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THE CVLTS
OF CAMPANIA
BY
FLOY MEFa.E PETERSON
PAPERS AND A\ONOGRAPHS
OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY \N ROME
VOLV/v\E I
AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME
1919
Printed in Italy
PRINTED FOR THE AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME
by
ACCOM. Editori Alfieri & Lacroix - Roma
Di LUIGI ALFIERI & C.o
\ \ \ -^5^
3L.
S/3
C3 Pih
PREFACE.
The present volume is the first of a new series entitled
^Papers and Monographs of the American Academy in Rome^.
The material was prepared b\) Mr. Peterson in 191 9, hut owing
to the difficulty and expense of printing in the period following
the War, it has not been possible to publish it until now.
Mr. Peterson has been much occupied since his return to
America and has not been able to revise his text in the light
of the most recent literature so it has been thought best to date
the volume as of 1919.
The second volume of the series will be b^ Miss L. R.
Jailor, on the Cults of Etruria. She has already prepared
her manuscript, and the book should be read)) for distribution
earl^ in the year 1923,
III
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Page
Preface Ill
Table of Contents V
List of Abbreviations VII
List of Chapters :
I, The Development of Religion in Campania 1
II, Cumae, Baiae, Misenum 45
III, Puteoli 99
IV, Neapolis 165
V, Pompeii and Herculaneum 222
VI, Nuceria, Stabiae, Surrentum, Capreae 291
VII, Capua 317
VIII, Nola and the Minor Campanian Towns 377
Addenda .. .. .. .. .. 396
Index 401
V
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.
To avoid unnecessary repetition, the volumes to which most
frequent reference is made will be cited merely by the name
of the author, as follows :
Beloch, - Campanien, 2nd ed. Breslau 1890.
Buck, - A Grammar of Oscan and Umbrian, Boston, 1904.
Conway, - The Italic Dialects, Vol. I, Cambridge 1897.
D.-S., - Daremberg et Saglio, Dictionnaire des antiq. Gr. et Rom.
D., - Dessau, Inscriptiones Latinae selectae, Berlin 1892-1914.
DiELS, - Sibyllinische Blatter, Berlin 1890.
Dubois, - Pouzzoles antique (Bib. des ecoles francaises d'Athenes e de
Rome XCVllI) Paris 1907.
Farnell, - The Cults of the Greek States I-V, Oxford 1896-1909.
Fowler, - The Religious Experience of the Roman People, London 1911.
Garucci, - Le monete dell' Italia antica, Rome 1885.
Gruppe, - Griechische Mythologie (Handbuch der klassischen Altertumswis-
senschaft V, 21 Munich 1906.
Helbio, - Wandgemdlde der vom Vesuv verschiitteten Stddte Campaniens,
Leipsig 1868.
Mau, - Pompei in Leben und Kunst, 2nd ed. Leipsig 1908.
Mau-Kelsey, - Pompeii, Its Life and Art, Trans, by F. W.Kelsey, 2nd ed.
New York 1902.
Meyer, - Geschichte des Altcrtums II, Stuttgart 1893.
NisSEN, - Italische Landeskunde II, Berlin 1902.
P.-W. - Paulys-Wissowa, - Real-Encycl. d. klass. Altertumswissenschaft,
Stuttgart 1894--.
Preller-Jordan, - Rdmische Mythologie, 3rd ed., Berlin 1881-1883.
Preller-Robert, - Griechische Mythologie, 4th ed., Berlin 1894.
RoscHER, - Lexikon d. gr. und rom. Mythologie, Leipsig 1884--.
Sambon (A), - Les monnaies antiques de I' Italic, I, Paris 1903.
Vaglieri, - Sylloge epigraphica orbis Romani, Vol. II, pars I, Rome 1904.
Von Planta, - Grammatik der Oskisch-umbrischen Dialekte II, Strassburg
1897.
WissowA, - Religion u. Kultus d. Romer, 2nd ed., Munich 1912.
- VII -
CHAPTER L
THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGION IN CAMPANIA.
Our knowledge of the religious conditions of the Romeui
world has made great progress within the leist few decades.
But treatises dealing with this topic are genereJly written from
the standpoint of the City itself; the cults in other places 2ire
treated cursorily or relegated to allusions in the notes. In some
Ccises the provinces have not been neglected, but little has
been done systematically to bring together and examine the
scattered information which we possess about the cults of the
Italian cities outside of Rome (I). As a result such information
is difficult to find and not seldom inaccurate because of the
lack of systematic study and comparison.
Yet the life suid activity of these cities were of the high-
est importance for the welfare of the Empire. Men bom
and reared here rather than at Rome were the leaders in pol-
itics and literature. Of special importance through many cen-
turies of history was the old euid populous district of Campania.
As a geographical term, this weis used by the ancients with
considerable elcisticity for the territory along the western coast
of Italy between the Mediterranean Sea and, the Ssimnite
mountains. The western offshoot of this rsinge, extending
through the peninsula of Sorrento, bounded it on the south.
Certain authors as Strabo, Pliny and Mela, who evidently
derive their information from a common source, agree in
(I) The cults of Sicily have been more often treated. See Ciaceri, Culti
e miti nella storia dcU'antica Sicilia ; Tropea, Carte teotopiche della Sicilia
antica in Riv. di Storia antica VI (1902) 467 f . ; Pareti, Per una storia dei calti
della Sicilia antica in Studi siciliani ed italioti 227 f.
naming Sinuessa as the last city in Latium, and thus do not
admit the use of the term Campania for the district north of
the River Liris, which later wcis all included in the same re-
gion (I). As used in this treatise its meaning will be still more
restricted and it will be confined to the district the northern
boundary of which is the river called by the ancients Vol-
turnus. As thus defined, Campania may easily be divided into
two parts, which differ in their physical characteristics and to
some extent in their respective fortunes. There is first the
narrow strip of volcanic coast land depending largely upon
commerce for its prosperity; separated from this section by
Vesuvius, Gaurus and other mountain formations is the in-
terior plain with interests primarily agricultural.
In compeirison with the long period covered by Campa-
nian history and the dense population of the country little
material has survived to throw light upon their beliefs and
observances. The writers who have made so many allusions
to the shrines and deities of the capital city, gu-e remEirkably
silent about those of all the dependent Italian cities, even
when these were so important as Capua and Puteoli. Archaeo-
logical evidence for the different localities is very uneven. On
the one hand something has been discovered of most of the
temples of the relatively unimportant town of Pompeii, while
the Icirger cities mentioned above are represented only by
scattered inscriptions and the most fragmentary remains. It is
then the task of the imagination to seize upon the cold cind
lifeless remains of Pompeian temples, people them once more
with divinity, priest, and worshipper, eind fill them with the
incense of sacrifice and the sound of prayer, so that they may
reappear somewhat as in the days of the distant past, when
amid the surging life of the city round about them they formed
the basis upon which the welfare of the state and the faith
of the individual was founded. If this can be accomplished,
we shall have before us a comprehensive picture revealing
(i) Mela II. 71; Strab. V. 2. 1; Plin. nat. Ill, 59; Hiilsen, Campania P. -
W. Ill, 1434; Jung, Crundrisi der (Jeographie vot Italien 25 f. ; Beloch, ^Atti
dei Lincei series 111, X (1882-3) 430 and Campanien 1 f. ; Ruggiero, Campania
II, 42; Lanzoni, Le origini del crisiianesimo e deW episcopate nella Campania
romana in Riv. storico-crit. delle scienze teol. VI (1910) 25.
- 2 -
many secrets of ancient life. For it must be remembered
that in the past there was little definite sepeiration either in
theory or in practice between political and religious institu-
tions; both were interwoven at the beginning and only by
degrees did they separate (1).
Details of the picture cire furnished by the epigraphical
evidence, unsatisfactory as this is for most of the region un-
der discussion by reason of the lack of systematic and scientific
excavations. It affords many a glimpse into the intimate
thoughts and life of people in all the various social conditions.
Here we find the testimonies of esteem paid to the worthy
municipal priest for his faithfulness as an official, and notice
the peirdonable pride of the aristocratic priestess who during
her own lifetime raised a monument to record her honors.
We witness the piety of humble dedicators who theink the
gods for escape from a raging sea or for the restoration of
freedom. We behold the crowds that throng the mysteries and
depcirt with confidence in the hope of an assured immortality.
In short we have before us a panorama exhibiting the emotions
and the aspirations of humanity (2).
PRIMITIVE CAMPANIAN RELIGION.
The early civilization of this region weis marked by the
presence of divergent and, to a large extent, conflicting ele-
ments. To a primitive race of Oscan stock, which dwelt in
these parts, were added coritingents of Greek colonists who
established themselves along the coast, and an influx of E-
truscan invaders who secured the domination of the interior.
In the second half of the fifth century B. C., the Samnites,
descending from the mountains, became supreme at all points,
and so continued till the aggressions of Rome overthrew their
power. All these peoples naturally had their own religious
beliefs and interests, w^hich reacted upon and sensibly mod-
ified one another. But as a result of the paucity of notices
which have reached us, little specific information is at hand
(1) Cp. Trede, Das Heidentum in der romischen Kirche I, 50.
(2) See e. g. pp. 93, 106, 231, 356.
- 3 -
about the contribution of each element to the resulting civili-
zation, the character of which itself is known only in a general
way. So far as the various cults are concerned, it is often diffi-
cult to determine the origin of the deities worshipped, and
generally impossible to obtain an exact idea of the date of
their introduction. Even at Rome the beginnings of most of
the forms of religion are shrouded in obscurity and their sub-
sequent development is disputed; here, w^here the evidence is
much less abundcint, the problem is still harder and does not
always admit a solution.
The divinities recognized by the primitive inhabitants
were conceived in the vague and general sort of way asso-
ciated with the animistic stage of religion. Though the forces
and objects for which they stood can generally be inferred,
these shadow^y beings were sepairated from one another by
no sheirp line of demeircation either in ncime or in function.
Thus one idea w^as frequently represented by several gods
with different names, who when finally analyzed become in
reality a single divinity. Yet as happened in the case of both
the Seunnites and the Latins, certain of these deities, develop-
ing a more concrete form, became actual personalities with
constant chcir act eristics, while their erstwhile compeoiions and
competitors faded away into total obscurity (1). They are prob-
ably the ones that appear in the few Oscan inscriptions which
have come down to us. In other words the known deities of
the pre-Roman era were probably worshipped by the old Os-
ccin population, and were not introduced by the Samnite in-
vaders. The latter in general seem to have been devoted to
divinities similcir to those of their predecessors in this region,
and their invasion could not have produced much difference
from a religious point of view. Traces of the old Oscan deities
are widely scattered throughout this territory, appearing along
the coast as well eis in the interior.
Gabrici, istudying the evidence of south Italian coins,
believes that they indicate the veneration of certain primitive
divinities generally throughout this region, one a male deity
(I) Conway, Ancient Italy in Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion and
Ethics VII, 458; Fowler, Religious Experence of the Roman People 116;
Carter, Religion of Numa 5 ; Nissen, Pompeianische Studien 328.
- 4 -
of solar and terrestrial character, the other a goddess with
lunar and chthonic attributes. The first one he considers to
have been very influential in Campania and to have been ex-
pressed there especially by the well known bull with human
face which is frequently seen upon Campanian coins. Since
the early coins of Asiatic cities show simileir types, he infers
that the conceptions of divinities current in southern Italy were
largely due to Oriental influence introduced by emigrants from
that region. This view, however, can be regarded at present
only as a suggestive hypothesis (I).
More tangible evidence exists for the worship of several
deities that had exact parallels at Rome. In this category of
old Italian gods Diovis, who corresponds to the Latin Jupiter,
had a prominent place, and is represented on the earliest coin-
age of Campania and neighboring districts. To be more ex-
act, several forms of this god originally independent one of
the other were honored in this locality; among them was
conspicuous a divinity represented in Latin by the term lu-
piter Liber, who is mentioned in both Oscan and Latin in-
scriptions. Another Jupiter called Flazzus is not well under-
stood because of the meager evidence for his existence, but
he has been usually associated with the Roman Fulgurator (2).
According to Servius the Oscan Jupiter was especially a god
of light whose most general epithet was Lucetius; but no
mention of this name has been preserved in the cities of Cam-
pania, nor has any trace appeared of the epithets Versor and
Vicilinus found in other localities which were peopled by a
kindred race (3).
It has generally been assumed that a goddess correspond-
ing to Juno was honored by the old Italians and worshipped
in Campania and the other Oscan territories as well as among
(1) Gabrici, Sul valore dei tipi monetali net problemi storici, einogra-
fid e religiosi in Atti del Congresso internazionale di scienze storiche 1903,
VI, 72-73 and Miscellanea Salinas 126 f.
(2) See p. 396 of the Addenda.
(3) Serv. A en. IX, 567. Versor occurs in a Sabellian inscription from
Bruttium written in Greek, Vicilinus is cited from Compsa (Samnium). Cp.
Perdrizet, Jvpiter D.S. Ill, 709; Aus\. /upjti'er, Roscher II, 640.
- 5 -
the Umbrians (I). This view, however, has been attacked by
Otto, who while recognizing the wide diffusion of the cult,
insists that this was not true for the eeirlier period, but was
due to Roman influence (2). In fact, ahhough a few cults of
Juno in Campania are attested by evidence coming from the
Republican period, it is not impossible to consider them as
established after the power of Rome became strong in southern
Italy. To this cla^s belong those of Nuceria, Mt. Gaurus and
Celenna. Yet the evidence for denying the worship of Juno to
the eau-ly period of Campania is wholly negative, auid the prob-
ability of ancient cults in some places is strong, though it
is clear that the worship of the goddess did not attain here
the prominence which it reached in central Italy (3).
The pure Italic origin of Diana is undisputed. She w£is
a patron of fertility in the vegetable and animal worlds, and
w^as honored especially by women as a goddess who presides
over child birth (4). Her shrine at Mt. Tifata near Capua and
Casilinum was one of the oldest with which we axe acquainted,
though the extant inscriptions referring to it go back no far-
ther than the first century B. C. In importance it vied with the
sanctuaries at Aricia and Rome. In the interior cities such as
Capua the early Italic form of Diana as well a^ of Jupiter and
Juno continued to be very prominent during the era of the
Roman Republic. It is true that they were modified to some
extent by Greek influences coming from the coast, but it is
not correct with Albert to speak of them as Greek gods (5).
The Latin Venus, who seems to have been a divinity orig-
inally connected with fields and gaidens, was paralleled in
Oscan Campania by a goddess csJled Herentas. South Iteily
in general was well supplied with Venus cults (6). In one form
(1) Roscher. Juno II. 576; Hild. Juno D.-S. III. 684; Aust. Religion der
Romer 125.
