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+--- Thread: God or goddess of loyalty (/showthread.php?tid=9949)
God or goddess of loyalty - Marcus Mummius - 07-19-2007
Salvete,
Did the Romans have a god or goddess that had loyalty as its domain, or among it's domains?
Or were Pietas and Fidelitas things that remained an unpersonal 'force' that did not get a personification?
Valete,
Re: God or goddess of loyalty - Jeroen Pelgrom - 07-20-2007
according to wiki, that would be the god Sancus.
see this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sancus
Re: God or goddess of loyalty - Marcus Mummius - 07-20-2007
Thanks.
I've also found Fides, and Pietas.
I've read that Fides would have been depicted as a young woman in white, olive wreath on her head and a cup in one hand and a turtle or a military ensign in the other.
I haven't found a good picture yet though.
Vale,
Jef
Re: God or goddess of loyalty - hoplite14gr - 07-20-2007
If we assume that they were influenced by the Greeks they would put the god of the underworld "Nether Gods" or "CHTHONIOI THEOI" as witnesses of oaths and avengers on oath breakers.
The Erynies come to mind.
Kind regards
Re: God or goddess of loyalty - Marcus Mummius - 07-20-2007
That's very interesting Stefanos.
I'm actualy looking for the personification of loyalty of soldiers to their superiors and emperor.
I think 'Fides militum' would come closest to that.
I don't know however how old the particular domain of Fides was. I found pictures of 3rd century coins with Fides militum on them but how far can we trace her back? Does someone know when this deity was born?
Vale,
Re: God or goddess of loyalty - Hugh Fuller - 09-21-2007
Jef, would not the Fides Militum be best personified by a Legion's Eagle, the genus of that Legion? I would assume, but do not know for certain, that the Auxiliaries had a similar standard.
Re: God or goddess of loyalty - Tertius Mummius - 09-28-2007
There are some coins celebrating the "fides exercitum". Soldiers are standing before the emperor, bearing the standards of the legion, not the eagle, but the signa with the hand on it ... quite significant, isn't it? Another hint: mutineering armies are always described "ripping the pictures of the emperor off their standards"; no gesture could picture the breaking/denial of the oath of loyalty better.
http://www.romancoins.info/Military-Coins.html
Re: God or goddess of loyalty - Hugh Fuller - 10-01-2007
Now that's an interesting thought; loyalty to the emperor. Given the history of imperial Rome as a military dictatorship, more or less, I am inclined to wonder at that. To me, the real loyalty of a trooper was to his legion first and then to his emperor. And, I suspect, that it hasn't changed all that much over the the intervening millennia, substituting unit for legion and country for emperor.