Postscript to theLupercalia: fromCaesar

toAndromachus
J. A. NORTH

Our

two articles on the Lupercalia

AND

NEIL

MCLYNN

have examined

two moments

in the Festival's

long

more than500 yearsapart.There can be no questionof reconstructing

history,themselves
centuries,of tracingthesteps
anydetailednarrativeof developmentsover theintervening
by which

theRomans

travelled from Caesar's

Carnival

to the one Gelasius

so passionately

deplored; at bestwe can surveywhat littleevidence thereis and look fordifferencesin

different
periods.Our own main concernhas been to emphasizepositive aspects of the
- thefunand games of theactual celebrations,themajor invest
Lupercalian tradition
ment of theRoman elites in theirmaintenance and meanings, the rich inheritanceof
There
historicalcircumstances.
historytobe exploredand exploited in suchverydifferent
is,however,a negativeand criticalside toancientcommentson theFestival thatmust also
be respected. It is in fact sometimes suggested that itwas because

the Luperci were such a

moral disgrace thatAugustushad to implementa fundamentalreform.

'Vectigalia Juliana Lupercis ademistis.' Lupercorum mentionem facere audet?

'You took away from theLuperci the Julian funds.' Dares he mention theLuperci?

voice isAntonyon i9 September44 B.C.E.,evidentlycomplainingthattheSenate

The first
withdrawnsupportfromthenew groupofLuperci,ofwhom he had been
had effectively
the leader and of whom we never hear again.' The second voice isCicero's later comment
suggesting that the final outcome of the events of i5 February was Antony's disgrace,

of course,Cicero is thinking
of the
Primarily,
which hewould wish tobe utterlyforgotten.
offer of kingship to Caesar, but he takes into the sweep of his rhetoric the nakedness, the
drunkenness, even the being a Lupercus. The inference might be drawn that not just

discredited
Antony,but theLuperci and theirFestivalwere an archaicsurvival,thoroughly
Is there any substance to this idea?
by the late Republic.
In summer 46 B.C.E., Cicero's nephew, the son of his brother Quintus, had been chosen
as a Lupercus. Cicero was distinctly sniffy about this achievement: 'Quintus ... nihil sapit

qui laeteturLuperco filio ..... Two points stand out: firstthatQuintus regarded the
honour asworthyof celebration,even ifMarcus did not; secondly,thattheappointment
had to tryand borrow from
involvedraisingmoney thatQuintus, in financialdifficulties,
Atticus.The likeliestexplanationofMarcus' sneer,apart fromsiblinghostilityand the
issue of themoney,

is thatMarcus

thought that young Quintus

should be aiming at more

prestigiouspriesthoods;being an augurwas a reason to celebrate,not being a Lupercus.

in 46 B.C.E.was preparingfor thenew
There is also thepossibilitythat therecruitment
mightbe seen as political innocence
groupofLuperci Juliani,inwhich caseQuintus' folly

1
Cicero, Philippics 13.31; see above p. 146. For the only other reference to a third group, see above North, p. 145
and n. 8. The mention here of funds withdrawn by the Senate and of the costs of becoming a Lupercus, in the Cicero
letter referred to below n. 2, is not unimportant, in view of our inadequate knowledge of the financing of the priestly
See in general, J. Riipke, Fasti Sacerdotum,
Potsdamer Altertumswissenschaftliche
colleges under the Republic.
Beitr?ge 12 (2005), Teil 3, 1457-71.
2
=
...', Cicero, ad Att. 12.5.1
242.1 (SB).
'Quintus ... is a half-wit to be pleased at his son's becoming a Lupercus
JRS 98 (zoo8), pp. I76-i8i. ? World Copyright Reserved.
Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman

Studies 2008

POSTSCRIPT

TO

THE

LUPERCALIA:

