ANC I ENT A ND MOD ERN

N O F AN CIE NT RO M E R E LIG IONS : ANCIENT AND MODERN .

ANI MISM. W O uth r The S o a on U o tor Cr e ti . By ED ARD CL D , A of y f T SM PAN HEI . S SO CT O utho r The R eli io n o the JAME ALLAN N PI N , A of g f

721 067 56. T THE RELIGIONS OF AN CIEN CHINA . B P e I S D P e hi s in the U n ve t y rof ssor G LE , LL . . . rof ssor of C ne e i rsi y C b d e of am ri g . O THE RELIGI N OF ANCIENT GREECE. A SO Le t e at N e n am C lle e Camb d e By JANE H RRI N . c ur r w h o g , ri g , t u k i i Author of P r olegome na o St dy of Gr ee R el g on . M ISLA . ‘ SY AMBE R Au M A la H M H C te . s u t ED , . of . igh o r n0 ud at e in e n al A t o The S ir it ( l r lam and The J ic ur B g , u h r of p f E thics M D T S SM AGIC AN FE I HI .

B Dr O . R . S Le t e o n E t n l at Cam y . A. C . HADD N , F c ur r h o ogy b d U n v e t ri ge i rsi y. O T T THE RELIGION F ANCIEN EGYP .

P e s W M T . S S . . By rof s or . . FLINDER PE RIE , F R

THE RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.

TH OPH U S PrNcmr s late o the t Mu eum . By E IL G . , f Bri ish s SM 2 v o ls . BU DDHI . P o D S D o The Ro al e HYS VI . . late Se eta By rof ss r R A D , LL . cr ry f y A at c et si ic So i y. U M HIND IS .

Dr . TT D t o O ntal P nted . the e a tm en e By . L D BARNE , of p r f ri ri M M k and SS. t u eum Boo s , Bri ish s . SC I V IO AND NA IAN RELIG N . W h x n l h . G o nt Ed t t e O r d E is By ILLIAM A CRAI IE, J i i or of fi g na Dictio ry. C T I EL IC RELIG ON . B P e ANWYL P o e Wel at U n ve t C lle e y rof ssor , r f ssor of sh i rsi y o g , Aberystwyt h . T THE MYTHOLOGY OF ANCI EN BRITAIN AND IRELAND. B H L S S U R Aut The M tholo o the B r itish y C AR E Q I E , hor of y gy f I sland: M JU DAIS . B S B H S Le t e in Talmud L te atu e in y I RAEL A RA AM , c ur r ic i r r

Camb d e U n ve t A t o ewish Li e in the Middle A es. ri g i rsi y, u hor f J f g M S STO . G T B W . C . . HIN O. y . G A N , M X C U THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT E I O AND PER .

s SP M . Lw C A. By EN E,

THE RELIGION OF THE HEBREWS . By Pr ofessor YASTROW. THE RE LIGION OF

A N C IE N T R O M E

By

C Y R IL BA ILE Y M A . ,

W N D U OR OF B LLIOL COL LE GE OX F ORD PI LLO A T T A ,

CHICAG O THE O PE N CO U RT PU BLISHING C O M PAN Y E dinb h T P nte to His Ma e t urg . ri rs 's y I WISH to express my warm thanks to

W. W Mr . arde Fowler for his kindness

in reading my proofs, and for many valu

s able hints and suggestion .

B O O G ALLI L C LLE E ,

n 2 5 h J a . t , 1907.

C O N T E N T S

CR AP .

I T O U CT O —SOUR S A N D SCOP I . N R D I N CE E

‘ ’ I I THE AN TE OE DE N TS OF RO R L G O . MAN E I I N

I II MA F A TU S OF TH E R G ON OF NU A . IN E RE ELI I M

Iv E A Y H STO Y OF RO - THE AG CU TU . RL I R ME RI L RAL

COMMUNITY

v WO SH P OF TH E HOU S H O . R I E LD

VI WO SH P OF TH E F DS . R I IEL

IV R HIP F THE ST V I I . O S O AT E

V AUGU S AND AUSPIcEs III . RIE — I x R L G O AN D MO TY O C US ON . E I I N RALI C N L I

THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

C H A P T E R I

INTRODUCTION—SOURCES AND SCOPE

THE conditions o f o u r knowledge o f the native religion o fearly Rome may perhaps be best illus

r ated a t by a parallel from Roman arch eology . The

the visitor to the Roman Forum at present day, if he wishes to reconstruct in imagination the Forum o f ‘ the early Republic , must not merely think ’ o f away many strata later buildings , but , we are m f told, ust picture to himself a totally dif erent orientation of the whole : the upper layer o f

fo r remains , which he sees before him , is his purpose in most cases not merely useless, but positively misleading . In the same way, if we Wish to form a picture o f the genuine Roman d religion, we cannot find it imme iately in classical literature ; we must banish from o ur minds all that is due to the contact with the East and

E i Of gypt , and even w th the other races Italy, A I THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

so t and we must imagine, to speak , a otally different mental orientation before the great x o f G G influ reek literature and reek thought , which gave an entirely new turn to Roman ideas

r in general , and in particular revolutionised e ligio n by the introduction of anthropomorphic notions and sensuous representations . But in this difficult search we are not left without indications to guide us . In the writings of the

o f savants the late Republic and of the Empire,

biassed tho u h and in the Augustan poets , g they G are in their interpretations by reek tendencies , there is embodied a great wealth Of ancient n custom and ritual, which becomes significa t

o t when we have once g the clue to its meaning . More direct evidence is afforded by a large body all Of inscriptions and monuments , and above by the surviving Calendars o f the Roman festival

n o f year, which give us the true outli e the cere monial Observances of the early religion . It is no t within the scope o f this sketch t o as enter , except by way of occ ional illustration , into the process of interpretation by which the patient work Of scholars has disentangled the form and spirit o f the native religion from the

' n mass o f foreign accretions . I i tend rather to a assume the process, and de l, as far as it is 2 INTRODUCTION

possible in so controversial a subj ect, with results upon which authorities are generally agreed . Neither will any attempt be made to follo w the development which the early religion underwent

in later periods, when foreign elements were added and foreign ideas altered and remoulded W the o ld tradition . e must confine ourselves to

a single epoch , in which the native Roman spirit worked out unaided the ideas inherited from

- o f half civilised ancestors , and formed that body

was a belief and ritual, which always , at le st

o f Officially, the kernel Roman religion , and constituted what the Romans themselves staunch believers in their o wn traditional history

‘ ’ - t o o f loved describe as the Religion Numa .

We di must scover, as far as we can , how far its in herited notions ran parallel with those Of other

primitive religions , but more especially we must try to note what is characteristically Roman alike in custom and ritual and in the motives and

spirit which prompted them . C H A P T E R I I

THE ‘ ANTE CEDENTS OF ROMAN RELIGION

IN every early religion there will o f course be x found , apart from e ternal influence, traces of

o wn o f its internal development, stages by which it must have advanced from a mass o fvague and primitive belief and custom to the organised li n worship of a civi sed commu ity . The religion o f Rome is no exception to this rule ; we can detect in its later practice evidences Of primitive notions and habits which it had in common with

- e other semi barbarous pe ples , and we shall see that the leading idea in its theology is but a char act er istically Roman development o f a marked feature in most early religions . — 1 Ma i . A . g c nthropology has taught us that — in many primitive societies religion a sense of

’ man s dependence o n a power higher than himself — — is preceded by a stage of magic a belief in

’ man s o wn power to influence by occult means the action o f the world around him . That the 4 ‘ ANTECEDENTS ’ OF ROMAN RELIGION

ancestors o f the Roman community passed

r through this stage seems clear, and in su viving religious practice we may discover evidence Of

such magic in various forms . There is, for

as ‘ instance , what anthropology describes sym — pathetic magic the attempt to influence the powers of nature by an imitation Of the process

is which it desired that they should perform . Of this we have a characteristic example in the

Of a u aeliciu m r o ceremony the q , designed to p

duce rain after a long drought . In classical times the ceremony consisted in a procession

ontifices headed by the p , which bore the sacred

rain - stone from its resting - place by the Porta to ff Capena the Capitol, where O erings were made 1 sk - Iu iter to the y deity, pp , but from the analogy o f other primitive cults and the sacred title o f

t la/ ie m analis is l a the s one ( p ) , it practical y cert in that the original ritual was the purely imitative

o f n process pouri g water over the stone . A similar rain - charm may possibly be seen in the

Of ar eom m sacr a curious ritual the g , when — puppets of straw were thrown into the Tiber a i symbolic wetting of the crops , to wh ch many parallels may be found among other primitive peoples . A sympathetic charm of a rather

' a olden B u h v o fi F ze G l . . 8 1 r r , o g , . i pp . THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME different character seems t o survive in the cere

o f an ler /tu m can a'r fiwm mony the g , at which a red dog was sacrificed for the prosperity Of the — crop a symbolic killing Of the red mildew (r o bigo) ; and again the slaughter of pregnant

For dicidia o f A cows at the in the middle pril ,

o f h as before the sprouting the corn , a clearly sympathetic connection with the fertility of the A — earth . nother prominent survival equally — characteristic o f primitive peoples is the sacred ness which attaches to the person o f the pries t king, so that his every act or word may have a

r magic significance o effect. This is reflected generally in the Roman priesthood , but especially

am en Dialis in the ceremonial surrounding the fl ,

o f Iu i r the priest pp t e . He must appear always in festival garb , fire may never be taken from his hearth but for sacred purposes , no other person o f may ever sleep in his bed , the cuttings his hair and nails must be preserved and buried be — neath an ar bor felias no doubt a magic charm for — fertility h e must not eat o r even mention a goat

o r o r Ob o f . a bean, other 'ects an unlucky character t s —A 2 . Wor ship o f Nat ur al Ob'ec very common feature in the early development of religious consciousness is the worship of — natural Objects in the first place Of the obj ects 6 ‘ ANTECEDENTS ’ OF ROMAN RELIGION

an d a o f themselves no more, but l ter a spirit indwelling in them . The distinction is no doubt

f o ne in individual cases a di ficult to make , and we find that among the Romans the earlier worship o f the Object tends to give way to the

u o f c lt the inhabiting spirit, but examples may be found which seem to belong to the earlier

W fo r a . e stage have, instance , the s cred stone (silent ) which was preserved in the temple o f

Iu iter o n o u t t o pp the Capitol, and was brought play a prominent part in the ceremony o f treaty

o n r e r e making . The fetial, who that occasion p sented the Roman people, at the solemn moment

- of the oath taking, struck the sacrificial pig with

‘ silecc as did so DO Dies iter the , saying he , thou , p , strike the Roman people as I strike this pig here

d as to ay, and strike them the more, thou art

’ greater and stronger . Here no doubt the under i lying notion is not merely symbol cal , but in w origin the stone is itself the god , an idea hich later religion expressed in the cult- title specially

h I u ter d is So i L . used in t is connection, pp p

ter m in i o r again, in all probability, the boundary stones between properties are in origin the Objects — — though later only the site Of a yearly ritual at the fes tival o f the Terminalia on February the 23r d , and they are, as it were , summed up in the THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

’ o d a e - g Terminus , the great s cr d boundary stone, which had its o wn shrine within the Capitoline

‘ temple , because, according to the legend, the god i refused to budge even to make room for Iupp t er . The same notion is most likely at the root o f the

‘ ’ two great domestic cults of Vesta, the hearth ,

’ and i Ianus, the door , though a more sp ritual idea was soon associated with them ; we may notice to o in this connection the worship of springs, summed

o f up in the subsequent deity Fons , and rivers ,

- o f . such as Volturnus, the cult name the Tiber 3 W r hi o f Tr s — . o s p ee But most conspicuous

l o f among the cu ts natural Obj ects , as in so many primitive religions, is the worship of trees . was Here, though doubtless at first the tree

o f ns itself the Obj ect veneration, surviving i tances seem rather to belong t o the later period when it was regarded as the abode o f the

We o f t spirit . may recognise a case this sor

ows R u m inalis in the fl , once the recipient of hi wors p, though later legend , which preferred to

o r n find an historical mythical expla ation of cults , looked upon it as sacred because it was the scene o f the suckling o f Romulus and Remus by the

A t fi - im s wolf. no her g tree with a s ilar hi tory is

ca r i cu s o f the p fi the Campus Martius, sub sequently the site o f the worship o f Inno Capro 8

THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

calia, where the Luperci dressed themselves in the skins Of the sacrificed goats and smeared their

faces with the blood , thus symbolically trying to bring themselves into com munion with the sacred We animal . may recognise it to o in the associa o f wi i tion particular animals th div nities , such as

o f o n the sacred wolf and woodpecker Mars , but the whole we may doubt whether the worship Of animals ever played so prominent a part in Roman religion as the cult Of other natural

Objects .

m —S ar e o f Anim . 5. is uch some of the survivals very early stages o f religious custom which still

kept their place in the developed religion of Rome,

but by far the most important element in it, which

‘ might indeed be described as its im mediate ante

’ is Of to cedent, the state religious feeling which

‘ ’ anthropologists have given the name of Animism . As far as we can follow the development Ofearly

l o f n re igions , this attitude mi d seems to be the

o f direct outcome Of the failure magic . Primi tive man begins to see that neither he nor his magicians really possess that occult control over the forces o fnature which was the supposed basis

a : l of m gic the charm fails, the spel does not produce the rain, and when he looks for the cause , he can only argue that these things must I O ‘ ANTECEDENTS ’ OF ROMAN RELIGION

be in the hands Of some power higher than his o wn . The world then and its various familiar t b objec s ecome for him peopled with spirits , like

m en in character to , but more powerful, and his success in life and its various operations depends o n the degree in which he is able to propitiate

these spirits and secure their cO - Ope ration If

o f he desires rain , he must win the favour the if spirit who controls it, he would fell a tree and ff f su er no harm , he must by suitable of erings His entice the indwelling spirit to leave it .

