Polytheistic Religions in Pre-Roman Italy: Part III

South of Umbrians and Picenes, the Sabines, speaking Oscan and culturally close to Samnites, settled on Central Apennines. They were one of the most ancient populations in Italy and soon merged with Romans, to whom they handed down the pride they had in common with Samnites and the adherence to frugal customs and rural values we can find in archaic Roman writers, like Catone, who reports the presupposition that the Sabines’ name came from Sabo, son of Sancus, their main god, phonetic variant of Umbrian Saku, but this presupposition has no serious bases. Apart from Sancus-Saku, Umbrian religion and Sabine had much more in common: Sabines also worshipped the male parallel of Roman goddess Pomona, calling him Poimuni. Their goddesses Ardoina and Curi were identified respectively with Diana and Juno.

Vestini were very similar to Sabines. They settled in the Aterno valley and on Adriatic coast of current Abruzzo. They are known for the statue of the so-called Capestrano warrior; their name may come from the goddess Vesta, who became goddess of fireplace, home and preservation of life. Along the same river the Marrucini settled; they were an Osco-Umbrian population, too, and they might have been a branch of Marsi which moved north; both names may come from god Mars’.

We know very little about other Osco-Umbrian groups’ religion such as Aequi’s or Hernici’s, apart from what we can deduce from their belonging to this branch of Italic populations. We can deduce from Marsi’s name that they could practise a strong cult to the god Mars or that they might be born from a ver sacrum ceremony, as ancient sources say. Marsi settled at first in Sabine region, then moved to the region called Marsica from their name, under Umbrian pressure. Romans told that Marsi were snake-charmers or immune to their bite, so the snake should have had an important religious or totemic role among them, a role we can imagine linked to healing if we observe a christian rite which takes place in the same region nowadays, consisting in covering saint Dominic’s statue with snakes that are to be touched and taken by believers who want to heal or to preserve health. Marsi’s goddess Angizia held knowledge of medicinal herbs, of which they were experienced, and was a snake-charmer too.

The Paelignans settled in Samnio region, on Abruzzo’s Apennines, and made the Marsic league with Marsi, Marrucini, and Vestini; once they were believed to be of Illyric origins, but their language is Oscan. We don’t know much about their culture, because they romanized very quickly after the defeat they suffered during social war. The same happened with Frentani, inhabitants of basins of Fortore, Tiferno and Sangro rivers, on Adriatic coast of current Abruzzo and Molise. Their name may come from the word meaning “deer”, the sacred animal who led them during the ver sacrum from which they took origin.

The Volscians founded some cities which survived during Roman period: Antium, with a patron goddess who was interpreted as Fortune but had a larger “sphere of competence”: she was a goddess linked to fertility, birth, healing especially of reproductive organs, but also to navigation and agriculture; Anxur, where there were a temple dedicated to Iuppiter anxurus or Jupiter as a child, built in IV century a.e.v., over which Sulla made another temple to be built. Cassino is a Volscian city too, and there are traces of a cult to a deity of waters, later identified with Apollo.

Certainly Samnites are the most known among Osco-Umbrians, because of their pride and opposition to Roman conquest: these qualities are disclosed in books, where the role they had in Roman culture’s development is often forgotten. In facts, Atellans, farces of scurrilous humor, have a Samnite origin and were taken by Roman first attempt of literary production. For long Samnites were believed not to be a urban population: actually, while Samnites living on the mountains stayed reserved and conservative, those living in plains opened to influences coming from other populations, Grecians included, and rebuilt some cities: Pompeii, Etruscan city, was rebuilt by Samnites as the temple consecrated to fertility goddess of sulphurous waters, Mefitis, worshiped especially by Samnites, demonstrates; near the city of Capena, in southern Latium, there was a sacred area called in Latin lucus Feroniae, the wood sacred to the goddess Feronia, linked to springs and woods, whose cult was spread all over Central Italy: under Roman rule, this sacred area was widened.

As we have information about Umbrian religion from Gubbio’s tables, so we have information about Samnite religion from Agnone’s tables, regulating the practice of cult inside the sacred enclosure of Agnone, consecrated mainly to Ceres (Kerres, in their language) and subordinately to sixteen deities listed in these tables, often called “Kerriiais”, meaning “Cereal” and thereby “who makes grow”, referring to their function of inducing growth and coming from the name of the goddess Ceres, goddess of vegetation and harvest.

These deities are: Vezkei, in Latin Veiovis; Evklui Paterei, Father Euclo, called Hades or Hermes by Grecians, so he may have been a psychopomp god; Futrei Kerriai, Ceres’ daughter; Anter Statai, or Stata Mater for Latins; Ammai Kerriiai, Maia, Italic goddess of Spring, later identified with her Greek namesake, Hermes’ mother; Diumpais Kerriiais, Nymphs of springs; Liganakdikei Entrai, deity of vegetation and fruits; Anafriss Kerriiuis, Nymphs of rain; Maatuis Kerriiuis, dew’s goddess; Diuvei Verehasiui, or in Latin Jupiter Virgator, whipper, maybe someway bound to Lupercalia rites, during which some priests hit with leather straps the hands of women stretching out them to ensure fertility; Diuvei Regaturei, Jupiter Pluvius, who makes it raining; Hereklui Kerriiui, Hercules; Patanai Piistiai, goddess of wine making; Deivai Genetai, in Latin Mana Geneta; Pernai Kerriiai, Latins’ Pales, goddess of sheep farming; Fluusai, Flora, goddess of earth and patron of sprouds.