FROM

CAESAR

TO

ANDROMACHUS

I77

at least in theview ofMarcus.3Moral repugnanceat naked youngmen seems to us to

be theleast likelyofmany possible explanations.4
A passage ofCicero's proCaelio, deliveredin56B.C.E.,has also been thoughtto support
theidea of theLuperci as a discreditedand disgracefulorganizationin theseyears:
This sodalitasmustbe somekindof savagesocietyandpatentlyfitonlyforshepherds
and
rustics,thisof thebrotherly
Luperci,whose woodlandmeetingsdate frombeforethe
and law,ifindeed
dawnofcivilization
membersnotonlysueone another,
butevenallege
membership
of thesodalitasas partof an accusation,so they
mightseemtobe nervous
thatperhapssomebody
mightnotknow.5
M. Caelius Rufus,whom hewas defending,
BothCicero's friend
and one of theprosecu
tors,L. HerenniusBalbus,were, as Balbus had evidentlypointedout, fellow-members
of
theLuperci.6The prosecutor'spurposewill surelyhave been to showhow ungracious,un
gentlemanlyand treacherousa youngman Caelius was. Cicero's response is first,to
suggestthatbothmen, not justCaelius, are, inbeingopponentsat law,behavinginways
thatgood sodales shouldnot; and secondly,to turnthesmeardirectedat his clientintoa
witty rebukeagainstbothmen. If fellow-members
go about suingone another like this,
then(saysCicero) thesodalitasmust be justas wild as onemightexpect,consideringthat
itwas createdbefore thedawn of law and order.The evocationof theviolentmythical
past is surelyto be understoodas an elegant joke and cannot in itselfbe used to tellus
anythingat all about thestandingof theLuperci at thisdate.One might in factmake three
inferences
fromthepassage: first,that theLuperci still includedveryaristocraticyoung
membersat thisdate; secondly,thatCicero himselfknew a good deal about thecharacter
of theLupercan tradition;7
thatCicero can implythattheprosecutorisbeingnaive
thirdly,
tomentionCaelius' membership,presumablybecause themembershipof the sodalitas
would be known to everybodyalready.
cannotprovideanyfoundationforthetheory
Such shifting
sandsofCiceronian rhetoric
thatAugustus reformedtheLuperci, tamedtheir
wild ways, andmade thema respectable
We do know of some alleged
fellowship,
acceptable tobourgeoisstandardsof behaviour.
changes in theearlyEmpire: accordingtoSuetonius inhis infamoussummaryof theso
called 'Augustanrevival',theywere recreatedaftera period of oblivion and givena new
rule, thatthe runshouldnot includeimberbes(beardlessyoungmen).8The formersug
gestion seems to be virtuallyfiction;9the latteris no doubt trueand presumablyset an
effective
age limiton theyoungmen blooded in theLupercal each year.But didAugustus
thanthis?
go further

to refer to the selection of three new members,

Cicero
seems, on the obvious
interpretation of his words,
this might reflect recruitment for the new Juliani, but if they ran for the first time in
including young Quintus;
February 44 b.c.e., the summer of 46 b.c.e. seems rather early for this to be happening. For the three recruits:
'Les sacerdoces ?questres',
in S. Demougin
and M. Th. Raepsaet-Charlier
J. Scheid and M. G. Granino Cecere,
(eds), L'ordre ?questre: histoire d'une aristocratie
(1999), 129: Luperci C (Quintus Cicero), D
(Statius), and E
(Philotimus); inRiipke, op. cit. (n. 1), Teil 2: Biographien, Cicero is no. 3292 (p. 1329); Statius is no. 3145 (p. 1299);

Philotimus is no. 2705 (p. 1208).

