizen, but in fact a citizen cannot marry a non-citizen by coemptió. Fifthly, you seem to suggest that coemptio would be appropriate for "those of a different faith and practice". This is of course true, but it implies that marriage by confarreátió is not appropriate (or, worse still, forbidden) for people who do not worship the Roman gods and practice private Roman rituals. Of course some people with very strong religious beliefs may not want to have their marriages in any way
solemnized by an official of the sacra publica Rómána, but I suggest that as far as the Roman gods and their priests are concerned there should be no problem with a non-believer or non-practitioner being married by confarreátió, any more than a ship's captain should object to marrying someone who is not a sailor.

I hope at least some of this has been of some help.


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A. Apolonius Fl. Galerio sal.

And now for people whose computers can't cope with apices:


Scripsisti Fl. Galeri:

> 1. An opinion on the legal definition of confarreatio and
> diffarreatio for use within Nova Roma. My recent research has shown
> that by the Middle Republic it was no longer confined to patricians
> whose parents had been married confarreatio. This clearly changed
> at one point, because Scipio Africanus presumably married his wife
> Aemilia Tertia by conferratio, because their elder son was Flamen
> Dialis; yet Scipio's mother Pomponia was a plebeian. Likewise,
> Julius Caesar married Cornelia Cinna Minor by conferreatio, but
> neither had patrician mothers, and Caesar's parents had not married
> by conferreatio.

I support this analysis with one reservation. The conclusion that Cn. Caesar's parents were not married by confarreatio is, as far as I know, based solely on the fact that his mother was plebejan and it is generally thought that only patricians could marry by confarreatio. Obviously if both these things are true then they can't have been married by confarreatio. But, as you've correctly identified, the evidence does not support the idea that only patricians could marry by confarreatio. If plebejans could marry by confarreatio then there is no longer any reason to think that Caesar's parents were not married by confarreatio. Indeed there is every reason to believe they were, because he was nominated as flamen Dialis. But this doesn't undermine your general conclusion: marriage by confarreatio was open to plebejans as well as patricians.

> ... On this basis, it is possible for the CP to issue
> a legal definition of this form of marriage and to define diffar-
> reatio (divortium) based on our available knowledge.

I'd discourage the collegium from trying to issue a *legal* definition of confarreatio. I know the collégium has the power under the lex constitutiva to make law, but this is not historical and it would be a pity to exercise it unnecessarily, especially since you would be exercising an unhistorical power in order to reconstruct a historical institution (confarreatio). There is no need, I suggest, to issue any "legal" definition. The law recognizes confarreatio as a means of creating a legally binding marriage cum manu, as Cn. Equitius has already said. There is no need for further legal steps. All that is necessary is for the collegium to give a *ritual* description of confarreatio so that the relevant legal authorities can identify whether a given ceremony is confarreatio or not.

> It is important for our membership to have available a form of
> marriage that embraces the most profound caerimonia of this
> institution.

Agreed, although we should be careful (and I'm sure you will be careful) not to give people the impression that confarreatio is somehow the best or most pious or highest method of getting married. It is a certain way of doing it that has certain legal and religious consequences.

Having said all that, let me try to be more helpful. Gaius (1.112) says:

"Farreo in manum convenit per quoddam genus sacrificii quod Jovi Farreo fit; in quo farreus panis adhibetur, unde etiam confarreatio dicitur. Complura praeterea hujus juris ordinandi gratia, cum certis et sollemnibus verbis, praesentibus decem testibus, aguntur et fiunt."

Zulueta translates as follows:

"Entry of a woman into manus by confarreátió is effected by a kind of sacrifice offered to Jupiter Farreus, in which a spelt cake is employed, whence the name confarreatio. In the performance of this ceremony a number of acts and things are done, accompanied by special formal words, in the presence of ten witnesses."

Zulueta's commentary says that there are more details known from other sources, but unhelpfully omits to mention which sources these are. He does say, however, that no source preserves the "special form of words" mentioned by Gaius. As to diffareatio, I know of no source that says anything more than that it was the ceremony by which marriage by confarreatio was dissolved and that it, too, involved spelt (or, rather, emmer) cakes: we can probably presume that it was similar to confarreatio with the appropriate alterations to the gestures and words. I shall let you know if I discover any more.

