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diff --git a/23349.txt b/23349.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1be22f9 --- /dev/null +++ b/23349.txt @@ -0,0 +1,21777 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Religious Experience of the Roman People, by +W. Warde Fowler + +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 Religious Experience of the Roman People + From the Earliest Times to the Age of Augustus + +Author: W. Warde Fowler + +Release Date: November 6, 2007 [EBook #23349] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE *** + + + + +Produced by Turgut Dincer, Ted Garvin and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +THE +RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE +OF THE +ROMAN PEOPLE + +FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE +AGE OF AUGUSTUS + +THE GIFFORD LECTURES FOR 1909-10 +DELIVERED IN EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY + +BY + +W. WARDE FOWLER, M.A. + +FELLOW AND LATE SUB-RECTOR OF LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD +HON. D.LITT. UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER +AUTHOR OF 'THE ROMAN FESTIVALS OF THE PERIOD OF THE REPUBLIC,' ETC. + + +"Sanctos ausus recludere fontes" + + +MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED +ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON +1911 + +TO +PROFESSOR W.R. HARDIE +AND +MY MANY OTHER KIND FRIENDS AND FRIENDLY HEARERS +IN EDINBURGH + + + + +PREFACE + + +Lord Gifford in founding his lectureship directed that the lectures +should be public and popular, _i.e._ not restricted to members of a +University. Accordingly in lecturing I endeavoured to make myself +intelligible to a general audience by avoiding much technical discussion +and controversial matter, and by keeping to the plan of describing in +outline the development and decay of the religion of the Roman +City-state. And on the whole I have thought it better to keep to this +principle in publishing the lectures; they are printed for the most part +much as they were delivered, and without footnotes, but at the end of +each lecture students of the subject will find the notes referred to by +the numbers in the text, containing such further information or +discussion as has seemed desirable. My model in this method has been the +admirable lectures of Prof. Cumont on "les Religions Orientales dans le +Paganisme Romain." + +I wish to make two remarks about the subject-matter of the lectures. +First, the idea running through them is that the primitive religious (or +magico-religious) instinct, which was the germ of the religion of the +historical Romans, was gradually atrophied by over-elaboration of +ritual, but showed itself again in strange forms from the period of the +Punic wars onwards. For this religious instinct I have used the Latin +word _religio_, as I have explained in the _Transactions of the Third +International Congress for the History of Religions_, vol. ii. p. 169 +foll. I am, however, well aware that some scholars take a different view +of the original meaning of this famous word, which has been much +discussed since I formed my plan of lecturing. But I do not think that +those who differ from me on this point will find that my general +argument is seriously affected one way or another by my use of the word. + +Secondly, while I have been at work on the lectures, the idea seems to +have been slowly gaining ground that the patrician religion of the early +City-state, which became so highly formalised, so clean and austere, and +eventually so political, was really the religion of an invading race, +like that of the Achaeans in Greece, engrafted on the religion of a +primitive and less civilised population. I have not definitely adopted +this idea; but I am inclined to think that a good deal of what I have +said in the earlier lectures may be found to support it. Once only, in +Lecture XVII., I have used it myself to support a hypothesis there +advanced. + +I have retained the familiar English spelling of certain divine names, +_e.g._ Jupiter (instead of Iuppiter), as less startling to British +readers. + +I wish to express my very deep obligations to the works of Prof. Wissowa +and Dr. J. G. Frazer, and also to Mr. R. R. Marett, who gave me useful +personal help in my second and third lectures. From Prof. Wissowa and +Dr. Frazer I have had the misfortune to differ on one or two points; but +"difference of opinion is the salt of life," as a great scholar said to +me not long ago. In reading the proofs I have had much kind and valuable +help from my Oxford friends Mr. Cyril Bailey and Mr. A. S. L. +Farquharson, who have read certain parts of the work, and to whose +suggestions I am greatly indebted. The whole has been read through by my +old pupil Mr. Hugh Parr, now of Clifton College, to whom my best thanks +are due for his timely discovery of many misprints and awkward +expressions. The loyalty and goodwill of my old Oxford pupils never seem +to fail me. + + +W. W. F. + +Kingham, Oxon, +_3rd March 1911_. + + + + CONTENTS + + + + LECTURE I + + + INTRODUCTORY + PAGE + + Accounts of the Roman religion in recent standard works; + a hard and highly formalised system. Its interest lies + partly in this fact. How did it come to be so? This the + main question of the first epoch of Roman religious + experience. Roman religion and Roman law compared. Roman + religion a technical subject. What we mean by religion. + A useful definition applied to the plan of Lectures + I.-X.; including (1) survivals of primitive or + quasi-magical religion; (2) the religion of the + agricultural family; (3) that of the City-state, in its + simplest form, and in its first period of expansion. + Difficulties of the subject; present position of + knowledge and criticism. Help obtainable from (1) + archaeology, (2) anthropology 1-23 + + + LECTURE II + + ON THE THRESHOLD OF RELIGION: SURVIVALS + + Survivals at Rome of previous eras of quasi-religious + experience. Totemism not discernible. Taboo, and the + means adopted of escaping from it; both survived at Rome + into an age of real religion. Examples: impurity (or + holiness) of new-born infants; of a corpse; of women in + certain worships; of strangers; of criminals. Almost + complete absence of blood-taboo. Iron. Strange taboos on + the priest of Jupiter and his wife. Holy or tabooed + places; holy or tabooed days; the word _religiosus_ as + applied to both of these 24-46 + + + + LECTURE III + + ON THE THRESHOLD OF RELIGION: MAGIC + + Magic; distinction between magic and religion. Religious + authorities seek to exclude magic, and did so at Rome. + Few survivals of magic in the State religion. The + _aquaelicium_. Vestals and runaway slaves. The magical + whipping at the Lupercalia. The throwing of puppets from + the _pons sublicius_. Magical processes surviving in + religious ritual with their meaning lost. Private magic: + _excantatio_ in the XII. Tables; other spells or + _carmina_. Amulets: the _bulla_; _oscilla_ 47-67 + + + LECTURE IV + + THE RELIGION OF THE FAMILY + + Continuity of the religion of the Latin agricultural + family. What the family was; its relation to the _gens_. + The _familia_ as settled on the land, an economic unit, + embodied in a _pagus_. The house as the religious centre + of the _familia_; its holy places. Vesta, Penates, + Genius, and the spirit of the doorway. The _Lar + familiaris_ on the land. Festival of the Lar belongs to + the religion of the _pagus_: other festivals of the + _pagus_. _Religio terminorum._ Religion of the + household: marriage, childbirth, burial and cult of the + dead 68-91 + + + LECTURE V + + THE CALENDAR OF NUMA + + Beginnings of the City-state: the _oppidum_. The + earliest historical Rome, the city of the four regions; + to this belongs the surviving religious calendar. This + calendar described; the basis of our knowledge of early + Roman religion. It expresses a life agricultural, + political, and military. Days of gods distinguished from + days of man. Agricultural life the real basis of the + calendar; gradual effacement of it. Results of a fixed + routine in calendar; discipline, religious confidence. + Exclusion from it of the barbarous and grotesque. + Decency and order under an organising priestly authority + 92-113 + + LECTURE VI + + THE DIVINE OBJECTS OF WORSHIP + + Sources of knowledge about Roman deities. What did the + Romans themselves know about them? No personal deity in + the religion of the family. Those of the City-state are + _numina_, marking a transition from animism to + polytheism. Meaning of _numen_. Importance of names, + which are chiefly adjectival, marking functional + activity. Tellus an exception. Importance of priests in + development of _dei_. The four great Roman gods and + their priests: Janus, Jupiter, Mars, Quirinus. + Characteristics of each of these in earliest Rome. Juno + and the difficulties she presents. Vesta 114-144 + + + LECTURE VII + + THE DEITIES OF THE EARLIEST RELIGION: + GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS + + No temples in the earliest Rome; meaning of _fanum, ara, + lucus, sacellum_. No images of gods in these places, + until end of regal period. Thus deities not conceived as + persons. Though masculine and feminine they were not + married pairs; Dr. Frazer's opinion on this point. + Examination of his evidence derived from the _libri + sacerdotum_; meaning of Nerio Martis. Such combinations + of names suggest forms or manifestations of a deity's + activity, not likely to grow into personal deities + without Greek help. Meaning of _pater_ and _mater_ + applied to deities; procreation not indicated by them. + The deities of the _Indigitamenta_; priestly inventions + of a later age. Usener's theory of Sondergoetter + criticised so far as it applies to Rome 145-168 + + + LECTURE VIII + + RITUAL OF THE IUS DIVINUM + + Main object of _ius divinum_ to keep up the _pax + deorum_; meaning of _pax_ in this phrase. Means towards + the maintenance of the _pax_: sacrifice and prayer, + fulfilment of vows, lustratio, divination. Meaning of + _sacrificium_. Little trace of sacramental sacrifice. + Typical sacrifice of _ius divinum_: both priest and + victim must be acceptable to the deity; means taken to + secure this. Ritual of slaughter: examination and + _porrectio_ of entrails. Prayer; the phrase _Macte esto_ + and its importance in explaining Roman sacrifice. + Magical survivals in Roman and Italian prayers; yet they + are essentially religious 169-199 + + + LECTURE IX + + RITUAL (continued) + + _Vota_ (vows) have suggested the idea that Roman worship + was bargaining. Examination of private vows, which do + not prove this; of public vows, which in some degree do + so. Moral elements in both these. Other forms of vow: + _evocatio_ and _devotio_. + + _Lustratio_: meaning of _lustrare_ in successive stages + of Roman experience. _Lustratio_ of the farm and + _pagus_; of the city; of the people (at Rome and + Iguvium); of the army; of the arms and trumpets of the + army: meaning of _lustratio_ in these last cases, both + before and after a campaign 200-222 + + + LECTURE X + + THE FIRST ARRIVAL OF NEW CULTS IN ROME + + Recapitulation of foregoing lectures. Weak point of the + organised State religion: it discouraged individual + development. Its moral influence mainly a disciplinary + one; and it hypnotised the religious instinct. + + Growth of a new population at end of regal period, also + of trade and industry. New deities from abroad represent + these changes: Hercules of Ara Maxima; Castor and + Pollux; Minerva. Diana of the Aventine reflects a new + relation with Latium. Question as to the real religious + influence of these deities. The Capitoline temple of + Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, of Etruscan origin. Meaning + of cult-titles Optimus Maximus, and significance of this + great Jupiter in Roman religious experience 223-247 + + + LECTURE XI + + CONTACT OF THE OLD AND NEW IN RELIGION + + Plan of this and following lectures. The formalised + Roman religion meets with perils, material and moral, + and ultimately proves inadequate. Subject of this + lecture, the introduction of Greek deities and rites; + but first a proof that the Romans were a really + religious people; evidence from literature, from + worship, from the practice of public life, and from + Latin religious vocabulary. + + Temple of Ceres, Liber, Libera (Demeter, Dionysus, + Persephone); its importance for the date of Sibylline + influence at Rome. Nature of this influence; how and + when it reached Rome. The keepers of the "Sibylline + books"; new cults introduced by them. New rites: + lectisternia and supplicationes, their meaning and + historical importance 248-269 + + + LECTURE XII + + THE PONTIFICES AND THE SECULARISATION OF RELIGION + + Historical facts about the Pontifices in this period; a + powerful exclusive "collegium" taking charge of the _ius + divinum_. The legal side of their work; they + administered the oldest rules of law, which belonged to + that _ius_. New ideas of law after Etruscan period; + increasing social complexity and its effect on legal + matters; result, publication of rules of law, civil and + religious, in XII. Tables, and abolition of legal + monopoly of Pontifices. But they keep control of (1) + procedure, (2) interpretation, till end of fourth + century B.C. Publication of Fasti and _Legis actiones_; + the college opened to Plebeians. Work of Pontifices in + third century: (1) admission of new deities, (2) + compilation of annals, (3) collection of religious + formulae. General result; formalisation of religion; and + secularisation of pontifical influence 270-291 + + + LECTURE XIII + + THE AUGURS AND THE ART OF DIVINATION + + Divination a universal practice: its relation to magic. + Want of a comprehensive treatment of it. Its object at + Rome: to assure oneself of the _pax deorum_; but it was + the most futile method used. Private divination; limited + and discouraged by the State, except in the form of + family _auspicia_. Public divination; _auspicia_ needed + in all State operations; close connection with + _imperium_. The augurs were skilled advisers of the + magistrates, but could not themselves take the auspices. + Probable result of this: Rome escaped subjection to a + hierarchy. Augurs and _auspicia_ become politically + important, but cease to belong to religion. State + divination a clog on political progress. Sinister + influence on Rome of Etruscan divination; history of the + _haruspices_ 292-313 + + + LECTURE XIV + + THE HANNIBALIC WAR + + Tendency towards contempt of religious forms in third + century B.C.; disappears during this war. _Religio_ in + the old sense takes its place, _i.e._ fear and anxiety. + This takes the form of reporting _prodigia_; account of + these in 218 B.C., and of the prescriptions supplied by + Sibylline books. Fresh outbreak of _religio_ after + battle of Trasimene; _lectisternium_ of 216, without + distinction of Greek and Roman deities; importance of + this. Religious panic after battle of Cannae; + extraordinary religious measures, including human + sacrifice. Embassy to Delphi and its result; symptoms of + renewed confidence. But fresh and alarming outbreak in + 213; met with remarkable skill. Institution of Apolline + games. Summary of religious history in last years of the + war; gratitude to the gods after battle of Metaurus. + Arrival of the Great Mother of Phrygia at Rome. Hannibal + leaves Italy 314-334 + + + LECTURE XV + + AFTER THE HANNIBALIC WAR + + Religion used to support Senatorial policy in declaring + war (1) with Philip of Macedon, (2) with Antiochus of + Syria; but this is not the old religion. Use of + _prodigia_ and Sibylline oracles to secure political and + personal objects; mischief caused in this way. Growth of + individualism; rebellion of the individual against the + _ius divinum_. Examples of this from the history of the + priesthoods; strange story of a Flamen Dialis. The + story of the introduction of Bacchic rites in 186 B.C.; + interference of the Senate and Magistrates, and + significance of this. Strange attempt to propagate + Pythagoreanism; this also dealt with by the government. + Influence of Ennius and Plautus, and of translations + from Greek comedy, on the dying Roman religion 335-356 + + + LECTURE XVI + + GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND ROMAN RELIGION + + Religious destitution of the Roman in second century + B.C. in regard to (1) his idea of God, (2) his sense of + Duty. No help from Epicurism, which provided no + religious sanction for conduct; Lucretius, and Epicurean + idea of the Divine. Arrival of Stoicism at Rome; + Panaetius and the Scipionic circle. Character of Scipio. + The religious side of Stoicism; it teaches a new + doctrine of the relation of man to God. Stoic idea of + God as Reason, and as pervading the universe; adjustment + of this to Roman idea of _numina_. Stoic idea of Man as + possessing Reason, and so partaking the Divine nature. + Influence of these two ideas on the best type of Roman; + they appeal to his idea of Duty, and ennoble his idea of + Law. Weak points in Roman Stoicism: (1) doctrine of + Will, (2) neglect of emotions and sympathy. It failed to + rouse an "enthusiasm of humanity" 357-379 + + + + LECTURE XVII + + MYSTICISM--IDEAS OF A FUTURE LIFE + + + Early Pythagoreanism in S. Italy; its reappearance in + last century B.C. under the influence of Posidonius, who + combined Stoicism with Platonic Pythagoreanism. Cicero + affected by this revival; his Somnium Scipionis and + other later works. His mysticism takes practical form on + the death of his daughter; letters to Atticus about a + _fanum_. Individualisation of the Manes; freedom of + belief on such questions. Further evidence of Cicero's + tendency to mysticism at this time (45 B.C.), and his + belief in a future life. But did the ordinary Roman so + believe? Question whether he really believed in the + torments of Hades. Probability of this: explanation to + be found in the influence of Etruscan art and Greek + plays on primitive Roman ideas of the dead. Mysticism in + the form of astrology; Nigidius Figulus 380-402 + + + LECTURE XVIII + + RELIGIOUS FEELING IN THE POEMS OF VIRGIL + + Virgil sums up Roman religious experience, and combines + it with hope for the future. Sense of depression in his + day; want of sympathy and goodwill towards men. Virgil's + sympathetic outlook; shown in his treatment of animals, + Italian scenery, man's labour, and man's worship. His + idea of _pietas_. The theme of the Aeneid; Rome's + mission in the world, and the _pietas_ needed to carry + it out. Development of the character of Aeneas; his + _pietas_ imperfect in the first six books, perfected in + the last six, resulting in a balance between the ideas + of the Individual and the State. Illustration of this + from the poem. Importance of Book vi., which describes + the ordeal destined to perfect the _pietas_ of the hero. + The sense of Duty never afterwards deserts him; his + _pietas_ enlarged in a religious sense 403-427 + + + LECTURE XIX + + THE AUGUSTAN REVIVAL + + Connection of Augustus and Virgil. Augustus aims at + re-establishing the national _pietas_, and securing the + _pax deorum_ by means of the _ius divinum_. How this + formed part of his political plans. Temple restoration + and its practical result. Revival of the ancient ritual; + illustrated from the records of the Arval Brethren. The + new element in it; Caesar-worship; but Augustus was + content with the honour of re-establishing the _pax + deorum_. Celebration of this in the Ludi saeculares, 17 + B.C. Our detailed knowledge of this festival; meaning of + _saeculum_; description of the _ludi_, and illustration + of their meaning from the _Carmen saeculare_ of Horace. + Discussion of the performance of this hymn by the choirs + of boys and girls 428-451 + + + LECTURE XX + + CONCLUSION + + Religious ingredients in Roman soil likely to be + utilised by Christianity. The Stoic ingredient; + revelation of the Universal, and ennobling of + Individual. The contribution of Mysticism; preparation + for Christian eschatology. The contribution of Virgil; + sympathy and sense of Duty. The contribution of Roman + religion proper: (1) sane and orderly character of + ritual, (2) practical character of Latin Christianity + visible in early Christian writings, (3) a religious + vocabulary, _e.g. religio, pietas, sanctus, + sacramentum_. But all this is but a slight contribution; + essential difference between Christianity and all that + preceded it in Italy; illustration from the language of + St. Paul 452-472 + + +APPENDIX + +I. ON THE USE OF HUTS OR BOOTHS IN RELIGIOUS RITUAL 473 + +II. PROF. DEUBNER'S THEORY OF THE LUPERCALIA 478 + +III. THE PAIRS OF DEITIES IN GELLIUS xiii. 23 481 + +IV. THE EARLY USAGE OF THE WORDS IUS AND FAS 486 + +V. THE WORSHIP OF SACRED UTENSILS 489 + + +INDEX 491 + + +LECTURE I + +INTRODUCTORY + + +I was invited to prepare these lectures, on Lord Gifford's foundation, +as one who has made a special study of the religious ideas and practice +of the Roman people. So far as I know, the subject has not been touched +upon as yet by any Gifford lecturer. We are in these days interested in +every form of religion, from the most rudimentary to the most highly +developed; from the ideas of the aborigines of Australia, which have now +become the common property of anthropologists, to the ethical and +spiritual religions of civilised man. Yet it is remarkable how few +students of the history of religion, apart from one or two specialists, +have been able to find anything instructive in the religion of the +Romans--of the Romans, I mean, as distinguished from that vast +collection of races and nationalities which eventually came to be called +by the name of Rome. At the Congress for the History of Religions held +at Oxford in 1908, out of scores of papers read and offered, not more +than one or two even touched on the early religious ideas of the most +practical and powerful people that the world has ever known. + +This is due, in part at least, to the fact that just when Roman history +begins to be of absorbing interest, and fairly well substantiated by +evidence, the Roman religion, as religion, has already begun to lose its +vitality, its purity, its efficacy. It has become overlaid with foreign +rites and ideas, and it has also become a religious monopoly of the +State; of which the essential characteristic, as Mommsen has well put +it, and as we shall see later on, was "the conscious retention of the +principles of the popular belief, which were recognised as irrational, +for reasons of outward convenience."[1] It was not unlike the religion +of the Jews in the period immediately before the Captivity, and it was +never to profit by the refining and chastening influence of such lengthy +suffering. In this later condition it has not been attractive to +students of religious history; and to penetrate farther back into the +real religious ideas of the genuine Roman people is a task very far from +easy, of which indeed the difficulties only seem to increase as we +become more familiar with it. + +It must be remarked, too, that as a consequence of this +unattractiveness, the accounts given in standard works of the general +features of this religion are rather chilling and repellent. More than +fifty years ago, in the first book of his _Roman History_, Mommsen so +treated of it--not indeed without some reservation,--and in this matter, +as in so many others, his view remained for many years the dominant one. +He looked at this religion, as was natural to him, from the point of +view of law; in religion as such he had no particular interest. If I am +not mistaken, it was for him, except in so far as it is connected with +Roman law, the least interesting part of all his far-reaching Roman +studies. More recent writers of credit and ability have followed his +lead, and stress has been laid on the legal side of religion at Rome; it +has been described over and over again as merely a system of contracts +between gods and worshippers, secured by hard and literal formalism, and +without ethical value or any native principle of growth. Quite recently, +for example, so great an authority as Professor Cumont has written of it +thus:-- + +"Il n'a peut etre jamais existe aucune religion aussi froide, aussi +prosaique que celle des Romains. Subordonnee a la politique, elle +cherche avant tout, par la stricte execution de pratiques appropriees, a +assurer a l'Etat la protection des dieux ou a detourner les effets de +leur malveillance. Elle a conclu avec les puissances celestes un contrat +synallagmatique d'ou decoulent des obligations reciproques: sacrifices +d'une part, faveurs de l'autre.... Sa liturgie rappelle par la minutie +de ses prescriptions l'ancien droit civil. Cette religion se defie des +abandons de l'ame et des elans de la devotion." And he finishes his +description by quoting a few words of the late M. Jean Reville: "The +legalism of the Pharisees, in spite of the dryness of their ritualistic +minutiae, could make the heart vibrate more than the formalism of the +Romans."[2] + +Now it is not for me to deny the truth of such statements as this, +though I might be disposed to say that it is rather approximate than +complete truth as here expressed, does not sum up the whole story, and +only holds good for a single epoch of this religious history. But +surely, for anyone interested in the history of religion, a religious +system of such an unusual kind, with characteristics so well marked, +must, one would suppose, be itself an attractive subject. A religion +that becomes highly formalised claims attention by this very +characteristic. At one time, however far back, it must have accurately +expressed the needs and the aspirations of the Roman people in their +struggle for existence. It is obviously, as described by the writers I +have quoted, a very mature growth, a highly developed system; and the +story, if we could recover it, of the way in which it came to be thus +formalised, should be one of the deepest interest for students of the +history of religion. Another story, too, that of the gradual discovery +of the _inadequacy_ of this system, and of the engrafting upon it, or +substitution for it, of foreign rites and beliefs, is assuredly not less +instructive; and here, fortunately, our records make the task of telling +it an easier one. + +Now these two stories, taken together, sum up what we may call the +_religious experience of the Roman people_; and as it is upon these that +I wish to concentrate your attention during this and the following +course, I have called these lectures by that name. My plan is not to +provide an exhaustive account of the details of the Roman worship or of +the nature of the Roman gods: that can be found in the works of +carefully trained specialists, of whom I shall have something to say +presently. More in accordance with the intentions of the Founder of +these lectures, I think, will be an attempt to follow out, with such +detailed comment as may be necessary, the religious experience of the +Romans, as an important part of their history. And this happens to +coincide with my own inclination and training; for I have been all my +academic life occupied in learning and teaching Roman history, and the +fascination which the study of the Roman religion has long had for me is +simply due to this fact. Whatever may be the case with other religions, +it is impossible to think of that of the Romans as detached from their +history as a whole; it is an integral part of the life and growth of the +people. An adequate knowledge of Roman history, with all its +difficulties and doubts, is the only scientific basis for the study of +Roman religion, just as an adequate knowledge of Jewish history is the +only scientific basis for a study of Jewish religion. The same rule must +hold good in a greater or less degree with all other forms of religion +of the higher type, and even when we are dealing with the religious +ideas of savage peoples it is well to bear it steadfastly in mind. I may +be excused for suggesting that in works on comparative religion and +morals this principle is not always sufficiently realised, and that the +panorama of religious or quasi-religious practice from all parts of the +world, and found among peoples of very different stages of development, +with which we are now so familiar, needs constant testing by increased +knowledge of those peoples in all their relations of life. At any rate, +in dealing with Roman evidence the investigator of religious history +should also be a student of Roman history generally, for the facts of +Roman life, public and private, are all closely concatenated together, +and spring with an organic growth from the same root. The branches tend +to separate, but the tree is of regular growth, compact in all its +parts, and you cannot safely concentrate your attention on one of these +parts to the comparative neglect of the rest. Conversely, too, the great +story of the rise and decay of the Roman dominion cannot be properly +understood without following out the religious history of this +people--their religious experience, as I prefer to call it. To take an +example of this, let me remind you of two leading facts in Roman +history: first, the strength and tenacity of the family as a group under +the absolute government of the paterfamilias; secondly, the strength and +tenacity of the idea of the State as represented by the _imperium_ of +its magistrates. How different in these respects are the Romans from the +Celts, the Scandinavians, even from the Greeks! But these two facts are +in great measure the result of the religious ideas of the people, and, +on the other hand, they themselves react with astonishing force on the +fortunes of that religion. + +I do not indeed wish to be understood as maintaining that the religion +of the Roman was the most important element in his mental or civic +development: far from it. I should be the first to concede that the +religious element in the Roman mind was not that part of it which has +left the deepest impress on history, or contributed much, except in +externals, to our modern ideas of the Divine and of worship. It is not, +as Roman law was, the one great contribution of the Roman genius to the +evolution of humanity. But Roman law and Roman religion sprang from the +same root; they were indeed in origin _one and the same thing_. +Religious law was a part of the _ius civile_, and both were originally +administered by the same authority, the Rex. Following the course of the +two side by side for a few centuries, we come upon an astonishing +phenomenon, which I will mention now (it will meet us again) as showing +how far more interest can be aroused in our subject if we are fully +equipped as Roman historians than if we were to study the religion +alone, torn from the living body of the State, and placed on the +dissecting-board by itself. As the State grew in population and +importance, and came into contact, friendly or hostile, with other +peoples, both the religion and the law of the State were called upon to +expand, and they did so. But they did so in different ways; Roman law +expanded _organically_ and intensively, absorbing into its own body the +experience and practice of other peoples, while Roman religion expanded +_mechanically_ and extensively, by taking on the deities and worship of +others _without any organic change of its own being_. Just as the +English language has been able to absorb words of Latin origin, through +its early contact with French, into the very tissue and fibre of its +being, while German has for certain reasons never been able to do this, +but has adopted them as strangers only, without making them its very +own: so Roman law contrived to take into its own being the rules and +practices of strangers, while Roman religion, though it eventually +admitted the ideas and cults of Greeks and others, did so without taking +them by a digestive process into its own system. Had the law of Rome +remained as inelastic as the religion, the Roman people would have +advanced as little in civilisation as those races which embraced the +faith of Islam, with its law and religion alike impermeable to any +change.[3] Here is a phenomenon that at once attracts attention and +suggests questions not easy to answer. Why is it that the Roman religion +can never have the same interest and value for mankind as Roman law? I +hope that we shall find an answer to this question in the course of our +studies: at this moment I only propose it as an example of the advantage +gained for the study of one department of Roman life and thought by a +pretty complete equipment in the knowledge of others. + +At the same time we must remember that the religion of the Romans is a +highly technical subject, like Roman law, the Roman constitution, and +almost everything else Roman; it calls for special knowledge as well as +a sufficient training in Roman institutions generally. Each of these +Roman subjects is like a language with a delicate accidence, which is +always presenting the unwary with pitfalls into which they are sure to +blunder unless they have a thorough mastery of it. I could mention a +book full of valuable thoughts about the relation to Paganism of the +early Christian Church, by a scholar at once learned and sympathetic;[4] +who when he happens to deal for a moment with the old Roman religion, is +inaccurate and misleading at every point. He knew, for example, that +this religion is built on the foundation of the worship of the family, +but he yielded to the temptation to assume that the family in heaven was +a counterpart of the family on earth, "as it might be seen in any palace +of the Roman nobility." "Jupiter and Juno," he says, "were the lord and +lady, and beneath them was an army of officers, attendants, ministers, +of every rank and degree." Such a description of the pantheon of his +religion would have utterly puzzled a Roman, even in the later days of +theological syncretism. Again he says that this religion was strongly +moral; that "the gods gave every man his duty, and expected him to +perform it." Here again no Roman of historical times, or indeed of any +age, could have allowed this to be his creed. Had it really been so, not +only the history of the Roman religion, but that of the Roman state, +would have been very different from what it actually was. + +The principles then on which I wish to proceed in these lectures +are--(1) to keep the subject in continual touch with Roman history and +the development of the Roman state; (2) to exercise all possible care +and accuracy in dealing with the technical matters of the religion +itself. I may now go on to explain more exactly the plan I propose to +follow. + +It will greatly assist me in this explanation if I begin by making clear +what I understand, for our present purposes, by the word _religion_. +There have been many definitions propounded--more in recent years than +ever before, owing to the recognition of the study of religion as a +department of anthropology. Controversies are going on which call for +new definitions, and it is only by slow degrees that we are arriving at +any common understanding as to the real essential thing or fact for +which we should reserve this famous word, and other words closely +connected with it, _e.g._ the supernatural. We are still disputing, for +example, as to the relation of religion to magic, and therefore as to +the exact meaning to be attributed to each of these terms. + +Among the many definitions of religion which I have met with, there is +one which seems to me to be particularly helpful for our present +purposes; it is contributed by an American investigator. "_Religion is +the effective desire to be in right relation to the Power manifesting +itself in the universe._"[5] Dr. Frazer's definition is not different in +essentials: "By religion I understand a propitiation or conciliation of +powers superior to man which are believed to direct and control the +course of nature and of human life;"[6] only that here the word is used +of acts of worship rather than of the feeling or desire that prompts +them. The definition of the late M. Jean Reville, in a chapter on +"Religious Experience," written near the end of his valuable life, is in +my view nearer the mark, and more comprehensive. "Religion," he says, +"is essentially a principle of life, the feeling of a living relation +between the human individual and the powers or power of which the +universe is the manifestation. What characterises each religion is its +way of looking upon this relation and its method of applying it."[7] And +a little further on he writes: "It is generally admitted that this +feeling of dependence upon the universe is the root of all religion." +But this is not so succinct as the definition which I quoted first, and +it introduces at least one term, _the individual_, which, for certain +good reasons, I think it will be better for us to avoid in studying the +early Roman religious ideas. + +"_Religion is the effective desire to be in right relations with the +Power manifesting itself in the universe._" This has the advantage of +treating religion as primarily and essentially a _feeling_, an +instinctive desire, and the word "effective," skilfully introduced, +suggests that this feeling manifests itself in certain actions +undertaken in order to secure a desired end. Again, the phrase "right +relations" seems to me well chosen, and better than the "living +relation" of M. Reville, which if applied to the religions of antiquity +can only be understood in a sacramental sense, and is not obviously so +intended. "Right relation" will cover all religious feeling, from the +most material to the most spiritual. Think for a moment of the 119th +Psalm, the high-water mark of the religious feeling of the most +religious people of antiquity; it is a magnificent declaration of +conformity to the will of God, _i.e._ of the desire to be in right +relation to Him, to His statutes, judgments, laws, commands, +testimonies, righteousness. This is religion in a high state of +development; but our definition is so skilfully worded as to adapt +itself readily to much earlier and simpler forms. The "Power manifesting +itself in the universe" may be taken as including all the workings of +nature, which even now we most imperfectly understand, and which +primitive man so little understood that he misinterpreted them in a +hundred different ways. The effective desire to be in right relation +with these mysterious powers, so that they might not interfere with his +material well-being--with his flocks and herds, with his crops, too, if +he were in the agricultural stage, with his dwelling and his land, or +with his city if he had got so far in social development--this is what +we may call the religious instinct, the origin of what the Romans called +_religio_.[8] The effective desire to have your own will brought into +conformity to the will of a heavenly Father is a later development of +the same feeling; to this the genuine Roman never attained, and the +Greek very imperfectly. + +If we keep this definition steadily in mind, I think we shall find it a +valuable guide in following out what I call the religious experience of +the Roman people; and at the present moment it will help me to explain +my plan in drawing up these lectures. To begin with, in the prehistoric +age of Rome, so far as we can discern from survivals of a later age, the +feeling or desire must have taken shape, ineffectively indeed, in many +quaint acts, some of them magical or quasi-magical, and possibly taken +over from an earlier and ruder population among whom the Latins settled. +Many of these continued, doubtless, to exist among the common folk, +unauthorised by any constituted power, while some few were absorbed into +the religious practice of the State, probably with the speedy loss of +their original significance. Such survivals of ineffective religion are +of course to be found in the lowest stratum of the religious ideas of +every people, ancient and modern; even among the Israelites,[9] and in +the rites of Islam or Christianity. They form, as it were, _a kind of +protoplasm of religious vitality_, from which an organic growth was +gradually developed. But though they are necessarily a matter of +investigation as survivals which have a story to tell, they do not carry +us very far when we are tracing the religious experience of a people, +and in any case the process of investigating them is one of groping in +the dark. I shall deal with these survivals in my next two lectures, and +then leave them for good. + +I am more immediately concerned with the desire expressed in our +definition _when it has become more effective_; and this we find in the +Latins when they have attained to a complete settlement on the land, and +are well on in the agricultural stage of social development. This stage +we can dimly see reflected in the life of the home and farm of later +times; we have, I need hardly say, no contemporary evidence of it, +though archaeology may yet yield us something. But the conservatism of +rural life is a familiar fact, and comes home to me when I reflect that +in my own English village the main features of work and worship remained +the same through many centuries, until we were revolutionised by the +enclosure of the parish and the coming of the railroad in the middle of +the nineteenth century. The intense conservatism of rural Italy, up to +the present day, has always been an acknowledged fact, and admits of +easy explanation. We may be sure that the Latin farmer, before the +City-state was developed, was like his descendants of historical times, +the religious head of a family, whose household deities were +_effectively_ worshipped by a regular and orderly procedure, whose dead +were cared for in like manner, and whose land and stock were protected +from malignant spirits by a boundary made sacred by yearly rites of +sacrifice and prayer. Doubtless these wild spirits beyond his boundaries +were a constant source of anxiety to him; doubtless charms and spells +and other survivals from the earlier stage were in use to keep them from +mischief; but these tend to become exceptions in an orderly life of +agricultural routine which we may call _religious_. Spirits may accept +domicile within the limits of the farm, and tend, as always in this +agricultural stage, to become fixed to the soil and to take more +definite shape as in some sense deities. This stage--that of the +agricultural family--is the foundation of Roman civilised life, in +religious as in all other aspects, and it will form the subject of my +fourth lecture. + +The growing effectiveness of the desire, as seen in the family and in +the agricultural stage, prepares us for still greater effectiveness in +the higher form of civilisation which we know as that of the City-state. +That desire, let me say once more, is to be in right relations with the +Power manifesting itself in the universe. It is only in the higher +stages of civilisation that this desire can really become effective; +social organisation, as I shall show, produces an increased knowledge of +the nature of the Power, and with it a systematisation of the means +deemed necessary to secure the right relations. The City-state, the +peculiar form in which Greek and Italian social and political life +eventually blossomed and fructified, was admirably fitted to secure this +effectiveness. It was, of course, an intensely _local_ system; and the +result was, first, that the Power is localised in certain spots and +propitiated by certain forms of cult within the city wall, thus bringing +the divine into closest touch with the human population and its +interests; and secondly, that the concentration of intelligence and +will-power within a small space might, and did at Rome, develop a very +elaborate system for securing the right relations--in other words, it +produced a religious system as highly ritualistic as that of the Jews. + +With the several aspects of this system my fifth and succeeding lectures +will be occupied. I shall deal first with the religious calendar of the +earliest historical form of the City-state, which most fortunately has +come down to us entire. I shall devote two lectures to the early Roman +ideas of divinity, and the character of their deities as reflected in +the calendar, and as further explained by Roman and Greek writers of the +literary age. Two other lectures will discuss the ritual of sacrifice +and prayer, with the priests in charge of these ceremonies, and the +ritual of vows and of "purification." In each of these I shall try to +point out wherein the weakness of this religious system lay--viz. in +attempts at effectiveness so elaborate that they overshot their mark, in +a misconception of the means necessary to secure the right relations, +and in a failure to grow in knowledge of the Power itself. + +Lastly, as the City-state advances socially and politically, in trade +and commerce, in alliance and conquest, we shall find that the ideas of +other peoples about the Power, and their methods of propitiation, begin +to be adopted in addition to the native stock. The first stages of this +revolution will bring us to the conclusion of my present course; but we +shall be then well prepared for what follows. For later on we shall find +the Romans feeling afresh the desire to be in right relation with the +Power, discovering that their own highly formalised system is no longer +equal to the work demanded of it, and pitiably mistaking their true +course in seeking a remedy. Their knowledge of the Divine, always narrow +and limited, becomes by degrees blurred and obscured, and their sight +begins to fail them. I hope in due course to explain this, and to give +you some idea of the sadness of their religious experience before the +advent of an age of philosophy, of theological syncretism, and of the +worship of the rulers of the state. + +Let us now turn for a few minutes to the special difficulties of our +subject. These are serious enough; but they have been wonderfully and +happily reduced since I began to be interested in the Roman religion +some twenty-five years ago. There were then only two really valuable +books which dealt with the whole subject. Though I could avail myself of +many treatises, good and bad, on particular aspects of it, some few of +which still survive, the only two comprehensive and illuminating books +were Preller's _Roemische Mythologie_, and Marquardt's volume on the cult +in his _Staatsverwaltung_. Both of these were then already many years +old, but they had just been re-edited by two eminent scholars +thoroughly well equipped for the task--Preller's work by H. Jordan, and +Marquardt's by Georg Wissowa. They were written from different points of +view; Preller dealt with the deities and the ideas about them rather +than with the cults and the priests concerned with them; while Marquardt +treated the subject as a part of the administration of government, +dealing with the worship and the _ius divinum_, and claiming that this +was the only safe and true way of arriving at the ideas underlying that +law and worship.[10] Both books are still indispensable for the student; +but Marquardt's is the safer guide, as dealing with facts to the +exclusion of fancies. The two taken together had collected and sifted +the evidence so far as it was then available. + +The _Corpus Inscriptionum_ had not at that time got very far, but its +first volume, edited by Mommsen, contained the ancient Fasti, which +supply us with the religious calendar of early Rome, and with other +matter throwing light upon it. This first volume was an invaluable help, +and formed the basis (in a second edition) of the book I was eventually +able to write on the _Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic_. At +that time, too, in the 'eighties, Roscher's _Lexicon of Greek and Roman +Mythology_ began to appear, which aimed at summing up all that was then +known about the deities of both peoples; this is not even yet completed, +and many of the earlier articles seem now almost antiquated, as +propounding theories which have not met with general acceptance. All +these earlier articles are now being superseded by those in the new +edition of Pauly's _Real-Encyclopaedie_, edited by Wissowa. Lastly, +Wissowa himself in 1902 published a large volume entitled _Die Religion +und Kultus der Roemer_, which will probably be for many years the best +and safest guide for all students of our subject. Thoroughly trained in +the methods of dealing with evidence both literary and archaeological, +Wissowa produced a work which, though it has certain limitations, has +the great merit of not being likely to lead anyone astray. More +skilfully and successfully than any of his predecessors, he avoided the +chief danger and difficulty that beset all who meddle with Roman +religious antiquities, and invariably lead the unwary to their +destruction; he declined to accept as evidence what in nine cases out of +ten is no true evidence at all--the statements of ancient authors +influenced by Greek ideas and Greek fancy. He holds in the main to the +principle laid down by Marquardt, that we may use, as evidence for their +religious ideas, what we are told that the Romans _did_ in practising +their worship, but must regard with suspicion, and subject to severe +criticism, what either they themselves or the Greeks wrote about those +religious ideas--that is, about divine beings and their doings. + +It is indeed true that the one great difficulty of our subject lies in +the nature of the evidence; and it is one which we can never hope +entirely to overcome. We have always to bear in mind that the Romans +produced no literature till the third century B.C.; and the documentary +evidence that survives from an earlier age in the form of inscriptions, +or fragments of hymns or of ancient law (such as the calendar of which I +spoke just now), is of the most meagre character, and usually most +difficult to interpret. Thus the Roman religion stands alone among the +religions of ancient civilisations in that we are almost entirely +without surviving texts of its forms of prayer, of its hymns or its +legends;[11] even in Greece the Homeric poems, with all the earliest +Greek literature and art, make up to some extent for the want of that +documentary evidence which throws a flood of light on the religions of +Babylon, Egypt, the Hindus, and the Jewish people. We know in fact as +little about the religion of the old Italian populations as we do about +that of our own Teutonic ancestors, less perhaps than we do about that +of the Celtic peoples. The Romans were a rude and warlike folk, and +meddled neither with literature nor philosophy until they came into +immediate contact with the Greeks; thus it was that, unfortunately for +our purposes, the literary spirit, when at last it was born in Italy, +was rather Greek than Roman. When that birth took place Rome had spread +her influence over Italy,--perhaps the greatest work she ever +accomplished; and thus the latest historian of Latin literature can +venture to write that "the greatest time in Roman history was already +past when real historical evidence becomes available."[12] + +We have thus to face two formidable facts: (1) that the period covered +by my earlier lectures must in honesty be called prehistoric; and (2) +that when the Romans themselves began to write about it they did so +under the overwhelming influence of Greek culture. With few exceptions, +all that we can learn of the early Roman religion from Roman or Greek +writers comes to us, not in a pure Roman form, clearly conceived as all +things truly Roman were, but seen dimly through the mist of the +Hellenistic age. The Roman gods, for example, are made the sport of +fancy and the subject of Hellenistic love-stories, by Greek poets and +their Roman imitators,[13] or are more seriously treated by Graeco-Roman +philosophy after a fashion which would have been absolutely +incomprehensible to the primitive men in whose minds they first had +their being. The process of disentangling the Roman element from the +Greek in the literary evidence is one which can never be satisfactorily +accomplished; and on the whole it is better, with Wissowa and Marquardt, +to hold fast by the facts of the cult, where the distinction between the +two is usually obvious, than to flounder about in a slough of what I can +only call pseudo-evidence. If all that English people knew about their +Anglo-Saxon forefathers were derived from Norman-French chroniclers, how +much should we really know about government or religion in the centuries +before the Conquest! And yet this comparison gives but a faint idea of +the treacherous nature of the literary evidence I am speaking of. It is +true indeed that in the last age of the Republic a few Romans began to +take something like a scientific interest in their own religious +antiquities; and to Varro, by far the most learned of these, and to +Verrius Flaccus, who succeeded him in the Augustan age, we owe directly +or indirectly almost all the solid facts on which our knowledge of the +Roman worship rests. But their works have come down to us in a most +imperfect and fragmentary state, and what we have of them we owe mainly +to the erudition of later grammarians and commentators, and the learning +of the early Christian fathers, who drew upon them freely for +illustrations of the absurdities of paganism. And it must be added that +when Varro himself deals with the Roman gods and the old ideas about +them, he is by no means free from the inevitable influence of Greek +thought. + +Apart from the literary material and the few surviving fragments of +religious law and ritual, there are two other sources of light of which +we can now avail ourselves, archaeology and anthropology; but it must be +confessed that as yet their illuminating power is somewhat uncertain. It +reminds the scrupulous investigator of those early days of the electric +light, when its flickering tremulousness made it often painful to read +by, and when, too, it might suddenly go out and leave the reader in +darkness. It is well to remember that both sciences are young, and have +much of the self-confidence of youth; and that Italian archaeology, now +fast becoming well organised within Italy, has also to be co-ordinated +with the archaeology of the whole Mediterranean basin, before we can +expect from it clear and unmistakable answers to hard questions about +race and religion. This work, which cannot possibly be done by an +individual without _co-operation_--the secret of sound work which the +Germans have long ago discovered--is in course of being carried out, so +far as is at present possible, by a syndicate of competent +investigators.[14] + +In order to indicate the uncertain nature of the light which for a long +time to come is all we can expect from Italian archaeology, I have only +to remind you that one of the chief questions we have to ask of it is +the relation of the mysterious Etruscan people to the other Italian +stocks, in respect of language, religion, and art. Whether the Etruscans +were the same people whom the Greeks called Pelasgians, as many +investigators now hold: whether the earliest Roman city was in any true +sense an Etruscan one: these are questions on the answers to which it is +not as yet safe to build further hypotheses. In regard to religion, too, +we are still very much in the dark. For example, there are many Etruscan +works of art in which Roman deities are portrayed, as is certain from +the fact that their names accompany the figures; but it is as yet almost +impossible to determine how far we can use these for the interpretation +of Roman religious ideas or legends. Many years ago a most attractive +hypothesis was raised on the evidence of certain of these works of art, +where Hercules and Juno appear together in a manner which strongly +suggests that they are meant to represent the male and female principles +of human life; this hypothesis was taken up by early writers in the +_Mythological Lexicon_, and relying upon them I adopted it in my _Roman +Festivals_,[15] and further applied it to the interpretation of an +unsolved problem in the fourth _Eclogue_ of Virgil.[16] But since then +doubt has been thrown on it by Wissowa, who had formerly accepted it. As +being of Etruscan origin, and found in places very distant from each +other and from Rome, we have, he says, no good right to use these works +of art as evidence for the Roman religion.[17] The question remains open +as to these and many other works of art, but the fact that the man of +coolest judgment and most absolute honesty is doubtful, suggests that we +had best wait patiently for more certain light. + +In Rome itself, where archaeological study is concentrated and admirably +staffed, great progress has been made, and much light thrown on the +later periods of religious history. But for the religion of the ancient +Roman state, with which we are at present concerned, it must be +confessed that very little has been gleaned. The most famous discovery +is that recently made in the Forum of an archaic inscription which +almost certainly relates to some religious act; but as yet no scholar +has been able to interpret it with anything approaching to +certainty.[18] More recently excavations on the further bank of the +Tiber threw a glint of light on the nature of an ancient deity, Furrina, +about whom till then we practically knew nothing at all; but the +evidence thus obtained was late and in Greek characters. We must in fact +entertain no great hopes of illumination from excavations, but accept +thankfully what little may be vouchsafed to us. On the other hand, from +the gradual development of Italian archaeology as a whole, and, I must +here add, from the study of the several old Italian languages, much may +be expected in the future. + +The other chief contributory science is anthropology, _i.e._ the study +of the working of the mind of primitive man, as it is seen in the ideas +and practices of uncivilised peoples at the present day, and also as it +can be traced in survivals among more civilised races. For the history +of the religion of the Roman City-state its contribution must of +necessity be a limited one; that is a part of Roman history in general, +and its material is purely Roman, or perhaps I should say, Graeco-Roman; +and Wissowa in all his work has consistently declined to admit the value +of anthropological researches for the elucidation of Roman problems. +Perhaps it is for this very reason that his book is the safest guide we +possess for the study of what the Romans did and thought in the matter +of religion; but if we wish to try and get to the original significance +of those acts and thoughts, it is absolutely impossible in these days to +dispense with the works of a long series of anthropologists, many of +them fortunately British, who have gradually been collecting and +classifying the material which in the long run will fructify in definite +results. If we consider the writings of eminent scholars who wrote about +Greek and Roman religion and mythology before the appearance of Dr. +Tylor's _Primitive Culture_--Klausen, Preuner, Preller, Kuhn, and many +others, who worked on the comparative method but with slender material +for the use of it--we see at once what an immense advance has been +effected by that monumental work, and by the stimulus that it gave to +others to follow the same track. Now we have in this country the works +of Lang, Robertson Smith, Farnell, Frazer, Hartland, Jevons, and others, +while a host of students on the Continent are writing in all languages +on anthropological subjects. Some of these I shall quote incidentally in +the course of these lectures; at present I will content myself with +making one or two suggestions as to the care needed in using the +collections and theories of anthropologists, as an aid in Roman +religious studies. + +First, let us bear in mind that anthropologists are apt to have their +favourite theories--conclusions, that is, which are the legitimate +result of reasoning inductively on the class of facts which they have +more particularly studied. Thus Mannhardt had his theory of the +Vegetation-spirit, Robertson Smith that of the sacramental meal, Usener +that of the Sondergoetter, Dr. Frazer that of divine Kingship; all of +which are perfectly sound conclusions based on facts which no one +disputes. They have been of the greatest value to anthropological +research; but when they are applied to the explanation of Roman +practices we should be instantly on our guard, ready indeed to welcome +any glint of light that we may get from them, but most carefully +critical and even suspicious of their application to other phenomena +than those which originally suggested them. It is in the nature of man +as a researcher, when he has found a key, to hasten to apply it to all +the doors he can find, and sometimes, it must be said, to use violence +in the application; and though the greatest masters of the science will +rarely try to force the lock, they will use so much gentle persuasion as +sometimes to make us fancy that they have unfastened it. All such +attempts have their value, but it behoves us to be cautious in accepting +them. The application by Mannhardt of the theory of the +Vegetation-spirit to certain Roman problems, _e.g._ to that of the +Lupercalia,[19] and the October horse,[20] must be allowed, fascinating +as it was, to have failed in the main. The application by Dr. Frazer of +the theory of divine Kingship to the early religious history of Rome, is +still _sub judice_, and calls for most careful and discriminating +criticism.[21] + +Secondly, as I have already said, Roman evidence is peculiarly difficult +to handle, except in so far as it deals with the simple facts of +worship; when we use it for traditions, myths, ideas about the nature of +divine beings, we need a training not only in the use of evidence in +general, but in the use of Roman evidence in particular. +Anthropologists, as a rule, have not been through such a training, and +they are apt to handle the evidence of Roman writers with a light heart +and rather a rough hand. The result is that bits of evidence are put +together, each needing conscientious criticism, to support hypotheses +often of the flimsiest kind, which again are used to support further +hypotheses, and so on, until the sober inquirer begins to feel his brain +reeling and his footing giving way beneath him. I shall have occasion to +notice one or two examples of this uncritical use of evidence later on, +and will say no more of it now. No one can feel more grateful than I do +to the many leading anthropologists who have touched in one way or +another on Roman evidence; but for myself I try never to forget the +words of Columella, with which a great German scholar began one of his +most difficult investigations: "In universa vita pretiosissimum est +intellegere quemque nescire se quod nesciat."[22] + + + NOTES TO LECTURE I + + [1] Mommsen, _Hist. of Rome_ (_E.T._), vol. ii. p. 433. + + [2] Cumont, _Les Religions orientales dans le paganisme + romain_, p. 36. Cp. Dill, _Roman Society in the Last + Century of the Western Empire_, p. 63. Gwatkin, _The + Knowledge of God_, vol. ii. p. 133. + + [3] See some valuable remarks in Lord Cromer's _Modern + Egypt_, vol. ii. p. 135. + + [4] Since this lecture was written this scholar has + passed away, to the great grief of his many friends; and + I refrain from mentioning his name. + + [5] Ira W. Howerth, in _International Journal of + Ethics_, 1903, p. 205. I owe the reference to R. + Karsten, _The Origin of Worship_, Wasa, 1905, p. 2, + note. Cp. E. Caird, _Gifford Lectures_ ("Evolution of + Theology in the Greek Philosophers"), vol. i. p. 32. + "That which underlies all forms of religion, from the + highest to the lowest, is the idea of God as an absolute + power or principle." To this need only be added the + desire to be in right relation to it. Mr. Marett's word + "supernaturalism" seems to mean the same thing; "There + arises in the region of human thought a powerful impulse + to objectify, and even to personify, the mysterious or + supernatural something felt; and in the region of will a + corresponding impulse to render it innocuous, or, better + still, propitious, by force of constraint (_i.e._ + magic), communion, or conciliation." See his _Threshold + of Religion_, p. 11. Prof. Haddon, commenting on this + (_Magic and Fetishism_, p. 93), adds that "there are + thus produced the two fundamental factors of religion, + the belief in some mysterious power, and the desire to + enter into communication with the power by means of + worship." Our succinct definition seems thus to be + adequate. + + [6] _The Golden Bough_, ed. 2, vol. i. p. 62. + + [7] _Liberal Protestantism_, p. 64. + + [8] For _religio_ as a feeling essentially, see Wissowa, + _Religion und Kultus der Roemer_, p. 318 (henceforward to + be cited as _R.K._). For further development of the + meaning of the word in Latin literature, see the + author's paper in _Proceedings of the Congress for the + History of Religions_ (Oxford, 1908), vol. ii. p. 169 + foll. A different view of the original meaning of the + word is put forward by W. Otto in _Archiv fuer + Religionswissenschaft_, vol. xii., 1909, p. 533 + (henceforward to be cited as _Archiv_ simply). See also + below, p. 459 foll. + + [9] See, _e.g._, Frazer in _Anthropological Essays + presented to E. B. Tylor_, p. 101 foll. + + [10] _Staatsverwaltung_, iii. p. 2. This will + henceforward be cited as _Marquardt_ simply. It forms + part of the great _Handbuch der roemischen Alterthuemer_ + of Mommsen and Marquardt, and is translated into French, + but unfortunately not into English. I may add here that + I have only recently become acquainted with what was, at + the time it was written, a remarkably good account of + the Roman religion, full of insight as well as learning, + viz. Doellinger's _The Gentile and the Jew_, Book VII. + (vol. ii. of the English translation, 1906). + + [11] Two fragments of ancient carmina, _i.e._ formulae + which are partly spells and partly hymns, survive--those + of the Fratres Arvales and the Salii or dancing priests + of Mars. For surviving formulae of prayer see below, p. + 185 foll. Our chief authority on the ritual of prayer + and sacrifice comes from Iguvium in Umbria, and is in + the Umbrian dialect; it will be referred to in + Buecheler's _Umbrica_ (1883), where a Latin translation + will be found. The Umbrian text revised by Prof. Conway + forms an important part of that eminent scholar's work + on the Italian dialects. + + [12] F. Leo, in _Die griechische und lateinische + Literatur und Sprache_, p. 328. Cp. Schanz, _Geschichte + der roem. Literatur_, vol. i. p. 54 foll. + + [13] Among Roman poets Ovid is the worst offender, + Propertius and Tibullus mislead in a less degree; but + they all make up for it to some extent by preserving for + us features of the worship as it existed in their own + day. The confusion that has been caused in Roman + religious history by mixing up Greek and Roman evidence + is incalculable, and has recently been increased by Pais + (_Storia di Roma_, and _Ancient Legends of Roman + History_), and by Dr. Frazer in his lectures on the + early history of Kingship--writers to whom in some ways + we owe valuable hints for the elucidation of Roman + problems. See also Soltau, _Die Anfaenge der roemischen + Geschichtsschreibung_, 1909, p. 3. + + [14] Most welcome to English readers has been Mr. T. E. + Peet's recently published volume on _The Stone and + Bronze Ages in Italy_, and still more valuable for our + purposes will be its sequel, when it appears, on the + Iron Age. + + [15] _Roman Festivals_, p. 142 foll.; henceforward to be + cited as _R.F._ + + [16] See Virgil's _Messianic Eclogue_, by Mayor, Fowler, + and Conway, p. 75 foll. + + [17] Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 227. + + [18] An account of this in English, with photographs, + will be found in Pais's _Ancient Legends of Roman + History_, p. 21 foll., and notes. + + [19] Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 72 foll. + + [20] _Ibid._, p. 156 foll. + + [21] _Lectures on the Early History of Kingship_, + lectures 7-9. + + [22] Not long after these last sentences were written, a + large work appeared by Dr. Binder, a German professor of + law, entitled _Die Plebs_, which deals freely with the + oldest Roman religion, and well illustrates the + difficulties under which we have to work while + archaeologists, ethnologists, and philologists are still + constantly in disagreement as to almost every important + question in the history of early Italian culture. Dr. + Binder's main thesis is that the earliest Rome was + composed of two distinct communities, each with its own + religion, _i.e._ deities, priests, and sacra; the one + settled on the Palatine, a pastoral folk of primitive + culture, and of pure Latin race; the other settled on + the Quirinal, Sabine in origin and language, and of more + advanced development in social and religious matters. So + far this sounds more or less familiar to us, but when + Dr. Binder goes on to identify the Latin folk with the + Plebs and the Sabine settlement with the Patricians, and + calls in religion to help him with the proof of this, it + is necessary to look very carefully into the religious + evidence he adduces. So far as I can see, the limitation + of the word _patrician_ to the Quirinal settlement is + very far from being proved by this evidence (see _The + Year's Work in Classical Studies_, 1909, p. 69). Yet the + hypothesis is an extremely interesting one, and were it + generally accepted, would compel us to modify in some + important points our ideas of Roman religious history, + and also of Roman legal history, with which Dr. Binder + is mainly concerned. + + + + +LECTURE II + +ON THE THRESHOLD OF RELIGION: SURVIVALS + + +My subject proper is the religion of an organised State: the religious +experience of a comparatively civilised people. But I wish, in the first +place, to do what has never yet been done by those who have written on +the Roman religion--I wish to take a survey of the relics, surviving in +later Roman practice and belief, of earlier stages of rudimentary +religious experience. In these days of anthropological and sociological +research, it is possible to do this without great difficulty; and if I +left it undone, our story of the development of religion at Rome would +be mutilated at the beginning. Also we should be at a disadvantage in +trying to realise the wonderful work done by the early authorities of +the State in eliminating from their rule of worship (_ius divinum_) +almost all that was magical, barbarous, or, as later Romans would have +called it, superstitious. This is a point on which I wish to lay +especial stress in the next few lectures, and it entails a somewhat +tiresome account of the ideas and practices of which, as I believe, they +sought to get rid. These, I may as well say at once, are to be found for +the most part surviving, as we might expect, _outside_ of the religion +of the State; where they survive within its limits, they will be found +to have almost entirely lost their original force and meaning. + +Every student of religious history knows that a religious system is a +complex growth, far more complex than would appear at first sight; that +it is sure to contain relics of previous eras of human experience, +embedded in the social strata as lifeless fossils. These only indeed +survive because human nature is intensely conservative, especially in +religious matters; and of this conservative instinct the Romans afford +as striking an example as we can readily find. They clung with +extraordinary tenacity, all through their history, to old forms; they +seem to have had a kind of superstitious feeling that these dead forms +had still a value as such, though all the life was gone out of them. It +would be easy to illustrate this curious feature of the Roman mind from +the history of its religion; it never disappeared; and to this day the +Catholic church in Italy retains in a thinly-disguised form many of the +religious practices of the Roman people. + +Stage after stage must have been passed by the Latins long before our +story rightly begins; how many revolutions of thought they underwent, +how much they learnt and took over from earlier inhabitants of the +country in which they finally settled, we cannot even guess. As I said +in the last lecture, we have no really ancient history of the Romans, as +we have, for example, of the Egyptians or Babylonians; to us it is all +darkness, save where a little light has been thrown on the buried strata +by archaeology and anthropology. That little light, which may be +expected to increase in power, shows survivals here and there of +primitive modes of thought; and these I propose to deal with now in the +following order. _Totemism_ I shall mention merely to clear it out of +the way; but _taboo_ will take us some little time, and so will _magic_ +in its various forms. + +About totemism all I have to say is this. As I write, Dr. Frazer's great +work on this subject has just appeared; it is entirely occupied with +totemism among modern savages, true totemic peoples, with the object of +getting at the real principles of that curious stratum of human thought, +and he leaves to others the discussion of possible survivals of it among +Aryans, Semites, and Egyptians. He himself is sceptical about all the +evidence that has been adduced to prove its existence in classical +antiquity (see vol. i. p. 86 and vol. iv. p. 13). Under these +circumstances, and seeing that Dr. Frazer has always been the accepted +exponent of totemism in this country since the epoch-making works +appeared of Tylor and Robertson Smith, it is obviously unnecessary for +me either to attempt to explain what it is, or to examine the attempts +to find survivals of it in ancient Italy. When it first became matter of +interest to anthropologists it was only natural that they should be apt +to find it everywhere. Dr. Jevons, for example, following in the steps +of Robertson Smith, found plenty of totemistic survivals both in Greece +and Italy in writing his valuable _Introduction to the History of +Religion_; but he is now aware that he went too far in this direction. +Quite recently there has been a run after the same scent in France; not +long ago a French scholar published a book on the ensigns of the Roman +army,[23] which originally represented certain animals, and using Dr. +Frazer's early work on totemism with a very imperfect knowledge of the +subject, tried to prove that these were originally totem signs. Roman +names of families and old Italian tribe-names are still often quoted as +totemistic; but the Fabii and Caepiones, named after cultivated plants, +and the Picentes and Hirpini, after woodpecker and wolf, though tempting +to the totemist, have not persuaded Dr. Frazer to accept them as +totemistic, and may be left out of account here; there may be many +reasons for the adoption of such names besides the totemistic one. In +the course of the last Congress of religious history, a sober French +scholar, M. Toutain, made an emphatic protest against the prevailing +tendency in France, of which the leading representative is M. Salomon +Reinach.[24] Let us pass on at once to the second primitive mode of +thought which I mentioned just now, and which is not nearly so +remote--speaking anthropologically--from classical times as totemism. +Totemism belongs to a form of society, that of tribe or clan, in which +family life is unknown in our sense of the word, and it is therefore +wholly remote from the life of the ancient Italian stocks, in whose +social organisation the family was a leading fact; but _taboo_ seems +rather to be a mode of thought common to primitive peoples up to a +comparatively advanced stage of development, and has left its traces in +all systems of religion, including those of the present day. + +By this famous word _taboo_, of Polynesian origin, is to be understood a +very important part of what I have called the protoplasm of primitive +religion, and one closely allied both to magic and fetishism. For our +present purposes we may define it as a mysterious influence believed to +exist in objects both animate and inanimate, which makes them +_dangerous_, _infectious_, _unclean_, _or holy_, which two last +qualities are often almost identical in primitive thought, as Robertson +Smith originally taught us.[25] What exactly the savage or +semi-civilised mind thought about this influence we hardly yet know; we +have another Polynesian word, _mana_, which expresses conveniently its +positive aspect, and may in time help us towards a better understanding +of it.[26] It is in origin pre-animistic, _i.e._ it is not so much +believed to emanate from a _spirit_ residing in the object, as from some +occult miasmatic quality. All human beings in contact with other men or +things possessing this quality are believed to suffer in some way, and +to communicate the infection which they themselves receive. As Dr. +Farnell says in his chapter on the ritual of purification,[27] "The +sense-instinct that suggests all this was probably some primeval terror +or aversion evoked by certain objects, as we see animals shrink with +disgust at the sight or smell of blood. The nerves of savage man are +strangely excited by certain stimuli of touch, smell, taste, sight; the +specially exciting object is something that we should call mysterious, +weird, or uncanny." + +Based on this notion of constant danger from infection, there arose a +code of unwritten custom as rigid as that enforced by a careful +physician in infectious cases at the present day; and thus, too, in +course of time there was developed the idea of the possibility of +_disinfection_, an idea as salutary as the discovery in medical science +of effective methods for the disinfection of disease. The code of taboo +had an obvious ethical value, as Dr. Jevons pointed out long ago;[28] +like all discipline carried out with a social end in view, it helped men +to realise that they were under obligations to the community of which +they were a part, and that they would be visited by severe penalties if +they neglected these duties. But it inevitably tended to forge a set of +fetters binding and cramping the minds of its captives with a countless +number of terrors; life was full of constant anxiety, of that feeling +expressed by the later Romans in the word _religio_,[29] which, as we +shall see, probably had its origin in this period of primitive +superstition. The only remedy is the _discovery of the means of +disinfection_, or, as we commonly call it, of _purification_: a +discovery which must have been going on for ages, and only finds its +completion at Rome in the era of the City-state. We shall return to this +part of the subject when we deal with the ritual of purification; at +present we must attend to certain survivals in that ritual which suggest +that at one time the ancestors of the Roman people lived under this +unwritten code of taboo. + +Let us see, in the first place, how human beings were supposed to be +affected by this mysterious influence under certain circumstances and at +particular periods of their existence. As universally in primitive life, +the new-born infant must originally have been taboo; for every Roman +child needed purification or disinfection, boys on the ninth, girls on +the eighth day after birth. This day was called the _dies lustricus_, +the day of a purificatory rite; "est lustricus dies," says Macrobius, +"_quo infantes lustrantur_ et nomen accipiunt."[30] In historical times +the naming of the child was doubtless the more practically important +part of the ceremony; though we may note in passing that the mystic +value attaching to names, of which there are traces in Roman usage, may +have even originally given that part a greater significance than we +should naturally attribute to it.[31] Again, when the child reaches the +age of puberty, it is all the world over believed to be in a critical or +dangerous condition, needing disinfection; of this idea, so far as I +know, the later Romans show hardly a trace, but we may suppose that the +ceremony of laying aside the _toga_ of childhood, which was accompanied +by a sacrifice, was a faint survival of some process of +purification.[32] Once more, after a death the whole family had to be +purified with particular care from the contagion of the corpse,[33] +which was here as everywhere taboo; a cypress bough was stuck over the +door of the house of a noble family to give warning to any passing +pontifex that he was not to enter it;[34] and those who followed the +funeral cortege were purified by being sprinkled with water and by +stepping over fire.[35] _Society had effectually protected itself +against the miasma in all these cases by the discovery of the means of +disinfection._ + +One of the commonest forms of taboo is that on women, who, especially at +certain periods, were apparently believed to be "infectious."[36] Of +this belief we have very distinct survivals in Roman ritual, which I +must here be content to mention only, leaving details to trained +anthropologists to explain. We find them both in _sacra privata_ and +_sacra publica_. Cato has preserved the formula for the propitiation of +Mars Silvanus in the private rites of the farm; it is to take place _in +silva_, and its object is the protection of the cattle, doubtless those +which have been turned out to pasture in the forest, and are therefore +in danger from evil beasts and evil spirits. Now this _res divina_ may +be performed either by a free man or a slave, _but no woman may be +present_, nor see what is going on.[37] In _sacra publica_ women were +excluded from the cult of Hercules at the Ara Maxima, and were not +allowed to swear by the name of that god; facts which are usually +connected with the doubtful identification of Hercules with Genius, or +the male principle of life.[38] More conclusive evidence of taboo in the +case of women is the fact that at certain sacrifices they were ordered +to withdraw, both _mulieres_ and _virgines_, together with other persons +to be mentioned directly.[39] Unfortunately we are not told what those +sacrifices were; but it seems clear enough that there had been at one +time a scruple (_religio_) about admitting women of any age to certain +sacred rites. If so, it is remarkable how the good sense of the Roman +people overcame any serious disabilities which might have been produced +by such ideas; the Roman woman gained for herself a position of dignity, +and even of authority, in her household, which had very important +results on the formation of the character of the people.[40] Traces of +the old superstition doubtless continued to survive in folklore; an +example, interesting because it seems to illustrate the positive aspect +of taboo (_mana_), may be found by the curious in Pliny's _Natural +History_, xxviii. 78. + +Another widely-spread example of the class of ideas we are discussing is +the belief that _strangers_ are dangerous. Dr. Frazer tells us that "to +guard against the baneful influence exerted voluntarily or involuntarily +by strangers is an elementary dictate of savage prudence." You have to +disarm them of their magical powers, to counteract "the baneful +influence which is believed to emanate from them."[41] Of this feeling +he has collected a great number of convincing illustrations. We find it +also surviving in Roman ritual. A note, referred to above, which has +come down to us from the learned Verrius Flaccus, informs us that at +certain sacrifices the lictor proclaimed "_hostis vinctus mulier virgo +exesto_," where _hostis_ has its old meaning of stranger.[42] This is, +of course, merely the old feeling of taboo surviving in the religious +ritual of the City-state, and is also no doubt connected with the belief +that the recognised deities of a community could not be approached by +any but the members of that community; but its taproot is probably to be +found in the ideas described by Dr. Frazer. We can illustrate it well +from the ritual of another Italian city, Iguvium in Umbria, which, as I +mentioned in a note to my last lecture, has come down to us in a very +elaborate form. In the ordinance for the _lustratio populi_ of that city +the magistrate is directed to expel all members of certain neighbouring +communities by a thrice-repeated proclamation.[43] Such fear of +strangers is not even yet extinct in Italy. Professor von Duhn told me +that once when approaching an Italian village in search of inscriptions +he was taken for the devil, being unluckily mounted on a black horse and +dressed in black, and was met by a priest with a crucifix, who was at +last persuaded to "disinfect" him with holy water as a condition of his +being admitted to the village. But the Romans of historical times, in +this as in so many other ways, discovered easy methods of overcoming +these fears and scruples: we find a good example of this in the +organised college of Fetiales, who, on entering as envoys a foreign +territory, were fully protected by their sacred herbs, carried by a +_verbenarius_, against all hostile contamination.[44] + +A remark seems here necessary about the apparent inconsistency between +this feeling of anxiety about strangers and the well-known ancient +Italian practice of _hospitium_, by which two communities, or two +individuals, or an individual and a community, entered into relations +which bound them to mutual hospitality and kindness in case of need:[45] +a practice so widely spread and so highly developed that it may be +considered one of the most valuable civilising agents in the early +history of Italy. There is, however, no real inconsistency here. In the +first place, the stranger who was removed on the occasion of solemn +public religious rites may be assumed not to have been in possession of +the _ius hospitii_ with the Roman state, and in any case it must be +doubtful whether that _ius_ would give him the right of being present at +all sacrificial rites. Secondly, the researches of Dr. Westermarck have +recently, for the first time, made it clear that both the taboo on +strangers and the very widely-spread practice of hospitality can +ultimately be traced down to the same root. The stranger is dangerous; +but for that very reason it is desirable to secure his good-will at +once. He may have the evil eye; but if so, it is as well to disarm him +by offering him food and drink, and, when he has partaken of these, by +entering into communion with him in the act of partaking also yourself. +Expediency would obviously suggest some such remedy for the danger of +his presence, and this would in course of time, in accordance with the +instinct of Romans and Italians, grow into a set of rules sanctioned by +law as well as custom--the _ius hospitii_.[46] + +_Hostis vinctus mulier virgo exesto._ We have noticed traces of taboo on +women and strangers: what of the _vinctus_? This is, so far as I know, +the only proof we have that a man in chains was thought to be +religiously dangerous. I am not sure how his expulsion from religious +rites is to be explained. It is, however, as well to note that criminals +were in primitive societies thought to be uncanny, probably because the +commonest of all crimes, if not the only one affecting society as a +whole, was the breaking of taboo, which made the individual an +outcast.[47] And we may put this together with the fact that in the +early City-state such outcasts were probably not kept shut up in a +prison, but allowed to wander about secured with chains; this seems a +fair inference from the power which the priest of Jupiter (_Flamen +Dialis_) possessed of releasing from his chains any prisoner who entered +his house, _i.e._ who had taken refuge there as in an asylum.[48] Thus +the fettered criminal, who was certainly not a citizen, might find his +way to the place where a sacrifice was going on, and have to submit to +expulsion together with the strangers. It is, however, also possible +that the iron of the chains, if they were of iron, made him doubly +dangerous; for, as we shall see directly, iron was taboo, and the chains +of the prisoner who took refuge with the Flamen had to be thrown out of +the house, no doubt for this reason, by the _impluvium_.[49] + +Turning to inanimate objects, which are supposed by primitive man to be +dangerous or taboo, we are met by a fact which will astonish +anthropologists, and which I cannot satisfactorily explain. Blood is +everywhere in the savage world regarded with suspicion and anxiety; +there is something mysterious about it as containing (so they thought) +the life, and its colour and smell are also uncanny; horses cannot +endure it, and there are still strong men who faint at the sight of it. +Yet at Rome, so far as I can discover, there was in historical times +hardly a trace left of this anxiety in its original form of taboo; the +religious law had effectually eliminated the various chances that might +arouse it. No student of Roman religious antiquities seems to have +noticed this singular fact. No anthropologist, as far as I know, has +observed that among the many taboos to which the Flamen Dialis was +subject, blood does not appear. The reason no doubt is that +anthropologists are not as a rule Roman historians; their curiosity is +not excited by a fact which must have some explanation in Roman +religious history. From a single passage of Festus (p. 117) we learn +that soldiers following the triumphal car carried laurel "ut quasi +purgati a caede humana intrarent urbem"; and this is the only distinct +relic of the idea that I can find. Pliny's _Natural History_, that +wonderful thesaurus of odds and ends, affords no help; the mystic +qualities of blood are hardly alluded to there, and the same can be said +of Servius' commentary on the _Aeneid_. The word blood is not to be +found in the index to Wissowa's great work, of which the supreme value +is its accurate record of the religious law and all the ceremonies of +the State. I am constrained to believe that the priests or priest-kings +who developed the _ius divinum_ of the Roman City-state deliberately +suppressed the superstition, for reasons which it is impossible to +conjecture with certainty. And this guess, which I put forward with +hesitation, is indeed in keeping with certain other facts of Roman life. +It is doubtful whether human sacrifice ever existed among this +people;[50] it is certain that the execution of citizens in civil life +by beheading was abandoned at a very early period.[51] The shedding of +blood, except when a victim was sacrificed under the rules of sacred +law, was carefully avoided; thus the horror of blood had a social and +ethical result of value, instead of remaining a mere _religio_ (taboo). +It is true that in one or two rites, such as that of the October horse, +the blood of a sacrifice seems to have been thought to possess peculiar +powers;[52] but it is at the same time noticeable that this rite is not +included in the old calendar, a fact of which a wholly satisfactory +explanation has not yet been offered. In the Lupercalia there is a trace +of the mystic use of blood in sacrifice, but a very faint one: to this +we shall return later on. The two Luperci had their foreheads smeared +with the knife bloody from the slaughter of the victims, but the blood +was at once wiped off with wool dipped in milk.[53] This rite is of +course in the old calendar; it stands almost alone in its mystical +character, and may have been taken over by the Romans from previous +inhabitants of the site of Rome. Lastly, in the Terminalia, or +boundary-festival of arable land in country districts, the +boundary-stone was sprinkled with the blood of the victims, showing that +a spirit, or _numen_, was believed to reside in it;[54] but I cannot +find that this practice survived in the public sacrifices of the city. +It is found only in the sacrifices (_Graeco ritu_) supervised by the _XV +viri sacris faciundis_ in that part of the Ludi Saeculares of Augustus +which was concerned with Greek chthonic deities in the Campus +Martius.[55] + +Yet unquestionably there had been a time when many inanimate objects +were supposed to have a mystic or dangerous influence; this is +sufficiently proved by the long list of taboos to which the unfortunate +Flamen Dialis was even in historical times subject. He was forbidden to +touch a goat, a dog, raw meat, beans, ivy, wheat, leavened bread; he +might not walk under a vine, and his hair and nails might not be cut +with an iron knife; and he might not have any knot or unbroken ring +about his person. Dr. Frazer has the merit of being the first to point +out the real meaning of this strange list of disabilities, and to +explain the mystic or miasmatic origin of some of them.[56] They need +not detain us now, as they are survivals only, and survivals of ideas +which must have been long extinct before Roman history can be said to +begin. Almost the only one among them of which we have other traces is +the taboo on iron, which must have been of comparatively late date, as +the use of iron in Italy seems only to have begun about the eighth +century B.C.[57] This is found also in the ritual of the Arval +Brotherhood, the ancient agricultural priesthood revived by Augustus, +and better known to us than any other owing to the discovery of its +_Acta_ in the site of the sacred grove between Rome and Ostia. These +Brethren had originally suffered from the taboo on iron; but in +characteristic fashion they had discovered that a piacular or +disinfecting sacrifice would sufficiently atone for its use whenever it +was necessary to take a pruning-hook within the limits of the grove.[58] +We may here also recall the fact that no iron might be used in the +building or repairing of the ancient _pons sublicius_, the oldest of all +the bridges of the Tiber.