Supplicia canum
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Roman_-_Hound%27s_Head_Appliq%C3%A9_from_a_Bed_-_Walters_54865.jpg/220px-Roman_-_Hound%27s_Head_Appliq%C3%A9_from_a_Bed_-_Walters_54865.jpg)
The supplicia canum ("punishment of the dogs") was an annual sacrifice of
In the same procession, geese were decorated in gold and purple and carried in honor. Ancient sources who explain the origin of the supplicia say that the geese were honored for saving the city during the
Form of punishment
The implement on which the dog was carried is called a furca by
The punishment de more maiorum was distinct from crucifixion, which was reserved for
Ritual topography
The procession route involved the temples of
Myth of origin
Sources mentioning the ritual agree that the "punishment" was inflicted on the dogs for their failure to warn the Romans of the stealth attack against the
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fd/Bronze_goose_Musei_Capitolini_MC1169.jpg/220px-Bronze_goose_Musei_Capitolini_MC1169.jpg)
In some stories,
Background
Dogs, or parts of a dog's body, held numerous magical and medical powers in Greco-Roman belief,
Dog sacrifices were carried out in Rome also for the
Dog sacrifice is found among other
Ancient sources
The following ancient authors (listed chronologically) describe or refer indirectly to the supplicia canum, a name for the rite which comes from Pliny:[31]
- Pliny the Elder, Natural History 29.57 (Latin)
- Plutarch, On the Fortune of the Romans 12 (English translation)
- Aelian, De natura animalium 12.33 (Greek or Latin translation)
- Arnobius, Adversus nationes 6.20
- Ambrose, Hexameron 5.13.44
- (Latin)
- Johannes Lydus, De mensibus 4.114
See also
References
- Johannes Lydus, De mensibus 4.114.
- H.H. Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic (Cornell University Press, 1981), p. 170.
- ^ Servius, note to Aeneid 8.652.
- ^ Plutarch, On the Fortune of the Romans 12: ἀνεσταυρωμένος (anestauromenos).
- ^ William A. Oldfather, "Livy i, 26 and the Supplicium de More Maiorum," Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 39 (1908), p. 54.
- patibulum as a synonym for furca (Etymologiae5.27.33).
- ^ Oldfather, "Livy and the Supplicium," pp. 69–70, with comparison to the supplicia canum.
- ^ Macrobius, Saturnalia 3.20: quaeque bacam nigram nigrosque fructus ferunt.
- ^ Elizabeth Rawson, "Sallust on the Eighties?" Classical Quarterly 37.1 (1987), p. 175.
- ^ Oldfather, "Livy and the Supplicium," pp. 66–69.
- ^ Oldfather, "Livy and the Supplicium," p. 68.
- ^ Tertullian, Apologeticum 9.2; Oldfather, "Livy and the Supplicium," p. 69.
- ^ Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies, p. 170.
- ^ Plutarch, On the Fortune of the Romans 12; Aelian, De natura animalium 12.33.
- ^ Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies, p. 170 (described by Plutarch and Servius).
- ^ Nicholas Horsfall, "From History to Legend: M. Manlius and the Geese," Classical Journal 76.4 (1981), p. 308.
- T.P. Wiseman, "Topography and Rhetoric: The Trial of Manlius," Historia 28.1 (1979), pp. 40 and 48, citing Florus1.7.13, and De viris illustribus 23.9 and 24.3.
- ^ Wiseman, pp. 45–46, 48.
- ^ Oldfather, "Livy and the Supplicium," p. 68, citing the version of Nepos, frg. 5, as preserved by Aulus Gellius 17.21.24, in contrast to the version given by Livy 6.20.12. See also Wiseman, pp. 48–49.
- ^ Horsfall, "From History to Legend," p. 298.
- ^ Horsfall, "From History to Legend," pp. 298, 306ff.
- ^ Eli Edward Burriss, "The Place of the Dog in Superstition as Revealed in Latin Literature," Classical Philology 30.1 (1935), pp. 36, 41.
- ^ Horsfall, "From History to Legend," p. 308. Arnobius (Adversus nationes 6.20) says that geese and dogs are still kept on the Capitoline, without referring to a specific ceremony; Ambrose (Hexameron 5.13.44) says that geese are kept in state and receive sacrifices, without specific reference to the dogs.
- ^ Burriss, "The Place of the Dog in Superstition," p 39ff.
- ^ Jack L. Lennon, Pollution and Religion in Ancient Rome (Cambridge University Press, 2014), p. 49.
- ^ Jerzy Linderski, "The Augural Law", Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.16 (1986), p. 2222.
- ^ Elaine Fantham, Ovid: Fasti, Book IV (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 271.
- ^ Douglas Boin, Ostia in Late Antiquity (Cambridge University Press, 2013), p. 211.
- ^ Frederick J. Simoons, Eat Not this Flesh: Food Avoidances from Prehistory to the Present (University of Wisconsin Press, 1994, 2nd ed.), p. 410.
- ^ C. Bennett Pascal, "October Horse," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 85 (1981), p. 277; John Scheid, "Sacrifices for Gods and Ancestors," in A Companion to Roman Religion, pp. 267–268; Robert Parker, On Greek Religion (Cornell University Press, 2011), pp. 158–159.
- ^ As cited by Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies, p. 252, note 212, and Horsfall, "From History to Legend," p. 308.
Further reading
- Lacam Jean-Claude. "Le sacrifice du chien dans les communautés grecques, étrusques, italiques et romaines: approche comparatiste". In: Mélanges de l'École française de Rome. Antiquité, tome 120, n°1. 2008. Antiquité. pp. 29-80. [DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/mefr.2008.10414]; [www.persee.fr/doc/mefr_0223-5102_2008_num_120_1_10414]