(2) W. F. Otto, Juno in Philologus LXIV (1905) 173.
(3) Wissowa, 187, See pp. 293, 337.
(4) Birt. Diana, Roscher I, 1002; Wissowa, Diana P.-W. V, 328; Paris
Diana D.-S. II. 154.
(5) Albert. Le Culie de Caatjr et Pollux en Italie 46.
(6) Old Venus cults in Latium are cited from Ardea, Lavinium, Alba,
and Gabii. Cp. Sechan. Venus D.-S. V, 733, 735; Preller-Jordan. I. 435; Wis-
sowa. 290. 291.
. 6 -
or another cults that seem to be old are known to have existed
not only at Capua in the interior but also at Pompeii land Her-
culaneum on the coast. Preiler believed that Venus Felix was
a deity worshipped especially in Campania and as such formed
the model of the celebrated Pompeian goddess, but this opin*
ion has been refuted by Wissowa (I). The early cults, how-
ever, were afterwards modified by the introduction of the
Sicilian Aphrodite from Mt, Eryx, as happened also at Rome.
The cult of Fortuna, which was widespread at an early
date among various Italian peoples, was important at Oscan
Capua. She was probably worshipped in this region as else-
where as a kind of protective influence, and not unlikely was
regarded as a goddess interested in motherhood (2). In the
Greek settlements along the shore, however, this form of re-
ligion was introduced at a late date as a result of Roman in-
fluence.
The Oscan equivalent for Ceres occurs in inscriptions,
where the word not only stands for a specific deity but also
is used as an epithet for a number of poorly defined divinities.
The specific goddess Ceres was later identified with the Greek
Demeter and reverenced as a goddess of agriculture. As a
mother goddess she resembled Fortuna; as Ceres Ultrix she
was invoked in imprecation tablets to promote vengeance. A
deity corresponding to the Latin Libera was probably in exis-
tence, who under Greek influence was associated with Ceres.
Her Oscan name is unknown (3). The supposition of Preiler,
approved by Nissen, that this goddess was identical with the
Venus found at Pompeii and Capua has nothing to recommend
(1) Preiler -Jordan. 1. 448. Nisssn, Pomp. Studicn 343; Wissowa. De Ve-
neris simulacris Romanis in Gesammelte Abhandlungen 23.
(2) Besides the well known shrines at Antium and Praeneste, temples
were located on the frontier between Cales amd Teanum, at Fanum Fortunae in
Umbria. and probably at Beneventum. Cp. Peter, Fortuna, Roscher I, 1548;
Otto. Fortuna P.-W. VII. 13; Wissowa, 258; Dieterich, Mutter Erde 79;
Carter, The Cognomina of the Goddess « Fortuna » in Trans, and Proc. of the
Am. Phil. Assoc. XXXI (1900) 60.
(3) Mommsen, Vnteriialische Dialek.te 273; Buck, Grammar of Oscan and
Umbrian 258; F. Lenormant, Ceres D.-S. I, 1078; Wissowa. Ceres, P.-W. III.
1974.
it (1). Likewise the Greek name Hebon, applied especially
to the Dionysus of Neapolis, seems to represent some native
Ccimpanian designation for the god Liber (2). Then too va-
rious places had local divinities not recognized outside of a
small radius; such were to be found in places of a peculieir
chciracter such cis Lake Avemus, the Phlegraecin Fields and
Mt. Vesuvius, where perhaps Cacus weis honored, or a god
corresponding to the Romein Vediovis who was held in awe
cuid reverence in localities subject to volcanic activity (3).
While the cult of the Genius may be an old Italian observance,
no evidence for it can be found before the era of Roman in-
fluence (4).
ETRUSCAN INFLUENCES.
The esirly religious state of the country was affected by
the arrival of Greek settlers and Etruscan invaders. As prov-
ed by the evidence of graves which have been excavated,
the influence of the Etruscans was second in point of time,
but it may be treated first because it must be passed over
briefly on account of our present ignorance of the subject (5).
It was clearly less than that which emanated from the Greek
colonies on the coast, as the idecis current there had already
had an opportunity of being disseminated through the interior
in the period that antedated the arrived of the Etruscans. A-
g£iin, the prominence of the latter weis of no long duration,
cimounting according to the Romem historians to only half a
century (6). On the other hand the influence of the Etruscans
must not be unduly minimized. In material things it weis very
important, a fact demonstrated noticeably in the case of pot-
tery, and to a less extent, because of the lack of surviving
(1) Preller-Jordan, II, 50; Nissen, Pomp. Studien 328.
(2) Mommsen, Unteritalische Dialelite 133.
(3) Winter, The Myth of Hercules at Rome n Univ. of Mich. Studies
IV. 268; Frothingham, Vedioois the Volcanic God in Am. Jour. Phil. XXXVIIl
(1917) 388.
(4) Meyer. II, 528.
(5) Sogliano, Cuma Italica in Miscellanea Salinas 61.
(6) Patroni, Buccheri Campani in Studi e mat. I. (1899-01) 290 f.
material, in architecture (I). Furthermore, it is known that
this people profoundly affected the religion of the Roman
people and it is reasonable to suppose that they left an im-
press similar in kind, if not in degree, upon the religious no-
tions prevalent in Campania. Some of the features which ap-
pcirently entered this region after it had been exposed to
Roman influence were probably obtained directly from the
Etruscans at a much earlier period. Thus the cult of the Leires,
provided that it was an offshoot of the Etruscan religion, may
well have been derived from them by the Campanians (2).
Likewise the myth of Telephus at Capua probably came from
the Etruscans rather than through the agency of the Greeks
at Cumae (3). The principle of grouping three divinities to-
gether so Eis to form a triad has been associated with Etruria,
but triads that probably existed in southern Italy before
the Roman period can be explained as of Greek origin (4).
On this point as on others no definite information is attainable.
Etruscan documents from Campania which have a bear-
ing on the religious conditions of the times Eire confined to
a single example, discovered in the necropolis of the ancient
Capua. Although the sense of the whole is far from clear,
there seems to be a mention of certain offerings probably
made to the gods of the nether world (5). Torp considers that
(1) Pais, Ancient Legends of Roman History 250 and Storia di Roma
I, pait 2, 360.
(2) The derivation of the cult of the Lares from Etruria is supported
among others by Lattes and most of the specieJists in Etruscology, See Lattes,
Rend, del r. 1st. Lombardo series 2, XXV (1892) 517; De Marchi. // culto private
di Roma antica I, 31 (with bibliography). This view is opposed by Jordan,
Preller-Jordan, I, 82 and Wissowa, Lares, Roscher II, 1869.
(3) See p. 358.
(4) Usener, Dreiheit in Rh. Mus. LVIII (1903) I f. Cp. Herbig. Etruscan
Religion in Hastings Encyclopaedia V, 534; Carter, Religious Life of Ancient
Rome 26; Thulin, Rh. Mus. LX (1905) 256 f.
(5) Biicheler, Die campanisch-etrusk.ische lJr\unde in Rh. Mus. LV.
(1900) 2; Lattes, Primi appunti sulla grande iscrizione etrusca trovata a S. Maria
di Capua in Rend, del r. 1st. Lombardo series 2 XXXIII (1900) 541, and Nuovi
appunti intorno alia grande iscrizione etrusca di S. Maria di Capua in Rend, del
r. 1st. Lombardo series 2 XL (1907) 737 f. ; Torp. Bemerk.ungen zu der estrusl^.s-
chen Inschrift von S. Maria di Capua in Sk.rifter udgivne af V idensk.abs-Sels1zabet
i Chrisiiania 1905 N°. 5 and Etruslytsche Beitrage, Zweite Reihe in Shifter ud-
givne af V idensl^abs-Selsfiabet i Chr stiania 1906, N. 8, pp. 9, 18 f.
an enumeration of divinities appears comprising Suri, Letham,
Uni, Larcin ( ?), Thaur, Turms, and Calu. Lattes adds that the
inscription commemorates the performance of funeral rites
at the tomb by an unknown priest (I). It seems to be of late
date, not earlier than the fourth century, - a circumstance
which points to the presence of a number of Etruscans in Cam-
pania long after the Samnite conquest. It has been suggested
by Pais that they lived here for religious reasons and belong-
ed to certain families who had the herediteiry duty of serving
particular divinities (2). This accords with the belief that
gods belonging especially to one race could not have ministers
from another.
THE INTRODUCTION OF GREEK CULTS ALONG
THE COAST.
As already stated the inhabitants of Campania had come
in contact with Greek religious notions at an early period
through the establishment of colonies along the coast. The
oldest Greek divinities were gods prominent in eastern Boeotia
cind Euboea, who were introduced into the first settlement at
Cumae. Here belong the gods of the phratries introduced at
Cumae eind then carried to Neapolis, who include local deities
from both sides of the Euripus (3). The place of first rank
w^eis occupied by Apollo, who seems to have been associated
with many pheises of life and to have served cis prophet, healer
and patron of colonies. At Chalcis in fact colonies were re-
garded as tithes paid to Apollo (4). The same source was re-
sponsible for the introduction of Demeter Thesmophoros, who
w£is worshipped at Eretria and who in Campania has left
traces of her presence (5). At the same time doubtless came
(1) Torp. op. cit. 4; Lattes. Atii Nap. XXV (1908) 108. The latter reads
iHe conclud'ng words as an equivalent to Veltar deus scripsit, a formula adop-
ted by the officiating priest. Lattes, Rend, del r. 1st. Lombardo XXXIll (1900)
560, 561.
(2) Pais, Ancient Legends 251.
(3) Busolt, I, 393.
(4) Strab. VI. 1,6; Gruppe, 58; Roscher, Apollo 1, 441 ; Wernicke, Apol-
.on P.-W. II, 18, 73.
(5) Beloch, 156; Gruppe, 65 f . ; Plutarch. Quaest. Craec. 31.
- 10 -
Demeter's daughter Cora with whom she w^as associated in
the mysteries. The cult of the Dioscuri, w^hich weis very im-
portant at Neapolis, seems to have been one of the oldest cults
recognized at Cumae. It is generally assumed that it spread
through Italy stcu^ting from Locri and Tarentum; in this event
it must have reached the Campanian coast at an early date (I).
But it may well have come with the Euboean colonists. Though
its presence is not well attested in Euboea and Boeotia as early
as the colonization period, it nevertheless belonged to one of
the old, widely diffused cults traces of which have been found
in many localities (2). Statius, therefore, may be following
an authentic tradition, when he groups the Dioscuri with A-
pollo and Demeter and calls them dii patrii of his native
town (3). With the two mystery goddesses mentioned above
was associated Dionysus, w^ho at least at Neapolis bore the
epithet Hebon. Although there is no definite trace of the way
he reached Campania, it has been inferred that he was brought
from Boeotia (4). Among other deities whose worship was
probably tranjsplanted to Italy with the Chalcidian colony
may be mentioned Zeus, Hera, Hermes, Artemis, and Aphro-
dite, who were revered generally among the Greeks in early
times and were prominent in Euboea and its dependancy, east-
ern Boeotia (5). With Artemis came perhaps the legend of
Orestes, which has left no traces at Cumae but which flour-
ished at Aricia. It may have come to the latter from the former,
(1) Gruppe, 373; Albert, Le culte de Castor et Pollux 8 f . ; Sambon, Les
monnaies antiques de I'ltalie I, 192.
(2) Bethe, Dioskuren P.-W. V. 1101; Furtwangler, Diosliuren, Roscher
1. 1164; Foucart. Bull. corr. hell. IX (1885) 403.
(3) See pp. 66. 187.
(4) Gruppe, 367.
(5) Eitrem. Hera, P.-W. VIII. 371 and Hermes, P.-W. VIII, 739-40; Ro-
scher, Hera I, 2080-1 and Hermes, I. 2350; Farnell, Cults of the Greek States 1,
179. 247. 253. II. 425; Wernicke, Artemis P.-W. H, 1403, 1406; Gruppe, 367;
cp. 210, 306. The importance of the cults of eastern Boeotia compared with those
of Euboea itself is discussed by Gruppe, 365. The covers of funeral urns found in
Campania often show the standing figure of a man bearing a sheep. Von Duhn
identified him as Hermes Kriophoros known at Tanagra and explained his
presence as due to the influence of that city exercised through Chalcis. But this
theory has been more recently denied. Von Duhn, Ann. Inst. LI (1879) 143 f . ;
Milchhofer, Die Anfange der Kunsl in Griechenland 212 f. ; Busolt, I, 393 .
- 11 -
as there were rather intimate relations between them, emd
both formed an alUance against the Etrusccins, the traditional
date of which is the end of the sixth century B. C. (1).
The same people brought with them a knowledge of the
Homeric traditions. Early navigators, who had made their
way to the western seeis, had been impressed with the won-
ders of nature manifested along the Campanian coeist, cind
imagined it to be the abode of various demons. The most distinct-
ive points of this region were now definitely identified with
the adventures of Odysseus, and myths dealing with this sub-
ject were localized at different places along the shore (2).
At the same time was introduced the legend of the combat
between gods and giants; localized first at Phlegra in the
western peninsula of the Chalcidice, it became cissociated later
with the so-called Phlegraean Fields in Campania. As the
rich lands around Nola and Capua seemed worthy enough to
be desired by the gods, this name was sometimes applied to
them; the scene of the actual conflict however was generally
cissumed to be the volcanic district about Cumae and Pu-
teoli (3). It is also probable that the legend of Aeneas was
known at an eeirly date in the vicinity of Chalcis and that it
was borne thence to the coast of Italy (4). The priority of the
myth in Campania however before it Wcis known at Rome is
not entirely certain, as it may have been introduced in both
localities from Sicily, where especially at Mt. Eryx the cult
(1) Dion. Hal. V. 36; Liv. II. 14; Busolt, II. 275. Pais, however, holds
that the Orestes cult was derived from lower Italy (Rhegium) and Sicily (Messana)
where it was connected with that of Artemis Phacelitis. Pais. Gli elementi san-
nitici e campani nella piu antica civilta romana in Atti Nap. XXI (1900-1) 133
= Ricerche stor. e geog. 427. Cp. Gruppe. 367.
(2) Ed. Meyer. II. 483; Gruppe. 369; Weicker. Der Seelenvogel 62; De
Petra, Parthenope Sicula in Miscellanea Salinas 81 ; Patroni, Intorno al mito
delle Sirene in Riv. di fil. e d'isir. class. XIX (1891).
