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Claudius
II Gothicus – Roman Emperor: 268-270 A.D.
Bronze Antoninianus 20mm (2.82 grams)
Struck at the mint of Rome 268-270 A.D.
Reference: RIC 19f, C 22
IMPCLAVDIVSAVG – Radiate, cuirassed bust right.
ANNONAAVG –
Annona
standing left, holding grain ears over modius and
cornucopia
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The cornucopia (from Latin cornu copiae) or horn of plenty
is a symbol of abundance and nourishment, commonly a large horn-shaped container
overflowing with produce, flowers, nuts, other edibles, or wealth in some form.
Originating in
classical antiquity
, it has continued as a
symbol in
Western art
, and it is particularly associated
with the
Thanksgiving
holiday in
North America
.
Allegorical
depiction of the Roman
goddess
Abundantia
with a cornucopia, by
Rubens
(ca. 1630)
In Mythology
Mythology
offers multiple
explanations of the origin
of the cornucopia.
One of the best-known involves the birth and nurturance of the infant
Zeus, who had to be hidden from his devouring father
Cronus
. In a cave on
Mount Ida
on the island of
Crete
, baby Zeus was cared for and protected by
a number of divine attendants, including the goat
Amalthea
(“Nourishing Goddess”), who fed him
with her milk. The suckling future king of the gods had unusual abilities and
strength, and in playing with his nursemaid accidentally broke off one of her
horns
, which then had the divine power to
provide unending nourishment, as the foster mother had to the god.
In another myth, the cornucopia was created when
Heracles
(Roman
Hercules
) wrestled with the river god
Achelous
and wrenched off one of his horns;
river gods were sometimes depicted as horned. This version is represented in the
Achelous and Hercules
mural painting
by the
American Regionalist
artist
Thomas Hart Benton
.
The cornucopia became the attribute of several
Greek
and
Roman deities
, particularly those associated
with the harvest, prosperity, or spiritual abundance, such as personifications
of Earth (Gaia
or
Terra
); the child
Plutus
, god of riches and son of the grain
goddess Demeter
; the
nymph
Maia
; and
Fortuna
, the goddess of luck, who had the power
to grant prosperity. In
Roman Imperial cult
, abstract Roman deities who
fostered peace (pax
Romana) and prosperity were also depicted with a cornucopia,
including Abundantia
, “Abundance” personified, and
Annona
, goddess of the
grain supply to the city of Rome
.
Pluto
, the classical ruler of the underworld in
the
mystery religions
, was a giver of agricultural,
mineral and spiritual wealth, and in art often holds a cornucopia to distinguish
him from the gloomier Hades
, who holds a
drinking horn
instead.
Modern depictions
In modern depictions, the cornucopia is typically a hollow, horn-shaped
wicker basket filled with various kinds of festive
fruit
and
vegetables
. In North America, the cornucopia
has come to be associated with
Thanksgiving
and the harvest. Cornucopia is
also the name of the annual November Wine and Food celebration in
Whistler
, British Columbia, Canada. Two
cornucopias are seen in the
flag
and
state seal
of
Idaho
. The Great
Seal
of
North Carolina
depicts Liberty standing and
Plenty holding a cornucopia. The coat of arms of
Colombia
,
Panama
,
Peru and
Venezuela
, and the Coat of Arms of the State of
Victoria, Australia
, also feature the
cornucopia, symbolising prosperity.
The horn of plenty is used on body art and at Halloween, as it is a symbol of
fertility, fortune and abundance.
-
Base of a statue of
Louis XV of France
In
ancient Roman religion
, Annona (from
Latin
annus, year is the divine
personification
of the
grain supply to the city of Rome
. She is
closely connected to the goddess
Ceres
, with whom she is often depicted in
art
.
Annona, often as Annona
Augusti
, was a creation of
Imperial religious propaganda
, manifested in
iconography
and cult practice. She is presented
as an epiphany
of the
emperor
‘s power to care for his people through
the provision of grain. Annona thus lacked
narrative mythology
or a
tradition of devotion
in the
Roman Republic
, but once established as part of
Imperial cult
, she was the recipient of
dedications and votive offerings
from private
individuals motivated by gratitude or the seeking of favor.
Imperial cult
In the propaganda of
Claudius
, the cult of Ceres Augusta made
explicit the divine power that lay in the Imperial provision of the annona,
the grain supply to the city. Annona Augusti appears on
coins
late in the reign of
Nero, when the Cult of Virtues came into prominence in the wake of
the
Pisonian conspiracy
. She embodied two of the
material benefits of
Imperial rule
, along with Securitas Augusti,
“Augustan Security,” and often appeared as part of a pair with Ceres. On
Neronian coinage, Ceres, Annona, and
Abundantia
(“Abundance”) were closely
associated.
Annona also appears on coins issued under
Vespasian
, where along with other Virtues she
represents the restoration of confidence in the
principate
, and on the coinage of
Titus
,
Domitian
,
Trajan
,
Hadrian
,
Antoninus Pius
, and
Septimius Severus
. She was a particular
favorite in Trajan’s propaganda, which sought to portray his reign as a renewal
and a prosperous new era for mankind; hence Annona often appears with a symbolic
child. In the context of Trajanic politics, Annona represented Rome’s grain
independence from its traditional supplier
Egypt
.
Iconography
Annona is typically depicted with a
cornucopia
(horn of plenty) in her arm, and a
ship’s prow in the background, alluding to the transport of grain into the
harbor of Rome. On coins, she frequently stands between a
modius
(grain-measure) and the prow of a
galley
, with ears of grain in one hand and a
cornucopia in the other; sometimes she holds a
rudder
or an
anchor
.
Claudius II (Latin:
Marcus Aurelius Valerius Claudius Augustus;
May 10, 213 – January 270), commonly known as Claudius Gothicus, was
Roman Emperor
from 268 to 270. During his reign
he fought successfully against the
Alamanni
and scored a crushing victory against
the Goths
at the
Battle of Naissus
. He died after succumbing to
a
plague (perhaps smallpox)
that ravaged the
provinces of the Empire.
Life
Origin and rise to
power
Claudius’ origin is uncertain. Born on May 10, 213, he was either from
Sirmium
in
Pannonia Inferior
or from
Naissus
Dardania
(in
Moesia Superior
).
