Robigus and the king
On the page about deities in graffiti we mentioned a graffito in the Shrine of Silvanus, written by a fire-fighter named Calpurnius. He wished ten more years of government to Caracalla. He added a consular date: consulibus Laeto et Ceriale, "in the year of the consuls Laetus and Cerialis", 215 AD. On the opposite wall CERIALE can be read again, apparently as shorthand for the same year. It was written below the names of two people who had visited the shrine and left their names: Marius and Anna. They also added the day: VII KAL(endas) MAIAS, April 25th.
COH(orte) VI (centuria) OST(iensis) IMP(erante)
AN(tonino) CO(n)S(ulibus) L(a)ETO ET CE
RIALE SEBARIVS
CALPVRNIVS, XThe graffito of Marius and Anna.
Text 0.11 x 0.22.
Bakker 1994, fig. 23.Top: the graffito of Calpurnius next to Silvanus (0.11 x 0.04).
Bottom: the graffito below that of Marius and Anna (0.08 x 0.015).
Bakker 1994, fig. 22.
The graffito of Marius and Anna in the Shrine of Silvanus.
Photo: Francis Brenders.Two religious feasts taking place on April 25th are documented. First of all the Sarapia, in honour of Serapis. Hardly anything is known about it. Secondly the Robigalia, in honour of Robigus, the purpose of which was the prevention of the rust disease of grain.[1] Because we are in a bakery, the House of the Millstones, the latter feast is the more attractive explanation for the date. No dedications to Robigus are known and, with one possible exception, no depictions of him. The feast is mentioned on a fragment of the local calendar of Ostia (EDR111919). In Rome a procession proceeded to a grove (lucus) of the god to the north of the city. A dog and a sheep were sacrificed there, followed by races of adults and boys. The feast persisted in late antiquity. In 598 AD pope Gregory the Great replaced it by the Laetania Maior, the major rogation, devoted to special prayers for the crops: on the same day, and still with processions, abolished however in 1978.
The Shrine of Silvanus was dedicated to the Imperial cult, and it looks as if someone in the late 19th or early 20th century had understood this very well. On one of the walls is the Italian graffito "VV il re" ("Long live the king!"), changed by someone into "ΛΛ il re" ("Down with the king!").
The graffito about the king in the Shrine of Silvanus.
Photo: Francis Brenders.The shrine was excavated for the first time in 1870, and then filled with earth again. The final excavation took place in 1914. The year 1870 was decisive in the Risorgimento, the Italian unification. Victor Emmanuel II was king of the new Italian state. He entered Rome on 20 September 1870. The pope, Pius IX, was left with the Vatican only. Ostia, until now part of the Papal States, became the property of the new Italian government. The graffito may well be linked to these events. It is also possible that they refer to Victor Emmanuel III, who reigned from 1900 until his abdication in 1946. Be that as it may, it is fitting to end our tour with a visit to the monument of Victor Emmanuel II in Rome.
The Monument of Victor Emmanuel II in Rome.
Photo: Wikimedia, Fczarnowski.
(1) J.C. Zadoks, "Van roesten, honden en sterren in de oudheid: een landbouwhistorische puzzel", Hermeneus 60,1 (1988), 1-8.