(3) Diod. V. 71 ; Strab. V. 4. 6 (245); Eustath. on Dionys. Perieg. 357;
Tzetzes on Lycophron 688; Ilberg. Giganten Roscher 1, 1648. The myth of the
Giants around Cumae was explained rationally by Strabo. V. 4, 3. Preller-Robert,
75; Pais. Stor. crit. 237, 249.
(4) Gruppe, 369; Oberhummer, Chalkis P.-W. Ill, 2081; Pais. 5for.
crit. I. 238-239.
- 12 -
of Aphrodite was very strong (1). In any case the myth of
Aeneas was associated with the worship of that goddess rather
than with the cult of Apollo as was maintained by O. Miil-
ler (2). It is then uncertain whether the legend of Aene£is
was introduced here in a form different from that which it
Eissumed at Rome or whether in Campania it developed cer-
tain peculiarities, which were probabiy reproduced in the
work of the Campcinian poet Naevius. Besides influencing
geographical nomenclature, as in the ccise of Misenum and
the promontory of Palinurus farther south, it became cisso-
ciated with Capua, whose founder Capys weis asserted to be
the cousin of Aeneas (3).
According to Miiller's theory the cult of Apollo and the
traditions centering about Aenecis came to Cumae with the
colonists from Aeolic Kyme (4). The same origin has been
ascribed to the Sibylline prophecies found at Cumae (5). But
in addition to any other objections that might be brought a-
gainst these views, there is the possibility that the Kyme cited
813 pcu-ticipating in the earliest colonization of Italy was not
the well known city of Aeolia but an obscure town on the
(1) Preller-Jordan. II, 314; Pais, Stor. crit. I. 253 . Cp. BusoU. I, 395;
Worner, Die Sage ion den Wanderungen des Aeneas 22; Cauer, Dj fabuHa
Grcscis ad Romam conditam pertenentibus lO-II.
(2) O. Miiller, Explicantur causae fabulae de Aeneae in Haliam adventa
in Class. Jour. XXVI (1822) 308 f . ; Hild. La legende d'Enie avant Virgile 34;
Aineias P.-W. I, 1019; Worner, Aineias Roscher I. 188.
(3) Pais, Stor. crit. I, 233 f., 250; Pfister, Die Reliquienkult im Altertum
I, 157-8 (Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorarbeiten V) ; Gruppe, 690 ;
Worner, Die Sage Von den Wanderungen des Aeneas 19, 21 = Abhandl. zu den
Programm des ^gl. Gymnasiums in Leipsig 1881-2; Cauer, Die rom. Aeneassage
von Naevius bis Vergilius in Jahrb. jUr class. Phil. Supplementband XV (1887)
101 ; Nettleship, The Story of Aeneas' Wanderings in Jour. Phil. IX (1880) 42,
45. The myth related by Dionysius that Romus, a son of Aeneas, founded both
Capua and Rome is a late invention depending upon the alliance between the
two cities after 338 (or 334) B. C. Dion. Hal. I, 73; Niese, Die Sagen von der
Crundung Roms in Hist. Zeits. XXHI (1888) 490; Geffcken, Timaios Geogra-
phic des Westens 44.
(4) Miiller, loc. cit. ; Schwegler, Rom. Gesch. I, 316; Worner, Die Sage
von den Wanderungen des Aeneas 22.
(5) Schwegler, Rom. Gesch. I, 802; Gruppe. 342; Bouche-Lecleicq , Hist,
de la divin. dans I'ant. II, 156, 184.
- 13 -
islemd of Euboea (I). Seimos is also cited as the source of the
Sibyl (2). In fact it is impossible to determine exactly how
her cult reached Cumae, and it may have come with more
than one band of colonists. In any case it goes back ultimately
to Marpessus (3).
The same uncertainty is attached to the cult and myth of
the Sirens, which became associated with the vicinity of Nea-
polis and Surrentum. According to Gruppe and Weicker they
were brought by the settlers from Chalcis and formed a part
of their stock of Euboean and Boeotian traditions (4). P. Fried-
lander, calling attention to the priority of the myth of the
Sirens in Samian tradition before it appeared in the Odyssey,
believes that their presence in Ceunpania was due to Saunian
colonists, who are credited in history with the foundation of
a settlement at Puteoli (5). No evidence has been preserved
for the arrival of Samians at Neapolis, but Friedlander re-
gards the statement of a scholiast eis pointing in that direc-
tion (6). A better indication for believing that the cult of the
Sirens was due to a non-Chalcidian element is the attitude
show^n towcud them by the people of Cumae; not only did
the latter not carry on the worship of these creatures, but they
are actually reported to have been hostile to Peathenope, the
special patroness of the Neapolitans.
The most important element after that of the ChcJcidians
was the one derived from Rhodes, which established a colony
Parthenope on or near the site of the later Neapolis. The Rho-
dians were familiar with the gods generally recognized by
the Greeks and in addition probably introduced into Ceunpania
the worship of Heracles. The origin of this cult is disputed.
The opinion once held that he Wcis especially a Dorian god
(1) Beloch. 147; Busolt, 391 f.
(2) Schwegler, Kom. Gesch. I, 802.
(3) Buchholz, Sibylla, Roscher IV. 795. 799; Schultess. Die Sibyllinischen
Biicher in Rom 8 f.
(4) Gruppe. 344 and Jahresb. iiber die Fortschr. der class. Altertumsu}.
CXXXVII 356; Weicker. Seirenen, Roscher IV. 607 and Der Seelenvogel 60.
(5) P. Friedlander, Heralfles 85 f.
(6) Scholiast on Dionys. Peng. 358 (Miiller. Geog. Gr. min. 11, 445):
Friedlander, Herakles 90.
- 14 -
coming from the Peloponnesus to Cumae, as staled for exam-
ple by Reitzenstein, is not tenable (I). Many scholars have
considered him as a primitive Boeotian deity or at least one
who was prominent there at an early date. In this event his
cult would have spread first to Euboea and from there would
have reached Italy at Cumae (2). But Friedlander has shown
that the primitive Heracles cult was at Rhodes, and was in-
troduced into Boeotia from the Rhodian epics as late as 700
B. C. In Campania therefore it must have been due to the
Rhodians either by direct colonization or indirectly from their
settlement at Croton (3). The recognition of the god soon
spread along the coast, as he appears associated with the
myths of the Giants and the cattle of Geryon which were lo-
calized in the neighborhood of Cumae. He was further wor-
shipped at the numerous wairm springs around Puteoli as at
Himera (4).
Other elements joined the eairiiest colonists from time
to time bringing with them certain religious ideas from their
old homes. Thus refugees from Psophis in Arcadia perhaps
reached Cumae bringing their traditions about the Erymcin-
thean boar with the result that in time Apollo's temple was
supposed to preserve its very remains in the form of a sacred
relic, and the boar's tusks were portrayed on Cumaean
coins (5). On the basis of a notice in Pausanias it has also
been thought that a band from Tritaea in Achaia settled here
and introduced the god Ares with the legend of Romulus (6).
(1) Reitzenstein. Incd. poet. Gr. frag. II.
(2) Von Wilamowitz, Der Heracles Sage in Eurip. Herak.1. I, 1, 12;
Meyer. II 255. 485-6; Beloch I. 163 and Die dorische Wanderung in Rb. Mus.
XLV (1890) 579; Correra. Riv. Hal. di numis. XVI (1903) 191; Winter. The
Myth of Hercules at Rome 266.
(3) Friedlander, Hera^/es 54 f. ; Gruppe. 374 ; Pohlmann, Grundriss der
gr. Gesch. 49.
(4) Serv. 'Aen. VII, 662; Friedlander, Herahles 22. 142; Gruppe 454
and Berl. Phil. Wochens. XXXI (1911) 1002; R. Peter. Hercules, Roscher I,
3009; Preller-Jordan. II, 280.
(5) Gruppe, 371; Garrucci. Le monets dell'lt. ant. PJ. 83. No. 29; A.
Sambcn, Les monn. ant. de i'lt. 151. No. 246: Pais. Sior. crit. I. 228.
(6) Reitzenstein, Ined poet Gr. frag. 11, 24; Gruppe, 141; Paus, VII,
22. 9.
- 15 -
But the worship of Ares - if it really was carried on at Cumas -
might well have come from Euboea. Reitzenstein saw another
evidence for the presence of an Achaean element in the use of
the word A/atOTt as opposed to the expression iv Trarptoiot vojiot?
found in an oracle of Phlegon of Tralles. He maintained that
the rites of the new comers were thus distinguished from those
of the original Euboeain settlers, but the reference is not
surely to Cumae (I). Pais, while admitting the presence of
these Achaecui and Arcadian elements in the religion of Cu-
mae, believes that they Ccime from Syracuse after the battle
of Cumae in 474 B. C. (2).
The cult of Athena was introduced generally in lower
Italy as a result of Achaean and Aetolian influence, but in
Campania seems to have been brought directly from Athens
by a number of colonists from that city who took up their
abode at Neapolis in the fifth century (3). Before this time
there were few relations between Athens and Ceimpcinia, and
wares from the former were imported into the latter through
the mediation of the merchants of Syracuse (4). Now Athe-
nian influence made itself felt more strongly, and a new type
of money was issued which beau's the likeness of the great
deity of that city. Pottery found at Cumae shows so great a
resemblance to the Athenian product, that it has been sup-
posed to be the work of artisans from Athens who were re-
siding in Campania (5). The new movement must have had
much importance in a religious way, but little evidence for it
has been preserved. The influence of Athens wcis not always
exercised directly but also through the agency of Thurii (6).
(1) Reitzenstein, op. cit. 10; Diels, SibylUnische Blditer 54 f . ; Schultess,
Die SibylUnische Biicher in Rom 24. For the oracle see DieU op. cit. 1 1 1 f .
(2) Pais, Storia della Sicilia e delta Magna Graecia I, 163.
(3) Diimmler, Athena P. W. II, 1984; Riickert, Dienst der Athena 84 f.
(not accessible to me); Beloch, 30; Pais, Ricerche stor. e geogr. 441.
(4) Helbig, Sopra le relazioni commerciali degli Aieniesi coW Italia in
Rend, dei Lincei V (1889) 79.
(5) Vanacore, / vasi con heroon dell'Italia meridionale in Atti Nap. XXIV
(1906) 189.
(6) A. Sambon, La cronologia delle monete di Neapolis in Riv. ital. di
num. XV (1902) 119 f.
- 16 -
In fact the various cities of Magna Graecia and Sicily
exercised an important influence on the development of reli-
gion in Campania. Between the ports of the latter eind those
of Sicily 2U1 extensive commerce Wcis carried on through the
sixth and the first part of the fifth centuries B. C. (1). In the
latter part of the fifth century Cumae was an ally of Syracuse,
and King Hiero obtained possession of the island of Pithe-
cussae (Ischia). Syracusan influence was at its height, and at
this time may have originated the legends of the Cretans and
the Thespiads, who are supposed to have come respectively
from Sardinia and Sicily (2). Through the same instrumen-
tality was made known the cult of the Sicilian Athena, which
flourished along side of that derived from Athens (3). From
the western end of the island came the worship of the ship-
protecting Aphrodite of Mt. Eryx, who was identified with
the pre-existing Oscan deity Herentas (4).
Among the cities of lower Italy, which promoted the
spread of various forms of religion to the north may be men-
tioned Tarentum, which was zealous in the worship of Hera-
cles, and Locri which magnified the Dioscuri, although these
cults had already been introduced along the coast of Ceimpemia
by early settlers (5). Gruppe has plausibly explained the
presence of the Geryon myth here as due to the Rhodians at
Croton. Although admitting the colonization of Peirthenope
by men of the same nationality he believes that this legend
of Heracles' exploits was carried to that city first from Croton,
and later formed a part of the heritage of the inhabitants of
Cumae, which they received at the capture of Parthenope (6).
An acquaintance with Achelous as father of the Sirens y/as
naturally made when the legends of those goddesses came to
Campania, but his presence upon coins more likely resulted
(1) Helbig, Rend, del Lincei V (1899).
(2) Pais. Storia della Sic. I, 163 .
(3) See p. 197.
(4) Meyer. II. 531.
(5) Gruppe. 372-373; Wissowa. 269.
(6) Gruppe. Berl. Phil. Wochens. XXXI (1911) 1002. Cp. Vollgraff, Rhodos
Oder Argos? in Neue JahrbUcher XXV (1910) 317.
- 17 -
from the influence of Metapontum (I). So the appearance of
the Argive Juno upon the money of the early CampEinian city
of Hyria was due according to Pais to the influence of Posi-
donia (2). The cult of Leucothea has been derived from E-
lea (Velia) (3).
THE SPREAD OF GREEK CULTS INTO THE
INTERIOR.
The gods introduced by the Greek settlers along the cocist
did not remain confined to that area but became known also
in the interior. In this movement the influence of Cumae was
the most important on account of its commercial relations
and colonies (4). Its settlements at Neapolis and Puteoli flour-
ished cind the former became in later years the greatest center
of Hellenic civilization in Italy. Other places farther south
such as Pompeii and Surtentum appear to have received
Greek settlers and w^ere noticeablj'^ afl^ected by Greek influence,
since both at an early date possessed Greek temples. Cumae
furthermore strengthened Hellenic influence throughout Cam-
pania by its alliance with the powerful city of Syracuse, by
whose assistance it w^as enabled to withstand and defeat the
Etruscans (5). The religion of the Greeks was one of the
factors which availed most to save them from being submerged
by the surrounding tribes, and in order to strengthen their
position they may designedly have endeavored to extend the
circle wherein the gods of Greece were recognized (6). This
(1) Gruppe, 343.
(2) Pais, Gli elementi italioti, sanniiici e campani nella piu aniica civilta
romana in Atti Nap. XXI (1900-01) part. I. 132. Ricerche stor. e geog. 462; Head,
Hist. num. 32.
(3) Correra, Siudi e mater, di arch, e di numis. I (1899) 74; Gruppe, 376.
(4) Meyer, II, 531.
(5) Freeman. Hist, of Sic. II. 252.
(6) Nissen. Italische Landesliunde II, 723; Reitzenstein Ined. poet Gr.
frag., 10. For the relations that existed in general between the Greek colonists
and the natives with whom they came in contact see Gwynn, The Character of
Gr. ColonizaHon in four. Hell. Stud. XXXVIII (1918) 109 f.
- 18 -
result was achieved by means of festivals. Thus at Hamae
near Cumae a solemn festival w£is celebrated from early times
in the interest of the Campanians, an occeision on which the
inhabitants of the interior were brought into touch with Hel-
lenic beliefs.
