Ludi Romani 2767 a.u.c.

Opening Ceremony

L. Vitellis Triarius omnibus salutem plurimam dicit.

Si valetis, bene est, ego valeo.

Salvete omnes!

Today is the traditional beginning of the oldest games of Rome, the Ludi Romani.

They were held annually starting in 366 BC from September 12 to September 14, later extended to September 5 to September 19. In the last 1st century BC, an extra day was added in honor of the deified Julius Caesar on 4 September. The festival first introduced drama to Rome based on Greek drama.

These games—the chief Roman festival—were in honour of Jupiter, and are said to have been established by Tarquinius Priscus on the occasion of his conquest of the Latin Apiolae, though Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Cicero refer the establishment to the victory over the Latins at Lake Regillus.

At first they lasted only one day. A second day was added on the expulsion of the kings in 509 BC, and a third after the first secession of the plebs in 494 BC. From the year 191 to 171 they lasted ten days, and shortly before Caesar's death they apparently lasted fifteen days, September 5 to 19. After Caesar's death a day was added. This day must have been September 4, because Cicero says that there were 45 days from the Ludi Romani to the Ludi Victoriae Sullanae on October 26, so at the time the Verrines were composed September 19 must have been the last day of the Ludi Romani.

In the calendars during the Augustan era, the days of the games were September 4 to September 19. There was the Epulum Jovis on the 13th, and the Equorum probatio (a cavalry revue) on the 14th. Circus games lasted from the 15th to the 19th. In the Calendar of Philocalus (354 AD) they run September 12 to 15. The celebration was originally organized by the consuls, later of the Curule aediles.

In Nova Roma we have established them annually from September 5th through the 19th.

As we begin our games, we will be focusing on the lesser dieties, as we focused on the major dieties in the Ludi Novi Romani in the Spring. We will also be focusing on Caesar Augustus, since these games fall withing the Ludi Augustales Bimillenarii. A special event will also be held in memory of our dearly departed citizen, Ti. Galerius Paulinus, who recently passed from us.

Today is also the Nones of September. On the Nones in the Sacra privata, we celebrate the dieties of the household. In the Sacra publica no permanent patron deity is recognized on the Nones. This morning I performed a Nones Ritual for the Sacra publica, which can be found below.

Today is also the 2160th Anniversary of the Dedication of the Temple of Iuppiter Stator in Rome. A rededication ceremony follows as well.

With this announcement, I formally declare the games of the Ludi Romani 2767 a.U.c. open.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

L VITELLIVS TRIARIVS Aedilis curulis et Pontifex

Schedule of Events

Anniversary of the Temple of Iuppiter Stator

History of the Second Temple to Iuppiter Stator (2nd Century B.C.E.)

Iuppiter Stator, aedes (templum, ἱερόν): a temple vowed, according to tradition (BC 1917, 79‑84), by Romulus at the critical moment in the battle between the Romans and the Sabines when the former had been driven across the forum valley to the porta Mugonia (Liv. I.12.3‑6; ps. Cic. orat. pr. quam in exilium iret 24; Ov. Fast. VI.794; Dionys. II.50; Flor. I.1.13; de vir. ill. 2.8). The epithet stator appears in Greek as ὀρθώσιος (Dionys.) and στήσιος (App. Plut.) This temple was never built, but in 294 B.C. the consul, M. Atilius Regulus, made a similar vow under similar circumstances in a battle with the Samnites, and erected the temple immediately afterwards (Liv. X.36.11, 37.15). Livy explains that no actual building had been put up by Romulus, but fanum tantum, id est locus templo effatus — an attempt to reconcile fact with what had evidently become the popular tradition (Cic. Cat. I.33; ps. Cic. loc. cit.). Its site is variously indicated — in Palatii radice, ps. Cic.; ante Palatini ora iugi, Ov.; ad veterem portam Palatii, Liv.; παρὰ ταῖς καλουμέναις Μουγωνίσι πύλαις, Dionys.; ἐν ἀρχῇ τῆς ἰερᾶς ὁδοῦ πρὸς τὸ Παλάτιον ἀνιόντων, Plut. Cic. 16; cf. Ov. Trist. III.1.32; Liv. I.41.4; Plin. NH XXXIV.29; App. B. C. II.11), and Not. places it in Region IV. It is represented on the relief of the Haterii (Mon. d. Inst. V.7) as hexastyle, of the Corinthian order, and facing the clivus Palatinus.

