Consus- Roman GodDeity
Description
His altar lay buried beneath the Circus Maximus, uncovered only twice each year: once after the harvest, once in deep winter when stored grain meant survival. It was during his Consualia that Romulus sprang the trap that seized the Sabine women.
Mythology & Lore
The Buried Altar
Consus's altar stood in the valley between the Palatine and Aventine hills, in the ground that would become the Circus Maximus. It did not stand, exactly. It lay buried. Earth covered it for most of the year, and only during Consus's two festivals did workers dig it free and expose the stone to open air. His name comes from condere, to store or to hide, and his worship followed the same logic as the grain bins he protected: what matters most stays underground.
Varro records the altar's location and its burial. Tertullian, writing centuries later to condemn pagan spectacle, still knew that the altar beneath the Circus belonged to Consus and that it spent most of its existence hidden. Before the racetrack was built, the valley was farmland, and Consus was likely worshipped there before Rome was a city.
The Consualia
Two festivals bore his name. The first Consualia fell on August 21, after the grain harvest was gathered and stored. The second came on December 15, deep in winter, when the bins Consus guarded were all that stood between Rome and hunger.
The August rites carried weight. The Flamen Quirinalis, priest of Quirinus, presided alongside the Vestal Virgins. They uncovered the altar, offered sacrifice, and opened the races. Horses and mules ran in the Circus Maximus, and the work animals were given the day off. Garlands of flowers hung from their necks. Ovid mentions the festival in the Fasti, and Varro records the details of the priesthood and the races. For a god who spent most of the year underground, Consus drew a crowd.
The Sabine Women
Livy tells the story in the first book of his history. Rome was new, and it had a problem: men but no wives. Romulus sent envoys to the neighboring peoples asking for intermarriage. All refused. So Romulus announced a festival in honor of Consus and invited the Sabines to attend.
They came with their families. The horse races began. The crowd pressed together in the valley. At a signal from Romulus, the Roman men seized the Sabine women and carried them off. The Sabine men fled without their daughters.
A god of hidden things, a buried altar, a plan kept underground until the moment it broke the surface. The Consualia gave Romulus his cover.
Consus and Ops
Four days after the August Consualia, on August 25, Rome celebrated the Opiconsivia in honor of Ops, goddess of abundance. The pattern repeated in winter: the December Consualia on the 15th, then the Opalia for Ops on the 19th. Storage first, then plenty. Consus guarded the bins; Ops filled them. Varro pairs the two, and their festivals moved in lockstep through the Roman calendar, harvest to winter and back again.