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15
As both Ovid 3t and Macrobius,35 however, tell us that it was
offered to Jupiter, and Macrobius says a flamine, it appears
obviously impossible that any other flamen or priest of any sort
than that of Jupiter can be intended, especially as Ovid's epithet
castus sacerdos expressly fits the character of the Flamen
Dialis. I fully agree then with Professor Fowler in his hypothesis
that the Flamen Dialis, because of his extreme antiquity in
Latin religious history and his superintendence over the rites of
the primitive Indo-European sky-god, can have had no special
connection with Optim:us Maximus, because this Jupiter was
political and a late importation from Etruria. It is thus impossible
for the sacra Idulia to have been offered both at this temple
and by this priest. I cannot, however, reject the priest, for the
passages above noted from Ovid and Macrobius are too con·
clusive in support of his connection with the sacra Idulia. I
must, therefore, reject the temple, for the words in magni lovis
aede are by no means a certain reference to the aedes of the
great political god, any more than to one of the other Jupiter
cults in Rome. ss
.. Fasti I, 56; 587-S.
.. I, 15, 16 (see n. 25 above).
.. I cannot see how the Etruscan etymology which Macrobius gives for
the words "Ides" and ovis Idulis can be used as an argument against the
genuinely Latin origin of the Roman festival. Even if his etymology
be correct, there is no reason to doubt that the worship of the sky-god
on the day of the futl moon can easily have antedated any name that
later crept into the calendar for that day. Macrob. I, 15, 14: Iduum
porro nomen a Tuscis, apud quos is dies Itis vocatur, sumptum est.
Item autem itli interpretantur lovis fiduciam, nam cum lovem accipiamus
lucis auctorem . . . iure hic dies lovis fiducia vocatur, cuius lux non
finitur cum solis occasu, sed splendorem diei et noctem continuat inlustrante
luna; . . . diem igitur qui vel nocturnis caret tenebris lovis
fiduciam Tusco nomine vocaverunt; unde et omnes Idus lovis ferias
observandas sanxit antiquitas"; and I, IS, 16: "quam (ovem Idulem)
hoc nomine vocant Tusci". A paratlel rite may wetl have existed among
the Etruscans, but it seems very improbable that the word "Ides" was
derived from the Etruscan. Varro (L. L., VI, 28), says: "Idus ab eo
quod Tusci itus vel potius quod Sabini idus dicunt". Corssen (Ober die
Sprache der Etrusker, Vol. II, pp. 237-238), gives a number of corresponding
roots from the Indo-Germanic languages, atl containing the idea
of brightness or heavenly light. Cf. Walde (Lateinisches etymologisches
Worterbuch, p. 375).