[59] + +Every one who wishes to get an idea of the nature of taboo in primitive +Rome, and of the way in which it was got rid of, should study the +disabilities of the Flamen Dialis, and satisfy himself of their absence, +with the exception just mentioned, and possibly one or two more, in the +ritual of historical Rome. Nothing is more likely to convince him of the +way in which Roman civilisation contrived to leave these superstitions +as mere fossils, incapable any longer of doing mischief by cramping the +conscience and inducing constant anxiety. If he is disposed to ask why +such a large number of these fossils should be found attached to the +priesthood of Jupiter, I must ask him to let me postpone that question, +which would at this moment lead us too far afield. + +I may, however, mention here that the Flaminica Dialis, who was not +priestess of Juno as is commonly supposed, but assisted her husband in +the cult of Jupiter, was also subject to certain taboos. On three +occasions in the religious year she might not appear in public with her +hair "done up," viz. the moving of the _ancilia_ in March, the festival +of the Argei in March and May, and during the cleansing of the _penus +Vestae_ in June. Also she might not wear shoes made from the skin of a +beast that had died a natural death, but only from that of a sacrificial +victim. There are traces of a _religio_ about shoe-leather, I may +remark, both in the Roman and in other religious systems. Varro tells us +that "in aliquot sacris et sacellis scriptum habemus, Ne quid scorteum +adhibeatur: ideo _ne morticinum_ quid adsit." Leather was taboo in the +worship of the almost unknown deity Carmenta. Petronius describes women +in the cult of Jupiter Elicius walking barefoot; and we are reminded of +the well-known rule which still survives in Mahommedan mosques.[60] The +original idea may have been that the skin of an animal not made sacred +by sacrifice might destroy the efficacy of the worship contemplated. On +the other hand, the skin of a duly sacrificed animal had potency of a +useful kind--a fact or belief so widespread as to need no illustration +here; but we shall come upon an example of it in my next lecture. + +Certain _places_ were also affected by the idea of taboo. In the later +religious law of the City-state the sites of all temples, _i.e._ all +places in which deities had consented to take up their abode, were of +course holy; but this is a much more mature development, though it +unquestionably had its root in the same idea that we are now discussing. +Such sites, as we shall see in a later lecture, were _loca sacra_, and +_sacer_ is a word of legal ritual, meaning that the place has been made +over to the deity by certain formulae, accompanied with favourable +auspices, under the authority of the State.[61] But there were other +holy places which were not _sacra_ but _religiosa_; and the word +_religiosum_ here might almost be translated "affected by taboo." +Wissowa provides us with a list of these places, and this and the +quotations he supplies with it are of the utmost value for my present +subject.[62] They comprised, of course, all holy places which the State +had not duly consecrated, and therefore some which hardly concern us +here, such as shrines belonging to families and gentes, and temple-sites +in the provinces of a later age. More to our purpose at this moment are +the spots where thunderbolts were supposed to have fallen. Such spots +were encircled with a low wall and called _puteal_ from their +resemblance to a well, or _bidental_ from the sacrifice there of a lamb +as a _piaculum_; the bolt was supposed to be thus buried, and the place +became _religiosum_.[63] So, too, all burial-grounds were not _loca +sacra_ but _loca religiosa_, technically because they were not the +property of the state or consecrated by it; in reality, I venture to +say, because the place where a corpse was deposited was of necessity +taboo. Such places were _extra commercium_, and their sanctity might not +be violated: "religiosum est," wrote the learned Roman Masurius Sabinus, +"quod propter sanctitatem aliquam _remotum et sepositum est_ a +nobis."[64] So, too, the great lawyer of Cicero's time, Servius +Sulpicius, defines _religio_ as "quae propter sanctitatem aliquam remota +ac seposita a nobis sit," where he is using _religio_ in the sense of a +thing or place to which a taboo attaches.[65] And again, another +authority, Aelius Gallus, said that _religiosum_ was properly applied to +an object in regard to which there were things which a man might not do: +"quod si faciat," he goes on, "adversus deorum voluntatem videatur +facere."[66] These last words are in the language of the City-state; if +we would go behind it to that of an earlier age, we should substitute +words which would express the feeling or scruple, the _religio_, without +reference to any special deity. Virgil has pictured admirably this +feeling as applied to places, in describing the visit of Aeneas to the +site of the future Rome under the guidance of his host Evander (_Aen._ +viii. 347):-- + + hinc ad Tarpeiam sedem et Capitolia ducit, + aurea nunc, olim silvestribus horrida dumis. + _iam tum religio pavidos terrebat agrestis_ + _dira loci_: iam tum silvam saxumque tremebant. + "hoc nemus, hunc," inquit, "frondoso vertice collem, + (quis deus, incertum est) habitat deus." + + +This is a passage on which I shall have to comment again: at present I +will content myself with noting how accurately the poet, who of all +others best understood the instincts of the less civilised Italians of +his own day, has used his knowledge to express the antique feeling that +there were places which man must shrink from entering--a feeling far +older than the invention of legal _consecratio_ by the authorities of a +City-state. + +Lastly, the principle of taboo, or _religio_, if we use the Latin word, +affected certain times as well as places. Just as under the _ius +divinum_ of the fully-developed State certain spots were made over to +the deities for their habitation and rendered inviolable by +_consecratio_, so certain days were also appointed as theirs which the +human inhabitants might not violate by the transaction of profane +business. But I have just pointed out that the consecration of holy +places in this legal fashion was a late development of a primitive +feeling or _religio_; exactly the same, if I am not mistaken, was the +case with regard to the holy days. These were called _nefasti_, and +belong to the life of the State; but there were others, called +_religiosi_, which I believe to have been tabooed days long before the +State arose. + +When we come to examine the ancient religious calendar, it will be found +that I shall not then be called upon to deal with _dies religiosi_, for +the very good reason that they are not indicated in that calendar--there +is no mark for them as _religiosi_, and some of them are not even _dies +nefasti_, as we might naturally have expected.[67] What, then, is the +history of them? We may be able to make a fair guess at this by noting +exactly what these days were; Dr. Wissowa has put them together for us +in a very succinct passage.[68] He begins the list with the 18th of +Quinctilis (July), on which two great disasters had happened to Roman +armies, the defeats on the Cremera and the Allia; and also the 16th, the +day after the Ides, because, according to the legend, the Roman +commander had sacrificed on that day with a view to gaining the favour +of the gods in the battle. We may regard the story about the 18th as +historical; but then we are told that _all_ days following on Kalends, +Nones, and Ides were likewise made _religiosi_ (or _atri_, _vitiosi_, +which have the same meaning) as being henceforward deemed unlucky by +pronouncement of senate and pontifices;[69] thus all _dies postriduani_, +as they were called, were put out of use, or at any rate declared +unlucky, for many purposes, both public and private, _e.g._ marriages, +levies, battles, and sacred rites,[70] simply because on one occasion +disaster had followed the offering of a sacrifice on the 16th of +Quinctilis. It is difficult to believe that thirty-six days in the year +were thus tabooed, by a Roman senate and Roman magistrates, in a period +when the practical wisdom of the government was beginning to be a marked +characteristic of the State. Some people, we are told, went so far as to +treat the _fourth day before_ Kalends, Nones, and Ides in the same way; +but Gellius declares that he could find no tradition about this except a +single passage of Claudius Quadrigarius, in which he said that the +fourth day before the Nones of Sextilis was that on which the battle of +Cannae was fought.[71] + +I am strongly inclined to suggest that the traditional explanation of +the tabooing of these thirty-six, or possibly seventy-two days was +neither more nor less than an aetiological myth, like hundreds of others +which were invented to account for Roman practices, religious and other; +and this supposition seems to be confirmed as we go on with the list of +_dies religiosi_ as given by Wissowa. The three days--Sextilis 24, +October 5, November 8--on which the Manes were believed to come up from +the underworld through the _mundus_ (to which I shall return later on) +were _religiosi_;[72] so were those when the temple of Vesta remained +open (June 7 to 15),[73] those on which the Salii performed their +dances in March and October,[74] two days following the _feriae Latinae_ +(a movable festival),[75] and the days of the Parentalia in February and +the Lemuria in May, which were concerned with the cult and the memory of +the dead.[76] Now the _religio_ or taboo on these days obviously springs +either from a feeling of anxiety suggested by very primitive notions of +the dead and of departed spirits; or in the case of the temple of Vesta, +by some mystical purification or disinfection preparatory to the +ingathering of the crops, which I noticed in my _Roman Festivals_ (p. +152 foll.); or again in the case of the Salii, by some danger to the +crops from evil spirits, etc., which might be averted by their peculiar +performances. In fact, all these _dies religiosi_ date as such, we may +be pretty sure, from a very primitive period before the genesis of the +City-state, and were not recognised--for what reason we will not at +present attempt to guess--as _religiosi_ by the authorities who drew up +the Calendar. Some of them appear in that calendar as _dies nefasti_, +but not all; and I am entirely at one with Wissowa, whose knowledge of +the Roman religious law is unparalleled for exactness, in believing that +a _religio_ affecting a day had nothing whatever to do with its +character as _fastus_ or _nefastus_.[77] + +If all these last-mentioned _dies religiosi_ are such because ancient +popular feeling attached the _religio_ to them, we may infer, I think, +that the same was really the case also with the _dies postriduani_. The +fact that the authorities of the State had made one or two days +_religiosi_ as anniversaries of disasters, supplied a handy explanation +for a number of other _dies religiosi_ of which the true explanation had +been entirely lost; but that there was such a true explanation, resting +on very primitive beliefs, I have very little doubt. Lucky and unlucky +days are found in the unwritten calendars of primitive peoples in many +parts of the world. An old pupil, now a civil servant in the province +of Madras, has sent me an elaborate account of the notions of this kind +existing in the minds of the Tamil-speaking people of his district of +southern India. The Celtic calendar recently discovered at Coligny in +France contains a number of mysterious marks, some of which may have had +a meaning of this kind.[78] Dr. Jevons has collected some other examples +from various parts of the world, _e.g._ Mexico.[79] The old Roman +superstition about the luckiness of odd days and the unluckiness of even +ones, which appears, as we shall see, in the arrangement of the +calendar, was probably at one time a popular Italian notion, not +derived, as used to be thought, from Pythagoras and his school. + +I therefore conclude that we may add times and seasons to the list of +those objects, animate and inanimate, which were affected by the +practice of taboo in primitive Rome; and I hold that the word +_religiosus_, as applied both to times and places, exactly expresses the +feeling on which that practice is based. The word _religiosus_ came to +have another meaning (though it retained the old one as well) in +historical times, and the Romans could be called _religiosissimi +mortalium_ in the sense of paying close attention to worship and all its +details. But the original meaning of _religio_ and _religiosus_ may +after all have been that nervous anxiety which is a special +characteristic of an age of taboo.[80] To discover the best methods of +soothing that anxiety, or, in other words, the methods of disinfection, +was the work of the organised religious life of family and State which +we are going to study. But I must first devote a lecture to another +class of primitive survivals. + + + NOTES TO LECTURE II + + [23] Renel, _Les Enseignes_, p. 43 foll. For the + contrary view, Deubner in _Archiv_, 1910, p. 490. + + [24] On taboo in general, Jevons, _Introduction to the + History of Religion_, ch. vi.; Robertson Smith, + _Religion of the Semites_, p. 142 foll.; Frazer, _Golden + Bough_ (ed. 2), i. 343; Crawley, _The Mystic Rose_, + _passim_. On the relation of taboo to magic, Marett, + _Threshold of Religion_, p. 85 foll. Lately M. van + Gennep in his _Rites de passage_ has attempted to + classify and explain the various rites resulting from + taboo. + + [25] See the _Transactions of the Congress_ (Oxford + University Press), vol. i. p. 121 foll. M. Reinach had + alleged that the gens Fabia was originally a totem clan, + _Mythes et cultes_, i. p. 47. + + [26] Marett, _On the Threshold of Religion_, p. 137 + foll. "In _taboo_ the mystic thing is not to be lightly + approached (negative aspect); _qua mana_, it is instinct + with mystic power (positive aspect)": so Mr. Marett + states the distinction in a private letter. + + [27] _Evolution of Religion_, p. 94. + + [28] _Introduction_, ch. viii.; Westermarck, _Origin and + Development of Ethical Ideas_, i. 233 foll. + + [29] See a paper by the author in the _Transactions of + the Congress of the History of Religions_, 1908, ii. 169 + foll. + + [30] Macrobius, _Sat._ i. 16. 36; De Marchi, _La + Religione nella vita domestica_, i. p. 169 foll.; + Samter, _Familienfeste der Griechen und Roemer,_ p. 62 + foll., where the _dies lustricus_ is compared with the + Greek [Greek: amphidromia]. Unfortunately the details of + the Roman rite are unknown to us, which seems to + indicate that the primitive or magical character of it + had disappeared. Van Gennep, _op. cit._ ch. v., reviews + and classifies our present knowledge of this kind of + rite. See also Crawley, _Mystic Rose_, p. 435 foll. + + [31] Crawley, _op. cit._ p. 436; Frazer, _G.B._ i. 403 + foll. From this point of view Roman names need a closer + examination than they have yet received. See, however, + Marquardt, _Privatleben der Roemer_, pp. 10 and 81, and + Mommsen, _Roem. Forschungen_, i. 1 foll. Marquardt must + be wrong in stating (p. 10) that only the _praenomen_ + was given on the _dies lustricus_; children dying before + that day usually, as he says on p. 82 note, have no name + in inscriptions, and that ceremony must surely have + introduced the child to the gens of its parents. + Certainly that introduction had not to wait till the + _toga virilis_ was taken; though Tertull. _de Idol._ 16 + looks at first a little like it. The same statement is + made in the _Dict. of Antiq., s.v._ "nomen." Macr. + _Sat._ i. 16. 36, and Fest. 120, simply speak of + _nomen_. + + [32] Fowler, _R.F._ p. 56; De Marchi, _op. cit._ p. 176. + For the primitive ideas about puberty, Crawley, _Mystic + Rose_, ch. xiii. The idea of the Romans seems to have + been simply that the child, who had so far needed + special protection from evil influences (of what kind in + particular it is impossible to say) by purple-striped + toga and amulet (see below, p. 60), was now entering a + stage when these were no longer needed. All notions of + taboo seem to have vanished. + + [33] Marquardt, _Privataltertuemer_, p. 337 foll. + + [34] Serv. _Aen._ ii. 714, and especially iii. 64. Other + references in Marq. _op. cit._ p. 338, note 5, and De + Marchi, _La Religione nella_ _vita domestica_, p. 190. + For similar usages of prohibition see van Gennep, _op. + cit._ ch. ii. + + [35] Festus, p. 3, "itaque funus prosecuti redeuntes + ignem supragradiebantur aqua aspersi, quod purgationis + genus vocabant suffitionem." For the possibly magic + influence of these elements, see Jevons, _op. cit._ p. + 70. + + [36] Frazer, _G.B._ i. 325, iii. 222 foll.; Jevons, p. + 59. + + [37] Cato, _R.R._ 83, "mulier ad eam rem divinam ne + adsit neve videat quomodo fiat." + + [38] Plutarch, _Quaest. Rom._ 60. Dogs were also + excluded (_ib._ 90); Gellius xi. 6. 2; Wissowa, _R.K._ + p. 227; Fowler, _R.F._ p. 194, where the private and + public taboos are compared. + + [39] Festus, _s.v._ "exesto." For similar taboos in + Greece, Farnell in _Archiv_ for 1904, p. 76. + + [40] Fowler, _Social Life at Rome in the Age of Cicero_, + p. 143 foll. Cp. Westermarck, _Origin, etc._, vol. i. + ch. xxvi., especially p. 652 foll. + + [41] _G.B._ i. 298 foll. + + [42] Festus, _s.v._ "exesto." + + [43] Buecheler, _Umbrica_, p. 94 foll. Cp. Livy v. 50, + where it is said that, after the Gauls had left Rome, + all the temples, _quod ea hostis possedisset_, were to + be restored, to have their bounds laid down afresh + (_terminarentur_) and to be disinfected (_expiarentur_). + _Digest_, xi. 7. 36, "cum loca capta sunt ab hostibus, + omnia desinunt religiosa vel sacra esse, sicut homines + liberi in servitutem perveniunt; quod si ab hac + calamitate fuerint liberata, quasi quodam postliminio + reversa pristino statui restituerentur." Cp. Plutarch, + _Aristides_, 20. A friend reminds me that Bishop + Berkeley, when in Italy, had his bedroom sprinkled with + holy water by his landlady. + + [44] See Marquardt, p. 420, notes 5 and 6. The + _verbenarius_ is mentioned in Serv. _Aen._ xii. 120, and + Pliny _N.H._ xxii. 5. For the disinfecting power of + verbena (_myrtea verbena_) see Pliny xv. 119, where it + is said to have been used by Romans and Sabines after + the rape of the Sabine virgins. + + [45] See Marquardt, _Privatleben_, p. 192 foll., based + on the famous essay of Mommsen in his _Roemische + Forschungen_, i. 319 foll. The passages quoted from Livy + for the practice in early times (i. 45, v. 50) are not, + of course, historical evidence; but we may fairly argue + back from the more explicit evidence of later times, + _e.g._ the Senatusconsultum de Asclepiade of 78 B.C. + (_C.I. Graec._ 5879). + + There is a good example of the feeling in modern Italy + in a book called _In the Abruzzi_, by Anne Macdonell, p. + 275. I have experienced it in remote parts of South + Wales long ago. Moritz, the German pastor who travelled + on foot in England towards the end of the eighteenth + century, noted that even the innkeepers were constantly + unwilling to take him in. His book was reprinted in + Cassell's National Library some years ago. + + [46] See the very interesting chapter in _The Origin + and Development of Moral Ideas_, vol. i. p. 570 foll., + especially p. 590 foll. Dr. Westermarck aptly points out + that hospitality is almost universal among "rude" + peoples, and loses its hold as they become more + civilised. M. van Gennep in his recently published work, + _Les Rites de Passage_, has attempted to classify the + various rites relating to taboo of strangers; see ch. + iii., especially p. 38 foll. + + [47] Jevons, _Introduction_, p. 70. + + [48] Gellius x. 15. 8, "vinctum, si aedes eius + introierit, solui necessum est." (In hot countries + chains still usually, or in some degree, take the place + of bolts and bars, _e.g._ in the Soudan, as I am told by + an old pupil now in the Soudan civil service.) The + regular Latin phrase for imprisonment is "in vincula + conicere": Pauly-Wissowa, _s.v._ "carcer." + + [49] Gellius, _l.c._; Serv. _Aen._ ii. 57, a curious + passage, in which the release of Sinon from his bonds by + King Priam is compared with that of the prisoner who + enters the flaminia (house of the Flamen Dialis). That + there was something in the iron which interfered with + the religious efficacy of the Flamen seems likely; cp. + the rule that he might wear no ring unless it were + broken, and have no knot about his dress. But the latter + restriction suggests that binding may have been + originally the object of the taboo (cp. Ovid, _Fasti_, + v. 432), and that the iron taboo came in with the iron + age. Appel, _de Romanorum precationibus_, p. 82, note 2, + seems so to understand it. Cp. Eurip. _Iph. Taur._ 468, + where Orestes and Pylades are unbound before entering + the temple. + + [50] There has been much discussion of this question; I + entirely agree with Wissowa (_R.K._ p. 354, where + references are given for the opposite opinion) that + there is no evidence for human sacrifice in the old + Roman religion or law, except in the rule that a + condemned criminal was made over to a deity (_sacer_), + which may have been a legal survival of an original form + of actual sacrifice. The alleged sacrifice by Julius + Caesar of two mutinous soldiers in the Campus Martius + (Dio Cass. xliii. 24) is of the same nature as the + sacrifice of captives to Orcus in _Aen._ xi. 81, _i.e._ + it is outside of the civil life and religious law; this + is shown in the latter case by the mention of blood in + the ritual (_caeso sparsurus sanguine flammas_), and in + the former by the beheading of the mutineers. + + [51] Mommsen, _Strafrecht_, p. 917 foll.; Livy x. 9; + Cic. _de Rep._ ii. 31. 65. All other methods of + execution were bloodless. _Decollatio_ remained in use + in the army (as in the case just mentioned), but the axe + disappeared from the fasces in the city with the + abolition of kingship. As further illustration of the + dislike of all bloodshed, cp. the rule of XII. Tables, + "mulieres genas ne radunto," _i.e._ at funerals, Cic. + _de Legibus_, ii. 59, and Serv. _Aen._ iii. 67 from + Varro, and v. 78. The gladiatorial _ludi_ may have been + a revival of an old custom akin to human sacrifice of + captives in the field. See _Social Life at Rome in the + Age of Cicero_, p. 304, note 3. + + We may also note in this connection that there is no + distinct trace of the blood-feud in old Roman law; see + _Zum aeltesten Strafrecht der Kulturvoelker_, p. 38 + (questions of comparative law suggested by Mommsen and + answered by various specialists). Doubtless it once + existed, but vanished at an early date. + + [52] Fowler, _R.F._ p. 242. The tail of the sacrificed + horse was carried to the Regia, where the blood was + allowed to drip on the sacred hearth (_participandae rei + divinae gratia_), Festus, p. 178. + + [53] _R.F._ p. 311 foll., from Plutarch, _Rom._ 21. + + [54] For this practice in many ancient religions, and + its substitute, the smearing of the stone with turmeric + or other red stain, see Jevons, _Introduction_, p. 139 + foll.; Robertson Smith, _Semites_, p. 415. + + [55] This is found in Zosimus ii. 1. 5; Diels, + _Sibyllinische Blaetter_, 132, and 73 note. Cp. Virg. + _Aen._ viii. 106; also a Greek rite. + + [56] _G.B._ ed. 2, i. 241 foll. + + [57] The bronze and iron ages, of course, overlap; see + Helbig, _Italiker in der Poebene_, p. 78 foll. + + [58] Henzen, _Acta Fratr. Arv._ pp. 22 and 128 foll. + Other examples are collected by Helbig, _op. cit._ p. + 80. + + [59] Dion. Hal. iii. 45; Mommsen in _C.I.L._ i. p. 177. + It may be as well to point out that iron, like wheat in + the taboos of the Flamen, was considered dangerous, as + being a novelty. The old Italian grain was not true + wheat but _far_, which continued to be used in religious + rites; _R.F._ p. 304, and Marquardt, _Privatleben der + Roemer_, p. 399 foll. + + [60] Varro, _L.L._ vii. 84; Ovid, _Fasti_, i. 629; + Petronius, _Sat._ 44. There are many parallels in Greek + ritual. + + [61] See below, p. 146. Mr. Marett suggests to me a + comparison with the _rongo_ (sacred) of the Melanesians, + and _tapu_ as used of a place by them, _i.e._ set apart + by a human authority; Codrington, _Melanesians_, p. 77. + + [62] Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 408 foll.; cp. 323 and notes. + + [63] The fullest account of this will be found in + Marquardt, p. 262 foll. For the case of a man killed by + lightning, see note 4 on p. 263; the body was not burnt + but buried, and the grave became a _bidental_, and + _religiosum_. + + [64] For the intricate pontifical law of burial-places + see Wissowa, p. 409. The quotation from Masurius is in + Gellius iv. 9. 8, "M. Sabinus in commentariis quos de + indigenis composuit." The word _sanctitas_ is here used + merely by way of explanation and not in a technical + sense; for which see Marq. p. 145 and references; but it + seems to have had a special use in the cult of the dead. + (See below, p. 470.) + + [65] Quoted by Macrobius, _Sat._ iii. 3. 8. For + Sulpicius see _Social Life at Rome in the Age of + Cicero_, p. 118 foll. + + [66] Festus, p. 278. This Aelius lived at the end of the + Republican period, and belonged to the school of + Sulpicius; Schanz, _Gesch. der roem. Lit._ i. pt. 2, p. + 486. + + [67] _e.g._ the three days on which the _mundus_ was + open were all _comitiales_, though at the same time + _religiosi_. + + [68] _R.K._ pp. 376, 377. + + [69] The authorities for the story are Verrius Flaccus, + _ap._ Gell. v. 17, and Macrobius, _Sat._ i. 16. 21. + + [70] For the extent of the taboo see Gell. iv. 9. 5; + Macr. i. 16. 18. + + [71] Gell. v. 17. 3 foll. (_annalium quinto_). + + [72] Festus, p. 278. + + [73] _R.F._ p. 151. + + [74] Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 377, note 6. + + [75] Cic. _ad Qu. Fratr._ ii. 4. 2. + + [76] Wissowa, _R.K._ pp. 187, 189. + + [77] _R.K._ p. 377. Gell. iv. 9. 5 says that the + _multitudo imperitorum_ confused the _dies religiosi_ + and _dies nefasti_. The distinction is most clearly seen + in the fact that on _dies religiosi_ the temples were + (or ought to be) shut, and "res divinas facere" was + ill-omened (Gell., _ib._), while on _dies nefasti_ the + latter was regular, such days being made over to the + gods. No wonder that Gellius brands the popular + ignorance with such words as _prave_ and _perperam_. + + [78] See Prof. Rhys's paper read before the British + Academy, "Notes on the Coligny Calendar," p. 33 and + elsewhere. + + [79] _Introduction_, p. 65 foll. + + [80] Since writing this sentence I have read the paper + by W. Otto on "Religio and Superstitio" in _Archiv fuer + Religionswissenschaft_, 1909, p. 533 foll.; in which at + p. 544 he hints at a connection of _religio_ with the + practice of taboo. With some of his conclusions, + however, I cannot agree. The same explanation of the + origin of _religio_, _i.e._ in an age of taboo, has also + been suggested since my lecture was written by + Maximilianus Kobbert, _De verborum "religio atque + religiosus" usu apud Romanos_, p. 31 (Koenigsberg, + 1910). + + + + +LECTURE III + +ON THE THRESHOLD OF RELIGION: MAGIC + + +Taboo, the traces of which at Rome we examined in the last lecture, is, +as we saw, closely allied to magic, even if it be not, as Dr. Frazer +thinks, magic in a negative form. We have now to see what traces are to +be found of magic in the proper or usual sense of the word--active or +positive magic, as we may call it. By this we are to understand the +exercise of a mysterious mechanical power by an individual on man, +spirit, or deity, to enforce a certain result. In magic there is no +propitiation, no prayer. "He who performs a purely magical act," says +Dr. Westermarck,[81] "utilises such mechanical power without making any +appeal at all to the will of a supernatural being." Religion, on the +other hand, is an attitude of regard and dependence; in a religious +stage man feels himself in the hands of a supernatural power with whom +he desires to be in right relation. + +If we accept this distinction, as I think we may (though one school of +anthropologists is hardly disposed to do so), it is plain that magical +practices are of a totally different kind from religious practices, as +being the result of a different mental attitude towards the +supernatural; they belong to a ruder and more rudimentary idea of the +relation of Man to the Power manifesting itself in the universe. True, +they have their origin in the same kind of human experience, in the +difficulties man meets with in his struggle for existence, and his +desire to overcome these; but unlike religion, magic is a wholly +inadequate attempt to overcome them. This inadequacy was long ago well +explained by Dr. Jevons.[82] He showed that man in that early stage of +his experience did not understand the true relation of cause and effect; +that, "turned loose as it were among innumerable possible causes (of a +given effect), with nothing to guide his choice, the chances against his +making the right choice were considerable." As a matter of fact he +usually made the wrong one, and is still apt to do so. There is probably +more magic going on behind the scenes even in civilised countries, and +more especially both in Greece and Italy, than either men of science or +men of religion have any idea of. In its various forms as they are now +classified,[83] _e.g._ contagious magic, and homoeopathic magic, the +exercise of the mysterious will-power, real or imaginary, is to be found +all the world over, accompanied usually with a spell or incantation +which is believed to enforce and increase that power--a kind of +telepathy, which seems to be the psychological basis, so far as there is +one, of the whole system. In these rites the virtue resides in some +action, which, together with the spell or incantation, enforces the +desired result by calling out the will-power, or _mana_, if we adopt the +convenient Melanesian word lately brought into use. Whatever percentage +of psychological truth may lie at the root of such performances, it is +obvious that they must in the main be wholly inadequate, and must +constantly tend to pass into mere quackery and become discredited; and +it was the special function of the religious organisation of early +society to eliminate and discredit them. + +But it was a long stage in the evolution of society before man arrived +at a better knowledge of his relation to the Power manifesting itself in +the universe; before he reached the idea of a god or spirit realisable +and nameable, and thus capable of being addressed, placated, worshipped. +When this stage is reached, there supervenes almost always a strong +tendency to regulate and systematise the methods of address, placation, +and worship; and among some peoples, _e.g._ the Romans, for reasons +which it is by no means easy to explain, this tendency is much stronger +than among others. Wherever it has been strong, wherever these methods +of putting oneself in right relation with the Power have been +systematised by a central authority or priesthood, and thus made into +religious law, there, as we might naturally expect, the performances and +performers of magic have been most vigorously discountenanced and +outlawed. The interests of religion and its officials are wholly +antagonistic to those of magic and magicians. In civilised communities +and in historical times magic is in the main individualistic, not +social; magical ceremonies for the good of the community seem to be +confined to races in a very early stage of development. The examples on +which Dr. Frazer relies for his theory of the development of the public +magician into a king[84] are of this primitive kind, or are mere +survivals of magic in a higher stage of civilisation--such survivals as +there will always be among forms and ceremonies, of which it is man's +nature to be tenacious. But religion, once firmly established, +invariably seeks to exclude magic; and the priest does his best to +discredit the magician, as claiming to exercise mysterious powers +outside the pale of the legally recognised methods of propitiation and +worship. As Dr. Tylor observed long ago, the more civilised the race, +the more apt it is to associate magic with men of inferior +civilisation.[85] In the Jewish law, though magic was well known to the +Jews and privately practised, there is no recognition of it; the magical +books attributed to Solomon were suppressed, according to tradition, by +the pious king Hezekiah.[86] So too at Rome, where the outward forms of +religion were also very highly systematised, magic, as it seems to me, +was rigorously excluded from the State ritual, though it continued in +use in private life under certain precautions taken by the State; in the +few genuine examples of it in the rites belonging to the _ius divinum_ +(_i.e._ those used and sanctioned for the purposes of the community), +it is nothing more than a survival of which the magical meaning was +unknown to the writers from whom we hear of it. + +A good example of such survivals is the curious ceremony of +the _aquaelicium_, without doubt a genuine case of magical +"rain-making"--one of the many inadequate and blundering attempts on the +part of primitive man to obtain what he needs. Probably it may be +classed under the head of "sympathetic magic," but the evidence as to +what was done in the ceremony is not quite explicit enough to allow us +to do this confidently.[87] It was, of course, not included in the +religious calendar, as it would be only occasionally called for, and +could not be fixed to a day; but there is clear evidence that it was +sanctioned by the State, for the pontifices took part in it, and the +magistrates without the _toga praetexta_, and the lictors carrying the +fasces reversed.[88] A stone, which lay outside the walls near the Porta +Capena, was brought into the city by the pontifices, so far as we can +make out the details, and it has been conjectured that it was taken to +an altar of Jupiter Elicius on the Aventine hard by, this cult-title of +the god of the sky having possibly some relation to the technical name +of the ceremony. What was done with the stone we unluckily do not know; +but it has been reasonably conjectured that it was a hollow one, and +that it was filled with water which was allowed to run over the edge, as +a means of inducing the rain-god to suffer the heavens to overflow.[89] +It was called _lapis manalis_; and the epithet here can have nothing to +do with the Manes, as in the case of another _lapis manalis_, of which I +shall have a word to say later on, but must mean "pouring" or +"overflowing." One or two other fragments of evidence point in the same +direction, and I think we may fairly conclude that the rite was +originally one of sympathetic magic--that as the stone overflowed, so +the sky would pour down rain. In my _Roman Festivals_ I have pointed out +a remarkable parallel to this in the collections of the _Golden Bough_; +in a Samoan village a stone represented the god of rain, and in a +drought his priests carried it in procession and dipped it in a stream. + +This parallel I owe to Dr. Frazer's wide knowledge of all such practices +among savage peoples. But this ever helpful and friendly guide, in +treating of the Jupiter Elicius concerned in this ceremony, has gone +beyond the evidence, and attributed to the Romans another kind of magic +of which I believe they were quite innocent. He has been led to this by +his theory that kings were developed out of successful magicians. In his +lectures on the early history of the Kingship[90] he maintains that the +Roman kings practised the magical art of bringing down lightning from +heaven. "The priestly king Numa passed for an adept in the art of +drawing down lightning from the sky.... Tullus Hostilius is reported to +have met with the same end (as Salmoneus, king of Elis) in an attempt to +draw down Jupiter in the form of lightning from the clouds." To support +these statements Dr. Frazer quotes Pliny, Livy, Ovid, Plutarch, +Arnobius, Aurelius Victor, and Zonaras--truly a formidable list of +authorities; but without any attempt to discover where any of these late +writers found the stories. Yet he had but to read Aust's admirable +article "Jupiter" in the _Mythological Lexicon_[91] to assure himself +that legends which cannot be traced farther back than the middle of the +second century B.C. cannot seriously be assumed to be genuinely Roman. +Pliny happens to mention Calpurnius Piso as his authority; this was the +man who is well known in Roman history as the author of the first _lex +de repetundis_ of the year 149 B.C., a good statesman, but as an +annalist much given to indulging a mythological fancy.[92] We happen to +know that he wrote with happy confidence about the life and habits of +Romulus, and a story about wine-drinking which he attributes to that +king is obviously transferred to him from some more historical +personage. Romulus would not drink wine one day because he was going to +be very busy on the next. Then they said to him, "If we all did so, +Romulus, wine would be cheap." "Nay, dear," he replied, "if every one +drank as much as he wished; and that is exactly what I am doing."[93] I +quote the story simply as a good example of the way in which Roman +historians could deal with their kings, and of the absolute necessity of +acquainting oneself with their methods before building hypotheses upon +their statements. I hardly need to add that another of Dr. Frazer's +authorities, Arnobius, informs us that he took the story from the second +book of Valerius Antias, a later writer than Piso, whose name is a +byword even with the uncritical Livy for shameless exaggeration and +mis-statement.[94] + +But how did these writers come by such legends, which, as Dr. Frazer +shows, are to be found also in Greece and in other parts of the world? +Why should they have wished to make Roman kings into magicians? +Rain-making we can understand at Rome,--it had a practical end in view, +the procuring of rain for the crops,--but why lightning and thunder, +which were so much dreaded that every bit of damage done by a +thunderstorm had to be carefully expiated by a religious process? Rome +is not in the tropics, where rain and thunder so often come together, +and where an attempt to produce rain by magic might naturally include +thunder, as in some of Dr. Frazer's examples from tropical lands. I +entirely agree with the latest and most sober investigators of Roman +ritual that this kind of magic is quite foreign to Roman ideas and +practice;[95] there is no vestige of it in the Roman cult; these stories +must have come from outside. And there is every probability that they +came from Etruria, where the lore of lightning had become a +pseudo-science, a waste of human ingenuity, for the origin of which we +must look, as we are now beginning to understand, to Babylonia and the +Eastern magic.[96] The Jupiter Elicius of the Aventine had nothing to do +with lightning; he took his cult-title from the rite of _aquaelicium_; +but as soon as the Romans began to interest themselves in the Etruscan +lightning-lore, of which this electrical magic was only a part,[97] they +perverted the meaning of the epithet to suit their new studies, and +began to attribute to their legendary kings powers which properly +belonged to Etruscan or Oriental magicians. The second century B.C., +when Piso wrote his _Annals_, is exactly the period when we should +naturally expect such studies to come into fashion, and with such +perversions of "history" as their consequence.[98] + +I go on to note one or two more examples of real magic in the State +religion; but they are hard to find. Pliny tells that even in his day +people believed that a runaway slave who had not escaped out of the city +might be arrested by a spell uttered by the Vestal virgins.[99] I take +this to mean that any one who had lost his slave might get the Vestals +to use the spell as a means of keeping the runaway within the city. The +word for spell is here _precatio_, _i.e._ a prayer, not _carmen_, which +is the usual word for a spell; and Pliny evidently thinks of it as +addressed to some god. But no doubt it was originally at least a genuine +spell, of the same kind as others used in private life, which we shall +notice directly; and it implies a belief in some magical power inherent +in the Vestals, of whom we are told that if they accidentally met a +criminal being led to punishment they might secure his release.[100] As +the spell in this case seems to be telepathic, _i.e._ an exercise of +will-power projected from a distance, it may perhaps be paralleled with +certain mystical powers exercised by women, especially when their +husbands are at war, among some savage peoples;[101] but we have no +information about it beyond the passage in Pliny, and further guessing +would be useless. + +This last is a case of genuine magic, but it is outside the ritual of +the State, though exercised by a State priesthood. Within that ritual +there is one other very curious case of what must be classed as a +magical process, and one that has accidentally become famous. At the +Lupercalia on February 15, the two young men called Luperci, or, more +strictly, belonging respectively as leaders to the two collegia of +Luperci, girt themselves with the skins of the slaughtered victims, +which were goats, and then ran round the base of the Palatine hill, +striking at all the women who came near them or offered themselves to +their blows, with strips of skin cut from the hides of these same +victims. The object was to produce fertility; on this point our +authorities are explicit.[102] Thus this particular feature of the whole +extraordinary ritual of the Lupercalia is unmistakably within the region +of magic rather than of religion. Some potency was believed to work in +the act of striking, though apparently without a spoken spell or +_carmen_, such as usually accompanies acts of this kind; and this part +of the rite, grotesque though it was, was allowed to survive by the +grave religious authorities who drew up the calendar of religious +festivals. It was probably a superstition too deeply rooted in the minds +of the people to admit of being excluded; and, strange to say, it +survived, in outward form at least, until Rome had become cosmopolitan +and even Christian. The Lupercalia has always been a puzzle to students +of early religion, and as each new theory is advanced, this strange +festival is seized on for fresh interpretation;[103] but for our present +purposes it must suffice to point out that we clearly find embedded in +it a piece of genuine magic, dating beyond doubt from a very primitive +stage of thought. + +There is one other very curious performance, occurring each year on the +ides of May, which in my view is rather magical than religious, though +the ancients themselves looked upon it as a kind of purification: I mean +the casting into the Tiber from the _pons sublicius_ of twenty-four or +twenty-seven straw puppets by the Vestal virgins, in the presence of the +magistrates and pontifices. Recently an attempt has been made by Wissowa +to prove that this strange ceremony was not primitive, but simply a case +of the substitution of puppets for real human victims as late as the age +of the Punic wars.[104] These puppets were called Argei, which word +naturally suggests Greeks; and Wissowa has contrived to persuade himself +not only that a number of Greeks were actually put to death by drowning +in an age when everything Greek was beginning to be reverenced at Rome, +but (still more extraordinary to an anthropologist) that the primitive +device of substitution was had in requisition at that late date in order +to carry on the memory of the ghastly deed. And the world of German +learning has silently followed their leader, without taking the trouble +to test his conclusions by a careful and independent examination of the +evidence. It happens that this fascinating puzzle of the Argei was the +first curiosity that enticed me into the study of the Roman religion, +and for some thirty years I have been familiar with every scrap of +evidence bearing on it; and after going over that evidence once more I +can emphatically state my conviction that Wissowa's theory will not hold +water for a moment. I shall return to the subject in a later lecture +dealing with the religious history of the second Punic war; at present I +merely express a belief that, whatever be the history of the accessories +of the rite,--and they are various and puzzling,--the actual immersion +of the puppets is the survival of a primitive piece of sympathetic +magic, the object being possibly to procure rain. It is, in my opinion, +quite impossible to resist the anthropological evidence for this +conclusion, though we cannot really be certain about the object; for +this evidence I must refer you to my _Roman Festivals_, and to the +references there given.[105] + +This rite of the Argei, then, was a case of genuine magic, and exercised +by a State priesthood, virgins to whom certain magical powers were +supposed to be attached; it was, I think, a popular performance, like +one or two others which are also outside the limit of the Fasti,[106] +and was embodied in a more complicated ceremonial long after that +calendar had been drawn up. In the ritual authorised by the State, with +public objects in view, _i.e._ for the benefit of society as a whole, +there is hardly a trace of anything that we can call genuine magic +apart from the examples I have just been explaining. There were, I need +not say, many survivals of magical processes of which the true magical +intent had long been lost--ancient magical deposits in a social stratum +of religion, which I shall notice in their proper place. This is not +peculiar to the religion of the Romans; it is a phenomenon to be found +in all religions, even in those of the most highly developed type, and +it is one apt to cause some confusion as to the true distinction between +magic and religion.[107] It is easy to find magical processes even in +Christian worship, if we have the will to do so; but if we steadily bear +in mind that the true test of magic is not the nature of an act, but the +intent or volition which accompanies it, the search will not be an easy +one. + +The modern French school of sociologists, which now has to be reckoned +with in investigating the early history of religion, claims that magic +was not originally, as we now see it, a matter of individual skill, but +a sociological fact, _i.e._ it was used for the benefit of the +community, as religion came to be in a later age. If this be true, as it +very possibly is, we see at once how the dead bones of magical processes +might survive, with their original meaning entirely lost, into an age in +which higher and more reasonable ideas had been developed about the +relation of Man to the Power manifesting itself in the universe. To take +a single example from Rome, divination by the examination of a victim's +entrails was originally a magical process, according to the opinion of +most modern authorities;[108] but it ceases to be magic when it is used +simply to determine in the State ritual whether in a religious process +the victim is perfect and agreeable to the deity. In fact magical +formulae, magical instruments, unless they are used in the true spirit +of magic, to compel, not to propitiate a deity, are no longer magic, and +may be passed over here. When we come to discuss the ritual of sacrifice +and prayer, of _lustratio_, of vows, of divination, we may find it +necessary to recall what has here been said. On the whole, we may +conclude that organised religious cult, from its very nature and object, +everywhere excluded magic in the true sense of the word; it implies +prayer and propitiation, both of which are absolutely inconsistent with +the object and methods of magic. Religion is the product of a higher +stage of social development; it is the expression of a real advance of +human thought; and in telling the story of the religious experience of +the Roman people we are but indirectly concerned with those more rude +and rudimentary ideas which it displaced. + +But in private life, outside of the organised cult of the State and the +family, magic was all through Roman history abundant, even +over-abundant, and in this form I cannot pass it over entirely. Though +the State authorities seem to have taken pains to exclude it rigidly +from the public rites, and though there is little trace of it in the +religious life of family and gens, yet there is evidence that it was +deeply rooted in the nature of the people, and that they must have +passed through an age in which it was an important factor in their +social life. This fact, taken together with its almost complete +elimination from the public religion, throws into relief the persistent +efforts of the State authorities, from the framing of the old religious +calendar to the time of the Augustan revival, to keep their relations +with the Power clear of all that they believed to be unworthy or +injurious. No better example can be found of the inherent antagonism +between religion and magic. + +Private magic may be divided into two kinds, according as it was used to +damage another, or only to benefit oneself. In the former case the State +interfered to protect the person threatened with damage, and treated +this kind of magic as a crime. The commonest form of it was that of the +spell, or _carmen_, no doubt often sung, and accompanied by some action +which would bring it under the head of sympathetic magic; but the spell +alone is taken cognisance of by the State. Pliny has preserved three +words from the XII. Tables which tell their own tale: "qui fruges +excantassit."[109] Servius, commenting on the line of Virgil's 8th +_Eclogue_, "atque satas alio vidi traducere messes," writes, "magicis +quibusdam artibus hoc fiebat, unde est in XII. Tabb. 'Neve alienam +segetem pellexeris.'" These last words, with the verb in the second +person, are probably not quoted exactly from the ancient text,[110] but +they help to show us the nature of this hostile spell. There must have +been a belief that the spirit, or life, or fructifying power of your +neighbour's crops could be enticed away and transferred to your own. +This is confirmed by a remark of St. Augustine in the _de Civitate +Dei_;[111] after quoting the same line from Virgil, he adds, "eo quod +hac pestifera scelerataque doctrina fructus alieni in alias terras +transferri perhibentur, nonne in XII. Tabulis, id est Romanorum +antiquissimis legibus, Cicero commemorat esse conscriptum et ei qui hoc +fecerit supplicium constitutum?" Given the belief, the temptation can be +well understood if we reflect that the arable land of the old Romans was +divided in sections of a square, and that each man's allotment would +have that of a neighbour on two sides at least.[112] If one man's corn +were found to be more flourishing than that of his neighbours, what more +likely than that he should have enticed away the spirit of their crops? +The process reminds us, as it reminded Pliny, of the _evocatio_ of the +gods of foreign communities, a rite which belongs to religion and not to +magic, though it doubtless had its origin in the same class of ideas as +the _excantatio_. + +In more general terms the old Roman law (_i.e._ originally the _ius +divinum_) forbade the use of evil spells, as we see in another fragment +of the Tables, "qui malum carmen incantassit." In later times this was +usually taken as referring to libel and slander, but there can be no +doubt that the carmina here alluded to were originally magical, and +became _carmina famosa_ in the course of legal interpretation. Cicero +seems to combine the two meanings in the _de Rep._ (iv. 10. 2) when he +says that the Tables made it a capital offence "si quis occentavisset, +sive carmen condidisset quod infamiam faceret flagitiumve alteri" (to +bring shame or criminal reproach on another). In the later sense these +carmina have a curious history, into which I cannot enter now.[113] In +the earlier sense they existed and flourished without doubt, in spite of +the law; or it may be that, as the words of the Tables were interpreted +in the new sense, the old form of offence was tolerated in private. "We +are all afraid," says Pliny, "of being 'nailed' (_defigi_) by spells and +curses" (_diris precationibus_).[114] These _dirae_, and all the various +forms of love-charms, _defixiones_, accompanied by the symbolic actions +which are found all the world over, lie outside my present subject, and +are so familiar to us all in Roman literature that I do not need to +dwell on them.[115] + +Nor of the common harmless kind of magic need I say much now. It +survived, of course, alongside of the religion of the family and State, +from the earliest times to the latest, as it survives at the present day +in all countries civilised and uncivilised; and being harmless the State +took no heed of it. Some assortment of charms and spells for the cure of +diseases will be found in Cato's book on agriculture, and one or two +incidentally occur in that of Varro.[116] They performed the work of +insurance against both fire and accident, and even such a man as Julius +Caesar was not independent of such arts. Pliny tells us that after +experiencing a carriage accident he used to repeat a certain spell three +times as soon as he had taken his seat in a vehicle, and adds +significantly, "id quod plerosque nunc facere scimus."[117] Such carmina +were written on the walls of houses to insure them against fire.[118] +Pliny has a large collection of small magical delusions and +superstitions, many of which have an interest for anthropologists, in +the 28th book of his _Natural History_. + +Another kind of harmless magic, to which the Romans, like all Italians +ancient and modern, were peculiarly addicted, is the use of amulets. +Here there is no spell, or obvious and expressed exercise of will-power +on the part of the individual, but the potent influence, _mana_, or +whatever we choose to call it, resides in a material object which brings +good luck, like the cast horse-shoe of our own times, or protects +against hostile will-power, and especially against the evil eye. This +curious and widely-spread superstition was probably the _raison d'etre_ +of most of the amulets worn or carried by Romans. A modern Italian, even +if he be a complete sceptic and materialist, will probably be found to +have some amulet about him against the evil eye, "just to be on the +safe side."[119] A list of amulets, both Greek and Roman, will be +found in the _Dictionary of Antiquities_, and in Pauly-Wissowa, +_Real-Encyclopaedie, s.v._ "amulet," and it is not necessary here to +explain the various kinds in use in Italy; but I must dwell for a moment +on one type, which had been taken up into the life of the family, and in +one sense into that of the State, viz. the _bulla_ worn by children, +both boys and girls. + +The bulla was a small object, enclosed in historical times in a capsule, +and suspended round the child's neck. It was popularly believed to have +been originally an Etruscan custom,[120] and borrowed by the Romans, +like so many other ornaments. It is, however, much more probable that +the custom was old Italian (as indeed the "medicine-bag" is world-wide), +and that the Etruscan contribution to it was merely the case or capsule, +which was of gold where the family could afford it--gold itself being +supposed to have some potency as a charm.[121] The object within the +case was, as Pliny tells us, a _res turpicula_ as a rule,[122] and this +may remind us that a _fascinum_ was carried in the car of the +triumphator as _medicus invidiae_, to use Pliny's pregnant expression. +The triumphing general needed special protection; he appeared in the +guise of Jupiter himself, and was for the moment lifted above the +ordinary rank of humanity. Some feeling of the same kind must have +originally suggested similar means for the protection of children under +the age of puberty. They also wore the _toga praetexta_, which, though +associated by us with secular magistrates, had undoubtedly a religious +origin. There are distinct signs that children were in some sense +sacred, and at the same time that they needed special protection against +the all-abounding evil influences to be met with in daily life.[123] +Thus this particular form of amulet became a recognised institution of +family life, and in due time little more than a mark of childhood. + +Yet another kind of charm must be mentioned here which was used at +certain festivals, though apparently not at any of those belonging to +the authorised calendar. At the Compitalia, Paganalia, and _feriae +Latinae_ we are told that small images of the human figure, or masks, or +simply round balls (_pilae_), were hung up on trees or doorways, and +left to swing in the wind.[124] At the Compitalia the images had a +special name, _maniae_, of which the meaning is lost; but inasmuch as +the charms were hung up at cross-roads on that occasion, where the Lares +compitales of the various properties had their shrine, it was not +difficult to manufacture out of them a goddess, Mania, mother of the +Lares.[125] The common word for these figures was _oscilla_, and the +fact of their swinging in the wind suggested a verb _oscillare_, which +survives in our own tongue with the same meaning. Until lately it used +to be believed that they were substitutes for original human sacrifices: +a view for which there is not a particle of evidence, though it was +originated by Roman scholars.[126] Modern anthropology has found another +explanation, which is by no means improbable. Dr. Frazer, in an appendix +to the 2nd volume of the _Golden Bough_, has collected a number of +examples of the practice of swinging _by human beings_ as a magical +rite; they come from many parts of the world, including ancient Athens, +and even modern Calabria. He also points out that at the _feriae +Latinae_ the swingers seem to have been human beings, if we accept the +evidence of Festus, _s.v._ "oscillantes"; thus we are left with the +possibility that the oscilla were really imitations of men and women, +though not of human sacrificial victims. + +Dr. Frazer is obviously hard put to it to explain the original meaning +and object of this curious custom. In the Paganalia, as described by +Virgil in the second _Georgic_,[127] the object would seem to be the +prosperity of the vine-crop. + + coloni + versibus incomptis ludunt risuque soluto, + oraque corticibus sumunt horrenda cavatis, + et te Bacche vocant per carmina laeta, tibique + oscilla ex alta suspendunt mollia pinu. + hinc omnis largo pubescit vinea fetu, etc.[128] + +But here we must leave a question which is still unsolved. All we can +say is that the old idea of substitutes for human sacrifice must be +finally given up, and that the _oscilla_, whether or not they were +substitutes for human swingers, were probably charms intended to ward +off evil influences from the crops. I am not disposed to put any +confidence in what Servius tells us, that this was a purification by +means of air, just as fire and water were also purifying agents; this +looks like the ingenious explanation of a later and a religious +age.[129] + +So much, then, for magical charms and spells, and the survivals of them +in the fully developed Roman religion.[130] It might seem hardly worth +while to spend even so much time on them as I have done, and I cannot +deny that I am glad now to be able to leave them. My object has simply +been to show how little of this kind of practice, which meets us on the +threshold of religion, was allowed to survive by the religious +authorities of the State; in other words, I wished to make clear that in +our inquiries into the nature of the Roman religion it is really +religion and not magic that we have to do with. + +It is really religion; it is desire, beginning already to be effective, +to be in right relation to the Power manifesting itself in the universe. +The Romans, as I hope to show in the next lecture, when we can begin to +know and feel an interest in them, had not only begun to recognise this +Power in various forms and functions as one that must be propitiated, +because they were dependent on it for their daily needs, but to regulate +and make permanent the methods of propitiation. What was the relation +between this simple religion and morality--between ritual and +conduct--is a very difficult question, to which I shall return later on. +Dr. Westermarck has recently come to the conclusion that the religion of +primitive man has no true relation to morality, that it is not apt to +give a sanction to good action, or to develop the germs of a conscience. +But so far as I can discern, the idea of active duty, and therefore the +germ of conscience, must have been so intimately connected with the +religious practice of the old Latin family that it is to me impossible +to think of the one apart from the other. Surely it is in that life that +the famous word "_pius_" must have originated, which throughout Roman +history meant the sense of duty towards family, State, and gods, as +every reader of the _Aeneid_ knows. That the formalised religion of +later times had become almost entirely divorced from morality there is +indeed no doubt; but in the earliest times, in the old Roman family and +then in the budding State, the whole life of the Roman seems to me so +inextricably bound up with his religion that I cannot possibly see how +that religion can have been distinguishable from his simple idea of duty +and discipline. + + + NOTES TO LECTURE III + + [81] Westermarck, _Origin etc. of Moral Ideas_, ii. 584. + + [82] Jevons, _Introduction_, p. 33. + + [83] A useful summary of the whole subject, embodying + the results and terminology of Tylor, Frazer, and other + anthropologists, is Dr. Haddon's _Magic and Fetishism_, + in Messrs. Constable's series, _Religions Ancient and + Modern_. See also Marett, _On the Threshold of + Religion_, passim. + + [84] _Lectures on the Early History of the Kingship_, p. + 89 foll. For an example not mentioned in the text + (_devotio_) see below, p. 206 foll. This may have been + originally practised by the Latin kings. I may here + draw attention to the almost dogmatic conclusions of the + modern French sociological school of research; _e.g._ M. + Huvelin, in _L'Annee sociologique_ for 1907, begins by + asserting as a fundamental law, proved by MM. Hubert et + Mauss, that magic is just as much a social fact as + religion: "Les uns et les autres sont des produits de + l'activite collective" (_Magie et droit individuel_, p. + 1). But M. Huvelin's paper is to some extent a + modification of this dogma. He seeks to explain the fact + that magic is both secret and private, not public and + social, in historical times; and in the domain of law, + with which he is specially concerned, he concludes that + "a magical rite is only a religious rite twisted from + its proper social end, and employed to realise the will + or belief of an individual" (p. 46). This is the only + form in which we shall find magic at Rome, except in so + far as a few of its forms survive in the ritual of + religion with their meaning changed. In early Roman law, + as a quasi-religious body of rules and practices, there + are a few magical survivals which will be found + mentioned by M. Huvelin in this article; but they are of + no importance for our present subject. + + [85] _Primitive Culture_, vol. i. ch. iv. See also + Jevons, _Introduction_, p. 36 foll. + + [86] See Schuerer, _Jewish People in the Time of Christ_ + (Eng. trans.), Division II. vol. iii. p. 151 foll. + + [87] Fowler, _R.F._ p. 232; Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 106. The + most careful examination of the rite and the evidence + for it is that of Aust in _Mythological Lexicon_, _s.v._ + "Iuppiter," p. 656 foll. See also M.H. Morgan in vol. + xxxii. of _Transactions of the American Philological + Association_, p. 104. + + [88] Tertullian, _de Jejun_. 16. Petronius, _Sat._ 44, + adds that the matrons went in the procession with bare + feet and streaming hair (cp. Pliny xvii. 266); but this + seems rather Greek than Roman in character, and + Petronius is plainly thinking of the town (_colonia_ he + calls it) in southern Italy where the scene of + Trimalchio's supper is laid; probably a Greek city by + origin, Croton or Cumae. A translation of this passage + will be found in Dill's _Roman Society from Nero to + Marcus Aurelius_, p. 133. The most useful words in it + for our purpose are "Jovem aquam exorabant." + + [89] This suggestion was originally made by O. Gilbert, + _Roem. Topographie_, ii. 184. + + [90] p. 204 foll. + + [91] p. 657. The story is mixed up with Greek fables, + _e.g._ that of Proteus, as Wissowa has pointed out, + _R.K._ p. 106, note 10. + + [92] See Schanz, _Gesch. der roem. Literatur_, vol. i. + (ed. 3) p. 270 foll. + + [93] This fragment of Piso is preserved by Gellius, xi. + 14. 1. + + [94] See, _e.g._, Schanz, _Gesch. der roem. Literatur_, + vol. ii. p. 106. + + [95] Wissowa, _l.c._ Aust in Roscher's _Lexicon_, _s.v._ + "Iuppiter," p. 657. + + [96] Cumont, _Religions Orientales dans le paganisme + romain_, ch. 5. I shall return to this subject in my + second course of lectures. + + [97] Mueller-Deecke, _Etrusker_, ii. ch. vii., especially + p. 176 foll. + + [98] Cp. below, Lecture XV. + + [99] Pliny, _N.H._ xxviii. 13: "Vestales nostras hodie + credimus nondum egressa urbe mancipia fugitiva retinere + in loco precationibus." + + [100] Plutarch, _Numa_, 10. Virginity would increase the + power of the spell; see Fehrle, _Die kultische + Keuschheit im Altertum_, p. 54 foll. + + [101] See, _e.g._, Frazer, _G.B._ i. 360 foll. + + [102] See _R.F._ p. 320, notes 6 and 7. + + [103] Within the last thirty years or so the Lupercalia + has been discussed (apart from writers on classical + subjects exclusively) by Mannhardt in his _Mythologische + Studien_, p. 72 foll.; Robertson Smith, _Semites_, p. + 459; Deubner in _Archiv_, 1910, p. 481 foll.; and at the + moment of writing by E. S. Hartland, _Primitive + Paternity_, i. ch. ii. _R.F._ p. 310 foll. See Appendix + D. + + [104] This view was originally stated in Pauly-Wissowa, + _s.v._ "Argei." I endeavoured to confute it in the + _Classical Review_, 1902, p. 115 foll., and Wissowa + replied in _Gesammelte Abhandlungen_, p. 211 foll. Since + then my conviction has become stronger that this great + scholar is for once wrong. Ennius alluded to the Argei + as an institution of Numa, _i.e._ as primitive (frag. + 121, Vahlen, from Festus p. 355, and Varro, _L.L._ vii. + 44), yet Ennius was a youth at the very time when + Wissowa insists that the rite originated. Wissowa makes + no attempt to explain this. See below, p. 321 foll. + + [105] _R.F._ p. 111 foll. + + [106] _e.g._ the October horse, which also occurred on + the Ides; see _R.F._ p. 241 foll.; and the festival of + Anna Perenna, also on Ides (March 15), _R.F._ p. 50 + foll. It is just possible that all the three festivals + were originally in the old calendar, and dropped out + because the mark of the Ides had to be affixed to the + day in the first place. See Wissowa, _Gesammelte + Abhandlungen_, p. 164 foll.; _R.F._ p. 241. + + [107] Thus Messrs. Hubert et Mauss (_Melanges d'histoire + des religions_, Preface, p. xxiv.) maintain that there + is no real antinomy between "les faits du systeme + magique et les faits du systeme religieux." There is in + every rite, they insist, a magical as well as a + religious element. Yet on the same page we find that + they exclude magic from all organised cult, because it + is not obligatory, and cannot (if I understand them + rightly) be laid down in a code, like religious + practice. I think it would have been simpler to consider + the magical element in religious rites as surviving, + with its original meaning lost, from an earlier stage of + thought. M. van Gennep, in his interesting work _Les + Rites de passage_, p. 17, goes so far as to call all + religious _ceremonies_ magical, as distinguished from + the _theories_ (_e.g._ animism) which constitute + religion. This seems to me apt to bring confusion into + the discussion; for all rites are the outward expression + of thought, and it is by the thought (or, as he calls + it, theories) that we must trace the sociological + development of mankind, the rites being used as indexes + only. I cannot but think that (as indeed in these days + is quite natural) this French school lays too much + stress upon the outward acts, and that this tendency has + led them to find real living magic where it is present + only in a fossil state. + + [108] _e.g._ Tylor, article "Magic" in _Encycl. Brit._, + and _Primitive Culture_, 1. ch. iv.; Marett, _Threshold + of Religion_, 83. See below, p. 180. + + [109] Pliny, _N.H._ xxviii. 17 and 18. For the singing + or murmuring of spells in many countries, see Jevons, + _Anthropology and the Classics_, p. 93 foll. + + [110] Bruns, _Fontes Iuris Romani_, note on this + passage. + + [111] _Civ. Dei_, viii. 19. + + [112] See, _e.g._, Wordsworth, _Fragments and Specimens + of Early Latin_, p. 446, for an account of simple land + measurement which will suffice to illustrate the point + made here. + + [113] The _carmina famosa_ sung at a triumph by the + soldiers had the same origin, but were used to avert + evil from the triumphator. The best exposition of this + is in H. A. J. Munro's _Elucidations of Catullus_, p. 76 + foll. + + [114] Pliny, _N.H._ xxviii. 19. For the technical sense + of _defigere_, _defixio_, see Jevons in _Anthropology + and the Classics_, p. 108 foll. + + [115] The most familiar examples are Virgil's eighth + _Eclogue_, 95 foll.; Ovid, _Met._ vii. 167, and + elsewhere; _Fasti_, iv. 551; Horace, _Epode_ v. 72; cp. + article "Magia" in Daremberg-Saglio; Falz, _De poet. + Rom. doctrina magica_, Giessen, 1903. There is a + collection of Roman magical spells in Appel's _De + Romanorum precationibus_, p. 43 foll. Many modern + Italian examples and survivals will be found in Leland's + _Etruscan Roman Remains in Popular Tradition_, pt. ii. + + [116] Cato, _R.R._ 160; Varro, _R.R._ i. 3. + + [117] Pliny, _N.H._ xxviii. 21. + + [118] _Ib._ xxviii. 20. The following sections of this + book are the _locus classicus_ for these popular + superstitions. + + [119] See, _e.g._, _Italian Home Life_, by Lina Duff + Gordon, p. 230 foll. + + [120] Juvenal v. 164. The idea probably arose, as a + passage of Plutarch suggests (_Rom._ 25), from the fact + that the triumphator, whose garb was no doubt of + Etruscan origin, wore the bulla. + + [121] Frazer, _G.B._ i. 345, note 2, where we learn that + gold was taboo in some Greek worships, _e.g._ at the + mysteries of Andania, which sufficiently proves that it + possessed potency. Pliny, xxxiii. 84, mentions cases of + such potency as medicine, and among them its application + to children who have been poisoned. + + [122] Pliny, _N.H._ xxviii. 39. + + [123] See an article by the author on the original + meaning of the _toga praetexta_ in _Classical Review_, + vol. x. (1896) p. 317. + + [124] For the Compitalia, Macrob. i. 7. 34; Festus p. + 238. For the Paganalia, Probus, _ad Georg._ ii. 385, + assuming the _feriae Sementinae_ there mentioned to be + the Paganalia (see _R.F._ p. 294). For the _feriae + Latinae_, Festus, _s.v._ "oscillantes." + + [125] Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 193, with whose view I entirely + agree. We learn of the imaginary goddess from Varro, + _L.L._ ix. 61. Pais, I may remark in passing, is certain + that Acca Larentia was the mater Larum; see his + _Lectures on Ancient Legends of Roman History_, p. 60 + foll. + + [126] 46. Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 354, note 5. + + [127] _Georg._ ii. 380 foll. It is not certain that + Virgil is describing the festival generally known as + Paganalia, which took place early in January; but it + seems probable from line 382 that he is thinking of some + festival of the pagus. The _oscilla_ may have been used + at more than one. + + [128] Note that Virgil writes of masks used in rude + play-acting, as well as of _oscilla_ hung on trees, and + conjoins the two as though they had something in common. + The evidence of an engraved onyx cup in the Louvre, of + which a cut is given in the article "Oscilla" in the + _Dict. of Antiquities_, seems to make it probable that + masks worn by rustics on these occasions were afterwards + hung by them on trees as _oscilla_. Some of these masks + on the cup are adorned with horns, which may explain an + interesting passage of Apuleius (_Florida_, i. 1): + "neque enim iustius religiosam moram viatori obiecerit + aut ara floribus redimita ... aut quercus cornibus + onerata, aut fagus pellibus coronata," etc. See also + _Gromatici veteres_, ii. 241. + + [129] See, however, Dr. Frazer's remarks in _G.B._ ii. + p. 454. He thinks that the air might in this way be + purged of vagrant spirits or baleful ghosts, as the + Malay medicine man swings in front of the patient's + house in order to chase away the disease. Cp. _G.B._ ii. + 343, where a rather different explanation is attempted + of the _maniae_ and _pilae_. + + [130] Magic in the old forms, or many of them, has + survived not only into the old Roman religion, but to + the present day, in many parts of Italy. "The peasants + have recourse to the priests and the saints on great + occasions, but they use magic all the time for + everything," was said by a woman of the Romagna Toscana + to the late C.G. Leland (_Etruscan Roman Remains_, + Introduction, p. 9). This enterprising American's + remarkable book, though dealing only with a small region + of northern Italy, deserves more consideration than it + has received. The author may have been uncritical, but + beyond doubt he had the gift of extracting secrets from + the peasantry. He claims to have proved that "la vecchia + religione" contains much that has come down direct from + pre-Christian times; and the appearance of Mr. Lawson's + remarkable book on _Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient + Greek Religion_ may tempt some really qualified + investigator to undertake a similar work in Italy before + it is too late. + + + + +LECTURE IV + +THE RELIGION OF THE FAMILY + + +Some of the survivals mentioned in the last two lectures seem to carry +us back to a condition of culture anterior to the family and to the +final settlement on the land. Some attempt has recently been made to +discover traces of descent by the mother in early Latium;[131] if this +could be proved, it would mean that the Latins were already in Latium +before they had fully developed the patriarchal system on which the +family is based. However this may be, the first real fact that meets us +in the religious experience of the Romans is the attitude towards the +supernatural, or "the Power that manifests itself in the Universe," of +the family as settled down upon the land. The study of religion in the +family, as we know it in historical times, is also that of the earliest +organisation of religion, and of the most permanent type of ancient +Italian religious thought. Aust, whose book on the Roman religion is the +most masterly sketch of the subject as yet published, writes thus of +this religion of the family:[132] "Here the limits of religion and +superstition vanish ... and in vain we seek here for the boundary marks +of various epochs." By the first of these propositions he means that the +State has not here been at work, framing a _ius divinum_, including +religion and excluding magic; in the family, magic of all kinds would be +admissible alongside of the daily worship of the family deities, and +thus the family would represent a kind of half-way house between the age +of magic and all such superstitions, and the age of the rigid +regulation of worship by the law of a City-state. By the second +proposition he means that the religious experience of the family is far +simpler, and therefore far less liable to change than that of the State. +Greek forms and ideas of religion, for example, hardly penetrated into +its worship:[133] new deities do not find their way in--the family +experience did not call for them as did that of the State. It may be +said without going beyond the truth that the religion of the family +remained the same in all essentials throughout Roman history, and the +great priesthoods of the State never interfered with it in any such +degree as to affect its vitality.[134] + +But in order to understand the religion of the family, we must have some +idea of what the family originally was. When a stock or tribe +(_populus_) after migration took possession of a district, it was beyond +doubt divided into clans, _gentes_, which were the oldest kinship +divisions in Italian society. All members of a clan had the same name, +and were believed to descend from a common ancestor.[135] According to +the later juristic way of putting it, all would be in the _patria +potestas_ of that ancestor supposing that no deaths had ever occurred in +the gens; and, indeed, the idea that the gens is immortal in spite of +the deaths of individuals is one which constitutes it as a permanent +entity, and gives it a quasi-religious sanction. For primitive religion, +as has been well said, disbelieves in death; most of the lower races +believe both in a qualified immortality and in the non-reality or +unnaturalness of death.[136] In regard to the kinship of a clan, death +at any rate has no effect: the bond of union never breaks. + +Now a little reflection will show that a clan or gens of this kind might +be maintained intact in a nomadic state, or during any number of +migrations; it is, in fact, manifestly appropriate to such a mobile +condition of society, and expresses its natural need of union; and when +the final settlement occurs, this body of kin will hold together in the +process, whether or no it has smaller divisions within it. We may be +certain that this was the one essential kin-division of the Latin stock +when it settled in Latium, and all through Roman history it continues +so, a permanent entity though families may die.[137] Every Roman lawyer +will recognise this fact as true, and I need not dwell on it now. + +It is when the gens has settled upon the land that the family begins to +appear as a fact of importance for our purpose. Such operations as the +building of a permanent house, the clearing and cultivation of a piece +of land, can best be carried out by a smaller union than the gens, and +this smaller union is ready to hand in the shape of a section of the +gens comprising the living descendants of a _living_ ancestor, whether +of two, three, or even four generations.[138] This union, clearly +visible to mortal eye, and realisable in every-day work, settles +together in one house, tends its own cattle and sheep, cultivates its +own land with the help of such dependants as it owns, slave or other, +and is known by the word _familia_. This famous word, so far as we know, +does not contain the idea of kinship, at any rate as its leading +connotation; it is inseparable from the idea of land-settlement,[139] +and is therefore essentially _das Hauswesen_, the house itself, with the +persons living in it, free or servile, and with their land and other +property, all governed and administered by the paterfamilias, the master +of the household, who is always the oldest living male ancestor. The +familia is thus an economic unit, developed out of the gens, which is a +unit of kin and little more. And thus the religion of the familia will +be a religion of practical utility, of daily work, of struggle with +perils to which the shepherd and the tiller of the soil are liable; it +is not the worship of an idea of kinship expressed in some dimly +conceived common ancestor; the familia, as I hope to show, had no common +ancestor who could be the object of worship, except that of the gens +from which it had sprung. The life of the familia was a realisation of +the present and its needs and perils, without the stimulus to take much +thought about the past, or indeed about the future; for it, sufficient +for the day was the evil thereof; for what had been and what was to come +it could look to the gens to which it owed its existence. But in +practical life the gens was not of much avail; and instead of it, +exactly as we might expect, we find an artificial union of familiae, a +union of which the essential thing is not the idea of kin, but that of +the land occupied, and known all over Italy by the word _pagus_.[140] +Before I go on to describe the religion of the family, it is necessary +to put the familia into its proper relation with this territorial union. + +The pagus is the earliest Italian administrative unit of which we know +anything; a territory, of which the essential feature was the boundary, +not any central point within the boundary. In all probability it was +originally the land on which a gens had settled, though settlement +produces changes, and the land of gens and pagus was not identical in +later times. But within this boundary line, of which we shall hear +something more presently, how were the component parts, the familiae of +the gens, settled down on the land? Of the village community so familiar +to us in Teutonic countries, there is no certain trace in Latium. +_Vicus_, the only word which might suggest it, is identical with the +Greek [Greek: oikos], a house; later it is used for houses standing +together, or for a street in a town. But the vicus in the country has +left no trace of itself as a distinct administrative union like our +village community; the vico-magistri of the Roman city were urban +officers; and what is more important, we know of no religious festivals +of the vicus, like those of the pagus, of which there are well-attested +records. The probability then is that the unit within the pagus was not +the village but the homestead, and that these stood at a distance from +each other, as they do in Celtic countries, not united together in a +village, and each housing a family group working its own land and owning +its own cattle.[141] The question of the amount and the tenure of the +land of this group is a very difficult one, into which it is not +necessary to enter closely here. There can, however, be no doubt that it +possessed in its own right a small piece of garden ground (_heredium_), +and also an allotment of land in the arable laid out by the settlers in +common--_centuriatus ager_; whether the ownership of this was vested in +the individual paterfamilias or in the gens as a whole, does not greatly +matter for our purposes.[142] Lastly, as it is certain that the familia +owned cattle and sheep, we may be sure that it enjoyed the right of +common pasture on the land not divided up for tillage. + +We see all this through a mist, and a mist that is not likely ever to +lift; but yet the outlines of the picture are clear enough to give us +the necessary basis for a study of the religion of the familia. The +religious points, if I may use the expression--those points, that is, +which are the object of special anxiety (_religio_)--lie in the +boundaries, both of the pagus as a whole, and of the arable land of the +familia, in the house itself and its free inhabitants, and in the family +burying-place; and to these three may no doubt be added the spring which +supplied the household with water. Boundaries, house, burying-place, +spring,--all these are in a special sense sacred, and need constant and +regular religious care. + +Let us begin with the house, the central point of the economic and +religious unit. The earliest Italian house was little more than a +wigwam, more or less round, constructed of upright posts connected with +wattles, and with a closed roof of straw or branches.[143] This would +seem to have been the type of house of the immigrating people who +settled on the tops of hills and lived a pastoral life; when they +descended into the plains and became a settled agricultural people, they +adopted a more roomy and convenient style of building, suitable for +storing their grain or other products, and for the maintenance of a fire +for cooking these. Whether the rectangular house, with which alone we +are here concerned, was developed under Greek or Etruscan influence, or +suggested independently by motives of practical convenience, is matter +of dispute, and must be left to archaeologists to decide.[144] + +This is the house in which the Latin family lived throughout historical +times, the house which we know as the sacred local habitation of divine +and human beings. It consisted in its simplest form, as we all know, of +a single room or hall, the atrium, with a roof open in the middle and +sloping inwards to let the rain fall into a basin (_compluvium_). Here +the life of the family went on, and here was the hearth (_focus_), the +"natural altar of the dwelling-room of man,"[145] and the seat of Vesta, +the spirit of the fire, whose aid in the cooking of the food was +indispensable in the daily life of the settlers. This sacred hearth was +the centre of the family worship of later times, until under Greek +influence the arrangement of the house was modified;[146] and we may be +certain that it was so in the simple farm life of early Latium. In front +of it was the table at which the family took their meals, and on this +was placed the salt-cellar (_salinum_), and the sacred salt-cake, baked +even in historical times in primitive fashion by the daughters of the +family, as in all periods for the State by the Vestal virgins. After the +first and chief course of the mid-day meal, silence was enjoined, and an +offering of a part of the cake was thrown on to the fire from a small +sacrificial plate or dish (_patella_).[147] This alone is enough to +prove that Vesta, the spirit of the fire, was the central point of the +whole worship, the spiritual embodiment of the physical welfare of the +family. + +Behind the hearth, _i.e._ farther at the back of the _atrium_, was the +_penus_, or storing-place of the household. _Penus_ was explained by the +learned Scaevola[148] as meaning anything that can be eaten or drunk, +but not so much that which is each day set out on the table, as that +which is kept in store for daily consumption; it is therefore in origin +the food itself, though in later times it became also the receptacle in +which that food was stored. This store was inhabited or guarded by +spirits, the _di penates_, who together with Vesta represent the +material vitality of the family; these spirits, always conceived and +expressed in the plural, form a group in a way which is characteristic +of the Latins, and their plurality is perhaps due to the variety and +frequent change of the material of the store. The religious character of +the store is also well shown by the fact, if such it be, that no impure +person was allowed to meddle with it; the duty was especially that of +the children of the family,[149] whose purity and religious capability +was symbolised throughout Roman history by the purple-striped toga which +they wore, and secured also by the amulet, within its capsule the +_bulla_, of which I spoke in the last lecture. + +Vesta and the Penates represent the spiritual side of the material needs +of the household; but there was another divine inhabitant of the house, +the Genius of the paterfamilias, who was more immediately concerned with +the continuity of the family. Analogy with the world-wide belief in the +spiritual double of a man, his "other-soul," compels us to think of this +Genius, who accompanied the Latin from the cradle to the grave, as +originally a conception of this kind. The Latins had indeed, in common +with other races, what we may call the breath-idea of the soul, as we +see from the words _animus_ and _anima_, and also the shadow-idea, as is +proved by the word _umbra_ for a departed spirit. But the Genius was one +of those guardian spirits, treated by Professor Tylor as a different +species of the same genus, which accompany a man all his life and help +him through its many changes and chances;[150] and the peculiarity of +this Latin guardian is that he was specially helpful in continuing the +life of the family. The soul of a man is often conceived as the cause of +life, but not often as the procreative power itself; and that this +latter was the Latin idea is certain, both from the etymology of the +word and from the fact that the marriage-bed was called _lectus +genialis_. I am inclined to think that this peculiarity of the Latin +conception of Genius was the result of the unusually strong idea that +the Latins must have had, even when they first passed into Italy, of +kinship as determined not by the mother but by the father.[151] It is +possible, I think, that the Genius was a soul of later origin than those +I have just mentioned, and developed in the period when the gens arose +as the main group of kinsmen real or imaginary. I would suggest that we +may see in it the connecting link between that group and the individual +adult males within it; in that case the Genius would be that soul of a +man which enables him to fulfil the work of continuing the life of the +gens. We can easily imagine how it might eventually come to be his +guardian spirit, and to acquire all the other senses with which we are +familiar in Roman literature. With the development of the idea of +individuality, the individuality of a man as apart from the kin group, +the idea of the individuality of the Genius also became emphasised, +until it became possible to think of it as even living on after the +death of its companion;[152] in this way, in course of time, the Genius +came to exercise a curious influence on the idea of the Manes. The +history of the idea of Genius, and its application to places, cities, +etc., is indeed a curious one, and of no small interest in the study of +religion; but we must return to the primitive house and its divine +inhabitants. There is one more of these who calls for a word before I +pass to the land and the boundaries; we meet him on the threshold as we +leave the dwelling. + +It is, of course, well known to anthropologists that the door of a house +is a dangerous point, because evil spirits or the ghosts of the dead may +gain access to the house through it. Among the innumerable customs which +attest this belief there are one or two Roman ones, _e.g._ the practice +of making a man, who has returned home after his supposed death in a +foreign country, enter the house by the roof instead of the door; for +the door must be kept barred against ghosts, and this man may be after +all a ghost, or at least he may have evil spirits or miasma about +him.[153] It was at the doorway that a curious ceremony took place (to +which I shall ask your attention again) immediately after the birth of a +child, in order to prevent Silvanus, who may stand for the dangerous +spirits of the forest, from entering in and vexing the baby.[154] Again, +a dead man, as among so many other peoples, was carried out of the +doorway with his feet foremost, so that he should not find his way back; +and the old Roman practice of burial by night probably had the same +object.[155] Exactly the same anxiety (_religio_) is seen in regard to +the gates of a city; the wall was in some sense holy (_sanctus_), but +the gates, through which was destined to pass much that might be +dangerous, could not be thus sanctified. Was there, then, no protecting +spirit of these doors and gates? + +St. Augustine, writing with Varro before him, finds no less than three +spirits of the entrance to a house: Forculus, of the door itself; +Limentinus, of the threshold; and Cardea, of the hinges of the door; and +these Varro seems to have found in the books of the pontifices.[156] I +must postpone the question as to what these pontifical books really +represented; but the passage will at least serve to show us the popular +anxiety about the point of entrance to a house, and its association with +the spirit world. Of late sober research has reached the conclusion that +the original door-spirit was Janus, whom we know in Roman history as +residing in the symbolic gate of the Forum, and as the god of +beginnings, the first deity to be invoked in prayer, as Vesta was the +last.[157] But Janus is also wanted for far higher purposes by some +eminent Cambridge scholars; they have their own reasons for wanting him +as a god of the sky, as a double of Jupiter, as the mate of Diana, and a +deity of the oak.[158] So, too, he was wanted by the philosophical +speculators of the last century B.C., who tried to interpret their own +humble deities in terms of Greek philosophy and Greek polytheism. The +poets too, who, as Augustine says, found Forculus and his companions +beneath their notice, played strange tricks with this hoary old god, as +any one may read in the first book of Ovid's _Fasti_. I myself believe +that the main features of the theology (if we may use the word) of the +earliest Rome were derived from the house and the land as an economic +and religious unit, and I am strongly inclined to see in Janus bifrons +of the Forum a developed form of the spirit of the house-door; but the +question is a difficult one, and I shall return to it in a lecture on +the deities of early Rome. + +So far I have said nothing of the Lar familiaris who has become a +household word as a household deity; and yet we are on the point of +leaving the house of the old Latin settler to look for the spirits whom +he worships on his land. The reason is simply that after repeated +examination of the evidence available, I find myself forced to believe +that at the period of which I am speaking the Lar was not one of the +divine inhabitants of the house. When Fustel de Coulanges wrote his +brilliant book _La Cite antique_, which popularised the importance of +the worship of ancestors as a factor in Aryan civilisation, he found in +the Lar, who in historical times was a familiar figure in the house, the +reputed founder of the family; and until lately this view has been +undisputed. But if my account of the relation of the family to the gens +is correct, the family would stand in no need of a reputed founder; that +symbol of the bond of kinship was to be found in the gens of which the +family was an offshoot, a cutting, as it were, planted on the land. +Still more convincing is the fact that when we first meet with the Lar +as an object of worship he is not in the house but on the land. The +oldest Lar of whom we know anything was one of a characteristic Roman +group of which the individuals lived in the _compita_, _i.e._ the spots +where the land belonging to various households met, and where there were +chapels with as many faces as there were properties, each face +containing an altar to a Lar,--the presiding spirit of that allotment, +or rather perhaps of the whole of the land of the familia, including +that on which the house stood.[159] Thus the Lar fills a place in the +private worship which would otherwise be vacant, that of the holding and +its productive power. In this sense, too, we find the Lares in the hymn +of the Arval Brethren, one of the oldest fragments of Latin we possess; +for the spirits of the land would naturally be invoked in the lustration +of the _ager Romanus_ by this ancient religious gild.