Ciconiae Nixae
The Ciconiae Nixae was a landmark, or more likely two separate landmarks, in the
The Storks
While Ciconiae means "storks", its supposed connection here to nixae, the
Earlier scholars hypothesized about the form of the Ciconiae based on comparative imagery. The iconography of three storks is also known from
The Latin word grus, like the English word "crane", can refer to either the bird or a
Since the stork was a symbol of pietas, it has also been conjectured that the Ciconiae were associated with an altar to Pietas that the emperor Hadrian had dedicated when his wife Sabina was made divine.[10]
The Nixae
The annual sacrifice of the October Horse was held ad Nixas, within the Tarentum in the general area of the Campus Martius. The site is most likely an altar to the birth deities known as the Nixae or di nixi.[11]
References
- ^ Lawrence Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), pp. 82–83 online. See also Marcel Le Glay, "Remarques sur la notion de Salus dans la religion romaine", La soteriologia dei culti orientali nell' imperio romano: Études préliminaires au religions orientales dans l'empire romain, Colloquio internazionale Roma, 1979 (Brill, 1982), p. 442 online.
- Robert E.A. Palmer, Roman Religion and Roman Empire: Five Essays (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1974), p. 265; "Silvanus, Sylvester, and the Chair of St. Peter", Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 122 (1978), p. 240; and Studies of the Northern Campus Martius in Ancient Rome (American Philosophical Society, 1990), pp. 52–
- chariot raceand the sacrifice of the righthand horse from the winning team; the lack of specificity in the calendar of Filocalus makes it unclear whether the race was held at the site or the sacrifice conducted there; possibly both, as Palmer notes, Studies on the Northern Campus Martius, p. 34.
- ^ Samuel Ball Platner, "The Ara Martis", Classical Philology 3 (1908), p. 70 online.
- ^ William Warde Fowler, The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic (London, 1908), p. 242 online, citing L. Preller, Die Regionen der Stadt Rom (see following).
- ^ John Greppin, "Crane", Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture (Taylor & Francis, 1997), p. 140 online.
- ^ Hesychius, Origines Constantinopolitanae 25 (23), in Theodor Preger, Scriptores Originum Constantinopolitanarum I (Leipzig, 1901), p. 11, as cited by C. Bennett Pascal, "October Horse", Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 85 (1981), pp. 287–286, note 109.
- ^ L. Preller, Die Regionen der Stadt Rom (Jena, 1846), p. 174 online. Pascal, "October Horse", pp. 285–286 online, is also inclined to connect the Ciconiae Nixae to Hesychius's storks.
- ^ Palmer, Studies in the Northern Campus Martius, pp. 53–55.
- ^ Palmer, Studies in the Northern Campus Martius, p. 55.
- ^ Fowler, Roman Festivals, p. 242; Palmer, Studies in the Northern Campus Martius, pp. 33–35, 57. Peter F. Dorcey, The Cult of Silvanus: A Study in Roman Folk Religion (Brill, 1992), finds Palmer's connection of the Nixae to Silvanus unconvincing (p. 39 online).