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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Religion of Ancient Rome, by Cyril Bailey
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Religion of Ancient Rome
+
+Author: Cyril Bailey
+
+Release Date: June 12, 2006 [EBook #18564]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeannie Howse, Thierry Alberto and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
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+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    +-------------------------------------------------------------+
+    |  Transcriber's Note:                                        |
+    |                                                             |
+    |  NP ligature in the table on page 89 is shown in this       |
+    |  document as [NP]. Bold words are surrounded with ='s.      |
+    |                                                             |
+    +-------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE RELIGION OF
+ANCIENT ROME
+
+By
+CYRIL BAILEY, M.A.
+FELLOW AND TUTOR OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD
+
+
+LONDON
+ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO LTD
+
+1907
+
+
+
+
+I wish to express my warm thanks to Mr. W. Warde Fowler for his
+kindness in reading my proofs, and for many valuable hints and
+suggestions.
+
+  C.B.
+
+  BALLIOL COLLEGE,
+  _Jan 25th, 1907_.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAP.                                PAGE
+
+I. INTRODUCTION--SOURCES AND SCOPE                              1
+
+II. THE 'ANTECEDENTS' OF ROMAN RELIGION                         4
+
+III. MAIN FEATURES OF THE RELIGION OF NUMA                     12
+
+IV. EARLY HISTORY OF ROME--THE AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITY          31
+
+V. WORSHIP OF THE HOUSEHOLD                                    36
+
+VI. WORSHIP OF THE FIELDS                                      58
+
+VII. WORSHIP OF THE STATE                                      75
+
+VIII. AUGURIES AND AUSPICES                                    96
+
+IX. RELIGION AND MORALITY--CONCLUSION                         103
+
+
+
+
+THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+INTRODUCTION--SOURCES AND SCOPE
+
+
+The conditions of our knowledge of the native religion of early Rome
+may perhaps be best illustrated by a parallel from Roman archæology.
+The visitor to the Roman Forum at the present day, if he wishes to
+reconstruct in imagination the Forum of the early Republic, must not
+merely 'think away' many strata of later buildings, but, we are told,
+must picture to himself a totally different orientation of the whole:
+the upper layer of remains, which he sees before him, is for his
+purpose in most cases not merely useless, but positively misleading.
+In the same way, if we wish to form a picture of the genuine Roman
+religion, we cannot find it immediately in classical literature; we
+must banish from our minds all that is due to the contact with the
+East and Egypt, and even with the other races of Italy, and we must
+imagine, so to speak, a totally different mental orientation before
+the great influx of Greek literature and Greek thought, which gave
+an entirely new turn to Roman ideas in general, and in particular
+revolutionised religion 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 savants of
+the late Republic and of the Empire, and in the Augustan poets, biassed
+though they are in their interpretations by Greek tendencies, there is
+embodied a great wealth of ancient custom and ritual, which becomes
+significant when we have once got the clue to its meaning. More direct
+evidence is afforded by a large body of inscriptions and monuments, and
+above all by the surviving Calendars of the Roman festival year, which
+give us the true outline of the ceremonial observances of the early
+religion.
+
+It is not within the scope of this sketch to enter, except by way of
+occasional illustration, into the process of interpretation by which
+the patient work of scholars has disentangled the form and spirit of
+the native religion from the mass of foreign accretions. I intend
+rather to assume the process, and deal, as far as it is possible in so
+controversial a subject, with results upon which authorities are
+generally agreed. Neither will any attempt be made to follow the
+development which the early religion underwent in later periods, when
+foreign elements were added and foreign ideas altered and remoulded the
+old tradition. We must confine ourselves to a single epoch, in which
+the native Roman spirit worked out unaided the ideas inherited from
+half-civilised ancestors, and formed that body of belief and ritual,
+which was always, at least officially, the kernel of Roman religion,
+and constituted what the Romans themselves--staunch believers in their
+own traditional history--loved to describe as the 'Religion of Numa.'
+We must discover, as far as we can, how far its inherited 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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE 'ANTECEDENTS' OF ROMAN RELIGION
+
+
+In every early religion there will of course be found, apart from
+external influence, traces of its own internal development, of stages
+by which it must have advanced from a mass of vague and primitive
+belief and custom to the organised worship of a civilised community.
+The religion of 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 other semi-barbarous peoples, and we shall see that the
+leading idea in its theology is but a characteristically Roman
+development of a marked feature in most early religions.
+
+=1. Magic.=--Anthropology has taught us that in many primitive
+societies religion--a sense of man's dependence on a power higher than
+himself--is preceded by a stage of magic--a belief in man's own power
+to influence by occult means the action of the world around him. That
+the ancestors of the Roman community passed through this stage seems
+clear, and in surviving religious practice we may discover evidence of
+such magic in various forms. There is, for instance, what anthropology
+describes as 'sympathetic magic'--the attempt to influence the powers
+of nature by an imitation of the process which it is desired that they
+should perform. Of this we have a characteristic example in the
+ceremony of the _aquaelicium_, designed to produce rain after a long
+drought. In classical times the ceremony consisted in a procession
+headed by the pontifices, which bore the sacred rain-stone from its
+resting-place by the Porta Capena to the Capitol, where offerings were
+made to the sky-deity, Iuppiter, but[1] from the analogy of other
+primitive cults and the sacred title of the stone (_lapis manalis_), it
+is practically certain that the original ritual was the purely
+imitative process of pouring water over the stone. A similar rain-charm
+may possibly be seen in the curious ritual of the _argeorum sacra_,
+when puppets of straw were thrown into the Tiber--a symbolic wetting of
+the crops to which many parallels may be found among other primitive
+peoples. A sympathetic charm of a rather different character seems to
+survive in the ceremony of the _augurium canarium_, at which a red dog
+was sacrificed for the prosperity of the crop--a symbolic killing of
+the red mildew (_robigo_); and again the slaughter of pregnant cows at
+the _Fordicidia_ in the middle of April, before the sprouting of the
+corn, has a clearly sympathetic connection with the fertility of the
+earth. Another prominent survival--equally characteristic of primitive
+peoples--is the sacredness which attaches to the person of the
+priest-king, so that his every act or word may have a magic
+significance or effect. This is reflected generally in the Roman
+priesthood, but especially in the ceremonial surrounding the _flamen
+Dialis_, the priest of Iuppiter. He must appear always in festival
+garb, fire may never be taken from his hearth but for sacred purposes,
+no other person may ever sleep in his bed, the cuttings of his hair and
+nails must be preserved and buried beneath an _arbor felix_--no doubt a
+magic charm for fertility--he must not eat or even mention a goat or a
+bean, or other objects of an unlucky character.
+
+=2. Worship of Natural Objects.=--A very common feature in the early
+development of religious consciousness is the worship of natural
+objects--in the first place of the objects themselves and no more, but
+later of a spirit indwelling in them. The distinction is no doubt in
+individual cases a difficult one to make, and we find that among the
+Romans the earlier worship of the object tends to give way to the cult
+of the inhabiting spirit, but examples may be found which seem to
+belong to the earlier stage. We have, for instance, the sacred stone
+(_silex_) which was preserved in the temple of Iuppiter on the Capitol,
+and was brought out to play a prominent part in the ceremony of
+treaty-making. The fetial, who on that occasion represented the Roman
+people, at the solemn moment of the oath-taking, struck the sacrificial
+pig with the _silex_, saying as he did so, 'Do thou, Diespiter, strike
+the Roman people as I strike this pig here to-day, and strike them the
+more, as thou art greater and stronger.' Here no doubt the underlying
+notion is not merely symbolical, but in origin the stone is itself the
+god, an idea which later religion expressed in the cult-title specially
+used in this connection, _Iuppiter Lapis_. So again, in all
+probability, the _termini_ or boundary-stones between properties are in
+origin the objects--though later only the site--of a yearly ritual at
+the festival of the Terminalia on February the 23rd, and they are, as
+it were, summed up in 'the god Terminus,' the great sacred
+boundary-stone, which had its own shrine within the Capitoline temple,
+because, according to the legend, 'the god' refused to budge even to
+make room for Iuppiter. The same notion is most likely at the root of
+the two great domestic cults of Vesta, 'the hearth,' and Ianus, 'the
+door,' though a more spiritual idea was soon associated with them; we
+may notice too in this connection the worship of springs, summed up in
+the subsequent deity Fons, and of rivers, such as Volturnus, the
+cult-name of the Tiber.
+
+=3. Worship of Trees.=--But most conspicuous among the cults of natural
+objects, as in so many primitive religions, is the worship of trees.
+Here, though doubtless at first the tree was itself the object of
+veneration, surviving instances seem rather to belong to the later
+period when it was regarded as the abode of the spirit. We may
+recognise a case of this sort in the _ficus Ruminalis_, once the
+recipient of worship, though later legend, which preferred to find an
+historical or mythical explanation of cults, looked upon it as sacred
+because it was the scene of the suckling of Romulus and Remus by the
+wolf. Another fig-tree with a similar history is the _caprificus_ of
+the Campus Martius, subsequently the site of the worship of Iuno
+Caprotina. A more significant case is the sacred oak of Iuppiter
+Feretrius on the Capitol, on which the _spolia opima_ were hung after
+the triumph--probably in early times a dedication of the booty to the
+spirit inhabiting the tree. Outside Rome, showing the same ideas at
+work among neighbouring peoples, was the 'golden bough' in the grove of
+Diana at Aricia. Nor was it only special trees which were thus regarded
+as the home of a deity; the tree in general is sacred, and any one may
+chance to be inhabited by a spirit. The feeling of the country
+population on this point comes out clearly in the prayer which Cato
+recommends his farmer to use before making a clearing in a wood: 'Be
+thou god or goddess, to whom this grove is sacred, be it granted to us
+to make propitiatory sacrifice to thee with a pig for the clearing of
+this sacred spot'; here we have a clear instance of the tree regarded
+as the dwelling of the sacred power, and it is interesting to compare
+the many similar examples which[2] Dr. Frazer has collected from
+different parts of the world.
+
+=4. Worship of Animals.=--Of the worship of animals we have
+comparatively little evidence in Roman religion, though we may perhaps
+detect it in a portion of the mysterious ritual of the Lupercalia,
+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 communion with the sacred animal. We may
+recognise it too in the association of particular animals with
+divinities, such as the sacred wolf and woodpecker of Mars, but on 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.
+
+=5. Animism.=--Such are some of the survivals of very early stages of
+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 'immediate antecedent,' is the state of
+religious feeling to which anthropologists have given the name of
+'Animism.' As far as we can follow the development of early religions,
+this attitude of mind seems to be the direct outcome of the failure of
+magic. Primitive man begins to see that neither he nor his magicians
+really possess that occult control over the forces of nature which was
+the supposed basis of magic: the charm fails, the spell does not
+produce the rain and when he looks for the cause, he can only argue
+that these things must be in the hands of some power higher than his
+own. The world then and its various familiar objects become for him
+peopled with spirits, like in character to men, but more powerful, and
+his success in life and its various operations depends on the degree in
+which he is able to propitiate these spirits and secure their
+co-operation. If he desires rain, he must win the favour of the spirit
+who controls it, if he would fell a tree and suffer no harm, he must by
+suitable offerings entice the indwelling spirit to leave it. His
+'theology' in this stage is the knowledge of the various spirits and
+their dwellings, his ritual the due performance of sacrifice for
+purposes of propitiation and expiation. It was in this state of
+religious feeling that the ancestors of Rome must have lived before
+they founded their agricultural settlement on the Palatine: we must try
+now to see how far it had retained this character and what developments
+it had undergone when it had crystallised into the 'Religion of Numa.'
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Frazer, _Golden Bough_, vol. i. pp. 81 ff.
+
+[2] _Golden Bough_, vol. i. pp. 181-185.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+MAIN FEATURES OF THE RELIGION OF NUMA
+
+
+=1. Theology.=--The characteristic appellation of a divine spirit in
+the oldest stratum of the Roman religion is not _deus_, a god, but
+rather _numen_, a power: he becomes _deus_ when he obtains a name, and
+so is on the way to acquiring a definite personality, but in origin he
+is simply the 'spirit' of the 'animistic' period, and retains something
+of the spirit's characteristics. Thus among the divinities of the
+household we shall see later that the Genius and even the Lar
+Familiaris, though they attained great dignity of conception, and were
+the centre of the family life, and to some extent of the family
+morality, never quite rose to the position of full-grown gods; while
+among the spirits of the field the wildness and impishness of character
+associated with Faunus and his companion Inuus--almost the cobolds or
+hobgoblins of the flocks--reflects clearly the old 'animistic' belief
+in the natural evilness of the spirits and their hostility to men. The
+notion of the _numen_ is always vague and indefinite: even its sex may
+be uncertain. 'Be thou god or goddess' is the form of address in the
+farmer's prayer already quoted from Cato: 'be it male or 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 objects of nature
+and controllers of the phenomena of nature: but to the Roman they were
+more. Not merely did they inhabit places and things, but they presided
+over each phase of natural development, each state or action in the
+life of man. Varro, for instance, gives us a list of the deities
+concerned in the early life of the child, which, though it bears the
+marks of priestly elaboration, may yet be taken as typical of the
+feeling of the normal Roman family. There is Vaticanus, who opens the
+child's mouth to cry, Cunina, who guards his cradle, Edulia and Potina,
+who teach him to eat and drink, Statilinus, who helps him to stand up,
+Adeona and Abeona, who watch over his first footstep, and many others
+each with his special province of protection or assistance. The farmer
+similarly is in the hands of a whole host of divinities who assist him
+at each stage of ploughing, hoeing, sowing, reaping, and so forth. If
+the _numen_ then lacks personal individuality, he has a very distinct
+specialisation of 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 a character 'ask for water
+from Liber, or wine from the nymphs.' Hence we find in the prayer
+formulæ in Cato and elsewhere the most careful precautions to prevent
+the accidental omission of the 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 desire to be called.' The _numen_ is thus vague in
+his conception but specialised in his function, and so later on, when
+certain deities have acquired definite names and become prominent above
+the rest, the worshipper in appealing to them will add a cult-title, to
+indicate the special character in which he wishes the deity to hear:
+the woman in childbirth will appeal to Iuno Lucina, the general praying
+for victory to Iuppiter Victor, the man who is taking an oath to
+Iuppiter as the deus Fidius. As a still later development the
+cult-title will, as it were, break off and set up for itself, usually
+in the form of an abstract personification: Iuppiter, in the two
+special capacities just noted, gives birth to Victoria and Fides.
+
+The conception of the _numen_ being so formless and indefinite, it is
+not surprising that in the genuine Roman religion there should have
+been no anthropomorphic representations of the divinity at all. 'For
+170 years,' Varro tells us, taking his date from the traditional
+foundation of the city in 754 B.C., 'the Romans worshipped their gods
+without images,' and he adds the characteristic comment, 'those who
+introduced representations among the nations, took away fear and
+brought in falsehood.' Symbols of a few deities were no doubt
+recognised: we have noticed already the _silex_ of Iuppiter and the
+boundary-stone of Terminus, which were probably at an earlier period
+themselves objects of worship, and to these we may add the sacred
+spears of Mars, and the _sigilla_ of the State-Penates. But for the
+most part the _numina_ were without even such symbolic representation,
+nor till about the end of the regal period was any form of temple built
+for them to dwell in. The sacred fire of Vesta near the Forum was, it
+is true, from the earliest times enclosed in a building; this, however,
+was no temple, but merely an erection with the essentially practical
+purpose of preventing the extinction of the fire by rain. The first
+temple in the full sense of the word was according to tradition built
+by Servius Tullius to Diana on the Aventine: the tradition is
+significant, for Diana was not one of the _di indigetes_, the old
+deities of the 'Religion of Numa,' but was introduced from the
+neighbouring town of Aricia, and the attribution to Servius Tullius
+nearly always denotes an Etruscan[3] or at any rate a non-Roman origin.
+There were, however, altars in special places to particular deities,
+built sometimes of stone, sometimes in a more homely manner of earth or
+sods. We hear for instance of the altar of Mars in the Campus Martius,
+of Quirinus on the Quirinal, of Saturnus at the foot of the Capitol,
+and notably of the curious underground altar of Consus on what was
+later the site of the Circus Maximus. But more characteristic than the
+erection of altars is the connection of deities with special
+localities. Naturally enough in the worship of the household Vesta had
+her seat at the hearth, Ianus at the door, and the 'gods of the
+storehouse' (_Penates_) at the cupboard by the hearth, but the same
+idea appears too in the state-cult. Hilltops, groves, and especially
+clearings in groves (_luci_) are the most usual sacred localities. Thus
+Quirinus has his own sacred hill, Iuppiter is worshipped on the
+Capitol, Vesta and Iuno Lucina have their sacred groves within the
+boundaries of the city, and Dea Dia, Robigus, and Furrina similar
+groves at the limits of Roman territory. The record of almost every
+Roman cult reveals the importance of locality in connection with the
+_di indigetes_, and the localities are usually such as would be
+naturally chosen by a pastoral and agricultural people.
+
+Such were roughly the main outlines of the genuine Roman 'theology.'
+It has no gods of human form with human relations to one another,
+interested in the life of men and capable of the deepest passions of
+hatred and affection towards them, such as we meet, for instance, in
+the mythology of Greece, but only these impersonal individualities, if
+we may so call them, capable of no relation to one another, but able to
+bring good or ill to men, localised usually in their habitations, but
+requiring no artificial dwelling or elaborate adornment of their abode;
+becoming gradually 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 of
+inspiring devotion or enthusiasm. Let us ask next how the Romans
+conceived of their own relations towards them.
+
+=2. The Relation of Gods and Men.=--The character of the 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 of sentiment or affection: all must be
+regulated by clearly understood principles and carried out with formal
+exactness. Hence the _ius sacrum_, the body of rights and duties in the
+matter of religion, is regarded as a department of the _ius publicum_,
+the fundamental constitution of the state, and it is significant, as
+Marquardt has observed, that it was Numa, a king and lawgiver, and not
+a prophet or a poet, who was looked upon as the founder of the Roman
+religion. Starting from the simple general feeling of a dependence on a
+higher power (_religio_), which is common to all religions, the Roman
+gives it his own characteristic colour when he conceives of that
+dependence as analogous 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
+fulfilled 'his bounden duty and service,' the god must make his return:
+if he does not, either the cause lies in an unconscious failure on the
+human side to carry out the exact letter of the law, or else, if the
+god 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 of Rome's readiness under stress of circumstances, when all
+appeals to the old gods have failed, to adopt foreign deities and cults
+in the hope of a greater measure of success.
+
+The contract-notion may perhaps appear more clearly if we consider one
+or two of the normal religious acts of the Roman individual or state.
+Take first of all the performance of the regular sacrifices or acts of
+worship ordained by the state-calendar or the celebration of the
+household _sacra_. The _pietas_ of man consists in their due
+fulfilment, but he may through negligence omit them or 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 not obliged to fulfil their
+share, but the man can set himself right again by the offering of a
+_piaculum_, which may take the form either of an additional sacrifice
+or a repetition of the original rite. So, for instance, when Cato is
+giving his farmer directions for the lustration of his fields, he
+supplies him at the end with two significant formulæ: 'if,' he says,
+'you have failed in any respect with regard to all your offerings, use
+this formula: "Father Mars, if thou hast not found satisfaction in my
+former offering of pig, sheep, and ox (the most solemn combination in
+rustic sacrifices), then let this offering of pig and sheep and ox
+appease thee": but if you have made a mistake in one or two only of
+your offerings, then say, "Father Mars, because thou hast not found
+satisfaction in that pig (or whatever it may be), let this pig appease
+thee."' On the other hand, for intentional neglect, there was no
+remedy: the man was _impius_ and it rested with the gods to punish him
+as they liked (_deorum iniuriae dis curae_).
+
+But apart from the regularly constituted ceremonies of religion, there
+might be special occasions on which new relations would be entered into
+between god and man. Sometimes the initiative would come from man:
+desiring to obtain from the gods some blessings on which he had set
+his heart, he would enter into a _votum_, a special contract by which
+he undertook to perform certain acts or make certain sacrifices, in
+case of the fulfilment of his desire. The whole proceeding is strictly
+legal: from the moment when he makes his vow the man is _voti reus_, in
+the same position, that is, as the defendant in a case whose decision
+is still pending; as soon as the gods have accomplished their side of
+the contract he is _voti damnatus_, condemned, as it were, to damages,
+having lost his suit; nor does he recover his independence until he has
+paid what he undertook: _votum reddidi lubens merito_ ('I have paid my
+vow gladly as it was due') is the characteristic wording of votive
+inscriptions. If the gods did not accomplish the wish, the man was of
+course free, and sometimes the contract would be carried so far that a
+time-limit for their action would be fixed by the maker of the vow:
+legal exactness can hardly go further.
+
+Or again, the initiative might come from the gods. Some marked
+misfortune, an earthquake, lightning, a great famine, a portentous
+birth, or some such occurrence would be recognised as a _prodigium_, or
+sign of the god's displeasure. Somehow or other the contract must have
+been broken on the human side and it was the duty of the state to see
+to the restoration of the _pax deum_, the equilibrium of the normal
+relation of god and man. The right proceeding in such a case was a
+_lustratio_, a solemn cleansing of the people--or the portion of the
+people involved in the god's displeasure--with the double object of
+removing the original reason of misfortune and averting future causes
+of the divine anger. The commercial notion is not perhaps quite so
+distinct here, but the underlying legal relationship is sufficiently
+marked.
+
+If then the question be asked whether the relation between the Roman
+and his gods was friendly or unfriendly, the correct answer would
+probably be that it was neither. It was rather what Aristotle in
+speaking of human 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. Ceremonial.=--It has been said sometimes that the old Roman
+religion was one of cult and ritual without dogma or belief. As we have
+seen this is not in origin strictly true, and it would be fairer to say
+that belief was latent rather than non-existent: this we may see, for
+instance, from Cicero's dialogues on the subject of religion, where in
+discussion the fundamental sense of the dependence of man on the help
+of the gods comes clearly into view: in the domestic worship of the
+family too cult was always to some extent 'tinged with emotion,' and
+sanctified by a belief which made it a more living and in the end a
+more permanent reality than the religion of the state. But it is no
+doubt true that as the community advanced, belief tended to sink into
+the background: development took place in cult and not in theology, so
+that by the end of the Republic, to take an example, though the
+festival of the Furrinalia was duly observed every year on the 25th of
+July, the nature or function of the goddess Furrina was, as we learn
+from Cicero, a pure matter of conjecture, and Varro tells us that her
+name was known only to a few persons. Nor was it mere lapse of time
+which tended to obscure theology and exalt ceremonial: their relative
+position was the immediate and natural outcome of the underlying idea
+of the relation of god and man. Devotion, piety--in our sense of the
+term--and a feeling of the divine presence could not be enjoined or
+even encouraged by the strictly legal conception on which religion was
+based: the 'contract-notion' required not a 'right spirit' but right
+performance. And so it comes about that in all the records we have left
+of the old religion the salient feature which catches and retains our
+attention is exactness of ritual. All must be performed not merely
+'decently and in order,' but with the most scrupulous care alike for
+every detail of the ceremonial itself, and for the surrounding
+circumstances. The omission or misplacement of a single word in the
+formulæ, the slightest sign of resistance on the part of the victim,
+any disorder among the bystanders, even the accidental squeak of a
+mouse, are sufficient to vitiate the whole ritual and necessitate its
+repetition from the very beginning. One of the main functions of the
+Roman priesthood was to preserve intact the tradition of formulæ and
+ritual, and, when the magistrate offered sacrifice for the state, the
+_pontifex_ stood at his side and dictated (_praeire_) the formulæ which
+he must use. Almost the oldest specimen of Latin which we now possess
+is the song of the Salii, the priests of Mars, handed on from
+generation to generation and repeated with scrupulous care, even though
+the priests themselves, as Quintilian assures us, had not the least
+notion what it meant. Nor was it merely the words of ceremonial which
+were of vital importance: other details must be attended to with equal
+exactness. Place, as we have seen, was an essential feature even in the
+conception of deity, and it must have required all the personal
+influence of Augustus and his entourage to reconcile the people of
+Rome, with the ancient home of the goddess still before their eyes, to
+the second shrine of Vesta within the limits of his palace on the
+Palatine. The choice of the appropriate offering again was a matter of
+the greatest moment and was dictated by a large number of
+considerations. The sex of the victim must correspond to the sex of the
+deity to whom it is offered, white beasts must be given to the gods of
+the upper world, black victims to the deities below. Mars at his
+October festival must have his horse, Iuno Caprotina her goat, and
+Robigus his dog, while in the more rustic festivals such as the
+Parilia, the offering would be the simpler gift of millet-cakes and
+bowls of milk: in the case of the Bona Dea we have the curious
+provision that if wine were used in the ceremonial, it must, as she was
+in origin a pastoral deity, always be spoken of as 'milk.' The persons
+who might be present in the various festivals were also rigidly
+determined: men were excluded from the Matronalia on March 1, from the
+Vestalia on the 9th of June, and from the night festival of the Bona
+Dea: the notorious escapade of Clodius in 62 B.C. shows the scandal
+raised by a breach of this rule even at the period when religious
+enthusiasm was at its lowest ebb. Slaves were specifically admitted to
+a share in certain festivals such as the Saturnalia and the Compitalia
+(the festival of the Lares), whereas at the Matralia (the festival of
+the matrons) a female slave was brought in with the express purpose of
+being significantly driven away.
+
+The general notion of the exactness of ritual will perhaps become
+clearer when we come to examine some of the festivals in detail, but it
+is of extreme importance for the understanding of the Roman religious
+attitude, to think of it from the first as an essential part in the
+expression of the relation of man to god.
+
+=4. Directness of Relation--Functions of Priests.=--In contrast to all
+this precision of ritual, which tends almost to alienate humanity from
+deity, we may turn to another hardly less prominent feature of the
+Roman religion--the immediateness of relation between the god and his
+worshippers. Not only may the individual at any time approach the altar
+of the god with his prayer or thank-offering, but in every community of
+persons its religious representative is its natural head. In the
+family the head of the household (_pater familias_) is also the priest
+and he is responsible for conducting the religious worship of the whole
+house, free and slave alike: to his wife and daughters he leaves the
+ceremonial connected with the hearth (_Vesta_) and the deities of the
+store-cupboard (_Penates_), and to his bailiff the sacrifice to the
+powers who protect his fields (_Lares_), but the other acts of worship
+at home and in the fields he conducts himself, and his sons act as his
+acolytes. Once a year he meets with his neighbours at the boundaries of
+their properties and celebrates the common worship over the
+boundary-stones. So in[4] the larger outgrowth of the family, the
+_gens_, which consisted of all persons with the same surname (_nomen_,
+not _cognomen_), the gentile _sacra_ are in the hands of the more
+wealthy members who are regarded as its heads; we have the curious
+instance of Clodius even after his adoption into another family,
+providing for the worship of the _gens Clodia_ in his own house, and we
+may remember Virgil's picture of the founders of the _gentes_ of the
+Potitii and the Pinarii performing the sacrifice to Hercules at the
+_ara maxima_, which was the traditional privilege of their houses.
+When societies (_sodalitates_) are formed for religious purposes they
+elect their own _magistri_ to be their religious representatives, as we
+see in the case of the Salii and the Luperci. Finally, in the great
+community of the state the king is priest, and with that exactness of
+parallelism of which the Roman was so fond, he--like the _pater
+familias_--leaves the worship of Vesta in the hands of his 'daughters,'
+the Vestal virgins. And so, when the Republic is instituted, a special
+official, the _rex sacrorum_, inherits the king's ritual duties, while
+the superintendence of the Vestals passes to his representative in the
+matter of religious law, the _pontifex maximus_, whose official
+residence is always the _regia_, Numa's palace. The state is but the
+enlarged household and the head of the state is its religious
+representative.
+
+If then the approach to the gods is so direct, where, it may be asked,
+in the organisation of Roman religion is there room for the priest? Two
+points about the Roman priesthood are of paramount importance. In the
+first place, they are not a caste apart: though there were restrictions
+as to the holding of secular magistracies in combination with the
+priesthood--always observed strictly in the case of the _rex sacrorum_
+and with few exceptions in the case of the greater _flamines_--yet the
+_pontifices_ might always take their part in public life, and no kind
+of barrier existed between them and the rest of the community: Iulius
+Cæsar himself was _pontifex maximus_. In the second place they are not
+regarded as representatives of the gods or as mediators between god and
+man, but simply as administrative officials appointed for the
+performance of the acts of state-worship, just as 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--the
+_flamines_ were to act as special priests of particular deities, the
+most prominent among them being the three great priests of Iuppiter
+(_flamen Dialis_), Mars, and Quirinus; the _pontifices_ were sometimes
+delegates of the king on special occasions, but more particularly
+formed his religious _consilium_, a consulting body, to give him advice
+as to ritual and act as the repositories of tradition. In later times
+the _flamines_ still retain their original character, the _pontifices_
+and especially the _pontifex maximus_ are responsible for the whole
+organisation of the 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 a general superintendence
+over private worship and their leave would be required for the
+introduction of any new domestic cult; in cases too where the private
+person was in doubt as to ritual or the legitimacy of any religious
+practice, he could appeal to the _pontifices_ for decision. Otherwise
+the priest could never intervene in the worship of the family, except
+in the case of the most solemn form of marriage (_confarreatio_),
+which, as it conferred on the children the right to hold certain of the
+priesthoods, was regarded itself as a ceremony of the state-religion.
+
+In his private worship then the individual had immediate access to the
+deity, and it was no doubt this absence of priestly mediation and the
+consequent sense of personal responsibility, no less than its emotional
+significance, which caused the greater reality and permanence of the
+domestic worship as compared with the organised and official cults of
+the state.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[3] Etruscan builders were according to tradition employed on the
+earliest Roman temples.
+
+[4] This is all open to doubt, but see De Marchi, _Il Culto Privato_,
+vol. ii.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+EARLY HISTORY OF ROME--THE AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITY
+
+
+After this sketch of the main features which we must expect to find in
+Roman religion, we may attempt to look a little more in detail at its
+various departments, but before doing so it is necessary to form some
+notion of the situation and character of the Roman community: religion
+is not a little determined by men's natural surroundings and
+occupations. The subject is naturally one of considerable controversy,
+but certain facts of great significance for our purpose may fairly be
+taken as established. The earliest settlement which can be called
+'Rome' was the community of the Palatine hill, which rises out of the
+valleys more abruptly than any of the other hills and was the natural
+place to be selected for fortification: the outline of the walls and
+sacred enclosure running outside them (_pomoerium_) may still be
+traced, marking the limits of 'square Rome' (_Roma quadrata_), as the
+historians called it. The Palatine community no 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
+Septimontium--the next stage of Rome's development. Meanwhile a kindred
+settlement had been established on the opposite hills of 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 this way was formed the Rome
+of the Four Regions, which represents the utmost extent of its
+development during the period which gave rise to the genuine Roman
+religion. All these stages have left their mark on the customs of
+religion. _Roma quadrata_ comes to the fore in the Lupercalia: not
+merely is the site of the ceremony a grotto on the Palatine
+(_Lupercal_), but when the _Luperci_ run their purificatory course
+around the boundaries, it is the circuit of the Palatine hill which
+marks its limits. Annually on the 11th of December the festival of the
+Septimontium was celebrated, not by the whole people, but by the
+_montani_, presumably the inhabitants of those parts of Rome which
+were included in the second settlement. Finally, the addition of the
+Quirinal settlement is marked by the inclusion among the great
+state-gods of Quirinus, who must have been previously the local deity
+of the Quirinal community.
+
+But more important for us than the history of the early settlement is
+its character. We have spoken of early Rome as an agricultural
+community: it would be more exact and more helpful to describe it as a
+community of agricultural households. The institutions of Rome, legal
+as well as religious, all point to the household (_familia_) as the
+original unit of organisation: the individual, as such, counted for
+nothing, the community was but the aggregate of families. Domestic
+worship then was not merely independent of the religion of the
+community: it was prior to it, and is both its historical and logical
+origin. Yet the life of the early Roman agriculturalist could not be
+confined to the household: in the tilling of the fields and the care of
+his cattle he meets his neighbour, and common interests suggest common
+prayer and thanksgiving. Thus there sprung up the great series of
+agricultural festivals which form the basis of the state-calendar, but
+were in origin--as some of them still continued to be--the independent
+acts of worship of groups of agricultural households. Gradually, as the
+community grew on the lines we have just seen, there grew with it a
+sense of an organised state, as something more than the casual
+aggregation of households or clans (_gentes_). As the feeling of union
+became stronger, so did the necessity for common worship of the gods,
+and the state-cult came into being primarily as the repetition on
+behalf of the community as a whole of the worship which its members
+performed separately in their households or as joint-worshippers in the
+fields. But the conception of a state must carry with it at least two
+ideas over and beyond the common needs of its members: there must be
+internal organisation to secure domestic tranquillity, and--since there
+will be collision with other states--external organisation for purposes
+of offence and defence. Religion follows the new ideas, and in two of
+the older deities of the fields develops the notions of justice and
+war. Organisation ensues, and the general conceptions of state-deities
+and state-ritual are made more definite and 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--the worship of the household, the worship of the fields, the
+worship of 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 distinguishable from that of the
+fields, the state-cult is, as we have seen, very largely a replica of
+the other two. The evidence for the domestic and agricultural cults is
+in itself very scanty, and we shall frequently have to draw inferences
+from their counterparts in the state. Above all, it is not to be
+supposed that any hard and fast line between the three existed in the
+Roman's mind; but for the purposes of analysis the distinction is
+valuable and represents a historical reality.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+WORSHIP OF THE HOUSEHOLD
+
+
+=1. The Deities.=--The worship of the household seems to have
+originated, as has been suggested, in the sense of the sacredness of
+certain objects closely bound up with the family life--the door, the
+protection against the external world, by which the household went out
+to work in the morning and returned at evening, the hearth, the giver
+of warmth and nourishment, and the store-cupboard, where was preserved
+the food for future use. At first, in all probability, the worship was
+actually of the objects themselves, but by the time that Rome can be
+said to have existed at all, 'animism' had undoubtedly transformed it
+into a veneration of the indwelling spirits, Ianus, Vesta, and the
+Penates.
+
+Of the domestic worship of Ianus no information has come down to us,
+but we may well suppose that as the defence of the door and its main
+use lay with the men of the household, so they, under the control of
+the _pater familias_, were responsible for the cult of its spirit.
+Vesta was, of course, worshipped at the hearth by the women, who most
+often used it in the preparation of 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 of Vesta) would be the most conspicuously sacred thing; it is
+therefore not surprising to find that her simple cult was the most
+persistent of all throughout the history of Rome, and did not vary from
+its original notion. Even Ovid can tell the inquirer 'think not Vesta
+to be ought else than living flame,' and again, 'Vesta and fire require
+no effigy'--notions in which he has come curiously near to the
+conceptions of the earliest religion. The Penates in the same way were
+at first 'the spirits'--whoever they might be--who preserved and
+increased the store in the cupboard. Then as the conception of
+individual deities became clearer, they were identified with some one
+or other of the gods of the country or the state, among whom the
+individual householder would select those who should be the particular
+Penates of his family: Ceres, Iuno, Iuppiter, Pales would be some of
+those chosen in the earlier period. Nor are we to suppose that
+selection was merely arbitrary: the tradition of family and clan, even
+possibly of locality, would determine the choice, much as the
+patron-saints of a church are now determined in a Roman Catholic
+country.
+
+Two other deities are very prominent in the worship of the early
+household, and each is a characteristic product of Roman religious
+feeling, the Lar Familiaris and the Genius. The Lares[5] seem to have
+been in origin the spirits of the family fields: they were worshipped,
+as Cicero tells us, 'on the farm in sight of the house,' and they had
+their annual festival in the Compitalia, celebrated at the
+_compita_--places where two or more properties marched. But one of
+these spirits, the _Lar Familiaris_, had special charge of the house
+and household, and as such was worshipped with the other domestic gods
+at the hearth. As his protection extended over all the household,
+including the slaves, his cult is placed specially in the charge of the
+bailiff's wife (_vilica_). He is regularly worshipped at the great
+divisions of the month on Calends, Nones, and Ides, but he has also an
+intimate and beautiful connection with the domestic history of the
+family. An offering is made to the Lar on the occasion of a birth, a
+wedding, a departure, or a return, and even--a characteristically Roman
+addition--on the occasion of the first utterance of 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 conception in the Roman
+religion for the modern mind to grasp. It has been spoken of as the
+'patron-saint' or 'guardian-angel,' both of them conceptions akin to
+that of the Genius, but both far too definite and anthropomorphic: we
+shall understand it best by keeping the '_numen_' notion clearly in
+mind and looking to the root-meaning of the word (_genius_ connected
+with the root of _gignere_, to beget). It was after all only a natural
+development of the notions of 'animism' to imagine that man too, like
+other objects, had his indwelling spirit--not his 'soul' either in our
+sense of moral and intellectual powers, or in the ancient sense of the
+vital principle--but rather as the derivation suggests, in origin
+simply the spirit which gave him the power of generation. Hence in the
+house, the sphere of the Genius is no longer the hearth but the
+marriage-bed (_lectus genialis_). This notion growing somewhat wider,
+the Genius comes to denote all the full powers, almost the personality,
+of developed manhood, and especially those powers which make for
+pleasure and happiness: this is the origin of such common phrases as
+_genium curare_, _genio indulgere_, meaning practically to 'look after
+oneself,' 'to indulge oneself.' Every man, then, has this 'spirit of
+his manhood' in his Genius, and correspondingly every woman her Iuno,
+or spirit of womanhood, which are worshipped on the birthdays of their
+owners. No doubt later the Genius was accredited with powers over the
+fortune and misfortune of his possessor, but he never really developed
+anything like the independence of a god, and remained always rather a
+_numen_. The individual revered his own Genius, but the household cult
+was concerned, as one would expect, with the Genius of the master of
+the house, the pre-eminent Genius of the family. Its special locality
+was, for the reason just noticed, the marriage-bed and its symbol, the
+house-snake, kept as a revered inmate and cherished in the feeling that
+evil happening to it meant misfortune to the master. The festival of
+the Genius was naturally the master's birthday, and on that day slaves
+and freedmen kept holiday with the family and brought offerings to the
+_Genius domus_. It is a significant fact, and may serve to bring out
+the underlying notion, that in later paintings, when anthropomorphism
+and sensuous representation held sway over all Roman religion, though
+the other gods of the household were depicted after the manner of Greek
+deities, the Genius is either represented by his symbolic snake or
+appears with the human features and characteristics of the head of the
+house, his owner.
+
+The spirit-gods then of the door and the hearth, the specially chosen
+deities of the store-cupboard, the particular field-power presiding
+over the household, and the spirit of the master's personality were the
+gods of the early home, and round their worship centred the domestic
+religion. We must attempt to see what was its relation to family life.
+
+=2. Religion and the Family Life.=--We have already noticed the main
+occasions of regular sacrifice to the deities of the household, the
+offerings to the Lar on Calends, Nones, and Ides, to the Genius on the
+master's birthday, and so on, and we are enabled to form a fair picture
+of the rites from paintings which, although of later date, undoubtedly
+represent the continuous tradition of domestic custom. In a
+wall-painting at Herculaneum, for instance, we have a picture of the
+_pater familias_, represented with veiled head (according to regular
+Roman custom) and the cornucopia of the Genius, making sacrifice at a
+round altar or hearth. Opposite him stands the flute-player (_tibicen_)
+playing to drown any unpropitious sound, while on either side are two
+smaller figures, presumably the sons, acting as attendants (_camilli_),
+and both clad (_succincti_) in the short sacrificial tunic (_limus_);
+one carries in his left hand the sacred dish (_patera_), and in his
+right garlands or, more probably, ribbons for the decoration of the
+victim: the other is acting as _victimarius_ and bringing the pig for
+sacrifice, but the animal is hurrying with almost excessive eagerness
+towards the altar, no doubt to show that there is none of the
+reluctance which would have been sufficient to vitiate the sacrifice.
+
+But from our point of view such formal acts of worship are of less
+importance than the part played by religion in the daily life of the
+household. There is evidence both for earlier and later periods that
+the really 'pious' would begin their day with prayer and sacrifice to
+the household gods, and like Virgil's Aeneas, typically _pius_ in all
+the meanings of the word, would 'rouse the slumbering flame upon the
+altar and gladly approach again the Lar and little Penates whom he
+worshipped yesterday.' But this was perhaps exceptional devotion, and
+the daily worship in the normal household centred rather round the
+family meal. In the old and simple house the table would be placed at
+the side of the hearth, and, as the household sat round it, master and
+man together, a part of the meal, set aside on a special sacred dish
+(_patella_), would be thrown into the flames as the gods' portion.
+Sometimes incense might be added, and later a libation of wine: when
+images had become common, the little statuettes of Lares and Penates
+would be fetched from the shrine (_lararium_) and placed upon the table
+in token of their presence at the meal. Even in the luxurious,
+many-roomed house of the imperial epoch, when the dining-table was far
+from the kitchen-hearth, a pause was made in the meal and an offering
+sent out to the household-gods, nor would the banquet proceed until the
+slave had returned and announced that the gods were favourable (_deos
+propitios_): so persistent was this tradition of domestic piety. Prayer
+might be made at this point on special occasions to special deities,
+as, for instance, before the beginning of the sowing of the crops,
+appeal was made to Iuppiter, and a special portion of the meal (_daps_)
+was set aside for him. The sanctification of the one occasion when the
+whole household met in the day cannot fail to have had its effect 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 on a higher
+power for the supply of their daily needs.
