L'Île Tibérine et ses cultes des marges en relation: anthropologie de l'espace et construction de l'identité romaine

Abstract

This study reviews each of the deities on Rome’s Tiber Island attested in the Republican and Imperial eras and summarizes the main literary, archaeological and epigraphic documentation. The aim is to examine, from an anthropological point of view, the location of the temples on Tiber Island, which was situated outside the pomerium – the sacred boundary of the Urbs. This means, firstly, identifying the symbolic functions of each divinity in the Roman imaginary and, secondly, showing that deities were honoured on the island as they were functionally linked to each other. We attempt to demonstrate that the divinities of the Tiberine Island (Aesculapius, Veiovis, Faunus, Bellona, Semo Sancus, etc.) have in

common that they represent a form of periphery/alterity, given their contact with death, savagery, vio- lence, social marginality, and the uncivilized and pre-rational world. The characteristics and functions of

these deities thus represented an anti-model of the Roman identity constituted by concepts such as life, the civilized and rational world, peace, and citizenship, all associated with the internal space of the city of Rome. This research is accompanied by a reflection on the duality of the gods of the margins, who could at the same time possess a temple in the center of the city.