HBO Rome - Season 2!
Well the biggest news here in Rome may be – the return of
Rome! On HBO, that is. Pity the poor plebs without access, and then get your local library to buy the DVDs, because the second season is on and the drama is magnificent. It's rare to find television like this anywhere… The
discussion board for HBO's Rome is full of activity.
Rome celebrates Lupercalia
The next big thing is the onset of Lupercalia on February 15. This ancient Roman festival, possibly even pre-dating the founding of Rome, is a pastoral festival in honor of fertility and forests. And in honor of the Lupercalia we're having a "Pin the Sausage on Emperor Constantine" graphics editing
contest! Emperor Constantine banned sausages because of their pagan association with the Lupercalia, so we're going to stick it to him—'it' being the sausages.
On April 21, Rome will be celebrating her 2,760th birthday and ushering in the new year of MMDCCLX A.U.C. Check the next Acta for details!!!
And now in lieu of our usual Archaeological updates section, Decius Aemilius brings us a brief but in-depth history behind the upcoming festival Lupercalia.
The Lupercalia
by Decius Aemilius
The Lupercalia is the Ancient Roman festival held in honor of the gods Faunus and Lupercus on the Ides of Februarius (February 15). The rituals were intended to purge all impurities and afflictions before the spring growing season began. The religious ceremonies were directed by the Luperci, the "brothers of the wolf, a college of priests of Faunus, who dressed only in a goatskin.
Each year, the Luperci sacrificed a dog and two goats then smeared the blood onto the foreheads of two boys from noble families; this was part of the ritual of the Lupercalia. After the sacrifices, the blood was wiped off the ceremonial knife with wool soaked in milk. The youths were expected to smile and laugh during this part of the ritual. Then came the sacrificial feast. Afterward the Luperci cut thongs from the skins of the victims, which were called Februa, dressed themselves in the skins of the sacrificed
goats, and ran around the pomerium with the thongs in their hands in two bands, striking the people who crowded near. Girls and young women would line up on their route to receive lashes from these whips. This was supposed to ensure fertility, prevent sterility in women and ease the pains of childbirth.
The ritual continued to be enacted until A.D. 494, when Pope Gelasius banned it. The festival was celebrated near the cave of Lupercal (also rendered as Lupercale in English) which was on the Palatine. The Lupercal is the cave where the she-wolf nursed the infant twins Romulus and Remus. The cave was recently rediscovered under the remains of Emperor Augustus' palace when archaeologists from the Department of Cultural Heritage of the Rome Municipality came across the 50-foot-deep (15-meter-deep) cavity while working to restore the decaying palace foundation.
The National Geographic website has an interesting article on the discovery of the Lupercal, which can be found at: Sacred Cave of Rome's Founders Discovered, Archaeologists Say.
To see a map of the Palatine with an artist's rendering of the she-wolf's cave, visit the Traditional Lupercal Cave created by Livia Servilius.
