Build a new Property

< Previous Residence

The Forum Romanum Casa of Mauricius Fabius

Next Residence >

Arae of the Goddesses

The brief yet informative notice in the Fasti Amiternini
for the 10^th of August :

AVG X

Feriae, quod eo die arae Cereri Matri et Opi Augustae ex voto suscepto constitutae sunt Cretico et Longo consulibus.

Arae : this means there are two altars, not temples. That is, they are small structures standing under open skies, not enclosed within four walls. There is no cult statue associated with them. Ceres and Ops : there is one altar for Ceres and another for Ops [1], two very ancient deities in the Roman world. Both are tied to agriculture, the original way of life of the earliest populations of Latium. Both are invoked by Romans to insure healthy, abundant harvests and successful farming years. Ceres (left) receives the epithet “Mater” ; she is invoked in a maternal capacity as one who feeds and brings nourishment. Ops (right) receives the epithet “Augusta” [2], an adjective formed from “Augustus,” the name given to Octavian by the Senate in 27 B.C. [3] She is thus invoked in her capacity of guarantor of abundance and political ally of the princeps. The adjective means “on a scale worthy of Augustus,” the implication being an unheard-of scale. Just as the Pax Romana became the Pax Augusta and the Concordia plebis ac patrum became the Concordia Augusta, Ops Augusta suggests productivity to a degree that one could only qualify as the highest. [4] Constitutae sunt : they are new altars, not old archaic places of sacrifice that required repair or restoration ; new altars for ancient deities, the ancient customs to be rehabilitated on newly designated sites. Furthermore, the 10th day of August is a holiday to honour the altars, not so much the goddesses -- more precisely, to honour the day (eo die) the altars were constitutae, the day it was decided to erect these new places of sacrifice. Cretico et Longo consulibus : the names of the consuls in office have allowed historians to accurately date the two arae : they were created in the thirty-seventh year after the defeat and suicides of Marc Antony and Cleopatra, when Octavian emerged as sole master of Rome, or 7 A.D. The consuls are Q. Caecilius Metellus Creticus Silanus and Lucilius Longus, consul suffect, a friend of Augustus’ heir Tiberius.

One other useful if vague detail is furnished by another calendar, the Fasti Vallenses, for 10 August :

AVG X

Arae Opis et Cereris in vico Iugario constitutae sunt.

In vico Iugario : this term is found in the Fasti Vallenses only once - in reference to these altars - therefore no comparison can be made with any other known place of sacrifice.

In 7 A.D., the vicus Iugarius - one of Rome’s oldest streets - stretched between the Forum Holitarium near the Tiber to the Temple of Saturn on the periphery of the Forum where it converged with the Via Sacra. The Forum Holitarium was a fruit and vegetable market. Grain dealers and grain warehouses occupied a part of the Velabrum nearby. (Map) The street therefore presented much association with agricultural activity. Religious processions took place in the vicus Iugarius. However, no ancient source has survived that clearly localises the sector of the street where the altars of Ceres Mater and Ops Augusta stood. They may therefore have conceivably been situated anywhere along its length.

The notices in the Fasti Amiternini and the Fasti Vallenses might be relatively informative, and do add something to the history of the cults of these two ancient goddesses. Still, they hide much more information than they reveal ; they are vague as to their location and say nothing about what motivated their construction. Fortunately, we can consult other sources to obtain a more complete picture of the situation in Rome towards the end of Augustus’ reign.

---

Notes
1. Despite consistent use of the plural in the ancient sources, Platner - Ashby (p. 110) and a number of others were of a mind that there was only one altar.
2. Varro also assigns Ops a maternal function : Terra Ops, quod hic omne opus et hac opus ad vivendum, et ideo dicitur Ops mater quod terra mater. -- De Lingua Latina, V,64. Cf. Pouthier, pp. 22 - 27 (Bibliography here).
3. A connection with Augustus’ wife Livia, first hypothesized in 1871 by Preller-Jordan, Römische Mythologie, vol. II, 1871, p. 23, has since been appraised as pulled out of thin air and has no basis in fact.
4. Pouthier, p. 290.

Images
“Blossoms” background and “Granite” table background from Eos Development ; reconstruction of a Roman ara from Región de Murcia website ; drawings of Ceres and Ops from Romana Moneta. The triple gold leaf is from a webpage that no longer exists.