religious connection is preserved through a Christian church to the present day. Another
excellent example is at Satricum, where it would appear that religious activity may
have begun around 800 bcaround a natural spring, and then developed with suc-
cessive votive deposits and a sequence of religious buildings, culminating in a major
and impressive temple, which included the dedication stone with the now famous
inscription to a Publius Valerius by his suodales. The temple is dedicated to Mater
Matuta, who is the partner of Fortuna in the S. Omobono site, and is surrounded
by buildings which may be dining halls rather than private dwellings (C. Smith 1999).
Certainly the existence of communal dining spaces in relation to cultic space is par-
alleled in the Greek world, and the curiaeof Rome, early divisions of the Roman
people, dined together and worshiped together (Palmer 1970; C. Smith 2006). Once
again, though, we are reminded that the continuity of cult, as well as similarities
across Latium, make Rome’s religion as complex and highly developed across time
and space as was its social and political development.
Festivals and Gods
The centrality of the festival is obvious, and work at Satricum on distinguishing the
different layers of votive deposits may demonstrate recurrent visitation and worship
(Bouma 1996; C. Smith 1999). Whilst the funeral cannot be predicted, and how-
ever public and ostentatious it may be, it is also fundamentally about a private event,
and whilst at least some depositions in votive deposits may be private acts, Roman
and Latin festivals give a strong structure to the year and to the nature of religious
practice. Much of Latium was shaped by the activities of the now extinct volcanoes
that form the mountains around Alba Longa, and which were, and still are on a fine
day, visible from Rome. Standing on the Capitol, and looking down the Via Sacra,
one’s eye is drawn to the distant shape of the mountains, and this was precisely the
line which was used to divide the sky and watch for omens, especially birds. Such
augural lore is probably of great antiquity but developed by precedent and elabora-
tion. In the classical period, there were still festivals at Alba Longa in which the Roman
and Latin elite participated together, and nearby at Bovillae, the clan of the Julii,
around 100 bc, dedicated to the god Vediovis (who may have represented their and
Alba Longa’s founder, Iulus). Cult, festival, and religious symbolism therefore clung
to Alba Longa for centuries after it had ceased to be a significant population center
(Alföldi 1965; the key passage is Pliny Nat.3.69–70).
This was only one of several festivals where Romans and others from Latium
gathered. Perhaps the most famous archaeological setting is at Lavinium, allegedly the
burial place of Aeneas, where a complex of altars, all in a line, has been found; though
we cannot date with precision the procession of magistrates from Rome to Lavinium
(it is sometimes placed in the fourth century), the three altars of the sixth century
and the archaic dedications suggest it was a major cult center (Torelli 1984; see Beard
et al. 1998: 2.12–14). We also know of a temple to Diana at Aricia where the Latins
worshiped, and Servius Tullius built a temple to Diana, perhaps as a claim that Rome
36 Christopher Smith