+
+We observed incidentally how the small events of domestic life were
+given their religious significance, particularly in connection with the
+worship of Lar and Genius, but to complete the sketch of domestic
+religion, we must examine a little more closely its relation to the
+process of life, and especially to the two important occasions of birth
+and marriage. In no department of life is the specialisation of
+function among the _numina_ more conspicuous than in connection with
+birth and childhood. Apart from the general protection of Iuno Lucina,
+the prominent divinity of childbirth, we can count in the records that
+have come down to us some twenty subordinate spirits, who from the
+moment of conception to the moment of birth watched, each in its own
+particular sphere, over the mother and the unborn child. As soon as the
+birth had taken place began a series of ceremonies, which are of
+particular interest, as they seem to belong to a very early stage of
+religious thought, and have a markedly rustic character. Immediately a
+sacred meal was offered to the two field-deities, Picumnus and
+Pilumnus, and then the Roman turned his attention to the practical
+danger of fever for the mother and child. At night three men gathered
+round the threshold, one armed with an axe, another with a stake, and a
+third with a broom: the two first struck the threshold with their
+implements, the third swept out the floor. Over this ceremony were said
+to preside three _numina_, Intercidona (connected with the axe),
+Pilumnus (connected with the stake, _pilum_), and Deverra (connected
+with the act of sweeping). Its object was, as Varro explains it, to
+avert the entrance of the half-wild Silvanus by giving three
+unmistakeable signs of human civilisation; we shall probably not be
+wrong in seeing in it rather an actual hacking, beating, and sweeping
+away of evil spirits. On the ninth day after birth, in the case of a
+boy, on the eighth in the case of a girl, occurred the festival of the
+naming (_solemnitas nominalium_). The ceremony was one of purification
+(_dies lustricus_ is its alternative title), and a piacular offering
+was made to preserve the child from evil influences in the future.
+Friends brought presents, especially neck-bands in the form of a
+half-moon (_lunulae_), and the golden balls (_bullae_) which were worn
+as a charm round the neck until the attainment of 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 until he arrived at puberty, about the age of seventeen, when
+with due religious ceremony he entered on his manhood. At home, on the
+morning of the festival, he solemnly laid aside the _bulla_ and the
+purple-striped garb of childhood (_toga praetexta_) before the shrine
+of the household gods, and made them a thank-offering for their
+protection in the past. Afterwards, accompanied by his father and
+friends and clad now in the _toga virilis_, he went solemnly to the
+Capitol, and, after placing a contribution in the coffers of
+Iuventas--or probably in earlier times of Iuppiter Iuventus--made an
+offering to the supreme deity Iuppiter Capitolinus. The sacred
+character of the early years of a young Roman's life could hardly be
+more closely marked.
+
+Though _confarreatio_ was the only essentially religious form of
+marriage, and was sanctified by the presence of the _pontifex maximus_
+and the _flamen Dialis_, yet marriage even in the less religious
+ceremony of _coemptio_ was always a _sacrum_. It must not take place on
+the days of state-festivals (_feriae_), nor on certain other _dies
+religiosi_, such as those of the Vestalia or the feast of the dead
+(_Parentalia_). Both the marriage itself and the preliminary betrothal
+(_sponsalia_) had to receive the divine sanction by means of auspices,
+and in the ceremonies of both rites the religious element, though bound
+up with superstition and folk-customs, emerges clearly enough. The
+central ceremony of the _confarreatio_ was an act partly of sacrifice,
+partly, one might almost say, of communion. The bride and bridegroom
+sat on two chairs united to one another and covered with a lambskin,
+they offered to Iuppiter bloodless offerings of a rustic character
+(_fruges et molam salsam_), they employed in the sacrifice the
+fundamental household necessaries, water, fire, and salt, and
+themselves ate of the sacred spelt-cake (_libus farreus_), from which
+the ceremony derived its name. The crucial point in the more civil
+ceremony of _coemptio_ was the purely human and legal act of the
+joining of hands (_dextrarum iunctio_), 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 of the
+bride to the bridegroom's house--so beautifully depicted in Catullus'
+_Epithalamium_--her forcible abduction from her parents, the ribaldry
+of the bridegroom's companions, the throwing of nuts as a symbol of
+fecundity, the carrying of the bride over the threshold, a relic
+probably of primitive marriage by capture, the untying of the bridal
+knot on the bridal couch--are perhaps more akin to superstition than
+religion, but we may notice two points in the proceedings. Firstly, the
+three coins (_asses_) which the bride brought with her, one to give to
+her husband as a token of dowry, one to be offered at the hearth to her
+new Lar Familiaris, one to be offered subsequently at the nearest
+_compitum_ (a clear sign of connection between the household Lar and
+those of the fields); and secondly, an echo of the feature so marked
+all through domestic life, the crowd of little _numina_, who took their
+part in assisting the ceremony. There was Domiduca, who brought the
+bride to the bridegroom's house, Iterduca, who looked after her on the
+transit, Unxia, who anointed her, Cinxia, who bound and unbound her
+girdle, and many others.
+
+This sketch of the household worship of the Romans will, I hope, have
+justified my contention that there was in it an element more truly
+'religious' than anything we should gather from the ceremonies of the
+state. The ideas are simpler, the _numina_ seem less cold and more
+protective, the worshippers more sensible of divine aid. When we have
+looked at the companion picture of the farmer in the fields, we shall
+go on to see how the worship of the agricultural household is the
+prototype and basis of the state-cult, but first we must consider
+briefly the very difficult question of the relation of the living to
+the dead.
+
+=3. Relation of the Living and the Dead.=--The worship of the spirits
+of dead ancestors is so common a feature in most primitive religions
+that it may seem strange even to doubt whether it existed among the
+Romans, but, although the question is one of extreme difficulty, and
+the evidence very insufficient, I am inclined to believe that, though
+the living were always conscious of their continued relation to the
+dead, and sensitive of the influence of the powers of the underworld,
+yet there was not, strictly speaking, any cult of the dead. Let us
+attempt briefly to collect the salient features in ritual, and see to
+what conclusion they point as to the underlying belief.
+
+One of the most remarkable facts in domestic worship is that, whereas
+the moment of birth and the other great occasions of life are
+surrounded with religious ceremony and belief, the moment of death
+passes without any trace of religious accompaniment: 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 protect him. As to his state
+after death, opinion varied at different times under different
+influences, but the simple early notion, connected especially with the
+practice of burial as opposed to cremation,[6] was that his spirit just
+sank into the earth, where it rested and returned from time to time to
+the upper world through certain openings in the ground (_mundi_), whose
+solemn uncovering was one of the regular observances of the festal
+calendar: later, no doubt, a more spiritual notion prevailed, though it
+never reached definiteness or universality. One idea, however, seems
+always to be prominent, that the happiness of the dead could be much
+affected by the due performance of the funeral rites; hence it was the
+most solemn duty of the heir to perform the _iusta_ for the dead, and
+if he failed in any respect to carry them out, he could only atone for
+his omission by the annual sacrifice of a sow (_porca praecidanea_) to
+Ceres and Tellus--to the divinities of the earth, be it noticed, and
+not to the dead themselves. The actual funeral was not a religious
+ceremony; a procession was formed (originally at night) of the family
+and friends, in which the body of the dead was carried--accompanied by
+the busts (_imagines_) of his ancestors--to a tomb outside the town,
+and was there laid in the grave. The family on their return proceeded
+at once to rites of purification from the contamination which had
+overtaken them owing to the presence of a dead body. Two ceremonies
+were performed, one for the purification of the house by the sacrifice
+of a sow (_porca praesentanea_) to Ceres accompanied by a solemn
+sweeping out of refuse (_exverræ_), the other the lustration of their
+own persons by fire and water. This done, they sat down with their
+friends to a funeral feast (_silicernium_), which, Cicero tells us, was
+regarded as an honour rather to the surviving members of the family
+than to the dead, so that mourning was not worn. Two other ceremonies
+within the following week, the _feriae denicales_ and the _novendiale
+sacrum_, brought the religious mourning to a close. Not that the dead
+were forgotten after the funeral: year by year, on the anniversaries of
+death and burial, and on certain fixed occasions known by such
+suggestive titles as 'the day of roses' and 'the day of violets,' the
+family would revisit the tomb and make simple offerings of salt cake
+(_mola salsa_), of bread soaked in wine, or garlands of flowers: there
+is some trace, on such occasions, of prayer, but it would seem to be
+rather the repetition of general religious formulæ than a petition to
+the dead for definite blessings.
+
+Such are the principal features of the family ritual in relation to
+their dead; but if we are to form any just notion of belief, we must
+supplement them by reference to the ceremonies of the state, which
+here, as elsewhere, are very clearly the household-cult 'writ large.'
+In the Calendars we find two obvious celebrations in connection with
+the dead, taking place at different seasons of the year, and consisting
+of ceremonies markedly different in character. In the gloomy month of
+February--associated with solemn lustrations--occurs the festival known
+popularly (though not in the Calendars) as the Parentalia or dies
+Parentales, that is, the days of sacrifice in connection with the dead
+members of the family (_parentes_, _parentare_). It begins with the
+note on February 13, _Virgo Vestalis parentat_, and continues till the
+climax, _Feralia_, on February 21. During these days the magistrates
+laid aside the insignia of their offices, the temples were shut,
+marriages were forbidden, and every family carried out at the tombs of
+its relatives ceremonies resembling those of the _sacra privata_. The
+whole season closed on February 22 with the festival of the Caristia or
+_cara cognatio_, a family reunion of the survivors in a kind of
+'love-feast,' which centred in the worship of the Lar Familiaris. Here
+we seem to have simply, as in the family rites, a peaceful and solemn
+acknowledgment by the community as a whole of the still subsisting
+relation of the living and the dead. On the 9th, 11th, and 13th of May
+occurs the Lemuria, a ceremony of a strikingly different order. Once
+again temples are shut and marriages forbidden, but the ritual is of a
+very different nature. The _Lemures_ or _Larvae_--for there seems to be
+little distinction between the two names--are regarded no longer as
+members of the family to be welcomed back to their place, but as
+hostile spirits to be exorcised.[7] The head of the house rises from
+bed at midnight, washes, and walks barefoot through the house, making
+signs for the aversion of evil spirits. In his mouth he carries black
+beans--always a chthonic symbol--which he spits out nine times without
+looking round, saying, as he does so, 'With these I redeem me and
+mine': he washes again, and clanks brass vessels together; nine times
+he repeats the formula, 'depart, Manes of our fathers' (no doubt using
+the dignified title Manes euphemistically), and then finally turns
+round. Here we have in a quite unmistakeable manner the feeling of the
+hostility of the spirits of the dead: they must be given their
+appropriate food and got out of the place as quickly as possible. Some
+scholars have attempted to explain the difference between these two
+festivals on the assumption that the Parentalia represents the
+commemoration of 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 of anything approaching divinity in
+connection with the dead or the underworld as distinct from the
+earth-goddesses, but the evidence for it, though vague and shadowy, is
+not wanting. Certain mysterious female deities, Tarpeia, Acca Larentia,
+Carna, and Laverna, of whom late ætiological myth had its own
+explanation, have, in all probability, been rightly interpreted by
+Mommsen as divinities of the lower world: the commemorative 'sacrifice
+at the tomb,' which we hear of in connection with the first two, was in
+reality, we may suppose, an offering to a chthonic deity at a _mundus_.
+A rather more tangible personality is Vediovis, who three times a year
+has his celebration (_Agonia_ not _feriae_) in the Calendar: he, as his
+name denotes, must be the 'opposite of Iove,' that is, probably, his
+chthonic counterpart, a notion sufficiently borne out by his subsequent
+identification with the Greek Pluto. Finally, of course, there is that
+vague body, the Di Manes, 'the good gods,' the principal deities of the
+world of the dead; to them invocations are addressed, and they have
+their place in the formulæ of the _parentalia_ and the opening of the
+_mundi_.[8] In connection with them, acting as a link with the female
+deities, we have the strange goddess Genita Mana, the 'spirit of birth
+and death.'
+
+Controversy is acute as to the interpretation of these facts,
+especially in regard to the question whether or no the spirits of the
+dead were actually worshipped. I would hazard the following
+reconstruction of 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 of the living,
+especially in relation to the crops which sprung from the ground in
+which they lay. At first, when his religion was one 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 increased, and the sense of the unity of household and
+community developed, fear, proving ungrounded, gave place to a kindlier
+feeling of 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 _sacra privata_ and the
+Parentalia. When the _numen_-feeling began to pass into that of _deus_,
+in the first place a connection was felt between the spirits of the
+dead and the deities of the earth associated with the growth of the
+crops, in the second the notion that the underworld must have its gods
+as well as the world above, produced the shadowy female deities and
+Vediovis. Lastly, the same kind of feeling which added Parentalia to
+Lemuria developed the vague general notion of the Di Manes, not the
+deified spirits of the dead, but peaceful and on the whole kindly
+divinities holding sway in the world of dead spirits, yet accessible to
+the prayers of the living. The dead, then, were not themselves
+worshipped, but they needed commemoration and kindly gifts, and they
+had in their lower world deities to whom prayer might be made and
+worship given.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[5] It is right to state that there is a totally different theory,
+according to which the Lares were the spirits of the dead ancestors and
+the Lar Familiaris an embodiment, as it were, of all the family dead.
+
+[6] It is significant that even when the dead were cremated, one bone
+was carefully preserved in order to be symbolically buried.
+
+[7] We may note that, though it is a state festival, our information is
+solely of rites in individual households.
+
+[8] Their mention in sepulchral inscriptions dates from the time of the
+Empire, when a new conception of their nature had sprung up.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+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 of agricultural festivals
+which constitute the greater part of the celebrations in the Calendar,
+and follow closely the seasons and occupations of the agricultural
+year. We are, of course, in the Calendar dealing, to speak strictly,
+with the worship of the state, and not with the semi-private festivals
+of groups of farmers, but in many instances, such as the Robigalia, the
+state seems only to have taken over the cult of the farmers, preserving
+carefully the site on which the celebration took place; in others, such
+as the Terminalia and the Parilia, it seems to have established, as it
+were, a state-counterpart of a rite performed independently at many
+rustic centres: in both cases we are justified in inferring the
+practice of the early Roman agriculturalist. We shall see that in most
+cases these festivals are associated--though often loosely
+enough--with the worship of a particular divinity. Sometimes,
+however,--as in the case of the Lupercalia--it is very difficult to
+discover who this divinity was; in other festivals, such as the
+Robigalia, it looks as if the eponymous deity was a comparatively late
+development. We may, therefore, suppose, on the analogy of what we have
+already seen to be the general lines of development in Roman religion,
+that the festivals in origin centred round a purpose rather than a
+personality, and were addressed 'to all spirits whom it might concern';
+and that later, when the _deus_ notion was on the increase, they either
+attached themselves to some god whose personality was already distinct,
+as the Vinalia were attached to Iuppiter, or 'developed' a deity of
+their own. Among these deities, strictly functional as a rule and
+existing only in connection with their special festival, we shall
+notice the frequent recurrence of a divinity pair, not, of course,
+mythologically related as husband and wife, but representing, perhaps,
+the male and female aspects of the same process of development.
+
+The festivals divide themselves naturally into three groups: those of
+Spring, expressive of the hopes and fears for the growing crops and
+herds; those of Summer, the festivals of fulfilment, including the
+celebration of harvest; and those of Winter, the festivals of sowing,
+of social rejoicing, and in the later months of purificatory
+anticipation of the coming year.
+
+=1. Festivals of Spring.=--The old Roman year--as may be seen clearly
+enough from the names of the months still known by numbers, September,
+October, etc.--began in March: according to tradition Romulus reckoned
+a year of ten months altogether, and Numa added January and February.
+The Spring months properly speaking may be reckoned as March, April,
+and May. In March there were in the developed Calendar no festivals of
+an immediately recognisable agricultural character, but the whole month
+was practically consecrated to its eponymous deity, Mars. Now, to the
+Roman of the Republic, Mars was undoubtedly the deity associated with
+war, and his special festivals in this month are of a warlike
+character: on the 9th the priests (_Salii_) began the ancient custom of
+carrying his sacred shields (_ancilia_) round the town from one
+ordained resting-place to another: on the 19th, Quinquatrus, the
+shields were solemnly purified, and on the 23rd the same ceremony was
+performed with the war-trumpets: the Equirria (horse-races) of March
+14 may have had an agricultural origin--we shall meet with races later
+on as a feature of rustic festivals--but they were certainly celebrated
+in a military manner. Yet there is good reason for believing that Mars
+was in origin associated not with war, but with the growth of
+vegetation: he was, as we shall see, the chief deity addressed in the
+solemn lustration of the fields (_Ambarvalia_), and if our general
+notion of the development of religion with the growing needs of the
+agricultural community crystallising into a state be correct, it may
+well be that a deity originally concerned with the interests of the
+farmer took on himself the protection of the soldier, when the fully
+developed state came into collision with its neighbours. If so, we may
+well have in these recurring festivals of Mars the sense, as Mr. Warde
+Fowler has put it, of 'some great _numen_ at work, quickening
+vegetation, and calling into life the powers of reproduction in man and
+the animals.' Possibly another agricultural note is struck in the
+Liberalia of the 17th: though the cult of Liber was almost entirely
+overlaid by his subsequent identification with Dionysus, it seems right
+to recognise in him and his female counterpart, Libera, a general
+spirit of creativeness.
+
+The character of April is much more clearly marked: the month is filled
+with a series of festivals--all of a clearly agricultural
+nature--prayers for the crops now in the earth, and the purification of
+the men and animals on the farm. The series opens with the Fordicidia
+on the 15th, 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 storehouse (_penus Vestæ_) for use at the Parilia.
+The general symbolism of fertility is very clear; the goddess
+associated with the festival is Tellus, the earth herself, and the
+local origin of these festivals is shown in the fact that not only was
+the sacrifice made for the whole people on the Capitol, but separately
+in each one of the _curiae_. The Fordicidia is closely followed by the
+Cerealia on the 19th--the festival of another earth-goddess (_Ceres_,
+_creare_)--more especially connected with the growth of corn. A very
+curious feature of the ritual was the fastening of fire-brands to the
+tails of foxes, which were then let loose in what was afterwards the
+Circus Maximus: a symbol possibly, as Wissowa thinks, of sunlight,
+possibly of the vegetation-spirit. But the most important of the April
+ceremonies is undoubtedly the Parilia of the 21st, the festival of the
+very ancient rustic _numen_, Pales. Ovid's[9] description of the
+celebration is so interesting and so full of the characteristic colour
+of the Roman rustic festivals that I may perhaps be pardoned for
+reproducing it at greater length. 'Shepherd,' he says, addressing 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 branches fastened to
+them, while a trailing wreath covers the gay-decked gates. Let blue
+flames rise from the living sulphur and the sheep bleat loud as she
+feels the touch of the smoking sulphur. Burn the male olive-branch and
+the pine twig and juniper, and let the blazing laurel crackle amid the
+hearth. A basket full of millet must go with the millet cakes: this is
+the food wherein the country goddess finds pleasure most of all. Give
+her too her own share of the feast and her pail of milk, and when her
+share has been set aside, then with milk warm from the cow make prayer
+to Pales, guardian of the woods.' The poet then recites a long prayer,
+in which the farmer first begs forgiveness for any unwitting sins he
+may have committed against the rustic deities, such as trespassing on
+their groves or sheltering his flocks beneath their altar, and then
+prays for the aversion of disease and the prosperity of 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 in place of the wine-bowl, and drink
+the snowy milk and dark must, and soon through the heaps of crackling
+straw leap in swift course with eager limbs.' All the worshippers then
+set to leaping through the blazing fires, even the flocks and herds
+were driven through, and general hilarity reigned. Many points of
+detail might be noticed, such as that in the urban counterpart of the
+festival, which Ovid carefully distinguishes from the country
+celebrations, the fire was sprinkled with the ashes from the calves of
+the Fordicidia and the blood of Mars' October horse--another link
+between Mars and agriculture. But it is most interesting to note the
+double character of the ceremony--as a purification of man and beast on
+the one hand, and on the other a prayer for the prosperity of the
+season to come. Three special festivals remain in April. At the Vinalia
+(_priora_) of the 23rd, the wine-skins of the previous year were opened
+and the wine tasted, and, we may suppose, supplication was made for
+the vintage to come, the festival being dedicated to the sky-god,
+Iuppiter. At the Robigalia of the 25th the offering of a dog was made
+for the aversion of mildew (_robigo_), to Robigus (who looks like a
+developed eponymous deity) at the fifth milestone on the Via
+Claudia--the ancient boundary of Roman territory. The Floralia of the
+28th does not occur in the old Calendars, probably because it was a
+moveable feast (_feriae conceptivae_), but it is an unmistakeable
+petition to the _numen_ Flora for the blossoming of the season's
+flowers.
+
+May was a month of more critical importance for the welfare of the
+crops, and therefore its festivals were mostly of a more sombre
+character. The 9th, 11th, and 13th were the days set apart for the
+Lemuria, the aversion of the hostile spirits of the dead, of which we
+have already spoken, and a similarly gloomy character probably attached
+to the Agonia of Vediovis on the 21st. But of far the greatest interest
+is the moveable feast of the Ambarvalia, the great lustration of the
+fields, which took place towards the end of the month: the date of its
+occurrence was no doubt fixed according to the state of the crops in
+any given year. As the individual farmer purified his own fields for
+the aversion of evil, so a solemn lustration of the boundaries of the
+state was performed by special priests, known as the Arval brethren
+(_fratres Arvales_). With ceremonial dancing (_tripudium_) they moved
+along the boundary-marks and made the farmer's most complete offering
+of the pig, sheep, and ox (_suovetaurilia_): the fruits of the last
+year and the new harvest (_aridae et virides_) played a large part in
+the ceremonial, and a solemn litany was recited for the aversion of
+every kind of pest from the crops. In Virgil's account the prayer is
+made to Ceres, and we know that in imperial times, when the Ambarvalia
+became very closely connected with the worship of the imperial house,
+the centre of the cult was the earth-goddess, Dea Dia; but in the
+earliest account of the rustic ceremony which we possess in Cato, Mars
+is addressed in the unmistakeable character of an agricultural deity.
+'Father Mars, I pray and beseech thee that thou mayest be gracious and
+favourable to me, to my home, and my household, for which cause I have
+ordained that the offering of pig, sheep, and ox be carried round my
+fields, my land, and my farm: that thou mayest avert, ward off, and
+keep afar all disease, visible and invisible, all barrenness, waste,
+misfortune, and ill weather: that thou mayest suffer our crops, our
+corn, our vines and bushes to grow and come to prosperity: that thou
+mayest preserve the shepherds and the flocks in safety, and grant
+health and strength to me, to my home, and my household.' We have
+perhaps here another rustic ceremony addressed in origin to all
+_numina_, whom it might concern, and, as it were, specialising itself
+from time to time in an appeal to one definite deity or another, but it
+is also clear evidence of an early agricultural association of Mars.
+The Ambarvalia is one of the most picturesque of the field ceremonies,
+and a peculiarly beautiful and imaginative description of it may be
+found in the first chapter of Pater's _Marius the Epicurean_.
+
+In June and July the farmer was waiting for the completion of the
+harvest, and the great state-festivals of the period are not
+agricultural.
+
+=2. Festivals of the Harvest.=--In August the farmer's hopes are at
+last realised, and the harvest is brought in. The season is marked by
+two closely connected festivals on the 21st and 25th in honour of the
+old divinity-pair, Consus (_condere_), the god of the storehouse and
+Ops, the deity of the wealth of harvest. At the Consualia, an offering
+is made by the _flamen Quirinalis_, assisted by the Vestal virgins, at
+an underground altar in the Circus Maximus, specially uncovered for
+the occasion: here we have probably not so much the notion of a
+chthonic deity, as a relic of 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 race of mules, the regular Italian beasts of burden. Four days after
+this general festivity occurred the second harvest-ceremony of the
+Opiconsivia, held in the shrine (_sacrarium_) of the Regia, and
+attended only by the _pontifex maximus_ and the Vestal virgins. This is
+clearly the state-harvest of the regal period, the symbolic storing of
+the state-crops in the sacred storehouse of the palace by the king and
+his daughters. Both festivals are significant, and we shall meet with
+Consus and Ops again in close connection in December. The _Portunalia_
+of the 17th may have been another harvest-home, if we can believe the
+old authorities, who tell us that Portunus was a 'god of doors'
+(_portae_).
+
+The _Vinalia Rustica_ of August 19 we cannot sufficiently interpret
+through lack of information: it cannot, of course, have been the
+festival of the vintage, for it is too early: it may have been a
+propitiatory ceremony for the ripening grapes, in which case it was
+probably connected with the _auspicatio vindemiae_, in which the
+_flamen Dialis_ (note again the association of Iuppiter and the vine)
+solemnly plucked the first grapes; or it may be a festival of wine, not
+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 on
+October 11 with the _Meditrinalia_--the nearest approach to a
+thanksgiving for the vintage. On that day the first must of the new
+vintage and the wine of the old were solemnly tasted, apparently as a
+spell against disease, the worshipper using the strange formula, 'I
+drink the new and the old wine, with new wine and old I heal (_medeor_)
+disease.' This ceremony gave its name to the festival and was the cause
+of the subsequent evolution of an eponymous deity, Meditrina, but there
+is little doubt that in origin here, as in the other wine-festivals,
+the deity concerned was at first Iuppiter. Among the other rustic
+ceremonies of the month we may notice the festival of springs
+(_Fontinalia_) on October 13: wells were decorated with garlands and
+flowers flung into the waters.
+
+=3. Festivals of the Winter.=--The winter-festivals cannot be summed up
+under one general notion so easily as those of spring or summer, but
+they fall fairly naturally into two groups--the festivals immediately
+connected with agricultural life and those associated with the dead and
+the underworld or with solemn purification. The main action of the
+farmer's life during the winter is, of course, the sowing of the next
+year's crop, which was commemorated in the ancient festival of the
+Saturnalia on December 17. Though the Saturnalia is perhaps the most
+familiar to us of all the Roman festivals, partly from the allusions in
+the classics, especially in Horace, partly because it is no doubt the
+source of many of our own Christmas festivities, it is yet almost
+impossible now to recover anything of its original Roman character.
+Greek influence set to work on it very early, identifying Saturnus with
+Cronos and establishing him in a Greek temple with all the
+accompaniments of Greek ritual. All the familiar features of the
+festival--the freedom and license of the slaves, the giving of
+presents, even the wax-candles, which are the prototype of those on our
+own Christmas-tree--are almost certainly due to Greek origin. We are
+left with nothing but the name Saturnus (connected with the root of
+_semen_, _serere_) and the date to assure us that we have here in
+reality a genuine Roman festival of the sowing of the crops. Of a
+similar nature--marking, as Ovid tells us, the completion of the
+sowing--was the _feriae sementivae_ or Paganalia, associated with the
+earth-goddesses, Ceres and Tellus. Meal-cakes and a pregnant sow were
+the offerings, the beasts who had helped in the ploughing were
+garlanded, and prayer was made for the seed resting in the ground. A
+curious feature of the winter worship is the repetition of festivals to
+the harvest deities, Consus and Ops, separated by the same interval of
+three days, on December 15 and 19: it may be that we have here an
+indication of the final completion of the harvest, or, as Mr. Warde
+Fowler has suggested, a ceremonial opening of the storehouses, to see
+that the harvest is not rotting. Among the other country festivals of
+the period we may notice that of Carmenta, on the 11th and 15th of
+January: she seems to have been in origin a water-_numen_, but was
+early associated with childbirth: hence the rigid exclusion of men from
+her ceremonies and possibly the taboo on leathern thongs, on the ground
+that nothing involving death must be used in the worship of a deity of
+birth. The repetition of her festival may possibly point to separate
+celebrations of the communities of Palatine and Quirinal. At this time,
+too, occurred the rustic ceremonies at the boundaries (_Terminalia_)
+and the offering to the Lares at the 'marches' (_Compitalia_), of which
+we have spoken in treating of the worship of the house.
+
+The other group of winter-festivals is of a much more gloomy and less
+definitely rustic type, though they clearly date from the period of the
+agricultural community. Of the Feralia of February 21, the culmination
+of the festival of the kindred dead (_Parentalia_), 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 Larentia, mistress of Hercules. But we have seen reason to think
+that Larentia was in reality a deity of the dead, and the 'tomb' a
+_mundus_: if so, we have another link between the winter season and the
+worship of the underworld. There remains the weird festival of the
+Lupercalia on February 15, to which we have had occasion to refer
+several times, and which has become more familiar to most of us than
+other Roman festivals owing to its political use by Mark Antony in 44
+B.C. As we have argued already, it seems to belong to the very oldest
+stratum of the Palatine settlement, and we may therefore appropriately
+close this account of the early festivals with a somewhat fuller
+description of it. The worshippers assembled at the Lupercal, a cave on
+the Palatine hill: there goats and a dog were sacrificed, and two
+youths belonging to the two colleges of Fabian and Quintian (or
+Quintilian) Luperci had their foreheads smeared with the knife used for
+the sacrifice and wiped with wool dipped in milk--at which point it was
+ordained that they should laugh. Then they girt on the skins of the
+slain goats and, after feasting, ran their course round the boundaries
+of the Palatine hill, followed each by his own company of youths, and
+striking women on their way with strips, known as _februae_ or _Iunonis
+amicula_, cut from the goats' hides. Here we have a summary of many of
+the important points which we have noticed in the rustic festivals:
+from the pre-Roman stratum comes the idea of communion with the
+sacrificed animal in the smearing of the blood and the wearing of the
+skin, and also the magic charm involved in the striking of the women to
+procure fertility: it is typical of the true feeling of Roman religion
+that we cannot with any certainty tell what deity was associated with
+the rite, though probably it was Faunus: the rustic character of the
+ceremony is indicated by the bowl of milk in which the wool was dipped
+and the sacrifice of goats: the idea of lustration is clearly marked
+in the course round the boundaries: the original Palatine settlement
+stands out in the limits of that course and the site of the Lupercal,
+and the later synoecismus is seen in the, presumably subsequent,
+addition of the second college of Luperci. A careful study of the
+Lupercalia as an epitome of the character and development of the Roman
+agricultural festivals, though it would not show the brighter aspect of
+some of the spring and summer celebrations, would yet give a true
+notion of the history and spirit of the whole.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[9] Ov., _Fast._, iv. 735.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+WORSHIP OF THE STATE
+
+
+Since, in the matter of religion, the Roman state is in the main but
+the agricultural household magnified, we shall not, in considering its
+worship, be entering on a new stratum of ideas, but rather looking at
+the development of notions and sentiments already familiar. To deal,
+however, with the state-worship in full would not only far exceed the
+limits of this sketch, but would lead us away from religious ideas into
+the region of what we might now call 'ecclesiastical management.' I
+propose therefore to confine myself to two points, firstly, the
+broadening of the old conceptions of the household and the fields and
+their adaptation to the life of the state, and secondly--to be treated
+very shortly and as an indication of the Roman character--the
+organisation of religion.
+
+=1. Development of the Worship of House and Fields.=--Here we shall
+find two main characteristics. The state in the first place, as we
+have several times hinted in anticipation, establishes its own
+counterpart of the household and rustic cults and adapts to its own use
+the ideas which they involve: in the second, and particularly in
+connection with some of the field-deities, it evolves new and very
+frequently abstract notions, foreign to the life of the independent
+country households, but necessary and vital to the life of an organised
+community. Let us look first at the fate of the household deities.
+
+=Ianus.=--We left Ianus as the _numen_ of the house-door: he passes
+into the state exactly in the same capacity: the state too has its
+'door,' the gate at the north-east corner of the Forum, and this
+becomes the seat of 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 gets to work on
+Ianus: a door has two sides, it can both open and shut; therefore, as
+early as the song of the Salii, he has developed the cult-epithets
+'Opener,' 'Shutter' (_Patulci_, _Cloesi_), and as soon as he is thought
+of as anything approaching a personality he is 'two-headed'
+(_bifrons_), as he appears in later representations. The door again is
+the first thing you come to in entering a house: the 'door-spirit'
+then, with that tendency to abstraction which we shall see shortly in
+other cases, becomes the god of beginnings. He watches over the very
+first beginning of human life in his character of _Consevius_; to him
+is sacred the first hour of the day (_pater matutinus_), the Calends of
+every month, and the first month of the year (_Ianuarius_); to him too
+is offered by the _rex sacrorum_ the first sacrifice of the year, the
+Agonium on the 9th of January. In this capacity, moreover, his name
+comes first in all the formulæ of prayer, and he is looked upon--not
+indeed as the father of the gods--for that is a much too
+anthropomorphic notion--but as what we might now term their 'logical
+antecedent': _divum deus_, as the song of the Salii quaintly puts it,
+_principium deorum_, as later interpretation explained it. Yet through
+all he remains the most typical Roman deity: he does not acquire a
+temple till 217 B.C., nor a bust until quite late, nor is he ever
+identified with a Greek counterpart. In his capacity as _pater
+matutinus_ he has a native female counterpart in Matuta, a dawn-deity,
+who becomes a protectress in childbirth, and as such is the centre of
+the matrons' festival, the Matralia of June 11.
+
+=Vesta.=--The history of Vesta is perhaps less romantic, but it affords
+a more exact parallel between household and state. In the primitive
+community the king's hearth is not merely of symbolical importance, but
+of great practical utility, in that it is kept continually burning as
+the source of fire on which the individual householder may draw: hence
+it is the duty of the king's daughters to care for it and keep the
+flame perpetually alight. In Rome the temple of Vesta is the king's
+hearth, situated, as one would expect, in close proximity to the
+_regia_. The fire is kept continually blazing except on the 1st of
+March of every year, when it is allowed to go out 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 (_atrium Vestæ_) and under the charge of
+the king's representative, the _pontifex maximus_. It is their duty
+too, as the natural cooks of the sacred royal household, to make the
+salt cake (_mola salsa_) to be used at the year's festivals and to
+preserve it and other sacred objects, such as the ashes of the
+Fordicidia, in the storehouse of Vesta (_penus Vestæ_). In the month of
+June from the 7th to the 15th, with a climax on the 9th, the day of
+the Vestalia, the matrons who all the year round have tended their own
+hearths, come in solemn procession bare-footed to make their homely
+offerings at the state-hearth, and the virgins meanwhile offer the
+cakes that they have made. For eight days the ceremony continues,
+during which time the bakers and millers keep holiday; the days are
+_religiosi_ (marriages are unlucky and other taboos are observed) and
+also _nefasti_ (no public business may be performed); until the
+ceremony closes on the 15th, with the solemn cleansing of the temple
+and the casting of the refuse into the Tiber, and then the normal life
+of the state may be renewed--Q. St. D. F. (_Quando Stercus Delatum Fas_)
+is the unique entry in the Calendars. This is all less imaginative than
+the development of Ianus, but the underlying feeling is intensely Roman
+and there could be no clearer idea of the natural adaptation of the
+household-cult to the religion of the state.
+
+=Penates, Lares, and Genius.=--The other household deities too have
+their counterpart, though not so prominently marked, in the worship of
+the state. The magistrates, on entering office, took oath by Iuppiter
+and the _Di Penates populi Romani Quiritium_, and that the conception
+was as wide in the state as in the household is shown by the fact that
+on less formal occasions the formula appears as _Iuppiter et ceteri di
+omnes immortales_. The Penates of the state then would include all the
+state-deities; but that their original character is not lost sight of
+we can see from the statement of Varro that in the _penus Vestæ_ (the
+'state storehouse') were preserved their _sigilla_--not apparently
+sensuous representations, but symbolic objects, such as we have seen
+before in cases like that of the _silex_ of Iuppiter. The _Lares_ again
+find their counterpart in the _Lares Praestites_ of the state, and
+their rustic festival, the Compitalia, has its urban reproduction,
+which, as it involved considerable license on the part of populace and
+slaves, was often in the later period of the Republic a cause of
+serious political disturbance. Even the Genius, though rather vaguely,
+passes over to the state and we hear of the _Genius populi Romani_ or
+the _Genius urbis Romæ_, with regard to which Servius quotes from an
+inscription on a shield the characteristic addition, _sive mas sive
+femina_: in much later times we find the exact counterpart of the
+domestic worship of the Genius of the _pater familias_ in the cult of
+the Genius of the Emperor--the foundation of the whole of the imperial
+worship.
+
+We have observed already how the cults of the fields were taken over by
+the state and their counterparts established in the great festivals of
+the Calendar. Naturally enough most of the deities concerned, existing
+only for the part they played in these festivals, retained their
+original character without further development. But with a few it was
+different: it was their fate to acquire new characteristics and new
+functions, and, developing with the needs of the community, to become
+the great gods of the state: of these we must give some brief account.
+
+=Iuppiter.=--We have known Iuppiter hitherto either in connection with
+certain very primitive survivals, or in the genuine Roman period as a
+sky-_numen_, concerned with the grape-harvest in the two Vinalia and
+the Meditrinalia, and the recipient at the family meal of a _daps_ as a
+general propitiation before the beginning of the sowing. As sky-god he
+passes to the state: _Lucetius_ (_lux_) is his title in the song of the
+Salii and to him are sacred the Ides of every month--the time of the
+full moon, when there is most light in the heavens by night as well as
+day. In his agricultural connection he has his wine-festivals in the
+state as in the country, and the household _daps_ becomes the more
+elaborate _epulum Iovis_, in which the whole community, as it were,
+entertained him at a banquet. As a sky-deity, too, he is particularly
+concerned with the thunderbolt and the lightning-flash (_Iuppiter
+Fulmen_, _Fulgur_), and to him are sacred the always ominous spots
+which had been struck by lightning (_bidentalia_): with the more
+alarming occurrence of lightning by night he has a special connection
+under the cult-title _Iuppiter Summanus_. But as the little community
+grew, and especially perhaps after the union of the two settlements,
+the worship of Iuppiter Feretrius, associated with the sacred oak upon
+the Capitol--the hill between Palatine and Quirinal--comes more and
+more into prominence as a bond of union and the central point of the
+state's religious life: it tends indeed to take the place of priority,
+which had previously been occupied by Ianus. The community goes to war
+with its neighbours, and after a signal victory the _spolia opima_ must
+be dedicated on the sacred oak: indeed Iuppiter is in a special sense
+with them in the battle and must now be worshipped as the 'stayer of
+rout' (_Stator_) and the 'giver of victory' (_Victor_). War is a new
+province of the state's activity, but, characteristically enough, it
+does not evolve its own _numen_, but enlarges the sphere of the
+somewhat elastic spirits already existing. So too in the internal
+organisation of the state there is felt the need of a religious
+sanction for public morality, and Iuppiter--though vaguely at
+first--takes on him the character of a deity of justice. In this
+connection he is primarily the god of oaths: we have seen how his
+sacred _silex_ was used in the oath of treaty: it is also the most
+solemn witness to the oath of the citizen. Iuppiter Lapis becomes
+specially the Dius Fidius, a cult-title which subsequently sets up for
+itself and produces a further offshoot in the abstract Fides. Finally,
+towards the end of our period the Iuppiter of the Capitol emerges
+triumphant, as it were, from his struggle with his rivals and, with the
+new title of Iuppiter Optimus Maximus,--the 'best and greatest,' that
+is, of all the Iuppiters--takes his place as the supreme deity of the
+Roman state and the personification of the greatness and majesty of
+Rome itself. To his temple hereafter the Roman youth will come to make
+his offering when he takes the dress of manhood; here the magistrates
+will do sacrifice before entering on their year of office: here the
+victorious general will pass in procession with the spoils of his
+victory: on the walls shall be suspended treaties with foreign nations
+and offerings sent by subject princes and states from all quarters of
+the world: all that Rome is to be, will be, as it were, embodied in the
+sky-spirit of the sacred oak, the god of justice and of victory in war.
+
+=Iuno.=--Iuppiter carries with him into the state-worship his female
+counterpart, Iuno, with his own characteristics, in a certain degree,
+and his own privileges. She is Lucina and Fulgura as he is Lucetius and
+Fulgur: white cows are her offerings as white steers are his: as the
+Ides are sacred to Iuppiter, so--though they are not a festival--are
+the Calends to Iuno. But from the first she shows a certain
+independence and develops on lines of her own. In the curious ceremony
+of the fixing of the Nones (the first quarter of the month), held on
+the Calends in the _curia Calabra_, she seems to appear as a
+moon-goddess: the _rex sacrorum_, after a report from a _pontifex_ as
+to the appearance of the new moon, announces the result in the formula:
+'I summon thee for five (or seven) days, hollow Iuno' (_dies te
+quinque_ [_septem_] _kalo, Iuno Covella_: hence the name _Kalendae_).
+But far more prominently--either as a female divinity herself, or, as
+some think, owing to the supposed influence of the moon on female
+life--does Iuno figure as the deity of women, and especially in
+association with childbirth and marriage. As _Lucina_ she is, as we
+have seen, the presiding deity of childbirth, and her festival on the
+1st of March, though not in the Calendars (because confined to women
+and not therefore a festival of the whole people), attained immense
+popularity under the title of the Matronalia. She has too a general
+superintendence of the rites of marriage, and the various little
+_numina_, who play so prominent a part in the ceremonies, tend to
+attach themselves to her as cult-titles. The festival of the
+servant-maids in honour of Iuno Caprotina on the 7th of July shows the
+same notion of Iuno as the women's goddess, which appears again in
+common parlance when women speak of their Iuno, just as men do of their
+Genius. Later on Iuno acquires the characteristics of majesty
+(_Regina_) and protection in war (_Curitis_, _Sospita_), partly no
+doubt as Iuppiter's counterpart, but more directly through the
+introduction of cults from neighbouring Italian towns.
+
+=Mars.=--We have seen reason to believe that in the earlier stages of
+Roman religion Mars was a _numen_ of vegetation, but though the
+Ambarvalia was duly taken over into the state-cult and attained a very
+high degree of importance, yet there can be no doubt that in the
+state-religion Mars was pre-eminently associated with war. Iuppiter
+might help at need in averting defeat and awarding victory, but it was
+with Mars that the general conduct of war rested. His sacred animal is
+the warlike wolf, his symbols the spears and the sacred shields
+(_ancilia_), which during his own month (_Martius_)--the 1st of which
+is his special festival--his priests (_Salii_) wearing the full
+war-dress (_trabea_ and _tunica picta_) 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 of the _imperium militiae_,
+and the other festivals associated with him are of a warlike character:
+the races of the war-horse (Equirria) on March 14 and February 27, and
+the great race on the Ides of October, when the winner was solemnly
+slain: the lustration of the arms at the Quinquatrus on March 19 and
+the Armilustrium of October 19--at the beginning and end of the
+campaigning season: and the lustration of the war-trumpets on the 23rd
+of March and the 23rd of May. But above all in honour of Mars is held
+the great quinquennial _lustrum_ associated with the census, when the
+people are drawn up in military array around his altar in the Campus
+Martius and the solemn offering of the _suovetaurilia_ (is this a faint
+relic of his agricultural character?) after being carried three times
+round the gathered host, is offered on his altar in prayer for the
+military future of the state. Hardly any god in the state-cult has his
+character so clearly marked, and we may regard Mars as a deity who,
+taking on new functions to suit the needs of the times, almost entirely
+lost the traces of his original nature.