Claudius had served with the Roman army for all his adult life, making his
way up the military hierarchy until the Emperor
Gallienus
made him the commander of his elite
cavalry
force (hipparchos) and
subsequently his military deputy.In September 268 he found himself assigned as a
military tribune with the Imperial Army besieging the usurper
Aureolus
in
Milan
. His troops then proclaimed him Emperor
amid charges, never proven, that he murdered his predecessor
Gallienus
. However, he soon proved to be less
than bloodthirsty, as he asked the
Roman Senate
to spare the lives of
Gallienus
‘ family and supporters. He was less
magnanimous toward Rome’s enemies, however, and it was to this that he owed his
popularity.It is possible Claudius gained his position and the respect of the
soldiers by being physically strong and especially cruel. A legend tells of
Claudius knocking out a horse’s teeth with one punch. When Claudius performed as
a wrestler in the 250s, he supposedly knocked out the teeth of his opponent when
his genitalia had been grabbed in the match.
Claudius, like
Maximinus Thrax
before him, was of
barbarian
birth. After an interlude of failed
aristocratic
Roman emperors since Maximinus’
death, Claudius was the first in a series of tough soldier-emperors who would
eventually restore the Empire from the
Crisis of the third century
.
The Downfall of
Gallienus
Antoninianus
of Claudius II
During the 260s, the breakup of the
Roman Empire
into three distinct governing
entities (the core Roman Empire, the
Gallic Empire
and the
Palmyrene Empire
) placed the whole Roman
imperium into a precarious position.
Gallienus
was seriously weakened by his failure
to defeat Postumus
in the West, and the ability of
Odaenathus
to live with his arrangement with
Gallienus in the East. By 268, however, the situation had changed, as
Odaenathus
was put to death, most likely out of
court intrigue, and Gallienus fell victim to a mutiny in his own ranks. Upon the
death of Odaenathus, power fell to his younger son, who was dominated by his
mother, Zenobia
.
Under threat of invasion by multiple tribes, Gallienus’ troubles primarily
lay with Postumus
, whom he could not attack because his
attention was required in dealing with
Macrianus
and the invading “Skythai.” After
four years of delay, Postumus had established power, but in 265, when Gallienus
and his men crossed the Alps, they defeated and besieged
Postumus
in an (unnamed)
Gallic
city. When victory appeared to be near,
Gallienus made the mistake of approaching the city walls too closely and was
gravely injured, compelling him to withdraw the campaign. In the next three
years, Gallienus’ troubles would only get worse. The “Skythai” successfully
invaded the Balkans
in the early months of 268, and
Aureolus
, a commander of the cavalry, declared
himself an ally of Postumus and the new emperor in
Milan
.
At this time, another invasion was taking place. A group called the Herulians
navigated through
Asia Minor
and then into
Greece
on a naval expedition. Details of these
invasions are abstract, as it is nearly impossible to reconstruct the
happenings, due to the chain of conflicts initiated by the Herulians in 268.
Scholars assume Gallienus’ efforts were focused on Aureolus, the officer who
betrayed him, and the defeat of the Herulians was left to his successor,
Claudius Gothicus.
The death of Gallienus is surrounded by conspiracy and betrayal, as were many
emperors’ deaths. Different accounts of the incident are recorded, but they
agree that senior officials wanted Gallienus dead. According to two accounts,
the prime conspirator was
Heraclianus
. One version of the story tells of
Heraclianus bringing Claudius into the plot while the account given by
Historia Augusta
exculpates the would-be
emperor and adds the prominent general
Marcianus
into the plot. The removal of
Claudius from the conspiracy is due to his later role as the progenitor of the
house of
Constantine
, a fiction of
Constantine
‘s time, and may serve to guarantee
that the original version from which these two accounts spring was current prior
to the reign of Constantine. It is written that while sitting down at dinner,
Gallienus was told that Aureolus and his men were approaching the camp.
Gallienus rushed to the front lines, ready to give orders, when he was struck
down by a commander of his cavalry. In a different and more controversial
account, Aureolus forges a document in which Gallienus appears to be plotting
against his generals and makes sure it falls into the hands of the emperor’s
senior staff. In this plot,
Aurelian
is added as a possible conspirator.
The tale of his involvement in the conspiracy might be seen as at least partial
justification for the murder of Aurelian himself under circumstances that seem
remarkably similar to those in this story.Whichever story is true, Gallienus was
killed in the summer of 268, and
Marcus Aurelius Claudius
was chosen by the army
outside of Milan
to succeed him. Accounts tell of people
hearing the news of the new Emperor, and reacting by murdering Gallienus’ family
members until Claudius declared he would respect the memory of his predecessor.
Claudius had the deceased emperor deified and buried in a family tomb on the
Appian Way
. The traitor
Aureolus
was not treated with the same
reverence, as he was killed by his besiegers after a failed attempt to
surrender.
The Campaigns of
Claudius
At the time of his Claudius’ accession, the
Roman Empire
was in serious danger from several
incursions, both within and outside its borders. The most pressing of these was
an invasion of
Illyricum
and
Pannonia
by the
Goths
.[18]
Although Gallienus
had already inflicted some damage on
them at the Battle of Nestus, Claudius, not long after being named Emperor,
followed this up by winning his greatest victory, and one of the greatest in the
history of Roman arms.
The Roman Empire in 268 A.D
At the
Battle of Naissus
, Claudius and his legions
routed a huge Gothic army. Together with his
cavalry
commander, the future Emperor
Aurelian
, the Romans took thousands of
prisoners, destroyed the Gothic cavalry as a force, and stormed their
laager
(a circular alignment of wagons long
favored by the Goths). The victory earned Claudius his surname of “Gothicus”
(conqueror of the Goths), and that is how he is known to this day. More
importantly, the Goths were soon driven back across the
Danube River
by Aurelian, and nearly a century
passed before they again posed a serious threat to the empire.
At the same time, the
Alamanni
had crossed the
Alps and attacked the empire. Claudius responded quickly, routing the
Alamanni at the
Battle of Lake Benacus
in the late fall of 268,
a few months after the battle of Naissus. For this he was awarded the title of “Germanicus
Maximus.” He then turned on the
Gallic Empire
, ruled by a pretender for the
past fifteen years and encompassing
Britain
,
Gaul, and the
Iberian Peninsula
. He won several victories and
soon regained control of Spain and the Rhone river valley of Gaul.This set the
stage for the ultimate destruction of the Gallic Empire under Aurelian.
However, Claudius did not live long enough to fulfill his goal of reuniting
all the lost territories of the empire. Late in 269 he had traveled to
Sirmium
and was preparing to go to war against
the Vandals
, who were raiding in
Pannonia
.[However,
he fell victim to the
Plague of Cyprian
(possibly
smallpox
), and died early in January 270.