4
as members: Letters to Atticus
Shackleton Bailey thinks of snobbery because liberti were acceptable
(1966),
no. 242, p. 303.
5
26: 'Fera quaedam
sodalitas et plane pastoricia
Cicero, pro Caelio
atque agrestis germanorum Lupercorum,
quorum coitio ilia siluestris ante est institu?a quam humanitas atque leges, siquidem non modo nomina deferunt
inter se sodales, sed etiam comm?morant
sodalitatem in accusando, ut ne quis id forte nesciat timere uideantur.'
6
For the membership of the Luperci: see Scheid and Granino Cecere, op. cit. (n. 3), 84-5; 129-34; I45-^- Caelius
B (p. 129); in Riipke, op. cit. (n. 1), Teil 2: Biographien, Caelius
is Lupercus A (p. 129); Herennius
is no. 1007

(p. 837); Balbus is no. 1887 (p. 1030).

7
Remus: a Roman Myth
On which see T. P. Wiseman,
(1995), 84-5.
8
Suet., Augustus 31.4: 'Lupercalibus vetuit currere imberbes.'
9
Pope Gelasius and the Lupercalia
(1974), 14-15, took it literally, inferring that the
Though A. W. J. Holleman,
in 44 b.c.e. and revived by the Augustan reforms.
whole Festival was abolished

J. A.

178

NORTH

AND

NEIL

MCLYNN

ValeriusMaximus makes an explicitconnectionbetweentheyouthof theequestrisordo

and the two annual festivalsinwhich theyparaded throughthe streetsof Rome: the
Lupercalia on I5 Februaryand thetransvectio
equitumon theIdesof July.10
Early imperial
representations
of youngequites,as Paul Veyne arguedas longago as i960,11confirmthat
thesetwo ritualsand participationin themhad become in some sense theinitiationof the
eques. So forinstance,Claudius Liberalis,whose deathwas recordedby his parents in a
monument fromTibur, isdisplayedon opposite facesof themonument,once on horse
back and once half-nakedand carryinga whip (PI. III).12His age at death is given in the
inscriptionas sixteenyears, five
months, and twenty-one
days. The word Lupercus does
not in factoccur in theinscription,
butLiberalis isdescribedas sodalis desiderantissimus,
to thesodalitasof theLuperci;13or perhapshe had
whichmay quitepossiblybe a reference
been nominatedas a member,but not yetmade his firstrun.
ValeriusMaximus was writingin theearlyyearsofTiberius' reign,and theimplication
has been drawn thatas part ofAugustus' reforms,theLuperciwere down-gradedin their
levelof recruitment,
and restrainedfromthedisreputableways thatcharacterizedthemin
thelateRepublic.14The outward signof thisalleged reform
would be theirchangeof cos
tumefroma goatish loin-clothto thefullclothingof theirlowerbody and legs,and also
fromthewhipmade of stripsof skinfromthesacrificed
goat to a properlymade upwhip.
Itcertainlyseemsquite clear thatLiberalis'monumentand otherslikeit15implysomenew
elementin theroleof thesodalitas inRoman society;butwhetherwe need topostulatea
radical reformbyAugustus is farmore disputable.
It isnot always recognizedhow radical thereform
would have needed tobe, ifthisview
should be taken at face value. The republicanrunners,it is universallybelieved, ran
dressedonly in a loin-cloth
made fromtheskinof a freshlysacrificed
goat and carryinga
whip consistingof stripscut fromtheskinof thevictim,bothderivedfromthesacrificeat
theLupercal in thefirst
halfof theritual.16If themonumentofLiberalis in factshowshim
as a runnerreadyforhis run,thenwe have to accept thattherehas been a completesever
ance of therunnersfromthesacrificialritual.Gone is thegoatskin loin-cloth;gone is the
whip cut fromtheskinof thevictim;gone is thenakednessof therunners.
Worse still,if
thereformbelongs to theperiodofAugustus'main reforms
and is supposedlyreflectedin
thepassage ofValeriusMaximus, writtenin thereignofTiberius, thenwe must accept the
- Ovid andValeriusMaximus writing in
implicationthatall theearly imperialsources
theearlydecades of the firstcenturyand Plutarch late in the firstor early in thesecond
- arewritingafterthisradical reformhad takenplace. It is,however,precisely
century17
- thesacrificeof thegoats, the
theseauthorswho provideuswith thecrucial information
use of thefreshly
killed skinsas clothingand forthewhip, thenakednessof therunners.
10

Valerius Maximus
2.2.9.
11
P. Veyne, 'Iconographie de la "transvectio equitum" et des Lupercales',
REA 62 i960, 100-12.
12
For Liberalis, see Scheid and Granino, op. cit. (n. 3), Lupercus 11, p. 131; inR?pke, op. cit. (n. 1), he is no. 1202
(p. 883).
13
The text is:
TI. CLAUDIO

LIBERALI

PRAEF.FABR.