+
+=Quirinus.=--Iuppiter and Mars then became the great state-deities of
+the developed community and to them is added, as the contribution of
+the Colline settlement, their own particular deity, Quirinus. He, like
+them, has his own _flamen_; like Mars he has his _Salii_, and his
+festival finds its place in the Calendars on February the 17th. But of
+his ritual and character we know practically nothing: the ritual was
+obscured because his festival coincided with the much more popular
+festival of the _curiae_, the _stultorum feriae_: of his character, we
+can only conjecture that he was to the Colline settlement what Mars was
+to the Palatine, whereas later after the complete amalgamation he seems
+to have been distinguished from Mars as representing 'armed peace'
+rather than war--an idea which is borne out by the associations of the
+closely allied word _Quirites_. Be that as it may, we have in Iuppiter,
+Mars, and Quirinus the great state-triad of the synoecismus, who held
+their own until at the beginning of the next epoch they were supplanted
+by the new Etruscan triad of the Capitol, Iuppiter, Iuno and Minerva.
+
+=2. Organisation.=--It might perhaps be thought that the organisation
+of religion is a matter remote from its spirit, and is not therefore a
+suitable subject for discussion, where the object is rather to bring
+out underlying motives and ideas: but in dealing with the Roman
+religion, where ceremonial and legal precision were so prominent, it
+would be even misleading to omit some reference to the very
+characteristic manner in which the state, taking over the rather
+chaotic elements of the agricultural worship, organised them into
+something like a consistent whole. Its most complete achievement in
+this direction was without doubt the regulation of the religious year.
+We have spoken many times of the Calendars (_Fasti_): it is necessary
+now to obtain some clearer notion of what they were. In Rome itself and
+various Italian towns have been found some thirty inscriptions, one
+almost complete (Maffeiani), the others more or less fragmentary,
+giving the tables of the months and marking precisely the character and
+occurrences of every day in the year. We may take as a specimen the
+latter half of the month of August from the Fasti Maffeiani.
+
+A. EID. [NP].       |   C. VOLC. [NP].
+B. F.               |   D. C.
+C. C.               |   E. OPIC. [NP].
+D. C.               |   F. C.
+E. PORT. [NP].      |   G. VOLT. [NP].
+F. C.               |   H. [NP].
+G. VIN. F.P.        |   A. F.
+H. C.               |   B. F.
+A. CONS. [NP].      |   C. C.
+B. EN.              |
+
+In the first column are given the nundinal letters of the days, showing
+their position in the eight days' 'week' from one market day
+(_nundinae_) to the next. In the second column are noted first the
+great divisions of the month, Calends, Nones, and Ides, and then the
+religious character of each individual day is indicated by certain
+signs, whose explanations throw a good deal of light on Roman religions
+notions. It will be seen that the letters of most frequent occurrence
+are F, C, and N (or in our extract [NP]): these correspond to the broad
+distinction between days profane and sacred. F (_fastus_) denotes a
+day on which the business of the state may be performed, on which the
+praetor may say (_fari_) the three words, _do_, _dico_, _addico_, which
+summed up the decisions of the Roman law: C (_comitialis_) marks a day
+on which the legislative assemblies (_comitia_) may be held: it is by
+implication F as well. N (_nefastus_), on the other hand, denotes the
+sacred day, consecrated to the worship of the gods, on which therefore
+state-business may not be transacted: similarly the very mysterious and
+much disputed sign [NP], whether it differs in precise signification
+from N or not, certainly marks a day of sacred character. EN, which
+occurs once in this extract (from _endotercisus_, the old Latin form of
+_intercisus_) signifies a 'split' day (_dies fissus_), the beginning
+and end of which were sacred, while the middle period was free for
+business. In the second column also (in large letters in some of the
+other Calendars) are named the _feriae publicae_, the great annual
+state-festivals, fixed for one particular day (_feriae stativae_):
+such, in this case, are the Portunalia, Vinalia, and Consualia.
+
+These _fasti_ were exhibited in the Forum and on the walls of temples,
+and the conscientious Roman could have no possible difficulty in
+finding out when he might lawfully transact his business and what
+festivals the state was observing: of the 355 days of the old Calendar
+11 were _fissi_, 235 were _fasti_ (192 _comitiales_), and 109
+_nefasti_. We may remark as curious features in the Calendar, denoting
+rigid adherence to principle, that with one exception, the Poplifugia
+of July 5, no festival ever occurs before the Nones, that with two
+exceptions, the Regifugium of February 24 and the Equirria of the 14th
+of March, no festival falls on an even day of the month, and that there
+is a marked avoidance of successive feast-days: even the three days of
+the Lemuria allow an interval of a day between each.
+
+In the matter of ritual and observance, state-organisation--and its
+absence--are alike significant. Of the general exactness of ritual and
+its specific variations on different occasions a fair notion has
+perhaps already been gathered; it may help to fill out that notion if
+we can put together a sketch of the normal process of a sacrifice to
+the gods. Before the sacrifice began the animal to be offered was
+selected and tested: if it had any blemish or showed any reluctance, it
+was rejected. If it were whole and willing, it was bound with fillets
+(_infulae_) around its forehead, and long ribbons (_vittae_) depending
+from them. It was then brought to the altar (_ara_) by the side of
+which stood a portable brazier (_foculus_). The celebrant--magistrate
+or priest--next approached dressed in the _toga_, girt about him in a
+peculiar manner (_cinctus Gabinus_), and carried up at the back so as
+to form a hood (_velato capite_): the herald proclaimed silence, and
+the flute-player began to play his instrument. The first part of the
+offering was then made by the pouring of wine and scattering of incense
+on the brazier: it was followed by the ceremonial slaughter
+(_immolatio_) of the animal. The celebrant sprinkled the victim with
+wine and salted cake, and made a symbolic gesture with the knife. The
+victim was then taken aside by the attendants (_victimarii_), and
+actually slaughtered by them: from it they extracted the sacred parts
+(_exta_), liver, heart, gall, lungs, and midriff, and after inspecting
+them to see that they had no abnormality--but not in the earlier period
+for purposes of augury--wrapped them in pieces of flesh (_augmenta_),
+cooked them, and brought them back to the celebrant, who laid them as
+an offering upon the altar, where they were burnt. The rest of the
+flesh (_viscera_) was divided as a sacred meal between the celebrant
+and his friends--or in a state-offering among the priests, and
+probably the magistrate. We cannot refrain from remarking here the
+extreme precision of ritual, the scrupulous care with which the human
+side of the contract was fulfilled and the--almost legal--division of
+the victim between gods and men. But though the ritual was so exact,
+one must not be led away by modern analogies to suppose that there was
+ever anything like a rigid constraint on the private citizen for the
+observance of festivals. The state-festivals were in the strictest
+sense offerings made to the gods by the representative magistrates or
+priests, and if they were present, all was done that was required: the
+whole people had been, by a legal fiction, present in their persons. No
+doubt the private citizen would often attend in large numbers at the
+celebrations, especially at the more popular festivals, but from some,
+such as the Vestalia, he was actually excluded. On the other hand,
+though it did not demand presence, the state did--at least
+theoretically--demand the observance of the feast-day by private
+individuals. The root-notion of _feriae_ was a day set apart for the
+worship of the gods, and on it therefore the citizen ought to do 'no
+manner of work.' The state observed this condition fully in the
+closing of law-courts and the absence of legislative assemblies, and
+in theory too the private citizen must refrain from any act which was
+not concerned with the worship of the gods, or rendered absolutely
+necessary, as, for instance, if 'his ox or his ass should fall into a
+pit.' But it is characteristic of Rome that the state did not seek for
+offence, but only punished it if accidentally seen: on a feast-day the
+_rex sacrorum_ and the _flamines_ might not see work being done; they
+therefore sent on a herald in advance to announce their presence, and
+an actual conviction involved a money-fine. Perhaps more scrupulously
+than the _feriae_ were observed the _dies religiosi_, days of
+'abstinence,' on which certain acts, such as marriage, the beginning of
+any new piece of work, or the offering of sacrifice to the gods, were
+forbidden: such, in the oldest period, were the days on which the
+_mundus_ was open, or the temple of Vesta received the matrons, the
+days when the Salii carried the _ancilia_ in procession, and the
+periods of the two festivals of the dead in February and May; but for
+eluding their observance too devices were not unknown.
+
+In the state-organisation of religion, then, we seem to see just the
+same features from which we started: as a basis the legal conception
+of the relation of god to man, as a result the extreme care and
+precision in times and ceremonials, as a corollary in the state the
+idea of legal representation and the consequent looseness of hold on
+the action of the individual.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+AUGURIES AND AUSPICES
+
+
+So far we have been considering the regular relations of man and god,
+seen in recurring or special offerings, in vows and in acts of
+purification and lustration--all based on the contract-notion, all
+endeavours on man's part to fulfil his bounden duty, that the gods may
+be constrained in turn to theirs. But so strong was the feeling of
+divine presence and influence in the Roman's mind, that he was not
+content with doing his best by these regular means to secure the favour
+of the gods, but wished before undertaking any business of importance
+to be able to assure himself of their approval. His practical
+common-sense evolved, as it were, a complete 'code'--in the flight and
+song of birds, in the direction of the lightning-flash, in the conduct
+of men and animals--by which he believed that the gods communicated to
+him their intentions: sometimes these indications (_auspicia_) might be
+vouchsafed by the gods unasked (_oblativa_), sometimes they would be
+given in answer to request (_impetrativa_): but as to their meaning,
+there could be no doubt, provided they were interpreted by one skilled
+in the lore and tradition of augury. We may observe here, though our
+evidence is much slighter, the same three stages which we have noticed
+in the sacrificial worship, the homely domestic auspices, the auguries
+of the agricultural life, and the organised system in the state.
+
+In the household the use of auspices was in origin at any rate very
+general indeed: 'Nothing,' Cicero tells us, 'of importance used to be
+undertaken unless with the sanction of the auspices' (_auspicato_). The
+right of interrogating the will of the gods, rested, as one might
+expect, with the master of the house, assisted no doubt by the private
+augur as the repository of lore and the interpreter of what the master
+saw. But of the details of domestic augury we know but little. Cato in
+one passage insists on the extreme importance of silence for the
+purpose, and Festus suggests that this was secured by the master of the
+house rising in the depths of the night to inspect the heavens. We have
+seen already that the taking of the auspices played an important part
+in the ceremonies of betrothal and marriage, and that the indications
+of the divine will might be very varied we may gather from a story in
+Cicero. An aunt wishing to take the auspices for her niece's betrothal,
+conducted her into an open consecrated space (_sacellum_) and sat down
+on the stool of augury (_sella_) with her niece standing at her side.
+After 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
+auspicious sign: the aunt died, the niece married the widower and so
+became mistress of the house.
+
+Of augury in agricultural life we have some indication in the annual
+observance of the 'spring augury' (_augurium verniserum_) and the
+midsummer ceremony of the _augurium canarium_, which seems to have been
+a combination of the offering of a red dog (possibly to avert mildew)
+and an augury for the success of the crops. To the rustic stratum
+possibly belongs also the _augurium salutis populi_, though later it
+was a yearly act celebrated whenever the Roman army was not at war and
+so became connected with the shutting of the temple of Ianus.
+
+The state greatly developed and organised the whole system of auguries
+and auspices. The college of augurs ranked second only in importance to
+the pontifical college, and their duties with regard to both augury and
+auspice are sufficiently clear. Like the _pontifices_ in relation to
+cult, they are the storehouse of all tradition, and to them appeal may
+be made in all cases of doubt both public and private: they were
+jealous of their secrets and in later times their mutual consciousness
+of deception became proverbial. The right of augury--in origin simply
+the inspection of the heavens--was theirs alone, and it was exercised
+particularly on the annual occasions mentioned and at the installation
+of priests, of which we get a typical instance in Livy's account of the
+consecration of Numa.
+
+The auspices on the other hand--in origin 'signs from birds' (_avis_,
+_spicere_)--were the province of the magistrate about to undertake some
+definite action on behalf of the state whether at home or on the field
+of battle. Here the augur's functions were merely preparatory and
+advisory. It was his duty to prepare the _templum_, the spot from which
+the auspices are to be taken--always a square space, with boundaries
+unbroken except at the entrance, not surrounded by wall or necessarily
+by line, but clearly indicated (_effatus_) by the augur, and marked off
+(_liberatus_) from the surroundings: in the comitia and other places in
+Rome there were permanent _templa_, but elsewhere they must be
+specially made. The magistrate then enters the _templum_ and observes
+the signs (_spectio_): if there is any doubt as to interpretation--and
+seeing the immense complication of the traditions (_disciplina_), this
+must often have been the case--the augur is referred to as interpreter.
+The signs demanded (_impetrativa_) were originally always connected
+with the appearance, song or flight of birds--higher or lower, from
+left to right or 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 (_pulli_): the best
+sign being obtained if, in their eagerness to feed, they let fall some
+of the grain from their beaks (_tripudium solistimum_)--a result not
+difficult to secure by previous treatment and a careful selection of
+the kind of grain supplied to them. But besides this deliberate 'asking
+for signs,' public business might at any moment be interrupted if the
+gods voluntarily sent an indication of disapproval (_oblativa_): the
+augurs then had always to be at hand to advise the magistrates whether
+notice should be taken of such signs, and, if so, what was their
+signification, and they even seem to have had certain rights of
+reporting themselves (_nuntiatio_) the occurrence of adverse ones. The
+sign of most usual occurrence would be lightning--sometimes such an
+unexpected event as the seizure of a member of the assembly with
+epilepsy (_morbus comitialis_)--and we know to what lengths political
+obstructionists went in later times in the observation of fictitious
+signs, or even the prevention of business by the mere announcement of
+their intention to see an unfavourable omen (_servare de caelo_). The
+complications and ramifications of the augur's art are infinite, but
+the main idea should by now be plain, and it must be remembered that
+the kindred art of the soothsayer (_haruspex_), oracles, and the
+interpretation of fate by the drawing of lots (_sortes_) are all later
+foreign introductions: auspice and augury are the only genuine Roman
+methods for interpreting the will of the gods.
+
+Here then in household, fields, and state, we have a second type of
+relation to the gods, running parallel to the ordinary practice of
+sacrifice and prayer, distinct yet not fundamentally different. As it
+is man's function to propitiate the higher spirits and prevent, if
+possible, the wrecking of his plans by their opposition, so it is his
+business, if he can, to find out their intentions before he engages on
+any serious undertaking. As in the _ius sacrum_ his legal mind leads
+him to assume that the deities accept the responsibility of the
+contract, when his own part is fulfilled, so here, like a practical man
+of business, he assumes their construction of a code of communication,
+which he has learned to interpret. In its origin it is a notion common
+to many primitive religions, but in its elaboration it is peculiarly
+and distinctively Italian, and, as we know it, Roman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+RELIGION AND MORALITY--CONCLUSION
+
+
+It might be said that a religion--the expression of man's relation to
+the unseen--has not necessarily any connection with morality--man's
+action in himself and towards his neighbours: that an individual--or
+even a nation--might perfectly fulfil the duties imposed by the 'powers
+above,' without being influenced in conduct and character. Such a view
+might seem to find an apt illustration in the religion of Rome: the
+ceremonial _pietas_ towards the gods appears to have little to do with
+the making of man or nation. But in the history of the world the test
+of religions must be their effect on the character of those who
+believed in them: religion is no doubt itself an outcome of character,
+but it reacts upon it, and must either strengthen or weaken. We are not
+therefore justified in dismissing the 'Religion of Numa' without
+inquiry as to its relation to morality, for on our answer to that
+question must largely depend our judgment as to its value.
+
+We are of course in a peculiarly difficult position to grapple with
+this problem through lack of contemporary evidence. The Rome we know,
+in the epochs when we can fairly judge of character and morality, was
+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 may remember in the first place that even then,
+especially in the household and in the country, the old religion had
+probably a much firmer hold than one might imagine from literary
+evidence, in the second that national character is not the growth of a
+day, so that we may safely refer permanent characteristics to the
+period when the old religion held its own.
+
+It may be admitted at once that the direct influence on morality was
+very small indeed. There was no table of commandments backed by the
+religious sanction: the sense of 'sin,' except through breach of
+ritual, was practically unknown. It is true that in the very early
+_leges regiae_ some notion of this kind is seen--a significant glimpse
+of what the original relation may have been: it is there ordained that
+the patron who betrayed his client, or the client who deceived his
+patron, shall be condemned to Iuppiter; the parricide to the spirits of
+his dead ancestors, the husband who sells his wife to the gods of the
+underworld, the man who removes his neighbour's landmark to Terminus,
+the stealer of corn to Ceres. All these persons shall be _sacri_: they
+have offended against the gods and the gods will see to their
+punishment. But these are old-world notions which soon passed into the
+background and the state took over the punishment of such offenders in
+the ordinary course of law. Nor again in the prayers of men to gods is
+there a trace of a petition for moral blessings: the magistrate prays
+for the success and prosperity of the state, the farmer for the
+fertility of his crops and herds, even the private individual, who
+suspends his votive-tablet in the temple, pays his due for health or
+commercial success vouchsafed to himself or his relations. 'Men call
+Iuppiter greatest and best,' says Cicero, 'because he makes us not just
+or temperate or wise, but sound and healthy and rich and wealthy.'
+Still less, until we come to the moralists of the Empire, is there any
+sense of that immediate and personal relation of the individual to a
+higher being, which is really in religion, far more than commandments
+and ordinances, the mainspring and safeguard of morality: even the
+conception of the Genius, the 'nearest' perhaps of all unseen powers,
+had nothing of this feeling in it, and it may be significant that, just
+because of his nearness to man, the Genius never quite attained to
+god-head. As far as direct relation is concerned, religion and morality
+were to the Roman two independent spheres with a very small point of
+contact.
+
+Nor even in its indirect influence does the formal observance of the
+Roman worship seem likely at first sight to have done much for personal
+or national morality. Based upon fear, stereotyped in the form of a
+legal relationship, _religio_--'the bounden obligation'--made, no
+doubt, for a kind of conscientiousness in its adherents, but a cold
+conscientiousness, devoid of emotion and incapable of expanding itself
+to include other spheres or prompt to a similar scrupulousness in other
+relations. The rigid and constant distinction of sacred and profane
+would incline the Roman to fulfil the routine of his religious duty
+and then turn, almost with a sigh of relief, to the occupations of
+normal life, carrying with him nothing more than the sense of a burden
+laid aside and a pledge of external prosperity. Even the religious act
+itself might be without moral significance: as we have seen, the
+worshipper might be wholly ignorant of the character, even the name of
+the deity he worshipped, and in any case the motive of his action was
+naught, the act itself everything. Nor again had the Roman religion any
+trace of that powerful incentive to morality, a doctrine of rewards and
+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 on himself 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 a tiresome ritual formalism, almost wholly lacking in
+ethical value. And yet it did not present itself in this light to the
+Romans themselves. Cicero, sceptic as he was, could speak of it as the
+cause of Rome's greatness; Augustus, the practical politician, could
+believe that its revival was an essential condition for the
+renaissance of the Roman character. Have we, in our brief examination
+of its 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 in the strengthening of character. The private citizen, who
+conscientiously day by day had carried out the worship of his household
+gods and month by month observed the sacred abstinence from work on the
+days of festival, was certainly not less fitted to take his place as a
+member of a strenuous and well-organised community, or to serve
+obediently and quietly in the army on campaign. Even the magistrate in
+the execution of his religious duties must have acquired an exactness
+and method, which would not be valueless in the conduct of public
+business. And when we pass to the origin of this formalism--the legal
+relation--the connection with the Roman character becomes at once more
+obvious. The 'lawgivers of the world,' who developed constitution and
+code to a systematised whole such as antiquity had not dreamed of
+before, imported, we may say if we like, their legal notions into the
+sphere of religion: but we must not forget the other side of the
+question. The permanence and success of this greater contract with
+higher powers--the feeling that the gods did regard and reward exact
+fulfilment of duty--cannot have been without re-action on the relations
+of the life of the community: it was, as it were, a higher sanction to
+the legal point of view: a pledge that the relations of citizen and
+state too were rightly conceived. 'There is,' says Cicero, speaking of
+the death of Clodius in the language of a later age, 'there is a divine
+power which inspired that criminal to his own ruin: it was not by
+chance that he expired before the shrine of the Bona Dea, whose rites
+he had violated': the divine justice is the sanction of the human law.
+Even in the fear, from which all ultimately sprang, there was a
+training in self-repression and self-subordination, which in a more
+civilised age must result in a valuable respect and obedience. The
+descendants of those who had made religion out of an attempt to appease
+the hostile _numina_, feeling themselves not indeed on more familiar
+terms with their 'unknown gods,' but only perhaps a little more
+confident of their own strength, were not likely to be wanting in a
+disciplined sense of dependence and an appreciation of the value of
+respect for authority, which alone can give stability to a
+constitution. If fear with the Romans was not the beginning of
+theological wisdom, it was yet an important contribution to the
+character of a disciplined state.
+
+But, as I have hinted in the course of this sketch more than once, the
+answer to this problem, as well as the key to the general understanding
+of the Roman religion, is to be found in the worship of 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, marriage,
+attended by their religious sanction, but in the ordinary course of the
+daily round the divine presence and the dependence of man are
+continually emphasised. The gods are given their portion of the family
+meal, the sanctified dead are recalled to take their share of the
+family blessings. The result was not merely an approach--collectively,
+not individually--to that sense of the nearness of the unseen, which
+has so great an effect on the actions of the living, but a very strong
+bond of family union which lay at the root of the life of the state.
+It would be difficult to find a clearer expression of the notion than
+in the fact that the same word _pietas_, which expresses the due
+fulfilment of man's duty to god, is also the ideal of the relations of
+the members of a household: filial piety was, in fact, but another
+aspect of that rightness of relation, which reveals itself in the
+worship of the gods. No doubt that, in the city-life of later periods,
+this ideal broke down on both sides: household worship was neglected
+and family life became less dutiful. But it was still, especially in
+the country, the true backbone of Roman society, and no one can read
+the opening odes of Horace's third book without feeling the strength of
+Augustus' appeal to it.
+
+And if we translate this, as we have learned to do, into terms of the
+state, we can get some idea of what the Romans meant by their debt to
+their religion. As the household was bound together by the tie of
+common worship, as in the intermediate stage the clan, severed
+politically and socially, yet felt itself reunited in the gentile
+rites, so too the state was welded into a whole by the regularly
+recurring annual festivals and the assurance of the divine sanction on
+its undertakings. It might be that in the course of time these rites
+lost their meaning and the community no longer by personal presence
+expressed its service to the gods, but the cult stood there still, as
+the type of Rome's union to the higher powers and a guarantee of their
+assistance against all foes: the religion of Rome was, as it has been
+said, the sanctification of patriotism--the Roman citizen's highest
+moral ideal. It has been remarked, perhaps with partial truth, that the
+religion of the _Æneid_--in many ways a summary of Roman thought and
+feeling--is the belief in the _fata Romae_ and their fulfilment. The
+very impersonality of this conception makes it a good picture of what
+religion was in the Roman state. It was not, as with the Jews, a strong
+conviction of the rightness of their own belief and a certainty that
+their divine protectors must triumph over those of other nations, but a
+feeling of the constant presence of some spirits, who, 'if haply they
+might find them,' would, on the payment of their due, bear their part
+in the great progress of right and justice and empire on which Rome
+must march to her victory. It was the duty of the citizen, with this
+conception of his city before his eyes, to see to it that the state's
+part in the contract was fulfilled. From his ancestors had been
+inherited the tradition, which told him the when, where, and how, and
+in the preservation of that tradition and its due performance consisted
+at once Rome's duty and her glory. 'If we wish,' says Cicero, 'to
+compare ourselves with other nations, we may be found in other respects
+equal or even inferior; in religion, that is in the worship of the
+gods, we are far superior.' The religion of Rome may not have advanced
+the theology or the ethics of the world, but it made and held together
+a nation.
+
+
+
+
+WORKS BEARING ON THE EARLY RELIGION OF ROME
+
+
+_The Golden Bough_, (2nd Ed.). J.G. FRAZER.
+
+_History of Rome_, BOOK I. CHAP XII. TH. MOMMSEN.
+
+_Die Religion der Römer._ E. AUST.
+
+_Religion und Kultus der Römer._ G. WISSOWA.
+
+_Il Culto Privato di Roma Antica_, PART I. A. DE-MARCHI.
+
+_The Roman Festivals._ W. WARDE FOWLER.
+
+_The Religion of Numa._ J.B. CARTER.
+
+
+  Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty
+  at the Edinburgh University Press
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Religion of Ancient Rome, by Cyril Bailey
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Religion of Ancient Rome
+
+Author: Cyril Bailey
+
+Release Date: June 12, 2006 [EBook #18564]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeannie Howse, Thierry Alberto and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<div class="tr">
+<p class="cen" style="font-weight: bold;">Transcriber's Note:</p>
+<br />
+<p class="noin">The close spacing of &nbsp;<span class="np"> NP</span>&nbsp; in the <a href="#Page_89">table</a> on page 89 is
+representative of the <a href="images/np.png">original ligature.</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<h2 style="margin-bottom: .4em;">THE RELIGION OF</h2>
+<h1 style="margin-top: .4em;">ANCIENT ROME</h1>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h4>By</h4>
+<h2>CYRIL BAILEY, M.A.</h2>
+<h5>FELLOW AND TUTOR OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD</h5>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+
+<h5>LONDON<br />
+ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE &amp; CO <span class="sc">Ltd</span><br />
+1907</h5>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<div class="block">
+<p>I wish to express my warm thanks to Mr. W. Warde Fowler for his
+kindness in reading my proofs, and for many valuable hints and
+suggestions.</p>
+
+<p class="right">C.B.</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="sc">Balliol College</span>,<br />
+<i>Jan 25th, 1907</i>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="toc" id="toc"></a><hr />
+<br />
+
+<h3>CONTENTS</h3>
+<br />
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="70%" summary="Table of Contents">
+  <tr>
+  <td width="10%" class="tdr"><span style="font-size: 80%;">CHAP.</span></td>
+  <td width="80%" class="tdl">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td width="10%" class="tdr"><span style="font-size: 80%;">PAGE</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">I.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">Introduction&mdash;Sources and Scope</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">1</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">II.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">The &lsquo;Antecedents&rsquo; of Roman Religion</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">4</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">III.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">Main Features of the Religion of Numa</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">12</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">IV.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">Early History of Rome&mdash;The Agricultural Community</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">31</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">V.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">Worship of the Household</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">36</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">VI.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">Worship of the Fields</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">58</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">VII.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">Worship of the State</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">75</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">VIII.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">Auguries and Auspices</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">96</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr">IX.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">Religion and Morality&mdash;Conclusion</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">103</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span><br />
+
+<h2>THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME</h2>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER I<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>INTRODUCTION&mdash;SOURCES AND SCOPE</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>The conditions of our knowledge of the native religion of early Rome
+may perhaps be best illustrated by a parallel from Roman arch&aelig;ology.
+The visitor to the Roman Forum at the present day, if he wishes to
+reconstruct in imagination the Forum of the early Republic, must not
+merely 'think away' many strata of later buildings, but, we are told,
+must picture to himself a totally different orientation of the whole:
+the upper layer of remains, which he sees before him, is for his
+purpose in most cases not merely useless, but positively misleading.
+In the same way, if we wish to form a picture of the genuine Roman
+religion, we cannot find it immediately in classical literature; we
+must banish from our minds all that is due to the contact with the
+East and Egypt, and even with the other races of Italy, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span>and we must
+imagine, so to speak, a totally different mental orientation before
+the great influx of Greek literature and Greek thought, which gave an
+entirely new turn to Roman ideas in general, and in particular
+revolutionised religion 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 savants
+of the late Republic and of the Empire, and in the Augustan poets,
+biassed though they are in their interpretations by Greek tendencies,
+there is embodied a great wealth of ancient custom and ritual, which
+becomes significant when we have once got the clue to its meaning.
+More direct evidence is afforded by a large body of inscriptions and
+monuments, and above all by the surviving Calendars of the Roman
+festival year, which give us the true outline of the ceremonial
+observances of the early religion.</p>
+
+<p>It is not within the scope of this sketch to enter, except by way of
+occasional illustration, into the process of interpretation by which
+the patient work of scholars has disentangled the form and spirit of
+the native religion from the mass of foreign accretions. I intend
+rather to assume the process, and deal, as far as it is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span>possible in
+so controversial a subject, with results upon which authorities are
+generally agreed. Neither will any attempt be made to follow the
+development which the early religion underwent in later periods, when
+foreign elements were added and foreign ideas altered and remoulded
+the old tradition. We must confine ourselves to a single epoch, in
+which the native Roman spirit worked out unaided the ideas inherited
+from half-civilised ancestors, and formed that body of belief and
+ritual, which was always, at least officially, the kernel of Roman
+religion, and constituted what the Romans themselves&mdash;staunch
+believers in their own traditional history&mdash;loved to describe as the
+'Religion of Numa.' We must discover, as far as we can, how far its
+inherited 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.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>CHAPTER II<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>THE 'ANTECEDENTS' OF ROMAN RELIGION</h4>
+<br />
+
+
+<p>In every early religion there will of course be found, apart from
+external influence, traces of its own internal development, of stages
+by which it must have advanced from a mass of vague and primitive
+belief and custom to the organised worship of a civilised community.
+The religion of 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 other semi-barbarous peoples, and we shall see that
+the leading idea in its theology is but a characteristically Roman
+development of a marked feature in most early religions.</p>
+
+<p><b>1. Magic.</b>&mdash;Anthropology has taught us that in many primitive
+societies religion&mdash;a sense of man's dependence on a power higher than
+himself&mdash;is preceded by a stage of magic&mdash;a belief in man's own power
+to influence by occult means the action of the world around him. That
+the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>ancestors of the Roman community passed through this stage seems
+clear, and in surviving religious practice we may discover evidence of
+such magic in various forms. There is, for instance, what anthropology
+describes as 'sympathetic magic'&mdash;the attempt to influence the powers
+of nature by an imitation of the process which it is desired that they
+should perform. Of this we have a characteristic example in the
+ceremony of the <i>aquaelicium</i>, designed to produce rain after a long
+drought. In classical times the ceremony consisted in a procession
+headed by the pontifices, which bore the sacred rain-stone from its
+resting-place by the Porta Capena to the Capitol, where offerings were
+made to the sky-deity, Iuppiter, but<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> from the analogy of other
+primitive cults and the sacred title of the stone (<i>lapis manalis</i>),
+it is practically certain that the original ritual was the purely
+imitative process of pouring water over the stone. A similar
+rain-charm may possibly be seen in the curious ritual of the <i>argeorum
+sacra</i>, when puppets of straw were thrown into the Tiber&mdash;a symbolic
+wetting of the crops to which many parallels may be found among other
+primitive peoples. A sympathetic charm of a rather <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>different
+character seems to survive in the ceremony of the <i>augurium canarium</i>,
+at which a red dog was sacrificed for the prosperity of the crop&mdash;a
+symbolic killing of the red mildew (<i>robigo</i>); and again the slaughter
+of pregnant cows at the <i>Fordicidia</i> in the middle of April, before
+the sprouting of the corn, has a clearly sympathetic connection with
+the fertility of the earth. Another prominent survival&mdash;equally
+characteristic of primitive peoples&mdash;is the sacredness which attaches
+to the person of the priest-king, so that his every act or word may
+have a magic significance or effect. This is reflected generally in
+the Roman priesthood, but especially in the ceremonial surrounding the
+<i>flamen Dialis</i>, the priest of Iuppiter. He must appear always in
+festival garb, fire may never be taken from his hearth but for sacred
+purposes, no other person may ever sleep in his bed, the cuttings of
+his hair and nails must be preserved and buried beneath an <i>arbor
+felix</i>&mdash;no doubt a magic charm for fertility&mdash;he must not eat or even
+mention a goat or a bean, or other objects of an unlucky character.</p>
+
+<p><b>2. Worship of Natural Objects.</b>&mdash;A very common feature in the early
+development of religious consciousness is the worship of natural
+objects&mdash;in the first place of the objects <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>themselves and no more,
+but later of a spirit indwelling in them. The distinction is no doubt
+in individual cases a difficult one to make, and we find that among
+the Romans the earlier worship of the object tends to give way to the
+cult of the inhabiting spirit, but examples may be found which seem to
+belong to the earlier stage. We have, for instance, the sacred stone
+(<i>silex</i>) which was preserved in the temple of Iuppiter on the
+Capitol, and was brought out to play a prominent part in the ceremony
+of treaty-making. The fetial, who on that occasion represented the
+Roman people, at the solemn moment of the oath-taking, struck the
+sacrificial pig with the <i>silex</i>, saying as he did so, 'Do thou,
+Diespiter, strike the Roman people as I strike this pig here to-day,
+and strike them the more, as thou art greater and stronger.' Here no
+doubt the underlying notion is not merely symbolical, but in origin
+the stone is itself the god, an idea which later religion expressed in
+the cult-title specially used in this connection, <i>Iuppiter Lapis</i>. So
+again, in all probability, the <i>termini</i> or boundary-stones between
+properties are in origin the objects&mdash;though later only the site&mdash;of a
+yearly ritual at the festival of the Terminalia on February the 23rd,
+and they are, as it were, summed up in 'the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>god Terminus,' the great
+sacred boundary-stone, which had its own shrine within the Capitoline
+temple, because, according to the legend, 'the god' refused to budge
+even to make room for Iuppiter. The same notion is most likely at the
+root of the two great domestic cults of Vesta, 'the hearth,' and
+Ianus, 'the door,' though a more spiritual idea was soon associated
+with them; we may notice too in this connection the worship of
+springs, summed up in the subsequent deity Fons, and of rivers, such
+as Volturnus, the cult-name of the Tiber.</p>
+
+<p><b>3. Worship of Trees.</b>&mdash;But most conspicuous among the cults of
+natural objects, as in so many primitive religions, is the worship of
+trees. Here, though doubtless at first the tree was itself the object
+of veneration, surviving instances seem rather to belong to the later
+period when it was regarded as the abode of the spirit. We may
+recognise a case of this sort in the <i>ficus Ruminalis</i>, once the
+recipient of worship, though later legend, which preferred to find an
+historical or mythical explanation of cults, looked upon it as sacred
+because it was the scene of the suckling of Romulus and Remus by the
+wolf. Another fig-tree with a similar history is the <i>caprificus</i> of
+the Campus Martius, subsequently the site of the worship of Iuno
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>Caprotina. A more significant case is the sacred oak of Iuppiter
+Feretrius on the Capitol, on which the <i>spolia opima</i> were hung after
+the triumph&mdash;probably in early times a dedication of the booty to the
+spirit inhabiting the tree. Outside Rome, showing the same ideas at
+work among neighbouring peoples, was the 'golden bough' in the grove
+of Diana at Aricia. Nor was it only special trees which were thus
+regarded as the home of a deity; the tree in general is sacred, and
+any one may chance to be inhabited by a spirit. The feeling of the
+country population on this point comes out clearly in the prayer which
+Cato recommends his farmer to use before making a clearing in a wood:
+'Be thou god or goddess, to whom this grove is sacred, be it granted
+to us to make propitiatory sacrifice to thee with a pig for the
+clearing of this sacred spot'; here we have a clear instance of the
+tree regarded as the dwelling of the sacred power, and it is
+interesting to compare the many similar examples which<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> Dr. Frazer
+has collected from different parts of the world.</p>
+
+<p><b>4. Worship of Animals.</b>&mdash;Of the worship of animals we have
+comparatively little evidence in Roman religion, though we may perhaps
+detect it in a portion of the mysterious ritual of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>Lupercalia,
+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 communion with the sacred animal. We may
+recognise it too in the association of particular animals with
+divinities, such as the sacred wolf and woodpecker of Mars, but on 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.</p>
+
+<p><b>5. Animism.</b>&mdash;Such are some of the survivals of very early stages of
+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 'immediate antecedent,' is the state
+of religious feeling to which anthropologists have given the name of
+'Animism.' As far as we can follow the development of early religions,
+this attitude of mind seems to be the direct outcome of the failure of
+magic. Primitive man begins to see that neither he nor his magicians
+really possess that occult control over the forces of nature which was
+the supposed basis of magic: the charm fails, the spell does not
+produce the rain and when he looks for the cause, he can only argue
+that these things must <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>be in the hands of some power higher than his
+own. The world then and its various familiar objects become for him
+peopled with spirits, like in character to men, but more powerful, and
+his success in life and its various operations depends on the degree
+in which he is able to propitiate these spirits and secure their
+co-operation. If he desires rain, he must win the favour of the spirit
+who controls it, if he would fell a tree and suffer no harm, he must
+by suitable offerings entice the indwelling spirit to leave it. His
+'theology' in this stage is the knowledge of the various spirits and
+their dwellings, his ritual the due performance of sacrifice for
+purposes of propitiation and expiation. It was in this state of
+religious feeling that the ancestors of Rome must have lived before
+they founded their agricultural settlement on the Palatine: we must
+try now to see how far it had retained this character and what
+developments it had undergone when it had crystallised into the
+'Religion of Numa.'</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 10%;' />
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Frazer, <i>Golden Bough</i>, vol. i. pp. 81 ff.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> <i>Golden Bough</i>, vol. i. pp. 181-185.</p></div>
+
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>CHAPTER III<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>MAIN FEATURES OF THE RELIGION OF NUMA</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p><b>1. Theology.</b>&mdash;The characteristic appellation of a divine spirit in
+the oldest stratum of the Roman religion is not <i>deus</i>, a god, but
+rather <i>numen</i>, a power: he becomes <i>deus</i> when he obtains a name, and
+so is on the way to acquiring a definite personality, but in origin he
+is simply the 'spirit' of the 'animistic' period, and retains
+something of the spirit's characteristics. Thus among the divinities
+of the household we shall see later that the Genius and even the Lar
+Familiaris, though they attained great dignity of conception, and were
+the centre of the family life, and to some extent of the family
+morality, never quite rose to the position of full-grown gods; while
+among the spirits of the field the wildness and impishness of
+character associated with Faunus and his companion Inuus&mdash;almost the
+cobolds or hobgoblins of the flocks&mdash;reflects clearly the old
+'animistic' belief in the natural evilness of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>the spirits and their
+hostility to men. The notion of the <i>numen</i> is always vague and
+indefinite: even its sex may be uncertain. 'Be thou god or goddess' is
+the form of address in the farmer's prayer already quoted from Cato:
+'be it male or female' is the constant formula in liturgies and even
+dedicatory inscriptions of a much later period.</p>
+
+<p>These spirits are, as we have seen, indwellers in the objects of
+nature and controllers of the phenomena of nature: but to the Roman
+they were more. Not merely did they inhabit places and things, but
+they presided over each phase of natural development, each state or
+action in the life of man. Varro, for instance, gives us a list of the
+deities concerned in the early life of the child, which, though it
+bears the marks of priestly elaboration, may yet be taken as typical
+of the feeling of the normal Roman family. There is Vaticanus, who
+opens the child's mouth to cry, Cunina, who guards his cradle, Edulia
+and Potina, who teach him to eat and drink, Statilinus, who helps him
+to stand up, Adeona and Abeona, who watch over his first footstep, and
+many others each with his special province of protection or
+assistance. The farmer similarly is in the hands of a whole host of
+divinities who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>assist him at each stage of ploughing, hoeing, sowing,
+reaping, and so forth. If the <i>numen</i> then lacks personal
+individuality, he has a very distinct specialisation of 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 a character 'ask for water from Liber, or wine from the
+nymphs.' Hence we find in the prayer formul&aelig; in Cato and elsewhere the
+most careful precautions to prevent the accidental omission of the
+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
+desire to be called.' The <i>numen</i> is thus vague in his conception but
+specialised in his function, and so later on, when certain deities
+have acquired definite names and become prominent above the rest, the
+worshipper in appealing to them will add a cult-title, to indicate the
+special character in which he wishes the deity to hear: the woman in
+childbirth will appeal to Iuno Lucina, the general praying for victory
+to Iuppiter Victor, the man who is taking an oath to Iuppiter <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>as the
+deus Fidius. As a still later development the cult-title will, as it
+were, break off and set up for itself, usually in the form of an
+abstract personification: Iuppiter, in the two special capacities just
+noted, gives birth to Victoria and Fides.</p>
+
+<p>The conception of the <i>numen</i> being so formless and indefinite, it is
+not surprising that in the genuine Roman religion there should have
+been no anthropomorphic representations of the divinity at all. 'For
+170 years,' Varro tells us, taking his date from the traditional
+foundation of the city in 754 <span class="fakesc">B.C.</span>, 'the Romans worshipped
+their gods without images,' and he adds the characteristic comment,
+'those who introduced representations among the nations, took away
+fear and brought in falsehood.' Symbols of a few deities were no doubt
+recognised: we have noticed already the <i>silex</i> of Iuppiter and the
+boundary-stone of Terminus, which were probably at an earlier period
+themselves objects of worship, and to these we may add the sacred
+spears of Mars, and the <i>sigilla</i> of the State-Penates. But for the
+most part the <i>numina</i> were without even such symbolic representation,
+nor till about the end of the regal period was any form of temple
+built for them to dwell in. The sacred fire of Vesta near the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>Forum
+was, it is true, from the earliest times enclosed in a building; this,
+however, was no temple, but merely an erection with the essentially
+practical purpose of preventing the extinction of the fire by rain.