Before his death, he is thought to have named Aurelian as his successor, though
Claudius’ brother
Quintillus
briefly seized power.The
Senate
immediately deified Claudius as “Divus
Claudius Gothicus”.The
Empire and Foreign Affairs Under Claudius
Claudius was not the only man to reap the benefits of holding high office
after the death of
Gallienus
. Before the rule of Claudius Gothicus,
there had only been two emperors from the
Balkans
, but afterwards there would only be one
emperor who did not hail from the provinces of
Pannonia
,
Moesia
or
Illyricum
until the year 378, when
Theodosius I
from
Hispania
would take the throne. To comprehend
the structure of government during the reign of Claudius, we must look at four
inscriptions that deepen our understanding of a new, truncated empire. The first
is a dedication to
Aurelius Heraclianus
, the prefect involved in
the conspiracy against Gallienus, from Traianus Mucianus, who also gave a
dedication to
Heraclianus
‘ brother, Aurelius Appollinaris,
who was the equestrian governor of the province of
Thracia
in 267-68 AD.Because these men
shared the family name, Marcus Aurelius, a name given to those made citizens by
the
constitutio Antoniniana
, we can understand that
these men did not come from the imperial élite. The third inscription
reveals the career of
Marcianus
, another leading general by the time
that Gallienus died. The fourth honors Julius Placidianus, the prefect of the
vigiles
. While we cannot prove that Heraclianus,
Appollinaris,
Placidianus
, or Marcianus were of
Danubian
origin themselves, it is clear that
none of them were members of the
Severan
aristocracy, and all of them appear to
owe their prominence to their military roles. To these men must be added Marcus
Aurelius Aurelianus (the future emperor
Aurelian
) and
Marcus Aurelius Probus
(another emperor in
waiting), both men of Balkan background, and from families enfranchised in the
time of Caracalla
.
Although we see a rise in Pannonian, Moesian and Illyrian marshals, and
foreigners become notable figures, it would be impractical to think the
government could function without help from the traditional classes within the
empire. Although their influence was weakened, there were still a number of men
with influence from the older
aristocracy
. Claudius assumed the consulship in
269 with Paternus, a member of the prominent senatorial family, the Paterni, who
had supplied consuls and urban prefects throughout Gallienus’ reign, and thus
were quite influential. In addition,
Flavius Antiochianus
, one of the consuls of
270, who was an urban prefect the year before, would continue to hold his office
for the following year. A colleague of Antiochianus, Virius Orfitus, also the
descendant of a powerful family, would continue to hold influence during his
father’s term as prefect. Aurelian’s colleague as consul was another such man,
Pomponius Bassus, a member of one of the oldest senatorial families, as was one
of the consuls in 272, Junius Veldumnianus.
In his first full year of power, Claudius was greatly assisted by the sudden
destruction of the imperium Galliarum. When Ulpius Cornelius Laelianus, a high
official under Postumus
, declared himself emperor in
Germania Superior
, in the spring of 269,
Postumus
defeated him, but in doing so, refused
to allow the sack of Mainz
, which had served as
Laelianus
‘ headquarters. This proved to be his
downfall, for out of anger, Postumus’ army mutinied and murdered him. Selected
by the troops,
Marcus Aurelius Marius
was to replace Postumus
as ruler. Marius’ rule did not last long though, as
Victorinus
, Postumus’ praetorian prefect,
defeated him. Now emperor of the
Gauls, Victorinus was soon in a precarious position, for the Spanish
provinces had deserted the
Gallic Empire
and declared their loyalty to
Claudius, while in southern
France
,
Placidianus
had captured
Grenoble
. Luckily, it was there that
Placidianus stopped and Victorinus’ position stabilized. In the next year, when
Autun
revolted, declaring itself for Claudius,
the central government made no moves to support it. As a result, the city went
through a siege, lasting many weeks, until it was finally captured and sacked by
Victorinus.It is still unknown why Claudius did nothing to help the city of
Autun
, but sources tell us his relations with
Palmyra
were waning in the course of 270. An
obscure passage in the
Historia Augusta
life of Gallienus states that
he had sent an army under
Heraclianus
to the region that had been
annihilated by Zenobia
. But because Heraclianus was not
actually in the east in 268 (instead, at this time, he was involved in the
conspiracy of Gallienus’ death), we can see that this can not be correct. But
the confusion evident in this passage, which also places the bulk of “Skythian”
activity during 269 a year earlier, under Gallienus, may stem from a later
effort to pile all possible disasters in this year into the reign of the former
Emperor. This would keep Claudius’ record of being a descendant of
Constantine
from being tainted. If this
understanding of the sources is correct, it might also be correct to see the
expedition of Heraclianus to the east as an event of Claudius’ time.
The victories of Claudius over the
Goths
would not only make him a hero in
Latin
tradition, but an admirable choice as an
ancestor for
Constantine
, who was born at
Naissus
, the site of Claudius’ victory in 269.
Claudius is also held in high esteem by
Zonaras
, whose
Greek
tradition seems to have been influenced
by Latin
. For
Zosimus
, a more reasoned contemporary view
shows him as less grand. Claudius’ successes in the year 269 were not continued
in his next year as Emperor. As the “Skythai” starved in the mountains or
surrendered, the legions pursuing them began to see an epidemic spreading
throughout the men. Also, Claudius’ unwillingness to do anything at the siege of
Autun
likely provoked a quarrel with
Zenobia
.
Although it is not proven that the invasion of
Gaul was the breaking point between Claudius and Zenobia, the
sequence of events point to the siege as an important factor. The issue at hand
was the position that
Odaenathus
held as corrector totius orientis.
Vaballathus
, the son of Zenobia, was given this
title when Zenobia claimed it for him. From then on, tension between the two
empires would only get worse.
Heraclianus
‘ fabled arrival might have been an
effort to reassert central control after the death of Odaenathus, but, if so, it
failed. Although coins were never minted with the face of Odaenathus, soon after
his death coins were made with image of his son.
Under Zabdas
, a
Palmyrene
army invaded
Arabia
and moved into
Egypt
in the late summer. At this time, the
prefect of Egypt was Tenagino Probus, described as an able soldier who not only
defeated an invasion of
Cyrenaica
by the nomadic tribes to the south in
269, but also was successful in hunting down “Skythian” ships in the
Mediterranean
. However, he did not see the same
success in Egypt, for a Palmyrene underground, led by
Timagenes
, undermined
Probus
, defeated his army, and killed him in a
battle near the modern city of
Cairo
in the late summer of 270.