EQVO

PUBLICO FILIO OPTIMO

PIISSIMO DULCISSIMO
SODALI DESIDERANTISSIM

VIXIT

.ANNIS

.XVI

MENSIBVS.V.DIEBUS.XXI

PARENTES INFELICISSIMI

= CIL
(Inscr.Ital. 4.1 (Tibur), no. 155
VI.3512.)
14
See, e.g. Holleman,
op. cit. (n. 9), 14-22; P. Zanker, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus
(1988), 129.
15
(Statuae Lupercorum habitu\ MDAI(RA)
90 (1983), 185-200, with Taf.
Veyne, op. cit. (n. 11), 102-6; H. Wrede,
64-6; 68-72.
16
Above North, pp. 147-8.
17
Ovid, Fasti 2.267-380;
Plutarch, Romulus
21.4-10; Valerius Maximus,
op. cit. below (n. 18).

POSTSCRIPT

TO

THE

LUPERCALIA:

FROM

CAESAR

TO

ANDROMACHUS

I79

Valerius, forinstance,is tellinghis storyof theoriginalcreationof therunbyRomulus and

Remus:
... when theyhad performed
a sacrifice
bykillinggoats,and, spurredon by thegaietyof
thebanquetand by largequantitiesofwine, theysplittheherdsmenintotwogroups,and
with theskinsof thevictimsthey
<dressedonly in loincloths>struckat thebystanders
had sacrificed.
The memoryof thisfunand gamesis renewedby theannualcircuitof the
festival.18

He could hardlytellusmore clearlythatinhis time,after

Augustus'death, theritualin the
Lupercal, completewith goats, skins,makeshiftwhips and hilarity,
was stillbeingcarried
out as italwayshad been.
a sharpcontrastbetweentheimplications
of theliterarytextsand the
There is therefore
picturepresentedby themonuments of the imperialperiod, not least the image of
Liberalis.There are twomain differences:
first,theapparentlychangeddressof theLuper
cus and thenatureof thewhip he carries; secondly,the seemingincreasein drama, as
shownparticularlyin a sarcophagusscene fromtheCatacomb of St Praetexta (P1.IV)19
and ina mosaic fromThysdrus,20inbothofwhich thereseemsto be a deliberatebeating,
we have been arguingforin theearlierperiod.The sarcophagus,
not just thepassing flick
which on artisticgroundsshouldbelong to the lastdecade of the thirdcenturyC.E.,was
found in a Christiancontext,with an inscriptioninmemoryofAelia Afanacia which is
The inscription
must have been addedwhen
dated to themiddle of thefourthcentury.21
thesarcophaguswas used or re-used.The panel inquestionused tobe thoughtto show the
torturing
of a martyr;22
but it isnow beyonddoubt thatthesceneshows a Lupercus in the
act of using hiswhip. It follows that the familyofAelia Afanacia,when theychose or
adapted hermonument,must have been close to the thinkingthatmust have influenced
Andromachusas well, viz. thattheLupercaliawas a Roman streettradition,
not a pagan
challengetoChristianity.
It is temptingto tryto go further
thanthis,to extractmoremeaning fromthesescenes,
of thefigures
and so to infertheirreligiousimpactthroughtheinteractions
depicted;at the
same time,it ishard tobe other thanscepticalabout suchefforts,
when twodistinguished
commentators
'cold-bloodedformal
have found in thesame setof images,respectively,
and exactlytheopposite.24Itneverthelessseemssignificant
that inboth thesethird
ity'23
of the ritual,theLupercus shares the spotlightwith thevictim
centuryrepresentations
hoistedup in frontof him,herbuttocksconspicuouslyexposed.Whatever else thismight
be, it ispresentedas a spectacle.