[160] + +But how, it may be asked, did the Lar find his way into the house, to +become the characteristic deity of the later Roman private worship +there? I believe that he gained admittance through the slaves of the +familia, who had no part in the worship of the dwelling, but were +admitted to the Compitalia, or yearly festival of which the Lares of the +compita were the central object. Cato tells us that the vilicus, the +head of the familia of slaves, might not "facere rem divinam nisi +Compitalibus in compito aut in foco";[161] which I take to mean that he +might sacrifice for his fellow-slaves to the Lar at the compitum, or to +the Lar in the house, if the Lar were already transferred from the +compitum to the house. In the constant absence of the owner, the +paterfamilias of Rome's stirring days, the worship of the Lar at the +compitum or in the house came to be more and more distinctly the right +of the vilicus and his wife as representing the slaves, and thus too the +Lar came to be called by the epithet _familiaris_, which plainly +indicates that in his cult the slaves were included. And as it was the +old custom that the slaves should sit at the meals of the family on +benches below the free members (_subsellia_),[162] what more natural +than that they should claim to see there the Lar whom alone of the +deities of the farm they were permitted to worship, and that they should +bring the Lar or his double from the compitum to the house, in the +frequent absence of the master?[163] + +The festival of the Lar was celebrated at the compitum, and known as +Compitalia or Laralia; it took place soon after the winter solstice, on +a day fixed by the paterfamilias, in concert, no doubt, with the other +heads of families in the pagus. Like most rejoicings at this time of +year, it was free and jovial in character, and the whole familia took +part in it, both bond and free. Each familia sacrificed on its own +altar, which was placed fifteen feet in front of the compitum, so that +the worshippers might be on their own land; but if, as we may suppose, +the whole pagus celebrated this rite on the same day, there was in this +festival, as in others to be mentioned directly, a social value, a means +of widening the outlook of the familia and associating it with the needs +of others in its religious duties. This is the _religio Larium_ of which +Cicero speaks in the second book of his _de Legibus_, which was "posita +in fundi villaeque conspectu," and handed down for the benefit both of +masters and men from remote antiquity.[164] + +There were other festivals in which all the familiae of a pagus took +part. Of these we know little, and what we do know is almost entirely +due to the love of the Augustan poets for the country and its life and +customs; "Fortunatus et ille deos qui novit agrestes," wrote Virgil, +contrasting himself with the philosopher poet whom he revered. Varro, in +his list of Roman festivals,[165] just mentions a festival called +Sementivae, associated with the sowing of the seed, and celebrated by +all pagi, if we interpret him rightly; but Ovid has given us a charming +picture of what must be this same rite, and places it clearly in winter, +after the autumn sowing[166]:-- + + state coronati plenum ad praesaepe iuvenci: + cum tepido vestrum vere redibit opus. + rusticus emeritum palo suspendit aratrum: + omne reformidat frigida volnus humus. + vilice, da requiem terrae, semente peracta: + da requiem terram qui coluere viris. + pagus agat festum: pagum lustrate, coloni, + et date paganis annua liba focis. + placentur frugum matres Tellusque Ceresque, + farre suo gravidae visceribusque suis. + +Ovid may here be writing of his own home at Sulmo, and what took place +there in the Augustan age; but we may read his description into the +life of old Latium, for rustic life is tenacious of old custom, +especially where the economic conditions remain always the same. We may +do the same with another beautiful picture left us by Tibullus, also a +poet of the country, which I have recently examined at length in the +_Classical Review_.[167] The festival he describes has often been +identified with Ovid's, but I am rather disposed to see in it a +lustratio of the _ager paganus_ in the spring, of the same kind as the +famous one in Virgil's first _Georgic_, to be mentioned directly; for +Tibullus, after describing the scene, which he introduces with the words +"fruges lustramus et agros," puts into perfect verse a prayer for the +welfare of the crops and flocks, and looks forward to a time when (if +the prayer succeeds) the land shall be full of corn, and the peasant +shall heap wood upon a bonfire--perhaps one of the midsummer fires that +still survive in the Abruzzi. Virgil's lines are no less +picturesque;[168] and though he does not mention the pagus, he is +clearly thinking of a lustratio in which more than one familia takes +part-- + + cuncta tibi Cererem pubes agrestis adoret. + +This is a spring festival "extremae sub casum hiemis, iam vere sereno"; +and I shall return to it when we come to deal with the processional +lustratio of the farm. Like the descriptions of Ovid and Tibullus, it is +more valuable to us for the idea it gives us of the spirit of old +Italian agricultural religion than for exact knowledge about dates and +details. There was, of course, endless variety in Italy in both these; +and it is waste of time to try and make the descriptions of the rural +poets fit in with the fixed festivals of the Roman city calendar. + +Nor is it quite safe to argue back from that calendar to the life of the +familia and the pagus, except in general terms. As we shall see, the +calendar is based on the life and work of an agricultural folk, and we +may by all means guess that its many agricultural rites existed +beforehand in the earlier social life; but into detail we may not +venture. As Varro, however, has mentioned the Saturnalia in the same +sentence with the Compitalia, we may guess that that famous jovial +festival was a part of the rustic winter rejoicing. And here, too, I may +mention another _festa_ of that month, of which a glimpse is given us by +Horace, another country-loving poet, who specially mentions the pagus as +taking part in it. Faunus and Silvanus were deities or spirits of the +woodland among which these pagi lay, and in which the farmers ran their +cattle in the summer;[169] by Horace's time Faunus had been more or less +tarred with a Greek brush, but in the beautiful little ode I am alluding +to he is still a deity of the Italian farmer,[170] who on the Nones of +December besought him to be gracious to the cattle now feeding +peacefully on the winter pasture:-- + + ludit herboso pecus omne campo + cum tibi Nonae redeunt Decembres: + festus in _pratis_ vacat otioso + cum bove pagus. + +There is one more rite of familia or pagus, or both, of which I must say +a word before I return for a while to the house and its inhabitants. One +of the most important matters for the pagus, as for the landholding +household, was the fixing of the boundaries of their land, whether as +against other pagi or households, or as separating that land from +unreclaimed forest. This was of course, like all these other operations +of the farm, a matter of religious care and anxiety--a matter in which +the feeling of anxiety and awe (_religio_) brought with it, to use an +expression of Cicero's, both _cura_ and _caerimonia_.[171] The _religio +terminorum_ is known to us in some detail, as it existed in historical +times, from the Roman writers on _agrimetatio_; and with their help the +whole subject has been made intelligible by Rudorff in the second volume +of the _Gromatici_.[172] We know that many different objects might serve +as boundary marks, according to the nature of the land, especially trees +and stones; and in the case of the latter, which would be the usual +_termini_ in agricultural land at some distance from forest, we have the +religious character of the stone and its fixing most instructively +brought out. "Fruits of the earth, and the bones, ashes, and blood of a +victim were put into a hole in the ground by the landholders whose lands +converged at the point, and the stone was rammed down on the top and +carefully fixed."[173] This had the practical effect--for all Latin +religion has a practical side--of enabling the stone to be identified in +the future. But Ovid[174] gives us a picture of the yearly commemorative +rite of the same nature, from which we see still better the force of the +_religio terminorum_. The boundary-stone is garlanded, and an altar is +built; the fire is carried from the hearth of the homestead by a +materfamilias, the priestess of the family; a young son of the family +holds a basket full of fruits of the earth, and a little daughter shakes +these into the fire and offers honey-cakes. Others stand by with wine, +or look on in silence, clothed in white. The victims are lamb and +sucking-pig, and the stone is sprinkled with their blood, an act which +all the world over shows that an object is holy and tenanted by a +spirit.[175] And the ceremony ends with a feast and hymns in honour of +holy Terminus, who in Ovid's time in the rural districts, and long +before on the Capitolium of Rome, had risen from the spirit sanctifying +the stone to become a deity, closely connected with Jupiter himself, and +to give his name to a yearly city festival on February 23. + +These festivals on the land were, some of them at least, scenes of +revelry, accompanied with dancing and singing, as the poets describe +them, the faces of the peasants painted red with minium,[176] according +to an old Italian custom which survived in the case of the triumphator +of the glorious days of the City-state. But if we may now return for a +moment to the homestead, there were events of great importance to the +family which were celebrated there in more serious and sober fashion, +with rites that were in part truly religious, yet not without some +features that show the prevailing anxiety, rooted in the age of taboo, +which we learnt to recognise under the word _religio_. Marriage was a +religious ceremony, for we can hardly doubt that the patrician +_confarreatio_, in which a cake made of the anciently used grain called +_far_ was offered to Jupiter, and perhaps partaken of sacramentally by +bride and bridegroom, was the oldest form of marriage, and had its +origin in an age before the State came into being. We must remember that +the house was a sacred place, with religious duties carried on within +it, and the abode of household spirits; and when a bride from another +family or gens was to be brought into it, it was essential that such +introduction should be carried out in a manner that would not disturb +the happy relations of the human and divine inhabitants of the house. It +was essential, too, that the children expected of her should be such as +should be able to discharge their duties in the household without +hurting the feelings of these spirits. Some of the quaint customs of the +_deductio_ of later times strongly suggest an original anxiety about +matters of such vital interest; the torch, carried by a boy whose +parents were both living, was of whitethorn (_Spina alba_), which was a +powerful protective against hostile magic, and about which there were +curious superstitions.[177] Arrived at the house, the bride smeared the +doorposts with wolf's fat and oil, and wound fillets of wool around +them--so dangerous was the moment of entrance, so sacred the doorway; +and finally, she was carried over the threshold, and then, and then +only, was received by her husband into communion of fire and water, +symbolic of her acceptance as materfamilias both by man and deity.[178] + +When the new materfamilias presented her husband with a child, there was +another perilous moment; the infant, if accepted by the father +(_sublatus_, _i.e._ raised from the earth on which it had been +placed),[179] did not immediately become a member of the family in the +religious sense, and was liable to be vexed by evil or mischievous +spirits from the wild woodland, or, as they phrased it in later days, +by Silvanus. I have already alluded to the curious bit of mummery which +was meant to keep them off. Three men at night came to the threshold and +struck it with an axe, a pestle, and a besom, so that "by these signs of +agriculture Silvanus might be prevented from entering." The hostile +spirits were thus denied entrance to a dwelling in which friendly +spirits of household life and of settled agricultural pursuits had taken +up their abode. Nothing can better show the anxiety of life in those +primitive times, especially in a country like Italy, full of forest and +mountain, where dwelt mischievous Brownies who would tease the settler +if they could. But on the ninth day after the birth (or the eighth in +the case of a girl) the child was "purified" and adopted into the family +and its sacra, and into the gens to which the family belonged, and +received its name--the latter a matter of more importance than we can +easily realise.[180] From this time till it arrived at the age of +puberty it was protected by amulet and _praetexta_; the tender age of +childhood being then passed, and youth and maiden endued with new +powers, the peculiar defensive armour of childhood might be dispensed +with.[181] + +Lastly, the death of a member of the family was an occasion of extreme +anxiety, which might, however, be allayed by the exact performance of +certain rites (_iusta facere_). The funeral ceremonies of the City-state +were of a complicated character, and the details are not all of them +easy to interpret. But the principle must have been always the +same--that the dead would "walk" unless they had been deposited with due +ceremony in the bosom of Mother Earth, and that their natural tendency +in "walking" was to find their way back to the house which had been +their home in life. Whether buried or burnt, the idea was the same: if +burnt, as seems to have been common Roman practice from very early +times, at least one bone had to be buried as representing the whole +body. We have seen that certain precautions were taken to prevent the +dead man from finding his way back, such as carrying him out of the +house feet foremost; and if he were properly buried and the house duly +purified afterwards, the process of prevention was fairly complete. His +ghost, shade, or double then passed beneath the earth to join the whole +body of Manes in the underworld,[182] and could only return at certain +fixed times--such at least was the idea expressed in the customs of +later ages. But if a paterfamilias or his representative had omitted +_iusta facere_, or if the dead man had never been buried at all, carried +off by an enemy or some wild beast, he could never have descended to +that underworld, and was roaming the earth disconsolately, and with an +evil will. The primitive idea of anxiety is well expressed in the Roman +festival of the Lemuria in May, when the head of a household could get +rid of the ghosts by spitting out black beans[183] from his mouth and +saying, "With these I redeem me and mine." Nine times he says this +without looking round: then come the ghosts behind him and gather up the +beans unseen. After other quaint performances he nine times repeats the +formula, "Manes exite paterni," then at last looks round, and the ghosts +are gone.[184] This is plainly a survival from the private life of the +primitive household, and well illustrates its fears and anxieties; but +the State provided, as we shall see, another and more religious +ceremony, put limitations on the mischievous freedom of the ghosts, and +ordained the means of expiation for those who had made a slip in the +funeral ceremonies, or whose dead had been buried at sea or had died in +a far country. + +I have thus tried to sketch the life of the early Latin family in its +relations with the various manifestations of the Power in the universe. +We have seen enough, I think, to conclude that it had a strong desire to +be in right relations with that Power, and to understand its will; but +we may doubt whether that desire had as yet become very effective. The +circumstances of the life of the Latin farmer were hardly such as to rid +him of much of the _religio_ that he had inherited from his wilder +ancestors, or had found springing up afresh within him as he contended +with the soil, the elements, and the hostile beings surrounding him, +animal, human, and spiritual. He is living in an age of transition; he +is half-way between the age of magic and a new age of religion and duty. + + + NOTES TO LECTURE IV + + [131] Frazer, _Lectures on the Early History of the + Kingship_, lect. viii. Dr. Frazer finds traces of + Mutterrecht only in the succession to the kingship of + Alba and Rome, of which the evidence is of course purely + legendary. If the legends represent fact in any sense, + they point, if I understand him rightly, to a kingship + held by a non-Latin race, or, as he calls it, plebeian. + Binder, _Die Plebs_, p. 403 foll., believes that the + original Latin population, _i.e._ the plebs of later + times, lived under Mutterrecht. + + [132] Aust, _Religion der Roemer_, p. 212. + + [133] In historical times the household deities were + often represented by images of Greek type: _e.g._ the + Penates by those of the Dioscuri. Wissowa, _Rel. und + Kult._ p. 147, and _Gesammelte Abhandlungen_, p. 95 + foll., and 289. See also De Marchi, _La Religione nella + vita privata_, i. p. 41 foll. and p. 90 foll. + + [134] De Marchi, _op. cit._ i. 13 foll. In the ordinary + and regular religion of the family the State, _i.e._ the + pontifices, did not interfere; but they might do so in + matters such as the succession of _sacra_, the care of + graves, or the fulfilment of vows undertaken by private + persons. See Cicero, _de Legibus_, ii. 19. 47. + + [135] Mucius Scaevola, the great lawyer, defined + _gentiles_ as those "qui eodem nomine sunt, qui ab + ingenuis oriundi sunt, quorum maiorum nemo servitutem + servivit, qui capite non sunt deminuti," Cic. _Topica_, + vi. 29. This is the practical view of a lawyer of the + last century B.C., and does not take account of the + _sacra gentilicia_, which had by that time decayed or + passed into the care of _sodalitates_: Marquardt, p. 132 + foll.; De Marchi, ii. p. 3 foll. The notion of descent + from a common ancestor is of course ideal, but none the + less a factor in the life of the gens; it crops up, + _e.g._, in Virgil, _Aen._ v. 117, 121, and Servius _ad + loc._ + + [136] Crawley, _The Tree of Life_, p. 47. + + [137] For the alleged extinction of the gens Potitia, + and the legend connected with it, Livy i. 7, Festus 237. + + [138] See Marquardt, _Privataltertuemer_, p. 56, and note + 6. + + [139] There is, I believe, no doubt that the + etymological affinities of the word _familia_ point to + the idea of settlement and not that of kin; _e.g._ Oscan + _Faama_, a house, and Sanscrit _dha_, to settle. + + [140] The exact meaning and origin of the word has been + much discussed. It is tempting to connect it with _pax_, + _paciscor_, and make it a territory within whose bounds + there is _pax_; see Rudorff, _Gromatici veteres_, ii. + 239, and Nissen, _Italische Landeskunde_, ii. 8 foll. + + [141] See Rudorff, _Grom. vet._ ii. 236 foll.; Mommsen, + _Staatsrecht_, iii. 116 foll.; Kornemann in _Klio_, vol. + v. (1905) p. 80 foll.; Greenidge, _Roman Public Life_, + p. 1 foll. + + [142] Mommsen, _Staatsrecht_, iii. 22 foll.; Kornemann, + _l.c._; Roby in _Dict. of Antiquities_, _s.v._ + "Agrimetatio," p. 85. The view that there was freehold + garden land attached to the homestead gains strength + from a statement of Pliny (_N.H._ xix. 50) that the word + used in the XII. Tables for villa, which was the word in + classical times for the homestead, was _hortus_, a + garden, and that this was _heredium_, private property. + See Mommsen, _Staatsrecht_, iii. 23. It would indeed be + strange if the house had no land immediately attached to + it; we know that in the Anglo-Saxon village community + the villani, bordarii and cotagii, had their garden + croft attached to their dwellings, apart from such + strips as they might hold from the lord of the manor in + the open fields. See Vinogradoff, _Villainage in + England_, p. 148. For the _centuriatus ager_, Roby + _l.c._ We have no direct knowledge of the system in the + earliest times, but it is almost certain that it was + old-Italian in outline, and not introduced by the + Etruscans, as stated, _e.g._, by Deecke-Mueller, + _Etrusker_, ii. 128. + + [143] For Latium this is proved by the sepulchral + hut-urns found at Alba and also on the Esquiline. One of + these in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford shows the + construction well. See article "Domus" in Pauly-Wissowa, + _Real-Encyclopaedie_; Helbig, _Die Italiker in der + Poebene_, p. 50 foll. Later there was an opening in the + roof. + + [144] Von Duhn in _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, 1896, + p. 125 foll., and article "Domus" in Pauly-Wissowa. + + [145] This is Aust's admirable expression, _Religion der + Roemer_, p. 214. + + [146] See the author's _Social Life at Rome in the Age + of Cicero_, p. 242. + + [147] Serv. _Aen._ i. 270; Marquardt, p. 126. + + [148] _Ap. Gellium_, iv. 1. 17. For the sacredness of + food and meals, see below (Lect. VIII. p. 172). + + [149] See a paper by the author in _Classical Rev._ vol. + x. (1896) p. 317, and references there given. Cp. the + passage of Servius quoted above (_Aen._ i. 730), where a + boy is described as announcing at the daily meal that + the gods were propitious. For the purity necessary I may + refer to Hor. _Odes_, iii. 23 _ad fin._, "Immunis aram + si tetigit manus," etc. + + [150] _Primitive Culture_, i. 393. + + [151] The feminine counterpart of Genius was Juno, of + which more will be said later on. Each woman had her + Juno; but this "other-soul" has little importance as + compared with Genius. + + [152] See J. B. Carter in Hastings' _Dict. of Religion + and Ethics_, i. 462 foll. For Genius in general, Birt in + _Myth. Lex._ s.v.; Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 154 foll.; + Stewart, _Myths of Plato_, p. 450, for the connexion of + souls with ancestry. + + [153] See the fifth of Plutarch's _Quaestiones Romanae_, + and Dr. Jevons' interesting comments in his edition of + Phil. Holland's translation, pp. xxii. and xxxv. foll. + Cp. the throwing the fetters of a criminal out by the + roof of the Flamen's house. + + [154] _Civ. Dei_, vi. 9. These are deities of the + Indigitamenta; see below, p. 84. + + [155] De Marchi, _La Religione_, etc. i. 188 foll.; + Marquardt, _Privatleben der Roemer_, p. 336, "la porte + est la limite entre le monde etranger et le monde + domestique" (A. van Gennep, _Rites de passage_, p. 26, + where other illustrations are given). + + [156] See below, Lect. XII. p. 281. + + [157] Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 96; Aust, _Rel. der Roemer_, p. + 117; Roscher in _Myth. Lex._ s.v. "Janus"; J. B. Carter, + _Religion of Numa_, p. 13. Cp. Von Domaszewski in + _Archiv_, 1907, p. 337. + + [158] Frazer, _Lectures on the Early History of + Kingship_, p. 286 foll.; A. B. Cook in _Classical + Review_, 1904, p. 367 foll. + + [159] _Gromat. vet._ i. 302, line 20 foll., describes + the chapels, but without mentioning the Lares. Varro + (_L.L._ vi. 25) supplies the name: "Compitalia dies + attributus Laribus Compitalibus; ideo ubi viae competunt + tum in competis sacrificatur." Cp. Wissowa, _R.K._ p. + 148. But the nature of the land thus marked off is not + clear to me, nor explained (for primitive times) by + Wissowa in _Real-Encycl._, _s.vv._ "Compitum" and + "Compitalia." + + [160] "Enos Lases juvate." See Henzen, _Acta Fratr. + Arv._ p. 26 foll. + + [161] Cato, _R.R._ 5. Cp. Dion. Hal. iv. 13. 2. In Cato + 143 the vilica is to put a wreath on the focus on + Kalends, Nones and Ides, and to pray to the Lar + familiaris pro copia (at the compita?). + + [162] Marquardt, _Privatleben_, p. 172. + + [163] The controversy about the Lar may be read in the + _Archiv fuer Religionswissenschaft_, 1904, p. 42 foll. + (Wissowa), and 1907, p. 368 foll. (Samter in reply). De + Marchi (_La Religione_, etc. i. 28 foll.) takes the same + view as Samter, who originally stated it in his + _Familienfesten_, p. 105 foll., in criticism of + Wissowa's view. See also a note by the author in the + _Archiv_, 1906, p. 529. + + [164] Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 148; the details as to the + altar occur in _Gromatici vet._ i. 302. It was on this + occasion that _maniae_ and _pilae_ were hung on the + house and compitum ("pro foribus," Macr. i. 7. 35); see + above, p. 61. For the _religio Larium_, Cic. _de Legg._, + ii. 19 and 27. That the Compitalia was an old Latin + festival is undoubted; but as we are uncertain about the + exact nature of the earliest form of landholding, we + cannot be sure about the nature of the compita in remote + antiquity. The passage from the _Gromatici_ (Dolabella), + quoted above, refers to the _fines templares_ of + _possessiones_, _i.e._ the boundaries marked by these + chapels in estates of later times. See Rudorff in vol. + ii. p. 263; Wissowa in Pauly-Wissowa, _s.v._ "Compitum." + + [165] Varro, _L.L._ vi. 26. I have discussed this + passage in _R.F._ p. 294; it is still not clear to me + whether Varro is identifying his Paganicae with the + Sementivae, but on the whole I think he uses the latter + word of a city rite (_dies a pontificibus dictus_), and + the former of the country festivals of the same kind. + + [166] _Fasti_, i. 663. + + [167] _Cl. Rev._, 1908, p. 36 foll. + + [168] _Georg._ i. 338 foll. + + [169] See my discussion of Faunus in _R.F._ p. 258 foll. + I am still unable to agree with Wissowa in his view of + Faunus (_R.K._ p. 172 foll.). I may here mention a + passage of the gromatic writer Dolabella (_Gromatici_, + i. 302), in which he says that there were three Silvani + to each _possessio_ or large estate of later times: "S. + domesticus, possessioni consecratus: alter agrestis, + pastoribus consecratus: tertius orientalis, cui est in + confinio lucus positus, a quo inter duo pluresque fines + oriuntur." Faunus never became domesticated, but he + belongs to the same type as Silvanus. Von Domaszewski, + in his recently published _Abhandlungen zur roem. + Religion_, p. 61, discredits the passage about the three + Silvani, following a paper of Mommsen. But his whole + interesting discussion of Silvanus shows well how many + different forms that curious semi-deity could take. + + [170] _Odes_, iii. 18. + + [171] Cic. _de Inventione_, ii. 161. + + [172] pp. 236-284. + + [173] _R.F._ 325, condensed from Siculus Flaccus + (_Gromatici_, i. 141). + + [174] _Fasti_, ii. 641 foll. + + [175] See, _e.g._, Jevons, _Introduction_, etc., p. 138; + Robertson Smith, _Semites_, p. 321. + + [176] See, _e.g._, Tibullus ii. 1. 55; Virg. _Ecl._ vi. + 22, x. 27, and Servius on both these passages. Pliny, + _N.H._ xxxiii. 111; and cp. below, p. 177. For primitive + ideas about the colour red see Jevons, _Introd._ pp. 67 + and 138; Samter, _Familienfeste_, p. 47 foll. Cp. also + the very interesting paper of von Duhn in _Archiv_, + 1906, p. 1 foll., esp. p. 20: "Es soll eben wirklich + pulsierendes kraftvolles Leben zum Ausdruck gebracht + werden." His conclusions are based on the widespread + custom of using red in funerals, coffins, and for + colouring the dead man himself: the idea being to give + him a chance of new life--which is what he wants--red + standing for blood. + + [177] I am not sure that I am right in calling this + whitethorn. For the qualities of the _Spina alba_ see + Ovid, _Fasti_, vi. 129 and 165, "Sic fatus spinam, quae + tristes pellere posset A foribus nexas, haec erat alba, + dedit." In line 165 he calls it _Virga Janalis_. See + also Festus, p. 289, and Serv. _ad Ecl._ viii. 29; + Buecheler, _Umbrica_, p. 136. + + [178] The details are fully set forth in Marquardt, + _Roem. Privataltertuemer_, p. 52 foll. The religious + character of _confarreatio_ and its antiquity are fully + recognised by Westermarck, _History of Human Marriage_, + p. 427. Some interesting parallels to the smearing of + the doorposts from modern Europe will be found collected + in Samter, _Familienfeste_, p. 81 foll. The authority + for the wolf's fat was Masurius Sabinus, quoted by + Pliny, _N.H._ xxviii. 142 (cp. 157), who adds from the + same author, "ideo novas nuptas illo perungere postes + solitas, ne quid mali medicamenti inferretur." The real + reason was, no doubt, that it was a charm against evil + _spirits_, not against poison; but it is worth while to + quote here another passage of Pliny (xx. 101), where he + says that a squill hung _in limine ianuae_ had the same + power, according to Pythagoras. Some may see a + reminiscence of totemism in the wolf's fat: in any case + the mention of the animal as obtainable is interesting. + + [179] Dieterich, _Mutter Erde_, p. 6 foll. The idea is + that the child comes from mother earth, and will + eventually return to her. + + [180] For Roman names Marquardt, _Privatleben_, p. 7 + foll., and Mommsen, _Forschungen_, i. I foll., are still + the most complete authorities. For the importance of the + name among wild and semi-civilised peoples, Frazer, + _G.B._ i. 403 foll.; Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, ii. 430 + foll. All these ceremonies of birth, naming, and + initiation (puberty) have recently been included by M. + van Gennep in what he calls _Rites de passage_ (see his + book with that title, which appeared after these + lectures were prepared, especially chapters v. and vi.). + In all these ceremonies he traces more or less + successfully a sequence of rites of separation (_i.e._ + from a previous condition), of margin, where the ground + is, so to speak, neutral, and of "aggregation," when the + subject is introduced to a new state or condition of + existence. If I understand him rightly, he looks on this + as the proper and primitive explanation of all such + rites, and denies that they need to be accounted for + animistically, _i.e._ by assuming that riddance of evil + spirits, or purification of any kind, is the leading + idea in them. They are, in fact, quasi-dramatic + celebrations of a process of going over from one status + to another, and may be found in connection with all the + experiences of man in a social state. But the Roman + society, of which I am describing the religious aspect, + had beyond doubt reached the animistic stage of thought, + and was in process of developing it into the theological + stage; hence these ceremonies are marked by sacrifices, + as marriage, the _dies lustricus_ (see De Marchi, p. + 169, and Tertull. _de Idol._ 16) most probably, and + puberty (_R.F._ p. 56). I do not fully understand how + far van Gennep considers sacrifice as marking a later + stage in the development of the ideas of a society on + these matters (see his note in criticism of Oldenburg, + p. 78); but I see no good reason to abandon the words + purification and lustration, believing that even if he + is right in his explanation of the original + performances, these ideas had been in course of time + engrafted on them. + + [181] In historical times the _toga pura_ was assumed + when the parents thought fit; earlier there may have + been a fixed day (_R.F._ p. 56, "Liberalia"). In any + case there was, of course, no necessary correspondence + between "social and physical puberty"; van Gennep, p. 93 + foll. + + [182] Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 191; J. B. Carter in Hastings' + _Dict. of Religion and Ethics_, i. 462 foll.; Dieterich, + _Mutter Erde_, p. 77. The whole question of the + so-called cult of the dead at Rome calls for fresh + investigation in the light of ethnological and + archaeological research. The recent work of Mr. J. C. + Lawson, _Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek + Religion_, seems to throw grave doubt on some of the + most important conclusions of Rohde's _Psyche_, the work + which most writers on the ideas of the Greeks and Romans + have been content to follow. Mr. Lawson seems to me to + have proved that the object of both burial and cremation + (which in both peninsulas are found together) was to + secure dissolution for the substance of the body, so + that the soul might not be able to inhabit the body + again, and the two together return to annoy the living + (see especially chapters v. and vi.). But his answer to + the inevitable question, why in that case sustenance + should be offered to the dead at the grave, is less + satisfactory (see pp. 531, 538), and I do not at present + see how to co-ordinate it with Roman usage. But I find + hardly a trace of the belief that the dead had to be + placated like the gods by sacrifice and prayer, except + in _Aen._ iii. 63 foll. and v. 73 foll. In the first of + these passages Polydorus had not been properly buried, + as Servius observes _ad loc._ to explain the nature of + the offerings; the second presents far more difficulties + than have as yet been fairly faced. + + [183] For recent researches about beans as tabooed by + the Pythagoreans and believed to be the food of ghosts, + see Gruppe, _Mythologische Literatur_, p. 370 (Samter + and Wuensch). Cp. _R.F._, p. 110. + + [184] Ov. _Fasti_, v. 421 foll.; _R.F._ p. 107. + + + + +LECTURE V + +THE CALENDAR OF NUMA + + +The religion of the household had two main characteristics. First, it +was a perfectly natural and organic growth, the result of the Roman +farmer's effective desire to put himself and his in right relations with +the spiritual powers at work for good or ill around him. His conception +of these powers I shall deal with more fully in the next lecture; but I +have said enough to prove that it was not a degrading one. The spirits +of his house and his land and his own Genius were friendly powers, all +of them of the greatest importance for his life and his work, and their +claims were attended to with regularity and devotion. From Vesta and the +Penates, the Lar, the Genius, the Manes, and the spirits of the doorway +and the spring, there was nothing to fear if they were carefully +propitiated; and as his daily life and comfort depended on this +propitiation, they were really divine members of the _familia_, and +might become, and perhaps did become, the objects of real affection as +well as worship. In this well-regulated practical life of the early +agricultural settlers, with its careful attention to the claims of its +divine protectors, we may perhaps see the germs of a real religious +expression of human life. + +Secondly, there was doubtless at the same time constant cause for +anxiety. Beyond the house and the land there were unreclaimed spirits of +the woodland which might force an entrance into the sacred limits of the +house; the ghosts of the dead members were constantly wishing to +return; the crops might be attacked by strange diseases, by storms or +drought, and man himself was liable to seasonal disease or sudden +pestilence. The cattle and sheep might stray into the remote forest and +become the prey of evil beasts, if not of evil spirits. How was the +farmer to meet all these troubles, caused, as he supposed, by spirits +whose ways he did not understand? How were they to be propitiated as +they themselves would wish? How were the omens to be interpreted from +which their will might be guessed? How were the proper times and seasons +for each religious operation to be discovered? If my imagination is not +at fault, I seem to see that the Latin farmer must have had to shift for +himself in most of his dealings with the supernatural powers about him; +_religio_, the sense of awe and of dependence, must have been constantly +with him. But even here we may see, I think, a possible germ of +religious development; for without this feeling of awe religious forms +tend to become meaningless: lull _religio_ to sleep, and the forms cease +to represent effectively man's experience of life. We have to see later +on how this paralysis of the religious instinct did actually take place +in early Roman history. + +For we now have to leave the religion of the household, and to study +that of the earliest form of the City-state. We have enjoyed a glint of +light reflected from later times on the religion of the early Roman +family, and are about to enjoy another glint--nay, a gleam of real +light, and not merely a reflected one--which the earliest religious +document we possess casts on the religion of the City-state of Rome. +Between the two there is a long period of almost complete darkness. We +know hardly anything as yet, and it is not likely that we shall ever +know anything definite, about the stages of development which must have +been passed before Rome became the so-called city of the Four Regions, +when her history may be said really to begin. The pagus hardly helps us +here; it was not an essential advance on the family, and its religion +was comprehensive, not intensive. Each pagus, however, seems to have +had within its bounds an _oppidum_, or stronghold on a hill; and such +oppida were the seven _montes_ of early Rome, which, with the pagi +belonging to them, survived in name to the end of the Republic, with +some kind of a religious festival uniting them together, about which we +have hardly any knowledge.[185] This looks like a stage in the process +of change from farm to city, and it has generally been believed to mark +one. Unfortunately nothing to our purpose can be founded on it. We must +be content with the undoubted fact that about the eighth or seventh +century B.C. the site of Rome was occupied and strengthened as a bulwark +against the Etruscan people who were pressing down from the north upon +the valley of the Tiber;[186] we may take it that the old central +fortress of Latium, on the Alban hill, was not in the right position for +defence, and that it was seen to be absolutely necessary to make a +stronghold of the position offered by the hills which abut on the river +twenty miles above its mouth--the only real position of defence for the +Latin settlements in its rear. Here an _urbs_ was made with _murus_ and +_pomoerium_, _i.e._ material and spiritual boundaries, taking in a space +sufficient to hold the threatened rural population with their flocks and +herds, with the river in the front and a common citadel on the +Capitoline hill, and including the Palatine, Quirinal, Esquiline, +Caelian and Aventine hills, though the last named remained technically +outside the pomoerium.[187] + +It is to this city that our earliest religious document, the so-called +Calendar of Numa, belongs. That calendar includes the cult of Quirinus +on the hill which still bears his name, and that hill was an integral +part of the city as just described. On the other hand, it tells us +nothing of the great cult of the _trias_ on the Capitoline--Jupiter, +Juno, Minerva--which by universal tradition was instituted much later by +the second Tarquinius, _i.e._ under an Etruscan dynasty; nor does Diana +appear in it, the goddess who was brought from Latium and settled on the +Aventine before the end of the kingly period. We have, then, a +_terminus ex quo_ for the date of the calendar in the inclusion in the +city of the Quirinal hill, and a _terminus ad quem_ in the foundation of +the Diana temple on the Aventine.[188] We cannot date these events +precisely; but it is sufficient for our purpose if it be taken as proved +that the Fasti belong to the fully developed city, and yet were drawn up +before that conquest by the Etruscans which we may regard as a +certainty, and which is marked by the foundations of Etruscan masonry +which served to support the great Capitoline temple. And this is also +borne out by the undoubted fact that the calendar itself shows no trace +of Etruscan influence. But I must now go on to explain exactly what this +calendar is. + +The _Fasti anni Romani_ exist chiefly on stone as inscriptions, and date +from the Early Empire, between 31 B.C. and A.D. 51. They give us, in +fact, the calendar as revised by Caesar; but no one now doubts that +Mommsen was right in detecting in these inscriptions the skeleton of the +original calendar which the Romans ascribed to Numa.[189] This is +distinguished from later additions by the large capital letters in which +it is written or inscribed in all the fragments we possess; it gives us +the days of the month with their religious characteristics as affecting +state business, the names of the religious festivals which concern the +whole state, and the Kalends, Nones, and Ides in each month. Excluding +these last, we have the names, in a shortened form, of forty-five +festivals; and these festivals, thus placed by an absolutely certain +record in their right place in each month and in the year, must be the +foundation of all scientific study of the religious practice of the +Roman state, taken together with certain additions in smaller capitals, +and with such information about them as we can obtain from literary +sources.[190] + +The smaller capitals give us such entries as _feriae Iovi_, _feriae +Saturno_, _i.e._ the name of a deity to whom a festival was sacred, the +foundation days of temples, generally with the name of the deity in the +dative and the position of the temple in the city, and certain _ludi_ +and memorial days, which belong to a much later age than the original +festivals. But the names of those which are inscribed in large letters +bear witness beyond all question to their own antiquity; for among them +there is not one which has anything to do, so far as we know, with a +non-Roman deity, and we know that foreign deities began to arrive in +Rome before the end of the kingly period. Here, then, we have genuine +information about the oldest religious doings of the City-state, in what +indeed is, as Mommsen said, the most ancient source of our knowledge +about Roman antiquity generally. + +The first point we notice in studying this calendar (putting aside for +the present the question as to the agency by which it was drawn up) is +this: it exactly reflects a transition from the life of a rural +population engaged in agriculture, to the highly-organised political and +military life of a City-state. In other words, the State, whose +religious needs and experience it reflects, was one whose economic basis +was agriculture, whose life included legal and political business, and +whose activity in the season of arms was war. + +This last characteristic is discernible chiefly, if not entirely, in the +months of March and October; and the former of these bears the name of +the great deity, who, whatever may have been his origin or the earliest +conception of him, was throughout Roman history the god of war. All +through March up to the 23rd the Salii, the warlike priests of Mars, +were active, dancing and singing those hymns of which an obscure +fragment has come down to us, and clashing and brandishing the sacred +spears and shields of the god (_ancilia_).[191] On the 19th these +ancilia were lustrated--a process to which I shall recur in another +lecture; and on the 23rd we find in the calendar the festival +Tubilustrium, which suggests the lustration of the trumpets of the host +before it took the field. On the 14th of March,[192] and also on the +27th of February, we find Equirria in the calendar, which must be +understood as lustrations of the horses of the host, accompanied with +races. If we may take the ancilia as symbolising the arms of the host, +we see in the festivals of this month a complete religious process +preparing the material of war for the perils inevitably to be met with +beyond the _ager Romanus_, whether from human or spiritual enemies; and +that the warriors themselves were subjected to a process of the same +kind we know from the historical evidence of later times.[193] Now in +October, when the season of arms was over, we find indications of a +parallel process, which Wissowa was the first to point out clearly, but +without fully recognising its religious import.[194] It was not so much +thanksgiving (_Dankfest_) after a campaign that was necessary on the +return of the army, as purification (or disinfection) from the taint of +bloodshed, and from contact with strange beings human and +spiritual.[195] On October 15, the Ides, there was a horse-race in the +Campus Martius, with a sacrifice of the winning horse to Mars with +peculiar primitive ritual; this, however, for some reason which I shall +presently try to discover, was not embodied in the calendar under any +special name. On the 19th, however, we find the entry ARMILUSTRIUM, +which tells its own tale. The Salii, too, were active again in these +days of October, and on the day of the Armilustrium, as it would seem, +put their shields away (_condere_) in their _sacrarium_ until the March +following. As Wissowa says, the ritual of the Salii is thus a symbolic +copy of the procedure of war.[196] From these indications in the +calendar, helped out by information drawn from the later entries and +from literary evidence, we see quite plainly that we are dealing with +the religion of a state which for half the year is liable to be engaged +in war. Rome was, in fact, a frontier fortress on the Tiber against +Etruscan enemies; she is destined henceforward to be continually in +arms, and she has already expressed this great fact in her religious +calendar. + +The legal and political significance of the calendar consists in the +division of the days of the year into two great groups, _dies fasti_ +and _nefasti_: the former are those on which it is _fas_, _i.e._ +religiously permissible, to transact civil business, the latter those on +which it would be _nefas_ to do so, _i.e._ sacrilege, because they are +given over to the gods. We need not, indeed, assume that these marks F +and N descend in every case from the very earliest times into the +pre-Julian calendar, or that the few days which have other marks stood +originally as we find them; but of the primitive character of the main +division we can have no doubt. In the calendar as we have it 109 days +belong to the divine, 235 to the human inhabitants of the city. All but +two of the former are days of odd numbers in the month, and it is +reasonable to suppose that these two exceptions were later alterations. +The belief that odd numbers are lucky is a very widely-spread +superstition, and we do not need to have recourse to Pythagoras to +explain it; in this rule, as in others, _e.g._ their taboo on eating +beans, the Pythagoreans were only following a native prejudice of +southern Italy. "The idea of luck in odd numbers," says Mr. Crooke,[197] +writing of the Hindus, "is universal." Thus the simpler odd numbers, +three, five, seven, and nine, all recur constantly in folklore; and the +result is visible in this calendar. Where a festival occupies more than +one day in a month, there is an interval between the two of one or three +days, making the whole number three or five. Thus Carmentalia occur on +11th and 15th January, and the Lemuria in May are on the 9th, 11th, and +13th; the Lucaria in July on 19th and 21st. In some months, too, _e.g._ +August and December, perhaps also July and February, there seem to be +traces of an arrangement by which festivals which probably had some +connection with each other are thus arranged; _e.g._ in August six +festivals, all concerned in some way with the fruits of the earth and +the harvest, occur on the 17th, 19th, 21st, 23rd, 25th, and 27th. It has +recently been suggested[198] that these are arranged round one central +festival, which gives a kind of colouring to the others, as the +Volcanalia in August, the Saturnalia in December. But the reasons von +Domaszewski gives for the arrangement, and the further speculation that +where it does not occur we may find traces of an older system, as yet +unaffected by the so-called Pythagorean prejudice, do not seem to me +satisfactory. We may be content with the general principle as I have +stated it, and note that while religious duties _must_ be performed on +days of odd number, civil duties were not so restricted: the days +belonging to the gods, which were, so to speak, taboo days, were more +important than those belonging to men. There are, as I have said, but +two days marked in the large letters as festivals, which are on days of +even number, 24th February and 14th March, the Regifugium and the second +Equirria; and about these we know so little that it is almost useless to +speculate as to the reason for their exception from the rule. Two +others, 24th March and 24th May, were partly the property of the gods +and partly of men, and are marked QRCF (_quando rex comitiavit fas_); +but the sense in which they partially belonged to the gods is not the +same as in the case of sacrificial festivals. + +This calendar thus shows obvious signs of both military and political +development; in other words, its witness to the religious experience of +the Romans proves that they had successfully adjusted the forms and +seasons of their worship to the processes of government at home and of +military service in the field. But the most conspicuous feature in it is +the testimony it bears to the agricultural habits of the people--to the +fact that agriculture and not trade, of which there is hardly a trace, +was the economic basis of their life. At the time when it was drawn up, +the Romans must have been able to subsist upon the _ager Romanus_, +though, as we shall see later on, it was probably not long before they +began commercial relations with other peoples; for their food, which was +almost entirely vegetarian, and their clothing, which was entirely of +wool and leather,[199] they depended on their crops, flocks, and herds; +and the perils to which these were liable remain for the State, as for +the farming household, the main subject of the propitiation of the gods, +the main object of their endeavours to keep themselves in right relation +with the Power manifest in the universe. + +We can trace the series of agricultural operations in the calendar +without much difficulty all through the year. The Roman year, we must +remember, began with March, and March, as we have seen, had under the +military necessities of the State become peculiarly appropriated to the +religious preparation of the burgher host for warlike activity. But the +festivals of April, when crops were growing, cattle bringing forth young +or seeking summer pasture, all have direct reference to the work of +agriculture.[200] At the Fordicidia, on the 15th, pregnant cows were +sacrificed to the Earth-goddess, and their unborn calves burnt, +apparently with the object of procuring the fertility of the corn; and +the Cerealia on the 19th, to judge by the name, must have had an object +of the same kind, though the supersession of Ceres by the Greek Demeter +had obscured this in historical times. The Parilia on the 19th, recently +illuminated by Dr. Frazer,[201] was a lustration of the cattle and sheep +before they left their winter pasture to encounter the dangers of wilder +hill or woodland, and may be compared with the lustratio of the host +before a campaign. On the 23rd the Vinalia tells its own tale, and shows +that the cultivation of the vine was already a part of the agricultural +work. On the 25th the spirit of the red mildew, Robigus, was the object +of propitiation, at the time when the ear was beginning to be formed in +the corn, and was particularly liable to attack from this pest. + +The religious precautions thus taken in April were not renewed in May; +but at the end of that month of ripening the whole of the _ager Romanus_ +was lustrated by the Fratres Arvales. This important rite, for some +reason which we cannot be sure of, was a movable feast, left to the +discretion of the brethren, and therefore does not appear in the +calendar. In June the sacred character of the new crops, now approaching +their harvest, becomes apparent; the _penus Vestae_, the symbolic +receptacle of the grain-store of the State, after remaining open from +the 7th to the 15th, was closed on that day for the rest of the year, +after being carefully cleansed: the refuse was religiously deposited in +a particular spot. Thus all was made ready for the reception of the new +grain, which, as is now well known, has a sacred character among +primitive peoples, and must be stored and eaten with precaution.[202] +This was the chief religious work of June; in July, the month when the +harvest was actually going on, the festivals are too obscure to delay +us; they seem to have some reference to water, rain, storms, but it is +not clear to me whether the object was to avert stormy weather during +the cutting of the crops, or, on the other hand, to avert a drought in +the hottest time of the year. The true harvest festivals begin in +August; the Consualia on 21st and Opiconsiva on 25th both seem to +suggest the operation of storing up (_condere_) the grain, and between +them we find the Volcanalia, of which the object was perhaps to +propitiate the fire-spirit at a time when the heat of the sun might be +dangerous to the freshly-gathered crops. + +After the crops were once harvested, ploughing and sowing chiefly +occupied the farming community until December; and as these operations +were not accompanied by the same perils which beset the agriculturist in +spring and summer, they have left no trace in the calendar. Special +religious action was not necessary on their behalf. It is not till the +autumn sowing was over, and the workers could rest from their labours, +that we find another set of festivals, of which the centre-point is the +Saturnalia on the 17th, Saturnus being the deity, I think, both of the +operation of sowing and of the sown seed, now reposing in the bosom of +mother earth.[203] A second Consualia on the 15th, and the Opalia on the +19th, like the corresponding August festivals, seem to be concerned with +the housed grain harvested in the previous August; I am disposed to +think that in all three we should see not only the natural rejoicing +after the labours of the autumn, but the opening of the granaries and, +perhaps, the first eating of the grain. For on the Saturnalia there was +a sacrifice at Saturnus' altar, followed by a feast, which was +afterwards Graecised, but doubtless originally represented the primitive +feasting of the farm, in which the whole familia took part. This brings +us practically to the end of the agricultural year as represented in the +calendar; for spring sowing was exceptional, the joyful feasts of pagus +and compitum are not to be found in our document, and the month of +February is specially occupied with the care and cult of the dead +(_Manes_). + +At this point I wish to notice one or two results of the adoption of a +religious calendar such as I have been describing, which are more to the +purpose of these lectures than some of the details I have had to point +out. First, let us remember that agricultural operations necessarily +vary in date according to the season, and that most of the rural +festivals of ancient Italy were not fixed to a particular day, but were +_feriae conceptivae_, settled perhaps according to the decision of some +meeting of heads of families or officers of a pagus. That this was so we +may conjecture from the fact that those which survived into historical +times, _e.g._ Compitalia and Paganalia, and were celebrated in the city, +though not as _sacra pro populo_,[204] were of varying date. But all the +festivals of the calendar were necessarily fixed, and the days on which +they were held were made over to the gods. Now by being thus fixed they +would soon begin to get out of relation to agricultural life; just as, +if the harvest festivals of our churches were fixed to one day +throughout the country, the meaning of the religious service would +sooner or later begin to lose something of its force. And how much the +more would this be so if the calendar itself, from ignorance or +mismanagement, began to get out of relation with the true season, as in +course of time was frequently the case? When once under such +circumstances the meaning of a religious rite is lost, where is its +psychological efficacy? In the life of the old Latin farmer, as we saw, +his religion was a reality, an organic growth, coincident at every point +with the perils he encountered in his daily toil; here, in the +City-state, it must from the beginning have had a tendency to become an +unreality, and it ended by becoming one entirely. Some of the old rites +may have attached new meanings to themselves; it is possible, for +example, that beneath the military rites of March there was an original +agricultural significance; the Saturnalia became a merry mid-winter +festival for a town population. But a great number wholly lost meaning, +and were so forgotten or neglected in course of time that even learned +men like Varro do not seem to have been able to explain them. The only +practical question about them for the later Romans was whether their +days were _dies fasti_ or _nefasti_ or _comitiales_,--what work might or +might not be done on them. + +Another point, closely connected with the last, and tending in the same +direction, is that such a calendar as this implies rigidity and routine +in religious duties. A well-ordered city life under a strong government +must, of course, be subject to routine; law, religious or civil, written +or unwritten, forces the individual into certain stereotyped ways of +life, subjects him to a certain amount of wholesome discipline. The +value of such routine to an undisciplined people has been well pointed +out by Bishop Stubbs, in writing of the effect of the rule of the Norman +and Angevin kings on the English people,[205] where it was also a +religious as well as a legal discipline that was at work. In neither +case was it the ignorant and superstitious routine of savage life, which +of late years we have had to substitute for old fancies about the +freedom of the savage; it is the willing obedience of civilised man for +his own benefit. But if it means a routine of religious rites which are +beginning to lose their meaning; if the relation between them and man's +life and work is lost; and lastly, if, as was probably the case, the +Fasti were not published, but remained in the hands of a priesthood or +an aristocracy,[206]--then there is serious loss as well as gain. You +begin sooner or later to cease to feel your dependence on the divine +beings around you for your daily bread, to get out of right relation +with the Power manifesting itself in the universe. + +But, in the third place, we must believe that at first, and indeed +perhaps for ages, this very routine had an important psychological +result in producing increased comfort, convenience, and confidence in +the Roman's relations with the divine inhabitants of his city. A certain +number of deities have taken up their abode within the walls of the +city, and are as much its inhabitants, its citizens, as the human beings +who live there; and all the relations between the divine and human +citizens are regulated now by law, by a _ius divinum_, of which the +calendar is a very important part. _Religio_, the old feeling of doubt +and scruple, arising from want of knowledge in the individual, is still +there; it is, in fact, the feeling which has given rise to all this +organisation and routine, the _cura_ and _caerimonia_, as Cicero phrases +it. But it must be already losing its strength, its life; it was, so to +speak, a constitutional weakness, and the _ius divinum_ is already +beginning to act on it as a tonic. Doubt has passed into fixed usage, +tradition has given place to organisation. Time, place, procedure in all +religious matters, are guaranteed by those skilled in the _ius divinum_; +they know what to do as the festival of each deity comes round, and at +the right time and place they do it with scrupulous attention to every +detail. Thus the organisation of which the calendar is our best example +would have as its first result the destruction of fear and doubt in the +mind of the ordinary Roman; it would tend to kill, or at least to put to +sleep, the _religio_ which was the original motive cause of this very +organisation. As the State in our own day has a tendency to relieve +families of such duties as the care and education of children, so the +State at Rome relieved the family of constant anxiety about matters in +which they were ever in danger from the spirit-world. The State and its +authorities have taken the whole responsibility of adjusting the +relations of the human and divine citizens.[207] + +Entirely in keeping with this psychological result of the calendar is +the fact, to which I have already alluded, that it supplies us with +hardly any evidence of the existence of magic, or of those "beastly +devices of the heathen" which may roughly be included under that word; +to use the language of Mr. Lang, we find none of those "distressing +vestiges of savagery and barbarism which meet us in the society of +ancient Greece." It is true enough that we do not know much about what +was done at the various festivals of the calendar, but what we do know, +with one or two exceptions, suggests an idea of worship as clean and +rational as that of the Homeric poems, which stands in such striking +contrast to that reflected in later Greek literature.[208] When we do +read of any kind of grossness in worship or the accompanying +festivities, it is almost always in the case of some rite which is _not_ +among those in the Fasti. Such was the old festival of Anna Perenna in +March, where the plebs in Ovid's time spent the day in revelry and +drinking, and prayed for as many years of life as they could drink cups +of wine. Such again was that of the October horse, when after a +chariot-race in the Campus the near horse of the winning team was +sacrificed, and his tail carried in hot haste to the Regia, where the +blood was allowed to drip on the sacred hearth; while the head was the +object of a fight between the men of the Via Sacra and those of the +Subura.[209] We may perhaps include in the list the ritual of the Argei, +if it was indeed, as I believe, of great antiquity;[210] on May 15, as +we have seen, twenty-seven puppets of reeds or straw were thrown into +the Tiber from the _pons sublicius_, possibly with the object of +procuring rain for the growing crops. Let us also note that _dies +religiosi_ were not marked in the Fasti, _i.e._ days on which some +uncomfortable feeling prevailed, such as the three days on which the +_mundus_ was open to allow the Manes to come up from their shadowy abode +below the earth; with the character of such days as "uncanny" the +calendar has simply nothing to do. It is a document of religious law, +not of _superstitio_, a word which in Roman usage almost invariably +means what is outside that religious law, outside the _ius divinum_; and +it is a document of _religio_ only so far as it is meant to organise and +carry out the _cura_ and _caerimonia_, the natural results of that +feeling which the Romans called _religio_. It stands on exactly the same +footing as the Law of the Israelites, which supplied them in full detail +with the _cura_ and _caerimonia_, and rigidly excluded all foreign and +barbarous rites and superstitions. + +I do not, of course, mean to say that the State did not recognise or +allow the festivals which are not marked in the calendar; the pontifices +and Vestals were present at the ceremony of the Argei, and the Regia was +the scene of a part of that of the October horse. But those who drew up +the calendar as the fundamental charter of the _ius divinum_ must have +had their reasons for the selection of forty-five days as made over to +the deities who were specially concerned with the State's welfare. And +on these days, so far as we know, there was a regular ordered routine of +sacrifice and prayer, with but little trace of the barbarous or +grotesque. The ritual of the Lupercalia is almost a solitary exception. +The Luperci had their foreheads smeared with the blood of the victims, +which were goats, and then this was wiped off with wool dipped in milk; +after this they were obliged to laugh, probably as a sign that the god +(whoever he was) was in them, or that they were identified with +him.[211] They then girt themselves with the skins of the victims and +ran round the ancient pomoerium, striking at any women they met with +strips of the same victims in order to produce fertility. This was +perhaps a rite taken over from aboriginal settlers on the Palatine, and +so intimately connected with that hill that it could not be omitted from +the calendar. The ritual of the three days of Lemuria in May, when +ghosts were expelled from the house, as Ovid describes the process, by +means of beans,[212] seems also to have been a reminiscence of ideas +about the dead more primitive than those which took effect in the more +cheerful Parentalia of February: here again we may perhaps see a +concession to the popular tradition and prejudice of a primitive +population. On the other hand, the revelry of the Saturnalia in +December, of which Dr. Frazer has made so much in the second edition of +the _Golden Bough_,[213] is nothing more than the licence of the +population of a great cosmopolitan city, an out-growth, under Greek +influence, from the rude winter rejoicings of the farmer and his +_familia_; and for his conjecture that a human victim was sacrificed on +this occasion in ancient Rome there is simply no evidence whatever. +There is, indeed, not a trace of human sacrifice at Rome so long as the +_ius divinum_ was the supreme religious law of the State; in the whole +Roman literature of the Republic hardly anything of the kind is alluded +to;[214] it is only when we come to an age when the taste for bloodshed +was encouraged by the shows of the amphitheatre, and when the +blood-loving religions of the East were pressing in, that we hear of +human sacrifice, and then only from Christian writers, who would +naturally seize on anything that came to hand to hold up paganism to +derision, without inquiring into the truth or the history of the alleged +practice.[215] + +Thus we may take it as highly probable that those who drew up the +calendar had the deliberate intention of excluding from the State +ritual, as far as was possible, everything in the nature of barbarism +and magic. For the religious purposes of a people occupied in +agriculture and war, and already beginning to develop some idea of law +and order, there was no need of any religious rites except such as would +serve, in decency and order, to propitiate the deities concerned with +the fertilisation of man, beast, and crop, and with the safety and +efficacy of the host in its struggle with the enemies of the city. The +Roman people grew up, in their city life as in the life of the family, +in self-restraint, dignity, and good order, confident in the course of +_cura_ and _caerimonia_, itself decent and stately, if soulless, which +the religious authorities had drawn up for them. + +We should naturally like to know something about those authorities, who +thus placed the religion of the State on a comparatively high level of +ritualistic decency, if not of theological subtlety. The Romans +themselves attributed the work to a priest-king, Numa Pompilius, and +probably their instinct was a right one. Names matter little in such +matters; but there is surely something in the universal Roman tradition +of a great religious legislator, something too, it may be, in the +tradition that he was a Sabine, a representative of the community on the +Quirinal which had been embodied in the Roman city before the calendar +was drawn up, and of the sturdy, serious stock of central Italy, which +retained its _virtus_ longer than any other Italian people.[216] We are +quite in the dark as to all this, unless we can put any kind of +confidence in the traditional belief of the Romans themselves. But there +is one point on which I should like to make a suggestion--a new one so +far as I know. Numa was said to have been the first Flamen Dialis; but +that is absolutely impossible, for the ancient taboos on that priesthood +would have made it impossible for him to become supreme legislator. +Evidently this Flamen, who could hardly leave his own house, might never +leave the city, and was at every turn hedged in by restrictions on his +activity, was a survival of those magician-kings who make rain and do +other useful things, but would lose their power if they were exposed to +certain contingencies; the number of possible contingencies increases +till the unfortunate owner of the powers becomes powerless by virtue of +the care so painfully taken of him.[217] The priest of Jupiter and his +taboos carry us back, beyond a doubt, into the far-away dim history of +primitive Latium. By the time the eternal city was founded on the Tiber, +he must have been already practically obsolete. My suggestion is that he +is the representative in the Roman religious system of another and more +primitive system which existed in Latium, probably at Alba, where +Jupiter was worshipped on the mountain from time immemorial. When the +strength of Latium was concentrated at the best strategical point on the +Tiber, the priest of Jupiter was transferred to the new city, because he +was too "precious" to be left behind, though even then a relic of +antiquity. There he became what he was throughout Roman history, a +practically useless personage, about whom certain sacred traditions had +gathered, but placed in complete subjection to the new legal and +religious king, and afterwards to the Pontifex maximus.[218] + +If there be any truth in this--and I believe it to be a legitimate +inference from the legal position of this Flamen, and his permanent +state of taboo--then I think we may see a great religious change in the +era of the "calendar of Numa." Inspired with new ideas of the duty and +destiny of the new city of the four regions, a priest-king, doubtless +with the help and advice of a council, according to the true Roman +fashion, put an end for ever to the reign of the old magician-kingship, +but preserved the magician-king as a being still capable of +wonder-working in the eyes of the people. As religious law displaced +magic in the State ritual, so the new kings, with their collegia of +legal priests, pontifices and augurs, neutralised and gradually +destroyed the prestige of the effete survivor of an age of barbarism. + + + NOTES TO LECTURE V. + + [185] Kornemann, _op. cit._ p. 87; Wissowa, _Gesammelte + Abhandlungen_, p. 230 foll.; Mommsen, _Staatsrecht_, + iii. p. 790, note 1. For the festival of the + Septimontium, Varro, _L.L._ vi. 24; Plutarch, _Quaest. + Rom._ 69; Fowler, _R.F._ p. 265 foll. This festival does + not appear in the calendar, as not being "feriae populi, + sed montanorum modo" (Varro, _l.c._). There are some + interesting remarks on the relation between agricultural + life and the origin of towns in von Jhering's _Evolution + of the Aryan_ (Eng. trans.), p. 86 foll., with special + reference to Rome. + + [186] Von Duhn in _J.H.S._ xvi. 126 foll. The latest + research (Korte in Pauly-Wissowa, _s.v._ "Etrusker," p. + 747) concludes that the arrival of the Etruscans on the + west coast of Italy cannot be safely put earlier than + the eighth century. + + [187] Huelsen-Jordan, _Rom. Topogr._ iii. 153. In a brief + but masterly paper in the publications of the _American + School at Rome_, 1908, p. 173 foll., J. B. Carter deals + with the whole problem of the pomoerium and the + pre-Servian city. + + [188] Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 27. + + [189] In _C.I.L._ i.^2, p. 297 foll. See _R.F._ p. 14 + foll. + + [190] See the Fasti in _R.F._ p. 21 foll.; or in + Wissowa, _R.K._, at end of the book. + + [191] _R.F._ p. 38 foll. Marindin's article "Salii," + _Dict. of Antiqq._, is very useful and sensible. There + is little doubt that the dress and armour of the Salii + represented that of the primitive Latin warrior, + calculated to frighten away evil spirits as well as + enemies, and that their dances in procession had some + object of this kind. It is noticeable that there were + two gilds or collegia of them belonging to the Palatine + and Quirinal cities respectively; and they are also + found at Tibur, Alba, Lanuvium, and other Latin cities. + + [192] Or 15th (Ides), according to the conjecture of + Wissowa; see _R.F._ p. 44 and _R.K._ p. 131. It is + almost incredible that this should originally have been + on a day of even number, contrary to the universal rule + of the Fasti. + + [193] See below, p. 212 foll., for further consideration + of this so-called purification. + + [194] _R.K._ p. 131. + + [195] See below, p. 217. + + [196] _R.K._ p. 131. + + [197] _Popular Religion and Folklore of India_, ii. 51. + For the sacredness of the number three and its + multiples, see Diels, _Sibyllinische Blaetter_, p. 40 + foll.; but he limits it too much to chthonic religious + ritual. See also H. Usener, "Dreizahl," in _Rheinisches + Museum_, vol. 58, pp. 1 foll., 161 foll., and 321 foll. + There is a summary of the results of these papers in + Gruppe's _Mythologische Literatur_, 1898-1905, p. 360 + foll. I may also refer to my friend Prof. Goudy's very + interesting _Trichotomy in Roman Law_ (Oxford, 1910), p. + 8 foll. + + [198] By von Domaszewski in _Archiv_ for 1907, p. 333 + foll. The learned author's reasoning is often based on + mere hypotheses as to the meaning of the festivals or + the gods concerned in them, and his ideas as to the + agricultural features of the months July, August, + December seem to me doubtful; but the paper is one that + all students of the calendar must reckon with. + + [199] Marquardt, _Privatleben_, pp. 459 and 569 foll. + + [200] For the festivals mentioned in the following + paragraphs see _R.F._, _s.v._, and Wissowa, _R.K._, + section 63. + + [201] "St. George and the Parilia," in _Revue des etudes + ethnographiques et sociologiques_ for Jan. 1908. I owe + my knowledge of this admirable study to the kindness of + its author. + + [202] Frazer, _G.B._ ii. 318 foll. + + [203] Varro, _L.L._ v. 64, says, "Ab _satu_ dictus + Saturnus." And in Augustine (_Civ. Dei_, vi. 8) he is + quoted as holding the opinion "quod pertineat Saturnus + ad semina, quae in terram de qua oriuntur iterum + recidunt." He was probably the _numen_ of the + seed-sowing (Saeturnus), and as his festival comes + after the end of sowing, we may presume that he was the + _numen_ of the sown as well as of the unsown seed. In + the article "Saturnus" in Roscher's _Lexicon_, which has + appeared since the above note was written, Wissowa + provisionally accepts Varro's etymology. + + [204] Festus, p. 245a, "Publica sacra quae publico + sumptu pro populo fiunt, quaeque pro montibus, pagis, + curiis, sacellis." See article "Sacra" in _Dict. of + Antiqq._ ii. 577. + + [205] "Routine is the only safeguard of a people under a + perfect autocracy" (_Select Charters_, Introduction, p. + 19). + + [206] The annalists believed that the publication first + took place in the year 304 B.C.: Livy ix. 46. Mommsen + (_Chronologie_, p. 31) thought it possible that it had + already been done by the Decemvirs in one of the two + last of the XII. Tables, but again withdrawn. The object + of keeping the Fasti secret was, of course, to control + the times available for legal and political business. + + [207] This paragraph is abridged from a passage in the + author's paper in the _Hibbert Journal_ for 1907, p. + 848. + + [208] See _Anthropology and the Classics_ (Oxford, + 1908), p. 44. + + [209] _R.F._ p. 241 foll. + + [210] Wissowa holds that it dates from the third century + B.C.: Pauly-Wissowa, _Real-Encycl._, _s.v._ "Argei." I + endeavoured to refute this view in the _Classical + Review_ for 1902, p. 115 foll., and Dr. Wissowa + criticised my criticism in his _Gesammelte + Abhandlungen_, p. 222. It is dealt with at length in + _R.F._ p. 111 foll. See below, p. 321 foll. + + [211] This is not exactly the view expressed in _R.F._ + p. 315 foll., where I was inclined to adopt that of + Mannhardt that the laughing symbolised the return to + life after sacrificial death. I am now disposed to think + of it as parallel with the ecstasy of the Pythoness and + other inspired priests, or the shivering and convulsive + movements which denote that a human being is "possessed" + by a god or spirit. See Jevons, _Introduction_, p. 174. + Mannhardt's view seems, however, to gain support from + Pausanias' description of the ordeal he underwent + himself at the cave of Trophonius, after which he could + laugh again: Paus. ix. 39. See also Miss Harrison, + _Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion_, p. 580. + Deubner in _Archiv_, 1910, p. 501. + + [212] _R.F._ p. 109; Ov. _Fasti_, v. 421 foll. Ovid's + account is of a private rite in the house, as elsewhere + he tells us of things done by private persons on + festival days. We do not know whether there was any + public ritual for these days. For further discussion of + the contrast between the two festivals of the dead, see + below, Lect. XVII. p. 393. + + [213] _G.B._ iii. 138 foll. The attempt to connect the + so-called Saturnalia of the army of the Danube in the + third century A.D. with the early practice of Roman + Saturnalia seems to me to fail entirely, even after + reading Prof. Cumont's paper in the _Revue de + philologie_, 1897, p. 133 foll. I should imagine that + Cumont would now admit that the Saturn who was + sacrificed on the Danube as described in the _Martyrdom + of St. Dasius_ must have been of Oriental origin, and + that the soldiers concerned were in no sense Roman or + Italian. For the hellenisation of the Saturnalia, see + Wissowa in Roscher's _Lexicon_, _s.v._ "Saturnus," p. + 432. Wissowa, I may note, does not believe in the + accuracy of the account of the "Martyrdom." + + [214] Nothing, that is, in the regular ritual of the + Roman State--except in so far as the killing of a + criminal who was _sacer_ to a god can be so regarded; + and the only instance of any kind that can be quoted is + that of the two pairs of Gaulish and Greek men and women + who in the stress of the second Punic war and afterwards + were buried alive, as it was said, in the Forum Boarium. + Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 355 and notes. I shall return to this + in Lecture XIV. + + [215] The earliest mention of the slaying of a victim + (_bestiarius_) to Jupiter is in Minucius Felix, _Octav._ + 22 and 30, _i.e._ towards the end of the second century + A.D. or even later. Cp. Tertull. _Apol._ 9, Lactantius + i. 21. I do not go so far as to say with Wissowa (p. + 109, note 3) that this story is "ganz gewiss apokryph," + but I take it as simply a case of degeneracy under the + influence of the amphitheatre and of Orientalism. + + [216] For Numa see Schwegler, _Rom. Gesch._ i. 551 foll. + + [217] See Dr. Frazer's most recent account of this + subject, in his _Lectures on the Early History of the + Kingship_, chaps, iii.-v. Prof. Ridgeway's idea that the + Flamen Dialis was really a Numan institution is of + course simply impossible, and the arguments he founds on + it fall to the ground. Ovid, probably reflecting Varro, + speaks of the Flamen Dialis as belonging to the + Pelasgian religion, which at least means that he was + aware of the extreme antiquity of the office; _Fasti_, + ii. 281. Dr. Doellinger (_The Gentile and the Jew_, vol. + ii. p. 72) with his usual insight was inclined to see + in this Flamen the "ruins of an older system of + ceremonial ordinances." + + [218] He was _sui iuris_ (Gaius i. 130), as soon as he + was chosen or taken (_captus_) by the Pontifex maximus; + but he was subject to the authority of the P.M., like + all the other flamines and the Vestals. See Wissowa, + _R.K._ p. 438; Tac. _Ann._ iv. 16. + + + + +LECTURE VI + +THE DIVINE OBJECTS OF WORSHIP + + +We must now turn our attention to what is the most difficult part of our +subject, the ideas of the early Romans about "the Power manifesting +itself in the universe." In my first lecture I indicated in outline what +the difficulties are which beset us all through our studies; they are in +no part of it so insurmountable as in this. Material fails us, because +there was no contemporary literature; because the Romans were not a +thinking people, and probably thought very little about the divine +beings whom they propitiated; and again, because comparative religion, +as it is called, is of scant value in such a study. We have to try and +get rid of our own ideas about God or gods, to keep our minds free of +Greek ideas and mythology, and, in fact, to abstain from bringing the +ideas of any other peoples to bear upon the question until we are pretty +sure that we have some sort of understanding of those Roman ideas with +which we are tempted to compare them. The first duty of the student of +any system of religion is to study that religion in and by itself. As M. +S. Reinach observed in an address at the Congress for the History of +Religions at Oxford, it is time that we began to attend to differences +as well as similarities; and this can only be done by the conscientious +use of such materials as are available for the study of each particular +religion. + +The only materials available in the case of the earliest Rome are (1) +the calendar which I was explaining in the last lecture, which gives us +the names of the festivals of the religious year; (2) the names of the +deities concerned in these festivals, so far as we know them from later +additions to the calendar, from Roman literature, and from evidence, +chiefly epigraphical, of the names of deities among kindred Italian +peoples; (3) the fragments of information, now most carefully collected +and sifted, about what the Romans did in the worship of their deities. +The names and order of the festivals, the names of the deities +themselves, the cult, or detail of worship, including priesthoods and +holy places,--these are the only real materials we possess, and our only +safe guides. To trust to legends is fatal, because such legends as there +were in Italy were never written down until the Greeks turned their +attention to them, colouring them with their own fancy and with +reminiscences of their own mythology. For example, no sane investigator +would now make use of the famous story told by Ovid and Plutarch about +Numa's interview with Jupiter, and the astute way in which he deceived +the god, as an illustration of the Roman's ideas of the divine; we know +that it can be traced back to the greatest liar among all Roman +annalists,[219] that it was in part derived from a Greek story, and in +part invented to explain a certain piece of ritual, the _procuratio +fulminis_. Even what was done in the cult must be handled with knowledge +and discretion. Dr. Frazer has a theory that the Roman kings personated +Jupiter, and uses as evidence of this the fact that in the triumph the +triumphator was dressed after the fashion of the statue of the god in +the Capitoline temple, with his face reddened with _minium_: forgetting +that the temple, its cult and its statue, all date from the very end of +the period of the kingship, and were the work of an Etruscan monarch, +almost beyond doubt. There may be truth in his theory, but this is not +the way to prove it; this is not the way to arrive at a true +understanding of Roman religious ideas. + +What did the old Romans know about the nature of the objects of their +worship? All religion is in its development a process of gaining such +knowledge: if it makes no progress it is doomed. It is because the Jews +made such wonderful progress in this path, in spite of formalism and +backsliding, that they were chosen to produce a Teacher whose life and +doctrine revealed the will and the nature of His Father for the eternal +benefit of mankind. The fear of the Lord is imperfect knowledge, it is +but the beginning of wisdom; but it could become, in a Jew like St. +Paul, the perfect knowledge of His will. It may seem absurd to think of +two such religions as the Jewish and the Roman side by side; but the +absurdity vanishes when we begin to understand the humble beginnings of +the Jewish religion as scientific research has already laid it bare. +Knowledge of the Power manifesting itself in the universe is open to all +peoples alike, and some few have made much progress in it beside the +Jews. The Romans were not among these, at any rate in all the later +stages of their history; but we have to ask how far they got in the +process, and later on again to ask also why they could go no +farther.[220] + +We have seen how one great forward step in the attainment of this +knowledge was made in the religion of the household, when the house had +become a kind of temple, being the dwelling of divine as well as human +beings, and when the cultivated land had been separated by a sacred +boundary from the mountain or forest beyond, with their wild and unknown +spiritual inhabitants. We met, however, with nothing in the house or on +the land that we can properly call a god, if we may use that word for +the moment in the sense of a personality as well as a name, and a +personality perfectly distinct from the object in which it resides. +Vesta seems to be the fire, Penates the store, or at least spirits +undistinguishable from the substance composing the store. But inasmuch +as the farmer knew how to serve these spirits and address them, looking +upon them as friends and co-habitants of his own dwelling, we may go so +far as to guess that they were somewhat advanced in their career as +spirits, and might possibly develop into powers of a more definite kind, +if not into gods, real _dei_ conceived as persons.[221] In other +words--for it is better to keep as far as we can to the subjective or +psychological aspect of them--the Roman might realise the Power better +by getting to think of his nameless spirits as _dei_ at work for his +benefit if rightly propitiated. There are some signs in the calendar and +the other sources I mentioned just now that such a process had been +going on before the State arose; and it is certain that the whole field +of divine operation had been greatly widened by that time, as we might +expect from the enlarged sphere of man's experience and activity. + +The deities originally belonging to the city of the four regions, _i.e._ +to the city of the calendar of Numa, were known to Roman antiquarians as +_di indigetes_, in contra-distinction from the _di novensiles_ or +imported deities, with which at present we have nothing to do. On the +basis of the calendar, and of the names of the most ancient priesthoods +attached to particular cults, the Rex and the Flamines, Wissowa (_R.K._ +p. 16) has constructed a list of these _di indigetes_ which may be +accepted without any further reservation than he himself applies to it. +They are thirty-three in number, but in two cases we have groups instead +of individuals, viz. the Lares and the Lemures: the plurality of the +Lares (_compitales_) we have already explained, and the Lemures, the +ghosts of departed ancestors, we may also for the present leave out of +account. Others are too obscure to help us, _e.g._ Carna, Angerona, +Furrina, Neptunus, Volturnus,[222] except in so far as their very +obscurity, and the neglect into which they and their cults fell in later +times, is proof that they were not thought of as lively personal +deities. Then, again, there are others whose names are suggested by +certain festivals, Terminus, Fons, Robigus, who seem to be simply +survivals from the animistic period--spirits inherent in the +boundary-stone, the spring, or the mildew, and incapable of further +development in the new conditions of city life. Faunus, the rural +semi-deity, perhaps representing a group of such beings, appears in the +list as the deity of the Lupercalia; but this is a point in which I +cannot agree with Wissowa and the majority of modern authorities.[223] + +We are struck, as we examine the list further, by the adjectival +character of many of the names--Neptunus, Portunus, Quirinus, Saturnus, +Volcanus, Volturnus: these are not proper names, but clearly express +some character or function exercised by the power or _numen_ to whom the +name is given. Saturnus is the most familiar example; the word suggests +no personality, but rather a sphere of operations (whether we take the +name as referring to sowing or to seed maturing in the soil) in which a +certain _numen_ is helpful. Saturnus, Volcanus, Neptunus were indeed +identified later on with Greek gods of a ripe polytheistic system, and +have thus become quite familiar to us, far too familiar for a right +understanding of early Roman ideas. We might naturally expect that the +identification of Saturnus with Kronos, of Neptunus with Poseidon, would +give us some clue to the original Roman conception of the _numen_ thus +Graecised, but it is not so. Neptunus may have had some connection with +water, rain, or springs, but we have no real proof of it, and it is +impossible to say why Saturnus became Kronos.[224] The only certain +result that we can win from the study of these adjectival titles is that +they represent a transition between animism and polytheism, a transition +exactly expressed by the one word _numen_. + +_Numen_ is so important a word in the Roman religion that it is +necessary to be perfectly clear as to what was meant by it. It must be +formed from _nuere_ as _flumen_ from _fluere_, with a sense of activity +inherent in the verb. As _flumen_ is that which actively flows, so +_numen_ is that which actively does whatever we understand by the word +_nuere_; and so far as we can determine, that was a manifestation of +will. _Adnuere_ is to consent, to give your good will to some act +proposed or completed, and is often so used of Jupiter in the _Aeneid_. +_Nuere_ should therefore express a simple exercise of will-power, and +_numen_ is the being exercising it. In time it came to be used for the +will of a god as distinct from himself, as in the fourth _Aeneid_ +(269)-- + + ipse deum tibi me claro demittit Olympo + regnator, caelum ac terras qui numine torquet. + +Or in the fourth _Eclogue_ (47)-- + + concordes stabili fatorum numine Parcae, + +where Servius explains it as "potestate, divinatione, ac maiestate." But +beyond doubt this use is a product of the literary age, and the word +originally indicated the being himself who exercised the will--a sense +familiar to us in the opening lines of the _Aeneid_ ("quo numine laeso") +and in innumerable other passages. Thus von Domaszewski in his collected +papers (p. 157) is undoubtedly right in defining a _numen_ as a being +with a will--"ein wollendes Wesen"; though his account of its evolution, +and of the way in which in its turn it may produce a _deus_, may be open +to criticism. + +The word thus suggests that the Roman divine beings were functional +spirits with will-power, their functions being indicated by their +adjectival names. Proper names they had not as a rule, but they are +getting cult-titles under the influence of a priesthood, which titles +may in time perhaps attain to something of the definiteness of +substantival names. This indeed could hardly have been so in the mind of +the ordinary Roman even at a later age; and it is quite possible that if +an intelligent Greek traveller of the sixth century B.C. had given an +account of the gods of Rome,[225] he would have said, as Strabo said of +an Iberian people in the time of Augustus, that they were without gods, +or worshipped gods without names. But the name, even as a cult-title, is +of immense importance in the development of a spirit into a deity, and +in most cases, at any rate at Rome, it was the work of officials, of a +state priesthood, not of the people. To address a deity rightly was +matter of no small difficulty: how were you to know how he would wish +to be addressed? Servius tells us that the pontifices addressed even +Jupiter himself thus: "Iupiter optime maxime, _sive quo alio nomine te +appellari volueris_." On the other hand, in the same comment he tells us +that "iure pontificio cautum est, ne suis nominibus di Romani +appellarentur, ne exaugurari possent," _i.e._ lest they should be +enticed away from the city by enemies. This last statement seems indeed +to me to be a doubtful one,[226] but it will serve to illustrate the +nervousness about divine names, of which there is no doubt whatever. We +know for certain that those religious lawyers the pontifices were +greatly occupied with the task of drawing up lists of names by which +_numina_ should be invoked,--formularising the ritual of prayer, as we +shall see in another lecture; and this must have become at one time +almost a craze with them, to judge by the lists of Indigitamenta +preserved in their books, to which Varro had access, and which were +copied from him by St. Augustine.[227] But after all it needed the +stimulus given by actual contact with a polytheistic system to turn a +Roman numen into a full-fledged personal deity: the pontifices might +carry the process some way, but they never could have completed it +themselves without the help of the Greeks. + +One deity seems to stand alone in the list--Tellus or Terra Mater, +Mother Earth.[228] We are coming directly to the great deity of the +heaven, and we might naturally expect that an agricultural folk would be +much concerned with her who is his counterpart among so many peoples. +She does not give her name to any of the festivals of the calendar; but +at one of them, the Fordicidia in April, at a time when the earth is +teeming with mysterious power, and when the festivals are of a +peculiarly agricultural character, she has her own special sacrifice--a +pregnant cow, whose young are torn from her womb, burnt by the _Virgo +vestalis maxima_, and their ashes used in certain mystic rites, _e.g._ +at the Parilia which followed on the 21st.[229] She seems to have had +her function in human life as well; but about this we are much in the +dark in spite of Dieterich's attempts to elucidate it in his _Mutter +Erde_.[230] Whether she played a part at the birth of a child we cannot +be sure; but at marriage there is little doubt that she was originally +an object of worship, though in later days she gave way before Ceres and +Juno.[231] And as at death the body was laid in her embrace, we are not +surprised to find her prominent here also: she was the home of the dead +whether buried or burnt, and of the whole mass of the Manes. We shall +presently see how a Roman commander might devote himself and the whole +army of the enemy to Tellus and the Manes; and it is interesting to find +that a similar formula of _devotio_, of later date, combines Tellus with +Jupiter, the speaker touching the ground when he mentions her name, and +holding his hands upwards to heaven when he names the god.