indigetes

(dii indigites) Roman Apparently, lesser gods of the many people who inhabited Central Italy in the seventh and early sixth centuries b.c. These gods were numerous and responsible for specific aspects of life, some governing the individual, some the household, some the land and farming, and some the city of Rome itself. Many of these deities received names that indicated their functions, usually verbs in the original languages of the people who first worshipped them. Others were referred to on monuments by group names or functions, but these collective gods appear to have been as important to the early Romans as the gods who received names. The worship of these gods continued for centuries, their names and functions carried on as cultures merged. Centuries after the earliest surviving mentions of them were created, Roman historians, such as Virgil, who lived from 70-19 b.c., early Christian writers, such as Augustus of Hippo (Saint Augustine), who lived from a.d. 354-430, and writers from Near East cultures, mention them, by name or as indigetes, but in ways that do not make their origins or functions clear to modern audiences. That references to so many of these minor gods survived indicates to many experts the importance of the roles these gods played in daily life and the development of the Roman society. Modern scholars have worked to sort out the origins of these gods. They disagree over the meaning of the term indigete as it would have been used in the sixth century b.c. That disagreement has been taking place since at least the 1920s. Using linguistics and language studies, some scholars have tried to decipher the meaning of the word indigete itself. Other scholars have used the works of the poets and historians and carvings on monuments and markers from across the Roman Empire to decipher just who these gods were and the roles they played in people's lives. Today, scholars seem to agree that too little is known to state absolutely who the indigetes were. Beyond that agreement, though, there are differing opinions. Some experts say the indigetes were ancestors that people worshipped after their deaths. Others modify that and say that the indigetes were the great heroes who people later deified, or worshipped as gods, such as Aeneas, the hero from Troy, who settled in Italy. Others argue that the indigetes were household gods or personal gods who directed the daily lives of individuals. In this view, even the greater Roman gods, such as Janus and Ceres, began as personal gods. As the Roman society grew and merged with other cultures, many, but not all, of these gods took on more roles and prominence and moved from their influence on individuals to influence on all of society. Still others argue that classical Roman authors used the term dii indigites to distinguish the many personal gods from the dii novensiles, or newcomer gods, particularly those brought to the Italian peninsula by Greek colonists. Some argue more specifically that the indigetes were the group of gods named in one of the oldest recovered calendars of Roman festivals, inscribed in a stucco wall sometime in the sixth century b.c. and discovered by archaeologists in the early 20th century.