FANUM
FANUM is any locality consecrated by the pontiffs, and is
derived by the ancients from
fari, because the
pontifices in sacrando fati sunt finem
(Varr.
L. L. 6.54; Fest. pp. 88, 93). It was a consecrated
spot, whether a building was erected upon it or not. Thus we find
fanum applied to a piece of ground upon which an
aedes was afterwards built (
Liv. 5.50,
2;
10.37,
15), and the
word was often used to signify both the consecrated ground and the temple
built upon it [
TEMPLUM]. The
consecrated places in the forum, where the couches of the gods were placed
in the
lectisternium [
LECTISTERNIUM], were also
called
fana, in reference to which the phrase
fana sistere was used (Fest. p. 351). Even
a tree struck by lightning was deemed a
fanum
(Fest. p. 92). Everything not consecrated--that is, not a
fanum--was considered
profanum
(Fest. p. 263; Macrob. 3.3, 3); and a
res
fanatica might, in accordance with the Pontifical law, be again
made into a
res profana by certain ceremonies
(Macrob. 3.3, 4; Serv.
ad
Verg. A. 12.779;
Liv.
31.44). (Marquardt,
Röm. Staatsverw. iii.
p. 145.)
Fanatici, properly speaking persons belonging to
a
fanum, were more specifically priests of the
goddess of Comana in Cappadocia, whose worship was introduced into Rome
under the name of Bellona. They performed the worship with wild and frantic
rites, whence the word
fanaticus obtained its
secondary meaning, and has passed into modern languages. They are mentioned
in inscriptions under the name of
fanatici de aede
Bellonae Pulvinensis (
C. I. L. vi. n. 490,
2232, 2235; cf. “fanaticus oestro percussus, Bellona, tuo,”
Juv. 4.123). They were also called
Bellonarii (Acro,
ad
Hor.
Sat. 2.3, 223). In celebrating the
festival of the goddess they marched through the city in dark clothes, with
wild cries, blowing trumpets, beating cymbals and drums, and in the temple
inflicting wounds upon themselves, the blood from which they poured out as
an offering to the goddess (
Tib. 1.6,
43
seq.; Hor.
Sat. 2.3,
223;
Juv. 6.511;
Mart.
11.84,
3,
12.57,
11;
Lucan
1.565; Lamprid.
Commod. 9; Sen.
de Vit.
Beat. 27; Tertull.
Apol. 9,
de
Pall. 4; Lact.
Inst. 1.21, 16).
[p. 1.826]Fanatici was also the name given
to the priests of Isis (
C. I. L. vi. n. 2234) and Cybele
(
Juv. 2.112; Prudent.
Perist.
10.1061), who celebrated their worship with similar orgiastic rites. [
CORYBANTES] (Marquardt,
op. cit. 3.75.)
[
W.S]
