Misplaced Pages

#308691

140-812: The vocabulary of ancient Roman religion was highly specialized. Its study affords important information about the religion, traditions and beliefs of the ancient Romans. This legacy is conspicuous in European cultural history in its influence on later juridical and religious vocabulary in Europe, particularly of the Christian Church . This glossary provides explanations of concepts as they were expressed in Latin pertaining to religious practices and beliefs , with links to articles on major topics such as priesthoods, forms of divination, and rituals. For theonyms , or

280-414: A templum devoted to Minerva , on the right side of the aedes of Jupiter, because the concept of "number" was invented by Minerva and the ritual predated the common use of written letters. The importance of this ritual is lost in obscurity, but in the early Republic it is associated with the appointment of a dictator clavi figendi causa , " dictator for the purpose of driving the nail," one of whom

420-493: A Roman magistrate holding imperium , perhaps by a Lex curiata de imperio , although scholars are not agreed on the finer points of law . A censor had auspicia maxima . It is also thought that the flamines maiores were distinguished from the minores by their right to take the auspicia maiora ; see Flamen . Signs that occurred without deliberately being sought through formal augural procedure were auspicia oblativa . These unsolicited signs were regarded as sent by

560-682: A carmen (plural carmina ) is a chant, hymn , spell , or charm. In essence "a verbal utterance sung for ritualistic purposes", the carmen is characterized by formulaic expression, redundancy, and rhythm. Fragments from two archaic priestly hymns are preserved, the Carmen Arvale of the Arval Brethren and the Carmina Saliaria of the Salii . The Carmen Saeculare of Horace , though self-consciously literary in technique,

700-505: A piaculum before entering their sacred grove with an iron implement, which was forbidden, as well as after. The pig was a common victim for a piaculum . The same divine agencies who caused disease or harm also had the power to avert it, and so might be placated in advance. Divine consideration might be sought to avoid the inconvenient delays of a journey, or encounters with banditry, piracy and shipwreck, with due gratitude to be rendered on safe arrival or return. In times of great crisis,

840-421: A broad, inclusive and flexible network of lawful cults. At different times and in different places, the sphere of influence, character and functions of a divine being could expand, overlap with those of others, and be redefined as Roman. Change was embedded within existing traditions. Several versions of a semi-official, structured pantheon were developed during the political, social and religious instability of

980-502: A deity or deities to express either approval or disapproval for a particular undertaking. The prodigy ( prodigium ) was one form of unfavourable oblativa . Contrast auspicia impetrativa . Private and domestic religion was linked to divine signs as state religion was. It was customary in patrician families to take the auspices for any matter of consequence such as marriages, travel, and important business. The scant information about auspicia privata in ancient authors suggests that

1120-544: A dictator drove a ritual nail, and the senate appointed one for that purpose. The ritual of "driving the nail" was among those revived and reformed by Augustus, who in 1 AD transferred it to the new Temple of Mars Ultor . Henceforth a censor fixed the nail at the end of his term. A collegium ("joined by law"), plural collegia , was any association with a legal personality . The priestly colleges oversaw religious traditions, and until 300 BC only patricians were eligible for membership. When plebeians began to be admitted,

1260-467: A just war were both formal and substantive. As a formal matter, the war had to be declared according to the procedures of the ius fetiale . On substantive grounds, a war required a "just cause," which might include rerum repetitio , retaliation against another people for pillaging, or a breach of or unilateral recession from a treaty; or necessity, as in the case of repelling an invasion. See also Jus ad bellum . The English word "ceremony" derives from

1400-426: A lawful oath ( sacramentum ) and breaking a sworn oath carried much the same penalty: both repudiated the fundamental bonds between the human and divine. A votum or vow was a promise made to a deity, usually an offer of sacrifices or a votive offering in exchange for benefits received. In Latin, the word sacrificium means the performance of an act that renders something sacer , sacred. Sacrifice reinforced

1540-399: A long-form poem covering Roman holidays from January to June, Ovid presents a unique look at Roman antiquarian lore, popular customs, and religious practice that is by turns imaginative, entertaining, high-minded, and scurrilous; not a priestly account, despite the speaker's pose as a vates or inspired poet-prophet, but a work of description, imagination and poetic etymology that reflects

SECTION 10

#1732780840309

1680-509: A matter of divine destiny. The Roman triumph was at its core a religious procession in which the victorious general displayed his piety and his willingness to serve the public good by dedicating a portion of his spoils to the gods, especially Jupiter , who embodied just rule. As a result of the Punic Wars (264–146 BC), when Rome struggled to establish itself as a dominant power, many new temples were built by magistrates in fulfillment of

1820-522: A nail was driven in to mark the time. In Rome, the senior magistrate on the Ides of September drove a nail called the clavus annalis ("year-nail") into the wall of the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus . The ceremony occurred on the dies natalis ("birthday" or anniversary of dedication) of the temple, when a banquet for Jupiter ( Epulum Jovis ) was also held. The nail-driving ceremony, however, took place in

1960-446: A pig on behalf of the community. Their supposed underworld relatives, the malicious and vagrant Lemures , might be placated with midnight offerings of black beans and spring water. The most potent offering was animal sacrifice , typically of domesticated animals such as cattle, sheep and pigs. Each was the best specimen of its kind, cleansed, clad in sacrificial regalia and garlanded; the horns of oxen might be gilded. Sacrifice sought

2100-457: A positive meaning only in reference to the actions of the sacerdotes populi Romani ("priests of the Roman people"). It had the negative meaning of "contaminate" (= contaminare) or pollute when referring to the handling of sacred objects by those not authorized, ordained, or ritually purified. An augur (Latin plural augures ) was an official and priest who solicited and interpreted the will of

2240-402: A priest on behalf of the community. Public religious ritual had to be enacted by specialists and professionals faultlessly; a mistake might require that the action, or even the entire festival, be repeated from the start. The historian Livy reports an occasion when the presiding magistrate at the Latin festival forgot to include the "Roman people" among the list of beneficiaries in his prayer;

2380-781: A provincial Roman citizen who made the long journey from Bordeaux to Italy to consult the Sibyl at Tibur did not neglect his devotion to his own goddess from home: I wander, never ceasing to pass through the whole world, but I am first and foremost a faithful worshiper of Onuava . I am at the ends of the earth, but the distance cannot tempt me to make my vows to another goddess. Love of the truth brought me to Tibur, but Onuava's favourable powers came with me. Thus, divine mother, far from my home-land, exiled in Italy, I address my vows and prayers to you no less. Roman calendars show roughly forty annual religious festivals. Some lasted several days, others

