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THE CORNELII AND JUPITER: A CASE STUDY IN THE MANIPULATION OF TRADITIONAL RELIGION BY AN ARISTOCRATIC ROMAN KINSHIP GROUP
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 March 2023
Abstract
The Cornelii were one of the oldest and most prestigious Roman gentes, extended family kinship groups, in Republican Rome. Various members and branches advertise some kind of connection to Jupiter, Jupiter Optimus Maximus in particular, notably Scipio Africanus, but he was certainly not the only Cornelius to do so. Numismatic evidence has long suggested some kind of claimed relationship between the Cornelii and Jupiter. The Cornelian connection to the religious office of flamen Dialis (high priest of Jupiter) is more proof that their claims to be associated with Jupiter were accepted by Roman society. Some later branches of the Cornelii, notably the Sullae, began to prefer Venus instead, but a connection with Jupiter was still explicable via the genealogy of the Trojan royal house.
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References
1 For a sketch of the gens, to which this introduction is indebted, see F. Münzer, RE s.v. ‘Cornelius’, 1249. For the tribus Cornelia, see Taylor, L., Voting Districts of the Roman Republic, reprinted with updates by Linderski, J. (Ann Arbor, 1960/2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. 272. Their special holiday: Macrob. Sat. 1.16.7: ‘There are besides festivals for specific families, for example, the Claudian family or Aemilian, or Julian or Cornelian and each family observes some special festivals for the performance of their own household celebrations.’ (sunt praeterea feriae propriae familiarum, ut familiae Claudiae vel Aemiliae seu Iuliae sive Corneliae et siquas ferias proprias quaeque familia ex usu domesticae celebritatis observat).
2 For an attempt at creating family trees to explicate how some of the early and later Cornelii might have been related, see F. Münzer, RE s.v. ‘Cornelius’, 1,290 (for the Cornelii Maluginenses and Cornelii Cossi of the fifth and fourth centuries), 1,359–60 (for the Cornelii Lentuli), 1,429–30 (for the Cornelii Scipiones), and 1,515 (for the Cornelii Rufini and Cornelii Sullae). Second and third cognomina are sometimes termed agnomina, though the word agnomen has no Classical usage and seems rather to be an invention of later grammarians: Badian, E., ‘The House of the Servilii Gemini: A Study in the Misuse of Occam's Razor’, PBSR 52 (1988), 6Google Scholar.
3 Oppius and Hyginus ap. Gell. NA 6.1.6 = FRHist 40 F1–2 for Oppius and 63 F3–4 for Hyginus. Cf., Liv. 26.19.6–9, Val. Max. 1.2.1, Sil. Pun. 13.637–44 (Pomponia tells Scipio he is the son of Jupiter), Dio Cass. 16.39 (cf. Dio Cass. 17.63), and [Aur. Vict.] De vir. ill. 49.1. A. Mastrocinque, ‘P. Cornelio Scipione Africano e la campagna d'Asia’, CISA 8 (1982), 101–22 has suggested that this legend was based on propaganda in the build-up to the war with Antiochus III, setting up Africanus as Hercules/Alexander going eastward for conquest.
4 For Oppius, see C. Smith and T. Cornell, FRHist 3.483. For Hyginus, see P. Toohey, ‘Politics, Prejudice, and Trojan Genealogies: Varro, Hyginus, and Horace’, Arethusa 17 (1984), 5–28, R. Kaster, C. Suetonius Tranquillus. De Grammaticis et Rhetoribus (Oxford, 1995), 205–8, and B. Levick and T. Cornell, FRHist 3.553.
5 Sil. Pun. 8.293–6 (describing Aemilius Paullus, killed at Cannae in 216): his family's originator, Amulius, had Assaracus as his ancestor, and Assaracus Jupiter. Other myths of the Aemilii and Aeneas, e.g. Plut. Rom. 2.3: Aemilia, the daughter of Lavinia and Aeneas, was actually the mother of Romulus and Remus, and Paul. Fest. 22L: Aemylos and Iulus were sons of Ascanius. See T. Wiseman, ‘Rome and the Resplendent Aemilii’, in H. Jocelyn and H. Hurt (eds.), Tria Lustra (Liverpool, 1993), 111, for these linkages and more.