As the Oscan cities became familiar with the Greek dei-
ties, they either adopted them as new gods or merged them
with others of similar nature already existent. Thus Oscan
inscriptions from Pompeii and Herculaneum, which exhibit
the forms Apellu, Hercolus, Herentas, and Fluusa, attest the
worship of Apollo, Hercules, Venus, and Flora (I). Artemis
is an example of the divinities who were merged with old
Italic gods; Heracles and the Dioscuri on the contrary were
probably never assimilated to preexisting Oscan divinities, but
none the less soon had temples with thriving cults in the in-
terior. Ccistor and Pollux became the patrons of the Campanian
aristocracy, and Heracles or Hercules was revered everywhere
and roads were commonly called by his name (2). The myth
of Cacus, associated in legend with the latter deity perhaps
had its counterpart in this region; Aeneeis was made known
in the interior (3).
Demeter, Cora and Dionysus, identified with native dei-
ties, attained a position of preeminence. Though the date of
their introduction into the interior is uncertain, they were cer-
tainly well known there in the sixth century. They were con-
nected with agriculture and naturally became widely populcir
over the rich Campanian plain. As a result of its bounteous
crops of grain and the abundant yield of the vine, both De-
meter and Dionysus seemed to vie with each other in show-
ering their blessings upon it, and so the legend arose that
it had been the object of contention between the two for its
possession (4). Another myth represents the Ager Falernus
(1) Conway, Italian Religion in Hastings, Encyclopaedia VII, 458.
(2) Liv. VIII, II. 16; Preller-Jordan, II, 301; Pseudo-Aristotle, De mirab.
ausc. 97. The latter writer speaks particularly of southern Italy, but makes his
remarks of general application for the peninsula. Pais, Stor. Rom. I, 2, 442-3:
Cesano, Hercules, Ruggiero III, 710; Boehm. He-.cules P.-W. VIII, 608.
(3) Pais, Stor. crit. I, 238-239.
(4) Plin. nat. Ill, 60; PreJler-Jordan. II, 47.
- 19 -
just north of the Volturnus as the land upon which Liber first
conferred the gift of wine (I).
The w^orship of Dionysus was carried on especially in
the mysteries, about which little is known save their orgiastic
nature and their tendency to be marked by excesses (2). For
the cities of Campeinia itself no information has reached us
about their cheiracter. In the luxurious cities of Magna Graecia
their environment was especially favorable for licentiousness. ■
In the former district too much emotion in religion was perhaps
repugnant to the disposition of the better class of Greeks, at
Iccist in the earlier period (3). In these ceremonies Ceres seems
to have had little part according to the evidence of Vcise paint-
ings; yet she probably had a larger share in the mysteries of
this cocist, whence the Romans derived their worship of Ceres,
Liber and Libera, than on the other side of the peninsula,
where Dionysus was supreme (4). Occasionally Ceres is rep-
resented along with Dionysus, as on a two handled hydria
from the vicinity of the ancient Capua where Cora appears
with them in a scene portraying the bliss of Elysium (5). The
compeinion of Dionysus is more often a goddess who is de-
picted in the form of Ariadne. To explain this figure F. Le-
normant supposed a union of the attributes of both Demeter
and Cora in the person of a single goddess, who in actual
cult and ritual wets regeu-ded eis the deity to whom reference
has already been made as Libera, but who in popular belief
was fused with Ariadne (6). This combination would be fos-
tered by the circumstance that the latter was considered a
goddess of wine, and the conception of Ariadne as a com-
panion of Bacchus was so powerful that the Roman Libera
wcis taken for Ariadne by Ovid (7). Dionysus himself was
(1) Sil. VII. 162 f.
(2) Comparetti, Iscrizione arcaica cumana in Ausonia 1 (1906) 17 f.
(3) Spinelli, La decadenza religiosa e la repressione dei Baccanali a
Roma, 34.
(4) Spinelli, op. cit. 29.
(5) Frohner, La collection Tyszkiewiez PI. c. 10.
(6) F. Lenormant, Bacchus D.-S. I, 637 and La Grande-Grece 1. 407;
Preller-Robert, 683; Thramer, Dionysus in der Kunst Roscher I. 1148.
(7) Ov. jast. Ill, 512, Metam. Vlll, 170; Prop. II, 3, 18; 111, 17. 8: Hot.
Carm. II, 19. 16; Stoll. Ariadne, Roscher 1. 544; Wagner. Ariadne P.-W. II,
808.
- 20 -
regarded as the Liberator (li^XsoOspsoc) and viewed as a god of
the dead. A parallelism was seen between the action of wine
and death both of which release the soul from the restraints
of the flesh; the feeling further prevailed that the god could
save his devotees from the perils and miseries of the lower
world (I). His popularity is proved by the frequency with
which he appears in vase paintings from the factories of Cam-
pania and the adjoining districts. He is a common subject not
only upon the vases coming from Posidonia but also upon
those from Saticula (S. Agatha de' Goti), where a notable
factory was located in the fifth and fourth centuries (2). Al-
though the vcises are based on Attic models, they would have
been lacking in point, if they did not allude to popular legends
and religious rites. In this case the comprehensive character
of the cult, the mainy phases of life with which the god was
associated, and his significance in the mysteries cis a chthonic
deity are all circumstances that made the subject appropriate.
Likewise the myths connected with Dionysus, especially those
in which Ariadne appears, were adopted more often than any
other theme for Ccunpanian w^all-paintings (3).
The mystical element pervading the cult of Dionysus wsis
paralleled in the Orphic mysteries, which had attained a full
development in lower Italy in the sixth century. These doc-
trines unquestionably influenced Campania to a considerable
extent, though no certain evidence for their presence in any
particular city remains (4). We may be sure that the wan-
dering Orphic teachers censured by Plato did not neglect this
(1) Gruppe, 1430 f.
(2) Walters, Hist. 'Anc. Pot. II, 484; Patroni, La ceramica ant. nell'lt.
merid. in Atti Nap. XIX (1897-8) 96; Patroni's conclusions have been challenged
in general by Macchioro, Intorno al contenuto oltremondano della ceramografia
italiota in NeapoUs I (1913) 30 f.
(3) Stoll, Roscher I, 545; Oveibeck-Mau, Pompeii" 588-589; Mau, fom-
peji in Leben und Kunst 495 ; Helbig, Wandgemdlde der vom Vesuv Verschiit-
ieten Stadte Campaniens 93, No. 368 f.
(4) Gruppe, Orpheus Roscher 111, 1101; Vanacore, / vasi con heroon in
Atti Nap. XXIV (1906) 180; J. Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek
Religion 598; Comparetti ; Petelia Gold Tablet in Jour. Hell. Stud. Ill, 111 h
and Ausonia I (1906) 18-20; Kern, Orphischer Totenkult in i4us der 'Anemia
arch. Beitriige C. Robert dargebracht 86 f. Cp. p. 70.
- 21 -
rich and prosperous territory, but went about here as else-
where expounding to interested throngs their hopes for a fu-
ture hfe (1). Related to the Orphic doctrines and liable to be
confused with them were the teachings of Pythagoras ema-
nating from Croton, the amount of whose influence in Cam-
pania we are not in a position to estimate. The one fact that
is gleaned from the various mysteries - Bacchic, Orphic, and
Pythagorean - is that the life beyond the grave occupied a
large place in the thought of southern Italy; the end was the
same whether there prevailed a belief in the transmigration
of souls or in the existence of a blessed Elysium (2). The evi-
dence appears in vase paintings (3).
THE INFLUENCE OF CAMPANIA UPON THE
RELIGION OF ROME.
As the commercial and political relations of Campania
with the Greeks of Sicily cind lower Italy were responsible for
the introduction w^ithin its borders of new forms of religion,
so in the same way Campania helped to modify the religious
conceptions of the peoples situated farther north. In fact from
an early date the coast cities of Campania carried on a flour-
ishing trade with the Etruscans emd the Latins with the result
that Greek gods were made known within their borders (4).
Among the deities first introduced was Heracles, whose cult
was disseminated largely through the instrumentality of Cu-
mae (5). Etruscan works of art, representing the god or de-
picting his myths, show his presence in that country as early
as the sixth century B. C, and it has been suspected that his
popularity there had an important effect in meiking him known
(1) Plat. Rep. II, 364B. Cp. Lobeck. Aglaophamus 643 f . ; Spinelli. La
decadenza relig. e la repres. dei Baccanali a Roma 29.
(2) Dieterich, Eine Miihrasliturgie 198.
(3) Vanacore, Atti Nap. XXIV (1906) 180.
(4) For the commercial importance of Cumae see Gabrici, Cuma in Mon.
ant XXII (1913) 577 f.
(5) Cesano, Hercules, Ruggiero III, 684 with comprehensive references
to earlier I'terature ; Pais, Stor. crii. I, part. 1, 361.
to the Romans (1). The cult at Rome seems to have been due
mainly to Ccunpanian influence, although Pais in his later
work admits the possibility of influences from Sicily and Mag-
na Graecia (2). The god indeed may have come directly
from Cumae to Rome, since important relations existed be-
tween the two cities in early times, and certain circumstances
have been found to support this contention (3). But it is more
probable, as Wissowa has indicated, that he was worshipped
first at Tibur and that from this locality he was taken to Rome ;
as a result he was not considered a foreign deity by the Ro-
mans in spite of his Greek ritual (4).
Yet Campanian influences doubtless operated directly, at
least at a later epoch. In the time of Appius Claudius Caecus,
as a result of the construction of the Via Appia and the inti-
mate relations of Rome with the Campanians and Samnites,
Hercules ceime more prominently before the Romans, and his
cult was made a public one (5). This event marks a new
epoch in the religious relations between Campania and Rome,
for eau-lier intercourse was mainly by sea, but in the later pe-
riod Capua rather than Cumae affected the Romans (6).
Pais has expressed the opinion that Campanian influence com-
ing overland is indicated by the location of the principal
seat of the Hercules cult at Rome, but this was not situated,
as he states, where the great highway leading to Campania
issued from the city (7). Rather its position near the Tiber
(1) Durrbach, Hercules D.-S. III. 124-25; Winter. The Myth of Here, at
Rome 269.
(2) Pais. Star. crit. 1, part. 1, 229.
(3) Cesano. Ruggiero III, 684; Reitzenstein, Ined. poem. Cr. frag. 24 ;
Preller-Jordan II, 280.
(4) Wissowa. 272 ; Carter, Relig. of Numa 32 ; Fowler, 230.
(5) Liv. IX. 29. 9; Val. Max. I, I. 17; Macr. III. 6, 12; Interpolator to
Serv. Aen. VIII. 269; Fast, 237; Aur. Vict. De uiris Ulus. 34; Origo gentia
Romanae 8; Pais. Stor. Rom. I, part 2. 439. 560 and Atti Nap. XXI (1900-1)
I. 134.
(6) See, however, p. 28.
(7) The statements of Pais about the cult of Hercules are confused and
contradictory. He says in one place {Atti Nap. XXI (1900-1) 134) that the memor-
ials of the god fittingly stood near the Porta Trigemina, where the way to Capua
began, and in another place {Stor. crit. I, part 1. 229) declares that the princi-
pal seat of his cult was not by accident near the Porfa Capena, where the
Campcmian way began. As a matter of fact the god was not associated with the
last named gate, nor did the one named first belong to a road leading to
Campania.
- 23 -
and the landing place signified that it had arrived in the first
instance by water (I). It was established before the overlcind
traffic between Rome and the South began, as is recognized
by Pais in another place (2).
The story of Cacus, who was associated with the exploits
of Hercules at Rome, wcis probably based upon a Campanian
myth dealing with the punishment of a cattle theft, inflicted
by the great hero. An evidence for this assumption is the
statement of the annalist Gellius that Cacus came to Rome
from Campania (3).
Still more evident is the Campeinian origin for the worship
of Apollo at Rome; in this case the god did not cirrive in the
guise of an Italian divinity but was introduced directly from
Cumae cis a god of healing probably as a result of the in-
fluence of the so-called Sybilline oracles, which tradition as-
cribes to that city (4). These according to legend reached
Rome at the end of the period of the Kings or at the beginning
of the Republic (5). As a matter of fact the oracles may
not have come from Cumae at all, but rather were pious
frauds to which a Cumaean origin wets assigned. In specific
C£ises there had doubtless been a consultation of the Sibyl
(1) Fowler. 230.
(2) Pais, Stor. crit. I, part I, 230. His statement elsewhere Atti Nap.
XXI (1900-1) 135 = Ricerche stor. e geogr. 428 that the cult of Hercules arrived
at Rome after that of Ceres, when Greek civilisation was openly welcomed, must
be regarded as erroneous.
(3) Cell. hist. I, 7 = Peter. Hist. Rom. frag. 7* p. 93. The bronze urn
found at S. Maria di Capua perhaps contains an expression of the Cacus myth
but this interpretation is disputed. Peter, Hercules Roscher I, 2275 ; Wissowa
Cacus P.-W. Ill, 1169; Preller-Jordan : I, 18; Winter. The Myth of Here, at
Rome 267 (with references to earlier literature). The view that the Cacus myth
was an old Italian one is less probable. Peter 2278. For the myth in general see
Gruppe, Bcrl. Fhil. Wochcns, XXXI (1911) 999 f. ; Munzer. Cacus der Kinderdieb.
(4) Wernicke, Apollo P.-W. 11, 78; Ruggiero, Apollo 1. 5 id; Preller-
Jordan. I, 18. 146 f. ; Wissowa. 293; Fowler. 268; Carter. Relig. of Numa, 66;
Roscher, Apollo I, 446; Pais, 5*or. Rom. I, part I, 349 and Stor. crit. I, part 2,
528: Haight, An irxspired message in the Augustan Poets in Am. Jour. Phil.
XXXIX (1918) 341 f.
(5) Hoffmann, Die tarquinischen Sibyfline-BUcher in Rh. Mus. L. (1895)
108; Worner, Die Sage von den Wanderungen des Aeneas 22; Schultess, Die
Sibyllinischen Biicher in Rom 10.
- 24 -
there, and to meet future needs a collection of remedies for
averting evil omens was prepared. Such an origin would
account for the presence of the oracles within the pomer-
ium (1). Otherwise one must assume either that the oracles
and the god were not closely associated, as is generally sup-
posed by those who follow the common tradition, or else that
neither oracles nor cult entered Rome before the founding of
the Apollo temple in the fourth century B. C. (2). While such
a late date is improbable, it is equally incorrect to suppose
that the worship of Apollo was maintained at Rome before
the presence of the Sibylline oracles (3); rather it arrived
soon after they came into existence and was Icirgely due to
them. A circumstance indicating the belief of the Romans
themselves that their god cEime from Cumae Wcis the perform-
ance of expiatory rites in the Apollo temple of that city on
the occcision of prodigies, and there can be little doubt that
their attitude here was correct. To include Cumae, therefore,
as one of the localities to which the cult spread from Rome,
as is done by Pascal, is an unfortunate reversal of the rela-
tions actually existing between the two cities (4).