2520-454: A range of religious activities. Some public rituals could be conducted only by women, and women formed what is perhaps Rome's most famous priesthood, the state-supported Vestals , who tended Rome's sacred hearth for centuries, until disbanded under Christian domination. The priesthoods of most state religions were held by members of the elite classes . There was no principle analogous to separation of church and state in ancient Rome. During

2660-415: A sacred duty and privilege of office. Additional festivals and games celebrated Imperial accessions and anniversaries. Others, such as the traditional Republican Secular Games to mark a new era ( saeculum ), became imperially funded to maintain traditional values and a common Roman identity. That the spectacles retained something of their sacral aura even in late antiquity is indicated by the admonitions of

2800-724: A sacred vault beneath the Capitoline temple of Jupiter. The story is alluded to in Varro 's lost books quoted in Lactantius Institutiones Divinae (I: 6) and by Origen , and told by Aulus Gellius ( Noctes Atticae 1, 19). The Roman Senate kept tight control over the Sibylline Books , and entrusted them to the care of two patricians . In 367 BC, the number of custodians was increased to ten, five patricians and five plebeians , who were called

2940-459: A series of miraculous events. Romulus and Remus regained their grandfather's throne and set out to build a new city, consulting with the gods through augury , a characteristic religious institution of Rome that is portrayed as existing from earliest times. The brothers quarrel while building the city walls, and Romulus kills Remus, an act that is sometimes seen as sacrificial. Fratricide thus became an integral part of Rome's founding myth. Romulus

SECTION 20

#1732780840309

3080-524: A single day or less: sacred days ( dies fasti ) outnumbered "non-sacred" days ( dies nefasti ). A comparison of surviving Roman religious calendars suggests that official festivals were organized according to broad seasonal groups that allowed for different local traditions. Some of the most ancient and popular festivals incorporated ludi ("games", such as chariot races and theatrical performances ), with examples including those held at Palestrina in honour of Fortuna Primigenia during Compitalia , and

3220-503: A small altar for incense or libations . It might also display art works looted in war and rededicated to the gods. It is not clear how accessible the interiors of temples were to the general public. The Latin word templum originally referred not to the temple building itself, but to a sacred space surveyed and plotted ritually through augury: "The architecture of the ancient Romans was, from first to last, an art of shaping space around ritual." The Roman architect Vitruvius always uses

3360-418: A temple or shrine, where a ritual object might be stored and brought out for use, or where an offering would be deposited. Sacrifices , chiefly of animals , would take place at an open-air altar within the templum or precinct, often to the side of the steps leading up to the raised portico. The main room (cella) inside a temple housed the cult image of the deity to whom the temple was dedicated, and often

3500-464: A term of augury for an action that rejects or averts an unfavourable omen indicated by a signum , "sign". The noun is abominatio , from which English " abomination " derives. At the taking of formally solicited auspices ( auspicia impetrativa ), the observer was required to acknowledge any potentially bad sign occurring within the templum he was observing, regardless of the interpretation. He might, however, take certain actions in order to ignore

3640-522: A toga was also said to be worn ritu Gabino ("in the Gabine rite"). Clavum figere ("to nail in, to fasten or fix the nail") was an expression that referred to the fixing or "sealing" of fate. A nail was one of the attributes of the goddess Necessitas and of the Etruscan goddess Athrpa (Greek Atropos ). According to Livy , every year in the temple of Nortia , the Etruscan counterpart of Fortuna ,

3780-411: A trade guild or neighborhood association; see Collegium (ancient Rome) . The comitia calata ("calate assemblies") were non-voting assemblies (comitia) called for religious purposes. The verb calare , originally meaning "to call," was a technical term of pontifical usage, found also in calendae ( Calends ) and calator . According to Aulus Gellius , these comitia were held in the presence of

3920-595: A vow to a deity for assuring their military success. As the Romans extended their dominance throughout the Mediterranean world, their policy in general was to absorb the deities and cults of other peoples rather than try to eradicate them, since they believed that preserving tradition promoted social stability. One way that Rome incorporated diverse peoples was by supporting their religious heritage, building temples to local deities that framed their theology within

4060-462: A white cow); Jupiter a white, castrated ox ( bos mas ) for the annual oath-taking by the consuls . Di superi with strong connections to the earth, such as Mars, Janus, Neptune and various genii – including the Emperor's – were offered fertile victims. After the sacrifice, a banquet was held; in state cults, the images of honoured deities took pride of place on banqueting couches and by means of

4200-531: A world power to their collective piety ( pietas ) in maintaining good relations with the gods . Their polytheistic religion is known for having honoured many deities . The presence of Greeks on the Italian peninsula from the beginning of the historical period influenced Roman culture , introducing some religious practices that became fundamental, such as the cultus of Apollo . The Romans looked for common ground between their major gods and those of

4340-507: Is a spell that evokes the dead from their tombs; a carmen veneficum , a "poisonous" charm. Through magical practice, the word carmen comes to mean also the object on which a spell is inscribed, hence a charm in the physical sense. Castus is an adjective meaning morally pure or guiltless (English "chaste"), hence pious or ritually pure in a religious sense. Castitas is the abstract noun. Various etymologies have been proposed, among them two IE stems: * k'(e)stos meaning "he who conforms to

Glossary of ancient Roman religion - Misplaced Pages Continue

4480-419: Is exceptionally detailed. All due care would be taken of the animals. If any died or were stolen before the scheduled sacrifice, they would count as already sacrificed, since they had already been consecrated. Normally, if the gods failed to keep their side of the bargain, the offered sacrifice would be withheld. In the imperial period, sacrifice was withheld following Trajan 's death because the gods had not kept

4620-407: Is full of mystic force." As the sign that manifests the divine will, the augurium for a magistrate was valid for a year; a priest's, for his lifetime; for a temple, it was perpetual. The distinction between augurium and auspicium is often unclear. Auspicia is the observation of birds as signs of divine will, a practice held to have been established by Romulus , first king of Rome , while

4760-517: Is one of several Latin words that can be translated as "shrine" or "temple"; see also delubrum and fanum . For instance, the Temple of Vesta , as it is called in English, was in Latin an aedes . See also the diminutive aedicula , a small shrine. In his work On Architecture , Vitruvius always uses the word templum in the technical sense of a space defined through augury , with aedes

