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.Finally, Valerius himself consciously muses that inhis day, Juno still embodies the sterner virtues of the past.He thus seems toview traditional virtues as unchanging forces that must be kept at theirtraditional strength through traditional methods, at least with respect to thegods if not to humans (good laws, however, might correct the human realmas well).48 Valerius does not lecture on Juno, but the patterns begin toemerge that illuminate his view.We still have, however, a few moreelements to add to this Valerian perspective.The punishment of Aemilius PaullusIn addition to chastity, Juno is traditionally associated with childbirth,49but in Valerius, she takes children away.Lucius Aemilius PaullusMacedonicus50 lost one of his two younger sons by his second wife some fourdays before his great triumph of November in 167 BC51, and the other threedays later after he had been on view in the triumphal chariot (5.10.2).52Paullus consoled himself with the knowledge that this calamity had sparedthe Roman state disaster.53 The calamity, nevertheless, extinguished hisfamily name.How should Valerius Juno have reacted to a man who divorced his firstwife (Papiria), the mother of his four children?54 This man, moreover, hadsubsequently given away his older sons through adoption,55 thus retainingonly the two younger sons by the second wife to carry on the family line(Paullus daughters by his first marriage having been married, thusproviding the vehicle for the continuation of other families but being of nosignificance to the continuation of Paullus family).56 A man divorces themother of his sons, a free-born Roman matrona whose fecundity may betaken as a token of her pudicitia,57 dispenses with those sons,58 and then putshis new son by the second wife in his triumphal chariot (in full view ofhuman and divine ill will or inuidia59) after invoking Juno by name.Wehave seen, moreover, that Valerius values pudicitia and that he views it as one27 JUNO VALERIANAof Juno s animating powers.Should the results surprise us? This, however, ismerely circumstantial.All we may safely state is that Valerius alone of allour extant sources has Paullus call on the goddess Juno by name.Juno s anger: infamy and CannaeThat Juno took offense at a male for reasons related to pudicitia can, however,be observed in the misfortunes that befell not the passenger of a triumphalchariot (5.10.2), but occurred because of a passenger (1.1.16).Valerius tellsus that the disaster at Cannae (where, coincidentally, Aemilius Paullusfather lost his life) was the result of the offense Juno took at the pretty boyactor whom Varro had placed in Jupiter s triumphal chariot.Valerius doesnot tell us why Juno took offense, merely that she did.Others, however,have tried to answer this question, and we may ask ourselves whether theiranswers make sense in the general context of Valerius other anecdotes.Kappius argues that the offense lay in the boy s possible harm to the moralsof the Roman populace, insofar as his great beauty could arouse lust in thepopulace.60 Köves-Zulauf dismisses Valerius altogether as secondaryhistoricizing. 61 Valerius presentation is thus, one infers, unworthy ofinvestigation.Lactantius, on the other hand, seems to have taken Valeriuspresentation of Juno s wrath rather seriously.He goes on at length about theabsurdity of the offense, reveals a subtle appreciation of the issues involved,and thus deserves quoting:quotiens autem pericula impendent, ob aliquam se ineptam etleuem causam profitentur iratos [deos], sicut Iuno Varroni, quodformosum puerum in tensa Iouis ad exuuias tenendas conlocauerat:et ob hanc causam Romanum nomen aput Cannas paene deletumest.quod si Iuno alterum Ganymeden uerebatur, cur iuventusRomana luit poenas? uel si dii tantummodo duces curant, ceterammultitudinem neglegunt? cur Varro solus euasit qui hoc fecit? etPaulus qui nihil meruit, occisus est?(Lactantius Div.Inst.2.16.16 17)Whenever dangers threaten, the gods declare that they are angry forsome frivolous and inappropriate reason, as was Juno with Varro,because he had put a beautiful boy in Jupiter s chariot to carry hisweapons, and for this reason the Roman name was almost extin-guished at Cannae.But if Juno feared another Ganymede, whypunish the youth of Rome? Or if the gods care so much for stateleaders, do they neglect the rest of the multitude? Why did Varroalone escape who did this thing? And Paullus, who did not deservehis fate, why was he killed?28 JUNO VALERIANALactantius assumes that Juno was offended for personal reasons: Jupitercould have been aroused by this pretty Ganymede.Aside from the notstrictly relevant (but rhetorically useful) introduction of Greek mythology,given the traditional concern of Juno for the marriage bond, Lactantius isperhaps not completely off the mark.His opinion is especially interesting,inasmuch as he himself was brought up in the practices of traditional Romanreligion.Hase, however, offers the most immediately cogent explanation:[Histriones] leuis notae macula siue infamia quadam erunt aspersi
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