6 See T. Wiseman, ‘Legendary Genealogies in Late-Republican Rome’, G&R 21 (1974), 153, using primarily Suet. Galb. 2: Emperor Galba (of the Sulpicii Galbae) displayed a family tree in his house's atrium that made Jupiter his ancestor. Earlier, a C. Sulpicius had produced a coin possibly alluding to the Trojan claims of the Sulpicii (RRC 312/1, dated to 106); see Wiseman with G. Farney, Ethnic Identity and Aristocratic Competition in Republican Rome (Cambridge, 2007), 259–60. For the emperor's other genealogical pretensions, see H. Jucker, ‘Der Ring des Kaisers Galba’, Chiron 5 (1975), 349–64, and O. Hekster, ‘Descendants of Gods: Legendary Genealogies in the Roman Empire’, in L. DeBlois, P Funke, and J. Hahn (eds.), The Impact of Imperial Rome on Religions, Ritual, and Religious Life in the Roman Empire (Leiden, 2006), 28–33.
7 See H. Flower, ‘The Destruction of the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus in 83 bc’, in G. Gardner and K. Osterloh (eds.), Antiquity in Antiquity. Jewish and Christian Pasts in the Greco-Roman World (Tübingen, 2008), 74 ff., for ancient sources and earlier modern bibliography on the cultic and cultural significance of the Capitolium and Capitoline Jupiter.
8 All three called summi imperatores in ILLRP 192 (see with note). For Jupiter Imperator, see Liv. 5.29.8 (for the statue), Cic. Verr. 2.4.129, and Plin. Pan. 4.5.3–5.
9 For which, see A. Thein, ‘Capitoline Jupiter and the Historiography of Roman World Rule’, Histos 8 (2014), 284–319, and for more discussion of the literary sources for the temple and its especially on its foundation.
10 Oppius and Hyginus ap. Gell. NA 6.1.6 (= FRHist 40 F1–2 for Oppius and FRHist 63 F3–4 for Hyginus): Scipio went up to the Capitolium late in the night, before the break of day, and gave orders that the cella of Jupiter not be opened while he presumably consulted him; the temple guards were amazed that the guard dogs didn't bark at him. Liv. 26.19.1–9: Scipio acted mystically; he would go to the Capitolium before any public or private business and would sit down in the temple passing time alone; he did this throughout his life. Val. Max. 1.2.2: Scipio never engaged in public or private affairs without spending time in Capitoline Jupiter's temple privately. App. Hisp. 88–9: Scipio seemed heaven-inspired; he went to Capitolium seeking advice and shut the doors behind him. Dio Cass. 16.38–9: Scipio possessed an exceptional mind and piety; he would never undertake any public or private matter without going to Capitolium and spending time there. [Aur. Vict.] De vir. ill. 49.2–3: Scipio would go up to the Capitolium at night and the guard dogs wouldn't bark; he would stay a long time in the cella of Jupiter to receive the god's advice. For discussion of these sources and Polyb. on Scipio's divine pretensions, see F. Walbank, ‘The Scipionic Legend’, PCPS 13 (1967), 59–69, followed by H. Flower, Ancestor Masks and Aristocratic Power in Roman Culture (Oxford, 1996) 50. Polyb. plainly stated that he would not deal in legendary matters, genealogical ones in particular (9.1–2). He argued that Africanus did not just benefit from divinely inspired good fortune, but rather did them by calculation and foresight (10.2–3). He preferred to view Africanus’ mystical behaviour, which he could not otherwise ignore, as a practical ruse to convince his troops that he was infallible (10.2.12; 10.5.4–8).
11 To the previous note add: C. Laelius (cos. 190) ap. Polyb. 10.4–5, esp. 10.5.4–8: some people believed he communed with gods in his sleep, and later while awake. Oppius and Hyginus ap. Gell. NA 6.1.7–11 (= FRHist 40 F1–2 for Oppius and FRHist 63 F3–4 for Hyginus): Scipio predicts the future conquest in Spain publicly. App. Hisp. 73: Scipio, divinely inspired, said it was the gods’ will he conquer Spain. App. Pun. 25: Scipio had divine approval and heaven-sent advice in all matters.