4900-540: Is suited for goddesses such as Venus , Flora , Proserpina and the Lymphae ; and the Ionic is a middle ground between the two for Juno , Diana , and Father Liber . Thus in theory, though not always in practice, architectural aesthetics had a theological dimension. The word aedilis (aedile) , a public official , is related by etymology ; among the duties of the aediles was the overseeing of public works , including

5040-476: The sacerdos (priest), but substances and objects can also be ritually castus . The cinctus Gabinus ("Gabine cinch") was a way of wearing the toga thought to have originated in the Latin town of Gabii . It was also later claimed to have been part of Etruscan priestly dress . The cinch allowed free use of both arms, essential when the toga was still worn during combat and later important in some religious contexts , particularly those involving use of

5180-443: The spolia opima , the prime spoils taken in war, in the celebration of the first Roman triumph . Spared a mortal's death, Romulus was mysteriously spirited away and deified. His Sabine successor Numa was pious and peaceable, and credited with numerous political and religious foundations, including the first Roman calendar ; the priesthoods of the Salii , flamines , and Vestals; the cults of Jupiter , Mars, and Quirinus ; and

5320-399: The templum . The type of auspices required for convening public assemblies were impetrativa , and magistrates had the "right and duty" to seek these omens actively. These auspices could only be sought from an auguraculum , a ritually constructed augural tent or "tabernacle" ( tabernaculum ). Contrast auspicia oblativa . The right of observing the "greater auspices" was conferred on

5460-462: The Ara Maxima . Some trees were felix and others infelix . A tree (arbor) was categorized as felix if it was under the protection of the heavenly gods (di superi) . The adjective felix here means not only literally "fruitful" but more broadly "auspicious". Macrobius lists arbores felices (plural) as the oak (four species thereof), the birch, the hazelnut, the sorbus, the white fig,

5600-572: The Book of Marvels or Memorabilia of Phlegon of Tralles (2nd century AD). These represent an oracle, or a combination of two oracles, of seventy hexameters in all. They report the birth of an androgyne , and prescribe a long list of rituals and offerings to the gods. Their authenticity has been questioned. The Sibylline Oracles were quoted by the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus (late 1st century) as well as by numerous Christian writers of

5740-582: The First Jewish–Roman War and the Bar Kokhba revolt . In the wake of the Republic's collapse , state religion had adapted to support the new regime of the emperors . Augustus , the first Roman emperor, justified the novelty of one-man rule with a vast program of religious revivalism and reform. Public vows formerly made for the security of the republic now were directed at the well-being of

Glossary of ancient Roman religion - Misplaced Pages Continue

5880-594: The Greek Olympians , and promoted a sense that the two cultures had a shared heritage. The impressive, costly, and centralised rites to the deities of the Roman state were vastly outnumbered in everyday life by commonplace religious observances pertaining to an individual's domestic and personal deities, the patron divinities of Rome's various neighbourhoods and communities, and the often idiosyncratic blends of official, unofficial, local and personal cults that characterised lawful Roman religion. In this spirit,

6020-526: The Ludi Romani in honour of Liber . Other festivals may have required only the presence and rites of their priests and acolytes, or particular groups, such as women at the Bona Dea rites. Other public festivals were not required by the calendar, but occasioned by events. The triumph of a Roman general was celebrated as the fulfillment of religious vows , though these tended to be overshadowed by

6160-576: The Palladium , Lares and Penates from Troy to Italy. These objects were believed in historical times to remain in the keeping of the Vestals , Rome's female priesthood. Aeneas, according to classical authors, had been given refuge by King Evander , a Greek exile from Arcadia , to whom were attributed other religious foundations: he established the Ara Maxima , "Greatest Altar", to Hercules at

6300-481: The Pontifex Maximus advised privati as well as the official priests about prodigies and their forestalling. By the time of Cicero, the taking of private auspices was falling into disuse. In pontifical usage, the verb averruncare , "to avert," denotes a ritual action aimed at averting a misfortune intimated by an omen. Bad omens ( portentaque prodigiaque mala) are to be burnt, using trees that are in

6440-507: The Roman Republic (509–27 BC), the same men who were elected public officials might also serve as augurs and pontiffs . Priests married, raised families, and led politically active lives. Julius Caesar became pontifex maximus before he was elected consul . The augurs read the will of the gods and supervised the marking of boundaries as a reflection of universal order, thus sanctioning Roman expansionism and foreign wars as

6580-579: The Sabine second king of Rome , who negotiated directly with the gods . This archaic religion was the foundation of the mos maiorum , "the way of the ancestors" or simply "tradition", viewed as central to Roman identity. Roman religion was practical and contractual, based on the principle of do ut des , "I give that you might give". Religion depended on knowledge and the correct practice of prayer, rite, and sacrifice, not on faith or dogma, although Latin literature preserves learned speculation on

6720-572: The Senate 's efforts to restrict the Bacchanals in 186 BC. Because Romans had never been obligated to cultivate one god or one cult only, religious tolerance was not an issue in the sense that it is for monotheistic systems. The monotheistic rigor of Judaism posed difficulties for Roman policy that led at times to compromise and the granting of special exemptions, but sometimes to intractable conflict. For example, religious disputes helped cause

6860-416: The Sibylline Books , according to the interpretation of the oracle that were communicated to the public, and not the oracles themselves, which left ample opportunity for abuses. In particular, the keepers of the Sibylline Books had the superintendence of the worship of Apollo , of the "Great Mother" Cybele or Magna Mater, and of Ceres , which had been introduced upon recommendations as interpreted from

7000-459: The Sibylline Books . The Sibylline Books motivated the construction of eight temples in ancient Rome, aside from those cults that have been interpreted as mediated by the Sibylline Books simply by the Greek nature of the deity. Thus, one important effect of the Sibylline Books was their influence on applying Greek cult practice and Greek conceptions of deities to indigenous Roman religion, which

7140-399: The Vestals . Later, caerimoniae might refer also to other rituals, including foreign cults . These prescribed rites "unite the inner subject with the external religious object", binding human and divine realms. The historian Valerius Maximus makes clear that the caerimoniae require those performing them to attain a particular mental-spiritual state ( animus , "intention"), and emphasizes

SECTION 50

#1732780840309

7280-463: The augurium salutis in which every year the gods were asked whether it was fas (permissible, right) to ask for the safety of the Roman people (August 5); the augurium canarium , a dog sacrifice (see also supplicia canum ) to promote the maturation of grain crops, held in the presence of the pontiffs as well as the augurs "when ears of wheat have already formed but are still in the sheaths"; and

