Postscript to theLupercalia: fromCaesar

toAndromachus

J. A. NORTH AND NEIL MCLYNN

Our two articles on the Lupercalia have examined two moments in the Festival's long
more than500 yearsapart.There can be no questionof reconstructing
history,themselves
anydetailednarrativeof developmentsover theintervening
centuries,of tracingthesteps
by which theRomans travelled from Caesar's Carnival to the one Gelasius so passionately
deplored; at bestwe can surveywhat littleevidence thereis and look fordifferencesin
periods.Our own main concernhas been to emphasizepositive aspects of the
different
- thefunand games of theactual celebrations,themajor invest
Lupercalian tradition
ment of theRoman elites in theirmaintenance and meanings, the rich inheritanceof
historytobe exploredand exploited in suchverydifferent
historicalcircumstances.
There
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,
which hewould wish tobe utterlyforgotten. of course,Cicero is thinking
Primarily, of the
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
Antony,but theLuperci and theirFestivalwere an archaicsurvival,thoroughly
discredited
by the late Republic. Is there any substance to this idea?
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
involvedraisingmoney thatQuintus, in financialdifficulties,
had to tryand borrow from
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
groupofLuperci Juliani,inwhich caseQuintus' follymightbe seen as political innocence

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
colleges under the Republic. See in general, J. Riipke, Fasti Sacerdotum, Potsdamer Altertumswissenschaftliche
Beitr?ge 12 (2005), Teil 3, 1457-71.
2 =
'Quintus ... is a half-wit to be pleased at his son's becoming a Lupercus ...', Cicero, ad Att. 12.5.1 242.1 (SB).

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 thebrotherlyLuperci,whose woodlandmeetingsdate frombeforethe
dawnofcivilization and law,ifindeedmembersnotonlysueone another, butevenallege
membership of thesodalitasas partof an accusation,so they
mightseemtobe nervous
thatperhapssomebody mightnotknow.5
BothCicero's friend M. Caelius Rufus,whom hewas defending, 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;7thirdly,thatCicero can implythattheprosecutorisbeingnaive
tomentionCaelius' membership,presumablybecause themembershipof the sodalitas
would be known to everybodyalready.
Such shifting sandsofCiceronian rhetoric cannotprovideanyfoundationforthetheory
thatAugustus reformedtheLuperci, tamedtheir wild ways, andmade thema respectable
fellowship, acceptable tobourgeoisstandardsof behaviour. We do know of some alleged
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
effectiveage limiton theyoungmen blooded in theLupercal each year.But didAugustus
go further thanthis?

3
Cicero seems, on the obvious interpretation of his words, to refer to the selection of three new members,
including young Quintus; this might reflect recruitment for the new Juliani, but if they ran for the first time in
February 44 b.c.e., the summer of 46 b.c.e. seems rather early for this to be happening. For the three recruits:
J. Scheid and M. G. Granino Cecere, 'Les sacerdoces ?questres', in S. Demougin and M. Th. Raepsaet-Charlier
(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
Shackleton Bailey thinks of snobbery because liberti were acceptable as members: Letters to Atticus (1966),
no. 242, p. 303.
5 26: 'Fera quaedam
Cicero, pro Caelio sodalitas et plane pastoricia 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
is Lupercus A (p. 129); Herennius B (p. 129); in Riipke, op. cit. (n. 1), Teil 2: Biographien, Caelius is no. 1007
(p. 837); Balbus is no. 1887 (p. 1030).
7
On which see T. P. Wiseman, Remus: a Roman Myth (1995), 84-5.
8
Suet., Augustus 31.4: 'Lupercalibus vetuit currere imberbes.'
9
Though A. W. J. Holleman, Pope Gelasius and the Lupercalia (1974), 14-15, took it literally, inferring that the
whole Festival was abolished in 44 b.c.e. and revived by the Augustan reforms.
178 J. A. 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, fivemonths, and twenty-one days. The word Lupercus does
not in factoccur in theinscription, butLiberalis isdescribedas sodalis desiderantissimus,
whichmay quitepossiblybe a reference to thesodalitasof theLuperci;13or perhapshe had
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
implicationthatall theearly imperialsources - Ovid andValeriusMaximus writing in
theearlydecades of the firstcenturyand Plutarch late in the firstor early in thesecond
century17- arewritingafterthisradical reformhad takenplace. It is,however,precisely
theseauthorswho provideuswith thecrucial information - thesacrificeof thegoats, the
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
Veyne, op. cit. (n. 11), 102-6; H. Wrede, (Statuae Lupercorum habitu\ MDAI(RA) 90 (1983), 185-200, with Taf.
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 performeda sacrifice
bykillinggoats,and, spurredon by thegaietyof
thebanquetand by largequantitiesofwine, theysplittheherdsmenintotwogroups,and
<dressedonly in loincloths>struckat thebystanderswith theskinsof thevictimsthey
The memoryof thisfunand gamesis renewedby theannualcircuitof the
had sacrificed.
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.
There is therefore a sharpcontrastbetweentheimplications of theliterarytextsand the
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,
not just thepassing flick we have been arguingforin theearlierperiod.The sarcophagus,
which on artisticgroundsshouldbelong to the lastdecade of the thirdcenturyC.E.,was
found in a Christiancontext,with an inscriptioninmemoryofAelia Afanacia which is
dated to themiddle of thefourthcentury.21 The inscriptionmust have been addedwhen
thesarcophaguswas used or re-used.The panel inquestionused tobe thoughtto show the
torturing of a martyr;22but 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,
and so to infertheirreligiousimpactthroughtheinteractions of thefiguresdepicted;at the
same time,it ishard tobe other thanscepticalabout suchefforts, when twodistinguished
commentators have found in thesame setof images,respectively, 'cold-bloodedformal
and exactlytheopposite.24Itneverthelessseemssignificant
ity'23 that inboth thesethird
centuryrepresentations of the ritual,theLupercus shares the spotlightwith thevictim
hoistedup in frontof him,herbuttocksconspicuouslyexposed.Whatever else thismight
be, it ispresentedas a spectacle.

