Posted on 07/04/2004 5:44:51 PM PDT by blam
Pompeii find shows secrets of the Samnites
By Bruce Johnston in Rome
(Filed: 05/07/2004)
The discovery in Pompeii of a pre-Roman temple is being hailed as evidence that the city was sophisticated and thriving 300 years before Vesuvius erupted.
The temple is said to be of Mephitis, a female deity worshipped by the Samnites, a mysterious ancient people who preceded the Romans in Pompeii.
The temple complex includes a sanctuary where it is thought girls from good families worked briefly in "sacred prostitution" as a rite of passage to full womanhood.
The Samnites were previously thought of as mountain warriors, whose settlements thrived due to a military pact with Rome, but archaeologists say the finds suggest instead that theirs was an advanced society in its own right.
The discovery is the result of a three-year joint project by the University of London and the University of Basilicata in Italy. It is said to have come as a "complete surprise".
Just so. The wars against the Samnites were almost as serious as the Punic wars against Carthage. It took the Romans a very long time to prevail.
Ah, the ambush at the Caudine Forks. The Samnites probably gave the Romans more trouble than the Carthaginians, all things considered - the Battle of the Colline Gate was a near-run thing.
Ok Lester - stop thinking right now and turn yourself into the nearest liberal arts college. You have obviously stopped taking your SOMA.
lol
Sounds like the ancient Middle East- not too unusual in the neighborhood a little to the east of there. Had not heard of it in Italy though.
I remember that the Sumerians and Canaanites had temple prostitutes. So did the Greeks at their temple to Aphrodite in Corinth. That was not unusual in the fertility goddess cults like that of Astarte/Inanna.
I had often wondered what your SPOTREP and INTREP pings meant - now I know. Thanks for posting this chart!
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