"...et sardas numero quattuor": sardine per Tacita Muta? Osservazioni a margine di CIL XIV 2112 (Lex Cultorum Dianae et Antinoi)

• Autor(a) principal: Garofalo, Paolo
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: ita
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10451/46756
• topic: Lex collegii

This article analyses an apparently trivial but curious detail, that is to say, a small number of sardines being distributed to the sodales by the magister cenarum during the banquets of the collegium of Diana and Antinous. The translation of the epigraphic text does not rule out the possibility that it could be the distribution of one sardine to each diners, in addition to the bread and wine and other equipment established by the lex. The presence of these very cheap fish in such a modest quantity seems peculiar and it does not seem justified by the meal necessity. So, it can be supposed that the sardine could perform a more specific ritual function: it was probably used to fulfil an auspicious rite which cultores carried out at the beginning of the banquet. An analogy with the more articulated sacrifice in honour of the goddess Tacita Muta could be detected in this rite: the sacrifice, reminded by Ovid, was performed in order to hush up the slanderers, a circumstance which was very likely to happen at the rowdy banquets of the association.