As a result of Sibylline influence, the cult of Demeter,
Cora and Dionysus is said to have reached Rome in the yeetr
493 B. C. This form of worship in which Ceres, representing
Demeter, had the leading place was adopted as an official cult
by the state, but although the divinities were designated by
Latin names formerly borne by old Italian deities, they were
considered as foreign gods and their rites were Greek (5).
But the mysteries celebrated in their honor by the Greeks cind
all features of the worship tending toward orgiastic excesses
(1) Diels, Sibyllinische BlaiteT 80; Fowler, 259; De Sanctis, Sior. II.
526-7; Pais, Stor. crit. I, 249 .
(2) HofFmann. Rh. Mus. L (1895) 96; Pais, Stor. crit. I, 528, II, 537.
(3) De Sanctis, loc. cit.
(4) Pascal, // piu antico tempio d' Apollo a Roma in Bull. arch. com.
1893, 48. The author may not have intended to make this statement but such
seems to be the purport of his words.
(5) Dion. Hal. VI, 17; VI, 94. 3. Cp. Liv. Ill, 55,7; Tac. Ann. II. 49;
Spinelli, La decadenza religiosa e la repressione dei Baccanali a Roma, 25 ;
Toutain, Liber Pater in Etudes de mythologie et d'histoire 222. Hoffmann, Rh.
Mus. L (1895) 100 denies that the divinities treated here were Greek.
- 25 -
were doubtless debarred at this time (1). Their origin must
be sought in cormection with the importation of grain from
Sicily and Campania to relieve a condition of famine. Since
both places had strong Ceres cults, it is probable that both
were effective in the propagation of the worship of the god-
dess at Rome, but which one took the leading part in this
movement is a question in dispute. Pais, following Preller,
has attempted to prove that the worship of Ceres along with
the legend of Menenius Agrippa and the traditions of the
revolt of the plebs is due to Sicilian influences centering at
Syracuse (2). It is indeed certain that the Sicilian Enna w^as
held to be the oldest seat of Demeter worship, and for that
reason the Romcins in 133 B. C. sent a delegation thither to
perform state sacrifices (3). We may account for this fact by
supposing that during the lapse of time the Romans had for-
gotten the chief source from w^hich their cult was derived. In
any event the mention of Enna does not exclude a Campanian
source for the Roman goddess; for if the cult came from the
island, it must have come from Syracuse or some seaport and
not from the interior (4). On the other hand the proximity
of Campania to Rome, the connection of the Sibylline oracles
with Cumae, the known derivation of other cults from this
region, all tend to show a probability that the district around
Cumae w^as the source. This view is confirmed by the fact
that priestesses at Rome were selected from the neighboring
Velia and Neapolis, after Cumae had declined in population
and power (5). The statement of Birt that the Ceres cult in
Campania was due to the extension of Roman influence is
altogether unfounded, since it conceives the relations be-
(1) Spinelli, loc. cit.
(2) Preller-Jordan, II, 40; Fowler, 256; Pestalozza e Chiesa, Ceres, Rug-
giero, II, 206; Pais, Ancient Italy 245 f., Ricerche stor. e geog. 320, and StoT.
crit. II. 146.
(3) Cic. Kerr. LV, 108; Val. I. 1. 1.
(4) The Romans were not agreed as to the origin of their cult, as
app&ars from the attempt of Dionysius toi trace it to Arcadia. Dicn. Hal., I, 33.
Cp. Farnell, Cults of the Greek. States III, 101.
(5) Farnell, 111. 101; Wissowa. Ceres P.-W. III. 1974 and Rel. und
Kull. 297; F. Lenormant. Ceres D.-S. I. 1078; Carter. Religion of Numa 72
f . ; Aust, Religion der Romer 150; De Sanctis. Stor. Rom. 11,527; Dubois Pouz-
zoles antique 134 and Melanges XXII (1902) 27.
-26 -
tween Rome and Campania as the reverse of the actual ones (1).
The date of the introduction of the triad is unknown, unless
the legendary one be accepted (2).
Similar was the origin of the Roman cult of Mercury,
which came to Rome according to tradition two years earlier
than that of Ceres. Although no details are at hand, the Rom-
ans probably felt the need of another god to serve as patron
of their developing commerce; Hermes Empolaios therefore
Weis imported from the Greek cities in the South to fill this
need. It is probable but not certain that the introduction -was
due to Sibylline influence and that the god was brought from
the vicinity of Curnae (3).
From the same coast the worship of Castor and Pollux
as sea divinities spread northward toward Latium; according
to Albert it was hospitably received at ail the port towns and
at Caere in particular, but it has left clear traces of its pres-
ence only at Ostia (4). These gods as patrons of the knights
had already found favor at Rome, and were associated in
legend with the battle of Lake Regillus. This aspect of the
cult originated in southern Italy especially at Locri and Ta-
rentum; thence it passed through Tusculum to Rome. Prob-
ably it spread overland toward the north w^ith Capua, Cora
and other points as intermediate stages before it arrived at
Tusculum (5). More evident is the part played by Campania
in introducing these gods at Ostia as marine deities. Miss
Taylor limits the evidence for their presence in Italian ports
(I) Birt, Ceres, Roscher 863. His view here depends on the theory of
thai introduction of the cult at Rome on, the analogy of the triad of Demeter,
Dionysus aud Cora at Lampsacus, Cp. Roscher 852; Marquardt-Wissowa Rom.
Staatsverwaltung 111, 362; Pais, Ancient Italy 250 and Ricerche stor. e geog. 326.
(2) Pais, Ancient Italy 256 and Ricerche stor. e geog. 329.
(3) Carter, Rel. of Numa 77; Preller-Jordan, I, 230; Scherer, Hermes in
der Kunst, Roscher, 1, 2425. Cp. Wissowa, 51, 304 ; Pais, Stor. Crit. II. 536- towl-
er. 260.
(4) Albert, Le cuUe de Castor et Pollux en Italie 58 ; Taylor, The cults
of Ostia 24 f.
(5) Preller-Jordan, II, 300 f . ; Wissowa, 268; Carter, Rel. of Numa
37 f . ; Furtwangler, Dios^uren, Roscher I, 1168; Bethe, Diosk.uren P.-W. V.
1104; Albert, op. cit. 8 f. and Dioscuri D.-S. 11, 260; Helbig, Die Castores als
Schutzgotter des rom. Equitatus in Hermes XL (1905) 104 f.
27 -
to statues at Puteoli and Ancona and a temple at Ostia (I).
But they had a temple certainly at Neapolis and almost cer-
tainly at Cumae; they were worshipped in fact at Cumae and
its two colonies in Csunpania and were doubtless introduced
from there to Ostia.
Another divinity at Rome for whom a Campanian origin
has been suggested is Victoria. Graillot thinks that her in-
troduction was caused by Greek influence from this quarter
at the opening of the third century B. C. (2).
In the case of other deities for whom a Campanian origin
heis been found the probabilities are strongly against such an
assumption. Thus Poseidon, who was thought by Preller to
have come to Rome from Cumae, came rather from Taren-
tum (3); and Vesta, whose origin Kretschmer derived from
the cult of Hestia, supposedly flourishing among the Greek
colonies in Italy, was a goddess of Latin origin (4). In fact
the Samnite conquest in the fifth century caused a diminu-
tion in the activity of the Greek cities of the Ccimpanian
cocist (5). The influence of this district however, soon made
itself felt in another way. As the territory of Rome increaised
by conquest toward the south and Capua came under Roman
protection in the fourth century B. C. a new stream of in-
fluences propagating the civilization of Campamia made its
way northward. Capua now took the lead in affecting the civ-
ilization of Rome, a position formerly held by Cumae (6).
This influence is seen especially in the early Roman money
minted in bronze about 340 B. C. Here the six gods chosen
to serve as effigies were either Greek gods whose cult had
been introduced from the South or were Greek divinities who
were nov/ identified with Roman ones (7).
(1) Taylor, The Cults of Ostia 25-26.
(2) Graillot, Victoria D.-S. V, 837.
(3) Preller-Jordan, I, 18. Cp. Wissowa, 226; Carter, Rel. of Numa, 79.
(4) Kretschmer, Einleitung in die Geschichte der griech. Sprache 162;
De Sanctis, Stor. Rom. 11. 524. Cp. Wisbowa, 157; HilJ, Vesta D.-S. V. 746;
Gruppe, I, 84; Jordan, Der Tempel der Vesta und das Haus der Vestallinen 75.
(5) Pais, Storia crit. I. 253.
(6) Willers, Gesch. d. rom. Kupferprdgung 34; Nissen, Orientation 333.
(7) Willers, op. cit. 28; cp. 33; Wissowa, 56.
28 -
CAMPANIA DURING THE LATER REPUBLIC.
The Second Punic Weu: by the definite estabHshment of
Roman supremacy meu-ks an epoch in the history of Campanian
and south Itahan reUgion. Even before that event Romem
influence through the estabhshment of alHances and protect-
orates had been making itself strongly felt. Just as in the
sixth and fifth centuries the forms of religion flourishing in
the South had materially modified the established worships
of Rome, so nov^ on the other hand the favored cults of that
city tended to make their way in Campania, fostered by the
pro-Roman party which existed in the different communi-
ties (1). At the close of the great struggle Roman religious
ideeis were definitely planted in all parts by the foundation
of Romain colonies, and although in a few places like Nea-
polis Greek civilization lingered, and at Capua the hatred of
the original inhabitants and the pride of the Roman colonists
there settled tended to maintain a certain independence of
Rome, for the most part the Campanian towns beceime minia-
ture copies of the capital city (2). Yet the survival of old
native cults weis encouraged and to such forms of religion,
officially recognized by the Roman state, w£is given the special
appellation of municipalia sacra (3).
Still the influence uf Campania and lower Italy in gen-
eral had not ceased to affect the Roman state. Back in the
dark days which followed Hannibal's invasion, Rome seems
once more to have had recourse to the Campanian territory
for the acquisition of a new cult. This wets the worship of Bona
Mens, attested for several localities by sporadic inscriptions
and particularly prominent near the southern boundary of Cam-
pania at Posidonia (Paeslum) (4). Graillot thinks that Rome's
action here was due to a desire to please and conciliate her
southern allies, whose loyalty could no longer be considered
(1) The sympathizers with Rome at the time of the Hannibalic War
seem to have been the commons rather than the aristocracy. Reid, Problems of
the Second Punic War in your. Rom. 5tud. V. (1915) 112.
(2) See p. 330. 364.
(3) Festus, 157; Wissowa, 44.
(4) Wissowa. 314; Preller-Jordan, 11. 265; R. Peter. Mens, Roscher
11, 2799.
- 29-
£is assured (I). Preller believed that the cult of Volturnus
at Rome was a form of worship honoring the Campanian
river of that name, and that it had been carried to Rome
after the subjugation of Capua at the close of the Hannibalic
War (2). But this opinion is untenable, as the cult of Rome
was under the charge of a flamen, and therefore very old.
The latter wcis rather a cult of the Tiber itself designated un-
der a generic name (3).
At the close of the war Campanian influence began to
operate in the case of the orgicistic and mystical cults, w^hich
in contreist to those introduced in the past did not enter Rome
to become immediately a part of the state religion, but were
introduced primeirily without the sanction of the governing
pow^ers. To this class belong especially the Bacchic mysteries,
which caused so much alaxm to the Roman state in the first
part of the second century B. C. From Campania came the
priestess Aimia Paculla, who by the innovation of receiving
men into the Bacchic associations at Rome, and holding fre-
quent night meetings was largely responsible for the ensuing
scandals, which disturbed Roman society from its founda-
tions (4). From this j^tate of affairs we may infer that in
Campania too the worship of Bacchus had degenerated and
was marked by unseemly conduct on the part of his devotees.
As a result of the agitation in Rome, measures were taken
in the year 186 B. C. to stamip out the mysteries throughout
Italy. But they were haird to eradicate in the South; two no-
tices preserved from Calabria and Apulia and dated respec-
tively in 184 and 182 B. C. demonstrate that the repressive
measures were still meeting opposition (5). Conditions in
(1) Graillot, Le culte de Cyb^Je 56.
(2) Preller-Jordan. II, 142-43. Cp. Varro, VI. 21, VH 45; Fest. 279.
(3) Mommsen, C. /. L. I, p. 327; WissoiVa, 224-225; Fowler, The Roman
Festivals 214; Preller-Jordan, II, 143; Waser, Flussgotter P.-W. VI, 2779-80.
(4) Li.:. XXXIX, 3-19; Val. Max. VI, 3, 7: Cic. leg. II, 37; F. Lcnor-
mant. La Grande-Grece 1, 420 and Bacchanalia D.-S. I, 590; Preller- Jordan, II,
363; Wissowa, Bacchanal P.-W. II, 2721; Fowler, 346; Spinelli, La decadenza
religiosa e la repres. dei Baccanali a Roma, 35 f.
(5) C. /. L. /, 196 = X, 104; Liv. XXXIX. 41. 6; XL. 19. 9. .Spinelli, La
dzc. rel. e la repres. c/e' baccanali, 121.
. 30 -
Ccimpania were doubtless similar. The abuses were done away
with, and the cult as a whole greatly declined, but references
to a much later era, which attest the presence of associations
called thiasi for the worship of some form of Bacchus, show
that the cult marked by mystic devotion to the wine god did
not altogether cease.
The attempts to uproot his worship were aided by the
circumstance that the Oriental cults, which had already ob-
tained a foothold in Campania and elsewhere, offered a sub-
stitute in a different guise for the cult which had been pre-
scribed. They found a ready admission here because Puteoli
the greatest Italian sea-port was situated in this region. Its
development began immediately after the Second Punic War,
and through it for several generations passed the commerce
of Rome with the Orient (I). Another means of communi-
cation with the East was the extension of the Via Appia,
which in the second century B. C. Wcis carried from Campania
as far as Tarentum and Brundisium. In addition to the in-
fluence of traders and travelers the new^ religions w^ere pro-
moted by the presence of vast numbers of slaves and by
returning emigrants. The Italians in truth who went to the
East were mostly from Campania and Sicily. The same
causes which in our own time have impelled the inhabitants
of these parts to seek their fortunes in the New World oper-
ated in the third century B. C. and later, with the result that
numerous Campanians took up ihdii abode at Delos and
elsewhere for the sake of gain (2).