+The first temple in the full sense of the word was according to
+tradition built by Servius Tullius to Diana on the Aventine: the
+tradition is significant, for Diana was not one of the <i>di indigetes</i>,
+the old deities of the 'Religion of Numa,' but was introduced from the
+neighbouring town of Aricia, and the attribution to Servius Tullius
+nearly always denotes an Etruscan<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> or at any rate a non-Roman
+origin. There were, however, altars in special places to particular
+deities, built sometimes of stone, sometimes in a more homely manner
+of earth or sods. We hear for instance of the altar of Mars in the
+Campus Martius, of Quirinus on the Quirinal, of Saturnus at the foot
+of the Capitol, and notably of the curious underground altar of Consus
+on what was later the site of the Circus Maximus. But more
+characteristic than the erection of altars is the connection of
+deities with special localities. Naturally enough in the worship of
+the household Vesta had her seat at the hearth, Ianus <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>at the door,
+and the 'gods of the storehouse' (<i>Penates</i>) at the cupboard by the
+hearth, but the same idea appears too in the state-cult. Hilltops,
+groves, and especially clearings in groves (<i>luci</i>) are the most usual
+sacred localities. Thus Quirinus has his own sacred hill, Iuppiter is
+worshipped on the Capitol, Vesta and Iuno Lucina have their sacred
+groves within the boundaries of the city, and Dea Dia, Robigus, and
+Furrina similar groves at the limits of Roman territory. The record of
+almost every Roman cult reveals the importance of locality in
+connection with the <i>di indigetes</i>, and the localities are usually
+such as would be naturally chosen by a pastoral and agricultural
+people.</p>
+
+<p>Such were roughly the main outlines of the genuine Roman 'theology.'
+It has no gods of human form with human relations to one another,
+interested in the life of men and capable of the deepest passions of
+hatred and affection towards them, such as we meet, for instance, in
+the mythology of Greece, but only these impersonal individualities, if
+we may so call them, capable of no relation to one another, but able
+to bring good or ill to men, localised usually in their habitations,
+but requiring no artificial dwelling or elaborate adornment of their
+abode; becoming <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>gradually more and more specialised in function, yet
+gaining thereby no more real protective care for their worshippers&mdash;a
+cold and heartless hierarchy, ready to exact their due, but incapable
+of inspiring devotion or enthusiasm. Let us ask next how the Romans
+conceived of their own relations towards them.</p>
+
+<p><b>2. The Relation of Gods and Men.</b>&mdash;The character of the 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 of sentiment or affection: all must be
+regulated by clearly understood principles and carried out with formal
+exactness. Hence the <i>ius sacrum</i>, the body of rights and duties in
+the matter of religion, is regarded as a department of the <i>ius
+publicum</i>, the fundamental constitution of the state, and it is
+significant, as Marquardt has observed, that it was Numa, a king and
+lawgiver, and not a prophet or a poet, who was looked upon as the
+founder of the Roman religion. Starting from the simple general
+feeling of a dependence on a higher power (<i>religio</i>), which is common
+to all religions, the Roman gives it his own characteristic colour
+when he conceives of that dependence as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>analogous 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 fulfilled 'his bounden duty and
+service,' the god must make his return: if he does not, either the
+cause lies in an unconscious failure on the human side to carry out
+the exact letter of the law, or else, if the god 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 of Rome's
+readiness under stress of circumstances, when all appeals to the old
+gods have failed, to adopt foreign deities and cults in the hope of a
+greater measure of success.</p>
+
+<p>The contract-notion may perhaps appear more clearly if we consider one
+or two of the normal religious acts of the Roman individual or state.
+Take first of all the performance of the regular sacrifices or acts of
+worship ordained by the state-calendar or the celebration of the
+household <i>sacra</i>. The <i>pietas</i> of man consists in their due
+fulfilment, but he may through negligence omit them or 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 not obliged to fulfil <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>their
+share, but the man can set himself right again by the offering of a
+<i>piaculum</i>, which may take the form either of an additional sacrifice
+or a repetition of the original rite. So, for instance, when Cato is
+giving his farmer directions for the lustration of his fields, he
+supplies him at the end with two significant formul&aelig;: 'if,' he says,
+'you have failed in any respect with regard to all your offerings, use
+this formula: "Father Mars, if thou hast not found satisfaction in my
+former offering of pig, sheep, and ox (the most solemn combination in
+rustic sacrifices), then let this offering of pig and sheep and ox
+appease thee": but if you have made a mistake in one or two only of
+your offerings, then say, "Father Mars, because thou hast not found
+satisfaction in that pig (or whatever it may be), let this pig appease
+thee."' On the other hand, for intentional neglect, there was no
+remedy: the man was <i>impius</i> and it rested with the gods to punish him
+as they liked (<i>deorum iniuriae dis curae</i>).</p>
+
+<p>But apart from the regularly constituted ceremonies of religion, there
+might be special occasions on which new relations would be entered
+into between god and man. Sometimes the initiative would come from
+man: desiring to obtain from <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>the gods some blessings on which he had
+set his heart, he would enter into a <i>votum</i>, a special contract by
+which he undertook to perform certain acts or make certain sacrifices,
+in case of the fulfilment of his desire. The whole proceeding is
+strictly legal: from the moment when he makes his vow the man is <i>voti
+reus</i>, in the same position, that is, as the defendant in a case whose
+decision is still pending; as soon as the gods have accomplished their
+side of the contract he is <i>voti damnatus</i>, condemned, as it were, to
+damages, having lost his suit; nor does he recover his independence
+until he has paid what he undertook: <i>votum reddidi lubens merito</i> ('I
+have paid my vow gladly as it was due') is the characteristic wording
+of votive inscriptions. If the gods did not accomplish the wish, the
+man was of course free, and sometimes the contract would be carried so
+far that a time-limit for their action would be fixed by the maker of
+the vow: legal exactness can hardly go further.</p>
+
+<p>Or again, the initiative might come from the gods. Some marked
+misfortune, an earthquake, lightning, a great famine, a portentous
+birth, or some such occurrence would be recognised as a <i>prodigium</i>,
+or sign of the god's displeasure. Somehow or other the contract must
+have been <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>broken on the human side and it was the duty of the state
+to see to the restoration of the <i>pax deum</i>, the equilibrium of the
+normal relation of god and man. The right proceeding in such a case
+was a <i>lustratio</i>, a solemn cleansing of the people&mdash;or the portion of
+the people involved in the god's displeasure&mdash;with the double object
+of removing the original reason of misfortune and averting future
+causes of the divine anger. The commercial notion is not perhaps quite
+so distinct here, but the underlying legal relationship is
+sufficiently marked.</p>
+
+<p>If then the question be asked whether the relation between the Roman
+and his gods was friendly or unfriendly, the correct answer would
+probably be that it was neither. It was rather what Aristotle in
+speaking of human relations describes as 'a friendship for profit': it
+is entered into because both sides hope for some advantage&mdash;it is
+maintained as long as both sides fulfil their obligations.</p>
+
+<p><b>3. Ceremonial.</b>&mdash;It has been said sometimes that the old Roman
+religion was one of cult and ritual without dogma or belief. As we
+have seen this is not in origin strictly true, and it would be fairer
+to say that belief was latent rather than non-existent: this we may
+see, for instance, from <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>Cicero's dialogues on the subject of
+religion, where in discussion the fundamental sense of the dependence
+of man on the help of the gods comes clearly into view: in the
+domestic worship of the family too cult was always to some extent
+'tinged with emotion,' and sanctified by a belief which made it a more
+living and in the end a more permanent reality than the religion of
+the state. But it is no doubt true that as the community advanced,
+belief tended to sink into the background: development took place in
+cult and not in theology, so that by the end of the Republic, to take
+an example, though the festival of the Furrinalia was duly observed
+every year on the 25th of July, the nature or function of the goddess
+Furrina was, as we learn from Cicero, a pure matter of conjecture, and
+Varro tells us that her name was known only to a few persons. Nor was
+it mere lapse of time which tended to obscure theology and exalt
+ceremonial: their relative position was the immediate and natural
+outcome of the underlying idea of the relation of god and man.
+Devotion, piety&mdash;in our sense of the term&mdash;and a feeling of the divine
+presence could not be enjoined or even encouraged by the strictly
+legal conception on which religion was based: the 'contract-notion'
+required not a 'right spirit' but <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>right performance. And so it comes
+about that in all the records we have left of the old religion the
+salient feature which catches and retains our attention is exactness
+of ritual. All must be performed not merely 'decently and in order,'
+but with the most scrupulous care alike for every detail of the
+ceremonial itself, and for the surrounding circumstances. The omission
+or misplacement of a single word in the formul&aelig;, the slightest sign of
+resistance on the part of the victim, any disorder among the
+bystanders, even the accidental squeak of a mouse, are sufficient to
+vitiate the whole ritual and necessitate its repetition from the very
+beginning. One of the main functions of the Roman priesthood was to
+preserve intact the tradition of formul&aelig; and ritual, and, when the
+magistrate offered sacrifice for the state, the <i>pontifex</i> stood at
+his side and dictated (<i>praeire</i>) the formul&aelig; which he must use.
+Almost the oldest specimen of Latin which we now possess is the song
+of the Salii, the priests of Mars, handed on from generation to
+generation and repeated with scrupulous care, even though the priests
+themselves, as Quintilian assures us, had not the least notion what it
+meant. Nor was it merely the words of ceremonial which were of vital
+importance: other details must be attended <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>to with equal exactness.
+Place, as we have seen, was an essential feature even in the
+conception of deity, and it must have required all the personal
+influence of Augustus and his entourage to reconcile the people of
+Rome, with the ancient home of the goddess still before their eyes, to
+the second shrine of Vesta within the limits of his palace on the
+Palatine. The choice of the appropriate offering again was a matter of
+the greatest moment and was dictated by a large number of
+considerations. The sex of the victim must correspond to the sex of
+the deity to whom it is offered, white beasts must be given to the
+gods of the upper world, black victims to the deities below. Mars at
+his October festival must have his horse, Iuno Caprotina her goat, and
+Robigus his dog, while in the more rustic festivals such as the
+Parilia, the offering would be the simpler gift of millet-cakes and
+bowls of milk: in the case of the Bona Dea we have the curious
+provision that if wine were used in the ceremonial, it must, as she
+was in origin a pastoral deity, always be spoken of as 'milk.' The
+persons who might be present in the various festivals were also
+rigidly determined: men were excluded from the Matronalia on March 1,
+from the Vestalia on the 9th of June, and from the night festival of
+the Bona Dea: the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>notorious escapade of Clodius in 62 <span class="fakesc">B.C.</span>
+shows the scandal raised by a breach of this rule even at the period
+when religious enthusiasm was at its lowest ebb. Slaves were
+specifically admitted to a share in certain festivals such as the
+Saturnalia and the Compitalia (the festival of the Lares), whereas at
+the Matralia (the festival of the matrons) a female slave was brought
+in with the express purpose of being significantly driven away.</p>
+
+<p>The general notion of the exactness of ritual will perhaps become
+clearer when we come to examine some of the festivals in detail, but
+it is of extreme importance for the understanding of the Roman
+religious attitude, to think of it from the first as an essential part
+in the expression of the relation of man to god.</p>
+
+<p><b>4. Directness of Relation&mdash;Functions of Priests.</b>&mdash;In contrast to all
+this precision of ritual, which tends almost to alienate humanity from
+deity, we may turn to another hardly less prominent feature of the
+Roman religion&mdash;the immediateness of relation between the god and his
+worshippers. Not only may the individual at any time approach the
+altar of the god with his prayer or thank-offering, but in every
+community of persons its religious representative is its natural head.
+In <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>the family the head of the household (<i>pater familias</i>) is also
+the priest and he is responsible for conducting the religious worship
+of the whole house, free and slave alike: to his wife and daughters he
+leaves the ceremonial connected with the hearth (<i>Vesta</i>) and the
+deities of the store-cupboard (<i>Penates</i>), and to his bailiff the
+sacrifice to the powers who protect his fields (<i>Lares</i>), but the
+other acts of worship at home and in the fields he conducts himself,
+and his sons act as his acolytes. Once a year he meets with his
+neighbours at the boundaries of their properties and celebrates the
+common worship over the boundary-stones. So in<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> the larger outgrowth
+of the family, the <i>gens</i>, which consisted of all persons with the
+same surname (<i>nomen</i>, not <i>cognomen</i>), the gentile <i>sacra</i> are in the
+hands of the more wealthy members who are regarded as its heads; we
+have the curious instance of Clodius even after his adoption into
+another family, providing for the worship of the <i>gens Clodia</i> in his
+own house, and we may remember Virgil's picture of the founders of the
+<i>gentes</i> of the Potitii and the Pinarii performing the sacrifice to
+Hercules at the <i>ara maxima</i>, which was the traditional privilege of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>their houses. When societies (<i>sodalitates</i>) are formed for religious
+purposes they elect their own <i>magistri</i> to be their religious
+representatives, as we see in the case of the Salii and the Luperci.
+Finally, in the great community of the state the king is priest, and
+with that exactness of parallelism of which the Roman was so fond,
+he&mdash;like the <i>pater familias</i>&mdash;leaves the worship of Vesta in the
+hands of his 'daughters,' the Vestal virgins. And so, when the
+Republic is instituted, a special official, the <i>rex sacrorum</i>,
+inherits the king's ritual duties, while the superintendence of the
+Vestals passes to his representative in the matter of religious law,
+the <i>pontifex maximus</i>, whose official residence is always the
+<i>regia</i>, Numa's palace. The state is but the enlarged household and
+the head of the state is its religious representative.</p>
+
+<p>If then the approach to the gods is so direct, where, it may be asked,
+in the organisation of Roman religion is there room for the priest?
+Two points about the Roman priesthood are of paramount importance. In
+the first place, they are not a caste apart: though there were
+restrictions as to the holding of secular magistracies in combination
+with the priesthood&mdash;always observed strictly in the case of the <i>rex
+sacrorum</i> and with few exceptions in the case of the greater
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span><i>flamines</i>&mdash;yet the <i>pontifices</i> might always take their part in
+public life, and no kind of barrier existed between them and the rest
+of the community: Iulius C&aelig;sar himself was <i>pontifex maximus</i>. In the
+second place they are not regarded as representatives of the gods or
+as mediators between god and man, but simply as administrative
+officials appointed for the performance of the acts of state-worship,
+just as 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&mdash;the <i>flamines</i> were to act as special priests of
+particular deities, the most prominent among them being the three
+great priests of Iuppiter (<i>flamen Dialis</i>), Mars, and Quirinus; the
+<i>pontifices</i> were sometimes delegates of the king on special
+occasions, but more particularly formed his religious <i>consilium</i>, a
+consulting body, to give him advice as to ritual and act as the
+repositories of tradition. In later times the <i>flamines</i> still retain
+their original character, the <i>pontifices</i> and especially the
+<i>pontifex maximus</i> are responsible for the whole organisation of the
+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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>a general superintendence over private worship and
+their leave would be required for the introduction of any new domestic
+cult; in cases too where the private person was in doubt as to ritual
+or the legitimacy of any religious practice, he could appeal to the
+<i>pontifices</i> for decision. Otherwise the priest could never intervene
+in the worship of the family, except in the case of the most solemn
+form of marriage (<i>confarreatio</i>), which, as it conferred on the
+children the right to hold certain of the priesthoods, was regarded
+itself as a ceremony of the state-religion.</p>
+
+<p>In his private worship then the individual had immediate access to the
+deity, and it was no doubt this absence of priestly mediation and the
+consequent sense of personal responsibility, no less than its
+emotional significance, which caused the greater reality and
+permanence of the domestic worship as compared with the organised and
+official cults of the state.</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 10%;' />
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Etruscan builders were according to tradition employed on
+the earliest Roman temples.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> This is all open to doubt, but see De Marchi, <i>Il Culto
+Privato</i>, vol. ii.</p>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>CHAPTER IV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>EARLY HISTORY OF ROME&mdash;THE AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITY</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>After this sketch of the main features which we must expect to find in
+Roman religion, we may attempt to look a little more in detail at its
+various departments, but before doing so it is necessary to form some
+notion of the situation and character of the Roman community: religion
+is not a little determined by men's natural surroundings and
+occupations. The subject is naturally one of considerable controversy,
+but certain facts of great significance for our purpose may fairly be
+taken as established. The earliest settlement which can be called
+'Rome' was the community of the Palatine hill, which rises out of the
+valleys more abruptly than any of the other hills and was the natural
+place to be selected for fortification: the outline of the walls and
+sacred enclosure running outside them (<i>pomoerium</i>) may still be
+traced, marking the limits <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>of 'square Rome' (<i>Roma quadrata</i>), as the
+historians called it. The Palatine community no 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
+Septimontium&mdash;the next stage of Rome's development. Meanwhile a
+kindred settlement had been established on the opposite hills of 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&mdash;the Forum. In this way was formed
+the Rome of the Four Regions, which represents the utmost extent of
+its development during the period which gave rise to the genuine Roman
+religion. All these stages have left their mark on the customs of
+religion. <i>Roma quadrata</i> comes to the fore in the Lupercalia: not
+merely is the site of the ceremony a grotto on the Palatine
+(<i>Lupercal</i>), but when the <i>Luperci</i> run their purificatory course
+around the boundaries, it is the circuit of the Palatine hill which
+marks its limits. Annually on the 11th of December the festival of the
+Septimontium was celebrated, not by the whole people, but by the
+<i>montani</i>, presumably the inhabitants of those <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>parts of Rome which
+were included in the second settlement. Finally, the addition of the
+Quirinal settlement is marked by the inclusion among the great
+state-gods of Quirinus, who must have been previously the local deity
+of the Quirinal community.</p>
+
+<p>But more important for us than the history of the early settlement is
+its character. We have spoken of early Rome as an agricultural
+community: it would be more exact and more helpful to describe it as a
+community of agricultural households. The institutions of Rome, legal
+as well as religious, all point to the household (<i>familia</i>) as the
+original unit of organisation: the individual, as such, counted for
+nothing, the community was but the aggregate of families. Domestic
+worship then was not merely independent of the religion of the
+community: it was prior to it, and is both its historical and logical
+origin. Yet the life of the early Roman agriculturalist could not be
+confined to the household: in the tilling of the fields and the care
+of his cattle he meets his neighbour, and common interests suggest
+common prayer and thanksgiving. Thus there sprung up the great series
+of agricultural festivals which form the basis of the state-calendar,
+but were in origin&mdash;as some of them <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>still continued to be&mdash;the
+independent acts of worship of groups of agricultural households.
+Gradually, as the community grew on the lines we have just seen, there
+grew with it a sense of an organised state, as something more than the
+casual aggregation of households or clans (<i>gentes</i>). As the feeling
+of union became stronger, so did the necessity for common worship of
+the gods, and the state-cult came into being primarily as the
+repetition on behalf of the community as a whole of the worship which
+its members performed separately in their households or as
+joint-worshippers in the fields. But the conception of a state must
+carry with it at least two ideas over and beyond the common needs of
+its members: there must be internal organisation to secure domestic
+tranquillity, and&mdash;since there will be collision with other
+states&mdash;external organisation for purposes of offence and defence.
+Religion follows the new ideas, and in two of the older deities of the
+fields develops the notions of justice and war. Organisation ensues,
+and the general conceptions of state-deities and state-ritual are made
+more definite and precise.</p>
+
+<p>It will be at once natural and convenient that we should consider
+these three departments of religion in the order that has just been
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>suggested&mdash;the worship of the household, the worship of the fields,
+the worship of 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 distinguishable from that of the
+fields, the state-cult is, as we have seen, very largely a replica of
+the other two. The evidence for the domestic and agricultural cults is
+in itself very scanty, and we shall frequently have to draw inferences
+from their counterparts in the state. Above all, it is not to be
+supposed that any hard and fast line between the three existed in the
+Roman's mind; but for the purposes of analysis the distinction is
+valuable and represents a historical reality.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>CHAPTER V<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>WORSHIP OF THE HOUSEHOLD</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p><b>1. The Deities.</b>&mdash;The worship of the household seems to have
+originated, as has been suggested, in the sense of the sacredness of
+certain objects closely bound up with the family life&mdash;the door, the
+protection against the external world, by which the household went out
+to work in the morning and returned at evening, the hearth, the giver
+of warmth and nourishment, and the store-cupboard, where was preserved
+the food for future use. At first, in all probability, the worship was
+actually of the objects themselves, but by the time that Rome can be
+said to have existed at all, 'animism' had undoubtedly transformed it
+into a veneration of the indwelling spirits, Ianus, Vesta, and the
+Penates.</p>
+
+<p>Of the domestic worship of Ianus no information has come down to us,
+but we may well suppose that as the defence of the door and its main
+use lay with the men of the household, so they, under <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>the control of
+the <i>pater familias</i>, were responsible for the cult of its spirit.
+Vesta was, of course, worshipped at the hearth by the women, who most
+often used it in the preparation of the domestic meals. In the
+original round hut, such as the primitive Roman dwelt in&mdash;witness the
+models which he buried with his dead and which recent excavations in
+the Forum have brought to light&mdash;the 'blazing hearth' (such seems to
+be the meaning of Vesta) would be the most conspicuously sacred thing;
+it is therefore not surprising to find that her simple cult was the
+most persistent of all throughout the history of Rome, and did not
+vary from its original notion. Even Ovid can tell the inquirer 'think
+not Vesta to be ought else than living flame,' and again, 'Vesta and
+fire require no effigy'&mdash;notions in which he has come curiously near
+to the conceptions of the earliest religion. The Penates in the same
+way were at first 'the spirits'&mdash;whoever they might be&mdash;who preserved
+and increased the store in the cupboard. Then as the conception of
+individual deities became clearer, they were identified with some one
+or other of the gods of the country or the state, among whom the
+individual householder would select those who should be the particular
+Penates of his family: Ceres, Iuno, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>Iuppiter, Pales would be some of
+those chosen in the earlier period. Nor are we to suppose that
+selection was merely arbitrary: the tradition of family and clan, even
+possibly of locality, would determine the choice, much as the
+patron-saints of a church are now determined in a Roman Catholic
+country.</p>
+
+<p>Two other deities are very prominent in the worship of the early
+household, and each is a characteristic product of Roman religious
+feeling, the Lar Familiaris and the Genius. The Lares<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> seem to have
+been in origin the spirits of the family fields: they were worshipped,
+as Cicero tells us, 'on the farm in sight of the house,' and they had
+their annual festival in the Compitalia, celebrated at the
+<i>compita</i>&mdash;places where two or more properties marched. But one of
+these spirits, the <i>Lar Familiaris</i>, had special charge of the house
+and household, and as such was worshipped with the other domestic gods
+at the hearth. As his protection extended over all the household,
+including the slaves, his cult is placed specially in the charge of
+the bailiff's wife (<i>vilica</i>). He is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>regularly worshipped at the
+great divisions of the month on Calends, Nones, and Ides, but he has
+also an intimate and beautiful connection with the domestic history of
+the family. An offering is made to the Lar on the occasion of a birth,
+a wedding, a departure, or a return, and even&mdash;a characteristically
+Roman addition&mdash;on the occasion of the first utterance of a word by a
+son of the house: finally, a particularly solemn sacrifice is made to
+him after a death in the family.</p>
+
+<p>The Genius is perhaps the most difficult conception in the Roman
+religion for the modern mind to grasp. It has been spoken of as the
+'patron-saint' or 'guardian-angel,' both of them conceptions akin to
+that of the Genius, but both far too definite and anthropomorphic: we
+shall understand it best by keeping the '<i>numen</i>' notion clearly in
+mind and looking to the root-meaning of the word (<i>genius</i> connected
+with the root of <i>gignere</i>, to beget). It was after all only a natural
+development of the notions of 'animism' to imagine that man too, like
+other objects, had his indwelling spirit&mdash;not his 'soul' either in our
+sense of moral and intellectual powers, or in the ancient sense of the
+vital principle&mdash;but rather as the derivation suggests, in origin
+simply the spirit which gave him the power of generation. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>Hence in
+the house, the sphere of the Genius is no longer the hearth but the
+marriage-bed (<i>lectus genialis</i>). This notion growing somewhat wider,
+the Genius comes to denote all the full powers, almost the
+personality, of developed manhood, and especially those powers which
+make for pleasure and happiness: this is the origin of such common
+phrases as <i>genium curare</i>, <i>genio indulgere</i>, meaning practically to
+'look after oneself,' 'to indulge oneself.' Every man, then, has this
+'spirit of his manhood' in his Genius, and correspondingly every woman
+her Iuno, or spirit of womanhood, which are worshipped on the
+birthdays of their owners. No doubt later the Genius was accredited
+with powers over the fortune and misfortune of his possessor, but he
+never really developed anything like the independence of a god, and
+remained always rather a <i>numen</i>. The individual revered his own
+Genius, but the household cult was concerned, as one would expect,
+with the Genius of the master of the house, the pre-eminent Genius of
+the family. Its special locality was, for the reason just noticed, the
+marriage-bed and its symbol, the house-snake, kept as a revered inmate
+and cherished in the feeling that evil happening to it meant
+misfortune to the master. The festival of the Genius was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>naturally
+the master's birthday, and on that day slaves and freedmen kept
+holiday with the family and brought offerings to the <i>Genius domus</i>.
+It is a significant fact, and may serve to bring out the underlying
+notion, that in later paintings, when anthropomorphism and sensuous
+representation held sway over all Roman religion, though the other
+gods of the household were depicted after the manner of Greek deities,
+the Genius is either represented by his symbolic snake or appears with
+the human features and characteristics of the head of the house, his
+owner.</p>
+
+<p>The spirit-gods then of the door and the hearth, the specially chosen
+deities of the store-cupboard, the particular field-power presiding
+over the household, and the spirit of the master's personality were
+the gods of the early home, and round their worship centred the
+domestic religion. We must attempt to see what was its relation to
+family life.</p>
+
+<p><b>2. Religion and the Family Life.</b>&mdash;We have already noticed the main
+occasions of regular sacrifice to the deities of the household, the
+offerings to the Lar on Calends, Nones, and Ides, to the Genius on the
+master's birthday, and so on, and we are enabled to form a fair
+picture of the rites from <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>paintings which, although of later date,
+undoubtedly represent the continuous tradition of domestic custom. In
+a wall-painting at Herculaneum, for instance, we have a picture of the
+<i>pater familias</i>, represented with veiled head (according to regular
+Roman custom) and the cornucopia of the Genius, making sacrifice at a
+round altar or hearth. Opposite him stands the flute-player
+(<i>tibicen</i>) playing to drown any unpropitious sound, while on either
+side are two smaller figures, presumably the sons, acting as
+attendants (<i>camilli</i>), and both clad (<i>succincti</i>) in the short
+sacrificial tunic (<i>limus</i>); one carries in his left hand the sacred
+dish (<i>patera</i>), and in his right garlands or, more probably, ribbons
+for the decoration of the victim: the other is acting as <i>victimarius</i>
+and bringing the pig for sacrifice, but the animal is hurrying with
+almost excessive eagerness towards the altar, no doubt to show that
+there is none of the reluctance which would have been sufficient to
+vitiate the sacrifice.</p>
+
+<p>But from our point of view such formal acts of worship are of less
+importance than the part played by religion in the daily life of the
+household. There is evidence both for earlier and later periods that
+the really 'pious' would begin their day with prayer and sacrifice to
+the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>household gods, and like Virgil's Aeneas, typically <i>pius</i> in all
+the meanings of the word, would 'rouse the slumbering flame upon the
+altar and gladly approach again the Lar and little Penates whom he
+worshipped yesterday.' But this was perhaps exceptional devotion, and
+the daily worship in the normal household centred rather round the
+family meal. In the old and simple house the table would be placed at
+the side of the hearth, and, as the household sat round it, master and
+man together, a part of the meal, set aside on a special sacred dish
+(<i>patella</i>), would be thrown into the flames as the gods' portion.
+Sometimes incense might be added, and later a libation of wine: when
+images had become common, the little statuettes of Lares and Penates
+would be fetched from the shrine (<i>lararium</i>) and placed upon the
+table in token of their presence at the meal. Even in the luxurious,
+many-roomed house of the imperial epoch, when the dining-table was far
+from the kitchen-hearth, a pause was made in the meal and an offering
+sent out to the household-gods, nor would the banquet proceed until
+the slave had returned and announced that the gods were favourable
+(<i>deos propitios</i>): so persistent was this tradition of domestic
+piety. Prayer might be made at this point on special <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>occasions to
+special deities, as, for instance, before the beginning of the sowing
+of the crops, appeal was made to Iuppiter, and a special portion of
+the meal (<i>daps</i>) was set aside for him. The sanctification of the one
+occasion when the whole household met in the day cannot fail to have
+had its effect 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 on a higher power for the supply of their daily needs.</p>
+
+<p>We observed incidentally how the small events of domestic life were
+given their religious significance, particularly in connection with
+the worship of Lar and Genius, but to complete the sketch of domestic
+religion, we must examine a little more closely its relation to the
+process of life, and especially to the two important occasions of
+birth and marriage. In no department of life is the specialisation of
+function among the <i>numina</i> more conspicuous than in connection with
+birth and childhood. Apart from the general protection of Iuno Lucina,
+the prominent divinity of childbirth, we can count in the records that
+have come down to us some twenty subordinate spirits, who from the
+moment of conception to the moment of birth watched, each in its own
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>particular sphere, over the mother and the unborn child. As soon as
+the birth had taken place began a series of ceremonies, which are of
+particular interest, as they seem to belong to a very early stage of
+religious thought, and have a markedly rustic character. Immediately a
+sacred meal was offered to the two field-deities, Picumnus and
+Pilumnus, and then the Roman turned his attention to the practical
+danger of fever for the mother and child. At night three men gathered
+round the threshold, one armed with an axe, another with a stake, and
+a third with a broom: the two first struck the threshold with their
+implements, the third swept out the floor. Over this ceremony were
+said to preside three <i>numina</i>, Intercidona (connected with the axe),
+Pilumnus (connected with the stake, <i>pilum</i>), and Deverra (connected
+with the act of sweeping). Its object was, as Varro explains it, to
+avert the entrance of the half-wild Silvanus by giving three
+unmistakeable signs of human civilisation; we shall probably not be
+wrong in seeing in it rather an actual hacking, beating, and sweeping
+away of evil spirits. On the ninth day after birth, in the case of a
+boy, on the eighth in the case of a girl, occurred the festival of the
+naming (<i>solemnitas nominalium</i>). The ceremony was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>one of
+purification (<i>dies lustricus</i> is its alternative title), and a
+piacular offering was made to preserve the child from evil influences
+in the future. Friends brought presents, especially neck-bands in the
+form of a half-moon (<i>lunulae</i>), and the golden balls (<i>bullae</i>) which
+were worn as a charm round the neck until the attainment of manhood.</p>
+
+<p>Of the numerous petty divinities which watched over the child's early
+years we have already given some account. In their protection he
+remained until he arrived at puberty, about the age of seventeen, when
+with due religious ceremony he entered on his manhood. At home, on the
+morning of the festival, he solemnly laid aside the <i>bulla</i> and the
+purple-striped garb of childhood (<i>toga praetexta</i>) before the shrine
+of the household gods, and made them a thank-offering for their
+protection in the past. Afterwards, accompanied by his father and
+friends and clad now in the <i>toga virilis</i>, he went solemnly to the
+Capitol, and, after placing a contribution in the coffers of
+Iuventas&mdash;or probably in earlier times of Iuppiter Iuventus&mdash;made an
+offering to the supreme deity Iuppiter Capitolinus. The sacred
+character of the early years of a young Roman's life could hardly be
+more closely marked.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>Though <i>confarreatio</i> was the only essentially religious form of
+marriage, and was sanctified by the presence of the <i>pontifex maximus</i>
+and the <i>flamen Dialis</i>, yet marriage even in the less religious
+ceremony of <i>coemptio</i> was always a <i>sacrum</i>. It must not take place
+on the days of state-festivals (<i>feriae</i>), nor on certain other <i>dies
+religiosi</i>, such as those of the Vestalia or the feast of the dead
+(<i>Parentalia</i>). Both the marriage itself and the preliminary betrothal
+(<i>sponsalia</i>) had to receive the divine sanction by means of auspices,
+and in the ceremonies of both rites the religious element, though
+bound up with superstition and folk-customs, emerges clearly enough.
+The central ceremony of the <i>confarreatio</i> was an act partly of
+sacrifice, partly, one might almost say, of communion. The bride and
+bridegroom sat on two chairs united to one another and covered with a
+lambskin, they offered to Iuppiter bloodless offerings of a rustic
+character (<i>fruges et molam salsam</i>), they employed in the sacrifice
+the fundamental household necessaries, water, fire, and salt, and
+themselves ate of the sacred spelt-cake (<i>libus farreus</i>), from which
+the ceremony derived its name. The crucial point in the more civil
+ceremony of <i>coemptio</i> was the purely human and legal act of the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>joining of hands (<i>dextrarum iunctio</i>), 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 of the bride to the bridegroom's house&mdash;so beautifully
+depicted in Catullus' <i>Epithalamium</i>&mdash;her forcible abduction from her
+parents, the ribaldry of the bridegroom's companions, the throwing of
+nuts as a symbol of fecundity, the carrying of the bride over the
+threshold, a relic probably of primitive marriage by capture, the
+untying of the bridal knot on the bridal couch&mdash;are perhaps more akin
+to superstition than religion, but we may notice two points in the
+proceedings. Firstly, the three coins (<i>asses</i>) which the bride
+brought with her, one to give to her husband as a token of dowry, one
+to be offered at the hearth to her new Lar Familiaris, one to be
+offered subsequently at the nearest <i>compitum</i> (a clear sign of
+connection between the household Lar and those of the fields); and
+secondly, an echo of the feature so marked all through domestic life,
+the crowd of little <i>numina</i>, who took their part in assisting the
+ceremony. There was Domiduca, who brought the bride to the
+bridegroom's house, Iterduca, who looked after her on the transit,
+Unxia, who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>anointed her, Cinxia, who bound and unbound her girdle,
+and many others.</p>
+
+<p>This sketch of the household worship of the Romans will, I hope, have
+justified my contention that there was in it an element more truly
+'religious' than anything we should gather from the ceremonies of the
+state. The ideas are simpler, the <i>numina</i> seem less cold and more
+protective, the worshippers more sensible of divine aid. When we have
+looked at the companion picture of the farmer in the fields, we shall
+go on to see how the worship of the agricultural household is the
+prototype and basis of the state-cult, but first we must consider
+briefly the very difficult question of the relation of the living to
+the dead.</p>
+
+<p><b>3. Relation of the Living and the Dead.</b>&mdash;The worship of the spirits
+of dead ancestors is so common a feature in most primitive religions
+that it may seem strange even to doubt whether it existed among the
+Romans, but, although the question is one of extreme difficulty, and
+the evidence very insufficient, I am inclined to believe that, though
+the living were always conscious of their continued relation to the
+dead, and sensitive of the influence of the powers of the underworld,
+yet there was not, strictly speaking, any cult of the dead. Let us
+attempt briefly to collect the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>salient features in ritual, and see to
+what conclusion they point as to the underlying belief.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most remarkable facts in domestic worship is that, whereas
+the moment of birth and the other great occasions of life are
+surrounded with religious ceremony and belief, the moment of death
+passes without any trace of religious accompaniment: 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 protect him. As to his
+state after death, opinion varied at different times under different
+influences, but the simple early notion, connected especially with the
+practice of burial as opposed to cremation,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> was that his spirit
+just sank into the earth, where it rested and returned from time to
+time to the upper world through certain openings in the ground
+(<i>mundi</i>), whose solemn uncovering was one of the regular observances
+of the festal calendar: later, no doubt, a more spiritual notion
+prevailed, though it never reached definiteness or universality. One
+idea, however, seems always to be prominent, that the happiness of the
+dead could be much affected by the due performance <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>of the funeral
+rites; hence it was the most solemn duty of the heir to perform the
+<i>iusta</i> for the dead, and if he failed in any respect to carry them
+out, he could only atone for his omission by the annual sacrifice of a
+sow (<i>porca praecidanea</i>) to Ceres and Tellus&mdash;to the divinities of
+the earth, be it noticed, and not to the dead themselves. The actual
+funeral was not a religious ceremony; a procession was formed
+(originally at night) of the family and friends, in which the body of
+the dead was carried&mdash;accompanied by the busts (<i>imagines</i>) of his
+ancestors&mdash;to a tomb outside the town, and was there laid in the
+grave. The family on their return proceeded at once to rites of
+purification from the contamination which had overtaken them owing to
+the presence of a dead body. Two ceremonies were performed, one for
+the purification of the house by the sacrifice of a sow (<i>porca
+praesentanea</i>) to Ceres accompanied by a solemn sweeping out of refuse
+(<i>exverr&aelig;</i>), the other the lustration of their own persons by fire and
+water. This done, they sat down with their friends to a funeral feast
+(<i>silicernium</i>), which, Cicero tells us, was regarded as an honour
+rather to the surviving members of the family than to the dead, so
+that mourning was not worn. Two other ceremonies within the following
+week, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span><i>feriae denicales</i> and the <i>novendiale sacrum</i>, brought the
+religious mourning to a close. Not that the dead were forgotten after
+the funeral: year by year, on the anniversaries of death and burial,
+and on certain fixed occasions known by such suggestive titles as 'the
+day of roses' and 'the day of violets,' the family would revisit the
+tomb and make simple offerings of salt cake (<i>mola salsa</i>), of bread
+soaked in wine, or garlands of flowers: there is some trace, on such
+occasions, of prayer, but it would seem to be rather the repetition of
+general religious formul&aelig; than a petition to the dead for definite
+blessings.</p>
+
+<p>Such are the principal features of the family ritual in relation to
+their dead; but if we are to form any just notion of belief, we must
+supplement them by reference to the ceremonies of the state, which
+here, as elsewhere, are very clearly the household-cult 'writ large.'
+In the Calendars we find two obvious celebrations in connection with
+the dead, taking place at different seasons of the year, and
+consisting of ceremonies markedly different in character. In the
+gloomy month of February&mdash;associated with solemn lustrations&mdash;occurs
+the festival known popularly (though not in the Calendars) as the
+Parentalia or dies Parentales, that is, the days of sacrifice in
+connection <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>with the dead members of the family (<i>parentes</i>,
+<i>parentare</i>). It begins with the note on February 13, <i>Virgo Vestalis
+parentat</i>, and continues till the climax, <i>Feralia</i>, on February 21.
+During these days the magistrates laid aside the insignia of their
+offices, the temples were shut, marriages were forbidden, and every
+family carried out at the tombs of its relatives ceremonies resembling
+those of the <i>sacra privata</i>. The whole season closed on February 22
+with the festival of the Caristia or <i>cara cognatio</i>, a family reunion
+of the survivors in a kind of 'love-feast,' which centred in the
+worship of the Lar Familiaris. Here we seem to have simply, as in the
+family rites, a peaceful and solemn acknowledgment by the community as
+a whole of the still subsisting relation of the living and the dead.
+On the 9th, 11th, and 13th of May occurs the Lemuria, a ceremony of a
+strikingly different order. Once again temples are shut and marriages
+forbidden, but the ritual is of a very different nature. The <i>Lemures</i>
+or <i>Larvae</i>&mdash;for there seems to be little distinction between the two
+names&mdash;are regarded no longer as members of the family to be welcomed
+back to their place, but as hostile spirits to be exorcised.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>The
+head of the house rises from bed at midnight, washes, and walks
+barefoot through the house, making signs for the aversion of evil
+spirits. In his mouth he carries black beans&mdash;always a chthonic
+symbol&mdash;which he spits out nine times without looking round, saying,
+as he does so, 'With these I redeem me and mine': he washes again, and
+clanks brass vessels together; nine times he repeats the formula,
+'depart, Manes of our fathers' (no doubt using the dignified title
+Manes euphemistically), and then finally turns round. Here we have in
+a quite unmistakeable manner the feeling of the hostility of the
+spirits of the dead: they must be given their appropriate food and got
+out of the place as quickly as possible. Some scholars have attempted
+to explain the difference between these two festivals on the
+assumption that the Parentalia represents the commemoration of 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.</p>
+
+<p>So far we have had no indication of anything approaching divinity in
+connection with the dead or the underworld as distinct from the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>earth-goddesses, but the evidence for it, though vague and shadowy, is
+not wanting. Certain mysterious female deities, Tarpeia, Acca
+Larentia, Carna, and Laverna, of whom late &aelig;tiological myth had its
+own explanation, have, in all probability, been rightly interpreted by
+Mommsen as divinities of the lower world: the commemorative 'sacrifice
+at the tomb,' which we hear of in connection with the first two, was
+in reality, we may suppose, an offering to a chthonic deity at a
+<i>mundus</i>. A rather more tangible personality is Vediovis, who three
+times a year has his celebration (<i>Agonia</i> not <i>feriae</i>) in the
+Calendar: he, as his name denotes, must be the 'opposite of Iove,'
+that is, probably, his chthonic counterpart, a notion sufficiently
+borne out by his subsequent identification with the Greek Pluto.
