1 Earliest Rome
1 Earliest Rome 1 Earliest Rome
ILS6U9; Vidman, Sylloge no.556 12.4 Isis To Drusus Fabius Florus Vera[n]us, son of Drusus, of the Palatine tribe, priest of the holy queen , by verdict of her majesty chosen as a devotee of Anubis, 1 councillor in the Augustan village of the Laurentines, chief magistrate, 2 having filled all positions and functions in the fifth shipping corporation of the lighter-men of Ostia, fellow member of the corporations of the five regions of the coloniaof Ostia. To him Flavius Moschylus of senatorial rank, an Isiac of this place, remembering his reverence and chastity, ordered in his will the statue to be put up by his heirs, to an elegant patron who well deserved it. The spot was given publicly by decree of the town council. In honour of the day he was made priest, It was dedicated 17 days before the Kalends of A[pril/August] [the Decii being] consul for the third and first time . The spot was given by Julius Faustinus pontifexof Vulcan and the sacred shrines, by permission of the agent of Flavius Moschylus, during the five-year period of the censorship of Quintus Veturius Firmus Felix Socrates and Lucius Florus Euprepes. 3 along with the officials of the basilica. For the dedication he gave to the councillors 3000 sestertii, 1. On Anubis see 12.4d n.3. 2. The offices of councillor and chief magistrate were inscribed subsequently in place of a line that was erased. 3. The proper local procedures were followed for putting up the statue in a public place. 12.4d The attraction for women Roman writers often claim that women were particularly attracted to the cult of Isis. In the famous (or infamous) satire devoted to the failings of women (see also 8.7b and 13.4), Juvenal criticizes all kinds of female religious excesses: involvement with the Magna Mater (Cybele), with Judaism, with illicit divining and with magical practices. In this passage he is characterizing-venomously - the devotion of a particular woman to the rituals of Isis. It goes without saying that we should be chary of accepting uncritically the views of a male satirist about female religiosity. If ancient crirics mean to imply that women predominated in the cult, they are in conflict with the epigraphic evidence. The subscribing inscriptions suggest: (a) that women did not outnumber men in the cult at all (12.4f for example, refers only to men - though this is, admittedly, an extreme case); (h) that the principal offices in the cult were generally held by men not women. The seeming discrepancy between Juvenal and the epigraphic evidence may be explained in various ways: for example, Juvenal might be expressing the anxiety felt by Roman upper-class men resulting from any independent religious activity on the part of their wives; alternatively, it could be that the cultural misogyny of the authors made them particularly associate women with marginal religious groups, on the lines of the Bacchic women. (See Vol. 1, 96 andn.88; 11.4, 12.1.) 30
12. R E L I G I O U S G R O U P S It needs to be emphasised, however, that the passage, whether or not it reflects the reality of women's religious experience, provides us with important evidence about changing religious attitudes and assumptions in the period. Whether Roman women really broke the ice and jumped into the Tiber is less important to us than the fact that Juvenal associates the Isis cult with a series of novel features: the devotee receives personal instructions from the goddess herself; fanatical commitment requires her to undergo physical torture and deprivation - even to go on a pilgrimage beyond Egypt if so instructed; if she breaks the sex-rules of the cult, even with her own husband, she has to seek forgiveness from Osiris through his priests. Juvenal's hostility may arise at least partly because control of the body and of sexuality had played such a limited part in traditional Roman religious life, normal though the association is for us today. See further: Vol. 1, 287-8, 296-300; Courtney (1980) 328-32; Henderson (1989). Juvenal, Satires 6.522-41 In winter she'll break the ice, enter the river, be immersed three times in the morning Tiber and wash her trembling head in the swirling stream; then she'll crawl, naked and shaking, on bloody knees, across the whole field of the proud king 1 . If white lo so orders, she'll go to the ends of Egypt and bring the required water from hot Meroe, 2 so that she can sprinkle it in the shrine of Isis which stands next to the ancient sheep pens. For, she believes, she is instructed by the voice of the mistress herself- being, no doubt, just the sort of person, in soul and mind, to whom gods would speak in the night! That is why the one who deserves the special, highest honours is Anubis, since he runs about jeering amongst the linen-clad, bald crew of people lamenting . 3 And it's he who begs forgiveness for a wife, whenever she fails to abstain from sex on the forbidden sacred days and incurs the great penalty fixed for wrong-doing between the sheets, and whenever the silver snake is seen to move his head.' 3
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12. R E L I G I O U S G R O U P S<br />
It needs to be emphasised, however, that the passage, whether or not it<br />
reflects the reality of women's religious experience, provides us with important<br />
evidence about changing religious attitudes and assumptions in the period.<br />
Whether Roman women really broke the ice and jumped into the Tiber is less<br />
important to us than the fact that Juvenal associates the Isis cult with a series of<br />
novel features: the devotee receives personal instructions from the goddess herself;<br />
fanatical commitment requires her to undergo physical torture and deprivation<br />
- even to go on a pilgrimage beyond Egypt if so instructed; if she breaks<br />
the sex-rules of the cult, even with her own husband, she has to seek forgiveness<br />
from Osiris through his priests. Juvenal's hostility may arise at least partly<br />
because control of the body and of sexuality had played such a limited part in<br />
traditional Roman religious life, normal though the association is for us today.<br />
See further: Vol. 1, 287-8, 296-300; Courtney (1980) 328-32; Henderson<br />
(1989).<br />
Juvenal, Satires 6.522-41<br />
In winter she'll break the ice, enter the river, be immersed three times in the morning<br />
Tiber and wash her trembling head in the swirling stream; then she'll crawl, naked and<br />
shaking, on bloody knees, across the whole field of the proud king 1<br />
. If white lo so orders,<br />
she'll go to the ends of Egypt and bring the required water from hot Meroe, 2<br />
so that she<br />
can sprinkle it in the shrine of Isis which stands next to the ancient sheep pens. For, she<br />
believes, she is instructed by the voice of the mistress herself- being, no doubt,<br />
just the sort of person, in soul and mind, to whom gods would speak in the night! That is<br />
why the one who deserves the special, highest honours is Anubis, since he runs about<br />
jeering amongst the linen-clad, bald crew of people lamenting . 3<br />
And it's he who begs forgiveness for a wife, whenever she fails to abstain from<br />
sex on the forbidden sacred days and incurs the great penalty fixed for wrong-doing<br />
between the sheets, and whenever the silver snake is seen to move his head.' 3<br />
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