7420-561: The college of pontiffs in order to inaugurate the rex (the king in the Regal Period or the rex sacrorum in the Republic ) or the flamines . The pontifex maximus auspiciated and presided; assemblies over which annually elected magistrates presided are never calata , nor are meetings for secular purposes or other elections even with a pontiff presiding. The comitia calata were organized by curiae or centuriae . The people were summoned to comitia calata to witness

7560-492: The decemviri sacris faciundis . Subsequently, probably in the time of Sulla , their number was increased to fifteen, the quindecimviri sacris faciundis . They were usually ex-consuls or ex- praetors . They held office for life, and were exempt from all other public duties. They had the responsibility of keeping the books in safety and secrecy. The 15 individuals were custodians of the Sibylline Books that were kept on

7700-692: The druids as a positive consequence of the conquest of Gaul and Britain. Despite an empire-wide ban under Hadrian , human sacrifice may have continued covertly in North Africa and elsewhere. The mos maiorum established the dynastic authority and obligations of the citizen- paterfamilias ("the father of the family" or the "owner of the family estate"). He had priestly duties to his lares , domestic penates , ancestral Genius and any other deities with whom he or his family held an interdependent relationship. His own dependents, who included his slaves and freedmen, owed cult to his Genius . Genius

7840-544: The fetial priests. The first "outsider" Etruscan king, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus , founded a Capitoline temple to the triad Jupiter, Juno and Minerva which served as the model for the highest official cult throughout the Roman world. The benevolent, divinely fathered Servius Tullius established the Latin League , its Aventine Temple to Diana , and the Compitalia to mark his social reforms. Servius Tullius

7980-421: The harmonisation of the earthly and divine , so the victim must seem willing to offer its own life on behalf of the community; it must remain calm and be quickly and cleanly dispatched. Sacrifice to deities of the heavens ( di superi , "gods above") was performed in daylight, and under the public gaze. Deities of the upper heavens required white, infertile victims of their own sex: Juno a white heifer (possibly

8120-403: The signa , including avoiding the sight of them, and interpreting them as favourable. The latter tactic required promptness, wit and skill based on discipline and learning. Thus the omen had no validity apart from the observation of it. The aedes was the dwelling place of a god. It was thus a structure that housed the deity's image, distinguished from the templum or sacred district. Aedes

8260-435: The tutelage of underworld or "averting" gods (see arbores infelices above). Varro says that the god who presides over the action of averting is Averruncus . A " just war " was a war considered justifiable by the principles of fetial law (ius fetiale) . Because war could bring about religious pollution, it was in itself nefas , "wrong," and could incur the wrath of gods unless iustum , "just". The requirements for

8400-475: The vernisera auguria mentioned by Festus , which should have been a springtime propitiary rite held at the time of the harvest ( auguria messalia ). The auspex , plural auspices , is a diviner who reads omens from the observed flight of birds ( avi- , from avis , "bird", with -spex , "observer", from spicere ). See auspicia following and auspice . The auspicia ( au- = avis , "bird"; -spic- , "watch") were originally signs derived from observing

8540-485: The Augurs were written collections probably of the decreta and responsa of the college of augurs . Some scholarship, however, maintains that the commentarii were precisely not the decreta and responsa . The commentaries are to be distinguished from the augurs' libri reconditi , texts not for public use. The books are mentioned by Cicero , Festus , and Servius Danielis . Livy includes several examples of

SECTION 60

#1732780840309

8680-516: The Capitol they were transferred by Augustus as pontifex maximus in 12 BC, to the Temple of Apollo Palatinus , after they had been examined and copied; there they remained until about AD 405. According to the poet Rutilius Claudius Namatianus , the general Flavius Stilicho (died AD 408) burned them, as they were being used to attack his government. The last known consultation was in 363 CE. Some supposedly genuine Sibylline verses are preserved in

8820-495: The Church Fathers that Christians should not take part. The meaning and origin of many archaic festivals baffled even Rome's intellectual elite, but the more obscure they were, the greater the opportunity for reinvention and reinterpretation – a fact lost neither on Augustus in his program of religious reform, which often cloaked autocratic innovation, nor on his only rival as mythmaker of the era, Ovid . In his Fasti ,

8960-554: The Compitalia shrines, were thought a symbolic replacement for child-sacrifice to Mania, as Mother of the Lares . The Junii took credit for its abolition by their ancestor L. Junius Brutus , traditionally Rome's Republican founder and first consul. Political or military executions were sometimes conducted in such a way that they evoked human sacrifice, whether deliberately or in the perception of witnesses; Marcus Marius Gratidianus

9100-565: The Elder declared that "a sacrifice without prayer is thought to be useless and not a proper consultation of the gods." Prayer by itself, however, had independent power. The spoken word was thus the single most potent religious action, and knowledge of the correct verbal formulas the key to efficacy. Accurate naming was vital for tapping into the desired powers of the deity invoked, hence the proliferation of cult epithets among Roman deities. Public prayers ( prex ) were offered loudly and clearly by

9240-660: The Emperor safe for the stipulated period. In Pompeii , the Genius of the living emperor was offered a bull: presumably a standard practise in Imperial cult, though minor offerings (incense and wine) were also made. The exta were the entrails of a sacrificed animal , comprising in Cicero 's enumeration the gall bladder ( fel ), liver ( iecur ), heart ( cor ), and lungs ( pulmones ). The exta were exposed for litatio (divine approval) as part of Roman liturgy, but were "read" in

9380-638: The Empire. Imported mystery religions , which offered initiates salvation in the afterlife, were a matter of personal choice for an individual, practiced in addition to carrying on one's family rites and participating in public religion. The mysteries, however, involved exclusive oaths and secrecy, conditions that conservative Romans viewed with suspicion as characteristic of " magic ", conspiratorial ( coniuratio ), or subversive activity. Sporadic and sometimes brutal attempts were made to suppress religionists who seemed to threaten traditional morality and unity, as with

9520-517: The Greeks ( interpretatio graeca ), adapting Greek myths and iconography for Latin literature and Roman art , as the Etruscans had. Etruscan religion was also a major influence, particularly on the practice of augury , used by the state to seek the will of the gods. According to legends , most of Rome's religious institutions could be traced to its founders , particularly Numa Pompilius ,

9660-607: The Late Republican era. Jupiter , the most powerful of all gods and "the fount of the auspices upon which the relationship of the city with the gods rested", consistently personified the divine authority of Rome's highest offices, internal organization and external relations. During the archaic and early Republican eras, he shared his temple , some aspects of cult and several divine characteristics with Mars and Quirinus , who were later replaced by Juno and Minerva . A conceptual tendency toward triads may be indicated by