Samnites living near Agnone paid a tax for sacred enclosure’s maintenance and tables says that the enclosure belongs to those who paid this decima and have the right to attend it. There were fifteen altars inside this sacred garden; rites honoring Flora were performed outside it. Agnone’s sacred garden is an example of what Samnites’ first worshiping places looked like: they were open spaces, woods and valleys; only later Samnites began building sanctuaries, the most known of which is the sanctuary near Pietrabbondante, federal sanctuary of Samnite League. It had a big temple with three cellae and three altars dedicated to three deities, one of which was the goddess Victory, and a theatre. The architecture of this sanctuary shows consequences of the influence exerted by Grecians since VI century a.e.v. Mamerte, parallel to Latins’ Mars, was a very important god; his comrade-in-arms was the god Heres; like Sabines, Samnites worshipped Famel, goddess of earth. Lucina, goddess of birth, was a so important goddess that first Romans adopted her as an independent goddess and later her name became one of Juno’s appellations. Samnites had a sacred animal, like other Osco-Umbrian populations; theirs was the bull, while the cock was Samnite league’s sign.

Hirpini had the wolf as sacred animal and their name comes from the Samnite word for wolf, hirpus. They were an Oscan-speaking population, settled in southern Sannio, where Romans founded the colony of Beneventum. They, or their priests, were also called Hirpi Sorani (wolves of mount Soratte, from the place where this cult was celebrated); the historiographer Servius said that Hirpini practised the cult to Dis Pater, a Latin deity of underworld, with whom the original deity must have been identified, so some scholars believe that the adjective “Sorani” may come from Suri, an Etruscan underworld god. Hirpini also practised fire-walking, walking on coals with bare feet.

Lucanians’ sacred animal was the wolf, too, if we consider their name as given to them by Grecians, coming from the word meaning wolf, lukos; according to some philologists, their name is rather derived from the Latin word for “sacred wood”, lucus.

To their south, the Bruttii settled in current Calabria; ancient historiographers said they were shepherds or servants to Lucanians, but soon rebelled against them. They were a rough and nomadic population who conquered many cities of Magna Graecia before being defeated by Romans during the Punic Wars, when they were Hannibal’s allies. Archaeological findings demonstrate that they never founded real cities and their settlements consisted in an oppidum (fortification) and its connected villae. We don’t have traces of their culture.

The third Indo-European wave came from Illyria, preceding those of Grecians, Celts and Germans: various populations crossed the Adriatic and settled in current Apulia, between Abruzzo and Marches where overlapped to Osco-Umbrians population (Picenes) or in current Veneto. In Apulia, Illyrians were Daunii, Peucetii and Messapians; Liburni  settled in Picene region: we don’t know much about their religion because they merged with local Osco-Umbrians so that some historians believe Illyrian influences to be the result of relations at a distance and that Liburni never really settled in Italy; so Veneti were Illyrians too, and archaeologists prefer calling them Palaeoveneti, to avoid confusion with other populations reported under the same name, for example a Celtic group settled in Brittany, skillful navigators defeated by Cesar.

This confusion derives from uncertain origins of the name Veneti: it may come from the root ven- meaning “loved, friend”, and thereby Veneti means “members of groups united by blood ties”, or may come from a similar root meaning “to win” and so Veneti means “winners”; so Veneti is a generic name. The Veneti we are talking about may be, according to some sources, the Enetoi (Greek word for “praiseworthy”) mentioned in Iliad as a population coming from Paflagonia and by Herodotus as an Adriatic population, known to Grecians and then to Romans as skilful horse breeder. The so ancient use of this name doesn’t implies the existence of an original group later divided. The Palaeoveneti came from Illyria in XIII century a.e.v.; their language, attested by inscriptions, is an Indo-European language with similarities with Italic, Greek and Germanic branch, while their alphabet derives from the Etruscan alphabet of the city of Chiusi by adding the Greek letter O (in facts, this sound doesn’t exist in Etruscan language) and they have a syllabic script.

The Palaeovenetic culture is also called “atestina”, meaning “of the city of Este”, being this city their principal centre, near which there were four temples. The main one was dedicated to the goddess Reitia, connected to healing, as the ex-votos found around it show, but also to writing, as many alphabetic tablets and styli for writing have been found near the temple. Maybe the sanctuary contained also schools. The other temples were dedicated to the Dioscuri (Greek interpretatio of twin deities, common feature among Indo-European religions), to a warlike goddess whose name is not known, and the fourth may have been an auguraculum (a place where divination was practised). Most of Venetic temples are near waters; in Cadore region (Alps of current region Veneto) there was a temple consecrated to a triform goddess or to the god Trumusiate; near Abano’s thermal spring the cult of Hercules was practiced and there was a temple to the god Apono.

Iapyges was the collective noun for all the Illyrian population settled in current Apulia, who were believed to come from Crete according to some ancient sources: Sallentini, Calabrians, Messapians, Peucetii, Daunii. We don’t know much about Sallentini, Calabrians and Peucetii; we know something more about Daunii and Messapians.

