socialization must also be taken into account. Unlike today, cults in classical times
were almost exclusively celebrated at an open-air altar. This open environment had
a direct impact on the conduct of the participants: unrestrained jubilation and
loud exclamations of joy were permitted, even welcomed (Apul. Met.11.17.4).
Presumably, a more stringent code of conduct would have been in place for the
exclusive group of high-ranking members of the priesthood who were being served
collectively in the closed dining halls (triclinia) than for the festive community at
the improvised open-air banquet on the lawn outside.
Space and movement are of central importance in conjunction with the dimen-
sion of time. Human memory requires spatial concepts: objects or spaces gain a
history of their own only through prolonged, continual use. This is why, in a larger
circle of participants, places and their ornamental attributes have a stabilizing effect
on the group; they help create a sense of identity. Venerable statues and cult objects
reaffirm the cult community’s distinctive tradition; its creation is associated with specific
locations. The history of a local cult can be (re)constructed from signs and monu-
ments, sometimes a mere place name will suffice (Varro, Ling.5.152). A complex
sacred landscape is established from the combination and comprehensive spatial
correlation of specific local features. Its history is memorized and renewed in rituals
and processions. The memorial landscape of necropoleisand graves is a special case:
grave markers, steles, and grave inscriptions have a deictic function and secure the
memory of the dead. The mausoleums and rivaling memorial columns can transform
the entire Campus Martius into a landscape of deification.
In extreme cases, the authority of the imperial building programs was invoked to
“overwrite” older visual spaces and their connotations with new sign systems (on
the special case of Augustan Rome see Livy 4.4.4; Favro 1996). Sacred locations in
particular were occupied symbolically by rivaling memorial communities as a means
to win prestige. Religio-political memorial sites, therefore, do not only refer to the
(mythical) past but also point out present claims to future power. Acts of memor-
ization and continuous care by the community do not simply maintain established
sacred landscapes: fresh spatial structures are deliberately created and propagated through
the dedication of new religious buildings, as in the case of the Apollo sanctuary on
the Palatine, which will be considered below. More common than these planned
changes, however, are instances of gradual shift – cult sites that are continually being
shaped and reshaped, extended and amended over centuries. The multi-layered prob-
lems of cult continuity and change are exemplified in the suburban grove for the
local deity of Anna Perenna, which will also be examined below.
Cult Sites in Everyday Life
Rituals performed before the cult image are a means of religious communication and
of tending to the gods: cult images are “woken” in the morning (Apul. Met.11.20.4 –5);
they receive regular meals, are perfumed and clothed, even have their faces painted,
their bodies embellished (CIL2.3386, 14.2215), and are “entertained” with out-
ings and processions, musical and theatrical presentations (Gladigow 1994: 19–24).210 Ulrike Egelhaaf-Gaiser