9800-462: The Latin caerimonia or caeremonia , a word of obscure etymology first found in literature and inscriptions from the time of Cicero (mid-1st century BC), but thought to be of much greater antiquity. Its meaning varied over time. Cicero used caerimonia at least 40 times, in three or four different senses: "inviolability" or "sanctity", a usage also of Tacitus ; "punctilious veneration", in company with cura (carefulness, concern); more commonly in

9940-520: The Palatine. These officials, at the command of the Senate, consulted the Sibylline Books in order to discover not exact predictions of definite future events in the form of prophecy , but the religious observances necessary to avert extraordinary calamities and to expiate ominous prodigies (comets and earthquakes, showers of stones, plague, and the like). It was only the rites of expiation prescribed by

10080-509: The Roman Temple at this time. The Oracles are nevertheless thought by modern scholars to be anonymous compilations that assumed their final form in the fifth century, after the Sibylline Books perished. They are a miscellaneous collection of Jewish and Christian portents of future disasters, that may illustrate the confusions about sibyls that were accumulating among Christians of Late Antiquity . An incomplete list of consultations of

10220-559: The Senate could decree collective public rites, in which Rome's citizens, including women and children, moved in procession from one temple to the next, supplicating the gods. Extraordinary circumstances called for extraordinary sacrifice: in one of the many crises of the Second Punic War , Jupiter Capitolinus was promised every animal born that spring (see ver sacrum ), to be rendered after five more years of protection from Hannibal and his allies. The "contract" with Jupiter

10360-512: The Temple of Janus , whose doors stayed open in times of war but in Numa's time remained closed. After Numa's death, the doors to the Temple of Janus were supposed to have remained open until the reign of Augustus. Each of Rome's legendary or semi-legendary kings was associated with one or more religious institutions still known to the later Republic. Tullus Hostilius and Ancus Marcius instituted

10500-527: The actions of certain sacred chickens ; ex quadrupedibus , signs from the behavior of four-legged animals; and ex diris , threatening portents. In official state augury at Rome, only the auspicia ex caelo and ex avibus were employed. The taking of the auspices required ritual silence (silentium) . Watching for auspices was called spectio or servare de caelo . The appearance of expected signs resulted in nuntiatio , or if they were unfavourable obnuntiatio . If unfavourable auspices were observed,

10640-409: The augurs' decreta and responsa in his history, presumably taken from the commentarii . Ancient Roman religion Religion in ancient Rome consisted of varying imperial and provincial religious practices, which were followed both by the people of Rome as well as those who were brought under its rule. The Romans thought of themselves as highly religious, and attributed their success as

10780-539: The broad humor and burlesque spirit of such venerable festivals as the Saturnalia , Consualia , and feast of Anna Perenna on the Ides of March , where Ovid treats the assassination of the newly deified Julius Caesar as utterly incidental to the festivities among the Roman people. But official calendars preserved from different times and places also show a flexibility in omitting or expanding events, indicating that there

10920-505: The building and maintenance of temples. The temple (aedes) of Flora, for instance, was built in 241 BC by two aediles acting on Sibylline oracles . The plebeian aediles had their headquarters at the aedes of Ceres . In religious usage, ager (territory, country, land, region) was terrestrial space defined for the purposes of augury in relation to auspicia . There were five kinds of ager : Romanus, Gabinus, peregrinus, hosticus and incertus . The ager Romanus originally included

11060-406: The business at hand was stopped by the official observer, who declared alio die ("on another day"). The practice of observing bird omens was common to many ancient peoples predating and contemporaneous with Rome, including the Greeks, Celts, and Germans. Auspicia impetrativa were signs that were solicited under highly regulated ritual conditions (see spectio and servare de caelo ) within

11200-540: The citadel ( arx ), on the Quirinal Hill , and on the Palatine Hill . Festus said that originally the auguraculum was in fact the arx . It faced east, situating the north on the augur's left or lucky side. A magistrate who was serving as a military commander also took daily auspices, and thus a part of camp-building while on campaign was the creation of a tabernaculum augurale . This augural tent

11340-478: The city of Rome and in the countryside would have been simple, open-air structures; they may have been located within a sacred precinct ( templum ), but often without an aedes housing a cult image. An altar that received food offerings might also be called a mensa , "table." Perhaps the best-known Roman altar is the elaborate and Greek-influenced Ara Pacis , which has been called "the most representative work of Augustan art." Other major public altars included

11480-469: The college of curators was always assisted by two Greek interpreters. The books were kept in the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitol , and, when the temple burned in 83 BC, they were lost. The Roman Senate sent envoys in 76 BC to replace them with a collection of similar oracular sayings, in particular collected from Ilium , Erythrae, Samos , Sicily, and Africa. This new Sibylline collection was deposited in

11620-465: The context of the disciplina Etrusca . As a product of Roman sacrifice, the exta and blood are reserved for the gods, while the meat (viscera) is shared among human beings in a communal meal. The exta of bovine victims were usually stewed in a pot ( olla or aula ), while those of sheep or pigs were grilled on skewers. When the deity's portion was cooked, it was sprinkled with mola salsa (ritually prepared salted flour) and wine, then placed in

11760-451: The emperor. So-called "emperor worship" expanded on a grand scale the traditional Roman veneration of the ancestral dead and of the Genius , the divine tutelary of every individual. The Imperial cult became one of the major ways in which Rome advertised its presence in the provinces and cultivated shared cultural identity and loyalty throughout the Empire. Rejection of the state religion

11900-404: The festival had to be started over. Even private prayer by an individual was formulaic, a recitation rather than a personal expression, though selected by the individual for a particular purpose or occasion. Oaths—sworn for the purposes of business, clientage and service, patronage and protection , state office, treaty and loyalty—appealed to the witness and sanction of deities. Refusal to swear

12040-472: The fire on the altar for the offering; the technical verb for this action was porricere . Human sacrifice in ancient Rome was rare but documented. After the Roman defeat at Cannae two Gauls and two Greeks were buried under the Forum Boarium , in a stone chamber "which had on a previous occasion [228 BC] also been polluted by human victims, a practice most repulsive to Roman feelings". Livy avoids

12180-747: The flight of birds within the templum of the sky. Auspices are taken by an augur . Originally they were the prerogative of the patricians , but the college of augurs was opened to plebeians in 300 BC. Only magistrates were in possession of the auspicia publica , with the right and duty to take the auspices pertaining to the Roman state . Favorable auspices marked a time or location as auspicious, and were required for important ceremonies or events, including elections, military campaigns and pitched battles. According to Festus , there were five kinds of auspicia to which augurs paid heed: ex caelo , celestial signs such as thunder and lightning; ex avibus , signs offered by birds; ex tripudiis , signs produced by