Generally when a Roman commander is slaughtered it is taken as a sign that a
state of war is in existence, and if we can associate the death of
Heraclianus
in 270, as well as an inscription
from
Bostra
recording the rebuilding of a temple
destroyed by the Palmyrene army, then these violent acts could be interpreted
the same way. Yet they apparently were not. As David Potter writes, “The coins
of Vaballathus
avoid claims to imperial power: he
remains vir consularis, rex, imperator, dux Romanorum, a range of titles that
did not mimic those of the central government. The status vir consularis was, as
we have seen, conferred upon
Odaenathus
; the title rex, or king, is simply a
Latin
translation of mlk, or king; imperator in
this context simply means “victorious general”; and dux Romanorum looks like yet
another version of corrector totius orientis” (Potter, 263). These titles
suggest that Odaenathus’ position, not unlike a king in the
Semitic
world, was inheritable. In Roman
culture, the status gained in procuring a position could be passed on, but not
the position itself. It is possible that the thin line between office and the
status that accompanied it were dismissed in Palmyrene court, especially when
the circumstance worked against the interests of a regime that was able to
defeat
Persia
, which a number of Roman emperors had
failed to do. Vaballathus stressed the meanings of titles, because in Palmyrene
context, the titles of Odaenathus meant a great deal. When the summer of 270
ended, things were looking very different in the empire than they did a year
before. After its success,
Gaul was in a state of inactivity and the empire was failing in the
east. Insufficient resources plagued the state, as a great deal of silver was
used for the
antoninianus
, which was again diluted.
Religion
An account written by Aurelius Victor states that Claudius consulted the
Sibylline Books
prior to his campaigns against
the Goths
. Hinting that Claudius “revived the
tradition of the Decii”, Victor illustrates the senatorial view, which saw
Claudius’ predecessor,
Gallienus
, as too relaxed when it came to
religious policies.
Links to
Constantinian dynasty
The unreliable
Historia Augusta
reports Claudius and
Quintillus having another brother named Crispus and through him a niece,
Claudia, who reportedly married Eutropius and was mother to
Constantius Chlorus
.Some historians suspect
this account to be a
genealogical
fabrication, however, intended to
link the family of
Constantine I
to that of a well-respected
emperor.
Saint Valentine
Claudius Gothicus has been linked to
Saint Valentine
since the
Middle Ages
. Contemporary records of his deeds
were most probably destroyed during the
Diocletianic Persecution
on early 4th century
and a tale of martydom was invented in Passio Marii et Marthae, a
“fanciful” work published in the 5th or 6th century. 20th-century historians
agree that the accounts from this period are not historically accurate.The
legend refers to “Emperor Claudius” but
Claudius I
did not make any persecution against
Christians, so people assigned him to be Claudius II even although this emperor
spent most of his time warring outside of his territory.Furthermore, there is no
evidence, outside of St. Valentine’s legends, for Claudius II reversing
Gallienus
‘s policy of toleration for
Christians.The legend was retold in later texts. In the
Nuremberg Chronicle
of 1493 AD, the emperor
martyred the Roman priest during a general persecution of Christians. The text
states that St. Valentine was beaten with clubs and finally beheaded for giving
aid to
Christians
in Rome.The
Golden Legend
of 1260 AD recounts how St.
Valentine refused to deny Christ before the “Emperor Claudius” in 270 AD and as
a result was beheaded. Since then, February 14 marks
Valentine’s Day
, a day set aside by the
Christian church in memory of the Roman priest and physician.
In
ancient Roman religion
, Ceres (
Latin
: Cerēs)
was a goddess
of
agriculture
,
grain crops
, fertility and motherly
relationships. She was originally the central deity in Rome’s so-called
plebeian
or
Aventine Triad
, then was paired with her
daughter Proserpina
in what Romans described as “the
Greek rites of Ceres”. Her seven-day April
festival
of
Cerealia
included the popular
Ludi Ceriales (Ceres’ games). She was also honoured in the May
lustration
of fields at the
Ambarvalia
festival, at harvest-time, and
during
Roman marriages
and
funeral rites
.
Ceres is the only one of Rome’s many
agricultural deities
to be listed among the
Di Consentes
, Rome’s equivalent to the
Twelve Olympians
of Greek mythology. The Romans
saw her as the counterpart of the Greek goddess
Demeter
, whose
mythology
was
reinterpreted
for Ceres in
Roman art
and
literature
.
Etymology and origins
Ceres’ name may derive from the hypothetical
Proto-Indo-European root
*ker, meaning
“to grow”, which is also a possible root for many English words, such as
“create”, “cereal”, “grow”, “kernel”, “corn”, and “increase”. Roman etymologists
thought “ceres” derived from the Latin verb gerere, “to bear, bring
forth, produce”, because the goddess was linked to
pastoral
, agricultural and human fertility.
Archaic cults to Ceres are well-evidenced among Rome’s neighbours in the
Regal period
, including the ancient
Latins
,
Oscans
and
Sabellians
, less certainly among the
Etruscans
and
Umbrians
. An archaic
Faliscan
inscription of c.600 BC asks her to
provide far (spelt
wheat), which was a dietary staple of the
Mediterranean world
. Throughout the Roman era,
Ceres’ name was synonymous with grain and, by extension, with bread.
Cults and cult themes
Agricultural fertility
Ceres was credited with the discovery of
spelt
wheat (Latin far), the yoking of
oxen and ploughing, the sowing, protection and nourishing of the young seed, and
the gift of agriculture to humankind; before this, it was said, man had
subsisted on acorns, and wandered without settlement or laws. She had the power
to fertilise, multiply and fructify plant and animal seed, and her laws and
rites protected all activities of the agricultural cycle. In January, Ceres was
offered spelt wheat and a pregnant sow, along with the earth-goddess
Tellus
at the movable
Feriae
Sementivae
. This was almost certainly held
before the annual sowing of grain. The divine portion of sacrifice was the
entrails (exta)
presented in an earthenware pot (olla).
In a rural context, Cato the Elder describes the offer to Ceres of a porca
praecidanea (a pig, offered before the sowing). Before the harvest, she was
offered a propitiary grain sample (praemetium). Ovid tells that Ceres “is
content with little, provided that her offerings are
casta
” (pure).
Ceres’ main festival,
Cerealia
, was held from mid to late April. It
was organised by her
plebeian
aediles
and included circus games (ludi
circenses). It opened with a horse-race in the
Circus Maximus
, whose starting point lay below
and opposite to her Aventine Temple;[7]
the turning post at the far end of the Circus was sacred to
Consus
, a god of grain-storage. After the race,
foxes were released into the Circus, their tails ablaze with lighted torches,
perhaps to cleanse the growing crops and protect them from disease and vermin,
or to add warmth and vitality to their growth.[8]
From c.175 BC, Cerealia included
ludi scaenici
(theatrical religious
events), held through April 12 to 18.
