PRAEFERI´CULUM
PRAEFERI´CULUM was clearly some sort of brazen dish
or bowl used in sacrifices, our only definition being, “vas aeneum
sine ansa patens summum velut pelvis quo ad sacrificia utebantur”
[perhaps in the original
utuntur] (Fest.
Ep. p. 248): it was part of the apparatus for sacrifice
belonging to the state-priests, and was kept in the Regia in the Sacrarium
of Ops (Fest. p. 246; cf. Jordan,
Topog. i. p. 427). It is
strange that, in spite of the distinct
sine
ansa, many should identify it with the jug
with a handle, used for pouring wine into the patera, as shown among
the sacrificial utensils, on a relief from the Arcus Argentariorum (so Guhl
and Koner, ed. 5, pp. 721, 733). We think Baumeister rightly doubts this
(
Denkm. p. 1109), and suggests that the shield-like
object on the same relief, which is combined with the axe [see cut under
SECURIS], is more probably
the praefericulum. [The same writer, p. 1384, however, interprets the
similar jug (probably the
CAPIS),
which appears on a coin of Pompey with an augur's staff opposite it, as
being a praefericulum.] It may be suggested that its connexion with
ferculum indicates its use, whether for offering the
firstfruits or the cakes (
fercta; cf. Fest. 85,
“ferctum, genus libi dicitur quod ad sacra ferebatur, nec sine
strue . . . . quae qui afferebant strufertarii appellabantur” ),
or, lastly, to carry the mola salsa for the sacrifice of the victim at a
state festival (cf. the formula “Jupiter, macte isto
ferto esto,”
Serv. ad Aen. 9.641). It may be
conjectured that the “niger catinus” of Numa (
Juv. 6.343) was an ancient earthenware
praefericulum.
[
G.E.M]