The new religion in all cases took the form of a personal
appeal to the individual; it offered with greater or less em-
phasis the hope of a blessed existence beyond the grave, but
made no pretense to promote the material welfare of the
community as a whole. Here belongs the worship of Isis and
Serapis introduced through the port of Puteoli as eaily a^ the
beginning of the second century B. C. ; at the end of that
(1) Lafaye, Histoire du culte des divinites d'Alexandrie 41, 43; Grail-
lot, Le culte de Cybele, 430-1.
(2) Dubois, Pouzzoles antique 65 ; Homolle. Les Romains a Delos in
Butt. corr. hell. VIII (1884) 81 ; Hatzfeld, Les Italiens risidant a Delos in Bull
corr. hell. XXXVI (1912) 130.
-31 -
century it had spread to Pompeii emd other points, where it
was not only tolerated but also publicly recognized. It then
continued on its way till it reached Rome (I). The worship
of Magna Mater had probably been introduced into Cam-
pania still eeirlier. During the Hannibalic War it made little
progress, but after the close of that struggle it took on new^
vigor (2). The goddess readily associated herself with the
mineral springs and mountains of the country and perhaps
also with its caves. From this time on the region offered a
fertile field for all the mystery religions of the Orient, which
in some instances were admitted as legal forms of public
worship (3).
Aside from the development of the Oriental cults, the
Romanization of the existing forms of religion through the
establishment of colonies formed the most characteristic fea-
ture of this period. These were regulcirly accompanied by the
institution of official priesthoods modelled upon those pre-
vailing at Rome. This fact is attested by the law applicable
to a colonization in Spain, a copy of which has been pre-
served, cind in the case of Campania by a reference to the
religious officials at Capua (4). Among these public priests
appear most often in inscriptions the nemnes of pontiffs and
augurs, w^hose number in the cities of Campania is generally
uncertain. They attended to the formal religious exercises of
their respective communities, and in particuleu: cases they
doubtless had Sf>ecial duties to perform, cis was true in other
colonies, where by chance a record has been preserved. Their
functions in general coincided with those of their prototypes
in Rome; the auspices were entrustd to the augurs, and the
(1) Preller-Jordan, II 378; Carter. Rel. of Numa 136; Wissowa. 351;
Lafaye, Hist, du culte des divin. d'Alexandrie 40 and L' introduction du culte
de Serapis a Rome in Rev. de I'hist. des rel. XI (1885) 328; Lovatelli. // culto
di hide in Roma in Nuova antologia ser. 3 XXVIII (1890) 37; Ciaceri. La feata
di S. Agata e I'antico culto di hide in Arch. stor. per la Sicilia orient. II (1905)
273. Cumont, liev arch. ser. 5. V (1917) 87 f.
(2) Lafaye. op. cit. 40. 41 ; Graillot. Le culte de Cyb^le 34.
(3) Graillot, Le culte de Cyb^le, 430; Carter, Rel. of Numa 137.
(4) Lex Coloniae Julias Genitiuae, Ep. Eph. 111,91 f . ; Dessau, 6087; Cic.
leg. agr. II, 96.
- 32 -
commentarii and fasti to the pontiffs (I). The latter also
performed! the public sacrifices on the appointed days for
certain cults introduced under Roman influence, which were
without a reguW priest. The pontiffs, in short, along with
the augurs were the exponents of the formal religion of the
Roman state (2). Like the public priests of individual deities
they seem to have been selected in the same manner as offi-
cials with purely seculcir duties. At first, as in other parts of
the Roman w^orld, they w^ere chosen at general elections, but
later were appointed by the decurions who formed the mu-
nicipal council (3).
Flamens, who were not yet so numerous as at a later time
when the worship of the Emperors had developed, seem to
have had a higher rank than either of the other two clas-
ses (4). According to Herbst the municipal hciruspices were
beneath all the others in dignity and importance; yet while
this was doubtless their nominal rank, instances are not lack-
ing in Campania cis in other parts of Italy, where the men
who filled this position were of considerable local promi-
nence (5).
In other ways too the colonies strove to make themselves
as much like Rome as possible. Particularly by the institution
of the Capitoline triad and the construction of Capitolia they
endeavored to show their vital connection with the mother
(1) For the special assignments which might be given to such officials
see the two inscriptions of Lambaesis C. /. L. Ill, 2660, 2661. Cp. Herbst, De
sacerdotiis Romanorum municipalibus 20.
(2) Marquardt, Rom. Staatsverw. I, 172; Marquaidt-Wissowa, Rom.
Staatsverw. Ill, 214; Wissowa, 516; Spinazzola, Gli augures 108.
(3) Campania furnishes instances of priests selected by the decuriona at
Neapolis and Cumae and of augurs at Puteoli. No examples can be cited
for the earlier method, which occurs in the lex Coloniae Jaliae Genitiuae
belonging to the first century B. C. But this decree probably embodies forms
and usages generally prevalent and authorized also for ItcJy. Marquardt, op. cit.
I, 68, 151 ; Reid, Municipalities of the Roman Empire 132; Correra, 'Arch. stor.
Sic. XVlll (1893) 613; DePetra. Atti Nap. Xll (1884-6)64; Spinazzola. Gli au-
gures and Degli auguri nei municipii in Atii Nap, XVI (1891-3) part 2, 29 f.
(4) Spinazzola, Gli augures 125.
(5) Herbst, De sacerd. Rom. munic. 21 ; Thulin, Haruspices P.-W. VII,
2439 with instances of prominent officials of thi^ grade.
-33 -
city, and thus gave expression to the rehgion of patriotism (I).
The worship of Vesta and the Lares Compitales and the ob-
servances of household religion in the Roman fashion found
their appropriate place. To the ancient festivals commemora-
ting the foundation of the veirious shrines were added the
principal celebrations of Rome. Statius has left an account
of Diana's midsummer festival celebrated by the household
of Pollius Felix at Surrentum, the wall paintings of Pompeii
preserve allusions to the festival of Minerva (Quinquatrus)
celebrated by the fullers and that of Vesta celebrated by the
bakers, and finally a wall inscription at Pompeii records the
Saturnalia (2). As time went on there was a tendency to
replace the originally modest dwellings of the gods with more
elaborate structures, as is amply demonstrated by the history
of the Pompeian temples.
THE PROGRESS OF RELIGION IN CAMPANIA
UNDER THE EMPIRE.
Campania was marked by a very early development of
the Imperial cult. As early as 44 B. C. an order had been is-
sued from Rome directing that at all public games held in
Italy one day should be consecrated to Diuus lulius, eind two
years later all Italian municipalities were required by a lex
Rufrena to set up an image of that deity (3). But Campania
went beyond all requirements in the worship of the Emperors.
Here Augustus wcis worshipped openly during his lifetime in
a w^ay quite opposed to the conditions prevalent in Rome but
like those that were found in the Eastern provinces. Nor were
(1) Castan erroneously maintained that the building of Capitols was
one of the latest forms of showing loyalty to the Roman government and that it
was encouraged by Augustus. In reality Capitols began to be erected during
the last century of the Republic. Castcm, Les Capitoles provinciaux 68 ; cp. 64
and Dion. Hal. IV, 61, 4. For the relation of Augustus to the Jupiter cult in
general see Aust, luppitar Roscher 11, 747, f.
(2) Stat. silo. Ill, 1. 68; C. /. L. IV 2005a. See pp. 234, 255.
(3) Dio Cass. XLIV 6, 2; C. /. L. VI 872, IX 5136; Heinen. Zur
Begriindung des rom. Kaiserl^ultes in Klio XI (1911) 133, 136.
34 -
his instructions obeyed that his worship should be combined
with that of the goddess Roma (I).
hs precocious development was due primarily to the char-
acter of the inhabitants, a large number of whom were of
Greek or Oriental descent (2). The influence of the Emper-
ors w^as also unusually ereat here, as the Imperial possessions
on the Campanian coast were extensive even from the time
of Augustus (3). Hirschfeld believed that the towns which
honored the living Emperor v^ere colonies of his creation or
had been the recipients of his bounty like Puteoli, which
was grateful for his aid in developing its commerce. Gardt-
hausen, however, citing the case of Terracina, where these
reasons would not apply but where the living monarch was
none the less worshipped, considers justly that the opinion
of Hirschfeld here is untenable. It should be renicirked, how-
ever, that the instance at Terracina is not parallel with the
examples of the divine honor rendered to Augustus in Cam-
pania, cis in the former ceise his cult was combined with that
of Roma (4). In all probability the early worship in Cemi-
pcinia as stated above, was due chiefly to the character of the
inhabitants.
The cult w£is carried on by a multiplicity of organizations
principally composed of freedmen and slaves. Its flourishing
condition both in temples and in connection with the Leu-es
Con^itales is abundantly attested by epigraphical remains
from Pompeii and other places. The important organization
which embraced the most wealthy and influential members
of the clciss of freedmen was found in all the Ccunpanian
towns, where it bore the neune of Augustales without the ad-
dition of seuiri (5).
(1) Beurlier, Le cuUe imperial 169; Geiger De sacerdotibus Augustorum
Tnunicipalibus 9.
(2) Dubois, Pouzzoles antique 145; Hirschfeld, Zur Geschichte des rom.
Kaiserkultes in Sifzungsber. des preuss. Ak.ademie der Wiss. XXXV (1888) part
2 837 f. = Kleine Schriften 477 f.
(3) Hirschfeld, Kleine Schriften 533.
(4) Hirschfeld, Kleine Schriften 477; C. /. L. X, 6305; Gardthausen.
Augustus und seine Zeit 11, 517, note 66.
(5) Beuriier, Le cults imperiale 17, 194; von PreincTStein, Augustales,
Ruggiero I, 829; Neumann, Augustales P.-W. II 2356; L. Taylor, 'Augustales, Se-
viri Augustales, Seviri in Trans, and. Proc. of the Amer. Phil. Assoc. XLV
(1914) 234.
- 35 -
The excavations at Pompeii give invaluable assistance to
our efforts to obtain an idea of religious conditions prevalent
in Campania at the opening of the Christian era, when the
pagan world weis at the height of its power. Stimulated by
the injection of a new element in the form of the worship of
the deified Emperors and by the care shown for religion by
Augustus, the polytheistic system showed an abundance of
life (I). Besides the formal religion of the state, the cults
which appealed to the individual were now present to round
out the religious life of the community, but had not begun to
manifest appreciably their disintegrating effects (2). The
remains of Pompeii bear witness to a thriving religious life
in the first century A. D., marked by a sufficiency of public
temples and by countless wayside and domestic shrines. Per-
sons interested in the adornment of the city, and desiring at
the same time to honor the gods, set up statues of vsirious
deities at their own expense in public places, - a fact often
mentioned in inscriptions. Petronius, speaking of some Ccim-
panian city the identity of which is disputed, says that the
community in question was so crowded with gods that they
were easier to find than men (3).
Festivals occupied an important place in the life of the
times, and though valued largely cis a means of relaxation or
excitement, w^ere often at leeist nominally of a religious na-
ture. Those in which the latter characteristic predominated
comprised the old celebrations marking the anniversary of
ten^ple foundations. According to Nissen such festivals at
Pompeii occurred chiefly in the summer from May to Au-
(1) Macchioro, // sincretismo religioso e I'epigrafia in Rev. arch. IX
(1907) 279 f.
(2) The most thoughtful men at Rome, however, perceived the danger
of these religions, and from time to time tried to do away with them at least
in Rome itself. Cp. Macchioro op. cit. 142.
(3) Petron. 17: Nostra regio tam praesentibus plena est numinibus ut
facilius possis deum c uam hominem inuenire. Cp. Capasso-De Petra Napoli
greco-romana 5. The place referred to by Petronius is probably Neapolis. Cp.
CoUignon, Etude sur Petron 4; Cocchia, Napoli e il Satyricon di Petronio Arbitro
in Arch. stor. Nap. XVlll (1893)278 f . ; Ussani, Studi Italiani di filologia classica
XIII (1905) 17. But Cumae, Puteoli, and Misenum have also had their champions.
See list in Schanz. Gesch. der torn. Lit. II, part 2, 126.
36 -
gust (I). Besides the series of games like the ItaHca at Nea-
poHs, which were pecuHar to a single locality, we may infer
that the principal festivals recognized in the capital had their
counterparts in the Campanian towns. This condition of af-
fairs is abundantly illustrated by the record of festivals cele-
brated at Cumae in honor of Augustus, which were similar to
those at Rome but not identical with them (2). Religion also
had an intimate relation to the daily life of the people, as is
proved by a multitude of alteurs and shrines and by the cir-
cumstance that mural decorations, statuary, and even heistily
scrawled graffiti represent or allude to various deities. These,
it is true, ordinarily stand for no particular attitude of devotion
and in the work of sculptor eind painter a decorative rather
than a religious purpose Wcis dominant, yet they show how
completely such religious notions as w^ere in vogue were asso-
ciated with the life £ind thought of the people in general, cind
at all events the deity who became popular in art was first a
force in religion. The divinity's secularization appecirs in the
case of Attis who came into prominence in Italy late enough
for us to follow his development. The figure of the Mourning
Attis, w^hich at first had a deep religious significance became
in Campania by the time of the Flavicin Emperors merely a
popular type to reproduce in art (3).
With the lapse of time the cults derived from the Eeist
encroached more and more upon the domain of the older
deities. To the causes for their growth existent in eairlier times
wcis added the circumstance that Agrippa had made Misenum
a great naval station to which meiny Orientals were attached.
Records transmitted from Puteoli show that nearly every O-
riental cult reaching the West was represented in that section.
Here in 134 A. D. the first recorded taurobolium W8is perform-
ed as a part of the ritual of Venus Caelestis. Long before
this Christiainity had been introduced and as elsewhere made
its first converts among the Jews. The latter were present in
considerable numbers in this region, as is proved by notices
which have reached us from Puteoli, Neapolis, Capua, Pom-
(1) Nissen, Orieniaiion 286-7.
(2) See p. 79.
(3) Graillot. Le calte de Cybele, 438.
- 37 -
peii and other towns (1). According to Tertullian there
were no Christians in Campania in 79 A. D. upon whom the
blame for the discister of that year could be laid; but while
the Christian communities were then insignificant and obscure,
it is impossible to doubt their presence (2).