Helper gods
In the ancient sacrum cereale a priest, probably the
Flamen Cerialis
, invoked Ceres (and probably
Tellus) along with twelve specialised, minor assistant-gods to secure divine
protection and assistance at each stage of the grain cycle, beginning shortly
before the Feriae Sementivae.
W.H. Roscher
lists these deities among the
indigitamenta
, names used to invoke
specific divine functions.
- Vervactor, “He who ploughs”
- Reparator, “He who prepares the earth”
- Imporcitor, “He who ploughs with a wide furrow”
- Insitor, “He who plants seeds”
- Obarator, “He who traces the first plowing”
- Occator, “He who harrows”
- Serritor, “He who digs”
- Subruncinator, “He who weeds”
- Messor, “He who reaps”
- Conuector (Convector), “He who carries the grain”
- Conditor, “He who stores the grain”
- Promitor, “He who distributes the grain”
Marriage, human fertility and nourishment
Several of Ceres’ ancient Italic precursors are connected to human fertility
and motherhood; the Pelignan goddess
Angitia
Cerealis has been identified with
the Roman goddess
Angerona
(associated with childbirth).[13]
Ceres’ torch was a mark of Roman weddings. Adult males were excluded from
bridal processions; these took place at night and were headed by a young boy,
who carried a torch in honour of Ceres.
Pliny the Elder
“notes that the most
auspicious wood
for wedding torches came from
the spina alba, the may tree, which bore many fruits and hence symbolised
fertility”. Once led thus to her husband’s home, the bride was a matron.[14]
Sacrifice was offered to
Tellus
on the bride’s behalf; a sow is the most
likely
victim
. Varro describes the sacrifice of a pig
as “a worthy mark of weddings” because “our women, and especially nurses” call
the female genitalia porcus (pig).
Spaeth
(1996) believes Ceres may have been
included in the sacrificial dedication, because she is closely identified with
Tellus and “bears the laws” of marriage. In the most solemn form of marriage,
confarreatio, the bride and groom shared a cake made of far, the ancient
wheat-type particularly associated with Ceres.
Funerary statue of an unknown woman, depicted as Ceres holding
wheat. Mid 3rd century AD. (Louvre)
From at least the mid-republican era, an official, joint cult to Ceres and
Proserpina reinforced Ceres’ connection with Roman ideals of female virtue. The
promotion of this cult coincides with the rise of a plebeian nobility, an
increased birthrate among plebeian commoners, and a fall in the birthrate among
patrician families. The late Republican Ceres Mater (Mother Ceres) is
described as genetrix (progenitress) and alma (nourishing); in the
early Imperial era she becomes an Imperial deity, and receives joint cult with
Ops
Augusta
, Ceres’ own mother in Imperial guise
and a bountiful genetrix in her own right.
Laws
Ceres was patron and protector of
plebeian laws
, rights and
Tribunes
. Her Aventine Temple served the
plebeians as cult centre, legal archive, treasury and possibly law-court; its
foundation was contemporaneous with the passage of the
Lex Sacrata
, which established the office and
person of plebeian aediles and tribunes as inviolate representatives of the
Roman people. Tribunes were legally immune to arrest or threat, and the lives
and property of
those who violated this law
were forfeit to
Ceres. The
Lex Hortensia
of 287 BC extended plebeian laws
to the city and all its citizens. The official decrees of the Senate (senatus
consulta) were placed in Ceres’ Temple, under the guardianship of the
goddess and her aediles. Livy puts the reason bluntly: the consuls could no
longer seek advantage by arbitrarily tampering with the laws of Rome. The Temple
might also have offered asylum for those threatened with arbitrary arrest by
patrician magistrates.[20]
Successful prosecutions of those who offended the laws of Ceres raised fines and
property distraints that funded her temple, games and cult. Ceres was thus the
patron goddess of Rome’s written laws; the poet Vergil later calls her
legifera Ceres (Law-bearing Ceres), a translation of Demeter’s Greek
epithet,
thesmophoros
.
Ceres’ role as protector of laws continued throughout the Republican era. The
killing of the tribune Tiberius Gracchus in 133 BC was justified by some as
rightful punishment for attempted tyranny, an offense against Ceres’ Lex
sacrata. Others deplored his killing as murder, because the same “Lex
sacrata” had made his person sacrosanct. In 70 BC,
Cicero
refers to this killing in connection
with Ceres’ laws and cults, during his prosecution of
Verres
, Roman governor of Sicily, for
extortion. The case included circumstantial details of Verres’ irreligious
exploitation and abuse of Sicilian grain farmers, naturally under Ceres’ special
protection at the very place of her “earthly home” – and thefts from her temple,
including an ancient image of the goddess herself. Faced by the mounting
evidence against him, Verres abandoned his own defense and withdrew to a
prosperous exile. Soon after, Cicero won election as
aedile
.
As Ceres’ first plough-furrow opened the earth (Tellus’ realm) to the world
of men and created the first field and its boundary, her laws determined the
course of settled, lawful, civilised life. Crimes against fields and harvest
were crimes against the people and their protective deity. Landowners who
allowed their flocks to graze on public land were fined by the plebeian aediles,
on behalf of Ceres and the people of Rome. Ancient laws of the
Twelve Tables
forbade the magical charming of
field crops from a neighbour’s field into one’s own, and invoked the death
penalty for the illicit removal of field boundaries.[24]
An adult who damaged or stole field-crops should be hanged “for Ceres”. Any
youth guilty of the same offense was to be whipped or fined double the value of
damage.
Ceres protected transitions of women from girlhood to womanhood, from
unmarried to married life and motherhood. She also maintained the boundaries
between the realms of the living and the dead, regardless of their sex. Given
the appropriate rites, she helped the deceased into afterlife as an underworld
shade (Di
Manes), else their spirit might remain to haunt the living, as a
wandering,
vengeful ghost
(Lemur).
For this service, well-off families offered Ceres sacrifice of a pig. The poor
could offer wheat, flowers, and a libation. The expected afterlife for the
exclusively female initiates in the sacra Cereris may have been somewhat
different; they were offered “a method of living” and of “dying with better
hope”.
The mundus of
Ceres
The mundus cerialis (literally “the world” of Ceres) was a
hemispherical pit or underground vault in Rome;
Cato
describes its shape as a reflection or
inversion of the dome of the upper heavens. On most days of the year, it was
sealed by a stone lid known as the
lapis manalis
.[30]
On August 24, October 5 and November 8, it was opened with the official
announcement “mundus patet” (“the mundus is open”), and offerings
were made there to agricultural or underworld deities, including Ceres as
goddess of the fruitful earth and guardian of its underworld portals. While the
mundus was open, the spirits of the dead could lawfully emerge from the
underworld and roam among the living, in what Warde Fowler describes as
‘holidays, so to speak, for the ghosts’. When it was re-sealed, the spirits
returned to the realms of the dead.