12320-458: The form of a holocaust or burnt offering, and there was no shared banquet, as "the living cannot share a meal with the dead". Ceres and other underworld goddesses of fruitfulness were sometimes offered pregnant female animals; Tellus was given a pregnant cow at the Fordicidia festival. Color had a general symbolic value for sacrifices. Demigods and heroes, who belonged to the heavens and

12460-487: The foundation and rise of the city. These narratives focus on human actors, with only occasional intervention from deities but a pervasive sense of divinely ordered destiny. For Rome's earliest period, history and myth are difficult to distinguish. According to mythology, Rome had a semi-divine ancestor in the Trojan refugee Aeneas , son of Venus , who was said to have established the basis of Roman religion when he brought

12600-589: The founding of the Latin League under Servius Tullius. Many temples in the Republican era were built as the fulfillment of a vow made by a general in exchange for a victory: Rome's first known temple to Venus was vowed by the consul Q. Fabius Gurges in the heat of battle against the Samnites , and dedicated in 295 BC. All sacrifices and offerings required an accompanying prayer to be effective. Pliny

12740-400: The four defined categories. The powers and actions of magistrates were based on and constrained by the nature of the ager on which they stood, and ager in more general usage meant a territory as defined legally or politically. The ager Romanus could not be extended outside Italy (terra Italia) . The focal point of sacrifice was the altar ( ara , plural arae ). Most altars throughout

12880-523: The gods regarding a proposed action. The augur ritually defined a templum , or sacred space, declared the purpose of his consultation, offered sacrifice, and observed the signs that were sent in return, particularly the actions and flight of birds. If the augur received unfavourable signs, he could suspend, postpone or cancel the undertaking ( obnuntiatio ). "Taking the auspices" was an important part of all major official business, including inaugurations, senatorial debates, legislation, elections and war, and

13020-572: The head is a distinctive feature of Roman rite in contrast with Etruscan practice or ritus graecus , "Greek rite." In Roman art, the covered head is a symbol of pietas and the individual's status as a pontifex , augur or other priest. It has been argued that the Roman expression of piety capite velato influenced Paul 's prohibition against Christian men praying with covered heads: "Any man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head." In classical Latin, carmen usually means "song, poem, ode." In magico-religious usage,

13160-582: The hierarchy of Roman religion. Inscriptions throughout the Empire record the side-by-side worship of local and Roman deities, including dedications made by Romans to local gods. By the height of the Empire, numerous international deities were cultivated at Rome and had been carried to even the most remote provinces , among them Cybele , Isis , Epona , and gods of solar monism such as Mithras and Sol Invictus , found as far north as Roman Britain . Foreign religions increasingly attracted devotees among Romans, who increasingly had ancestry from elsewhere in

13300-403: The histories of Rome's leading families , and oral and ritual traditions. According to Cicero, the Romans considered themselves the most religious of all peoples, and their rise to dominance was proof they received divine favor in return. Rome offers no native creation myth , and little mythography to explain the character of its deities, their mutual relationships or their interactions with

13440-438: The human world, but Roman theology acknowledged that di immortales (immortal gods) ruled all realms of the heavens and earth. There were gods of the upper heavens, gods of the underworld and a myriad of lesser deities between. Some evidently favoured Rome because Rome honoured them, but none were intrinsically, irredeemably foreign or alien. The political, cultural and religious coherence of an emergent Roman super-state required

13580-744: The importance of caerimoniae in the dedication and first sentence of his work. In Valerius's version of the Gallic siege of Rome , the Vestals and the Flamen Quirinalis rescue Rome's sacred objects ( sacra ) by taking them to Caere ; thus preserved, the rites take their name from the place. Although this etymology makes a meaningful narrative connection for Valerius, it is unlikely to be correct in terms of modern scientific linguistics . An Etruscan origin has sometimes been proposed. Wagenvoort thought that caerimonia derived from caerus , "dark" in

13720-426: The institution of augury was attributed to his successor Numa . For Servius , an augurium is the same thing as auspicia impetrativa , a body of signs sought through prescribed ritual means. Some scholars think auspicia would belong more broadly to the magistracies and the patres while the augurium would be limited to the rex sacrorum and the major priesthoods. Ancient sources record three auguria :

13860-567: The later agricultural or plebeian triad of Ceres , Liber and Libera , and by some of the complementary threefold deity-groupings of Imperial cult. Other major and minor deities could be single, coupled, or linked retrospectively through myths of divine marriage and sexual adventure. These later Roman pantheistic hierarchies are part literary and mythographic, part philosophical creations, and often Greek in origin. The Hellenization of Latin literature and culture supplied literary and artistic models for reinterpreting Roman deities in light of

14000-452: The names and epithets of gods, see List of Roman deities . For public religious holidays, see Roman festivals . For temples see the List of Ancient Roman temples . Individual landmarks of religious topography in ancient Rome are not included in this list; see Roman temple . The verb abominari ("to avert an omen", from ab- , "away, off," and ominari , "to pronounce on an omen") was

14140-469: The nature of the divine and its relation to human affairs. Even the most skeptical among Rome's intellectual elite such as Cicero , who was an augur, saw religion as a source of social order. As the Roman Empire expanded, migrants to the capital brought their local cults , many of which became popular among Italians. Christianity was eventually the most successful of these beliefs, and in 380 became

14280-407: The official state religion . For ordinary Romans, religion was a part of daily life. Each home had a household shrine at which prayers and libations to the family's domestic deities were offered. Neighbourhood shrines and sacred places such as springs and groves dotted the city. The Roman calendar was structured around religious observances. Women , slaves , and children all participated in

14420-572: The pear, the apple, the grape, the plum, the cornus and the lotus. The oak was sacred to Jupiter , and twigs of oak were used by the Vestals to ignite the sacred fire in March every year. Also among the felices were the olive tree, a twig of which was affixed to the hat of the Flamen Dialis , and the laurel and the poplar, which crowned the Salian priests . Arbores infelices were those under

14560-471: The plural caerimoniae , to mean "ritual prescriptions" or "ritual acts." The plural form is endorsed by Roman grammarians. Hendrik Wagenvoort maintained that caerimoniae were originally the secret ritual instructions laid down by Numa , which are described as statae et sollemnes , "established and solemn." These were interpreted and supervised by the College of Pontiffs , flamens , rex sacrorum and

