Editing Galli (section)

== Arrival in Rome ==
The cult of Magna Mater arrived in Rome sometime in the 3rd century BCE, towards the end of the Second Punic War against Carthage. There are no contemporary accounts of its arrival, but later literary sources describe its import as an official response to meteor showers, crop failures and famine in 205 BCE. The Senate and the Syblline books identified these events as [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#prodigium|prodigies]], signs of divine anger against Rome and warnings of Rome's imminent destruction, which should be expiated by Rome's official import of the Magna Mater and her cult; with the goddess as an ally, Rome might see an end to the famine and victory over Carthage.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Burns|first= Krishni Schaefgen|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1257962341|title=The Magna Mater Romana: A sociocultural study of the cult of the Magna Mater in Republican Rome|isbn=978-1-321-56911-7|oclc=1257962341}}</ref> In 204 BCE, the Roman Senate officially adopted [[Cybele]] as a state goddess.  Her cult image was brought from her sanctuary in Asia Minor, and eventually into the city, with much ceremony.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Scholz|first=Piotr O.|title=Eunuchs and Castrati: A Cultural History|publisher=Markus Wiener|year=2001|isbn=1558762019|pages=96|translator-last=Broadwin|translator-first=John A.|translator-last2=Frisch|translator-first2=Shelley L.}}</ref> According to Livy, it was brought to the [[Temple of Victory]] on the Palatine Hill on the day before the Ides of April,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Livy|title=The History of Rome from Its Foundation|chapter=29.14.10ff}}</ref> and, from then on, the anniversary was celebrated as the [[Megalesia]] on April 4–10 with public games, animal sacrifices, and music performed by the galli.<ref>Luther H. Martin, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=qZE5JGX0MO0C Hellenistic Religions: An Introduction]'', Oxford University Press, 1987, {{ISBN|019504391X}} p. 83</ref> Over a hundred years later (according to Plutarch), when the Roman general [[Gaius Marius|Marius]] planned to fight the [[Cimbrian War|Germanic tribes]], a priest of the galli named Bataces prophesied Roman victory and consequently the Senate voted to build a victory temple to the goddess.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Plutarch|title=Life of Marius, 17.5 (The Parallel Lives, Vol IX), published circa 100 CE|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Marius*.html#ref20|access-date=12 December 2020|website=penelope.uchicago.edu}}</ref>

=== Reception ===
[[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]] claimed that Roman citizens did not participate in the rituals of the cult of Magna Mater. Literary sources call the galli "half-men," (semiviri) or "half-women" (ήμιθηλυς) leading scholars to conclude that Roman men looked down upon the galli.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Vermaseren |first1=Maartin |title=Cybele and Attis: The Myth and the Cult |date=1977 |publisher=Thames and Hudson, Ltd |location=London |page=96}}</ref> But Roman disapproval of the foreign cult may be more the invention of modern scholars than a social reality in Rome, as archaeologists have found votive statues of Attis on the Palatine hill, meaning Roman citizens participated on some level in the reverence of Magna Mater and her consort.<ref name=":0" />

The archigallus was a [[Roman citizenship|Roman citizen]] who was also employed by the [[State of Rome|Roman State]] and therefore walked a narrow line: preserving cult traditions while not violating Roman religious prohibitions. Some argue that the archigallus was never a eunuch, as all citizens of Rome were forbidden from ''eviratio'' ([[castration]]).<ref>''The cults of the Roman Empire'', The Great Mother and her Eunuchs, by Robert Turcan, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996 {{ISBN|0-631-20047-9}} p. 49</ref> (This prohibition suggests that the original galli were either Asian or slaves.) [[Claudius]], however, lifted the ban on castration; [[Domitian]] subsequently reaffirmed it.<ref>Maarten J. Vermaseren, ''[https://archive.org/details/vermaseren-1977-cybele-attis/page/96/mode/2up Cybele and Attis: the myth and the cult]'', translated by A. M. H. Lemmers,  London: Thames and Hudson, 1977, p.96: "Furthermore Cybele was to be served by only oriental priests; Roman citizens were not allowed to serve until the times of Claudius."</ref> Whether or not Roman citizens could participate in the cult of Magna Mater, or whether its members were exclusively foreign-born, is therefore the subject of scholarly debate.

=== In the provinces ===
The remains of a Roman gallus from the 4th century CE were found in 2002 in what is now [[Catterick, North Yorkshire|Catterick]], England, dressed in women's clothes, in jewelry of jet, shale, and bronze, with two stones in his mouth. Pete Wilson, the senior archaeologist at English Heritage, said, "The find demonstrates how cosmopolitan the north of England was." The archaeological site at [[Corbridge]], a significant Romano-British settlement on [[Hadrian's Wall]], has an altar to the goddess Cybele.<ref>{{Cite news|date=21 May 2002|title=Dig reveals Roman transvestite|language=en-GB|work=BBC|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/1999734.stm|access-date=12 December 2020}}</ref> 

A fourth-century cemetery was excavated at [[Hungate (York)|Hungate]] in York, where one of the burials has been identified as potentially that of a member of the Galli. This is based on the evidence that although the bones were identified as male, the person was buried with jet bracelets, a material that is strongly associated with women. These aspects are also similar to that of the Gallus burial from Catterick.<ref>{{Cite web |title=International Transgender Day of Visibility: The Galli in Yorkshire |url=https://www.yorkarchaeology.co.uk/newsblog/2023/international-transgender-day-of-visibility-the-galli-in-yorkshire |access-date=2023-04-03 |website=York Archaeology |language=en-US |archive-date=2023-04-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230403172342/https://www.yorkarchaeology.co.uk/newsblog/2023/international-transgender-day-of-visibility-the-galli-in-yorkshire |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[File:Relief of Archigallus.jpg|thumb|250px|Funerary relief of an Archigallus from [[Lavinium]], mid-2nd century AD, [[Capitoline Museums]], Rome]]
[[File:Statue of Gallus priest.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Statue of a gallus priest, 2nd century, [[Capitoline Museums|Musei Capitolini]]]]
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