The origins and location of the mundus pit are disputed. The days when
the mundus was open are identified in the oldest Roman calendar as
C(omitiales) (days when the
Comitia
met) but by later authors as dies
religiosus
, when it would be irreligious to
perform any official work: this apparent contradiction has led to the suggestion
that the whole mundus ritual was not contemporary with Rome’s early
calendar or early Cerean cult, but was a later Greek import. Nevertheless, the
days when the mundus was open were connected to the official festivals of the
agricultural cycle; the mundus rite of August 24 follows
Consualia
(an agricultural festival) and
precedes Opiconsivia
(another such).
Other than the festivals of
Parentalia
and
Lemuralia
, these rites at the mundus
cerialis on particular dies religiosi are the only known, regular
official contacts with the spirits of the dead, or Di Manes. This may
represent a secondary or late function of the mundus, attested no earlier
than the Late Republican Era, by
Varro
. Warde Fowler speculates that it was
originally Rome’s storehouse (penus) for the best of the harvest, to
provide seed-grain for the next planting, then became the symbolic penus
of the expanded Roman state. In Plutarch, the digging of such a pit to receive
first-fruits and small quantities of native soil was an Etruscan colonial
city-foundation rite.[35]
The rites of the mundus suggest Ceres as guardian deity of seed-corn, an
essential deity in the establishment and agricultural prosperity of cities, and
a door-warden of the underworld’s afterlife, in which her daughter Proserpina
rules as queen-companion to
Pluto
or
Dis
.
Expiations
In Roman theology,
prodigies
were abnormal phenomena that
manifested
divine anger
at human impiety. In Roman
histories, prodigies are clustered around perceived or actual threats to the
equilibrium of the Roman state, in particular, famine, war and social disorder,
and are expiated as matters of urgency. The establishment of Ceres’ Aventine
cult has itself been interpreted as an extraordinary expiation after the failure
of crops and consequent famine. In Livy’s history, Ceres is among the deities
placated after a remarkable series of prodigies that accompanied the disasters
of the
Second Punic War
: during the same conflict, a
lighting strike at her temple was expiated. A fast in her honour is recorded for
191 BC, to be repeated at 5-year intervals. After 206, she was offered at least
11 further official expiations. Many of these were connected to famine and
manifestations of plebeian unrest, rather than war. From the Middle Republic
onwards, expiation was increasingly addressed to her as mother to Proserpina.
The last known followed
Rome’s Great Fire of 64 AD
.[38]
The cause or causes of the fire remained uncertain, but its disastrous extent
was taken as a sign of offense against
Juno
,
Vulcan
, and Ceres-with-Proserpina, who were all
were given expiatory cult. Champlin (2003) perceives the expiations to Vulcan
and Ceres in particular as attempted populist appeals by the ruling emperor,
Nero.
Myths and theology
Ceres with cereals
The complex and multi-layered origins of the Aventine Triad and Ceres herself
allowed multiple interpretations of their relationships; Cicero asserts Ceres as
mother to both Liber and Libera, consistent with her role as a mothering deity.
Varro’s more complex theology groups her functionally with Tellus, Terra, Venus
(and thus Victoria) and with Libera as a female aspect of Liber.[40]
No native Roman myths of Ceres are known. According to
interpretatio romana
, which sought the
equivalence of Roman to Greek deities, she was an equivalent to Demeter, one of
the
Twelve Olympians
of Greek religion and
mythology; this made Ceres one of Rome’s twelve
Di Consentes
, daughter of
Saturn
and
Ops,
sister of
Jupiter
, mother of
Proserpina
by Jupiter and sister of
Juno
,
Vesta
,
Neptune
and
Pluto
. Ceres’ known mythology is
indistinguishable from Demeter’s:
“When Ceres sought through all the earth with lit torches for Proserpina,
who had been seized by Dis Pater, she called her with shouts where three or
four roads meet; from this it has endured in her rites that on certain days
a lamentation is raised at the crossroads everywhere by the matronae.”
Ceres had strong mythological and cult connections with
Sicily
, especially at
Henna (Enna), on whose “miraculous plain” flowers bloomed throughout
the year. This was the place of Proserpina’s rape and abduction to the
underworld and the site of Ceres’ most ancient Sanctuary.[42]
According to legend, she begged Jupiter that Sicily be placed in the heavens.
The result, because the island is triangular in shape, was the constellation
Triangulum
, an early name of which was
Sicilia.[citation
needed]
Temples
Vitruvius
(c.80 – 15 BC) describes the “Temple
of Ceres near the Circus Maximus” (her Aventine Temple) as typically
Araeostyle
, having widely spaced supporting
columns, with
architraves
of wood, rather than stone. This
species of temple is “clumsy, heavy roofed, low and wide, [its]
pediments
ornamented with statues of clay or
brass, gilt in the
Tuscan fashion
“. He recommends that temples to
Ceres be sited in rural areas: “in a solitary spot out of the city, to which the
public are not necessarily led but for the purpose of sacrificing to her. This
spot is to be reverenced with religious awe and solemnity of demeanour, by those
whose affairs lead them to visit it.” During the early Imperial era, soothsayers
advised
Pliny the Younger
to restore an ancient, “old
and narrow” temple to Ceres, at his rural property near
Como. It contained an ancient wooden cult statue of the goddess,
which he replaced. Though this was unofficial, private cult (sacra privata)
its annual feast on the
Ides
of September, the same day as the
Epulum Jovis
, was attended by pilgrims from all
over the region. Pliny considered this rebuilding a fulfillment of his civic and
religious duty.
Images of Ceres
Denarius
picturing Quirinus on the
obverse
, and Ceres enthroned on the
reverse, a commemoration by a moneyer in 56 BC of a Cerialia,
perhaps her first
ludi
, presented by an earlier
Gaius Memmius
as
aedile
No images of Ceres survive from her pre-Aventine cults; the earliest date to
the middle Republic, and show the Hellenising influence of Demeter’s
iconography. Some late Republican images recall Ceres’ search for Proserpina.
Ceres bears a torch, sometimes two, and rides in a chariot drawn by snakes; or
she sits on the sacred kiste (chest) that conceals the objects of her
mystery rites. Augustan reliefs show her emergence, plant-like from the earth,
her arms entwined by snakes, her outstretched hands bearing poppies and wheat,
or her head crowned with fruits and vines. In free-standing statuary, she
commonly wears a wheat-crown, or holds a wheat spray.