> A legal opinion on what constitutes a coemptio (manus)
> should also be issued for those wishing a less elaborate marriage
> among plebeians; plebeians and peregrinii (non-citizens); or
> cultores deorum and those of a different faith and practice.

I'd like to sound a few notes of caution here. First, the same point as above as to "legal opinion". Secondly, and more broadly, I should like to point out that coemptio was in ancient times a legal procedure without any significant religious element, so it really need not concern the collegium at all. We should be careful not to assume, looking at things from a modern western Judaeo-Christian perspective, that marriage is something to do with religion. In Roman culture marriage had relatively little to do with religion. Thirdly, I'm concerned about your calling coemptio "a less elaborate marriage". I don't think it entirely accurate to describe coemptio in this way. Although it does not require the personal presence of the pontifex maximus, it is still a pretty elaborate procedure involving bronze scales and the repetition of certain formal words in the presence of witnesses. It also has almost the same legal consequences, namely the creation of
manus; the only difference in consequence is that it does not qualify one's children to become flamines. Those wanting a "less elaborate" way of getting married under Roman law need to look at free marriage, which is very much less formal (i.e. no particular ceremony is required at all) or, if they want to create manus, at marriage by usus. Fourthly, you seem to suggest that coemptio might be appropriate for marriages between a citizen and a non-citizen, but in fact a citizen cannot marry a non-citizen by coemptio. Fifthly, you seem to suggest that coemptio would be appropriate for "those of a different faith and practice". This is of course true, but it implies that marriage by confarreatio is not appropriate (or, worse still, forbidden) for people who do not worship the Roman gods and practice private Roman rituals. Of course some people with very strong religious beliefs may not want to have their marriages in any way solemnized by an official
of the sacra publica Romana, but I suggest that as far as the Roman gods and their priests are concerned there should be no problem with a non-believer or non-practitioner being married by confarreatio, any more than a ship's captain should object to marrying someone who is not a sailor.

I hope at least some of this has been of some help.



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Lentulus Marcellae et T. Pio sal. This Tomas Vogel is our T. Flavius Aquila, Tribune of the Plebs, and he sends this "Out of Office" automated messages when he is really unavailable for some days and won't check his mailbox. I think it is an act of courtesy, because he is Tribune, and when he is unavailable it's good to know. Valete! -- L. --- Mer 14/5/08, Annia Minucia Marcella <annia@...> ha scritto: Da: Annia Minucia Marcella <annia@...> Oggetto: Re: [Nova-Roma] Re: Thomas Vogel is out of the office. A: Nova-Roma@yahoogroups.com Data: Mercoledì 14 maggio 2008, 16:03 I might think that too, but this isn't the first time it's happened. -Annia Minucia Marcella Kristoffer From wrote: > > Annia Minucia Marcella wrote: > > Well Thomas Vogel should put his yahoo group setting to 'no email' when > > he's out of the office. > > Salve, Annia Minucia Marcella. > > Seeing as how this is the only auto-reply e-mail sent to this list, I'm > betting he did change the setting to "no email" but received a mail from > a spammer with a forged "from" or "reply-to" address of this list. > > I.e., someone in NR probably has some interesting virii (viruses?) on > their computer and should get better anti-virus and firewall programs. :) > > Vale, Titus Octavius Pius. > >

---

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M. Moravius Piscinus Horatianus Quiritibus et omnibus salutem
plurimam dicit: Di vos servent cum vester.

Hodie est Idus Maiae; haec dies nefastus piaculum est: Mercuralia;
Maiae; feriae Iovi

"Glorious Mercury, grandson of Atlas, be present here today as You
were once upon Arcadia's hill, a Pleiad's son by Jove. Arbiter in
peace and in arms among the Gods of the heavens above and on earth,
traveler on winged feet, You who enjoys the lyre and who takes
pleasure in whoever glistens with the wrestler's ointment, You who
has taught eloquent speech in all tongues, for You on the Ides of
May, the Fathers once dedicated a sacred shrine near the Circus and
named this day ever after to be Your feast day." ~ Ovid Fasti 5.663-70

