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Cook, Arthur B.
Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 3,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (earthquake, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorits): Text and notes — Cambridge, 1940

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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14698#0063

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Zeus and the Earthquakes 25

in caverns and clefts of the ground? Or to the pulsation and undulation of waters
that surge in subterranean hollows, as the ancient Greeks, who called Poseidon
seislchthon, seem to have supposed? Or to any other specific cause, or to the force
and will of another deity? As I said, belief does not yet amount to certainty.
Accordingly the Romans of yore, who in all the affairs of life and above all in the
ordering of religious ritual and the tending of immortal gods displayed the utmost
propriety and prudence, whenever an earthquake had been perceived or reported,
Pioclaimed by edict a solemn holiday on account of it, but refrained from fixing
and publishing as usual the name of the god for whom the holiday was to be kept,
est by naming one in place of another they might bind the people in the bonds
° a false Prescription. If the said holiday had been polluted by any man and
need for a piacular sacrifice had therefore arisen, they slew the victim 'to god or
0 goddess' {si deo, sideae)1; and this regulation was strictly observed in accord-
ance with the decree of the pontiffs, as M. Varro2 states, because it was uncertain
o what force and to which of the gods or goddesses the earthquake was due.
Two centuries later Ammianus Marcellinus, a propos of a devast-
ating earthquake at Nikomedeia in 358 A.D., observes that, when

" 3 Cxxxiii. 1015 k—c Migne) and orig. 14. 1. if., Amm. Marc. 17. 7. 9—12, Serv. in
^Z'gtorg. 2. 479 (= Isid. orig. 14. 1. if.), and the section 'Die wissenschaftliche Seis-
0 ogie der Griechen ' in the valuable article on 'Erdbebenforschung' by W. Capelle in
auly—Wissowa Real-Enc. Suppl. iv. 362—374.
Ro 6 usaSe °f tins formula may be illustrated from Cato de agricult. 139 lucum conlucare
mano more sic oportet. porco piaculo facito, sic verba concipito: 'si deus, si dea es,
Mjoium inud sacrum est;, etc > Macrob SaL 3 9 7 es( autem carmen huiusmodi quo di

antur, cum oppugnatione civitas cingitur: ' si deus, si dea est, cui populus civitasque
OrellWgmienSiS CSt 'n tutela'' etc-' Cort- inscr-Lat- i1 no. 632=vi no. no (id. no. 30694) -
set 1 /mcr' Lat- sel- na 2135= Wilmanns Ex. inscr. Lat. no. 48 = Dessau Inscr. Lat.
sei't"0'-40'5 Se' de° Se' deivae sac(rum). I C. Sextius C. f. Calvinus pr(aetor) | de senati
lentia | restituit (on a large altar now standing at the southern angle of the Palatine
n ' b»dan~C' Huelsen topographic der Stadt Rom im Alterthum Berlin 1907 i. 3. 47
si'-d C°r^' i"scr- LaL vi no- m-=Qrdli op. cit. no. 2i36 = Dessau op. cit. no. 4018
tt p ' sive deae> I C- Ter- Center | ex voto | posuit (formerly in the church of St Ursus
no ^°8me'' CorP- "tscr. Lat. vi no. 2099, ii 3 f. = Orelli op. cit. no. 2270=Wilmanns op. cit.

4 = Dessau op. cit. 5047 sive deo sive deae, in cuius tutela hie lucus locusve I est,
no s lnscr- Lat. vi no. 2099, " io = Orelli op. cit. no. 1798 = Wilmanns op. cit.

Cor' 4 = Dessau op. cit. 5047 sive deo sive deae oves II (from the acta fratmm Arvalium
tlie ' * D^or^' *nser' Lat. vi no. 2104, a 2 sive deo sive deae ov(es) n(umero) II (from

e actafratrum Arvalium for 218 A.U.), Corp.inscr. Lat. vi no. 2107, a + b 9 = Orelli op.

• no. 961 = Wilmanns op. cit. no. 2885 = Dessau op. cit. no. 5048 sive deo sive deae ver-
i88°eS' " ^IOm t'le curla frat,'um Arvalium for 224 A.D.), J. Schmidt in the Ephem. epigr.
Th 4 V'.48° f- no- I043 = Corp. inscr. Lat. viii Suppl. 3 no. 21567, ^ 7 ff. Genio summ[o]|
andas>uni et del° sive deae [nu]|mini sanc[to] | etc. (found at Afltl in Mauretania Caesariensis
Orell16^^'6 t0 tlle datS '72—174 A,D-)> Corp. inscr. Lat. i1 no. ni4 = xiv no. 3572 -
sei ' CU' n°' 2I37 = Ore"'—Henzen Lnscr. Lat. sel. no. 5952 = Dessau op. cit. no. 4017
eus I Sei dea (foun(j at xibur on a cippus of local stone), G. Gatti in the Not. Scavi
pj °.P' 2l8 = Dessau op. cit. no. 4016 si deo si deai, | Florianus rexs (found at Lanuvium:

onanus was presumably rex sacrorum).
gs 1 fl""ther D. Vaglieri in Ruggiero Dizion. epigr. ii. 1726 and Wissowa Sel. Kult.
t . . P" 3**. The 'sive...sive...' invocations are discussed by E. Norden Agnostos Theos
^■g-Berlin 19,3 p. l4+ff.

f I.a"' antt1u'M>im return divinarum lib. 8 de feriis frag. 1 (in R. Merkel's ed. of Ov.
,ast- Ber°lW 1841 p. cliiif.).
 
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