SEPTIMONTIUM
according to Varro the name of the city before it was called
Rome (
LL v. 41:
ubi nunc est Roma erat olim Septimontium nominatum
ab tot montibus quos posted urbs muris comprehendit; cf. Fest. 321:
Sacrani appellati sunt Reate orti qui ex Septimontio Ligures Siculosque
exegerunt; nam vere sacro nati erant), a statement that seems to be
corroborated by Lydus (de mens. iv. 155:
ἐν ταύτῃ καὶ ἡ λεγομένη παῤ [αὐτῶν Σεπτι]μούνδιος ἑορτὴ ἐπιτελεῖτο, τούτεστιν ἡ περίοδος τῆς πόλ[εως, ὅτι ἐπὶ ἑπτὰ λ]όφους τὰ τείχη τῆς ῾Ρώμης ἐκτέταταε. ὀνόμα[τα δὲ] τούτ[ων: Πα]λάτιον ᾿Εσκύλιον ταρπήιον ᾿Αβεντῖνον Τιβο[ύρτιον Πρα]ιν[έσ]τιον Βιμινάλιον [παρὰ] δὲ τοῖς ἀρχαίοις ἑτέρως οὑτῶς: ᾿Αβεν[τ]ῖνος Καίλιος [̓Εσκ]ύλιος Καπιτωλῖνος Βελινήνσιος Κυ[ρινά]λιος Παλα[τῖνος]).
Septimontium was also the name of a festival, celebrated on 11th
December, and consisting in part of a lustral procession round the
Palatine and Esquiline, which is mentioned in the calendars and several
times in literature, especially in the following passages:-Varro,
LL vi.
24:
dies Septimontium nominatus ab his septem montibus in quis sita
urbs est feriae non populi sed montanorum modo ut Paganalia qui sunt
alicuius pagi; Fest. 348: Septimontio ut ait Antistius Labeo hisce
montibus feriae: Palatio cui sacrificium quod fit Palatuar dicitur;
Veliae (villae, cod.) cui item sacrificium; Fagutali (faguali, cod.), Suburac,
Cermalo, Oppio, Caelio monti, Cispio (cis itum, cod.) monti; 340 a much
mutilated passage; 341:
Septimontium appellabant diem festum quod
in septem locis faciebant sacrificium: Palatio, Velia, Fagutali,1 Subura,
Cermalo, Caelio, Oppio et Cispio; Plut. q. Rom. 69:
τὸ δὲ σεπτομούντιον ἄγουσιν ἐπὶ τῷ τὸν ἕβδομον λόφον τῇ πόλει προσκαταϝεμηθῆναι καὶ τὴν ῾Ρώμην ἑπτάλοφον γενέσθαι. One of these eight names
must obviously be omitted, and the choice has
often fallen on
SUBURA (q.v.), which is in no
sense a 'mons'; but cf.
REGIONES QUATTUOR,
SUC(C)USA.
It is quite evident that some Roman antiquarians believed that the festival of the was based on the inclusion
within the limits of the city of seven hills or
parts of hills, but that they differed as to which hills these were (cf. also Serv.
Aen. vi.
783:
alii dicunt breves septem colliculos a Romulo inclusos qui tamen aliis nominibus appellabantur; alii volunt hos ipsos qui nunc
sunt a Romulo inclusos, id est Palatinum Quirinalem Aventinum Caelium
Viminalem Esquilinum Ianicularem: alii vero volunt hos quidem fuisse
aliis tamen nominibus appellatos). The question therefore is whether an
early stage in the city's growth, preceding that commonly known as the
City of the Four Regions, was actually called Septimontium or whether
this is simply an invention of later antiquarians to explain the name of
the festival. While it is altogether probable, from other considerations,
that the districts named by Labeo, for instance, did at some time before the
Servian period make up the territory included within the city limits (text
fig. 6), and very certain that the Septimontium was an ancient festival,
it is not probable that this was ever an actual name of Rome. Hilsen
(
RAP ii. 83-86) points out that three of the seven montes bear names
(Cispius, Caelius, Oppius) which are identical with those of well-known
plebeian gentes; while tradition records eponymous heroes of each hill
(Opiter Oppius, Laevius Cispius, Caelius Vibenna); further, the gentilicia
of the kings of Rome (except Romulus and the Etruscan Tarquins) are
all plebeian. On the other hand, the names of the sixteen tribus rusticae
are all patrician. It therefore seems as if the families that expelled the
Tarquins formed an oligarchy, the patricians, while the other older
families, who had been their partisans, lost many of their privileges and
became plebeian. The whole subject of the Septimontium is complicated and quite obscure (for a full discussion of the whole matter, see
Wissowa, Septimontium und Subura, Satura Viadrina,
Breslau 1896,
1-19=Ges. Abh.
Munich 1904, 230-252; Mon.
L. xv. 754-762;
CP 1906,
69-80;
AJA 1908, 172-183; Carter, The Pomerium, Rome 1909; Pais,
Legends 234-241 ; De Sanctis,
Storia i. 185 (who rejects it altogether);
BPW 1912, 1734;
1913, 977-980; Beloch, Rem. Gesch. 202-204;
RE i. A. 1018-1021; ii. A. 1577-1578 (two articles by different authors
which contradict one another); and other literature cited in these
articles).