Daunii settled in northern Apulia; they didn’t pass down much of their religion, but there remains some anthropomorphous stelae, bearing arms and hands drawn on them. Male stelae have an armor drawn on them, female ones a dress; some have a pin at the top, on which a head should be put. The of the entity drawn on the stele, which may be related to commemoration of dead people, was shown by other drawings: jewels, weapons, spheroid graphemes, colored scenes with people and animals. Scenes are different according to the stele’s sex: male stelae have fighting and hunting scenes, while female ones have a great variety of themes. On the latter representations of opium poppies were notices, so it is thought the Daunii used this flower not only for healing, but also for ecstatic and religious purposes.

Messapians settled in southern Apulia; they went to Italy during the Iron Age and stayed in touch with other Illyrian populations, both with those on the opposite coast of Adriatic and with those who came to Italy too, especially with Veneti. Some ancient historiographer, for example Herodotus, said Messapians were descendant of Cretans, who merged with local population. Messapian language is attested by many public, funerary, votive and numismatic inscriptions in Greek alphabet from Taranto and it is an Illyrian language. Their religion went under Grecians’ influence so that some Messapian deities have names which are very similar to those of Greek deities. In Torre dell’Orso’s and Roca’s inscriptions there are some names of typically Messapian deities: Tator or Taotor, one of the most important gods, or Batio, who was worshipped in brambles (and so his name, from the Messapian word for bramble) and represented sometimes as a god and sometimes as a goddess breast-feeding her child. Later, Batio was identified with Jupiter and worshiped as Jupiter Batio, but the cult of the goddess of growth survived in post-messapian period. Ana was another goddess, later identified with Aphrodite, as in a dedication on a capital to Aphrodite Ana.

 This is the general picture of Italian situation. Of course, it’s only an overview, just to give an idea of complexity and tissue of populations in the territory of what we call Italy nowadays. Even though I introduced them as distinct populations, actually they overlapped everywhere until they definitively merged under Roman rule.

The Federazione Pagana doesn’t have a predominant ethnic-religious orientation (except in “numeric” sense of word, I mean for what concerns the majority of members) and so its purpose is to support development of paganism in Italy and thereby of these paganisms and others and to let every single person search for his/her historic and emotional roots.

Manuela Simeoni


[2] It’s what happens with those who start studying “stregheria”, but they believe they can’t practice it or they won’t find a master because they don’t have Italian ancestors.

[3] Ante Era Vulgare: before current era, it means b.c.

[4] From now on, I will use mainly Latin names of population where I couldn’t find the English word for them. Latin names are in italic.

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Polytheistic Religions in Pre-Roman Italy: Part I

POLYTHEISTIC RELIGIONS IN PRE-ROMAN ITALY
 
[Published by the Pederazione Pagana in Italy, based in Venice]

Celsus, Alethès Logos, V, 25

“Every population cultivates its own traditions, anyway they have been established. And this seems to happen not only because every population believed that was right  to follow its own customs and necessary to preserve the principles in force, but also because, as it’s very similar, all parts of earth, assigned some to a tutelary deity and some to another from the beginning and divided into fixed domains, are still administered in this way. Besides, what is done by every population is right in so far as it is done in the way those tutelary deities like it. It will be impious to subvert the original institution of the various places”

So Celsus says in his work reconstructed from its criticism written by Origen; the basic concept is that every population has the right-duty to preserve its costumes, beliefs and deities of the land it belongs. Although Celsus is a late and not very reliable source, since his work comes to us indirectly, the idea he expresses here should be widely spread in Greco-Roman world. Just think that Greeks described other religions in geographical works or geographical parts of historical works (for example, the Histories by Herodotus, which Celsus often refers to) while Romans used, during wars, to call the enemies’ deities to Rome, where they promised they would built a temple for them.

After the long interruption due to Christianism, today in Europe we see the rebirth of the so-called “ethnic” religions, or, to use a word we are taking back to its ancient meaning, paganism. In Europe we don’t see that restless seeking for one’s origins as we see in America, where there are some Wiccans who feel sorry for they don’t have the “right” roots of the tradition they chose[2]. But it’s true that the pagan path to walk is often chosen on the strength of a sense of belonging, which comes from individual sensibility and not necessarily has an effective connection to a person’s  geographical background.

This is more true in Italy, where the ethnic groups, both native and immigrant ones, before and after Christianity, merged in various ways and everyone of them leaved its mark on the country; so, before and after the Romans’ conquest, ancient populations’ religion lived together on the same territory. So an Italian person can have Celtic, Germanic, Italic, Pre-Latin, Latin, Roman, Grecian roots without fully identify with only one of them: this is the sense of belonging who lead someone, for example many of those who find their Roman roots, to feel him/herself as a descendant of one ethnic groups, some others to feel him/herself part, to practise or to study more than one ancient religions, which can all be called traditional. Many of those traditions are probably still buried under the sands of time, some of them are “recovered” in a wiccan way: that’s the case of a Wiccan current in Veneto, putting on the center of their practices the ancient Venetic goddess Reitia.

I don’t want to enter into the merits of the choice; what I want to present here is some kind of geographic map of ancient polytheistic religions who came across Italy during the centuries before Christianity, showing superpositions among them and how they stratified on the territory. To be brief, I won’t talk over the most developed religions, those which are the most known and exerted a strong influence on Italic paganism: I mean Grecian religion, coming from the colonies of  Magna Graecia since VIII century a.e.v.[3], Etruscan religion, Celtic religion, Phoenician religion and Roman religion, which developed from the union of Italic, Etruscan and later Grecian elements. 