+Finally, of course, there is that vague body, the Di Manes, 'the good
+gods,' the principal deities of the world of the dead; to them
+invocations are addressed, and they have their place in the formul&aelig; of
+the <i>parentalia</i> and the opening of the <i>mundi</i>.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> In connection with
+them, acting as a link with the female deities, we have the strange
+goddess Genita Mana, the 'spirit of birth and death.'</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>Controversy is acute as to the interpretation of these facts,
+especially in regard to the question whether or no the spirits of the
+dead were actually worshipped. I would hazard the following
+reconstruction of 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 of the
+living, especially in relation to the crops which sprung from the
+ground in which they lay. At first, when his religion was one 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 increased, and the sense of the unity of
+household and community developed, fear, proving ungrounded, gave
+place to a kindlier feeling of 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 <i>sacra privata</i> and the Parentalia. When the <i>numen</i>-feeling began
+to pass into that of <i>deus</i>, in the first place a connection was felt
+between the spirits of the dead and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>deities of the earth
+associated with the growth of the crops, in the second the notion that
+the underworld must have its gods as well as the world above, produced
+the shadowy female deities and Vediovis. Lastly, the same kind of
+feeling which added Parentalia to Lemuria developed the vague general
+notion of the Di Manes, not the deified spirits of the dead, but
+peaceful and on the whole kindly divinities holding sway in the world
+of dead spirits, yet accessible to the prayers of the living. The
+dead, then, were not themselves worshipped, but they needed
+commemoration and kindly gifts, and they had in their lower world
+deities to whom prayer might be made and worship given.</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 10%;' />
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> It is right to state that there is a totally different
+theory, according to which the Lares were the spirits of the dead
+ancestors and the Lar Familiaris an embodiment, as it were, of all the
+family dead.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> It is significant that even when the dead were cremated,
+one bone was carefully preserved in order to be symbolically buried.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> We may note that, though it is a state festival, our
+information is solely of rites in individual households.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Their mention in sepulchral inscriptions dates from the
+time of the Empire, when a new conception of their nature had sprung
+up.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>CHAPTER VI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>WORSHIP OF THE FIELDS</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>The life of the early Roman in the fields, his activities, his hopes
+and fears, are reflected in the long list of agricultural festivals
+which constitute the greater part of the celebrations in the Calendar,
+and follow closely the seasons and occupations of the agricultural
+year. We are, of course, in the Calendar dealing, to speak strictly,
+with the worship of the state, and not with the semi-private festivals
+of groups of farmers, but in many instances, such as the Robigalia,
+the state seems only to have taken over the cult of the farmers,
+preserving carefully the site on which the celebration took place; in
+others, such as the Terminalia and the Parilia, it seems to have
+established, as it were, a state-counterpart of a rite performed
+independently at many rustic centres: in both cases we are justified
+in inferring the practice of the early Roman agriculturalist. We shall
+see that in most cases these festivals are associated&mdash;though <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>often
+loosely enough&mdash;with the worship of a particular divinity. Sometimes,
+however,&mdash;as in the case of the Lupercalia&mdash;it is very difficult to
+discover who this divinity was; in other festivals, such as the
+Robigalia, it looks as if the eponymous deity was a comparatively late
+development. We may, therefore, suppose, on the analogy of what we
+have already seen to be the general lines of development in Roman
+religion, that the festivals in origin centred round a purpose rather
+than a personality, and were addressed 'to all spirits whom it might
+concern'; and that later, when the <i>deus</i> notion was on the increase,
+they either attached themselves to some god whose personality was
+already distinct, as the Vinalia were attached to Iuppiter, or
+'developed' a deity of their own. Among these deities, strictly
+functional as a rule and existing only in connection with their
+special festival, we shall notice the frequent recurrence of a
+divinity pair, not, of course, mythologically related as husband and
+wife, but representing, perhaps, the male and female aspects of the
+same process of development.</p>
+
+<p>The festivals divide themselves naturally into three groups: those of
+Spring, expressive of the hopes and fears for the growing crops and
+herds; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>those of Summer, the festivals of fulfilment, including the
+celebration of harvest; and those of Winter, the festivals of sowing,
+of social rejoicing, and in the later months of purificatory
+anticipation of the coming year.</p>
+
+<p><b>1. Festivals of Spring.</b>&mdash;The old Roman year&mdash;as may be seen clearly
+enough from the names of the months still known by numbers, September,
+October, etc.&mdash;began in March: according to tradition Romulus reckoned
+a year of ten months altogether, and Numa added January and February.
+The Spring months properly speaking may be reckoned as March, April,
+and May. In March there were in the developed Calendar no festivals of
+an immediately recognisable agricultural character, but the whole
+month was practically consecrated to its eponymous deity, Mars. Now,
+to the Roman of the Republic, Mars was undoubtedly the deity
+associated with war, and his special festivals in this month are of a
+warlike character: on the 9th the priests (<i>Salii</i>) began the ancient
+custom of carrying his sacred shields (<i>ancilia</i>) round the town from
+one ordained resting-place to another: on the 19th, Quinquatrus, the
+shields were solemnly purified, and on the 23rd the same ceremony was
+performed with the war-trumpets: the Equirria <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>(horse-races) of March
+14 may have had an agricultural origin&mdash;we shall meet with races later
+on as a feature of rustic festivals&mdash;but they were certainly
+celebrated in a military manner. Yet there is good reason for
+believing that Mars was in origin associated not with war, but with
+the growth of vegetation: he was, as we shall see, the chief deity
+addressed in the solemn lustration of the fields (<i>Ambarvalia</i>), and
+if our general notion of the development of religion with the growing
+needs of the agricultural community crystallising into a state be
+correct, it may well be that a deity originally concerned with the
+interests of the farmer took on himself the protection of the soldier,
+when the fully developed state came into collision with its
+neighbours. If so, we may well have in these recurring festivals of
+Mars the sense, as Mr. Warde Fowler has put it, of 'some great <i>numen</i>
+at work, quickening vegetation, and calling into life the powers of
+reproduction in man and the animals.' Possibly another agricultural
+note is struck in the Liberalia of the 17th: though the cult of Liber
+was almost entirely overlaid by his subsequent identification with
+Dionysus, it seems right to recognise in him and his female
+counterpart, Libera, a general spirit of creativeness.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>The character of April is much more clearly marked: the month is
+filled with a series of festivals&mdash;all of a clearly agricultural
+nature&mdash;prayers for the crops now in the earth, and the purification
+of the men and animals on the farm. The series opens with the
+Fordicidia on the 15th, 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 storehouse (<i>penus Vest&aelig;</i>) for use at the
+Parilia. The general symbolism of fertility is very clear; the goddess
+associated with the festival is Tellus, the earth herself, and the
+local origin of these festivals is shown in the fact that not only was
+the sacrifice made for the whole people on the Capitol, but separately
+in each one of the <i>curiae</i>. The Fordicidia is closely followed by the
+Cerealia on the 19th&mdash;the festival of another earth-goddess (<i>Ceres</i>,
+<i>creare</i>)&mdash;more especially connected with the growth of corn. A very
+curious feature of the ritual was the fastening of fire-brands to the
+tails of foxes, which were then let loose in what was afterwards the
+Circus Maximus: a symbol possibly, as Wissowa thinks, of sunlight,
+possibly of the vegetation-spirit. But the most important of the April
+ceremonies is undoubtedly the Parilia of the 21st, the festival of the
+very ancient <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>rustic <i>numen</i>, Pales. Ovid's<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> description of the
+celebration is so interesting and so full of the characteristic colour
+of the Roman rustic festivals that I may perhaps be pardoned for
+reproducing it at greater length. 'Shepherd,' he says, addressing 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 branches fastened to
+them, while a trailing wreath covers the gay-decked gates. Let blue
+flames rise from the living sulphur and the sheep bleat loud as she
+feels the touch of the smoking sulphur. Burn the male olive-branch and
+the pine twig and juniper, and let the blazing laurel crackle amid the
+hearth. A basket full of millet must go with the millet cakes: this is
+the food wherein the country goddess finds pleasure most of all. Give
+her too her own share of the feast and her pail of milk, and when her
+share has been set aside, then with milk warm from the cow make prayer
+to Pales, guardian of the woods.' The poet then recites a long prayer,
+in which the farmer first begs forgiveness for any unwitting sins he
+may have committed against the rustic deities, such as trespassing on
+their groves or sheltering <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>his flocks beneath their altar, and then
+prays for the aversion of disease and the prosperity of 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 in place of the wine-bowl, and
+drink the snowy milk and dark must, and soon through the heaps of
+crackling straw leap in swift course with eager limbs.' All the
+worshippers then set to leaping through the blazing fires, even the
+flocks and herds were driven through, and general hilarity reigned.
+Many points of detail might be noticed, such as that in the urban
+counterpart of the festival, which Ovid carefully distinguishes from
+the country celebrations, the fire was sprinkled with the ashes from
+the calves of the Fordicidia and the blood of Mars' October
+horse&mdash;another link between Mars and agriculture. But it is most
+interesting to note the double character of the ceremony&mdash;as a
+purification of man and beast on the one hand, and on the other a
+prayer for the prosperity of the season to come. Three special
+festivals remain in April. At the Vinalia (<i>priora</i>) of the 23rd, the
+wine-skins of the previous year were opened and the wine tasted, and,
+we may suppose, supplication was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>made for the vintage to come, the
+festival being dedicated to the sky-god, Iuppiter. At the Robigalia of
+the 25th the offering of a dog was made for the aversion of mildew
+(<i>robigo</i>), to Robigus (who looks like a developed eponymous deity) at
+the fifth milestone on the Via Claudia&mdash;the ancient boundary of Roman
+territory. The Floralia of the 28th does not occur in the old
+Calendars, probably because it was a moveable feast (<i>feriae
+conceptivae</i>), but it is an unmistakeable petition to the <i>numen</i>
+Flora for the blossoming of the season's flowers.</p>
+
+<p>May was a month of more critical importance for the welfare of the
+crops, and therefore its festivals were mostly of a more sombre
+character. The 9th, 11th, and 13th were the days set apart for the
+Lemuria, the aversion of the hostile spirits of the dead, of which we
+have already spoken, and a similarly gloomy character probably
+attached to the Agonia of Vediovis on the 21st. But of far the
+greatest interest is the moveable feast of the Ambarvalia, the great
+lustration of the fields, which took place towards the end of the
+month: the date of its occurrence was no doubt fixed according to the
+state of the crops in any given year. As the individual farmer
+purified his own fields for the aversion of evil, so a solemn
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>lustration of the boundaries of the state was performed by special
+priests, known as the Arval brethren (<i>fratres Arvales</i>). With
+ceremonial dancing (<i>tripudium</i>) they moved along the boundary-marks
+and made the farmer's most complete offering of the pig, sheep, and ox
+(<i>suovetaurilia</i>): the fruits of the last year and the new harvest
+(<i>aridae et virides</i>) played a large part in the ceremonial, and a
+solemn litany was recited for the aversion of every kind of pest from
+the crops. In Virgil's account the prayer is made to Ceres, and we
+know that in imperial times, when the Ambarvalia became very closely
+connected with the worship of the imperial house, the centre of the
+cult was the earth-goddess, Dea Dia; but in the earliest account of
+the rustic ceremony which we possess in Cato, Mars is addressed in the
+unmistakeable character of an agricultural deity. 'Father Mars, I pray
+and beseech thee that thou mayest be gracious and favourable to me, to
+my home, and my household, for which cause I have ordained that the
+offering of pig, sheep, and ox be carried round my fields, my land,
+and my farm: that thou mayest avert, ward off, and keep afar all
+disease, visible and invisible, all barrenness, waste, misfortune, and
+ill weather: that thou mayest suffer our crops, our corn, our vines
+and bushes <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>to grow and come to prosperity: that thou mayest preserve
+the shepherds and the flocks in safety, and grant health and strength
+to me, to my home, and my household.' We have perhaps here another
+rustic ceremony addressed in origin to all <i>numina</i>, whom it might
+concern, and, as it were, specialising itself from time to time in an
+appeal to one definite deity or another, but it is also clear evidence
+of an early agricultural association of Mars. The Ambarvalia is one of
+the most picturesque of the field ceremonies, and a peculiarly
+beautiful and imaginative description of it may be found in the first
+chapter of Pater's <i>Marius the Epicurean</i>.</p>
+
+<p>In June and July the farmer was waiting for the completion of the
+harvest, and the great state-festivals of the period are not
+agricultural.</p>
+
+<p><b>2. Festivals of the Harvest.</b>&mdash;In August the farmer's hopes are at
+last realised, and the harvest is brought in. The season is marked by
+two closely connected festivals on the 21st and 25th in honour of the
+old divinity-pair, Consus (<i>condere</i>), the god of the storehouse and
+Ops, the deity of the wealth of harvest. At the Consualia, an offering
+is made by the <i>flamen Quirinalis</i>, assisted by the Vestal virgins, at
+an underground altar in the Circus Maximus, specially uncovered for
+the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>occasion: here we have probably not so much the notion of a
+chthonic deity, as a relic of 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 race of mules, the regular Italian beasts of burden. Four days after
+this general festivity occurred the second harvest-ceremony of the
+Opiconsivia, held in the shrine (<i>sacrarium</i>) of the Regia, and
+attended only by the <i>pontifex maximus</i> and the Vestal virgins. This
+is clearly the state-harvest of the regal period, the symbolic storing
+of the state-crops in the sacred storehouse of the palace by the king
+and his daughters. Both festivals are significant, and we shall meet
+with Consus and Ops again in close connection in December. The
+<i>Portunalia</i> of the 17th may have been another harvest-home, if we can
+believe the old authorities, who tell us that Portunus was a 'god of
+doors' (<i>portae</i>).</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Vinalia Rustica</i> of August 19 we cannot sufficiently interpret
+through lack of information: it cannot, of course, have been the
+festival of the vintage, for it is too early: it may have been a
+propitiatory ceremony for the ripening grapes, in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>which case it was
+probably connected with the <i>auspicatio vindemiae</i>, in which the
+<i>flamen Dialis</i> (note again the association of Iuppiter and the vine)
+solemnly plucked the first grapes; or it may be a festival of wine,
+not vines, in which case its main feature would most likely be the
+opening of the last year's vintage.</p>
+
+<p>September contains no great festival, and the harvest-season closes on
+October 11 with the <i>Meditrinalia</i>&mdash;the nearest approach to a
+thanksgiving for the vintage. On that day the first must of the new
+vintage and the wine of the old were solemnly tasted, apparently as a
+spell against disease, the worshipper using the strange formula, 'I
+drink the new and the old wine, with new wine and old I heal
+(<i>medeor</i>) disease.' This ceremony gave its name to the festival and
+was the cause of the subsequent evolution of an eponymous deity,
+Meditrina, but there is little doubt that in origin here, as in the
+other wine-festivals, the deity concerned was at first Iuppiter. Among
+the other rustic ceremonies of the month we may notice the festival of
+springs (<i>Fontinalia</i>) on October 13: wells were decorated with
+garlands and flowers flung into the waters.</p>
+
+<p><b>3. Festivals of the Winter.</b>&mdash;The winter-festivals cannot be summed
+up under one general <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>notion so easily as those of spring or summer,
+but they fall fairly naturally into two groups&mdash;the festivals
+immediately connected with agricultural life and those associated with
+the dead and the underworld or with solemn purification. The main
+action of the farmer's life during the winter is, of course, the
+sowing of the next year's crop, which was commemorated in the ancient
+festival of the Saturnalia on December 17. Though the Saturnalia is
+perhaps the most familiar to us of all the Roman festivals, partly
+from the allusions in the classics, especially in Horace, partly
+because it is no doubt the source of many of our own Christmas
+festivities, it is yet almost impossible now to recover anything of
+its original Roman character. Greek influence set to work on it very
+early, identifying Saturnus with Cronos and establishing him in a
+Greek temple with all the accompaniments of Greek ritual. All the
+familiar features of the festival&mdash;the freedom and license of the
+slaves, the giving of presents, even the wax-candles, which are the
+prototype of those on our own Christmas-tree&mdash;are almost certainly due
+to Greek origin. We are left with nothing but the name Saturnus
+(connected with the root of <i>semen</i>, <i>serere</i>) and the date to assure
+us that we have here in reality a genuine Roman festival of the sowing
+of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>the crops. Of a similar nature&mdash;marking, as Ovid tells us, the
+completion of the sowing&mdash;was the <i>feriae sementivae</i> or Paganalia,
+associated with the earth-goddesses, Ceres and Tellus. Meal-cakes and
+a pregnant sow were the offerings, the beasts who had helped in the
+ploughing were garlanded, and prayer was made for the seed resting in
+the ground. A curious feature of the winter worship is the repetition
+of festivals to the harvest deities, Consus and Ops, separated by the
+same interval of three days, on December 15 and 19: it may be that we
+have here an indication of the final completion of the harvest, or, as
+Mr. Warde Fowler has suggested, a ceremonial opening of the
+storehouses, to see that the harvest is not rotting. Among the other
+country festivals of the period we may notice that of Carmenta, on the
+11th and 15th of January: she seems to have been in origin a
+water-<i>numen</i>, but was early associated with childbirth: hence the
+rigid exclusion of men from her ceremonies and possibly the taboo on
+leathern thongs, on the ground that nothing involving death must be
+used in the worship of a deity of birth. The repetition of her
+festival may possibly point to separate celebrations of the
+communities of Palatine and Quirinal. At this time, too, occurred the
+rustic ceremonies <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>at the boundaries (<i>Terminalia</i>) and the offering
+to the Lares at the 'marches' (<i>Compitalia</i>), of which we have spoken
+in treating of the worship of the house.</p>
+
+<p>The other group of winter-festivals is of a much more gloomy and less
+definitely rustic type, though they clearly date from the period of
+the agricultural community. Of the Feralia of February 21, the
+culmination of the festival of the kindred dead (<i>Parentalia</i>), 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 Larentia, mistress of Hercules. But we have seen
+reason to think that Larentia was in reality a deity of the dead, and
+the 'tomb' a <i>mundus</i>: if so, we have another link between the winter
+season and the worship of the underworld. There remains the weird
+festival of the Lupercalia on February 15, to which we have had
+occasion to refer several times, and which has become more familiar to
+most of us than other Roman festivals owing to its political use by
+Mark Antony in 44 <span class="fakesc">B.C.</span> As we have argued already, it seems to
+belong to the very oldest stratum of the Palatine settlement, and we
+may therefore appropriately close this account of the early festivals
+with a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>somewhat fuller description of it. The worshippers assembled
+at the Lupercal, a cave on the Palatine hill: there goats and a dog
+were sacrificed, and two youths belonging to the two colleges of
+Fabian and Quintian (or Quintilian) Luperci had their foreheads
+smeared with the knife used for the sacrifice and wiped with wool
+dipped in milk&mdash;at which point it was ordained that they should laugh.
+Then they girt on the skins of the slain goats and, after feasting,
+ran their course round the boundaries of the Palatine hill, followed
+each by his own company of youths, and striking women on their way
+with strips, known as <i>februae</i> or <i>Iunonis amicula</i>, cut from the
+goats' hides. Here we have a summary of many of the important points
+which we have noticed in the rustic festivals: from the pre-Roman
+stratum comes the idea of communion with the sacrificed animal in the
+smearing of the blood and the wearing of the skin, and also the magic
+charm involved in the striking of the women to procure fertility: it
+is typical of the true feeling of Roman religion that we cannot with
+any certainty tell what deity was associated with the rite, though
+probably it was Faunus: the rustic character of the ceremony is
+indicated by the bowl of milk in which the wool was dipped and the
+sacrifice of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>goats: the idea of lustration is clearly marked in the
+course round the boundaries: the original Palatine settlement stands
+out in the limits of that course and the site of the Lupercal, and the
+later syn&oelig;cismus is seen in the, presumably subsequent, addition of
+the second college of Luperci. A careful study of the Lupercalia as an
+epitome of the character and development of the Roman agricultural
+festivals, though it would not show the brighter aspect of some of the
+spring and summer celebrations, would yet give a true notion of the
+history and spirit of the whole.</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 10%;' />
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Ov., <i>Fast.</i>, iv. 735.</p></div>
+
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>CHAPTER VII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>WORSHIP OF THE STATE</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>Since, in the matter of religion, the Roman state is in the main but
+the agricultural household magnified, we shall not, in considering its
+worship, be entering on a new stratum of ideas, but rather looking at
+the development of notions and sentiments already familiar. To deal,
+however, with the state-worship in full would not only far exceed the
+limits of this sketch, but would lead us away from religious ideas
+into the region of what we might now call 'ecclesiastical management.'
+I propose therefore to confine myself to two points, firstly, the
+broadening of the old conceptions of the household and the fields and
+their adaptation to the life of the state, and secondly&mdash;to be treated
+very shortly and as an indication of the Roman character&mdash;the
+organisation of religion.</p>
+
+<p><b>1. Development of the Worship of House and Fields.</b>&mdash;Here we shall
+find two main <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>characteristics. The state in the first place, as we
+have several times hinted in anticipation, establishes its own
+counterpart of the household and rustic cults and adapts to its own
+use the ideas which they involve: in the second, and particularly in
+connection with some of the field-deities, it evolves new and very
+frequently abstract notions, foreign to the life of the independent
+country households, but necessary and vital to the life of an
+organised community. Let us look first at the fate of the household
+deities.</p>
+
+<p><b>Ianus.</b>&mdash;We left Ianus as the <i>numen</i> of the house-door: he passes
+into the state exactly in the same capacity: the state too has its
+'door,' the gate at the north-east corner of the Forum, and this
+becomes the seat of his state-cult&mdash;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 gets to work on
+Ianus: a door has two sides, it can both open and shut; therefore, as
+early as the song of the Salii, he has developed the cult-epithets
+'Opener,' 'Shutter' (<i>Patulci</i>, <i>Cloesi</i>), and as soon as he is
+thought of as anything approaching a personality he is 'two-headed'
+(<i>bifrons</i>), as he appears in later representations. The door again is
+the first thing you come to in entering <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>a house: the 'door-spirit'
+then, with that tendency to abstraction which we shall see shortly in
+other cases, becomes the god of beginnings. He watches over the very
+first beginning of human life in his character of <i>Consevius</i>; to him
+is sacred the first hour of the day (<i>pater matutinus</i>), the Calends
+of every month, and the first month of the year (<i>Ianuarius</i>); to him
+too is offered by the <i>rex sacrorum</i> the first sacrifice of the year,
+the Agonium on the 9th of January. In this capacity, moreover, his
+name comes first in all the formul&aelig; of prayer, and he is looked
+upon&mdash;not indeed as the father of the gods&mdash;for that is a much too
+anthropomorphic notion&mdash;but as what we might now term their 'logical
+antecedent': <i>divum deus</i>, as the song of the Salii quaintly puts it,
+<i>principium deorum</i>, as later interpretation explained it. Yet through
+all he remains the most typical Roman deity: he does not acquire a
+temple till 217 <span class="fakesc">B.C.</span>, nor a bust until quite late, nor is he
+ever identified with a Greek counterpart. In his capacity as <i>pater
+matutinus</i> he has a native female counterpart in Matuta, a dawn-deity,
+who becomes a protectress in childbirth, and as such is the centre of
+the matrons' festival, the Matralia of June 11.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span><b>Vesta.</b>&mdash;The history of Vesta is perhaps less romantic, but it
+affords a more exact parallel between household and state. In the
+primitive community the king's hearth is not merely of symbolical
+importance, but of great practical utility, in that it is kept
+continually burning as the source of fire on which the individual
+householder may draw: hence it is the duty of the king's daughters to
+care for it and keep the flame perpetually alight. In Rome the temple
+of Vesta is the king's hearth, situated, as one would expect, in close
+proximity to the <i>regia</i>. The fire is kept continually blazing except
+on the 1st of March of every year, when it is allowed to go out 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 (<i>atrium Vest&aelig;</i>) and under the
+charge of the king's representative, the <i>pontifex maximus</i>. It is
+their duty too, as the natural cooks of the sacred royal household, to
+make the salt cake (<i>mola salsa</i>) to be used at the year's festivals
+and to preserve it and other sacred objects, such as the ashes of the
+Fordicidia, in the storehouse of Vesta (<i>penus Vest&aelig;</i>). In the month
+of June from the 7th to the 15th, with a climax on the 9th, the day
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>of the Vestalia, the matrons who all the year round have tended their
+own hearths, come in solemn procession bare-footed to make their
+homely offerings at the state-hearth, and the virgins meanwhile offer
+the cakes that they have made. For eight days the ceremony continues,
+during which time the bakers and millers keep holiday; the days are
+<i>religiosi</i> (marriages are unlucky and other taboos are observed) and
+also <i>nefasti</i> (no public business may be performed); until the
+ceremony closes on the 15th, with the solemn cleansing of the temple
+and the casting of the refuse into the Tiber, and then the normal life
+of the state may be renewed&mdash;Q. St. D. F. (<i>Quando Stercus Delatum
+Fas</i>) is the unique entry in the Calendars. This is all less
+imaginative than the development of Ianus, but the underlying feeling
+is intensely Roman and there could be no clearer idea of the natural
+adaptation of the household-cult to the religion of the state.</p>
+
+<p><b>Penates, Lares, and Genius.</b>&mdash;The other household deities too have
+their counterpart, though not so prominently marked, in the worship of
+the state. The magistrates, on entering office, took oath by Iuppiter
+and the <i>Di Penates populi Romani Quiritium</i>, and that the conception
+was as wide in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>state as in the household is shown by the fact
+that on less formal occasions the formula appears as <i>Iuppiter et
+ceteri di omnes immortales</i>. The Penates of the state then would
+include all the state-deities; but that their original character is
+not lost sight of we can see from the statement of Varro that in the
+<i>penus Vest&aelig;</i> (the 'state storehouse') were preserved their
+<i>sigilla</i>&mdash;not apparently sensuous representations, but symbolic
+objects, such as we have seen before in cases like that of the <i>silex</i>
+of Iuppiter. The <i>Lares</i> again find their counterpart in the <i>Lares
+Praestites</i> of the state, and their rustic festival, the Compitalia,
+has its urban reproduction, which, as it involved considerable license
+on the part of populace and slaves, was often in the later period of
+the Republic a cause of serious political disturbance. Even the
+Genius, though rather vaguely, passes over to the state and we hear of
+the <i>Genius populi Romani</i> or the <i>Genius urbis Rom&aelig;</i>, with regard to
+which Servius quotes from an inscription on a shield the
+characteristic addition, <i>sive mas sive femina</i>: in much later times
+we find the exact counterpart of the domestic worship of the Genius of
+the <i>pater familias</i> in the cult of the Genius of the Emperor&mdash;the
+foundation of the whole of the imperial worship.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>We have observed already how the cults of the fields were taken over
+by the state and their counterparts established in the great festivals
+of the Calendar. Naturally enough most of the deities concerned,
+existing only for the part they played in these festivals, retained
+their original character without further development. But with a few
+it was different: it was their fate to acquire new characteristics and
+new functions, and, developing with the needs of the community, to
+become the great gods of the state: of these we must give some brief
+account.</p>
+
+<p><b>Iuppiter.</b>&mdash;We have known Iuppiter hitherto either in connection with
+certain very primitive survivals, or in the genuine Roman period as a
+sky-<i>numen</i>, concerned with the grape-harvest in the two Vinalia and
+the Meditrinalia, and the recipient at the family meal of a <i>daps</i> as
+a general propitiation before the beginning of the sowing. As sky-god
+he passes to the state: <i>Lucetius</i> (<i>lux</i>) is his title in the song of
+the Salii and to him are sacred the Ides of every month&mdash;the time of
+the full moon, when there is most light in the heavens by night as
+well as day. In his agricultural connection he has his wine-festivals
+in the state as in the country, and the household <i>daps</i> becomes the
+more elaborate <i>epulum Iovis</i>, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>in which the whole community, as it
+were, entertained him at a banquet. As a sky-deity, too, he is
+particularly concerned with the thunderbolt and the lightning-flash
+(<i>Iuppiter Fulmen</i>, <i>Fulgur</i>), and to him are sacred the always
+ominous spots which had been struck by lightning (<i>bidentalia</i>): with
+the more alarming occurrence of lightning by night he has a special
+connection under the cult-title <i>Iuppiter Summanus</i>. But as the little
+community grew, and especially perhaps after the union of the two
+settlements, the worship of Iuppiter Feretrius, associated with the
+sacred oak upon the Capitol&mdash;the hill between Palatine and
+Quirinal&mdash;comes more and more into prominence as a bond of union and
+the central point of the state's religious life: it tends indeed to
+take the place of priority, which had previously been occupied by
+Ianus. The community goes to war with its neighbours, and after a
+signal victory the <i>spolia opima</i> must be dedicated on the sacred oak:
+indeed Iuppiter is in a special sense with them in the battle and must
+now be worshipped as the 'stayer of rout' (<i>Stator</i>) and the 'giver of
+victory' (<i>Victor</i>). War is a new province of the state's activity,
+but, characteristically enough, it does not evolve its own <i>numen</i>,
+but enlarges the sphere of the somewhat elastic <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>spirits already
+existing. So too in the internal organisation of the state there is
+felt the need of a religious sanction for public morality, and
+Iuppiter&mdash;though vaguely at first&mdash;takes on him the character of a
+deity of justice. In this connection he is primarily the god of oaths:
+we have seen how his sacred <i>silex</i> was used in the oath of treaty: it
+is also the most solemn witness to the oath of the citizen. Iuppiter
+Lapis becomes specially the Dius Fidius, a cult-title which
+subsequently sets up for itself and produces a further offshoot in the
+abstract Fides. Finally, towards the end of our period the Iuppiter of
+the Capitol emerges triumphant, as it were, from his struggle with his
+rivals and, with the new title of Iuppiter Optimus Maximus,&mdash;the 'best
+and greatest,' that is, of all the Iuppiters&mdash;takes his place as the
+supreme deity of the Roman state and the personification of the
+greatness and majesty of Rome itself. To his temple hereafter the
+Roman youth will come to make his offering when he takes the dress of
+manhood; here the magistrates will do sacrifice before entering on
+their year of office: here the victorious general will pass in
+procession with the spoils of his victory: on the walls shall be
+suspended treaties with foreign nations and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>offerings sent by subject
+princes and states from all quarters of the world: all that Rome is to
+be, will be, as it were, embodied in the sky-spirit of the sacred oak,
+the god of justice and of victory in war.</p>
+
+<p><b>Iuno.</b>&mdash;Iuppiter carries with him into the state-worship his female
+counterpart, Iuno, with his own characteristics, in a certain degree,
+and his own privileges. She is Lucina and Fulgura as he is Lucetius and
+Fulgur: white cows are her offerings as white steers are his: as the
+Ides are sacred to Iuppiter, so&mdash;though they are not a festival&mdash;are
+the Calends to Iuno. But from the first she shows a certain
+independence and develops on lines of her own. In the curious ceremony
+of the fixing of the Nones (the first quarter of the month), held on
+the Calends in the <i>curia Calabra</i>, she seems to appear as a
+moon-goddess: the <i>rex sacrorum</i>, after a report from a <i>pontifex</i> as
+to the appearance of the new moon, announces the result in the formula:
+'I summon thee for five (or seven) days, hollow Iuno' (<i>dies te
+quinque</i> [<i>septem</i>] <i>kalo, Iuno Covella</i>: hence the name <i>Kalendae</i>).
+But far more prominently&mdash;either as a female divinity herself, or, as
+some think, owing to the supposed influence of the moon on female
+life&mdash;does Iuno figure as the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>deity of women, and especially in
+association with childbirth and marriage. As <i>Lucina</i> she is, as we
+have seen, the presiding deity of childbirth, and her festival on the
+1st of March, though not in the Calendars (because confined to women
+and not therefore a festival of the whole people), attained immense
+popularity under the title of the Matronalia. She has too a general
+superintendence of the rites of marriage, and the various little
+<i>numina</i>, who play so prominent a part in the ceremonies, tend to
+attach themselves to her as cult-titles. The festival of the
+servant-maids in honour of Iuno Caprotina on the 7th of July shows the
+same notion of Iuno as the women's goddess, which appears again in
+common parlance when women speak of their Iuno, just as men do of their
+Genius. Later on Iuno acquires the characteristics of majesty
+(<i>Regina</i>) and protection in war (<i>Curitis</i>, <i>Sospita</i>), partly no
+doubt as Iuppiter's counterpart, but more directly through the
+introduction of cults from neighbouring Italian towns.</p>
+
+<p><b>Mars.</b>&mdash;We have seen reason to believe that in the earlier stages of
+Roman religion Mars was a <i>numen</i> of vegetation, but though the
+Ambarvalia was duly taken over into the state-cult and attained a very
+high degree of importance, yet <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>there can be no doubt that in the
+state-religion Mars was pre-eminently associated with war. Iuppiter
+might help at need in averting defeat and awarding victory, but it was
+with Mars that the general conduct of war rested. His sacred animal is
+the warlike wolf, his symbols the spears and the sacred shields
+(<i>ancilia</i>), which during his own month (<i>Martius</i>)&mdash;the 1st of which
+is his special festival&mdash;his priests (<i>Salii</i>) wearing the full
+war-dress (<i>trabea</i> and <i>tunica picta</i>) 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 of the <i>imperium militiae</i>,
+and the other festivals associated with him are of a warlike
+character: the races of the war-horse (Equirria) on March 14 and
+February 27, and the great race on the Ides of October, when the
+winner was solemnly slain: the lustration of the arms at the
+Quinquatrus on March 19 and the Armilustrium of October 19&mdash;at the
+beginning and end of the campaigning season: and the lustration of the
+war-trumpets on the 23rd of March and the 23rd of May. But above all
+in honour of Mars is held the great quinquennial <i>lustrum</i> associated
+with the census, when the people are drawn up in military array around
+his altar in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>the Campus Martius and the solemn offering of the
+<i>suovetaurilia</i> (is this a faint relic of his agricultural character?)
+after being carried three times round the gathered host, is offered on
+his altar in prayer for the military future of the state. Hardly any
+god in the state-cult has his character so clearly marked, and we may
+regard Mars as a deity who, taking on new functions to suit the needs
+of the times, almost entirely lost the traces of his original nature.</p>
+
+<p><b>Quirinus.</b>&mdash;Iuppiter and Mars then became the great state-deities of
+the developed community and to them is added, as the contribution of
+the Colline settlement, their own particular deity, Quirinus. He, like
+them, has his own <i>flamen</i>; like Mars he has his <i>Salii</i>, and his
+festival finds its place in the Calendars on February the 17th. But of
+his ritual and character we know practically nothing: the ritual was
+obscured because his festival coincided with the much more popular
+festival of the <i>curiae</i>, the <i>stultorum feriae</i>: of his character, we
+can only conjecture that he was to the Colline settlement what Mars
+was to the Palatine, whereas later after the complete amalgamation he
+seems to have been distinguished from Mars as representing 'armed
+peace' rather than war&mdash;an idea which is borne out by the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>associations of the closely allied word <i>Quirites</i>. Be that as it may,
+we have in Iuppiter, Mars, and Quirinus the great state-triad of the
+syn&oelig;cismus, who held their own until at the beginning of the next
+epoch they were supplanted by the new Etruscan triad of the Capitol,
+Iuppiter, Iuno and Minerva.</p>
+
+<p><b>2. Organisation.</b>&mdash;It might perhaps be thought that the organisation
+of religion is a matter remote from its spirit, and is not therefore a
+suitable subject for discussion, where the object is rather to bring
+out underlying motives and ideas: but in dealing with the Roman
+religion, where ceremonial and legal precision were so prominent, it
+would be even misleading to omit some reference to the very
+characteristic manner in which the state, taking over the rather
+chaotic elements of the agricultural worship, organised them into
+something like a consistent whole. Its most complete achievement in
+this direction was without doubt the regulation of the religious year.
+We have spoken many times of the Calendars (<i>Fasti</i>): it is necessary
+now to obtain some clearer notion of what they were. In Rome itself
+and various Italian towns have been found some thirty inscriptions,
+one almost complete (Maffeiani), the others more or less fragmentary,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>giving the tables of the months and marking precisely the character
+and occurrences of every day in the year. We may take as a specimen
+the latter half of the month of August from the Fasti Maffeiani.</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="40%" summary="Calendar Example">
+  <tr>
+  <td width="50%" class="tdlb"><span class="fakesc">A. EID.</span> <span class="np">NP.</span></td>
+  <td width="50%" class="tdlb1"><span class="fakesc">C. VOLC.</span> <span class="np">NP.</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlb"><span class="fakesc">B. F.</span></td>
+  <td class="tdlb1"><span class="fakesc">D. C.</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlb"><span class="fakesc">C. C.</span></td>
+  <td class="tdlb1"><span class="fakesc">E. OPIC.</span> <span class="np">NP.</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlb"><span class="fakesc">D. C.</span></td>
+  <td class="tdlb1"><span class="fakesc">F. C.</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlb"><span class="fakesc">E. PORT.</span> <span class="np">NP.</span></td>
+  <td class="tdlb1"><span class="fakesc">G. VOLT.</span> <span class="np">NP.</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlb"><span class="fakesc">F. C.</span></td>
+  <td class="tdlb1"><span class="fakesc">H.</span> <span class="np">NP.</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlb"><span class="fakesc">G. VIN. F.P.</span></td>
+  <td class="tdlb1"><span class="fakesc">A. F.</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlb"><span class="fakesc">H. C.</span></td>
+  <td class="tdlb1"><span class="fakesc">B. F.</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlb"><span class="fakesc">A. CONS.</span> <span class="np">NP.</span></td>
+  <td class="tdlb1"><span class="fakesc">C. C.</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdlb"><span class="fakesc">B. EN.</span></td>
+  <td class="tdlb1">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+
+<p>In the first column are given the nundinal letters of the days,
+showing their position in the eight days' 'week' from one market day
+(<i>nundinae</i>) to the next. In the second column are noted first the
+great divisions of the month, Calends, Nones, and Ides, and then the
+religious character of each individual day is indicated by certain
+signs, whose explanations throw a good deal of light on Roman
+religions notions. It will be seen that the letters of most frequent
+occurrence are <span class="fakesc">F</span>, <span class="fakesc">C</span>, and <span class="fakesc">N</span> (or in our
+extract <span class="np">NP&nbsp;</span>): these correspond to the broad distinction
+between <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>days profane and sacred. <span class="fakesc">F</span> (<i>fastus</i>) denotes a day
+on which the business of the state may be performed, on which the
+praetor may say (<i>fari</i>) the three words, <i>do, dico, addico</i>, which
+summed up the decisions of the Roman law: <span class="fakesc">C</span> (<i>comitialis</i>)
+marks a day on which the legislative assemblies (<i>comitia</i>) may be
+held: it is by implication <span class="fakesc">F</span> as well. <span class="fakesc">N</span>
+(<i>nefastus</i>), on the other hand, denotes the sacred day, consecrated
+to the worship of the gods, on which therefore state-business may not
+be transacted: similarly the very mysterious and much disputed sign
+<span class="np">NP</span>, whether it differs in precise signification from
+<span class="fakesc">N</span> or not, certainly marks a day of sacred character.
+<span class="fakesc">EN</span>, which occurs once in this extract (from <i>endotercisus</i>,
+the old Latin form of <i>intercisus</i>) signifies a 'split' day (<i>dies
+fissus</i>), the beginning and end of which were sacred, while the middle
+period was free for business. In the second column also (in large
+letters in some of the other Calendars) are named the <i>feriae
+publicae</i>, the great annual state-festivals, fixed for one particular
+day (<i>feriae stativae</i>): such, in this case, are the Portunalia,
+Vinalia, and Consualia.</p>
+
+<p>These <i>fasti</i> were exhibited in the Forum and on the walls of temples,
+and the conscientious Roman could have no possible difficulty in
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>finding out when he might lawfully transact his business and what
+festivals the state was observing: of the 355 days of the old Calendar
+11 were <i>fissi</i>, 235 were <i>fasti</i> (192 <i>comitiales</i>), and 109
+<i>nefasti</i>. We may remark as curious features in the Calendar, denoting
+rigid adherence to principle, that with one exception, the Poplifugia
+of July 5, no festival ever occurs before the Nones, that with two
+exceptions, the Regifugium of February 24 and the Equirria of the 14th
+of March, no festival falls on an even day of the month, and that
+there is a marked avoidance of successive feast-days: even the three
+days of the Lemuria allow an interval of a day between each.</p>
+
+<p>In the matter of ritual and observance, state-organisation&mdash;and its
+absence&mdash;are alike significant. Of the general exactness of ritual and
+its specific variations on different occasions a fair notion has
+perhaps already been gathered; it may help to fill out that notion if
+we can put together a sketch of the normal process of a sacrifice to
+the gods. Before the sacrifice began the animal to be offered was
+selected and tested: if it had any blemish or showed any reluctance,
+it was rejected. If it were whole and willing, it was bound with
+fillets (<i>infulae</i>) around its <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>forehead, and long ribbons (<i>vittae</i>)
+depending from them. It was then brought to the altar (<i>ara</i>) by the
+side of which stood a portable brazier (<i>foculus</i>). The
+celebrant&mdash;magistrate or priest&mdash;next approached dressed in the
+<i>toga</i>, girt about him in a peculiar manner (<i>cinctus Gabinus</i>), and
+carried up at the back so as to form a hood (<i>velato capite</i>): the
+herald proclaimed silence, and the flute-player began to play his
+instrument. The first part of the offering was then made by the
+pouring of wine and scattering of incense on the brazier: it was
+followed by the ceremonial slaughter (<i>immolatio</i>) of the animal. The
+celebrant sprinkled the victim with wine and salted cake, and made a
+symbolic gesture with the knife. The victim was then taken aside by
+the attendants (<i>victimarii</i>), and actually slaughtered by them: from
+it they extracted the sacred parts (<i>exta</i>), liver, heart, gall,
+lungs, and midriff, and after inspecting them to see that they had no
+abnormality&mdash;but not in the earlier period for purposes of
+augury&mdash;wrapped them in pieces of flesh (<i>augmenta</i>), cooked them, and
+brought them back to the celebrant, who laid them as an offering upon
+the altar, where they were burnt. The rest of the flesh (<i>viscera</i>)
+was divided as a sacred meal between the celebrant and his friends&mdash;or
+in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>a state-offering among the priests, and probably the magistrate.
+We cannot refrain from remarking here the extreme precision of ritual,
+the scrupulous care with which the human side of the contract was
+fulfilled and the&mdash;almost legal&mdash;division of the victim between gods
+and men. But though the ritual was so exact, one must not be led away
+by modern analogies to suppose that there was ever anything like a
+rigid constraint on the private citizen for the observance of
+festivals. The state-festivals were in the strictest sense offerings
+made to the gods by the representative magistrates or priests, and if
+they were present, all was done that was required: the whole people
+had been, by a legal fiction, present in their persons. No doubt the
+private citizen would often attend in large numbers at the
+celebrations, especially at the more popular festivals, but from some,
+such as the Vestalia, he was actually excluded. On the other hand,
+though it did not demand presence, the state did&mdash;at least
+theoretically&mdash;demand the observance of the feast-day by private
+individuals. The root-notion of <i>feriae</i> was a day set apart for the
+worship of the gods, and on it therefore the citizen ought to do 'no
+manner of work.' The state observed this condition fully in the
+closing <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>of law-courts and the absence of legislative assemblies, and
+in theory too the private citizen must refrain from any act which was
+not concerned with the worship of the gods, or rendered absolutely
+necessary, as, for instance, if 'his ox or his ass should fall into a
+pit.' But it is characteristic of Rome that the state did not seek for
+offence, but only punished it if accidentally seen: on a feast-day the
+<i>rex sacrorum</i> and the <i>flamines</i> might not see work being done; they
+therefore sent on a herald in advance to announce their presence, and
+an actual conviction involved a money-fine. Perhaps more scrupulously
+than the <i>feriae</i> were observed the <i>dies religiosi</i>, days of
+'abstinence,' on which certain acts, such as marriage, the beginning
+of any new piece of work, or the offering of sacrifice to the gods,
+were forbidden: such, in the oldest period, were the days on which the
+<i>mundus</i> was open, or the temple of Vesta received the matrons, the
+days when the Salii carried the <i>ancilia</i> in procession, and the
+periods of the two festivals of the dead in February and May; but for
+eluding their observance too devices were not unknown.</p>
+
+<p>In the state-organisation of religion, then, we seem to see just the
+same features from which we started: as a basis the legal conception
+of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>the relation of god to man, as a result the extreme care and
+precision in times and ceremonials, as a corollary in the state the
+idea of legal representation and the consequent looseness of hold on
+the action of the individual.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>CHAPTER VIII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>AUGURIES AND AUSPICES</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>So far we have been considering the regular relations of man and god,
+seen in recurring or special offerings, in vows and in acts of
+purification and lustration&mdash;all based on the contract-notion, all
+endeavours on man's part to fulfil his bounden duty, that the gods may
+be constrained in turn to theirs. But so strong was the feeling of
+divine presence and influence in the Roman's mind, that he was not
+content with doing his best by these regular means to secure the
+favour of the gods, but wished before undertaking any business of
+importance to be able to assure himself of their approval. His
+practical common-sense evolved, as it were, a complete 'code'&mdash;in the
+flight and song of birds, in the direction of the lightning-flash, in
+the conduct of men and animals&mdash;by which he believed that the gods
+communicated to him their intentions: sometimes these indications
+(<i>auspicia</i>) might be vouchsafed by the gods <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>unasked (<i>oblativa</i>),
+sometimes they would be given in answer to request (<i>impetrativa</i>):
+but as to their meaning, there could be no doubt, provided they were
+interpreted by one skilled in the lore and tradition of augury. We may
+observe here, though our evidence is much slighter, the same three
+stages which we have noticed in the sacrificial worship, the homely
+domestic auspices, the auguries of the agricultural life, and the
+organised system in the state.</p>
+
+<p>In the household the use of auspices was in origin at any rate very
+general indeed: 'Nothing,' Cicero tells us, 'of importance used to be
+undertaken unless with the sanction of the auspices' (<i>auspicato</i>).