Cicero called the senate together in this temple (Cic. Cat. II.12; ps. Cic. loc. cit.; Plut. Cic. 16), which was probably not unusual; and in p304it was kept what was evidently a bit of liturgy composed by Livius Andronicus (Liv. XXVII.37.7). The day of dedication is given by Ovid (Fast. VI.793) as 27th January, but this may perhaps be that of a later restoration, and not of Regulus' temple (WR 122‑123). In fact, we learn from Fast. Ant. ap. NS 1921, 111, that either this temple or that in the porticus Metelli was dedicated on 5th September; and, as Hemer. Urb. (cited below) associates that temple with that of Juno Regina, the reference in Fast. Ant. may be taken to be to the temple now under discussion. Two inscriptions of the later empire (CIL VI.434, 435) probably belong to this temple, and it is mentioned in the fourth century (Not.).

Just east of the arch of Titus, a site corresponding with the literary references, are ruins consisting of a large rectangular platform of concrete, on which are some enormous blocks of peperino and travertine (Hermes, 1885, 412). On this foundation the mediaeval turris Cartularia was built (for the explanation of this name, see Rend. dei Lincei 1912, 767‑772; AJA 1913, 569),1 which was not torn down until 1829. This foundation has generally been identified as that of the temple of Iuppiter Stator of the Flavian period (LR 200; HC 250‑252; CR 1905, 75; BC 1903, 18; 1914, 93; 1917, 79‑84; TF 89; DR 178‑182; RE Suppl. IV.480, 481). Some tufa walls, recently excavated close to the north-east side of the arch and beneath its foundations, may have belonged to the temple at an earlier date when its position was slightly different (YW 1908, 23; CR 1909, 61), but the supposition is very doubtful. Others have sought it on the area Palatina, but wrongly (HJ 22).

For a republican inscription on some blocks of tufa there (not on our site), see CIL I21009 = VI.29842 (cf. 36615). It bears the names of two Greek artificers Philocrates and Diocles. See HJ 20‑23; Rosch. II.682‑684.

Iuppiter Stator, aedes (templum, Pliny): a temple which, with that of Iuno Regina and the enclosing Porticus Metelli (q.v.), was built by Q. Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus after his triumph in 146 B.C. (Vell. I.11.3). It is referred to as aedes Iovis Metellina (Fest. 363) and aedes Metelli (Plin. NH XXXVI.40; CIL VI.8708). It was inside the porticus Metelli (Vitr. III.2.5), close to the circus Flaminius (Macrob. III.4.2; Hemer. Urb., CIL I2 p252, 339), and its exact site is known, beneath the church of S. Maria in Campitelli. The temple of Juno was just west of this, on the opposite side of the Via della Tribuna di Campitelli. It is not stated in so many words by Velleius (loc. cit.) that Metellus built both temples, but this is the natural inference from the passage. He is also said to have been the first to build a temple in Rome entirely of marble, and this statement probably applies to both structures. In front of the temples Metellus placed Lysippus' equestrian statues of Alexander's generals, and in them were a number of famous works of art (Fest. 363; Plin. NH XXXVI. 24, 34, 40).

According to Vitruvius (III.2.5) the temple of Jupiter was the work of Hermodorus of Salamis (RE VIII.861‑862), and was an example of a peripteros with six columns across the front and rear and eleven on the sides. The space between the columns was equal to that between the columns and the wall of the cella. As there were no inscriptions on the temples (Vell. loc. cit.) and evidently representations of a lizard and a frog among the decorations (σαύρα, βάτραχος), the legend arose that the architects were two Spartans, Saurus and Batrachus; and further that, as the decorations in the temple of Jupiter belonged to that of Juno, and vice versa, the statues of the deities had been set up in the wrong cellae by the mistake of the workmen (Plin. NH XXXVI.42‑43; RE III.145). The idea that an Ionic capital now in S. Lorenzo fuori le Muraº has anything to do with these temples has generally been abandoned (HJ 539, n87).

After 14 B.C. Augustus either rebuilt the porticus Metelli, or replaced it by the Porticus Octaviae (q.v.), and presumably restored the enclosed temples at the same time. That of Jupiter is mentioned on an undated inscription of the empire (CIL VI.8708: aedituus de aede Iovis porticus Octaviae), and it is included under the rubric Aedes of Region IX in Not. (om. Cur.). The temples are also represented on a fragment (33) of the Marble Plan, that of Juno as hexastyle prostyle, and that of Jupiter as hexastyle and peripteral but with ten columns on a side instead of eleven, as Vitruvius says it had (see above). This discrepancy may perhaps be explained as due to some changes made by Augustus' restoration. Lugli (ZA 229) maintains that, like the porticus Octaviae, they were restored by Severus.