[232] Very +curious, too, is the rite of the _porca praecidanea_, which in +historical times was offered to Ceres as well as Tellus immediately +before harvest; in case a man had wittingly or unwittingly omitted to +pay the proper rites (_iusta facere_) to his own dead, it was his duty +to make this offering, lest as a result of the neglect the earth-power +should not yield him a good harvest.[233] Originally, we need hardly +doubt, Tellus was alone concerned in this; but Ceres, who at all times +represented rather the ripening and ripened corn than the seed in the +bosom of the earth, gradually took her place beside her, and the idea +gained ground that the offering was more immediately concerned with the +harvest than with the Manes.[234] When Cato wrote his book on +agriculture, he included in it the proper formula for this sacrifice, +without any indication that Tellus or the Manes had any part in the +business.[235] Tellus was not a deity whose life would be vigorous in a +busy City-state destined gradually to lose its agricultural outlook; +there the supply of grain, from whatever quarter it might come, was a +far more important matter than the process of producing it, and it was +natural that Ceres and her April festival should become more popular +than Tellus and her Fordicidia, and that the Cerealia should eventually +develop into _ludi_ of no less than eight days' duration. Yet Tellus +survived in such forms as that of the _devotio_; and even under the +Empire we find her as Terra on sepulchral monuments, _e.g._-- + + ereptam viro et matri mater me Terra recepit, + +or + + terra mater rerum quod dedit ipsa teget. + +And there is a curious story, noticed by Wissowa and by Dieterich after +him, that on the death of Tiberius the plebs shouted not only "Tiberius +in Tiberim," but "Terram matrem deosque Manes," in order that his lot +might be among the _impii_ beneath the earth.[236] + +So far we have met with nothing to suggest that the Roman idea of +divinity had passed much beyond an advanced type of animism; we have +found little or no trace of personal deities of a polytheistic cast. +There is, however, a fact of importance now to be considered, which has +some bearing upon this difficult subject. Some of the _numina_ of the +calendar had special priests attached to their cults; _e.g._ among those +I have already mentioned, Volcanus, Furrina, Portunus, and Volturnus, to +which we may now add Pales, Flora, Carmenta, Pomona, and a wholly +unknown deity, Falacer. These nine all had flamines, a word which is +generally derived from _flare_, _i.e._ they were the kindlers of the +sacrificial fire.[237] Sacrificing priests they undoubtedly always were, +each limited to the sacrificial rites of a particular cult, unless +authorised by religious law to undertake those of some other deity whose +name he did not bear, and who was destitute, like Robigus, of a priest +of his own.[238] We have no certain evidence that all these flamines +were of high antiquity; but those attached to deities of the calendar +were probably of earlier origin than that document, and as we have no +record of the creation of a new flaminium in historical times until the +era of Caesar-worship, it is fair to conclude that the others I have +mentioned were not younger. + +Now what bearing has this fact on the question as to how the early +Romans conceived the objects of their worship? There are, of course, +so-called priests all the world over, even among the lowest fetishistic +and animistic peoples, who exercise power over the various kinds of +spirits by potent charms and spells; these should rather be called +wizards, medicine-men, magicians, and so on.[239] But the flamines as we +know them were not such; they were officials of a State, entrusted with +the performance of definite ritualistic duties, more particularly with +sacrifice, and therefore, as we may assume from universal Roman practice +so far as we know it, also with prayer. If they did not actually slay +the victims themselves--and in historical times this was done by an +assistant--they superintended the whole process and were responsible for +its correct performance.[240] Does the existence of such priests come +into relation with the development of the idea of a _deus_ out of a +numen or a spirit? What is the influence of the sacrificing priest on +the divinity whom he serves? This last is a question to which it is not +easy to find a ready answer; the history of priesthood, and of the moral +and intellectual results of the institution, has yet to be written. Even +Dr. Westermarck, in his recently published great work on the development +of moral ideas, has little to say of it. It is greatly complicated by +the undoubted fact that among many peoples, perhaps to some extent even +among the Latins, the earliest real priests had a tendency to personate +the deity themselves, to be considered as the deity, or in some sense +divine.[241] But in regard to Roman priests we may, I think, go at least +as far as this. When a spirit was named and localised as a friendly +being at a particular spot within the walls of the city, which is made +over to him, and where he has his _ara_; when the ritual performed at +this spot is laid down in definite detail, and undertaken by an +individual appointed for this purpose by the head of the community with +solemn ceremony; then the spirit, hitherto but vaguely conceived, must +in course of time become individualised. The priestly if not the popular +conception of him is fixed; there is now no question who he is or how he +should be called; "quis deus incertum est"[242] can no longer be said of +him. Once provided with a flamen and an ordered cult of sacrifice and +prayer, I conceive that he had now in him the possibility of turning +into a _deus_ personally conceived, if he came by the chance.[243] A few +did get the chance; others did not; Volcanus, for example, became a god +after the model of the Greek Hephaestus, while Volturnus remained a +numen and made no further progress, though he was doubtless ready to +"take" the Graecising epidemic when it came. I do not say that he or any +other numen was the better for the change. But I must not now pursue the +story of this strange double fate of the old Roman deities; I have +perhaps said enough to show that city life, with its priesthoods and its +ordered ritual, had some appreciable effect on the deities who were +admitted to it. + +Among these deities there were four of whom I have as yet said nothing +at all, though they are the most famous of all the divine inhabitants of +Rome. I have mentioned nine flamines; there were in all twelve, and +besides these there was in historical times a priest known as the _rex +sacrorum_, the republican successor to some of the religious functions +of the civil king. This rex, and the three _flamines maiores_, so called +in contra-distinction to the other nine, were specially attached to the +cults of Janus, Jupiter (_Flamen Dialis_), Mars (_Flamen Martialis_), +and Quirinus (_Flamen Quirinalis_). I have kept these deities apart from +the others already mentioned, not only because their priests stand apart +from the rest, but because they themselves seem from the first to have +been more really gods (_dei_); Quirinus is the only one who has an +adjectival name. Two of them, Jupiter and Mars, remained throughout +Roman history of real importance to the State, and in Jupiter there were +at least some germs of possible development into a deity capable of +influencing conduct and enforcing morality. Of Janus this cannot +possibly be said; and as he is historically the least important of the +four, I will begin by saying a few words about him as a puzzle and a +curiosity only. + +Janus, ever since he ceased to be an intelligible deity, has been the +sport of speculators; and this happened long before the Roman religion +came to an end. In the last century B.C. philosophic writers about the +gods got hold of him, and Varro tells us that some made him out to be +the heaven, others the universe (_mundus_).[244] Ovid amused himself +with this uncertainty of the philosophers, and in the first book of his +_Fasti_ "interviewed" the god, whose answers are unluckily of little +value for us.[245] At various times and in different hands Janus has +been pronounced a sun-god, a heaven-god, a year-god, a wind-god; and now +a Cambridge school of speculators, to whose learning I am in many ways +indebted, has claimed him as an oak-god, the mate of Diana, the Jupiter +of aboriginal Latium, and so on.[246] We have fortunately long left +behind us the age when it was thought necessary to resolve the Greek and +Roman gods into personifications of natural phenomena, and to try to +explain all their attributes on one principle; but my learned friends at +Cambridge have of late been showing a tendency to return to methods not +less dangerous; they hanker, for example, after etymological evidence, +which in the case of deities is almost sure to be misleading unless it +is absolutely certain, and supported by the history of the name. This is +unluckily not the case with Janus; his etymology is matter of +dispute,[247] and he is therefore open, and always will be so, to the +inquirer who is hunting a scent, and more concerned to prove a point +than to discover what the early Romans really thought about a god. In +this lecture I am but humbly trying to do this last, and I may therefore +leave etymology, with the mythology and philosophy of a later age, and +confine myself to such facts of the cult of Janus as are quite +undisputed. They will admit of being put together very shortly. + +The first and leading fact is that Janus was the first deity to be +addressed in all prayers and invocations; of this we have abundant +evidence, as also of the corresponding fact that Vesta came last.[248] +Secondly, we know that he was the object of worship on the Kalends of +January, and probably of every month, and that the sacrificing priest +was in this case the _rex sacrorum_. Thirdly, we know that he had no +temple until the year 260 B.C., but that he was associated with the +famous gateway at the north-east end of the Forum--not a gate in the +wall, but a symbolic entrance to the heart of the city, as the round +temple of Vesta at the opposite end, with its eternal fire, was symbolic +of the common life of the community. Fourthly, we know a few cult-titles +of Janus, among them Clusius (or Clusivius), and Patulcius, in which the +connection with gates is obvious; Junonius, which may have originated in +the fact that Juno also was worshipped on the Kalends; Matutinus, which +seems to be a late reference to the dawn as the opening or gate of the +day, and Quirinus, which last is also almost certainly of late origin. +Clusius and Patulcius are genuine old titles, if the text of the Salian +hymn is rightly interpreted; so too is another, Curiatius, for it was +used of the god only as residing in an ancient gateway near the Subura +called the _tigillum sororium_.[249] These are all the most important +facts we have to go upon; the double head of Janus on the earliest Roman +_as_ is of uncertain origin, and Wissowa seems to have conclusively +shown that this representation was not admitted to the gate called Janus +Geminus until towards the close of the republican period.[250] The +connection of the god with the fortress on the hill across the Tiber, +which still bears his name, admits of no quite satisfactory explanation. + +Now if we recall the fact that the entrance to the house and the +entrance to a city were points of great moment, and the cause of +constant anxiety to the early Italian mind, we may naturally infer that +they would be in the care of some particular numen, and that his +worship would be in the care of the head of the family or community--in +the case of the city, in the care of the _rex_, whose duties of this +kind were afterwards taken over by the priest called _rex sacrorum_. The +fact that the word for an entrance was _ianus_ confirms this conjecture; +Janus was perhaps the spirit guarding the entrance to the real wall of +the earliest city, but when the city was enlarged in the age from which +the calendar dates, a symbolic gateway was set up where you entered the +forum from the direction of Latium, answering to the symbolic hearth in +the _aedes Vestae_, and this very naturally took the name of the deity +associated with entrances. Two other _iani_ probably existed in the +forum, and the name was later on transferred as a substantive to similar +objects in Roman colonies, while a feminine form, _ianua_, came to be +used for ordinary house entrances.[251] Whether there ever was a cult of +the god at the real gateway of a city we do not know; there was none at +the symbolic gateway of Rome, which was in no sense a temple. But the +idea of entrance stuck to the old spirit of the doorway long after the +reconstruction of the city, and the rex now sacrifices to him on the +entrance-day of each month, and more particularly on the entrance-day of +the month which bears his name and is the beginning of the natural year +after the winter solstice. This is the best account to be had of the +original Janus,[252] a deity, let it be remembered, of a simple +agricultural and warlike people, without literature or philosophy. But +it is not difficult to see how, when philosophy and literature did at +last come in a second-hand form to this people, they might well have +overlaid with cobwebs of story and speculation a deity for whom they had +no longer any real use, who was best known to them by the mysterious +double-head on the _as_ and the gateway, and for whom they could find no +conclusive parallel among the gods of Greece. + +Next in order of invocation to Janus came Jupiter, and his priest, the +Flamen Dialis, was likewise the second in rank, according to ancient +rule, after the _rex sacrorum_. Unlike Janus, Jupiter (to use the +spelling familiar in England) was at all times a great power for the +Roman people, and one who could be all the more valued because he was +intelligible. No one doubted then, and no one doubts now, that he was +the god of the light and of heaven, _Diovis pater_, or rather perhaps +the heaven itself[253] with all its manifestations of rain and thunder, +of blessing and damage to the works of man; the common inheritance of +the Italian peoples, dwelling and worshipped in their woods and on their +hills; and, as we know now, also the common inheritance of all Aryan +stocks, the "European Sky-god," as Mr. A. B. Cook has traced him with +learning and ingenuity from the Euxine to Britain.[254] + +Jupiter must have had a long and important history in Latium before the +era of the Roman City-state; Dr. Frazer has seen this, and set it forth +in his lectures on the early history of the kingship, though basing his +conclusions on evidence much of which will not bear a close +examination.[255] The one substantial proof of it lies in the unique and +truly extraordinary character of the taboos placed on his flamen, and to +some extent on the flamen's wife, by the Roman _ius divinum_. Even if we +suppose that some of these may have been later inventions of an +ecclesiastical college like the pontifices (and this is hardly +probable), many of them are obviously of remote antiquity, and can only +have originated at a time when the magical power of the man responsible +for the conduct of Jupiter was so precious that it had to be safeguarded +in these many curious ways. I have already suggested that the scene of +the early paramount importance of Jupiter and his flamen, in that age +perhaps a king of some kind, was Alba Longa, which by universal +tradition was the leading city of Latium before Rome rose to importance, +and where the sky-god was worshipped on his holy mountain as the +religious centre of Latium from the earliest times. I have also +suggested that when the new warlike city on the Tiber took the place of +Alba, the worship was transferred thither, but lost its strength in the +process, and that the flamen was little more than a survival even in the +most primitive period of what we may call for the moment Roman history. +This can be accounted for by the fact that the traditions of primitive +Rome were connected much more closely with Mars than with Jupiter. Not +till Etruscan kings founded the great temple on the Capitol, which was +to endure throughout all later ages of Roman dominion, did the sky-god +become the supreme guardian deity of his people, under the titles of +Optimus Maximus, the best and greatest of all her deities. + +But Jupiter was there; and we know certain facts of his cult which give +us a pretty clear idea of what the Romans of the pre-Etruscan period +thought about him. In the calendar all Ides belonged to him, were +_feriae Iovis_;[256] he seems to be the source of light, whether of sun +or moon, for neither of which the Romans had any special divinity; in +the hymn of the Salii he is addressed as Lucetius, the giver or source +of light. The festivals of the vintage belonged to him, since the +production of wine specially needed the aid of sun and light, and his +flamen was employed in the cult on these occasions.[257] When rain was +sorely needed, the aid of the sky-god was sought under the cult-title +Elicius, and as Fulgur or Summanus[258] he was the Power who sent the +lightning by day and by night. The ideas thus reflected in the Roman +cult were common to all Italian peoples of the same stock; everywhere we +find him worshipped on the summits of hills, and in woods of oak, ilex, +or beech,[259] where nothing but the trees he loved intervened between +the heaven and the earth. + +His oldest cult at Rome was on the Capitoline hill, but at all times +quite distinct from that which became so famous afterwards; he was known +here as Feretrius, a cult-title of which the meaning is uncertain,[260] +and here, so far as we can guess, there must have been an ancient oak +regarded either as the dwelling of the numen or as the numen himself, +upon which Romulus is said to have hung the _spolia opima_ taken from +the king of the Caeninenses;[261] here we may see the earliest trace of +the triumphal procession that was to be. Doubtless an _ara_ was here +from the first, and then followed a tiny temple, only fifteen feet wide +as Dionysius describes it from personal knowledge in the time of +Augustus,[262] who restored it. There was no image of the god, but in +the temple was kept a _silex_, probably a stone celt believed to have +been a thunderbolt;[263] this stone the Fetiales took with them on their +official journeys, and used it in the oath, _per Iovem lapidem_, with +which they ratified their treaties. As the Romans thought of Jupiter, +not as a personal deity living in the sky like Zeus, but rather as the +heaven itself, so they could think of him as immanent in this stone, +_Iuppiter lapis_. And the use of the flint in treaty-making suggests +another aspect of the god, which he retained in one way or another +throughout Roman history; it is his sanction that is called in to the +aid of moral and legal obligations, resulting from treaties, oaths, and +contracts such as that of marriage. As Dius Fidius he was invoked in the +common Roman oath _medius fidius_; as Farreus (if this were an old +cult-title) he gave his sanction to the solemn contract entered into in +the ancient form of marriage by _confarreatio_, where his flamen had to +be present, and where in all probability the cake of _far_ was eaten as +a kind of sacrament by the parties to the covenant.[264] In much of this +it is tempting to see, as we can see nowhere else in the Roman religion, +faint traces of a feeling about the heaven-god brought from a remote +pastoral life under the open sky, where neither forest nor mountain +intervened to shelter man from the great Presence;[265] and it is also +tempting to think that there was here, even for Latins who had learnt to +worship Jupiter under the form of stocks and stones in the land of their +final settlement, some chance of the development of a deity "making for +righteousness." + +Third and fourth in the order of invocation came Mars and Quirinus, and +the same order held good for their flamines. These two priests may have +been subject to some of the taboos which restricted the Flamen +Dialis;[266] they too, that is, may have been to some extent precious, +and have been endowed in a lost period of history with magical powers; +but if so, the memory and importance of such disabilities was rapidly +forgotten in the City-state, and they were early allowed to fill civil +offices, a privilege which the Dialis did not attain till the second +century B.C.[267] Of the sacrificial duties of the Martialis we know +nothing for certain, and can get no help from him as to the ideas of the +early Romans about their great deity Mars. + +Mars is in some ways the most interesting of all the Roman deities; but +except as the familiar war-god of Roman history he remains a somewhat +doubtful conception. Like Jupiter and Janus he has attained to a real +name; but of that name, which in various forms is still so often on our +lips, no convincing account has ever been given. Comparative mythology +used to be much occupied with him, and he has been compared with Indra, +Apollo, Odin, and others. But as M. Reinach said, it is time to attend +more closely to differences; and Mars seems to stand best by himself, as +a genuine Italian religious conception. His name is found all over +ancient Italy in various forms--Mavors, Mamers, Marmor, and as Cerfus +Martius at Iguvium. His wild and warlike character, his association with +the wolf and the spear, seem to suggest the struggle for existence that +must have gone on among the tribes that pushed down into a peninsula of +rugged mountain and dense forest, abounding with the wolves which are +not yet wholly extinct there. Whether or no his antecedents are to be +found in other lands, we shall not be far wrong in assuming that the +Roman Mars was the product of life and experience in Italy, and Italy +only. + +There is an excellent general account of him in Roscher's article in +his _Lexicon_, which, like that on Janus, has the advantage of being the +result of a second elaborate study, free from the enticements of the +comparative method. What we know for certain about his cult at Rome in +early times can be very briefly stated. First, we have the striking fact +that he is conspicuous, together with the Lares, in the _carmen_ which +has come down to us as sung by the Arval Brethren in their lustration of +the cultivated land of the Roman city:[268] "Neve luerve Marmor sins +incurrere in pleores, satur fu fere Mars!" One is naturally inclined to +ask how this wild and warlike spirit can have anything to do with +cultivation and crops. But there is no mistake; the connection is +confirmed by the fact that he is also the chief object of invocation in +the private _lustratio_ of the farm, which Cato has preserved for +us.[269] In each case the victims are the same, the _suovetaurilia_ of +ox, sheep, and pig, the farmer's most valuable property. Again, let us +remember that the month which bears his name is that not only of the +opening of the war season, but of the springing up of vegetation, and +that the dances and singing of the Salii at this time may probably have +been meant, like similar performances of savage peoples,[270] to +frighten away evil demons from the precious cultivated land and its +growing produce, and to call on the Power to wake to new life. The clue +to the mystery is perhaps to be found in the cult-title Silvanus which +we find in the prayer set down by Cato as proper for the protection of +the cattle when they are on their summer pasture (_in silva_): "Marti +Silvano in silva interdius in capita singula boum facito."[271] We know +that wealth in early Italy consisted chiefly of sheep and cattle; we +know that these were taken in the warm months, as they still are, into +the forest (_saltus_) to feed;[272] and from this passage of Cato we +know that Mars was there. It is only going one step farther if we +conjecture that Mars, like Silvanus, who may have been an offshoot of +his own being, was for the early settler never a peaceful inhabitant of +the farm or the dwelling, but a spirit of the woodland of great +importance for the cattle-owner, and of great importance, too, in all +circumambulation of the boundaries which divided the woodland from the +cultivated land.[273] + +But with conjecture I deal on principle but sparingly. It is time to +turn to the Mars of the City-state of Rome; and it is at once +interesting to find that until the age of Augustus, who introduced a new +form of Mars-worship, he had no temple within the walls, and even +outside only two _fana_, one an altar in his own field the Campus +Martius, the other a temple dedicated in 388 B.C. outside the Porta +Capena. "He was always worshipped outside the city," says Dr. J. B. +Carter in his _Religion of Numa_, "as a god who must be kept at a +distance." Should we not rather say that the god was unwilling to come +within those sacred boundaries encircling the works of man? So stated, +we may see in this singular fact a reminiscence of the time when Mars +was really the wild spirit of the "outland," where wolves and human +enemies might be met with; he was perhaps in some sense a _hostis_, a +stranger, like the many other deities originally strange to Rome who, +until the second Punic war, were never allowed to settle within the +sacred precincts.[274] In one sense, however, Mars was actually resident +in the very heart of the city. In a _sacrarium_ or chapel of the +regia,[275] the ancient dwelling of the king, were kept the spears and +shields which the Salii carried in their processions in March and +October; and that the deity was believed to be there too must be +inferred from the fact, if it be correctly stated by Servius, that the +consul who was about to take the field entered the chapel and shook +these spears and shields together, saying, "Mars vigila." I am, however, +rather disposed to think that this practice belongs to a time when Mars +was more distinctly recognised as a god of war, and when the weapons of +the Salii were thought of rather as symbols of his activity than as +objects in which he was immanent.[276] + +These are the salient facts in the oldest cult of Mars, and they are +entirely in keeping with all we know of the early history and economy +of the Roman people--a people economically dependent on agriculture, and +especially on cattle-breeding, living in settlements in the midst of a +wilder country, and constantly liable to the attacks of enemies who +might raid their cattle and destroy their crops. I do not see in him +only a deity of agriculture, or only a god of war; in my view he is a +spirit of the wilder regions, where dwell the wolf and woodpecker which +are connected with him in legend: a spirit who dwells on the outskirts +of civilisation, and can with profit be propitiated both for help +against the enemies beyond, and for the protection of the crops and +cattle within, the boundaries of human activity. + +Fourth in invocations came Quirinus, and fourth in order of precedence +was his flamen. But of Quirinus I need say little; there is, on the +whole, a consensus of opinion that he was a form of Mars belonging to +the community settled on the hill that still bears his name. The most +convincing proof of his identity with Mars (though identity is doubtless +too strong a word) lies in the well-known fact that there were twelve +Salii Collini, _i.e._ belonging to the Collis Quirinalis, occupied with +the cult of Quirinus, answering to the twelve Salii Palatini of the cult +of Mars. "Quid de ancilibus vestris," Camillus says in Livy's glowing +rhetoric, "Mars Gradive (the particular cult-title of the warlike Mars), +tuque Quirine pater?"[277] Now the Quirinal was, of course, _within_ the +walls, and the Romans who identified the two deities noted this point of +contrast with the Mars-cult; for Servius writes, "Quirinus est Mars qui +praeest paci et _intra civitatem_ colitur, nam belli Mars _extra +civitatem_ templum habet." In keeping with this is the use of the word +Quirites of the Romans in their civil capacity; but unluckily we are +altogether uncertain as to the etymology and history of both Quirites +and Quirinus.[278] And as Quirinus never became, like Mars, an important +property of the Roman people, but was speedily obscured and only revived +by the legend of late origin which identified him with Romulus, he is +not of importance for my subject, and I may leave him to etymologists +and speculators. + +There is one other deity of whom I might naturally be expected to say +something; I mean Juno. But our familiarity with Juno in Roman +literature must not be allowed to lead us into believing too rashly that +she was one of those great _numina_ of the early Roman State with whom I +have just been dealing. She had no special festival in the +calendar;[279] her connection with the Kalends she shared, as we have +seen, with Janus. She had no special priest of her own; for in spite of +all assertions that the flaminica Dialis was attached to her cult, I am +convinced that I was right some years ago in maintaining that this is an +error, though a natural one.[280] It cannot be proved that she had any +ancient temple in the city; for the oldest known to us as strictly +indigenous, that of Juno Moneta on the arx, was not dedicated till 344 +_B.C._, and we do not know that there was an older altar on the same +spot.[281] Assuredly Rome was not in early times a great centre of the +Juno cult, as were some of the cities in her neighbourhood, _e.g._ +Lanuvium, Falerii, and Veii;[282] and the gradual establishment of her +position as a truly Roman goddess may be explained by her appearance in +the trias of deities in the Capitoline temple at the end of the regal +period, and by the removal to Rome of Juno Regina of Veii still later, +after the destruction of that city. + +What, then, was Juno originally to the Roman religious mind? There is no +more difficult question than this in our whole subject; as we probe +carefully in those dark ages she baffles us continually. Undoubtedly she +was a woman's deity, and we may aptly say of her "varium et mutabile +semper femina." The most singular fact we know about her cult is that +women used to speak of their Juno as men spoke of their Genius;[283] and +it is not by any means impossible that this may be the clue to the +original Italian conception of her.[284] In that case we should have to +explain her appearance as a well-defined goddess in so many Latin towns, +as the anthropomorphising result of that penetration of Greek ideas +into Latium from the south, of which I shall have something to say later +on. Such ideas, when they reached Rome, may have produced the notion +that she was the consort of Jupiter, for which I must confess that I can +find no sufficient evidence in the early cult of either.[285] But I must +here leave her, for in truth she does not belong to this lecture; and it +would need at least one whole lecture to discuss her adequately in all +her later aspects. The latest German discussion of her occupied sixty +closely printed pages; and instructive as it was in some ways, arrived +at the apparently impossible conclusion that she was a deity of the +earth. + +Last in the order of invocation, even to the latest days of Rome, came +Vesta, "the only female deity among the highest gods of the most ancient +State,"[286] for Juno can hardly be reckoned among them, and Tellus had +no special cult or priesthood of her own. We have already noticed Vesta +as the religious centre of the house, making it into a _home_ in a sense +almost more vivid than that in which we use the sacred word. Through all +stages of development from house to city this religious centre must have +been preserved, and in the Rome of historical times Vesta was still +there, inherent in her sacred hearth-fire, which was tended by her six +virgin priestesses, and renewed on the Roman New Year's day (March 1) by +the primitive method of friction.[287] The Vestals beyond doubt +represented the unmarried daughters of the primitive Latin family, and +the _penus Vestae_, a kind of Holy of Holies of the Roman State, +recalled the _penus_ or store-closet of the agricultural home; this +_penus_ was cleansed on June 15 for the reception of the first fruits of +the harvest, and then closed until June 7 of the following year.[288] +These and other simple duties of the Vestals, all of them traceable to +the old life on the farm, together with their own sex and maidenhood, +preserved this beautiful cult throughout Roman history from all +contamination. Vesta in her _aedes_, a round dwelling which was never a +temple in the technical sense, was represented by no statue, and her +title of Mater never suggested to the true Roman worshipper anything but +her motherly grace and beneficence.[289] Far more than any other cult, +that of Vesta represents the reality and continuity of Roman religious +feeling; and the remains of her latest dwelling, and the statues of her +priestesses with no statue of herself among them, may still give the +visitor to the Forum some dim idea of the spirit of Roman worship.[290] + + + NOTES TO LECTURE VI + + [219] Arnobius (v. 155) fortunately mentions that this + story came from the second book of Valerius Antias, + whose bad reputation is well known. It was plainly meant + to account for the cult-title of Jupiter Elicius, and + the origin of the _procuratio fulminis_, and was + invented by Greeks or Graecising Romans at a time (2nd + century B.C.) when all reverence for the gods had + vanished as completely as in Greece. Yet Dr. Frazer + writes of Numa as "an adept at bringing down lightning + from heaven" (_Early History of Kingship_, p. 204). + + [220] On this subject, the evolution of the knowledge of + God, I may refer to Professor Gwatkin's _Gifford + Lectures_ of 1904-5, published by Messrs. T. & T. Clark, + Edinburgh. + + [221] The meaning of _deus_ is well put by Mr. C. Bailey + in his sketch of _Roman Religion_ (Constable & Co.), p. + 12. + + [222] Guesses can be made about these, but little or + nothing is to be learnt from them to help us in this + lecture. + + [223] I adhere to what was said in _R.F._ p. + 312 foll. We do not know, and probably never shall know, + the original deity concerned in that festival. The + ritual is wholly unlike that of the _rustica Faunalia_ + (_R.F._ p. 256 foll.). I believe that it dates from a + time anterior to the formation of real gods--possibly + from an aboriginal people who did not know any. (I am + glad to see this view taken in the latest summary of + German learning on this subject, _Einleitung in die + Altertumswissenschaft_, by Gaercke and Norden, vol. ii. + p. 262.) At the moment of printing an interesting + discussion of the Lupercalia, by Prof. Deubner, who + treats it as a historical growth, in which are embodied + ideas and rites of successive ages, has appeared in + _Archiv_ (1910, p. 481 foll.). See Appendix B. + + [224] Wissowa, _R.K._ pp. 170 and 250 foll. + + [225] Strabo, p. 164. Cp. Usener, _Goetternamen_, p. 277, + whose comment is, "Die Goetter aller dieser Staemme waren + 'namenlos,' weil sie nicht mit Eigennamen sondern durch + Eigenschaftsworte benannt wurden. Fuer einen + griechischen Reisenden vorchristlicher Zeit waren sie + nicht fassbar." Arnobius iii. 43, Gellius ii. 28. 2 are + good passages for the principle. The latter alludes to + the anxiety of _veteres Romani_ on this point, "ne alium + pro alio nominando falsa religione populum alligarent." + Hence the formulae "si deus si dea," or "sive quo alio + nomine fas est nominare," Serv. _Aen._ ii. 351; + "quisquis es," _Aen._ iv. 576. See also Farnell, + _Evolution of Religion_, 184 foll.; Dieterich, _Eine + Mithrasliturgie_, p. 110 foll. + + [226] Serv. _Aen._ ii. 351. I am inclined to think it is + only an inference from the want of substantival names in + so many Roman deities; surely, it would be argued, the + pontifices must have had some reason for this. It is + contradicted by the fact that in such ancient formulae + as that of the _devotio_ (Livy viii. 9) the great gods + are called by their own names, though the army was in + the field and in presence of the enemy. There was, + however, an old idea that the name of the special + tutelary god of the city was never divulged, lest he + should become _captivus_, and that the true name of the + city itself was unknown; see Macrob. iii. 9. 2 foll. I + believe that these ideas were encouraged by the + pontifices, but were not founded on fact. + + [227] For the Indigitamenta see below, p. 159; _R.F._ p. + 341; R. Peter's able article in _Myth. Lex._, _s.v._ + Scholars do not seem to me to have reckoned sufficiently + with the tendency of a legal priesthood, devoted to the + strict maintenance of religious minutiae, to elaborate + and organise the material for god-making which was + within their reach. To judge by the elaboration of the + ritual at Iguvium, the same tendency must have existed + in other kindred Italian communities, both to develop + ritualistic priesthoods, and through them to elaborate + the ritual. This is, I think, the weak point of Usener's + reasoning in his _Goetternamen_, and as applied to Roman + deities it is the weak point of an interesting article + by von Domaszewski, reprinted in his _Abhandlungen zur + roem. Religion_, p. 155 foll. + + [228] The best account of Tellus is in Wissowa, _R.K._ + p. 159 foll. + + [229] _R.F._ p. 71; Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 631 foll. This + was a festival of the populus as a whole, and also of + each Curia, like the Fornicalia in February. Both were + clearly agricultural in origin, though the Curia as we + know it was probably an institution of the city. I must + own that I am quite uncertain as to what the thing was + which was originally meant by the word Curia; my friend + Dr. J. B. Carter may have something to say on the + subject in his book on the Roman religion in the Jastrow + series. + + [230] Dieterich, _Mutter Erde_, pp. 11 and 73 foll. + + [231] Virg. _Aen._ iv. 166, "prima et Tellus et pronuba + Iuno Dant signum"; commenting on which Servius wrote, + "quidam sane etiam Tellurem praeesse nuptiis tradunt; + nam et in auspiciis nuptiarum invocatur: cui etiam + virgines, vel cum ire ad domum mariti coeperint, vel iam + ibi positae, diversis nominibus vel ritu sacrificant." + There is little doubt that Tellus is frequently + concealed under the names of Ceres, Dea Dia, etc. For + Ceres and Juno in marriage rites, see Marquardt, + _Privatleben_, p. 49. + + [232] See below, p. 206 foll.; Macrob. iii. 9. 11; + Deubner in _Archiv_, 1905, p. 66 foll. + + [233] See De Marchi, _La Religione_, _etc._, i. p. 188 + and reff. (The reference to Gellius should be iv. 6. 7, + not iv. 67.) Like some other operations of the Roman + religion, this became a form, and was used as a kind of + insurance, whether or no there had been any omission; + Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 160. + + [234] That Ceres represented the _fructus_ is shown by + the fact that in the XII. Tables the man who raided a + field of standing corn at night was made _sacer_ to her; + Pliny, _N.H._ xviii. 12. + + [235] Cato, _R.R._ 134. De Marchi, _op. cit._ p. 135. + Janus, Jupiter, and Juno are concerned in this rite, + Ceres coming last. Varro has preserved the part of + Tellus for us: "quod humatus non sit, heredi porca + praecidanea suscipienda Telluri et Cereri, aliter + familia non pura est" (_ap. Nonium_, p. 163). + + [236] The verses are quoted by Dieterich, _Mutter Erde_, + p. 75, among others from Buecheler's _Anthology of Roman + Epitaphs_, Nos. 1544 and 1476. The story is told in + Suetonius' _Life of Tib._ c. 75, and again of Gallienus + by Aurelius Victor (_Caes._ c. 33). + + [237] Marquardt, p. 326, who notes that the Romans + themselves derived the word from _filum_, a fillet; + _e.g._ Varro, _L.L._ v. 84, "quod in Latio capite velato + erant semper, ac caput cinctum habebant _filo_." Modern + etymologists equate the word with _Brahman_. + + [238] Thus the Flamen Quirinalis sacrificed at the + Robigalia, _R.F._ p. 89, and with the Pontifices and + Vestals took part in the Consualia, Marq. 335. + + [239] We may note here that the most general Latin name + for a priest was _sacerdos_, which seems to have + excluded all magic, etc.; it means an office sanctioned + by the State. On the general question of the origin of + priesthood see Jevons, _Introduction_, _etc._, ch. xx., + with whose explanations, however, I cannot entirely + agree. I should prefer to keep the word priest for an + official who sacrifices and prays to his god. In this + view I am at one with E. Meyer, _Geschichte des + Altertums_, i.^2 p. 121 foll. God and priest go together + as permanent, regular in function, and entrusted by a + community with certain duties. + + [240] Marquardt, p. 180; Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 427. The + popa or victimarius is seen in many artistic + representations of sacrifice, _e.g._ Schreiber, _Atlas + of Classical Antiquities_, plate xvii. figs. 1 and 3. + + [241] Jevons, ch. xx.; Frazer, _G.B._ i. 245 foll., and + _Lectures on Early History of Kingship_, Lectures ii. + and v. + + [242] Virg. _Aen._ viii. 352. + + [243] In a valuable paper in his _Gesammelte + Abhandlungen_ (p. 284) Wissowa says that "personal + conception of deity is absolutely strange to the old + Roman religion of the _di indigetes_." I believe this to + be essentially true; but my point is that localisation + and ritual prepared the way for the reception of Greek + ideas of personality. The process had already begun in + the religion of the house; but it was not likely there + to come in contact with foreign germs. When Janus and + Vesta, who were in every house (Wissowa, p. 285), were + localised in certain points in a city, they would be far + more likely to acquire personality, if such an idea came + in their way, than in the worship of the family. + + [244] Aug. _Civ. Dei_, vii. 28, "quem alii caelum, alii + dixerunt esse mundum." Dr. Frazer, citing this passage + (_Kingship_, p. 286) in support of his view that Janus + was a duplicate of Jupiter, has omitted to notice that + some theorisers fancied he was the _universe_, which by + itself is enough to betray the delusive nature of this + kind of theological speculation. Varro elsewhere gives + us a clue to the liability of Janus to be exalted in + this unnatural fashion, _L.L._ vii. 27, "divum deo" (in + the Salian hymn), if this be taken as referring to + Janus, as it may be, comparing Macrob. i. 9. 14. But + this is easily explained by the position of Janus in + prayers; cp. Cic. _Nat. Deor._ ii. 27. 67, "cum in + omnibus rebus vim haberent maximam prima et extrema, + principem in sacrificando Ianum esse voluerunt." The + phrase "Deorum" or "Divum deus" is indeed remarkable, + and unparalleled in Roman worship; but no one acquainted + with Roman or Italian ritual will for a moment suspect + it of meaning "God of gods" in either a Christian or + metaphysical sense. I shall have occasion to notice the + peculiar use of the genitive case and of genitival + adjectives in worship later on. See below, p. 153 foll. + + [245] _Fasti_, i. 89 foll.; _R.F._ p. 281 foll. + + [246] Frazer, _l.c._ (a page of which every line appears + to me to be written under a complete misapprehension of + the right methods of research into the nature of Roman + gods); A. B. Cook, _Classical Review_, vol. xviii. 367 + foll.; Professor Ridgeway, _Who were the Romans?_ p. 12, + where, among other remarkable statements, Janus is + confidently said to have been introduced at Rome by the + Sabine Numa, and therefore to have been a Sabine deity, + an assumption quite irreconcilable with those of Dr. + Frazer and Mr. Cook. In striking contrast with such + speculations is a sensible paper on Janus in M. + Toutain's _Etudes de mythologie et d'histoire_, p. 195 + foll. (Paris, 1909). + + [247] Dr. Frazer is aware of this; see his _Kingship_, + p. 285, note 1. See also Roscher in _Myth. Lex._, _s.v._ + "Janus," p. 45 foll. + + [248] For the evidence for this and the following facts, + see Roscher's article just cited, or Wissowa, _R.K._ p. + 91 foll.; cp. _R.F._ p. 280 foll. The cult epithets of + Janus are thus explained by von Domaszewski, + _Abhandlungen_, p. 223, note 1, "Bei Ianus tritt + regelmaessig der Begriff des Wesens hinzu, dessen Wirkung + er von Anfang an bestimmt, so I. Consevius der Anfang + der in Consus wirkenden Kraft, und in derselbe Weise I. + Iunonius, Matutinus," etc. This is reasonable, but it + does not suit with I. Patulcius-Clusius, and I cannot + accept it with confidence at present. + + [249] Roscher, _op. cit._ p. 34. + + [250] Wissowa, _Gesammelte Abhandlungen_, p. 284 foll. + + [251] Festus, p. 185. + + [252] It is due to the good sense and learning of Dr. + Roscher; he had previously, when working on the old + methods, tried to prove that Janus was a "wind-god" + (_Hermes der Windgott_, Leipzig, 1878); but a more + searching inquiry into the Roman evidence, when the + prepossessions had left him which the comparative method + is so likely to produce, brought him to the view I have + explained in outline, which has been adopted in the main + by Wissowa, Aust, and J. B. Carter, as well as by myself + in _R.F._ The last word about so puzzling a deity can of + course never be said; but if we indulge in speculations + about him we must use the Roman evidence with adequate + knowledge of the criticism it needs. + + [253] This difference between Zeus and Jupiter has been + pointed out by Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 100; Jupiter stands + for the heaven even in classical Latin literature, as we + all know. + + [254] See his papers in the _Classical Review_, vol. + xvii. 270 and xviii. 365 foll., and in _Folklore_, vol. + xv. 301; xvi. 260 foll. + + [255] _Kingship_, p. 196 foll. + + [256] Macrobius i. 15. 14. In historical times a white + victim, _ovis idulis_, was taken to the Capitol by the + _via sacra_ in procession (Ov. _Fasti_, i. 56. 588). + Festus says that some derived the term _via sacra_ from + this procession (p. 290); and to this Horace may be + alluding in _Ode_ iii. 30. 8, "dum Capitolium Scandet + cum tacita virgine pontifex." + + [257] _R.F._ pp. 86, 204. + + [258] _R.F._ p. 160. + + [259] No doubt Jupiter was specially connected with the + oak, as Mr. Cook has shown with great learning in the + paper cited above, note 36; but at Rome he had an + ancient shrine among beeches, and was known as I. + Fagutalis: Varro, _L.L._ v. 152; Paulus 87. For I. + Viminalis, see _R.F._ p. 229. + + [260] See Aust's article "Jupiter" in _Myth. Lex._ p. + 673. + + [261] Aust gives a cut of a coin of the consul Claudius + Marcellus (223 B.C.) dedicating _spolia opima_ in this + little temple, according to the ancient fashion, + supposed to be initiated by Romulus, Livy i. 10. + + [262] Dionys. Hal. ii. 34. + + [263] _R.F._ p. 230. + + [264] See De Marchi's careful investigation, _La + Religione_, _etc._, i. p. 156 foll.; Gaius i. 112. The + cult-title should indicate that the god was believed to + be immanent in the cake of _far_, rather than that it + was offered to him (so I should also take I. Dapalis, + though in later times the idea had passed into that of + sacrifice, Cato, _R.R._ 132), and if so, the use of the + cake was sacramental; cp. the rite at the Latin + festival, _R.F._ p. 96. + + [265] There are distinct traces of a practice of taking + oaths in the open air, _i.e._ under the sky; of Dius + Fidius, unquestionably a form of Jupiter, Varro says + (_L.L._ v. 66), "quidam negant sub tecto per hunc + deiurare oportere." Cp. Plutarch, _Quaest. Rom._ 28; + _R.F._ p. 138. For the conception of a single great + deity as primitive, see Lang, _The Making of Religion_, + ch. xii.; Flinders Petrie, _Religion of Egypt_ (in + Constable's shilling series), ch. i.; Ross, _The + Original Religion of China_, p. 128 foll.; Warneck, _Die + Lebenskraefte des Evangeliums_, p. 20 (of the Indian + Archipelago). The last reference I owe to Professor + Paterson, of Edinburgh University. + + [266] Serv. _Aen._ viii. 552, "more enim veteri sacrorum + neque Martialis flamen neque Quirinalis omnibus + caerimoniis tenebantur quibus flamen Dialis, neque + diurnis sacrificiis distinebatur." It is, however, + possible that under the word _caerimonia_ Servius is not + here including taboos, but active duties only. + + [267] See my paper, "The Strange History of a Flamen + Dialis," in _Classical Review_, vol. vii. p. 193. + + [268] Henzen, _Acta Fratr. Arv._ p. 26. + + [269] Cato, _R.R._ 141; Henzen, _op. cit._ p. 48. + + [270] Frazer, _G.B._ iii. 123, note 3; _R.F._ p. 40, for + further examples. It may be worth while to point out + here that the coupling of all farm animals except goats + took place in spring or early summer; Varro, _R.R._ ii. + 2 foll. Isidorus (_Orig._ v. 33), who embodies Varro and + Verrius to some extent, derived the name Mars from + _mares_, because in the month of March "cuncta animalia + ad mares aguntur." + + [271] I prefer, with De Marchi, to take Silvanus here as + a cult-title, though we do not meet with it elsewhere; + see _La Religione_, _etc._, p. 130 note; but Wissowa, + who has a prejudice against the view that Mars was + connected with agriculture, insists on taking Marti + Silvano as a case of asyndeton, _i.e._ as two deities. + + [272] See, _e.g._, Varro, _L.L._ v. 36, "quos agros non + colebant propter silvas aut id genus, ubi pecus possit + pasci, et possidebant, ab usu salvo saltus nominarunt." + + [273] Cato, _R.R._ 141. Mars is there invoked as able to + keep off (_averruncare_) evil influences and to make the + crops grow, etc.; he has become in the second century + B.C. a powerful deity in the actual processes of + husbandry, just as he became in the city a powerful + deity of war. But as he was not localised either on the + farm or in the city, I prefer to think that he was + originally conceived as a Power outside the boundary in + each case, but for that very reason all the more to be + propitiated by the settlers within it. + + [274] See below, p. 235. + + [275] So Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 131. Cp. _R.F._ p. 39, note + 4. Deubner in _Archiv_, 1905, p. 75. + + [276] Servius, commenting on line 3 of _Aen._ viii. + (_utque impulit arma_) writes: "nam is qui belli + susceperat curam, sacrarium Martis ingressus, primo + ancilia commovebat, post hastam simulacri ipsius, + dicens, Mars vigila." The mention of a statue shows that + this account belongs to a late period. But Varro seems + to have stated that there was originally only a spear; + see a passage of Clement of Alexandria in the fragments + of the _Ant. rer. div._, Agahd, p. 210, to which Deubner + (_l.c._) adds Arnobius vi. 11. Deubner calls this spear + a fetish, which is not the right word if the deity were + immanent in it in the sense suggested by "Mars vigila." + See above, p. 116. If Servius correctly reports the + practice, it must be compared with the clashing of + shields and spears by the Salii, which may thus have had + a positive as well as negative object. + + [277] Livy v. 52. + + [278] Mr. A. B. Cook (_Classical Review_, 1904, p. 368) + has tried to connect both names with the Greek word + [Greek: prinos], and Professor Conway, quoted by him, is + inclined to lend the weight of his great authority to + the conjecture. Thus Quirinus would be an oak-god, and + Quirites oak-spearmen. We must, however, remember that + Mr. Cook is, so to speak, on an oak scent, and his + keenness as a hunter leads him sometimes astray. One is + a little perplexed to understand why Jupiter, Janus, + Mars, and Quirinus should all be oak-gods (and all in + origin identical as such!). On the other hand, it is + fair to note that the original spear was probably of + wood, with the point hardened in the fire, like the + _hasta praeusta_ of the Fetiales: Festus, p. 101. If + _quiris_ has really anything to do with oaks, it would + be more natural to explain the two words as springing + from an old place-name, Quirium, as Niebuhr did long + ago, and to derive that again from the oaks among which + it may have stood. But I am content to take _quiris_ as + simply a spear, as Buecheler did; see Deubner, _op. + cit._ p. 76. Since the above was written, the article + "Quirinus" by Wissowa in the _Myth. Lex._ has appeared. + Naturally it does not add anything to our knowledge; but + Wissowa holds to the opinion that the most probable + derivation of the name Quirinus is from Quirium, + possibly the name of the settlement on the Quirinal; and + compares _Q. pater_ (_e.g._ Livy v. 52. 7) with the + _Reatinus pater_ of _C.I.L._ ix. 4676. + + [279] The Nonae Caprotinae (July 7), the day when women + sacrificed to Juno Caprotina under a wild fig-tree in + the Campus Martius, is not known to us except from + Varro. See _R.F._ p. 178, where (note 8) is a suggestion + that the festival had to do with the _caprificatio_, or + method of ripening the figs, which Dr. Frazer has + expanded in his _Lectures on Kingship_, p. 270, + believing the process to be that of fertilisation. + + [280] _Classical Review_, vol. ix. p. 474 foll. The same + view has recently been taken independently by W. Otto in + _Philologus_, 1905, pp. 215 foll., 221. It is perfectly + clear that the monthly sacrifice to Juno was the duty of + the wife of the _rex sacrorum_; a pontifex minor is also + mentioned (Macrob. i. 15. 19). + + [281] Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 116. + + [282] _Ib._ p. 114. + + [283] See Ihm's article "Iunones" in _Myth. Lex._ vol. + ii. 615; Pliny, _N.H._ ii. 16. + + [284] Dr. J. B. Carter tells me that he has abandoned + this explanation of the evolution of Juno. On the other + hand, von Domaszewski seems in some measure to accept it + (_Abhandlungen_, p. 169 foll.), when he says that + "similar functions, when exercised by different + _numina_, can eventually produce a god. _Auf diese Weise + ist Iuno geworden._" He means that the creative power is + called Juno in a woman, or in a people (Iuno Populonia), + or in the curiae (Iuno Curitis), and that an independent + deity, Juno _par excellence_, emerges from all these. + But so far I cannot follow him. + + [285] There is no real evidence from purely Roman + sources of this fancied conjugal or other relation, if + we exclude that of the alleged cult of Juno by the + Flaminica Dialis. This has been well seen and expressed + by W. Otto, _l.c._ p. 215 foll.; see also _Classical + Review_ as quoted above. As we shall see in the next + lecture, Dr. Frazer is much concerned to show that + Jupiter and Juno are actually a married pair, and + consequently he will have nothing to do with my opinion + on this point: _Early History of Kingship_, p. 214 + foll., and _Adonis_, _Attis,_ _Osiris_, ed. 2, p. 410, + note 1. + + [286] Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 141. + + [287] Festus, p. 106; Macrob. i. 12. 6. + + [288] I have discussed the Vestalia and the nature of + Vesta and her cult in _R.F._ p. 145 foll. See also + Marquardt, p. 336 foll., and Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 141 + foll. + + [289] Ovid, _Fasti_, vi. 296, says that he had been + stupid enough to believe that there was a statue in the + _aedes Vestae_, but found out his mistake:-- + + esse diu stultus Vestae simulacra putavi; + mox didici curvo nulla subesse tholo. + + The passage is interesting as showing how natural it was + for a Roman of the Graeco-Roman period to suppose that + his deities must be capable of taking iconic form. For + anthropomorphic representations of Vesta in other places + and at Pompeii, see Wissowa, _Gesammelte Abhandlungen_, + p. 67 foll. + + [290] See Lanciani, _Ruins and Excavations of Ancient + Rome_, p. 223 foll. The statues of the _virgines + vestales maximae_, discovered in the Atrium Vestae, all + belong to the period of the Empire. They are now in the + museum of the Baths of Diocletian. + + + + +LECTURE VII + +THE DEITIES OF THE EARLIEST RELIGION: GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS + + +In the last lecture we interrogated the calendar as to the deities whose +festivals are recorded in it, with the aid of what we know of the most +ancient priesthoods attached to particular cults. The result may be +stated thus: we found a number of impersonal _numina_, with names of +adjectival form, such as Saturnus, Vertumnus, and so on; others with +substantival names, Tellus, Robigus, Terminus; the former apparently +functional deities, concerned in the operations of nature or man, and +the latter spirits immanent in objects--Mother Earth herself, a stone, +the mildew, or (like Janus and Vesta) the entrance and the hearth-fire +of human dwellings or cities. Lastly, we found from the evidence, +chiefly of the priesthoods, that certain more important divinities stand +out from the crowd of spirits, Janus, Jupiter, Mars, Quirinus, and +Vesta; and we found some reason to think that these, and possibly a few +of the others, by becoming the objects of priestly _cura_ and +_caerimonia_ at particular spots in the city, were not unlikely to +become also in some sense personal deities, to acquire a quasi-human +personality, if they came by the chance. In the present lecture I must +go rather more closely into such evidence as we possess bearing on the +mental conception which these early Romans had formed of the divine +beings whom they had admitted within their city. + +And, first, we must be quite clear that in those early ages there was +nothing in Rome which we can call a temple, as we understand the word; +nor was there any such representation of a deity as we can call an image +or _eidolon_. The deities were settled in particular spots of ground, +which were made _loca sacra_, _i.e._ handed over to the deity by the +process of _consecratio_ authorised by the _ius divinum_.[291] It was +matter of no moment what might be erected on this bit of ground; there +might be a rude house like that of Vesta, round in shape like the oldest +Italian huts; there might be a gateway like that of Janus; or the spot +might be a grove, or a clearing within it (_lucus_), as in the case of +Robigus or the Dea Dia of the Arval Brethren. All such places might be +called by the general name _fanum_; and as a rule no doubt each _fanum_ +contained a _sacellum_, _i.e._ a small enclosure without a roof, +containing a little altar (_ara_). These "altars" may at first have been +nothing more than temporary erections of turf and sods; permanent stone +altars were probably a later development. Servius tells us that in later +times it was the custom to place a sod (_caespes_) on the top of such a +stone altar, which must be one of the many survivals in cult of the +usages of a simpler age.[292] + +With such spots as these we cannot associate anything in the nature of +an image of the deity established there; and we have every reason to +believe that no such thing was known at Rome until the Etruscan temple +of the Capitoline trias was built near the end of the regal period. +Varro expressly declared that the Romans remained for more than 170 +years without any images of their gods, and added that those who first +introduced such images "civitatibus suis et metum dempsisse et errorem +addidisse."[293] What he had in his mind is clear; he had indeed no +direct knowledge of those early times, but he is thinking of a definite +traditional date in the kingly period--the last year of the reign of +Tarquinius Priscus, who, according to Varro's own account, built the +temple on the Capitol and placed in it a statue of Jupiter.[294] That +was the oldest image of which he knew anything; and, as Wissowa has +remarked, his belief is entirely corroborated by the fact that in every +single case in which the image of a god has any part in his cult, it is +always either this Capitoline Jupiter or some deity of later +introduction and non-Roman origin. It is also borne out by another +significant and interesting fact--that the next image to be introduced, +that of Diana in the temple on the Aventine, was a copy of the [Greek: +xoanon] of Artemis at Massilia, itself a copy of the famous one at +Ephesus.[295] Let us note that these two earliest statues were placed in +roofed temples which were the dwelling-places of gods in an entirely new +sense; so far no Roman deity of the city had been so housed, because he +could not be thought of in terms of human life, as visible in human form +and needing shelter. But this later and foreign notion of divinity so +completely took possession of the minds of the Romans of the +cosmopolitan city that Varro is the only writer who has preserved the +tradition of the older way of thinking. In the religion of the family +Ovid indeed has charmingly expressed it, perhaps on the authority of +some lost passage of Varro[296]:-- + + ante focos olim scamnis considere longis + mos erat, et mensae credere adesse deos. + +Tibullus in one passage has mentioned what seems to be some rude attempt +to give outward shape and form to an ancient pastoral deity[297]:-- + + lacte madens illic suberat Pan ilicis umbrae + et facta agresti lignea falce Pales. + +And Propertius hints at a like representation of Vertumnus, the garden +deity. But without some corroborative evidence it is hardly safe to take +these as genuine examples of early iconic worship. + +Thus we may take it as certain that even the greater deities of the +calendar, Janus, Jupiter, Mars, Quirinus, and Vesta, were not thought of +as existing in any sense in human form, nor as personal beings having +any human characteristics. The early Romans were destitute of +mythological fancy, and as they had never had their deities presented to +them in visible form, could hardly have invented such stories about +them as sprang up in a most abundant crop when Greek literature and +Greek art had changed their mental view of divinity. Roman legends were +occupied with practical matters, with kings and the foundation of +cities; and even among these it is hardly possible to detect those which +may be really Roman, for they are hidden away, like rude ancient +frescoes, under the elaborate decorations of the Greek artists, who +seized upon everything that came to hand, including the old deities +themselves, to amuse themselves and win the admiration of their dull +pupils at Rome. He who would appreciate the difficulty of getting at the +original rude drawings must be well acquainted with the decorative +activity of the Alexandrian age. + +Thus we might well presume _a priori_ that the old Roman gods were not +conceived as married pairs, nor as having children; and this is indeed +the conclusion at which we have arrived after half a century or more of +most careful and conscientious investigation by a series of German +scholars. But quite recently in this country the contrary view has been +put forward by an author of no less weight than Dr. Frazer; and another +eminent Cambridge scholar, Mr. A. B. Cook, evidently inclines to the +same view. I should in any case be reluctant to engage in controversy +with two valued personal friends; but it is just possible that in what +follows I may be able to throw some faint light on the evolution of the +idea of marriage among divine beings; and on the strength of this I am +content for the moment to be controversial. Dr. Frazer's arguments, with +strictures on my opinions, will be found in an appendix to his book on +_Adonis,_ _Attis_, _Osiris_, 2nd edition. + +In pure animism the spirits are nameless; when their residence and +functions are more clearly recognised they acquire names, and these +names are naturally masculine or feminine among peoples whose language +is not genderless, as was the case with the Sumerians of +Babylonia.[298] This would seem to be the first step on the path to a +personal conception of divinity. But there are signs that the Romans had +not got very far on this path when we begin to know anything about their +religion. I have already alluded to the formula "Sive deus sive dea," +which occurs in the ritual of the Fratres Arvales, in the formula given +by Cato for making a new clearing, and elsewhere;[299] and indeed there +seems to have been always some uncertainty about the sex of one or two +well-known deities, such as Pales and Pomonus or Pomona.[300] It is not, +therefore, _a priori_ probable that the process of personalisation (if I +may coin the word) should have proceeded, at the period we are treating +of, so far as to ascribe to these named deities of both sexes the +characteristics of human beings in social life and intercourse. Yet +Varro, as Dr. Frazer points out, is quoted by St. Augustine as saying +that his ancestors (that is, as Augustine adds), "veteres Romanos," +believed in the marriage of gods and in their procreative power.[301] If +Varro wrote "maiores meos," as he seems to have done, of whom was he +really thinking? Was Augustine's comment based on the rest of Varro's +text, or was he jumping to a conclusion which would naturally serve his +own purpose? Varro, of course, was not a Roman, but from Reate in the +Sabine country. But even if he were thinking of Rome, how far back would +his knowledge extend? The Romans had known Greek married gods for three +or four centuries before his time, and he may quite well be thinking of +these. Of the _di indigetes_ of an earlier period he could hardly know +more than we do ourselves; his only sources of information were the +facts of the cult and the books of the pontifices. The facts of the +cult, so far as he and others have recorded them, suggest no pairing of +deities, no "sacred marriage."[302] The pontifical books, which +contained rules and formulae for the proper invocation of deities by +their right names, do indeed seem to have suggested a certain +conjunction of male and female divine names; and it is just possible +that this is what Varro had in his mind when he wrote the passage seized +upon by Augustine. I will proceed at once to examine this evidence, as +it is incidentally of great interest in the history of Italian religion; +and Dr. Frazer will probably allow that his conclusion must stand or +fall by it. + +The evidence to which I allude is preserved in the 13th book of the +_Noctes Atticae_ of Aulus Gellius (ch. xxiii.), and extracted from +"libri sacerdotum populi Romani," as "comprecationes deorum +immortalium"; these also occur, he says, in _plerisque antiquis +orationibus_, _i.e._ in the invocations to the gods made by the orator +at the beginning or end of his speech.[303] Among these Gellius found +the following conjunctions of divine names: Lua Saturni, Salacia +Neptuni, Hora Quirini, Virites Quirini, Maia Volcani, Herie Iunonis, +Moles Martis, and Neriene Martis, or Nerio Martis. Now among these +conjunctions there are three which obviously do not express pairs of +deities, married or other, viz. Virites Quirini, Moles Martis, and Herie +Iunonis; the first two of which plainly mean the strength or force of +Quirinus and Mars, and the third conjoins two female names. The question +is whether the others are to be understood as giving us the names of the +"wives" of Saturnus, Neptunus, Quirinus, Volcanus, and Mars. The fact +that these are associated with others which cannot mean anything of the +kind is itself against this conclusion; but I have carefully examined +each pair by the light of such stray information about them as we +possess, and have failed to find anything to suggest Dr. Frazer's +emphatic conclusion that these are married pairs. I should be tedious if +I were to go through the evidence in detail in a lecture like this; but +I will take the pair which Gellius himself discusses, and on which Dr. +Frazer chiefly relies, Neriene or Nerio Martis: it is the pair about +which we know most, and in every way is the most interesting of the +set.[304] + +After giving the list of names, Gellius goes on to express his own +opinion that _Nerio Martis_ means (like _Moles Martis_) the _virtus_ or +_fortitudo_ of Mars, _Nerio_ being a Sabine word meaning strength or +courage;[305] and a little further he sums up his view thus: "Nerio +igitur Martis vis et potentia et maiestas quaedam esse Martis +demonstratur." This seems to fit in very comfortably with what can be +guessed of the meaning of two of the other pairs, Virites Quirini and +Maia Volcani: Maia was explained by another Roman scholar as equivalent +to Maiestas.[306] + +But Gellius goes on to quote three passages from old Latin authors in +which Nerio (or Neria) appears positively as the wife of Mars; and again +concludes that there was also a tradition that these two were +_coniuges_. Of these passages we luckily have the context of one, for it +occurs in the _Truculentus_ of Plautus: turning this out (line 515) we +find that a rough soldier, arriving at Athens, salutes his sweetheart +with the words "Mars peregre adveniens salutat Nerienen uxorem +suam"--words which Plautus must have adapted from his Greek original in +such a way as to make them intelligible to a Roman audience. Gellius +says that he had often heard a learned friend blame Plautus for thus +putting a false notion about Mars (that he had a wife) into the mouth of +his soldier--"nimis comice"--merely to produce a comic effect. But, he +adds, there was some justification for it; for if you read the third +book of the annals of Gellius (a namesake who lived in the second +century B.C.) you will find that he puts into the mouth of Hersilia, +pleading for peace before Ti. Tatius, words which actually make Nerio +the wife of Mars: "De tui, inquit, coniugis consilio, Martem scilicet +significans." Little, I fear, can be said to the credit of this +Gellius;[307] he lived in an age when annalists were many and inventive, +and long after the Romans had grown accustomed to Greek ideas of the +gods; but we may take this passage as evidence of what may have been in +his day a popular idea of Mars and his consort. Lastly, Aulus Gellius +quotes a brace of lines from one Licinius Imbrex, an old comic writer of +the same century, who, in a _fabula palliata_ called Neaera, wrote:-- + + nolo ego Neaeram te vocent, aut Nerienem, + cum quidem Marti es in connubium data. + +The real question is whether these passages from comic writers and an +annalist of no reputation combine to prove that there was an ancient +popular idea of Mars as a married god; as to the priestly view of the +matter they can, of course, prove nothing. It seems to me that Dr. +Frazer is entitled to argue that in the second century B.C. such a +popular idea existed,[308] which the Roman state religion did not +recognise, and which Aulus Gellius, as we have seen, could not agree +with. I do not, however, think him entitled to go farther, and to infer +that this was an idea of divinity native to Italy or of very old +standing. Is it not much simpler to suppose, with a cool-headed scholar +whom Dr. Frazer is willing to follow when it suits his turn, that pairs +or conjunctions of this kind, the true meaning of which I hope to +explain directly, were easily mistaken by the vulgar mind for married +god and goddess?[309] In those degenerate days of the Roman religion, +after the war with Hannibal, to which these writers belong--and all are +later than Ennius, the first to make mischief by ridiculing the +gods--nothing could be easier than to take advantage of what looked like +married life to invent comic passages to please a Roman audience, now +consisting largely of semi-educated men who had lost faith in their own +religion, and of a crowd of smaller people of mixed descent and +nationality. Such passages, in fact, cannot safely be used as evidence +of religious ideas, apart from the tendencies of the age in which they +were written. Had there really been religious beliefs, rooted in the old +Roman mind, about the wedded life of gods and goddesses, it would even +then have been dangerous to use them mockingly in comedy. And once more, +had there been such genuinely Roman ideas, why, in an age that made for +anthropomorphism, did they not find their way into the Roman +Pantheon,--why did they survive only in literary allusions, to the +bewilderment of scholars like Aulus Gellius? + +The real explanation of these curious conjunctions of masculine and +feminine names is, I think, not very hard to come by. Let us remember, +in the first place, that they were found in the books of the priests, +and that they belonged to forms of prayer--_comprecationes deorum +immortalium_; in other words, they do not represent popular ideas of the +deities, but ritualistic forms of invocation. As such they may indeed no +doubt be regarded as expressing, or as growing out of, a popular way of +thinking of the Power manifesting itself in the universe; but they are +themselves none the less, like those strange lists of divine names +called _Indigitamenta_, with which I shall deal directly, the creations +of an active professional priesthood, working upon the principle that +every deity must be addressed in precisely the correct way and no other, +and accounting the name of the deity, as indicating his or her exact +function, the most vitally important thing in the whole invocation. I +have already pointed out how difficult the early Latin must have found +it to discover how to address the _numina_ at work around him, and I +shall return to the subject in another lecture; at present all I want to +insist upon is that the priests of the City-state relieved him of this +anxiety, and indeed must have carried the work so far as to develop a +kind of science of divine nomenclature. Every one who has studied the +history of religions knows well how strong the tendency is, when once +invocation has become ritualised, for the names and titles of the +objects of worship to abound and multiply. The Roman Church of to-day +still shows this tendency in its elaborate invocation of the Virgin. + +With the old Romans the common method of elaboration lay in the +invention of cult-titles, of which the different kinds have been +distinguished and explained by Dr. J. B. Carter in his treatise "de +Deorum Romanorum cognominibus."[310] Most of them are suggestive of +function or character, as, _e.g._, Janus Patulcius Clusivius, or Jupiter +Lucetius, Ops Opifera; sometimes they doubled the idea, as in Aius +Locutius, or Anna Perenna, or Fors Fortuna; and in one or two cases +they seem to have combined two deities together in rather puzzling +conjunctions, which usually, however, admit of some possible +explanation, as Janus Junonius, or Ops Consiva (_i.e._ Ops belonging to +Consus).[311] In the Iguvian ritual, which is the highly-elaborated work +of a priesthood as active as the Roman, we find combinations of not less +than four names:[312] Cerfe Martie, Praestita Cerfia Cerfi Martii, Tursa +Cerfia Cerfi Martii, which may perhaps be rendered "Spirit of Mars, +protecting (female) spirit of the (male) spirit of Mars, fear-inspiring +(female) spirit of the (male) spirit of Mars." + +Such strange multiple combinations as these suggest that expressions +like Moles Martis or Virites Quirini are only another form of the usual +cult-title, expressing adoration of the power of the deity addressed; +and it is only reasonable to explain the others of the same group on the +same principle. As we have seen, Roman scholars themselves explained +Nerio Martis as equivalent to Virtus Martis; Herie Iunonis probably +means something of the same kind; the others are not so easily +explained, and guesswork about them is unprofitable. But I hope I have +said enough to show that there is absolutely no good ground for +supposing that these combinations of names in nominative and genitive +indicate a relationship of any kind except a qualitative one. Abstract +qualities, let us note, are usually feminine in Latin, and I think it is +not improbable that abstractions such as Fides and Salus, which were +deified at a very early period at Rome, may have reached divinity by +attachment to some god from whom they subsequently became again +separated.[313] And lastly, we can trace the same tendency to combine +names and ideas together far down the course of Roman history; witness +the combination of Genius with cities, legions, gods, etc., as well as +with the individual man, and again such expressions as Pietas Legionis, +by analogy with which von Domaszewski, wrongly as I think, would explain +those we have been discussing.[314] + +Before leaving this complicated and cloudy system of divine +nomenclature, it is as well to ask the question once more, even if we +cannot answer it, whether if left to itself it might have developed into +a polytheistic system of personal deities. I will give my own opinion +for what it is worth. I do not think that such a result could have been +reached without the magic touch of the Greek poet and artist, or the +arrival of Greek deities and their images in Latium. Professor Sayce, in +his Gifford lectures on the religion of Babylonia, has shown how the +non-Semitic Sumerians knew only of spirits and demons until the Semite +arrived in the Persian Gulf with his personal gods of both sexes;[315] +and I gather that he does not suppose that without such immigration the +Sumerian ideas of divinity could have become personalised. The question +is not exactly the same at Rome; for there the spirit world had passed +into the hands of an organised priesthood occupied with ritual, and +especially with its terminological aspect; and the chance of +personalisation, if it were there at all, lay in the importance of the +functional name. But the question is after all beside the mark; we shall +see what happened when the Greeks arrived. We may be content at present +to note the fact that they found the functional terminology sufficiently +advanced to take advantage of it, and to revolutionise the whole Roman +conception of the divine. + +Dr. Frazer gives me an opportunity of adverting to another point bearing +on the question we are discussing,--the way in which the old Roman +thought of his deities. "It is difficult," he says,[316] "to deny that +the epithets Pater and Mater, which the Romans bestow on so many of +their gods, do really imply paternity and maternity; if this implication +be admitted, the inference appears to be inevitable that these divine +beings were supposed to exercise sexual functions, etc." In a footnote +he adds a number of formidable-looking references, meant, I suppose, to +prove this point. I have closely examined these passages; what they do +prove is simply that many deities were called Pater and Mater. Not one +even suggests that paternity and maternity were in such cases to be +understood literally and, so to speak, physically. The two that come +nearest to what he is looking for are those from Varro and Lactantius. +Varro says[317] that Ops was called Mater because she was identical with +Terra, who was, of course, Terra Mater: "Haec enim-- + + 'terris gentes omnes peperit et resumit denuo, + +quae dat cibaria,' ut ait Ennius."[318] It is clear, then, that neither +Varro nor Ennius understood this title of Ops and Terra in Dr. Frazer's +sense of the word. The quotation from the early Christian father +Lactantius, which contains three well-known lines of Lucilius, might +possibly deceive those who neglect to turn it out and read the context; +there we find at once that not even Lactantius could attribute to these +epithets the meaning which Dr. Frazer wishes to put on them. He would +have been as glad to do so as Dr. Frazer himself, though for a very +different reason; but what he actually wrote is this:-- + +"Omnem Deum qui ab homine colitur, necesse est inter solennes ritus et +precationes patrem nuncupari, non tantum honoris gratia, verum etiam +rationis; quod et antiquior est homine, et quod vitam, salutem, victum +praestat, ut pater. Itaque ut Iuppiter a precantibus pater vocatur, +etc."[319] + +Dr. Frazer's quotation begins with this last sentence; it is a pity that +he did not read the context. If he had read it, his candour would have +compelled him to confess that not even a Christian father, with a keen +sense of what was ridiculous or degrading in the pagan religion, +understood the fatherhood of the gods as he wishes to understand it. + +But I am wasting time in pressing this point. Dr. Frazer would hardly +have used such an argument if he had not been hard put to it. The +figurative use of human relationships is surely a common practice, when +addressing their deities, of all peoples who have reached the stage of +family life. As another distinguished anthropologist says: "The very +want of an object tends to supply an object through the imagination; and +this will be either the vital energy inherent in things, or the reflex +of the human father, who once satisfied his needs (_i.e._ of the +worshipper). So, in Aryan religions, the supreme god is father, [Greek: +Zeus pater], Diespiter, Marspiter. Ahura-Mazda is a father.... Another +analogy shows the relationship of brother and friend, as in the case of +Mithra."[320] The Romans themselves were familiar from the first with +such figurative use of relationship, as was natural to a people in whom +the family instinct was so strong; we have but to think of the _pater +patratus_ of the Fetiales,[321] of the Fratres Arvales, or the Fratres +Attiedii of Iguvium. What exactly they understood by Pater and Mater +when applied to deities is not so easy to determine: we have not the +necessary data. They were never applied, I believe, to imported deities, +_di novensiles_; always to _di indigetes_, those on whom the original +Roman stock looked as their fellow-citizens and guardians. And we shall +not be far wrong if we conclude that in general they imply the +dependence of the human citizen upon his divine protector, and thus +bring the usage into line with that of other Aryan peoples. Behind this +feeling of dependence there may have been the idea, handed down from +remote ages, that Father Sky and Mother Earth were in a sense the +parents of all living things; but there is nothing in the Roman religion +to suggest that the two were thought of as personally uniting in +marriage or a sexual act. + +I will sum up this part of the discussion by translating an admirable +passage in Aust's book on the Roman religion, with which I am in cordial +agreement[322]:-- + +"The deities of Rome were deities of the cult only. They had no human +form; they had not the human heart with its virtues and vices. They had +no intercourse with each other, and no common or permanent residence; +they enjoyed no nectar and ambrosia ... they had no children, no +parental relation. They were indeed both male and female, and a male and +female deity are often in close relations with each other; but this is +not a relation of marriage, and rests only on a similarity in the sphere +of their operations.... These deities never become independent +existences; they remain cold, colourless conceptions, _numina_ as the +Romans called them, that is, supernatural beings whose existence only +betrays itself in the exercise of certain powers." + +They were, indeed, cold and colourless conceptions as compared with the +Greek gods of Olympus, whose warmth and colour is really that of human +life, of human passions; but the one remarkable and interesting thing +about these Roman and Italian numina is the life and force for good or +evil which is the very essence of their being. The puzzling combinations +we have just been studying are quite enough to illustrate this +character. Moles, Virites, Nerio, and perhaps others too, seem to mean +the strength or force inherent in the numen; Cerfius, or Cerus, as the +Latins called it, Liber, Genius, all are best interpreted as meaning a +functional or creative force. Jupiter is the sky or heaven itself, with +all its manifestations of activity; Tellus is Mother Earth, full of +active productive power. At the bottom of these cold and colourless +conceptions there is thus a real idea of power, not supernatural but +rather natural power, which may both hurt and benefit man, and which he +must attempt to enlist on his side. This enlistment was the task of the +Roman priesthood and the Roman government, and so effectually was it +carried out that the divine beings lost their vitality in the process. + +We shall be better able to follow out this curious fate of the Roman +deities in later lectures; here I wish to note one other aspect of the +Roman idea of divinity, which will help to explain what I have just been +saying about the life and force inherent in these numina. + +In most cursory accounts of the Roman religion it has been the practice +to lay particular stress upon an immense number of "gods," as they used +to be called, each of which is supposed to have presided over some +particular act or suffering of the Roman from the cradle to the +grave--from Cunina, the "goddess" of his cradle, to Libitina who looked +after his interment. I have as yet said nothing about all these. I will +now briefly explain why I have not done so, and why I hesitate to +include them, at any rate in the uncompromising form in which they are +usually presented, among the genuine religious conceptions of the +earliest period. Later on I shall have further opportunity of discussing +them; at the end of this lecture I can only sum up the results of recent +research into this curious cloud of so-called deities. + +We know of them mainly, but not entirely, from Tertullian, and the _de +Civitate Dei_ of St. Augustine.[323] These scholarly theologians, +wishing to show up the absurdity of the heathen religions, found a mine +of material in the great work of Varro on the Roman religious +antiquities; and though they found him by no means so elegant a writer +as Cicero, they studied him with pains, and have incidentally added +immensely to our knowledge both of Varro himself and of the Roman +religion. St. Augustine tells us that it was in the last three books of +his work that Varro treated of the Roman deities, and that he divided +them under the heads of _di certi_, _di incerti_, and _di selecti_. In +the first of these he dealt chiefly with those with which we are now +concerned: they were _certi_ because their names expressed their +supposed activity quite clearly.[324] We know for certain that Varro +found these names in the books of the pontifices, and that they were +there called Indigitamenta:[325] a word which has been variously +interpreted, and has been the subject of much learned disputation. I +believe with Wissowa that it means "forms of invocation," _i.e._ the +correct names by which gods should be addressed. + +Thus these lists of names come down to us at third hand: Varro took them +from the pontifical books, and the Christian fathers took them from +Varro. It is obvious that this being the case they need very careful +critical examination; and till recently they were accepted in full +without hesitation, and without reflection on such questions as, _e.g._, +whether they are psychologically probable, or whether they can be +paralleled from the religious experience of other peoples. Some +preliminary critical attempts were made about fifty years ago in this +direction,[326] but the first thoroughgoing examination of the subject +was published by R. Peter in the article "Indigitamenta" in Roscher's +_Mythological Lexicon_. This most industrious scholar, though his +interpretation of the word Indigitamenta is probably erroneous,[327] was +the first to reach the definite conclusion that the lists are not really +primitive, and do not, as we have them, represent primitive religious +thought. It was after a very careful study of this article, which is +long enough to fill a small volume, that I wrote in my _Roman Festivals_ +of the Indigitamenta as "based on"--not actually representing, I might +have added--"old ideas of divine agency, now systematised by something +like scientific terminology and ordered classification by skilled legal +theologians"; and as "an artificial priestly exaggeration of a primitive +tendency to see a world of nameless spirits surrounding and influencing +all human life."[328] + +I was not then specially concerned with the Indigitamenta, and only +alluded to them in passing. But before my book was published there had +already appeared a most interesting work on the names of deities +(_Goetternamen_) by H. Usener, a brilliant investigator, which drew fresh +attention to the subject. Usener found in mediaeval records of the +religion of the heathen Lithuanians what seemed to be a remarkable +parallel with this old Roman theology, and he also compared these +records with certain facts in what we may call the pre-Olympian +religious ideas of the Greeks. "The conclusion which he draws," writes +Dr. Farnell[329]--and I cannot state it better--"is that the +Indo-Germanic peoples, on the way to the higher polytheism, passed +through an earlier stage when the objects of cult were beings whom he +designated by the newly-coined words 'Augenblickgoetter' and +'Sondergoetter'" (gods of momentary or limited function). He went further +than this, and claimed that the anthropomorphic gods of Greece and +Italy, of the Indo-Iranians, Persians, and Slavs, were developed out of +these spirits presiding over special functions and particular moments of +human life; but with this latter part of his theory I am not now +concerned. What we want to know now is whether in writing thus of the +Roman Indigitamenta Usener was using a record which really represents an +early stage of religious thought in Italy; and I may add that we should +be glad to know whether his Lithuanian records are also to be +unhesitatingly relied on.[330] As regards Greece, Dr. Farnell has +criticised his theories with considerable effect. + +The most recent contribution to the discussion of the Roman part of the +subject is that of Wissowa, who in 1904 published a paper on "True and +False Sondergoetter at Rome";[331] this is a piece of most valuable and +weighty criticism, but extremely difficult to follow and digest. I here +give only the main results of it. Wissowa takes two genuine examples of +Sondergoetter which have come down to us from other sources, and more +directly than those mentioned above: the first from Fabius Pictor, the +oldest Roman historian,[332] and the other from the Acta Fratrum +Arvalium.[333] Fabius said that the flamen (Cerealis?), when sacrificing +to Tellus and Ceres, also invoked the following deities: Vervactor, for +the first ploughing, as Wissowa interprets it; Redarator, for the second +ploughing; Imporcitor, for the harrowing; Insitor, for the sowing; +Oberator, for the top-dressing; Occator, Sarritor, Subrincator, Messor, +Convector, Conditor, Promitor, for subsequent operations up to the +harvest and actual distribution of the corn for food. Secondly, in the +Acta of the Arval Brethren we find, on the occasion of a _piaculum_ +caused by the growth of a fig-tree on the roof of the temple of Dea Dia, +at the end of a long list of deities invoked, and before the names of +the _divi_ of the Imperial families, the names of three Sondergoetter, +Adolenda Commolenda Deferunda, and on another occasion, Adolenda and +Coinquenda; these seem beyond doubt to refer to the process of getting +the obnoxious tree down from the roof, of breaking it up, and burning +it. + +In both these examples, which have come down to us more directly than +the lists in the Fathers, Wissowa sees assistant or subordinate deities +(if such they can be called) grouped around a central idea, that of the +main object of sacrifice in each case;[334] these are the result of the +_cura_ and _caerimonia_ supervised and over-elaborated by pontifical law +and ritual. It is, I may add on my own account, most unlikely, and +psychologically almost impossible, that any individual farmer should +have troubled himself to remember and enumerate by name twelve deities +representing the various stages of an agricultural process; and Cato, in +fact, says nothing of such ritual. It was the flamen of the City-state, +who, when sacrificing to Tellus and Ceres before harvest,[335] pictured, +or recalled to mind, the various processes of a year of what we may call +high farming rather than primitive, under the names of deities plainly +invented out of the words which express those processes--words which +themselves are certainly not all antique. And in the second example, +which dates from the second century A.D., we see that the process of +destroying the intruding fig-tree is represented in ritual in exactly +the same curious way: the names of the deities, Deferunda and the rest, +being invented for the occasion out of the words which express the +several acts of the process of destruction. These Arval Brethren of the +second century inherited the traditions of their predecessors of an +earlier age, and carried out the work of amplification in their +invocations by pedantically imitating the pontifices of five or six +centuries earlier. They held, in a way which to us is ludicrous, to the +old notion that you should try and cover as much ground as possible in +worship, and to cover it in detail, so that no chance might be missed +of securing the object for which you were taking so much trouble. + +Now to return to Varro and his lists of names. What is Dr. Wissowa's +conclusion about these, after examining the two examples of Sondergoetter +which have not come down to us through so much book-learning as the +rest? + +Varro's _di certi_, he says[336]--and I think there is no doubt that he +is right--included the name of every deity, great or small, of which he +could feel sure that he knew something, as he found it in the books of +the pontifices; and the part of those books in which he found these +names, known as Indigitamenta, probably contained formulae of +invocation, _precationum carmina_,[337] of the same kind as the +_comprecationes deorum immortalium_ from which Gellius quoted the pairs +of male and female deities which we discussed above. Varro arranged all +these names in groups of principal and subordinate or assistant deities, +the latter amplifying in detail the meaning and scope of the former, as +we have just seen; and of this grouping some traces are still visible in +the accounts of Augustine and Tertullian. But the good Fathers tumbled +the whole collection about sadly in their search for material for their +mockery, having no historical or scientific object in view; with the +result that it now resembles the bits of glass in a kaleidoscope, and +can no longer be re-arranged on the original Varronian plan. The +difficulty is increased by the etymologies and explanations which they +offer of the divine names, which, as a rule, are even more absurd than +the divinities themselves.