‘ ’ theology in this stage is the knowledge o f the l his various spirits and their dwe lings , ritual the due performance Of sacrifice fo r purposes o f pr o itiati o f p o n and expiation. It was in this state religious feeling that the ancestors o f Rome must have lived before they founded their agricultural settlement on the Palatine : we m ust try no w to see ho w far it had retained this character and what developments it had undergone when it had

’ crystallised into the Religion Of Numa .

I I C H A P T E R I I I

MAIN FEATURE S OF THE RELIGION OF NUMA

1 Th — l o f . eology. The characteristic appe lation a divine spirit in the Oldest stratum o f the

is den s o d Roman religion not , a g , but rather

nu m en : dens , a power he becomes when he

is o n Obtains a name, and so the way to acquiring

fin i is a de ite personal ty, but in origin he simply

o f i the spirit the animistic period, and reta ns t h ’ i something of e Spirit s character stics . Thus among the divinities o fthe household we shall see G later that the enius and even the Lar Familiaris,

ni o f though they attained great dig ty conception,

t o and were the centre of the family life, and

o f m some extent the family orality, never quite rose to the position Of full - grown gods ; while among the spirits Of the field the wildness and impishness o f character associated with Faunus — and his companion Inu u s almost the co bo lds — o r hobgoblins o f the flo cks r eflects clearly the

‘ o ld animistic belief in the natural evilness o f

1 2 THE RELIGION OF NUMA

the spirits and their hostility to men . The notion of the n u m en is always vague and in

its sex ‘ definite : even may be uncertain . Be

’ thou god o r goddess is the form o f address in the farmer ’s prayer already quoted from Cato be it male o r female is the constant formula in liturgies and even dedicatory inscriptions of a

much later period .

These spirits are, as we have seen , indwellers in the Obj ects Of nature and controllers o f the phenomena Of nature : but to the Roman they

were more . Not merely did they inhabit places n and thi gs, but they presided over each phase

o f o r natural development , each state action in

f fo r o . u s the life man Varro , instance, gives a list Of the deities concerned in the early life o f i o f the ch ld , which , though it bears the marks

priestly elaboration , may yet be taken as typical

o f o f the feeling the normal Roman family .

’ There is Vaticanus , who opens the child s mouth

u i to cry , Cunina , who guards his cradle , Ed l a

c d and Potina , who tea h him to eat and rink ,

Statilin u s , who helps him to stand up , Adeona

Abe o na and , who watch over his first footstep , and many others each with his special province o f o r ila protec tion assistance . The farmer sim rly

' is in t h e hands o fa whole host o f divinities who 1 3 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

s o f a sist him at each stage ploughing, hoeing,

so n u m en sowing, reaping, and forth . If the then lacks personal individuality, he has a very

’ li o f distinct Specia sation function, and if man s

appeal to the divinity is to be successful, he must be very careful to make it in the right quarter it was a stock joke in Roman comedy to make

as k r o r a character for water f om Liber, wine ’ s from the nymph . Hence we find in the prayer formulae in Cato and elsewhere the most careful precautions to prevent the accidental omission o fthe deity concerned : usually the worshipper will go through the whole list of the gods who may be thought to have power in the special circumstances ; sometimes he will conclude his

‘ ’ prayer with the formula whosoever thou art, or ‘ and any other name by which thou mayest

’ ll n it/m a desire t o be ca ed . The n is thus vague in his conception but specialised in his function ,

o n and so later , when certain deities have acquired defin ite names and become prominent above to the rest, the worshipper in appealing them

i - di a w ll add a cult title, to in cate the speci l character in which he wishes the deity to hear : the woman in childbirth will appe al to Iuno

to Iu iter Lucina, the general praying for victory pp

Iu iter Victor , the man who is taking an oath to pp I 4 THE RELIGION OF N UMA

as the deus Fidiu s . As a still later develop

- as Off ment the cult title will, it were, break and

fo r t o f set up i self, usually in the form an abstract

n : Iu iter t wo perso ification pp , in the special capa

d t . cities just note , gives birth to Vic oria and Fides The conception o f the n u m en being so form n less and indefinite , it is not surprisi g that in the genuine Roman religion there should have been no anthropomor phic representations

’ Of i all ‘ 1 70 the d vinity at . For years , Varro

his tells us, taking date from the traditional

o f 7 4 B n 5 . C foundation the city in . , the Roma s

’ e worshipp d their gods without images , and he e ‘ adds the charact ristic comment, those who introduced representations among the nations took away fear and brought in falsehood . Sym bols o f a few deities were no doubt recog nised : we have noticed already the silew o f

Iu iter and - o f pp the boundary stone Terminus , which were probably at an earlier period them s t o f selve Obj ec s worship , and to these we may

o f si filla add the sacred spears Mars, and the g Of

- a the State Pen tes . But for the most par t the n u m ina were without even such symbolic r epr e ll Of scutation , nor ti about the end the regal per icid was any form o f temple built for them t o f dwell in . The sacred fire o Vesta near the 1 5 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

is en Forum was , it true, from the earliest times

in no closed a building ; this , however, was temple , but merelyan erection with the essentiallypr ac tical purpose Of preventing the extinction o f the fire by rain . The first temple in the full sense of the word was according to tradition built by Servius Tullius to Diana o n the Aventine : the no t one tradition is significant , for Diana was

di indi etes o f of the g , the Old deities the Religion

’ was e of Numa, but introduced from the n ighbour

o fAr icia ing town , and the attribution to Servius Tullius nearly always denotes an Etru scan 1 or

- no n . at any rate a Roman origin There were, however, altars in special places to particular

‘ Of deities, built sometimes stone , sometimes in a

o f We more homely manner earth or sods . hear fo r instance of the altar of Mars in the Campus

o f Martius, Quirinus on the Quirinal , of Saturnus

o f o f at the foot the Capitol , and notably the curious underground altar o f Consus o n what

o f th e i was later the site Circus Max mus . But more characteristic than the erection of altars is the connection ofdeities with special localities ; Naturally enough in the worship Of the ' h o use hold Vesta had her seat at the hearth , Ianus

1 E t r uscan builde rs we r e according t o t radit ionem ployed o n m e t he earlie st Rom an te pl s . 1 6

THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

l gradual y more and more specialised in function , yet gaining thereby no more real protective care for their worshippers—a cold and heartless hierarchy , ready to exact their due, but incapable o f ask inspiring devotion or enthusiasm . Let us next how the Rom ans conceived of their own relations towards them . 2 The R at i n of d — . el o Go s and Men The character Ofthe Roman was essentially practical and his natural mental attitude that Of the lawyer. And so in his relation towards the divine beings whom he worshipped there was little o f sentiment or affection : all must be regulated by clearly understood principles and

o m carried u t with for al exactness . Hence the if ns sacr u m o f , the body rights and duties in

Of the matter religion, is regarded as a depart

ins ublicu m ment Of the p , the fundamental con stitu t ion o f is i as the state, and it sign ficant,

was Marquardt has observed , that it Numa, a

no t o r king and a lawgiver, and a prophet a poet , who was looked upon as the founder of the

Roman religion . Starting from the simple general feeling of a dependence o n a higher power

r eli io m ( g ), which is co mon to all religions, the Roman gives it his o wn characteristic colour when he conceives o f that dependence as ana 1 8 THE RELIGION OF NUMA

logons to a civil contract between man and god . Both sides are under Obligation to fulfil their

’ part : if a god answers a man s prayer, he must be repaid by a thank - Offering : if the man has ’ ‘ o d fulfilled his bounden duty and service, the g

: must make his return if he does not, either the cause lies in an unconscious failure on the human

o u t o f o r side to carry the exact letter the law,

o d else , if the g has really broken his contract , he has, as it were , put himself out of court and the man may seek aid elsewhere . In this notion

’ we have the secret o f Rome s readiness under stress of circumstances, when all appeals to the to Old gods have failed, adopt foreign deities and cults in the hope o f a greater measure o f success . The contract - notion may perhaps appear m ore clearly if we consider o ne o r two o f the normal

a o r religious acts of the Roman individu l state . Take first Of all the performance o f the regular sacrifices o r acts o fworship ordained by the state

o r sacr a calendar the celebration Of the household .

late s The p Of man consists in their due fulfilment , but he may through negligence omit them o r make a mistake in the ritual to be employed .

In that case the gods , as it were, have the upper hand in the contract and are no t obliged t o fulfil I 9 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME their share : but the man can set himself right

ff o f iacu lu m again by the o ering a p , which may take the form either o f an additional sacrifice o r

So fo r a repetition of the original rite. , instance , when Cato is giving his farmer dir ections for the him lustration of his fields, he supplies at the

‘ ’ m a : end with two significant for ul e if, he says, ‘ you have failed in any respect with regard to ' ff : all your O erings , use this formula Father Mars , if thou hast not found satisfaction in my former

f o f o x of ering pig, sheep, and (the most solemn o his c mbination in rustic sacrifices) , then let t ' offering o fpig and sheep and o x appease thee : but if you have made a mistake in o ne or two ff only of your o erings , then say, Father Mars, because thou hast not found satisfaction in that

o r be pig ( whatever it may ) , let this pig appease ' thee. On the other hand , for intentional

: neglect, there was no remedy the man was imp ius and it rested with the gods to punish him as they liked (deom m in iu r iae dis m e) . But apart from the regularly constituted cere

Of s monies religion, there might be special occasion on which new relations would be entered into between god and man . Sometimes the initiative would come from man : desiring to obtain from 2 0 THE RELIGION OF NUMA

the gods some blessing on which he had set his

a t u a v otu m e he r , he wo ld enter into , a sp cial contract by which he undertook to perform cert ain

s o r a o f act make certain s crifices , in case the ful film n e t Of his desire . The whole proceeding is strictly legal : from the moment when he makes his v o tif Tens vow the man is , in the same position , is a that , as the defend nt in a case whose decision is still pending ; as soon as t he gods have accom plished their side o fthe contract he is v oti dam natu s , condemned , as it were, to damages, having lost his suit ; nor does he recover his independence until he has paid what he undertook : v o tu m r eddid fi lu bens m er ito I have paid my vow gladly

’ as it was due ) is the characteristic wording o f

votive Inscriptions . If the gods did not aecom

lish o f p the wish , the man was course free, and sometimes the contract would be carried so far that a time - lim it fo r their action would be fixed by the maker o f the v o w : legal exactness can

hardly go further.

Or again , the initiative might come from the S gods . ome marked misfortune , an earthquake ,

i o r l ghtning, a great famine, a portentous birth , some such occurrence would be recognised as a

’ r odi im n o r Of p g , sign the god s displeasure . Somehow o r other the contract must have been 2 1 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

broken on the human side and it was the duty o f

awdeu m the state to see to the restoration of the p , the equilibri um of the normal relation of god and

man . The right proceeding in such a case was a

lu s tr atio —o r , a solemn cleansing of the people

’ the portion o f the people involved in the god s — displeasure with the double Obj ect o f removing the original reason o f misfort une and averting

u f ture causes Of the divine anger. The commer

cial o so n tion is not perhaps quite distinct here, but the underlying legal relationship is sufficiently

marked . If then the question be asked whether the rela tion between the Roman and his gods was friendly o r unfriendly, the correct answer would probably

as be that it w neither . It was rather what Aristotle in speaking o fhuman relations describes

‘ ’ as a friendship for profit : it is entered into because both sides hope for some advantage—it is maintained as long as both sides fulfil their

Obligations . 3 C r m al —It . e e oni has been said sometimes that the o ld Rom an religion w as one Of cult and

r ritual without dogma o belief. As we have seen this is not in origin strictly true , and it would be fairer t o s ay that belief was latent rather than

- x : non e istent this we may see , for instance , from 2 2 THE RELIGION OF NUMA

’ r Cicero s dialogues on the subj ect Of religion , whe e in discussion the fundamental sense o fthe depen dence o f man o n the help of the gods comes clearly into view : in the domestic worship o fthe family too cult was always to some exte nt tinged t ’ wi h emotion , and sanctified by a belief which made it a more living and in the end a more per manent reality than the religion o f the state . But it is no doubt true that as the community ad v anced , belief tended to sink into the background

no t development took place in cult and in theology , so o f that by the end the Republic , to take an

u r r inalia example, though the festival Of the F

o n 2 5th Of was duly Observed every year the July ,

o f Fur r ina was the nature or function the goddess , as we learn from Cicero , a pure matter Of conjee

s u s ture, and Varro tell that even her name was known only to a few persons . Nor was it mere lapse o f time which tended to obscure theology and exalt ceremonial : their relative position was the immediate and natural outcome o fthe under

o f lying idea the relation of god and man . De v o tion —in o ur o f —and , piety sense the term a feeling Of the divine presence could not be en joined o r even encouraged by the strictly legal conception o n which religion was based : the

‘ ’ ’ contract - notion required not a right spirit but 2 3 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

so o right performance . And it comes ab ut that in all the recor ds we have left of the Old religion the salient feature which catches and retains o u r

x c o f attention is e a tness ritual. All mus t be per

‘ ’ formed not merely decently and in order, but with the most scru pulous care alike for every

detail of the ceremonial itself, and for the surround s ing circumstances . The omi sion or misplace

o f ula i . ment a single word in the form e, the sl ght

o f o n o f vi est sign resistance the part the ctim ,

any disorder among the bystanders, even the

o f f accidental squeak a mouse, are su ficient to vitiate the whole ritual and necessitate its repeti On tion from the very beginning . e of the main functions o fthe Roman priesthood was to preserve a intact the tradition of formul e and ritual,

ff d fo r and, when the magistrate O ere sacrifice

on ti ex the state , the p f stood at his side and dictated (pr aeir e) the formulae which he mus t l use . A most the oldest specimen of Latin which

no w o f S we possess is the song the alii, the priests

r o n of Ma s, handed from generation to generation

and repeated with scrupulous care , even though

as u i the priests themselves , Q intil an assures us , as had not the le t notion what it meant. Nor was it merely the words o f ceremonial which were Ofvital importance other details must be attended 2 4

THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME notorious escapade of Clo diu s in 62 shows the scandal raised by a breach of this rule even at the period when religious enthusiasm was at its S a lowest ebb . laves were specific lly admitted to a share in certain festivals such as the Saturnalia

l - s and the Compita ia (the festival of the Lare ), whereas at the Matralia (the festival o f the matrons) a female slave was brought in with the express purpose o f being significantly driven

away . The general notion o f the exactness of ritual will perhaps become clearer when we come to

x o f is e amine some the festivals in detail, but it o f extreme importance fo r the understanding of

s t o o f the Roman religiou attitude , think it from the first as an essential part in the expression

o f of the relation man to god . — 4 . Dir ectness ofRelat ion Funct ions ofPr iest s .