12 Flower (n. 10), 48–52.
13 For the funerary banquet, with some other known specific instances of them, see G. Sumi, ‘Power and Ritual: The Crowd at Clodius’ Funeral’, Historia 46 (1997), 99–100.
14 Cic. Mur. 75–6, Val. Max. 7.5.1, Sen. Ep. 95.72 and 98.13.
15 Ep. 98.13: ‘Tubero judged his frugality to be worthy of himself and the Capitolium, when by using earthenware vessels in a public dinner he showed that man ought to be content with those things the gods use even now.’ (Tubero paupertatem et se dignam et Capitolio iudicavit, cum fictilibus in publica cena usus ostendit debere iis hominem esse contentum, quibus di etiamnunc uterentur). Cf. Sen. Ep. 95.72. From the context it is not entirely clear that Sen. understood it was a funerary banquet, and not some other kind of public one, but it is clear from the description of the objects used in the notorious banquet (similar to those described in Cic. and Val. Max. in the citations above) that he is referring to the same event, and that it was held on the Capitolium.
16 For discussion of the identity of the P. Scipio listed as a flamen Dialis in the ‘Tomb of the Scipios’, see Flower (n. 10), 167–8, who tentatively considers him to be Scipio Africanus’ son. G. Sumner, Orators in Cicero's Brutus (Toronto, 1973), 36–7, followed by MRR 3.70, suggests that he was an otherwise unattested grandson. See more below on the priesthood.
17 App. Pun. 104: ‘When from afar the army saw him [sc. Scipo Aemilianus] safe and having saved the others, against all expectation, they shouted out with joy and started to be believe that a divinity attended to him, the same one which also seemed to show to his grandfather Scipio the future.’ καὶ αὐτὸν ἡ στρατιὰ μακρόθεν ἰδοῦσα ἐξ ἀέλπτου περισεσωσμένον τε καὶ περισώσαντα τοὺς ἑταίρους μέγα ἠλάλαξαν ἡδόμενοι καὶ δαιμόνιον αὐτῷ συλλαμβάνειν ἐδόξαζον, ὃ καὶ τῷ πάππῳ Σκιπίωνι προσημαίνειν ἐδόκει τὰ μέλλοντα.
18 App. Pun. 109: ‘The army led Scipio to the ship saying words of good omen and praying that he return back to Libya as consul because he was the only person who could take Carthage. For a divine inspiration took hold of them, that only Scipio could take Carthage. And, many sent words back to their relatives at Rome to this effect.’ καὶ ὁ στρατὸς ἐπὶ τὴν ναῦν καταθέοντες εὐφήμουν τὸν Σκιπίωνα καὶ ηὔχοντο ὕπατον ἐς Λιβύην ἐπανελθεῖν ὡς μόνον αἱρήσοντα Καρχηδόνα. θεόληπτος γάρ τις αὐτοῖς ἥδε ἡ δόξα ἐνέπιπτεν, Σκιπίωνα μόνον αἱρήσειν Καρχηδόνα· καὶ πολλοὶ ταῦτα τοῖς οἰκείοις ἐς Ῥώμην ἐπέστελλον.
19 See J. Alvar, Romanising Oriental Gods, trans. and ed. by R. Gordon (Leiden, 2008), 60–2.
20 Liv. Epit. 55, Val. Max. 9.14.3 (Serapio was the name of a victimarius, an attendant that performed the actual act of sacrificing animals), Plin. HN 7.54 (Serapio was the name of the ‘foul slave of a swine-dealer’, suarii negotiatoris vile mancipium), and 21.10 (Serapio was a swine-dealer, a ‘negotiator suarius’); cf. Quint. Inst. 6.3.57.