[338] + +But, in the last place, the question must be asked whether these +Sondergoetter of the real kind, such, for example, as those twelve +agricultural ones invoked by the flamen at the Cereale sacrum, had their +origin in any sense in popular usage or belief. At the end of his paper +Wissowa emphatically says that he does not believe it. For myself, I +would only modify this conclusion so far as this: they must, I think, +have been the theological, or perhaps rather the ritualistic outcome, +of a psychological tendency rooted in the popular mind. I have already +noticed that curious bit of folklore in which three spirits of +cultivation were invoked with a kind of acted parable at the birth of a +child;[339] and I cannot regard this custom as a piece of pontifical +ritualism, though the names may have been invented by the priests to +suit the practice. The old Roman seems to have had a tendency to ascribe +what for want of a better word we may call divinity, not only to animate +and inanimate objects, but to actions and abstractions; this, I take it, +is an advanced stage of animism, peculiar, it would seem, to a highly +practical agricultural people, and it is this stage which is reflected +in the ritualistic work of the priests. They turned dim and nameless +powers into definite and prehensible deities with names, and arranged +them in groups so as to fall in with the life of the city as well as the +farm. What was the result of all this ingenuity, or whether it had any +popular result at all, is a question hardly admitting of solution. What +is really interesting in the matter, if my view is the right one, is the +curious way in which the early Roman seems to have looked upon all life +and force and action, human or other, as in some sense associated with, +and the result of, divine or spiritual agency. + + + NOTES TO LECTURE VII + + [291] For _loca sacra_ and _consecratio_ see Marquardt, + p. 148 foll.; Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 400. + + [292] Serv. _ad Aen._ xii. 119, "Romani moris fuerat + cespitem arae super imponere, et ita sacrificare." Cp. + some valuable remarks of Henzen, _Acta Fratr. Arv._ p. + 23. The altar of the Fratres was in front of their + grove; they used also a movable one (_foculus_) of + silver, but _cespiti ornatus_ (_ib._ p. 21): this was + for the preliminary offering of wine and incense + (Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 351). + + [293] In Aug. _Civ. Dei_, iv. 31; Agahd's edition of the + fragments of Varro's _Ant. rer. div._ p. 164. + + [294] Aug. _Civ. Dei_, iv. 23; Agahd, p. 159. See + Wissowa, _Gesammelte Abhandlungen_, p. 280 foll. + + [295] Strabo iv. 180. + + [296] _Fasti_, vi. 305. + + [297] Tibull. ii. 5. 27. The lines of Propertius are iv. + (v.) 2. 59, "Stipes acernus eram, properanti falce + dolatus, Ante Numam grata pauper in urbe deus." The + question is whether these are genuine examples of the + natural evolution of a "stock or stone" into something + in the nature of an anthropomorphic image of a deity, or + whether they are the result of the introduction of Greek + statues acting on the popular mind in rustic parts of + Italy. The passages, so far as I know, stand alone, and + we have no means of deciding whether the anthropomorphic + tendency was native or foreign. Vortumnus was, however, + undoubtedly of Etruscan origin; Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 233. + The subject of iconic development of this kind is well + summarised in E. Gardner's little volume on _Religion + and Art in Ancient Greece_, ch. i. + + [298] See Sayce, _Gifford Lectures on the Religions of + Egypt and Babylonia_, p. 302. An interesting paper on + the evolution of _dei_ at Rome out of functional + _numina_ will be found in von Domaszewski's + _Abhandlungen zur roem. Religion_, p. 155 foll., based on + Usener's theory of Sondergoetter. It is ingenious and + imaginative, but in my view does not square with the + facts as far as we know them. His stages are: (1) + momentary function of _numina_, _e.g._ lightning; (2) + elevation of this into a permanent power or function; + (3) consequent limitation of the numen to a special + well-marked function; (4) elevation of the numen to a + _deus_, conceived in the likeness of man, and male or + female, because man cannot think of power otherwise than + on the analogy of male or female creative energy. + Lastly, when the _deus_ is complete, the functions of + the former numen become attributes or qualities, traces + of which we find in the pairs of deities in Gellius, + xiii. 23, which are discussed later on in this lecture. + Some of these, of course, eventually became separate + deities--Salacia, Maia, Lua. As I cannot accept the view + that the earliest Roman idea of the supernatural is to + be found in _comprecationes_ of a comparatively late + period, _i.e._ in the so-called Indigitamenta, this + charmingly symmetrical account has no charm for me + beyond its symmetry. + + [299] Henzen, _Acta Fratr. Arv._ pp. 144, 146; Cato, + _R.R._ 139; _C.I.L._ vi. 110 and 111. Other references + are given by Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 33, note 2. + + [300] For Pales, _R.F._ p. 80 note; for Pomona, Wissowa, + _R.K._ p. 165. + + [301] The passage runs thus (Aug. _C.D._ iv. 32): + "Dicit enim (Varro) de generationibus deorum magis ad + poetas quam ad physicos fuisse populos inclinatos, et + ideo et sexum et generationes deorum maiores suos (id + est veteres credidisse Romanos) et eorum constituisse + coniugia." There is an amusing passage in Lactantius, i. + 17 (_de Falsa Religione_), which Dr. Frazer might read + with advantage. It begins, "Si duo sunt sexus deorum, + sequitur concubitus." Then he goes on mockingly to argue + that the gods must have houses, cities, lands which + they plough and sow, which proves them mortal. Finally + he takes the whole series of inferences backwards, + finishing with "si domibus carent, ergo et concubitu. Si + concubitus ab his abest, et sexus igitur foemineus," + etc. All this, he means, can be inferred from the fact + that gods are of both sexes; but that they have + _concubitus_ can no more be inferred from his argument + than that they plough and sow. + + [302] Dr. Frazer conjectures a sacred marriage of + Jupiter and Juno under the forms of Janus and Diana, in + _Kingship_, p. 214; but he is well aware that it is pure + guesswork. There was, indeed, at Falerii such a marriage + of Juno with an unknown deity (Ovid, _Amores_, iii. 13), + of which, however, we do not know the history. Falerii + was one of those cities, like Praeneste, where Etruscan, + Greek, and Latin influences met. The "Orci nuptiae" on + which Frazer lays stress was simply the Greek marriage + of Pluto and Proserpine: "Orci coniux Proserpina," Aug. + _C.D._ vii. 23 and 28, Agahd, p. 152. Wissowa shows this + conclusively, _R.K._ p. 246. Orcus was Graecised as + Plutus, but was himself totally without personality. + + [303] Dr. Frazer wrongly translates this as "ancient + prayers" (p. 411), adding "the highest possible + authority on the subject." _Oratio_ is never used in + this sense until Christian times: the word is always + _precatio_. All scholars are agreed that what is meant + is invocations to deities in old speeches, such as occur + once or twice in Cicero (_e.g._ at the end of the + _Verrines_); cp. Livy xxix. 15. As the recording of + speeches cannot be assumed to have begun before the + third century B.C., this does not carry us very far + back. That century is also the age in which the + pontifices were probably most active in drawing up + _comprecationes_; see below, p. 285 foll. + + [304] See Appendix B at end of volume. + + [305] Cp. Ovid, _Fasti_, iii. 850, "_forti_ sacrificare + deae." In _R.F._ p. 60 foll., I have criticised the + attempts, ancient and modern, to make this Nerio the + subject of myths. + + [306] Macrob. i. 12. 18. This word Maiestas shows the + doubtful nature of these feminine names, and probably + betrays the real meaning of Maia. I may mention here + that Bellona instead of Nerio is ascribed as wife to + Mars by Seneca ap. Aug. _C.D._ vi. 10; also Venus to + Volcanus instead of Maia. Neither have any connection, + so far as we know, with the gods to whom Seneca ascribes + them as wives: Venus-Vulcan is, of course, Greek. Both + Augustine and Dr. Frazer might with advantage have + abstained from citing Seneca on such a point: as a + Spaniard by birth he was not likely to know much about + technical questions of Roman ritual. + + [307] See Schanz, _Gesch. der roem. Literatur_, i. 274. + + [308] In the Graeco-Roman age Mars seems to have been + rather a favourite subject of myth-making; see Usener's + article on Italian myths in _Rhein. Mus._ vol. xxx.; + Roscher in _Myth. Lex._ for works of Graeco-Etruscan + art in which he appears in certain mythical scenes. + + [309] H. Jordan, quoted in _R.F._ p. 61 note. I relegate + to an appendix what needs to be said about the other + pairs of deities mentioned by Gellius. + + [310] Leipzig, 1898, p. 7 foll. + + [311] Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 168. Carter, _op. cit._ p. 21. + + [312] See Buecheler, _Umbrica_, pp. 22 and 98. + + [313] So Fides is usually explained, as originally + belonging to Jupiter (Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 103 foll.); but + a different view is taken by Harold L. Axtell in his + work on the _Deification of Abstract Ideas at Rome_ + (Chicago, 1907), p. 20. + + [314] In the Festschrift f. O. Hirschfeld, p. 243 foll. + + [315] _Religion of the Babylonians_, introductory + chapter. + + [316] _Op. cit._ p. 412. + + [317] _L.L._ v. 64. + + [318] This fragment is No. 503 in Baehrens, _Fragm. + Poet. Rom._ + + [319] Lactantius, _Div. inst._ iv. 3. + + [320] Crawley, _The Tree of Life_, p. 256; Farnell, + _Evolution of Religion_, p. 180; von Domaszewski, + _Abhandlungen_, p. 166, "Man ruft sie an im Gebete als + pater und mater zum Zeichen der Unterwerfung unter ihren + Willen, wie der Sohn dem Gebote des paterfamilias sich + fuegt. Der sittlich strenge Gehorsam, der das + Familienleben der Roemer beherrscht, die pietas, ist der + Sinn der roemischen religio." Cp. also Appel, _de Rom. + precationibus_, pp. 102-3, who thinks that they regarded + the gods "velut patriarchas sive patres familias." He + quotes Preller-Jordan i. 55 and Dieterich, _Eine + Mithrasliturgie_, p. 142 sq. So too with mater--"velut + mater familias." + + [321] The expression seems to mean "a father made for + the purpose of the embassy." Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 477, + note 3. + + [322] p. 19. This was written, it may be noted, several + years after Aust had thoroughly investigated the cult of + Jupiter for his article in the _Mythological Lexicon_; + in which cult, if anywhere, one may be tempted to see + evidence of a personal conception of deities. As Dr. + Frazer has referred to the cult of Jupiter at Praeneste, + to which I referred him as evidence of a possibly + personal conception of the god in that Latin city, I may + say here that I adhere to what I said about this in + _R.F._ p. 226 foll.; no piece of antique cult has + occupied my attention more than this, and I have tried + to lay open every source of confirmation or criticism. + Wissowa has expressed himself in almost exactly the same + terms in _R.K._ p. 209: we arrived at our conclusions + independently. + + [323] Tertullian, _ad Nationes_ 11, and _de Anima_, 37 + foll.; Aug. _de Civ. Dei_, iv. _passim_, and especially + ch. xi.; R. Peter compiled a complete list (_Myth. + Lex._, _s.v._ "Indigitamenta," p. 143) from these and + other sources. + + [324] Aug. _C.D._ vii. 17. That this was what Varro + meant by _di certi_ was first affirmed by Wissowa in a + note to his edition of Marquardt, p. 9; it has been + generally accepted as the true account. A full + discussion will be found in Agahd's edition of the + fragments of Varro's work, p. 126 foll.; cf. Peter's + article quoted above, and Wissowa, _R.K._ pp. 61 and 65. + A somewhat different view is given in Domaszewski's + article in _Archiv_ for 1907, p. 1 foll., suggested by + Usener's _Goetternamen_. + + [325] The evidence for this will be found in Marquardt's + note 4 on p. 9. I have no doubt that Wissowa is right in + explaining Indigitamenta as "Gebetsformeln," formulae of + invocation; in which the most important matter, we may + add, would be the name of the deity. See his _Gesammelte + Abhandlungen_, p. 177 foll. The Indigitamenta contained, + as one section, the invocations of _di certi_. + + [326] Chiefly by Ambrosch in his _Religionsbuecher der + Roemer_. Peter's article contains a useful account of the + whole progress of research on this subject. + + [327] _Lex._ p. 137; it was that of his master + Reifferscheid. Cp. Wissowa, _op. cit._ (_Ges. Abhandl._ + p. 306 foll.). + + [328] _R.F._ pp. 191, 341. + + [329] "The place of the Sondergoetter in Greek + Polytheism," printed in _Anthropological Essays + addressed to E. B. Tylor_, p. 81. Usener's discussion of + the Roman and Lithuanian Sondergoetter is in his + _Goetternamen_, p. 73 foll. + + [330] Wissowa writes (_Ges. Abhandl._ p. 320 note) that + he has reason to believe that a great number of the + Lithuanian Sondergoetter only became such through the + treatment of the subject by the mediaeval writers on + whom Usener relied! + + [331] _Ges. Abhandl._ p. 304 foll. + + [332] Servius (Interpol.) _ad Georg._ i. 21. + + [333] Henzen, _Acta Fratr. Arv._ p. 147; _C.I.L._ vi. + 2099 and 2107. + + [334] _Op. cit._ p. 323 foll.; for _famuli_ and _anculi + divi_, Henzen, _op. cit._ p. 145. + + [335] See above, p. 121. + + [336] p. 312; cp. 320, where he further asserts his + belief that Varro is responsible himself for the + creation of a great number of these Sondergoetter, owing + to his extreme desire to fix and define the function of + every deity in relation to human life; just as the + mediaeval writers Laskowski and Pretorius may have + created many Lithuanian Sondergoetter. As I am not quite + clear on this point, I have not mentioned it in the + text. + + [337] _Op. cit._ p. 314, note 1. See above, note 33. + + [338] _e.g._ Vaticanus, "qui infantum vagitibus + praesidet"; _Rusina_ from _rus_; _Consus_ from + _consilium_, etc. + + [339] See above, p. 84. + + + + +LECTURE VIII + +RITUAL OF THE _IUS DIVINUM_ + + +I have already frequently mentioned the _ius divinum_, the law governing +the relations between the divine and human inhabitants of the city, as +the _ius civile_ governed the relations between citizen and +citizen.[340] When we examined the calendar of Numa, we were in fact +examining a part of this law; we began with this our studies of the +religion of the Roman city-state, because it is the earliest document we +possess which illuminates the dark ages of city life, so far as religion +is concerned. The study of the calendar naturally led us on to consider +the evidence it yields, taken together with other sources of +information, as to the nature of the deities for whose worship it fixes +times and seasons, or, more accurately, the amount of knowledge to which +the Romans had attained about their divine beings. But we must now +return to the _ius divinum_, and study it in another aspect, for which +the calendar itself does not suffice as evidence. + +Perhaps the simplest way of explaining this _ius_ is to describe it as +laying down the rules for the maintenance of right relations between the +citizens and their deities; as ordaining what things are to be done or +avoided in order to keep up a continual _pax_, or quasi-legal covenant, +between these two parties. The two words _ius_ and _pax_, we may note, +are continually meeting us in Roman religious documents. In a prayer +sanctioned by the pontifices for use at the making of a new clearing, we +read: "Si deus, si dea sit cuius illud sacrum est, _ut tibi ius siet_ +porco piaculo facere illiusce sacri coercendi ergo,"[341] _i.e._ "O +unknown deity, whether god or goddess, whose property this wood is, let +it be legally proper to sacrifice to thee this pig as an expiatory +offering, for the sake of cutting down trees in this wood of thine." +"Pacem deorum exposcere" (or "petere") is a standing formula, as all +readers of Virgil know;[342] and it occurs in many other authors and +religious documents. When Livy wants to express the horror of the old +patrician families at the idea of plebeians being consuls--men who had +no knowledge of the _ius divinum_ and no right to have any--he makes +Appius Claudius exclaim, "Nunc nos, tanquam iam nihil pace deorum opus +sit, omnes caerimonias polluimus."[343] How can we maintain our right +relations with the gods, if plebeians have the care of them? + +Thus it is not going too far to describe the whole Roman religion of the +city-state as a _Rechtsverkehr_,[344] a legal process going on +continually. When a _colonia_ was founded, _i.e._ a military outpost +which was to be a copy in all respects of the Roman State, it was +absolutely essential that its _ius divinum_ should be laid down; it must +have a religious charter as well as a civil one. Even at the very end of +the life of the Republic, when Caesar founded a colony in Spain, he +ordained that, within ten days of its first magistrates taking office, +they should consult the Senate "quos et quot dies festos esse et quae +sacra fieri publice placeat et quos ea sacra facere placeat," _i.e._ as +to the calendar, the ritual, and the priesthood.[345] The Romans, of +course, assumed that Numa, their priest-king, had done the same thing +for Rome; Livy describes him as ordaining a pontifex to whom he +entrusted the care of all these matters, with written rules to +follow.[346] This was the imaginary religious charter of the Roman +State. Without it the citizen, or rather his official representative, +would not know with the necessary accuracy the details of the _cura_ and +_caerimonia_; without it, too, the deities could not be expected to +perform their part of advancing the interests of the State, and indeed, +as I think we shall find, could not be expected to retain the strength +and vitality which they needed for the work. Support was needed on each +side; the State needed the help of the gods, and the gods needed the +help of the State's care and worship. + +The ways and means towards the maintenance of this _pax_ were as +follows. First, the deities must be duly placated, and their powers kept +in full vigour, by the ritual of sacrifice and prayer, performed at the +proper times and places by authorised persons skilled in the knowledge +of that ritual. Secondly, there must be an exact fulfilment of all vows +or solemn promises made to the deities by the State or its magistrates, +or by such private persons as might have made similar engagements. +Thirdly, the city, its land and its people, must be preserved from all +evil or hostile influences, whether spiritual or material or both, by +the process broadly known as _lustratio_, which we commonly translate +_purification_. Lastly, strict attention must be paid to all outward +signs of the will of the gods, as shown by omens and portents of various +kinds. This last method of securing the _pax_ became specially prominent +much later in Roman history, and I prefer to postpone detailed +discussion of it for the present; but the other three we will now +examine, with the help of evidence mainly derived from facts of cult, +not from the fancies of mythologists. + +First, then, I take sacrifice, dealing only with the general principles +of sacrificial rites, so far as we can discern them in the numerous +details which have come down to us. The word _sacrificium_, let us note, +in its widest sense, may cover any religious act in which something is +made _sacrum_, _i.e._ (in its legal sense) the property of a deity;[347] +I am not now concerned to conjecture what exactly may have been the +meaning of this immortal word before it was embodied in the _ius +divinum_. "Sacrificium" is limited in practical use by the Romans +themselves to offerings, animal or cereal, made on the spot where the +deity had taken up his residence, or at some place on the boundary of +land or city (_e.g._ the gate) which was under his protection, or (in +later times at least) at a temporary altar erected during a campaign. +Thus it was as much a sacrificium when the paterfamilias threw at each +meal a portion of the food into the fire, the residence of Vesta, as +when the consul offered a victim to Mars on the eve of a battle. + +Sacrifices have generally been divided into the three classes of (1) +honorific, where the offering is believed to be in some sense a gift to +the deity; (2) piacular, or sin-offerings, where the victim was usually +burnt whole, no part being retained for eating (though this was not the +case at Rome); (3) sacramental sacrifices, where the worshippers enter +into communion with the deity by partaking of the sacred offering +together with him.[348] The two former are constant and typical in the +Roman religion; but traces of the sacramental type, which Robertson +Smith believed to be the oldest, are also found, and it will clear the +ground if I refer to them at once. By far the most interesting example +is that of the Latin festival on the Alban mount, where the flesh of the +victim, a white heifer that had never felt the yoke, was partaken of by +the deputies of all the cities of the Latin league, great importance +being attached to the due distribution.[349] Here the Latin race "yearly +acknowledges its common kinship of blood, and seals it by partaking in +the common meal of a sacred victim," thus entering into communion with +Jupiter, the ancient god of the race, and with each other, by +participation in the flesh of the sacred animal. "This common meal is +perhaps a survival from the age when cattle were sacred animals, and +were never slain or eaten except on the solemn annual occasions when the +clan or race renewed its kinship and its mutual obligations by a solemn +sacrament." It is tempting to compare with this great sacrament the +_epulum Iovis_ on the Ides of September, the dedication-day of the +Capitoline temple of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, which three deities +seem to have been present in visible form to share the meal with the +magistrates and senate.[350] But we have not yet arrived at the age when +this temple was built, and we have no evidence enabling us to carry the +rite back in any form to the pre-Etruscan period. There are, however, +faint indications that the old Italians believed the deities to be in +some sense present at their meals, though not in visible form; and at +one festival, the Fornacalia, which was a concern not of the State as a +whole, but of the thirty _curiae_ into which it was divided,[351] there +seems to be no doubt that a common meal took place in which the gods +were believed to have a part, or at any rate to be present though +invisible. Yet the _ius divinum_ of the Roman State assuredly did not +encourage this kind of sacrament; for in the regular round of State +festivals, in which we cannot include even the _feriae Latinae_, the +sacrifices, so far as we are informed, were all honorific or piacular. +If I am not mistaken, the idea of participation by the people in solemn +sacred rites was discouraged by the Roman priesthood; in the _ius +divinum_ the line drawn between _sacrum_ and _profanum_ was clear; +scenes of gluttony or revelry, like the Greek hecatombs, were eliminated +from the _sacra publica_, as I have already pointed out. Not till the +advent of the Sibylline books and the _Graecus ritus_ did the people +take an active part in the State religion; their duty was merely to +abstain from disturbance during the performance of sacred rites. "Feriis +iurgia amovento" is the only reference in Cicero's imaginary sketch of +the _ius divinum_ to the conduct of the citizen on festival days.[352] +Within the family, the curia, the gens, there might be direct and active +participation in daily or yearly ceremonies, but it was an essential +principle of the life of the city-state that its business, religious as +well as civil, should be carried out for the citizens by officials +specially appointed. + +In the typical and organised worship of the State, _i.e._ sacrifice +honorific and piacular, sanctioned by the _ius divinum_, the utmost care +was taken that the whole procedure should be in every sense acceptable +to the deity; that nothing _profanum_ should cross the threshold of the +divine; hence it was quiet, orderly, dignified. The feeling that +communication with the deity invoked was impossible save under such +conditions was very strong in the Roman mind, stronger perhaps than with +any other people whose religious practice is known to us; and the sense +of obligation and duty, _pietas_, as they called it, was thus very early +developed, and of infinite value to the State in its youth. This is +entirely in keeping with what we have learnt in the last two lectures of +the ideas of the Romans about the nature of their deities, and throws +additional light on those ideas. They did not as yet know too much about +the divine beings and their powers and wishes; familiarity had not yet +bred contempt; _religio_, as we saw, was still strong among them--the +feeling of awe that is likely to diminish or disappear when you have +your god before you in the form of an idol. It is a principle of human +nature that where knowledge is imperfect, care must be taken to be on +the safe side; this is true of all practical undertakings, and as the +religion of the Romans was that of a practical people with a practical +end in view, it was particularly true of them. + +First then, in order that the worship might be entirely acceptable to +the deity invoked, it was essential that the person who conducted it +should be also acceptable. At the head of the whole system was the rex, +who was priest as well as king. We do not know, of course, exactly how +the rex was appointed; but in the case of the typical priest-king Numa, +Livy has described his _inauguratio_ in terms of the _ius divinum_ of +later times for the appointment of priests, and we may take it as fairly +certain that the same principle held good from the earliest times.[353] +After being summoned (so the story ran) from the Sabine city of Cures by +the Senate, he consulted the gods about his own fitness. He was then +conducted by the augur to the arx on the Capitol, and sat down on a +stone facing the south. The augur took his seat on his left hand (the +lucky side) with veiled head, holding the _lituus_[354] of his office +in his right hand, with which, after a prayer, he marked out the +_regiones_ from east to west, the north being to the left, the south to +the right, and silently noted some object in the extreme distance of the +_ager Romanus_, as the farthest point where the appearance of an omen +might be accepted. Then, passing the _lituus_ to his left hand, he laid +his right on the head of Numa, and uttered this prayer: "Father Jupiter, +if it be thy will (_fas_) that this Numa Pompilius, on whose head my +hand is laid, be king of Rome, I pray thee give us clear token within +the limits which I have marked out." Then he said aloud what auspicia he +sought for (_i.e._ whether of birds, lightning, or what); and when they +appeared, Numa descended as rex from the citadel. This process was +called _inauguratio_; it is attested for the confirmation of the +election of the three flamines maiores, the rex, and the augurs, in +historical times,[355] whatever was the method of that election, and +without it the priest was not believed to be acceptable to the gods. It +is not mentioned by Roman writers in connection with the Pontifices or +the Vestals; if this be not merely from dearth of evidence, it is not +easy to account for, unless the reason were that neither body was +specially concerned with sacrifice. But the principle is perfectly +clear--that the person who is to represent the community in worship must +be one of whom the _numina_ openly express approval. + +A priest, _sacerdos_, is thus a person set apart by special ritual for +the service of the _sacra populi Romani_. The rex no doubt himself made +the selection and supervised the inauguratio of the other priests at +whose head he was. When the kingship came to an end, his powers of this +kind passed to the pontifex maximus; and it may be as well to add at +once that his sacrificial powers, though they were in a special sense +inherited by a priest who took his title, the _rex sacrorum_, passed +with the civil power to all magistrates _cum imperio_, who wore the +_toga praetexta_ symbolic of priestly function, and had the right of +presiding at sacrificial rites both at home and in the field. Thus +magistrate and priest, though quite distinct under the Republic from the +point of view of public law, have certain characteristics in common as +deriving from a common source in the powers of the rex.[356] + +But to return to the period of Numa and the calendar: it was not only +necessary that the priest should be acceptable to the gods, but that he +should be marked off from the rest of the community as being dedicated +to their service. As Dr. Jevons says,[357] in all early religions +priests are marked off from other worshippers, partly by what they do, +and partly by what they may not do; and what he means is (1) that the +priest originally was the person who alone could slay a victim; (2) that +in consequence of his sacredness he was subject to a great number of +restrictions. I have already spoken of these restrictions or priestly +taboos in my second lecture; and as I believe that in the period we are +now dealing with they were little more than a survival, I shall not +return to them now. But of the outward insignia, which marked off the +priest as alone entitled to perform the essential act of worship, the +sacrifice, and which bring him out of the region of the _profanum_ into +that of _sacrum_, I must say a few words before going farther. + +In historical times the actual slaying of the victim was done by +subordinates, _popae_, _victimarii_, etc.; but there is no doubt +whatever that it was originally the work of the priest, for he seems at +all times to have used one gesture which is clearly symbolic of it,[358] +and there are traces also of a practice of wearing the toga in such a +way as to leave the right arm free for the act.[359] That toga, or any +other special robe worn by the priest, was always in whole or part red +or purple. The purple-edged _toga praetexta_ was worn both by priests +and magistrates, and by children under age; and I think there is good +reason to believe that in all these cases the original idea was the +same--that they took part, directly or indirectly, as primary or +secondary agents in sacrificial acts. The Salii and the augurs wore the +_trabea_, which was of purple or red, or both; the flamines had a +special robe about the colour of which we are not informed, but the +Flaminica Dialis wore a purple garment called _rica_, and a red veil +called _flammeum_, which was also worn by the bride in the religious +ceremony of marriage. Whether we are to see in this prevalence of red or +purple any symbolism of the shedding of blood in sacrifice I cannot be +sure, but the inference is a tempting one, and has been put forward with +confidence by some recent investigators. It is worth noting that the +Vestals, who did not sacrifice animals, wore white only.[360] If the red +colour has anything to do with blood-shedding, it is probably more than +merely symbolic; it may mean that the sacrificing priest partakes of +that life and strength which he passes on to the god through the blood, +that is the life, of the victim.[361] + +The Roman priests had also other insignia, of which the original meaning +is less evident. The Flamen Dialis, and probably all the flamines, wore +a cap with an olive-twig fastened to the top of it; this is well shown +in the sculptures of the Ara Pacis of Augustus.[362] The flaminicae had +a head-dress called _tutulus_, which consisted in part, at least, of a +purple fillet or ribbon. The flamines, when actually sacrificing, wore a +_galerus_, or hood of some kind made of the skin of a victim, and the +Flamen Dialis in particular wore one made of the skin of a white heifer +sacrificed to Jupiter.[363] In these various ways all priests were +outwardly shown to be holy men, _sacerdotes_, marked off from the +_profanum vulgus_. Only for the pontifices we have no information as to +a special dress, just as we also have none as to their inauguratio.[364] + +Thus there is no question that the priests were chosen and separated +from the people in such a way as to meet with the approval of the gods; +and even the acolytes, _camilli_ and _camillae_, boys and girls who +frequently appear in sacrificial scenes on monuments, wore the _toga +praetexta_, and, in order to be acceptable, must be the children of +living parents.[365] This rule has lately been the subject of a +discussion by Dr. Frazer, on which he has brought to bear, as usual, a +great range of learning. He regards the restriction not so much as a +matter of good omen, _i.e._ of freedom from contamination by the death +of a parent, but as pointing to a notion that they were "fuller of life +and therefore luckier than orphans."[366] Whether or no this explanation +is the right one, it is quite consistent, as we shall see directly, with +the general idea of sacrifice at Rome, and the learning by which it is +supported is in any case of interest and value. + +There is abundant evidence from historical times that all worshippers, +and therefore _a fortiori_ all priests, when sacrificing, had to be +personally clean and free from every kind of taint; a rule which also +held good for the utensils used in the worship, which in many cases at +least were of primitive make and material, not such as were in common +use.[367] The need of personal purity is well expressed by Tibullus in +his description of a rural festival[368]:-- + + vos quoque abesse procul iubeo, discedat ab aris + cui tulit hesterna gaudia nocte Venus. + casta placent superis: pura cum veste venite + et manibus puris sumite fontis aquam. + +These lines indicate an approach at least to the idea of mental as well +as material purity; and Cicero in his _ius divinum_ in the _de +Legibus_[369] actually reaches that idea: "caste iubet lex adire ad +deos, animo videlicet, in quo sunt omnia: nec tollit castimoniam +corporis," etc. But this is the language of a later age, and does not +reflect the notions of the old Roman, but rather those of the religious +philosophy of the Greek. The personal purity which the Roman rule +required was a survival from a set of primitive ideas, closely connected +with taboo, which we are only now beginning to understand fully. They +are common to all or almost all peoples who have made any progress in +systematising their sacrificial worship. As Dr. Westermarck has +recently expressed it,[370] "they spring from the idea that the contact +of a polluting substance with anything holy is followed by injurious +consequences. It is supposed to deprive a deity or holy being of its +holiness.... So also a sacred act is believed to lose its sacredness by +being performed by an unclean individual." And in the next sentence he +goes still farther back in the history of the belief, pointing out that +a polluting substance is itself held to contain mysterious energy of a +baneful kind. But I must leave this interesting subject now; the story +of the evolution of the habit of cleanliness from these ancient ideas +will be found in the thirty-ninth chapter of his _Origin and Development +of Moral Ideas_. + +Coming next to the act of sacrifice itself, it is needless to say that +the victim must be as exactly fitted to please the deity--if that be the +right way to express the obligation--as the priest who sacrificed it. It +must be of the right kind, sex, age, colour; it must go willingly to the +slaughter, adorned with fillets and ribbons (_infulae_, _vittae_), in +order to mark it off from other animals as holy; in the case of oxen, we +hear also of the gilding of the horns, but this must have been costly +and unusual.[371] All these details were doubtless laid down in the _ius +divinum_, and in later times, when the deities dwelt in roofed temples, +they were embodied in the _lex_ or charter of each temple.[372] I do not +need to go into them here minutely; for my present purpose, the +elucidation of the meaning which the Romans attached to sacrificial +worship, it will be sufficient to point out that all victims, so far as +we know, were domestic animals, and in almost all cases they were +valuable property (_pecunia_), such as belonged to the stock of the +Latin farmer, ox, sheep, pig, varying according to age and sex. Goats +were used at the Lupercalia, and a horse was sacrificed to Mars, as we +have seen, on October 15, and at the Robigalia in April a red dog was +offered to the spirit of the mildew. But though time forbids me to +explain all these rules, a careful study of the evidence for them is +most useful for any one who wishes to understand the influence of the +_ius divinum_ on the mind of the early Roman. In the family what rules +were needed were matter of tradition; deities were few, and offerings +limited. But in the city-state it was very different; here even the _di +indigetes_ were many, with diverse wishes and likings as well as +functions: how were these to be ascertained and remembered at the right +moment? Here, as in all methods of securing the _pax deorum_, a central +supervising authority was needed, in whose knowledge and wisdom the +whole community had confidence; and he was found in the rex, as is +clearly shown in the whole traditional account of the priest-king Numa. +Very naturally tradition also ascribed to Numa the institution of the +pontifices, whom the historical Romans knew as succeeding the rex in the +supervision of religious law.[373] + +If all went well, the victim going willingly and no ill omen +supervening, the actual slaughter followed at the altar. During the +whole operation silence was enjoined; the priests' heads were veiled +with the folds of the toga;[374] pipers (_tibicines_) continued to play, +in order that no unlucky sound or word might be heard which would make +it necessary to start afresh with another victim (_instauratio_). +Immediately before the slaughter the victim was made holier than ever by +sprinkling upon it fragments of sacred cake made of _far_ (_immolatio_), +and by pouring on it libations of wine from a _foculus_ or movable altar +containing this holy condiment, together with incense if that were used +in the rite. As soon as it was dead, the internal organs were examined +to make sure that there was no physical defect or abnormal growth, for +it was, of course, quite as necessary that the animal should be "purus" +within as without; this was the only object of the examination, until +the Etruscan art of _extipicina_ made its way to Rome. What became of +the blood we are not told; I have already remarked that blood has +curiously little part in Roman ritual and custom.[375] But the _exta_, +_i.e._ internal organs of life, were separated from the rest of the +carcase, and carefully cooked in holy vessels, before being laid upon +the altar (_porrectio_), together with certain slices of flesh called +_magmenta_, or increase-offerings, while the rest of the flesh, which +had now lost its holiness, was retained for the use of the priests.[376] +The time occupied in the actual slaughter and inspection of the organs +was not long; but the cooking of these must have been often a lengthy +process. Ovid tells us how on April 25 he met the Flamen Quirinalis +carrying out the exta of a dog and a sheep, which had been sacrificed at +Rome to Robigus that morning, in order to lay them on the altar of that +deity at the fifth milestone on the Via Claudia.[377] Certain days in +the calendar, called _endotercisi_, which were _nefasti_ in morning and +evening, were _fasti_ in the middle of the day, between the slaying of a +victim and the placing of its exta on the altar (_inter hostiam caesam +et exta porrecta_).[378] + +I have so far purposely omitted one important detail--the prayer which, +so far as we know, invariably accompanied the sacrifice. It is not +absolutely certain at what moment of the rite it was said at Rome; in +the ritual of Iguvium we find it occurring immediately before the +placing of the exta on the altar;[379] but as that ritual is a +processional one, concerned with sacrifices at several spots, the two +chief parts of the rite, the slaughter and the _porrectio_, probably +followed closely on one another. We may perhaps guess that where these +two parts were separated by a considerable interval, as in the majority +of Roman festivals, the prayer was said by the priest also at the moment +of _porrectio_. The prayer is so important a detail as to need separate +handling--important because it helps us to interpret the ideas of the +Romans about their sacrifices, and the attitude in which they conceived +themselves as standing towards the deities whom they thus approached. I +propose to occupy the rest of this lecture in considering this most +interesting topic. I wish first to draw attention to a particular +feature, or rather expression, which occurs in the authentic wording of +certain prayers which we are lucky enough to possess, because I think it +throws some light on the meaning which the Romans attached to the +sacrifice it accompanied; and secondly, to consider the character of +Roman prayers generally, in view of a question now being largely +discussed, _i.e._ whether prayer is a development from spell or charm, +belonging in its origin to the region of magic. + +We have various forms of prayer surviving in Roman literature: some of +them are versified by the poets, and therefore give us a general +impression of the contents without the actual and genuine wording; we +have also two fragments of ancient _carmina_ which have the form of +prayers, those of the Salii and the Fratres Arvales; and we have certain +forms used on special occasions, such as the _evocatio_ of the gods of a +hostile community, or the formulae of vows (_vota_) which I must +postpone to the next lecture. But the only unquestionably genuine old +Roman prayers used at sacrifice, taken from the books of the pontifices +and preserved word for word, are those which Cato embodied in his +treatise on agriculture in the second century B.C., as proper to be used +with sacrifice on certain occasions in the agricultural year.[380] It is +here that we meet with the phrase, familiar in another form to all Latin +scholars, on which I wish to lay stress now. It occurs in all the four +forms of prayer which Cato copied down. The first is at the time of the +flowering of the pear-trees, on behalf of the oxen: "Iuppiter dapalis, +quod tibi fieri oportet in domo familia mea culignam vini dapi eius +rei[381] ergo, _macte hac illace dape polucenda esto_." And again, when +the wine is offered: "Iuppiter dapalis, _macte istace dape polucenda +esto. Macte vino inferio esto_." So in the piacular sacrifice when a +clearing is made, the unknown deity is addressed in the last words of +the prayer thus: "harum rerum ergo _macte hoc porco piaculo immolando +esto_." We find this _macte esto_ again in the prayer for the ceremony +of lustratio, at the end of the formula: "_macte hisce suovetaurilibus +lactentibus immolandis esto_." In the rite of the _porca praecidanea_, +to which I have already referred, the instruction for the invocation of +Jupiter runs: "_Fertum_ (_i.e._ a kind of cake) _Iovi obmoveto et +mactato sic, Iuppiter, te hoc ferto_ obmovendo bonas preces precor, uti +sies volens propitius mihi liberisque meis domo familiaeque meae _mactus +hoc ferto_." Janus gets another kind of cake (_strues_) and a +wine-offering, and is addressed in the same way. Then we read, "Iovi +fertum obmoveto _mactatoque item_, ut prius feceris." + +What is the real meaning of this phrase _macte esto_, which must surely +have been in universal use at sacrifices, not only at private rites like +those of Cato, since it came to be used in common speech of +congratulation or felicitation, e.g. _macte virtute esto_?[382] Servius +in commenting on Virgil has made it sufficiently clear. He explains it +as _magis aucte_, and connects it with _magmentum_, increase-offering, +_quasi magis augmentum_, and adds that when the victims had been slain +and their exta placed on the altar, they were said to be _mactatae_. So, +too, in another comment he seems to connect the word with the victim +rather than with the deity. But he is quite clear as to the meaning of +the word, as signifying an increase or addition of some kind; and though +his etymology is wrong, we may be sure that he was right in this +respect, for it is beyond doubt built on a base, _mac_ or _mag_, which +produced _magnus_, _maius_, _maiestas_, and so on. "Macte nova virtute +puer" means "Be thou increased, strengthened in _virtus_"; a fragment of +Lucilius (quoted by Servius) brings this out well, "_Macte inquam +virtute simulque his viribus esto_," and another from Ennius, "Livius +inde redit magno _mactatus_ triumpho."[383] We might almost translate it +in these passages by "glorified"; but it most certainly includes the +meaning of "strengthened" or "increased in might." + +Now in the formulae of Cato we have seen that it is applied to the +deity and not to the victim; this naturally did not occur to Servius, +whose mind was occupied rather with Virgil and the literary use of the +word than with the original use and meaning of the language of prayer. +Undoubtedly he has made a mistake here, which Cato's piety has enabled +us to detect. It was, in fact, the deity whose strength was to be +increased by the offerings; so much at least seems to me to be beyond +doubt. There is, indeed, no certain trace in the ritual, or in Roman +literature, that the gods were supposed to consume the exta, or the +cakes and wine offered them; that primitive notion must have been +excluded from the _ius divinum_. But instead of it we find the more +spiritual idea that by placing on the altar the organs of the life of +the victim, with ancient forms of sacred cake and offerings of wine, the +vitality of the deity, his power to help his worshippers, to make the +corn grow and the cattle bring forth young, to aid the State against +enemies, or what not, was really increased in this semi-mystic way. Let +us remember that the Roman numina were powers constantly at work in +their own sphere; they are the various manifestations of the one Power +as conceived in immediate relation to man and his wants; they are +sometimes addressed in prayer, as we have seen, by additional titles +which suggest their strength and vitality: Virites Quirini, Nerio +Martis, Moles Martis, Maia or Maiestas Volcani. What, then, could be +more natural than that the Roman should call upon his divine +fellow-citizen to accept that which, according to ancient tradition and +practice, will keep up his strength, and at the same time increase his +glory and his goodwill towards his worshippers? This is, then, the idea +which I believe to have been at the root of Roman sacrificial ritual, +and it seems to confirm the dynamic theory of sacrifice recently +propounded by some French anthropologists, _i.e._ that a mystic current +of _religious force_ passed through the victim, from priest to deity, +and perhaps back again.[384] I believe that we have here a transitional +idea of the virtue of sacrifice--an idea that bridges over the gulf +between the crude notion that the gods actually partake of the offering, +and the later more spiritual view that the offering is an honorary gift +"to the glory of God." It seems also to be found in the Vedic religion. +Dr. Farnell writes: "In the Vedic ritual we find a pure and spiritual +form of prayer; yet a certain spell-power may attach even to the highest +types, for we find not infrequently the conception that not only the +power of the worshipper, but the power of the deity also is nourished +and strengthened by prayer, and the prayer itself is usually accompanied +by a potent act (such as that of sacrifice). "May our prayers increase +Agni": "The prayers fill thee with power and strengthen thee, like great +rivers the Sindhu."[385] + +I must now turn to the form and manner of Roman prayers, in order to +gain further light on the question as to the mental attitude of the +worshipper towards the deity invoked. Of late years there has been a +strong tendency to find the origin of prayer in spell; or, in other +words, to discover a bridge between that mental attitude which believes +that a deity can be forced into a certain course of action by magical +formulae, and the humble attitude of the petitioner in prayer, which +assumes that the power of the deity altogether transcends that of his +worshipper. The evidence of Roman prayers is, I think, of considerable +value in dealing with this question; but it needs to be carefully +studied and handled. The general impression conveyed by those who have +written on the subject is that Roman prayers were dull, dry formulae, +which were believed to have a constraining influence on the deity simply +as formulae, if they were repeated with perfect precision the right +number of times. Dr. Westermarck, for example, has no shadow of a doubt +about this; quoting Renan, he says that "in the Roman, as in the +majority of the old Italian cults, prayer is a magic formula, producing +its effect by its own inherent quality." And again, he writes that the +Romans were much more addicted to magic than to religion; "they wanted +to compel the gods rather than to be compelled by them. Their _religio_ +was probably near akin to the Greek [Greek: katadesmos], which meant not +only an ordinary tie, but also a magic tie or knot or a bewitching +thereby."[386] I need not stop to point out the misconception of the +word _religio_ which suggested the whole of this passage; the supposed +derivation from _ligare_ was quite enough to suggest magic to those who +are on the trail of it.[387] Let us go on to examine the prayers +themselves; I think we shall find that though there is much truth in the +common view of them, it is not quite the whole truth. + +The oldest Roman prayers we possess are usually called hymns, because +the Latin word for them was _carmen_, viz. the _Carmen Saliare_, which +is too obscure and fragmentary to be of use to us, and the _Carmen_ of +the Arval Brethren, which is preserved on stone and is quite +intelligible.[388] The word _carmen_, let us notice, was used by the old +Romans for any kind of metrical formula, whether hymn, prayer, or spell. +Pliny, when writing of magic and incantations, plainly includes prayer +among them;[389] and Dr. Jevons has recently pointed out that singing, +and especially singing in a low voice or muttered tones, is a +characteristic of magic not only in Greece and Rome, but in many parts +of the world at the present day.[390] The evidence of the word is thus +strongly in favour of the view that these ancient _carmina_ of Roman +worship were really spells; and the _Carmen Arvalium_ itself does not +contradict it. After an elaborate sacrificial ceremonial the priests, +using a written copy of the _carmen_ (_libellis acceptis_), danced in +triple rhythm (_tripodaverunt_) while they sang it; it consisted of six +clauses, each repeated three times. "_Enos Lases iuvate! Neve luerve +Marmar sins incurrere in pleores! Satur fu fere Mars, limen sali, sta +berber! Semunes alternei advocapit cunctos! Enos Marmar iuvato! +Triumpe!_" With the precise interpretation of these words I am not now +concerned; but they obviously contain invocations to the Lares and Mars, +which may be either petitions or commands, and which perhaps are really +on the borderland between the two; and as thrice repeated, and +accompanied with dancing and gesticulation, they seem certainly to +belong rather to the region of magic than of religion proper. + +It is interesting to compare with this _carmen_ the prayers of the guild +of brethren (_Attiedii_) at Iguvium; these are the best preserved of all +old Italian prayers, and though not Roman, are the product of the same +race. In the lustratio of the _arx_ (_Ocris Fisius_) of Iguvium we find +three several deities invoked, with elaborate sacrificial ritual, at +three gates, and a long prayer addressed to each deity, thrice repeated, +as in the _Carmen Arvale_. It is to be said under the breath (_tacitus +precator totum_, vi. A. 55), which was a common practice also at Rome, +and is believed to be characteristic of the magical spell;[391] and +except in the case of the first prayer, which is addressed to the chief +deity Jupiter Grabovius, it is accompanied by some kind of dancing or +rhythmical movement (_tripodatio_).[392] Thus in outward form this +ritual seems to show but little advance on the Roman prayer of the +Arvales, and indeed it may in substance go back to a time as remote as +that in which the latter had its origin. But when we examine the matter +of the prayer, we find that it is cast in the language of petition +beyond all doubt--if it be rightly interpreted, as we may believe it +is:-- + +"Te invocavi invoco divum Grabovium pro arce Fisia, pro urbe Iguvina, +pro arcis nomine, pro urbis nomine: _volens sis, propitius sis_ arci +Fisiae, urbi Iguvinae, arcis nomini, urbis nomini. Sancte, te invocavi +invoco divum Grabovium. Sancti fiducia te invocavi invoco divum +Grabovium. Dive Grabovie te hoc bove opimo piaculo pro arce Fisia, etc. +Dive Grabovi, illius anni quiquomque in arce Fisia ignis ortus est, in +urbe Iguvina ritus debiti omissi sunt, pro nihilo ducito. Dive Grabovi, +quicquid tui sacrificii vitiatum est, peccatum est, peremptum est, +fraudatum est, demptum est, tui sacrificii visum invisum vitium est, +dive Grabovi, quicquid ius sit, hoc bove opimo piaculo piando.... Dive +Grabovi, piato arcem Fisiam, piato urbem Iguvinam. Dive Grabovi, piato +arcis Fisiae, urbis Iguvinae, nomen, magistratus, ritus, viros, pecora, +fundos, fruges: piato, _esto volens propitius pace tua_ arci Fisiae, +etc. Dive Grabovi, salvam servato arcem Fisiam salvam servato urbem +Iguvinam .... Dive Grabovi, te hoc bove opimo piaculo pro arce Fisia, +pro urbe Iguvina, pro arcis nomine, pro urbis nomine, Dive Grabovi, te +invocavi."[393] + +That in this prayer, and the others which accompany it, exactness of +wording was believed to be essential, as in the ritual which preceded it +exactness of performance, there is no doubt; for at the end of the whole +document (vi. B. 48) we find that if there had been any slip in the +ritual, the Brethren had to go back to the first gate and begin all over +again. There is plainly present the idea, surviving from an age of +magic, that the deities had strong feelings about the right way of +invocation, and would not respond to the performance unless those +feelings were understood and appealed to; that they would miss something +and decline to do their part. Yet are we justified in going on to assume +that they were bound, as by a solemn contract, to perform their part, if +there were no slip in the ritual? I confess it is difficult for me to +take this further step, in view of the language of the prayers, which is +so clearly that of petition, nay, of humble petition. We are not dealing +here with _vota_, to which I shall come in the next lecture, and in +which there is a kind of legal contract between the man and the god--the +former undertaking to do something pleasing to the deity, if the latter +shall have faithfully performed what is asked of him. These _vota_, so +abundant in historical times, are really responsible for the idea that +Roman prayer is simply a binding formula--a magical spell, let us say, +which in the hands of a city priesthood has become a quasi-legal +formula. But these prayers are not _vota_; they do not contain any +language which betrays the notion of binding the deity. They seem to me +to mark a process of transition between the age of spell and magic and +the age of prayer and religion; they retain some of the outward +characteristics of spell, but internally, _i.e._ in the spirit in which +they were intended, they have the real characteristics of prayer.[394] +The numina to whom they were addressed were powerful spirits, unknown, +unfamiliar, until their wishes were discovered by the organised +priesthood which handed down these forms of petition. + +To return to Rome, and to the prayers in Cato's book, to which I +referred just now when discussing the word _macte_. Attempts have been +made to prove that these were originally written in metre;[395] and this +is quite possible. If so, it only means that they retained the outward +form of the primitive spell; it must not lead us on to fancy that the +sacrifice which accompanied the prayer was a magical act, or that the +whole process was believed to compel the deity. No doubt there was +believed to be efficacy in the exact repetition, as is shown by the +directions for piacular sacrifices in case of error of any kind.[396] +But the language is the language of prayer, not of compulsion, nor even +of bargaining: "Eius rei ergo te hoc porco piaculo immolando bonas +preces precor, ut sies volens propitius mihi, domo familiaeque +meis."[397] "Mars pater, te precor quaesoque uti sies volens propitius +mihi, domo," etc.[398] No amount of vain repetition or scruple can +deprive this language of its natural meaning. The god is powerful in his +own sphere of action, and man has no control over him; man is fully +recognised as liable to misfortune unless the god helps him; but he can +worship in full assurance of faith that his prayer will be answered, if +it be such as the authorities of the State have laid down as the right +wording, and if the ritual accompanying it is equally in order. The +faith is, indeed, thus founded upon man's devices rather than the god's +good-will as such; it is a belief in the State and its authorities and +_ius divinum_, which is conceived, not indeed as constraining the deity, +but as calling upon him (_invocare_) to perform his part, in formulae +which he cannot well neglect, simply because it would be unreasonable +to do so, contrary to his nature as a deity of the Roman State and its +_ager_. + +It is obvious in all this sacrificial ritual that the officiating person +or persons were expected to observe the traditional forms with the +utmost care and exactness. Any slip or omission was, in fact, a +_piaculum_, or _sacrum commissum_--terms of the _ius divinum_ which seem +to suggest, if I may use the expression, the obverse side of holiness. +It is now well known that cleanness and uncleanness, holiness and its +opposite, can be expressed in religious vocabulary by the same terms, +for in both cases there is something beyond the ordinary, something +dangerous, uncanny; thus we are not surprised to find that such words as +I have just mentioned can be used to express some kind of impurity +caused by a breach of ritual as well as that ritual itself. If we accept +the latest theory of sacrifice, _i.e._ the dynamic theory, as it is +called, we explain this intense nervousness about a ritualistic flaw as +occasioned by the consciousness of a breach in the current of "religious +force" (the expression is that of Messrs. Hubert and Mauss[399]), which +must pass in regular sequence from the sacrificer through the victim to +the deity, or vice versa. If this is the true explanation--and at +present it may be said to hold the field--then the extreme exactness of +the Roman ritual was a survival from an age when this strange feeling +was a reality; but no more than a survival, for, so far as I can +discover, the Roman idea was rather that the deity to whom the ritual +was addressed was in some way offended by the omission.[400] The dynamic +notion is lost, if it ever were there, and its place has been taken by +one that we may perhaps call theological. But however that may be, the +culprit was regarded as in a state of sin or impurity, "un etre sacre," +and had to get rid of this sin or impurity by another sacrifice before +the whole ritual could be started afresh (_instaurare_). + +According to the "dynamic" theory of sacrifice, we might naturally +expect that the victim, as being destined to carry away the unholiness +(or whatever we choose to call it) of the culprit, would be burnt whole, +not offered to the deity in the form of exta, or eaten by the +sacrificers.[401] But this does not seem to have been the case in the +Roman practice; in all the examples of _piacula_ of which we have +details, the exta are laid on the altar as in the typical +sacrifice.[402] The inference seems to be that the theological idea of +sacrifice had established itself completely ever since the formation of +the _ius divinum_; the victim is not a scapegoat in any sense, but +really an expiatory offering; and not only does the sacrificer yield up +something of value, but he offers it to increase the strength of the +deity as well as to appease his anger. + +A curious point may be noticed in the last place. The practical Roman +mind seems to have invented a kind of sacrificial insurance, by which a +piacular sacrifice might be offered beforehand to atone for any omission +in the ritual which was to follow. Thus the Fratres Arvales, if they had +to take an iron implement into their sacred grove, offered a piaculum +before as well as after this breach of religious rule.[403] Again, the +_porca praecidanea_, which I have already mentioned as offered before +harvest, was an example of the same system of insurance; for the first +cutting of the corn was a sacred rite, and one in which it was easy to +take a false step. Writing of this, Gellius says in general terms that +_hostiae praecidaneae_ are those which are offered the day before +_sacrificia solennia_.[404] + +The term "piacular sacrifice" (_piaculum_) had a wide range of meaning, +apart from the examples here given. With one important form of it I +shall deal in the next lecture:[405] others we shall come across later +on. + + + NOTES TO LECTURE VIII + + [340] See Appendix C. + + [341] Cato, _R.R._ 139, where the language suggests that + as the deity was unknown, the _ius_ of the religious act + was also uncertain, _i.e._ the ritual was not laid down. + De Marchi translates (_La Religione_ _nella vita + domestica_, i. 132) "sia a te fatto il debito + sacrificio," etc., which sufficiently expresses the + anxiety of the situation. Keil reads here "ut tibi ius + _est_," and gives no variant in his critical note; but + the words just below, "uti id recte factum siet," seem + to me to suggest the subjunctive. In any case there is + no doubt about _ius._ In _Tab. Iguv._ vi. A. 28 + (_Umbrica_, p. 58) Buecheler translates the Umbrian + _persei mersei_ by "quicquid ius sit," and compares this + passage of Cato, together with Gellius i. 12. 14, where + the phrase is used of the duties of a Vestal under the + _ius divinum_ in the formula used by the Pontifex + Maximus, _cum virginem capiat_: "Sacerdotem Vestalem, + quae sacra faciat, quae ius siet sacerdotem Vestalem + facere pro pop. Rom." etc. + + [342] _e.g._ _Aen._ iv. 56, x. 31 ("si sine pace tua + atque invito numine," etc.). Cp. _Tab. Iguv._ vi. 30, + 33, etc. (_Umbrica_, p. 59), "esto volens propitiusque + pace tua arci Fisiae." + + [343] Livy vi. 41 _ad fin._ + + [344] Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 318, and p. 319 for the + illustrations that follow. Cp. Cicero, _Part. Or._ xxii. + 78, where _religio_ is explained as "iustitia erga + deos." + + [345] _Lex Coloniae Genetivae_, cap. 64; _C.I.L._ ii., + supplement No. 5439. + + [346] Livy i. 20. 5. + + [347] This follows from the definition in Festus, p. + 321, and in Macrobius iii. 3. 2. This last is quoted + from Trebatius _de religionibus_: "sacrum est quicquid + est quod deorum habetur." In common use _sacrificium_ + seems to be reserved for animal sacrifice, but the verb + _sacrificare_ is not so limited. Festus, p. 319: "mustum + quod Libero sacrificabant pro vineis ... sicut + praemetium de spicis, quas primum messuissent, + sacrificabant Cereri." It has been suggested to me by + Mr. Marett that the termination of the word + _sacrificium_ may have reference to the use of _facere_ + for animal sacrifice, as in Greek [Greek: rhezein, + erdein, dran]; but on the whole I doubt this. _Facere_ + and _fieri_ are in that sense, I think, euphemisms, + occasioned by the mystic character of the act (examples + are collected in Brissonius _de formulis_, p. 9). _Rem + divinam facere_ seems to be the general expression, as + in Cato, _R.R._ 83; or the particular victim is in the + ablative, _e.g. agna Iovi facit_ (Flamen Dialis) in + Varro, _L.L._ vi. 16; cp. Virg. _Ecl._ iii. 77. + + [348] This classification, originally due to R. Smith, + article "Sacrifice" in _Encycl. Brit._, ed. 10, has + lately been criticised by Hubert et Mauss, in _Melanges + d'histoire des religions_, p. 9 foll.; but it is + sufficiently complete for our purposes. At the same time + it is well to be aware that no classification of the + various forms of sacrifice can be complete at present; + that which these authors prefer, _i.e._ constant and + occasional sacrifices, is, however, a useful one. + + [349] _R.F._ p. 95 foll. Cp. Robertson Smith, _Rel. of + Semites_, Lect. VIII. + + [350] _R.F._ p. 217 foll. + + [351] _R.F._ p. 302 foll. Meals in connection with + sacrifice are also found at the Parilia (_R.F._ p. 81, + and Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 743 foll.) and Terminalia (Ovid, + _Fasti_, ii. 657); but in both cases Ovid seems to be + describing rustic rites; nor is it certain that the meal + was really sacramental. What does seem proved is that + the old Latins and other Italians believed the deities + of the house to be present at their meals-- + + ante focos olim scamnis considere longis + mos erat et mensae credere adesse deos (_Fasti_, vi. 307), + + and thus the idea was maintained that in some sense all + meals had a sacred character, _i.e._ all in which the + members of a _familia_ (see above, p. 78), or of _gens_ + or _curia_, met together. Cp. R. Smith, _op. cit._ p. + 261 foll. We may remember that the Penates were the + spirits of the food itself, not merely of the place in + which it was stored; it had therefore a sacred + character, which is also shown by the sanctification of + the firstfruits (_R.F._ pp. 151, 195). (The _cenae + collegiorum_, dinners of collegia of priests, were in no + sense sacrificial meals; see Marquardt, p. 231, note 7; + Henzen, _Acta Fratr. Arv._ pp. 13, 39, 40.) + + [352] Cic. _de Legibus_, ii. 8. 19. + + [353] Livy i. 18. For constitutional difficulties in + this passage, see, _e.g._, Greenidge, _Roman Public + Life_, p. 50. + + [354] For this and the augurs generally, see Lecture + XII. + + [355] The passages are collected by Wissowa, _R.K._ p. + 420, note 3. There is no doubt about the inauguratio of + the three great flamines and the rex sacrorum, who were + all specially concerned with sacrifice, and of the + augurs, who would obviously need it in order to perform + the same ceremony for others--as a bishop needs + consecration for the same reason. As regards the + pontifices, Dionysius (ii. 73. 3) clearly thought it was + needed for them, and we might a priori assume that one + who might become a pontifex maximus would need it; but + Wissowa discounts Dionysius' opinion, and I am unwilling + to differ from him on a point of the _ius divinum_, of + which he is our best exponent. If he is right, it may be + that the three _flamines maiores_, who were reckoned in + strict religious sense as above the pontifices, + including their head (Festus, p. 185), needed "holiness" + more than any pontifex, and so with the augurs. The + insignia of the pontifices, as well as many historical + facts, show that the pontifices were competent to + perform sacrifice in a general sense (Marq. p. 248 + foll.); but it is possible that they never had the + right, like the flamines, actually to slay the victim. I + do not feel sure that the _securis_ was really one of + their symbols, though Horace seems to say so in _Ode_ + iii. 23. 12. The whole question needs further + investigation. It may be found that the essential + distinction between the pontifices and magistrates _cum + imperio_ on the one hand, and the flamines on the other, + is to be sought in the ideas of holiness connected with + the shedding of blood in sacrifice. The flamen is + permanently holy, having charge of constant sacrifices; + _e.g._ the Dialis had duties every day. He is the duly + sanctified guide for all rites within his own religious + range. + + [356] Wissowa, _R.K._ pp. 339, 410 foll. + + [357] The whole subject of the preparation of the + sacrificer for his work, and of the steps by which he + becomes separated from the profane, is well treated by + Hubert et Mauss, _Melanges d'histoire des religions_, p. + 23 foll. The reference to Dr. Jevons is _Introduction_, + ch. xx. p. 270 foll. + + [358] Serv. _Aen._ xii. 173; Virgil wrote "dant fruges + manibus salsas, et tempora ferro Summa notant pecudum"; + to which Servius adds that the symbolic movement was a + (pretended) cut from head to tail of the victim. + Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 352. + + [359] Pauly-Wissowa, _Real-Encycl., s.v._ "cinctus + Gabinus." + + [360] Marquardt, p. 340. The Vestals were never, so far + as we know, directly concerned in animal sacrifice. + + [361] See below, p. 190. For the colour of the garments, + and the explanation referred to, see Samter, + _Familienfeste_, p. 40 foll.; Diels, _Sibyllinische + Blaetter_, p. 70; and cp. von Duhn's paper, "Rot und Tot" + in _Archiv_, 1906, p. 1 foll. That red colouring was + used in various ways in sacred and quasi-sacred rites + there is no doubt (see above, p. 89, note 46); but + whether it can be always connected with bloodshed is by + no means so certain (Rohde, _Psyche_, i. 226). In the + case of women it is at least hard to understand. The + idea of consecration through blood, which is very rare + in Roman literature, comes out curiously in the words + which Livy puts into the mouth of Virginius after the + slaughter of his daughter (iii. 48): "Te Appi tuumque + caput sanguine hoc consecro" (_i.e._ to a deity not + mentioned). The sentence to which this note refers was + written before the appearance of Messrs. Hubert et + Mauss' essay on sacrifice (_Melanges d'histoire des + religions_, pp. 1-122). The theory there developed, that + the victim is the intermediary in all cases between the + sacrificer and the deity, and that the _force + religieuse_ passes from one to the other in one + direction or another, does not essentially differ from + the words in the text; but the French savants would, I + imagine, prefer to look on the insignia in a general + sense as bringing the person wearing them within the + region of the _sacrum_, the force of which would react + on him still more strongly after the destruction of the + victim (see p. 28 foll.). + + [362] See, _e.g._, _Roman Sculpture_ by Mrs. Strong, + Plates xi. and xv. + + [363] For this and other insignia see Marquardt, p. 222 + foll. The question is under discussion whether some of + these insignia are not old Italian forms of dress (see + Gruppe, _Mythologische Literatur_, 1898-1905, p. 343). + For the wearing of the skin of a victim, which meets us + also at the Lupercalia (_R.F._ p. 311), see Robertson + Smith, _Semites_, p. 416 foll.; Jevons, _Introduction_, + p. 252 foll.; Frazer, _G.B._ iii. 136 foll. + + [364] They, of course, wore the _praetexta_ when + performing religious acts. Cp. the Fratres Arvales, who + laid aside the _praetexta_ after sacrificing. Henzen, + _Acta Fr. Arv._ pp. 11, 21, and 28. + + [365] Serv. _Aen._ xi. 543. The _camillae_ assisted the + _flaminicae_, Marquardt, p. 227. This is one of the most + beautiful features of the stately Roman ritual, and has + been handed on to the Roman Church. It was, of course, + derived from the worship of the household (see above, p. + 74). + + [366] _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, p. 413 foll. Dr. Frazer + is criticising Dr. Farnell, who had touched on the + subject in the _Hibbert Journal_ for 1907, p. 689, and + had taken the more obvious view that death in a family + disqualified for actions requiring extreme holiness. + + [367] The passages are collected in Marquardt, p. 174 + foll.; we may notice in particular Livy xlv. 5. 4, + where, though only the washing of hands is referred to, + we have the important statement that "omnis praefatio + sacrorum," _i.e._ the preliminary exhortation of the + priest, enjoined _purae manus_. Livy must be using the + language of Roman ritual, though he is not speaking here + of a Roman rite. For the material of sacred utensils see + Henzen, _Acta Fratr. Arv._ p. 30. + + [368] Tibullus ii. 1. 11. + + [369] Cic. _de Legibus_, ii. 10. 24. + + [370] Westermarck, _Origin and Development of Moral + Ideas_, ii. 352 foll.; consult the index for further + allusions to the subject. Cp. Farnell, _Evolution of + Religion_, Lecture III. [Fehrle, _Die kultische + Keuschheit im Altertum_ (Giessen, 1910), has reached me + too late for use in this chapter.] + + [371] Full details, with the most important references + quoted in full, are in Marquardt, p. 172 foll.; but some + of the latter are applicable only to the Graeco-Roman + period. + + [372] So we may gather from the Lex Furfensis of 58 B.C. + (_C.I.L._ ix. 3513), and that of the Ara Augusti at + Narbo of A.D. 12 (_C.I.L._ xii. 4333). + + [373] The real origin of the pontifices and their name + is unknown to us. If they took their name from the + bridging of the Tiber, as Varro held (_L.L._ v. 83) and + as the majority of scholars believe (see O. Gilbert, + _Rom. Topographie_, ii. 220, note), the difficulty + remains that they are found in such a city as Praeneste, + where there was no river to be bridged, and where they + could not well have been merely an offshoot from the + Roman college; see Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 432, note. Nor can + we explain how they came to be set in charge of the _ius + divinum_; and where there are no data conjecture is + useless. + + [374] The covering of the head (_operto capite_, as + opposed to _aperto capite_ of the _Graecus ritus_) is + usually explained as meant to shut out all sounds + belonging to the world of the _profanum_; and the + playing of the tibicines is interpreted in the same way. + Hubert et Mauss explain the covered head differently: + "le rituel romain prescrivit generalement l'usage du + voile, signe de separation et partant de consecration" + (p. 28). Miss Harrison, _Prolegomena to_ _the Study of + Greek Religion_, p. 522, also holds that it is the + outward sign of consecration; cp. S. Reinach, _Cultes, + mythes, et religions_, i. 300 foll. The fact, noted by + Miss Harrison, that in Festus's account of the _ver + sacrum_ (p. 379, ed. Mueller) the children expelled were + veiled, seems to point to the idea of + dedication--unless, indeed, _velabant_ here means that + they blindfolded them. + + [375] The wine was poured over the altar as well as on + the victim, which suggests a substitution for blood; + Arnobius vii. 29 and 30; Dion. Hal. vii. 72. I cannot + find that any one of the many utensils used in sacrifice + were for pouring out blood. Blood was, however, poured + on the stone at the Terminalia (_R.F._ pp. 325-326); but + the rite here described by Ovid seems to be a rural one, + outside the _ius divinum_. In the sacrifice of victims + to Hecate in Virg. _Aen._ vi. 243 foll., which cannot be + _ritus Romanus_, the warm blood is collected in + _paterae_; but nothing is said of what was done with it, + nor does Servius help. Cp. _Aen._ viii. 106. In + Lucretius v. 1202, "aras sanguine multo spargere + quadrupedum," the context shows that the ritual alluded + to is not old Roman. In Livy's description of the + "occulti paratus sacri" of the Samnites (ix. 41), we + find "_respersae fando nefandoque sanguine arae_, et + dira exsecratio ac furiale carmen." Livy seems to think + of this blood-sprinkling, whether the blood be human or + animal, as unusual and horrible. Ancient, no doubt, is + the practice, recorded in the _Acta Fratr. Arv._ (see + Henzen, pp. 21 and 23), of using the blood in a + religious feast, in the process of cooking: "porcilias + piaculares epulati sunt et sanguem." (There is a mention + of the pouring of blood in an inscription from Lusitania + in _C.I.L._ ii. 2395.) For the use of wine as a + substitute for blood, see the recently published work of + Karl Kircher, "Die sakrale Bedeuting des Weines," in + _Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche, etc._, p. 82 foll., + where, however, the subject is not worked out. + + [376] According to Luebbert (_Commentarii pontificales_, + p. 121 foll.) _magmentum_ is the same as _augmentum_, + which word is also found (Varro, _L.L._ v. 112). Festus, + p. 126, "magmentum magis augmentum"; Serv. _Aen._ iv. + 57, to which passage I shall return. For the equivalent + in the Vedic ritual of the cooking and offering of the + exta, see Hubert et Mauss, _op. cit._ p. 60 foll. + + [377] _R.F._ p. 89. + + [378] _ib._ p. 10. + + [379] Buecheler, _Umbrica_, pp. 60, 69, etc. Of course + the prayer might be said while other operations were + going on. For the constant connection of prayer and + sacrifice, see Pliny, _N.H._ xxviii. 10, "quippe + victimam caedi sine precatione non videtur referre aut + deos rite consuli." If Macrobius is right (iii. 2. 7 + foll.) in asserting that the prayer must be said while + the priest's hand touches the altar, one may guess that + this was done at the same time that the exta were laid + on it. Ovid saw the priest at the Robigalia offer the + exta and say the prayer at the same time (_Fasti_, iv. + 905 foll.), but does not mention the hand touching the + altar. For this see Serv. _Aen._ vi. 124; Horace, _Ode_ + iii. 23. 17, and Dr. Postgate on this passage in + _Classical Review_ for March 1910. + + [380] Cato, _R.R._ 132, 134, 139, and 141. That these + formulae were taken from the books of the pontifices is + almost certain, not only from the internal evidence of + the prayers themselves, but because Servius (Interpol.) + on _Aen._ ix. 641 quotes the words: "macte hoc vino + inferio esto," which occur in 132, introducing them + thus: "et in pontificalibus sacrificantes dicebant + deo...." + + [381] The verb is omitted here for some ritualistic + reason, as in the Iguvian prayers (_Umbrica_, p. 55). + + [382] Virg. _Aen._ ix. 641, "macte nova virtute puer, + sic itur ad astra," etc., and many other passages. The + verb _mactare_ acquired a general sense of sacrificial + slaying, as did also _immolare_, though neither had + originally any direct reference to slaughter. The best + account I find of the word is in H. Nettleship's + _Contributions to Latin Lexicography_, p. 520. He takes + _mactus_ as the participle of a lost verb _maco_ or + _mago_, to make great, increase, equivalent to _augeo_, + which is also a word of semi-religious meaning, as + Augustus knew. Nettleship quotes Cicero _in Vatinium_, + 14, "puerorum extis deos manes mactare." + + [383] Baehrens, _Fragm. Poet. Lat._ 180; Lusilius fragm. + 143; Nonius, 341, 28 has "versibus." + + [384] It may possibly be objected that some of the + deities were powerful for evil as well as good, _e.g._ + Robigus, the spirit of the red mildew, and that the + power of such a deity was not to be encouraged or + increased. But all such deities (and I cannot mention + another besides Robigus) were of course conceived as + able to restrain their own harmful function; they were + not invoked to go away and leave the ager Romanus in + peace, but to limit their activity in the land where + they had been settled for worship. We have no prayer to + Robigus (or Robigo, feminine, as Ovid has it) except + that which Ovid somewhat fancifully versified after + hearing the Flamen Quirinalis say it (_Fasti_, iv. 911 + foll.), in which of course the word _macte_ does not + occur. As the victim was a dog, an uneatable one, it is + possible that the ritual was not quite the usual one. + But the language of the prayer is interesting and brings + out my point: + + aspera Robigo, parcas Cerialibus herbis. + vis tua non levis est;... + parce precor, scabrasque manus a messibus aufer + neve noce cultis: posse nocere sat est. + + It concludes by praying Robigo to direct her strength + and attention to other objects, _gladios et tela + nocentia_; but this is the poet's fancy. + + [385] _Evolution of Religion_, p. 212, quoting _Vedic + Hymns_, pt. ii. pp. 259 and 391. + + [386] _Origin and Development of Moral Ideas_, vol. ii. + p. 585 foll.; cp. 657. See also Farnell, _Evolution of + Religion_, p. 195. + + [387] See above, p. 9. _Religio_ in the sense of an + obligation to perform certain ritualistic acts is in my + view a secondary and later use of the word. See + _Transactions of the Congress of Historical Religion for + 1908_, vol. ii. p. 169 foll. + + [388] Henzen, _Acta Fratr. Arv._ p. 26 foll.; _C.I.L._ + vi. 2104, 32 foll.; Buecheler und Riese, _Carmina Lat._, + epigr. pars ii., no. 1. All surviving Roman prayers are + collected in Appel's _De Romanorum precationibus_, + Giessen, 1909. + + [389] Pliny, _N.H._ xxviii. 10 foll. + + [390] In _Anthropology and the Classics_, p. 94. + + [391] Cp. Tibullus ii. 1. 84, "vos celebrem cantate deum + pecorique vocate, Voce palam pecori, clam sibi quisque + vocet." This murmuring was certainly characteristic of + Roman magic; see Jevons, p. 99, and especially the + reference to a Lex Cornelia, which condemned those "qui + susurris magicis homines occiderunt" (Justinian, _Inst._ + iv. 18. 5). + + [392] On the nature of this _tripodatio_ see Henzen, + _op. cit._ p. 33. Buecheler, _Umbrica_, p. 69, gives the + Umbrian verb a different meaning, though he translates + it _tripodato_. + + [393] Buecheler, _Umbrica_, pp. 13 and 52. + + [394] Wissowa, _R.K._, 333, inclines to the belief that + prayer had a legal binding force upon the deity; but he + does not cite any text which confirms this view, and is + arguing on general grounds. I gather from the language + of Aust (_Religion der Roemer_, p. 30) that he thinks + there was a germ which might have developed into a more + truly religious attitude towards the gods, if it had not + been killed by priestly routine and quasi-legal + formulae. With this opinion I am strongly inclined to + agree. Cp. the story of Scipio Aemilianus audaciously + altering and elevating the formula dictated by the + priest in the censor's lustratio (Val. Max. iv. 1. 10), + to which I shall return in the proper place. + + [395] Westphal, quoted by De Marchi, _La Religione, + etc._, i. p. 133, note. + + [396] See, _e.g._, ch. 141 _ad fin._ The prayer in the + Acta of the Ludi Saeculares to the Moirae is an + imitation of old prayers. See below, p. 442. + + [397] _ib._ ch. 139. + + [398] _ib._ ch. 141. + + [399] Hubert et Mauss, _Melanges d'histoire des + religions_, p. 74. + + [400] So Cato, _R.R._ 141, "si minus in omnes litabit, + sic verba concipito; Mars pater, quod tibi illuc porco + neque satisfactum est, te hoc porco piaculo." (The word + for the slaughter is here euphemistically omitted; De + Marchi, p. 134.) + + [401] Hubert et Mauss, _op. cit._ p. 55 foll.; Leviticus + vi. I doubt whether the theory of the learned authors + will hold good generally on this point. + + [402] Marquardt, p. 185, asserted the contrary, but + cited no evidence except Serv. _Aen._ vi. 253, which + does not prove the practice of the holocaust to be + really Roman. Wissowa's exactness is well illustrated in + his detection of this error; see _R. K._ p. 352, note 6. + Henzen, _Acta Fratr. Arv._ p. 135, leaves no doubt on + the question possible. + + [403] Henzen, _Acta Fratr. Arv._ p. 131. See above, p. + 35. Festus, p. 218. + + [404] Gellius iv. 6. 7. + + [405] _i.e._ lustratio. That this was a form of piaculum + is clear from the use of the word _pihaklu_ of the + victim in the lustratio of the arx of Iguvium, _e.g._ + Buecheler, _Umbrica_, index, 5, v. + + + + +LECTURE IX + +RITUAL--_continued_ + + +In the last lecture we found that the magical element in the Roman +ritual is exaggerated by recent writers. But it has also long been the +practice to describe that ritual as a system of bargaining with the +gods: as partaking of the nature of a legal contract. "The old Roman +worship was businesslike and utilitarian. The gods were partners in a +contract with their worshippers, and the ritual was characterised by the +hard formalism of the legal system of Rome. The worshipper performed his +part to the letter with the scrupulous exactness required in pleadings +before the praetor."[406] This is an excellent statement of a view very +generally held, especially since Mommsen, whose training in Roman law +made him apt to dwell on the legal aspects of Roman life, wrote the +famous chapter in the first volume of his history. I now wish to examine +this view briefly. + +No doubt it was suggested by the necessary familiarity of the Roman +historian with _vota publica_, the vows so frequently made on behalf of +the State by its magistrates, in terms supplied by the pontifices, and +dictated by them to the magistrate undertaking the duty. Some few of +these formulae have survived, and it may certainly be said of them that +they are analogous to legal formulae, and express the quasi-contractual +nature of the process. Such legalised religious contracts seem to be +peculiar to Rome; they are curiously characteristic of the Roman genius +for formularisation, which in course of time had most important effects +in the domain of civil law. But the vow as such is, of course, by no +means peculiar to Rome; it is familiar in Greek history, and is found in +an elementary form among savages at the present day.[407] But at Rome +both in public and private life it is far more frequent and striking +than elsewhere. This is a phenomenon that calls for careful study; and +we must beware that we are not misled by quasi-legal developments into +missing the real significance of it from the point of view of morality +and religion. + +The _vota privata_, which include vows and offerings made to deities by +private individuals, had never been adequately examined till De Marchi +wrote his book on the private religion of the Romans; nor could they +have been so examined until the _Corpus Inscriptionum_ was fairly well +advanced. There the material is extraordinarily abundant, but it is, of +course, almost entirely of comparatively late date, and the great +majority of votive inscriptions belong to the period of the Empire. Yet +it is quite legitimate to argue from this to an origin of this form of +worship in the earliest times, and we have enough early evidence to +justify the inference. Among the oldest Latin inscriptions are some +found on objects such as cups or vases, showing that the latter were +votive offerings to a deity: thus we have _Saeturni poculum, Kerri +poculum_, and other similar ones which will be found at the beginning of +the first volume of the _Corpus_.[408] They give only the name of the +deity as a rule, and do not tell us why the object was offered to him; +but they must have been thank-offerings for some supposed blessing. In +one case, not indeed at Rome, but not far away at Praeneste, we have +proof of this; for a mother makes a dedication to Fortuna _nationu +cratia_, which plainly expresses gratitude for good luck in +childbirth;[409] and this inscription is one of the oldest we possess. +Nor do they tell us whether there was a previous vow or promise of which +the offering is the fulfilment. But in the majority of inscriptions of +late date the familiar letters V.S.L.M. (_votum solvit lubens merito_) +betray the nature of the transaction, and it is not unreasonable to +guess that there was usually a previous undertaking of some kind, to be +carried out if the deity were gracious. + +But these private _vota_ were not, strictly speaking, legal +transactions, supposed to bind both parties in a contract, as we shall +see was to some extent the case with the _vota publica_. They could not +have needed the aid of a pontifex, or a solemn _voti nuncupatio_, _i.e._ +statement of the promise; they were rather, as De Marchi asserts,[410] +spontaneous expressions of what we may call religious feeling; and it +may be that he is right in maintaining that throughout Roman history +they remained as expressions of the religious sense and of the better +feeling of the lower classes. The practice implies three conceptions: +(1) of the deity as really powerful for good and evil; (2) of the gift, +a work of supererogation, as likely to please him; (3) of the grateful +act and feeling as good in themselves. Surely there must have been in +this practice a germ of moral development; I am surprised that Dr. +Westermarck has not mentioned in his chapter on gratitude the +extraordinary abundance of Roman votive offerings and inscriptions. +Doubtless there lies at the root of it the idea of _Do ut des_, or +rather of _Dabo ut des_; doubtless also it could be turned to evil +purposes in the form of _devotio_, when promises were made to a deity on +condition that he killed or injured an enemy; but in the ordinary and +common example it is impossible to deny that the final act, the +performance of the vow, must have been accompanied by a feeling of +gratitude. The merest recognition of a supposed blessing is of value in +moral development. + +But it is in the _vota publica_ that we undoubtedly find something in +the nature of a bargain--covenant would be a more graceful word--with a +deity in the name of the State. Even here, however, the impression is +rather produced by the use of legal terms and the formularisation of the +process, than by any assumed attitude of contempt towards, or even of +equality with, the deity concerned. There is no trace in early Roman +religious history of any tendency to abuse or degrade the divine beings +if they did not perform their part, such as is well known in China,[411] +or even, strange to say, occasionally met with in the southern Italy of +to-day; the attitude towards the deity in cult (though not invariably in +the later Graeco-Roman literature) was ever respectful, as it was +towards the magistrates of the State. The farthest the Romans ever went +in condemning their gods was when misfortune persuaded them that they +were become indifferent or useless; then they began to neglect them, and +to turn to other gods, as we shall see in subsequent lectures. + +The public _vota_ were of two kinds: the ordinary, or regularly +recurring, and the extraordinary, which were occasioned by some +particular event. Of the ordinary, the most familiar is that undertaken +by the consul, and no doubt in some form by the Rex in the days of the +kingship, for the benefit of the State on the first day of the official +year. Accompanied by the Senate and a crowd of people, the consuls went +up to the Capitoline temple, and performed the sacrifice which had been +vowed by their predecessors of a year before; after which they undertook +a new _votum_, "_pro reipublicae salute_."[412] We have not the formula +of this vow, and cannot tell what resemblance it bore to a bargain; but +the ceremony itself must have been most impressive, and calculated to +remind all who were present of the greatness and goodwill of the supreme +deity who watched over the interests of the State. So too at the +_lustrum_ of the censors, which took place in the Campus Martius every +five years, it is almost certain that the _votum_ of the predecessors in +office was fulfilled by a sacrifice, and a new one undertaken. Here +again we are without the formula, but that there was one we know from a +very interesting passage of Valerius Maximus. He tells us that Scipio +Aemilianus, when as censor he was conducting this sacrifice, and the +_scriba_ (on behalf of the pontifex?) was dictating to him the _solemne +precationis carmen ex publicis tabulis_, in which the immortal gods were +besought to make the prosperity of the Roman State "better and +greater," had the audacity to interrupt him, saying that the condition +of the State was sufficiently good and great: "itaque precor ut eas +(res) perpetuo incolumes servent." This change, Valerius says, was +accepted, and the formula altered accordingly in the _tabulae_.[413] +This story, which is probably genuine and is quite characteristic of +Scipio, must convince an impartial mind that in this votive ceremony +there was enough truth and dignity to suggest a real advance in +religious thought, so far at least as the State was concerned. + +The extraordinary _vota_ were innumerable. They were occasioned by +dangers or misfortunes of various kinds, the magistrate undertaking to +dedicate something to the god concerned if the State should have come +safely through the peril. Many temples had their origin in this +practice;[414] we meet also with _ludi_, special sacrifices, or a tithe +of the booty taken in war. In two or three cases Livy has copied the +formula from the _tabulae_ of the pontifices; thus before the war with +Antiochus in 191 B.C., the consul recited the following words after the +pontifex maximus: "Si duellum quod cum Antiocho rege sumi populus +iussit, id ex sententia senatus populique Romani confectum erit; tum +tibi Iuppiter populus Romanus ludos magnos dies decem continuos faciet +... quisquis magistratus eos ludos quando ubique faxit, hi ludi recte +facti, donaque data recte sunto."[415] This document dates from the days +of the decay of the Roman religion, and is, of course, modernised by +Livy; but it may give an idea of what is meant by writers who speak of +an element of bargain or covenant in these _vota_. Still more elaborate, +and probably more antique, is the famous formula of the vow of the _ver +sacrum_ in the darkest hour of the war with Hannibal.