Varro Varius by D.J. Butterfield;

Varro Varius by D.J. Butterfield;

Author:D.J. Butterfield; [Butterfield;, D.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LITERARY COLLECTIONS / General
ISBN: 9780956838148
Publisher: Casemate
Published: 2020-02-19T00:00:00+00:00


Fig. 1: the south-west corner of the Palatine. The scalae Caci are at the top; beyond them (to the south) is the valley of the Circus Maximus. The ‘heroon’ is marked as A. (= Claridge 2010, 130, fig. 51)

In that case we must assume that this ‘hut of Romulus’ and the ‘hut of Faustulus’ mentioned by Solinus are identical.82

However, the auspices scene described by Dionysius (and implied by Solinus) could not possibly have taken place at this site, which is on the west-facing slope of the hill, about five or ten metres below the summit.83 The ‘brow’ of the assumed steps is still some way below the top of the hill, as is shown by the incline of the street immediately above it (perhaps the cliuus Victoriae). What the auspices scene requires is ideally a ‘clear space’ with a good view in all directions, or failing that, at least with a good view eastwards.84 Carandini tries to avoid the problem by making Romulus leave his hut and establish an augural site at the summit;85 but then why should Dionysius have mentioned the hut in the first place? An augur would not choose his tabernaculum and then go to watch from somewhere else.

There is no escape: Solinus’ account is evidently self-contradictory. But we need not attribute the confusion to Varro. In Solinus’ text (1.18), the identification of the site of Faustulus’ hut comes in a digression which used a demonstrably non-Varronian source.86 The easiest explanation is that Varro mentioned Faustulus’ hut as Romulus’ augural tabernaculum, but without saying where it was, and that Solinus wrongly identified it with the hut at the top of the scalae Caci. To get back to Varro’s view, we must look at the evidence for all the various ancient huts that were preserved in Rome in his time.

6. The huts of Romulus

Moralising Roman authors liked to mention the ‘hut of Romulus’ as an exemplary contrast with modern luxury.87 It was on the Capitol, and frequently referred to as a familiar landmark.88 As we have seen, however, Dionysius identified the hut at the top of the scalae Caci as ‘the so-called hut of Romulus’, and Plutarch evidently took the same view: after the union of the Romans and Sabines, he says,

[Titus] Tatius dwelt where the temple of Moneta is now, and Romulus by the so-called ‘steps of Fair Shore’ [sic]. These are near the descent from the Palatine to the Circus Maximus.89

This looks like a revisionist view, attributing the Capitoline hut to the Sabine king and finding an appropriate Palatine dwelling for Romulus.

It is important to understand that there was never a single canonical identification for the hut at the scalae Caci. Its proximity to the temple of Magna Mater (fig. 1) means that it may be the hut that evidently served in the first half of the first century BC as the headquarters of the goddess’s eunuch priests, the Galli.90 The earliest specific identification is in Diodorus’ account of Heracles’ visit to Pallantion, the site of the future Rome, where the hero was received by two of the leading men, Cacius and Pinarius.



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