ProQuest Dissertations - Historia Antigua

erstwhile monuments of Fregellae imprinted on its Sabellic inhabitants, who thenrecreated the architectural shape in their common sanctuary. At the very least, Fregellaewas one of the forerunners of this architectural trend.Such a close location to, and contemporaneous monumentalization with, thecomitium and curia complex, suggests that the forum temple venerated a cult with apolitical character. This is confirmed by the total absence of ex votos found at the templethus far. The temple was probably the location of sacrifices before assemblies thatoccurred in the comitium and curia, but not a center for the more personal sort of worshipthat accumulated small terracotta offerings for the god. Based on an inscription to thegoddess Concordia found in Fabrateria Nova, 35 the substitute colony founded after thedestruction of Fregellae, and the political nature of the forum temple, Coarelli suggeststhat the temple was dedicated to Concordia.This seems a likely attribution. In Rome,the tribune Gnaius Flavius dedicated a temple of Concordia in the forum in 304 BCE,when tensions between plebeians and patricians were running high.The personificationof Concordia was one of a number of new, abstract deities inspired in Rome in the latefourth and early third centuries through contact with the Greeks in Southern Italy. 38Homonoia, the Magna Grecian and Sicilian equivalent of Concordia, symbolized thepolitical shift from an oligarchy to democracy, and the cult served as a religious guarantor3iCIL X 5574.36 Coarelli (1998), p. 60. There is a parallel cult to Concordia in the forum of Cosa.37 Livy 9.46. Two notes about this passage: first, this is the incident that prompted the senate to affirm thatonly generals and consuls could dedicate temples in Rome. Second, Livy said Gnaius Flavius also servedon the commission to found a colony, although no colony is mentioned. The coincidence between the refoundingof Fregellae in 313 or 312, a temple of Concordia in the forum of Fregellae, and Flavius' knownconnection with Concordia is intriguing, but there is not enough evidence to link these events conclusively.38 Curti (2000), p. 80. Cf. Giangiulio (1982), pp. 981-92.