AUC 258 / 495 BCE: Dedication of the Temple of Mercurius on the
Aventine Hill

The location of the Temple of Mercurius was near the Circus Maximus
(CIL 11.3592). Very early in the Republic there was a guild of
merchants, a collegia of Mercurales or mercatores, associated with
this temple. The location, at that date would suggest that this was
a plebeian cultus originally. His introduction to Rome came from
Greek Hermes at the time when extensive trade of grain from Sicily
and other parts of Magna Graecae began. Whether a Mercurius was at
Rome before this time, and what may have been his character, cannot
be know. There is no evidence of an earlier Mercurius, so we are
left only with an imported Roman cultus for Greek Hermes. At Rome
Mercurius remained primarily a God of Trade. Other aspects of
Mercurius as a civilizing God of athletics and eloquence, inventor of
the lyre, messenger of the Gods, God of thieves and liars, all came
from Greek influence. Even among the Samnites where He appears as
psychopomp, He is named after the Greek as Eclus on the Tavolo Agnone
in association with other chthonic deities and Ceres.


"Mercurius, by Atlas born to Maia, God who fashioned our uncivilized
ancestors into cultured men of urbane speech and athletic bearing, to
You I sing, Messenger of the Gods and of mighty Jove, inventor of the
curved lyre, it pleases You to compose secret jokes and play pranks
skillfully. Gladly You restore pious souls to their proper places and
by the golden staff confine the trivial quarrel. Dear are You to the
Gods above and below." ~ Horace Carmina 1.10.1-8; 20-24

How is Mercurius both a son of Atlas and is said at another time to
be the son of Jupiter? The answer is that the Romans recognized that
there were more than one Mercurius.

"One Mercurius has Caelus as father and Dies as mother (Sky and
Day). He is represented in a state of sexual excitation
traditionally said to be due to passion inspired by the sight of
Proserpina. Another is the son of Valens and Phoronis. This is the
subterranean Mercurius identified with Trophonius. The third, the
son of the third Jove and Maia; the legends make Him the father of
Pan by Penelope. The fourth has the Nile as father; the Egyptians
deem it sinful to pronounce His name. The fifth, worshipped by the
people of Pheneus, is said to have killed Argus and consequently to
have fled in exile to Egypt, where He gave the Egyptians their laws
and letters. His Egyptian name is Theuth, which is also the name in
the Egyptian calendae for the first month of their year." ~ M.
Tullius Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3.56


The first Mercurius mentioned by Cicero is seen in the tintinnabula
hung about the front doors of Roman houses, or set up as statues in
gardens. These ithyphallic Mercuri, at times with multiple phalli
protruding from such charms, and likewise with the herms, were
intended to ward off ill-rumors, the evil eye, disease, and even
robbers. It is His association with the Underworld, leading souls to
the realm of Orcus, that He provided protection against such ills.
Phallic charms were displayed in many ways, always with a similar
purpose of warding off evil and disease. Not all of these fascina
were associated with Mercurius however. Others were associated with
Hercules, Silvanus, and of course Priapus. As the son of Caelus and
Dies, this is also the Mercurius of astrologers.

"Mercurius Cyllenius, principle author of all sacred knowledge, at
times within Heaven, at other times travelling within the starry
signs to open the celestial paths to the highest parts above and the
lowest paths beneath the earth. You stitch together the stars in the
empty void of space into constellations, name them and determine
their course; may it have been for us to reverently use the greater
powers of the universe that You make, pondering them, not in all
matters, but in the potential of things in themselves, and to learn
of the divine plan set for the greatest nations." ~ Manilius
Astronomicon 1.30ff


The second Mercurius comes from Greek legend. He and his brother
Agamedes were famed architects. The Temple of Apollo at Delphi was
one of many buildings attributed to them. Another was the treasuries
of King Augeas of Elis and that of Hyrieus of Boeotia. It was said
that the brothers had cleverly designed the latter treasure with a
secret entrance with which they then pilfered from Hyrieus. The king
laid a trap, catching Agamedes in the act. To save himself from
betrayal by Agamedes, Trophonius cut off his brother's head, but then
had to flee Hyrieus anyway. The earth opened a chasm to receive him
at Lebadea and by command of Apollo a cultus was established for
Trophonius as the oracle of Zeus Trophonius (Pausanius 9.37: 4).
However, Cicero tells a different story. After they completed the
Delphic Temple of Apollo, Trophonius and Agamedes asked Apollo for a
reward. In return for their work, He promised that seven days hence
they would receive the best gift that could be given to men. On the
seventh day they both died a peaceful death (Tusculanae Quaestiones
1.114) We might consider this Mercurius to be the patron of thieves
found in the plays of Plautus.

