Ritual Implements Used by the Flaminica Dialis
The ritual implements associated with the flaminica Dialis, the wife of the flamen Dialis, likewise attest to her official status within the priestly hierarchy and to the variety of her religious activities.
In fact, the ancient evidence is at odds with her treatment in much modern scholarship, which tends to gloss over her role in civic cult.[239] The flammica Dialis occupied a legitimate and official position within the religious hierarchy. She was the wife (uxor) of a priest and a priestess (sacerdos) in her own right, a dual role that is aptly captured by a gloss in Paul the Deacon's epitome of Festus:flammeo vestimento flaminica utebatur, id est Dialis uxor et lovis sacerdos, cui telum fulminis eodem erat colore (82L).
The flammeum was a garment used by the flaminica, the wife of the [flamen] Dialis and the sacerdos of Jove, whose thunderbolt was the same color.
The flaminica’s role was so vital, in fact, that her husband the flamen was obligated to resign his position if she died (Gellius N.A. 10.15.23; Plutarch Quaest. rom. 50 = Mor. 276d-e). Unlike many religious offices at Rome, the flaminate of Jupiter was a joint priesthood requiring the service of a married couple (Schultz 2006, 79-81).
In a passage probing the reasons behind the requirement that a flamen step aside when he lost his wife, Plutarch confirms that the flaminica was entrusted with ritual obligations:
Δια τί ό ίερεύς του Διός άποθανούσης αυτώ της γυναικός άπετίθετο την αρχήν;... πότερον οτι του μη λαβόντος ό λαβών ειτ’ άποβαλών γυναίκα γαμέτην ατυχέστερος; ό μεν γαρ του γεγαμηκότος οικος τέλειος, ό δέ του γήμαντος ειτ’ άποβαλόντος ουκ άτελης μόνον άλλα και πεπηρωμένος· ή συνιεραται μέν ή γυνη τώ άνδρί (ώς και πολλα τών ίερών ουκ εστι δρασαι μη γαμετης συμπαρούσης) (Quaest.
rom. 50 = Mor. 276d-e).Why did the priest of Zeus [i.e., the flamen Dialis] resign his office when his wife died?. Is it because a man who has taken a wife and then lost his spouse is more unfortunate than one who has not married? For the household of a married man is complete, but that of a man who, having taken a wife, then loses her is not only incomplete, but also incapacitated? Or is it because the wife participates in her husband’s sacred ministry, since there are many sacred rites (hiera) that he cannot perform without the assistance of his wife?
The flaminica Dialis served alongside her husband, assisting him with his ritual duties and performing others independently of him in her capacity as the priestess of Jupiter. Unfortunately, however, Plutarch does not elaborate upon the nature of the flaminica’s religious obligations. It is only through a consideration of the priestly implements associated with her office that we may begin to imagine her ritual role.
Once again, the ancient evidence reveals a diversity of activities. According to a gloss from the Servius Auctus commentary on Vergil's Aeneid, the fiammica Dialis wore a special wreath known as the arculum whenever she participated in sacrificial rituals:
arculum vero est virga ex malo Punica incurvata quae fit quasi corona et ima summaque se inter alligatur vinculo laneo albo, quam in sacrificiis certis regina in capite habebat; fiaminica autem Dialis omni sacrificatione uti debebat (4.137).
The arculum is a pomegranate twig which has been bent to form a wreath and bound together at the ends with a white woolen tie. The regina [i.e., the regina sacrorum] used to wear it on her head when performing certain sacrifices, but the fiaminica Dialis was required to use it for every sacrifice.
Nicole Boels (1973, 83-86) has emphasized the symbolism of the pomegranate twig, an emblem of fertility in the ancient world, and its relevance to the fiaminica’s status as an ideal wife and mother.
According to Festus, however, the wreath also served a practical function:arculum appellabant circulum quem capiti imponebant ad sustinenda commodius vasa quae ad sacra publica capite portabant (15L).
They gave the name arculum to that circle that they placed on their head in order to support more conveniently the vessels that they carried on their heads to the public sacrifices.
This passage suggests that the arculum functioned like the cushion that basket-bearers wore to support their burdens when they marched in religious processions.[240] Although we are not told what the fiaminica carried, she may have brought offerings of fruit and grain to the sacrificial rituals over which her husband the fiamen presided, just as the matron of the house was charged with providing the gifts offered during rites in the domestic sphere (Ovid Fast. 2.645654). The fiaminica’s ritual work of carrying was supportive, though not without importance.
In addition to assisting the fiamen, the fiaminica Dialis performed a number of rites independently of her husband. The Servius Auctus commentator (ad Aen. 4.262) reveals that she was permitted to use the secespita, the sacrificial knife depicted on the entablature frieze of the Temple of Vesta. Possession of the secespita suggests that the fiaminica presided over sacrifices in her capacity as the priestess of Jove. We are even informed of two occasions on which the fiaminica may have employed her instrument of sacrifice. According to Macrobius (Sat. 1.16.8), she was required to perform an expiatory sacrifice whenever she heard thunder.[241] The same author notes that she sacrificed a ram to Jupiter in the regia on the nundinae (market days) as well (Sat. 1.16.30). The location and occasion for this ritual leave little doubt that it was a public sacrifice made on behalf of the Roman people. The regia, or “royal house,” was actually a fanum, a sacred, inaugurated space (Festus 346-8L). It stood in the Forum and was the site of some of the most ancient rituals in the city.
In this ancient building with its varied cultic associations, the flaminica Dialis offered a sacrifice to Jupiter every eight days. The rite guaranteed the flaminica an important role within the community, even though no more than a handful of priests could have witnessed the sacrifice proper.[242]The priestly instruments wielded by the flaminica Dialis demonstrate that she was a religious official in her own right with an important role in public cult. Like the Vestals, she performed some ritual work that mirrored the tasks of women in the domestic sphere. The flaminica assisted her husband the flamen with his obligations, thereby reinforcing the traditional gender hierarchy. But her ritual program involved independent activities as well. Roman priestesses, including those who did not belong to the Vestal order, performed almost every type of ritual attested for male priests, including blood sacrifice, and were called upon to do so on behalf of the community in a public capacity.