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In ancient Roman religion, the ''dii'' (also ''di'') ''Novensiles'' or ''Novensides'' are collective deities of obscure significance found in inscriptions, prayer formulary, and both ancient and early-Christian literary texts. In antiquity, the initial element of the word ''novensiles'' was thought to derive from either "new" (''novus'') or "nine" (''novem'').〔Robert Schilling, "The Roman Religion," in ''Historia Religionum: Religions of the Past'' (Brill, 1969), vol. 1, p. 450; and "Roman Gods" in ''Roman and European Mythologies'' (University of Chicago Press, 1981, 1992), p. 71.〕 The form ''novensides'' has been explained as "new settlers," from ''novus'' and ''insidere'', "to settle".〔Matthew Dillon and Lynda Garland, ''Ancient Rome: From the Early Republic to the Assassination of Julius Caesar'' (Routledge, 2005), p. 114.〕 The enduringly influential 19th-century scholar Georg Wissowa thought that the ''novensiles'' or ''novensides'' were deities the Romans regarded as imported, that is, not indigenous like the ''di Indigetes''.〔''De dis Romanorum indigetibus et novensidibus disputatio'' (1892), full text (in Latin) (online. )〕 Although Wissowa treated the categories of ''indigetes'' and ''novensiles'' as a fundamental way to classify Roman gods, the distinction is hard to maintain; many scholars reject it.〔Franz Altheim, ''A History of Roman Religion'', as translated by Harold Mattingly (London, 1938), pp. 110–112: "I pass deliberately over several other objections that may be raised against Wissowa's interpretation, because they would demand a long excursus"; Mary Beard, J.A. North and S.R.F. Price. ''Religions of Rome: A History'' (Cambridge University Press, 1998), vol. 1, p. 158, note 7.〕 Arnaldo Momigliano pointed out that no ancient text poses ''novensiles'' and ''indigetes'' as a dichotomy, and that the etymology of ''novensides'' is far from settled.〔Arnaldo Momigliano, "From Bachofen to Cumont," in ''A.D. Momigliano: Studies on Modern Scholarship'' (University of California Press, 1994), p. 319.〕 In his treatise on orthography, the 4th-century philosopher Marius Victorinus regarded the spellings ''novensiles'' and ''novensides'' as a simple phonetic alteration of ''l'' and ''d'', characteristic of the Sabine language.〔Marius Victorinus, the section ''De orthographia'' from ''Ars grammatica liber primus de orthographia et de metrica ratione'', in the Teubner edition of Heinrich Keil, (Leipzig, 1874), p. 26 (online. )〕 Some ancient sources say the ''novensiles'' are nine in number, leading to both ancient and modern identifications with other divine collectives numbering nine, such as the nine Etruscan deities empowered to wield thunder〔Manilius, as noted by Arnobius, ''Adversus gentes'' 38–39; mentioned also, though not labeled as ''novensiles'', by Pliny, ''Natural History'' (2.52. )〕 or with the Muses.〔Granius Flaccus and Aelius Stilo, as cited by Arnobius, ''Adversus gentes'' 38.〕 The name is thus sometimes spelled ''Novemsiles'' or ''Novemsides''. It may be that only the cults of deities considered indigenous were first established within the sacred boundary of Rome (''pomerium''), with "new" gods on the Aventine Hill or in the Campus Martius, but it is uncertain whether the terms ''indigetes'' and ''novensiles'' correspond to this topography.〔Schilling, ''Historia Religionum'', p. 450, and "Roman Gods," p. 70.〕 William Warde Fowler observed〔Fowler, ''Religious Experience'', pp. 157 and 319.〕 that at any rate a distinction between "indigenous" and "imported" begins to vanish during the Hannibalic War, when immigrant〔J.S. Wacher, ''The Roman World'' (Routledge, 1987, 2002), p. 751.〕 deities are regularly invoked for the protection of the state. ==The invocation of Decius Mus== The ''novensiles'' are invoked in a list of deities in a prayer formula preserved by the Augustan historian Livy. The prayer is uttered by Decius Mus (consul 340 BC) during the Samnite Wars as part of his vow (''devotio'') to offer himself as a sacrifice to the infernal gods when a battle between the Romans and the Latins has become desperate. Although Livy was writing at a time when Augustus cloaked religious innovation under appeals to old-fashioned piety and traditionalism, archaic aspects of the prayer suggest that it represents a traditional formulary as might be preserved in the official pontifical books. The other deities invoked — among them the Archaic Triad of Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus, as well as the Lares and Manes — belong to the earliest religious traditions of Rome. Livy even explains that he will record the archaic ritual of ''devotio'' at length because "the memory of every human and religious custom has withered from a preference for everything novel and foreign."〔Livy, 8.11.1: ''omnis divini humanique moris memoria abolevit nova peregrinaque omnia praeferendo''; Andrew Feldherr, ''Spectacle and Society in Livy's History'', (University of California Press, 1998), p. 41, note 125.〕 That the ''novensiles'' would appear in such a list at all, and before the ''indigetes'', is surprising if they are "new."〔Schilling, "Roman Gods," p. 70–71; Beard, ''Religions of Rome: A Sourcebook'', p. 158; Roger D. Woodard, ''Indo-European Sacred Space: Vedic and Roman Cult'' (University of Illinois Press, 2006), pp. 7–8; William Francis Allen, "The Religion of the Ancient Romans," in ''Essays and Monographs'' (Boston, 1890), p. 68.〕 Both the Lares and the Manes are "native" gods often regarded in ancient sources as the deified dead. Servius says that the ''novensiles'' are "old gods" who earned numinous status (''dignitatem numinis'') through their ''virtus'', their quality of character.〔Servius, note to ''Aeneid'' 8.187: ''sane quidam veteres deos novensiles dicunt, quibus merita virtutis dederint numinis dignitatem.''〕 The early Christian apologist Arnobius notes other authorities who also regarded them as mortals who became gods. In this light, the ''novensiles'', like the Lares and Manes, may be "concerned with the subterranean world where ancestors were sleeping."〔Robert Turcan, ''The Gods of Ancient Rome: Religion in Everyday Life from Archaic to Imperial Times'' (Routledge, 1998, 2001), p. 97.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Novensiles」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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