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The ''supplicia canum'' ("punishment of the dogs") was an annual sacrifice of ancient Roman religion in which live dogs were suspended from a ''furca'' ("fork") or cross ''(crux)'' and paraded. It appears on none of the extant Roman calendars, but a late source〔Johannes Lydus, ''De mensibus'' 4.114.〕 places it on August 3 ''(III Non. Aug.)''. In the same procession, geese were decked out in gold and purple, and carried in honor. Ancient sources who explain the origin of the ''supplicia'' say that the geese were honored for saving the city during the Gallic siege of Rome. When the Gauls launched a nocturnal assault by stealth on the citadel, the geese raised a noisy alarm. The failure of the watch dogs to bark was thereafter ritually punished each year. ==Form of punishment== The implement on which the dog was carried is called a ''furca'' by Pliny (1st century AD), who describes it as made of elder wood,〔Pliny, ''Natural History'' 29.57; H.H. Scullard, ''Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic'' (Cornell University Press, 1981), p. 170.〕 and a ''crux'' by Servius (4th century).〔Servius, note to ''Aeneid'' 8.652.〕 Plutarch uses a verbal form referring to a ''stauros'', "stake".〔Plutarch, ''On the Fortune of the Romans'' 12: ἀνεσταυρωμένος ''(anestauromenos)''.〕 After crucifixion was banned by Constantine I, the first emperor to convert to Christianity, the ''furca'' replaced the ''crux'' in sentencing prescribed by the legal code. The ''furca'' had a Y shape.〔William A. Oldfather, "Livy i, 26 and the ''Supplicium de More Maiorum''," ''Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association'' 39 (1908), p. 54.〕 The ''furca'' or ''palus'' ("stake")〔Isidore of Seville gives ''patibulum'' as a synonym for ''furca'' (''Etymologiae'' 5.27.33).〕 was a traditional instrument of punishment to which the condemned was bound for the ''supplicium de more maiorum'' ("punishment according to ancestral custom"), a form of capital punishment by scourging. His hands were tied, and his head was veiled. The stake was originally a dead or barren tree, possibly a fruit tree, or an ''arbor infelix'' ("unproductive tree" or "tree of ill fortune"),〔Oldfather, "Livy and the ''Supplicium''," pp. 69–70, with comparison to the ''supplicia canum''.〕 one of the several species regarded as under the guardianship ''(tutela)'' of the gods below ''(di inferi)''. The ''arbores infelices'' included trees and shrubs bearing black berries or fruit, as does the elder.〔Macrobius, ''Saturnalia'' 3.20: ''quaeque bacam nigram nigrosque fructus ferunt''.〕 The punishment ''de more maiorum'' was distinct from crucifixion, which was reserved for slaves in the Republican era.〔Elizabeth Rawson, "Sallust on the Eighties?" ''Classical Quarterly'' 37.1 (1987), p. 175.〕 Scourging at the stake was a sentence for treason ''(perduellio)'' and for committing a sex crime ''(stuprum)'' against or with one of the Vestals, who were the only women subject to this punishment.〔Oldfather, "Livy and the ''Supplicium''," pp. 66–69.〕 It lapsed into disuse during the late Republic of the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, but was revived during the Imperial period, when people of higher social status were exempt from it.〔Oldfather, "Livy and the ''Supplicium''," p. 68.〕 Binding and striking probably had a religious dimension, present also in other Roman rituals such as the Lupercalia, when youths clad in goatskins ran through the streets flailing bystanders with leather thongs from sacrificed goats and dogs, and the Mamuralia, for which a scapegoat figure was beaten with sticks. Although the dogs are not said to have been beaten, the ''supplicia canum'' shares some elements with the traditional punishment at the stake, and with the punishment Tiberius administered in the province of Africa to priests of the Carthaginian god identified with the Roman Saturn, usually regarded as Baal. In retribution for their ancestral custom of child sacrifice (whether or not such sacrifices actually occurred), Tiberius had them crucified on trees in their own temple precinct as offerings.〔Tertullian, ''Apologeticum'' 9.2; Oldfather, "Livy and the ''Supplicium''," p. 69.〕 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「Supplicia canum」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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