Arcessite divum matrem: The homecoming of the Great Mother to Rome

Abstract

Was Cybele brought to Rome to expel Hannibal, as Cicero and Livy suggest, or was she brought to re-establish Rome's Trojan heritage, as Ovid and Herodian propose? Did her sacred stone come from Pessinus, Pergamum, or Mt Ida? In answering these questions this article argues, on the basis of a re-examination of the testimonies of Ovid and Herodian, that the Magna Mater did not come to drive out Hannibal but rather to reaffirm Rome's Trojan ancestry, and that Pergamum and Mt Ida are likely the origin of her sacred stone. In addition the article introduces a passage from Timotheus of Miletus, which locates the goddess in Ilium itself. This new literary evidence emphasizes the connection between the Magna Mater and Troy. By addressing these two questions fresh light will be shed on the Trojan background to the Magna Mater's Roman advent.