Roman reflections

Speculum Dianae: online worship at Diana’s temple

Those trees in whose dim shadow
The ghastly priest doth reign,
The priest who slew thy slayer
And shall himself be slain.

Macaulay’s ‘Lays of Ancient Rome’

Such macabre practices, though abhorrent to later Christian commentators, reveal, paradoxically, the importance of the cult – the mystical power of blood sacrifice lay at the heart of classical theology. When the site, on the shore of Lake Nemi south of Rome, was excavated in the late nineteenth century, it revealed an astonishing wealth of statuary and votive objects. While many were sold onto art dealers and hence scattered, a number of items were kept as a collection, thanks to the scruples of the British ambassador, Lord Saville. These were housed, ultimately, in the collection at Nottingham Castle Museum.

An innovative web project bringing together staff from the Classics Department and the School of Computer Sciences at Nottingham University, and curators from Nottingham City Museums, aims to introduce the riches of Nemi to a new generation of online visitors. Speculum Dianae – ‘mirror of Diana’, one of the lake’s ancient epithets – focuses on the internationally important antiquity collections from the Temple of Diana, a focal point for the worship of Diana in ancient Rome and a primary healing sanctuary.

More than 80 of the most important objects from the site have been selected to form an interactive ‘virtual temple’. Online worshippers are able to peruse the collections under the headings ‘congratulations’, ‘wellbeing’, ‘condolences’, ‘celebrations’ and ‘good luck’, selecting a votive offering or dedicating a building project at the sanctuary. The donor then writes a personal email greeting to a friend who, on receiving the email, can visit the site to see the chosen item, learn more about it and receive a personal message.

Katharina Lorenz, Lecturer in Classical Studies in the Department of Classics at Nottingham, said: “We want to send the users on a thought-provoking journey to experience a Roman sanctuary, not just the physical remains but also the practices and rituals which gave it life in antiquity, along with their modern reconstruction. It is an exercise in showing how people see – the Romans, Lord Savile, and, not least, ourselves.”

Diana the healer: votive offerings from Nemi, including wombs and anatomical figurines

The goddess Diana was linked to fertility and the lake beneath the temple, the ‘Speculum Dianae,’ was also home to the healing water god Egeria. Later, a sculpture of the Greek god of medicine, Aesculapius, was brought to the site at Nemi to reinforce its healing status. Many worshippers, afraid of the Greek-influenced medical practices, or those too poor to pay for a doctor, turned to Diana to leave a votive offering, hoping that if they dedicated a gift they would get something in return.

The most haunting and evocative of all of these votive gifts are the anatomical terracottas: eyes, heads, feet, hands, arms, a figure displaying their intestines and, to represent a desire for fertility, wombs and seated couples with a baby. The practice of leaving anatomical ex voto, as they are known, continues in Christian churches in many of the countries around the Mediterranean, terracotta and bronze being replaced by wax and aluminium. As with their modern-day counterparts, the votives would have been displayed on or near the sanctuary altar.

The website also enables would-be ancient architects to build their own version of Diana’s temple. Visitors can select architectural elements based on the writings of the Roman architect and mathematician Virtruvius, who included details of the Nemi temple, other contemporary sources, and building fragments from the site. All the elements have been carefully modelled and can be combined by the viewer to create their version of how the temple at Nemi may have looked.

Archaeologically, there are still many unknowns in regard to the exact nature of both the temple and the surrounding buildings, and while some combinations are clearly less likely than others, the participant has the opportunity to use their own ingenuity to come up with a solution.

Dr Damian Schofield, of Nottingham’s School of Computer Science, said: “In our attempt to reconstruct the Temple of Diana at Nemi, we have moved away from an absolute reconstruction — it’s important to understand that there are multiple possible temple reconstructions, many as valid as each other.”

Nemi remains at the forefront of classical archaeological research, with excavations currently taking place through Perugia University in Italy. For Nottingham, this is the first opportunity to showcase the collections online, and introduce a wider public to the key debates on the archaeology and history of the site.