The Three Phases of the Taurobolium

Bibliographic Data

ID3938559
AuthorsJeremy B Rutter (corresponding author)
Year1968
Volume22
Issue3
Pages226
Publication date1968-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePhoenix (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0031-8299 • E-ISSN: 1929-4883
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1086636
OpenAlexW2332129568
LanguageEN
Citations received32

A STUDY OF ALL the epigraphic and literary evidence directly concerned with the taurobolium suggests that there are three distinct phases of the rite. The first phase is dated approximately by inscriptions to the period ca. 135 B.C.-A.D. 159. In this phase the rite was not connected with any particular deity, although it was almost certainly religious in nature. The second phase is again dated by inscriptions to the period A.D. 159-ca. 290. In this phase the rite was adopted into the cult of the Magna Mater, initially at Rome but soon spreading throughout the rest of Italy, Gaul, Spain, and western Africa. With the advent of the Christian emperors the performance of the rite is recorded less often, but beginning with the reign of Julian there was a renaissance which flared briefly under the patronage of the pagan aristocracy in Rome until the final disappearance of the rite soon after A.D. 390. In this final phase the taurobolium was celebrated only in a very limited area, or rather group of areas, and became a perquisite of the aristocracy. In all three phases, the criobolium occurs as well as the taurobolium. In the final phase, the taurobolium and criobolium are linked together very closely in single inscriptions, and there is an inscription of the second phase from Corduba in Spain dated to A.D. 238, where the criobolium and taurobolium are mentioned together.' This link in the later phases indicates that the two rites were similar, if not identical, except for the nature of the animal involved. There being no significant difference between the two rites (except for the animal) implied in any other inscriptions, they will be treated here as essentially the same rite. The evidence for the earliest known taurobolia is confined to eight inscriptions and one literary reference.2 Of the inscriptions, three are undated, but we may safely assume that they all antedate A.D. 159, since none of them mention the Magna Mater; as we shall see later, the taurobolium at that time became associated with her cult, and all subsequent private taurobolium inscriptions mention her. Along with Kolbe and

Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies · Classical Studies and Legal History · Materials Science

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