—In to contrast all this precision of ritual , which tends almost to alienate humanity from deity, we may turn to another h ardly less prominent feature — of the Roman religion t he imm ediateness o f relation between the god and his worshippers . Not only may the individual at any time approach the altar of the go d with his prayer or thank ff m o ering , but in every co munity of persons its religious representative is its natural head . In 2 6 THE RELIGION OF NUMA

the fam ily the head of the household (p ater fam ilias ) is also the priest and he is responsible for conducting the religious worship of the whole

r li : house, f ee and slave a ke to his wife and daughters he leaves the ceremonial connected with the hearth (Vesta) and the deities o f the

- P enates his liff store cupboard ( ) , and to bai the sacrifice to the powers who protect his fields but the other acts of worship at home and hi in the fields he conducts mself, and his sons act

his t his as acolytes . Once a year he mee s with neighbours at the boundaries o f their properties and celebrates the common worship over the

- 1 boundary stones . So in the larger outgrowth of

ene all the family, the g , which consisted of persons

n om en co no m en with the same surname ( , not g ), the gentile sac'r a are in the hands o f the more wealthy members who are regarded as its heads ; we have the curious ins tance o f Olodiu s even after

fo r his adoption into another family, providing the

i o f ene Clo cfia o wn worsh p the g in his house, and

’ we m ayremember Virgil s picture o fthe founders o fthe gen tes of the Po titii and the Pinar ii per forming the sacrifice to Hercules at the am m axim a was i f , which the traditional priv lege o

1 T all o en t o d ubt bu t s ee De Ma h Il Uulto his is p o , rc i , P ivat r v l. . e , o ii 2 7 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

W sodalitates ar e their houses . hen societies ( ) formed for religious purposes they elect their

m a ist t t o own g r be their religious representatives ,

as we see in the case o f the Salii and the Luperci .

o f Finally, in the great community the state the

o f r king is priest, and with that exactness pa al

lelism h es — of which the Roman was so fond, like — the p ater fam ilias leaves the worship of Vesta ’

in o f r . the hands his daughters , the Vestal vi gins

And so , when the Republic is instituted , a special ’ r em sacr or u m k official, the , inherits the ing s e o f ritual duti s, while the superintendence the Vestals passes to his representative in the mat ter o f

on ti ex m axim u s s o religious law, the p f , who e fficial

’

r e ia . residence is always the g , Numa s palace The state is but the enlarged household and the head o fthe state is its religious representative .

to If then the approach the gods is so direct ,

o f where , it may be asked , in the organisation Roman religion is there room for the priest Two points about the Roman priesthood are of para mount importance . In the first place, they are not a caste apart : though there were restrictions as to the holding o fsecular magistracies in combination with the priesthood—always observed strictly in the case o f the rf ex sacr or u m and with few ex ceptio ns in the case o f the greater flam tn es 2 8 THE RELIGION OF NUMA

yet the po n ttfiees might always take their part

o f x in public life, and no kind barrier e isted between them and the rest of the community :

Iulius a on ti ex m axi u s C esar himself was p f m . In the second place they are no t regarded as r epr e sent ativ es o f the gods o r as mediators between

as o ficials god and man, but simply administrative appointed fo r the performance o fthe acts o fstate

as worship , just the magistrates were for its civil

and military government . In origin they were chosen to assist the king in the multifarious duties — of the state- cult theflam in es were to act as special

o f priests particular deities, the most prominent among them being the three great priests o f Iu it er lam en Dialts pp (f ), Mars , and Quirinus ; the p on ttfiees were sometimes delegates o f the

o n king special occasions, but more particularly

con siliu m formed his religious , a consulting body , to give him advice as to ritual and act as the r e i f po sit o r es o tradition . In later times theflam tn es

ll onte ees sti retain their original character, the p fi and especially the p on tifex m axim u s are respons ible for the whole organisation o fthe state - religion and are the guardians and interpreters of religious

- lore . In the state cult then the priests play a very important part, but their relation to the worship of the individual was very small indeed . They had 2 9 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME a general superintendence over private worship and their leave would be required fo r the intro duction of any new domestic cult ; in cases t o o where the private person was in doubt as to ritual o r the legitimacy of any religious practice, he could appeal to the p on tificee for decision . Other wise the priest could never intervene in the worship o f o f the family, except in the case the most

o f con aw eatto as solemn form marriage ( f ) , which , it conferred on the children the right to hold

o f as certain the priesthoods , was regarded itself

o f - a ceremony the state religion . In his private worship then the individual had

i was immed ate access to the deity, and it no doubt this absence o f priestly mediation and the co n

o f sequent sense personal responsibility, no less than its emotional significance, which caused the greater reality and permanence of the domestic worship as compared with the and f o ficial cults o fthe state .

30 C H A P T E R I V — E ARLY HISTORY OF R OME THE AGRICU LTURAL COMMU NITY

AFTE R this sketch of the main features which x fin d we must e pect to in Roman religion , we may attempt to look a little more in detail at it s i various departments, but before do ng so it is necessary to form some notion o f the situation and character o f the Roman community : religion

’ is not a little determined by men s natural sur n roundings and occupatio s . The subj ect is natur

o ne o f ally considerable controversy, but certain facts o f great significance for o ur purpose may fairly be taken as established . The earliest settle

‘ ’ ment which can be called Rome was the co m

o f l hi o u t o f munity the Palatine hi l, w ch rises the valleys more abruptly than any o f the other hills and was the natural place to be selected for fortification : the outline o f the walls and the sacred enclosure running ou tside them (pom o e

fr twm a ) may still be tr ced, marking the limits 3 1 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

’ o f m R om a u adr ata square Ro e ( q ) , as the his t o r ians l n no cal ed it . The Palatine commu ity doubt pursued their agricultural labours over the neighbouring valleys and hills , and gradually began to extend their settlement till it included the Esquiline and Caelian and other lesser heights — which made up the Sept im o ntiu m the next stage ’ o f Rome s development . Meanwhile a kindred settlement had been established on the opposite

o f hills the Quirinal and Viminal, and ultimately the two communities united , enclosing within their boundaries the Capitol and their meeting- place in — the valley which separated them the Forum . In

was this way formed the Rome of the Four Regions , which represents the utmost extent of its develop ment during the period which gave rise to the a genuine Roman religion . All these st ges have left their mark o n the custo ms of religion . R om a qu adr ata comes t o the fore in the Lupercalia : not merely is the site o f the ceremony a grotto o n Lu er cal Lu er ci the Palatine ( p ), but when the p run their pu r ificato r y course around the bound o f ll aries , it is the circuit the Palatine hi which An 1 1th its . marks limits ‘ nually on the of De cem ber the fes tival o f the Septim o ntium was celebrated , not by the whole people , but by the

on ml s s o f t s m ta , pre umably the inhabitant ho e 32

THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME — still continued to be the independent acts of i worsh p of groups of agricultural households .

G ni o n radually , as the commu ty grew the lines e we have just s en , there grew with it a sense a of an organised st te, as something more than the casual aggregation o f households o r clans en es f t . o (g ) As the feeling union became stronger, so did the necessity fo r common worship o f the

- gods, and the state cult came into being primarily as the repetition o n behalf o f the community as a whole of the worship which its members performed separately in their households or as

- c o nce joint worshippers in the fields. But the p tion o f a state must carry with it at least two ideas over and beyond the common needs of its members : there must be internal organisation

s - to secure dome tic tranquillity , and since there will be collision with other states — external

o f ff organisation for purposes o ence and defence .

l two Religion fol ows the new ideas , and in of the older deities o fthe fields develops the notions

o f . j ustice and war Organisation ensues , and the general conceptions o fstate - deities and state - ritual an d are made more definite precise . It will be at once natural and convenient that we should consider these three departments of religion in the order that has just been suggested 34 THE AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITY

the worship of the household , the worship of the

o f . fields, the worship the state But it must not be forgotten that both the departments themselves and the evidence for them frequently overlap . The domestic worship is not wholly distinguish

o f - is as able from that the fields , the state cult ,

o f we have seen , very largely a replica the other two . The evidence fo r the domestic and agri a in a d cultur l cults is itself very scanty, n we shall frequently have to draw infer ences from A their counterparts in the state . bove all, it is not to be supposed that any hard and fast lin e

’ between the three existed in the Roman s mind ; but fo r the purposes of analysis the distinction is i valuable and represents a h storical reality .

35 C H A P T E R V

WORSHIP o r THE HOUSEHOLD

Th D ti s — 1 . e ei e The worship of the household

as seems to have originated, has been suggested , in the sense o f the sacredness o f certain objects — closely bound up with the family life the door, x the protection against the e ternal world, by which the household went o u t to work 111 the morning ni and returned at eve ng, the hearth , the giver of

- warmth and nourishment, and the store cupboard , where was preserved the food for future use . At

all was first, in probability, the worship actually o f the objects themselves, but by the time that i Rome can be said to have existed at all , an mism had undoubtedly transformed it into a veneration l n o f the indwe li g spirits, Ianus , Vesta, and the

Penates. Of the domestic worship o fIanus no information

t o has come down us , but we may well suppose that as the defence o f the door and its main use

o f so lay with the men the household, they, under 36 WORSHIP OF THE HOU SEHOLD

o f ater am iltas the control the p f , were responsible was o f . for the cult its spirit Vesta , of course , worshipped at the hearth by the women, who most often used it in the preparation o f the domestic meals . In the original round hut, such — as the primitive Roman dwelt in witness the models which he buried with his dead and which recent excavations in the Forum have brought to light—the ‘ blazing hearth ’ (such seems to be the meaning o f Vesta) would be the most conspicuously sacred thing ; it is therefore not surprising to find that her simple cult was the most persistent o f all throughout the history o f

no t i . Rome, and did vary from its orig nal notion Even Ovid can tell the inquirer ‘ t hink not Vesta ’ n to be ought else than living flame , and agai , — Vesta and fire require no effigy notions in which he has come curious ly near to the conceptions o f i the earliest rel gion . The Penates in the same way were at first ‘ the spirits —whoever they — might bee who preserved and increased the store

o f in the cupboard . Then as the conception individual deities became clearer, they were iden t ified with some o ne o r other of the gods o fthe o r n country the state , among whom the i dividual householder would select those who should be

o f his : Iuno the particular Penates family Ceres, , 37 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

Iu iter o f pp , Pales would be some those chosen in the earlier period . Nor are we to suppose that selection was merely arbitrary : the tradition o f

o f family and clan , even possibly locality, would

- determine the choice, much as the patron saints o f a church are now determined in a Roman

Catholic country . Two other deities are very promine nt in the o f worship the early household, and each is a char act er istic o f i product Roman rel gious feeling, the n 1 Lar Familiaris and the Ge ius . The Lares seem to have been in origin the spirits of the family

: as u s fields they were worshipped , Cicero tells ,

’ o n m the far in sight of the house, and they had their annual festival in the Compitalia, celebrated — at the comp tta places where two o r more pro

er ties o ne o f p marched . But these spirits , the

Lap F am iliar is o f , had special charge the house

was and household , and as such worshipped with the other domestic gods at the hearth . As his in protection extended over all the household , cluding the slaves, his cult is placed specially in ff the charge o f the baili s wife (s ilica) . He is

1 ll d ffe ent t e It is right t o st at e t h at t h e r e is a t ota y i r h ory, according t o which t he Lare s we r e t he spirit s of t he dead an e t and t he Lar Fam l a an e m bodim ent as it e e c s ors i i ris , w r , of l he am l a l t f i y d ead . 38 WORSHIP OF THE HOU SEHOLD regularly worshipped at the great divisions o f the month on Calends, Nones , and Ides , but he has also an intim ate and beautiful connection ff with the domestic history o fthe family. An o er is ing made to the Lar on the occasion of a birth ,

o r —a a wedding, a departure, a return , and even — characteristically Roman addition on the occa sion o f the first utterance o f a word by a son of

: the house finally, a particularly solemn sacrifice is made to him after a death in the family . The Genius is perhaps the most difficult con ceptio n in the Roman religion for the modern mind to grasp . It has been spoken o f as the

‘ ’ ‘ ’ - o r - o f patron saint guardian angel , both them G conceptions akin to that of the enius , but both far t o o definite and anthropomorphic : we shall understand it best by keeping the n wmen notion clearly in mind and looking to the root - meaning o f the word (genius connected with the root o f l i n er e to . g g , beget) It was after all on y a natural

