HAPPY TERMINALIA!
Disclaimer: not actual boundary marker. Just a rock I took a picture of for some reason.
If you haven’t hung out with your neighbors in a while, today’s a good day to get together: it’s the Roman festival of Terminalia!
The holiday celebrates Terminus, the god of boundaries. Romans had a lot of gods we might consider odd or even silly: Cardea was the goddess of doorways and handles; Stercutus was the god of manure and fertilizer; and perhaps oddest of all, Cloacina was the goddess of sewers.
Terminus was serious business, however. Few other investments being available, land ownership was the empire’s chief store of value. Accordingly, it was the primary way to get rich. Determining land ownership was paramount. A large percentage of legal cases attempted to resolve such disputes.
To make ownership clear, neighbors put a statue of Terminus at their property lines. Unlike the intricately carved statues of the deities more familiar to us, those of Terminus were mere stones. Having been dedicated to the god when placed, these were therefore consider sacred. They were so sacred, in fact, that the punishment for moving one could result in the death penalty. They weren’t messing around.
On the day of Terminalia, neighbors would gather at the boundary stones. Each would festoon their side with garlands. Together, the neighbors would erect an altar for sacrifices such as wheat. In typical Roman fashion, an animal had to die to propitiate the god. Generally, lambs were the victim of choice, but sometimes piglets or other small animals were chosen. Feasting, drinking and reverie followed.
Terminalia wasn’t just about neighbors, though. The sanctity of boundaries applied to the empire overall. Once the border of Rome extended, such as after conquering a territory, it was thought a great offense to Terminus to retract it. The emperor Hadrian faced a blowback after he relinqueshed areas Trajan had recently conquered, such as Mesopotamia. Aurelian withdrew troops from the province of Dacia (modern Romania). But to keep Terminus happy, the emperor simply renamed a different part of the empire ‘Dacia.’ Apparently it was pretty easy to fool Terminus.
As with all major festivals in Rome, government was closed on Terminalia. Courts went dark, and assemblies such as the Senate or popular tribunates closed their doors. Trade slowed at the ports. While food and drink establishments likely stayed open, other shops and markets were shuttered. Much as our movie theaters are open on Christmas Day, public entertainments such as chariot races were in full swing. Unfortunately, slaves did not get the day off. While the Romans didn’t observe weekends, the number of holidays through the life of the empire ranged from as few as 50 in the early Republic to as many as 150 in the late Empire. The latter translates into a bit less than 1 day off in 3. Forget weekends - let’s bring back Roman holidays!
Terminalia was intended to keep Terminus happy but also to foster bonds and good will among neighbors. So say hi to your neighbor today. Think of Terminalia as a very early form of “good fences make good neighbors.” But with stones. Plain, gray, very important stones.