But in Italy the Germanic element didn’t lack, under the guise of the Cimbrian, who settled on the Alps and in northern Italy. The complexity of those religion and the abundance of information we have, if we compare it to the scarcity of sources we have about other ancient Italic religions, make it very difficult to discuss them here, where I simply want to give an overview of religious situation in Italy from the beginning to Rome. All those religion deserve a better elaboration (to which I will apply myself) also about the links among them I just sketched here. The Italian peninsula was occupied since the Palaeolithic era; the most ancient archaeological  finds go back to about 850,000 years ago. 

Since the Palaeolithic we can distinguish three different cultures, with different kind of tombs, all with rich outfits. These three groups fragmented still further during the Mesolithic, when we can date the so-called “Venuses”, little sculptures with marked feminine features. During the Neolithic, some new populations, coming from the East by sea or from the Danubian basin, came to Italy and brought some important innovations, like agriculture and ceramic. These populations also had a great surgical knowledge and could do the trapanning of the skull, making the patient to survive. Later the use of metals spread in the peninsula.

During the Eneolithic, cultural groups established and spread: in this period, in the region now called Emilia, developed the civilization of  “terramaras”, characterized by palafitte and manufacts spread in the whole Central-southern Italy. In the same period started in Europe the spreading of Indo-European languages coming from East in consecutive waves.

So the eldest local population are born in proto-historic Europe; later other immigrant population will arrive and add to them. In this article, because of its features of synthesis, I won’t dwell long on archaeological and social features of every civilization, but I’ll try to focus my attention, as much as possible and even when I’ll be forced to simply make a list of deities’ names, on religious aspects of those civilizations. Although, it’s necessary to keep in mind that ancient “pagan” cultures didn’t separate sacred and profane as monotheistic religions do, but everything had a sacred part and a profane (as we will define it nowadays) one.

Ancient sources pass down some names [4] of ancient populations living in the peninsula before Latins and Osco-Umbrian, but for these names we don’t have a strict definition nor enough finds to identify them accurately: the Ausonians, ancient inhabitants of Samnius, whose name we find in Virgil’s work, belong to this group. Maybe the word indicates all the ancient non-Grecian inhabitants of the area, but if they really were a civilization, they extinguished during V century a.e.v. The same can be said about the Oenotrii, ancient inhabitants of Southern Italy before Sabellian populations’ arrival. Some traces of their language remain in dialects, some tombs were found and Cato passes down three names of tribus (Coni, Morgetes, Vitales).

In ancient Italy there were also other populations whose origin we don’t know for certain, but which are probably non-Indo-European: Sardinians, whose civilization is called “nuraghic”; Sicanians, inhabitants of that island that Homer calls “Sikania” from their name, now Sicily, and their neighbours the Elimi; in current Veneto Rhaetians and Euganeans; the Villanovan civilization, ancestors of Etruscans; and above all the Ligurians.

The Sardinian nuraghic civilization’s religion was a naturalistic one, perceiving deities in natural elements. Their sanctuaries were built between 1300 and 900 a.e.v. and were used, as in other ancient cultures, also as a market place and for politic meetings; at their center there was a well-temple, consisting in a doorway at ground level, a stair going down under the ground, a sunken room with a false dome vault and the sacred spring just down the stairs. On the ground, the sacred area was delimited by a stone fence. There are still about forty of those well-temples dedicated to water deities (water is very precious in a so dry region as Sardinia is); a christian rural church was often placed side-by-side to them. 

Sardinians prosecuted their ancestors’ cults, worshiping a Mother Goddess and a Bull God, both deities of fertility, being the two forces who combine to generate life, whose cult was someway linked to the cult of the dead. The tombs they built were collective and enormous, with a semicircular façade in a bull’s horns shape and a stele with a little door to go inside the tomb. All around this tombs, called “Giants’ tombs” because of their impressive dimensions, there were some stone sedilia on which the dead ones’ relatives can sleep, maybe to communicate with their dearest in dreams, practicing the incubation. In front of the tombs there were some “betili”, a Sardinian word meaning little menhirs, phallic symbols of fertility carved with two eyes or two breasts: the betili having eyes were guardian deities of the dead, the betili having breasts represent the unity of the male deity with the feminine one to bring back the life. 

Sardinians had other kind of temples, the temple in a cave with a stalagmite for altar and a sacrificial fireplace, and the temple with rectangular plan. We have some remaining examples of both, but we don’t know who was the deity they were consecrated to; temples in caves are supposed to be consecrated to chthonian deities. Later, Sardinian were affected by Grecian and Carthaginian people; during Roman period, an ancient local god was known under the name of Sardus Pater (father Sardo): this god derived from or was similar to the Carthaginian god Baal. Ancient mythographers believed that Sardus Pater was Hercules’ son, and that Hercules came to Sardinia from Libia (so he can be considered son of Hercules-Melqart, a Greco-Roman interpretation of the Phoenician god Melqart).