Moneyers of the Republican era
use Ceres’
image, wheat ears and garlands to advertise their connections with prosperity,
the annona and the popular interest. Some Imperial coin images depict important
female members of the Imperial family as Ceres, or with some of her attributes.
Priesthoods
Ceres was served by several public priesthoods. Some were male; her senior
priest, the flamen cerialis, also served Tellus and was usually plebeian
by ancestry or adoption. Her public cult at the
Ambarvalia
, or “perambulation of fields”
identified her with
Dea Dia
, and was led by the
Arval Brethren
(“The Brothers of the Fields”);
rural versions of these rites were led as private cult by the
heads of households
. An inscription at
Capua
names a male sacerdos Cerialis
mundalis, a priest dedicated to Ceres’ rites of the mundus. The
plebeian aediles
had minor or occasional
priestly functions at Ceres’ Aventine Temple and were responsible for its
management and financial affairs including collection of fines, the organisation
of ludi Cerealia and probably the Cerealia itself. Their cure
(care and jurisdiction) included, or came to include, the
grain supply
(annona) and later the
plebeian grain doles (frumentationes), the organisation and management of
public games
in general, and the maintenance of Rome’s
streets and public buildings.
Otherwise, in Rome and throughout Italy, as at her ancient sanctuaries of
Henna and Catena, Ceres’
ritus graecus
and her joint cult with
Proserpina were invariably led by female sacerdotes, drawn from women of
local and Roman elites: Cicero notes that once the new cult had been founded,
its earliest priestesses “generally were either from Naples or Velia”, cities
allied or federated to Rome. Elsewhere, he describes Ceres’ Sicilian priestesses
as “older women respected for their noble birth and character”. Celibacy may
have been a condition of their office; sexual abstinence was, according to Ovid,
required of those attending Ceres’ major, nine-day festival. Her public
priesthood was reserved to respectable matrons, be they married, divorced or
widowed. The process of their selection and their relationship to Ceres’ older,
entirely male priesthood is unknown; but they far outnumbered her few male
priests, and would have been highly respected and influential figures in their
own communities.
Cult development
Archaic and Regal eras
Roman tradition credited Ceres’ eponymous festival,
Cerealia
, to Rome’s second king, the
semi-legendary
Numa
. Ceres’ senior, male priesthood was a
minor flaminate
whose priesthood and rites were
supposedly also innovations of Numa.[59]
Her affinity and joint cult with Tellus, also known as
Terra Mater
(Mother Earth) may have developed
at this time. Much later, during the
early Imperial era
,
Ovid describes these goddesses as “partners in labour”; Ceres
provides the “cause” for the growth of crops, while Tellus provides them a place
to grow.
Republican era
Ceres and the
Aventine Triad
In 496 BC, against a background of economic recession and famine in Rome,
imminent war against the Latins and a threatened secession by Rome’s
plebs
(citizen commoners), the
dictator
A. Postumius
vowed
a temple to Ceres,
Liber
and
Libera
on or near the
Aventine Hill
. The famine ended and Rome’s
plebeian citizen-soldiery co-operated in the conquest of the Latins. Postumius’
vow was fulfilled in 493 BC: Ceres became the central deity of the new
Triad
, housed in a
new-built Aventine temple
. She was also – or
became – the patron goddess of the
plebs
, whose enterprise as tenant farmers,
estate managers, agricultural factors and importers was a mainstay of Roman
agriculture.
Much of Rome’s grain was imported from territories of
Magna Graecia
, particularly from
Sicily
, which later Roman
mythographers
describe as Ceres’ “earthly
home”. Writers of the
late Roman Republic
and early Empire describe
Ceres’ Aventine temple and rites as conspicuously Greek.[62]
In modern scholarship, this is taken as further evidence of long-standing
connections between the plebeians, Ceres and Magna Graecia. It also raises
unanswered questions on the nature, history and character of these associations:
the Triad itself may have been a self-consciously Roman cult formulation based
on Greco-Italic precedents. To complicate matters further, when a new form of
Cerean cult was officially imported from Magna Graecia, it was known as the
ritus graecus
(Greek rite) of Ceres, and
was distinct from her older Roman rites.
The older forms of Aventine rites to Ceres remain uncertain. Most Roman cults
were led by men, and the officiant’s head was
covered
by a fold of his toga. In the Roman
ritus graecus, a male celebrant wore Greek-style vestments, and remained
bareheaded before the deity, or else wore a wreath. While Ceres’ original
Aventine cult was led by male priests, her “Greek rites” (ritus graecus
Cereris) were exclusively female.
Middle Republic
Ceres and Proserpina
Towards the end of the
Second Punic War
, around 205 BC, an officially
recognised joint cult to Ceres and her daughter
Proserpina
was brought to Rome from southern
Italy (part of
Magna Graecia
) along with Greek priestesses to
serve it.[65]
In Rome, this was known as the ritus graecus Cereris; its priestesses
were granted
Roman citizenship
so that they could pray to
the gods “with a foreign and external knowledge, but with a domestic and civil
intention”. The cult was based on ancient, ethnically Greek cults to Demeter,
most notably the
Thesmophoria
to
Demeter
and
Persephone
, whose cults and myths also provided
a basis for the
Eleusinian mysteries
.
From the end of the 3rd century BC, Demeter’s temple at
Enna, in Sicily
, was acknowledged as Ceres’ oldest, most
authoritative cult centre, and Libera was recognised as Proserpina, Roman
equivalent to Demeter’s daughter
Persephone
.[66]
Their joint cult recalls Demeter’s search for Persephone, after the latter’s
rape and abduction into the underworld by
Hades
. The new cult to “mother and maiden” took
its place alongside the old, but made no reference to Liber. Thereafter, Ceres
was offered two separate and distinctive forms of official cult at the Aventine.
Both might have been supervised by the male
flamen Cerialis
but otherwise, their
relationship is unclear. The older form of cult included both men and women, and
probably remained a focus for plebeian political identity and discontent. The
new identified its exclusively females initiates and priestesses as upholders of
Rome’s traditional,
patrician
-dominated social hierarchy and
mores
.
Ceres and Magna Mater
A year after the import of the ritus cereris, patrician senators
imported cult to the Greek goddess
Cybele
and established her as
Magna Mater
(The Great Mother) within Rome’s
sacred boundary
, facing the Aventine Hill. Like
Ceres, Cybele was a form of Graeco-Roman earth goddess. Unlike her, she had
mythological ties to Troy
, and thus to the Trojan prince
Aeneas
, mythological ancestor of
Rome’s founding father
and first patrician
Romulus
. The establishment of official Roman
cult to Magna Mater coincided with the start of a new saeculum (cycle of
years). It was followed by Hannibal’s defeat, the end of the Punic War and an
exceptionally good harvest. Roman victory and recovery could therefore be
credited to Magna Mater and patrician piety: so the patricians dined her and
each other at her festival banquets. In similar fashion, the plebeian nobility
underlined their claims to Ceres. Up to a point, the two cults reflected a
social and political divide, but when certain prodigies were interpreted as
evidence of Ceres’ displeasure, the senate appeased her with a new festival, the
ieiunium Cereris (“fast
of Ceres”).