[416] This very +curious rite, which proves beyond question the devotion of the Italian +stocks to the principle of the _votum_, consisted of a promise to +dedicate to Mars or Jupiter all the valuable products of a single +spring, including the male children born at that time; to this the +Romans had recourse for the last time in 217 B.C., and Livy has +fortunately preserved the words of the vow. These, with the exception of +the dedication of the children, which is judiciously omitted, probably +stand much as they had come down from a remote antiquity. The _votum_ is +put in the form of a _rogatio_ to the people, without whose sanction it +could not be put in force; are they willing to dedicate to Jupiter all +the young of oxen, sheep, or pigs born in the spring five years after +date, if the State shall have been preserved during those years from all +its enemies? The curious feature of the document is, not that it binds +the deity to any course of action, but that it secures the individual +Roman against his anger in case of any chance slip in his part of the +process, and the people against any evil consequences arising from such +a slip or from misdoing on the part of an individual. "Si quis clepsit, +ne populo scelus esto neve cui cleptum erit: si atro die faxit insciens, +probe factum esto."[417] Of this formula a recent writer of great +learning and ability has written thus: "The well-known liturgical +archive containing Rome's address to Jupiter in the critical days of the +Hannibalic war is a wary and cleverly drawn legal document, intended to +bind the god as well as the State."[418] He is no exception to the rule +that those who have not habitually occupied themselves with the Roman +religion are liable to misinterpret its details. This is not an address +to Jupiter, nor is there any sign in it that the god was considered as +bound to perform his part as in a contract; the covenant is a one-sided +one, the people undertaking an act of self-renunciation if the god be +gracious to them, and thereby going far to assure themselves that he +will so be gracious. And the legal cast of the language, which seems so +apt to mislead the unwary,[419] is only to be found in the clauses which +guarantee the people against the contingency of the whole vow being +ruined by the inadvertence or the rascality of an individual; surely a +very natural and inevitable _caveat_, where for once the whole people, +and not only their priests or magistrates, were concerned in the +transaction. + +A curious form of the _votum_, which, however, I can only mention in +passing, is that addressed to the gods of a hostile city, with a view to +induce them to desert their temples and take up their abode at Rome; +this is the process called _evocatio_, which was successfully applied at +the siege of Veii, when Juno Regina consented to betray her city.[420] +Macrobius, commenting on Virgil's lines (_Aen._ ii. 351), + + excessere omnes adytis arisque relictis + di quibus imperium hoc steterat, + +has preserved the _carmen_ used at the siege of Carthage.[421] It is +cast in the language of prayer: "Si deus si dea est cui populus +civitasque Carthaginiensis est in tutela ... precor venerorque veniamque +a vobis peto ut vos populum civitatemque Carthaginiensem deseratis," +etc.; but it ends with a vow to build temples and establish _ludi_ in +honour of these deities if they should comply with the petition. It is +worth noting here that it was, of course, impossible to make a bargain +with strange or hostile gods, or in any way to force their hand; the +promise is entirely one-sided; and I am inclined to think that in +dealing with his own gods the mental attitude of the Roman was much the +same, though his faith in them was undoubtedly greater. + +This is the proper place to mention another very curious rite, closely +allied to the _votum_, but differing from it in one or two important +points, which is almost peculiar to the Romans and most characteristic +of them; I mean the _devotio_ of himself on the field of battle by a +magistrate _cum imperio_.[422] The famous example, familiar to us all, +is that of Decius Mus at the battle of Vesuvius in the great Latin +war[423] (340 B.C.): the same story is told of his son in a war with +Gauls and Samnites, and of his grandson in the war with Pyrrhus.[424] +The historical difficulties of these accounts do not concern us now; by +common consent of scholars the method and formula of the _devotio_ are +authentic, and the rite must have had its origin in remote antiquity. + +The story runs[425] that Decius, at whose preliminary sacrifice before +the battle with the Latins the liver of the victim had been found +imperfect, while that of his colleague was normal, perceived that his +wing of the army was giving way. He therefore resolved to sacrifice +himself by _devotio_, and called on the pontifex maximus, who was +present, to dictate for him the correct formula. He was directed to put +on the toga praetexta, to wear it with the cinctus Gabinus, to veil his +head with it, to touch his chin with his hand under the folds of the +robe, and to stand upon a spear. He then repeated after the pontifex the +following formula: "Iane, Iuppiter, Mars pater, Quirine, Bellona, Lares, +divi Novensiles, di Indigetes, divi quorum est potestas nostrorum +hostiumque, diique Manes, vos precor, veneror, veniam peto feroque, uti +populo Romano Quiritium vim victoriamque prosperetis, hostesque populi +Romani Quiritium terrore formidine morteque adficiatis. Sicut verbis +nuncupavi, ita pro re publica Quiritium, exercitu legionibus auxiliis +populi Romani Quiritium, legiones auxiliaque hostium _mecum_ deis +Manibus Tellurique devoveo" (Livy ix. 9). He then mounted his horse and +rode into the midst of the enemy to meet his death. The Latins were +seized with panic and the Romans were victorious. + +Here the vow is made and fulfilled almost at the same moment,--_the +fulfilment takes place before the gods have done their part_. Here too +the offering made is the life of a human being which brings the act +within the domain of sacrifice. Its sacrificial nature is obvious in all +the details.[426] The dress is that of the sacrificing priest or +magistrate;[427] Decius was therefore priest and victim at the same +time, and the two characters seem to be combined in the symbolic +touching of the chin, which has been rightly explained,[428] I think, as +analogous to the laying on of hands in the consecratio of the Rex, as we +saw it in the case of Numa, and perhaps to the _immolatio_ of a victim +by sprinkling the _mola salsa_ on its head; where the object of +consecration is made holy by contact with holy things.[429] The +standing on the spear is difficult to explain; it may have been a +symbolic dedication to Mars, whose spear or spears, as we have seen, +were kept in the Regia.[430] + +The formula contains certain points of great interest. Firstly, it is +not only the Roman gods of all sorts and conditions who are invoked, but +those of the enemy also, or, in vague language, those who have power +over both Romans and Latins.[431] Secondly, it begins with a prayer +combined with a curse upon the enemy: in which respect it resembles the +prayer at the _lustratio populi_ at Iguvium[432] (which I shall mention +again directly) and to a later type of _devotio_ used at the siege of +Carthage and preserved by Macrobius.[433] Thirdly, in spite of this +religious aspect of the formula, it ends with what can only be called a +magical spell. By the act of self-sacrifice, which is the potent element +in the spell, Decius exercises magical power over the legions of the +enemy, and devotes them with himself to death,--to the Manes and Mother +Earth.[434] + +The story suggests to me that the rite had been at one time well known; +the pontifex maximus was ready with the instructions and formula. It was +a survival from an age of magic, but the priests have given it a +religious turn, and the language of the first part is quite as much that +of prayer as is the language of the collect to be said in time of war +which still disfigures the Anglican prayer-book.[435] What is still more +remarkable is that it has not only a religious but an ethical character. +The idea of service to the State is here seen at its highest point. The +sacrifice is a vicarious one.[436] Livy significantly adds that a +private soldier might be chosen by the commander to represent him, and +that if this man were not killed by the enemy an image seven feet long +must be buried in the earth and a piacular sacrifice offered.[437] Later +on it would seem that instead of sacrificing himself, the consul might +implore the gods to accept the hostile army or city as his substitutes: +"eos _vicarios_ pro me fide magistratuque meo pro populi Romani +exercitibus do devoveo, ut me exercitumque nostrum ... bene salvos +siritis esse."[438] The idea here, and indeed in the _devotio_ of +Decius, bears some analogy to that which lies at the root of the old +Roman practice, of making a criminal _sacer_ to the deity chiefly +concerned in his crime; when this was done, any man might kill him, and +he was practically a victim offered as _vicarius_ for the Roman people, +who had been contaminated by his deed.[439] + + +But I must now pass on the last kind of ritual to be explained in these +lectures, and far the most impressive of all, that of _lustratio_, or +the purification, as it is commonly called, of land, city, human beings, +or even inanimate objects, by means of a solemn procession accompanied +with sacrifice. + +So important a part did these processional rites play in the public life +of the Roman people,--so characteristic are they too of the old Roman +habit of thought and action, that they have given a wonderful word to +the Latin language. _Lustrare_ has many meanings; but the one which is +immediately derived from the rites I speak of, that of slow processional +movement, is the most beautiful and impressive of them all. When Aeneas +first sees Dido in all her stately beauty, he says:[440] + + in freta dum fluvii current, _dum montibus umbrae + lustrabunt convexa_, polus dum sidera pascet, + semper honos nomenque tuum laudesque manebunt, + quae me cunque vocant terrae. + +"So long as the cloud-shadows move slowly over the hollows of the +hills." Here in Scotland you must have all seen this procession of the +shadows, as I have watched it when fishing in Wales; let us always +associate it with the magic of a poet of nature as well as with the +religious processions of his people. + +_Lustrare_, _lustratio_, are words which, as I think, belong to an age +of religion, that is, according to our formula, of effective desire to +be in right relation with the Power manifesting itself in the Universe. +In other processes which are usually called purificatory, magic seems to +survive: the word _februum_, from which comes the name of our second +month, meant an object with magical potency, such as water, fire, +sulphur, laurel, wool, or the strips of the victims sacrificed at the +Lupercalia, and the verb _februare_ meant to get rid of certain +unwholesome or miasmatic influences by means of these objects.[441] What +was the really primitive idea attached to these words need not concern +us now; but Varro, and Ovid following him, explicitly explain them as +meaning _purifying_ agents and processes,[442] from which we may infer +that they had a magical power to produce certain desired conditions, or +to protect from evil influences, like charms and amulets. But _lustrare_ +and _lustratio_ seem to belong to an age when the thing to be driven or +kept away is rather spiritual mischief, and when the means used are +sacrifices and prayers, with processional movement. + +What is the original meaning of the word _lustrare_? It seems to be a +strong form of _luere_; and _luere_ is explained by Varro as equivalent +to _solvere_.[443] The word _lustrum_, he says, _i.e._ the solemn +five-yearly ceremony in the Campus Martius, is derived from _luere_ in +the sense of _solvere_, to pay; because every fifth year the +contract-moneys for the collection of taxes and for public undertakings +were paid into the treasury through the censors. Servius,[444] doubtless +following him, explains such expressions as _peccata luere_, _supplicium +luere_, on the same principle--in the sense of payment, just as we speak +of paying the penalty. We might thus be tempted to fancy that the +root-idea of _lustrare_ is to perform a duty and so get rid of it, as we +do in paying for anything we buy; but this would be to misapprehend the +original meaning of the word as completely as Varro did when he +explained _luere_ by reference to the payments of contractors. Varro +and Servius do, however, suggest the right clue; they see that the idea +lurking in the word is that of getting rid of something, but they +understand that something in the light, not of primitive man's +intelligence, but of the duty of man in a civilised State. What exactly +it was that was to be got rid of is a more difficult question; but all +that we have so far learnt about the early religious ideas of the Romans +strongly suggests that they were in what we may call an advanced +_animistic_ stage of religious ideas, and that whatever may have been +the notion of their primitive ancestors, they themselves, in these rites +as we know them, saw the means of getting rid of and so keeping away +hostile spirits. A French sociologist, M. van Gennep, whose book _Les +Rites de passage_ I have read with great interest, has kindly written me +a long letter in which he insists that this animistic interpretation of +_lustratio_ is really superfluous, and that the idea of separation +alone, _i.e._ of separation between sacred and profane, without any +reference to spirits or _dei_, is a fully sufficient explanation. So no +doubt it may be among many savage peoples; but he would probably allow +that as a people advances from one stage of superstition to another, +while it retains in outline the scheme of its rites, it will apply new +meanings to them in keeping with the changes in its mental attitude. +This is one of the most interesting processes with which modern research +has been occupied; we are now familiar with the adoption of +pre-Christian ceremonies, with a complete change of meaning, in the +ritual of the Christian Church. These very processions of _lustratio_, +which had already been once metamorphosed in an animistic period, were +seized upon by the Roman Church with characteristic adroitness, adapted +to its ritual, and given a new meaning; and the Catholic priest still +leads his flock round the fields with the prayers of the _Litania maior_ +in Rogation week, begging a blessing on the flocks and herds, and +deprecating the anger of the Almighty.[445] + +But let us now pass briefly in review the more important of these rites +of lustration and compare them with each other; we shall find the +essential features the same in all of them. + +The first permanent difficulty of new settlers in Latium was to mark off +their cultivated land from the forest or waste land beyond it, and so, +as M. van Gennep would phrase it,[446] to make a margin of separation +between the sacred and the profane, within which the sacred processes of +domestic life and husbandry might go forward, undisturbed by +dangers--human, spiritual, or what not--coming from the profane world +without. The boundary was marked out in some material way, perhaps by +stones (_cippi_) or posts, placed at intervals;[447] and thus "a fixed +piece of ground is appropriated by a particular social group, so that if +any stranger penetrated it he would be committing a sacrilege as +complete as he would if he trespassed in a sacred grove or a temple." +This boundary-line was made sacred itself by the passage round it +(_lustratio_) at some fixed time of the year, usually in May, when crops +were ripening and especially liable to be attacked by hostile +influences, of a procession occupied with sacrifice and prayer. The two +main features of the rite, as formulated by Cato in his treatise on +agriculture, are--1, the procession of the victims, ox, sheep, and pig +(_suovetaurilia_), the farmer's most valuable property; 2, the prayer to +Mars pater, after libations to Janus and Jupiter, asking for his kindly +protection of the whole _familia_ of the farm, together with the crops +of all kinds and the cattle within the boundary-line.[448] We are not +expressly told that this procession followed the boundary throughout, +but the analogy of other lustrations forbids us to doubt it; and thus +the rite served the practical purpose of keeping it clear in the +memory,--a matter of the utmost importance, especially for the practical +Roman. In Cato's formula the farmer's object is to ward off disease, +calamity, dearth, and infertility; and it is Mars who is invoked, _i.e._ +a great god who has long ago emerged from the crowd of impersonal +spirits; but we may safely believe that the primitive farmer used other +language, addressing the spirits of disease and dearth themselves; and +we may guess, if we will, that again before that there was no invocation +or sacrifice at all, but that the object was only to mark the boundary +between land civilised and sacred and land uncivilised and profane. + +As we have seen, the farms and homesteads of the early Latins were +grouped together in associations called _pagi_; and we can hardly doubt +that these were subjected to the same process of _lustratio_ as the +farms themselves. We have no explicit account of a circumambulation in +this case, but we have in the later poets several charming allusions to +a _lustratio pagi_, and it is of a rite of this kind that Virgil must +have been thinking when he wrote the beautiful passage in the first +Georgic beginning "In primis venerare deos";[449] and the lines + + terque novas circum felix eat hostia fruges, + omnis quam chorus et socii comitentur ovantes, etc., + +clearly imply a procession with the object of keeping away harmful +influences from the crops at a critical time. And when the city-state +came into being we may be equally sure that its _ager_, so long at least +as it was small enough to admit of such a processional ritual, was +lustrated in the same way. In historical times this _ager_ had become +too extensive, and there is no procession to be found among the duties +of the Fratres Arvales as we know them when they were revived by +Augustus; but we have not, of course, the whole of the "acta" of the +Brethren, and even if we had, it would not be likely that we should find +any trace of a practice which must have been dropped in course of time +as the Roman territory increased. Let us go on to the beginnings of the +city, where we shall find the same principle and practice applied in +striking fashion. + +As it was necessary to protect the homestead and its land by a sacred +boundary, so the city had to be clearly marked off from all that was +outside of it. Its walls were sacred, or, strictly speaking, a certain +imaginary line outside of them called the _pomoerium_ was sacred. This +is well shown in the traditional method of founding a city even in +historical times, _e.g._ a _colonia_, as described by Varro, Servius, +and Plutarch.[450] A white ox and a white cow were harnessed to a +plough, of which the share must be made of bronze--a rule which shows at +once the antiquity and the religious character of the rite, for iron, as +we saw, was taboo in most religious ceremonies. A rectangular furrow was +drawn where the walls of the city were to be; the earth was turned +inwards to mark the future line of the wall, and the furrow represented +the future _pomoerium_. When the plough came to the place where there +was to be a gate, it was lifted over it, and the ploughing resumed +beyond it. This probably meant, as Plutarch expressed it, that the walls +(or rather the _pomoerium_), were sacred while the gates were profane; +had the gates been holy, scruple would necessarily have been felt about +the passage in and out of them of things profane. Thus the _pomoerium_ +was a boundary line between the sacred and the profane, like that of the +farm; but in historical times it acquired a more definite religious +meaning, for within it there could only dwell those deities who belonged +to the city and its inhabitants, _i.e._ the _di indigetes_, and who were +recognised as its divine inhabitants.[451] And only within its limits +could the _auspicia_ of the city be taken. + +We should naturally expect that this sacred boundary would have its +holiness secured or revived by an annual _lustratio_ like that of the +farm and _pagus_; and so no doubt it was. But the memory of this +survives only in the word _amburbium_, which, on the analogy of +_ambarvalia_, must mean a rite of this processional kind. Luckily we +have definite knowledge of the real _lustratio_ of a city in those +ritualistic inscriptions of Iguvium which I have more than once referred +to.[452] It is the _lustratio_ of the _arx_, the citadel of Iguvium, +which we may guess to have been the original _oppidum_ or germ of the +historical city. The details are complex, and show clear traces of +priestly organisation; but the main features stand out unmistakably. A +procession goes round the _arx_ (_ocris Fisia_), with the +_suovetaurilia_--ox, sheep, and pig--as in the Latin _lustratio_; at +each gate it stops, while sacrifice and prayer are offered on behalf of +the citadel, the city, and the whole people of Iguvium. There were three +gates, and each of them is the scene of sacrifice and prayer, because +they are the weak points in the wall, and they need to be strengthened +by annual religious operations; such at least is the most obvious +explanation. Whether the Fratres Attiedii would have been able to +explain it thus we may doubt; neither in the sacrificial ritual nor in +the prayers, as recorded in the inscription, do we find any clear trace +of a distinction between the sacred and the profane, or of the idea of a +hostile spiritual world outside the sacred boundary. So far as we can +judge from the prayers, the object is really a religious one, to implore +the deities of the city to preserve it and all within it. The language +of these prayers hardly differs from that in which a Christian Church of +to-day asks for a blessing on a community.[453] + +So far I have been speaking of the permanent separation of land or city +by a sacred boundary line from the profane world without. But human +beings _en masse_ might be subjected to the same process--an army, for +example, at the opening of the season of war; and so, too, might its +appurtenances--horses, arms, and trumpets. In the account of the census +and _lustrum_ in the Campus Martius given by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, +who passed some years in Rome in the time of Augustus, we find the +_suovetaurilia_ driven three times round the assembled host and +sacrificed to Mars. This was doubtless the early form of the political +census, which had a military meaning and origin. But we have a more +exact and reliable account of a similar rite in the Iguvian documents, +which contain instructions for the _lustratio_ of the people apparently +before a campaign.[454] So far as we can gather from the Umbrian text, +the male population was assembled in a particular spot in its military +divisions, and round this host a procession went three times; at the end +of each circuit there was sacrifice and prayer to Mars and two female +associates of his power, the object of which, as we can read in the +words of the prayer, was to bless the people of Iguvium and to curse its +enemies, who were to be confounded and frightened and paralysed. + +Here religion of a rude sort has been superimposed on the originally +magical ceremonial. For the idea must have been that by drawing a "magic +circle" around the host, which might have to march against enemies +living far beyond the pale of the _ager Romanus_ (or Iguvinus), where +hostile magical influences might be brought to bear against them, they +were in some mysterious way marked off, rendered "holy," and so +protected against the wiles of the enemy. A later and animistic age +would think of them as needing protection against hostile spirits, of +whose ways and freaks they were of course entirely ignorant. Of these +primitive ideas about the danger of entering hostile territory and of +leaving your own, Dr. Frazer has collected some examples in his _Golden +Bough_ (i. 304 foll.), both from savage tribes and from Greek usage. A +single parallel from the pen of a Roman historian, which Dr. Frazer has +not mentioned, may suffice us here. Livy tells us that the method in +Macedonia was to march the whole host in spring between the severed +limbs of a dog:[455] the principle is here the same as in Italy, but the +method differs slightly. In each case some mysterious influence is +brought to bear on the whole army without exception; but in the one case +a line is drawn round it, in the other it passes through the parts of an +object which must have been supposed to be endowed with magical power. + +And once more, in spring before the season of arms, all the belongings +of the host were subjected to some process of the same kind. I have +alluded to this in my lecture on the calendar, and need not now +reproduce the evidence of the Equirria at the end of February and on +March 14, or of the Quinquatrus on March 19, when the _lustratio_ took +place of the shields (_ancilia_) of the Salii, the war-priests of Mars, +and the Tubilustrium on March 23, which tells its own tale.[456] But I +may recall the fact that the calendar supplies us also with evidence +that on the return of the host to their own territory all these +lustrations had to be repeated in order to rid men, horses, arms, and +trumpets of such evil contagion as they might have contracted during +their absence. It may be that one special object of lustration after the +return of an army was to rid it, with all belonging to it, of the taint +of bloodshed, just as the Jewish warriors and their captives were +purified before re-entering the camp.[457] But in the Roman pontifical +law this idea is hardly discernible, and the only trace I can find of it +is a statement of Festus that the soldiers who followed the general's +car in a triumph wore laurel wreaths "ut quasi purgati a caede humana +intrarent urbem."[458] I may add here that the passage of a triumphing +army through the Porta triumphalis, which was probably an isolated arch +in the Campus Martius just outside the city wall,[459] most likely had +as its original meaning the separation of the host from the profane +world in which it had been moving; and the triumphal arches of later +times, which were within the city, were thus developed architecturally +from an origin which belongs to the region of magic.[460] To the same +class of ideas, if I am not much mistaken, belongs the familiar Italian +practice of compelling a surrendered army to pass under the yoke. As +Livy explains this when he first mentions it, it was symbolical of +subjection: "ut exprimatur confessio subactam domitamque esse +gentem";[461] and this was no doubt the idea in the minds of the +historical Romans. But it may well have been that it had its root in a +process which was supposed to deprive the conquered enemy of all +dangerous contagion--to separate them from their own land and people +before they came into peaceful contact with their conquerors. + +A last word before I leave this part of my subject. Though it is +interesting to try to get at the root-idea of these processes of +_lustratio_, we must remember that in the Rome of history they had lost +not only such magical meaning as they ever had, but also much of the +religious meaning which in course of time was superimposed upon it. The +sacrifices and the prayers remained, but the latter were muttered and +unheard by the people. And except in the country districts these +ceremonies were more and more absorbed, as time went on, into the +social, military, and political life of the community, as _e.g._ the +lustration of the host became a political census; or they tended to +disappear altogether, like the _ambarvalia_ and perhaps the _amburbium_. +They grew up in the religious experience of the Romans, beginning with +its very earliest and quasi-magical forms; but they came at last to +represent that experience no longer, and when we meet with them in +historical times it is impossible to ascribe to them any real influence +on life and conduct. _Lustratio_ never in pagan Italy developed an +ethical meaning as _catharsis_ did in Greece.[462] But meaningless as +they were, the stately processions remained, and could be watched with +pride by the patriotic Roman all through the period of the Empire, until +the Roman Church adapted them to its own ritual and gave them, as we +saw, a new meaning. As the cloud-shadows still move slowly over the +hollows of the Apennines, so does the procession of the patron saint +pass still through the streets of many an Italian city.[463] + + + NOTES TO LECTURE IX + + [406] Dill, _Roman Society in the Last Century of the + Western Empire_, p. 63. + + [407] See Westermarck, _Origin and Development of Moral + Ideas_, ii. 615 foll. + + [408] _C.I.L._ i. Nos. 43 foll. + + [409] _C.I.L._ xiv. 2863. See _R.F._ p. 224, and + Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 209. + + [410] _Op. cit._ vol. i. p. 252; cp. 271. + + [411] See Sir Alfred Lyall's _Asiatic Studies_, Series + I. ch. vi. No one would call the vow of Aeneas, in + _Aen._ vi. 69, a bargain with Apollo and the Sibyl. + + [412] Marquardt, p. 266; Mommsen, _Staatsrecht_, i.^2 + 594 foll. The ceremony is best described by Ovid, _Ex + Ponto_, iv. 9. 5 foll. He is addressing the consul of + the year from his place of exile: + + at cum Tarpeias esses deductus in arces, + dum caderet iussu victima sacra tuo, + me quoque secreto grates sibi magnus agentem + audisset media qui sedet aede deus. + (II. 28 foll.) + + [413] Valerius Maximus iv. 1. 10. + + [414] A list of these is given in Aust, _De aedibus + sacris populi Romani_ (Marpurg, 1889). A valuable work, + which will be of service to us later on. + + [415] Livy xxxvi. 2. 3. + + [416] _Ib._ xxii. 10. + + [417] _Ib._ sec. 6. The meaning is that if any one has + stolen an animal which was intended to be dedicated, no + blame attaches to the person so robbed; and that if a + man performs his dedication on a day of ill omen + unwittingly, it will hold good none the less. + + [418] Farnell, _Evolution of Religion_, p. 195. + + [419] The fact that words like _reus_ and _damnatus_ + were applied respectively to persons who had made a vow + and to those who had performed it, _i.e._ as being + liable like a defendant, and then released from that + position by a verdict or sentence (see Wissowa, _R.K._ + p. 320), is of course significant of the idea of the + transaction in the mind of the Roman, who, as Macrobius + says (iii. 2. 6) _se numinibus obligat_, as an accused + person is _obligatus_ to the authorities of the State + (Mommsen, _Strafrecht_, 189 foll.). It is the natural + tendency of the Roman mind to give all transactions a + legal sanction; but it does not thence follow that the + original idea was really thought of as a contract, and + we have only to reflect that the final act was a + thank-offering to see the difference between the civil + and the religious process. + + [420] Livy v. 21. + + [421] Macr. iii. 9, 6. He says that he found it in the + fifth book of _Res reconditae_ by one Sammonicus + Serenus, and that the latter had himself found it "in + cuiusdam Furii vetustissimo libro." + + [422] On this subject see article "Devotio" in + Pauly-Wissowa. + + [423] Livy viii. 10, "licere consuli dictatori + praetori...." Cp. Cic. _de Nat. deorum_, ii. 10, "at + vero apud maiores tanta religionis vis fuit, ut quidam + imperatores etiam se ipsos dis immortalibus capite + velato certis verbis pro republica devoverent." + + [424] See Muenzer's article "Decii" in Pauly-Wissowa, + _Real-Encycl._; Soltau, _Die Anfaenge der roem. + Geschichtschreibung_, p. 48 foll. + + [425] Livy viii. 9 foll.; Dio Cassius, fragment, xxxv. + 6; Ennius, _Ann._ vi. 147, Baehrens. The latter fragment + is the oldest reference to the event which we possess, + and just sufficient to confirm Livy's account: "Divi hoc + audite parumper, ut pro Romano populo prognariter armis + certando prudens animum de corpore mitto." + + [426] It is worth remarking that the sacrificial aspect + struck St. Augustine. In _Civ. Dei_, v. 18, he writes: + "Si se occidendos certis verbis quodam modo consecrantes + Decii devoverunt, ut illis cadentibus et iram deorum + sanguine suo placantibus Romanus liberaretur exercitus," + and goes on to compare the Decii with Christian martyrs. + I am indebted for this reference to Mayor's note on + Cicero, _de Nat. deor._ ii. 3. 10. + + [427] See above, p. 176; Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 352, note 1. + + [428] By Deubner in _Archiv_, 1905, p. 69 foll. This + touching of the chin seems to be an example of that + personal contact which makes a man or thing holy; see, + _e.g._, Westermarck, _op. cit._ i. 586. Decius makes + himself holy for the sacrifice (as victim) by touching + (as priest) the only part of his person which was + exposed. For the magic touch of the hand see O. + Weinrich, _Antike Heiligungswuender_, p. 63 foll., and + Macrobius iii. 2. 7, for the touching of the altar by a + sacrificing priest. + + [429] See above, p. 180. + + [430] This is Deubner's explanation, which he elaborates + at length by examples of the worship of the spear or + sword among various peoples. + + [431] This is peculiar to the formula in Livy viii. 9. + Is it possible that it may have some reference to the + fact that the Romans were fighting their own kin, the + Latins? + + [432] Buecheler, _Umbrica_, pp. 22 and 102: "hastatos + inhastatos completo timore tremore, fuga formidine, nive + nimbo, fragore furore, senio servitio," where, however, + the translator from the Umbrian is assisted by the Latin + formulae we are discussing. + + [433] Macrobius iii. 9. 10, "exercitum quem ego me + sentio dicere fuga formidine terrore compleatis," etc. + This is of comparatively late origin, as it is addressed + to Dis pater, who only became a Roman deity in 249 B.C. + (Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 257). The interesting feature in + this _devotio_, used at the siege at Carthage, is that + it is not himself whom the commander devotes--the common + sense of the Romans had got beyond that--but the enemy + as substitutes for himself. "Eos vicarios pro me fide + magistratuque meo pro populo Romano exercitibus do + devoveo, ut me meamque fidem imperiumque legiones + exercitumque nostrum bene salvos siritis esse." Thus the + enemy is made the victim, and this is why the only gods + invoked are the Di Inferi, Dis pater, Veiovis, Manes, + while in the older formula it is the gods of Romans and + Latins. Pacuvius in a praetextata called _Decius_ wrote: + "Lue patrium hostili fusum sanguen sanguine" (Ribbeck, + p. 280). This is the language Ennius used before him of + the sacrifice of Iphigenia: "ut hostium eliciatur + sanguis sanguine," where, however, the word _eliciatur_ + shows that it is magic. The curious thing in this last + passage is that the parallel passage in the Euripidean + _Iph. in Aul._ (1486) does not suggest magic. Is the + idea Italian? The curse (for such it really is) is to be + witnessed by Tellus and Iuppiter, and the celebrant + points down and up respectively in invoking them, as + also in the _devotio_ of Curtis in the Forum (Livy vii. + 6), which was an abnormal _procuratio prodigii_. + + [434] Cp. the language used by Livy of the second Decius + (x. 29): "prae se agere formidinem ac fugam ... + contacturum funebribus diris signa tela arma hostium." + For spells or curses of this kind see Westermarck i. + 563: a curse is conveyable by speech, especially if + spoken by a magistrate or priest. "Among the Maoris the + anathema of the priest is regarded as a thunderbolt that + an enemy cannot escape." See also Robertson Smith, + _Semites_, p. 434, for the Jewish ban, by which impious + sinners, or enemies of the city and its God, were + devoted to destruction. He remarks that the Hebrew verb + to ban is sometimes rendered "consecrate": Micah iv. 13; + Deut. xiii. 16; and Joshua vi. 26 (Jericho), which + exactly answers to the consecratio of Carthage. For + curses conveyable by sacrifices, as in all the cases I + have mentioned, see Westermarck ii. 618 foll. 624, and + the same author's paper on conditional curses in + Morocco, in _Anthropological Essays_, addressed to E. B. + Tylor, p. 360. + + [435] "Abate their pride, assuage their malice, and + confound their devices." I well remember hearing this + read in church throughout the Crimean war. + + [436] "Pro republica Quiritium," in the formula quoted + above. + + [437] Livy viii. 10 _ad fin._ + + [438] See above, note 28. + + [439] See Marquardt, p. 276 and notes; Mommsen, + _Strafrecht_, 900 foll. The subject has generally been + treated from the legal point of view rather than the + religious; but from the religious point of view it has + generally been assumed that the sacrifice was to appease + the god. So no doubt it was; but I venture also to + conjecture that the victim was _vicarius_ for the + contamination of the community. On the subject generally + Westermarck's two chapters on human sacrifice and + blood-revenge (xix. and xx. in vol. i.) are extremely + well worth reading. + + [440] _Aen._ i. 607 foll. Cp. _Aen._ iii. 429-- + + praestat Trinacrii metas lustrare Pachyni + cessantem, longos et circumflectere cursus, + + where the slow movement and circuitous course of a + lustratio must have been in Virgil's mind. The movement + round an object for lustral purposes is seen in _Aen._ + vi. 229, "idem ter socios pura circumtulit unda," where + Servius explains _circumtulit_ by _purgavit_. As early + as Livius Andronicus (second century B.C.) we find + "classem lustratur" of fishes swimming round a fleet + (Ribb. _Trag. Fragmenta_, p. 1). + + [441] Marquardt, p. 324, for the _februa_ of the + Luperci, _R.F._ p. 320 foll., and the explanations there + given. More will be found alluded to in Van Gennep, _Les + Rites de passage_, p. 249. To my mind none are quite + convincing. The Romans believed that blows with these + _februa_ (strips of the victim's skin) made women + fertile; they were therefore clearly magical implements, + but beyond this we do not seem to get. (See also Deubner + in _Archiv_, 1910, p. 495 foll.) + + [442] Varro, _L.L._ vi. 13, "Februum Sabini purgamentum, + et id in sacris nostris verbum." Cp. Varro, _ap. + Nonium_, p. 114; Ovid, _Fasti_, ii. 19 foll., where he + calls _februa piamina, purgamenta_, in the language of + the _ius divinum_. + + [443] _L.L._ vi. 11. + + [444] Servius, _ad Aen._ x. 32; xi. 842; cp. i. 136. + + [445] See _R.F._ p. 127, for the same rite in the Church + of England (Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, p. 292). + + [446] _Les Rites de passage_, ch. ii. + + [447] For boundary marks in historical times see + _Gromatici auctores_, vol. ii. p. 250 foll. (Rudorff). + + [448] If the cattle were in the woodland beyond the + settlement, as they would be in summer, they could not + be protected in this way: like an army going into the + country of _hostes_ (see above, p. 216) they were + treated in another way, which we may connect with the + ritual of the Parilia, as Dr. Frazer has beautifully + shown in his paper on St. George and the Parilia (_Revue + des etudes ethnographiques et sociologiques_, 1908, p. 1 + foll.). + + [449] _Georg._ i. 338 foll. + + [450] Varro, _L.L._ v. 143; Servius, _Aen._ v. 755 (from + Cato); Plutarch, _Romulus_, xi. + + [451] See above, p. 117. + + [452] Buecheler, _Umbrica_, pp. 12 foll. and 42 foll. + + [453] The deities of the city were invoked to preserve + the name, the magistrates, rites, men, cattle, land, and + crops: a list in which the name is the only item that + carries us back to pre-Christian times. + + [454] Buecheler, _Umbrica_, pp. 21 and 84 foll. + + [455] Livy xl. 6 init. + + [456] See above, p. 96. + + [457] Numbers xxxi. 19. + + [458] Festus, p. 117. + + [459] See Huelsen-Jordan, _Roem. Topographie_, vol. iii. + p. 495; Von Domaszewski, _Abhandlungen_, p. 217 foll. + + [460] Suggested by Van Gennep, _Les Rites de passage_, + p. 28. + + [461] Livy iii. 28. 11. + + [462] Farnell, _Evolution of Religion_, p. 132 foll. + + [463] The account of _lustratio_ given in this lecture + is adapted from the author's chapter on the same subject + in _Anthropology and the Classics_, Oxford University + Press, 1908. + + + + +LECTURE X + +THE FIRST ARRIVAL OF NEW CULTS IN ROME + + +I said in my first lecture that the whole story of Roman religious +experience falls into two parts: first, that of the formularisation of +rules and methods for getting effectively into right relations with the +Power manifesting itself in the universe; secondly, that of the gradual +discovery of the inadequacy of these, and of the engrafting on the State +religion of Rome of an ever-increasing number of foreign rites and +deities. The first of these stories has been occupying us so far, and +before I leave it for what will be practically an introduction to +succeeding lectures, it will be as well for me to sum up the results at +which we have already arrived. + +I began with what I called the protoplasm of religion, the primitive +ideas and practices which form the psychological basis of the whole +growth. The feeling of awe and anxiety about that which is mysterious +and unknown, the feeling which the Romans called _religio_, seems to +have manifested itself in Italy, as elsewhere, in those various ways +which I discussed in my second and third lectures, in the various forms +of magic, negative and positive. We find unmistakable evidence of the +existence of those strict rules of conduct called taboos, which fetter +the mind and body of primitive man, which probably arise from an +ineffective desire to put himself in right relations with forces he does +not understand, and which have their value as a social discipline. +Again, we find surviving in historical Rome numerous forms of active or +positive magic, by which it was thought possible to compel or overcome +those powers, so as to use them for your own benefit and against your +enemies. But I was careful to point out that on the whole little of all +this evidence of the early existence of magic at Rome is to be found in +the public religion of the Roman State, and that the natural inference +from this is that at one time or another there must have been a very +powerful influence at work in cutting away these obsolete root-leaves of +the plant that was to be, and in making of that plant a neat, +well-defined growth. + +I went on to deal with the first stage in the working of this influence, +which we found reflected in the religion of the family as we know it in +historical times. The family, settled on the land, with its homestead +and its regular routine of agricultural process, developed a more +effective desire to get into right relation with the Power manifesting +itself in the universe. Anxiety is greatly lessened both in the house +and on the land, because within those limits there is a "peace" (or +covenant) between the divine and human inhabitants who have taken up +their residence there. The supernatural powers, conceived now (whatever +they may have been before) as spirits, are friendly if rightly +propitiated, and much advance has been made in the methods of +propitiation; magic and religion are still doubtless mixed up together +in these, but the tendency seems to be to get gradually rid of the more +inadequate and blundering methods. In fact, man's knowledge of the +Divine has greatly advanced; spirits have some slight tendency to become +deities, and magic is in part at least superseded by an orderly round of +sacrifice and prayer, which is performed daily within the house, and +within the boundary of the land at certain seasons of the year. This +stage of settlement and routine was the first great revolution in the +religious experience of the Romans, and supplied the basis of their +national character. + +The second revolution which we can clearly discern, and far the most +important as a factor in Roman history, is that of the organisation of +the religion of the city-state of Rome. Doubtless there were stages +intermediate between the two, but they are entirely lost to us. We had +to concentrate our attention on the city of the four regions--the first +city we really know--and to examine the one document which has survived +from it, the so-called calendar of Numa. In my fifth lecture I explained +the nature of that calendar, and noted how it reflects the life of a +people at once agricultural and military, and how it must presuppose the +existence of a highly organised legal priesthood, or of some powerful +genius for political as well as religious legislation. The tradition of +a great priest-king is not wholly to be despised, for it expresses the +feeling of the Romans that religious law and order were indispensable +parts of their whole political and social life. During the rest of these +lectures I have been trying to interrogate this religious calendar, with +such help as could be gained from any other sources, on two points: (1) +the conception, or, if we can venture to use the word, the knowledge, +which the Romans of that early city-state had of the Divine; (2) the +chief forms and methods of their worship. We saw that they did not think +of the divine beings as existing in human form with human weaknesses, +but as invisible and intangible functional powers, _numina_. Each had +its special limited sphere of action; and some were now localised within +the _pomoerium_, or just outside it within the _ager Romanus_, and +worshipped under a particular name. I suggested that this very +settlement had probably some influence in preparing them for assuming a +more definite and personal character, should the chance be given them. +In regard to the forms of cult with which they were propitiated, I found +in the ritual of sacrifice and prayer a genuine advance towards a really +religious attitude to the deity, the sacrifices being meant to increase +his power to benefit the community, and the prayers to diminish such +inclination as he might have to damage it; but that there are in these +certain survivals of the age of magic, which are, however, only formal, +and have lost their original significance. I found some curious +examples of such survivals in the rite of _devotio_, and in vows +generally a somewhat lower type of method in dealing with the +supernatural. But, on the other hand, the forms of _lustratio_, at the +bottom of which seems to lie the idea of getting rid of evil spirits and +influences, present very beautiful examples of what we may really call +religious ceremony. + +There was, then, in this highly-organised religion of the city-state, in +some ways at least, a great advance. But in spite of this gain, it had +serious drawbacks. Most prominent among these was the fact that it was +the religion of the State as a whole, and not of the individual or the +family. Religion, I think we may safely say, had placed a certain +consecration upon the simple life of the family, which was, in fact, the +life of the individual; for the essence of religion in all stages of +civilisation lies in the feeling of the individual that his own life, +his bodily and mental welfare, is dependent on the Divine as he and his +regard it. But to what extent can it be said that religion so +consecrated the life of the State as to enable each individual in his +family group to feel that consecration more vividly? That would have +constituted a real advance in religious development; that was the +result, if I am not mistaken, of the religion of the Jewish State, which +with all the force of a powerful hierarchical authority addressed its +precepts to the mind and will of the individual. But at Rome, though the +earliest traces and traditions of law show a certain consecration of +morality, inasmuch as the criminal is made over as a kind of +propitiatory sacrifice to the deity whom he has offended, yet in the +ordinary course of life, so far as I can discern, the individual was +left very much where he was, before the State arose, in his relation to +the Divine. + +In no other ancient State that we know of did the citizen so entirely +resign the regulation of all his dealings with the State's gods to the +constituted authorities set over him. His obligatory part in the +religious ritual of the State was simply _nil_, and all his religious +duty on days of religious importance was to abstain from civil business, +to make no disturbance. Within the household he used his own simple +ritual, the morning prayer, the libation to the household deities at +meals; and it is exactly here that we see a _pietas_, a sense of duty +consecrated by religion, which seems to have had a real ethical value, +and reminds us of modern piety. But in all his relations with the gods +_qua_ citizen, he resigned himself to the trained and trusted +priesthoods, who knew the secrets of ritual and all that was comprised +in the _ius divinum_; and by passive obedience to these authorities he +gradually began to deaden the sense of _religio_ that was in him. And +this tendency was increased by the mere fact of life in a city, which as +time went on became more and more the rule; for, as I pointed out, the +round of religious festivals no longer exactly expressed the needs and +the work of that agricultural life in which it had its origin. + +It would be an interesting inquiry, if the material for an answer were +available, to try and discover how this gradual absorption of religion +(or rather religious duties) by the State and its authorities affected +the morality of the individual Roman. It has often been maintained of +late that religion and morality have nothing in common; and even Dr. +Westermarck,[464] who, unlike most anthropologists, treats the whole +subject from a psychological point of view, seems inclined to come to +this conclusion. For myself, I am rather disposed to agree with another +eminent anthropologist,[465] that religion and morality are really +elemental instincts of human nature, primarily undistinguishable from +each other; and if that be so, then the over-elaboration of either the +moral or religious law, or of the two combined, will tend to weaken the +binding force of both. If, as at Rome, the citizen is made perfectly +comfortable in his relations with the Power manifesting itself in the +universe, owing to the complete mastery of the _ius divinum_ by the +State and its officials, there will assuredly be a tendency to paralyse +the elemental religious impulse, and with it, if I am not mistaken, the +elemental sense of right and wrong. For in the life of a state with such +a legalised religious system as this, so long at least as it thrives and +escapes serious disaster, there will be few or none of those moments of +peril and anxiety in which "man is brought face to face with the eternal +realities of existence,"[466] and when he becomes awakened to a new +sense of religion and duty. In the life of the family, the critical +moments of birth, puberty, marriage, and death regularly recur, and keep +up the instinct, because man is then brought face to face with these +eternal facts; there is no need of extraordinary perils, such as +tempests or pestilences, to keep the instinct alive. But in the life of +the State as such there were no such continually recurring reminders; +even the old agricultural perils were out of sight of the ordinary +citizen. Thus the farthest we can go in ascribing a moral influence to +the State religion is in giving it credit for helping to maintain that +sense of law and order which served to keep the life of the family sound +and wholesome. That it did to some extent perform this service I have +already pointed out;[467] and it is a remarkable fact that the decay of +the State religion was coincident, in the last two centuries B.C., with +the decay of the family life and virtues. But on the whole, as we shall +see, the _ius divinum_ had rather the effect of hypnotising the +religious and moral instinct than of keeping it awake. It needed new +perils for the State as a whole to re-create that feeling which is the +root of the growth of conscience; and when the craving did at last come +upon the Roman, which in times of doubt and peril has come upon +individuals and communities in all ages, for support and comfort from +the Unseen, it had to be satisfied by giving him new gods to worship in +new ways--aliens with whom he had nothing in common, who had no home in +his patriotic feeling, no place in his religious experience.[468] + +I wish to conclude this first part of my subject by giving some account +of the first beginning of this introduction of new deities, _di +novensiles_ as they were called,[469] into the old Roman religious +world. Those, however, of whom I shall speak here were not introduced as +the result of disaster or distress, but were simply the inevitable +consequence of the growing importance of the city on the Tiber--of the +beginnings of her commercial and political relations with her +neighbours, and also of her own development in the arts of civilisation. +The religious system with which I have so far been dealing was the +exclusive property, we must remember, of those _gentes_, with the +families composing them, which formed the original human material of the +State, and were known as _patrician_. If we had no other reason for +being sure of this, the fact that all State priesthoods were originally +limited to patrician families would be sufficient to prove it;[470] even +down to the latest times the _rex sacrorum_, the three _flamines +maiores_, and the _Salii_ were necessarily of patrician birth--a fact +which had much to do with their tendency to disappear in the last age of +the Republic. + +But in the course of the period within which the Numan calendar was +drawn up, this community of patrician burghers began to suffer certain +changes. A population of "outsiders," as in so many Greek cities, had +gained admittance to the site of Rome, though not into its political and +religious organism.[471] So solid a city, in such an important position, +was sure to attract such settlers, whether from the Latins dwelling +about it, or from the Etruscans on the north, or the Greek cities along +the coast southwards and in Sicily. The Latins were, of course, of the +same stock as the Romans, and already in some loose political relation +to them; and as each Latin city was open, like Rome, to Greek and +Etruscan influences, we should probably see in Latium an indirect +channel of communication between those peoples and Rome, to be reckoned +in addition to the direct and obvious one. As Dr. J. B. Carter has well +said,[472] "the Latins, becoming rapidly inferior to Rome, were enabled +to do her at least this service, that of absorbing the foreign +influences which came, and in certain cases of Latinising them, and thus +transmitting them to Rome in a more or less assimilated condition." As +Dr. Carter has been the first to explain the arrival of these new +religious influences to English readers, I shall in what follows closely +follow his footsteps. They indicate and also reflect a change from +agricultural economy and habits to a society interested in trade and +travel: I say interested, because we cannot be quite sure how far the +old Romans engaged in such pursuits themselves, as well as admitting +from outside those who did, with their worships. They indicate also the +growth of an industrial population, organised in gilds, as in the Middle +Ages; here beyond doubt the workers were mainly of native birth. Lastly, +they indicate an advance in military efficiency and, as a result of this +military progress, some change in the relation of Rome to her +fellow-communities of Latium. + +Perhaps the first of these new deities to arrive was the famous Hercules +Victor or Invictus of the _ara maxima_ in the Forum Boarium, who +continued for centuries to accept the tithes of the booty of generals +and the profits of successful merchants. Virgil in the eighth +_Aeneid_[473] makes Evander show his guest this altar and the +celebration of its festival, and tell him the tale of Cacus and the oxen +and the cave on the Aventine hard by; the poet, like every one else +until the last few years, believed the cult to be primeval and Roman. +But one of the many gains for the history of Roman religion which have +recently been secured--even since the publication of my _Roman +Festivals_--is the certainty that the Italian Hercules is really the +Greek Heracles acclimatised in the sister peninsula, and that the cult +of the _ara maxima_, though that altar was inside the sacred boundary of +the _pomoerium_, was not native in Rome.[474] It seems, however, almost +certain that it did not come direct from any part of Hellas, though its +position, close to the Tiber and its landing-place, might naturally lead +us to think so. It is almost impossible to believe that Heracles would +have been allowed inside the _pomoerium_, had he been introduced by +foreigners in the strict sense of the word. No doubt much has yet to be +learnt about Hercules in Italy; but recent painstaking researches have +made it possible for us to acquiesce in the belief that this Hercules of +the _ara_ came from a Latin city,--from that Tibur which by tradition +was of Greek origin--"Tibur Argeo positum colono,"--and which, like its +neighbour Praeneste, was curiously receptive of foreign influence.[475] +It is believed that the Greek traders from Campania and Magna Graecia +made their way northwards through Latium, and thus eventually reached +Rome with the deity whom they seem to have always carried with them. He +was, in the words of Dr. Carter,[476] a deity of whom, by the contagion +of commerce, the Romans already felt a great need, a god of great power +from whom came success in the practical undertakings of life; and it was +quite natural that his shrine should be in the busy cattle-market of the +city, if we remember that the wealth of the early Romans, _pecunia_ as +they called it, mainly consisted in sheep and oxen. As Heracles in +various forms was to be met with all over the Mediterranean coasts, it +would indeed be strange if he were not found in the growing city +commanding the central water-way of Italy; and his appearance there may +be said to have put Rome in touch with the Mediterranean business of +that day. There he was destined to remain, with all the honour of an +oldest cult, though other cults of the same god came in later, and were +established quite close to him; and though never a State deity of much +importance, he exercised a wholesome influence in matters of trade, as +the god who sanctioned your oath, and who accepted the tithe of your +gain which you had vowed at the outset of an enterprise.[477] + +In the same period, though the traditional date of their temple is +later, came the Twin Brethren, Castor and Pollux, and found their way, +like Hercules, into the city within the _pomoerium_. The famous temple +of Castor (before whom his brother gradually gave way) was at the end +of the Forum under the Palatine, close to the fountain of Juturna, where +the Twins watered their horses after the battle of Lake Regillus; and +there the beautiful remains of the latest reconstruction of it still +stand.[478] This position alone should make us feel confident that the +cult did not come direct from Greek sources; and it had its origin, +perhaps, in the period when Rome was in close relation with Latin +cities, which themselves had been gradually absorbing the cults and +products of the Greeks of Campania. There is a strong probability that +it came from Tusculum, with which the legend of the Regillus battle is +closely connected, and where the cult had beyond doubt taken strong +root.[479] Like the Hercules of the _ara maxima_, the Twins were no +doubt brought by the course of trade, which was continually pushing up +from the south; for they too were favourites of the merchant adventurer, +and throughout Hellas were the special protectors of the seafarer. Their +connection with horses is well known, and not as yet satisfactorily +explained in its Roman aspect; but Dr. J. B. Carter thinks that they +first became prominent in Greece when the Homeric use of chariots was +abandoned for a primitive kind of cavalry, and that "the Castor-cult +moved steadily northward (from Magna Graecia), carried, as it were, on +horseback," and that when it reached Rome it became connected with the +reorganisation of the cavalry. This seems to be almost pure guess-work, +and, attractive as it is, I fear we cannot put much faith in it.[480] +The position in the Forum, and the well-known connection of both twins +with oaths,[481] seem to me rather to suggest a more natural origin in +trade. I would suggest that the equine character of the cult in Latium +was secondary, and that the connection of the temple and cult with the +Roman cavalry was a natural result, but not a primary feature, of its +introduction. I should be inclined to look on it as coming in with the +building of the temple, which was probably of later origin than the +original introduction of the cult. + +Some time after the calendar was drawn up, a deity was established on +the Aventine, _i.e._ not within the _pomoerium_, whose arrival marks a +development in the organisation of handicraft. We cannot indeed _prove_ +that the settlement of Minerva on the Aventine took place so early, but +we have strong grounds for the conclusion.[482] This temple was in +historical times the religious centre of trade-gilds; and these gilds +were by universal Roman tradition ascribed to Numa as founder, which +simply means that they were among the oldest institutions of the +City-state. As Minerva does not appear in the calendar, had no _flamen_, +and therefore must have been altogether outside the original patrician +religious system, the natural inference is that the temple was founded, +like the shrines of Hercules and the Twin Brethren, towards the end of +the period we are dealing with, and was from the first the centre of the +gilds. Of those mentioned by Plutarch in his life of Numa (ch. 17), we +know that the following gilds belonged to Minerva: _tibicines_, _fabri_ +(carpenters?), _fullones_, _sutores_; and it is a reasonable guess that +the others, _coriarii_, _fabri aerarii_, and _aurifices_, were also +under her protection. These trades, as Waltzing remarks in his great +work on Roman gilds,[483] are all in keeping with the rudimentary +civilisation of primitive Rome; they are those which were first carried +on outside of the family. Workers in iron are not among them; bronze is +still the common metal. + +Now of course we must not go so far as to assume that none of these +trades existed before the cult of Minerva came to Rome; but from her +close association with them all through Roman history, and from the fact +that the Romans were originally an agricultural folk, as the calendar +shows, with a simple economy and simple needs, it is legitimate to +connect the arrival of the goddess with the growth of town life and the +demand for articles once made in rude fashion chiefly on the farms, and +with a period of improvement in manufacture, and the use of better +materials and better methods. Whence, then, did these improvements come? +This is only another way of asking the question, Whence did Minerva +come? + +By the common consent of investigators she came from the semi-Latin town +of Falerii in southern Etruria, where these arts were practised by +Etruscans, or those who had learnt of Etruscans.[484] Her name is +Italian, not Etruscan;[485] she was an old Italian deity taken over by +the invading Etruscans from the peoples whose land they occupied. But +while in the hands of Etruscans she had adopted Greek characteristics, +especially those of Athene, the patroness of arts and crafts. She soon, +indeed, appeared with some of the character of Athene Polias, as we +shall see at the end of this lecture; but her real importance, far down +into the period of the Empire, was in the temple on the Aventine, and in +connection with the crafts. The dedication day of the temple was March +19, which was known, as we learn on the best authority, also as +_artificum dies_.[486] + +There was another famous temple on the Aventine which by universal +consent is attributed to the same period as that of Minerva. Diana does +not appear in the calendar, and had no _flamen_; Roman tradition +ascribed her arrival to Servius Tullius, and we shall not be far wrong +if we place it at or towards the end of the age of the kingship. The +temple was celebrated as containing an ancient statue of Diana, the +oldest or almost the oldest representation of a deity in human form +known at Rome, which was a copy of a rude image of Artemis at Massilia, +of the type of the famous [Greek: xoanon] of the Ephesian Artemis.[487] +It also contained a _lex templi_ in Greek characters, and a treaty or +charter of a federation of Latin cities with Rome as their head, which +was seen by Dionysius of Halicarnassus when in Rome in the time of +Augustus.[488] + +The explanation of the arrival of Diana is simple. The _dies natalis_ of +the temple is the same as that of the famous shrine of the same goddess +at Aricia--the Ides of August.[489] Aricia was at this time the centre +of a league of cities including Tusculum and Tibur, with both of which, +as we have just seen, Rome was closely connected at this time; a league +which is generally supposed to have superseded that of Alba, marking +some revolution in Latium consequent on the fall of Alba.[490] Diana +was a wood-spirit, a tree-spirit, as Dr. Frazer has taught us, with some +relation to the moon and to the life of women; of late she has become +familiar to every one, not as she was known later, in the disguise of +Artemis, but as the deity of that shrine--"pinguis et placabilis ara +Dianae"--of which the priest was the Rex Nemorensis: he who "slew the +slayer and shall himself be slain."[491] But in those days it was only +the fact that she was the chief local deity of Aricia, the leading city +of the new league, which brought her suddenly into notice. When the +strategic position of Rome gave her in turn the lead in Latium, Diana +passed on from Aricia to the Tiber, entered on a new life, and +eventually took over the attributes of Artemis, with whom she had much +in common. The Diana whom we know in Roman literature is really Artemis; +but Diana of the Aventine, when she first arrived there, was the +wood-spirit of Aricia, and her temple was an outward sign of Rome's new +position in Latium: it was built by the chiefs of the Latin cities in +conjunction with Rome, and is described by Varro as "commune Latinorum +Dianae templum."[492] It was appropriately placed on the only Roman hill +which was then still covered with wood, and was outside the _pomoerium_. + +There was one other goddess, a Latin one, who was traditionally +associated with this period, and especially with king Servius +Tullius--Fortuna, or Fors Fortuna; she does not appear in the calendar, +had no _flamen_, and must have been introduced from outside. But it was +long before Fortuna became of any real importance in Rome, and I shall +leave her out of account here. She had two homes of renown in Latium, at +Antium and Praeneste, and was in each connected with a kind of oracle, +which seems to have been specially resorted to by women before and after +childbirth. She was also very probably a deity of other kinds of +fertility; and in course of time she took on the characteristics of the +Greek Tyche, and became a favourite deity of good luck.[493] + +Let us pause for one moment to reflect on the character of these new +deities of whom I have been speaking: Hercules, Castor, Minerva, Diana. +It must be confessed that, as compared with the great deities of the +calendar, they are uninteresting; with the exception, perhaps, of +Hercules, they do not seem to have any real _religious_ significance. +They are local deities brought in from outside, and have no root in the +mind of the Roman people as we have so far been studying it. They seem +to indicate the growth of a population in which the true old Roman +religious instinct was absent; they represent commerce, business, +handicraft, or politics, pursuits in which the old Roman and Latin +farmers were not directly interested; they were suffered to be in Rome +because the new population and the new interests must of necessity have +their own worships, but they were not taken into the heart and mind of +the people. So at least it seems to us, after we have been examining the +development of the native religious plant from its root upwards. But we +must remember that of that new population, its life and its needs, we +know hardly anything, and it would not be safe to assume that the +conception of Minerva had no influence on the conscience of the artisan, +or that of Hercules no power of binding the trader to honest dealing and +respect for his oath. As for Diana, though, as Dr. Carter says, she had +been introduced "as part of a diplomatic game, not because Rome felt any +religious need of her," the fact that the Latin treaty was kept in her +temple has a certain moral as well as political significance which ought +not to be overlooked. It is impossible to put ourselves mentally in the +position of the men who brought these cults to Rome, or of the Romans +who granted them admittance; but we shall be on the safe side if we +imagine the former at least to have had a conviction that their dealings +at Rome would not prosper unless they were carried out with the blessing +of their own gods. + +But we now come, in the last place, to the foundation of a cult of a +very different kind from these, and of far greater import than any of +them in the history of Roman religious experience. We have seen that the +temple of Diana on the Aventine meant the transference of the headship +of the Latin league from Aricia to Rome. When Rome took over this +headship, and by removing its religious centre to Rome--or, perhaps more +accurately, by offering Diana of Aricia a new home by the Tiber--removed +also any danger of a new power growing up in Latium outside her own +influence, she seems to have taken another important step in the same +direction. Archaeological evidence confirms the tradition that at this +time the temple of Jupiter Latiaris, the real and original god of the +league, on the Alban hill, was rebuilt;[494] and as the remains of its +foundation are of Etruscan workmanship, we may believe that the work was +undertaken at that period of an Etruscan dominion in Rome which no one +now seriously doubts, and which is marked by the Etruscan name +Tarquinius, and by the old tradition that Servius Tullius was really an +Etruscan bearing the Etruscan name Mastarna.[495] Now those in power at +Rome at this time, whoever they were, not content with rebuilding the +ancient temple of Jupiter on the Alban hill, conceived the idea of also +building a great temple at Rome, on the steep rock overlooking the +Forum, to the same deity of the heaven who had long presided over the +Latin league. The tradition was that this temple was vowed by the first +Tarquinius, begun by the second, and finally dedicated by the first +consul Horatius in the year 509.[496] It is quite possible that this +tradition indicates the truth in outline--that it was an Etruscan who +conceived the idea of the great work, and that the foreign domination +gave way to a Roman reaction before the temple was ready for dedication. +We cannot know what exactly was the Etruscan intention as to the cult; +but we know that the temple was built in the Etruscan style, that its +foundations were of Etruscan masonry,[497] and that the deities +inhabiting it were three--a _trias_--a feature quite foreign to the +native Roman religion.[498] Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva had each a +separate dwelling (_cella_) within the walls of the temple, which, in +order to meet this innovation, was almost as broad as it was long. +Whether this trias was the one originally intended by the Etruscan king +or kings it is impossible to say; but I have great doubts of it. I +confess that I have no ground but probability to go on when I conjecture +that a long period elapsed between the beginning of this great +undertaking and the final completion, and that in the meantime many +things had happened of which we have no record; that when the temple was +finished it was in Roman hands, though retaining its Etruscan +characteristics, and especially the combination of three deities; and +that those three deities were essentially Roman in conception. Roman, +too, was the idea that one of the three should be paramount; the two +goddesses never attained to any special significance, and the temple +always remained essentially the dwelling of the great Jupiter, the +Father of heaven.[499] + +The cult-titles of this Jupiter, Optimus Maximus, the best and greatest, +seem to raise him to a position not only far above his colleagues in the +temple, but above all other Jupiters in Latium or elsewhere, and +presumably above all other deities. They thus suggest a deliberate +attempt to place him in a higher position than even the Jupiter Latiaris +of the Mons Albanus, whose temple had been rebuilt in the same period. +The very novelty of such cult-titles betrays both power and genius in +their originator; they are wholly unlike any we have met with so far; +they do not suggest a function or a locality or a connection with some +other deity; they stand absolutely alone in the history of the Roman +religion till far on in the Empire.[500] Here is no _numen_ needed at a +particular season to bless some agricultural operation; Jupiter Optimus +Maximus seems hardly to be limited by space or season, and is to be +always there looking down on his people from his seat on the hill which +was henceforward to be called Capitolinus, because the space which had +been prepared there for his reception bore the name of Capitolium, the +place of headship.[501] These titles, Best and Greatest, call for +reflection, for more thought than we are apt to give them; one wonders +whether they can be as old as tradition claimed, and in fact at least +one recent writer has been tempted, without sufficient reason, to date +the whole foundation two centuries later than the Tarquinii.[502] To me +they rather suggest the hypothesis that the break-up of the Etruscan +domination in Rome was the work of a man or men inspired by a new +national feeling which ascribed the revolution to the great god of the +race, to whose shrine on the same hill the kings had been used to bring +the spoils of their enemies[503]; and that they took advantage of the +uncompleted Etruscan temple, with its huge foundations and underground +_favissae_, to settle there a new Jupiter, better and greater than any +other, to whom his people would be for ever grateful, and in whom they +would for ever put their trust. All older associations with cults of the +Heaven-god were to be banished from the Capitolium, just as all other +deities were believed to have fled from the spot, save only Terminus; +the ancient priest of Jupiter, the Flamen Dialis, had no special +connection with this temple and its cult, which were under the immediate +charge of an _aedituus_ only.[504] Here was the centre of the public +worship of the State as a whole, not only of the old patrician State; +and no such ancient curiosity as the Flamen Dialis, who, as I have +suggested, was a survival from some older era of Latin religious +history, was to be supreme there. Here the Consul of the free Republic +was to offer, on entering office, the victim--the white heifer of the +Alban cult--which his predecessor had vowed, and himself to bind his +successor to a like sacrifice; and this he did on behalf of patrician +and plebeian alike. Here the victorious general was to deposit his +spoils, reaching the temple in the solemn procession of the _triumphus_, +and wearing the _ornamenta_ of the deity himself; for here, contrary to +all precedent in the worship of Romans, there was an image of the god +wrought in terra cotta and brought from Etruria.[505] It is in +connection with such solemn events as these that we may find the origin +of those imposing processions which for centuries were to impress the +minds of the Roman people, and indeed of their enemies also, with the +might and magnificence of their Empire; for apart from the triumphal +processions with which we are all familiar, the scene at the entrance of +new consuls on their office must have been most impressive. They were +accompanied by the other magistrates, the Senate, the priests in their +robes of office, and by an immense crowd of citizens. After the ceremony +the Senate met _in the temple_ to transact the first religious business +of the year. Here too the tribal assembly met for the purpose of +enrolling the new levies before each season of war, in order that the +youths who were to fight the battles of Rome might realise the presence +of Rome's great protecting deity. Even in the most degenerate days of +the Roman religion, though Jupiter had suffered from the ridicule of +playwrights or the speculations of philosophers, an orator's appeal to +the Best and Greatest looking down on the Forum from his seat above it, +could not fail to move the hearers; "Ille, ille Iuppiter restitit," +cried Cicero in the peril of the Catilinarian conspiracy, "ille +Capitolium, ille haec templa, ille cunctam urbem, ille vos omnes salvos +esse voluit."[506] + +Nor was it only the State as represented by its officials that could and +did address itself to the worship of this great god. It seems probable +that the new idea of a single guardian deity, with his two attendant +goddesses, for which the Romans were indebted to the genius (whoever he +may have been) who released them from the yoke of the Etruscan, opened +the cult to the individual in a way which must have been a novelty in +the religious life of the people.[507] The most memorable example of +this is in the famous story told of Scipio, the conqueror of Hannibal, +which is not likely to be an invention of the annalists. As Gellius +records it, it stands thus: Scipio was wont to ascend to the temple just +before daylight, to order the _cella Iovis_ to be opened for him, and +there to remain alone for a long time, as if taking counsel with the +god about the affairs of the State. The dogs, it was said, which guarded +the entrance, astonished the temple-keepers by treating him always with +respect, while they would attack or bark at others.[508] + +The reader may remark, that during the last few minutes I have wandered +quite away from the Roman religion which we have so far been trying to +understand, and he will be right. I have but just touched on this great +cult, which properly belongs to Rome of the Republic, in order to show +how great a change must have taken place, how great a revolution must +have been consummated, when this temple arose on its Etruscan +substructures. We have marked two forward steps in the social and +political experience of the Romans: the settlement of the family on the +land and the organisation of the City-state with its calendar. Here is a +third, the liberation of that State from a foreign dominion, and the +development, in matters both internal and external, which subjection and +liberation alike brought with them. In regard to religious experience, +the first produced the ordered worship of the household, which had a +lasting effect on the Roman character; the second produced the _ius +divinum_, the priesthoods and the ritual for the service of the various +_numina_ which had consented to take up their abode in the city and its +precincts. These two taken together changed doubt and anxiety into +confidence, stilled the _religio_ natural to uncivilised man, and +developed the machinery of magic into forms and ceremonies which were +more truly religious. Now we note a third great social step forward, +which brings with it a new conception and expression of the religious +unity of the State; henceforward, alongside of a multiplicity of cults +and of priests attached to them, we have one central worship to which +all free citizens may resort, and a trinity of guardian deities, of whom +one, Jupiter Best and Greatest, is the one presiding genius of the whole +State. + +Lastly, there can hardly be a doubt that this new cult marks a more +extensive communication with neighbouring peoples than the State had as +yet experienced or encouraged. Etruria, Latium, and Greece, all seem to +have had a hand in it. Of its relation to the Latins and Etruscans I +have already spoken. It only remains for me to note the fact that it was +here, in this Capitoline temple, according to unanimous tradition, that +those legendary "Sibylline books" were deposited which came from a Greek +source, and according to the story, from Cumae.[509] These mysterious +books were destined to change the whole character of the religion of the +Romans during the next two centuries; and this is why the dedication of +the great temple is a convenient halting-place on our journey. I propose +to begin the second part of my subject by examining the nature of this +change, and then to pass on to others, until we have reached the end of +the religious experience of the genuine Roman people. + + + NOTES TO LECTURE X. + + [464] _Origin and Development of Moral Ideas_, chapters + l.-lii.: "Gods as guardians of morality." + + [465] Crawley, _The Tree of Life_, in a remarkable + chapter on the function of religion (ch. ix.), + especially p. 287 foll. "Morality," says Mr. Crawley, + "is one of the results of the religious impulse." What + he means here by morality is not "that elaborated by + abstract thinkers," but the "morality of elemental human + nature." "Elemental morality" may be a somewhat obscure + term; but I think it is highly probable that Mr. Crawley + is, in part at least, right in ascribing the origin of + morality to the religious impulse. + + [466] Crawley, _op. cit._, p. 265. + + [467] Above, pp. 107-8. + + [468] See the author's article in _Hibbert Journal_ for + July 1907, p. 894. + + [469] Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 15 foll. + + [470] _Ib._ p. 421: Aust, _Religion der Roemer_, p. 47. + + [471] I am, of course, well aware that quite recently + attempts have been made to explain the _plebs_ as the + original inhabitants of Latium, and the Romans as + conquering invaders; _e.g._ by Prof. Ridgeway in his + paper, "Who were the Romans," read to the British + Academy, and by Binder in his recently published volume + _Die Plebs_. The theory is a natural one, and not out + of harmony with the facts as known; but it has yet to be + further developed and tested, and as those who hold it + are not as yet in agreement with each other, and as the + evidence which alone can prove it is of a very special + character, archaeological and linguistic, I have + expressed myself in terms of the older view. + + [472] _The Religion of Numa_, p. 30. + + [473] _Aen._ viii. 184 foll.; the description of the + festival is in 280 foll.; where the interesting points + are the priests of the gentes appointed to look after + the cult (the Potitii only are here mentioned) "pellibus + in morem cincti," and the Salii "populeis evincti + tempora ramis." + + [474] Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 219 foll.; Carter, _Religion of + Numa_, p. 31 foll. The ground had been prepared for the + new view by the elaborate articles in Roscher's + _Mythological Lexicon_, vol. ii. pp. 2253 foll. and 2901 + foll. Of late a painstaking discussion by J. G. Winter + has appeared in the _University of Michigan Studies for + 1910_, p. 171 foll.; he mainly confirms Wissowa's + conclusions, but provisionally accepts a suggestion of + mine (_R.F._ 197) that the tithe practice of the _ara + maxima_ may possibly have been of Phoenician origin, and + points out that E. Curtius made the same suggestion as + long ago as 1845. On p. 269 he also dwells, very + properly, I think, on the part which the Etruscans may + have had in the dissemination of the myth and cult of + the Greek Heracles. Wissowa, however, stoutly maintains + that these are simply Greek and of commercial origin. It + has been Wissowa's special and valuable function to + elucidate the Greek origin of many Roman cults and + legends; but I doubt if he has adequately considered the + influence of other peoples, and in particular of + Phoenicians and Etruscans. Certainly the Hercules + question is not finally settled by his masterly analysis + of it in _R.K._ p. 220 foll. But most of what I said in + _R.F._ about the Hercules of the _ara maxima_ may now be + considered obsolete; and I may add that my remarks on + the supposed connection of Hercules with Genius, Dius + Fidius, and Jupiter in the same work, p. 143 foll., have + lost much strength since Wissowa's book appeared. Yet I + am not prepared to accept the view which would deny to + Hercules on Italian soil all contamination with Italian + ideas; as Willamowitz-Moellendorf puts it (_Herakles_, + ed. 2, vol. i. p. 25), "Die Italiker haben dem Koerper, + den sie uebernahmen, den Odem ihrer eigenen Seele + eingeblasen: aber wie der Name ist der Gestalt des + Hercules hellenischer Import." There are points in + connection with the Roman Hercules, _e.g._ the _nodus + herculaneus_ of the bride's girdle, which Wissowa does + not explain, and which, so far as I can see, can only be + explained by assuming that, as might have been expected, + the Greek Hercules became to some extent entangled in + the web of Italian thought. + + [475] The cult was Greek in detail; _Graeco ritu_, + according to Varro as quoted by Macrobius iii. 6. 17; + see also references in Wissowa, _R.K._ 222, note 2. + Following R. Peter in the articles in Roscher, I + assumed, in _R.F._ p. 194, that this might be a later + reconstruction of an originally Italian cult; but for + the present it is safer to look on the _Graecus ritus_ + as primitive, and on the presence of Salii, a genuine + Italian institution, as brought from Tibur by the gens + Pinaria, of which there is a trace in that city + (_C.I.L._ xiv. 3541). There also Salii were engaged in + the cult of Hercules Victor, to whom tithes were also + offered (_C.I.L._ xiv. 3541). The evidence for the + theory that the cult came to Rome from Tibur is + summarised by Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 220. + + [476] _Op. cit._, p. 37. + + [477] For the connection of the cult with trade, + Wissowa, _R.K._ 225; and the story told in Macrobius + iii. 6. 11, from Masurius Sabinus, of a _tibicen_ who + became a merchant and had an interview with the god in a + dream. For the connection with _oaths_, _R.F._ p. 138. I + may say before leaving Hercules that though I accept the + latest hypotheses provisionally, I am far from believing + that the last word has been said on the subject. + + [478] See, _e.g._, Lanciani, _Ruins and Excavations of + Ancient Rome_, p. 271 foll. The date of the temple is + 482 B.C., but it was vowed in 496 after the Regillus + battle. The three columns still standing date from 7 + B.C. + + [479] Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 217, who points out that the + Dioscuri never appear in _lectisternia_ at Rome, as they + do at Tusculum, which shows that the latter cult was + more directly Greek than that at Rome, and that the + Roman authorities admitted it as a Latin cult without + the Greek details. + + [480] Carter, _op. cit._ p. 38. There seemed to be + difficulties in the way of his conclusion; the Dioscuri + were very strong in the Peloponnese, yet the Spartans + neglected the use of cavalry. At any rate the theory + needs careful historical testing. See article "Dioscuri" + in Pauly-Wissowa, _Real-Encycl._ It would seem natural + that when once the cult had been introduced by traders + it might become specially attached to the cavalry, owing + to the ancient connection of the Twins with horses. + + [481] Ecastor and Edepol, which were oaths used + especially by women, who were not allowed to swear by + Hercules, Gell. xi. 6. + + [482] The reasoning will be found in full in Wissowa, + _R.K._ p. 203 foll., and in his article "Minerva" in the + _Mythological Lexicon_. See also Carter, _Religion of + Numa_, p. 45 foll. For the position of this temple and + that of Diana on the Aventine, a suburb which cannot be + proved to have been then within any city wall, see + Carter in _Proceedings of the American Philosophical + Society for 1909_, p. 136 foll. + + [483] Waltzing, _Etude historique sur les corporations + romaines_, vol. i. pp. 63 and 199. The relation between + town life and trades is stated with his usual insight by + von Jhering, _Evolution of the Aryan_, p. 93 foll. + + [484] See Mueller-Deecke, _Etrusker_, ii. 47; Deecke, + _Falisker_, p. 89 foll. + + [485] Minerva or Menrva is assuredly not Etruscan, + though frequently found on Etruscan monuments; see + Deecke, _l.c._ p. 89 foll. + + [486] Fasti Praenestini in _C.I.L._ i.^2 March 19. + "Artificum dies (quod Minervae) aedis in Aventino eo die + est (dedicata)." This is one of those additional notes + in the Fast. Praen., which are believed to have been the + work of Verrius Flaccus: see _Roman Festivals_, p. 12. + + [487] Wissowa, _Gesammelte Abhandlungen_, p. 288. We + know the fact from Strabo's account of Massilia, Bk. iv. + p. 180. + + [488] Dion. Hal. iv. 26. See _R.F._ p. 198. + + [489] Statius, _Silvae_ iii. 1. 60. See Wissowa's + article "Diana" in Pauly-Wissowa, _Real-Encycl._ + + [490] Wissowa, _l.c._ p. 332. + + [491] _Golden Bough_, i. p. 1 foll.; _Early History of + the Kingship_, Lecture I. + + [492] Varro, _L.L._ 5. 43; Carter, _op. cit._ p. 55. + + [493] See on Fortuna the exhaustive article by R. Peter + in the _Mythological Lexicon_; Wissowa, _R.K._ 206 + foll.; _R.F._ p. 161 foll., and 223 foll.; Carter, _op. + cit._ p. 50 foll. Dr. Carter seems to me to be too + certain of the absence of any idea of luck or chance in + the original conception of Fortuna: the word _fors_, so + far as we know, never had any other meaning, and the + deity Fors must be a personification of an abstraction, + like Ops, Fides, and Salus. See Axtell, _Deification of + abstract idea in Roman literature_, p. 9, with whom I + agree in rejecting the notion of Marquardt and Wissowa + that she was a deity of horticulture. He rightly points + out that she is not included in the list of agricultural + deities in Varro, _R.R._ i. 1. 6. + + [494] See Aust in his article "Jupiter" in the _Myth. + Lex._ p. 689, where the evidence for the contemporaneous + origin of the temple on the Alban hill and that on the + Capitol is fully stated. In this case excavations have + confirmed the Roman tradition, which ascribed the former + temple to one or other of the Tarquinii. Jordan, _Roem. + Top._ i. pt. 2. p. 9. + + [495] See the speech of Claudius the emperor, _C.I.L._ + xiii. 1668, printed in Furneaux' _Tacitus' Annals_, vol. + ii. Gardthausen, _Mastarna_, p. 40; Mueller-Deecke, + _Etrusker_, i. 111. For the Etruscan name Mastarna, see + Dennis, _Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria_^3, ii. 506 + foll.: Gardthausen gives a cut of the painting found in + a tomb at Vulci in which he appears with the name + attached. Even the ultra-sceptical Pais does not doubt + the fact of an Etruscan domination in Rome; but he does + not believe the Tarquinii and Mastarna to have been + historical personages, and will not date the temples + attributed to this age earlier than the fourth century + B.C. See his _Ancient Legends of Roman History_, ch. + vii.; _Storia di Roma_, i. 310 foll. But the names of + these kings do not concern us, except so far as they + connect Etruria with Roman history in the sixth century. + + [496] Cic. _Rep._ ii. 24. 44; Livy i. 38. and 55; + Dionys. iii. 69; iv. 59. 61. The whole evidence will be + found collected in Jordan, _Topogr._ i. pt. ii. p. 9 + foll., and in Aust, _Myth. Lex._, _s.v._ Jupiter, p. 706 + foll. If the date 509 were seriously impugned Roman + chronology would be in confusion, for this is believed + to be the earliest date on which we can rely, and on it + the subsequent chronology hangs: Mommsen, _Roem. + Chronologie_, ed. 2, p. 198. + + [497] Aust, p. 707 foll.; Jordan, _op. cit._, p. 9. + + [498] _i.e._ the admission of more than one deity into a + single building. The word "trias" is sometimes used of + the three old Roman deities, Jupiter, Mars, Quirinus + (_e.g._ by Wissowa, _Myth. Lex._ _s.v._ Quirinus), but + this is in a different sense. On the idea of a trias + generally, see Kuhfeldt, _de Capitoliis imperii Romani_, + p. 82 foll.; Cumont, _Religions orientales dans le + paganisme romain_, p. 290, note 51. + + [499] The technical name of the temple was aedes Iovis + Opt. Max.: for other indications of Jupiter's supremacy + see Aust, p. 720. + + [500] On Oriental developments of Jupiter Opt. Max. see + an interesting paper by Cumont in _Archiv_ for 1906, p. + 323 foll. (_Iuppiter summus exsuperantissimus_). A + relief in the Berlin Museum has a dedication _I.O.M. + summo exsuperantissimo_; but Prof. Cumont believes the + deity to have been really Oriental, introduced by Greek + philosophical theologians in the last century B.C., but + probably Chaldaean in origin. + + [501] Jordan, _op. cit._ p. 7 and note. It is uncertain + whether the whole hill had any earlier name. The Mons + Saturnius of Varro, _L.L._ v. 42, with the legend of an + oppidum _Saturnia_, and the Mons Tarpeius (_Rhet. ad + Herenn._, iv. 32. 43; Pais, _Ancient Legends_, chs. v. + and vi.) need not be taken into account. + + [502] Pais, _Ancient Legends of Roman History_, ch. v. + + [503] See above, p. 130. + + [504] This is an inference from the fact that this + Flamen is nowhere mentioned as connected with the + Capitoline cult. Macrob. i. 15, 16, speaks of the ovis + Idulis as sacrificed on every ides _a flamine_, and + this, it is true, took place on the Capitolium (Aust, in + _Lex._ _s.v._ Jupiter, 655), but (1) Festus, 290, + mentions sacerdotes, Ovid, _Fasti_ i. 588, castus + sacerdos only; and (2) this sacrifice may well, as O. + Gilbert conjectured, have originally taken place in the + Regia (_Gesch. und Topogr. Roms_, i. 236). In any case + the Flamen was not in any special sense priest of Iup. + Opt. Max. + + [505] The _locus classicus_ for this is Pliny, _N.H._ + xxxv. 157. The artist was said to have been one Volcas + of Veii. Ovid, _Fasti_ i. 201, says that the god had in + his hand a _fictile fulmen_. Varro believed this to be + the oldest statue of a god in Rome; see above, p. 146, + and Wissowa, _Gesammelte Abhandlungen_, p. 280, accepts + his statement as probably correct. + + [506] Cic. _Catil._ iii. 9. 21. + + [507] Jordan, _Topogr._ i. 2. pp. 39 and 62, notes. The + most convincing passages quoted by him are Suet. _Aug._ + 59, and Serv. _Ecl._ iv. 50 (of boys taking toga virilis + who "ad Capitolium eunt"); but was not this to sacrifice + to Liber or Iuventas? _R.F._ p. 56. + + [508] Gellius vi. 1. 