21 Plin. HN 7.54 mentions another Cornelius Scipio who got the name ‘Sallutio’ from a look-alike actor: he seems to mean P. Cornelius Scipio Salvitto, cos. suff. 35. Moreover, yet another Cornelius took a cognomen from his resemblance to an actor: P. Cornelius Lentulus, cos. 57, got the cognomen Spinther at a stage-performance during his consulship (Val. Max 9.14.4, Plin. HN 7.54, and Quint. Inst. 6.3.57). Like the first Serapios, Spinther's son also kept this name, as we know from his coins: RRC 500 (dated to 43–2) of P. Cornelius Lentulus Spinther, Q. 44. Thus, we seem to know of three Cornelii who took extra cognomina from looking like low-born men – some kind of odd Cornelian family tradition? Or perhaps a kind of running joke that, while being high-born, they resembled low-born people?
22 For Roman attitudes towards Egyptians and their deities in the Republic, see B. Isaac, The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity (Princeton, 2004), 352–70, esp. 356–9.
23 Lucr. 3.1034, Cic. Balb. 34, Verg. Aen. 6.842, Val. Max. 3.5.1, and Sil. Pun. 7.106.
24 H. Munro, T. Lucreti Cari de rerum natura libri sex (Cambridge, 1864), 2.273 ff., followed by T. Wiseman, ‘The Minucii and their Monument’, in J. Linderski (ed.), Imperium Sine Fine (Stuttgart, 1996), 68. Lightning bolts, as part of the iconography of Jupiter, do appear on some coin-issues of Scipios noted below. The first attested Scipio in our records is P. Cornelius Scipio, tr. mil. c.p. 395, probably from the Cossus or Maluginensis lines of the Cornelii: F. Münzer RE s.v. ‘Cornelii (317ff.) Scipiones’, 1,426, and H. Etcheto, Les Scipions. Famille et pouvoir à Rome à l’époque républicaine (Paris, 2012), 158.
25 Macrob. Sat. 1.16.7. Of interest here, Etcheto (n. 24), 34–5, has rehabilitated an argument that the images of staves that appear on four coin-issues struck between 208 and 195 (i.e. RRC 106, dated to 208; RRC 112, dated to 206–195; and RRC 130–1, dated to 206–200 bce) are scipiones, and that the moneyers are alluding to their own name or to that of Scipio Africanus. He points to a very similar depiction of a staff decorating an inscription from Delos honouring Africanus in the year 189 (SIG 617). For reservations about the identification of the staff depicted on coins and the scipio, see M. Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage (Cambridge, 1974), 194–6.
26 See M. Daly, ‘Seeing the Caesar in Germanicus: Reading Tacitus’ Annals with Lucan's Bellum Civile’, Journal of Ancient History 8 (2020), 118, for Alexander the Great being described as a ‘lightning bolt’, as Julius Caesar would be later. It seems possible that this tradition, like Scipio's birth legend, was inspired by Alexander.
27 J. Balsdon, ‘Sulla Felix’, JRS 41 (1951), 1–10, and S. Weinstock, Divus Julius (Oxford, 1971), 16–17; but see K.-W. Weeber, ‘Troiae Lusus – Alter und Entstehung eines Reiterspiels’, AncSoc 5 (1974), 189 ff., and N. Horsfall, ‘The Aeneas-Legend from Homer to Virgil’, in J. Bremmer and N. Horsfall (eds.), Roman Myth and Mythography (London, 1987), 23.
28 Coin of P. Cornelius Sulla with head of Venus: RRC 205/2–6; at Crawford (n. 25), 250, are his comments comparing this coin with all denominations of RRC 313 of L. Memmius Gal. (dated to 106) with types of Venus and Cupid on them, and his discussion of their claimed Trojan origins.
29 Balsdon (n. 27). See Crawford (n. 25), 386 ff., for the coins in particular.
30 Plut. Cat. Mi. 3.1. Weeber (n. 27) argued that Sulla was reinstituting the Trojan games to advertise his Trojan descent via Venus.