The newer forms of religion, increasing steadily in the
second century A. D. at the expense of the old, took great
strides forward in the third (3), This, however, is cin infer-
ence drawn from the history of these cults in genereJ rather
than a fact bcised upon evidence belonging to this region,
which is comparatively meager for the third century. Nor £ire
we in a position to follow the qualitative changes which took
place in the various cults after the days of the Roman Repub-
lic. It has been maintamed that such modifications did not
take place aind the worship of Mithras has been cited as an
example of the stability found in the pagan cults (4). Now
it is indeed true that religion of every form is naturally conser-
vative Euid opposed to innovations, - a condition that appears
at its maximum in the religious practices controlled directly
by the state and at its minimum in the cults of personal devo-
tion. But in spite of this innate conservatism the history of re-
ligion demonstrates that there is inevitably some change either
in its forms and doctrines or at least in the significance attach-
ed to its acts. So the cult of Mithras doubtless had some
local peculieu"ities Eind underwent minor modifications in the
course of time. If the taurobolium wets never a feature of this
cult, it became at a relatively late date by official sanction
an integral pait of the ceremonies of Magna Mater, though o-
(1) Juster, Les Juifs dans Vempire romain I, 182; Harnack, Die Mission
und Ausbreitung des Christentums II, 216; Renan, Antichrist (translation of
Allen) 37; Schiirer, Gesch. d. Juden, III, 67, gives a list of the cliief Jewish
communties in Italy. The earliest reference to their presence is a notice of
the year 4 B. C. from Puteoli.
(2) Tert. apol. 40. Cp. Harnack, op. cit. II, 74.
(3) For a list of the places in southern Italy where the chief Oriental
cults are attested see Drexler, Meter, Roscher II, 2919 f. and Isis, Roscher
II. 398.
(4) Macchioro, Rev. arch. IX (1907), 156; Wissowa. 372-373.
38
rlglnally it was entirely separated from them (I). There was
probably a tendency toward syncretism with a modification
of the ideas for which the old gods stood, but this feature did
not become very prominent in Campania (2). The worship
of the Emperors, which had degenerated everywhere by the
third century has left no traces of its continued existence in
Campania (3). The attempted revival of the old state religion
on the part of the Emperor Decius through a persecution of
the Christians met with little permanent success (4).
The adherents of the latter religion had already in the
second century a community at Neapolis in addition to the
one established at Puteoli (5). At first they remained al-
most unnoticed but their ever increasing numbers soon com-
pelled attention and finally alarm on the part of the author-
ities. \Vhile their membership was largely composed of
humble folk, converts of high rank especially women were
not unknown from early times. They were confined to the
towns and made no progress in the open country (6). De-
tails of the early churches, however, are entirely lacking in
the Campanian cities. In spite of the persecutions which at-
(1) Cumont, Textes et monuments figures relatif aux mysteres de Mi-
thra I, 293. Cp. I, 152 For the orig'n and development of the taurobolium and
its extension to other cultsi see Cumont, I, 334; Rev. arch. XII (1888) 132 i. ; Reo.
d'hist et de litt. relig. VI (1901) 102. and. Reo. de phil. XVil (1893) 195 f. ;
Esperandieu, Taurobolium D.-S. V, 46; Zippel, Das Taurobolium in Festschrift
jur Friedldnder 498 f . ; Wissowa, 324; Loisy, Rev. d'hist. et de litt. relig. IV
(1913) 311; Hepding, Attis 199 (Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorat'
beiten I.).
(2) Macchioro. Reo. arch. IX (1907) 141 f. Cp. Reville. La religion a
Rome sous les Severes 109.
(3) Beurlier, Le culte imperiale 44.
(4) Seeck, Gesch. d. Untergangs d. ant. Welt III, 298; von Domaszewski
Magna Mater in Latin Inscriptions n Jour. Rom. Stud. I, (1911) 153.
(5) Harnack. Die Mission u. Ausbreitung d. Christentums II, 76; Lanzoni
Riv. atorico-crit. delle scienze teol. VI (1910) 293.
(6) I Corinthians, I, 26; Origan, contra Celsum I 27. Ill 18. 44; VIII 75;
Min. Fel. Octav. V, 8-12; Lucian, Peregrinua 12-13; Weitsacker. Das aposlolische
Zeitalter 407 f. ; Harnack, op. cit. II 25 f. ; Knopf, Ueber die soziale Zusam-
mensetzung der altesten heidenchristlichen Gemeinden in Zeits. fiir Theol. und
Kirche X (1900) 325 f. and Nachapostolisches Zeitalter 64 f. The same may be
said of the earlier followers of Mithras, Cumont, Mithras Roscher II, 3036 ; Bigg,
The Origins of Christianity 20; Gratz-Braun, Gesch. der Juden III, 419.
-39 -
tempted to stop the increase of Christianity as soon as its
identity emd principles beccime fully known, it had succeeded
in planting and maintainmg other churches especially in south-
em Italy, as is indicated by the circumstance that a Icirge
pcu-t of the sixty bishops who participated in the Council
called by Pope Cornelius in 25 1 , seem to have come from this
section (I).
At the beginning of the fourth century there were Christ-
ian communities also at Capua, Misenum, Nola, and Nu-
ceria; a resident bishop presided over the churches of Nea-
polis and Nola and probably likewise over those of Capua
and Puteoli. According to the Liber Pontificalis Constantine
erected basilicas at Capua and Neapolis, the only cities outside
of Rome for which this honor is recorded (2). There were
in all probability more Christians here than in the central and
northern parts of the peninsula. In fact the coast district cen-
tering at Puteoli and Neapolis was one of the three great strong-
holds of this religion in Italy (3). As a result of the perse-
cutions, especially that under Diocletian, a considerable
number of meirtyrs w^ere recorded in the various churches.
Many Jews were likewise present in the Caunpanian cities
especially Neapolis; their history, however, is very obscure
till the very close of the ancient world (4).
(1) Eusebius, Historia ecclesiastica VI, 43; Harnack, Die Mission u. Aus-
breitung d. Christentums II, 212, 215; Duchesne, Origines da cuUe chritien 29.
The total number of bishops in Italy in the third century is estimated at 100.
The i>eriod 260-300 was everyhere one of great advancement for the Church.
Harnack op. cit. II, 216.
(2) Liber Pontificalis XXXI, XXXII (Duchesne's edition I, 186; Lan-
zoni, Riv. storico-crit. delle scienze teal. VI (1910) 294.
(3) The other centers were Rome and Ariminum. Harnack, o^. cit. II
220.
(4) A law of Honorius belonging to the year 398 mentions the Jews in
Apulia and Calabria. Cod. Theod. XII, I, 158; Tamassia, Ebrei neU'Italia me-
ridionale in Atti del r. 1st. Veneto LXIII (1903-4) 796 f . ; Ferorelli, Gli Ebrei
neU'Italia meridiondle in Arch. stor. Nap. XXXII (1907) 255. A letter of Pope
Gelasius I to a bishop Quinigesius, whose see was located in some Campanian
town which can not now be determined, speaks of a certain Telesinus as a
man of prominence who was a believer in the doctrines of the Jews (before
499). Mansi, AmpUssima coV.ect.o conciliorum VIII 131 ; Ascoli. Islruzione di cm.
tichi sepolcri giudaici del Napoliiano 35 ; Tamassa, loc. cit. ; Gratz-Eppenstein
Gesch. dsr Juden V. 40.
- 40 -
Although the triumph of Christianity weis eissured as soon
as it was officially recognized by the government and had
obtained the sanction of the reigning emperor Constantine,
it still had several important battles to fight before Paganism
Wcis overthrown. Ancient heathen practices continued to have
a place for many yeairs after the system as a whole had been
repudiated as the state religion of the Roman Empire. The
Emperors, it is true, passed frequent ordinances restricting
the activity of those who clung to the old order of things, yet
in their attitude to the pagan religion these rulers were often
inconsistent. Thus at the end of the fourth century provincial
priests were still regularly appointed to supervise the religious
interests of the different districts, and in carrying out their
work acted as the Emperor's representative to put the stamp
of official approved upon religious exercises belonging to Pa-
ganism (I).
An important original document, exemplifying the acti-
vity of this kind of official, affords an insight into the state of
religion prevailing in Campania during the reign of Valenti-
nian II and Theodosius (2). It is dated Nov. 22, 387 and
consists of a list of festivals authorized by Imperial consent for
the Campanian region; it was promulgated at Capua, the chief
Campanian city at that time, which served cis the residence
of the provincial priest Romanus lunior (3). Though there
was a strong Christian community in this locality, it is likely
that this priesthood Wcis favored or at least tolerated on ac-
count of the part played by its Incumbent in providing
(1) The privileges of this officer were taken away by a decree of general
application issued in 396. Cod. Theod. XVI, 10, 14. The priesthood is treated by
Marquardt, Ep. Eph. I, 213 and Rom. StaatsverW. I , 504 f.
(2) C. /. L. X, 3792 = D. 4918 = V. 1022. Commentaries by Avellino.
OpuscoU diversi 111, 215-304; Mommsen, Berichte der sdchs. Ges. der Wiss.
1850 64 f. = Gesammelte Schrijten Vlll, 14-24.
(3) Mommsen op. cit. 16 calls attention to the fact that this day was the
anniversary of Valentinian's ascent to the throne. For the extent of Campania at
this time see Ruggiero, 11 42 and. p. 1 of this work. Avellino thought that the
festivals were of only local significance ; Mommsen on the contrary believed
that they were intended for the entire province. Probably they were designed
for the region tributary to Capua. The danger of having too many holidays was
averted by legal enactments. Cp. Cod. lust. Ill, 12, 3; 111, 12, 6; Cod. Theod.
II, 8.
- 41 -
games (1). A second person Felix, who attended to the prep-
aration of the inscription, was considered by Mommsen to
be a subordiate official directly dependent on the Emperor (2).
The holy days here enumerated are meirked by obser-
vances of a general human interest and aire not concerned
with the worship of any particular god. The first festival on
Jan. 3 is devoted to the making of annual prayers for the
welfeire of the Emperor and also by implication for that of the
state, - a time hallowed custom observed at Rome and through-
out the extent of the Empire (3). The act w^ais not one
which was repugnaint to the ideas of the Christians; in fact
it was adopted by the Church and is mentioned as late as the
seventh century (4). The second festival called Genialia
under date of Feb. 1 1 seems to stand for ludi genialici, a term
that reappears in the fasti Philocali (5). Its real significance
is unknown. According to Mommsen's original interpretation
it Wcis a celebration in honor of birth; according to his later
view which is followed by Otto and is more plausible, these
gcunes were connected w^ith the establishment of a cult of the
Genius of the Roman people at the rostra in Rome (6).
While the first festival and probably also the second were
patriotic in character, the third, coming on the first of May,
wcis in the interest of agriculture and consisted of a lustration
of the growing crops. It was held at the town of Casilinum
by the Volturnus River, where the modern Capua stands, and
may have been originally a festival in honor of the divinity
of the local strecim (7). The thirteenth day of the scune
month is marked for the celebration of the rosalia, which at
Rome took place as a public festival ten days later but which
(1) Avellino, Opusc. diversi III, 280; Marquardt, Rom. Staatsverw. I, 505.
(2) Mommsen, Gesam. Schr, VIII, 17.
(3) Marquardt. III. 266; Preller-Jordan. I. 133. 182; Wissowa. 382.
(4) Mommsen, Gesam. Schr. VIII 18; Mansi, AmpUssima collectio con-
ciUorum XI, 972, sect'on 62 of the Canons of TruUo (691 A. D.).
(5) C. /. L. 1. p. 258.
(6) Mommsen. Gesam. Schr. VIII, 18 and C. /. L. I, 309; Avellino.
Opusc. diversi, 242; W. F. Otto, Genius P. - W. VII, 1166; Jordan, Topog. d.
Stadt Rom I, part 2, 377. Cp. Chronographus anni 354 in Mommsen, Chronica
minora I, 148.
(7) For an account of the ceremonies of lustration see Marqucurdt -Wis-
sowa, Rom. Staatar. Ill , 201 ; Wissowa, 390.
- 42 -
was also celebrated privately at other times (I). The main
feature of the day was the decoration of the graves with
flowers, an act which appealed to the Christian population
as well as the Pagans, with the result that the festival was
taken over into the ceremonies of the Church (2). The
amphitheater mentioned in this record is doubtless that of
Capua, where certain public exercises would be held prior to
the decoration of the graves.
The next festivals are dated July 25 and July 27 respec-
tively. The first, described as a lustration at the river reached
by the Via Dianae, seems to be smother celebration belonging
to rural life and marking the close of the harvest period (3).
It was held at the bridge over the Volturnus River ecist of Ca-
silinurn, a spot at no great distance from the feunous temple
of Diana on the slope of Mt. Tifata (4). Two days later the
place cmd character of the festival changed. It was now held
in the vicinity of Lake Avernus near Baiae and Cumae and
assumed the chsiracter of a commemorative service for the
dead, a midsummer All Souls' day, which weis paralleled by
the Roman feralia celebrated in the opposite part of the year.
The place of the service was fitting, as it had been associated
from time immemorial with the dead and with the chthonic
deities. The last festival under date of Oct. 15 was assigned to
the vicinity of the neighboring Lake Acherusia (Lago del
Fusaro), and was concerned with the vintage. The legal term
for the feriae uindemiales extended from Aug. 23 to Oct. 1 5 ;
compciring this with the jeriae messiuae already mentioned,
we may infer that the duration of the season for Campania
was one month before Oct. 15, Eind that here too the last day
formed the principal part of the festivities (5).
(1) Cp. Fasti Philocali, C. I. L. I. p. 264; cp. p. 318.
(2) Avellino. Opusc. diversi III. 254 i. ; Marquardt-Wissowa, Rom.
Siaatsr. III. 311 ; Steuding. Manes, RoscSer II. 2322.
(3) Mommsen, Gesam. Schr., VIII, 19. The interpretatio to the Consti-
tutiones of Theodosius II, 8 states that the harvest festival with its cessation of
legal business should be considered from June 24 to Aug. 1. The time to be
regarded as a legal holiday seems to have been fixed in accordance with local
conditions in the various provinces, so that in Campania the period ended July 25.
(4) Preller-Jordan. II. 142 note 3.
(5) InlerpTetatio to the Constittxtiones of Theodosius loc. cit.
-43 -
The Vcirious celebrations therefore which were ordered
by the Romans pertained to religion only in its broadest sense.
Free from any tendency toward sectarianism, they exhibit the
traits of an age of toleration, and seem designed to afford all
classes of citizens. Christian as well as Pagem, the opportunity
to meet on neutral ground, where the prejudices of neither
party would be disturbed. It thus affords cin insight into con-
ditions which prevailed at a critical period of European his-
tory, - the transition from the old regime to the new. It is
the last word from Campania before the change was effected.
-44 .