18
'... facto sacrificio caesisque
turba,
capris epularum hilaritate ac uino largiore prouecti, diuisa pastorali
annuo circuitu
obuios pellibus immolatarum hostiarum iocantes petiuerunt. cuius hilaritatis memoria
cinct<ut>i
feriarum repetitur' (Val. Max.
2.2.9). The MS reading ... cincti obuios ... does not make sense as it is: the rare but
precisely relevant cinctuti (dressed in loincloths) seems to us almost certain (see Ovid, Fasti 5.101; Horace, Ars 50);
the word obuios:
i.e. *... cincti pellibus
immolatarum hostiarum <obuios>
other possibilities
include moving
iocantes petiuerunt', as suggested by Briscoe, Teubner edition (1998), 97; or postulating a lacuna after cincti: i.e. '...

cincti <.. .> obuios pellibus etc'

19
W. N. Schumacher,
der Aelia Afanada',
'Antikes und Christliches zur Auspeitschung
Jahrbuch f?r Antike und
n-12
H.
Fruchbarkeitsritus
oder
Solin
and H.
Christentum
(1968-9),
65-75;
Brandenberg,
'Paganer
zu Rom', DAI:
inMuseum
Zum Grabrelief der Elia Afanacia
der Pr?textat-Katakombe
Martyriumsdarstellung?

1980, 271-84.
Arch.Anzeig.
20
inThysdrus
des Mois
(El Djem). See H. Stern, 'Un calendrier romain illustr?
February mosaic, from theMaison
NS 5 (1963), 30-52 (pi. 32.4). Schumacher, op .cit. (n. 19), 67-8; D. Parrish,
de Thysdrus
(Tunisie)', AttAccNazLinc
Season Mosaics
of Roman North Africa (1984), 156-60; cat. no. 29, pis 42 and 43.
21
Solin and Brandenberg, op. cit. (n. 19), 271-5.
22
Solin and Brandenberg, op. cit. (n. 19), 271; 275-84.
23
'The god of the Lupercal', JRS 85 (1995), 16: 'The high spirits have disappeared'.
T. P. Wiseman,
24
et al. (eds), City States in Classical Antiquity and Medieval
K. Hopkins,
'From blessing to violence', inA. Molho
Italy (1991), 481-2 and n. 9: 'Romans were dangerously different' (p. 482).

J. A.

i80

NORTH

AND

NEIL

MCLYNN

We have twosuggestionsto reconciletheliterary

with theartisticevidence.The memo
rialsof equites,we suggest,show a Lupercus,not poised and readyfortheLupercalia run,
wearing a dressuniform,
but rather
markinghismembershipwith referencetohis 'naked
ness' and to theritualgear, but not attemptingto representtherealitythatwas, on this
We have no opinion as towhether thisshould
view,only to be seenon i5 Februaryitself.
orwhetherthiswas how theLupercidid
ofpresentationin thereliefs,
be seenas an artifice
infactdresswhen holdingmeetingson otherdays thani5 February.Eitherseemspossible;
ofPlutarch's (seemingly
eye-witness)testimony.
bothwould restorethecredibility
The intensifying
drama, on theotherhand, is in factreferredto in the literaryrecord,
once byPope Gelasius himself:25
'... matronae nudato corporevapulabant.'Gelasius isof
course talkingabout thepast, implyingthat the strippingand floggingof respectable
was partof theancientlosttraditionthathis opponentsoughtnow
matronson thestreets
if theywere being serious. He is not claiming direct knowledge of this;
to be revivingall the same what he says is supported by the lady with her buttocks bared on the panel of
the sarcophagus (P1. IV) and by themosaic from Thysdrus. We suggest that in this case the