"Praise and thanks we ought justly to give to the great God of
treachery (Mercurius), for surely there is no end in sight to our own
slanderous ways, our deceitfulness or our slyness." ~ Plautus
Asinaria 545-6

"(O Mercury) whether I have falsely called You to bear witness in the
past, or deceitfully called upon Jupiter not to hear my empty
promises, or if there is some other god or goddess that I knowingly
deceived, wash away my past perjuries, wash away yesterday's
perfidious words, and allow me new perjuries to make when the new day
dawns, and make the gods be indifferent to my lies. Grant that I may
profit, grant joy in making a profit, grant that I may enjoy once
more swindling my customers with deceitful words." ~ Ovid Fasti 5.681-
90


The fourth and fifth Mercuri of Egypt, and even the later
Trismegistis of Hermetism, do not concern us here. Today saw a
sacrifice to Maia as mother of Mercurius, in a joint recognition at
His Temple. Also today held a festival for Jupiter. Thus today's
Mecurialia is really for the third Mercurius identified by Cicero.
It is He that is identified as Messenger of the Gods.

"Mercury, Cyllene's Glory, Heaven's pride, Messenger with the clever
tongue, around whose golden staff the serpent coil, may it shine
brightly among the Gods. May You enjoy Your stolen loves, whether
You desire Venus or Ganymede, and on the Ides may Your Mother's altar
be adorned with laurels, and Your grandfather Atlas bear a lighter
load." ~ Martial Epigrammata 7.74

"It is well. Nothing more ample do I pray, O Maia's son, save that
You will make these my gifts last throughout my life. May You,
Mercurius, make plump the riches of my house and all else there,
spare my natural talents in any case, and as usual, may You remain
the primary guardian over me." ~ Q. Horatius Flaccus, Satura 2.6.4-5;
2.6.14-5


Our thought for today is from Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.6

"Practice thyself even in the things which thou despairest of
accomplishing. For even the left hand, which is ineffectual for all
other things for want of practice, holds the bridle more vigorously
than the right hand; for it has been practiced in this."

Cn. Cornelius Lentulus, sacerdos Concordiae, sacerdos Pannoniae, quaestor, legatus pro praetore: consulibus, praetoribus, tribunis plebis, senatui populoque Novo Romano, Quiritibus: salutem plurimam:


Salvete, Quirites!

May Harmony shine upon you brightly! Nova Roma is 10 years old, and to honour this anniversary I follow my vow and pray to Concordia constantly on every Kalends and Ides.

This is the ritual for the Ides of May.

PLEASE SEND YOUR PRAYERS TO MY E-MAIL ADDRESS!

Just for the sake of clarifying some date issues:

Year AD - Year of Nova Roma

1998 i
1999 ii
2000 iii
2001 iiii
2002 v
2003 vi
2004 vii
2005 viii
2006 viiii
2007 x
2008 xi

In this Sacred Year of the Tenth Anniversary, Nova Roma is in Her Eleventh Year since this 1st March, when there was the Concordialia, the 10th birthday of NR. Therefore we are now in the Eleventh Year, and Nova Roma is Ten Years old. This year is the Year of the Tenth Anniversary, but the Eleventh Year of Nova Roma (at least from March).

To honour this Tenth Anniversary, I encourage everybody to pray Goddess Concordia of Nova Roma, the Goddess of the Nova Roman Creative Peace and Cooperation. With Her help and support we can be a great, world-wise and world-class movement: the modern Roman Movement for the restoration of classical Roman religion, culture and virtues.

PLEASE SEND YOUR PRAYERS TO MY E-MAIL ADDRESS!

I especially ask our Magistrates and Senators: send me your prayers to Concordia and I will allocate them in the Virtual Temple of Concordia of the Nova Roman People:

http://www.novaroma.org/nr/Aedes_Concordiae_Populi_Novi_Romani_%28Nova_Roma%29

Visit the Virtual Temple of Concordia and leave a personal, public prayer!


Today's sacrifice will be done before my home altar. I worshiped Concordia for the unity, strengthen and harmony of the New Roman People and I have given Her wine and incense. The ritual is this:


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

SACRIFICIUM CONCORDIAE IDIBUS MAIIS ANNI SACRI X NOVAE ROMAE CONDITAE


Favete linguis!

