liber/Baccuss

THE BEGINNINGS The first signs of the presence of Liber in Latium date back to the seventh century BC. Even in those early years he was a divinity associated with grapes and wine, complemen- tary to Ceres, the goddess of wheat. The city of Rome did, however, tend to distinguish its own pantheon from that of Latium by adopting a particular religious identity, in line with its own institutional and political character. This means that “there is an ‘Italic’ Liber and a ‘Roman’ Liber, which means an agricultural and popular expression of the god, and another that is urban and official. The two ex- pressions are compatible but they are not superimpos- able,” according to Enrico Montanari. In the urban area, the association with wine was transferred to Jupiter, the highest divinity of the state. We do not have evidence that wine was drunk during the festivities of the Liberalia, on 17 March, which certainly date back to the archaic peri- od, but the Vinalia of 23 April and 19 August were the festivities of Jupiter (or Venus). Even so, the Liberalia were extremely important for the state, as well as for the families of Rome. After a sacrifice at home in the lararium and then at the Capitol, they provided an opportunity to celebrate the maturity of boys (liberi in Latin), who for the first time wore the toga virilis in place of the praetexta. The name of the festivity and of the divinity were related to the concept of liberty. It may seem surprising that the patron of a feast that was of such importance for the state should have been, as we shall see, a divinity closely connected to the common people: not unlike the Dionysus of the polis for the Greeks, Liber was probably considered as a divin- ity of all the people and of all social classes and, as well as a liberator, he was also a great peace-maker. We know nothing about how the Romans during the Kingdom and early Republic imagined Liber Pater. The first known depiction of him is on a Praeneste cista dating from the closing decades of the fourth century BC, a lux- ury object that was common in Latium, but was probably made in Rome (fig. 1). In a divine assembly of people watching a scene of controversial interpretation - possibly the initiation of a young man - next to the young Apollo we find a bearded Liber holding a branch of ivy who is identified by the word “Leiber” (fig. 2). Again bearded, but with a spray of vine we find him on another cista, and