14700-466: The political and social significance of the event. During the late Republic, the political elite competed to outdo each other in public display, and the ludi attendant on a triumph were expanded to include gladiator contests. Under the Principate , all such spectacular displays came under Imperial control: the most lavish were subsidised by emperors, and lesser events were provided by magistrates as

14840-431: The powers and attributes of divine beings, and inclined them to render benefits in return (the principle of do ut des ). Offerings to household deities were part of daily life. Lares might be offered spelt wheat and grain-garlands, grapes and first fruits in due season, honey cakes and honeycombs, wine and incense, food that fell to the floor during any family meal, or at their Compitalia festival, honey-cakes and

14980-452: The prescriptions of rite"; or * kas- , from which derives the verb careo, "I defice, am deprived of, have none..." i.e. vitia . In Roman religion, the purity of ritual and those who perform it is paramount: one who is correctly cleansed and castus in religious preparation and performance is likely to please the gods. Ritual error is a pollutant; it vitiates the performance and risks the gods' anger. Castus and castitas are attributes of

15120-536: The protection of chthonic gods or those gods who had the power of turning away misfortune ( avertentium ). As listed by Tarquitius Priscus in his lost ostentarium on trees, these were buckthorn , red cornel , fern , black fig , "those that bear a black berry and black fruit," holly , woodland pear , butcher's broom , briar , and brambles ." The verb attrectare ("to touch, handle, lay hands on") referred in specialized religious usage to touching sacred objects while performing cultic actions. Attrectare had

15260-437: The reading of wills, or the oath by which sacra were renounced ( detestatio sacrorum ). They took no active role and were only present to observe as witnesses. Mommsen thought the calendar abbreviation QRCF , given once as Q. Rex C. F. and taken as Quando Rex Comitiavit Fas , designated a day when it was religiously permissible for the rex to "call" for a comitium , hence the comitia calata . The Commentaries of

15400-522: The rest being lost or deliberately destroyed . The Sibylline Books are not the same as the Sibylline Oracles , which are fourteen books and eight fragments of prophecies thought to be of Judaeo-Christian origin. According to the Roman tradition, the oldest collection of Sibylline books appears to have been made about the time of Solon and Cyrus at Gergis on Mount Ida in the Troad ; it

15540-631: The restored temple, together with similar sayings of native origin, e.g. those of the Sibyl at Tibur (the ' Tiburtine Sibyl ') of the brothers Marcius, and others, which had been circulating in private hands but which were called in, to be delivered to the Urban Praetor, private ownership of such works being declared illicit, and to be evaluated by the Quindecimviri, who then sorted them, retaining only those that appeared true to them. From

15680-431: The sacrificial fire consumed their proper portion ( exta , the innards). Rome's officials and priests reclined in order of precedence alongside and ate the meat; lesser citizens may have had to provide their own. Chthonic gods such as Dis pater , the di inferi ("gods below"), and the collective shades of the departed ( di Manes ) were given dark, fertile victims in nighttime rituals. Animal sacrifice usually took

15820-455: The same price, which he again refused. Thereupon, she burned three more and repeated her offer, maintaining the same price. Tarquinius then consulted the Augurs whose importance in Roman history is averred by Livy . The Augurs deplored the loss of the six books and urged purchase of the remaining three. Tarquinius then purchased the last three at the full original price, and had them preserved in

15960-509: The second century, including Athenagoras of Athens who, in a letter addressed to Marcus Aurelius in ca. AD 176, quoted verbatim a section of the extant Oracles , in the midst of a lengthy series of other classical and pagan references such as Homer and Hesiod , stating several times that all these works should already be familiar to the Roman Emperor. Copies of the actual Sibylline Books (as reconstituted in 76 BC) were still in

16100-400: The senior priests of the state such as the flamines maiores . A calator was a public slave . Festus derives the word from the Greek verb kalein , "to call." At the traditional public rituals of ancient Rome, officiants prayed, sacrificed, offered libations , and practiced augury capite velato , "with the head covered" by a fold of the toga drawn up from the back. This covering of

16240-450: The sense of "hidden", hence meaning "darknesses, secrets." In his Etymologiae , Isidore of Seville says that the Greek equivalent is orgia , but derives the word from carendo , "lacking", and says that some think caerimoniae should be used of Jewish observances , specifically the dietary law that requires abstaining from or "lacking" certain foods. The calatores were assistants who carried out day-to-day business on behalf of

16380-399: The seventh and last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus ("Tarquinius", ruled 534 to 509 B.C., d. 495 B.C.), is one of the famous legendary elements of Roman history. An old woman, possibly a Cumaean Sibyl , offered to Tarquinius nine books of these prophecies at an exorbitant price; when the king declined to purchase them, she burned three and offered the remaining six to Tarquinius at

16520-623: The site that would become the Forum Boarium , and, so the legend went, he was the first to celebrate the Lupercalia , an archaic festival in February that was celebrated as late as the 5th century of the Christian era. The myth of a Trojan founding with Greek influence was reconciled through an elaborate genealogy (the Latin kings of Alba Longa ) with the well-known legend of Rome's founding by Romulus and Remus . The most common version of

16660-481: The size of the colleges was expanded. By the Late Republic , three collegia wielded greater authority than the others, with a fourth coming to prominence during the reign of Augustus . The four great religious corporations ( quattuor amplissima collegia ) were: Augustus was a member of all four collegia , but limited membership for any other senator to one. In Roman society, a collegium might also be

16800-451: The taking of private auspices was not different in essence from that of public auspices: absolute silence was required, and the person taking the auspices could ignore unfavourable or disruptive events by feigning not to have perceived them. In matters pertaining to the family or individual, both lightning and exta (entrails) might yield signs for privati , private citizens not authorized to take official auspices. Among his other duties,

16940-447: The toga to cover the head ( capite velato ). The style's ancient martial associations caused it to be worn during Roman declarations of war . It was also used by the priest or official charged with guiding the plow creating the sulcus primigenius during the rituals attending the foundation of new colonies . In Latin, cinctus Gabinus could refer to the cinch itself or to the entire toga thus worn. In religious contexts, such

17080-407: The twins' story displays several aspects of hero myth. Their mother, Rhea Silvia , had been ordered by her uncle the king to remain a virgin, in order to preserve the throne he had usurped from her father. Through divine intervention, the rightful line was restored when Rhea Silvia was impregnated by the god Mars . She gave birth to twins, who were duly exposed by order of the king but saved through