CHAPTER II
CUMAE, BAIAE, MISENUM,
Cumae Keis secured a lasting renown as the first Greek
colony in the western Mediterranean. Founded upon the pre-
cipitous rocks w^hich approach the sea to the north of Cape
Misenum, it Wcis protected for the most part by insurmountable
walls. Toweu-d the east, however, the land slopes away more
gradually to form a valley and thus afforded no natural pro-
tection. At first the settlement was doubtless confined to the
Acropolis, as was the Ccise in the early Middle Ages, after
the town had been violently ravaged. The volcanic soil of the
surrounding country interspersed with numerous lakes received
the name of the Phlegraean Fields.
Though once a community of importance, its territory
was always comparatively small. The Campanian plain, which
extended to a point only a few miles distant from its walls on
the north and east, was originally owned by Capua; when this
in large measure was taken away from its former proprietors
by the Romans, the latter utilized it for establishing colonies,
and henceforth Liternum became the neighbor of Cumae on
the north. Immediately to the east began the territory of Pu-
teoli. Under Augustus Cape Misenum left the jurisdiction of
Cumae and beceime the seat of an independent municipality.
In the Ager Cumanus remained the lakes Avernus, Lucrinus
and Acherusia as well as the subordinate communities Bauli
and Baiae, which seem to have had no separate legal exist-
ence, though the latter during the Empire had fax surpcissed
Cumae itself in importance.
Archaeological evidence points to a considerable mau-i-
time activity in the seventh cind sixth centuries B. C. At this
- 45
time Cumae exercised its great mission as a civilizing force,
and the characters of its script, coming to the knowledge of
the IteJian peoples, formed the beisis for all their alphabets.
Later, commerce dwindled and agriculture became the leading
source of wealth. Under foreign domination the town declined
rapidly in all respects, until it produced little that was worthy
of note except a certain kind of pottery. Under the Empire it
■was celebrated for its tranquillity, and regarded merely as the
« gate to Baiae )> (1).
As the Greeks eu-rived at such an early time - probably in
the eighth century B. C. - there was much uncertainty about
the circumstcmces connected with their settlement. The col-
ony was certainly largeK Chalcidian, but it is probable that
other Greek cities particularly Cyme (in Aetolia >) had a share
in the colonization. At any rate the settlement prospered
greatly and before long sent out colonies of its own to Zancle
in Sicily and to the Italian coeist immediately to the south,
where Naples and Pozzuoli now stcind. Its power continued
for another century under the able leadership of Aristodemus,
who was successful in defending his city against the combined
attack of the Etruscans Irom Capua and of pther tribes belong-
ing to the neighborhood. (524 B. C.) Later in conjunction with
the fleet of Syracuse, Cumae overthrew the naval supremacy
of the Etruscans (474 B. C), but within another half century
Wcis itself stormed by the Samnites (428 or 421). Many of the
inhabitants fled to Neapolis, and though the Greek customs
and institutions continued to survive, the Oscan speech grad-
ually came into regular use (2).
When Cemipania came under the sway of the Romans,
Cumae was forced to accept the same masters, and at that
time received the right of limited citizenship {ciuitas sine suf-
jragio 334 B. C). After its loss of independence its history offers
little of interest. It formed a part of the jurisdiction of the
prcBJectus Capuam Cwnas. and in the tumultuous times of the
(1) For accounts of Cumae see Beloch, Campanien im Alterthum 157;
Nissen, It. Landes\unde II, 717 f . ; De Petja, / Porti antichi dell'Italia merid. in
Monografia siorica dei porti deU'antichita nella penisola Haliana 317.
(2) Strab. V. 4, 4. According to Gabrici the Samnite influence became
preponderant in art. Cuma in Boll, d'arte IV (1910) 112.
-46 ■
Carthaginian wars it remained faithful to Rome. In the year
180 B. C. it adopted Latin as the official language, received
the full suffrage at about the same time, and continued as a
Roman municipality till Augustus located there a military co-
lony. We hear little of it henceforth except in connection
with Baiae. Its Acropolis, however, remained a stronghold
well into the Middle Ages, as it is known to have resisted suc-
cessfully the army of Narses in his war against the Goths. In
fact it fell only at the beginning of the thirteenth century,
when it was stormed by the Neapolitans (1205) (I).
The importance of Cumae in the field of ancient religion
is greater than the size or intrinsic worth of the place at any
time would suggest. On the one hand it was the seat of reli-
gious traditions embodied in literature, which gained a wide
currency and a commanding influence. On the other hand it
exercised a great positive influence upon the religion of its
neighbors in the early centuries; from this source, as has eJ-
ready been e.Kplained, went forth the Greek conceptions of the
gods which modified so profoundly the primitive notions of
the Italian peoples (2).
PHRATRYGODS
For the constitution of the state in its religious eispects
there is no direct evidence. Something, however, may be in-
ferred from our knowledge of eeirly conditions in Cumae's
flourishing colony Neapolis. From this source we lecirn of the
existence of phratries having their own gods cuid religious
observances (3). An inscription from Neapolis alludes to a ded-
ication made to the gods of the phratry of the Kymaioi ; the term
may refer to the refugees that fled to Neapolis at the time of
the Samnite conquest, but as Beloch observes, it may also des-
ignate a phratry already existent at Cumae, composed of
(1) For the history of Cumae consuh Mommscn C. /. L. X, p. 350; Beloc/i
145-152; Gabrici, Cuma in Mon. ant. XXII (1913) 439-448; Byvanck. De Magnae
Graeciae historia antiquissima 81 ; Gardthausen, Das Alter italischer Schrift und
die Griindung von Cumae in Neue Jahrb. fiir das class. Altertum XXXVII
(1916) 369 f.
(2) See p. 18.
(3) Cp. Beloch. 42.
. 47 -
settlers frcm that Cy:T)e — either in Aetolia or Eucoea — which
sent colonists to its Italian namesake (1). Hence there is the
same possibility here as at Neapolis that Hephaestus, Diony-
sus, and Heracles were considered as the special divinities of
this phratry (2). Likewise the other phratries cited at Neapolis
probably existed for the most part in the parent city with the
same organization and gods. They will be considered more
fully in the treatment of Neapolis.
ZEUS
Among the old Greek divinities who came to Italy with
the first settlers from Chalcis wcis Zeus, who was recognized in
that city under the designation of Olympius and Milichius (3).
But, while Zeus appears there as the guardian of oaths, evi-
dence is lacking for magnifying his influence and calling him,
as does Beloch, the protecting divinity of that state, with the
assumption that his worship w^cis consequently of much impor-
tance in the colony (4). \ et he doubtless occupied here a com-
modious temple where his worship continued through the various
stages of the city's history both as Zeus and later as Jupiter,
when Roman influence predominated. An evidence of the high
position attained by the cult appears in the fact that the temple
contained gold in the third century B. C. and that an omen
reported here was considered important enough to affect the
fortunes of the Roman people. In narrating the events of 208
B. C. before the consuls proceeded to their provinces, Livy
inserts a list of ominous occurences pertaining to Campania,
among which was the notice that mice had gnawed gold in the
Jupiter temple, attacking perhaps the very image of the
deity (5). The site of the earliest shrine was probably on the
(1) Beloch 41. /. G. XIV. 721 = C. /. G. 5788. Cp. aJso the phratry of
the Euboioi, N. S. 1900. 269.
(2) Engelmann. Arch. Zeit XXXI (1874)133; Farnell, Cults of the Creek
States V. 395 ; von Wilamowitz. Nachr. von der kgl- Gesells. der Wiss. zu Got-
tingen 1895. 228 note 24.
(3) /. G. 1. 27A; C. 1. G. 2150.
(4) Beloch, 156. 161.
(5) Liv. XXVll. 23. 2; Et ex Campania nuntiata erant Cumis - adeo
mitni-nis etiam, rebus praua religio inserit deos - mures in aede loxois aurum to-
sisse. Cp. Plut. Sulla VII.
- 48 -
Acropolis in the midst of the first settlement. Beloch located
it on the western spur of the heights, perhaps the most sightly
situation in the city, where the ruins of a temple have left their
traces. Although they have now almost disappeared, steps and
fragments of columns still stood in their original position at
the close of the eighteenth century, and De lorio remarks that
they vanished during his life time (]). Beloch's identification
is based upon the fact that so prominent a position and so Icirge
a structure as the foundation walls indicate must have belong-
ed to a very important deity (2). But it is just as likely that
some other deity important in the earlier period of the city
occupied this site, especially since Servius seems to exclude
Jupiter from the Acropolis, and it has been proposed to asso-
ciate this spot with the sanctuary of the Dioscuri.
1 he name of Jupiter has also been connected with a ruin
of Roman times, known as the Tempio dei Giganti, which
stood on the plain outside the walls. Only a few stones of this
structure still remain, but a drawing made in the eighteenth
century (1740) shows the rear v/all to have then been stand-
ing (3). In a large niche of this building stood apparently a
colossal statue of Jupiter, w^hich w^cis discovered in the eigh-
teenth century and is nov/ in the National Museum at Naples.
It is a Roman work assigned to the first century of the Empire;
resembling the Zeus of Otricoli and the Pompeian Jupiter, it
is of inferior execution. Gabrici maintains that it is a represen-
tation of Jupiter Victor rather than of Jupiter Stator (4).
Other references to the divinity designated as Zeus or
Jupiter consist of the allusion to a sacrifice ordered to Jupiter
(1) De lorio, Guida di Pozzuoli 115. This writer fancied that these re-
mains belonged to the Greek temple of Apollo. His plan of the city is repro-
duced by Beloch. PI. IV and by Gabrici, Cuma in Men. Ant. XXII, PI. II.
(2) Beloch, 161.
(3) Reproduced in Boll, d'arte IV (1910) 110; Mon. ant. XXll, PI. II. De
lorio seems to ha/e thought this a temple of Mercury in the Forum of the city.
Guida 118; cp. Paoli, 'Antiquitatum reliquiae fol. 29, PI. XLVIl. This spot
app)eaxs in reality to have been occupied by a temple of Ceres.
(4) Gabrici, Boll, d'arte IV (1910) 116 and Mon. ant. XXII, 18. The sculp-
ture is portrayed in these works p. 112 and p. 19 respectively and also in Real
Museo di Napoli III frontispiece. Cp. Riisch, Guida illastrata del Museo nazio-
nale di Napoli 287 No. 1258; Gerhard-Panofka, Neapels antike Bildwerke 318.
- 49 -
Sempiternus in honor of Augustus, which will be treated under
the worship of the Emperors, emd a doubtful inscription on a
painted vcise found at Cumae. The reading of the latter, how-
ever, is rather eo Swr/^p than Zsu Xcoxfjp. though in any
case there is probably an allusion to the custom of offering a
special libation to this god (1).
APOLLO
Much more information hcis reached us respecting the
cult of Apollo, who according to tradition conducted the Greek
colonists to their new heme in the West. Statius in his Silvae,
although speaking of Neapolis, refers to this god as one of the
old deities of the Chalcidians under w^hose leadership their
fleet found its wray to Italy, and in cinother passage of the saime
series of poems alludes to the dove that flew ahead of them as
the god's representative (2). This notion is in keeping espe-
cially ^vith the custom of the Chalcidians to send out colonies
which were regarded as tithes due to Apollo, and we may con-
clude that he Wcis venerated at Cumae as a patron of coloni-
zation (3).
His temple, already one of the foremost shrines of ItgJy,
attained a remarkable celebrity because of the detailed account
of it inserted by Vergil in his Aeneid. According to the tradi-
tion adopted by the poet it had been founded by the inventor
Daedalus, who as in Sicily figures here as an circhitect. Alight-
ing in the Acropolis cifter a flight through the air directly from
Crete, or arriving eifter a stay in Sardinia, as reported by Sal-
lust, he built this sEinctuary to commemorate his escape and
(1) Avellino, Bull Nap. n. s. VII (1858) 21.
(2) Stat. silv. IV. 8. 47-49:
Tu, ductor populi longe migrantis, Apollo
cuius adhuc uolucrem laeua ceruice sedentem
respiciens blande felix Eumelus adorat.
With the appearance of the dove here may be compared the raveri at
Cyrene and the dolphin at Crisa. Roscher. ApoUo I, 441. Stat silv. Ill, 5, 79-80:
Cui mite solum trans aequora uectae
ipse Dionaea monstrauit Apollo columba.
Cp. Anon. Laus Pisonis 91 = Bahrens, Poetae Latini I, 228.
(3) Roscher loc. cit.
- 50 -
piously dedicated his wings to the god (1). Upon the panels
of the door he depicted events connected with the Cretan royal
family and thus indirectly with himself. Upon the first weis
shown the death of Androgeus, son of Minos, and with it the
King's revenge, — the selection of Athenicin victims for the
Minotaur; upon the other was portrayed the unnatural passion
of Pasiphae, the Labyrinth and the Minotaur (2). This de-
scription can not have been wholly a creation of the poet's
imagination, but was rather an allusion to an actual door of
fine w^orkmanship portraying this myth, a feature of the temple
which had given rise to the legend that it was a foundation of
Daedalus. The same tradition of the temple as an ancient me-
morial erected by this hero appears in Silius. In this passage
Virrius, leader of the Capuan allies of Hannibal, points to
the shrine (( gleaming on the rock of the citadel )), and declares
that it weis made by greater hands theoi those of the present
age (3). In the connection of Daedalus with the temple Gruppe
sees one of the rare cases of Cretan influence in Italy £ind
thinks of an eairly settlement. But Pais believes that the connec-
tion of the Daedalus legend with Cumae is late and due to
Sicilian influence that reached Cumae only in the time of Hiero
after the defeat of the Etruscans by the aid of that prince (4).
Like other ancient shrines this one had a venerable cult
statue of wood, which w^as doubtless carefully preserved
through all improvements and restorations of the building that
housed it. Impressive in size, it measured no less than fifteen
(1) Serv. Aen. VI, 14: Daedalus uero primo Sardiniam, ut dicit Sallustius,
post delatus est Cumas, et templo Apollini condito sacratisque ei alis in foribus
haec uniuersa depinxit.
(2) Verg. Aen. VI. 20-33.
(3) Sil. XII, 85-103:
Atque hie perlustrans aditus, fulgentia cernit
arcis templo iugo, quorum tum Virrius altae
inmit's ductor Capuae pri ordia pandit:
« non est hoc », inquit, a nostri, quod suspicis aeui,
maiores fecere manus
Hoc pro nubiuago gratus pia templa meatu
inmitis ductor Capuae primordia p>andit :
instituit Phoebi atque audacis exuit alas».
The reference is to the temple of Apollo at Cumae, not to that at Capua
as asserted by C. Robert, Daidalos P. - W. IV, 2005
(4) Gruppe 360; Pais, Stor. della Sic. e della Magna Grecia I, 163.
- 51 .
Roman feet; hence the expression altus Apollo employed by
Vergil was regeirded by the eincients as a po 