Homer calls the other Italian big island “Sicania”, from the name of its ancient inhabitants, the Sicanians, who were pushed to the western part of Sicily by the Sicels. Thucydides said that Sicanians already lived in the island during Trojan war but they came from Iberia across Italy, while according to Antiochus and Thymeus Sicanians are native of Sicily. We know very little about them, because they lost their ethnic features during the IV century a.e.v. under Grecian and Phoenician influence. The same lot was shared by the Elimi, who ancient authors believed to be native of southern Italy, of which the Oenotrii pushed them out (Hellanicus), or to be a group originated in Asia from the union between Trojan exiles and other people (Thucydides); they underwent a quick process of Hellenization and disappeared under Carthaginian rule during I century a.e.v. 

According to contemporary scholars, they could have a Sicanian origin, or a Ligurian one; somebody believes they are Semites, a mixed population of Persians, Phoenicians and Trojans, whose name may come from that of the region Elam. Their main deity was a goddess belonging to the group of Mother Goddesses (with this name anthropologists call all ancient goddesses with maternal features and related to fertility): her main sanctuary stood on mount Erice and this goddess was called Aphrodite by Grecians and Venus by Romans, but she has also something in common with the Phoenician Astarte. Venus Ericina (Venus of mount Erice) has an ear of wheat as her symbol and she’s represented with a dog and other animals by her side (she’s a “potnia theron”, a “Mistress of animals”); her rites were celebrated outside, so that the dew could wash the stains due to sacrifices. 

Her cult was admitted in Rome, but with some restrictions on it because Roman magistrates thought it contravened Romans’ sense of decency; Venus Ericina’s day was on the 23rd of April, that was also the day of Vinalia, but the cult of the goddess was reserved to seventeen cities of Sicily, probably Elimi’s cities, which had the honor of  presenting a wreath to her, and to prostitutes (because of this, some scholars believed that sacred prostitution was practiced around the original temple in Sicily), while it was forbidden to other women to take part to it. Main Elimi’s city was Segesta: a Roman agricultural deity has the same name and her symbol was an ear of wheat like Venus Ericina’s, but the relation between the two is not clear.

In present region of Veneto, before of the arrival of palaeovenetic culture, there were two non-indoeuropean population, who left traces in names of local mountains: Rhaetian Alps derive their name from the Rhaetians, while the Euganean Hills from the Euganeans.We don’t know much about these two populations: the Rhaetians are supposed to be an ensemble of population including some groups coming from Illyria (from which the Palaeovenetics came, too) and Celtic groups also, while the Euganean are supposed to be part of the Ligurian culture, and were divided into Stoni, Camuni (who made rupestrian figures in Val Camonica) and Triumpilini (who made rupestrian figures of Val Trompia). Both Rhaetians and Euganeans merged with Celts, Etruscans and later Venetics.

On the contrary, we have enough about Etruscan religion, which influenced the Roman one as Grecians did (for a long time, the scholars believed that the Etruscans had been cultural mediators between Grecians and Romans but later direct contacts between these two cultures were proved), just as Etruscans joined Roman society: it goes without saying that three among the seven legendary kings of Rome were Etruscans. Etruscan language seems not to belong to Indo-European stock, while their alphabet had a Grecian origin: in their turn, Etruscans taught it to various population settled in northern Italy, but not, as it seems, to Latins, who learnt it directly by Grecians. Many hypotheses were made about the origin of Etruscan people:  the authochtonal theory was abandoned after the discovery of Lemnos’ inscriptions, made in a non-Grecian language, but very similar to the Etruscan one, so someone believes that Etruscans were descendants of some groups of Lemnos’ inhabitants who came to Italy and merged with local population. 

This union gave rise to Villanovan culture, first germ of the Etruscan one; at the present time, none of the theories about Etruscans’ origin can be proved with certainty. Even after this population’s decline, their language was used in Rome until the Augustan period, as it was a sacred language, used also for divinatory books, which collected cult and divinatory practices and rules of civilian life, all that was called by Romans “Etruscan subject”. Divination is the most known aspect of their religion, they taught to Romans the haruspicy, divination by observation of sacrificial victims’ viscera, of birds’ flight and of lightnings. Lightnings were particularly revered and were attributes of many deities, who could throw just one at a time, and of Tinia, later identified in Jupiter, a celestial god, who could throw three of them: the first to warn, the second to terrify and the third to destroy. 

Contrary to what happens with other Italic deities, we know many names of Etruscan deities (in their original version or through the Greco-Roman interpretatio) and we know how the priesthood was organized. According to what Romans passed down to us, Etruscan deities were hierarchically organized and there was a triad of deities at the top, consisting in Tinia, Uni and Menvra, more or less corresponding to Romans’ Jupiter, Juno and Minerva; there was also a chthonian triad consisting in Mantus, a god with features similar to those of Grecians’ Hades and Bacchus, Mania and another goddess, Phersipnei (Persephone) or Serfue (Ceres). 

Among Etruscan deities, we can distinguish deities with an Etruscan origin (Amharia, justice and revenge, Cautha, solar deity, Cilens, Colalp, Ethausva, Letham, Tecum, Thufltha, Tolusco and, known under his Latin name, Vertumnus or Volturnus, the turn of seasons), deities of Grecian origin or that we know with Hellenic features (Fufluns-Dionysus, Sethlans-Hephaestus, Turms-Hermes, Turan-Aphrodite, Aplu-Apollo, Artume-Artemis, Hercle-Hercules, Aita-Hades, Phersipnei-Persephone), deities of Italic origin (Maris-Mars, Nethuns-Neptune, Menvra-Minerva, Usil-Sun), Latin or Latinized deities (Uni-Juno, Ani-Janus, Selvans-Sylvan, Satre-Saturn, Vetis-Veiovis). 