17220-555: The underworld, were sometimes given black-and-white victims. Robigo (or Robigus ) was given red dogs and libations of red wine at the Robigalia for the protection of crops from blight and red mildew. A sacrifice might be made in thanksgiving or as an expiation of a sacrilege or potential sacrilege ( piaculum ); a piaculum might also be offered as a sort of advance payment; the Arval Brethren , for instance, offered

17360-453: The urban space outside the pomerium and the surrounding countryside. According to Varro , the ager Gabinus pertained to the special circumstances of the oppidum of Gabii , which was the first to sign a sacred treaty (pax) with Rome. The ager peregrinus was other territory that had been brought under treaty (pacatus) . Ager hosticus meant foreign territory; incertus , "uncertain" or "undetermined," that is, not falling into one of

17500-464: The usual word for the building itself. The design of a deity's aedes , he writes, should be appropriate to the characteristics of the deity. For a celestial deity such as Jupiter , Coelus , Sol or Luna , the building should be open to the sky; an aedes for a god embodying virtus ( valour ), such as Minerva , Mars , or Hercules , should be Doric and without frills; the Corinthian order

17640-470: The word templum to refer to this sacred precinct, and the more common Latin words aedes , delubrum , or fanum for a temple or shrine as a building. The ruins of temples are among the most visible monuments of ancient Roman culture. Temple buildings and shrines within the city commemorated significant political settlements in its development: the Aventine Temple of Diana supposedly marked

17780-510: The word "sacrifice" in connection with this bloodless human life-offering; Plutarch does not. The rite was apparently repeated in 113 BC, preparatory to an invasion of Gaul. Its religious dimensions and purpose remain uncertain. In the early stages of the First Punic War (264 BC) the first known Roman gladiatorial munus was held, described as a funeral blood-rite to the manes of a Roman military aristocrat. The gladiator munus

17920-492: Was a gruesome example. Officially, human sacrifice was obnoxious "to the laws of gods and men". The practice was a mark of the barbarians , attributed to Rome's traditional enemies such as the Carthaginians and Gauls. Rome banned it on several occasions under extreme penalty. A law passed in 81 BC characterised human sacrifice as murder committed for magical purposes. Pliny saw the ending of human sacrifice conducted by

18060-527: Was already indirectly influenced through Etruscan religion. As the Sibylline Books had been collected in Anatolia , in the neighborhood of Troy , they recognized the gods and goddesses and the rites observed there and helped introduce them into Roman state worship, a syncretic amalgamation of national deities with the corresponding deities of Greece, and a general modification of the Roman religion. Since they were written in hexameter verse and in Greek,

18200-600: Was also a hymn, performed by a chorus at the Saecular Games of 17 BC and expressing the Apollonian ideology of Augustus . A carmen malum or maleficum is a potentially harmful magic spell. A fragment of the Twelve Tables reading si malum carmen incantassit ("if anyone should chant an evil spell") shows that it was a longstanding concern of Roman law to suppress malevolent magic. A carmen sepulchrale

18340-403: Was appointed for the years 363, 331, 313, and 263 BC. Livy attributes this practice to religio , religious scruple or obligation. It may be that in addition to an annual ritual, there was a "fixing" during times of pestilence or civil discord that served as a piaculum . Livy says that in 363, a plague had been ravaging Rome for two years. It was recalled that a plague had once been broken when

18480-597: Was attributed to the Hellespontine Sibyl and was preserved in the temple of Apollo at Gergis. From Gergis the collection passed to Erythrae , where it became famous as the oracles of the Erythraean Sibyl . It would appear to have been this very collection that found its way to Cumae (see the Cumaean Sibyl ) and from Cumae to Rome. The story of the acquisition of the Sibylline Books by

18620-559: Was credited with several religious institutions. He founded the Consualia festival, inviting the neighbouring Sabines to participate; the ensuing rape of the Sabine women by Romulus's men further embedded both violence and cultural assimilation in Rome's myth of origins. As a successful general, Romulus is also supposed to have founded Rome's first temple to Jupiter Feretrius and offered

18760-510: Was held to be an ancient prerogative of Regal and patrician magistrates . Under the Republic , this right was extended to other magistrates. After 300 BC, plebeians could become augurs. The solicitation of formal auspices required the marking out of ritual space ( auguraculum ) from within which the augurs observed the templum , including the construction of an augural tent or hut ( tabernaculum ). There were three such sites in Rome: on

18900-434: Was murdered and succeeded by the arrogant Tarquinius Superbus , whose expulsion marked the end of Roman kingship and the beginning of the Roman republic, governed by elected magistrates . Roman historians regarded the essentials of Republican religion as complete by the end of Numa's reign, and confirmed as right and lawful by the Senate and people of Rome : the sacred topography of the city , its monuments and temples,

19040-527: Was never explicitly acknowledged as a human sacrifice, probably because death was not its inevitable outcome or purpose. Even so, the gladiators swore their lives to the gods, and the combat was dedicated as an offering to the Di Manes or the revered souls of deceased human beings. The event was therefore a sacrificium in the strict sense of the term, and Christian writers later condemned it as human sacrifice. The small woollen dolls called Maniae , hung on

19180-457: Was no single static and authoritative calendar of required observances. In the later Empire under Christian rule, the new Christian festivals were incorporated into the existing framework of the Roman calendar, alongside at least some of the traditional festivals. Public religious ceremonies of the official Roman religion took place outdoors, and not within the temple building. Some ceremonies were processions that started at, visited, or ended with

19320-459: Was tantamount to treason. This was the context for Rome's conflict with Christianity , which Romans variously regarded as a form of atheism and novel superstitio , while Christians considered Roman religion to be paganism . Ultimately, Roman polytheism was brought to an end with the adoption of Christianity as the official religion of the empire. The Roman mythological tradition is particularly rich in historical myths, or legends , concerning

19460-531: Was the center of religious and legal proceedings within the camp. Augurium (plural auguria ) is an abstract noun that pertains to the augur . It seems to mean variously: the "sacral investiture" of the augur; the ritual acts and actions of the augurs; augural law (ius augurale) ; and recorded signs whose meaning had already been established. The word is rooted in the IE stem *aug- , "to increase," and possibly an archaic Latin neuter noun *augus , meaning "that which

19600-435: Was the essential spirit and generative power – depicted as a serpent or as a perennial youth, often winged – within an individual and their clan ( gens (pl. gentes ). A paterfamilias could confer his name, a measure of his genius and a role in his household rites, obligations and honours upon those he fathered or adopted. His freed slaves owed him similar obligations. Sibylline Books Only fragments have survived,

#308691