Lupercal

A grotto at the base of the SW *Palatine, near the *Circus Maximus, believed to be the site where Faustulus discovered Romulus and Remus with the she-wolf (Dion. Hal., Ant. Rom. 1.79.8, Livy 1.5.1-2, Ovid, Fast. 2.381-424). The site featured a spring, and was once surrounded by a grove; the original ficus Ruminalis grew here, but by the Augustan period, only vestigia of the fig-tree remained near the Lupercal (Ov., Fast. 2.411; cf. *Forum; Richardson; Coarelli; Pliny, NH 15.77-78; Tac., Ann. 13.58). Following literary sources, the Lupercal can be located on the lower SW Palatine. Dionysius of Halicarnassus places it at the foot of the Germalus (s.v. Palatine) between the *Velabrum and *Circus Maximus (Ant. Rom. 1.79.8), and also associates the grotto with the Temple of *Victory, which stood atop the SW Palatine (Ant. Rom. 1.32.5). Further, the Lupercal is described as in Circo, ‘at the Circus [Maximus]’ (Servius, ad Aen. 8.90), and used as a landmark for a Palatine theater proposed but never realized by C. Cassius Longinus (c. 154 B.C., a Lupercali in Palatio: Vell. Pat. 1.15.3; Richardson 239). Augustus takes credit for building the Lupercal (RG 19: feci); although what this meant architecturally is unclear, an imperial intervention would have entailed significant alterations (Coarelli, LTUR; Wiseman 15). Concurrently, the festival of the Lupercalia was reorganized by Augustus (Suet., Aug. 31.4; on the Lupercalia, Wiseman; cf. *Magna Mater, Aedes). Within the Lupercal were several statues, including a bronze depiction of the she-wolf suckling the twins (Dion. Hal., Ant. Rom. 1.79.8; Livy 10.23) and an equestrian statue of Drusus (CIL VI 912=31200). The presence of an equestrian monument suggests the change in atmosphere the Augustan rebuilding may have brought to a once idyllic, watery grove. Returning to an early theory advanced by Lanciani, Coarelli suggests that a grotto near the Church of S. Anastasia may be the Augustan Lupercal (LTUR; contra, Richardson). First excavated in 1534, this cave was decorated as a nympheum with its walls “encrusted in marine shells” (Lanciani); Coarelli argues, as does Shipley, that this decoration would be appropriate for the Lupercal. Complicating matters is a series of Augustan tufa walls which stand just E of the apse of S. Anastasia (Whitehead pl. 11, A and B; Lanciani, FUR pl. 29); despite their partial preservation, the walls seem to have belonged to a warehouse similar to the *Horrea Agrippae (Whitehead). This suggests further study is needed before Coarelli’s proposal can be accepted, and thus the Lupercal has been represented by an index number on our map.