Near the Etruscan city of Capena, there was the Lucus Feroniae, goddess Feronia’s sacred wood, dedicated to a Sabine deity. Priests compiled the calendar on a lunar basis; there was also a high priest who led the priesthood and was elected every year during federal festival of Fanum Voltumnae. The Etruscans’ religion is subject of many studies, so I won’t spread here about it, just as I won’t deal here with Grecian, Roman, Celtic and Phoenician religion, which are basic for Italian paganism, but for which I refer the reader to more exhaustive studies, as there are some deserving ones.

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Gaulish, Insubrian, reenactment group in Western Lombardy and Ticino; and "The Torc"

The Insubrians were a major Gaulish tribe which inhabited Western Lombardy (including Ticino, Switzerland) in pre-Roman times. I think Gaulish is perhaps a more descriptive term than "Celtic," even though most of these southern Alpine tribes were part of the greater Celtic world. Western Lombardy, with it's distinct western dialect of the Lombard language, is often referred to as "Insubria" within a regional-national context.


Gianluca Preti YouTube channel

I celti insubri north italian's ancient celtic tribes 

[from the video description]:

The tribe of Insubres placed between today's Lombardy and Canton Ticino (Swiss), was one of the largest Celtic tribe populating a big part of northern Italy's territories. We know from Tito Livio, historical of the I° century. BC., the story that around the seventh century BC Belloveso, a celtic prince, came in a place where was living a tribe with the same name of an Edui's tribe, who was after him: this name was Insubres. He decided to found a village in those lands, and questioned 7 wise druids, who consulted the oracle to get a response to tell him where to place the first stone.

The answer was that seeing a semi-walled sow would be the sign who marked the city's boundary. When in the middle of a clearing a White semi-walled sow was found between hawthorn's bushes, they decided that this was the place where found Medhelan. (Milàn). Today we can suppose that those "Insubres" were the direct descendants of Golasecca culture, whose archaeological remains dating ninth - VIII century. BC, are massively present in the area around Milan and Lombardy.

Recently remains were found even in the Milan's midtown. Most of these findings, concern pottery and artifacts commonly used as, bowls, vases and ornaments such as brooches and jewelry of various kinds, but close to this findings it isn't rare at all to find objects of war, such as swords, shields and studs spearheads. The Celtic people, do not always lived peacefully, though not all disputes between the various tribes, were concluding in real battles. Its also common to find objects associated with religious rituals, proof of a deep spirituality connected with the cult of the Celtic deities.

The worship of the goddess Belisama or Brigh, name who might be the origin of the Brianza's place name thet is representing motherhood and fertility, and the cult of the god Cernunnos, the spirit of the forest with deer antlers and snake at his feet, that is a protector of animals, or worshipof Belenos, the sun-god, are just some examples. What at first seemed like a normal activity of a farming community, in reality could conceal preparations for a battle, as all members of the tribe were called to work for the preparation of weapons. Often, then, the women took part in the battle. Famous are the anthropomorphic hilt swords, found in much of Cisalpine Gaul, example of Insubre's and more generally Celtic art.

The figure of the Druid was in Celtic culture, who acted as intermediary with the divine forces of nature and that could change the fate of a battle with his sorcery. He knew the power of words, writing, used to designate the sacred territories and tombstones. The North Etruscan alphabet or Lepontic recently reclassified as Cisalpine Celtic alphabet, is the oldest form of Celtic writing known, and enable us to reconstruct, albeit in a very limited way, the ancient Celtic language of Insubrians. The splendor of till now discovered archaeological remains are barely unveil the complexities of a culture so far in time but so close to our roots. A documentary about Insubres the ancient celtic tribes who found Milano in north italy, and north italian history.

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The torc as a cultural symbol

I wanted to add here the torc as having been an important cultural and spiritual symbol from the iron Age to the period of Romanization and Christianization. It seems to clearly have sprung from the Continental Celts, but extended to other nearby peoples as well, and right up to the edges of the earliest Greek and Roman borders. Cernunnos was depicted as holding a snake (representative of the Ophiuchus constellation) in one hand, and a torc in another. The Hellenic depiction of "The Dying Gaul" showed him wearing a torc, and was apparently a symbol of Greek victory against the nearby Celts. It's ironic that the torc seems to have symbolically "died" along with "The Dying Gaul," at least compared to its former significance over such vast regions. Perhaps it's time to start thinking about this symbol a bit more; maybe as a Gaulish equivalent to the Teutonic hammer or drinking horn?



Torc (Wikipedia)

A torc, also spelled torq or torque, is a large rigid or at least stiff neck ring in metal, made either as a single piece or from strands twisted together. The great majority are open at the front, although some had hook and ring closures and a few mortice and tenon locking catches to close them. Many seem designed for near-permanent wear and would have been difficult to remove. Torcs are found in the Scythian, Illyrian, Thracian, Celtic, and other cultures of the European Iron Age from around the 8th century BC to the 3rd century AD. For the Iron Age Celts the gold torc seems to have been a key object, identifying the wearer as a person of high rank, and many of the finest works of ancient Celtic art are torcs. The Celtic torc disappears in the Migration Period, but during the Viking Age torc-style metal necklaces, now mainly in silver, came back into fashion. Torc styles of neck-ring are found as part of the jewellery styles of various other cultures and periods.