’ development of the notions o f animism to

to o imagine that man , like other objects, had his indwelling spirit—not his soul ’ either in our

o f ll o r sense moral and inte ectual powers , in the

o f a — ancient sense the vit l principle but rather , as the derivation suggests , in origin simply the spirit which gave him the power o f generation 39 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

G Hence in the house , the sphere of the enius is

no longer the hearth but the marriage - bed (leetn s

enialis . g ) This notion growing somewhat wider,

G u the enius comes to denote all the f ll powers,

‘ o f almost the personality, developed manhood , and especially those powers which make for pleasure and happiness : this is the origin of

m en in m ewr ar e en io such com on phrases as g , g

‘ ind u l er e o ne g , meaning practically to look after

’ ‘ ’ h as self, to indulge oneself. Every man , then ,

‘ ’ anh his G this spirit of his m ood in enius , and

Iun o o r correspondingly every woman her , spirit

of womanhood , which are worshipped on the birth G days of their owners . No doubt later the enius was accredited with powers over the fortune and

his e misfortune of possessor, but he never r ally

o f developed anything like the independence a god , i and remained always rather a n u/m en . The n

his o wn G dividual revered enius , but the house

was o ne hold cult concerned , as would expect , G o f with the enius of the master the house , the

- o f pre eminent Genius the family. Its special

was locality , for the reason just noticed , the

m - y - k arriage bed and its s mbol, the house sna e, kept as a revered inmate and cherished in the feeling that evil happening to it meant misfortune G n to the master. The festival of the e ius was 40

THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

o f paintings which , although later date, undoubt edlyrepresent the continuous tradition of domestic

- custom . In a wall painting at Herculaneum, for

o f ater amilias instance, we have a picture the p f , represented with veiled head (according to regular

o f G Roman custom) and the cornucopia the enius,

o r 0 making sacrifice at a round altar hearth . p posits him stands the flute - player (tibicen ) playing

u o n to drown any unpropitio s sound, while either side are two smaller figures, presumably the sons , acting as attendants and both clad (su ccincti) in the short sacrificial tunic (lim n s) o ne carries in his left hand the sacred dish

ater a o r (p ), and in his right garlands , more i probably, ribbons for the decoration of the vict m the other is acting as v ictim ar ins and bringing

fo r ni the pig sacrifice, but the a mal is hurrying al with almost excessive eagerness towards the tar, no doubt t o show that there is none o f the r e lu ctance which would have been sufficient to vitiate the sacrifice . But from o u r point o f view such formal acts o f worship are o f less importance than the part played by religion in the daily life o f the house

hold . There is evidence both for earlier and later periods that the really pious ’ would begin their day with prayer and sacrifice to the house 42 WORSHIP OF THE HOUSEHOLD

’ ins hold gods , and like Virgil s Aeneas , typically p

‘ n o f in all the meani gs the word , would rouse the slumbering flame upon the altar and gladly approach again the Lar and little Penate s whom

’ as e b e worshipped yesterday. But this w p rhaps x a e ception l devotion , and the daily worship in the normal household centred rather round the family meal . In the old and simple house the

o f r table would be placed at the side the hea th ,

as s at and , the household round it, master and

o f se t o n man together, a part the meal, aside

atella a special sacred dish (p ) , would be thrown

’ into the flames as the gods portion Sometimes

o f incense might be added , and later a libation

in : i w e when mages had become common , the little statuettes o f Lares and Penates would be fetched from the shrine (lar ar in m ) and placed upon the al table in token of their presence at the me .

- Even in the luxurious, many roomed house of

- a was the imperial epoch , when the dining t ble

- far from the kitchen hearth , a pause was made in the meal and an offering sent o u t to the

- household gods , nor would the banquet proceed until the slave had returned and announced that the gods were favourable (deos p r opitios) so f persistent was this tradition o domestic piety. Prayer ' might be made at this point o n special 43 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

as occasions to special deities, , for instance, before the beginning of the sowing of the crops, appeal

Iu it er o f was made to pp , and a special portion

cla s was the meal ( p ) set aside for him . The sanctification of the o ne occasion when the whole household met in the day cannot fail to have had its ff e ect on the domestic life, and , even if it was no direct incentive to morality, it yet bound the family together in a sense of dependence o n a higher power for the supply o f their daily needs . We observed incidentally how the small events of domestic life were given their religious sigui ficance , particularly in connection with the worship G of Lar and enius , but to complete the sketch o f i domestic religion , we must examine a l ttle more closely its relation to the process of life, and especially to the two important occasions

o f of birth and marriage . In no department life is the specialisation o f function among the n u m ina more cons picuous than in connection with birth and childhood . Apart from the general

o fIu no vin protection Lucina, the prominent di ity of childbirth , we can count in the records that have come down to us some twenty subordinate

o f spirits, who from the moment conception to

o f a its o wn the moment birth watched , e ch in 44 WORSHIP OF THE HOUSEHOLD

un particular sphere , over the mother and the

as born child . As soon the birth had taken

o f place began a series ceremonies , which are of

as particular interest , they seem to belong to a

o f very early stage religious thought, and have a markedly rustic character. Immediately a

ff field - sacred meal was o ered to the two deities ,

Picumnus and Pilumnus , and then the Roman turned his attention to the practical danger o f fever for the mother and child . At night three

o ne men gathered round the threshold, armed with an axe, another with a stake, and a third with a broom : the two first struck the threshold

i o u t with the r implements, the third swept the hi floor. Over t s ceremony were said to preside h nwmin a a t ree , Intercidon (connected with the i n ilwm axe) , P lumnus (co nected with the stake, p ), w o f and Deverra (connected ith the act sweeping) .

as Its obj ect was, Varro explains it, to avert the entrance o f the half- wild Silvanus by giving three unmistakeable signs o f human civilis ation ; we shall probably no t be wrong in see ing in it n rather an actual hacking , beati g, and sweeping

s away of evil spirit . On the ninth day after

s o f bo o n birth , in the ca e a y, the eighth in the

r o f case of a gi l, occurred the festival the naming s / (olem nitas n om inaliu m ). The cerem ony was 4 5 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME o ne of purification (dies lnstrf ieu s is its alter ul ff native title) , and a piac ar o ering was made to preserve the child from evil influences in the future . Friends brought presents, especially

- in o f - lwnu lae neck bands the form a half moon ( ) , and the golden balls (bu llae) which were worn as a charm roun d the neck until the attainment o f manhood. Of the numerous petty divinities which watched

’ over the child s early years we have already given some account . In their protection he remained

u o f until he arrived at puberty, abo t the age seventeen , when with due religious ceremony he A entered on his manhood . t home , on the morn nl ing of the festival, he solem y laid aside the bu lla and the purple - striped garb of childhood (toga p r aetexta) before the shrine o f the house

' - f hold gods , and made them a thank of ering for

in . their protection the past Afterwards, aecom panied by his father and friends and clad now in

to a vir ilis the g , he went solemnly to the Capitol , ff and , after placing a contribution in the co ers of — Iu v ent as o r probably in earlier times o fIu ppiter — o ff Iuventus made an ering to the supreme deity , i Iuppiter Capitol nus. The sacred character of the ’ early years o f a young Roman s life could hardly be more closely marked 46 WORSHIP OF THE HOUSEHOLD

Though confar fr eatio was the only essentially

i o f was rel gious form marriage , and sanctified by the presence o f the pon tifex m axim u s and the

am en B ialis fl , yet marriage even in the less religious ceremony o f coemp tio was always a

o n sacr um . It must no t take place the days

a - ls er iae o n of st te festiva (f ), nor certain other dies r eli iosi o f o r g , such as those the Vestalia o f P ia the feast the dead ( ar ental ) . Both the marriage itself and the preliminary betrothal (sp onsalia) had to receive the divine sanction

o f by means of auspices, and in the ceremonies both rites the religious element, though bound

- up with superstition and folk customs, emerges

o f clearly enough . The central ceremony the con a'r fr eatio act o f f was an partly sacrifice, partly ,

one . might almost say, of communion The bride and bridegroom sat o n two chairs united to o ne and ff another covered with a lambskin , they o ered to Iuppiter bloodless offerings o f a rustic char

r u es et m o lam saleam acter (f g ) , they employed in the sacrifice the fundamental household neces

s ar ies o f , water , fire , and salt, and themselves ate

a - libu s a/r r eu s the s cred spelt cake ( f ) , from which

the ceremony derived its name . The crucial point in the more civil ceremony of coemp tio was the purely human and legal act o f the 47 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

dextr arf wm iu n ctio j oining of hands ( ) , but it was immediately followed by the sacrifice of a victim , which gave the ceremony a markedly religious significance . The customs connected with the bringing o f the bride to the bride ’ groom s house so beautifully depicted in ’ — Catullus Ep ithalam iu m her forcible abduction ’ o f from her parents , the ribaldry the bridegroom s

h o f as companions , the t rowing nuts a symbol o f a o f fecundity, the c rrying the bride over the

o f threshold, a relic probably primitive marriage

o f o n by capture, the untying the bridal knot the bridal couch are perhaps more akin to superstition than religion , but we may notice

in . two points in the proceed gs Firstly, the three

as ses coins ( ) which the bride brought with her, o ne o f to give to her husband as a token dowry, , o ne to be offered at the hearth to her new Lar i o ne ff Fam liaris, to be o ered subsequently at the nearest comp itwm (a clear sign o f connection between the household Lar and those of the

o f fields ) ; and secondly, an echo the feature so marked all through domestic life, the crowd

n u mina o flittle , who took their part in assisting

Do m iduca the ceremony. There was , who brought

’ m Iter du ca the bride to the bridegroo s house, , o n Unxia wh o looked after her the transit, , who 48

THE RELIGION OF ANCIEN T ROME

salient features in ritual , and see to what conclu

as sion they point to the underlying belief. One of the most remarkable facts in domestic

o f worship is that , whereas the moment birth and the other great occasions o f life are surroun ded m with religious cere ony and belief, the moment of death passes without any trace o f religious accom panim ent : it is as though the dying man went out into another world where the ceremonials of this life can no more avail him , nor its gods h m i . protect As to his state after death , opinion ff f varied at di erent times under di ferent influences , m but the si ple early notion, connected especially with the practice of burial as opposed to crema

1 his tion , was that Spirit just sank into the earth , where it rested and returned from time to time to the upper world through certain openings in the

m u ndi was ground ( ) , whose solemn uncovering o ne o f the regular Observances o f the festal

: calendar later, no doubt, a more spiritual notion

i definit eness o r preva led, though it never reached m universality . One idea, however, see s always to be prominent , that the happiness of the dead could be much affected by the due performance

1 n fi ant t at e v en hen t he dead e e e m ate d It is sig i c h , w w r cr , o ne bone was care fully pre se rv ed in or d e r t o be sym bolically b uried . 50 WORSHIP OF THE HOUSEHOLD of the funeral rites hence it was the most solemn duty o f the heir to perform the iusta for the

to dead , and if he failed in any respect carry them o u t his , he could only atone for omission by the annual sacrifice of a so w (p or ca p r aeeidanea) to

— o f Ceres and Tellus to the divinities the earth,

no t be it noticed , and to the dead themselves . The actual funeral was not a religious ceremony ; a procession was formed (originally at night) o f the

o fth e family and friends, in which the body dead — was carried accompanied by the busts (im agin es) o f s — his ancestor to a tomb outside the town , and

The o was there laid in the grave . family n their return proceeded at once to rites o f purification from the contamination which had overtaken

w to o f them o ing the presence a dead body .

o ne Two ceremonies were performed, for the purification of the house by the sacrifice o fa s o w (po r ca p r aesentan ea) to Ceres accompanied by a

o u t eaver fr oe solemn sweeping of refuse ( ) , the other the lustration o f their o wn persons by fire and water . This done , they sat down with their friends to a funeral feast which ,

s as Cicero tell us, was regarded an honour rather t o the surviving members of the family than to a n the de d, so that mour ing was not worn . Two e other ceremoni s within the following week , the 51 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

erf iae den icales n ov endiale sacr u m f and the , brought the religious mourning to a close . Not that the dead were forgotten after the funeral o n year by year, the anniversaries of death and

o n burial, and certain fixed occasions known by ’ such suggestive titles as ‘ the day o f roses and ’ the day of violets , the family would revisit the tomb and make simple offerings o f salt cake m o la salsa o r ( ) , of bread soaked in wine, garlands o f : o n flowers there is some trace, such occasions, o f prayer, but it would seem to be rather the repetition o f general religious formulae than a

fo r petition to the dead definite blessings . Such are the principal features o f the family ritual in relation to their dead ; but if we are to

o f form any just notion belief, we must supple ment them by reference to the ceremonies o f the state, which here, as elsewhere, are very clearly

’ - the household cult writ large . In the Calendars we find two obvious celebrations in connection ff with the dead , taking place at di erent seasons o f the year, and consisting of ceremonies markedly

o different in character. In the gloomy month f February—associated with solemn lustrations occurs the festival known popularly (though no t in the Calendars) as the Parentalia or dies Paren tales, that is , the days of sacrifice in connection 52 WORSHIP OF THE HOUSEHOLD

ar entes with the dead members of the family (p ,

ar ar e p ent ) . It begins with the note on February

13 Vir o Vestalia ar en tat , g p , and continues till 2 1 x Fer alia o n . the clima , , February During these days the magistrates laid aside the insignia

o f c flices their , the temples were shut , marriages

were forbidden, and every family carried out at the tombs o f its relatives ceremonies resembling

o f s s those the acr a p r iv ata . The whole sea on closed on February 2 2 with the festival of the

Car is tia car a co n atio or g , a family reunion of the

’ o f - survivors in a kind love feast, which centred in

the worship o fthe Lar Fam iliaris . Here we seem

as to have simply, in the family rites, a peaceful and solemn acknowledgment by the community as a whole o f the still subsisting relation o f the 9th 1 1th 1 3 living and the dead . On the , , and th

o f May occurs the Lemuria, a ceremony of a ff strikingly di erent order . Once again temples

are shut and marriages forbidden , but the ritual

is o f diff e u r es o r a very erent natur e . The L m L — ar v ae for there seem—s to be little distinction between the t wo names are regarded no longer as members o fthe family to be welcomed back to i 1 the r place, but as hostile spirits to be exorcised .