+The right of interrogating the will of the gods, rested, as one might
+expect, with the master of the house, assisted no doubt by the private
+augur as the repository of lore and the interpreter of what the master
+saw. But of the details of domestic augury we know but little. Cato in
+one passage insists on the extreme importance of silence for the
+purpose, and Festus suggests that this was secured by the master of
+the house rising in the depths of the night to inspect the heavens. We
+have seen already that the taking of the auspices played <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>an important
+part in the ceremonies of betrothal and marriage, and that the
+indications of the divine will might be very varied we may gather from
+a story in Cicero. An aunt wishing to take the auspices for her
+niece's betrothal, conducted her into an open consecrated space
+(<i>sacellum</i>) and sat down on the stool of augury (<i>sella</i>) with her
+niece standing at her side. After 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 auspicious sign: the aunt died, the niece
+married the widower and so became mistress of the house.</p>
+
+<p>Of augury in agricultural life we have some indication in the annual
+observance of the 'spring augury' (<i>augurium verniserum</i>) and the
+midsummer ceremony of the <i>augurium canarium</i>, which seems to have
+been a combination of the offering of a red dog (possibly to avert
+mildew) and an augury for the success of the crops. To the rustic
+stratum possibly belongs also the <i>augurium salutis populi</i>, though
+later it was a yearly act celebrated whenever the Roman army was not
+at war and so became connected with the shutting of the temple of
+Ianus.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>The state greatly developed and organised the whole system of auguries
+and auspices. The college of augurs ranked second only in importance
+to the pontifical college, and their duties with regard to both augury
+and auspice are sufficiently clear. Like the <i>pontifices</i> in relation
+to cult, they are the storehouse of all tradition, and to them appeal
+may be made in all cases of doubt both public and private: they were
+jealous of their secrets and in later times their mutual consciousness
+of deception became proverbial. The right of augury&mdash;in origin simply
+the inspection of the heavens&mdash;was theirs alone, and it was exercised
+particularly on the annual occasions mentioned and at the installation
+of priests, of which we get a typical instance in Livy's account of
+the consecration of Numa.</p>
+
+<p>The auspices on the other hand&mdash;in origin 'signs from birds' (<i>avis</i>,
+<i>spicere</i>)&mdash;were the province of the magistrate about to undertake
+some definite action on behalf of the state whether at home or on the
+field of battle. Here the augur's functions were merely preparatory
+and advisory. It was his duty to prepare the <i>templum</i>, the spot from
+which the auspices are to be taken&mdash;always a square space, with
+boundaries <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>unbroken except at the entrance, not surrounded by wall or
+necessarily by line, but clearly indicated (<i>effatus</i>) by the augur,
+and marked off (<i>liberatus</i>) from the surroundings: in the comitia and
+other places in Rome there were permanent <i>templa</i>, but elsewhere they
+must be specially made. The magistrate then enters the <i>templum</i> and
+observes the signs (<i>spectio</i>): if there is any doubt as to
+interpretation&mdash;and seeing the immense complication of the traditions
+(<i>disciplina</i>), this must often have been the case&mdash;the augur is
+referred to as interpreter. The signs demanded (<i>impetrativa</i>) were
+originally always connected with the appearance, song or flight of
+birds&mdash;higher or lower, from left to right or 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 (<i>pulli</i>): the best sign being obtained if, in their
+eagerness to feed, they let fall some of the grain from their beaks
+(<i>tripudium solistimum</i>)&mdash;a result not difficult to secure by previous
+treatment and a careful selection of the kind of grain supplied to
+them. But besides this deliberate 'asking for signs,' public business
+might at any moment be interrupted if the gods voluntarily sent an
+indication of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>disapproval (<i>oblativa</i>): the augurs then had always to
+be at hand to advise the magistrates whether notice should be taken of
+such signs, and, if so, what was their signification, and they even
+seem to have had certain rights of reporting themselves (<i>nuntiatio</i>)
+the occurrence of adverse ones. The sign of most usual occurrence
+would be lightning&mdash;sometimes such an unexpected event as the seizure
+of a member of the assembly with epilepsy (<i>morbus comitialis</i>)&mdash;and
+we know to what lengths political obstructionists went in later times
+in the observation of fictitious signs, or even the prevention of
+business by the mere announcement of their intention to see an
+unfavourable omen (<i>servare de caelo</i>). The complications and
+ramifications of the augur's art are infinite, but the main idea
+should by now be plain, and it must be remembered that the kindred art
+of the soothsayer (<i>haruspex</i>), oracles, and the interpretation of
+fate by the drawing of lots (<i>sortes</i>) are all later foreign
+introductions: auspice and augury are the only genuine Roman methods
+for interpreting the will of the gods.</p>
+
+<p>Here then in household, fields, and state, we have a second type of
+relation to the gods, running parallel to the ordinary practice of
+sacrifice and prayer, distinct yet not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>fundamentally different. As it
+is man's function to propitiate the higher spirits and prevent, if
+possible, the wrecking of his plans by their opposition, so it is his
+business, if he can, to find out their intentions before he engages on
+any serious undertaking. As in the <i>ius sacrum</i> his legal mind leads
+him to assume that the deities accept the responsibility of the
+contract, when his own part is fulfilled, so here, like a practical
+man of business, he assumes their construction of a code of
+communication, which he has learned to interpret. In its origin it is
+a notion common to many primitive religions, but in its elaboration it
+is peculiarly and distinctively Italian, and, as we know it, Roman.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>CHAPTER IX<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>RELIGION AND MORALITY&mdash;CONCLUSION</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>It might be said that a religion&mdash;the expression of man's relation to
+the unseen&mdash;has not necessarily any connection with morality&mdash;man's
+action in himself and towards his neighbours: that an individual&mdash;or
+even a nation&mdash;might perfectly fulfil the duties imposed by the
+'powers above,' without being influenced in conduct and character.
+Such a view might seem to find an apt illustration in the religion of
+Rome: the ceremonial <i>pietas</i> towards the gods appears to have little
+to do with the making of man or nation. But in the history of the
+world the test of religions must be their effect on the character of
+those who believed in them: religion is no doubt itself an outcome of
+character, but it reacts upon it, and must either strengthen or
+weaken. We are not therefore justified in dismissing the 'Religion of
+Numa' without inquiry as to its relation to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>morality, for on our
+answer to that question must largely depend our judgment as to its
+value.</p>
+
+<p>We are of course in a peculiarly difficult position to grapple with
+this problem through lack of contemporary evidence. The Rome we know,
+in the epochs when we can fairly judge of character and morality, was
+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 may remember in the first place that even then,
+especially in the household and in the country, the old religion had
+probably a much firmer hold than one might imagine from literary
+evidence, in the second that national character is not the growth of a
+day, so that we may safely refer permanent characteristics to the
+period when the old religion held its own.</p>
+
+<p>It may be admitted at once that the direct influence on morality was
+very small indeed. There was no table of commandments backed by the
+religious sanction: the sense of 'sin,' except through breach of
+ritual, was practically <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>unknown. It is true that in the very early
+<i>leges regiae</i> some notion of this kind is seen&mdash;a significant glimpse
+of what the original relation may have been: it is there ordained that
+the patron who betrayed his client, or the client who deceived his
+patron, shall be condemned to Iuppiter; the parricide to the spirits
+of his dead ancestors, the husband who sells his wife to the gods of
+the underworld, the man who removes his neighbour's landmark to
+Terminus, the stealer of corn to Ceres. All these persons shall be
+<i>sacri</i>: they have offended against the gods and the gods will see to
+their punishment. But these are old-world notions which soon passed
+into the background and the state took over the punishment of such
+offenders in the ordinary course of law. Nor again in the prayers of
+men to gods is there a trace of a petition for moral blessings: the
+magistrate prays for the success and prosperity of the state, the
+farmer for the fertility of his crops and herds, even the private
+individual, who suspends his votive-tablet in the temple, pays his due
+for health or commercial success vouchsafed to himself or his
+relations. 'Men call Iuppiter greatest and best,' says Cicero,
+'because he makes us not just or temperate or wise, but sound and
+healthy and rich and wealthy.' Still less, until <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>we come to the
+moralists of the Empire, is there any sense of that immediate and
+personal relation of the individual to a higher being, which is really
+in religion, far more than commandments and ordinances, the mainspring
+and safeguard of morality: even the conception of the Genius, the
+'nearest' perhaps of all unseen powers, had nothing of this feeling in
+it, and it may be significant that, just because of his nearness to
+man, the Genius never quite attained to god-head. As far as direct
+relation is concerned, religion and morality were to the Roman two
+independent spheres with a very small point of contact.</p>
+
+<p>Nor even in its indirect influence does the formal observance of the
+Roman worship seem likely at first sight to have done much for
+personal or national morality. Based upon fear, stereotyped in the
+form of a legal relationship, <i>religio</i>&mdash;'the bounden
+obligation'&mdash;made, no doubt, for a kind of conscientiousness in its
+adherents, but a cold conscientiousness, devoid of emotion and
+incapable of expanding itself to include other spheres or prompt to a
+similar scrupulousness in other relations. The rigid and constant
+distinction of sacred and profane would incline the Roman to fulfil
+the routine of his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>religious duty and then turn, almost with a sigh
+of relief, to the occupations of normal life, carrying with him
+nothing more than the sense of a burden laid aside and a pledge of
+external prosperity. Even the religious act itself might be without
+moral significance: as we have seen, the worshipper might be wholly
+ignorant of the character, even the name of the deity he worshipped,
+and in any case the motive of his action was naught, the act itself
+everything. Nor again had the Roman religion any trace of that
+powerful incentive to morality, a doctrine of rewards and 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 on himself than in their possible
+experiences after death.</p>
+
+<p>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 a tiresome ritual formalism, almost wholly lacking in
+ethical value. And yet it did not present itself in this light to the
+Romans themselves. Cicero, sceptic as he was, could speak of it as the
+cause of Rome's greatness; Augustus, the practical politician, could
+believe that its revival was an essential condition for the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>renaissance of the Roman character. Have we, in our brief examination
+of its 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?</p>
+
+<p>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 in the strengthening of character. The private citizen, who
+conscientiously day by day had carried out the worship of his
+household gods and month by month observed the sacred abstinence from
+work on the days of festival, was certainly not less fitted to take
+his place as a member of a strenuous and well-organised community, or
+to serve obediently and quietly in the army on campaign. Even the
+magistrate in the execution of his religious duties must have acquired
+an exactness and method, which would not be valueless in the conduct
+of public business. And when we pass to the origin of this
+formalism&mdash;the legal relation&mdash;the connection with the Roman character
+becomes at once more obvious. The 'lawgivers of the world,' who
+developed constitution and code to a systematised whole such as
+antiquity had not dreamed of before, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>imported, we may say if we like,
+their legal notions into the sphere of religion: but we must not
+forget the other side of the question. The permanence and success of
+this greater contract with higher powers&mdash;the feeling that the gods
+did regard and reward exact fulfilment of duty&mdash;cannot have been
+without re-action on the relations of the life of the community: it
+was, as it were, a higher sanction to the legal point of view: a
+pledge that the relations of citizen and state too were rightly
+conceived. 'There is,' says Cicero, speaking of the death of Clodius
+in the language of a later age, 'there is a divine power which
+inspired that criminal to his own ruin: it was not by chance that he
+expired before the shrine of the Bona Dea, whose rites he had
+violated': the divine justice is the sanction of the human law. Even
+in the fear, from which all ultimately sprang, there was a training in
+self-repression and self-subordination, which in a more civilised age
+must result in a valuable respect and obedience. The descendants of
+those who had made religion out of an attempt to appease the hostile
+<i>numina</i>, feeling themselves not indeed on more familiar terms with
+their 'unknown gods,' but only perhaps a little more confident of
+their own strength, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>were not likely to be wanting in a disciplined
+sense of dependence and an appreciation of the value of respect for
+authority, which alone can give stability to a constitution. If fear
+with the Romans was not the beginning of theological wisdom, it was
+yet an important contribution to the character of a disciplined state.</p>
+
+<p>But, as I have hinted in the course of this sketch more than once, the
+answer to this problem, as well as the key to the general
+understanding of the Roman religion, is to be found in the worship of
+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, marriage, attended by their religious sanction, but in
+the ordinary course of the daily round the divine presence and the
+dependence of man are continually emphasised. The gods are given their
+portion of the family meal, the sanctified dead are recalled to take
+their share of the family blessings. The result was not merely an
+approach&mdash;collectively, not individually&mdash;to that sense of the
+nearness of the unseen, which has so great an effect on the actions of
+the living, but a very strong bond of family union which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>lay at the
+root of the life of the state. It would be difficult to find a clearer
+expression of the notion than in the fact that the same word <i>pietas</i>,
+which expresses the due fulfilment of man's duty to god, is also the
+ideal of the relations of the members of a household: filial piety
+was, in fact, but another aspect of that rightness of relation, which
+reveals itself in the worship of the gods. No doubt that, in the
+city-life of later periods, this ideal broke down on both sides:
+household worship was neglected and family life became less dutiful.
+But it was still, especially in the country, the true backbone of
+Roman society, and no one can read the opening odes of Horace's third
+book without feeling the strength of Augustus' appeal to it.</p>
+
+<p>And if we translate this, as we have learned to do, into terms of the
+state, we can get some idea of what the Romans meant by their debt to
+their religion. As the household was bound together by the tie of
+common worship, as in the intermediate stage the clan, severed
+politically and socially, yet felt itself reunited in the gentile
+rites, so too the state was welded into a whole by the regularly
+recurring annual festivals and the assurance of the divine sanction on
+its undertakings. It might be that in the course of time <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>these rites
+lost their meaning and the community no longer by personal presence
+expressed its service to the gods, but the cult stood there still, as
+the type of Rome's union to the higher powers and a guarantee of their
+assistance against all foes: the religion of Rome was, as it has been
+said, the sanctification of patriotism&mdash;the Roman citizen's highest
+moral ideal. It has been remarked, perhaps with partial truth, that
+the religion of the <i>&AElig;neid</i>&mdash;in many ways a summary of Roman thought
+and feeling&mdash;is the belief in the <i>fata Romae</i> and their fulfilment.
+The very impersonality of this conception makes it a good picture of
+what religion was in the Roman state. It was not, as with the Jews, a
+strong conviction of the rightness of their own belief and a certainty
+that their divine protectors must triumph over those of other nations,
+but a feeling of the constant presence of some spirits, who, 'if haply
+they might find them,' would, on the payment of their due, bear their
+part in the great progress of right and justice and empire on which
+Rome must march to her victory. It was the duty of the citizen, with
+this conception of his city before his eyes, to see to it that the
+state's part in the contract was fulfilled. From his ancestors had
+been inherited the tradition, which told him the when, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>where, and
+how, and in the preservation of that tradition and its due performance
+consisted at once Rome's duty and her glory. 'If we wish,' says
+Cicero, 'to compare ourselves with other nations, we may be found in
+other respects equal or even inferior; in religion, that is in the
+worship of the gods, we are far superior.' The religion of Rome may
+not have advanced the theology or the ethics of the world, but it made
+and held together a nation.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>WORKS BEARING ON THE EARLY RELIGION OF ROME</h3>
+<br />
+
+<div class="block">
+<p><i>The Golden Bough</i>, (2nd Ed.). <span class="sc">J.G. Frazer</span>.</p>
+
+<p><i>History of Rome</i>, <span class="fakesc">BOOK I. CHAP XII.</span> <span class="sc">Th. Mommsen</span>.</p>
+
+<p><i>Die Religion der R&ouml;mer.</i> <span class="sc">E. Aust</span>.</p>
+
+<p><i>Religion und Kultus der R&ouml;mer.</i> <span class="sc">G. Wissowa</span>.</p>
+
+<p><i>Il Culto Privato di Roma Antica</i>, <span class="fakesc">PART I.</span> <span class="sc">A.
+De-Marchi</span>.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Roman Festivals.</i> <span class="sc">W. Warde Fowler</span>.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Religion of Numa.</i> <span class="sc">J.B. Carter</span>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<h5>Printed by T. and A. <span class="sc">Constable</span>, Printers to His Majesty<br />
+at the Edinburgh University Press</h5>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Religion of Ancient Rome, by Cyril Bailey
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Religion of Ancient Rome, by Cyril Bailey
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Religion of Ancient Rome
+
+Author: Cyril Bailey
+
+Release Date: June 12, 2006 [EBook #18564]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeannie Howse, Thierry Alberto and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
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+    +-------------------------------------------------------------+
+    |  Transcriber's Note:                                        |
+    |                                                             |
+    |  NP ligature in the table on page 89 is shown in this       |
+    |  document as [NP]. Bold words are surrounded with ='s.      |
+    |                                                             |
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+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE RELIGION OF
+ANCIENT ROME
+
+By
+CYRIL BAILEY, M.A.
+FELLOW AND TUTOR OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD
+
+
+LONDON
+ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO LTD
+
+1907
+
+
+
+
+I wish to express my warm thanks to Mr. W. Warde Fowler for his
+kindness in reading my proofs, and for many valuable hints and
+suggestions.
+
+  C.B.
+
+  BALLIOL COLLEGE,
+  _Jan 25th, 1907_.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAP.                                PAGE
+
+I. INTRODUCTION--SOURCES AND SCOPE                              1
+
+II. THE 'ANTECEDENTS' OF ROMAN RELIGION                         4
+
+III. MAIN FEATURES OF THE RELIGION OF NUMA                     12
+
+IV. EARLY HISTORY OF ROME--THE AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITY          31
+
+V. WORSHIP OF THE HOUSEHOLD                                    36
+
+VI. WORSHIP OF THE FIELDS                                      58
+
+VII. WORSHIP OF THE STATE                                      75
+
+VIII. AUGURIES AND AUSPICES                                    96
+
+IX. RELIGION AND MORALITY--CONCLUSION                         103
+
+
+
+
+THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+INTRODUCTION--SOURCES AND SCOPE
+
+
+The conditions of our knowledge of the native religion of early Rome
+may perhaps be best illustrated by a parallel from Roman archaeology.
+The visitor to the Roman Forum at the present day, if he wishes to
+reconstruct in imagination the Forum of the early Republic, must not
+merely 'think away' many strata of later buildings, but, we are told,
+must picture to himself a totally different orientation of the whole:
+the upper layer of remains, which he sees before him, is for his
+purpose in most cases not merely useless, but positively misleading.
+In the same way, if we wish to form a picture of the genuine Roman
+religion, we cannot find it immediately in classical literature; we
+must banish from our minds all that is due to the contact with the
+East and Egypt, and even with the other races of Italy, and we must
+imagine, so to speak, a totally different mental orientation before
+the great influx of Greek literature and Greek thought, which gave
+an entirely new turn to Roman ideas in general, and in particular
+revolutionised religion 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 savants of
+the late Republic and of the Empire, and in the Augustan poets, biassed
+though they are in their interpretations by Greek tendencies, there is
+embodied a great wealth of ancient custom and ritual, which becomes
+significant when we have once got the clue to its meaning. More direct
+evidence is afforded by a large body of inscriptions and monuments, and
+above all by the surviving Calendars of the Roman festival year, which
+give us the true outline of the ceremonial observances of the early
+religion.
+
+It is not within the scope of this sketch to enter, except by way of
+occasional illustration, into the process of interpretation by which
+the patient work of scholars has disentangled the form and spirit of
+the native religion from the mass of foreign accretions. I intend
+rather to assume the process, and deal, as far as it is possible in so
+controversial a subject, with results upon which authorities are
+generally agreed. Neither will any attempt be made to follow the
+development which the early religion underwent in later periods, when
+foreign elements were added and foreign ideas altered and remoulded the
+old tradition. We must confine ourselves to a single epoch, in which
+the native Roman spirit worked out unaided the ideas inherited from
+half-civilised ancestors, and formed that body of belief and ritual,
+which was always, at least officially, the kernel of Roman religion,
+and constituted what the Romans themselves--staunch believers in their
+own traditional history--loved to describe as the 'Religion of Numa.'
+We must discover, as far as we can, how far its inherited 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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE 'ANTECEDENTS' OF ROMAN RELIGION
+
+
+In every early religion there will of course be found, apart from
+external influence, traces of its own internal development, of stages
+by which it must have advanced from a mass of vague and primitive
+belief and custom to the organised worship of a civilised community.
+The religion of 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 other semi-barbarous peoples, and we shall see that the
+leading idea in its theology is but a characteristically Roman
+development of a marked feature in most early religions.
+
+=1. Magic.=--Anthropology has taught us that in many primitive
+societies religion--a sense of man's dependence on a power higher than
+himself--is preceded by a stage of magic--a belief in man's own power
+to influence by occult means the action of the world around him. That
+the ancestors of the Roman community passed through this stage seems
+clear, and in surviving religious practice we may discover evidence of
+such magic in various forms. There is, for instance, what anthropology
+describes as 'sympathetic magic'--the attempt to influence the powers
+of nature by an imitation of the process which it is desired that they
+should perform. Of this we have a characteristic example in the
+ceremony of the _aquaelicium_, designed to produce rain after a long
+drought. In classical times the ceremony consisted in a procession
+headed by the pontifices, which bore the sacred rain-stone from its
+resting-place by the Porta Capena to the Capitol, where offerings were
+made to the sky-deity, Iuppiter, but[1] from the analogy of other
+primitive cults and the sacred title of the stone (_lapis manalis_), it
+is practically certain that the original ritual was the purely
+imitative process of pouring water over the stone. A similar rain-charm
+may possibly be seen in the curious ritual of the _argeorum sacra_,
+when puppets of straw were thrown into the Tiber--a symbolic wetting of
+the crops to which many parallels may be found among other primitive
+peoples. A sympathetic charm of a rather different character seems to
+survive in the ceremony of the _augurium canarium_, at which a red dog
+was sacrificed for the prosperity of the crop--a symbolic killing of
+the red mildew (_robigo_); and again the slaughter of pregnant cows at
+the _Fordicidia_ in the middle of April, before the sprouting of the
+corn, has a clearly sympathetic connection with the fertility of the
+earth. Another prominent survival--equally characteristic of primitive
+peoples--is the sacredness which attaches to the person of the
+priest-king, so that his every act or word may have a magic
+significance or effect. This is reflected generally in the Roman
+priesthood, but especially in the ceremonial surrounding the _flamen
+Dialis_, the priest of Iuppiter. He must appear always in festival
+garb, fire may never be taken from his hearth but for sacred purposes,
+no other person may ever sleep in his bed, the cuttings of his hair and
+nails must be preserved and buried beneath an _arbor felix_--no doubt a
+magic charm for fertility--he must not eat or even mention a goat or a
+bean, or other objects of an unlucky character.
+
+=2. Worship of Natural Objects.=--A very common feature in the early
+development of religious consciousness is the worship of natural
+objects--in the first place of the objects themselves and no more, but
+later of a spirit indwelling in them. The distinction is no doubt in
+individual cases a difficult one to make, and we find that among the
+Romans the earlier worship of the object tends to give way to the cult
+of the inhabiting spirit, but examples may be found which seem to
+belong to the earlier stage. We have, for instance, the sacred stone
+(_silex_) which was preserved in the temple of Iuppiter on the Capitol,
+and was brought out to play a prominent part in the ceremony of
+treaty-making. The fetial, who on that occasion represented the Roman
+people, at the solemn moment of the oath-taking, struck the sacrificial
+pig with the _silex_, saying as he did so, 'Do thou, Diespiter, strike
+the Roman people as I strike this pig here to-day, and strike them the
+more, as thou art greater and stronger.' Here no doubt the underlying
+notion is not merely symbolical, but in origin the stone is itself the
+god, an idea which later religion expressed in the cult-title specially
+used in this connection, _Iuppiter Lapis_. So again, in all
+probability, the _termini_ or boundary-stones between properties are in
+origin the objects--though later only the site--of a yearly ritual at
+the festival of the Terminalia on February the 23rd, and they are, as
+it were, summed up in 'the god Terminus,' the great sacred
+boundary-stone, which had its own shrine within the Capitoline temple,
+because, according to the legend, 'the god' refused to budge even to
+make room for Iuppiter. The same notion is most likely at the root of
+the two great domestic cults of Vesta, 'the hearth,' and Ianus, 'the
+door,' though a more spiritual idea was soon associated with them; we
+may notice too in this connection the worship of springs, summed up in
+the subsequent deity Fons, and of rivers, such as Volturnus, the
+cult-name of the Tiber.
+
+=3. Worship of Trees.=--But most conspicuous among the cults of natural
+objects, as in so many primitive religions, is the worship of trees.
+Here, though doubtless at first the tree was itself the object of
+veneration, surviving instances seem rather to belong to the later
+period when it was regarded as the abode of the spirit. We may
+recognise a case of this sort in the _ficus Ruminalis_, once the
+recipient of worship, though later legend, which preferred to find an
+historical or mythical explanation of cults, looked upon it as sacred
+because it was the scene of the suckling of Romulus and Remus by the
+wolf. Another fig-tree with a similar history is the _caprificus_ of
+the Campus Martius, subsequently the site of the worship of Iuno
+Caprotina. A more significant case is the sacred oak of Iuppiter
+Feretrius on the Capitol, on which the _spolia opima_ were hung after
+the triumph--probably in early times a dedication of the booty to the
+spirit inhabiting the tree. Outside Rome, showing the same ideas at
+work among neighbouring peoples, was the 'golden bough' in the grove of
+Diana at Aricia. Nor was it only special trees which were thus regarded
+as the home of a deity; the tree in general is sacred, and any one may
+chance to be inhabited by a spirit. The feeling of the country
+population on this point comes out clearly in the prayer which Cato
+recommends his farmer to use before making a clearing in a wood: 'Be
+thou god or goddess, to whom this grove is sacred, be it granted to us
+to make propitiatory sacrifice to thee with a pig for the clearing of
+this sacred spot'; here we have a clear instance of the tree regarded
+as the dwelling of the sacred power, and it is interesting to compare
+the many similar examples which[2] Dr. Frazer has collected from
+different parts of the world.
+
+=4. Worship of Animals.=--Of the worship of animals we have
+comparatively little evidence in Roman religion, though we may perhaps
+detect it in a portion of the mysterious ritual of the Lupercalia,
+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 communion with the sacred animal. We may
+recognise it too in the association of particular animals with
+divinities, such as the sacred wolf and woodpecker of Mars, but on 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.
+
+=5. Animism.=--Such are some of the survivals of very early stages of
+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 'immediate antecedent,' is the state of
+religious feeling to which anthropologists have given the name of
+'Animism.' As far as we can follow the development of early religions,
+this attitude of mind seems to be the direct outcome of the failure of
+magic. Primitive man begins to see that neither he nor his magicians
+really possess that occult control over the forces of nature which was
+the supposed basis of magic: the charm fails, the spell does not
+produce the rain and when he looks for the cause, he can only argue
+that these things must be in the hands of some power higher than his
+own. The world then and its various familiar objects become for him
+peopled with spirits, like in character to men, but more powerful, and
+his success in life and its various operations depends on the degree in
+which he is able to propitiate these spirits and secure their
+co-operation. If he desires rain, he must win the favour of the spirit
+who controls it, if he would fell a tree and suffer no harm, he must by
+suitable offerings entice the indwelling spirit to leave it. His
+'theology' in this stage is the knowledge of the various spirits and
+their dwellings, his ritual the due performance of sacrifice for
+purposes of propitiation and expiation. It was in this state of
+religious feeling that the ancestors of Rome must have lived before
+they founded their agricultural settlement on the Palatine: we must try
+now to see how far it had retained this character and what developments
+it had undergone when it had crystallised into the 'Religion of Numa.'
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Frazer, _Golden Bough_, vol. i. pp. 81 ff.
+
+[2] _Golden Bough_, vol. i. pp. 181-185.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+MAIN FEATURES OF THE RELIGION OF NUMA
+
+
+=1. Theology.=--The characteristic appellation of a divine spirit in
+the oldest stratum of the Roman religion is not _deus_, a god, but
+rather _numen_, a power: he becomes _deus_ when he obtains a name, and
+so is on the way to acquiring a definite personality, but in origin he
+is simply the 'spirit' of the 'animistic' period, and retains something
+of the spirit's characteristics. Thus among the divinities of the
+household we shall see later that the Genius and even the Lar
+Familiaris, though they attained great dignity of conception, and were
+the centre of the family life, and to some extent of the family
+morality, never quite rose to the position of full-grown gods; while
+among the spirits of the field the wildness and impishness of character
+associated with Faunus and his companion Inuus--almost the cobolds or
+hobgoblins of the flocks--reflects clearly the old 'animistic' belief
+in the natural evilness of the spirits and their hostility to men. The
+notion of the _numen_ is always vague and indefinite: even its sex may
+be uncertain. 'Be thou god or goddess' is the form of address in the
+farmer's prayer already quoted from Cato: 'be it male or 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 objects of nature
+and controllers of the phenomena of nature: but to the Roman they were
+more. Not merely did they inhabit places and things, but they presided
+over each phase of natural development, each state or action in the
+life of man. Varro, for instance, gives us a list of the deities
+concerned in the early life of the child, which, though it bears the
+marks of priestly elaboration, may yet be taken as typical of the
+feeling of the normal Roman family. There is Vaticanus, who opens the
+child's mouth to cry, Cunina, who guards his cradle, Edulia and Potina,
+who teach him to eat and drink, Statilinus, who helps him to stand up,
+Adeona and Abeona, who watch over his first footstep, and many others
+each with his special province of protection or assistance. The farmer
+similarly is in the hands of a whole host of divinities who assist him
+at each stage of ploughing, hoeing, sowing, reaping, and so forth. If
+the _numen_ then lacks personal individuality, he has a very distinct
+specialisation of 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 a character 'ask for water
+from Liber, or wine from the nymphs.' Hence we find in the prayer
+formulae in Cato and elsewhere the most careful precautions to prevent
+the accidental omission of the 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 desire to be called.' The _numen_ is thus vague in
+his conception but specialised in his function, and so later on, when
+certain deities have acquired definite names and become prominent above
+the rest, the worshipper in appealing to them will add a cult-title, to
+indicate the special character in which he wishes the deity to hear:
+the woman in childbirth will appeal to Iuno Lucina, the general praying
+for victory to Iuppiter Victor, the man who is taking an oath to
+Iuppiter as the deus Fidius. As a still later development the
+cult-title will, as it were, break off and set up for itself, usually
+in the form of an abstract personification: Iuppiter, in the two
+special capacities just noted, gives birth to Victoria and Fides.
+
+The conception of the _numen_ being so formless and indefinite, it is
+not surprising that in the genuine Roman religion there should have
+been no anthropomorphic representations of the divinity at all. 'For
+170 years,' Varro tells us, taking his date from the traditional
+foundation of the city in 754 B.C., 'the Romans worshipped their gods
+without images,' and he adds the characteristic comment, 'those who
+introduced representations among the nations, took away fear and
+brought in falsehood.' Symbols of a few deities were no doubt
+recognised: we have noticed already the _silex_ of Iuppiter and the
+boundary-stone of Terminus, which were probably at an earlier period
+themselves objects of worship, and to these we may add the sacred
+spears of Mars, and the _sigilla_ of the State-Penates. But for the
+most part the _numina_ were without even such symbolic representation,
+nor till about the end of the regal period was any form of temple built
+for them to dwell in. The sacred fire of Vesta near the Forum was, it
+is true, from the earliest times enclosed in a building; this, however,
+was no temple, but merely an erection with the essentially practical
+purpose of preventing the extinction of the fire by rain. The first
+temple in the full sense of the word was according to tradition built
+by Servius Tullius to Diana on the Aventine: the tradition is
+significant, for Diana was not one of the _di indigetes_, the old
+deities of the 'Religion of Numa,' but was introduced from the
+neighbouring town of Aricia, and the attribution to Servius Tullius
+nearly always denotes an Etruscan[3] or at any rate a non-Roman origin.
+There were, however, altars in special places to particular deities,
+built sometimes of stone, sometimes in a more homely manner of earth or
+sods. We hear for instance of the altar of Mars in the Campus Martius,
+of Quirinus on the Quirinal, of Saturnus at the foot of the Capitol,
+and notably of the curious underground altar of Consus on what was
+later the site of the Circus Maximus. But more characteristic than the
+erection of altars is the connection of deities with special
+localities. Naturally enough in the worship of the household Vesta had
+her seat at the hearth, Ianus at the door, and the 'gods of the
+storehouse' (_Penates_) at the cupboard by the hearth, but the same
+idea appears too in the state-cult. Hilltops, groves, and especially
+clearings in groves (_luci_) are the most usual sacred localities. Thus
+Quirinus has his own sacred hill, Iuppiter is worshipped on the
+Capitol, Vesta and Iuno Lucina have their sacred groves within the
+boundaries of the city, and Dea Dia, Robigus, and Furrina similar
+groves at the limits of Roman territory. The record of almost every
+Roman cult reveals the importance of locality in connection with the
+_di indigetes_, and the localities are usually such as would be
+naturally chosen by a pastoral and agricultural people.
+
+Such were roughly the main outlines of the genuine Roman 'theology.'
+It has no gods of human form with human relations to one another,
+interested in the life of men and capable of the deepest passions of
+hatred and affection towards them, such as we meet, for instance, in
+the mythology of Greece, but only these impersonal individualities, if
+we may so call them, capable of no relation to one another, but able to
+bring good or ill to men, localised usually in their habitations, but
+requiring no artificial dwelling or elaborate adornment of their abode;
+becoming gradually 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 of
+inspiring devotion or enthusiasm. Let us ask next how the Romans
+conceived of their own relations towards them.
+
+=2. The Relation of Gods and Men.=--The character of the 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 of sentiment or affection: all must be
+regulated by clearly understood principles and carried out with formal
+exactness. Hence the _ius sacrum_, the body of rights and duties in the
+matter of religion, is regarded as a department of the _ius publicum_,
+the fundamental constitution of the state, and it is significant, as
+Marquardt has observed, that it was Numa, a king and lawgiver, and not
+a prophet or a poet, who was looked upon as the founder of the Roman
+religion. Starting from the simple general feeling of a dependence on a
+higher power (_religio_), which is common to all religions, the Roman
+gives it his own characteristic colour when he conceives of that
+dependence as analogous 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
+fulfilled 'his bounden duty and service,' the god must make his return:
+if he does not, either the cause lies in an unconscious failure on the
+human side to carry out the exact letter of the law, or else, if the
+god 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 of Rome's readiness under stress of circumstances, when all
+appeals to the old gods have failed, to adopt foreign deities and cults
+in the hope of a greater measure of success.
+
+The contract-notion may perhaps appear more clearly if we consider one
+or two of the normal religious acts of the Roman individual or state.
+Take first of all the performance of the regular sacrifices or acts of
+worship ordained by the state-calendar or the celebration of the
+household _sacra_. The _pietas_ of man consists in their due
+fulfilment, but he may through negligence omit them or 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 not obliged to fulfil their
+share, but the man can set himself right again by the offering of a
+_piaculum_, which may take the form either of an additional sacrifice
+or a repetition of the original rite. So, for instance, when Cato is
+giving his farmer directions for the lustration of his fields, he
+supplies him at the end with two significant formulae: 'if,' he says,
+'you have failed in any respect with regard to all your offerings, use
+this formula: "Father Mars, if thou hast not found satisfaction in my
+former offering of pig, sheep, and ox (the most solemn combination in
+rustic sacrifices), then let this offering of pig and sheep and ox
+appease thee": but if you have made a mistake in one or two only of
+your offerings, then say, "Father Mars, because thou hast not found
+satisfaction in that pig (or whatever it may be), let this pig appease
+thee."' On the other hand, for intentional neglect, there was no
+remedy: the man was _impius_ and it rested with the gods to punish him
+as they liked (_deorum iniuriae dis curae_).
+
+But apart from the regularly constituted ceremonies of religion, there
+might be special occasions on which new relations would be entered into
+between god and man. Sometimes the initiative would come from man:
+desiring to obtain from the gods some blessings on which he had set
+his heart, he would enter into a _votum_, a special contract by which
+he undertook to perform certain acts or make certain sacrifices, in
+case of the fulfilment of his desire. The whole proceeding is strictly
+legal: from the moment when he makes his vow the man is _voti reus_, in
+the same position, that is, as the defendant in a case whose decision
+is still pending; as soon as the gods have accomplished their side of
+the contract he is _voti damnatus_, condemned, as it were, to damages,
+having lost his suit; nor does he recover his independence until he has
+paid what he undertook: _votum reddidi lubens merito_ ('I have paid my
+vow gladly as it was due') is the characteristic wording of votive
+inscriptions. If the gods did not accomplish the wish, the man was of
+course free, and sometimes the contract would be carried so far that a
+time-limit for their action would be fixed by the maker of the vow:
+legal exactness can hardly go further.
+
+Or again, the initiative might come from the gods. Some marked
+misfortune, an earthquake, lightning, a great famine, a portentous
+birth, or some such occurrence would be recognised as a _prodigium_, or
+sign of the god's displeasure. Somehow or other the contract must have
+been broken on the human side and it was the duty of the state to see
+to the restoration of the _pax deum_, the equilibrium of the normal
+relation of god and man. The right proceeding in such a case was a
+_lustratio_, a solemn cleansing of the people--or the portion of the
+people involved in the god's displeasure--with the double object of
+removing the original reason of misfortune and averting future causes
+of the divine anger. The commercial notion is not perhaps quite so
+distinct here, but the underlying legal relationship is sufficiently
+marked.
+
+If then the question be asked whether the relation between the Roman
+and his gods was friendly or unfriendly, the correct answer would
+probably be that it was neither. It was rather what Aristotle in
+speaking of human 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. Ceremonial.=--It has been said sometimes that the old Roman
+religion was one of cult and ritual without dogma or belief. As we have
+seen this is not in origin strictly true, and it would be fairer to say
+that belief was latent rather than non-existent: this we may see, for
+instance, from Cicero's dialogues on the subject of religion, where in
+discussion the fundamental sense of the dependence of man on the help
+of the gods comes clearly into view: in the domestic worship of the
+family too cult was always to some extent 'tinged with emotion,' and
+sanctified by a belief which made it a more living and in the end a
+more permanent reality than the religion of the state. But it is no
+doubt true that as the community advanced, belief tended to sink into
+the background: development took place in cult and not in theology, so
+that by the end of the Republic, to take an example, though the
+festival of the Furrinalia was duly observed every year on the 25th of
+July, the nature or function of the goddess Furrina was, as we learn
+from Cicero, a pure matter of conjecture, and Varro tells us that her
+name was known only to a few persons. Nor was it mere lapse of time
+which tended to obscure theology and exalt ceremonial: their relative
+position was the immediate and natural outcome of the underlying idea
+of the relation of god and man. Devotion, piety--in our sense of the
+term--and a feeling of the divine presence could not be enjoined or
+even encouraged by the strictly legal conception on which religion was
+based: the 'contract-notion' required not a 'right spirit' but right
+performance. And so it comes about that in all the records we have left
+of the old religion the salient feature which catches and retains our
+attention is exactness of ritual. All must be performed not merely
+'decently and in order,' but with the most scrupulous care alike for
+every detail of the ceremonial itself, and for the surrounding
+circumstances. The omission or misplacement of a single word in the
+formulae, the slightest sign of resistance on the part of the victim,
+any disorder among the bystanders, even the accidental squeak of a
+mouse, are sufficient to vitiate the whole ritual and necessitate its
+repetition from the very beginning. One of the main functions of the
+Roman priesthood was to preserve intact the tradition of formulae and
+ritual, and, when the magistrate offered sacrifice for the state, the
+_pontifex_ stood at his side and dictated (_praeire_) the formulae which
+he must use. Almost the oldest specimen of Latin which we now possess
+is the song of the Salii, the priests of Mars, handed on from
+generation to generation and repeated with scrupulous care, even though
+the priests themselves, as Quintilian assures us, had not the least
+notion what it meant. Nor was it merely the words of ceremonial which
+were of vital importance: other details must be attended to with equal
+exactness. Place, as we have seen, was an essential feature even in the
+conception of deity, and it must have required all the personal
+influence of Augustus and his entourage to reconcile the people of
+Rome, with the ancient home of the goddess still before their eyes, to
+the second shrine of Vesta within the limits of his palace on the
+Palatine. The choice of the appropriate offering again was a matter of
+the greatest moment and was dictated by a large number of
+considerations. The sex of the victim must correspond to the sex of the
+deity to whom it is offered, white beasts must be given to the gods of
+the upper world, black victims to the deities below. Mars at his
+October festival must have his horse, Iuno Caprotina her goat, and
+Robigus his dog, while in the more rustic festivals such as the
+Parilia, the offering would be the simpler gift of millet-cakes and
+bowls of milk: in the case of the Bona Dea we have the curious
+provision that if wine were used in the ceremonial, it must, as she was
+in origin a pastoral deity, always be spoken of as 'milk.' The persons
+who might be present in the various festivals were also rigidly
+determined: men were excluded from the Matronalia on March 1, from the
+Vestalia on the 9th of June, and from the night festival of the Bona
+Dea: the notorious escapade of Clodius in 62 B.C. shows the scandal
+raised by a breach of this rule even at the period when religious
+enthusiasm was at its lowest ebb. Slaves were specifically admitted to
+a share in certain festivals such as the Saturnalia and the Compitalia
+(the festival of the Lares), whereas at the Matralia (the festival of
+the matrons) a female slave was brought in with the express purpose of
+being significantly driven away.
