Camenae, Camenarum Fons

A sacred spring and grove, the sanctuary of the Camenae was situated near — probably just outside — the *Porta Capena at the foot of the *Caelian and named for water goddesses assimilated to the Muses, who were worshipped there, apparently together with Egeria, a water goddess dear to Numa (Ov., Fast. 3.275-76; also known as the fons Egeriae: Rodríguez Almeida). The spring was renowned for its good water (Vitr., De arch. 8.3.1; Camenarum [sc. fons], Frontin., Aq. 4.2), and tradition held that this was the source from which the Vestals drew their daily water (Plut., Numa 13.2). Based on Juvenal (Sat. 3.10-20) and both Renaissance and 19th-c. findings of nymphaeum architecture, it has been plausibly located in the foot-hills of the Villa Mattei (Rodríguez Almeida; cf. Lanciani, FUR pl. 35-36 for topography; contra, Richardson who, dependent in part on his placement of the Temple of *Honos et Virtus, argues for a spring inside the Porta Capena near S. Gregorio Magno). Toward the end of the 1st c. A.D., Martial (2.6.16) notes that the place ad Camenas served as a relay station for changing horses, and Juvenal, when mentioning such a traffic station at the Porta Capena, regrets that the grove and shrine of the sacred spring, then let out to Jews and exploited for grass and wood, had lost its old sylvan character (Sat. 3.10-20: sacri fontis nemus et delubra), as was the case further down the valley, which he calls, either in part or in its entirety, the ‘Valley of Egeria’ (s.v. *Vallis: Via Appia; Platner–Ashby). Further, by about this time a vicus Camenarum is attested on the Capitoline base (CIL VI 975, line 6; A.D. 136). Following Rodríguez Almeida and earlier scholars, we place the Camenae sanctuary at its widely accepted location — outside the Porta Capena at the foot of the Caelian — and also assume (with Richardson) that the Temple of Honos and Virtus was not far from it.