Chapter 23

January 25, Sowing Festival.

The climate is slightly better at this time. The Sowing Festival is mainly dedicated to two goddesses: one is Ceres, who is the patron saint of land, agriculture and grain; the other is Tellus, the mother of the earth, who receives and protects seeds and makes them grow. The sowing months were mainly October, November and early December, so January was a time of rest for the land and the cultivators. However, there were also certain crops that were sown in the spring. The Fornacalia was a festival of protection for the sowing, for the crops that had already been sown and for those that would be sown in the spring.

The two goddesses were offered the same sacrifice - a cake made of spelt flour and a pregnant sow to protect the crops from birds, ants and any diseases that might affect them. The oxen that pulled the plow and made the furrows were also garlanded and allowed to rest during the festival.

February 13, Fornacalia.

The Fornacalia was an old Roman tradition related to the grain that was dried and stored after the harvest. The tradition tells us that when the grain was baked in the open air, if care was not taken, the huts would sometimes catch fire. To solve this problem, the furnace was invented and dedicated to its protector, the goddess Fornax, who put the fire in the frame. People offered sacrifices to the goddesses Fornax and Vesta. At the banquet, there were no rich offerings or gold and silver bowls, only barley bread and fruits in pottery bowls, which were offered on ancient wooden tables.

Roman religion was closely related to solar terms, agriculture, and life. Myths helped ignorant people understand the world. The existence of the Hearth Festival was precisely because fires often occurred during this period.

The continuous winter rain stopped and the weather became clear, but the grains and seeds showed signs of mold, and the clothes and furniture were damp. Even the wood of the furniture could grow mushrooms.

People are always overconfident and think that lighting a fire will set the house on fire. This is something that only fools can do. The fact is that fools never understand their own stupidity.

The accumulated water near the Forum of Mars, a low-lying area in Rome, has receded to the knees. People wading in the water are gradually recovering their lives. A group of people who were weak or did not know how to get sick from the mouth died, making room for new people who poured into Rome to make a living.

The apartments in the civilian area of the Forum de Mars were originally two- or three-story brick-concrete buildings. Later, as the number of residents continued to increase, the landlords built two- or three-story wooden attics on the original brick-concrete buildings with wood, which was also the root cause of the fire crisis in Rome.

Perhaps in order to bake the moldy house, sheets or bedding where the wood was beginning to rot, the fire spread. The damp wood first emitted thick black smoke, and then sparks were seen, and finally the wooden attic of the apartment turned into a huge bonfire.

People screamed and fled everywhere. Some were dizzy from the black smoke, some jumped from the upstairs and fell to pieces, and some cried and screamed while holding their children and were engulfed by flames and thick smoke.

The towering smoke column was reflected by the accumulated water, as if there was a building burning underwater.

Even standing on the high ground in the distance, Aquileia could hear the crackling of wood and people’s screams and howls.

The streets of Roman communities were crowded, and apartments were often only two or three steps (about 4 meters) apart.

With a loud bang, the burning wooden wall of the apartment cracked, fell outward, and hit the wooden attic of another apartment, and the fire began to spread.

Aquileia looked at this hellish scene and prayed to the goddess Vesta and the god of fire Vulcan.

February 15th Lupercalia

Lupercalia is undoubtedly one of the most famous festivals in the ancient world. This is a festival related to fertility. The celebration is full of violence and contains obvious carnal elements. People abandon shame and behave very wildly.

The young people formed two teams of faun priests. At dawn, the two teams of priests rushed to the Lupercal Cave to meet. This ancient place is located near the Tiber River, at the foot of the southwest of the Palatine Hill. Legend has it that in this cave, a she-wolf named Lupercal (the Latin pronunciation of she-wolf and prostitute is very similar) fed the twin brothers Romulus and Remus.

After the two teams of priests met in the Lupercal Cave, they sacrificed several goats and a dog. These two sacrifices are extremely rare in Roman rituals, because pigs and sheep are usually sacrificed. The ancient origins of the Lupercalia included shepherds, so these strange rituals came into being. In most Roman sacrifices, people would sprinkle a kind of salted spelt flour made by the Vestal virgins on the heads of the sacrifices, which was a very important part of the sacrifice.

These young faun priests were all from noble families. The leaders of the two teams of faun priests smeared the blood from the sacrificial knife on their foreheads, and wiped off the blood with wool soaked in milk amid the laughter of the priests. Finally, there was a sumptuous banquet. Even the Romans themselves could not understand the origin and meaning of these actions, but they were bound by the established customs and these rituals could not be changed.

After the above activities, the public part of the festival began. The priests stripped naked, peeled the skin strips from the sacrificial goats and wrapped them around their bodies to cover their shame. These skin strips could also be used as whips to whip all passers-by. In this way, a crazy ceremony began in the center of Rome. This was a ceremony dedicated to the god Faun, who was the Greek god Pan. The priests ran on the “Sacred Avenue” (Vía Sacra) through the Roman Forum, and the targets of the whipping were mainly young women. These women voluntarily gave their backs to them to be whipped as a way to promote fertility when the priests passed by. In this way, the crowd present enjoyed an ancient and barbaric performance. The content of this festival was so crude that Emperor Augustus, the guardian of morality and justice, had to order the festival to be reduced in its overly sensual and provocative content.

Vitus accompanied Mania and Senna to the street. Both sides of the street were already full of people, especially women.

A group of sacrificial people came from a distance. The two naked men walking in the front held raw sheepskin whips in their hands and whipped the naked women on both sides of the street.

It is said that women who are whipped will be blessed with pregnancy. Vitus thinks that Mania and Senna can’t get pregnant because he has been reproductively isolated from them. It should be impossible for a woman in this world to get pregnant with his child.

As the sacrificial team approached, Mania and Senna began to untie their belts. Vitus saw that there were people wearing sheepskin on their lower body playing double flutes in the team, followed by a group of naked men and women.

The women on the side screamed after being whipped, and then put on their clothes and went home. Mania and Senna turned their backs to the street and nervously grabbed Vitus’s hand.

Vitus saw clearly that the priest was holding a leg of sheep in his hand, and the whip was connected to the skin of this leg of sheep.

“Pa~” The sheepskin whip hit Senna’s back, and she screamed. The priest whipped Senna’s buttocks and cunt with the sheepskin whip again, and then it was Manya’s turn.

This was probably the first time Manya was beaten. There were red whip marks on her back and buttocks. She put on her clothes with a red face, threw a wink to Vicissus, and said, “Go home.”

Most of the women who were whipped put on their clothes and went home, and very few joined the parade.

“Mother, why don’t these women go home?” Vicissus asked Manya.

“The sacrificial team will parade outside the city. They will have a bonfire carnival outside the city. If you follow them, you can sow seeds for these women.”