CULTS

Among the documented cults that of Hercules certainly stands out the most popular in the Italian world since the stage of independence.

Flora’s was a very lively cult among the populations italics of the central Apennines, where the month of July was locally called ‘Flora’s month’.

However, it must be added that, at least in Rome, its feasts they had a character that we could define as red lights, since they provided for the exhibition of prostitutes and even striptease.

A cult of the god Fucino is documented since the last decades of the 3rd century BC era to which a small altar dates back votive from Trasacco (CIL, IX, 3847 = I2, 389).

The inscription shows simply the names of the three dedicators, the name of the god and the subject of the dedication, implying the verb.

This local cult had an extraordinary continuity, resisting even the realization, under Claudio and Adriano,

of the great ancient emissary who drastically reduced the surface of the lake.

In Marruvium the cult of the Bona goddess is documented, reserved to women, with secret rituals and the obligation not to reveal to men not even the real name of the goddess, which she owed absolutely remain secret.