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Replica of an ancient Camunni village

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Lugas: A Celtic god

I have always preferred the word "god" to the word "deity." Maybe it's just me, but somehow god is a better descriptive word. On our Cernic Rite video, we used a song by the Spanish Celtic/Pagan black metal band the Crystalmoors entitled 'Lacrimae Lugus', which was supposed to be a tribute to Lugus, not to the god Cernunnos. Lugus was a pre-Roman/Christian god in the Celtic world. The Crystalmoors were likely motivated by the fact that Lugus was an important god to the Celtiberians in ancient Iberia (Spain/Portugal). This god was also present in the British Isles, Gaul (France), and in what is today modern day Switzerland.

Wikipedia does not mention Cisalpine Gaul, so I guess this is another area of open study. I had originally written that Druidism was not present in Cisalpine Gaul, but later discovered that it was at least present in some form there. Therefore I suspect the same for Lugus. If it was present in Iberia and Switzerland, then it's likely that it played some role, albeit smaller, in ancient Cisalpine culture. After the Romans conquered Celtic lands, they cleverly assigned one of the Roman gods to each Celtic god to make assimilation more easy. Therefore Lugus became the "Gaulish Mercury." In conclusion, it seems to appear that Lugus may have been to the Celtiberians, what Cernunnos was to the Cisalpines.

Lugus (from Wikipedia page):

Lugus was a deity of the Celtic pantheon. His name is rarely directly attested in inscriptions, but his importance can be inferred from placenames and ethnonyms, and his nature and attributes are deduced from the distinctive iconography of Gallo-Roman inscriptions to Mercury, who is widely believed to have been identified with Lugus, and from the quasi-mythological narratives involving his later cognates, Irish Lugh and Welsh Lleu Llaw Gyffes.

It is possible that Lugus was a triune god, comprising Esus, Toutatis and Taranis, the three chief deities mentioned by Lucan. The "threefold death" in Celtic human sacrifice may reflect the triplicity of this god.

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Celtic pantheon (Wikipedia)

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'Lacrimae Lugus' by the Crystalmoors

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As we've mentioned before, a search for "the Celts" on Amazon.com brings up some interesting books, several of them specifically about Cisaline Gaul.

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Pre-Roman Tribes of the Lombardia Region

This entry is based on three articles from the Padanian-American League blog:

The Celti and the Trophy of Augustus

Caesar Augustus' "Conquered Alpine Peoples" - Part 1

Caesar Augustus' "Conquered Alpine Peoples" - Part 2

These articles show the bigger picture of the pre-Roman Alpine region, but we wanted to just focus on the region of Lombardia (which wasn't a distinct region at that time).

Lets start with Brescia. In the Valle Camonica was the Camunni tribe, and just south of it, in the nearby Valle Trompia, was the Trumpilini tribe. Now those two tribes were listed FIRST in the Trophy of Augustus, as the most fierce resistors against the invading Romans (Trumpilini was number one). That alone is a tremendous statement regarding the fighting spirit of these two Italic Alpine tribes. Especially in light of the bigger picture, with the Romans going on to conquer the known world. They had to get past the Alpine peoples first.


From the Wikipedia entry: "Camunni

"The Camunni or ancient Camunians (Greek: Καμοῦνοι for Strabo or Καμούννιοι for Cassius Dio) were an Alpine people who inhabited the valley of the Ollius (modern Oglio), from the central chain of the Rhaetian Alps to the head of the Lacus Sebinus (modern Lago d'Iseo). This valley, which is still called the Val Camonica, is one of the most extensive on the Italian side of the Alps, being over 100 km in length. The actual inhabitants of Val Camonica are called Camunians (Italian: Camuni).

"According to Pliny, the Camunni were a Euganean tribe, while Strabo reckons them among the Rhaetians.

"The name of the Camunni appears among the Alpine tribes who were reduced to subjection by Roman emperor Augustus, after which the inhabitants of all these valleys were attached, as dependents, to the neighbouring towns of Gallia Transpadana ("finitimis attributi municipiis", Plin. iii. 20. s. 24; Strab. iv. p. 206; Dion Cass. liv. 20). At a later period, however, the Camunni, appear to have formed a separate community of their own, and we find mention in inscriptions of the "Res Publica Camunnorum". (Orell. Inscr. 652, 3789.)

"In the later division of the provinces, they came to be included in Regio X Venetia et Histria."

In the above link, make sure to see the amazing map, which shows the tribe territory of Brescia/Lombardia. What is now the Brescia province (and most of the rest of what is now the Orobic language region; East Lombardy), was then in ancient Venetia, and what is now considered Insubria (West Lombardy), was then in ancient Transpadane Gaul. It shows the tribes of the three mountain valleys of northern Brescia: Camunni, Trumilini, and Sabbini (all Italic tribes). To the south in lower Brescia, Cremona, and to the east through what is now the Verona province, was the ancient territory of the Cenomani, who were a Celtic tribe. The Cenomani founded the cities of Brescia (Brixia) and Verona. To the west is the territory of the Insubres, another Celtic tribe, who founded the city of Milano (Mediolanum). In the north central part of Lombardy was the territory of the Orobii, who were also Celtic.