18
'... facto sacrificio caesisque capris epularum hilaritate ac uino largiore prouecti, diuisa pastorali turba,
cinct<ut>i obuios pellibus immolatarum hostiarum iocantes petiuerunt. cuius hilaritatis memoria annuo circuitu
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);
other possibilities include moving the word obuios: i.e. *... cincti pellibus immolatarum hostiarum <obuios>
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, 'Antikes und Christliches zur Auspeitschung der Aelia Afanada', Jahrbuch f?r Antike und
Christentum n-12 (1968-9), 65-75; H. Solin and H. Brandenberg, 'Paganer Fruchbarkeitsritus oder
Martyriumsdarstellung? Zum Grabrelief der Elia Afanacia inMuseum der Pr?textat-Katakombe zu Rom', DAI:

Arch.Anzeig. 1980, 271-84.

20
February mosaic, from theMaison des Mois inThysdrus (El Djem). See H. Stern, 'Un calendrier romain illustr?
de Thysdrus (Tunisie)', AttAccNazLinc NS 5 (1963), 30-52 (pi. 32.4). Schumacher, op .cit. (n. 19), 67-8; D. Parrish,
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
T. P. Wiseman, 'The god of the Lupercal', JRS 85 (1995), 16: 'The high spirits have disappeared'.
24
K. Hopkins, 'From blessing to violence', inA. Molho et al. (eds), City States in Classical Antiquity and Medieval
Italy (1991), 481-2 and n. 9: 'Romans were dangerously different' (p. 482).
i80 J. A. NORTH AND NEIL MCLYNN

We have twosuggestionsto reconciletheliterary with theartisticevidence.The memo

rialsof equites,we suggest,show a Lupercus,not poised and readyfortheLupercalia run,
but ratherwearing a dressuniform, markinghismembershipwith referencetohis 'naked
ness' and to theritualgear, but not attemptingto representtherealitythatwas, on this
view,only to be seenon i5 Februaryitself. We have no opinion as towhether thisshould
ofpresentationin thereliefs,
be seenas an artifice orwhetherthiswas how theLupercidid
infactdresswhen holdingmeetingson otherdays thani5 February.Eitherseemspossible;
bothwould restorethecredibility ofPlutarch's (seeminglyeye-witness)testimony.
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
matronson thestreets was partof theancientlosttraditionthathis opponentsoughtnow
to be reviving- if theywere being serious. He is not claiming direct knowledge of this;
all 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
of actors.We would
Pope's claim is true,but only for theperiod afterthe introduction
thereforeconnecttheincreasingrealismof theperformanceto theperiodwhen actorshad
takenitover fromtheLuperci.26 As theLupercalia itselfbecame traditionalstreettheatre
ratherthan traditionalreligiousritual, itwould not be surprisingto findthis tendency
towardsincreasing dramatizationof theaction.
We believewe can detectonemore observerof thisphase of theritual'shistory,sup
portingtheevidenceof thePope and thesarcophaguspanel, and also reflecting thepassing
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
whom he was commentingso acerbically.The mid-fifth-century scholiaston this line
evidentlyhad difficulty understandingtheholdingout of hands:
'Palmas' ideo dicit aut quia catomus leuabantur aut quia a manibus uapula<ba>nt, <ut>
statim.27
conciperent
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
what thecommentator
can only reflect had himselfexperiencedon thestreetsofRome, not
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,
thatthey were beatenon theirhands, thenhis second theoryhas itright;but evidently,
he

25
Gelasius 17.7-8.
26
See above McLynn, p. 170; it is possible that the use of actors began before the Luperci ceased to operate as a
priestly group; for the last we know of them, see above, McLynn, p. 169.
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
We take the phrase a manibus as meaning 'on their hands'; it can hardly mean '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
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
The imperfects here only imply that he is arguing about what Juvenal had been, in time past, referring to. For
an important discussion of the significance of such tense variations in general, and on the Juvenal scholia in
particular, we are most grateful to have seen a draft version of Alan Cameron's forthcoming The Last Pagans of
Rome, ch. 16.4: see also his 'The date of the Scholia Vetustiora on Juvenal' in CQ 2008.