1 We m a n t e t at t h it a t at e fe t v al o infe y o h , ough is s s i , ur r m a l l f te in nd v du al u e l t ion is so e y o ri s i i i ho s ho ds . 53 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

o f r n The head the house rises f om bed at mid ight, washes, and walks barefoot through the house ,

th e making signs for aversion of evil spirits . In — his m o nth he carries black beans always a — chthonic symbol which he spits o u t nine times without looking round , saying, as he does so , ‘ With these I redeem me and mine he washes a again , and cl nks brass vessels together ; nine

‘ o f times he repeats the formula , depart , Manes

’ o ur fathers (no doubt using the dignified title fi Manes euphemistically), and then nally turns round . Here we have in a quite unmistakeable manner the feeling of the hostility o f the spirits o fthe dead : they must be given their appropriate food and go t out o f the place as quickly as pos S m sible . ome scholars have atte pted to explain the difference between these two festivals on the assumption that the Parentalia represents the

m o f com emoration the duly buried dead , the Lemuria the apotropaic right for the aversion of the unburied, and therefore hostile spirits ; but

Ovid has given a far more significant hint , when he tells us that the Lemuria was the more ancient festival of the two . So far we have had no indication o f anything approaching divinity in connection with the dead o r the underworld as distinct from the earth 54 WORSHIP OF THE HO USEHOLD

goddesses , but the evidence for it, though vague

is and shadowy, not wanting. Certain mysterious female deities , Tarpeia , Acca Larentia, Carna, and o f m a l h Laverna, who late etiologica myt had its o wn explanation , have, in all probability, been rightly in terpreted by Mommsen as divinities of the lower world the commemorative sacrifice at ’ i the tomb , wh ch we hear of in connection with

was the first two , in reality, we may suppose , an offering to a chthonic deity at a m u ndu s . al i A rather more tangible person ity is Ved ovis , who three times a year h as his celebration

A on ia er iae : ( g not f ) in the Calendar he, as his

‘ ’ o f name denotes, must be the opposite Iove , that is , probably, his chthonic counterpart, a notion sufficiently borne o ut by his subsequent f t h e G . o identification with reek Pluto Finally , course, there is that vague body, the Di Manes ,

’ o f the good gods , the principal deities the world o f the dead ; to them invocations are addressed , and they have their place in the formulas of the

o f u ndi 1 p ar en talia and the opening the m . In th e connection with them , acting as a link with G female deities, we have the strange goddess enita

‘ ’ Mana , the spirit of birth and death .

1 Th eir m e nt ion in s e pu lchral inscript ions date s from t he m f t he E m e en a ne w on e t n f t e nat u e t i e o pir , wh c c p io o h ir r had sprung u p . 55 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

Controversy is acute as to the interpretation o f

these facts, especially in regard to the question whether or no the spirits of the dead were actually

worshipped . I would hazard the following recon struction o f history as consistent with what we

otherwise know of Roman religion , and with the

evidence before us . From the earliest times the Roman looked upon his dead relations as in some

sense living , lying beneath the earth , but capable alike of returning to the world above and of influencing in some vague way the fortunes o fthe hi living, especially in relation to the crops w ch i A ‘ sprung from the ground in wh ch they lay . t

o ne first , when his religion was of fear, he regarded

the dead as normally hostile, and their presence as something to be averted ; this is the stage

which gave birth to the Lemuria . As civilisation

o f increased , and the sense the unity of household in un and community developed , fear , prov g l o f grounded , gave place to a kind ier feeling the continued existence of the dead as members of

household and state , and even in some sense as an additional bond between the living : this is the period which produced the sacr a p r iv ata and the

W nu m en - Parentalia . hen the feeling began to pass

o f deu s into that , in the first place a connection was felt between the Spirits o f the dead and th e 56

C H A P T E R V I

WORSHIP OF THE FIELDS

THE life of the early Roman in the fields , his activities , his hopes and fears , are reflected in the long list o f agricultural festivals which constitute the greater part of the celebrations in the Calendar , and follow closely the seasons and occupations of

We o f the agricultural year . are , course , in the

Calendar dealing , to speak strictly , with the wor

o f - ship the state, and not with the semi private

o f o f in festivals groups farmers, but in many

as m l stances , such the Robigalia , the state see s on y

ul o f to have taken over the c t the farmers , pre serving carefully the site o n which the celebration m took place ; in others , such as the Ter inalia and

a as the Parilia, it seems to h ve established , it

- o f were , a state counterpart a rite performed inde pendently at m any rustic centres : in both cas es we are justified in inferring the practice of the m W l early Ro an agriculturalist . e shal see that in most cases these festivals are associated—though 58 WORSHIP OF THE FIELDS — often loosely enough with the worship o f a par t icu lar S —as divinity . ometimes , however, in the — case of the Lupercalia it is verydifficult to discover

h was as who t is divinity ; in other festivals , such

a as the Robig lia , it looks if the eponymous deity

We was a comparatively late development . may , therefore , suppose, on the analogy of what we have already seen to be the general lines o f development in Roman religion , that the festivals in origin centred round a purpose rather th an a l ‘ persona ity, and were addressed to all spirits

’ whom it might concern ; and that later, when the deu s notion was on the increase , they either attached themselves to some god whose person

was as l ality already distinct , the Vina ia were

’ t o Iu it er o r ‘ attached pp , developed a deity of

o wn A their . mong these deities , strictly func tio nal as a rule and existing only in connection

we with their special festival , shall notice the frequent recurrence of a divinity pair, not , of o course, myth logically related as husband and wife, but representing , perhaps , the male and female aspects o f the sam e process o f develop ment . The festivals divide them selves naturally into

: o f S n three groups those pri g, expressive of the hopes and fears for the growing crops and herds ; 59 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

o f in those Summer, the festivals of fulfilment , cluding the celebration o f harvest ; and those o f

W o f inter, the festivals sowing, of social rejoicing, and in the later months o fpu r ificat o ryanticipation

of the coming year .

— o ld 1 . Fest ivals of Spr ing The Roman year —as may be seen clearly enough from the names o f i the months st ll known by numbers, Septem

e t a— : i ber, October, began in March accord ng to tradition Romulus reckoned a year o ften months J altogether, and Numa added anuary and Feb

r uar y. The Spring months properly speaking

A . may be reckoned as March, pril , and May In March there were in the developed Calendar no festivals of an immediately recognisable agr icul

tural character , but the whole month was prae

tically consecrated to its eponymous deity, Mars .

No w o f , to the Roman the Republic , Mars was the undoubtedly deity associated with war, and his special festivals in this month are o f a war like character : o n the 9th the priests (Salii) began the ancient custom of carrying his sacred shields (an cilia) round the town fr om o ne

- : 1 9th ordained resting place to another on the , nl Quinquatrus , the shields were solem y purified , and on the 23r d the same ceremony was per formed with the war trumpets : the Equ ir r ia 60 WORSHIP OF THE FIELDS

(horse - races) o f March 1 4 may have had an — agricultural origin we shall meet with races later — o n as a feature o f rustic festivals but they were

inl li Yet certa y celebrated in a mi tary manner. there is good reason fo r believing that Mars was

in origin associated not with war , but with the

o f : was as see growth vegetation he , we shall , the chief deity addressed in the solemn lustra

o f Am bar v alia o u r tion the fields ( ), and if general notion of the development o f religion with the growing needs o f the agricultural community

crystallising into a state be correct, it may well be that a deity originally concerned with the interests o f the farmer took o n himself the pro

tectio n o f the soldier, when the fully developed a lli st te came into co sion with its neighbour s . If so m a , we y well have in these recurring festivals W o f . Mars the sense, as Mr arde Fowler has put it, o f n u m en some great at work, quickening vegeta

li l o fr e r o du c tion, and cal ng into ife the powers p

’ tion in man and the animals . Possibly another agricultural note is struck in the Liberalia o f the 17th : though the cult o fLiber was almost entirely overlaid by his subsequent identification with t o him Dionysus , it seems right recognise in and his female counterpart , Libera, a general spirit of a cre tiveness . 6 1 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME The character of April is much more clearly marked : the month is filled with a series o f festivals—all of a clearly agricultural nature and prayers for the crops now in the earth, the purification of the men and animals on the farm . 15 The series opens with the Fordicidia on the th , when pregnant cows were sacrificed : their unborn calves were torn from them and burnt , the ashes being kept by the Vestal Virgin in Vesta’ s store house (p en u s Vestae) for use at the Parilia . The general symbolism of fertility is very clear ; the goddess associated with the festival is Tellus the

o f i earth herself, and the local origin these fest vals is shown in the fact that not only was the sacrifice

o n made for the whole people the Capitol, but

n o Fo r separ ately in each o e f the ewr iae. The dicidia is closely followed by the Cerealia on the

1 th— - Cer es 9 the festival of another earth goddess ( ,

cr ear e) - more especially connected with the

o f growth corn . A very curious feature of the — ritual was the fastening of fir e brands to the tails

o f was foxes, which were then let loose in what

: afterwards the Circus Maximus a symbol possibly ,

as Wisso wa o f o f thinks , sunlight, possibly the

- o f vegetation spirit . But the most important the April ceremonies is undoubtedly the Parilia

o f 2 l s t o f t the , the festival the very ancien 62 WORSHIP OF THE FIELDS

1 ’ nu m en . o f rustic , Pales Ovid s description the celebration is so interesting and so full o f the characteristic colour o f the Roman rustic festivals that I may perhaps be pardoned fo r reproducing

’ it at greater length . Shepherd , he says , address

‘ ing the rustic worshipper, at the first streak of dawn purify thy well - fed flocks : let water first besprinkle them , and a branch sweep clean the ground . Let the folds be adorned with leaves and m branches fastened to the , while a trailing wreath

- covers the gay decked gates . Let blue flames rise from the living sulphur and the sheep bleat loud as sh e feels the touch of the smoking sulphur.

Burn the male olive - branch and the pine twig

c and juniper, and let the blazing laurel cra kle

o f m amid the hearth. A basket full illet must go with the millet cakes : this is the food wherein m the country goddess finds pleasure ost o f all . Give her too her own share of the feast and her

o f m l has set pail i k , and when her share been k aside, then with milk warm from the cow ma e

’ o f prayer to Pales, guardian the woods . The poet then recites a long prayer , in which the farmer first begs forgiveness for any unwitting sins he n s may have committed agai st the rustic deitie , such as trespassing o n their groves or sheltering

1 Ov F a t iv . 35. s . , 7 63 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

i his flocks beneath the r altar , and then prays for the aversion o f disease and the prosperity o f crops , flocks, and herds . Thus must the goddess be won , this prayer say four times turning to the sunrise, and wash thy hands in the running stream . Then set the rustic bowl upon the table

o f - n in place the wine bowl, and dri k the snowy milk and dark must , and soon through the heaps o f crackling straw leap in swift course

’ with eager limbs . All the worshippers then s et

z to leaping through the bla ing fires , even the

flocks and herds were driven through , and general

o f hilarity reigned. Many points detail might be noticed, such as that in the urban counter

o f dis part the festival , which Ovid carefully t in uish es g from the country celebrations, the fire was sprinkled with the ashes from the calves of the Fordicidia and the blood of Mars’ October horse n another li k between Mars and agriculture . But it is most interes—ting to note the double character o f the ceremony as a purification o f man and

o n beast on the one hand , and the other a of prayer for the prosperity the season to come . Three special festivals remain in April At the

r ior a 2 3r d - Vinalia (p ) of the , the wine skins of the previous year were opened and the wine

and was tasted , , we may suppose, supplication 64

THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME tion o f the boundaries o f the state was performed A by special priests , known as the rval brethren

r atr es A r v ales W m tr i f ) . ith cere onial dancing ( p ucliu m ) they moved along the boundary - marks

’ and made the farmer s m ost complete offering o f

su ov etawr ilia : the pig, sheep, and ox ( ) the fruits o f the last year and the new harvest (ar idae et v ir ides ) played a large part in the ceremonial , and a solemn litany was recite d for the aversion

’ 0 of every kind of pest from the cr ps . In Virgil s account the prayer is made to Ceres, and we

Am bar v alia know that in imperial times, when the became very closely connected with the worship o f o f the imperial house, the centre the cult was

- the earth goddess, Dea Dia ; but in the earliest account o f the rustic ceremony which we possess m in Cato , Mars is addressed in the un istakeable f o . character an agricultural deity Father Mars, I pray and beseech thee that thou mayest be

t o gracious and favourable to me , my home , and

fo r my household, which cause I have ordained

ff o x that the o ering of pig, sheep , and be carried

: round my fields, my land , and my farm that thou mayest avert, ward off, and keep afar all di n sease, visible and invisible , all barren ess , waste ,

: misfortune, and ill weather that thou mayest f suf er our crops , our corn , our vines and bushes 66 WORSHIP OF THE FIELDS to grow and come to prosperity : that thou m av est preserve the shepherds and the flocks in safety, and

t o m grant health and strength me, to my ho e,

’ and We my household . have perhaps here another rustic cerem ony addressed in origin t o

n u m ina m as all , who it might concern , and , it were , specialising itself from time to time in an

o r is appeal to one definite deity another, but it also clear evidence o f an early agricultural asso

