Ciconiae Nixae

The Ciconiae Nixae was a landmark, or more likely two separate landmarks, in the Campus Martius of ancient Rome. In A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, Lawrence Richardson regards a single site called Ciconiae Nixae as "hypothetical", noting that the subject "has long exercised topographers."^[1] The two words are juxtaposed in the regionary lists and located in Region IX near the Tiber River.^[2] The 4th-century calendar of Filocalus notes vaguely that the October Horse happened^[3] ad nixas, "at the Nixae", suggesting that the regionaries' Ciconiae ("Storks") ought to be taken as a separate entry. Inscriptional evidence also indicates that the Ciconiae was a separate landmark, and that it had to do with wine shipments brought in on the Tiber.

^ Lawrence Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), pp. 82–83 online. See also Marcel Le Glay, "Remarques sur la notion de Salus dans la religion romaine", La soteriologia dei culti orientali nell' imperio romano: Études préliminaires au religions orientales dans l'empire romain, Colloquio internazionale Roma, 1979 (Brill, 1982), p. 442 online.
^ CIL 6.1785 = 31931, as cited by Robert E.A. Palmer, Roman Religion and Roman Empire: Five Essays (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1974), p. 265; "Silvanus, Sylvester, and the Chair of St. Peter", Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 122 (1978), p. 240; and Studies of the Northern Campus Martius in Ancient Rome (American Philosophical Society, 1990), pp. 52–
^ The October Horse ritual involved a chariot race and the sacrifice of the righthand horse from the winning team; the lack of specificity in the calendar of Filocalus makes it unclear whether the race was held at the site or the sacrifice conducted there; possibly both, as Palmer notes, Studies on the Northern Campus Martius, p. 34.

[1] Lawrence Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), pp. 82–83 online. See also Marcel Le Glay, "Remarques sur la notion de Salus dans la religion romaine", La soteriologia dei culti orientali nell' imperio romano: Études préliminaires au religions orientales dans l'empire romain, Colloquio internazionale Roma, 1979 (Brill, 1982), p. 442 online.

[2] CIL 6.1785 = 31931, as cited by Robert E.A. Palmer, Roman Religion and Roman Empire: Five Essays (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1974), p. 265; "Silvanus, Sylvester, and the Chair of St. Peter", Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 122 (1978), p. 240; and Studies of the Northern Campus Martius in Ancient Rome (American Philosophical Society, 1990), pp. 52–

[3] The October Horse ritual involved a chariot race and the sacrifice of the righthand horse from the winning team; the lack of specificity in the calendar of Filocalus makes it unclear whether the race was held at the site or the sacrifice conducted there; possibly both, as Palmer notes, Studies on the Northern Campus Martius, p. 34.

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