31 Flower (n. 7), 74–92. I would like to thank the anonymous reviewer of this article for this point.
32 Republican coins of the Cornelii alluding to Jupiter with their types: RRC 296, 310, 311, 345, 397, 439, 445, 459, 460, and 549. Coins of non-Cornelii with Jupiter: RRC 221, 227, 238, 241, 248, 256, 257, 269, 271, 273, 276, 279, 285, 325, 348, 350A, 358, 385, 391, 420, 422, 447, 449, 487, 509, and 546. This count does not include early coins with Jupiter-types on them, wherein no moneyer was identified (RRC 28–34, 42), nor those with Jupiter on them as the standard type for the victoriatus or half-victoriatus denominations, for which, see Crawford (n. 25), 864. The interpretations of these types, other than new observations I make below, are drawn from traditional ones for these coins, especially as they are noted in Crawford, who cites earlier bibliography.
33 Several known Cornelian moneyers struck before ‘private-types’ on coins became common: RRC 62, perhaps of a L. Cornelius Lentulus, striking between 213 and 208; RRC 81, of Cn. Cornelius Dolabella, striking between 211 and 208; RRC 178 of a (L.?) Cinna, perhaps later cos. 178, striking between 169 and 158; and RRC 189 of P. Cornelius Blasio, also striking between 169 and 158. Various Cornelii Sullae, including the dictator, favour Venus on their coins, for possible reasons that have already been discussed. Otherwise, P. Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus, born a Claudius Marcellus, strikes coins (RRC 397) in 100 of relevance to his biological father's family, the Claudii Marcelli (see Crawford [n. 25] 329 –30, and Farney (n. 6) for discussion of these coin-types), and L. Cornelius Lentulus Spinther strikes coins (RRC 300) with Brutus and Cassius during the Philippi campaign, and their types are of Libertas and various priestly implements: they seem to be focused on the cause at hand instead of on family promotion. L. Cornelius Balbus, cos. suff. 40, struck coins in 41 with Caesar (RRC 518) that do not allude to Jupiter, yet Balbus was a native of Gades and not from the patrician gens Cornelia, who seems to have acquired citizenship through the agency of a Cornelius Lentulus at the instance of Pompey.
34 Crawford (n. 25), 310–11.
35 Coins of Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus: RRC 345/2, dated to 88 (but see MRR 3.67–8 for the earlier identification of this moneyer with P. Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus).
36 See Crawford (n. 25), 409.
37 Coins of P. Marcellinus: RRC 549/1 (dated to 59–8), perhaps minted in Antioch, and dated to his praetorian governorship of Syria, so probably 59–8.
38 RRC 445/1–3 (minted in Apollonia and then in Asia): some have head of Jupiter on obverse (3a–b), others Jupiter standing on reverse with eagle and thunderbolt (1–2). 3a notably has an image of Artemis of Ephesus on the reverse. For Pompey's lieutenants’ coins and types chosen, see Crawford (n. 25), 737–8. By comparison, the obverse of 445/1a has the triskeles, the three-legged figure, a symbol of Sicily, in allusion to Marcellus’ familial connection to Sicily, which was also a theatre of war at this time; also, while travelling with the army in 49, Cn. Calpurnius Piso minted 446/1 on behalf of Pompey, which has the obverse type of King Numa Pompilius, the claimed ancestor of the Calpurnii Pisones; 444/1–2 minted in part by the Pompeian C. Coponius, again while travelling, have types of Hercules, which allude to his family's origin from Tibur where Hercules Victor was the most important deity.
39 RRC 439, dated to 50: obverse has what is assumed to be the head of M. Marcellus (cos. V 205) and the inscription MARCELLINUS; the reverse has Marcellus carrying a trophy into a temple with MARCELLVS and COS QUVINQ inscribed on it. See MRR 3.69 for the moneyer's identity, following Crawford's suggestion. He was a descendant of a Claudius Marcellus adopted into the Cornelii Lentuli, and hence his cognomen Marcellinus: see E. Badian, ‘The Consuls, 179–49 bc’, Chiron 20 (1990), 396. For Cornelius Cossus and the spolia opima, see MRR 1.59 with discussion of sources and different dates given for the event; 437 is the Livian date.
