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Fornacalia
The Fornacalia was an Ancient Roman religious festival celebrated in honor of the goddess ''Fornax'', a divine personification of the oven (''fornax''), and was related to the proper baking of bread. History The Fornacalia may have been established by Numa Pompillius. Ovid wrote that "the oven was made a goddess, Fornax: the farmers, pleased with her, prayed she’d regulate the grain’s heat." It was held in early February on various dates in different ''curiae'', which in the period of the Roman monarchy and the Roman Republic were the thirty wards of the city of Rome. It was proclaimed every year by the ''curio maximus'', who was a priest who was the head of the ''curiae''. He announced the different part which each ''curia'' (sing. of ''curiae'') had to take in the celebration of the festival; " w the Curio Maximus, in a set form of words, declares the shifting date of the Fornacalia, the Feast of Ovens, and round the Forum hang many tablets, on which every ward displays its o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Festivals
Festivals in ancient Rome were a very important part in Roman religious life during both the Republican and Imperial eras, and one of the primary features of the Roman calendar. ''Feriae'' ("holidays" in the sense of "holy days"; singular also ''feriae'' or ''dies ferialis'') were either public ''(publicae)'' or private ''( privatae)''. State holidays were celebrated by the Roman people and received public funding. Games ''(ludi)'', such as the Ludi Apollinares, were not technically ''feriae'', but the days on which they were celebrated were '' dies festi'', holidays in the modern sense of days off work. Although ''feriae'' were paid for by the state, ''ludi'' were often funded by wealthy individuals. ''Feriae privatae'' were holidays celebrated in honor of private individuals or by families. This article deals only with public holidays, including rites celebrated by the state priests of Rome at temples, as well as celebrations by neighborhoods, families, and friends held s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fornax (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion, Fornax was the divine personification of the oven ''(fornāx)'', the patroness of bakers, and a goddess of baking. She ensured that the heat of ovens did not get hot enough to burn the corn or bread. People would pray to Fornax for help whilst baking. Her festival, the Fornacalia, was celebrated on February 17 among the thirty ''curiae'', the most ancient divisions of the city made by Romulus from the original three tribes of Rome. The Fornacalia was the second of two festivals involving the ''curiae'', the other being the Fordicidia on April 19. The goddess was probably conceived of to explain the festival, which was instituted for toasting the spelt (Latin ''far'') used to bake sacrificial cakes.Smith, ''The Roman Clan'', p. 206. Her role was eventually merged with the goddess Vesta. Ancient sources * Ovid, ''Fasti'' II. 525 ff * Festus, ''De significatu verborum'', under ''Fornacalia'', p. 82 in the edition of Lindsay * Plutarch, ''Roman Qu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quirinalia
In Roman mythology and religion, Quirinus ( , ) is an early god of the Roman state. In Augustan Rome, ''Quirinus'' was also an epithet of Janus, as ''Janus Quirinus''. Name Attestations The name of god Quirinus is recorded across Roman sources as ''Curinus'', ''Corinus'', ''Querinus'', ''Queirinus'' and ''QVIRINO'', also as fragmented ''IOVI. CYRIN '. The name is also attested as a surname to Hercules as ''Hercules Quirinus''. Etymology The name ''Quirīnus'' probably stems from Latin '' quirīs'', the name of Roman citizens in their peacetime function. Since both ''quirīs'' and ''Quirīnus'' are connected with Sabellic immigrants into Rome in ancient legends, it may be a loanword. The meaning "wielder of the spear" (Sabine ''quiris'', 'spear', cf. ''Janus Quirinus''), or a derivation from the Sabine town of Cures, have been proposed by Ovid in his '' ''Fasti'''' 2.477-480. Some scholars have interpreted the name as a contraction of ''*Co-Virīnus'' (originally the protect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Roman
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC), Roman Republic (509–27 BC) and Roman Empire (27 BC–476 AD) until the fall of the western empire. Ancient Rome began as an Italic settlement, traditionally dated to 753 BC, beside the River Tiber in the Italian Peninsula. The settlement grew into the city and polity of Rome, and came to control its neighbours through a combination of treaties and military strength. It eventually dominated the Italian Peninsula, assimilated the Greek culture of southern Italy ( Magna Grecia) and the Etruscan culture and acquired an Empire that took in much of Europe and the lands and peoples surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. It was among the largest empires in the ancient world, with an estimated 50 to 90 million inhabitants, roughly 20% of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Numa Pompilius
Numa Pompilius (; 753–672 BC; reigned 715–672 BC) was the legendary second king of Rome, succeeding Romulus after a one-year interregnum. He was of Sabine origin, and many of Rome's most important religious and political institutions are attributed to him, such as the Roman calendar, Vestal Virgins, the cult of Mars, the cult of Jupiter, the cult of Romulus, and the office of '' pontifex maximus''. Genealogy According to Plutarch, Numa was the youngest of Pomponius's four sons, born on the day of Rome's founding (traditionally, 21 April 753 BC). He lived a severe life of discipline and banished all luxury from his home. Titus Tatius, king of the Sabines and a colleague of Romulus, gave in marriage his only daughter, Tatia, to Numa. After 13 years of marriage, Tatia died, precipitating Numa's retirement to the countryside. According to Livy, Numa resided at Cures immediately before being elected king.Livy, ''Ab urbe condita'', 1:18. Titus Livius (Livy) and Plutarch refe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ovid
Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature. The Imperial scholar Quintilian considered him the last of the Latin love elegists.Quint. ''Inst.'' 10.1.93 Although Ovid enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime, the emperor Augustus banished him to Tomis, a Dacian province on the Black Sea, where he remained a decade until his death. Overview A contemporary of the older poets Virgil and Horace, Ovid was the first major Roman poet to begin his career during Augustus's reign. Collectively, they are considered the three canonical poets of Latin literature. The Imperial scholar Quintilian described Ovid as the last of the Latin love elegists.Quint. ''Inst.'' 10.1.93 He enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime, but the emperor Augus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fasti (poem)
The ''Fasti'' ( la, Fāstī , "the Calendar"), sometimes translated as ''The Book of Days'' or ''On the Roman Calendar'', is a six-book Latin poem written by the Roman poet Ovid and published in AD 8. Ovid is believed to have left the ''Fasti'' incomplete when he was exiled to Tomis by the emperor Augustus in 8 AD. Written in elegiac couplets and drawing on conventions of Greek and Latin didactic poetry, the ''Fasti'' is structured as a series of eye-witness reports and interviews by the first-person ''vates'' ("poet-prophet" or "bard") with Roman deities, who explain the origins of Roman holidays and associated customs—often with multiple aetiologies. The poem is a significant, and in some cases unique, source of fact in studies of religion in ancient Rome; and the influential anthropologist and ritualist J.G. Frazer translated and annotated the work for the Loeb Classical Library series. Each book covers one month, January through June, of the Roman calendar, and was writ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Curia
Curia (Latin plural curiae) in ancient Rome referred to one of the original groupings of the citizenry, eventually numbering 30, and later every Roman citizen was presumed to belong to one. While they originally likely had wider powers, they came to meet for only a few purposes by the end of the Republic: to confirm the election of magistrates with imperium, to witness the installation of priests, the making of wills, and to carry out certain adoptions. The term is more broadly used to designate an assembly, council, or court, in which public, official, or religious issues are discussed and decided. Lesser curiae existed for other purposes. The word ''curia'' also came to denote the places of assembly, especially of the senate. Similar institutions existed in other towns and cities of Italy. In medieval times, a king's council was often referred to as a ''curia''. Today, the most famous curia is the Curia of the Roman Catholic Church, which assists the Roman Pontiff in the hier ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spelt
Spelt (''Triticum spelta''), also known as dinkel wheat or hulled wheat, is a species of wheat that has been cultivated since approximately 5000 BC. Spelt was an important staple food in parts of Europe from the Bronze Age to medieval times. Now it survives as a relict crop in Central Europe and northern Spain, and it has found a new market as a health food. Spelt is sometimes considered a subspecies of the closely related species common wheat (''Triticum aestivum''), in which case its botanical name is considered to be ''Triticum aestivum'' subsp. ''spelta''. Like common wheat, it is a hexaploid wheat, which means it has six sets of chromosomes. Evolution Spelt has a complex history. It is a wheat species known from genetic evidence to have originated as a naturally occurring hybrid of a domesticated tetraploid wheat such as emmer wheat and the wild goat-grass '' Aegilops tauschii''. Genetic evidence shows that spelt wheat can also arise as the result of the hybridisation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nones (calendar)
The Roman calendar was the calendar used by the Roman Kingdom and Roman Republic. The term often includes the Julian calendar established by the reforms of the dictator Julius Caesar and emperor Augustus in the late 1stcenturyBC and sometimes includes any system dated by inclusive counting towards months' kalends, nones, and ides in the Roman manner. The term usually excludes the Alexandrian calendar of Roman Egypt, which continued the unique months of that land's former calendar; the Byzantine calendar of the later Roman Empire, which usually dated the Roman months in the simple count of the ancient Greek calendars; and the Gregorian calendar, which refined the Julian system to bring it into still closer alignment with the tropical year. Roman dates were counted inclusively forward to the next of three principal days: the first of the month (the kalends), a day shortly before the middle of the month (the ides), and eight days—nine, counting inclusively—before this (the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lactantius
Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius (c. 250 – c. 325) was an early Christian author who became an advisor to Roman emperor, Constantine I, guiding his Christian religious policy in its initial stages of emergence, and a tutor to his son Crispus. His most important work is the ''Institutiones Divinae'' ("The Divine Institutes"), an apologetic treatise intended to establish the reasonableness and truth of Christianity to pagan critics. He is best known for his apologetic works, widely read during the Renaissance by humanists, who called Lactantius the "Christian Cicero". Also often attributed to Lactantius is the poem '' The Phoenix'', which is based on the myth of the phoenix from Egypt and Arabia. Though the poem is not clearly Christian in its motifs, modern scholars have found some literary evidence in the text to suggest the author had a Christian interpretation of the eastern myth as a symbol of resurrection. Biography Lactantius was of Punic or Berber origin, born in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