6, from C. Oppius et Iulius + Hyginus. In his famous character of Scipio (xxvi. 19) + Livy seems to think that Scipio did this to make people + think him superhuman or of divine descent. + + [509] Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 158. 257; Virg. _Ecl._ iv. 4, + _Aen._ vi. 42; Marquardt, 352, note 7, for evidence that + the books came to Cumae from Erythrae. See also Diels, + _Sibyllinische Blaetter_, p. 80 foll. + + + + +LECTURE XI* + +CONTACT OF THE OLD AND NEW IN RELIGION + + +I said at the beginning of my first lecture that Roman religious +experience can be summed up in two stories. The first of these was the +story of the way in which a strong primitive religious instinct, the +desire to put yourself in right relation with the Power manifesting +itself in the universe, _religio_ as the Romans called it, was gradually +soothed and satisfied under the formalising influence of the settled +life of the agricultural family, and still more so under the organising +genius of the early religious rulers of the City-state. This story I +tried to tell in the last few lectures. The second story was to be that +of the gradual discovery of the inadequacy of this early formalised and +organised religion to cope with what we may call new religious +experience; that is, with the difficulties and perils met with by the +Roman people in their extraordinary advance in the world, and with the +new ideas of religion and morals which broke in on them in the course of +their contact with other peoples. This story I wish to tell in the +present course of lectures. It is a long and complicated one, including +the introduction of new rites and ideas of the divine, the anxious +attempts of the religious authorities to put off the evil day by +stretching to the uttermost the capacity of the old forms, and the final +victory of the new ideas as Roman life and thought became gradually +hellenised. + + [*] This Lecture was the first of a second and separate + course. + +I propose to divide the story thus. In the latter part of this first +lecture I will deal with the first introduction of Greek rites into the +State worship under the directions of the so-called Sibylline books. +Then I will turn to the efforts of the lay priesthoods, pontifices and +augurs, to meet the calls of new experience by formalising the old +religion still more completely in the name of the State, until it became +a mere skeleton of dry bones, without life and power. That will bring us +to the great turning-point in Roman history, the war with Hannibal, to +the religious history of which I shall devote my fourth lecture; and the +fifth will pursue the subject into the century that followed. In the +next lecture I hope to sketch the influence on Roman religious ideas of +the Stoic school of philosophy, and in the seventh to discuss, so far as +I may be able, the tendency towards mysticism prevalent in the last +period of the life of the Republic. My eighth lecture I intend to devote +to the noble attempt of Virgil to combine religion, legend, philosophy, +and consummate art in a splendid appeal to the conscience of the Roman +of that day. Then I turn to the more practical attempt of Augustus to +revive the dying embers of the old religion; and in my last lecture I +shall try to estimate the contribution, such as it was, of the religious +experience we have been discussing, to the early Christian church. + +We shall shortly hear so much of petrifaction and disintegration, that +it may be as well, before I actually begin my story, to convince +ourselves that the old religion was in its peculiar way a real +expression of religious feeling, and not merely a set of meaningless +conventions and formulae. It was the positive belief of the later Romans +that both they and their ancestors were _religiosissimi mortales_,[510] +full to the brim, that is, of religious instinct, and most scrupulous in +fulfilling its claims upon them; for the word _religio_ had come, by the +time (and probably long before the time) when it was used by men of +letters, to mean the fulfilment of ritualistic obligation quite as much +as the anxious feeling which had originally suggested it.[511] Cicero, +writing in no rhetorical mood, declared that, as compared with other +peoples, the Romans were far superior "in religione, id est cultu."[512] +This is in his work on the nature of the gods; in an oration he +naturally puts it more strongly: "We have overcome all the nations of +the world, because we have realised that the world is directed and +governed by the will of the gods."[513] Sallust, Livy, and other Roman +prose writers have said much the same thing[514]; the _Aeneid_ as a +whole might be adduced as evidence, and in a less degree all the poets +of the Augustan age. Foreigners, too, were struck with the strange +phenomenon, in an age of philosophic doubt. Polybius in the second +century B.C. declared his opinion that what was reckoned among other +peoples as a thing to be blamed, _deisidaimonia_, both in public and +private life, was really what was holding together the Roman state.[515] +Even in the wild century that followed, Posidonius could repeat the +assertion of Polybius, and in the age of Augustus, Dionysius of +Halicarnassus, then resident at Rome, looking back on the early history +of Rome, stated his conviction that one needed to know the _pietas_ of +the Romans in order to understand their wonderful career of +conquest.[516] Aulus Gellius, in a curious passage in which he notes +that the Romans had no deity to whose activity they could with +certainty ascribe earthquakes, describes them as "in constituendis +religionibus atque in dis immortalibus animadvertendis _castissimi +cautissimique_,"--a rhetorical but happy conjunction of epithets. He +means that they would order religious rites, though ignorant of the +_numen_ to whom they were due.[517] + +It might be argued that these later writers knew really little or +nothing about the primitive Romans, and that these passages only prove +that this people had an extraordinary scrupulosity about forms and +ceremonies in this as in other departments of action. But the argument +will not hold; the survival of all this formalism into an age of +disintegration really proves beyond a doubt that there must have been a +time when these forms really expressed anxieties, fears, convictions, +the earliest germs of _conscience_. + +May we not take the constant occurrence in literature of such phrases as +_dis faventibus_, _dis iuvantibus_ or _volentibus_, as evidence of an +idea deeply rooted at one time in the Roman mind, that nothing should be +undertaken until the will of the deities concerned had been ascertained +and that early form of conscience satisfied? Let us remember that the +whole story of the _Aeneid_ is one of the bending of the will of the +hero, as a type of the ideal Roman, to the ascertainable will of the +powers in the universe. + +And we have abundant evidence that as a matter of fact the good-will of +the divine inhabitants of house and city was asked for whenever any kind +of work was undertaken,--even the ordinary routine work of the farm or +of government. In the household every morning some offering with prayer +was made to the Lar familiaris in historical times, and again before the +_cena_, the chief meal of the day.[518] On Kalends, Nones, Ides, and on +all _dies festi_ a _corona_ was placed on the hearth, and prayer was +made to the Lar; we know that this was so in the old Roman home, because +in the second century B.C. Cato instructs the _vilicus_ to discharge +these duties on behalf of the absent or non-resident owner.[519] Before +the flocks were taken out to summer pasture, and doubtless when they +returned, some religious service (so we should call it) was held,[520] +just as in the Catholic cantons of Switzerland the blessing of God is +asked when the cows first ascend to the alpine pastures, and again when +they leave them for the valleys. Before a journey the later Romans +prayed for good fortune;[521] in the old times travelling was of course +unusual, and when it did occur the traveller was surrounded by so many +spiritual as well as material dangers that _special_ religious measures +must have been taken, as by fetials or armies on entering foreign +territory. The survival of the same kind of belief and practice is also +seen in private life in the religious commendations of some authors at +the outset of their literary work; Varro, for example, at the beginning +of his work on agriculture, calls on all the agrarian deities (_iis deis +ad venerationem advocatis_) before he goes on to mention even the +bibliography of his subject.[522] Livy in the last sentence of his +preface would fain imitate the poets in calling on the gods to bless and +favour his undertaking. And in all time of their tribulation, even if +not in all time of their wealth, the pious Romans sought help from the +deities from whom help might be expected; if, at least, the many +instances occurring in Roman poetry may point to a practice of the +ordinary individual and family.[523] So too, if we may judge by many +passages in the plays of Plautus and Terence,[524]--if here we have +genuine Roman usage, as is probable,--the feeling of dependence on a +Power manifesting itself in the affairs of daily life is shown also in +the expression of _thankfulness_ which followed success or escape from +peril. Gratitude was not a prominent characteristic of the Roman, but I +have already remarked on the presence of it in the practice of the +_votum_, and there is at least some evidence that it was recognised as +due to benignant deities as well as human beings.[525] + +In public life, throughout Roman history, the forms of religious rites +were maintained on all important occasions. When Varro wrote a little +manual of Senatorial procedure for the benefit of the inexperienced +Pompeius when consul in 70 B.C., he was careful to mention the +preliminary sacrifice and _auspicatio_, performed by the presiding +magistrate, who also had to see that the business _de rebus divinis_ +came first on the paper of agenda.[526] At one time every speaker +invoked the gods at the beginning of his oration, as well indeed he +might in a situation so unusual and trying for a Roman before the days +of Greek education; and the earliest speeches preserved in the literary +age, _e.g._ those of Cato and the Gracchi, retained the religious +exordium.[527] We have a trace of the Gracchan practice in a famous +passage at the end of the work called _Rhetorica ad Herennium_ of +_circ._ 82 B.C., where the death of Ti. Gracchus is graphically +described.[528] But there is no need to multiply examples of public +religious formalism on occasions of all kinds, on entering on an office, +founding a colony, leaving Rome for a provincia, and so on; some of them +I have already mentioned, others are familiar to all classical students. + +So let us not hesitate for a moment to give this people credit for their +religiousness. True, their neighbours, Greeks like Polybius, approved of +it only with an ironical smile on their lips, as we may smile at the +devoted formalism of extreme Catholic or Protestant, while we +secretly--if we have some sympathy with strangely varying human +nature--admire the confidence and regularity that we cannot ourselves +claim. At the moment where I have thus paused before beginning my second +story, at the end, that is, of the regal period, I believe that this +religious system, though perhaps beginning to harden, still meant a +profound belief in the Power thus manifested in many forms, and an +ardent and effective desire to be in right relation to it. I believe +that it contained the germ of a living and fruitful growth; but that +growth was at this very moment arrested by the beginning of a process of +which I shall have much to say in the next two or three lectures. + +But it is hard to realise this better side of the religion of a hard and +practical people, and all the more so since it is the worse side that is +almost always presented to us in modern books. It is hard to realise +that it was not merely a system of insurance, so to speak, against all +kinds of material evils,--and here again all the more so because there +is a tendency just now to reduce both religion and law to an origin in +magic, leaving the religious instinct, the _feeling of dependence_, the +progenitor of conscience, quite out of account. One must indeed be +thoroughly familiar with Roman literature and antiquities to overcome +these difficulties, to discover the spiritual residuum in the Roman +character beneath all its hardness and utilitarianism. Before we pass on +to the task before us, let me make two suggestions for the help of those +who would endeavour to find this spiritual residuum. The first is that +they should consider the history and true meaning of three great words +which Latin language has bequeathed to modern speech,--_religio_, the +feeling of awe, taking practical shape in the performance of authorised +ceremonies; _sacrum_, that which by authoritative usage is made over +without reserve to the divine inhabitants of the city; and last but not +least, _pietas_, the sense of duty to god and man alike, to all divine +and human beings having an authorised claim upon you. And this word +_pietas_ shall introduce my second suggestion--that there is no better +way of getting to understand the spirit of the Roman religion than by +continual study of the _Aeneid_, where the hero is the ideal Roman, +_pius_ in the best and widest sense. What makes the _Aeneid_ so helpful +in this way is the poet's intimate and sympathetic knowledge of the +religious ideas of the Italians, in which we may see reflected those of +the Roman of the age we are now dealing with: his love too of antiquity +and of all ancient rites and legends; and his conviction that the great +work of Rome in the world had been achieved not only by _virtus_ but by +_pietas_. What has been won by _virtus_ must be preserved by _pietas_, +by the sense of duty in family and State,--that is the moral of the +_Aeneid_. In no other work of Roman genius is this idea found in +anything like the same degree of prominence and consistency; and when a +student has steeped his mind well in the details of the Roman worship, +and begins to weary of what must seem its soulless Pharisaism, let him +take up the _Aeneid_ and read it right through for the story and the +characters. I will venture to say that he will think better both of the +Romans and their poet than he ever did before. But of the _Aeneid_ I +shall have more to say later on; at present let us turn to the less +inspiring topics which must occupy us for the next few lectures. + +The last fact of Roman religious history which I mentioned last year was +the building of the great Capitoline temple of Jupiter, Juno, and +Minerva, and I then explained why this constituted a religious +revolution. The next temple of which tradition tells us was destined for +another trias, Ceres, Liber, and Libera; the traditional date was 493 +B.C., the cause a famine, and the site was at the foot of the Aventine, +the plebeian quarter outside the pomoerium, close to the river where +corn-ships might be moored.[529] Ceres, Liber, and Libera are plainly +neither more nor less than the three Greek corn deities, Demeter, +Dionysus, and Persephone, in a Latin form,[530] whose worship was +prominent in South Italy and Sicily; and unless we throw tradition +overboard entirely, as indeed has often been done, the inference is +obvious that this trias came from the Greeks of the south with an +importation of corn to relieve a famine which pressed especially on the +plebs. It is a fact that the temple and its cult remained always closely +connected with the plebs; they were under the charge of the plebeian +aediles, who also in historical times had the care of the corn-supply +necessary for the city population.[531] Thus, though we need not accept +in full Livy's statement that the very next year corn was imported from +Etruria, Cumae, and Sicily, it cannot be denied that there is a strong +consensus in the various traditions about the temple, which taken +together suggest a Greek, non-patrician, and early origin. That the cult +had at all times a Greek character is undisputed fact. + +But I am not so much concerned with the temple itself as with the date +and the manner of its foundation. It was said to have been founded in +the year 496, and dedicated in 493, in obedience to directions found in +"the Sibylline books," which books, according to the well-known +tradition, had been acquired by the last Tarquin, after some haggling, +from an old woman, and placed in the charge of _duoviri sacris +faciundis_. The story itself is worthless in detail; but the question +for us is whether it can be taken as showing that the Sibylline +influence then pervading the Greek world gained a footing at Rome in any +form so early as this. Was the temple really founded in 496, or at some +time thereabout? And was it founded in obedience to some Sibylline +direction? These questions are of real importance, for upon our answer +to them depends the date of the beginning of a gradual metamorphosis of +the Roman religious practice. The so-called Sibylline books and their +keepers were responsible, as we shall see directly, for the introduction +at Rome of what was known as the _Graecus ritus_,--for the foundation of +temples to deities of Greek origin, and for other rites which initiated +an entirely new type of religious feeling. We need to be sure when all +this began. + +In the first place, so far as I can judge, it is almost impossible to +dissociate the origin of the temple from Sibylline influence. As we have +seen, the cult was Greek, and all such Greek cults of later times were +introduced by the keepers of the Sibylline books; and further, the +records of temple foundations were among the most carefully preserved +facts in Roman annals.[532] I think it is hardly possible to suppose +that a cult which came, not from Latium or southern Etruria, like those +of Diana, Minerva, and the Capitoline deities, but from some Greek +region to the south, and probably from Sicily, could have been +introduced by Roman authorities unaided by Greek influence. If that be +so, and if we can show that the temple really belongs to this early age, +then we have a strong probability that the Sibylline influence gained a +footing at Rome at the very beginning of the republican period.[533] + +There is one curious fact in connection with the temple that in my +opinion goes far to prove that the traditional date is not far out. +Pliny tells us explicitly that the two Greek artists who decorated the +temple, Damophilus and Gorgasus, inscribed their names on the walls, and +he added that the work of the former would be found on the right and +that of the latter on the left.[534] Nothing more is known about them; +but I am assured that the fact that they signed their names and added +these statements suits the character of Greek art in the archaic age 580 +to 450 B.C. No signatures of artists are known earlier than about 580; +then comes a period when signatures are found, sometimes with statements +such as these. And lastly, about 450, we begin to find simple signatures +without any other words.[535] Thus the presumption is a strong one that +the temple belongs to a time earlier than 450; and if that be so, then I +think the inference holds good that the Sibyl first gained a footing at +Rome about the same time. There are indeed some reasons why we should +not put this event in the period of the kings;[536] but if we accept the +traditional date of the temple we may put it any time between 509 and +496. + +I have purposely used vague terms, such as Sibylline _influence_, +instead of speaking in the old manner of Sibylline _books_ or oracles, +because it is almost incredible that at so early a date it could have +been possible to divulge any contents of a store of writings such as +must have been most carefully treasured and concealed. This has been +shown conclusively to be out of the question in Diels' now famous little +book "_Sibylline Leaves_." But we may also follow Diels in assuming that +about the end of the sixth century some kind of Greek oracle or oracular +saying did actually arrive at Rome, purporting to be an utterance of the +famous Sibyl of Cumae.[537] + +But what _was_ this Sibylline influence which thus penetrated to Rome, +if I am right, at the beginning of the fifth century? It is no part of +my design to discuss the history of Greek mysticism, though we shall +hear something more of it in a later lecture. It will be enough to +remind you that in the sixth century Greece was not only full of Orphism +and Pythagoreanism, but of floating oracular _dicta_ believed to emanate +from a mystic female figure, a weird figure of whom it is hard to say +how far she was human or divine; and of whose origin we know nothing, +except that her original home was, as we might expect, Asia Minor. She +was inspired by Apollo,[538] it was said, like the Pythia, and like her +too became [Greek: entheos] (_possessed_) when uttering her prophecies; +this is the earliest fact we know about her, for a famous fragment of +Heracleitus represents her as uttering sayings "with frenzied +lips,"[539]--a tradition of which Virgil has made good use in the sixth +_Aeneid_: + + non vultus, non color unus, + non comptae mansere comae; sed pectus anhelum, + et rabie fera corda tument. + +But more to our purpose is the sober judgment of Plato a century after +the first Roman experience of her, who in the _Phaedrus_ classes her +among those who have wrought _much good_ by their inspired +utterances.[540] This passage may help us to understand how ready men +were at that time to turn for aid in tribulation to what they believed +to be divine help, to an inspired wisdom beyond the range of the local +deities of their own city-states. + +This Sibyl became gradually localised in certain Greek cities, and +thereby broke up, as it were, into several Sibyls. One of these +Sibylline homes was at Cumae in Campania, the oldest Greek city in +Italy, and this enables us to explain easily how the name and fame of +the Sibyl reached Rome. Dim as is all early Roman history, the one clear +fact of the sixth century is, as we have seen, the rapid advance of the +Etruscans, their occupation of Rome, Praeneste, and other Latin cities, +and their conquest of Campania, which is now ascribed to that same +age.[541] Legend told in later days how the last Etruscan king had taken +refuge at Cumae after his expulsion from Rome, and it is just possible +that it may here be founding upon some dim recollection of a fact. +However this may be, it is plain that it was through the great Etruscan +disturbance of that period that Rome came to make trial of Sibylline +utterances. In a moment of distress--the famine of which I spoke just +now, and which I take to be historical because the remedy, the temple +under the Aventine, was so closely connected with the corn-supply--she +sent for or admitted an utterance of the Sibyl of Cumae, with whom she +had come into some kind of contact through her Etruscan kings. + +Let us consider that this foreign dynasty must have brought a new +population to the city on the Tiber, the chief strategic point of middle +Italy,--a new element of plebs, whatever the old one may have been.[542] +We have seen signs, even in the religious history of this age, that +commerce and industry were increasing, and that their increase was due +to a movement from without, rather than to the old patrician _gentes_. +When the Etruscan dynasty fell and the old patrician influence was +restored, the government must have been face to face with new +difficulties, and among them the supply of corn for an increasing +population in years of bad harvest. With a fresh source of supply from +the south came the cult of the Greek corn-deities at the bidding of a +Sibylline utterance; and henceforward that remedy was available for +other troubles. But the patrician rulers of Rome were true, it would +seem, as far as was possible, to the old ways, and for a long time they +used this foreign remedy very sparingly. At what date the utterances +were collected in "books" and deposited in the Capitoline temple we do +not know, nor have we any certain knowledge of their original nature or +form. Tradition said that the collection dated from the last king's +reign, and that it was placed in the care of _duoviri sacris faciundis_, +as we have seen, who in 367 B.C. gave way to _decemviri_, five of whom +might be members of the plebs. I am myself inclined to conjecture that +this comparatively late date may be the real date of the origin of a +_permanent collection_ and a _permanent college of keepers_, and that +the earlier _duoviri_ were only temporary religious officers, _sacris +faciundis_, _i.e._ for the carrying out of the directions of Sibylline +utterances specially sought for at Cumae. They would thus be of the same +class as other special commissions appointed by the Senate for +administrative purposes;[543] while the decemviri, though retaining the +old title, were permanent religious officers appointed to collect and +take charge of a new and important set of regulations for the benefit of +the community, and one which concerned the plebs at least as much as the +patricians. + +But I must turn to the more important question how far, down to the war +with Hannibal, when I shall take up the subject afresh, the Roman +religion was affected for good or harm by these utterances and their +keepers. They took effect in two ways: either by introducing new deities +and settling them in new temples, or by ordering and organising new +ceremonies such as Rome had never seen before. + +The introduction of a new deity now and again was not of great account +from the point of view of religion, except in so far as it encouraged +the new ceremonies; the Romans had never taken much personal interest in +their deities, and the arrival (outside the pomoerium in each case) of +Hermes under the name of Mercurius, or Poseidon bearing the name of the +old Roman water _numen_ Neptunus, or even of Asclepios with a Romanised +name Aesculapius, would not be likely to affect greatly their ideas of +the divine. These facts have rather a historical than a religious +significance; Hermes Empolaios, for example, suggests trade with Greek +cities, perhaps in grain,[544] and belongs therefore to the same class +as Ceres, Liber, Libera, of whom I have already spoken. The arrival of +Poseidon-Neptune may mean, as Dr. Carter has suggested, a kind of +"marine insurance" for the vessels carrying the grain from Greek +ports.[545] The settling of Aesculapius in the Tiber island in 293, as +the result of a terrible pestilence, is interesting as being the first +fact known to us in the history of medicine at Rome; the temple became a +kind of hospital on the model of Epidaurus, where the god had been +brought in the form of a snake by an embassy sent for the purpose, and +the priests who served it were probably Greeks skilled in the healing +art.[546] This last case is a curious example of new Roman religious +experience, but it can hardly be said to have any deep significance in +the religious history of Rome. Of the obliteration of the old _numen_ +Neptunus by the Greek god who took his name we know nothing for good or +ill; we are ignorant of the real meaning of the old _numen_, and cannot +tell whether the loss of him was compensated by the usefulness of his +name in Roman literature to represent the Greek god of the sea. + +Let us turn to the much more important subject of the new ceremonies +ordered by the Sibylline "books." The first authentic case of such +innovation occurred in 399 B.C., during the long and troublesome siege +of the dangerous neighbour city Veii; I call it authentic because all +the best modern authorities so reckon it, though it occurred before the +destruction of old records during the capture of the city by the Gauls. +The circumstances were such as to fix themselves in the memory of the +people, and in one way or another they found their way into the earliest +annals, probably those of Fabius Pictor, composed during the Second +Punic War.[547] + +The previous winter, Livy tells us,[548] was one of extraordinary +severity; the roads were blocked with snow, and navigation on the Tiber +stopped by the ice. This miserable winter was followed too suddenly by a +hot season, in which a plague broke out which consumed both man and +beast, and continued so persistently that the Senate ordered the +Sibylline books to be consulted. This persistence is the first point we +should notice; "Cuius insanabili pernicie quando nec causa nec finis +inveniebatur,"--so wrote Livy, evidently meaning to express an extremity +of trouble which would not give way to ordinary religious remedies. We +may compare his account of the next recorded consultation of the books +(Livy vii. 2), when neither the old rites nor even the new ones were +sufficient to secure the _pax deorum_ and abate another pestilence, and +recourse was had to yet another remedy in the form of _ludi scenici_. +The times were out of joint,--the peace of the gods was broken, and thus +the community was no longer in right relation to the Power manifesting +itself in the universe. The result was a revival of _religio_, of the +feeling of alarm and anxiety out of which the whole religious system had +grown. The old deities might seem to be forsaking their functions, since +the old rites had ceased to appeal to them. Mysterious and persistent +pestilence is a great tamer of human courage; it is a new experience +that man knows not how to meet, and in ancient life it was also a new +_religious_ experience. + +The remedy was as new as the pestilence, and almost as pernicious. +During eight days Rome saw three pairs of deities reclining in the form +of images on couches, before which were spread tables covered with food +and drink. Whether in this first case they were taken out of the temples +and exposed to view in certain places, _e.g._ the forum, is not clear; +later on, in the days of _supplicationes_, of which more will be said +presently, they were visited in procession. The three pairs were Apollo +and Latona, Diana and Hercules, Mercurius and Neptunus; all of them +Greek, or, as in the case of Diana, Mercurius, and Neptunus, Roman +deities in their new Greek form. We cannot trace the special +applicability of all of them to the trouble they were thus invoked to +appease,--another point that suggests a complete revolution in the Roman +ways of contemplating divine beings. These are not functional _numina_, +but foreigners whose ways were only known to the manipulators of the +Sibylline utterances. They seem like quack remedies, of which the action +is unknown to the consumer. + +New also, but better in its effect, was the publicity of these +proceedings, and the part taken in them by the whole population, +patrician and plebeian, men, women, and children. If we can trust Livy's +further statements, every one left his door open and kept open house, +inviting all to come in, whether known or unknown; all old quarrels were +made up, and no new ones suffered to begin; prisoners were freed from +their chains, and universal good-will prevailed. These eight days were +in fact kept as holidays, and doubtless by the novelty of the whole +scene the astute authorities hoped to inspire fresh hope and confidence, +and to divert attention from the prevailing misery, just as our soldiers +in India are induced to forget the presence of cholera in a station by +constant games and amusements. That this was really one leading object +of the whole show is not generally recognised by historians; but it +seems fully explained by the fact I mentioned just now, that in the +similar trouble of 349 B.C. recourse was had for the first time to _ludi +scenici_ in order to amuse the people. In the history of the Hannibalic +war we shall have plenty of opportunity of noting this kind of +expedient. The Roman people, we must remember, were getting more and +more to be inhabitants of a large city, and, as such, to seek for +entertainment, like all citizens in all ages. The religious rites of the +old calendar were perhaps by this time getting too familiar, losing +their original meaning; whether they had ever been very entertaining to +a city population may be doubted. Something more showy was needed; +processions had always been to the taste of the Roman, and banquets, +such as the epulum Iovis, which I have already noticed, often +accompanied the processions. + +Now, this love of show and novelty, of which we have abundant evidence +later on as a Roman characteristic, taken together with the anxiety and +alarm--the new _religio_--arising from the pestilence, will sufficiently +explain the _lectisternia_, as these shows were called. We have here in +fact the first appearance, constantly recurring in later Roman history, +of a tendency to seek not only for novelty, but for a more emotional +expression of religious feeling than was afforded by the old forms of +sacrifice and prayer, conducted as they were by the priest on behalf of +the community without its active participation. Those old forms might do +for the old patrician community of farmers and warriors, but not so well +for the new and ever-increasing population of artisans and other +workmen, whether of Roman or foreign descent. It would seem, indeed, as +if the sensitiveness of the human fibre of a primitive community +increases with its increasing complexity, and with the greater variety +of experience to which it is exposed; and in the case of Rome, as if the +simple ancient methods of dealing with the divine inhabitants of the +city were no longer adequate to the needs of a State which was steering +its way to empire among so many difficulties and perils. It is not +indeed certain that the new rites, or some points in them, may not have +had their prototypes in old Italian usage, though the _lectisternia_, +the actual display of gods in human form and in need of food like human +beings, are almost certainly Greek in origin.[549] But so far as we can +guess, the emotional element was wholly new. True, Livy tells us in two +passages of his third book of occasions when men, women, and children +flocked to all the shrines (_omnia delubra_) seeking for the _pax +deorum_ at the invitation of the senate; but the early date, the great +improbability of the senate taking any such step, and the absence of any +mention of the priesthoods, makes it difficult to believe that these +assertions are based on any genuine record. We must be content to mark +the first _lectisternia_ in 399 as the earliest authentic example of the +emotional tendency of the Roman plebs.[550] + +If we can judge of this period of Roman religious history by the general +tendency of the policy of the Roman government, we may see here a +deliberate attempt to include the new population in worship of a kind +that would calm its fears, engage its attention, and satisfy its +emotion, while leaving uncontaminated the old ritual that had served the +State so long. If this conclusion be a right one, then we must allow +that the new ceremonial had its use. Dr. Frazer has lately told us in +his eloquent and persuasive way, of how much value superstition has been +in building up moral habits and the instinct of submission to civil +order. His thesis might be illustrated adequately from the history of +Rome alone. But from a purely religious point of view the story of the +_lectisternia_ is a sad one. The old Roman invisible _numen_, working +with force in a particular department of human life and its environment, +was a far nobler mental conception, and far more likely to grow into a +power for good, than the miserable images of Graeco-Roman full-blown +gods and goddesses reclining on their couches and appearing to partake +of dinner like a human citizen. Such ideas of the divine must have +forced men's religious ideas clean away from the Power manifesting +itself in the universe, and must have dragged down the Roman _numina_ +with them in their corrupting degradation. According to our definition +of it, religion was now in a fair way to disappear altogether; what was +destined to take its place was not really religion at all. Nor did it in +any way assist the growth of an individual conscience, as perhaps did +some of the later religious forms introduced from without. It was of +value for the moment to the State, in satisfying a population greatly +disturbed by untoward events; and that was all. + +Closely connected with the _lectisternia_, and following close upon them +in chronological order, were the processional ceremonies called +_supplicationes_. The historical relation between the two is by no means +clear; but if we conclude, as I am fairly sure we may, that the +_lectisternia_ were shows of a joyful character, accompanied, as Livy +describes the first one, with private entertainments, and meant to keep +up the spirits of the plebeian population, and if we then turn to the +early _supplicationes_, in which men, women, and children, _coronati_, +and carrying laurel branches, went in procession to the temples, and +there prostrated themselves after the Greek fashion, the women "crinibus +passis aras verrentes," we shall be disposed to look on them as, in +origin at least, distinct from each other.[551] We may conjecture that +the appearance of the gods in human form at the doors of their temples +suggested to the plebeian women a kind of emotional worship which was +alien to the old Roman feeling, but familiar enough to those (and they +must have been many) who knew the life of the Greek cities of Italy. It +may be that they had tried it even in earlier times; but anyhow, in the +fourth and third centuries B.C. advantage was taken of the _pulvinaria_ +to use them as stopping-places in the procession of a _supplicatio_, and +the phrase becomes a common one in the annals, "supplicatio ad omnia +pulvinaria indicta." The _lectisternia_ were ordered five times in the +fourth century;[552] by that time, it would seem likely, the +_supplicationes_ had become an authorised institution, and had perhaps +embodied the practice of _lectisternia_ in the way suggested above. We +shall meet with them again when we come to the religious history of the +war with Hannibal. + +One word more before I leave this subject for the present. In all this +innovation we must not forget to note the growth of individual feeling +as distinguished from the old worship of civic grouping, in which the +individual, as such, was of little or no account. I pointed out the +first signs of this individualism when speaking of the temple of the +Capitoline Jupiter, and we shall have reason to mark its rapid growth +further. We are now, in fact, and must realise that we are, in a period +in which, throughout the Graeco-Roman world, the need was beginning to +be felt of some new rule of individualistic morality. The Roman +population, now recruited from many sources, was but reflecting this +need unconsciously when it insisted on new emotional rites and +expiations. The Roman authorities were forced to satisfy the demand; but +in doing so they made no real contribution to the history of Roman +religious experience. It was impossible that they should do so; they +represented the old civic form of religion, "bound up with the life of a +society, and unable to contemplate the individual except as a member of +it."[553] The new forms of worship, the _supplicatio_ and +_lectisternium_, could not be, as the old forms had in some sense been, +the consecration of civic and national life. They were to the Romans as +the worship of Baal to the Jews of the time of the Kings; and, unlike +that poisonous cult, they could never be rooted out.[554][555] + + + NOTES TO LECTURE XI + + [510] This is the expression of Sallust, _Catil._ 12. 3. + + [511] See my paper on the Latin history of the word + _religio_, in _Transactions of the Congress for the + History of Religions_, 1909, vol. ii. p. 172. W. Otto in + _Archiv_, 1909, p. 533 foll. + + [512] Cic. _de Nat. Deorum_, ii. 8. + + [513] Cic. _Harusp. resp._ 19. + + [514] Livy xliv. 1. 11; Sallust, _l.c._; Gellius, _Noct. + Att._ ii. 28. 2. + + [515] Polyb. vi. 56. + + [516] Posidonius ap. Athenaeum vi. 274 A; Dion. + Hal. ii. 27. 3. + + [517] Gell. ii. 28. + + [518] Marquardt, iii. 126. + + [519] Cato, _R.R._ 142. + + [520] Calpurnius, _Eclogue_, v. 24. I have described a + similar scene in the Alps in _A Year with the Birds_, + ed. 2, p. 126. + + [521] Petronius, _Sat._ 117: "His ita ordinatis, quod + bene feliciterque eveniret precati deos, viam + ingredimur." I owe this reference, as others in this + context, to Appel's treatise _de Romanorum + precationibus_, p. 56 foll. + + [522] Varro, _R.R._ i. 1. + + [523] _e.g._ Virg. _Aen._ v. 685 (Aeneas during the + burning of the fleet); _Aen._ xii. 776 (Turnus in + extremity). Cp. Tibull. iii. 5. 6 (in sickness). + + [524] A good example is _Captivi_, 922: "Iovi disque ago + gratias merito magnas quom te redducem tuo patri + reddiderunt," etc. + + [525] For gratitude to human beings see Valerius Maximus + v. 2. A good example of gratitude to a deity is in Gell. + _N.A._ iv. 18; but it is told of Scipio the elder, who + was eccentric for a Roman. When accused by a tribune of + peculation in Asia he said, "Non igitur simus adversum + deos ingrati et, censeo, relinquamus nebulonem hunc, + eamus hinc protinus Iovi Optimo Maximo gratulatum." + Public gratitude to the gods is frequent in later + _supplicationes_, _e.g._ Livy xxx. 17. 6. + + [526] Gellius, _N.A._ xiv. 7. 9. + + [527] Servius ad _Aen._ xi. 301 ("praefatus divos solio + rex infit ab alto"). + + [528] This was in a _contio_: "Cum Gracchus deos + inciperet precari." See above, Lecture VII. note 13. + + [529] See _R.F._ p. 74 foll.; Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 243. + For the relation of the pomoerium to the wall, see + above, p. 94. + + [530] The process is amusingly explained by Carter in + _The Religion of Numa_, p. 72 foll. + + [531] _R.F._ p. 75. + + [532] See Aust, _De aedibus sacris P.R._, passim. + + [533] Lately this has been denied by Pais, _Storia di + Roma_, i. 339. + + [534] Pliny, _N.H._ 35, 154. + + [535] I owe the information to my friend Prof. Percy + Gardner. + + [536] See Carter, _op. cit._ p. 66; but I am not sure + that his reasons are conclusive. + + [537] Diels, _Sibyllinische Blaetter_, p. 6 foll., and + cp. 79. + + [538] It should be noted that the cult of Apollo in Rome + was older than the introduction of Sibylline influence; + so at least it is generally assumed. Wissowa, however + (_R.K._ p. 239), puts it as "gleichzeitig." The date of + the Apollinar in pratis Flaminiis, the oldest Apolline + fanum in Rome (outside pomoerium), is unknown; that of + the temple on the same site was 431 (Livy iv. 25 and + 29). There is little doubt that the Apollo-cult spread + from Cumae northwards, and was by this time well + established in Italy. (The foundation of the temple of + 431, consisting of opus quadratum, still in part + survives: Huelsen-Jordan, _Rom. Topographie_, iii. 535). + + [539] Heracleitus, _fragm._ xii., ed. Bywater. + + [540] _Phaedrus_, p. 244. + + [541] So Korte in Pauly-Wissowa, _Real-Encycl._, _s.v._ + "Etrusker." + + [542] The present tendency is to take the plebs as + representing an older population of Latium before the + arrival of the patricians; see, _e.g._, Binder, _Die + Plebs_, p. 358 foll. But the plebs of later days is not + to be explained on one hypothesis only. + + [543] _e.g._ in religious matters the _duoviri aedi + dedicandae_; Mommsen, _Staatsrecht_, ii. 601 foll. + + [544] Carter, _Religion of Numa_, p. 77 foll. It is + uncertain whether there was a Roman Mercurius of earlier + origin, or whether the name Mercurius (_i.e._ concerned + in trade) was a new invention to avoid using the Greek + name, as in the case of the trias Ceres, Liber, Libera. + + [545] Carter, _op. cit._ 81. The connection of this + Poseidon-Neptunus and Hermes-Mercurius is confirmed by + the fact that the two were paired in the first + _lectisternium_, 399 B.C. Livy v. 13. + + [546] Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 254. + + [547] See Diels, _Sib. Blaetter_, p. 12, note 1. + + [548] Livy v. 13. + + [549] I have discussed the possibility of the epulum + Iovis being an old Italian rite in _R.F._ p. 215 foll. + For the Greek origin of these shows see _Dict. of + Antiquities_, ed. 2, _s.v._ "lectisternia." + + [550] Livy iii. 5. 14, and 7. 7. + + [551] The plebeian tendencies of the time are suggested, + _e.g._, by the fact that immediately before the first + _lectisternium_ a plebeian was elected military tribune + (Livy v. 13). The fourth century is of course the period + of plebeian advance in all departments, and ends with + the opening of the priesthoods to the plebs by the lex + Ogulnia, and the publication of the Fasti. Plebeian too, + I suspect, was the keeping open house and promiscuous + hospitality which is recorded by Livy of the first + _lectisternia_; this was the practice of the plebs on + the Cerealia (April 19), and was perhaps an old custom + connected with the supply of corn and the temple of + Ceres (see above, p. 255). It was not imitated by the + patrician society, with its reserve and exclusiveness, + till the institution of the Megalesia in 204 B.C. See + Gellius xviii. 2. 11. + + [552] The expression _crinibus demissis_ is found in a + lex regia (Festus, _s.v._ "pellices"); the harlot who + touches Juno's altar has to offer a lamb to Juno + "crinibus demissis." This is therefore Roman practice. + + [553] For the _supplicationes_ see Wissowa, _R.K._ 357 + foll.; Marq. 48 and 188; and the author's article in + _Dict. of Antiquities_. The passages already referred to + as doubtful evidence (Livy iii. 5. 14, 7. 7) describe + all the features of the _supplicatio_ as early as the + first half of the fifth century. A list of later + passages in Livy will be found in Marq. 49, note 4. On + the whole I doubt if much was made of these rites before + the third century and the Punic wars. + + [554] Wissowa, _R.K._ 356, note 7. + + [555] Caird, _Gifford Lectures_, vol. ii. p. 46. + + + + +LECTURE XII + +THE PONTIFICES AND THE SECULARISATION OF RELIGION + + +In the last lecture we saw how the new experiences of the Roman people, +during the period from the abolition of the kingship to the war with +Hannibal, led to the introduction of foreign deities and showy +ceremonies of a character quite strange to the old religion. But there +was another process going on at the same time. The authorities of that +old religion were full of vigour in this same period; it may even be +said, that as far as we can trace their activity in the dim light of +those early days, they made themselves almost supreme in the State. And +the result was, in brief, that religion became more and more a matter of +State administration, and thereby lost its chance of developing the +conscience of the individual. It is indeed quite possible, as has +recently been maintained,[556] that it stood actively in the way of such +development. I have no doubt that there was a germ of conscience, of +moral feeling, in the _religio_ of old days--the feeling of anxiety and +doubt which originally suggested the _cura_ and _caerimonia_ of the +State; but the efforts of the authorities in this period were spent in +gradually destroying that germ. True, they did not interfere with the +simple religion of the family, which had its value all through Roman +history; but the attitude of the individual towards public worship will +react on his attitude towards private worship, which may also have lost +some part of its vitality in this period. + +The religious authorities of which I speak are of course the two great +colleges of pontifices and augurs. Of the latter, and of the system of +divination of which they held the secrets, I will speak in the next +lecture. Here we have to do with the pontifices and their work in this +period, a thorny and somewhat technical subject, but a most important +one for the history of Roman religious experience. + +I have so far assumed that this college existed in the age of the kings, +and assisted the Rex in the administration of the _ius divinum_. It is +legitimate to do this, but as a matter of fact we do not know for +certain what was the origin of the college itself, or of its mysterious +name. In the period we have now reached we come, however, upon a +striking fact, which is luckily easy to interpret; the king's house, the +_Regia_, has become the office of the head of the college, the pontifex +maximus, and also the meeting-place of the college for business.[557] +Obviously this head, whether or no he existed during the kingly period, +has stepped into the place of the Rex in the control of the _ius +divinum_. Again, we know that in the third century B.C., when written +history begins, the pontifices and their head had reached a very high +level of power, as we shall presently see more in detail; the process of +the growth of this power must therefore lie in the two preceding +centuries, during which Rome was slowly attaining that paramount +position in Italy in which we find her at the time of the Punic wars. +Thirdly, we know that in that third century B.C. the college was laid +open to plebeians as well as to members of the old patrician gentes, and +that one of the most famous of all its many distinguished heads was not +only not a patrician, but a Latin from Cameria, Ti. Coruncanius. Putting +these three facts together we can divine in outline the history of the +pontifices during these two centuries. With the instinct for order and +organisation that never failed them, the Romans have constructed a +_permanent_ power to take charge of their _ius divinum_, _i.e._ all +their relations to the deities with whom they must maintain a _pax_; the +circumstances of their career during two centuries have exalted this +power to an extraordinary degree of influence, direct and indirect, +internal and external; and, lastly, in a period which saw the gradual +amalgamation into a unified whole of privileged and unprivileged, +_patres_ and _plebs_, they have with wonderful wisdom thrown open to all +citizens the administration of that _ius_ which was essential to the +welfare of the united community. These are indisputable facts; and they +are thoroughly characteristic of the practical wisdom of the Roman +people in that early age. + +In order to understand how the pontifices attained their great position, +the one thing needful is to examine the nature of their work. This I +propose to do next, and then to attempt to sum up the result of their +activity on the Roman religious system. + +It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of the college in the +early history of Roman law; and for us in particular that importance +lies in the fact that they were the sole depositaries of the religious +law in the period during which the civil law was being slowly +disentangled from it. If we look at the so-called _leges regiae_, which +are probably the oldest rules of law that have come down to us (though +they may have been made into a collection as late as the very end of the +Republic),[558] we see at once that they belong to the _ius divinum_; +and there is little doubt that they were extracted from those books of +the pontifices which I shall have to explain later on.[559] In other +words, it is the maintenance of the _pax deorum_ that they are chiefly +concerned with; the crime of the citizen is a violation of that _pax_, +and the deity most concerned will punish the community unless some +expiatory step is taken to re-establish the right relation between the +human and divine inhabitants of the city. "Pellex aram Iunonis ne +tangito; si tanget, Iunoni crinibus demissis agnum feminam caedito." "Si +parentem puer verberit, ast olle plorassit, puer divis parentum sacer +esto."[560] The harlot who touches the altar of Juno, the deity of +married women, breaks the _pax_ with that deity, and she must offer a +piacular sacrifice to renew it; the son who strikes a parent is made +over as the property of the _divi parentum_, _i.e._ those of the whole +community,[561] the peaceful relation with whom his act has imperilled. +With such rules as these the civil magistrate of the republic can have +had nothing to do; they belong to an older period of thought and of +government, and survived in the books of the college which under the +republic continued to administer the _ius divinum_; for these rules +doubtless continued to exist side by side with the civil law as it +gradually developed itself, and the necessary modes of expiation were +known to the pontifices only. Roman society was indeed so deeply +penetrated for many ages with the idea of _religio_--the dread of +violating the _pax deorum_,--that the idea of law as a matter of the +relation of man to man, as "the interference of the State in the +passions and interests of humanity only," must have gained ground by +very slow degrees. This primitive religious law then, _i.e._ the +regulation of the proper steps to be taken to avoid a breach of the _pax +deorum_, was entirely in the hands of the religious authorities, the Rex +at first and then the pontifices, as the only experts who could know the +secrets of the _ius divinum_; and from their decisions and prescriptions +there could be no appeal, simply because there was no individual or body +in the State to whom an appeal was conceivable. But after the rule of +the Etruscan kings, with all its disturbing influences, and after the +revolution which got rid of them, there must have been an age of new +ideas and increased mental activity, and also of increasing social +complexity, the signs of which in the way of trade and industry we have +already found in certain facts of religious history. In the domain of +law this meant new problems, new difficulties; and these were met in the +middle of the fifth century B.C., if the received chronology is to be +accepted,[562] by the publication of the XII. Tables. + +In order to get some idea of the work of the pontifices at this time, +let us consider one or two of these difficulties and problems. + +Within the family every act, every relation, was matter of religion; the +_numina_ had to be considered in regard to it. The end and aim, then as +throughout Roman history, was the maintenance of the _sacra_ of the +family, without which it could not be conceived as existing--the due +worship of its deities, and the religious care of its dead. Take +marriage as an example: "the entry of a bride into the household--of one +who as yet had no lot in the family life--meant some straining of the +relation between the divine and human members,"[563] and the human part +of the family must be assured that the divine part is willing to accept +her before the step can be regarded as complete. She has to enter the +family in such a way as to share in its _sacra_; and if _confarreatio_ +was (as we may believe) the oldest form of patrician marriage,[564] the +bride was subjected to a ceremony which was plainly of a sacramental +character--the sacred cake of _far_ being partaken of by both bride and +bridegroom in the presence of the highest religious authority of the +State. In the simplest form of society there would be no call for +further priestly interference in marriage; but in a society growing more +numerous and complex, exceptions, abnormal conditions begin to show +themselves, and new problems arise, which must be solved by new +expedients, prescriptions, permissions, devices, or fictions. For these +the religious authorities are solely responsible; for what is a matter +of religious interest to the family is also matter of religious interest +to the State, simply because the State is composed of families in the +same sense as the human body is composed of cellular tissue. All this, +we believe, was once the work of the Rex, perhaps with the college of +pontifices to help him; when the kingship disappeared it became the work +of that college solely, with the pontifex maximus as the chief +authority. + +So, too, in all other questions which concerned the maintenance of the +family, and especially in regard to the devolution of property. I am +here only illustrating the way in which the pontifical college acquired +their paramount influence by having a quantity of new and difficult work +forced upon them, and it is not part of my plan to explain the early +history of adoptions and wills; but I may give a single concrete +illustration for the benefit of those who are not versed in Roman law. +It must constantly have happened, in that disturbed period which brought +the kingship to an end, that by death or capture in war a family was +left without male heirs. Daughters could not take their place, because +the _sacra_ of a family could not be maintained by daughters, who would, +in the natural order of things, be sooner or later married and so become +members of other families. Hence the expedient was adopted of making a +_filius familias_ of another family a member of your own; and this, like +marriage, involved a straining of the relations between the human and +divine members of your family, and was thus a matter for the religious +authorities to contrive in such a manner as to preserve the _pax_ +between them. The difficulty was overcome by the practical wisdom of the +pontifical college, which held a solemn inquiry into the case before +submitting it to the people in specially summoned assembly (_comitia +calata_);[565] and thus the new _filius familias_ was enabled not only +to renounce his own _sacra_ (_detestatio sacrorum_), but to pass into +the guardianship of another set of _sacra_, without incurring the anger +of the _numina_ concerned with the welfare of either. + +Such difficult matters as these, and many more connected directly or +indirectly with the devolution of property, such as the guardianship of +women and of the incapable, the power to dispose of property otherwise +than by the original rules of succession, the law of burial and the care +of the dead,--all these, at the time of which I am speaking, must have +been among the secrets of the pontifices; and we can also suspect, +though without being sure of our facts, that the great increase of the +importance of the _plebs_ under the Etruscan dynasty offered further +opportunities for the growth alike of the work and influence of the +college.[566] Above all, we must remember that this work was done in +secret, that the mysteries of adjustment were unknown to the people when +once they had passed out of the ken of family and gens, and that there +could have been no appeal from the pontifices to any other body. Nay, +more, we must also bear in mind that this body of religious experts was +_self-electing_. Until the lex Domitia of 104 B.C. both pontifices and +augurs filled up their own colleges with persons whom they believed +qualified both by knowledge and disposition. Thus it would seem that +there was every chance that in that early Rome, where neither in family +nor State could anything be undertaken without some reference to the +religious authority, where the _pax deorum_ was the one essential object +of public and private life, a power might be developed apt one day not +only to petrify religion and stultify its worshippers, but thereby also +to cramp the energies of the community, acting as an obstacle to its +development within its walls and without. Had Roman law remained +entirely in the hands of this self-electing college, one of two things +must have happened: either that college would have become purely secular +in character, or the wonderful legal system that we still enjoy would +never have had space to grow up. But this was not to be; with the +publication of the XII. Tables a new era opens. + +If we reject, as we conscientiously may, the latest attempts of +criticism to post-date the drawing up of the Tables,[567] and in fact to +destroy their historical value for us, what is their significance for +our present purpose? It is simply that in the middle of the fifth +century B.C. the pontifices lost a monopoly--ceased to be the sole +depositaries of the rules of law affecting the _pax deorum_, and that +new rules are being set down in writing, on the basis of old custom, +which more especially affect the relations between the human citizens. +For both the _ius divinum_ and the _ius civile_ are to be found in this +collection, but the latter is beginning to assert its independence. I +think we may say, without much hesitation, that this event, however +doubtful its traditional details, did actually save Rome from either of +the two consequences to which I alluded just now. The constitution +developed itself on lay and not on ecclesiastical lines, leaving the +pontifices other work to do, and Roman civil law was eventually able to +free itself from the trammels of the _ius divinum_. + +But for another century the college still found abundant legal work to +do, for it was not likely that at Rome, the most conservative of all +city-states, it could be quickly set aside, or that the old ideas of law +could so speedily disappear. What then was this work? + +When rules of civil law were written down, it was still necessary to +deal with them in two ways which were open to the pontifices, and indeed +at this early time to no one else. First, it was necessary to make their +provisions effectual by prescribing in each case the proper method of +procedure (_actio_). Now it is most important to grasp the fact that +procedure in the _ius civile_ was originally of precisely the same +nature as procedure in the _ius divinum_, and that precisely the same +rigid exactness is indispensable in both. Action and formula in civil +law belong to the same class of practices as sacrifice and prayer in +religious law, and spring from the same mental soil. Thus, for example, +the most familiar case of action and formula in civil law, the +_sacramentum_, was, as the name proves, a piece of religious procedure, +_i.e._ the deposition in a sacred spot of a sum of money which the +suitor in the case would forfeit if he lost it, together with the +utterance of a certain formula of words which must be correctly spoken. +If we choose to go back so far, we may even see in this combination of +formularised act and speech a survival of magical or quasi-magical +belief;[568] but this is matter rather for the anthropologist than the +historian of religion. The point for us at this moment is that these +acts and formulae (_legis actiones_, as they are known in Roman law) +could not suddenly or rapidly pass out of the hands of that body of +skilled experts which had so long been in sole possession of them; the +publication of old and new rules of law in the XII. Tables made no +immediate difference in this respect. The consuls, the new civil +executive, were still in no sense necessarily skilled in such matters, +and were without the prestige of the former executive, the Rex; they +were also doubtless busy with other work, especially in the field. +Nothing could be more natural than that the pontifices should continue +to provide the procedure for the now written law, just as they had +formerly supplied it for the unwritten.[569] + +So, too, with the _interpretation_ of the Tables; this was the second +part of the work that still remained to them. Writing was in that age a +mystery to the mass of the population, and doubtless the idea was still +in their minds that there was something supernatural about it. Writing, +in fact, as well as formularised action and speech, may have had the +flavour of magic about it. However that may be, there can be no doubt +that the interpretation of a legal document was in those days a much +more serious, if a less arduous business, than it is now. Here again, +then, it seems perfectly natural that there should be no rapid or +violent change in the _personnel_ of those deemed capable of such +interpretation; there was no other body of experts capable of the work; +the pontifices remained _iuris-consulti_, _i.e._ interpreters and +advisers, and in the course of two and a half centuries accumulated an +amount of material that formed a basis for the first published system of +Roman law, the _ius Aelianum_ or _tripartita_ of 200 B.C. It is most +useful to remember, as proof of this, that one member of the college was +selected every year for the special purpose of helping the people with +advice in matters of civil law, both in regard to interpretation and the +choice of _legis actiones_; so we are expressly told by Pomponius, who +adds that this practice continued for about a hundred years after the +publication of the Tables, _i.e._ till the election of the first praetor +in 366.[570] After that date the _ius civile_ emerges more distinctly +from the old body of law, which included also the _ius divinum_, and its +interpretation was no longer a matter purely for religious experts. In +337 we hear of the first _plebeian_ praetor--truly a momentous event, +showing that the old profound belief is dying out, which demanded a +religious and patrician qualification for all legal work. And at the end +of the fourth century comes the publication, not only of the _legis +actiones_, but of the Fasti, _i.e._ even of that most vital part of the +_ius divinum_, which distinguished the times and seasons belonging to +the numina from those belonging to the human citizens.[571] One might +well suppose that the power of the pontifices was on the wane, for they +had lost another monopoly. + +And indeed in one sense this was so. It must have been so, for as the +range of the State's activity increased, the sphere of religious +influence became relatively less. Marriage, for example, though it still +needed a religious ceremony in common opinion, ceased to need it in the +eye of the law--a change which is familiar to us in our own age. The +pontifex was no longer indispensable to the suitor at law, nor to the +citizen who wished to know on what day he might proceed with his suit. +The college undoubtedly ceased to be the powerful secretly-acting body +in whose hands was the entire _religio_ of the citizen, _i.e._ the +decision of all points on which he might feel the old anxious +nervousness about the good-will of the gods. But now we mark a change +which gave the old institution new life and new work. At the end of this +fourth century (300 B.C.) it was thrown open to plebeians by the lex +Ogulnia; and, as I have already mentioned, within a few years we come +upon a plebeian pontifex maximus, who was not even a Roman by birth, yet +one of the most famous in the whole series of the holders of that great +office. Most probably, too, the numbers of the members have already been +increased from five to nine, of whom five must be plebeian. These +members begin to be found holding also civil magistracies, and the +pontifex maximus was often a consul of the year. It is quite plain then +that this priestly office is becoming more and more secularised; it +expands with the new order of things instead of shrinking into itself. +It leaves religion, in the proper sense of the word, far behind. The +sacrificing priests, the flamines, etc., who were the humbler members in +a technical sense of the same college, go on with their proper and +strictly religious work under the supervision of the pontifex +maximus,[572] but they steadily become of less importance as the greater +members become secularised in their functions and their ambitions. And +these greater members, instead of becoming stranded on a barren shore of +antique religion, boldly venture into a new sphere of human life, and +add definite secular work to their old religious functions. + +The events of the latter part of the fourth century B.C., culminating in +the publication of the Fasti and the _legis actiones_, probably meant +much more for the Romans than we can divine by the uncertain light of +historical imagination. It is the age of expansion, internal and +external; the old patrician exclusive rule was gone beyond recall; the +plebeians had forced their way into every department of government, +including at last even the great religious _collegia_; the old Latin +league had been broken up, and the Latin cities organised in various new +relations to Rome, each one being connected with the suzerain city by a +separate treaty, sealed with religious sanctions. After the Samnite wars +and the struggle with Pyrrhus, further organisation was necessary, and +there arose by degrees a loose system of union which we are accustomed +to call the Italian confederation. The adaptation of all these new +conditions to the existing order of things at Rome was the work of the +senate and magistrates so far as it concerned human beings only; but so +far as it affected the relations of the divine inhabitants of the +various communities it must have been the work of the pontifices. That +work is indeed almost entirely hidden from us, for Livy's books of this +period are lost, and Livy is the only historian who has preserved for us +in any substance the religious side of Rome's public life. But what we +have learnt in the course of these lectures will have made it plain that +no political changes could take place without involving religious +adaptation, and also that the only body qualified to undertake such +adaptation was the pontifical college. + +We may thus be quite certain, that though they had lost their old +monopoly of religious knowledge, the pontifices found plenty of fresh +work to do in this period. It is my belief that they now became more +active than they ever had been. From this time, for example, we may +almost certainly date their literary or quasi-literary activity; I mean +the practice of recording the leading events of each year, which may +have had its origin a century earlier, with the eclipse of the sun in or +about 404 B.C.[573] I should guess that after the admission of the +plebeians to the college in 300 B.C., the new members put fresh life and +vigour into the old work, and developed it in various directions. It is +in this period that I am inclined to attribute to the college that zeal +for compiling and perhaps inventing religious formulae of all kinds, +which took shape in the _libri_ or _commentarii pontificum_, and +embodied that strange manual of the methods of addressing deities, which +we know as _Indigitamenta_. And again, in the skilled work of the +admission of new deities and the dedication of their temples, occasioned +by the new organisation and condition of Italy, and lastly, in the +supervision of the proper methods of expiating _prodigia_, which (though +the habit is doubtless an old one) began henceforward to be reported to +the Senate from all parts of the ager Romanus and even beyond, their +meetings in the Regia must have been fully occupied. Our loss is great +indeed in the total want of detail about the life and character of the +great plebeian pontifex maximus of the first half of the third century +B.C., that Titus Coruncanius whom I have already mentioned as being a +Latin by birth; for Cicero declares that the _commentarii_ of the +college showed him as a man of the greatest ability,[574] whose +reputation remained for ages as one who was ready with wise counsel in +matters both public and private. Coupling him with two other memorable +holders of the office, he says that "et in senatu et apud populum et in +causis amicorum et domi et militiae consilium suum fidemque +praestabant."[575] This passage should be remembered as a valuable +illustration of the way in which the college and its head were becoming +more and more occupied with secular business; it is worth noting, too, +that this great man was himself consul in the year 280, and took a +useful part in the first campaign against Pyrrhus.[576] Yet Cicero makes +it plain that he looked on him also as a great figure in religious +matters--nay, even as a man whom the gods loved.[577] + +I will finish this lecture by illustrating briefly this renewed and +extended activity of the pontifices, so far as we can dimly trace it in +this third century B.C. Most of it is connected more or less directly +with the State religion, yet with a tendency to become more and more +secular and perfunctory; the word _cura_ would express it better than +_caerimonia_, and _caerimonia_ better than _religio_. The care of the +calendar, for example (a technical matter which lies outside my province +in these lectures), was originally of religious importance, because the +oldest religious festivals marked operations of husbandry, and these, +when fixed in the calendar, must occur at the right seasons.[578] It was +the duty of the pontifices so to adjust the necessary intercalations as +to effect this object--a duty to which they were, as it turned out, +quite unequal. But continued city life broke the connection between the +festivals and the agricultural work to which they originally +corresponded, and what was once a _cura_ of religious import became a +secular matter of which the value was not appreciated. So too with +another duty, for which both the Romans and ourselves have more reason +to be grateful to them--the recording of the leading events of national +history. + +It is uncertain what prompted the college, or rather its head, to begin +making these records, though there is no doubt about the fact. But it +would be natural enough that those who had charge of the calendar, which +would necessitate some record of years for purposes of intercalation, +should go on to mark the names of the consuls and such striking events +as would make a year memorable. In any case this was what actually +happened. The pontifex maximus, we are told with precision, kept a +_tabula_, or whited board, on which these events were noted down, with +the consuls' names attached to them, or possibly a kind of almanac, made +out for the whole year, on which they could append their notes to +particular days.[579] This yearly _tabula_ was no doubt at first kept +secret, like all the pontifical documents, but sooner or later, perhaps +at the same time as the publication of the _fasti_ and _legis actiones_, +it was exposed to public view in or at the Regia.[580] This went on for +at least two centuries, and the records, which in the nature of things +must have grown in length and detail as events became more startling and +numerous, were edited in eighty books by the pontifex maximus P. Mucius +Scaevola in 123 B.C.--the year of the first tribunate of C. Gracchus. +The large number of these books has long been a stumbling-block to the +learned, for we are expressly told that the _annales maximi_, as the +records were called, were (in spite of their name) of a very meagre +character; and many conjectures have quite recently been made to explain +it.[581] But guessing is almost useless, seeing that there are no data +for it. The editor may have added matter of his own, amplifying and +adorning after the manner of writers of his day; or he may have worked +in the contents of other pontifical books, _libri_ or _commentarii +pontificales_. The point for us is simply the continued activity of the +pontifex maximus in this work, which must have become almost entirely +secular in character. The notes may have been jejune, but they were +probably accurate, and free from the perversions of family vanity or +such lengthy rhetorical ornamentation as became the universal fashion +among private writers of annalistic history. They were, we may suppose, +exactly what our modern historical conscience demands. But all that is +left of them, or almost all, is the list of consuls (_fasti consulares_) +and of triumphs (_fasti triumphales_) which in their present form must, +or at least may, have been extracted from them.[582] On the whole, we +may reckon them as the most valuable work of the college; and they may +be taken as marking a growing sense of the importance of Rome and her +history, the commemoration of which is thus committed to an official +who, as an individual, had invariably served the State well, and in whom +all classes had perfect confidence.[583] + +One important part of the work of the college in this century must have +been the adjustment of the civic religion of the Italian communities to +that of Rome. What deities were to be made citizens of Rome? Which were +to be left in their old homes undisturbed? No doubt many other questions +must have called for attention in religious matters after the conquest +of Italy, but this is the one of which we know most. The temple +foundations of this period have all been carefully put together (chiefly +from Livy's invaluable records) by Aust,[584] and show that there was a +certain tendency to bring in deities from outside, not so much because +they represented some special need of the Romans, corn or art or +industry, as two centuries earlier, but simply because they were deities +of the conquered whom it might be prudent to adopt. The great Juno +Regina of Veii was long ago induced by _evocatio_ to migrate to Rome; +Fors Fortuna from Etruria, Juturna from Lavinium, Minerva Capta from +Falerii, Feronia, a famous Latin goddess from Capena, Vortumnus from +Volsinii,[585] all attest the same liberal tone in religious matters +which on the whole marks the secular Italian policy of the Senate in +this period. If we had but more information about the former, we should +be able to understand the latter far better. We should like to know why +in some cases the chief deity of a community came to Rome, while in +others there is not trace of migration. The famous Vacuna of Reate, for +example, never left her home in the Apennines, possibly because she was +a kind of Vesta, who could not be spared from Reate, and was not wanted +at Rome.[586] + +The list of foundations also points to other tendencies and experiences +of the time. We might guess that there was some attempt, with the aid of +pontifical skill, to encourage agriculture or give it a fresh start +after the invasion of Pyrrhus; for between 272 and 264, the years of the +pacification of Italy, we find temples built to four agricultural +deities, three indigenous Roman ones, Consus, Tellus, Pales, and one +Etruscan garden god, Vertumnus.[587] Then we have a group of foundations +in honour of deities connected with water--Juturna, Fons, Tempestates, +which seem to have some reference to the naval activity of the first +Punic war; they all fall between 259 and 241 B.C.[588] Lastly, we notice +a fresh accession of deified abstractions,--Salus (an old deity in a new +form), Spes, Honos et Virtus, Concordia, and Mens.[589] I am glad to +find that the latest investigator of these religious abstractions is at +one with me in believing that they simply mark a developed stage in the +religious bent of the earliest Roman. If the old Romans had the habit of +spiritualising a great variety of material objects, in other words, if +they were in an advanced animistic stage, there seems to be no reason +why they should not have begun to spiritualise mental concepts also (for +which they had words, as for the material objects), even at a very early +period. The whole psychological aspect of such abstractions is most +interesting, but I must pass it over here, merely suggesting that each +of these abstractions was doubtless deified for some particular reason, +under the direction, or with the sanction, of the pontifices.[590] + +But we have not as yet reached what is, after all, for our purposes the +most instructive part of the work of the pontifices--I mean the archives +or memoranda (_libri_ or _commentarii_) which they kept, and from which, +indirectly, much of what I have had to say about the _ius divinum_ has +been drawn. It is here that we see the policy of maintaining the _pax +deorum_ carried to its highest point. These books contained a vast +collection of formulae for every kind of process in which the deities +were in any way concerned; here was the complete _pharmacopoeia_ of the +_ius divinum_.[591] We must remember that the pontifex maximus and his +assessors had to be ready at any moment with the correct formula for all +religious acts, whether extraordinary, like the _devotio_ of Decius or +the expiation of some startling "prodigium," or belonging to the +ordinary course of city life, such as prayers in sacrificial ritual, +_vota_ both public and private, charters (_leges_) of newly founded +temples, and so on. The idea that the spoken formula (ultimately, as we +saw, derived from an age of magic) was efficient only if no slip were +made, seems to have gained in strength instead of diminishing, as we +might have expected it to do with advancing civilisation; and the +pontifices not only responded to its importunity, but actually +stimulated it. _Vires acquirit eundo_ are words which apply well in all +ages to the passion for organisation and precision. Though we cannot +prove it, I myself have little doubt that the members of the college, or +some of them, collected and invented formulae simply for the pleasure of +doing it, and that the work became as congenial to them as the +systematisation of the law to Jewish scribes after the captivity, or as +casuistry to the confessors of the middle ages. When the art of writing +became familiar to experts, the natural and primitive desire of the +Roman to have exactness in the spoken word affected him also in his +relations with the word as written. The scribe and the Pharisee found +their opportunity. The whole public religion of the State, and to some +extent also the private religion of the family, became a mass of forms +and formulae, and never succeeded in freeing itself from these fetters. + +We can best illustrate this superfluity of priestly zeal in that strange +list of forms of invocation called _Indigitamenta_, which I have already +explained with the help of Wissowa.[592] Working upon the old Roman +animism, and the popular fondness for formulae, the pontifices drew up +those lists in the fourth and third centuries B.C., which have so +seriously misled scholars as to the genuine primitive religious ideas of +the Romans. They are in the main priestly inventions, the work of +ingenious formulators. We may even be tempted to look on them as an +attempt to rivet the yoke of priestly formalism on the life of the +individual as well as on the life of the State as a whole. But if ever +this was the intention, it was too late. A people that was beginning to +get into touch with the civilisation of Hellas could not possibly bear +such a yoke. In the last lecture we have already seen a tendency towards +emotional religion independent of the old State worship; the philosophy +of individualism was to complete the work of emancipation in the last +two centuries B.C. The old State religion remained, but in stunted form +and with paralysed vitality; Rome was the scene of an _arrested +religious development_. The feeling, the religious instinct (_religio_) +was indeed there, though latent; the Romans were human beings, like the +rest of us. But as we go on with the story we shall find that, when +trouble or disaster brought it out of its hiding-place, it was no longer +possible to soothe it on Roman principles or by Roman methods. These +methods--in other words, the _ius divinum_ as formulated by the +authorities--had been meant to soothe it, and had indeed so effectually +lulled it to sleep, that when at last it awoke again they had lost the +power of dealing with it. When the craving did come upon the Roman, +which in time of peril or doubt has come upon individuals and +communities in all ages, for support and comfort from the Unseen, it had +to be satisfied by giving him new gods to worship in new ways, gods from +Greece and the East, some of them concealed under Latin names, but still +aliens, not citizens of his own State, aliens with whom he had little or +nothing in common, who had no home in his patriotic feeling, no place in +his religious experience.[593] As I said at the beginning of the last +lecture, we must not underrate the religiousness of the Roman +character, which was never entirely lost; but the secret of its +comparative uselessness lies in this--that the natural desire to be +right with the Power manifesting itself in the universe, and to know +more of that Power, became weakened and destroyed by an over-scrupulous +attention to the means taken to realise it, and by the introduction of +foreign methods which had no root in the mental fibre of the people, and +reflected no part of its experience. Religion was effectually divorced +from life and morality. + + + NOTES TO LECTURE XII + + [556] See Mulder, _De notione conscientiae, quae et + qualis fuerit Romanis_, Leyden, 1908, cap. 2. On p. 56 + he quotes Luthard (_Die antike Ethik_, p. 131), who says + of the Roman religion that it was even more an affair of + the State than with any other people; hence its peculiar + legal character. Though Mulder overworks his point, his + chapter (especially p. 61 foll.) is full of interest. + + [557] Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 431. The first chapter of + Ambrosch's _Studien und Andeutungen_, in which the + nature and history of the Regia was first really + investigated, is still valuable. An excellent short + account is given by Mr. Marindin in his article in the + _Dict. of Antiquities_, ed. 2. It is now generally + maintained that the Regia in historical times was rather + a building for sacred purposes than a residence for a + man and his family, and this I hold to be correct; but + it may for all that have originally been the residence + of the Rex and of the Pont. Max. when the Rex had + disappeared. + + [558] See Schanz, _Gesch. der roem. Literatur_, i. 43, + where a succinct account is given of modern opinion as + to the so-called _ius Papirianum_. The main argument for + the late date of the collection is that Cicero does not + seem to have known of it when he wrote the letter _ad + Fam._ ix. 21 in 46 B.C. This of course in no way affects + the primitive character of the rules themselves. + + [559] The inference that the rules were found in the + _Libri pontificum_ is inevitable in any case, but seems + proved by the fact that one of them, that relating to + the _spolia opima_, is stated by Festus, p. 189 (_s.v._ + "opima"), to have been extracted from those books. + + [560] Festus, _s.v._ "pellices" and _s.v._ "plorare," + which latter word is interpreted as = _inclamare_. + + [561] The _divi parentum_ are here generally taken as + those of the particular family, and this may have been + so; but cf. Wissowa, _R.K._ 192. + + [562] For the attempts of Pais in Italy and Lambert in + France to date the Tables at the end of the fourth + century or later, see Schanz, _op. cit._ i. 41. In + Germany opinion is universally in favour of the + traditional date. + + [563] See _Social Life at Rome in the Age of Cicero_, p. + 135. + + [564] On the religious character of _confarreatio_ see + De Marchi, _La Religione nella vita privata_, i. p. 145 + foll. + + [565] Cic. _de Domo_, 12. 14; Gellius, v. 19. + + [566] See, _e.g._ Launspach, _State and Family in Early + Rome_, p. 256 foll. The last three chapters of this + little book, on Patria potestas, Marriage, and + Succession, will be found useful by those who cannot + enter into the many disputes and difficulties which have + arisen out of the attempts of writers on Roman law to + adjust legal ideas to the dim early history of Rome. + Binder, in his work _Die Plebs_, starts from the + improbable hypothesis that the plebs was the population + of the Latin part of the city as distinct from that + Sabine part on the Quirinal, which he believes to have + been the only patrician body; and he further believes + that the plebs lived originally under "Mutterrecht," the + patres under "Vaterrecht." Such a condition of society + would, of course, have greatly added to the pontifical + work of religious adjustment; it would have been more + than even the pontifices could have successfully + achieved. + + [567] See above, note 7. Binder, _Die Plebs_, p. 488 + foll., discusses, and in the main rejects, the arguments + of Pais and Lambert. + + [568] So Huvelin, in a paper in _L'Annee sociologique_, + 1905-6, p. 1 foll., criticised by Hubert et Mauss, + _Melanges d'histoire des religions_, p. xxiii. foll. + + [569] From the religious point of view the _legis + actiones_ are best explained in Marquardt, 318 foll. Cp. + Muirhead, _Roman Law_, ed. 1899, pp. 246-7; Greenidge, + _Roman Public Life_, index _s.v._ "legis actio," and + especially p. 87. + + [570] The famous passage of Pomponius is in the + _Digest_, i. 2. 2, sec. 6 (for the work of Aelius, see + _Dig._ i. 2. 2, 38) "ex his legibus ... actiones + compositae sunt, quibus inter se homines disceptarent: + quas actiones ne populus prout vellet institueret, + certas sollemnesque esse voluerunt.... Omnium tamen + harum et interpretandi scientia et actiones apud + collegium pontificum erant, ex quibus constituebatur, + quis quoquo anno praeesset privatis." + + [571] Livy ix. 46 "civile ius, repositum in penetralibus + pontificum, evulgavit (Cn. Flavius), fastosque circa + forum in albo proponit, ut quando lege agi posset + sciretur." Cp. Val. Max. ii. 5. 2. _Civile ius_ is here + usually taken as meaning the procedure; but this is a + passage which may give some countenance to those who + would put the publication of the XII. Tables later than + the traditional date. + + [572] For the relation of the Flamines, Vestals, and Rex + sacrorum to the pontifex maximus, see Wissowa, _R.K._ + 432 foll. + + [573] See above, p. 283. For the eclipse, Cic. _Rep._ i. + 16. 25; and for the various scientific determinations of + its exact date, Schanz, _Gesch. der roem. Lit._ vol. i. + (ed. 2) p. 37. "Ex hoc die," writes Cicero, "quem apud + Ennium et in maximis annalibus consignatum videmus, + superiores solis defectiones reputatae sunt." + + [574] Cic. _Brutus_, 55 "longe plurimum ingenio + valuisse." + + [575] _De Orat._ iii. 33. 134. + + [576] See _Dict. of Classical Biography_, _s.v._ + "Coruncanius." + + [577] _Nat. deor._ ii. 165. Coruncanius is mentioned as + one of those whom the gods love, if indeed they take an + interest in human affairs. + + [578] See above, p. 100 foll.; and _Roman Festivals_, p. + 3. + + [579] Our knowledge of this _tabula_ chiefly depends on + a passage in the Danielian scholiast on Virg. _Aen._ i. + 373: "ita enim annales conficiebantur. Tabulam dealbatam + quotannis pontifex maximus habuit, in qua praescriptis + consulum nominibus et aliorum magistratum, digna + memoratu notare consueverat domi militiaeque terra + marique gesta per singulos dies. Cuius diligentiae + annuos commentarios in octoginta libros veteres + retulerunt, eosque a pontificibus maximis, a quibus + fiebant, annales maximos appellarunt." The explanation + of the name is no doubt wrong; but all the rest of this + passage can be relied on; cp. Cic. _de Orat._ ii. 12. + 52; Dion. Hal. i. 73, 74; Gell. ii. 28. 6; Cic. _Legg._ + i. 2. 6. For the idea of the almanac, see Cichorius in + Pauly-Wissowa, _Real-Encycl._, _s.v._ "annales maximi." + + [580] _Proponebat tabulam domi_, Cic. _de Orat._ ii. 12. + 52. This must refer to the official residence of the + Pont. Max.; see above, p. 271. + + [581] These attempted solutions of an insoluble problem + may be found in brief in Schanz, _Gesch. der roem. Lit._ + i. 37. Perhaps the boldest is that of Cantorelli, that + the annales were constructed not out of the tabula but + out of the commentarii; but this is in conflict with the + passage in the scholiast on Virgil. To me the difficulty + does not seem overwhelming; events occurring "domi + militiaeque, terra marique," may have filled + considerable space, and yet have been meagre in the eyes + of the rhetoricians of the last century B.C. + + [582] Schanz, _op. cit._ p. 35. + + [583] The great authority of the Pont. Max. is well + shown in the story of Tremellius the praetor, who in the + middle of the second century B.C. was fined (by a + tribune?) "quod cum M. Aemilio pontifice maximo + iniuriose contenderat, sacrorumque quam magistratuum ius + potentius fuit." Livy, _Epit._ 47. + + [584] _De aedibus sacris populi Romani_, p. 10 foll. + + [585] Aust, _op. cit._ p. 14 foll. See also _R.F._ p. + 340 foll. + + [586] For Vacuna, Wissowa, _R.K._ pp. 44 and 128. She + was later, but probably without good reason, identified + with Victoria. The conjecture that she was a hearth + deity rests on the lines of Ovid, _Fasti_, vi. 305, + which I have before referred to in another context: + + ante focos olim scamnis considere longis + mos erat et mensae credere adesse deos. + nunc quoque cum fiunt antiquae sacra Vacunae, + ante Vacunales stantque sedentque focos. + + [587] Aust, p. 14. For Vertumnus the _locus classicus_ + is Propert. v. 2. It is not certain that the connection + with gardens was primitive. + + [588] _R.F._ p. 341. + + [589] _R.F._ p. 341. + + [590] See Axtell, _The Deification of Abstract Ideas in + Roman Literature and Inscriptions_ (Chicago, 1907), p. + 59 foll., where the views of Mommsen, Boissier, + Marquardt, and Wissowa are discussed. Axtell's own + conclusion is given on p. 62 foll. In the main it seems + to agree with that hazarded in my _Roman Festivals_, p. + 190. + + [591] For the evidence as to the contents of the + _commentarii_, which are now generally identified with + the _libri_, see Wissowa, _R.K._ 32 and 441; Schanz, + _op. cit._ i. 32; and the article "Commentarii" in + Pauly-Wissowa, _Real-Encycl._ As Wissowa remarks (p. + 441, note 6), we are greatly in need of a complete + collection of all fragments of these archives. + + [592] See above, p. 159 foll. The conviction that these + lists are of comparatively late and priestly origin, + which has long been growing on me, was originally + suggested by the learned article "Indigitamenta" by R. + Peter in Roscher's _Lexicon_, vol. ii. p. 175 foll. + + [593] I have here adopted some sentences from my article + in the _Hibbert Journal_ for 1907, p. 854. + + + + +LECTURE XIII + +THE AUGURS AND THE ART OF DIVINATION + + +"The one great corruption to which all religion is exposed is its +separation from morality. The very strength of the religious motive has +a tendency to exclude, or disparage, all other tendencies of the human +mind, even the noblest and best. It is against this corruption that the +prophetic order from first to last constantly protested.... Mercy and +justice, judgment and truth, repentance and goodness--not sacrifice, not +fasting, not ablutions,--is the burden of the whole prophetic teaching +of the Old Testament."