Pope's claim is true,but only for theperiod afterthe introduction

of actors.We would
connecttheincreasingrealismof theperformanceto theperiodwhen actorshad
therefore
As theLupercalia itselfbecame traditionalstreettheatre
takenitover fromtheLuperci.26
ratherthan traditionalreligiousritual, itwould not be surprisingto findthis tendency
towardsincreasing
dramatizationof theaction.
We believewe can detectonemore observerof thisphase of theritual'shistory,sup
thepassing
portingtheevidenceof thePope and thesarcophaguspanel, and also reflecting
of theold order. Juvenal,inhis secondSatire,mentions thewhipping ritual in its tradi
tionalform:
... necprodestagilipalmaspraebereLuperco.
... and theres no point in holding your hands out to the nimble
Lupercus.

'... no point ...', of course, because itwas a gay couple, doomed to childlessness,on
scholiaston this line
whom he was commentingso acerbically.The mid-fifth-century
evidentlyhad difficulty
understandingtheholdingout of hands:
'Palmas' ideo dicit aut quia catomus leuabantur aut quia a manibus uapula<ba>nt,

statim.27
conciperent

<ut>

He uses theword 'palmas' either because they used to be raised up on the shoulders, or
because theywere thoroughly beaten on the hands, in order to conceive at once.28

The firsttheory,that thewomen were hauled up on the shouldersof bystandersto be

fromanythinginJuvenal'sline. It
floggedby theLupercus,could not possiblybe inferred
can only reflect
had himselfexperiencedon thestreetsofRome, not
what thecommentator
so long before Gelasius'

time; he must have witnessed

something very like the scene on the

panel of Aelia Afanacia's sarcophagus.If a manibus uapulabantmeans, as we suppose,

were beatenon theirhands, thenhis second theoryhas itright;but evidently,
thatthey
he

25

Gelasius
17.7-8.
See above McLynn,
p. 170; it is possible that the use of actors began before the Luperci ceased to operate as a
p. 169.
priestly group; for the last we know of them, see above, McLynn,
27
For catomus (meaning Kax'cofio?c) see TLL 3. col. 620, s.v. catomus: cf. Victor of Vita 2.28: 'venerabilem senem
catomos ceciderunt'
('they flogged the venerable old man, hoist up on the shoulders').
28
as meaning
'on their hands';
it can hardly mean
We take the phrase a manibus
'by hands'. The choice of the
word uapulabant, which normally implies a thorough beating, in itself suggests that he has a more violent scene in
26

mind

than would

be suggested by Juvenal.

POSTSCRIPT

TO

THE

LUPERCALIA:

FROM

CAESAR

TO

ANDROMACHUS

i8i

is stillspeculatingabout a past practice,knowingonly thepracticeof his own day,which

had becomemore extreme.29
This text,then,providesus with a further
addition to our parade ofwitnesses to the
Lupercalia- not justCicero in44 B.C.E.,butPlutarch,Augustine,thescholiaston Juvenal
- all ofwhom allow us toglimpsetheextenttowhich thefestival
was constructedfrom
the imaginationsof its spectators.The 'sour fashion'of Shakespeare'sCasca doubtless
informed
much commentary
upon theLupercalia centuriesbeforeGelasius' stridentsar
casm; but throughouttheperiodwe are discussingit remainedjustone note, never the
dominantone, amongmany.
University
College London (J.A.N.)
Corpus ChristiCollege,Oxford (N.M.)

29

imperfects here only imply that he is arguing about what Juvenal had been, in time past, referring to. For
in general, and on the Juvenal scholia in
important discussion of the significance of such tense variations
forthcoming The Last Pagans of
particular, we are most grateful to have seen a draft version of Alan Cameron's
Rome, ch. 16.4: see also his 'The date of the Scholia Vetustiora on Juvenal' in CQ 2008.
an

The