Carmentalia

The Carmentalia is a festival celebrated annually within Imperivm Romanvm (and by other Roman pagans and their groups) and historically in ancient Roman civilisation. This festival is in honour of the goddess Carmenta.

Carmentalia
Official name	Carmentalia
Observed by	Pagans, practioners of the Cultus Deorum Romanorum
Significance	Sacred to Carmenta, celebrating the dedication of her sacred grove by Numa Pompilius
Celebrations	Feasts of cake and honey and wine
Observances	Sacrifices of spelt cakes, religious readings and a public sacrifice
Date	a.d. III Id. Januarias, a.d. XVIII Kal. Februarias
Frequency	Annual

This festival is celebrated annually twice a year on a.d. III Id. Januarias and a.d. XVIII Kal. Februarias. The reason for this celebration happening twice a year and then annually was a common topic and preoccupation of Roman thought, baffling even the smartest minds of the time. Little is known about the festival itself except that Carmenta was invoked by 2 specific epithets Postvorta and Antevorta. These epithets were in reference to the goddess's power to look back into the past and forwards into the future.

The Carmentalia was chiefly observed by woman as the goddess was one of the goddesses governing childbirth.

January was an important time for childbirth in Rome since many births likely occurred during this time. Marriages were favoured in April but discouraged in May or early June. Thus, January is a probable popular time for childbirth in ancient Rome.

The celebration of this festival likely started at sundown of the preceding day with possible sacrifices being offered at sunrise.

Two Dates in Januarias

Carmentalia is observed on 2 dates, both in January. These dates are both considered separate festivals, rather than one single festival extending over this period, this is why it is a unique festival.

The matter of the 2 dates and the reasoning behind such an odd feature is still unclear to us today and it also baffled and occupied the minds of the ancients. Though this didn't stop the people of the Late Republic from coming up with theories.

Two Groves Beneath the Palatine

According to legend, Carmenta's cultus predated Rome itself. In some accounts She was known as Nicostrate, the mother of Evander, who was fathered by Mercurius. Evander was the legendary founder of Paletum, a village that gave its name to the Palatine Hill. Her sacred grove, therefore, may have originally lay beneath the Palatine Hill as some ascribe it. Indeed, it may be that it was in Her sacred grove beneath the Palatine that Romulus and Remus were said to have been discovered being suckled by a she-wolf, since Carmenta was so closely associated with the care of infants.

It was said that later Numa Pompilius founded a sacred grove for Her beneath the Capitoline Hill. The dedication of two groves to Carmenta is one possible reason why there were two days celebrated as Carmentalia in the month of January.

To Match Other Early Cults

It was proposed by Huschke that the two festival days represented the Latins of Romulus and the Sabines of Titus Tatius, just as there were two companies of Luperci and two companies of Salii. Were that the case we might expect that she once had a sacred grove on the Esquiline Hill, and that Numa's dedication beneath the Capitoline represented a union of the two culti Carmentalis. There was a complex on the Esquiline where such a grove may have once stood.

Fasti Praenestini

The Fasti Praenestini suggests that the second date was added by a victorious Roman general who had left the City by the Porta Carmentalis for his campaign against Fidenae. The gate received its name from its proximity to the sacred grove of Carmenta.

The notion that there may have earlier been two groves dedicated to Carmenta prior to the known grove beneath the Capitoline is a reasonable speculation, but still would not account for the two festivals. We are left then with the information provided by the Fasti Praenestini, although the inscription is mutilated and uncertain. This source may indicate that while the Carmentalia held on 11 January was dedicated to Carmenta, that of 15 January was intended to honour Janus as guardian of the Porta Carmentalis.

Different aspects of Carmenta related to Janus, and thus it is possible that a festival for him would include Carmenta in similar fashion as festivals for Ops and Consus.

Ovid

Ovid states that the two dates may be linked by a protest of the matrons of Rome in DLIX AVC. During the fourth century the Roman Senate had granted patrician matrons the privilege of riding in two- wheeled carriages (carpentum) in reward for their contribution in gold to fulfilling a vow to Apollo made by Camillus. The privilege was later to be temporarily revoked during the Second Punic War (215 BCE) along with sumptuary laws that limited the use of colored cloth and gold that women could wear, in order to save on private expenses and war materials (horses) and thus help in the war effort. But the Senate did not at first renew the privileges at war's end. In 195 Tribunes Marcus Fundanius and Lucius Valerius finally called for the repeal of this lex Oppia, but they were opposed by the brothers Marcus and Publius Junius Brutus. Supporters for repealing the lex Oppia, and those who supported its remaining in effect, gathered daily on the Capitoline to argue over the matter. Soon women began to join in the disputes, their numbers increasing daily, even so much as women from the countryside entered into the City to advocate for their rights. The natural place for them to first congregate would have been at the grove of Carmentis. This may be what Ovid indicates by linking the protest to the Carmentalia. Consul Marcius Porcius Cato spoke out against repealing the lex Oppia. The women then resolved to "refuse to renew their ungrateful husbands' stock" until their privileges were restored, Ovid referring to the women resorting to abortion as their means of protest.

Carmenta had a flamen (Flamen Carmentalis) of her own. Ovid suggests that the pontiffs were involved in this festival and that the flamen provided a sacrifice on the Carmenta days. The skins of animals were excluded from shrines to Carmenta. Varro reports that at shrines nothing dead might be brought in. Is is probable that violation of this taboo may result in the birth of dead children.

In a later period the Temple of the Bona Dea would become associated with the use of abortive herbs, and Carmentis associated with the use of the same herbs in birthing. In actuality both Carmentis and the Bona Dea were associated with birthing or prevention of pregnancy, and the difference between the Capitoline and Aventine temples may have been one of class distinction. Eventually the matrons of Rome regained their rights and, according to Ovid, the second Carmentalia was then begun in thanks to the Goddess for Her support. Ovid's story is the least likely and most fanciful to account for the two Carmentaliae of January even as it provides another aspect to the story told by Livy.