40 RRC 311/1a–e, dated to 106. The obverses have laureate heads of Jupiter and the reverses Jupiter in a quadriga holding a scepter and hurling a thunderbolt.
41 RRC 459/1 and RRC 460/1–2, both dated to 47–6.
42 A. Burnet, M. Amandry, and P. Ripollès (eds.), Roman Provincial Coinage. Volume 1 (London, 1992), coin #2,392 of P. Scipio, dated to after 9, and minted at Pitane in Asia. Zeus Ammon was traditional to the coinage of Pitane, but here the moneyer's bust is juxtaposed with Zeus Ammon. C. Eilers, ‘The Proconsulship of P. Cornelius Scipio (cos. 16 bc)’, CQ 51 (2001), 201–5, discusses some of the issues surrounding the portraits of proconsular governors appearing on provincial coinage, and re-dates those of P. Scipio to ‘12/10 bce?’.
43 Burnet, Amandry, and Ripollès (n. 42), coin #710 from Hippo Regius, dated to 6/5. For other imperial Cornelii Scipiones descended from Metellus Scipio, see M. Castelli, ‘Dedica onoraria di età tiberiana a due membri della famiglia degli Scipioni’, MÉFRA 104 (1992), 177–208.
44 RRC 296/1a–l, dated to 112/11.
45 RRC 310/1, dated between 118 and 107.
46 E. Badian, ‘Waiting for Sulla’, JRS 52 (1962), 47, considers the Sisennae to be patrician Cornelii; cf. E. Badian, ‘Where was Sisenna?’, Athenaeum 42 (1964), 422, and E. Badian, ‘The Early Historians’, in T. Dorey (ed.), The Latin Historians (New York, 1966), 25. I would also note that the known praenomina of the Sisennae (P., L., and Cn.) are those favoured by most patrician branches of the Cornelii. Contra, E. Rawson, ‘Caesar, Etruria and the disciplina etrusca’, JRS 58 (1978), 150, and E. Rawson, ‘L. Cornelius Sisenna and the Early First Century bc’, CQ 29 (1979), 328–9, who believes that the Sisennae were not patrician. Curiously, MRR 1.86 ff. and 3.73 lists the historian as a patrician with a question mark, but earlier Sisennae are not marked as such.
47 RRC 288/1, dated to 115 or 114, discussed in detail at Farney (n. 6), 255–6.
48 P. Cornelius Sulla, (ca. 250), P. Cornelius Scipio (in the 180s or 170s: see MRR 3.70 and above, in discussion of the Cornelii Scipiones), Cn. Cornelius (174–?), and L. Cornelius Merula (?–87). For sources of these, see J. Rüpke, Fasti Sacerdotum (Oxford, 2008), 630ff. Note also M. Cornelius Cethegus, a flamen of an unknown type who was forced to abdicate ca. 223: R. Palmer, ‘The Deconstruction of Mommsen on Festus 462/464L, or the Hazards of Interpretation’, in J. Linderski (ed.), Imperium Sine Fine (Stuttgart, 1996), 90, thinks he was a flamen Dialis.
49 See M. DiLuzio, A Place at the Altar. Priestesses in Republican Rome (Princeton, 2016), 17–51, emphasizing the cooperative, complementary roles (and constraints) of the flamen and flaminica.
50 Sources on Caesar and Cornelia's flamonia: MRR 2.52 and 3.105. It is unclear if Caesar and Cornelia had taken up their priesthoods officially or not. For discussion, see, e.g., M. Leone, ‘Il problema del flaminato di Cesare’, in Studi di storia antica offerti dagli allievi a Eugenio Manni (Rome, 1976), 193–212. For the flaminica Dialis, see K. Hersch, The Roman Wedding (Cambridge, 2010), 279–86, citing for her religious role Paul. Fest. 82L: ‘the flaminica was accustomed to use flame-colored clothing, that is, the wife of the Dial flamen and priest of Jupiter, whose weapon of lightning was the same color.’ (flammeo vestimento flaminica utebatur, id est Dialis uxor et Iovis sacerdos, cui telum fulminis eodem erat colore).