+
+The general notion of the exactness of ritual will perhaps become
+clearer when we come to examine some of the festivals in detail, but it
+is of extreme importance for the understanding of the Roman religious
+attitude, to think of it from the first as an essential part in the
+expression of the relation of man to god.
+
+=4. Directness of Relation--Functions of Priests.=--In contrast to all
+this precision of ritual, which tends almost to alienate humanity from
+deity, we may turn to another hardly less prominent feature of the
+Roman religion--the immediateness of relation between the god and his
+worshippers. Not only may the individual at any time approach the altar
+of the god with his prayer or thank-offering, but in every community of
+persons its religious representative is its natural head. In the
+family the head of the household (_pater familias_) is also the priest
+and he is responsible for conducting the religious worship of the whole
+house, free and slave alike: to his wife and daughters he leaves the
+ceremonial connected with the hearth (_Vesta_) and the deities of the
+store-cupboard (_Penates_), and to his bailiff the sacrifice to the
+powers who protect his fields (_Lares_), but the other acts of worship
+at home and in the fields he conducts himself, and his sons act as his
+acolytes. Once a year he meets with his neighbours at the boundaries of
+their properties and celebrates the common worship over the
+boundary-stones. So in[4] the larger outgrowth of the family, the
+_gens_, which consisted of all persons with the same surname (_nomen_,
+not _cognomen_), the gentile _sacra_ are in the hands of the more
+wealthy members who are regarded as its heads; we have the curious
+instance of Clodius even after his adoption into another family,
+providing for the worship of the _gens Clodia_ in his own house, and we
+may remember Virgil's picture of the founders of the _gentes_ of the
+Potitii and the Pinarii performing the sacrifice to Hercules at the
+_ara maxima_, which was the traditional privilege of their houses.
+When societies (_sodalitates_) are formed for religious purposes they
+elect their own _magistri_ to be their religious representatives, as we
+see in the case of the Salii and the Luperci. Finally, in the great
+community of the state the king is priest, and with that exactness of
+parallelism of which the Roman was so fond, he--like the _pater
+familias_--leaves the worship of Vesta in the hands of his 'daughters,'
+the Vestal virgins. And so, when the Republic is instituted, a special
+official, the _rex sacrorum_, inherits the king's ritual duties, while
+the superintendence of the Vestals passes to his representative in the
+matter of religious law, the _pontifex maximus_, whose official
+residence is always the _regia_, Numa's palace. The state is but the
+enlarged household and the head of the state is its religious
+representative.
+
+If then the approach to the gods is so direct, where, it may be asked,
+in the organisation of Roman religion is there room for the priest? Two
+points about the Roman priesthood are of paramount importance. In the
+first place, they are not a caste apart: though there were restrictions
+as to the holding of secular magistracies in combination with the
+priesthood--always observed strictly in the case of the _rex sacrorum_
+and with few exceptions in the case of the greater _flamines_--yet the
+_pontifices_ might always take their part in public life, and no kind
+of barrier existed between them and the rest of the community: Iulius
+Caesar himself was _pontifex maximus_. In the second place they are not
+regarded as representatives of the gods or as mediators between god and
+man, but simply as administrative officials appointed for the
+performance of the acts of state-worship, just as 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--the
+_flamines_ were to act as special priests of particular deities, the
+most prominent among them being the three great priests of Iuppiter
+(_flamen Dialis_), Mars, and Quirinus; the _pontifices_ were sometimes
+delegates of the king on special occasions, but more particularly
+formed his religious _consilium_, a consulting body, to give him advice
+as to ritual and act as the repositories of tradition. In later times
+the _flamines_ still retain their original character, the _pontifices_
+and especially the _pontifex maximus_ are responsible for the whole
+organisation of the 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 a general superintendence
+over private worship and their leave would be required for the
+introduction of any new domestic cult; in cases too where the private
+person was in doubt as to ritual or the legitimacy of any religious
+practice, he could appeal to the _pontifices_ for decision. Otherwise
+the priest could never intervene in the worship of the family, except
+in the case of the most solemn form of marriage (_confarreatio_),
+which, as it conferred on the children the right to hold certain of the
+priesthoods, was regarded itself as a ceremony of the state-religion.
+
+In his private worship then the individual had immediate access to the
+deity, and it was no doubt this absence of priestly mediation and the
+consequent sense of personal responsibility, no less than its emotional
+significance, which caused the greater reality and permanence of the
+domestic worship as compared with the organised and official cults of
+the state.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[3] Etruscan builders were according to tradition employed on the
+earliest Roman temples.
+
+[4] This is all open to doubt, but see De Marchi, _Il Culto Privato_,
+vol. ii.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+EARLY HISTORY OF ROME--THE AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITY
+
+
+After this sketch of the main features which we must expect to find in
+Roman religion, we may attempt to look a little more in detail at its
+various departments, but before doing so it is necessary to form some
+notion of the situation and character of the Roman community: religion
+is not a little determined by men's natural surroundings and
+occupations. The subject is naturally one of considerable controversy,
+but certain facts of great significance for our purpose may fairly be
+taken as established. The earliest settlement which can be called
+'Rome' was the community of the Palatine hill, which rises out of the
+valleys more abruptly than any of the other hills and was the natural
+place to be selected for fortification: the outline of the walls and
+sacred enclosure running outside them (_pomoerium_) may still be
+traced, marking the limits of 'square Rome' (_Roma quadrata_), as the
+historians called it. The Palatine community no 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
+Septimontium--the next stage of Rome's development. Meanwhile a kindred
+settlement had been established on the opposite hills of 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 this way was formed the Rome
+of the Four Regions, which represents the utmost extent of its
+development during the period which gave rise to the genuine Roman
+religion. All these stages have left their mark on the customs of
+religion. _Roma quadrata_ comes to the fore in the Lupercalia: not
+merely is the site of the ceremony a grotto on the Palatine
+(_Lupercal_), but when the _Luperci_ run their purificatory course
+around the boundaries, it is the circuit of the Palatine hill which
+marks its limits. Annually on the 11th of December the festival of the
+Septimontium was celebrated, not by the whole people, but by the
+_montani_, presumably the inhabitants of those parts of Rome which
+were included in the second settlement. Finally, the addition of the
+Quirinal settlement is marked by the inclusion among the great
+state-gods of Quirinus, who must have been previously the local deity
+of the Quirinal community.
+
+But more important for us than the history of the early settlement is
+its character. We have spoken of early Rome as an agricultural
+community: it would be more exact and more helpful to describe it as a
+community of agricultural households. The institutions of Rome, legal
+as well as religious, all point to the household (_familia_) as the
+original unit of organisation: the individual, as such, counted for
+nothing, the community was but the aggregate of families. Domestic
+worship then was not merely independent of the religion of the
+community: it was prior to it, and is both its historical and logical
+origin. Yet the life of the early Roman agriculturalist could not be
+confined to the household: in the tilling of the fields and the care of
+his cattle he meets his neighbour, and common interests suggest common
+prayer and thanksgiving. Thus there sprung up the great series of
+agricultural festivals which form the basis of the state-calendar, but
+were in origin--as some of them still continued to be--the independent
+acts of worship of groups of agricultural households. Gradually, as the
+community grew on the lines we have just seen, there grew with it a
+sense of an organised state, as something more than the casual
+aggregation of households or clans (_gentes_). As the feeling of union
+became stronger, so did the necessity for common worship of the gods,
+and the state-cult came into being primarily as the repetition on
+behalf of the community as a whole of the worship which its members
+performed separately in their households or as joint-worshippers in the
+fields. But the conception of a state must carry with it at least two
+ideas over and beyond the common needs of its members: there must be
+internal organisation to secure domestic tranquillity, and--since there
+will be collision with other states--external organisation for purposes
+of offence and defence. Religion follows the new ideas, and in two of
+the older deities of the fields develops the notions of justice and
+war. Organisation ensues, and the general conceptions of state-deities
+and state-ritual are made more definite and 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--the worship of the household, the worship of the fields, the
+worship of 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 distinguishable from that of the
+fields, the state-cult is, as we have seen, very largely a replica of
+the other two. The evidence for the domestic and agricultural cults is
+in itself very scanty, and we shall frequently have to draw inferences
+from their counterparts in the state. Above all, it is not to be
+supposed that any hard and fast line between the three existed in the
+Roman's mind; but for the purposes of analysis the distinction is
+valuable and represents a historical reality.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+WORSHIP OF THE HOUSEHOLD
+
+
+=1. The Deities.=--The worship of the household seems to have
+originated, as has been suggested, in the sense of the sacredness of
+certain objects closely bound up with the family life--the door, the
+protection against the external world, by which the household went out
+to work in the morning and returned at evening, the hearth, the giver
+of warmth and nourishment, and the store-cupboard, where was preserved
+the food for future use. At first, in all probability, the worship was
+actually of the objects themselves, but by the time that Rome can be
+said to have existed at all, 'animism' had undoubtedly transformed it
+into a veneration of the indwelling spirits, Ianus, Vesta, and the
+Penates.
+
+Of the domestic worship of Ianus no information has come down to us,
+but we may well suppose that as the defence of the door and its main
+use lay with the men of the household, so they, under the control of
+the _pater familias_, were responsible for the cult of its spirit.
+Vesta was, of course, worshipped at the hearth by the women, who most
+often used it in the preparation of 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 of Vesta) would be the most conspicuously sacred thing; it is
+therefore not surprising to find that her simple cult was the most
+persistent of all throughout the history of Rome, and did not vary from
+its original notion. Even Ovid can tell the inquirer 'think not Vesta
+to be ought else than living flame,' and again, 'Vesta and fire require
+no effigy'--notions in which he has come curiously near to the
+conceptions of the earliest religion. The Penates in the same way were
+at first 'the spirits'--whoever they might be--who preserved and
+increased the store in the cupboard. Then as the conception of
+individual deities became clearer, they were identified with some one
+or other of the gods of the country or the state, among whom the
+individual householder would select those who should be the particular
+Penates of his family: Ceres, Iuno, Iuppiter, Pales would be some of
+those chosen in the earlier period. Nor are we to suppose that
+selection was merely arbitrary: the tradition of family and clan, even
+possibly of locality, would determine the choice, much as the
+patron-saints of a church are now determined in a Roman Catholic
+country.
+
+Two other deities are very prominent in the worship of the early
+household, and each is a characteristic product of Roman religious
+feeling, the Lar Familiaris and the Genius. The Lares[5] seem to have
+been in origin the spirits of the family fields: they were worshipped,
+as Cicero tells us, 'on the farm in sight of the house,' and they had
+their annual festival in the Compitalia, celebrated at the
+_compita_--places where two or more properties marched. But one of
+these spirits, the _Lar Familiaris_, had special charge of the house
+and household, and as such was worshipped with the other domestic gods
+at the hearth. As his protection extended over all the household,
+including the slaves, his cult is placed specially in the charge of the
+bailiff's wife (_vilica_). He is regularly worshipped at the great
+divisions of the month on Calends, Nones, and Ides, but he has also an
+intimate and beautiful connection with the domestic history of the
+family. An offering is made to the Lar on the occasion of a birth, a
+wedding, a departure, or a return, and even--a characteristically Roman
+addition--on the occasion of the first utterance of 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 conception in the Roman
+religion for the modern mind to grasp. It has been spoken of as the
+'patron-saint' or 'guardian-angel,' both of them conceptions akin to
+that of the Genius, but both far too definite and anthropomorphic: we
+shall understand it best by keeping the '_numen_' notion clearly in
+mind and looking to the root-meaning of the word (_genius_ connected
+with the root of _gignere_, to beget). It was after all only a natural
+development of the notions of 'animism' to imagine that man too, like
+other objects, had his indwelling spirit--not his 'soul' either in our
+sense of moral and intellectual powers, or in the ancient sense of the
+vital principle--but rather as the derivation suggests, in origin
+simply the spirit which gave him the power of generation. Hence in the
+house, the sphere of the Genius is no longer the hearth but the
+marriage-bed (_lectus genialis_). This notion growing somewhat wider,
+the Genius comes to denote all the full powers, almost the personality,
+of developed manhood, and especially those powers which make for
+pleasure and happiness: this is the origin of such common phrases as
+_genium curare_, _genio indulgere_, meaning practically to 'look after
+oneself,' 'to indulge oneself.' Every man, then, has this 'spirit of
+his manhood' in his Genius, and correspondingly every woman her Iuno,
+or spirit of womanhood, which are worshipped on the birthdays of their
+owners. No doubt later the Genius was accredited with powers over the
+fortune and misfortune of his possessor, but he never really developed
+anything like the independence of a god, and remained always rather a
+_numen_. The individual revered his own Genius, but the household cult
+was concerned, as one would expect, with the Genius of the master of
+the house, the pre-eminent Genius of the family. Its special locality
+was, for the reason just noticed, the marriage-bed and its symbol, the
+house-snake, kept as a revered inmate and cherished in the feeling that
+evil happening to it meant misfortune to the master. The festival of
+the Genius was naturally the master's birthday, and on that day slaves
+and freedmen kept holiday with the family and brought offerings to the
+_Genius domus_. It is a significant fact, and may serve to bring out
+the underlying notion, that in later paintings, when anthropomorphism
+and sensuous representation held sway over all Roman religion, though
+the other gods of the household were depicted after the manner of Greek
+deities, the Genius is either represented by his symbolic snake or
+appears with the human features and characteristics of the head of the
+house, his owner.
+
+The spirit-gods then of the door and the hearth, the specially chosen
+deities of the store-cupboard, the particular field-power presiding
+over the household, and the spirit of the master's personality were the
+gods of the early home, and round their worship centred the domestic
+religion. We must attempt to see what was its relation to family life.
+
+=2. Religion and the Family Life.=--We have already noticed the main
+occasions of regular sacrifice to the deities of the household, the
+offerings to the Lar on Calends, Nones, and Ides, to the Genius on the
+master's birthday, and so on, and we are enabled to form a fair picture
+of the rites from paintings which, although of later date, undoubtedly
+represent the continuous tradition of domestic custom. In a
+wall-painting at Herculaneum, for instance, we have a picture of the
+_pater familias_, represented with veiled head (according to regular
+Roman custom) and the cornucopia of the Genius, making sacrifice at a
+round altar or hearth. Opposite him stands the flute-player (_tibicen_)
+playing to drown any unpropitious sound, while on either side are two
+smaller figures, presumably the sons, acting as attendants (_camilli_),
+and both clad (_succincti_) in the short sacrificial tunic (_limus_);
+one carries in his left hand the sacred dish (_patera_), and in his
+right garlands or, more probably, ribbons for the decoration of the
+victim: the other is acting as _victimarius_ and bringing the pig for
+sacrifice, but the animal is hurrying with almost excessive eagerness
+towards the altar, no doubt to show that there is none of the
+reluctance which would have been sufficient to vitiate the sacrifice.
+
+But from our point of view such formal acts of worship are of less
+importance than the part played by religion in the daily life of the
+household. There is evidence both for earlier and later periods that
+the really 'pious' would begin their day with prayer and sacrifice to
+the household gods, and like Virgil's Aeneas, typically _pius_ in all
+the meanings of the word, would 'rouse the slumbering flame upon the
+altar and gladly approach again the Lar and little Penates whom he
+worshipped yesterday.' But this was perhaps exceptional devotion, and
+the daily worship in the normal household centred rather round the
+family meal. In the old and simple house the table would be placed at
+the side of the hearth, and, as the household sat round it, master and
+man together, a part of the meal, set aside on a special sacred dish
+(_patella_), would be thrown into the flames as the gods' portion.
+Sometimes incense might be added, and later a libation of wine: when
+images had become common, the little statuettes of Lares and Penates
+would be fetched from the shrine (_lararium_) and placed upon the table
+in token of their presence at the meal. Even in the luxurious,
+many-roomed house of the imperial epoch, when the dining-table was far
+from the kitchen-hearth, a pause was made in the meal and an offering
+sent out to the household-gods, nor would the banquet proceed until the
+slave had returned and announced that the gods were favourable (_deos
+propitios_): so persistent was this tradition of domestic piety. Prayer
+might be made at this point on special occasions to special deities,
+as, for instance, before the beginning of the sowing of the crops,
+appeal was made to Iuppiter, and a special portion of the meal (_daps_)
+was set aside for him. The sanctification of the one occasion when the
+whole household met in the day cannot fail to have had its effect 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 on a higher
+power for the supply of their daily needs.
+
+We observed incidentally how the small events of domestic life were
+given their religious significance, particularly in connection with the
+worship of Lar and Genius, but to complete the sketch of domestic
+religion, we must examine a little more closely its relation to the
+process of life, and especially to the two important occasions of birth
+and marriage. In no department of life is the specialisation of
+function among the _numina_ more conspicuous than in connection with
+birth and childhood. Apart from the general protection of Iuno Lucina,
+the prominent divinity of childbirth, we can count in the records that
+have come down to us some twenty subordinate spirits, who from the
+moment of conception to the moment of birth watched, each in its own
+particular sphere, over the mother and the unborn child. As soon as the
+birth had taken place began a series of ceremonies, which are of
+particular interest, as they seem to belong to a very early stage of
+religious thought, and have a markedly rustic character. Immediately a
+sacred meal was offered to the two field-deities, Picumnus and
+Pilumnus, and then the Roman turned his attention to the practical
+danger of fever for the mother and child. At night three men gathered
+round the threshold, one armed with an axe, another with a stake, and a
+third with a broom: the two first struck the threshold with their
+implements, the third swept out the floor. Over this ceremony were said
+to preside three _numina_, Intercidona (connected with the axe),
+Pilumnus (connected with the stake, _pilum_), and Deverra (connected
+with the act of sweeping). Its object was, as Varro explains it, to
+avert the entrance of the half-wild Silvanus by giving three
+unmistakeable signs of human civilisation; we shall probably not be
+wrong in seeing in it rather an actual hacking, beating, and sweeping
+away of evil spirits. On the ninth day after birth, in the case of a
+boy, on the eighth in the case of a girl, occurred the festival of the
+naming (_solemnitas nominalium_). The ceremony was one of purification
+(_dies lustricus_ is its alternative title), and a piacular offering
+was made to preserve the child from evil influences in the future.
+Friends brought presents, especially neck-bands in the form of a
+half-moon (_lunulae_), and the golden balls (_bullae_) which were worn
+as a charm round the neck until the attainment of 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 until he arrived at puberty, about the age of seventeen, when
+with due religious ceremony he entered on his manhood. At home, on the
+morning of the festival, he solemnly laid aside the _bulla_ and the
+purple-striped garb of childhood (_toga praetexta_) before the shrine
+of the household gods, and made them a thank-offering for their
+protection in the past. Afterwards, accompanied by his father and
+friends and clad now in the _toga virilis_, he went solemnly to the
+Capitol, and, after placing a contribution in the coffers of
+Iuventas--or probably in earlier times of Iuppiter Iuventus--made an
+offering to the supreme deity Iuppiter Capitolinus. The sacred
+character of the early years of a young Roman's life could hardly be
+more closely marked.
+
+Though _confarreatio_ was the only essentially religious form of
+marriage, and was sanctified by the presence of the _pontifex maximus_
+and the _flamen Dialis_, yet marriage even in the less religious
+ceremony of _coemptio_ was always a _sacrum_. It must not take place on
+the days of state-festivals (_feriae_), nor on certain other _dies
+religiosi_, such as those of the Vestalia or the feast of the dead
+(_Parentalia_). Both the marriage itself and the preliminary betrothal
+(_sponsalia_) had to receive the divine sanction by means of auspices,
+and in the ceremonies of both rites the religious element, though bound
+up with superstition and folk-customs, emerges clearly enough. The
+central ceremony of the _confarreatio_ was an act partly of sacrifice,
+partly, one might almost say, of communion. The bride and bridegroom
+sat on two chairs united to one another and covered with a lambskin,
+they offered to Iuppiter bloodless offerings of a rustic character
+(_fruges et molam salsam_), they employed in the sacrifice the
+fundamental household necessaries, water, fire, and salt, and
+themselves ate of the sacred spelt-cake (_libus farreus_), from which
+the ceremony derived its name. The crucial point in the more civil
+ceremony of _coemptio_ was the purely human and legal act of the
+joining of hands (_dextrarum iunctio_), 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 of the
+bride to the bridegroom's house--so beautifully depicted in Catullus'
+_Epithalamium_--her forcible abduction from her parents, the ribaldry
+of the bridegroom's companions, the throwing of nuts as a symbol of
+fecundity, the carrying of the bride over the threshold, a relic
+probably of primitive marriage by capture, the untying of the bridal
+knot on the bridal couch--are perhaps more akin to superstition than
+religion, but we may notice two points in the proceedings. Firstly, the
+three coins (_asses_) which the bride brought with her, one to give to
+her husband as a token of dowry, one to be offered at the hearth to her
+new Lar Familiaris, one to be offered subsequently at the nearest
+_compitum_ (a clear sign of connection between the household Lar and
+those of the fields); and secondly, an echo of the feature so marked
+all through domestic life, the crowd of little _numina_, who took their
+part in assisting the ceremony. There was Domiduca, who brought the
+bride to the bridegroom's house, Iterduca, who looked after her on the
+transit, Unxia, who anointed her, Cinxia, who bound and unbound her
+girdle, and many others.
+
+This sketch of the household worship of the Romans will, I hope, have
+justified my contention that there was in it an element more truly
+'religious' than anything we should gather from the ceremonies of the
+state. The ideas are simpler, the _numina_ seem less cold and more
+protective, the worshippers more sensible of divine aid. When we have
+looked at the companion picture of the farmer in the fields, we shall
+go on to see how the worship of the agricultural household is the
+prototype and basis of the state-cult, but first we must consider
+briefly the very difficult question of the relation of the living to
+the dead.
+
+=3. Relation of the Living and the Dead.=--The worship of the spirits
+of dead ancestors is so common a feature in most primitive religions
+that it may seem strange even to doubt whether it existed among the
+Romans, but, although the question is one of extreme difficulty, and
+the evidence very insufficient, I am inclined to believe that, though
+the living were always conscious of their continued relation to the
+dead, and sensitive of the influence of the powers of the underworld,
+yet there was not, strictly speaking, any cult of the dead. Let us
+attempt briefly to collect the salient features in ritual, and see to
+what conclusion they point as to the underlying belief.
+
+One of the most remarkable facts in domestic worship is that, whereas
+the moment of birth and the other great occasions of life are
+surrounded with religious ceremony and belief, the moment of death
+passes without any trace of religious accompaniment: 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 protect him. As to his state
+after death, opinion varied at different times under different
+influences, but the simple early notion, connected especially with the
+practice of burial as opposed to cremation,[6] was that his spirit just
+sank into the earth, where it rested and returned from time to time to
+the upper world through certain openings in the ground (_mundi_), whose
+solemn uncovering was one of the regular observances of the festal
+calendar: later, no doubt, a more spiritual notion prevailed, though it
+never reached definiteness or universality. One idea, however, seems
+always to be prominent, that the happiness of the dead could be much
+affected by the due performance of the funeral rites; hence it was the
+most solemn duty of the heir to perform the _iusta_ for the dead, and
+if he failed in any respect to carry them out, he could only atone for
+his omission by the annual sacrifice of a sow (_porca praecidanea_) to
+Ceres and Tellus--to the divinities of the earth, be it noticed, and
+not to the dead themselves. The actual funeral was not a religious
+ceremony; a procession was formed (originally at night) of the family
+and friends, in which the body of the dead was carried--accompanied by
+the busts (_imagines_) of his ancestors--to a tomb outside the town,
+and was there laid in the grave. The family on their return proceeded
+at once to rites of purification from the contamination which had
+overtaken them owing to the presence of a dead body. Two ceremonies
+were performed, one for the purification of the house by the sacrifice
+of a sow (_porca praesentanea_) to Ceres accompanied by a solemn
+sweeping out of refuse (_exverrae_), the other the lustration of their
+own persons by fire and water. This done, they sat down with their
+friends to a funeral feast (_silicernium_), which, Cicero tells us, was
+regarded as an honour rather to the surviving members of the family
+than to the dead, so that mourning was not worn. Two other ceremonies
+within the following week, the _feriae denicales_ and the _novendiale
+sacrum_, brought the religious mourning to a close. Not that the dead
+were forgotten after the funeral: year by year, on the anniversaries of
+death and burial, and on certain fixed occasions known by such
+suggestive titles as 'the day of roses' and 'the day of violets,' the
+family would revisit the tomb and make simple offerings of salt cake
+(_mola salsa_), of bread soaked in wine, or garlands of flowers: there
+is some trace, on such occasions, of prayer, but it would seem to be
+rather the repetition of general religious formulae than a petition to
+the dead for definite blessings.
+
+Such are the principal features of the family ritual in relation to
+their dead; but if we are to form any just notion of belief, we must
+supplement them by reference to the ceremonies of the state, which
+here, as elsewhere, are very clearly the household-cult 'writ large.'
+In the Calendars we find two obvious celebrations in connection with
+the dead, taking place at different seasons of the year, and consisting
+of ceremonies markedly different in character. In the gloomy month of
+February--associated with solemn lustrations--occurs the festival known
+popularly (though not in the Calendars) as the Parentalia or dies
+Parentales, that is, the days of sacrifice in connection with the dead
+members of the family (_parentes_, _parentare_). It begins with the
+note on February 13, _Virgo Vestalis parentat_, and continues till the
+climax, _Feralia_, on February 21. During these days the magistrates
+laid aside the insignia of their offices, the temples were shut,
+marriages were forbidden, and every family carried out at the tombs of
+its relatives ceremonies resembling those of the _sacra privata_. The
+whole season closed on February 22 with the festival of the Caristia or
+_cara cognatio_, a family reunion of the survivors in a kind of
+'love-feast,' which centred in the worship of the Lar Familiaris. Here
+we seem to have simply, as in the family rites, a peaceful and solemn
+acknowledgment by the community as a whole of the still subsisting
+relation of the living and the dead. On the 9th, 11th, and 13th of May
+occurs the Lemuria, a ceremony of a strikingly different order. Once
+again temples are shut and marriages forbidden, but the ritual is of a
+very different nature. The _Lemures_ or _Larvae_--for there seems to be
+little distinction between the two names--are regarded no longer as
+members of the family to be welcomed back to their place, but as
+hostile spirits to be exorcised.[7] The head of the house rises from
+bed at midnight, washes, and walks barefoot through the house, making
+signs for the aversion of evil spirits. In his mouth he carries black
+beans--always a chthonic symbol--which he spits out nine times without
+looking round, saying, as he does so, 'With these I redeem me and
+mine': he washes again, and clanks brass vessels together; nine times
+he repeats the formula, 'depart, Manes of our fathers' (no doubt using
+the dignified title Manes euphemistically), and then finally turns
+round. Here we have in a quite unmistakeable manner the feeling of the
+hostility of the spirits of the dead: they must be given their
+appropriate food and got out of the place as quickly as possible. Some
+scholars have attempted to explain the difference between these two
+festivals on the assumption that the Parentalia represents the
+commemoration of 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 of anything approaching divinity in
+connection with the dead or the underworld as distinct from the
+earth-goddesses, but the evidence for it, though vague and shadowy, is
+not wanting. Certain mysterious female deities, Tarpeia, Acca Larentia,
+Carna, and Laverna, of whom late aetiological myth had its own
+explanation, have, in all probability, been rightly interpreted by
+Mommsen as divinities of the lower world: the commemorative 'sacrifice
+at the tomb,' which we hear of in connection with the first two, was in
+reality, we may suppose, an offering to a chthonic deity at a _mundus_.
+A rather more tangible personality is Vediovis, who three times a year
+has his celebration (_Agonia_ not _feriae_) in the Calendar: he, as his
+name denotes, must be the 'opposite of Iove,' that is, probably, his
+chthonic counterpart, a notion sufficiently borne out by his subsequent
+identification with the Greek Pluto. Finally, of course, there is that
+vague body, the Di Manes, 'the good gods,' the principal deities of the
+world of the dead; to them invocations are addressed, and they have
+their place in the formulae of the _parentalia_ and the opening of the
+_mundi_.[8] In connection with them, acting as a link with the female
+deities, we have the strange goddess Genita Mana, the 'spirit of birth
+and death.'
+
+Controversy is acute as to the interpretation of these facts,
+especially in regard to the question whether or no the spirits of the
+dead were actually worshipped. I would hazard the following
+reconstruction of 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 of the living,
+especially in relation to the crops which sprung from the ground in
+which they lay. At first, when his religion was one 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 increased, and the sense of the unity of household and
+community developed, fear, proving ungrounded, gave place to a kindlier
+feeling of 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 _sacra privata_ and the
+Parentalia. When the _numen_-feeling began to pass into that of _deus_,
+in the first place a connection was felt between the spirits of the
+dead and the deities of the earth associated with the growth of the
+crops, in the second the notion that the underworld must have its gods
+as well as the world above, produced the shadowy female deities and
+Vediovis. Lastly, the same kind of feeling which added Parentalia to
+Lemuria developed the vague general notion of the Di Manes, not the
+deified spirits of the dead, but peaceful and on the whole kindly
+divinities holding sway in the world of dead spirits, yet accessible to
+the prayers of the living. The dead, then, were not themselves
+worshipped, but they needed commemoration and kindly gifts, and they
+had in their lower world deities to whom prayer might be made and
+worship given.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[5] It is right to state that there is a totally different theory,
+according to which the Lares were the spirits of the dead ancestors and
+the Lar Familiaris an embodiment, as it were, of all the family dead.
+
+[6] It is significant that even when the dead were cremated, one bone
+was carefully preserved in order to be symbolically buried.
+
+[7] We may note that, though it is a state festival, our information is
+solely of rites in individual households.
+
+[8] Their mention in sepulchral inscriptions dates from the time of the
+Empire, when a new conception of their nature had sprung up.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+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 of agricultural festivals
+which constitute the greater part of the celebrations in the Calendar,
+and follow closely the seasons and occupations of the agricultural
+year. We are, of course, in the Calendar dealing, to speak strictly,
+with the worship of the state, and not with the semi-private festivals
+of groups of farmers, but in many instances, such as the Robigalia, the
+state seems only to have taken over the cult of the farmers, preserving
+carefully the site on which the celebration took place; in others, such
+as the Terminalia and the Parilia, it seems to have established, as it
+were, a state-counterpart of a rite performed independently at many
+rustic centres: in both cases we are justified in inferring the
+practice of the early Roman agriculturalist. We shall see that in most
+cases these festivals are associated--though often loosely
+enough--with the worship of a particular divinity. Sometimes,
+however,--as in the case of the Lupercalia--it is very difficult to
+discover who this divinity was; in other festivals, such as the
+Robigalia, it looks as if the eponymous deity was a comparatively late
+development. We may, therefore, suppose, on the analogy of what we have
+already seen to be the general lines of development in Roman religion,
+that the festivals in origin centred round a purpose rather than a
+personality, and were addressed 'to all spirits whom it might concern';
+and that later, when the _deus_ notion was on the increase, they either
+attached themselves to some god whose personality was already distinct,
+as the Vinalia were attached to Iuppiter, or 'developed' a deity of
+their own. Among these deities, strictly functional as a rule and
+existing only in connection with their special festival, we shall
+notice the frequent recurrence of a divinity pair, not, of course,
+mythologically related as husband and wife, but representing, perhaps,
+the male and female aspects of the same process of development.
+
+The festivals divide themselves naturally into three groups: those of
+Spring, expressive of the hopes and fears for the growing crops and
+herds; those of Summer, the festivals of fulfilment, including the
+celebration of harvest; and those of Winter, the festivals of sowing,
+of social rejoicing, and in the later months of purificatory
+anticipation of the coming year.
+
+=1. Festivals of Spring.=--The old Roman year--as may be seen clearly
+enough from the names of the months still known by numbers, September,
+October, etc.--began in March: according to tradition Romulus reckoned
+a year of ten months altogether, and Numa added January and February.
+The Spring months properly speaking may be reckoned as March, April,
+and May. In March there were in the developed Calendar no festivals of
+an immediately recognisable agricultural character, but the whole month
+was practically consecrated to its eponymous deity, Mars. Now, to the
+Roman of the Republic, Mars was undoubtedly the deity associated with
+war, and his special festivals in this month are of a warlike
+character: on the 9th the priests (_Salii_) began the ancient custom of
+carrying his sacred shields (_ancilia_) round the town from one
+ordained resting-place to another: on the 19th, Quinquatrus, the
+shields were solemnly purified, and on the 23rd the same ceremony was
+performed with the war-trumpets: the Equirria (horse-races) of March
+14 may have had an agricultural origin--we shall meet with races later
+on as a feature of rustic festivals--but they were certainly celebrated
+in a military manner. Yet there is good reason for believing that Mars
+was in origin associated not with war, but with the growth of
+vegetation: he was, as we shall see, the chief deity addressed in the
+solemn lustration of the fields (_Ambarvalia_), and if our general
+notion of the development of religion with the growing needs of the
+agricultural community crystallising into a state be correct, it may
+well be that a deity originally concerned with the interests of the
+farmer took on himself the protection of the soldier, when the fully
+developed state came into collision with its neighbours. If so, we may
+well have in these recurring festivals of Mars the sense, as Mr. Warde
+Fowler has put it, of 'some great _numen_ at work, quickening
+vegetation, and calling into life the powers of reproduction in man and
+the animals.' Possibly another agricultural note is struck in the
+Liberalia of the 17th: though the cult of Liber was almost entirely
+overlaid by his subsequent identification with Dionysus, it seems right
+to recognise in him and his female counterpart, Libera, a general
+spirit of creativeness.
+
+The character of April is much more clearly marked: the month is filled
+with a series of festivals--all of a clearly agricultural
+nature--prayers for the crops now in the earth, and the purification of
+the men and animals on the farm. The series opens with the Fordicidia
+on the 15th, 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 storehouse (_penus Vestae_) for use at the Parilia.
+The general symbolism of fertility is very clear; the goddess
+associated with the festival is Tellus, the earth herself, and the
+local origin of these festivals is shown in the fact that not only was
+the sacrifice made for the whole people on the Capitol, but separately
+in each one of the _curiae_. The Fordicidia is closely followed by the
+Cerealia on the 19th--the festival of another earth-goddess (_Ceres_,
+_creare_)--more especially connected with the growth of corn. A very
+curious feature of the ritual was the fastening of fire-brands to the
+tails of foxes, which were then let loose in what was afterwards the
+Circus Maximus: a symbol possibly, as Wissowa thinks, of sunlight,
+possibly of the vegetation-spirit. But the most important of the April
+ceremonies is undoubtedly the Parilia of the 21st, the festival of the
+very ancient rustic _numen_, Pales. Ovid's[9] description of the
+celebration is so interesting and so full of the characteristic colour
+of the Roman rustic festivals that I may perhaps be pardoned for
+reproducing it at greater length. 'Shepherd,' he says, addressing 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 branches fastened to
+them, while a trailing wreath covers the gay-decked gates. Let blue
+flames rise from the living sulphur and the sheep bleat loud as she
+feels the touch of the smoking sulphur. Burn the male olive-branch and
+the pine twig and juniper, and let the blazing laurel crackle amid the
+hearth. A basket full of millet must go with the millet cakes: this is
+the food wherein the country goddess finds pleasure most of all. Give
+her too her own share of the feast and her pail of milk, and when her
+share has been set aside, then with milk warm from the cow make prayer
+to Pales, guardian of the woods.' The poet then recites a long prayer,
+in which the farmer first begs forgiveness for any unwitting sins he
+may have committed against the rustic deities, such as trespassing on
+their groves or sheltering his flocks beneath their altar, and then
+prays for the aversion of disease and the prosperity of 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 in place of the wine-bowl, and drink
+the snowy milk and dark must, and soon through the heaps of crackling
+straw leap in swift course with eager limbs.' All the worshippers then
+set to leaping through the blazing fires, even the flocks and herds
+were driven through, and general hilarity reigned. Many points of
+detail might be noticed, such as that in the urban counterpart of the
+festival, which Ovid carefully distinguishes from the country
+celebrations, the fire was sprinkled with the ashes from the calves of
+the Fordicidia and the blood of Mars' October horse--another link
+between Mars and agriculture. But it is most interesting to note the
+double character of the ceremony--as a purification of man and beast on
+the one hand, and on the other a prayer for the prosperity of the
+season to come. Three special festivals remain in April. At the Vinalia
+(_priora_) of the 23rd, the wine-skins of the previous year were opened
+and the wine tasted, and, we may suppose, supplication was made for
+the vintage to come, the festival being dedicated to the sky-god,
+Iuppiter. At the Robigalia of the 25th the offering of a dog was made
+for the aversion of mildew (_robigo_), to Robigus (who looks like a
+developed eponymous deity) at the fifth milestone on the Via
+Claudia--the ancient boundary of Roman territory. The Floralia of the
+28th does not occur in the old Calendars, probably because it was a
+moveable feast (_feriae conceptivae_), but it is an unmistakeable
+petition to the _numen_ Flora for the blossoming of the season's
+flowers.
+
+May was a month of more critical importance for the welfare of the
+crops, and therefore its festivals were mostly of a more sombre
+character. The 9th, 11th, and 13th were the days set apart for the
+Lemuria, the aversion of the hostile spirits of the dead, of which we
+have already spoken, and a similarly gloomy character probably attached
+to the Agonia of Vediovis on the 21st. But of far the greatest interest
+is the moveable feast of the Ambarvalia, the great lustration of the
+fields, which took place towards the end of the month: the date of its
+occurrence was no doubt fixed according to the state of the crops in
+any given year. As the individual farmer purified his own fields for
+the aversion of evil, so a solemn lustration of the boundaries of the
+state was performed by special priests, known as the Arval brethren
+(_fratres Arvales_). With ceremonial dancing (_tripudium_) they moved
+along the boundary-marks and made the farmer's most complete offering
+of the pig, sheep, and ox (_suovetaurilia_): the fruits of the last
+year and the new harvest (_aridae et virides_) played a large part in
+the ceremonial, and a solemn litany was recited for the aversion of
+every kind of pest from the crops. In Virgil's account the prayer is
+made to Ceres, and we know that in imperial times, when the Ambarvalia
+became very closely connected with the worship of the imperial house,
+the centre of the cult was the earth-goddess, Dea Dia; but in the
+earliest account of the rustic ceremony which we possess in Cato, Mars
+is addressed in the unmistakeable character of an agricultural deity.
+'Father Mars, I pray and beseech thee that thou mayest be gracious and
+favourable to me, to my home, and my household, for which cause I have
+ordained that the offering of pig, sheep, and ox be carried round my
+fields, my land, and my farm: that thou mayest avert, ward off, and
+keep afar all disease, visible and invisible, all barrenness, waste,
+misfortune, and ill weather: that thou mayest suffer our crops, our
+corn, our vines and bushes to grow and come to prosperity: that thou
+mayest preserve the shepherds and the flocks in safety, and grant
+health and strength to me, to my home, and my household.' We have
+perhaps here another rustic ceremony addressed in origin to all
+_numina_, whom it might concern, and, as it were, specialising itself
+from time to time in an appeal to one definite deity or another, but it
+is also clear evidence of an early agricultural association of Mars.
+The Ambarvalia is one of the most picturesque of the field ceremonies,
+and a peculiarly beautiful and imaginative description of it may be
+found in the first chapter of Pater's _Marius the Epicurean_.
+
+In June and July the farmer was waiting for the completion of the
+harvest, and the great state-festivals of the period are not
+agricultural.
+
+=2. Festivals of the Harvest.=--In August the farmer's hopes are at
+last realised, and the harvest is brought in. The season is marked by
+two closely connected festivals on the 21st and 25th in honour of the
+old divinity-pair, Consus (_condere_), the god of the storehouse and
+Ops, the deity of the wealth of harvest. At the Consualia, an offering
+is made by the _flamen Quirinalis_, assisted by the Vestal virgins, at
+an underground altar in the Circus Maximus, specially uncovered for
+the occasion: here we have probably not so much the notion of a
+chthonic deity, as a relic of 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 race of mules, the regular Italian beasts of burden. Four days after
+this general festivity occurred the second harvest-ceremony of the
+Opiconsivia, held in the shrine (_sacrarium_) of the Regia, and
+attended only by the _pontifex maximus_ and the Vestal virgins. This is
+clearly the state-harvest of the regal period, the symbolic storing of
+the state-crops in the sacred storehouse of the palace by the king and
+his daughters. Both festivals are significant, and we shall meet with
+Consus and Ops again in close connection in December. The _Portunalia_
+of the 17th may have been another harvest-home, if we can believe the
+old authorities, who tell us that Portunus was a 'god of doors'
+(_portae_).
+
+The _Vinalia Rustica_ of August 19 we cannot sufficiently interpret
+through lack of information: it cannot, of course, have been the
+festival of the vintage, for it is too early: it may have been a
+propitiatory ceremony for the ripening grapes, in which case it was
+probably connected with the _auspicatio vindemiae_, in which the
+_flamen Dialis_ (note again the association of Iuppiter and the vine)
+solemnly plucked the first grapes; or it may be a festival of wine, not
+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 on
+October 11 with the _Meditrinalia_--the nearest approach to a
+thanksgiving for the vintage. On that day the first must of the new
+vintage and the wine of the old were solemnly tasted, apparently as a
+spell against disease, the worshipper using the strange formula, 'I
+drink the new and the old wine, with new wine and old I heal (_medeor_)
+disease.' This ceremony gave its name to the festival and was the cause
+of the subsequent evolution of an eponymous deity, Meditrina, but there
+is little doubt that in origin here, as in the other wine-festivals,
+the deity concerned was at first Iuppiter. Among the other rustic
+ceremonies of the month we may notice the festival of springs
+(_Fontinalia_) on October 13: wells were decorated with garlands and
+flowers flung into the waters.