(Beginning of the sacrifice.)

PRAEFATIO

Concordia Populi Novi Romani Quiritium,
te hoc ture commovendo
bonas preces precor,
uti sies volens propitia
Populo Novo Romano Quiritibus,
Reique Publicae Populi Novi Romani Quiritium,
mihi, domo, familiae!

(Incense is placed in the focus of the altar.)


Concordia Populi Novi Romani Quiritium,
uti te ture commovendo
bonas preces bene precatus sum,
eiusdem rei ergo
macte vino inferio esto!"

(Libation of wine is made.)

INVOCATIO

Concordia Populi Novi Romani Quiritium,
hisce Idibus Maiis anni decimi Novae Romae conditae
te precor, veneror, quaeso, obtestor:

PRECATIO

uti pacem concordiamque constantem
societati Novae Romae tribuas;
utique Rem Publicam Populi Novi Romani Quiritium
confirmes, augeas, adiuves,
omnibusque discordiis liberes;
utique Res Publica Populi Novi Romani Quiritium semper floreat;
atque hoc anno anniversarii decimi Novae Romae conditae convalescat;
atque pax et concordia, salus et gloria Novae Romae omni tempore crescat,
utique Populo Novo Romano Quiritibus,
Reique Publicae Populi Novi Romani Quiritium,
mihi, domo, familiae
omnes in hoc anno decimo Novae Romae eventus bonos faustosque esse siris;
utique sies volens propitia Populo Novo Romano Quiritibus,
Reique Publicae Populi Novi Romani Quiritium,
magistratibus, consulibus, praetoribus Populi Novi Romani Quiritium,
tribunis Plebis Novae Romanae,
Senatui Novo Romano,
omnibus civibus, viris et mulieribus, pueris et puellabus Novis Romanis,
mihi, domo, familiae!

SACRIFICIUM

Sicut verba nuncupavi,
quaeque ita faxis, uti ego me sentio dicere:
harum rerum ergo macte
hoc vino libando,
hoc ture ommovendo
esto fito volens propitia
hoc anno anniversario decimo Novae Romae conditae
Populo Novo Romano Quiritibus,
Reique Publicae Populi Novi Romani Quiritium,
magistratibus, consulibus, praetoribus Populi Novi Romani Quiritium,
tribunis Plebis Novae Romanae,
Senatui Novo Romano,
omnibus civibus, viris et mulierbus, pueris et puellabus Novis Romanis,
mihi, domo, familiae!


(Libation is made and incense is sacrificed.)


REDDITIO

Concordia Populi Novi Romani Quiritium,
uti te ture commovendo
et vino libando
bonas preces bene precatus sum,
earundem rerum ergo
macte vino inferio esto!

(Libation of wine is made)

Ilicet!

(End of the sacrifice.)


PIACULUM

Iane,
Concordia Populi Novi Romani Quiritium,
Iuppiter Optime Maxmime, Iuno, Minerva,
Omnes Di Immortales quocumque nomine:
si quidquam vobis in hac caerimonia displicet,
hoc vino inferio
veniam peto
et vitium meum expio.

(Libation of wine is made.)



Valete cum Concordia!
May Concordia be with you!



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Reminder from:		Nova-Roma Yahoo! Group
Title:		To all in the Far East
Date:		Thursday May 15, 2008
Time:		12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Repeats:		This event repeats every month.
Location:		http://groups.yahoo.com/group/prov_asia_orientalis/
Notes:		If you live in the Far East, why not join your provincial mailing list? Meet fellow citizens and get active locally. Don't just lurk! Send a message, introduce yourself and get involved! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/prov_asia_orientalis/ Provincial mailing lists are listed in the wiki. Go to http://novaroma.org/nr/Provincia_%28Nova_Roma%29
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SALVETE!

Today, 15th of May, Mercuralia is celebrated.

"Sacred to Mercurius, this is traditionally the birthday of the
Patron of Merchants (this day is also sacred to Maia, his mother).
Merchants draw water from the aqua Mercurii — a sacred spring tied
to Mercurius — in jars cleansed by fumigation. With a bough of
laurel, the merchant then sprinkles both his merchandise and himself
with water from the jars. Mercurius is closely associated with
merchants and traders, and they hold this day as a feast day."