Am bar v alia s o n ciatio n of Mars . The i e of the

o f most picturesque the field ceremonies , and a peculiarly beautiful and imaginative description

’ o f it may be found in the first chapter of Pater s

r Mar iu s the Epicu ean . In June and July the farmer was waiting for

o f the completion the harvest , and the great

- o f state festivals the period are not agricultural . F t i a t he Har t —In u 2 . es v ls of ves Aug st the

’ farmer s hopes are at last realised , and the harvest

is is brought in . The season marked by two closely connected festivals on the 2 1 s t and 2 5th in honour o f - con der e the old divinity pair, Consus ( ) , the

o f O s t o f god the storehouse and p , the dei y the

Co nsu alia f wealth o f harvest . At the an of ering is lam en u ir inalia made by the f Q , assisted by an the Vestal virgins , at underground altar in x l the Circus Ma imus, specia ly uncovered for the 67 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

occasion : here we have probably not so much

o f o f the notion a chthonic deity , as a relic the

simple practices of an early agricultural age , when

the crops were stored underground . The beasts who had taken part in the harvest were released

from their labours during the day , and were decorated with flowers : the festival included a

o fm race ules , the regular Italian beasts of burden . Four days after this general festivity occurred

- o f the second harvest ceremony the Opiconsivia,

sacr ar iu m o f held in the shrine ( ) the Regia, and attended only by the p on tifece m axim/us and the

- Vestal virgins . This is clearly the state harvest o f o f the regal period , the symbolic storing the state - crops in the sacred storehouse o f the palace by the king and his daughters . Both festivals i are sign ficant , and we shall meet with Consus and Ops again in close connection in December. The P or tu n alia of the 1 7th may have been

- o ld another harvest home, if we can believe the

o d authorities, who tell us that Portunus was a g o fdoors (p o r tae) . The Vinalia R u s tica o f August 1 9 we cannot sufficiently interpret through lack of information

o f o f it cannot, course , have been the festival the

is t o o : vintage , for it early it may have been a

fo r propitiatory ceremony the ripening grapes, in 68 WORSHIP OF THE FIELDS which case it was probably connected with the

au s icatio v in dem iae lam en Dialis p , in which thef (note again the association o f Iuppiter and the vine) solemnly plucked the first grapes ; o r it may

no t be a festival of wine, vines , in which case its main feature would most likely be the opening of

’ the last year s vintage .

September contains no great festival, and the harvest - season closes o n October 1 1 with the — Meditr in alia the nearest approach to a thanks

giving for the vintage . On that day the first m ust of the new vintage and the wine o f the o ld were solemnly tasted , apparently as a spell against disease, the worshipper using the strange formula,

r o ld I d ink the new and the wine , with new wine

’ o ld deor di and I heal (me ) sease . This ceremony gave its name to the festival and was the cause o f the subsequent evolution o f an eponymous

Medit r in a deity , , but there is little doubt that in

as - origin here , in the other wine festivals , the

Iu i r A deity concerned was at first pp te . mong the other rustic ceremonies o f the month we m ay notice the festival o f springs (Fon tinalia) o n October 13 : wells were decorated with garlands i and flowers flung nto the waters . — - t v o f th i r . 3 . Fes i als e W nt e The winter festi vals cannot be summed up under one general 69 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

so notion easily as those of spring or summer , but they fall fairly naturally into two groups - the festivals immediately connected with agricultural life and those asso ciate d ‘ with the dead and the

o r underworld with solemn purification . The

’ main action o fthe farmer s life during the winter

’ o f 0 is, of course, the sowing the next year s cr p, which was commemorated in the ancient festival o f o n 1 7 the Saturnalia December . Though the Saturnalia is perhaps the most fam iliar to us o f

r all the Roman festivals , partly f om the allusions in the classics , especially in Horace, partly because it is no doubt the source of many o f o u r own Christ m as m festivities , it is yet al ost impossible now to recover anything of its origin al Roman char

G set acter. reek influence to work on it very early, identifying Saturnus with Cronos and estab lishing him in a Greek temple with all the aecom

n m nt s A pa i e of Greek ritual . ll the familiar features of the festival—the freedom and license of the slaves, the giving of presents , even the wax candles which o u r o wn , are the prototype of those on — Christmas- tree are alm ost certainly due to Greek

We origin . are left with nothing but the name

S t o fsem en ser er e aturnus (connec ed with the root , ) and the date to assure us that we have here in reality a genuine Roman festival of the sowing of 70 THE WORSHIP . OF FIELDS

m — i as the crops . Of a si ilar nature mark ng , Ovid

u s o f — tells , the completion the sowing was the

er iae sem en tivae f or Paganalia, associated with the

- - earth goddesses , Ceres and Tellus . Meal cakes and

so w ff a pregnant were the o erings , the beasts who had helped in the ploughing were garlanded , and prayer was made for the seed resting in the

o f ground . A curious feature the winter wor ship is the repetition o f festivals t o the harvest

O s am deities, Consus and p , separated by the s e m 1 5 interval of three days , on Dece ber and 1 9 : it may be that we have here an indication

f r s Mr o o a . of the final completion the harvest , , W arde Fowler has suggested, a ceremonial open in o f s ee is g the storehouses , to that the harvest a not rotting . Among the other country festiv ls

m a o f of the period we y notice that Carmenta , on the l 1 th and 1 5th o fJanuary : sh e seems to have

t - n u rrwn been in origin a wa er , but was early asso ciat e d with childbirth : hence the rigid exclusion of men from her ceremonies and possibly the

o n taboo on leathern thongs , the ground that nothing involving death m ust be used in the

hi o f o f wors p a deity of birth . The repetition her festival may possibly point to separate celebra m m tions of the co unities o fPalatine and Quirinal . A i m t th s time , too , occurred the rustic cere onies 7 1 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME at the boundaries (Ter m inalia) and the offering

‘ ’ Com italia o f to the Lares at the marches ( p ) , which we have spoken in treating o f the worship o f the house . The other group o fwinter- festi v als is o fa much ni more gloomy and less defi tely rustic type, though they clearly date from the period o f the agr icu l

Fer alia o f tural community. Of the February

2 1 o f , the culmination the festival of the kindred

P ar e al a nt i . dead ( ) , we have already spoken The

Larentalia is a very mysterious occasion, and was supposed by the Romans themselves to be an offering ‘ at the tomb ’ of a legendary Acca

o f Larentia, mistress Hercules . But we have seen reason to think that Larentia was in reality a ’ m u ndu s : deity of the dead, and the tomb a if so , we have another link between the winter

hi o f season and the wors p the underworld . There remains the weird festival o f the Lupercalia o n 1 5 t o February , to which we have had occasion o refer several times , and which has bec me more familiar to most of us than other Roman festivals owing to its political use by Mark Anto ny in 4 B 4 . C . As we have argued already, it seems to belong to the very oldest stratum o f the Palatin e settlement , and we may therefore appropriately close this account o f the early festivals with a 72

THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME goats : the idea o flustration is clearly marked in the course round the boundaries : the original Palatine settlement stands out in the limits o fthat

o f course and the site the Lupercal, and the later s noecism u s is m y seen in the, presu ably subsequent,

o f addition of the second college Luperci . A careful study o fthe Lupercalia as an epitome of the char acter and developm ent of the Roman agricultural

ls festiva , though it would not show the brighter aspect o fsome of the Spring and summer celebra w tions , ould yet give a true notion of the history

o f and spirit the whole .

74 C H A P T E R V I I

WORSHIP OF THE STATE

INCE o f S , in the matter religion , the Roman state is in the main but the agricultural household m a nified we g , shall not , in considering its worship ,

o n be entering a new stratum of ideas, but rather looking at the development of notions and senti ments already familiar . To deal, however, with the state - worship in full would not only far

o f exceed the limits this Sketch , but would lead us away fr om religious ideas into the region of what we m ight now call ‘ ecclesiastical manage

’ ment . I propose therefore to confine myself to

a o ld two points , firstly, the bro dening of the conceptions o f the household and the fields and

a o f their ad ptation to the life the state, and — secondly to be treated very shortly and as an indication of the Roman character—the organisa

o f tion religion . 1 D v nt t he r o fH and . e elopme of Wo ship ouse — Fields Here we shall find two main character 75 THE RELIGION OF ANCIE N T ROME

isti cs . e The state in the first place , as we hav

several times hinted in anticipation , establishes its own counterpart o f the household and rustic cults and adapts to its o wn use the ideas which

: they involve in the second , and particularly

field- in connection with some of the deities , it

evolves new and very frequently abstract notions, foreign t o the life of the independent country

t o households, but necessary and vital the life o f m an organised com unity. Let us look first at

the fate of the household deities . — Ianus We left Ianus as the n u m en o f the house - door : he passes into the state exactly in the

’ : same capacity the state too has its door, the

- o f gate at the north east corner the Forum , and

- — this be comes the seat o f his state cult the door

which , according to Augustan legend, is opened in the time of war and only shut when Rome is

at peace with all the world . But reflection soon

n : has gets to work on Ia us a door two sides , it

as as can both open and shut ; therefore , early li h as the song of the Sa i, he developed the cult

’ P atu lci Cloes i epithets Opener, Shutter ( , ) , and as soon as he is thought o fas anything approach

‘ - bi r ons ing a personality he is two headed ( f ) , as he appears in late r representations . The door again is the first thing yo u come to in entering 76 WORSHIP OF THE STATE

‘ ’ : - a house the door spirit then, with that tendency to abstraction which we Shall see shortly m f e o . in other cases, beco s the god beginnings He watches over the very first beginning of human life in his character of Con s eviu s ; to him is sacred the first hour of the day (p ater m atu tina s ), the Calends of every month , and the first month of the year (I an u ar iu s ) ; to him too is offered by the r ep sacr or u m the

o f A o n first sacrifice the year, the gonium

9th o f hi the January. In t s capacity, moreover, his name comes first in all the formulae o f — prayer, and he is looked upon not indeed as — the father o f the gods for that is a much too anthropomorphic notion—but as what we might

‘ now term their logical antecedent div u m deu s as o f S , the song the alii quaintly puts

r inci iwm d eor u m it , p p , as later interpretation Yet explained it . through all he remains the most typical Roman deity : he does no t acquire

t 2 17 B . C . a emple till , nor a bust until quite late , no r is he ever identified with a Greek counter

is as ater m atu tinas has part . In h capacity p he

a native female counterpart in Matuta, a dawn

deity, who becomes a protectress in childbirth ,

’ as o f and Such is the centre the matrons festival , 1 1 the Matralia o fJune . 77 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME — V esta The history o f Vesta is perhaps less

' f exact ar allel romantic , but it af ords a more p between household and state . In the primitive

’ com munity the king s hearth is no t merely o f sym bolical t o f impor ance, but great practical utility, in that it is kept continually burning as the source of fire o n which the individual householder

’ may draw : hence it is the duty o f the king s daughters to care for it and keep the flame per m petu ally alight . In Rome the te ple of Vesta

’ is i o ne the king s hearth , s tuated, as would expect,

mi r e i is in close proxi ty to the g a. The fire kept continually blazing except on the l st o f March

o u t of every year, when it is allowed to go and

is . ceremonially renewed The Vestal virgins , sworn to perpetual virginity and charged with

‘ the preservation of the sacred flame, are the

’ ’ king s daughters, living in a kind of convent

’ (atr iu m Vestce) and under th e charge o fthe king s i on ti ew m axim u s . s representative , the p f It their

as s o f duty too , the natural cook the sacred royal

m o la salsa household, to make the salt cake ( ) to be used at the year’s festivals and to preserve

h o f it and other sacred obj ects, such as the as es

en u s the Fordicidia, in the storehouse of Vesta (p 7th Vestoe) . In the month of June from the to 1 5 x on 9th the th , with a clima the , the day 78 WORSHIP OF THE STATE

o f l the Vesta ia , the matrons who all the year m round have tended their own hearths , co e in

solemn procession bare - footed to make their

m f - ho ely of erings at the state hearth, and the virgins meanwhile offer the cakes that they have

made . For eight days the ceremony continues , during which tim e the bakers and millers keep holiday ; the days are religiosi (marriages are unlucky and other taboos are observed) and also n efas ti (no public business may be performed) ; m 1 5t h until the cere ony closes on the , with the solemn cleansing o f the temple and the casting o f the refuse into the Tiber, and then the normal — o f . life the state may be renewed Q . St D . F . (Qu ando Ster cu s Delatu m Fas ) is the unique entry

is in the Calendars . This all less imaginative

o f than the development Ianus, but the under lying feeling is intensely Roman and there could be no clearer idea of the natural adaptation

o f the household - cult to the religion o f the

state . P t Lar and G s — ena es , es , eniu The other house no t hold deities too have their counterpart, though

so . prominently marked , in the worship of the state

on ffi The magistrates , entering o ce, took oath by Iu ppit er and the DiP enates p op u li R om an i Qu ir i

tiu m was , and that the conception as wide in the 79 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME state as in the household is shown by the fact that on less formal occasions the formula appears as

I u it r et ter / l pp e ce i d i om n es im m or t a es . The Penates of the state then would include all the state - deities ; but that their original characte r is no t lost sight o fwe can see from the statement of Varro

‘ ’ that in the p en u s Ves tce (the state storehouse ) — were preserved their sigilla not apparently sensu o us l as representations, but symbo ic objects , such we have seen before in cases like that o f the silea:

o fIu i er Lar es t pp t . The again find their coun er

Lar es P r aestites part in the of the state , and their l rustic festival, the Compita ia, has its urban

reproduction , which , as it involved considerable

o n a o f license the p rt populace and slaves, was often in the later period of the Republic a cause

s G of serious political di turbance . Even the enius ,

though rather vaguely, passes over to the state and we hear of the Gen iu s p op u li R om an i o r the

