heavenly laws; they conceived the theory of planetary harmony as a music produced
by the planets.
Late republican philosophers and theologians tried to conceive a rational theolo-
gical system from these philosophical bases, often merged with Chaldean and Stoic
doctrines.
The most influential exponent of Roman Neo-Pythagoreanism was Nigidius
Figulus (see Della Casa 1962). Suetonius (frag. 84 Reifferscheid) defined him as
Pythagoricus et Magus; Augustine (Civ.5.3) as mathematicus, that is, astrologer. Nigidius
had studied in Asia Minor, was a close friend of Cicero, and fought with Pompey
against Caesar, who never revoked his exile. Many Roman members of the upper
classes were adherents of his religious, philosophical, and political sodalicium
(Pseudo-Cicero, In Sallustium invectiva5.14; Scholia Bobiensia in Ciceronem, In
Vatinump. 317 Orelli). Here, probably, the books of Pythagoras and Orpheus, the
mythical musician and theologian, were read (cf. Servius, Bucolica5.10). Nigidius
was looking for new forms of divination, and therefore resorted not only to Etruscan
haruspicy but also to Chaldean horoscopes and even boy mediums who uttered pro-
phecies by means of his spells and rituals (“Fabius had lost 500 denariiand went
to consult Nigidius, who, by means of spells, induced an utterance from some boys,
who told where a bag had been buried with a part of the sum and to whom the
other moneys had been given”: Apuleius, De magia42). His reputation as a caster
of horoscopes was increased thanks to his forecasting of Octavian’s rise to power
(Suet. Augustus94; Cass. Dio 45.1.3 –5) and of the sad destiny of the Pompeian
faction (Lucanus, 1.639 –72).
A Roman from Sora, Valerius Soranus, showed great freedom of mind in dealing
with theological matters. He chose the party of Marius, and Pompey put him to
death. Some verses of his in which he defines Iuppiter as both male and female
were famous: Iuppiter omnipotens regum rerumque deumque/progenitor genetrixque
deum, deus unus et omnes(“Almighty Iuppiter, father and mother of kings, of things,
and gods, only god and all gods”). Varro (Aug. Civ.7.9 =FPLfrag. 3 Morel =
Varro, Curio de cultu deorum, I, p. 35 Cardauns), in his commentary on these verses,
interpreted them as meaning that Iuppiter was the world in which he himself spreads
and also receives his own seed. Valerius Soranus could have taken up an Orphic idea
of divine androgyny (Orph. fragm.81 Kern) and of the identity of Zeus with the
totality (frag. 21 Kern). Cleanthes the Stoic’s Hymn to Zeuspresents similar specu-
lations on the nature of this god. The poet Laevius likewise maintained that Venus
was both female and male (Macr. Saturnalia3.8.3). Granius Licinianus, a contem-
porary scholar of Varro, in his De indigitamentis maintained that Minerva was
the moon (in Arnob. 3.31). These learned theologians were researching into the
true nature of the gods and, as in the Pythagorean tradition, they identified them
with heavenly bodies, with the natural elements, or with numbers and geometrical
figures.
Nigidius and Varro were interested in the religions of oriental peoples, and Varro
also studied Jewish monotheism. He noticed that the Jews admitted no image
of their god, whom he identifies with Iuppiter, and that the Romans too, in the
382 Attilio Mastrocinque