Editing Galli (section)

=== 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.