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Tiburinus : Rotten. Problems with the corn crop this year - with everything, in fact. The harvest is not what I had hoped.
Mauricius : It’s happened to me too. As a matter of fact, I’m on my way right now to the arae of Ceres and Ops.
Tiburinus : I’m on my way there too. This year started out all wrong. It rained too much too early -- before the Lupercalia right up to the Liberalia. [1] Then there was that heat wave in May. My corn was half baked well before the ears had matured.
Mauricius : It’s the same story all over Italy. My tenants are worried that there will be nothing to harvest this year.
Tiburinus : It’s not just the bad weather. This war in the East drags on and on, there’s no end in sight. Three of the men that usually help out on my farm are fighting in the emperor’s legions, there’s no one to replace them. I’ve brought some Syrian incense to burn and some Falernian wine to offer the goddesses, but will that be enough to get us our daily bread rations ?
Mauricius :You know how they say Ops is the goddess of Abundance. In actual fact, that’s not the whole story. It would be more precise to say she is the divine force of efficient goods-producing activity. Productive action at its optimum, so to speak. Abundance is the end result -- a pile of cereals, hives full of honey or a quarry producing columns of a rare marble. Making sure it happens is Ops’ opus (that pun was intentional). [2] That’s why I’m going to her altar to make sacrifice : to get my lands and animals back into the cycle of bountiful production. But I’ve been thinking - maybe we should also ask her to improve the work force.
Tiburinus : What do you mean ?
Mauricius : Our strongest and most able men are away fighting a war. The farms are left with those too weak or too young to fight. We should ask the goddess to multiply their strength. That way, what little harvest we get won’t be lost.
Tiburinus : Yes, why not ? It never hurts to ask. May the goddess be pleased with our sacrifice !
Mauricius : Are you busy tomorrow ? Why don’t we meet at the Suran and Decian Baths around the ninth hour, then we can have dinner at my house.
Tiburinus : With pleasure.
Mauricius : Good ! Ah, here is the altar now. [3] Excuse me while I make sacrifice. The gods be with you !
Golden wheat ! |
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Notes
1. That is, from before 15 February until 17 March.
2. Varro came up with the etymological link between Ops and opes / opus / opera -- which also give us the words operator, opulens, copia. Modern linguists have confirmed Varro’s intuition. Cf. Pouthier, pp. 22 - 27 (see Bibliography below).
3. The altar of Ops Augusta is not to be confused with another shrine dedicated to Ops, designated in the Fasti as Ops ad Forum, term also used to identify the temples of Saturn, Castor and Concordia. Ops ad Forum was where Romans celebrated the Opalia on the 19th of December.
Bibliography
Filippo Coarelli, Il Foro Romano II, Periodo Repubblicano e Augusteo, Ed. Quasar, Rome, 1992.
Peter Garnsey, Famine et approvisionnement dans le monde gréco-romain, Les Belles Lettres, Paris, 1996. French edition of : Famine and Food Supply in the Graeco-Roman World, Cambridge University Press, 1988.
Platner - Ashby, A Topographical Dictionary of Rome, London, 1929.
Pierre Pouthier, Ops et la conception divine de l'abondance dans la religion romaine jusqu’à la mort d’Auguste, BEFAR 242, Rome, 1981.
Senex Caecilius, Opalia (December 19), posted December 19, 2003.
Eva M. Steinby, Lexicon topographicum urbis Romae, Ed. Quasar, Rome, 1992-1999.
The Roman Forum webpage.
Adam Ziolkowski, The Temples of Mid-Republican Rome and their Historical and Topographical Context, Ed. L'Erma di Bretschneider, Rome, 1992. Salve, Citizen !
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Ara of Ops Augusta