51 For a collected list of all known flamines, see J. Vanggaard, The Flamen (Copenhagen, 1988), 70–3, to which Palmer (n. 48), 90–1, adds perhaps a few more. Vanggaard ibid., 74–6, and Palmer ibid., 90–1, specifically note the dominance of the Cornelii in the flamonium Diale.
52 Vanggaard (n. 51), 73–6.
53 Sources and evolution of this ritual: J. Linderski, ‘Religious Aspects of the Conflict of Orders: The Case of confarreatio’, in K. Raaflaub (ed.), Social Struggles in Archaic Rome (Berkeley, 1986), 244–61; S. Treggiari, Roman Marriage (Oxford, 1991), 21–4; Hersch (n. 50), 277–82; and DiLuzio (n. 49), 19–23.
54 This is emphasized by Linderski (n. 53), 245–56.
55 See Linderski (n. 53), esp. 259–61.
56 Cn. Cornelius Dolabella was rex sacr. 208–180: see Rüpke (n. 48), 634. On his death, his son or other relative (a nephew?), L. Cornelius Dolabella, was selected to be rex but refused to abdicate the office of IIvir nav. 180 to take up the regnum sacrorum (Liv. 40.42.8–10). In the Empire, Cn. Pinarius Cornelius Severus served as rex in the 110s ce: see Rüpke, ibid., 840.
57 As noted by B. Rawson, The Family in Ancient Rome (Ithaca, 1986), 20.
58 These are rightly noted by J. Rüpke, On Roman Religion. Lived Religion and the Individual in Ancient Rome (Ithaca, 2016), 34–6.
59 The family tradition is mentioned to us in literary sources in reference to the dictator Sulla, who was believed to have been the first Cornelius to be cremated out of fear of desecration of his grave: Cic. Leg. 2.56–7 and Plin. HN 7.187; cf. App. B Civ. 1.105–6 stating that Sulla's body was first displayed in his funeral parade before being cremated in Campus Martius. There is also the fact that we have surviving elements of the ‘Tomb of the Scipios’ and from it several sarcophagi of Republican Cornelii: see L. Richardson, A New Topographical Dicionary of Ancient Rome (Baltimore, 1992), 359–60; Flower (n. 10), 159 ff.; and F. Zevi, LTUR s.v. ‘Sepulcrum: (Corneliorum) Scipionum’, 281–5, for the architecture and decoration of the Tomb.
60 Among other senatorial Republican families, only the Popillii are also known to inhumed their dead (Cic. Leg. 2.55; see n. 65 below). The discovery of sarcophagi in the tomb of the senatorial Domitii, however, may indicate that they did as well; for the ‘Sepulcrum Domitiorum’, see Richardson (n. 59), 355. For cremation and inhumation in the Roman world, see J. Toynbee, Death and Burial in the Roman World (Ithaca, 1971), 39–42, who points out that practices varied from time period to time period, but during most of the Republic and early Empire cremation was the norm (e.g. Tac. Ann. 16.6, who calls cremation the Romanus mos, i.e. the standard Roman custom).
61 For the taboos of the flamen Dialis, the main sources are N. Fab. Pict. ap. Gell. NA 10.15 (see Peter, HRRel. 1.114 for this as his F2 of the antiquarian N. Fabius Pictor) and Plut. Mor. 289E–91C; cf. Dio Cass. ap. Zonar. 7.21 and Tzetz. Chil. 13.51–3 for bells hanging from triumphal chariots and condemned prisoners so that those who might be tainted by looking upon them could avoid them. For a discussion and collection of the ancient sources on the caerimoniae of the flamines, see R. Palmer, ‘Ivy and Jupiter's Priest’, in Homenaje a Antonio Tovar (Madrid, 1972), 341–7; Vanggaard (n. 51), 88–104; and DiLuzio (n. 49), 34–36. G. McIntyre, ‘Camillus as Numa: Religion in Livy's Refoundation Narratives’, Journal of Ancient History 6 (2018), 72–3, has noted that Liv. 1.20.2 describes the flamen Dialis as adsiduus, sometimes translated as ‘perpetual’, but perhaps rather meaning ‘always in attendance’; in other words, obliged to be in the city of Rome at all times, which would be another great restriction upon the priest.