From the Wikipedia entry: "Cenomani (Cisalpine Gaul)

The Cenomani (Greek: Κενομάνοι, Strabo, Ptol.; Γονομάνοι, Polyb.), was an ancient tribe of the Cisalpine Gauls, who occupied the tract north of the Padus (modern Po River), between the Insubres on the west and the Veneti on the east. Their territory appears to have extended from the river Addua (or perhaps the Ollius, the modern Oglio) to the Athesis (modern Adige). Whether these Cenomani are the same people as the Cenomani in Gallia Celtica encountered by Julius Caesar is a subject of debate.

"Both Polybius and Livy expressly mention them among the tribes of Gauls which had crossed the Alps within historical memory, and had expelled the Etruscans from the territory in which they established themselves and subsequently continued to occupy. (Pol. ii. 17; Liv. v. 35.) Livy relates that about 400 BCE, under the leadership of Elitovius (Livy V.35), a large number of the Cenomani crossed into Italy, drove the Etruscans southwards, and occupied their territory. The statement of Cato (in Pliny, Nat. Hist. III.130), that some of them settled near Massilia in the territory of the Volcae, may indicate the route taken by them. It is remarkable that they appear in history almost uniformly as friendly to the Romans, and refusing to take part with their kindred tribes against them. Thus, during the great Gaulish war in 225 BCE, when the Boii and Insubres took up arms against Rome, the Cenomani, as well as their neighbours the Veneti, concluded an alliance with the Roman Republic, and the two nations together furnished a force of 20,000 men, with which they threatened the frontier of the Insubres. (Pol. ii. 23, 24, 32; Strab. v. p. 216.) Even when Hannibal invaded Cisalpine Gaul they continued faithful to the Romans, and furnished a body of auxiliaries, who fought with them at the Battle of the Trebia. (Liv. xxi. 55.) After the close of the Second Punic War, however, they took part in the revolt of the Gauls under Hamilcar (200 BCE), and again a few years later joined their arms with those of the Insubres: but even then the defection seems to have been but partial, and after their defeat by the consul Gaius Cornelius Cethegus (197 BCE), they hastened to submit, and thenceforth continued faithful allies of the Romans. (Liv. xxxi. 10, xxxii. 30, xxxix. 3.) From this time they disappear from history, and became gradually merged in the condition of Roman subjects, until in 49 BCE they acquired, with the rest of the Transpadane Gauls, the full rights of Roman citizens. (Dion Cass. xli. 36.)

"The limits of the territory occupied by them are not very clearly defined. Strabo omits all notice of them in the geographical description of Gallia Cisalpina, and assigns their cities to the Insubres. Livy speaks of Brixia (modern Brescia) and Verona as the chief cities in their territory. Pliny assigns to them Cremona and Brixia: while Ptolemy gives them a much wider extent, comprising not only Bergamum (modern Bergamo) and Mantua, but Tridentum also, which was certainly a Rhaetian city. (Strab. v. p. 213; Liv. v. 35; Plin. iii. 19. s. 23; Ptol. iii. 1. § 31.) It is singular that Polybius, in one passage (ii. 32), appears to describe the river Clusius (modern Chiese), as separating them from the Insubres: but this is probably a mistake. The limits above assigned them, namely, the Addua on the west, the Athesis on the east, and the Padus on the south, may be regarded as approximately correct.

"The Alpine tribes of the Camunni and the Triumpilini, which bordered on them on the north, are expressly described by Pliny as of Euganean race, and were not therefore nationally connected with the Cenomani, though in his time at least united with them for administrative purposes."


From the Wikipedia entry: "Insubres

"The Insubres or Insubri were a population settled in Insubria, in what is now Lombardy. They were the founders of Milan (Mediolanum). Though Celtic at the time of Roman conquest, they were most likely the result of the fusion of pre-existing Ligurian and Italic population strata with Gaulish tribes who had come from what is now southern France.

"Together with the Boii, Lingones, Taurini, Gesati and other Gaulish groups, the Insubres were defeated in 224 or 225 BC by the Roman army led by consul Lucius Aemilius Papus at the Battle of Telamon. Two years later the Romans, backed by their Gaulish allies the Cenomani, reduced the only fortified place of the Insubres at Acerrae, and defeated them again at the Battle of Clastidium. After the defeat of the Gesati, they were compelled to accept the Roman occupation of Milan in 221 and forcible alliance with Rome, while the victors annexed much of their territory.

"During the invasion of Hannibal of 218-217 BC, the Insubres rebelled in support of the Carthaginians. They supported the Carthaginians again in 200 BC, this time under Hamilcar. After several other clashes, they definitively allied with Rome in 194, maintaining some autonomy for their capital. In 89 BC they obtained Latin citizenship and, in 49 BC, Roman citizenship.

"Romanization of the Insubres was probably quick, also due to the reported similarities of the Celtic and Latin languages; in a short span of time after the Roman conquest several literary figures emerged, like that of Caecilius Statius.

"Insubria and Insubric language are named after the Insubres."


The Cenomani betrayal of the Celto-Ligurian federation is perhaps a historical demerit, but the brave actions of the other tribes, in fighting what possibly was the most powerful army the world has ever seen, more than makes up for it.