The Tetrastylum (building with 4 pillars in Greek language) was one of the buildings forming the complex of the Arval sanctuary, today located at Magliana Vecchia, at the foot of the sacred grove of the goddess Dia. Unfortunately, it was not identified during the excavation campaigns held by the École française de Rome in 1975 […]
The Caesareum
The Caesareum or aedes Divum (Temple of the Divine Caesars) was part of the complex of the Arval sanctuary today located at Magliana Vecchia, at the foot of the sacred grove of the goddess Dia. It was a minor temple where deceased and deified emperors (Divi) were worshipped: the Arvals immolated animal victims in their […]
The Arvals
The Fratres Arvales, or Arval Brothers or Brethren, in the Roman world were the priests who supervised the worship of the goddess Dia, the “luminous” goddess who protected the final maturation of cereals (fruges) with her beneficial light. The goddess Dia was later also identified with the Ceres. The Arval priests were 12 high-ranking senators […]
Acta Arvalium
The acta Arvalium or acta fratrum Arvalium are the records of the rites performed by the Arval priests. These documents are the only known evidence to date of how the worship practices of Roman priests functioned. The members of the priestly college of the Arvals drafted the acta first on codices, which were wax tablets […]
The Circus
The circus was one of the buildings forming the complex of the sanctuary of the Arval brethren, today located at Magliana Vecchia, at the foot of the sacred grove of the goddess Dia, where the Arvals held rites to propitiate the fertility of the fields and a good cereal harvest. Unfortunately, the circus was not […]
The Thermal Baths
The thermal baths, or balneum, of the Fratres Arvales consisted in one of the buildings twitch formed the Arval complex today located at Magliana Vecchia, at the foot of the sacred grove of the goddess Dia. The magister and the other Arval brethren went to the baths of the lucus deae Diae (the grove of […]
Papiliones
Papilio, papiliones in the plural, means butterfly in Latin. In a military context, the papiliones were the soldiers’ multicoloured tents, perhaps due to the “butterfly-wing” shape they had when laid out on the ground before being pitched. Another hypothesis is that papilio referred to a wing, intended as the side of a larger structure (as […]
Via Campana
It is named after latin Campus Salinarum Romanum, the salt pans the mouth of the Tiber river, today known as Stagni di Maccarese. Known since the 8th century BC, the road started at the Forum Boarium, where salt trade was held since the origins. It exited the city through the Porta Trigemina along the Servian […]
Damasian Basilica
From the beginning of the 4th century for about 80 years, the pagan worship of the goddess Dia and the Christian one of the Portuensian Martyrs coexisted, with the temple of the goddess Dia at a very short distance from the Catacomb of Generosa. Possibly the latter prevailed over the former, anyway without completely replacing […]