Tiberinalia
river god, on the Mattei sarcophagus, in a detail from the scene of Mars approaching Rhea Silvia for the union that produced Romulus and Remus
The Tiberinalia is a
Portunalia. As a festival honoring Father Tiber, it may reflect renewed Imperial patronage of traditional Roman deities, in particular the dedication made to Tiberinus by the emperors Diocletian (reigned 284–305) and Maximianus.[1]
August's festivals deal with themes of agricultural bounty ensured by sun and water, centering on the
Volcanus (Vulcan) on August 23.[2] The Portunalia, like the Volcanalia, was represented in large letters on extant fasti, indicating that it was regarded as among the most ancient holidays that were on the calendar before 509 BC.[3]
Varro says that the Portunalia marks the institution of a shrine (aedes) to Portunus in portu Tiberino, but the meaning of portus here is unclear; Ovid mentions atria Tiberina ("halls of Tiberinus").[6]
References
- Varro, De lingua latina 5.7.29–30 and 6.19–20.
- ^ Douglas Boin, Ostia in Late Antiquity (Cambridge University Press, 2013), p. 211.
- H.H. Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic (Cornell University Press, 1981), pp. 41, 176.
- ^ Boin, Ostia in Late Antiquity, p. 211.
- ^ William Warde Fowler, The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic (London, 1908), pp. 202–203.
- ^ Ovid, Fasti 4.329; Fowler, Roman Festivals, p. 203.