Id. Nov. (Nov. 13). Np
FERONIAE IN CAMPO1101. (ARV., a later addition to the original.)
FORTUNAE PRIMIGENIAE IN COLLE. (ARV., a later addition to the original.)
This is the only mention we have of Feronia in Rome. She was a goddess of renown in Latium and central Italy, but never made her mark at Rome, as did others of her kind—Diana, Fortuna, Ceres, Flora—all of whom appear there with plebeian associations about them, as not belonging to the earliest patrician community1102. It is curious to find this Feronia too in the calendar only in the middle of the ludi plebeii, and probably on the day which was the original nucleus of the games. We may either date the cult from the establishment of the ludi or guess that it was there before them, and was subsequently eclipsed by the cult of Jupiter.
The latter is perhaps the more probable conjecture; for the little that we know of the cult elsewhere points to a possible origin of the games which has not, so far as I know, been noticed. They took place, be it remembered, in the Circus Flaminius, which was in the Campus Martius; where also was this cult of Feronia. Now the most famous shrine of Feronia in Italy, that of Trebula Mutusca, was the centre of a great fair or market held on the feast-days of the goddess1103, and on the whole her attributes seem to be those of a deity of fertility and plenty1104. Is it impossible that she had also some share in a fair in the Campus Martius long before the establishment of the ludi?
The connexion of Feronia with the plebs seems suggested not only by her position in the calendar, but by the devotion of libertini1105. In the year 217 B.C. the Roman freedwomen collected a sum of money as a gift to Feronia1106; though this offering need not be taken as destined for the Roman goddess, but rather for her of Soracte, to whom first-fruits and other gifts were frequently offered. The temple of Feronia at Terracina was specially devoted to the manumission of slaves, of which the process, as described by Servius, presents at least one feature of special interest1107. Manumissions would take place on public occasions, such as markets, when the necessary authorities and witnesses were to be easily found, and the temple of the market-goddess was at hand; and this may be the original point of relation between this cult and the Roman plebs, which was beyond doubt by the third century B.C. largely composed of descendants of manumitted slaves.
The conjunction of Feronia on this day with Fortuna Primigenia (in colle) is curious, as both were goddesses of Praeneste, where Feronia in legend was the mother of Erulus, a daemon with threefold body and soul, who had to be killed three times by Evander1108. The date of the introduction of this cult of Fortuna at Rome is 204 B.C.1109