62 Other sources of Merula's suicide: Val. Max. 9.12.5 (says Merula died in Iovis sacrario, in the cella of Jupiter in the Capitolium) and Vell. 2.2.2 (says Merula called curses down on Cinna and Rome's government, as App. does). Flower (n. 7), 80–1, draws the connection between Merula's suicide and the burning of the temple four years later.
63 I would again like to thank the anonymous reviewer for pointing this out to me.
64 Serv. Dan. 4.262: ‘The laena is a type of vestment. This is actually a double toga, an augural cloak. Some call it the “round cloak”: others the “double toga.” Girt in this the flamines perform their sacred acts. Some say that the wearing of the laena was endowed to a son of Venus, because the race of Venus claimed this cloak for itself: whence the Popillii, who claimed they were born from Venus, were called “Laenates” after this garment. Others hand down that the inventor of this garment was called Laenas from his invention of the vestment itself.’ (laena genus est vestis. est autem proprie toga duplex, amictus auguralis. alii amictum rotundum: alii togam duplicem, in qua flamines sacrificant infibulati. quidam tradunt bene filio Veneris habitum laenae datum, quia hunc sibi amictum genus Veneris vindicavit: unde Popillii Laenates propter hunc habitum, qui se de Veneris genere ortos ferebant. alii inventorem huius vestis ab hac ipsa veste Laenatem appellatum tradunt). However, Cic. Brut. 56 says that the first Popillius Laenas (as cos. 359) was performing his duties as flamen Carmentalis, high priest of the goddess Carmenta, when a riot broke out among the people; Popillius went before them still clad in his laena (as Cic. specifies) and, by wearing this badge of office and using his oratorical skills, he awed the people into quiescence. His narrative does not directly say so – but it seems safe to assume – that this was the moment when he thought the family got the cognomen Laenas. For the laena, see L. Cleland, G. Davies, and L. Llewellyn-Jones, Greek and Roman Dress from A to Z (New York, 2007), 108–9, and J. Edmonson, ‘Public Dress and Social Control in Late Republican and Early Imperial Rome’, in J. Edmonson and A. Keith (eds.), Roman Dress and the Fabrics of Roman Culture (Toronto, 2008), 29: it has been hard to identify the laena in artistic media, but perhaps it is depicted on one of the figures on the Ara Pacis. For the flamen and flaminica's clothing, and the latter's role in weaving them from special materials, see DiLuzio (n. 49), 36–42. See n. 60 above for Popillian inhumation practices.
65 For Scipionic invincibility in Africa, see Plut. Caes. 52, Plut. Cat. Min. 57.3, Suet. Iul. 59, and Dio Cass. 42.57.5–58.1. These testimonia in our sources appear in narratives just as Caesar is about to engage with Cato and Metellus Scipio in Africa as part of the civil war with the Pompeians (note Metellus Scipio's coins above). To counter this, Caesar brought with him P. Cornelius Scipio Salvitto (perhaps later cos. 35) as an officer and had him lead various attacks on the Pompeians. See MRR 3.72 and R. Billows, ‘The Last of the Scipios’, AJAH 7 (1982), 53–68, for more on this line of the Scipios. See n. 21 for the origin of the cognomen Salvitto. These Scipiones Salvittones (later Scipiones Salvidieni Orfiti?) will last until the Severan period, holding several consulships (see PIR 2 C1442–8 with a proposed stemma).
66 See Gruen, E., Studies in Greek Culture and Roman Policy (Leiden, 1990), 5–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar, for the Trojan subtextual meaning of the advent of the Magna Mater to Rome.
67 See Smith, C., The Roman Clan (Cambridge, 2006), esp. 299ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.
68 So Farney, G., ‘The Trojan Genealogy of the Julii before Caesar the Dictator’, AHB 27 (2013), 49–54Google Scholar.