In 133 BC, the plebeian noble
Tiberius Gracchus
bypassed the
Senate
and appealed directly to the popular
assembly to pass his proposed
land-reforms
. Civil unrest spilled into
violence; Gracchus and many of his supporters were murdered by their
conservative opponents. At the behest of the
Sibylline oracle
, the senate sent the
quindecimviri
to Ceres’ ancient cult centre at
Henna in Sicily
, the goddess’ supposed place of origin
and earthly home. Some kind of religious consultation or propitiation was given,
either to expiate Gracchus’ murder – as later Roman sources would claim – or to
justify it as the lawful killing of a would-be king or
demagogue
, a
homo sacer
who had offended Ceres’ laws
against tyranny.
Late Republic
The Eleusinian mysteries became increasingly popular during the late
Republic. Early Roman initiates at
Eleusis
in Greece included
Sulla
and
Cicero
; thereafter many
Emperors
were initiated, including
Hadrian
, who founded an Eleusinian cult centre
in Rome itself.
In Late Republican politics,
aristocratic traditionalists
and
popularists
used coinage to propagated their
competing claims to Ceres’ favour. A coin of
Sulla
shows Ceres on one side, on the other a
ploughman with yoked oxen: the images, accompanied by the legend “conditor”,
claim his rule (a military dictatorship) as regenerative and divinely justified.
Popularists used her name and attributes to appeal their guardianship of
plebeian interests, particularly the annona and frumentarium; and
plebeian nobles and aediles used them to point out their ancestral connections
with plebeian commoners. In the decades of Civil War that ushered in the Empire,
such images and dedications proliferate on Rome’s coinage:
Julius Caesar
, his opponents, his assassins and
his heirs alike claimed the favour and support of Ceres and her plebeian
proteges, with coin issues that celebrate Ceres,
Libertas
(liberty) and
Victoria
(victory).
Imperial era
Emperors celebrated imperial and divine partnerships in grain import
and provision. On this
Sestercius
of 66 AD,
Nero
‘s garlanded head is left.
Opposite, a standing
Annona
holds
cornucopiae
(horns of Plenty) and
enthroned Ceres holds grain-ears and torch. Between them on a
garlanded altar, a
modius
(grain measure), and in the
background, a ship’s stern.
Imperial theology conscripted Rome’s traditional cults as the divine
upholders of Imperial
Pax
(peace) and prosperity, for the benefit of
all. The emperor
Augustus
began the restoration of Ceres’
Aventine Temple; his successor
Tiberius
completed it. Of the several figures
on the Augustan
Ara Pacis
, one doubles as a portrait of the
Empress Livia
, who wears Ceres’ corona spicea.
Another has been variously identified in modern scholarship as Tellus, Venus,
Pax or Ceres, or in Spaeth’s analysis, a deliberately broad composite of them
all.
The emperor Claudius
‘ reformed the grain supply and created
its embodiment as an Imperial goddess,
Annona
, a junior partner to Ceres and the
Imperial family. The traditional, Cerean virtues of provision and nourishment
were symbolically extended to Imperial family members with coinage that showed
Claudius’ mother
Antonia
as
Augusta
with corona spicea.
The relationship between the reigning emperor, empress and Ceres was
formalised in titles such as
Augusta
mater agrorum (“The august mother of
the fields) and Ceres Augusta. On coinage, various emperors and empresses
wear her corona spicea, showing that the goddess, the emperor and his
spouse are conjointly responsible for agricultural prosperity and the
all-important provision of grain. A coin of
Nerva
(reigned AD 96–98) acknowledges Rome’s
dependence on the princeps’ gift of frumentio (corn dole) to the masses.
Under Nerva’s later dynastic successor
Antoninus Pius
, Imperial theology represents
the death and
apotheosis
of the Empress
Faustina the Elder
as Ceres’ return to Olympus
by
Jupiter’s
command. Even then, “her care for
mankind continues and the world can rejoice in the warmth of her daughter
Proserpina: in Imperial flesh, Proserpina is
Faustina the Younger
“, empress-wife of Pius’
successor
Marcus Aurelius
.
In Britain, a soldier’s inscription of the 2nd century AD attests to Ceres’
role in the popular syncretism of the times. She is “the bearer of ears of
corn”, the “Syrian Goddess”, identical with the universal heavenly Mother, the
Magna Mater and
Virgo
, virgin mother of the gods. She is peace
and virtue, and inventor of justice: she weighs “Life and Right” in her scale.
During the Late Imperial era, Ceres gradually “slips into obscurity”; the
last known official association of the Imperial family with her symbols is a
coin issue of
Septimius Severus
(AD 193–211), showing his
empress, Julia Domna
, in the corona spicea. After
the reign of
Claudius Gothicus
, no coinage shows Ceres’
image. Even so, an initiate of her mysteries is attested in the 5th century AD,
after the official abolition of all non-Christian cults.
Legacy
The word cereals
derives from Ceres, commemorating her
association with edible grains. Statues of Ceres top the domes of the
Missouri State Capitol
and the
Vermont State House
serving as a reminder of
the importance of agriculture in the states’ economies and histories. There is
also a statue of her on top of the
Chicago Board of Trade Building
, which conducts
trading in agricultural commodities.
The dwarf planet
Ceres
(discovered 1801), is named after this
goddess. And in turn, the chemical element
cerium
(discovered 1803) was named after the
dwarf planet. A poem about Ceres and humanity features in
Dmitri
‘s confession to his brother Alexei in
Dostoevsky’s
The Brothers Karamazov
, Part 1, Book 3,
Chapter 3.
Ceres appears as a character in
William Shakespeare’s
play
The Tempest
(1611).
An aria in praise of Ceres is sung in Act 4 of the opera The Trojans
by Hector Berlioz
.
The goddess Ceres is one of the three goddess offices held in the
The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry
.
The other goddesses are
Pomona
, and
Flora
.
Ceres is depicted on the
Seal of New Jersey
as a symbol of prosperity.
Ceres was depicted on several ten and twenty
Confederate States of America dollar
notes.
A manga by Yuu Watase is known as Ceres Celestial Legend
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