iii Id. Oct. (October 13). NP.
FONT[INALIA]. (SAB. MAFF. AMIT. MIN. IX.)
FERIAE FONTI. (AMIT.)
All we know of this very ancient festival is contained in a few words of Varro[[1048]]: ‘Fontinalia a Fonte, quod is dies feriae eius; ab eo tum et in fontes coronas iaciunt et puteos coronant.’
The holiness of wells and springs is too familiar to need illustration here. The original object of the garlanding was probably to secure abundant water.
It is generally assumed that there was a god Fons or Fontus, to whom this day was sacred. There was a delubrum Fontis[[1049]]; an ara Fonti on the Janiculum[[1050]]; and a porta Fontinalis in the Campus Martius. Fons also appears with Flora, Mater Larum, Summanus, &c., in the ritual of the Fratres Arvales[[1051]]. The case seems to be one of those in which multiplicity passes into a quasi-unity: but Fons did not survive long in the latter stage.