Geniu s u r bis R om ce t o , with regard which Servius quotes from an inscription o n a shield

s siv e m as sir e em ina : the characteri tic addition , f in much later times we find the exact counter part o fthe domestic worship of the Genius of the pater fam ilias in the cult o f the Genius o f — the Emperor the foundation of the whole o f e the imp rial worship . 80

THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

as in which the whole community , it were , enter t ained - t o o him at a banquet . As a sky deity, , he is particularly concerned with the thunderbolt

- flash I u iter Fu lm en Fu l u r and the lightning ( pp , g ) , and to him are sacred the always ominous spots which had been struck by lightning (biden talia) : with the more alarming occurrence of lightning by night he has a special connection under the

- I er u n as cult title u ppit S m m a u s . But the little community grew, and especially perhaps after

o f o f the union the two settlements , the worship

Iu iter Fer etr iu s pp , associated with the sacred — oak upon the Capitol th e hill between Palatine and Quirinal —com es more and more into prominence as a bond of union and the central

’ point o fthe state s religious life : it tends indeed o f i to take the place priority, which had prev ously been occupied by Ianus . The community goes

o t t war with its neighbours , and af er a signal victory the sp o lia op im a must be dedicate d o n the sacred o ak : indeed Iu ppiter is in a special sense with them in the battle and must now be

’ worshipped as the stayer of rout (Stator ) and

’ ‘ Victo r War the giver of victory ( ). is a new i ’ prov nce of the state s activity , but, characteristic

it n u m en ally enough , does not evolve its own , bu t enlarges the sphere o f the somewhat elastic 8 2 WORSHIP OF THE STATE

t o o spirits already existing . So in the internal organisation of the state there is felt the need o f i a rel gious sanction for public morality , and — — Iuppite r though vaguely at fir st takes o n him

co n the character of a deity of justice . In this nectio n he is primarily the god o foaths : we have seen how his sacred sileoc was used in the oath of treaty : it is also the most solemn witness to

Iu it er the oath of the citizen . pp Lapis becomes

l Fidiu s - special y the Dins , a cult title which subsequently sets up for itself and produces a

u f . f rther of shoot in the abstract Fides Finally, towards the end of o u r period the Iuppiter o f the Capitol emerges triumphant, as it were , from h is struggle with his rivals and, with the new

‘ o f Iu iter — title pp Optimus Maximus , the best ’ is o f Iu it e r s— and greatest , that , all the pp takes his place as the suprem e deity of the Roman state and the personification o f the greatness

m o and maj esty o fRo e itself. T his temple here after the Roman youth will come to m ake h is offering when he takes the dress of manhood ; here the magistrates will do sacrifice before entering o n their year o f office : here the victo rious general will pass in procession with the spoils o f his victory : on the walls shall be suspended treaties with foreign nations and 8 3 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME offerings sent by subj ect princes and states from

o f : all quarters the world all that Rome is to be ,

sk - o f will be, as it were, embodied in the y spirit the o ak o f sacred , the god of justice and victory in war . — lune Iu ppit er carries with him into the state

Iu no his worship his female counterpart, , with o wn characteristics , in a certain degree, and his Sh own privileges. e is Lucina and Fulgura as he is Lu cet iu s and Fulgur : white cows are her offerings as white steers are his : as the Ides are

Iu iter so — sacred to pp , though they are not a — m festival are the Calends to Inno . But fro the

' first she Shows a certain independence and develops o n lines of her own . In the curious cerem ony o f the fixing of the Nones (the first

o f o n quarter the month), held the Calends in the cu r ia Calabr a sh e , seems to appear as a moon

: r est sacr or u m goddess the , after a report from

on ti ea; as a p f to the appearance of the new moon , announces the result in the formula : I summ on

’ Iu no cl/lea te thee for five (or seven) days , hollow ( u in u e se tem' kale I u n o Co vella : q q 'p ' , hence the name Kalen olae) . But far more prominently

as o r s either a female divinity herself, , as ome

o f think , owing to the supposed influence the — moon o n female life does Iuno figure as the 84 WORSHIP : OF THE STATE

o f deity women , and especially in association with

Lu cin a she is childbirth and marriage . As , as we

n o f have seen , the presidi g deity childbirth, and

on l st o f r no t her festival the Ma ch , though in the Calendars (because confined to women and no t therefore a festival of the whole people), attained immense popularity under the title of the

t o She has Ma r nalia. too a general superintend

o f o f ence the rites marriage, and the various

n u m ina i little , who play so prom nent a part in the ceremonies, tend to attach themselves to her

- o f - as cult titles . The festival the servant maids in honour o f Iuno Capr o t ina o n the 7th o f July

’ shows the same notion o f Iuno as the women s goddess, which appears again in common parlance

a o f Iu no as when women spe k their , just men do o f a their Genius . L ter on Iuno acquires the characteristics o f majesty (R egin a) and pr o tec

Cu r itis Sos ita tion in war ( , p ) , partly no doubt

’ as Iu iter s counterpart, but more directly pp . through the introduction o fcults from neighbour ali ing It an towns . — Mar s We have seen reason to believe that in the earlier stages of Roman religion Mars was a n u m en o f Am bar v alia vegetation , but though the was duly taken over into the state - cult and

o f attained a very high degree importance, yet 8 5 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME there can be no doubt that in the state - religion

- Mars was pre eminently associated with war . Iu ppiter might help at need in averting defeat and awarding victory, but it was with Mars that

o f the general conduct war rested . His sacred b S animal is the warlike wolf, his sym ols the pears

an cilia n and the sacred Shields ( ) , which duri g his — own month (Mar tin s) the l s t o f which is his — special festival his priests (Salii) wearin g the full war - dress (tr abea and tu n ica p icta) carry with sacred dance and song round the city.

His altar is in the Campus Martius, outside the city - walls and therefore within the sphere o f the im er iu m m ilitiae p , and the other festivals associated with him are o f a warlike character : the races o f the war - horse (Equir r ia) o n March

145 2 7 on and February , and the great race the Ides of October, when the winner was solemnly slain : the lustration o f the arms at the Quinquatrus o n March 1 9 and the Ar m ilus — t r iu m o f October 1 9 at the beginning and end o fthe campaigning season : and the lustration of the war- trumpets on the 2 3r d of March and

2 r d o f the 3 May. But above all in honour of Mars is held the great quinquennial lu s tr u m associated with the census , when the people are drawn up in military array around his altar in 8 6 WORSHIP OF THE STATE the Campus Martius and the solemn offering of the su o vetau r ilia (is this a faint relic of his agricultural character ') after being carried three

ff o n times round the gathered host, is o ered his altar in prayer fo r the mili tary future o f the

- his state . Hardly any god in the state cult has character so clearly marked, and we may regard

as o n Mars a deity who, taking new functions

o f l to suit the needs the times, a most entirely

o fhis lost the traces original nature .

—Iu it er Quir inus . pp and Mars then became the great state - deities of the developed community and to them is added , as the contribution of the Colline m o wn . settle ent, their particular deity, Quirinus

his o wn lam en He , like them , has f ; like Mars he

his Salii his has , and festival finds its place in

Bu t o f his the Calendars o n February the 1 7th . ritual and character we know practically nothing : the ritual was obscured because his festival coincided with the much more popular festival o f cwr iae stu ltor u/m er iae : o f his the , the f character, we can only conj ecture that he was to the Colline settlement what Mars was to the

Palatine, whereas later after the complete amal gam atio n he seems to have been distingu ished from Mars as representing ‘ armed peace ’ rather — than war an idea which is borne o u t by the 87 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

ir it associations of the closely allied word Qu es .

Iu iter Be that as it may, we have in pp , Mars, and

- s noecism us Quirinus the great state triad of the y , who held their own until at the beginning of the next epoch they were supplanted by the new

o f Iu it er Iu no Etruscan triad the Capitol , pp , and

Minerva .

r n —I 2 . O ga isat ion t might perhaps be thought that the organisation o f religion is a matter r e

mote from its spirit , and is not therefore a

suitable subject for discussion , where the object is rather to bring o u t underlying motives and

: in ideas but dealing with the Roman religion , where ceremonial and legal precision were so m a prominent , it would be even isle ding to omit some reference to the very characteristic manner

in which the state , taking over the rather chaotic

o f elements the agricultural worship , organised i them into someth ng like a consistent whole . Its most complete achievement in this direction was without doubt the regulation of the religious

We o f year. have spoken many times the Calen dars (Fasti) : it is necessary now to obtain some

o f clearer notion what they were . In Rome itself and variousItalian towns have been found

o ne some thirty inscriptions , almost complete

Maffeiani o r ( ), the others more less fragmentary, 8 8

THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

F as days profane and sacred . (f tu s ) denotes a day o n which the business of the state may be

o n hi ar i performed , w ch the praetor may say (f )

' d do olico addico the three wor s , , , , which summed up the decisions o f the Roman law : 0 (com i tialis ) marks a day o n which the legislative assemblies (com itia) may be held : it is by im

F as . N n e ast u s o n plication well ( f ) , the other hand , denotes the sacred day, consecrated to the

o f o n worship the gods , which therefore state business may not be transacted : similarly the LP very mysterious and much disputed sign , whether it differs in precise signification from N o r m o f . not , certainly arks a day sacred character EN m , which occurs once in this extract (fro en do ter cisu s o ld in ter cisu s , the Latin form of )

‘ ’ dies ssu s signifies a split day ( fi ), the beginning

' o f hi and end which were sacred , w le the middle period was free for business . In the second column also (in large letters in some o fthe other

m er iae u blicae Calendars) are na ed the f p , the

- fo r o ne great annual state festivals, fixed par ticular er iae stativ ae : day (f ) such , in this case ,

Consu alia. are the Portunalia, Vinalia, and These fasti were exhibited in the Forum and

o f on the walls temples, and the conscientious Roman could have no possible difficulty in find 90 WORSHIP OF THE STATE ing o ut when he might lawfully transact his business and what festivals the state was o h serving : o f the 355 days o f the o ld Calendar

1 1 ssi 2 35 asti 1 92 co m itiales were fi , were f ( ), and

1 0 n e We 9 fasti. may remark as curious features

' in the Calendar, denoting rigid adherence to prin ci le o ne x Po lifu ia p , that with e ception , the p g of 5 July , no festival ever occurs before the Nones ,

t wo Re ifu iu m o f that with exceptions , the g g

February 2 45 and the Equ ir r ia o f the 1 4th o f

o n o f March, no festival falls an even day the

is o f month , and that there a marked avoidance successive feast - days : even the three days o f the Le muria allow an interval o f a day between each .

th e m o f In atter ritual and observance , state — — organisation and its absence are alike signifi x cant . Of the general e actness of ritual and its Specific variations o n different occasions a fair notion has perhaps already been gathered ; it may help to fill o u t that notion if we can put together a sketch of the normal process o f a sacrifice to the gods . Before the sacrifice began the animal to be offered was selected and tested :

o r if it had any blemish showed any reluctance,

was it rej ected . If it were whole and willing, it was bound with fillets (infu lae) around its fore 9 1 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

v ittae head , and long ribbons ( ) depending from

. ar a them It was then brought to the altar ( ), by the side of which stood a portable brazier (fo cu lu s ). — — The celebrant magistrate o r priest next ap

r o ach ed to a p dressed in the g , girt about him in

n cin ctu s Gabin u s a peculiar man er ( ), and carried up at the back so as to form a hood (v elato ca ite : p ) the herald proclaimed silence, and the

flu t e - player began to play his instrument . The first part o f the offering was then made by the pouring of wine and scattering o f incense o n the brazier : it was followed by the ceremonial f slaughter (im m olatio ) o the animal . The cele brant sprinkled the victim with wine and salted m cake, and made a sy bolic gesture with the knife . The victim was then taken aside bythe attendants v ictim ar ii ( ), and actually slaughtered by them

exta from it they extracted the sacred parts ( ) , ff liver, heart, gall, lungs , and midri , and after inspecting them to see that they had no abno r — m ality but not in the earlier period fo r purposes — o f augury wrappe d them in pieces of flesh au m enta ( g ) , cooked them , and brought them back ff to the celebrant , who laid them as an o ering upon the altar, where they were burnt . The rest o f the flesh (viscer a) was divided as a sacred — meal between the celebrant and his friends o r in 9 2

THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME o flaw- courts and the absence of legislative assem z blies , and in theory too the private citi en must refrain from any act which was not concerned

o f o r abs o with the worship the gods , rendered lu tel i o x o r y necessary, as , for nstance, if his his

’ ass Should fall into a pit . But it is characteristic f of Rome that the state did not seek for of ence, but only punished it if accidentally seen : o n a feast day the r em sacr or wm and the flam in es might not see work being done ; they therefore sent on a herald in advance to announce their presence ,

- fin and an actual conviction involved a money e . Perhaps more scru pulously than the fer iae were

‘ ’ dies r eli iosi o f observed the g , days abstinence , o n as m be which certain acts , such arriage , the

n o f o f o r ff gi ning any new piece work , the o ering o f ds : sacrifice to the go , were forbidden such , hi in the oldest period , were the days on w ch the m u ndu s o r r e was open , the temple of Vesta ceiv ed the matrons , the days when the Salii

ancilia carried the in procession , and the periods o f the two festivals o f the dead in February and May ; bu t for eluding their observance too devices

were not unknown .

- o f In the state organisation religion , then , we seem to see just the same features from which we started : as a basis the legal conception o f 94 WORSHIP OF THE STATE

o f as x the relation god to man , a result the e treme care and precision in times and ceremonials, as a corollar y in the state the idea of legal representa tion and the consequent looseness o f hold on the

o f action the individual .

