Rediculus

Rediculus is an ancient Roman divinity. His cult had a temple near the Porta Capena, and a campus on the Appian Way.

Origins and nature

This divinity is probably one of Rome's lares, a protector-god of the city. He is said to have appeared to Hannibal as he was camped outside Rome in 211 B.C., urging him to return (redire) to Carthage.[1][2] Festus' account of the incident reports that Hannibal, nearing the city, saw apparitions in the air, filling him with dread and causing him to turn back immediately:[3]

Rediculi fanum extra portam Capenam fuit, quia accedens ad Urbem Hannibal ex eo loco redierit quibusdam perterritus visis.[4]

The [temple] of Rediculus was [outside] the Porta Capena; it was so called because Hannibal, when on the march from Capua, turned back at that spot, being alarmed at certain portentous visions.[5]

One account has the god's entreaty taking the form of a shower of hail.[6] After Hannibal's retreat, the Romans erected an altar at the site to "Rediculus Tutanus", the god "who turned back and protected".[7]

Others derive the name of the god from the word ridiculus, signifying a thing to be laughed at.[3] Hannibal's failure to enter Rome made him an object of scorn for the Romans, and in order to perpetuate his shame, they erected a temple to the god of laughter. Varro gives the god the epithet Tutanus (protector), having him speak in his Saturae Menippeae (Hercules tuam fidem, XXXIX):

Noctu Hannibalis cum fugavi exercitum,
Tutanus hoc, Tutanus Romae nuncupor.
Hoc propter omnes, qui laborant, invocant.

When in the night great Hannibal I beat,
And forc'd his troops from Latium to retreat,
From my defense, Tutanus was my name:
By this the wretched my protection claim.[3]

Other authors, such as Robert Burn, say that this legend is "altogether unworthy of credit".[8] Travelers leaving the city would pray at the temple before embarking on the Appian Way.[9]

Temple and campus

The Tomb of Herodes and Regilla, near the Church of Domine Quo Vadis, has been confused with the Temple of Rediculus; the temple, however, is described by Pliny as having been on the opposite side of the Appian Way.[10] The temple was dedicated in about A.D. 65.[10]

There was a tomb in the campus Rediculi (English: field of Rediculus) dedicated to a talking crow. Pliny the Elder gives the story in his Natural History (Book X, chapter 60):[10] A cobbler had a stall in the Roman Forum and possessed a tame crow who, being a favorite among the younger Romans, eventually became a sort of public character. When it was killed by a rival of the cobbler, they executed the rival and gave the bird a public funeral, carrying it on a bier to its burial place in the field of Rediculus.[10]

References
  1. "Rediculus". Myth Index. 2008. Retrieved May 21, 2011.
  2. Adkins, Lesley; Roy A. Adkins (2004). Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome. Infobase Publishing. p. 301.
  3. Sale, George; et al. (1747). An Universal History. XII. London: T. Osborne. pp. 299–300.
  4. Harrington, Karl Pomeroy (2002). The Roman Elegiac Poets. Anthem Classics. p. 278.
  5. John, Bostock; Henry Thomas Riley (1855). The Natural History of Pliny. 2. London: Henry G. Bohn. p. 525.
  6. Eaton, Charlotte (1892). Rome in the Nineteenth Century. I. London: George Bell & Sons. p. 387.
  7. Mommsen, Theodor (1873). William P. Dickson (ed.). The History of Rome. II. Scribner, Armstrong, & Co. p. 202.
  8. Burn, Robert (1871). Rome and the Campagna. Cambridge: Deighton, Bell and Co. p. 432.
  9. Pomeroy, Sarah (2007). The Murder of Regilla. Harvard University Press. p. 156.
  10. Hare, Augustus (1905). Walks in Rome (17 ed.). London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Truebner & Co. p. 291.
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