ProQuest Dissertations - Historia Antigua

etween the mixed Sabellic and Latin Fregellans and their Aumncan and Campanianneighbors to the south.Finally, Hercules cults are also connected with sheep farming and transhumance,such as that practiced in the Sacco and Litis Valleys. 54Again, this might have links withthe third wave of Fregellan colonists, who moved to the area in part because of itseconomic prosperity. 55More excavation is needed to determine if the date of thesanctuary allows us to posit that it was something the Samnites and Paeligni brought withthem, or if these new inhabitants adopted this extant and familiar cult to help ease theirrelationship with their new Latin fellow-townsmen. All we can say with any certaintynow is that Hercules was worshipped with the pocula deorum, which were inspired byRoman custom. 5Fregellae also boasted several extra-urban sanctuaries, the most prominent ofwhich was the sanctuary of Aesculapius, located northwest of the city on an elevated spurin the terraces overlooking a possible route to a port on the Liris. 57From the end of thefourth century, the site was the location of a healing cult, which left little trace in theterrain but an abundance of votive terracottas. 58The cult seems to have honored a water53 Torelli (1993), pp. 114-117.54 Y or for a pecuaria in the region see CIL X 5074 (Atina); 5850 (Ferentinum). A parallel cult at AlbaFucens suggests there may have been aforumpecuarium near the sanctuary of Hercules in Fregellae. Thehouses in Fregellae from the second century BCE had rooms ideal for the washing of wool, which confirmsthat the forum was most likely for sheep instead of cattle.55 Frayn(1993),p.99.56 See the discussion of these artifacts in chapter 5, pp. 216-217.57 Coarelli (1998), p. 62 and Fregellae 2 (1986). Coarelli notes that the sanctuary may not have been builtoutside the city walls, but perhaps only outside ihepomerium, because of the foreign and medical characterof the cult. This suggestion is based on some blocks found halfway down the hillside, which may be wall orpart of the road to the port (cf. Monti (1999), p. 38), and also the assumption that the cult was consideredforeign outside of Rome, which is uncertain.58 Monti (1999), p. 36; Lippolis (1986), pp. 38-41; Cornelia (1986), pp. 75-81.164