95 C H A P T E R V I I I

AUGURIES AND AU SPICES

So far we have been considering the regular

o d o r relations of man and g , seen in recurring ff special o erings , in vows and in acts of purification — - and lustration all based on the contract notion ,

’ all endeavour s on man s part to fulfil his bounden duty, that the gods may be constrained in turn

so o f to theirs . But strong was the feeling divine

’ presence and influence in the Roman s mind, that he was not content with doing his best by these

o f regular means to Secure the favour the gods , but wished before undertaking any business o f importance to be able to assure him self of their

- approval . His practical common sense evolved , ‘ —in as it were , a complete code the flight and

o f song of birds , in the direction the lightning

flash —b , in the conduct of men and animals y which he believed that the gods communicated to him their intentions : sometimes these indica tions (au sp icia) might be vouchsafed by the gods 96

THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME an important part in the ceremonies of betrothal

di o f and marriage , and that the in cations the divine will might be very varied we may gather A from a story in Cicero . n aunt wishing to take

’ the auspices for her niece s betrothal , conducted her into an open consecrated Space (sacellu m ) and s at down on the s te e l o f augury (sella) with her A niece standing at her side . fter a while the girl tired and asked her aunt to give her a little

. ‘ : of the stool the aunt replied , My child , I give

’ up my seat to you : nothing further happened and this answer turned out in fact to be the

: ni auspicious Sign the aunt died , the ece married the widower and so became mistress of the house . Of augury in agricultural life we have some indication in the annual observance o f the

’ ‘ spring augury (augu r iwm v er n iser u m ) and the midsummer ceremony of the au gu r iwm can ar iu m m , which see s to have been a com bination o fthe offering of a red dog (possibly to avert mildew) and an augury for the success of

To b the crops . the rustic stratum possi ly belongs

au u r iwm salu tis o u li also the g p p , though later it was a yearly act celebrated whenever the Roman arm y was not at war and so be came connected with the shutting of the te mple of Ianus . 98 AUGURIES AND AUSPICES The state greatly developed and organised the f whole system o auguries and auspices . The college o f augurs rank ed second only in im

ontifical l portance to the p col ege , and their duties with regard to both augury and auspice are sufficiently clear . Like the po n tifices in

ul o f relation to c t , they are the storehouse all m tradition , and to them appeal may be ade in all cases o f doubt both public and private : they were j ealous o f their secret s and in later times their mutual consciousnes s o f deception f — became proverbial . The right o augury in — origin simply the inspection o f the heavens was

o n theirs alone, and it was exercised particularly the annual occasions mentioned and at the

o f installation priests , of which we get a typical

’ instance in Liv ys account of the consecration of

Numa . — The auspices o n the other hand in origin

’ ‘ n a’vis s icer e — sig s from birds ( , p ) were the province of the magistrate about to undertake some definite action on behalf of the state whether at home or o n the field of battle . Here

’ the aug ur s functions were m erely preparatory

was and advisory . It his duty to prepare the tem lu m p , the Spot from which the auspices are to — w h be taken always a square space , it boundaries 99 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT 'ROME

no t unbroken except at the entrance , surrounded l by wal or necessarily by line , but clearly indi

cat ed e atus o ff (fi ) by the augur, and marked (lit er atu s) from the sur roundings : in the comitia and other places in Rome there were permanent

tem la p , but elsewhere they must be specially

tem l made . The magistrate then enters the p u m and observes the signs (sp ectio ) : if there is any — doubt as t o interpretation and seeing the imm ense complication o f the traditions (dis

ci lin a p ) , this must often have been the case

the augur is referred to as interpreter. The Signs demanded (imp etr ativa) were originally always

o r fli connected with the appearance , song ght

— o r o r o f birds higher lower, from left to right

right to left, etc . Later others were included , and with the army in the field it became the regular practice to take the auspices from the feeding of the sacred chickens (pu lli) : the best

Sign being obtained if, in their eagerness to feed , they let fall some of the—grain from their beaks (tr ip u diu m solistim wm) a result not difiicult to secure by previous treatment and a careful selec

o f n tion o fthe kind grai supplied to them. But

’ ‘ ns besides this deliberate asking for sig , public business might at any moment be interrupted if the gods voluntarily sent an indication o f 1 00

THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

’ ff to ally di erent . As it is man s function pro itiate p the higher spirits and prevent , if possible ,

w o so the recking of his plans by their pposition ,

is t o o u t it his business , if he can, find their intentions before he engages o n any serious

in s s r u m his undertaking. As in the ac legal mind leads him to assume that the deities accept

o f the responsibility the contract , when his own

o f part is fulfilled , so here , like a practical man

o f business , he assumes their construction a code o f has communication , which he learned to interpret. In its origin it is a notion common to many primitive religions , but in its elaboration

as it is peculiarly and distinctively Italian , and, we know it , Roman .

1 02 C H A P T E R I X — R ELIGION AND MORALITY CONCLUSION — IT might be said that a religion the expression ’ — o f man s relation to the unseen has not neces — ’ sar ilyany connection with morality man s action in himself and towards his neighbours : that an — — individual o r even a nation might perfectly

’ ‘ o fulfil the duties imposed by the powers ab ve, without being influenced in conduct and character . Such a view might seem to find an apt illustra tion in the religion o f Rome : the ceremonial p ietas towards the gods appears to have little to

o f o r do with the making man nation . But in the history of the world the test of religions must be their effect o n the character o f those who believed in them : religion is no doubt itself an

o f outcome character, but it reacts upon it, and must either strengthen or weaken . We are not

‘ therefore justified in dismissing the Religion o f Numa ’ without inquiry as to its relation to 1 03 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

fo r morality, on our answer to that question must largely depend our judgment as to its

value. We are of course in a peculiarly difficult posi tion to grapple with this problem through lack

o f contemporary evidence . The Rome we know , in the epochs when we can fairly judge o f

al was character and mor ity , not the Rome in which the ‘ Religion of Numa ’ had grown up and remained unquestioned : it had been overlaid

with foreign cults and foreign ideas , had been used by priests and magistrates as a political

instrument , and discounted among the educated

through the influence of philosophy . But we l may remember in the first p ace that even then ,

especially in the household and in the country , the old religion had probably a much firmer hold i than one might imagine from l terary evidence , in the second that national character is not the

o f s o growth a day, that we may safely refer perm anent characteristics to the period when

o ld the religion held its own . It may be admitted at once that the direct influence on morality was very small indeed. There was no table o f commandments backed

‘ ’ : sin by the religious sanction the sense of ,

was except through breach of ritual , practically 1 04

THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

o f we come to the moralists the Empire, is there any sense o fthat immediate and personal relation o f v the indi idual to a higher being, which is

s really in religion , far more than commandment

and ordinances , the mainspring and safeguard o f : o f G n morality even the conception the e ius ,

‘ ’ o f the nearest perhaps all unseen powers , had

o f nothing this feeling in it , and it may be to significant that , just because of his nearness

G t o o d man , the enius never quite attained g

e head . As far as direct relation is concern d , religion and morality were t o the Roman two independent spheres with a very small po m t o f contact . Nor even in its indirect influence does the formal observance o f the Roman worship seem likely at first sight to have done much fo r personal or national morality . Based upon fear ,

o f n stereotyped in the form a legal relatio ship , r eli io — g the bounden obligation made , no

o f its ad doubt , for a kind conscientiousness in her ents o f , but a cold conscientiousness , devoid emotion and incapable o f expanding itself t o include other spheres or prompt to a similar scrupulousness in other relations . The rigid and constant distinction o f sacred and profane would incline the Roman to fulfil the routine of his 1 06 RELIGION AND MORALITY

religious duty and then turn , almost with a sigh o f to o fn relief, the occupations ormal life , carrying with him nothing more than the sense o f a burden laid aside and a pledge of external pr o

ac t sperity . Even the religious itself might be

: as without moral Significance we have seen , the worshipper might be wholly ignorant o f the

o f character, even the name the deity he wor

o f shipped, and in any case the motive his action

N o r was naught , the act itself everything. again had the Roman religion any trace of that power ful o f ds incentive to morality, a doctrine rewar an d punishments in a future life : the ideas as to the fate of the dead were fluctuating and vague , and the Roman was in any case much more interested in their influence o n hims elf than in their possible experiences after death . The divorce then between religion and morality seems almost complete and it is not strange that most modern writers speak of the Roman religion as i a tiresome ritual formal sm , almost wholly a a l cking in ethical v lue . And yet it did not present itself in this light t o the Romans them

. was l selves Cicero , sceptic as he , cou d speak

’ o f it as the cause of Rome s greatness ; Augustus , th e i practical politician, could bel eve that its re vival was an essential condition for the r e 1 07 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

naissance of the Roman character . Have we , in

ou r its brief examination of characteristics , seen any features which may suggest the solution of this apparent antagonism ' Was there in this

formalism a life which escapes us, as we handle the dry bones of antiquarianism ' In the first place there may be a danger that

we underrate the value of formalism itself. It

spells routine , but routine is not without value f in the strengthening o character. The private i cit zen , who conscientiously day by day had carried out the worship of his household gods and month by month observed the sacred abstin

o n o f was ence from work the days festival , certainly no t less fitted to take his place as a member o f a strenuous and well - organised com

munity, or to serve obediently and quietly in

the army o n campaign . Even the magistrate in t h e execution o f his religious duties must have i i acqu red an exactness and method, wh ch would

o f not be valueless in the conduct public business . An d when we pass to the origin of this formalism —the legal relation—the connection with the

Roman character becomes at once more obvious .

’ ‘ o f The lawgivers the world , who developed constitution and code t o a systematised whole such as antiquity had not dreamed of before, 1 08

THE RELIGION OF AN CIENT ROME w ere not likely to be wanting in a disciplined sense o f dependence and an appreciation o f the

o f value respect for authority, which alone can give stability to a constitution . If fear with the Romans was no t the beginning o f theological wisdom , it was yet an important contribution

o f to the character a disciplined state .

as But, I have hinted in the course of this sketch more than once, the answer to this

as problem , as well the key to the general under

o f standing the Roman religion , is to be found in the worship o f the household . If we knew more of it , we should see more clearly where religion and morality joined hands , but we know enough to give us a clue . There not only are the principal events of life, birth , adolescence , m arriage , attended by their religious sanction , but in the ordinary course o f the daily round the divine presence and the dependence of man are continually emphas ised . The gods are given m their portion of the family eal , the sanctified dead are recalled to take their share of the

m was fa ily blessings . The result not merely an

— —to approach collectively , not individually that

o f sense of the nearness the unseen , which has

so an ff o n v great e ect the actions of the li ing , but a very strong bond o f family union which 1 1 0 RELIGION AN D MORALITY

lay at the root of the life of the state . It would be diflicult to find a clearer expression o f the notion than in the fact that the same word

ietas o f p , which expresses the due fulfilment

’ o f man s duty to god , is also the ideal the relations o f the members of a household : filial

was a o f piety , in fact, but another spect that

o f rightness relation , which reveals itself in the N o f . o worship the gods doubt that , in the

- o f city life later periods , this ideal broke down on bo th sides : household worship was neglected and family life became less dutiful. But it was still , especially in the country , the true backbone o f Roman society , and no one can read the open ing odes of Horace’ s third book without feeling

’ the strength o fAugustus appeal to it . And if we translate this , as we have learned to i do , into terms of the state , we can get some dea o fwhat the Romans meant by their debt to their wa religion . As the household s bound together

o f by the tie common worship , as in the inter m ediate stage the clan , severed politically and

e socially, yet felt itself reunit d in the gentile

so t oo was rites , the state welded into a whole by the regularly recurring annual festivals and the assurance o fthe divine sanction o n its under It takings . might be that in the course of time 1 1 1 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME these rites lost their meaning and the community no longer by personal presence expressed its

t o service the gods , but the cult stood there still , ’ as the type o f Rome s union to the high er powers and a guarantee o f their assistance against all

' : o f as foes the religion Rome was , it has been

sanct ificatio n o f — said , the patriotism the Roman

’ citizen s highest moral ideal . It has been

remarked , perhaps with partial truth , that the — religion o f the E neid in many ways a summary — o f Ro m an thought and feeling is the belief in fil the fata R om e and their ful ment . The very impersonality of this conception makes it a good m picture o fwhat religion was in the Ro an state .

It was not , as with the Jews, a strong conviction o fthe rightness of their own belief and a certainty that their divine protectors must triumph over

o f those of other nations, but a feeling the constant

‘ presence of some spirits, who , if haply they might

’ o n o f find them , would , the payment their due , bear their part in the great progress of right and j ustice and empire on which Rome must niar ch

o f to her victory . It was the duty the citizen ,

o f with this conception his city before his eyes, to see to it that the state ’s part in the contract e was fulfilled . From his ancestors had b en

inherited the tradition , which told him the when , 1 1 2

WORKS BEARING ON THE EARLY RELIGION OF ROME

Th G n R e o den Bou h 2 d G FRA'E . l g , ( J . .

Histor R o B 1 x o m e OOK CHAP xi TH MOMMSE N . y f , . . . .

Die i ion der Ro T Re me . E . AUS l g r .

Re i ion nd t WIS A G. SOW . l g a Ku l u s der Rem er . — Il u to P i a o o T 1 A E MARCHI . C v t di R ma A ntiea P . . D l r , AR

The Ro n F iv W A RDE FOWLE R ma W . est als . .

R o . B CARTE R . The eligi n J .

n i M e t P nted b T. and A. CONSTABLE P te to H s y ri y , ri rs a's at t he E dinburgh Uni versit y Press

C C '

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