Early Roman Religion Jupiter Op Mus Maximus Ritual
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Roman Religion: Early Roman Religion • No organized theology or preaching • Religion < religio (derived from verb “to bind”) • No link with morality or burden of sin • Religious ritual binds Romans to family & state • Ritual more important than belief • Each imp. process thought to be responsibility • Involvement in poli cs: of a par cular god– esp. agricultural processes – mee ngs of senate dependent on good omens • Mars orig. god of sowing plants (then matched – priests were poli cal elite– no priestly caste with Greek Ares, god of war) • Tendency to incorporate foreign gods • Flora (flowers) – syncre sm: prac ce of blending gods, making • Pomona (apples) foreign & na ve gods interchangeable • Ceres (cereals) – evoca o: invi ng enemy’s gods to move to Rome
Jupiter Op mus Maximus Ritual • Roman public business always conducted with • Originally a weather god formalized religious ritual – becomes equivalent to Zeus • Object of ritual = maintain Pax Deorum (King of the gods) (harmony w/divinity that helped Rome flourish) • Temple of JOM on Capitoline • pax deorum ensured by three kinds of ritual: - prayer numen = divinity - sacrifice - divina on and augury (bird-watching)
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I. Prayer Magic, Curse Tablets, and Witches 1. Invoca on (by name) 2. Offer a precedent: “as in the past” 3. State your request eg. “Father Mars, I pray and beseech you that you, as you have in the past, may be propi ous and well- disposed to me, our home, and household, for which cause I have ordered the offering of pig, sheep and ox to be led round my field, my land, and my farm– that you may prevent, ward off, and avert diseases, visible and invisible, accident and bad water… For all these causes…be increased by the sacrifice of this offering.” • Prayer = legalis c contract with gods – Important to avoid loopholes
II. Sacrifice (accompanies Prayer) Performing a private sacrifice • Rela onship of worshipper to gods = quid pro quo • Central idea in Roman sacrifice = do ut des • Book day at temple – “I give so that you may give” • Professional help: throat cu er, dissector (interpreter of organs; haruspices) • Sacer facio = to make holy • Buy animal (check for any deformi es) • Present for gods: cereal, flowers, cheese, live animal • Procession to the temple • Complex requirements: sex, color, size, species, etc. – Don’t sacrifice – April 25 red dog for god of crop inside temple, in cella – Nov. 15 horse for Mars – Make sacrifice in front – A er census: bull, ram, & boar at stone altar, which – spring: fordicidia (pregnant cow) should have a fire
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The sacrifice III. Divina on and Augury • Before major state decisions, consult gods • Purifica on • Standard sign = birds (where, how many, kind?) • Hold your tongues! – Called “taking auspices”; auspicia = bird watching • Cover heads, sprinkle flour • Who performs task? • Prayer – Senior magistrate and a state augur = bird-watcher • “Shall I strike?” • Sacred chickens! “If they will not eat…” • Other sources of divina on: portents • Hammer and knife – (weather; earthquake; strange births; raining blood • Blood and inspec on of or milk) internal organs by haruspices • Dreams (handbooks): – House on fire but does not collapse = $ or power • Burn fat and eat cooked meat – House on fire and collapses = financial ruin
Oracles Family Religion • family gods = lares (spirits of ancestors) The Sibyl & penates (gods of store-room) Sibylline books • Lararium = household shrine 9 scrolls • Janus = 6 scrolls god of door 3 scrolls… • Vesta = goddess of hearth
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Religious Officials: poli cal elite From Family to State 4 colleges of priests: • Rome’s hearth = Temple of Vesta, tended • 16 pon fices (pon fex, sg.) by Vestal Virgins – Oversee religious ritual and law – Led by Pon fex Maximus • 6 Vestal Virgins • 16 Augurs (bird-watchers) • 15 Quindecemvirs – 15 men to conduct sacrifices, consult Sibylline Books, & supervise foreign religious cults at Rome (eg. Magna Mater, Isis)
Conclusions: Minucius Felix (Chris an historian: c.250 AD) “Throughout the whole far-flung empire, in provinces, • Ritual over belief in towns, we see that each local group of people has its own religious rituals and worships local gods… • Poli ciza on and Manipula on: The Romans, however, worship all the gods in the world. Their power and authority have occupied the – epilepsy (assembly disease) farthest limits of the whole world, and extended their empire beyond the paths of the sun and the – Bribery of augurs borders of the very ocean... And a er they have • captured a town, when brutality in victory might be BUT: Roman religion worked for them expected, the Romans pay honor to the deity of the – Remember the sacred chickens conquered people. They invite to Rome gods from all over the world, and they make them their • Mix of conserva sm and innova on own.... And thus, while the Romans were adop ng the religious rites of all na ons, they also won for = typically Roman themselves an empire.”
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