This is the link to the virtual Temple of Mercurius where each of you
can leave a prayer:

http://www.dacia-novaroma.org/Temple-of-Mercurius.htm

M. Cornelius Felix
Sacerdos Templii Mercurii

T. Iulius Sabinus
Sacerdos Mercurii

VALETE.

M. Moravius Piscinus Horatianus Quiritibus et omnibus salutem
plurimam dicit: Di Deaeque vos ament

Hodie est ante diem XVII Kalendas Iunonis; haec dies fastus aterque
est.

AUC 547 / 206 BCE: Portents and Vesta's fire extinguished

"In the anxiety caused by the strain of such a serious war when men
referred every occurrence, fortunate or the reverse, to the direct
action of the gods, numerous portents were announced. At Tarracina
the temple of Jupiter, at Satricum that of Mater Matuta were struck
by lightning. At the latter place quite as much alarm was created by
the appearance of two snakes which glided straight through the doors
into the temple of Jupiter. From Antium it was reported that the ears
of corn seemed to those who were reaping them to be covered with
blood. At Caere a pig had been farrowed with two heads, and a lamb
yeaned which was both male and female. Two suns were said to have
been seen at Alba, and at Fregellae it had become light during the
night. In the precinct of Rome an ox was said to have spoken; the
altar of Neptune in the Circus Flaminius was asserted to have been
bathed in perspiration, and the temples of Ceres, Salus and Quirinus
were all struck by lightning. The consuls received orders to expiate
the portents by sacrificing full-grown victims and to appoint a day
of solemn intercession. These measures were carried out in accordance
with the senatorial resolution. What was a much more terrifying
experience than all the portents reported from the country or seen in
the City, was the extinction of the fire in the temple of Vesta. The
vestal who was in charge of the fire that night was severely flogged
by order of P. Licinius, the Pontifex Maximus. Though this was no
portent sent by the gods, but merely the result of human
carelessness, it was decided to sacrifice full-grown victims and hold
a service of solemn supplication in the temple of Vestal." ~ Titus
Livius 28.11


AUC 567 / 186 BCE: Perfume arrives at Rome

"To say for certain and precisely, when this enormity entered first
into Rome and began there to reign, I am not able to say. Sure it is,
as appears upon record, that after the subduing of K. Antiochus and
the conquest of Asia, which was about the 565 year from the
foundation of Rome, P. Licinius Crassus, and L. Iulius Cæsar the
Censors, published an edict, prohibiting and forbidding to sell any
foreign or strange ointments within Rome: for so they termed these
sweet mixtures and compositions. But (believe me) nowadays, some
there be so wanton and delicate, that there is no wine or other drink
good with them, nor will go down their throat, unless it be spiced
and aromatized with these balms: and so little pass they for the
bitterness of these odours and smells, that they are well content to
waste and spend a deal thereof, without and within, behind and
before, above and beneath, to enjoy the perfume thereof in all parts
of the body where so ever. Well known it is, that L. Plotius, brother
to L. Plancus, a man of great credit and authority, as having been
twice Consul, and Censor besides, being outlawed and proclaimed a
banished person by the decree of the Triumvirs, was discovered within
a certain cave at Salernum, where he lay close hidden and sure enough
otherwise, by the very smell only of a precious ointment that he had
about him: and so by that means (besides the shame and disgrace that
he received, thus to detect himself and be found of his enemies) the
rigor of the act and arrest that passed against him, was executed and
performed upon his body. And who would ever pity such persons, & not
judge them worthy to come to so bad an end? But to conclude all this
discourse, There is not a country in the world that yields such
plenty and variety of drugs fit for these compositions, as Ægypt: and
next to it, Campania in Italy may carry the name, for the store of
roses there growing." ~ Plinius Secundus, Historia Naturalis 13.23-24


AUC 971 / 218 CE Ascension of Elagabalus as emperor.


Our thought for today is from Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.28:

"To those who ask, `Where have you seen the Gods? What conviction to
Their existence leads you to this worship of the Gods?' I reply first
that They are in fact visible to our eyes. Secondly, and
notwithstanding, that I have not seen my own soul either, and yet I
honour it. So it is with the Gods, too: from my every experience of
Their power time after time I am certain that They exist, and I
revere Them."