Salve Nantonos

Scripsisti:
Sorry to be dense, but I want a citable reference to that - who wrote the Fasti, when? Are they online? If not, are they published in a book?

Em, You already posted a citable reference of Epona having been in the Fasti, i.e. ILS 4917, the Fasti Guidizzolensis

There are 43 inscribed Fasti from different sites. Some others are in text. And then there is the poem by Ovid called Fasti that deals with only the first six months. There is related material in other sources, such as Varro?s De Lingua Latina where he mentions one theory on the names adopted for the months. Two studies have been made on the Fasti.

The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic: an Introduction to the Study of the Religions of Rome, W. W. Fowler, 1899.

Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic, H. H. Scullard, 1981.

Between the two I usually use Fowler?s because he relies on primary sources for the most part. He mentions some of the older anthropology studies on comparative mythology, such as Frazier?s, and a later updated version of Fowler has some reference to Rose?s ideas on numenism. Scullard, writing when he did, it is understandable why he included some of Dumezil?s interpretations. I do not find the arguments behind their interpretations to be valid, but as quick references on the Fasti they are useful. A couple of other book I use:

Religions of Rome, Vol. II: A Sourcebook, Mary Beard, John North, and Simon Price, 1998. This has a chapter on the Roman calendar, giving some additional examples of Fasti.

The Gods of Ancient Rome, Robert Turcan, translated by Antonia Nevill, 2001; pp. 60-82 on "The Liturgical Year," covers only the main festivals in a running commentary.

Perhaps there is some misunderstanding as to what the Fasti are? They are official calendars, and thus relate to the official cultus civile of Rome. They are found at different locations throughout Italy. Their purpose would seem to have been to bring some uniformity throughout the province. These other communities were expected to support Rome through joining in with the worship of the Roman gods. Some mention local festivals when these varied from the dates used in Rome. For example one Fasti found in Campania, ILS 4918, names the local places where rites were performed, and the dates are by local custom, but then, too, it dates to the late fourth century. A community might celebrate additional festivals as were their local custom, but these would have been separate from the Roman religious cycle and thus not placed into the Fasti. They are not found outside Italy because other provinces were still regarded as foreign, with their own culti deorum ex patria. There is also one military calendar found that lists primarily the festivals of the imperial cultus. It was found at Duro Europus. We know that military units had such Fasti, but it is a question whether this papyrus represents a standardized military calendar used throughout the army or just locally.

If the Fasti Guidizzolensis included a local deity, a possibility considering where it was found, then that would seem an exception. In general, the Fasti were intended to record for a local population what were acceptable as the official Roman festivals in a Roman province. The culti deorom ex patria of a locale would be kept separate and under the local priesthood. The quindecimviri exercised some authority over local culti deorum inside Italy, but I don?t think as far north as the former province of Cisalpine Gaul. The quindecimviri as far as I know did not mettle into any active local cultus deorum but were known to restore local shrines, perhaps Romanizing there cultus. My earlier statement is probably wrong as far as Epona being adopted into the general Religio Romana, if this is the only example. If She occurs only in this one particular example of the Fasti, then it represents a local form of Religio Romana. The fact that She appears in a Fasti is evidence that She was accepted, at least there, as part of the official Religio Romana and was not thought as part of the local culti deorum ex patria. That raises some questions.

Could Her local cultus have been reorganized under Roman priests into a Roman cultus deorum? Might this be connected, too, with Her appearance among Roman military units? It was not unusual in the Augustan period or later for the Romans to invent "ancient" culti deorum to suit their present day needs. The Fratres Arvales is one such example of an imperial cultus whose invention was justified through a fictitious myth as having ancient roots. I do not see how Epona could have been a local cultus deorum of a local Celtic populace by the time this Fasti was erected. And again, if it was, it would not have appeared in a Fasti. So that poses a Roman invention, one perhaps recalling the former Celtic deities of the region, transforming them for Roman purposes into a Roman cultus deorum.