+
+=3. Festivals of the Winter.=--The winter-festivals cannot be summed up
+under one general notion so easily as those of spring or summer, but
+they fall fairly naturally into two groups--the festivals immediately
+connected with agricultural life and those associated with the dead and
+the underworld or with solemn purification. The main action of the
+farmer's life during the winter is, of course, the sowing of the next
+year's crop, which was commemorated in the ancient festival of the
+Saturnalia on December 17. Though the Saturnalia is perhaps the most
+familiar to us of all the Roman festivals, partly from the allusions in
+the classics, especially in Horace, partly because it is no doubt the
+source of many of our own Christmas festivities, it is yet almost
+impossible now to recover anything of its original Roman character.
+Greek influence set to work on it very early, identifying Saturnus with
+Cronos and establishing him in a Greek temple with all the
+accompaniments of Greek ritual. All the familiar features of the
+festival--the freedom and license of the slaves, the giving of
+presents, even the wax-candles, which are the prototype of those on our
+own Christmas-tree--are almost certainly due to Greek origin. We are
+left with nothing but the name Saturnus (connected with the root of
+_semen_, _serere_) and the date to assure us that we have here in
+reality a genuine Roman festival of the sowing of the crops. Of a
+similar nature--marking, as Ovid tells us, the completion of the
+sowing--was the _feriae sementivae_ or Paganalia, associated with the
+earth-goddesses, Ceres and Tellus. Meal-cakes and a pregnant sow were
+the offerings, the beasts who had helped in the ploughing were
+garlanded, and prayer was made for the seed resting in the ground. A
+curious feature of the winter worship is the repetition of festivals to
+the harvest deities, Consus and Ops, separated by the same interval of
+three days, on December 15 and 19: it may be that we have here an
+indication of the final completion of the harvest, or, as Mr. Warde
+Fowler has suggested, a ceremonial opening of the storehouses, to see
+that the harvest is not rotting. Among the other country festivals of
+the period we may notice that of Carmenta, on the 11th and 15th of
+January: she seems to have been in origin a water-_numen_, but was
+early associated with childbirth: hence the rigid exclusion of men from
+her ceremonies and possibly the taboo on leathern thongs, on the ground
+that nothing involving death must be used in the worship of a deity of
+birth. The repetition of her festival may possibly point to separate
+celebrations of the communities of Palatine and Quirinal. At this time,
+too, occurred the rustic ceremonies at the boundaries (_Terminalia_)
+and the offering to the Lares at the 'marches' (_Compitalia_), of which
+we have spoken in treating of the worship of the house.
+
+The other group of winter-festivals is of a much more gloomy and less
+definitely rustic type, though they clearly date from the period of the
+agricultural community. Of the Feralia of February 21, the culmination
+of the festival of the kindred dead (_Parentalia_), 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 Larentia, mistress of Hercules. But we have seen reason to think
+that Larentia was in reality a deity of the dead, and the 'tomb' a
+_mundus_: if so, we have another link between the winter season and the
+worship of the underworld. There remains the weird festival of the
+Lupercalia on February 15, to which we have had occasion to refer
+several times, and which has become more familiar to most of us than
+other Roman festivals owing to its political use by Mark Antony in 44
+B.C. As we have argued already, it seems to belong to the very oldest
+stratum of the Palatine settlement, and we may therefore appropriately
+close this account of the early festivals with a somewhat fuller
+description of it. The worshippers assembled at the Lupercal, a cave on
+the Palatine hill: there goats and a dog were sacrificed, and two
+youths belonging to the two colleges of Fabian and Quintian (or
+Quintilian) Luperci had their foreheads smeared with the knife used for
+the sacrifice and wiped with wool dipped in milk--at which point it was
+ordained that they should laugh. Then they girt on the skins of the
+slain goats and, after feasting, ran their course round the boundaries
+of the Palatine hill, followed each by his own company of youths, and
+striking women on their way with strips, known as _februae_ or _Iunonis
+amicula_, cut from the goats' hides. Here we have a summary of many of
+the important points which we have noticed in the rustic festivals:
+from the pre-Roman stratum comes the idea of communion with the
+sacrificed animal in the smearing of the blood and the wearing of the
+skin, and also the magic charm involved in the striking of the women to
+procure fertility: it is typical of the true feeling of Roman religion
+that we cannot with any certainty tell what deity was associated with
+the rite, though probably it was Faunus: the rustic character of the
+ceremony is indicated by the bowl of milk in which the wool was dipped
+and the sacrifice of goats: the idea of lustration is clearly marked
+in the course round the boundaries: the original Palatine settlement
+stands out in the limits of that course and the site of the Lupercal,
+and the later synoecismus is seen in the, presumably subsequent,
+addition of the second college of Luperci. A careful study of the
+Lupercalia as an epitome of the character and development of the Roman
+agricultural festivals, though it would not show the brighter aspect of
+some of the spring and summer celebrations, would yet give a true
+notion of the history and spirit of the whole.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[9] Ov., _Fast._, iv. 735.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+WORSHIP OF THE STATE
+
+
+Since, in the matter of religion, the Roman state is in the main but
+the agricultural household magnified, we shall not, in considering its
+worship, be entering on a new stratum of ideas, but rather looking at
+the development of notions and sentiments already familiar. To deal,
+however, with the state-worship in full would not only far exceed the
+limits of this sketch, but would lead us away from religious ideas into
+the region of what we might now call 'ecclesiastical management.' I
+propose therefore to confine myself to two points, firstly, the
+broadening of the old conceptions of the household and the fields and
+their adaptation to the life of the state, and secondly--to be treated
+very shortly and as an indication of the Roman character--the
+organisation of religion.
+
+=1. Development of the Worship of House and Fields.=--Here we shall
+find two main characteristics. The state in the first place, as we
+have several times hinted in anticipation, establishes its own
+counterpart of the household and rustic cults and adapts to its own use
+the ideas which they involve: in the second, and particularly in
+connection with some of the field-deities, it evolves new and very
+frequently abstract notions, foreign to the life of the independent
+country households, but necessary and vital to the life of an organised
+community. Let us look first at the fate of the household deities.
+
+=Ianus.=--We left Ianus as the _numen_ of the house-door: he passes
+into the state exactly in the same capacity: the state too has its
+'door,' the gate at the north-east corner of the Forum, and this
+becomes the seat of 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 gets to work on
+Ianus: a door has two sides, it can both open and shut; therefore, as
+early as the song of the Salii, he has developed the cult-epithets
+'Opener,' 'Shutter' (_Patulci_, _Cloesi_), and as soon as he is thought
+of as anything approaching a personality he is 'two-headed'
+(_bifrons_), as he appears in later representations. The door again is
+the first thing you come to in entering a house: the 'door-spirit'
+then, with that tendency to abstraction which we shall see shortly in
+other cases, becomes the god of beginnings. He watches over the very
+first beginning of human life in his character of _Consevius_; to him
+is sacred the first hour of the day (_pater matutinus_), the Calends of
+every month, and the first month of the year (_Ianuarius_); to him too
+is offered by the _rex sacrorum_ the first sacrifice of the year, the
+Agonium on the 9th of January. In this capacity, moreover, his name
+comes first in all the formulae of prayer, and he is looked upon--not
+indeed as the father of the gods--for that is a much too
+anthropomorphic notion--but as what we might now term their 'logical
+antecedent': _divum deus_, as the song of the Salii quaintly puts it,
+_principium deorum_, as later interpretation explained it. Yet through
+all he remains the most typical Roman deity: he does not acquire a
+temple till 217 B.C., nor a bust until quite late, nor is he ever
+identified with a Greek counterpart. In his capacity as _pater
+matutinus_ he has a native female counterpart in Matuta, a dawn-deity,
+who becomes a protectress in childbirth, and as such is the centre of
+the matrons' festival, the Matralia of June 11.
+
+=Vesta.=--The history of Vesta is perhaps less romantic, but it affords
+a more exact parallel between household and state. In the primitive
+community the king's hearth is not merely of symbolical importance, but
+of great practical utility, in that it is kept continually burning as
+the source of fire on which the individual householder may draw: hence
+it is the duty of the king's daughters to care for it and keep the
+flame perpetually alight. In Rome the temple of Vesta is the king's
+hearth, situated, as one would expect, in close proximity to the
+_regia_. The fire is kept continually blazing except on the 1st of
+March of every year, when it is allowed to go out 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 (_atrium Vestae_) and under the charge of
+the king's representative, the _pontifex maximus_. It is their duty
+too, as the natural cooks of the sacred royal household, to make the
+salt cake (_mola salsa_) to be used at the year's festivals and to
+preserve it and other sacred objects, such as the ashes of the
+Fordicidia, in the storehouse of Vesta (_penus Vestae_). In the month of
+June from the 7th to the 15th, with a climax on the 9th, the day of
+the Vestalia, the matrons who all the year round have tended their own
+hearths, come in solemn procession bare-footed to make their homely
+offerings at the state-hearth, and the virgins meanwhile offer the
+cakes that they have made. For eight days the ceremony continues,
+during which time the bakers and millers keep holiday; the days are
+_religiosi_ (marriages are unlucky and other taboos are observed) and
+also _nefasti_ (no public business may be performed); until the
+ceremony closes on the 15th, with the solemn cleansing of the temple
+and the casting of the refuse into the Tiber, and then the normal life
+of the state may be renewed--Q. St. D. F. (_Quando Stercus Delatum Fas_)
+is the unique entry in the Calendars. This is all less imaginative than
+the development of Ianus, but the underlying feeling is intensely Roman
+and there could be no clearer idea of the natural adaptation of the
+household-cult to the religion of the state.
+
+=Penates, Lares, and Genius.=--The other household deities too have
+their counterpart, though not so prominently marked, in the worship of
+the state. The magistrates, on entering office, took oath by Iuppiter
+and the _Di Penates populi Romani Quiritium_, and that the conception
+was as wide in the state as in the household is shown by the fact that
+on less formal occasions the formula appears as _Iuppiter et ceteri di
+omnes immortales_. The Penates of the state then would include all the
+state-deities; but that their original character is not lost sight of
+we can see from the statement of Varro that in the _penus Vestae_ (the
+'state storehouse') were preserved their _sigilla_--not apparently
+sensuous representations, but symbolic objects, such as we have seen
+before in cases like that of the _silex_ of Iuppiter. The _Lares_ again
+find their counterpart in the _Lares Praestites_ of the state, and
+their rustic festival, the Compitalia, has its urban reproduction,
+which, as it involved considerable license on the part of populace and
+slaves, was often in the later period of the Republic a cause of
+serious political disturbance. Even the Genius, though rather vaguely,
+passes over to the state and we hear of the _Genius populi Romani_ or
+the _Genius urbis Romae_, with regard to which Servius quotes from an
+inscription on a shield the characteristic addition, _sive mas sive
+femina_: in much later times we find the exact counterpart of the
+domestic worship of the Genius of the _pater familias_ in the cult of
+the Genius of the Emperor--the foundation of the whole of the imperial
+worship.
+
+We have observed already how the cults of the fields were taken over by
+the state and their counterparts established in the great festivals of
+the Calendar. Naturally enough most of the deities concerned, existing
+only for the part they played in these festivals, retained their
+original character without further development. But with a few it was
+different: it was their fate to acquire new characteristics and new
+functions, and, developing with the needs of the community, to become
+the great gods of the state: of these we must give some brief account.
+
+=Iuppiter.=--We have known Iuppiter hitherto either in connection with
+certain very primitive survivals, or in the genuine Roman period as a
+sky-_numen_, concerned with the grape-harvest in the two Vinalia and
+the Meditrinalia, and the recipient at the family meal of a _daps_ as a
+general propitiation before the beginning of the sowing. As sky-god he
+passes to the state: _Lucetius_ (_lux_) is his title in the song of the
+Salii and to him are sacred the Ides of every month--the time of the
+full moon, when there is most light in the heavens by night as well as
+day. In his agricultural connection he has his wine-festivals in the
+state as in the country, and the household _daps_ becomes the more
+elaborate _epulum Iovis_, in which the whole community, as it were,
+entertained him at a banquet. As a sky-deity, too, he is particularly
+concerned with the thunderbolt and the lightning-flash (_Iuppiter
+Fulmen_, _Fulgur_), and to him are sacred the always ominous spots
+which had been struck by lightning (_bidentalia_): with the more
+alarming occurrence of lightning by night he has a special connection
+under the cult-title _Iuppiter Summanus_. But as the little community
+grew, and especially perhaps after the union of the two settlements,
+the worship of Iuppiter Feretrius, associated with the sacred oak upon
+the Capitol--the hill between Palatine and Quirinal--comes more and
+more into prominence as a bond of union and the central point of the
+state's religious life: it tends indeed to take the place of priority,
+which had previously been occupied by Ianus. The community goes to war
+with its neighbours, and after a signal victory the _spolia opima_ must
+be dedicated on the sacred oak: indeed Iuppiter is in a special sense
+with them in the battle and must now be worshipped as the 'stayer of
+rout' (_Stator_) and the 'giver of victory' (_Victor_). War is a new
+province of the state's activity, but, characteristically enough, it
+does not evolve its own _numen_, but enlarges the sphere of the
+somewhat elastic spirits already existing. So too in the internal
+organisation of the state there is felt the need of a religious
+sanction for public morality, and Iuppiter--though vaguely at
+first--takes on him the character of a deity of justice. In this
+connection he is primarily the god of oaths: we have seen how his
+sacred _silex_ was used in the oath of treaty: it is also the most
+solemn witness to the oath of the citizen. Iuppiter Lapis becomes
+specially the Dius Fidius, a cult-title which subsequently sets up for
+itself and produces a further offshoot in the abstract Fides. Finally,
+towards the end of our period the Iuppiter of the Capitol emerges
+triumphant, as it were, from his struggle with his rivals and, with the
+new title of Iuppiter Optimus Maximus,--the 'best and greatest,' that
+is, of all the Iuppiters--takes his place as the supreme deity of the
+Roman state and the personification of the greatness and majesty of
+Rome itself. To his temple hereafter the Roman youth will come to make
+his offering when he takes the dress of manhood; here the magistrates
+will do sacrifice before entering on their year of office: here the
+victorious general will pass in procession with the spoils of his
+victory: on the walls shall be suspended treaties with foreign nations
+and offerings sent by subject princes and states from all quarters of
+the world: all that Rome is to be, will be, as it were, embodied in the
+sky-spirit of the sacred oak, the god of justice and of victory in war.
+
+=Iuno.=--Iuppiter carries with him into the state-worship his female
+counterpart, Iuno, with his own characteristics, in a certain degree,
+and his own privileges. She is Lucina and Fulgura as he is Lucetius and
+Fulgur: white cows are her offerings as white steers are his: as the
+Ides are sacred to Iuppiter, so--though they are not a festival--are
+the Calends to Iuno. But from the first she shows a certain
+independence and develops on lines of her own. In the curious ceremony
+of the fixing of the Nones (the first quarter of the month), held on
+the Calends in the _curia Calabra_, she seems to appear as a
+moon-goddess: the _rex sacrorum_, after a report from a _pontifex_ as
+to the appearance of the new moon, announces the result in the formula:
+'I summon thee for five (or seven) days, hollow Iuno' (_dies te
+quinque_ [_septem_] _kalo, Iuno Covella_: hence the name _Kalendae_).
+But far more prominently--either as a female divinity herself, or, as
+some think, owing to the supposed influence of the moon on female
+life--does Iuno figure as the deity of women, and especially in
+association with childbirth and marriage. As _Lucina_ she is, as we
+have seen, the presiding deity of childbirth, and her festival on the
+1st of March, though not in the Calendars (because confined to women
+and not therefore a festival of the whole people), attained immense
+popularity under the title of the Matronalia. She has too a general
+superintendence of the rites of marriage, and the various little
+_numina_, who play so prominent a part in the ceremonies, tend to
+attach themselves to her as cult-titles. The festival of the
+servant-maids in honour of Iuno Caprotina on the 7th of July shows the
+same notion of Iuno as the women's goddess, which appears again in
+common parlance when women speak of their Iuno, just as men do of their
+Genius. Later on Iuno acquires the characteristics of majesty
+(_Regina_) and protection in war (_Curitis_, _Sospita_), partly no
+doubt as Iuppiter's counterpart, but more directly through the
+introduction of cults from neighbouring Italian towns.
+
+=Mars.=--We have seen reason to believe that in the earlier stages of
+Roman religion Mars was a _numen_ of vegetation, but though the
+Ambarvalia was duly taken over into the state-cult and attained a very
+high degree of importance, yet there can be no doubt that in the
+state-religion Mars was pre-eminently associated with war. Iuppiter
+might help at need in averting defeat and awarding victory, but it was
+with Mars that the general conduct of war rested. His sacred animal is
+the warlike wolf, his symbols the spears and the sacred shields
+(_ancilia_), which during his own month (_Martius_)--the 1st of which
+is his special festival--his priests (_Salii_) wearing the full
+war-dress (_trabea_ and _tunica picta_) 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 of the _imperium militiae_,
+and the other festivals associated with him are of a warlike character:
+the races of the war-horse (Equirria) on March 14 and February 27, and
+the great race on the Ides of October, when the winner was solemnly
+slain: the lustration of the arms at the Quinquatrus on March 19 and
+the Armilustrium of October 19--at the beginning and end of the
+campaigning season: and the lustration of the war-trumpets on the 23rd
+of March and the 23rd of May. But above all in honour of Mars is held
+the great quinquennial _lustrum_ associated with the census, when the
+people are drawn up in military array around his altar in the Campus
+Martius and the solemn offering of the _suovetaurilia_ (is this a faint
+relic of his agricultural character?) after being carried three times
+round the gathered host, is offered on his altar in prayer for the
+military future of the state. Hardly any god in the state-cult has his
+character so clearly marked, and we may regard Mars as a deity who,
+taking on new functions to suit the needs of the times, almost entirely
+lost the traces of his original nature.
+
+=Quirinus.=--Iuppiter and Mars then became the great state-deities of
+the developed community and to them is added, as the contribution of
+the Colline settlement, their own particular deity, Quirinus. He, like
+them, has his own _flamen_; like Mars he has his _Salii_, and his
+festival finds its place in the Calendars on February the 17th. But of
+his ritual and character we know practically nothing: the ritual was
+obscured because his festival coincided with the much more popular
+festival of the _curiae_, the _stultorum feriae_: of his character, we
+can only conjecture that he was to the Colline settlement what Mars was
+to the Palatine, whereas later after the complete amalgamation he seems
+to have been distinguished from Mars as representing 'armed peace'
+rather than war--an idea which is borne out by the associations of the
+closely allied word _Quirites_. Be that as it may, we have in Iuppiter,
+Mars, and Quirinus the great state-triad of the synoecismus, who held
+their own until at the beginning of the next epoch they were supplanted
+by the new Etruscan triad of the Capitol, Iuppiter, Iuno and Minerva.
+
+=2. Organisation.=--It might perhaps be thought that the organisation
+of religion is a matter remote from its spirit, and is not therefore a
+suitable subject for discussion, where the object is rather to bring
+out underlying motives and ideas: but in dealing with the Roman
+religion, where ceremonial and legal precision were so prominent, it
+would be even misleading to omit some reference to the very
+characteristic manner in which the state, taking over the rather
+chaotic elements of the agricultural worship, organised them into
+something like a consistent whole. Its most complete achievement in
+this direction was without doubt the regulation of the religious year.
+We have spoken many times of the Calendars (_Fasti_): it is necessary
+now to obtain some clearer notion of what they were. In Rome itself and
+various Italian towns have been found some thirty inscriptions, one
+almost complete (Maffeiani), the others more or less fragmentary,
+giving the tables of the months and marking precisely the character and
+occurrences of every day in the year. We may take as a specimen the
+latter half of the month of August from the Fasti Maffeiani.
+
+A. EID. [NP].       |   C. VOLC. [NP].
+B. F.               |   D. C.
+C. C.               |   E. OPIC. [NP].
+D. C.               |   F. C.
+E. PORT. [NP].      |   G. VOLT. [NP].
+F. C.               |   H. [NP].
+G. VIN. F.P.        |   A. F.
+H. C.               |   B. F.
+A. CONS. [NP].      |   C. C.
+B. EN.              |
+
+In the first column are given the nundinal letters of the days, showing
+their position in the eight days' 'week' from one market day
+(_nundinae_) to the next. In the second column are noted first the
+great divisions of the month, Calends, Nones, and Ides, and then the
+religious character of each individual day is indicated by certain
+signs, whose explanations throw a good deal of light on Roman religions
+notions. It will be seen that the letters of most frequent occurrence
+are F, C, and N (or in our extract [NP]): these correspond to the broad
+distinction between days profane and sacred. F (_fastus_) denotes a
+day on which the business of the state may be performed, on which the
+praetor may say (_fari_) the three words, _do_, _dico_, _addico_, which
+summed up the decisions of the Roman law: C (_comitialis_) marks a day
+on which the legislative assemblies (_comitia_) may be held: it is by
+implication F as well. N (_nefastus_), on the other hand, denotes the
+sacred day, consecrated to the worship of the gods, on which therefore
+state-business may not be transacted: similarly the very mysterious and
+much disputed sign [NP], whether it differs in precise signification
+from N or not, certainly marks a day of sacred character. EN, which
+occurs once in this extract (from _endotercisus_, the old Latin form of
+_intercisus_) signifies a 'split' day (_dies fissus_), the beginning
+and end of which were sacred, while the middle period was free for
+business. In the second column also (in large letters in some of the
+other Calendars) are named the _feriae publicae_, the great annual
+state-festivals, fixed for one particular day (_feriae stativae_):
+such, in this case, are the Portunalia, Vinalia, and Consualia.
+
+These _fasti_ were exhibited in the Forum and on the walls of temples,
+and the conscientious Roman could have no possible difficulty in
+finding out when he might lawfully transact his business and what
+festivals the state was observing: of the 355 days of the old Calendar
+11 were _fissi_, 235 were _fasti_ (192 _comitiales_), and 109
+_nefasti_. We may remark as curious features in the Calendar, denoting
+rigid adherence to principle, that with one exception, the Poplifugia
+of July 5, no festival ever occurs before the Nones, that with two
+exceptions, the Regifugium of February 24 and the Equirria of the 14th
+of March, no festival falls on an even day of the month, and that there
+is a marked avoidance of successive feast-days: even the three days of
+the Lemuria allow an interval of a day between each.
+
+In the matter of ritual and observance, state-organisation--and its
+absence--are alike significant. Of the general exactness of ritual and
+its specific variations on different occasions a fair notion has
+perhaps already been gathered; it may help to fill out that notion if
+we can put together a sketch of the normal process of a sacrifice to
+the gods. Before the sacrifice began the animal to be offered was
+selected and tested: if it had any blemish or showed any reluctance, it
+was rejected. If it were whole and willing, it was bound with fillets
+(_infulae_) around its forehead, and long ribbons (_vittae_) depending
+from them. It was then brought to the altar (_ara_) by the side of
+which stood a portable brazier (_foculus_). The celebrant--magistrate
+or priest--next approached dressed in the _toga_, girt about him in a
+peculiar manner (_cinctus Gabinus_), and carried up at the back so as
+to form a hood (_velato capite_): the herald proclaimed silence, and
+the flute-player began to play his instrument. The first part of the
+offering was then made by the pouring of wine and scattering of incense
+on the brazier: it was followed by the ceremonial slaughter
+(_immolatio_) of the animal. The celebrant sprinkled the victim with
+wine and salted cake, and made a symbolic gesture with the knife. The
+victim was then taken aside by the attendants (_victimarii_), and
+actually slaughtered by them: from it they extracted the sacred parts
+(_exta_), liver, heart, gall, lungs, and midriff, and after inspecting
+them to see that they had no abnormality--but not in the earlier period
+for purposes of augury--wrapped them in pieces of flesh (_augmenta_),
+cooked them, and brought them back to the celebrant, who laid them as
+an offering upon the altar, where they were burnt. The rest of the
+flesh (_viscera_) was divided as a sacred meal between the celebrant
+and his friends--or in a state-offering among the priests, and
+probably the magistrate. We cannot refrain from remarking here the
+extreme precision of ritual, the scrupulous care with which the human
+side of the contract was fulfilled and the--almost legal--division of
+the victim between gods and men. But though the ritual was so exact,
+one must not be led away by modern analogies to suppose that there was
+ever anything like a rigid constraint on the private citizen for the
+observance of festivals. The state-festivals were in the strictest
+sense offerings made to the gods by the representative magistrates or
+priests, and if they were present, all was done that was required: the
+whole people had been, by a legal fiction, present in their persons. No
+doubt the private citizen would often attend in large numbers at the
+celebrations, especially at the more popular festivals, but from some,
+such as the Vestalia, he was actually excluded. On the other hand,
+though it did not demand presence, the state did--at least
+theoretically--demand the observance of the feast-day by private
+individuals. The root-notion of _feriae_ was a day set apart for the
+worship of the gods, and on it therefore the citizen ought to do 'no
+manner of work.' The state observed this condition fully in the
+closing of law-courts and the absence of legislative assemblies, and
+in theory too the private citizen must refrain from any act which was
+not concerned with the worship of the gods, or rendered absolutely
+necessary, as, for instance, if 'his ox or his ass should fall into a
+pit.' But it is characteristic of Rome that the state did not seek for
+offence, but only punished it if accidentally seen: on a feast-day the
+_rex sacrorum_ and the _flamines_ might not see work being done; they
+therefore sent on a herald in advance to announce their presence, and
+an actual conviction involved a money-fine. Perhaps more scrupulously
+than the _feriae_ were observed the _dies religiosi_, days of
+'abstinence,' on which certain acts, such as marriage, the beginning of
+any new piece of work, or the offering of sacrifice to the gods, were
+forbidden: such, in the oldest period, were the days on which the
+_mundus_ was open, or the temple of Vesta received the matrons, the
+days when the Salii carried the _ancilia_ in procession, and the
+periods of the two festivals of the dead in February and May; but for
+eluding their observance too devices were not unknown.
+
+In the state-organisation of religion, then, we seem to see just the
+same features from which we started: as a basis the legal conception
+of the relation of god to man, as a result the extreme care and
+precision in times and ceremonials, as a corollary in the state the
+idea of legal representation and the consequent looseness of hold on
+the action of the individual.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+AUGURIES AND AUSPICES
+
+
+So far we have been considering the regular relations of man and god,
+seen in recurring or special offerings, in vows and in acts of
+purification and lustration--all based on the contract-notion, all
+endeavours on man's part to fulfil his bounden duty, that the gods may
+be constrained in turn to theirs. But so strong was the feeling of
+divine presence and influence in the Roman's mind, that he was not
+content with doing his best by these regular means to secure the favour
+of the gods, but wished before undertaking any business of importance
+to be able to assure himself of their approval. His practical
+common-sense evolved, as it were, a complete 'code'--in the flight and
+song of birds, in the direction of the lightning-flash, in the conduct
+of men and animals--by which he believed that the gods communicated to
+him their intentions: sometimes these indications (_auspicia_) might be
+vouchsafed by the gods unasked (_oblativa_), sometimes they would be
+given in answer to request (_impetrativa_): but as to their meaning,
+there could be no doubt, provided they were interpreted by one skilled
+in the lore and tradition of augury. We may observe here, though our
+evidence is much slighter, the same three stages which we have noticed
+in the sacrificial worship, the homely domestic auspices, the auguries
+of the agricultural life, and the organised system in the state.
+
+In the household the use of auspices was in origin at any rate very
+general indeed: 'Nothing,' Cicero tells us, 'of importance used to be
+undertaken unless with the sanction of the auspices' (_auspicato_). The
+right of interrogating the will of the gods, rested, as one might
+expect, with the master of the house, assisted no doubt by the private
+augur as the repository of lore and the interpreter of what the master
+saw. But of the details of domestic augury we know but little. Cato in
+one passage insists on the extreme importance of silence for the
+purpose, and Festus suggests that this was secured by the master of the
+house rising in the depths of the night to inspect the heavens. We have
+seen already that the taking of the auspices played an important part
+in the ceremonies of betrothal and marriage, and that the indications
+of the divine will might be very varied we may gather from a story in
+Cicero. An aunt wishing to take the auspices for her niece's betrothal,
+conducted her into an open consecrated space (_sacellum_) and sat down
+on the stool of augury (_sella_) with her niece standing at her side.
+After 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
+auspicious sign: the aunt died, the niece married the widower and so
+became mistress of the house.
+
+Of augury in agricultural life we have some indication in the annual
+observance of the 'spring augury' (_augurium verniserum_) and the
+midsummer ceremony of the _augurium canarium_, which seems to have been
+a combination of the offering of a red dog (possibly to avert mildew)
+and an augury for the success of the crops. To the rustic stratum
+possibly belongs also the _augurium salutis populi_, though later it
+was a yearly act celebrated whenever the Roman army was not at war and
+so became connected with the shutting of the temple of Ianus.
+
+The state greatly developed and organised the whole system of auguries
+and auspices. The college of augurs ranked second only in importance to
+the pontifical college, and their duties with regard to both augury and
+auspice are sufficiently clear. Like the _pontifices_ in relation to
+cult, they are the storehouse of all tradition, and to them appeal may
+be made in all cases of doubt both public and private: they were
+jealous of their secrets and in later times their mutual consciousness
+of deception became proverbial. The right of augury--in origin simply
+the inspection of the heavens--was theirs alone, and it was exercised
+particularly on the annual occasions mentioned and at the installation
+of priests, of which we get a typical instance in Livy's account of the
+consecration of Numa.
+
+The auspices on the other hand--in origin 'signs from birds' (_avis_,
+_spicere_)--were the province of the magistrate about to undertake some
+definite action on behalf of the state whether at home or on the field
+of battle. Here the augur's functions were merely preparatory and
+advisory. It was his duty to prepare the _templum_, the spot from which
+the auspices are to be taken--always a square space, with boundaries
+unbroken except at the entrance, not surrounded by wall or necessarily
+by line, but clearly indicated (_effatus_) by the augur, and marked off
+(_liberatus_) from the surroundings: in the comitia and other places in
+Rome there were permanent _templa_, but elsewhere they must be
+specially made. The magistrate then enters the _templum_ and observes
+the signs (_spectio_): if there is any doubt as to interpretation--and
+seeing the immense complication of the traditions (_disciplina_), this
+must often have been the case--the augur is referred to as interpreter.
+The signs demanded (_impetrativa_) were originally always connected
+with the appearance, song or flight of birds--higher or lower, from
+left to right or 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 (_pulli_): the best
+sign being obtained if, in their eagerness to feed, they let fall some
+of the grain from their beaks (_tripudium solistimum_)--a result not
+difficult to secure by previous treatment and a careful selection of
+the kind of grain supplied to them. But besides this deliberate 'asking
+for signs,' public business might at any moment be interrupted if the
+gods voluntarily sent an indication of disapproval (_oblativa_): the
+augurs then had always to be at hand to advise the magistrates whether
+notice should be taken of such signs, and, if so, what was their
+signification, and they even seem to have had certain rights of
+reporting themselves (_nuntiatio_) the occurrence of adverse ones. The
+sign of most usual occurrence would be lightning--sometimes such an
+unexpected event as the seizure of a member of the assembly with
+epilepsy (_morbus comitialis_)--and we know to what lengths political
+obstructionists went in later times in the observation of fictitious
+signs, or even the prevention of business by the mere announcement of
+their intention to see an unfavourable omen (_servare de caelo_). The
+complications and ramifications of the augur's art are infinite, but
+the main idea should by now be plain, and it must be remembered that
+the kindred art of the soothsayer (_haruspex_), oracles, and the
+interpretation of fate by the drawing of lots (_sortes_) are all later
+foreign introductions: auspice and augury are the only genuine Roman
+methods for interpreting the will of the gods.
+
+Here then in household, fields, and state, we have a second type of
+relation to the gods, running parallel to the ordinary practice of
+sacrifice and prayer, distinct yet not fundamentally different. As it
+is man's function to propitiate the higher spirits and prevent, if
+possible, the wrecking of his plans by their opposition, so it is his
+business, if he can, to find out their intentions before he engages on
+any serious undertaking. As in the _ius sacrum_ his legal mind leads
+him to assume that the deities accept the responsibility of the
+contract, when his own part is fulfilled, so here, like a practical man
+of business, he assumes their construction of a code of communication,
+which he has learned to interpret. In its origin it is a notion common
+to many primitive religions, but in its elaboration it is peculiarly
+and distinctively Italian, and, as we know it, Roman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+RELIGION AND MORALITY--CONCLUSION
+
+
+It might be said that a religion--the expression of man's relation to
+the unseen--has not necessarily any connection with morality--man's
+action in himself and towards his neighbours: that an individual--or
+even a nation--might perfectly fulfil the duties imposed by the 'powers
+above,' without being influenced in conduct and character. Such a view
+might seem to find an apt illustration in the religion of Rome: the
+ceremonial _pietas_ towards the gods appears to have little to do with
+the making of man or nation. But in the history of the world the test
+of religions must be their effect on the character of those who
+believed in them: religion is no doubt itself an outcome of character,
+but it reacts upon it, and must either strengthen or weaken. We are not
+therefore justified in dismissing the 'Religion of Numa' without
+inquiry as to its relation to morality, for on our answer to that
+question must largely depend our judgment as to its value.
+
+We are of course in a peculiarly difficult position to grapple with
+this problem through lack of contemporary evidence. The Rome we know,
+in the epochs when we can fairly judge of character and morality, was
+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 may remember in the first place that even then,
+especially in the household and in the country, the old religion had
+probably a much firmer hold than one might imagine from literary
+evidence, in the second that national character is not the growth of a
+day, so that we may safely refer permanent characteristics to the
+period when the old religion held its own.
+
+It may be admitted at once that the direct influence on morality was
+very small indeed. There was no table of commandments backed by the
+religious sanction: the sense of 'sin,' except through breach of
+ritual, was practically unknown. It is true that in the very early
+_leges regiae_ some notion of this kind is seen--a significant glimpse
+of what the original relation may have been: it is there ordained that
+the patron who betrayed his client, or the client who deceived his
+patron, shall be condemned to Iuppiter; the parricide to the spirits of
+his dead ancestors, the husband who sells his wife to the gods of the
+underworld, the man who removes his neighbour's landmark to Terminus,
+the stealer of corn to Ceres. All these persons shall be _sacri_: they
+have offended against the gods and the gods will see to their
+punishment. But these are old-world notions which soon passed into the
+background and the state took over the punishment of such offenders in
+the ordinary course of law. Nor again in the prayers of men to gods is
+there a trace of a petition for moral blessings: the magistrate prays
+for the success and prosperity of the state, the farmer for the
+fertility of his crops and herds, even the private individual, who
+suspends his votive-tablet in the temple, pays his due for health or
+commercial success vouchsafed to himself or his relations. 'Men call
+Iuppiter greatest and best,' says Cicero, 'because he makes us not just
+or temperate or wise, but sound and healthy and rich and wealthy.'
+Still less, until we come to the moralists of the Empire, is there any
+sense of that immediate and personal relation of the individual to a
+higher being, which is really in religion, far more than commandments
+and ordinances, the mainspring and safeguard of morality: even the
+conception of the Genius, the 'nearest' perhaps of all unseen powers,
+had nothing of this feeling in it, and it may be significant that, just
+because of his nearness to man, the Genius never quite attained to
+god-head. As far as direct relation is concerned, religion and morality
+were to the Roman two independent spheres with a very small point of
+contact.
+
+Nor even in its indirect influence does the formal observance of the
+Roman worship seem likely at first sight to have done much for personal
+or national morality. Based upon fear, stereotyped in the form of a
+legal relationship, _religio_--'the bounden obligation'--made, no
+doubt, for a kind of conscientiousness in its adherents, but a cold
+conscientiousness, devoid of emotion and incapable of expanding itself
+to include other spheres or prompt to a similar scrupulousness in other
+relations. The rigid and constant distinction of sacred and profane
+would incline the Roman to fulfil the routine of his religious duty
+and then turn, almost with a sigh of relief, to the occupations of
+normal life, carrying with him nothing more than the sense of a burden
+laid aside and a pledge of external prosperity. Even the religious act
+itself might be without moral significance: as we have seen, the
+worshipper might be wholly ignorant of the character, even the name of
+the deity he worshipped, and in any case the motive of his action was
+naught, the act itself everything. Nor again had the Roman religion any
+trace of that powerful incentive to morality, a doctrine of rewards and
+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 on himself 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 a tiresome ritual formalism, almost wholly lacking in
+ethical value. And yet it did not present itself in this light to the
+Romans themselves. Cicero, sceptic as he was, could speak of it as the
+cause of Rome's greatness; Augustus, the practical politician, could
+believe that its revival was an essential condition for the
+renaissance of the Roman character. Have we, in our brief examination
+of its 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 in the strengthening of character. The private citizen, who
+conscientiously day by day had carried out the worship of his household
+gods and month by month observed the sacred abstinence from work on the
+days of festival, was certainly not less fitted to take his place as a
+member of a strenuous and well-organised community, or to serve
+obediently and quietly in the army on campaign. Even the magistrate in
+the execution of his religious duties must have acquired an exactness
+and method, which would not be valueless in the conduct of public
+business. And when we pass to the origin of this formalism--the legal
+relation--the connection with the Roman character becomes at once more
+obvious. The 'lawgivers of the world,' who developed constitution and
+code to a systematised whole such as antiquity had not dreamed of
+before, imported, we may say if we like, their legal notions into the
+sphere of religion: but we must not forget the other side of the
+question. The permanence and success of this greater contract with
+higher powers--the feeling that the gods did regard and reward exact
+fulfilment of duty--cannot have been without re-action on the relations
+of the life of the community: it was, as it were, a higher sanction to
+the legal point of view: a pledge that the relations of citizen and
+state too were rightly conceived. 'There is,' says Cicero, speaking of
+the death of Clodius in the language of a later age, 'there is a divine
+power which inspired that criminal to his own ruin: it was not by
+chance that he expired before the shrine of the Bona Dea, whose rites
+he had violated': the divine justice is the sanction of the human law.
+Even in the fear, from which all ultimately sprang, there was a
+training in self-repression and self-subordination, which in a more
+civilised age must result in a valuable respect and obedience. The
+descendants of those who had made religion out of an attempt to appease
+the hostile _numina_, feeling themselves not indeed on more familiar
+terms with their 'unknown gods,' but only perhaps a little more
+confident of their own strength, were not likely to be wanting in a
+disciplined sense of dependence and an appreciation of the value of
+respect for authority, which alone can give stability to a
+constitution. If fear with the Romans was not the beginning of
+theological wisdom, it was yet an important contribution to the
+character of a disciplined state.
+
+But, as I have hinted in the course of this sketch more than once, the
+answer to this problem, as well as the key to the general understanding
+of the Roman religion, is to be found in the worship of 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, marriage,
+attended by their religious sanction, but in the ordinary course of the
+daily round the divine presence and the dependence of man are
+continually emphasised. The gods are given their portion of the family
+meal, the sanctified dead are recalled to take their share of the
+family blessings. The result was not merely an approach--collectively,
+not individually--to that sense of the nearness of the unseen, which
+has so great an effect on the actions of the living, but a very strong
+bond of family union which lay at the root of the life of the state.
+It would be difficult to find a clearer expression of the notion than
+in the fact that the same word _pietas_, which expresses the due
+fulfilment of man's duty to god, is also the ideal of the relations of
+the members of a household: filial piety was, in fact, but another
+aspect of that rightness of relation, which reveals itself in the
+worship of the gods. No doubt that, in the city-life of later periods,
+this ideal broke down on both sides: household worship was neglected
+and family life became less dutiful. But it was still, especially in
+the country, the true backbone of Roman society, and no one can read
+the opening odes of Horace's third book without feeling the strength of
+Augustus' appeal to it.
+
+And if we translate this, as we have learned to do, into terms of the
+state, we can get some idea of what the Romans meant by their debt to
+their religion. As the household was bound together by the tie of
+common worship, as in the intermediate stage the clan, severed
+politically and socially, yet felt itself reunited in the gentile
+rites, so too the state was welded into a whole by the regularly
+recurring annual festivals and the assurance of the divine sanction on
+its undertakings. It might be that in the course of time these rites
+lost their meaning and the community no longer by personal presence
+expressed its service to the gods, but the cult stood there still, as
+the type of Rome's union to the higher powers and a guarantee of their
+assistance against all foes: the religion of Rome was, as it has been
+said, the sanctification of patriotism--the Roman citizen's highest
+moral ideal. It has been remarked, perhaps with partial truth, that the
+religion of the _AEneid_--in many ways a summary of Roman thought and
+feeling--is the belief in the _fata Romae_ and their fulfilment. The
+very impersonality of this conception makes it a good picture of what
+religion was in the Roman state. It was not, as with the Jews, a strong
+conviction of the rightness of their own belief and a certainty that
+their divine protectors must triumph over those of other nations, but a
+feeling of the constant presence of some spirits, who, 'if haply they
+might find them,' would, on the payment of their due, bear their part
+in the great progress of right and justice and empire on which Rome
+must march to her victory. It was the duty of the citizen, with this
+conception of his city before his eyes, to see to it that the state's
+part in the contract was fulfilled. From his ancestors had been
+inherited the tradition, which told him the when, where, and how, and
+in the preservation of that tradition and its due performance consisted
+at once Rome's duty and her glory. 'If we wish,' says Cicero, 'to
+compare ourselves with other nations, we may be found in other respects
+equal or even inferior; in religion, that is in the worship of the
+gods, we are far superior.' The religion of Rome may not have advanced
+the theology or the ethics of the world, but it made and held together
+a nation.
+
+
+
+
+WORKS BEARING ON THE EARLY RELIGION OF ROME
+
+
+_The Golden Bough_, (2nd Ed.). J.G. FRAZER.
+
+_History of Rome_, BOOK I. CHAP XII. TH. MOMMSEN.
+
+_Die Religion der Roemer._ E. AUST.
+
+_Religion und Kultus der Roemer._ G. WISSOWA.
+
+_Il Culto Privato di Roma Antica_, PART I. A. DE-MARCHI.
+
+_The Roman Festivals._ W. WARDE FOWLER.
+
+_The Religion of Numa._ J.B. CARTER.
+
+
+  Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty
+  at the Edinburgh University Press
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
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