The existing ruins of both temples are concealed for the most part by modern houses in the Via di S. Angelo in Pescheria, and consist chiefly of substructures and walls of travertine and of brickwork, with fragments of marble columns and entablature. Three fluted columns of white marble belonging to the temple of Juno, 12.50 metres in height and 1.25 in diameter, with Corinthian capitals and entablature, are visible in No. 11 of that street. Of the history of these temples after the fourth century, nothing is known (HJ 538‑540; Rosch. II.684‑686. Cf. also Bull. d. Inst. 1861, 241‑245; Ann. d. Inst. 1868, 108‑132).

Reference: Platner, Samuel Ball. “Aedes Jovis Statoris.” A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, pp303‑305. London: Oxford University Press, 1929.

DIES NATALIS AND REDEDICATION RITUAL: 2nd TEMPLE OF IUPPITER STATOR

Performed on the Non. Sep. in Prov. America Transappalachiana St. Cornelia C. Aemilio cos. ‡ MMDCCLXVII a.u.c.

For the 2160th Anniversary of the Original Dedication in Rome

by L Vitellius Triarius Aedilis Curulis et Pontifex

ABLUTIO

I washed both hands in clean water and in capite velato prayed:

May this water cast out all impurities from my substance as from lead to gold. May this water cleanse my body of impurities, as the rain cleanses the air. Purify my mind. Purify my body. Purify my heart. It is so.

PRAEFATIO

Be you well and blessed, O Father Iuppiter Stator, by offering you this incense, I pray good prayers so that you may be benevolent and propitious to me, my family, and my household.

I placed incense in the focus of the altar.

PRECATIO

O Father Iuppiter Stator, on this, the dies natalis of your temple erected in the Eternal City by Q. Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus after his triumph in 146 B.C.E., and restored by Caesar Augustus, I make this offering to you as a rededication of the same. O protector, the stayer, I pray and beseech thee that you may be gracious and favorable to me, my family, and my household, and the Citizens of Nova Roma, for which course I have ordained that the offering of this incense should be made in accordance with my own vows; that you may avert, ward off, and keep afar all disease visible and invisible, all barrenness, waste, misfortune, and ill weather; that you may cause the affairs and business of my household and all Nova Roman households to come to prosperity; that you may provide the Senate and Collegium Pontificum with wise advice and counsel in their daily business, and that you grant health and strength to me, my home and my household, and the citizens of Nova Roma and their homes and households.

I placed incense in the focus of the altar.

REDDITIO

O Father Iuppiter Stator, as by offering to you the incense virtuous prayers were well prayed. For the sake of this be honoured by this humble wine.

A libation of wine is poured on the altar.

It is so.

PIACULUM

O Father Iuppiter Stator, and all Gods Immortal by whatever name I may call you: if anything in this ceremony was displeasing to you, with the sacrificial incense I ask forgiveness and expiate my fault.

Incense is placed in the focus of the altar.

It is done!

Nones Septembris Ritual

Performed on the Non. Sep. in Prov. America Transappalachiana St. Cornelia C. Aemilio cos. ‡ MMDCCLXVII a.u.c.

On the occasion of the Ludi Romani 2767 a.u.c.

by L Vitellius Triarius Aedilis Curulis et Pontifex

ABLUTIO

I washed both hands in clean water and in capite velato prayed:

May this water cast out all impurities from my substance as from lead to gold. May this water cleanse my body of impurities, as the rain cleanses the air. Purify my mind. Purify my body. Purify my heart. It is so.

PRAEFATIO

Be you well and blessed, O Lars familiaris, Penates, Genii of the patres familias, and gods and goddesses of the Nova Roman households on these Nones and festival of the Ludi Romani! By offering you this incense, I pray good prayers so that you may be benevolent and propitious to me, my family, and my household.

I placed incense in the focus of the altar.

PRECATIO

O Lars familiaris, Penates, Genii of the patres familias, and gods and goddesses of the Nova Roman households, on these Nones, with this offering of wine and milk I pray, worship, ask and beseech you so that you may confirm, strengthen and help my family and household and save it from all discord; so that my family and household may always flourish and prosper, and so that you may be benevolent and propitious to me, my family, and my household.

I poured libations of wine and milk on the altar.

REDDITIO

Be thou well, O Lars familiaris, Penates Genii of the patres familias and gods and goddesses of the Nova Roman households! As by offering to you the incense virtuous prayers were well prayed. For the sake of this be honoured by this humble offering of wine and milk, and be benevolent and propitious to me, my family, my household, and to the people of Nova Roma and their families and households. Grant us success in our games and festivities of this, the Ludi Romani.

I poured libations of wine and milk on the altar.

It is so.

PIACULUM

O Lars familiaris, Penates, Genii of the patres familias, gods and goddesses of the Nova Roman households, and all Gods Immortal by whatever name I may call you: if anything in this ceremony was displeasing to you, with the sacrificial incense I ask forgiveness and expiate my fault.

I placed incense in the focus of the altar.

It is done!