[594] + +The over-formalising, or ritualising, of any religion is sure to bring +about that result against which the Jewish prophets protested. We saw at +the end of the last lecture how the pontifices contributed to such a +result. We are now to study the contribution of the other great college, +the augurs. For instead of developing, as did the wise man or seer of +Israel, into the mouthpiece of God in His demand for the righteousness +of man, the Roman diviner merely assisted the pontifex in his work of +robbing religion of the idea of righteousness. Divination seems to be a +universal instinct of human nature, a perfectly natural instinct, +arising out of man's daily needs, hopes, fears; but though it may have +had the chance, even at Rome, it never has been able, except among the +Jews, to emerge from its cramping chrysalis of magic and become a really +valuable stimulant of morality. + +By divination I mean the various ways and methods by which, in all +stages of his development, man has persuaded himself that what he is +going to do or suffer will turn out well or ill for him. It is probably +judicious, with Dr. Tylor and with the majority of recent +anthropologists, to consider it as belonging to the region of +magic;[595] and it is obvious that it affords excellent examples of that +inadequacy which characterises magical attempts to overcome the +difficulties man meets with in his struggle for existence.[596] It +belongs, like other forms of magic, to a stage in which man's idea of +his relation to the Power manifesting itself in the universe is both +rude and rudimentary. But it shares with magic the power or property of +surviving, in form at least, through the animistic stage into that of +religion, and it is largely practised at the present day even among +highly civilised peoples. + +But I must observe, before I go on, that divination as an object of +anthropological inquiry still stands in need of a thorough scientific +examination. At present it seems to puzzle anthropologists;[597] and the +reason probably is that the material for studying it inductively has not +as yet been collected and sifted. Strange to say, it does not appear in +the index to Dr. Westermarck's great work, which I have so often quoted: +it is hardly to be found even in the _Golden Bough_: nor can I find a +thoroughgoing treatment of it in any other books about the early +history of mankind. And any sort of guesswork under these circumstances +only increases our difficulties. Some years ago the great German +philosophical lawyer, von Jhering, in an interesting work called the +_Evolution of the Aryan_, made some most ingenious attempts to explain +the origin of Roman divination. He fancied that the practice of +examining the entrails of a victim, for example, began in the course of +Aryan migration, because when you encamped in a new region you would +catch and kill some of the native cattle in order to see whether they +were wholesome enough to tempt you to stay.[598] Again, the study of the +flight of birds was prompted by the desire to get information about the +mountain passes and the course of great rivers; and this study grew into +an elaborate art as the leader of the host, the prototype of the Roman +augur, gained experience by constant observation from elevated +ground.[599] Such a theory as this last might be worth something if it +were based upon known facts; as it is, it is only most ingenious +guesswork. This great legal writer did not know, as we do now, that +divination by both these methods is found all over the world, and cannot +be explained by any supposed needs of migrating Aryans. + +Whatever be the origin of the several forms of divination, the object of +the practice in ancient Italy and Greece is beyond doubt--to find out +whether the Power with whom you wish to be in right relation is +favourable to certain human operations, or willing to aid in removing +certain forms of human suffering. According to our definition, it was a +part of religion, whether or no it belonged originally to magic. It was +a practical expression of that doubt or anxiety to which I believe the +Romans attached the word _religio_. In the agricultural period it must +have been specially useful and even inevitable,[600] because the tiller +of the soil is always in need of knowledge as to the best times and +seasons for his operations, and his out-of-door life gives him constant +opportunity of observing natural phenomena, _diosemeia_, signs from +heaven, and the utterances and movements of birds and other animals. It +is interesting to reflect that these last may often be of real service +in foretelling the weather, which is so important to the farmer. As I +write this on a December day I recall the fact that I have myself within +the last week successfully foretold a spell of cold after observing a +great arrival of winter thrushes from the north. This particular branch +of augury is, in fact, neither so inadequate nor so absurd as most +others. Von Jhering may turn out to be right in his notion that at least +some forms of divination have their origin in practical needs and in the +skill of uncivilised man in discerning the signs of the weather--a skill +which it is well to remember far exceeds that of the house-dweller of +modern civilisation. But with the growth of the City-state and the +habits of life in a town, these early instincts and methods of the +agriculturist came to be caught up into a system of religious practice, +adapted to the conditions of civil and political existence; thus they +gradually lost their original meaning and such real value as they ever +possessed. I have pointed out that the Roman festivals and the ritual of +the oldest calendar gradually got out of relation with the agricultural +life in which they for the most part originated:[601] so it was with +divination, which in the hands of the State authorities became +formalised into a set of rules for ascertaining the good-will of the +gods, and obtaining their sanction for the operations of the community, +which had no scientific basis whatever, no relation to truth and fact. +Of all the methods for putting yourself in right relation with the +Power, this was the least valuable, and indeed the most harmful; it came +in course of time to be a positive obstacle to efficiency and freedom of +action, it wasted valuable time, and it often served as the means of +promoting private ends to the detriment of the public interest. + +Before I go on to consider the development of the highly formalised +system of public divination, let me clear the ground by a few remarks +about such forms of the practice as were not sanctioned by the State. +That these existed throughout Roman history there is no doubt, as they +existed in Greece, among the Jews, and elsewhere in the East, alongside +of the advanced and organised methods of official and authorised +experts. + +Our information about private divination is scattered about in Roman +literature, and even when brought together there is not a great deal of +it. What is prominent both in Roman literature and Roman history is the +divination authorised by the State and systematised by its authorities; +even in Cicero's treatise _de Divinatione_, though the subject-matter is +of a general kind, drawn from Greece as well as Rome, it is, I think, +apart from philosophical questions, chiefly the art of augurs and +haruspices that interests the writer, who was himself an augur when he +wrote it. In Greek literature exactly the opposite is the case; there we +hear little of State-authorised divination, and a great deal of +wandering soothsayers, soothsaying families, and oracles which (except +at Delphi) were not under the direct control of a City-state.[602] The +methods of divination are much the same in both peninsulas, and indeed +vary little all the world over; the difference lies simply in +this,--that at Rome the adoption and systematisation by the State of +certain methods, especially those which dealt with birds and lightning, +had the effect of discrediting, if not excluding, an immense amount of +private practice of this kind. I mean that if the State strongly +sanctions some forms of divination, working them by its own officials, +it casts a shadow of discredit over the rest. As the _ius divinum_ +tended to exclude magic and the barbarous in ritual, so did the _ius +augurale_, which was a part of it, exclude the quack in divination. And +in this particular department of human delusion the result may be said +to have been happy; for though divination belongs to religion as having +survived from an earlier stage into a religious one, yet it is the least +valuable, the least fruitful, part of it.[603] True, the augural +systematisation, as we shall see, had a sinister effect on political +progress; but even there the very emptiness and absurdity of the whole +business helped to bring contempt on it, and, as Cicero tells us in a +well-known passage, even old Cato declared that he could not imagine why +a _haruspex_ did not laugh when he met a brother of the craft.[604] In +Greece, on the contrary, it might, I believe, be shown that the absence +of systematisation by the State only served to prolong the credit and +influence of the professional quack. + +Greece was at all periods full of these quacks; did the sham prophet +exist at Rome in the period we have now under review? Later on the +Oriental soothsayer found his way there; of these _Chaldaei_ and +_mathematici_ I shall have a word to say in another lecture, and we +shall see how the State authorities made occasional attempts to exclude +them. Of the _frantic_ type of diviner, the [Greek: entheos], so common +in Greece, we hear nothing in the sober Roman annals; the idea of a +human being "possessed by a spirit of divination" seems foreign to the +Roman character.[605] The only soothsayer, so far as I know, who appears +in Roman legend in a private capacity is that Attus Navius who gave +Tarquinius Priscus the benefit of his knowledge; and he is represented +as a respectable Sabine, and his art as an augural one learnt from the +Etruscans.[606] There are, indeed, ancient traces of a prophetic art at +Rome, but, as the historian of divination has well observed, they are +all connected not with human beings, but with divinities, a fact which +explains the Latin word _divinatio_.[607] To take what is perhaps the +best example, the ancient deity Carmenta, who had a flamen and a double +festival in the month of January, may very probably represent some dim +tradition of a _numen_ at whose shrine women might gain some knowledge +as to their fortunes in childbirth, just as outside Rome, at Praeneste +and Antium, Fortuna seems to have had this gift in historical +times.[608] So St. Augustine interpreted Carmenta,[609] probably +following Varro; and to Virgil she was the "_vates fatidica_, cecinit +quae prima futuros Aeneadas magnos et nobile Pallanteum." + +But Carmenta, Picus, Faunus, are dim mythical figures which for us can +have no bearing on Roman religious experience; it would be more to the +point to ask what was the original meaning and history of the word +_vates_, if the question were answerable in the absence of an early +Roman literature. All we can say about this is that this word had, as a +rule, a certain dignity about it, which enabled it eventually to stand +for a poet, and that it rarely has a sinister sense, unless accompanied +by some adjective specially used in order to give it.[610] The real word +for a quack is _hariolus_, and the fact that it is comparatively rare +suggests that the character it expresses was not a common one. It occurs +here and there in fragments of old plays, where, unluckily, we cannot be +quite sure whether it represents a Greek or a Latin idea. The following +lines from the Telamo of Ennius shows us the _hariolus_, as well as the +word _vates_ with a discreditable adjective attached: + + sed superstitiosi vates impudentesque harioli + aut inertes, aut insani, aut quibus egestas imperat, + qui sibi semitam non sapiunt, alteri monstrant viam, + quibu' divitias pollicentur, ab iis drachmam ipsi petunt.[611] + +A more satisfactory bit of evidence as to the existence of the quack in +the second century B.C., when Greece and the East were beginning to pour +their unauthorised religionists into Italy, is the interesting passage +in old Cato's book on agriculture, in which he urges that the bailiff of +an estate should not be permitted to consult either a _haruspex_, +_augur_, _hariolus_, or _Chaldaeus_.[612] But on the whole, such little +evidence as we possess seems to confirm the view I hazarded just now, +that the overwhelming prestige of State authority at Rome discouraged +and discredited the quack diviner both in public and private life. His +work in private life was largely that of fortune-telling, of foretelling +the future in one sense or another; and this was exactly what the State +authorities never did and never countenanced, at any rate until the +stress of the Hannibalic war, and then only in a very limited sense. +Their object was a strictly religious one, to get the sanction of the +divine members of the community for the undertakings of the human ones. +Even the so-called Sibylline oracles, as we saw, were not prophecies; +and the augural art never provided an answer to the question, "What is +going to happen?" but only to that much more religious one, "Are the +deities willing that we should do this or that?"[613] + +But before I leave the subject of private divination, I must note that +there was a department of it which may be called legitimate, as +distinguished from that of the quack. I mean the _auspicia_ of the +family religion, and also the comparatively harmless folklore about +omens of all sorts and kinds. + +Naturally we have little information about legitimate _auspicia_ in the +life of the family; but we have seen that the religious instinct of the +Roman forbade him to face any important undertaking or crisis without +making sure of the sanction of the _numina_ concerned, and among the +methods of insurance (if I may use a convenient word) the _auspicia_ +must have had a place from the earliest times. No important thing was +done, says Cicero in the _de Divinatione_, "nisi auspicato, ne privatim +quidem."[614] Valerius Maximus says the same in so many words, and some +other evidence has been collected by De Marchi in his work on the +private religion of the Romans.[615] But only in the case of marriage do +we hear of _auspicia_ in historical times, and even there they seem to +have degenerated into a mere form. "Auspices nuptiarum, re omissa, nomen +tantum tenent"--so Cicero wrote of his own time;[616] he seems to be +thinking of augury by means of birds, for he adds, "nam ut nunc extis +sic tunc avibus magnae res impetrari solebant." As we have already seen, +the object of the examination of a victim's entrails was simply to +ascertain its fitness to be offered; but by Cicero's time the Etruscan +art of divination by this method must have penetrated into private life. +I think we may conjecture that in the life of the family on the land the +_auspicia_, as the word itself implies, were worked chiefly by +observation of birds. Nigidius Figulus, the learned mystic of Cicero's +time, wrote a book, _de Augurio Privato_, of which one fragment survives +which has to do with this kind of divination, and with the distinction +between omens from birds seen on the right or left, and from high or low +flyers.[617] In the familiar ode of Horace beginning, "Impios parrae +recinentis omen,"[618] the _corvus_ and _cornix_ are mentioned besides +the _parra_, and in that wholesome old out-of-door life of the farm, as +I said just now, there was a certain basis of truth and fact in the +observation of such presages. But Horace mentions other animals, wolf, +fox, and snake, and some at least of the folklore about omens which is +to be found in Pliny's descriptions of animals may help us to appreciate +the nature of the old Roman ideas on this subject. The tiller of the +land and the shepherd on the uplands used their eyes and ears, not +wholly without advantage to themselves; but in the life of the city such +observation became gradually formal and meaningless, and degenerated +into the superstition reflected in Horace's ode. I must parenthetically +confess to a personal feeling of regret that this people, who in their +early days had good opportunities, made little or no contribution to the +knowledge of animals and their habits.[619] But I must pass on to the +more important subject of divination as developed and formalised by the +authorities of the State. + +In explaining the ritual of the _ius divinum_ I laid stress on the fact +that its main object was to maintain the _pax deorum_, the right +relation between the divine and human citizens.[620] To make this _pax_ +secure, it was necessary that in every public act the good-will of the +gods should be ascertained by obtaining favourable auspices--it must be +done _auspicato_. To take the first illustration that occurs, Livy +describes a dictator about to fight a battle as leaving his camp +_auspicato_, after sacrificing to obtain the _pax deorum_.[621] It is +for this reason that the _auspicia_ have a leading place in the +foundation legends of the city. We are all familiar with the story of +the _auspicia_ of Romulus and Remus, which goes back at least as far as +Ennius;[622] and we find them also in the foundation of _coloniae_ in +historical times.[623] I do not know that I can better express the place +which the _auspicia_ occupied in the mind of the Roman than by quoting +the words which Livy puts into the mouth of Appius Claudius in 367 B.C., +when supposed to be inveighing against the opening of the consulship to +plebeians: "Auspiciis hanc urbem conditam esse, auspiciis bello ac pace, +domi militiaeque, omnia geri, quis est qui ignoret?" He goes on to argue +that these _auspicia_ belong to patricians only, that no plebeian +magistrate is created _auspicato_, that the man who wants to allow +plebeians to become curule magistrates, _tollit ex civitate auspicia_. +"Nunc nos, tanquam iam nihil pace deorum opus sit, omnes caerimonias +polluimus."[624] This is, of course, only Livy's rhetoric, but it +represents the fundamental Roman idea of the public _auspicia_. + +The passage is also useful because it alludes to the fact that the right +of taking the _auspicia_ belonged ultimately to the whole patrician body +of fully qualified citizens.[625] But so far as we can discern in the +dim light of the earliest period, this body entrusted the right and duty +to its chief magistrate, the Rex, exactly as it entrusted him with the +_imperium_, the supreme power of command in civil matters. Thus the +_auspicia_ and the _imperium_ were indissolubly connected; as Dr. +Greenidge says,[626] "they are the divine and human side of the same +power," and may be found together in a thousand passages in Roman +literature and inscriptions. But at the side of the Rex we find, +according to tradition, two helpers or advisers called _augures_, the +three together perhaps forming a _collegium_.[627] Now there was +certainly an important difference between the Rex and the augurs; the +latter were aiders and interpreters, but the Rex only was said _habere +auspicia_, just as the whole patrician body had this right, though they +delegated it to the Rex during his lifetime, and on his death received +it again. The man who "habet auspicia" has the right of _spectio_, +_i.e._ of taking the auspices in a particular case,[628] of watching the +sky or the conduct of the sacred fowls in eating; this right the augurs +never had. Their power was limited to guidance and interpretation. This +follows necessarily from the fundamental principle that the _auspicia_ +and the _imperium_ were indissolubly connected; for the augur, of +course, never possessed the _imperium_ by virtue of his office. It is +true that of the augur in the regal period we know almost nothing; his +art, as we shall see directly, was kept strictly secret, and he was +bound by oath not to reveal it.[629] But we may safely argue back in +general terms from the relation of magistrate and augur under the later +Republic to the relation of augur and Rex, from whom descended the +magistrate's _imperium_. The one essential thing to remember is that _it +was in all periods the magistrate who was responsible_, under the +sanction and advice of his assistants the pontifices and augurs, for the +maintenance of the _pax deorum_. The lay element in the actual working +of the constitution never lost this prerogative. Rome was never +hierarchically governed. + +It would be going beyond the scope of these lectures if I were to plunge +at this point into the thorny question of the exact relation between +magistrate and augur in respect of details. Nor do I propose to go into +the minutiae of augural lore, which are not instructive, like those of +sacrifice, for our survey of Roman religious experience. It will be +sufficient to state in outline what I believe to be necessary for our +purpose.[630] The person who had the _auspicia_, _i.e._ originally the +Rex, like the later magistrate, had to watch for signs from heaven; in +order to do so he marked out a _templum_, a rectangular space, by noting +certain objects, trees or what not, beyond which, whether he looked at +earth or sky, he need take no notice of what he saw. The spot where he +took up his position for this purpose was itself a rectangular +space,[631] marked out on a similar principle; in each case the space +was _liberatus effatus_, _i.e._ freed from previous associations by a +form of words, and ready, if need were (as in the case of _loca sacra_) +to be further handed over to the deities as their property; this +consecration, however, did not, of course, follow in the ordinary +procedure of the _auspicia_. In the _urbana auspicia_ all _loca effata_ +must be within the sacred boundary of the _pomoerium_. Within this the +magistrate watched in silence at the dead of night for such signs as he +especially asked for (_auspicia impetrativa_); those which offered +themselves without such specification (_oblativa_) he was not bound to +take cognisance of unless some one claimed his attention for them. The +signs were originally in the regal period, if we may guess from the word +_auspicium_, only such as birds supplied, and the space in which they +were watched for was not complicated by the divisions of the later +augural art.[632] The business of the augur was, we may suppose, to see +that the details were carried out correctly, and to interpret the signs; +but those signs were not sent to _him_, for he was not the actual +representative of the State in this ritual. + +If the constitutional position and duty of the augurs have now been made +sufficiently clear, I may go on to explain briefly, as in the case of +the pontifices, how the office became gradually secularised, and the +duty formalised, so that if there ever had been anything of a really +religious character in this art, any genuine belief in the manifestation +by the Power of his will in matters of State life, such character, such +belief, had become by the second century B.C. entirely paralysed and +destroyed. But the history of the augurate is much more difficult to +follow than that of the pontificate. The work of the pontifices touched +the life of every day, public and private, at many points, with the +result that their secrets ceased to be secrets by the end of the fourth +century B.C. The work of the augurs was occasional, and more technical +than that of the other college; it can hardly be said to have affected +the religion of family life, nor did it continually bear upon public +life, as did the pontifical knowledge of the _ius divinum_ and the +calendar. Hence the augural lore was never published, under pressure of +public opinion, and neither ancient nor modern scholars have had to +waste their time in investigating it. Books were indeed written about it +in later times by one or two curious students, but in the time of +Cicero, who was himself an augur, the neglect of it was general, even by +members of the college.[633] + +This mysterious augural lore was preserved in books, like that of the +pontifices; and in all probability these books were put together in the +same period as the latter, viz., the two centuries immediately following +the abolition of the kingship.[634] I think there is a strong +probability that the augurate emerged from the age of Etruscan rule +which marks the latter part of the kingly period, with increased +importance and fresh activity, the result of immediate contact with +Etruscan methods of divination.[635] It is likely that they began in +this way to cultivate the art of divination by lightning, which was +peculiarly Etruscan, and to divide their _templum_ into _regiones_, +which, as I said just now, were not apparently needed for the +observation of omens from birds. How far they carried this art we cannot +tell, owing to the loss of their books and the commentaries upon them; +but about the Etruscan discipline we do know something. Those who wish +to have a glimpse of it may consult the first chapter of the fourth +volume of Bouche-Leclercq's _History of Divination_, as a more +intelligible account than any known to me.[636] But all I need to insist +on now is the likelihood that the augurs began the Republican period +with a power of interpretation which was the more important because the +art was changed; it is now the depository not only of the old bird lore, +but of the new lightning lore. And as this last became the peculiar +characteristic of the art of public divination, and as the augurs were, +like the pontifices, a close self-electing corporation until 104 B.C. +and a close self-electing _patrician_ body until the lex Ogulnia of 300 +B.C., holding secret meetings every month on the _arx_,[637] and +recording their lore in books which were never made public, they might +well have grown into a powerful hierarchy, _if they had only been +possessed of the right of spectio_. What saved Rome from this fate was +simply the fact that the college was a body of interpreters only, or, in +other words, the principle that the _auspicia_ belonged exclusively to +the magistrate. The _auspicia_ were in fact a matter of public law, not +of religion, properly speaking; the idea on which they were based, that +the sanction of the deities was needed for every public action, very +early lost its true significance, and the process of taking them became +a mere form, the religious character of which was almost entirely +forgotten. They ceased to be matter of religion just as the amulet or +any other form of preventive magic fails to be reckoned as within the +sphere of religion; the feeling was there that they must be attended to +(though even that feeling lost its strength in course of time), but only +as a matter of custom, not because the Power was really believed to +sanction an act in this way. + +Thus it seems that the importance of the augurs belongs to Roman public +law, and not to the history of Roman religious experience. It will be +found fully explained, in that connection, in Mommsen's _Staatsrecht_, +or in Dr. Greenidge's volume on _Roman Public Life_.[638] All we have to +note here is the complete secularisation of what was once really a part +of the Roman religion; the augurs themselves were public men and could +hold magistracies, and their art of interpretation came to be used for +secular and political purposes only. They could declare a magistrate +_vitio creatus_, whether they had been present at the taking of the +auspices or not; they could also on appeal stop the proceedings at a +public assembly, whether for election or legislation; it may be said of +them that in one way or another they had a veto on every public +transaction.[639] As Cicero expresses it in his _ius divinum_, in the +second book of his work on the constitution: "Quae augur iniusta nefasta +vitiosa dira defixerit inrita infectaque sunto, quique non paruerit, +capital esto."[640] But in spite of the fine words _iniusta nefasta +vitiosa_, there was no religious principle involved in this solemn +injunction. When Bibulus in 59 B.C. sought as consul to stop Caesar's +proceedings by using his right of _spectio_, all he had to do was to +announce that he was going to look for lightning (_obnuntiare_); and if +there had been the smallest remnant of religious belief left in the +Roman mind about such transactions, it would quietly have acquiesced, in +the conviction that Jupiter would send lightning to the Roman magistrate +who asked for it; as it was, Caesar took no notice, and the Roman people +only laughed. Caesar was at the time, let us note, the head of the Roman +religion, pontifex maximus. So with the augurs as the interpreters of +the magisterial _spectio_; proud as Cicero was of becoming an augur, +with all the old surviving elective ritual,[641] he never, we may be +sure, believed for a moment that he had the power of interpreting the +will of the gods. A century before his augurship the whole business of +public divination had been regulated by statute, like any other secular +matter; and in his own day it was an open question with men of education +whether there were such a thing as divination at all.[642] True, as we +shall see, the _illegitimate_ forms of divination were at this very time +gaining ground, as the current of superstition increased in strength +which marks this last period of the republic; but the augur's art and +the _spectio_ of the magistrate were still surviving as mere +constitutional fossils, and were not destined to share largely in +Augustus' heroic attempt to put fresh life into the _ius divinum_. _Vile +damnum_, as Tacitus said of the foreign quacks banished to Sardinia by +Tiberius; for neither in the sphere of religion nor later in that of +politics can the art of divination be said to have had any lasting +value. + +I have not dealt at any length with the augurs and the State system of +divination, but I hope I have said enough to show that, as I hinted at +the beginning of this lecture, it affords an excellent illustration of +the way in which the religious instinct, the desire to be in right +relation with the Power manifesting itself in the universe, was first +soothed and satisfied, then hypnotised and paralysed, by the +formalisation and gradual secularisation of religious processes. The +desire to obtain the sanction of the Power by seeking for favourable +signs or omens seems to be a universal instinct of human nature, though +a perverse one; if left to itself it will apparently pass into the +region of harmless folklore, where it does not seriously interfere with +human progress, either secular or religious; but where, as at Rome, it +is taken up into the ritual of a religious system, and is further +allowed to express itself mechanically in the region of public law, it +exhausts itself rapidly, loses all its original significance, and +becomes a clog on human progress. + +In ancient Italy this instinct for divination was nowhere so strongly +and so perversely developed into a mechanical system as in Etruria, and +it is highly probable that this development contributed largely to the +rapid political and moral decay of the Etruscan people. The narrow +aristocratic constitution of the Etruscan cities, worked by a kind of +priestly nobility, seems to have afforded great opportunities for the +cultivation of the perverse art which (as we are now beginning to +recognise) this people had brought with them from the East.[643] I have +already suggested that an Etruscan dominion at Rome had very probably +unfortunate results in developing and formalising the art of the augurs. +But the age of the Tarquinii was not the only one in which the sinister +influence of this strange people was brought to bear on Roman religious +institutions; and before I close this lecture I must say a very few +words about a second invasion of Etruscan perversity, which began some +two centuries and a half later. This was the result of that renewed +_religio_, that feeling of anxiety and sometimes of despair +characteristic of the last half of the third century B.C., the perilous +era of the Punic wars, with which I shall deal more particularly in the +next lecture. The state religion could not soothe it; neither pontifices +nor augurs had any sufficient native remedy for it, and as the ritual of +worship was reinforced from Greece and the East, so the ritual of +divination was reinforced from Etruria. + +The Etruscans seem to have educated their diviners with care and system. +We do not know the details of such education, but it seems likely that +there were schools of these prophets, by means of which the art was +handed down and developed.[644] The word for the person thus trained was +_haruspex_ in its Italian form as known to us, though it had an Etruscan +original.[645] The art acquired was of three kinds--the interpretation +of lightning; the explanation and interpretation of the entrails of +victims, and especially of the liver; and, thirdly, the explanation and +expiation of portents and prodigia.[646] All three departments seem to +have been carried to an extreme degree of perverse development. To give +an idea of it I need but refer to recent discussions of the relation +between the divisions marked on a bronze model of a victim's liver +(found in 1877 at Piacenza), in which are written the Etruscan names of +a great number of deities, and the somewhat similar divisions of the +templum of the heavens as given by Martianus Capella in explanation of +the celestial dwellings of the Italian deities. A study of this +unprofitable subject, of which the only interest lies in the +illustration it offers of the prostitution of human ingenuity, will be +found in a little work by Carl Thulin, published in the series called +_Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorarbeiten_.[647] + +Just as the Roman authorities had recourse from time to time to the +Sibylline books, so also they occasionally, though not apparently before +the Punic wars, sought the help of the trained Etruscan diviners. We +shall come across instances of this in the next two lectures, and I need +not specify them now. They seem to have used their art in all its +departments; and in the most degraded of these, the examination of +entrails, it was found so convenient to have their services in a +campaign that in course of time one at least seems to have accompanied +every Roman army.[648] The complicated art of augury might in fact be +dispensed with if you had a _haruspex_ ready and willing at a moment's +notice to give you a good report of the victim's liver. To keep up the +supply of experts, the senate, probably in the second century B.C., +determined to select and train ten boys of noble family in each Etruscan +city. This was the last service that the degenerate Etruscan people +rendered to its conquerors, and a more degrading one it is impossible to +imagine. These foreign diviners were never admitted to the dignity of a +_collegium_;[649] they rather played the part of the domestic chaplain +kept to say grace before meat. For a moment they attract our attention +in connection with the persecution of Cicero by his political enemies, +and the _consecratio_ after his exile of the site of his house on the +Palatine hill.[650] For a moment again we meet with them in the reign of +Claudius, who was interested in the Etruscans and wrote a work about +them, and once raised the question in the senate of the revival of the +haruspices and their art--such part of it, at least, as might seem worth +preserving--"ne vetustissima Italiae disciplina per desidium +exolesceret."[651] And strange to say, though in fact no part of this +ancient Italian discipline was in the least worth preserving, it +survived in outward form into the fourth century of the empire.[652] We +read with astonishment in the code of the Christian emperor Theodosius, +that if the imperial palace or other public buildings are struck by +lightning the haruspices are to be consulted, according to ancient +custom, as to the meaning of the portent.[653] Thirteen years after the +death of Theodosius, in 408, Etruscan experts offered their services to +Pompeianus, prefect of Rome, to save the city from the Goths. Pompeianus +was tempted, but consulted Innocent, the Bishop of Rome, who "did not +see fit to oppose his own opinion to the wishes of the people at such a +crisis, but stipulated that the magic rites should be performed +secretly." What followed is uncertain. "The Christian historian says +that the rites were performed, but were unavailing; the pagan Zosimus +affirms that the aid of the Tuscans was declined."[654] So hard died the +futile arts of the most unfruitful of all Italian races. + + + NOTES TO LECTURE XIII + + [594] Stanley's _Jewish Church_ (ed. 1906), vol. i. p. + 398 foll. + + [595] _Hist. de divination dans l'antiquite_, vol. i. p. + 7 foll.; divination is "contemplative," magic "active." + But this learned author did not deal with divination + except as it existed in Greece and Italy; and in view of + our present extended knowledge this differentia is not + instructive. + + [596] See Tylor's article in the last edition of the + _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, and his _Gifford Lectures_, + Pt. ii. ch. iv.; Haddon, _Magic and Fetishism_, p. 40. + Bouche-Leclercq, _Hist. de divination dans l'antiquite_, + vol. i. p. 7, distinguishes divination from magic; but + his knowledge of the subject was limited to civilised + races. + + [597] Mr. Marett seems doubtful about it: see his + _Threshold of Religion_, pp. 42 and 83. In the latter + passage he says that it may or may not be treated as a + branch of magic, and may be "originally due to some dim + sort of theorising about causes, the theory engendering + the practice rather than the practice the theory." I + should doubt whether, when the facts have been fully + collected, this will be the conclusion to which they + point. + + [598] _Evolution of the Aryan_, Drucker's translation, + p. 369. + + [599] _Ib._ pp. 364, 374. + + [600] A curious survival of divination from the + agricultural period, which was taken over by the State, + but not fixed to a day in the calendar, is the _augurium + canarium_. The exta of red puppies which had been + sacrificed were consulted, apparently with a view to + ascertain the probability of the corn ripening well + (Festus, p. 285, quoting Ateius Capito). See _R.F._ p. + 90, and the references there given; also Cic. _de + Legibus_, ii. 20; Fest. 379; and Wissowa in + Pauly-Wissowa, p. 2328. + + [601] See above, p. 102. + + [602] See Dr. Jevons' account in Gardner and Jevons, + _Manual of Greek Antiquities_, ch. vii. + + [603] Bouche-Leclercq in the introduction to his first + volume (p. 3) expresses a different opinion. He thinks + that the benefit conferred by divination in the conduct + of life was the most valuable part of religion. With + this I entirely disagree. + + [604] Cic. _de Divinatione_, ii. 51. + + [605] See Bouche-Leclercq, iv. 119 foll. In a recently + published essay, _De antiquorum daemonismo_, by J. + Tamburnino (Giessen, 1909), the only genuine Roman + evidence adduced of possession is Minucius Felix, + _Octavius_, ch. 27, _i.e._ it belongs to the late second + century A.D. In the so-called Italian oracles there is + no question of it: _e.g._ the lots at Praeneste were + worked by a boy (Cic. _de Div._ ii. 86). + + [606] Livy i. 36; Cic. _de Div._ i. 17. It is Dion. Hal. + iii. 70 who says that his art was Etruscan. + + [607] Bouche-Leclercq, iv. 120. + + [608] For Carmenta see _R.F._ 167 and 291 foll. For + Fortuna, _ib._ 223 foll.; cp. 170 foll. + + [609] Aug. _de Civ. Dei_, iv. 11; he uses the plural + _Carmentes_; see _R.F._ as above. Virgil, _Aen._ viii. + 336. + + [610] As "superstitiosi vates" in the passage of Ennius + quoted below. In his imaginary _ius divinum_ Cicero uses + the word for "fatidici" authorised by the State (_de + Legg._ ii. 20). He is perhaps thinking of the + haruspices. + + [611] Ribbeck, _Fragm. tragicorum Romanorum_, p. 55. For + hariolus outside the play-writers, Cic. _de Nat. Deor._ + i. 20. 55, where it is combined with haruspices, + augures, vates, and coniectores (interpreters of + dreams). _Ad Att._ viii. 11. 3. + + [612] Cato, _R.R._ ch. 54; cp. Columella, i. 8 and xi. + 1. + + [613] See P. Regell, _De augurum publicorum libris_, p. + 6 "Omnia illa auguria quae futurarum rerum aliquid + predicunt ... augurum publicorum disciplinae abroganda + sunt: aut privati sunt augurii, aut Tuscorum + disciplinae." Cp. Cic. _de Har. Resp._ 9. 18. + + [614] Cic. _de Div._ i. 16. 28; Val. Max. ii. 1. 1. + + [615] _La Religione nella vita domestica_, i. 153 foll.; + 232 foll. + + [616] Cic. _de Div._ i. 16, 28. + + [617] This fragment is preserved in Gellius vii. 6. 10. + Nigidius may be responsible for many of Pliny's omens. + Regell, _op. cit._ p. 8. + + [618] Hor. _Odes_, iii. 27. 1 foll. + + [619] Exactly the same misfortune occurred in the middle + ages. The monks had abundant opportunity of observation, + but were occupied with other matters, and have left + behind them no works on natural history. + + [620] See above, p. 169 foll. + + [621] Livy vi. 12. + + [622] See the fragment of Ennius' _Annales_ in Cic. _de + Div._ i. 107. + + [623] Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 450; _Lex coloniae Genetivae_, + 66 and 67. + + [624] Livy vi. 41. + + [625] See a good account in the _Dict. of Antiquities_, + vol. i. 252 and 255; and Wissowa in Pauly-Wissowa, + _s.v._ "auspicia." + + [626] _Roman Public Life_, p. 162. + + [627] Wissowa, _R.K._ 451, note 2; Marq. 241. + + [628] Mommsen, _Staatsrecht_, i. 86. + + [629] Wissowa, _R.K._ 451, note 7; Plut. _Quaest. Rom._ + 99; Pliny, _Ep._ 4. 8. Plutarch asks why an augur can + never be deprived of his office, and answers that the + secrecy of his art made it impossible. Cp. Paulus, 16. + + [630] The latest authoritative account of the auspicia + is in Pauly-Wissowa, _s.v._, where the necessary + literature and material will be found for a study of an + extremely complicated subject. + + [631] The technical term was _templum minus_, in + contradistinction to the _templum maius_, _i.e._ the + space in which he was to look for signs. See + Bouche-Leclercq, iv. 197; Fest. 157. The usual place was + the _arx_, where was the _auguraculum_, on which the + magistrate taking the auspices "pitched his tent" + (_tabernaculum_), looking to the east, with the north as + his left or lucky side. Von Jhering, _op. cit._ p. 364, + makes some ingenious use of this procedure to support + his theory that the origin of such institutions is to be + found in the period of migration. + + [632] That the division of the _templum_ into _regiones_ + was necessary only for the _auguria caelestia_, and not + for the observation of birds, is the conclusion drawn by + Wissowa (_R.K._ 457, note 2) from the words of Cicero + (_de Legibus_, ii. 21) in his _ius divinum_: "caelique + fulgura regionibus ratis temperanto" (_i.e._ the + magistrates). + + [633] Cicero expressly says that even old Cato + complained of the neglect of the auspicia by the + college: _de Div._ i. 15. 28; above, in sec. 25, he had + said the same thing of the augurs of his own day, _i.e._ + including himself. We know of a work on the _auspicia_ + by M. Messalla, an augur, from which Gellius, xiii. 15, + quotes a lengthy extract (cp. ch. 14). This man was + consul in 53 B.C.; Schanz, _Gesch. der roem. Lit._, ii. + 492. Just at the same time Appius Claudius, Cicero's + predecessor as governor of Cilicia, wrote _libri + augurales_, to which Cicero more than once alludes in + his correspondence with Appius: _ad Fam._ iii. 9. 3 and + 11. 4. It is plain that the old augural lore is now + treated only as a curiosity, of which the secrecy need + no longer be respected. + + [634] P. Regell, _De augurum publicorum libris_, whose + excellent little work has never been superseded, thinks + (p. 19) that the _libri_ were the result of the neglect + of the art, _i.e._ that it was necessary to put it in + writing, because otherwise it would be forgotten. "Tota + eius vita," he says, "lenta est mors." The lore was + complete about the time of the decemvirate, but + _decreta_ must have been continually added (p. 23). The + nucleus may be represented in Cicero, _de Legibus_, ii. + 20. 21, and perhaps existed in Saturnian verse (Festus, + 290). The additions in the way of decree or comment + would probably range over the fourth and third centuries + B.C. like those of the pontifices. No doubt the + Hannibalic war had the effect of diminishing the + importance of the lore, as the next lecture should show. + On the whole we may put the great period of the college + between the decemvirate and the war with Hannibal. + + [635] This is the opinion of Bouche-Leclercq, _op. cit._ + vol. iv. p. 205 foll.; cp. Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 457. + Cicero calls the augurs "interpretes Iovis Optimi + maximi" (_de Legibus_, ii. 20), and herein could hardly + have made a mistake, as he was himself an augur. As the + great deity was of Etruscan origin in this form, I + should conjecture that the college took new ground and + gained new influence under the Etruscan dynasty. + + [636] Cp. also Mueller-Deecke, _Die Etrusker_, ii. 165 + foll. Our knowledge comes chiefly from the learned but + obscure writer Martianus Capella (ed. Eyssenhardt), who + wrote under the later Empire. + + [637] For these meetings see Cic. _de Div._ i. 41. 90; + Regell, p. 23. They were obsolete in Cicero's time, but + seem to have still existed in the time of Scipio + Aemilianus: Cic. _Lael._ 2. 7. + + [638] _Staatsrecht_, i. 73 foll.; Greenidge, _Roman + Public Life_, p. 172 foll. + + [639] The best account of the constitutional power of + the augurs is in Pauly-Wissowa, _Real-Encyclopaedie_, + _s.v._ "augur," vol. i. p. 2334 foll.; cp. Wissowa, + _R.K._ 457-8. + + [640] _De Legibus_, ii. 21. + + [641] The outward form of _co-optatio_ was still + preserved, like our "election" of a bishop by a chapter. + Cicero was co-opted by Hortensius after nomination by + two other augurs. See his interesting account of this in + his _Brutus_, ch. i. The survival may be taken as + throwing light on the original secrecy and closeness of + the _collegium_. + + [642] For the _leges Aelia et Fufia_, cf. Greenidge, + _op. cit._ p. 173. The Stoics of the last century B.C. + were divided on this point. See below, p. 399. In the + second book of his _de Divinatione_, following the + Academic or agnostic school, he himself confutes his + brother Quintus' argument for divination contained in + Bk. I. + + [643] This is the view of Thulin, _Die Goetter des + Martianus Capella und der Bronzeleber von Piacenza_ + (Giessen, 1906), p. 7 foll., and it seems at present to + hold the field: see Gruppe, _Die mythologische Literatur + aus den Jahren 1898-1905_, p. 336. + + [644] Mueller-Deecke, vol. ii. p. 7 foll. + + [645] See Deecke's note on p. 12 of Mueller-Deecke, vol. + ii. It is possibly connected with _hariolus_. + + [646] Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 470, and Mueller-Deecke, vol. + ii. 165 foll. + + [647] See above, note 50. + + [648] References to Livy will be found in Wissowa, + _R.K._ p. 473, note 11. One of these, to Livy xxvii. 16. + 14, is worth quoting as suggesting that a _haruspex_ + might give useful advice in spite of his art: "Hostia + quoque caesa consulenti (Fabio) deos haruspex, cavendum + a fraude hostili et ab insidiis, praedixit." + + [649] They were not _sacerdotes publici Romani_, nor is + a _collegium_ mentioned till the reign of Claudius: Tac. + _Ann._ xi. 15. The proper term seems to have been + _ordo_, which occurs in inscriptions of the Empire: + Marq. p. 415. + + [650] typo fixed: 54: See the oration _De haruspicum + responsis_ (especially 5. 9), the genuineness of which + is now generally acknowledged. Asconius quotes it as + Cicero's (ed. Clark, p. 70): so also Quintilian, v. 11. + 42. + + [651] Tac. _Ann._ 11. 15. + + [652] The _haruspices_ mentioned in inscriptions (above, + note 56) were not the genuine article; they were Romans + and _equites_. Probably this was only one of the many + ways of finding dignity or employment for persons of + good birth under the Empire. + + [653] _Cod. Theod._ xvi. 10. 1 (of the year 321 A.D.), + quoted by Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 475, note 1. In ix. 16. 3. + 5, however, the practice of consulting such experts is + strictly prohibited. + + [654] The story is told in Prof. Dill's _Roman Society + in the Last Century of the Western Empire_, ed. 1, p. + 41. + + + + +LECTURE XIV + +THE HANNIBALIC WAR + + +We have noticed two different, if not opposing, tendencies in Roman +religious experience since the disappearance of the kingship. First, +there was a tendency towards the reception of new and more emotional +forms of worship, under the direction of the Sibylline books and their +keepers; secondly, we have seen how, in the hands of pontifices and +augurs, religious practice became gradually so highly formularised and +secularised that the real religious instinct is hardly discernible in +it, except indeed in the degraded form of scruple as to the exact +performance of the ritual laid down. There was also, towards the end of +that period, a third tendency beginning to show itself, which was +eventually to complete the paralysis of the old religion--a tendency to +neglect and despise the old religious forms. This need not surprise us, +if we keep in mind two facts: (1) that Rome is now continually in close +contact with Greece and her life and thought; (2) that it seems to be +inevitable in western civilisation that a hard and fast system of +religious rule should eventually arouse rebellion in certain minds. +Already there are a few signs that the regulations of the _ius divinum_ +are not invariably treated with respect. + +As long ago as 293 B.C. and the last struggle with the Samnites, we find +a trace of this neglect or carelessness. One of the chicken-keepers +(_pullarii_) reported falsely to the consul Papirius that the sacred +chickens had given good omen in their eating: this was discovered by a +young nephew of Papirius, "iuvenis ante doctrinam deos spernentem +natus," as Livy calls him, and came to the consul's ears. Papirius' +reception of the news was characteristic of the way in which a Roman +could combine practical common-sense with the formal respect claimed by +his _ius divinum_; he declared that the omen had been reported to him as +good, and therefore "populo Romano exercituique egregium auspicium est." +The umpire had decided favourably for him, and there was an end of the +matter, except indeed that that umpire was placed in the forefront of +the battle that the gods might punish him themselves, and there of +course he died.[655] A generation later we have a case of far more +pronounced contempt in the familiar story of P. Claudius Pulcher and his +colleague Junius, each of whom lost a Roman fleet after neglecting the +warning of the _pullarius_: of Claudius it is told that he had the +sacred chickens thrown into the sea.[656] Another well-known story is +that of Flaminius, the democrat consul who, as we shall learn directly, +was defeated and killed at Trasimene after leaving Rome with none of +his religious duties performed.[657] The famous Marcellus of this second +Punic war, though himself an "augur optimus," according to Cicero, +declined to act upon an _auspicium ex acuminibus_--electric sparks seen +at the end of the soldiers' spears--and was accustomed to ride in his +litter with blinds drawn, so that he should not see any evil omen.[658] +Assuredly the transition from superstition to reason had its ludicrous +side even in public life. + +But it is not the gradual approach of rationalism that is the subject of +this lecture. For years after the death of Flaminius we have no trace of +it: that was no time for speculating, and it would have been dangerous. +The religious history of the time, as recorded by Livy, shows on the +contrary that _religio_ in the old sense of the word is once more +occupying the Roman mind--the sense of awe in the presence of the +Unknown, the sense of sin or of duties omitted, or merely a vague sense +of terror that suggested recourse to the supernatural. No wonder: for +though Italy had been invaded within the memory of living man, it was +not then invaded by one who had sworn to his father in infancy to +destroy the enemy root and branch. Instinctively both Romans and loyal +Italians knew that they were face to face with a struggle for life and +death. It is hard for us to realise the terror of the situation as it +must have been in those days of slow communication and doubtful news. It +is to Livy's credit that he recognised it fully, and all who look on +history as something more than wars and battles must be eternally +grateful to him for searching the records of the pontifices for evidence +of a people's emotion and the means taken to soothe it. Polybius has +nothing to tell us of this but a few generalisations, drawn from his own +experience a century later.[659] In all essential attributes of a Roman +historian Livy is far the better of the two. I propose to follow his +guidance in trying to gain some knowledge of the revived _religio_ of +the age and the way in which it was dealt with by the authorities. + +It is in the winter of 218-17, when Hannibal was wintering in north +Italy after his victory at the Trebbia, that Livy first brings the +matter before us.[660] He uses the word I have just now and so often +used: men's minds were _moti in religionem_, and they reported many +_prodigia_ which were uncritically accepted by the vulgar. He begins +with Rome, and here it is worth noting that these portents issue from +the crowded haunts of the markets, the _forum olitorium_, and the _forum +boarium_, both close to the river and the quays. In the latter place, +for example, an ox was said to have climbed to the third story of a +house, whence it threw itself down, terrified by the panic of the +inhabitants--a story which incidentally throws light on the housing of +the lower population at the time.[661] Other wonders were announced from +various parts of Italy,[662] and the decemviri were directed to have +recourse to the Sibylline books, except for the _procuratio_ of one +miracle, common in a volcanic country, the fall of pebble-rain.[663] +This had a _procuratio_ to itself by settled custom, the _novendiale +sacrum_,[664] an expiation parallel with that which, in the religion of +the family, followed a birth or a death. For the rest, the whole city +was subjected to _lustratio_,[665] and, in fact, the whole population +was busy with the work. A _lectisternium_ was ordered for Iuventas,[666] +the deity of the young recruits, a _supplicatio_ for Hercules at +one of his temples, and five special victims were ordered for +_Genius_--directions which have been variously interpreted. I am +disposed to think of them as referring to the capacity of the State to +increase its male population in the face of military peril. That the +authorities were looking ahead is clear from the fact next stated, that +one of the praetors had to undertake a special vow if the State should +survive for ten years. These measures, ordered by the books, "magna ex +parte levaverant religione animos." Unfortunately, the wayward consul +Flaminius spoilt their endeavours by wilfully neglecting his religious +duties at the Capitol, and also at the Alban mount, where he should have +presided at the Latin festival, and hurrying secretly to the seat of +war, lest his command should be interfered with by the aristocrats. + +Spring came on, and with the immediate prospect of a crisis the +_religio_ broke out afresh.[667] Marvels were reported from Sicily and +Sardinia, as well as Italy and Rome. We need not trouble ourselves with +them, except so far as to note that one, at least, was pure invention; +at Falerii, where there was an oracle by lots,[668] one tablet fell out +of the bundle with the words written on it, _Mavors telum suum +concutit_. The mental explanation of all this is lost to us;[669] it +would be interesting to know how the reports really originated and were +conveyed to Rome. That a widely spread _religio_ is really indicated we +can hardly doubt. The steps taken to soothe it, the religious +prescriptions, are of more value to us. The Senate received the reports, +and the consul then introduced the question of procuration. Besides +decreeing, no doubt with the sanction of the pontifices, certain +ordinary measures, the Senate referred the matter to the decemviri and +the Sibylline books. A _fulmen_, weighing fifty pounds, was awarded to +Jupiter, and gifts of silver to his consorts in the Capitoline temple. +Then follow directions which show that the _religio_ of women was to be +particularly cared for. Juno Regina of the Aventine was to have a +tribute collected by matrons, and she and the famous Juno Sospita of +Lanuvium were to have special sacrifices; and it is probable that +another Juno Regina, she of Ardea, was the object of a sacrifice, which +the decemviri themselves undertook in the forum of that city.[670] This +prominence of Juno may be a counterpart, I think, to the special +attention shown to Hercules and Genius in the previous winter.[671] And +it is interesting to notice that the libertinae were directed to collect +money for their own goddess Feronia.[672] + +It is evident that Livy, in detailing these directions from the books of +the pontifices,[673] took them in the chronological order in which they +were to be carried out; for the day sacred to Juno Regina of the +Aventine is September 1, that of Feronia November 13, and the last +instruction he mentions is in December, when Saturnus was to have a +sacrifice and _lectisternium_ at his own temple in the forum (prepared +by senators), and a _convivium publicum_. This meant, we note with +interest, the Graecising of this old Roman cult, which now took the form +which is so familiar to us of public rejoicing by all classes, including +slaves.[674] But long before these dates the terrible disaster of +Trasimene had forced the Senate, at the urgent persuasion of the +dictator Fabius, to have recourse to the sacred books again.[675] Never +before had they been so frequently consulted; the ordinary _piacula_ of +the pontifices were not thought of; a consul had grievously broken the +_pax deorum_, and what remedy was possible no Roman authority could +tell. The prescriptions of the books were many and various; the most +interesting of them is the famous _ver sacrum_, an old Italian custom, +already referred to, but here prescribed by a Greek authority. This was +submitted to the people in Comitia, and carried with quaint provisions +suited to protect them against any unconscious mistake in carrying out +the vow, such as might produce further _religio_. We will only notice +that though, according to the old tradition, it was to Mars that the +Italian stocks were wont in time of famine and distress to dedicate the +whole agricultural produce of the year, together with the male children +born that spring,[676] in this crisis it is to Jupiter that the vow is +made. It is the Roman people only who here make the vow, and they make +it, I doubt not, to that great Jupiter of the Capitol who for 300 years +has been their guardian, and in whose temple are kept the sacred books +that ordered it.[677] + +But the authorities were determined to make now a supreme effort to +still the alarm, and to restore the people to cheerfulness. They went on +to vow _ludi magni_, _i.e._ extra games beside the usual yearly _ludi +Romani_, at a cost of 333,333 and one-third asses, three being the +sacred number. Then a _supplicatio_ was decreed, which was attended not +only by the urban population, but by crowds from the country, and for +three days the decemviri superintended a _lectisternium_ on a grand +scale, such as had never been seen in Rome before, in which twelve +deities in pairs, Roman and Greek indistinguishable from each other, +were seen reclining on cushions. If Wissowa interprets this +rightly,[678] as I think he does, it marks a turning-point in the +religious history of Rome. The old distinction between _di indigetes_ +and _di novensiles_ now vanishes for good; the showy Greek ritual is +applied alike to Roman and to Greek deities; the Sibylline books have +conquered the _ius divinum_, and the decemviri in religious matters are +more trusted physicians than the pontifices. The old Roman State +religion, which we have been so long examining, may be said henceforward +to exist only in the form of dead bones, which even Augustus will hardly +be able to make live. + +So far, however, all had been orderly and dignified. But after Cannae we +begin to divine that the stress of disaster is telling more severely on +the nervous fibre of the people. Two Vestals were found guilty of +adultery always a suspicious event; in such times a wicked rumour once +spread would have its own way. One killed herself; the other was buried +alive at the Colline gate. A _scriba pontificis_, who had seduced one of +them, was beaten to death by the pontifex maximus. Such a violation of +the _pax deorum_ was itself a prodigium, and again the books were +consulted, and an embassy was sent to Delphi with Fabius Pictor as +leader.[679] Greece is looming ever larger in the eyes of the frightened +Roman. + +Under such circumstances it is hardly astonishing to read of a new (or +almost new) and horrible rite, in which a Greek man and woman and a +Gallic man and woman (slaves, no doubt) were buried alive in the _forum +boarium_ in a hole closed by a big stone, which had already, says Livy, +been used for human victims--"minime Romano sacro." As in the case of +the Vestals, blood-shedding is avoided, but the death is all the more +horrible. What are we to make of such barbarism? Technically, it must +have been a sacrifice to Tellus and the Manes, like the _devotio_ of +Decius, and like that also, it probably had in it a substratum of +magic.[680] As regards the choice of victims it baffles us, for if we +can understand the selection of a Gallic pair at a time when the Gauls +of North Italy were taking Hannibal's side, it is not so easy to see why +the Greeks were just now the objects of public animosity. Diels has +suggested that Gelo, son of Hiero of Syracuse, deserted Rome for +Carthage after Cannae,[681] and wanting a better explanation we may +accept this, and imagine, if we can, that the cruel death of a pair of +Greek slaves need not be taken as expressing any general feeling of +antagonism or hatred for things Greek. But, after all, the most +astonishing fact in the whole story is this--that the abominable +practice lasted into the Empire; Pliny, at least, emphatically states +that his own age had seen it, and heard the solemn form of prayer which +the magister of the quindecemviri used to dictate over the victims.[682] +Pliny, we may note, also speaks of the _forum boarium_ as the scene of +the sacrifice, where also the first gladiatorial games were +exhibited.[683] Rome was already accustomed to see horrors there. + +As we have now reached the climax of the religious panic of these years, +I may pause here for a moment to refer to an interesting matter which I +mentioned in my third lecture. At this very time, if we accept Wissowa's +conjecture, the twenty-seven puppets of straw known as Argei, which were +thrown over the _pons sublicius_ by the Vestals on the ides of May, were +being substituted as surrogates for the sacrifice by drowning of the +same number of Greeks (Argei); an atrocity which he fancies actually +took place somewhere in the interval between the first and second Punic +wars, under orders found in the Sibylline books.[684] All scholars know +that there were in the four regions of the old city twenty-seven (or +twenty-four) chapels, _sacella_, which were also called Argei, and have +caused great trouble to topographers and archaeologists.[685] To +complete his hypothesis, Wissowa conjectures that these too date from +this same age, and were distributed over the city in order to take away +the miasma caused by some great pestilence or other trouble, of which, +owing to the loss of Livy's second decade, we have no information. But +neither have we a scrap of information about the building of the +chapels, or the drowning of the twenty-seven Greeks, an atrocity so +abominable that the only way in which we might conceivably account for +its disappearance in the records would be the hypothesis of a conspiracy +of silence, an impossible thing at Rome. The loss of Livy's second +decade cannot of itself be an explanation; such an event is just what an +epitomator would have seized on, yet there is no trace of it in the +surviving epitomes, nor in any other author who may have had Livy before +him. Varro knew nothing of it, so far as we can tell; where he refers to +the Argei he makes no mention of such an astonishing origin either of +puppets or chapels. If there had been a record in the books of the +pontifices, it is impossible to imagine that he was not aware of it. + +On the contrary, he quotes no official record, but a line of Ennius +which attributes the origin of the Argei to Numa:[686] + + libaque fictores Argeos et tutulatos. + +Now Ennius was born in 239[687] B.C., and was, therefore, living when +the whole astonishing business began. How does he come to ascribe to +Numa institutions which were to himself exactly as the building of the +Forth Bridge might be to an Edinburgh man of middle age? Why, too, if +these institutions were of such recent date, did the Romans of the last +two centuries B.C. invent all sorts of wild explanations of them, at +which Wissowa very properly scoffs? It is for him to explain why these +explanations were needed. It is inconceivable that in a large city, with +colleges of priests preserving religious traditions and formulae, all +memory of the remarkable origin of _sacella_ and puppets should have so +completely vanished as to leave room for the growth of such a crop of +explanations. These will be found in my _Roman Festivals_, p. 112, and +whoever reads them will conclude at once, I am sure, that the Romans +knew nothing at all about the true history of the Argei. We may still +class this curious ceremony with some of the primitive magical or +quasi-magical rites of the ancient settlement. We are not entitled to +cite it as an example of the growing savagery of this trying period; and +if it be argued that it is an example rather of humanity, because for +the original victims straw puppets were substituted, the answer is that +even if we were to grant the human sacrifice, the surrogation of puppets +is a most unlikely thing to have happened.[688] It is a rare practice; +Wissowa himself judiciously rejects it as an explanation of such objects +as _oscilla_ and _maniae_. You cannot adopt it when you choose, to +explain a difficulty, and then reject it when you choose. Why, one may +ask, was this humane method not applied also to the two pairs of Gauls +and Greeks just mentioned? But I need not pursue the subject further; we +may be satisfied to reflect that from an anthropological point of view +the Argei need never have been anything more than puppets.[689] + +But to return to the religious history of the war. It would seem that +the extraordinary series of performances ordered during the depression +and despair that followed Cannae had succeeded for the time in quieting +the _religio_. Fabius Pictor too had returned from Delphi,[690] and +brought home in what seems to be hexameter verse instructions as to the +worship of certain deities, with injunctions to the Romans to send gifts +to the Pythian Apollo if prosperity should return to them, and ending +with the significant words, "lasciviam (disorderly excitement) a vobis +prohibete," which may be interpreted as "keep quiet, and do not get into +a religious panic." The hexameters were Greek, but were translated for +the benefit of the people; and Fabius publicly told how he had himself +obeyed the voice of the oracle by sacrificing to the deities it named, +and had worn the wreath, the sign that he was accomplishing religious +work, during the whole of his journey home. This wreath he now deposited +on the altar of Apollo. This was in 216, and it is remarkable that we +hear of no new outbreak of _prodigia_, the normal symptom of _religio_, +till the next year. Then we have a list; as Livy says,[691] "simplices +et religiosi homines" were ready with them at any time. A panic arose in +Rome, not strictly of a religious kind, which shows the nervousness of +the population; a rumour went about that an army had been seen on the +Janiculum, but men who were on the spot refuted it. In this case the +Sibylline books were not consulted, but Etruscan haruspices were called +in, who simply ordered a _supplicatio_ of the new kind, at the +_pulvinaria_. This is the first, or almost the first instance of these +experts being consulted; earlier statements of the kind are probably +apocryphal, as I pointed out in the last lecture. It is not clear why +the authorities had recourse to them at this moment; but I am inclined +to think that the old remedies even of the Sibylline books and their +keepers were getting stale, and that while it was thought undesirable to +excite the people by new rites, it was felt that the familiar ones might +gain some new prestige by being recommended by new experts. The old +prescription, given by a new physician, may gain in authority. The next +year again, 213, brought another crop of _prodigia_, but Livy dismisses +them with the simple words, "His procuratis ex decreto pontificum."[692] +It is reasonable to suppose that a reaction was taking place in the +minds of the senators and pontifices, and that they were determined to +take as little notice as possible of disturbing symptoms, relying on the +prestige of the Delphic oracle, and acting on its advice to suppress +_lascivia_. + +But in this same year the _lascivia_ broke out again with unprecedented +force. The cause was not only, as Livy explains it, the dreary +continuance of the war with varying success; if we read between the +lines we may guess that the break-up of family life occasioned by the +deaths of so many heads of houses and their sons, had opened the way for +_feminine_ excitement and for the introduction of external rites such as +an old Roman _paterfamilias_ would no more have tolerated than the +pontifices themselves. "Tanta religio," says Livy,[693] "et ea magna ex +parte externa, civitatem incessit, _ut aut homines, aut dii repente alii +viderentur facti_"; it seemed as if the old religious system, in spite +of all its highly formalised apparatus of expiation, was being +deliberately set aside. "Nec iam in secreto modo atque intra parietes +abolebantur Romani ritus: sed in publico etiam ac foro Capitolioque +(this is the hardest cut of all) _mulierum_ turba erat, nec +sacrificantium nec precantium deos patrio more." To understand such an +amazing religious rebellion against the _ius divinum_ we must remember +that 80,000 men had fallen at Cannae, besides great numbers in the two +previous years, and that therefore the real effective human support of +that _ius_ had in great part given way. Private priests and prophets, +vermin to be found all over the Graeco-Roman world, had captured for +gain the minds of helpless women, and of the ruined and despairing +population of the country now flocking into Rome. The aediles and +triumviri capitales, responsible for the order of the city, could do +nothing; the Senate had to commission the praetor urbanus to rid the +people of these _religiones_. When in those days the Senate and +magistrates took such a matter in hand, further rebellion was +impossible. All we are told is that the praetor issued an edict ordering +that all who possessed private forms of prophecy or prayer, or rules of +sacrifice, should bring them to him before the kalends of April next; +and that no one should sacrifice in public with any strange or foreign +rite. I do not know that the wonderful good sense of this decree has +ever been commented on. To take violent or cruel measures would have +been dangerous in the extreme at such a psychological moment. Livy tells +this story at the very end of the year 213, and the kalends of April +referred to must be those of the next year; there was, therefore, plenty +of time to obey the order, and in the meantime the excitement might +subside of itself. The mischief was not absolutely and suddenly +stopped; in private houses the new rites were allowed to go on,--a +policy adhered to in time to come,--but the _ius divinum_ of the Roman +State, the public worship of the Roman deities, must not be tampered +with. This wise policy seems to have succeeded for the time; for even +after the capture of Tarentum by Hannibal, and the prospect of an attack +in that direction from Macedonia, we do not hear of any renewed +outbreak. _Prodigia_ are reported as usual, but the remedy thought +sufficient is only a single day's _supplicatio_ and a _sacrum +novendiale_. The consuls, however, in the true Roman spirit, devoted +themselves for several days to religious duties before leaving Rome for +their commands. + +This was at the beginning of the year 212. But after the Latin festival +at the end of April we hear of a new _religio_, and a very curious +one.[694] It looks as though certain Latin oracles, written in Saturnian +verse, and attributed to an apocryphal _vates_ of the suspicious name of +Marcius, had got abroad in the panic of the previous year, and had been +confiscated by the praetor urbanus charged, as we saw, with the +suppression of religious mischief. He had handed them on to the new +praetor urbanus of 212. One of them prophesied the disaster of Cannae +which had already happened; the other gave directions for instituting +games in honour of Apollo, including one which placed the religious part +of these _ludi_ in the hands of the decemviri. I strongly suspect that +the whole transaction was a plan on the part of the Senate and the +religious colleges, in order to quiet the minds of the people by a new +religious festival in honour of a great deity of whose prestige every +one had heard, for he had been long established in Rome; he is now to +take a more worthy place there, to be incorporated in the _ius divinum_ +in a new sense, in gratitude perhaps for his recent advice given to +Fabius Pictor at Delphi. Possibly also he is to be regarded here as the +Greek deity of healing, though we do not hear of any pestilence at the +time; but four years later it was in consequence of an epidemic that +these _ludi_ were renewed and made permanent. The main object of the +moment was no doubt to amuse the people and occupy their minds. The +whole population took part in the games, wearing wreaths as partakers in +a sacred rite; the matrons were not left out; and every one kept his +house door open and feasted before the eyes of his fellow-citizens.[695] + +If it be asked why these games in honour of a Greek god should have been +suggested by a Latin oracle, the answer is, I think, that the latter was +used rather as a pretext for a pre-conceived plan; if it be true that +the Marcian verses had won some prestige among the vulgar, it was an +adroit stroke to invent one that might be used in this way. This is the +only way in which we can satisfactorily account for the direction to the +decemviri to undertake the necessary sacrifices. The government seizes a +chance of taking the material of _religio_ out of the hands of the +vulgar and utilising it for its own purposes. It was clever too to give +the alleged Latin oracles the sanction of the _Graecus ritus_; +"decemviri Graeco ritu hostiis sacra faciant," says the oracle. The +keepers consulted the sacred books as to the projected _ludi_, and +henceforward, as it would seem, these Latin oracles were placed in their +keeping to be added to the Sibylline books in the collection on the +Capitol. The amalgamation of Roman and Greek religion is complete. If +there were any doubt of it after the _lectisternia_ to the twelve gods +which we noticed just now, all such doubt is removed by the religious +events of this year 212--that famous year in which Hannibal came within +sight of Rome, and fell away again, never to return. + +The student of Roman religious history, and of all religious psychology, +as he follows carefully the extracts from the priestly records which +Livy has embodied in his story of the last years of the great struggle, +will find much to interest him. Even little things have here their +significance. He will still find relics of the scruple about the +minutiae of the _ius divinum_ to which the Romans had become habituated +under priestly rule--_religio_ in that sense in which it is least really +religious. He will find a Flamen Dialis resigning his priesthood because +he had made a blunder in putting the _exta_ of a victim on the +altar;[696] only too ready, it may have been, to take an opportunity of +getting free of those numerous taboos which deprived the priest of +Jupiter of all possibility of active life. Such a conjecture finds +support in the curious fact that his successor was a youth of such bad +character that his relations induced the pontifex maximus to select him +for the sacred post, in hopes that the restrictive discipline he would +have to undergo might improve his morals and make him a better +citizen.[697] About the later history of this youth I may have something +to say in the next lecture. Again, we find _religio_ of the scrupulous +kind sadly worrying the stout old warrior Marcellus shortly before his +death[698]: "Aliae atque aliae obiectae animo religiones tenebant." One +of these _religiones_ was a curious one; he had vowed a temple of Honos +and Virtus--two deities together; and the pontifices made difficulties, +insisting that two deities could not inhabit the same _cella_, for if it +should be struck by lightning, how were you to tell, in conducting the +_procuratio_, to which of them to sacrifice? The difficulty was solved +by building two temples. Such quaintnesses of the old type of religious +idea are thus still found, but they are becoming mere survivals. + +The _prodigia_ continue, and occasionally, as a new crisis in the war +was known to be approaching, became exacerbated. In 208, just before the +old consul Marcellus left the city to meet his death, he and his +colleague were terribly pestered with them, and could not succeed in +their sacrificing (_litare_). For many days they failed to secure the +_pax deorum_.[699] When it was known that Hasdrubal was on his way from +Spain, and that the greatest peril of the war was approaching, special +steps were taken to make sure of that _pax_.[700] The pontifices ordered +that twenty-seven maidens--a number of magical significance both in +Greece and Italy[701]--should chant a _carmen_ composed by the poet +Livius Andronicus; and in the elaborate ritual that followed, as the +result of the striking of the temple of Juno on the Aventine by +lightning, the decemviri and haruspices from Etruria also had a share. +The procession of the maidens, singing and dancing through the city till +they reached the temple of Juno by the Clivus Publicius, was a new +feature in ritual, and must have been a striking one. Doubtless it was +all a part of a deliberate policy to keep the women of the city in good +humour, and in touch with the religion of the State, instead of going +after other gods, as they had already gone and were again to go with +amazing and perilous fervour. For Juno Regina of the Aventine was their +special deity; and in this case they were authorised--all _matronae_ +living within ten miles of the city--to contribute in money to a noble +gift to the temple. + +Hasdrubal was defeated and killed (207), and the danger passed away. +Then, when the news reached Rome (if Livy's account may be relied on), +there followed such an outburst of gratitude to the deities as we have +never yet met with, and shall not meet with again in Roman history.[702] +It was not only that the State ordered a _supplicatio_ of three days +thanksgiving; men and women alike took advantage of it to press in +crowds to the temples, the materfamilias with her children, and in her +finest robes: "cum omni solutae metu, perinde ac si debellatum foret, +deis immortalibus grates agerent." I would draw attention to the fact +that here is no mere fulfilment of a vow, of a bargain, as some will +have it; in this moment of real religious emotion the first thought is +one of thankfulness that the _pax deorum_ is restored, and that the +Power manifesting itself in the universe, though in the humble form of +these dwellers in Roman temples, would permit the long-suffering people +once more to feel themselves in right relation to him. As we go on with +our studies in the two centuries that follow, let us bear this moment in +mind; it will remind us that the religious instinct never entirely dies +out in the heart of any people. + +I would fain stop at this point, and have done with the war and its +religious troubles; but there is one more event which cannot be +omitted,--the solemn advent of a new deity, this time neither Greek nor +Italian. After the Metaurus battle, the dreaded Hannibal yet remained in +Italy, and so long as he was there the Romans could know no security. So +far as religion could help them every possible means had been used; +there seemed no expedient left. In 205 a pretext for inspecting the +Sibylline books was found in an unusual burst of pebble-rain; and there, +as it was given out, an oracle was deciphered, which foretold that +Hannibal would have to leave Italy if the Magna Mater of Pessinus were +brought to Rome.[703] In whose brain this idea originated we do not +know, but it was a brilliant one. The eastern cult was wholly unknown at +Rome, was something entirely new and strange, a fresh and hopeful +prescription for an exhausted patient. The project was seized on with +avidity, and supported by the influence of Delphi and of that strange +soldier mystic the great Scipio.[704] The best man in the State was to +receive the goddess, and when, after many months, she came to Italy in +the form of a black stone, it was Scipio who was chosen for the duty. +For Attalus, king of Pergamus, had consented to let her go from her +Phrygian home; and when she arrived at Ostia, Scipio with all the Roman +matrons went thither by land; alone he boarded the ship, received the +goddess from her priests, and carried her to land, where the noblest +women of the State received her,--received the black stone, that +is,--and carried it in their arms in turns, while all Rome poured out to +meet her, and burned incense at their doors as she passed by. And +praying that she might enter willingly and propitiously into the city, +they carried her into the temple of Victory on the Palatine on the 4th +of April, henceforward to be a festal day, the popular Megalesia. + +This Magna Mater was the first Oriental deity introduced into Rome, and +the last deity introduced by the Sibylline books. It is probable that no +Roman then knew much about the real nature of her cult and its noisy +orgiastic character and other degrading features; it was sufficient to +have found a new prescription, and once more to have given the people, +and especially the women, a happy moment of hope and confidence. But the +truth came out soon enough; and though the goddess must have her own +priests, it was ordered by a _Senatusconsultum_ that no Roman should +take part in her service.[705] Though established in the heart of the +city, and ere long to have her own temple, she was to continue a foreign +deity outside the _ius divinum_. As such she belongs to those worships +with which I am not called upon by the plan of these lectures to deal. + +Hannibal withdrew at last from Italy, and in 202 the war came to an end. +Looking at the divine inhabitants of the city in that year, we may see +in them almost as much a _colluvies nationum_ as in the human population +itself. Under such circumstances neither the old City-state nor its +religion could any longer continue to exist. The decay of the one +reflects that of the other; the failure to trust the _di indigetes_, the +constant desire to try new and foreign manifestations of divine power, +were sure signs that the State was passing into a new phase. In the next +two centuries Rome gained the world and lost her own soul. + + + NOTES TO LECTURE XIV + + [655] The story is told in Livy x. 40 and 41, and must + have been taken by him from the records of the + pontifices, which had almost certainly begun by this + date (see above, p. 283). While on these chapters the + reader may also note the curious vow of this Papirius to + Jupiter Victor at the end of ch. xlii.; and the + description of the religious horrors of the Samnites + witnessed by the army, and especially the words + "respersae fando infandoque sanguine arae" (see above, + p. 196), which clearly indicate a practice abhorrent to + Romans. + + [656] Val. Max. i. 5. 3 and 4; Cic. _de Div._ i. 16. 29; + Livy, _Epit._ xix. + + [657] The _locus classicus_ is Livy xxi. 63. + + [658] Cic. _de Div._ ii. 36. 77. I find an illustration + of this effect of lightning in Major Bruce's _Twenty + Years in the Himalaya_, p. 130: "Directly the ice-axes + begin to hum (in a storm) they should be put away." + + [659] He notices it in connection with the war only in + iii. 112. 6, after the battle of Cannae: a striking + passage, but cast in general language. + + [660] Livy xxi. 62 foll. Wissowa comments on this + passage in _R.K._ p. 223. + + [661] See the author's _Social Life at Rome in the Age + of Cicero_, p. 28 foll. + + [662] The rule seems to have been that no _prodigia_ + were accepted, and _procurata_ by the authorities, which + were announced from beyond the ager Romanus. See Mommsen + in O. Jahn's edition of the _Periochae_ of Livy's books, + and of Iulius Obsequens, preface, p. xviii. But this + does not appear from the records of this war; and, at + any rate, the religious panic was Italian as well as + Roman. + + [663] Red sand still occasionally falls in Italy, + brought by a sirocco from the Sahara, and this accounts + for the _prodigium_, "_pluit sanguine_," which is often + met with. I have a record of it in the _Daily Mail_ of + March 11, 1901. But the _lapides_ were probably of + volcanic origin. + + [664] Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 328. + + [665] This must have been a special performance of the + yearly Amburbium, of which unluckily we known hardly + anything (Wissowa, _R.K._ 130). + + [666] _R.F._ p. 56, where unfortunately the word is + misprinted Pubertas. Wissowa, _R.K._ 126, thinks of Hebe + in a Latin form; in his view it must be a Greek deity, + being brought in by the decemviri and the books. But we + shall find that these begin now to interfere with Roman + cults, and in such a crisis we need not wonder at it. + Wissowa allows that we do not know where this Hebe can + have come from, nor, I may add, why she should have + come. That there was some special meaning in the + combination Juventas, Hercules, Genius I feel sure, and + I conjecture that it may be found in the urgent need of + a supply of _iuvenes_. Hercules and Genius seem both to + represent the male principle of life (_R.F._ 142 foll.). + Juventas speaks for herself, but we may remember that + the _tirones_ sacrificed to her on the day of the + Liberalia (17th March), and that Liber is almost + certainly another form of Genius (_R.F._ 55). + + [667] Livy xxii. 1. + + [668] It is only from this passage that we know of the + oracle. See Bouche-Leclercq, _Hist. de divination_, iv. + 146. That of Caere is mentioned in Livy xxi. 62. Both + cities were mainly Etruscan. + + [669] Livy xxvii. 37 betrays some knowledge of the + infectious nature of prodigy-reporting: "Sub unius + prodigii, ut fit, mentionem, alia quoque nuntiata." + + [670] Pliny, _N.H._ xxxv. 115, where the verses are + quoted as inscribed on the paintings in her temple at + Ardea. Note that Juno is here called the wife of Jupiter + by a Greek artist from Asia. + + [671] For Juno as the woman's deity and guardian spirit, + see above, p. 135. To refer this prominence of the + goddess to her connection with Carthage and mythical + enmity to the Romans, as we see it in the _Aeneid_, is + premature; we must suppose that each Juno was still a + local deity, and no general conception in the later + Greek sense is as yet possible. + + [672] For Feronia, see _R.F._ 252 foll. + + [673] The _procurationes_ ordered were doubtless + recorded in the _annales maximi_. The books of the + decemviri, we must suppose, were burnt with the oracles + in 38 B.C. (Diels, _Sib. Blaetter_, p. 6 note). + + [674] Wissowa, _R.K._ 170; Marq. 586 foll. + + [675] Livy xxii. 9-10. + + [676] See above, p. 204 foll.; Strabo, p. 250; Festus, + p. 106. + + [677] If it be asked why Jupiter is here without his + titles Optimus Maximus, the answer is that just below, + where _ludi magni_ are vowed to him, as all such _ludi_ + were, he is also simply Jupiter. + + [678] _R.K._ 356. In his view the new amalgam of twelve + gods was known as _di Consentes_, an expression of + Varro's which has been much discussed. See + Mueller-Deecke, _Etrusker_, ii. 83; _C.I.L._ vi. 102; + Wissowa, _Gesammelte Abhandlungen_, 190 foll. In _de Re + Rust._ i. 1, Varro speaks of twelve _dei consentes, + urbani_, whose gilded statues stood in the forum. + + [679] Livy xxii. 57. + + [680] See above, p. 207. Orosius' account of this is + worth reading; he calls it "obligamentum hoc magicum" + (iv. 13). He mentions a Gallic pair and a Greek woman, + and dates it in 226 (227 according to Wissowa, + _Gesammelte Abhandlungen_, p. 227). Cp. Plut. _Marcell._ + 3. Livy's words, "iam ante hostiis humanis, minime + Romano sacro, imbutum," agree with this. There must have + been an outbreak of feeling and recourse to the + Sibylline books in the stress of the Gallic war. + + [681] _Sib. Blaetter_, p. 86. + + [682] Pliny, _N.H._ xxviii. 12 and 13. Plutarch, _l.c._, + confirms him. Pliny, it may be noticed, is here writing + of spells, etc., among which he classes the _precatio_ + of this rite. + + [683] The first gladiatorial show was in 264 B.C. (Val. + Max. ii. 4. 7). + + [684] The arguments are stated fully in his _Gesammelte + Abhandlungen_, 211 foll. + + [685] The best account of these, or rather of the Argean + itinerary, of which fragments are preserved in Varro, + _L.L._ v. 45 foll., is still that of Jordan in his + _Roemische Topographie_, ii. 603 foll. The extracts seem + to be from a record of directions for the passage of a + procession round the _sacella_ (or _sacraria_, Varro v. + 48). Though quoting these, Varro has nothing to say of + their origin, which would be strange indeed if they were + of such comparatively late date. + + [686] In Varro, _L.L._ vii. 44. There is no doubt that + the line is from Ennius; it is also quoted as his in + Festus, p. 355. + + [687] Schanz, _Gesch. der roem. Literatur_, vol. i. ed. + 3, p. 110. + + [688] Some examples of substitution will be found in + Westermarck, _Origin and Development of the Moral + Ideas_, i. 469. It is of course a well-known phenomenon, + but is now generally rejected as an explanation of + _oscilla_, _maniae_, etc. (see Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 355, + and Frazer, _G.B._ ii. 344). I know of no case of it on + good evidence at Rome, unless it be one in the + _devotio_, of an effigy for the soldier, ("ni moritur," + Livy viii. 10). + + [689] See _Roman Festivals_, p. 117, with references to + Mannhardt; Frazer, _G.B._ ii. 256; Farnell, _Cults of + the Greek States_, v. 181. + + [690] Livy xxiii. 11. See also Diels, _Sib. Blaetter_, + pp. 11 and 92. + + [691] Livy xxiv. 10. + + [692] _Ib._ xxiv. 44. + + [693] _Ib._ xxv. 1. + + [694] _Ib._ xxv. 12. On the Marcian oracles and their + metre, see Bouche-Leclercq, _Hist. de divination_, iv. + 128 foll.; Wissowa, _R.K._ 463 note 2; Diels, _op. cit._ + p. 7 foll. + + [695] See above, Lect. xi. p. 262. For the Apolline + games, _R.F._ p. 179 foll. + + [696] Livy xxvi. 23. + + [697] _Ib._ xxvii. 8. + + [698] _Ib._ xxvii. 25; Plut. _Marcellus_, p. 28. + + [699] _Ib._ xxvii. 23. + + [700] _Ib._ xxvii. 37. + + [701] The idea that this number was "chthonic" and a + monopoly of the Sibylline utterances was started by + Diels, _Sib. Blaetter_, p. 42 foll., with imperfect + anthropological knowledge, and has led Wissowa and + others into wrong conclusions, _e.g._ as to the Argei. + See an article criticising Wissowa in _Classical Rev._ + 1902, p. 211. On the whole subject of the number three + and its multiples, see Usener, "Dreizahl," in + _Rheinisches Museum_ for 1903, and Goudy, _Trichotomy in + Roman Law_ (Oxford, 1910), p. 5 foll. + + [702] Livy xxvii. 51. For gratitude among Romans, see + above, p. 202. A gift of thanksgiving was sent to Delphi + (Livy xxviii. 45). + + [703] _Ib._ xxix. 10 foll. For other references see + _R.F._ p. 69 foll. + + [704] _Ib._ xxix. 10. + + [705] Dion. Hal. ii. 19; _R.F._ p. 70. + + + + +LECTURE XV + +AFTER THE HANNIBALIC WAR + + + +The long and deadly struggle with Hannibal ended in 201 B.C., and no +sooner was peace concluded than the Senate determined on war with +Macedon. This decision is a critical moment in Roman history, for it +initiated not only a long period of advance and the eventual supremacy +of Rome in the Eastern Mediterranean, but also an age of narrow +aristocratic rule which remained unquestioned till revolution broke out +with Tiberius Gracchus. But we cannot safely deny that it was a just +decision. Hannibal was alive, and his late ally, Philip of Macedon, now +in sinister coalition with Antiochus of Syria, might be capable of +invading exhausted Italy. To have an enemy once more in the peninsula +would probably be fatal to Rome and Italy, and one more effort was +necessary in order to avert such a calamity; an effort that must be made +at once, while Carthage lay prostrate. + +It is necessary to grasp fully the danger of the moment if we are to +understand the part played by religion (if I may use the word) in +bringing about the desired result. It was most difficult to persuade a +people worn out by one war that it was essential for their safety that +they should at once face another. Historians naturally look on the +success of the Senate in this task as due to its own prestige, and to +the skilful oratory of the Consul in the speech to the people which Livy +has reproduced in his own admirable rhetoric. But a closer examination +of the chapters at the beginning of the historian's thirty-first book +will show that religion too was used, in accordance with the experience +of the late war, to put pressure on the voters and to inspire their +confidence. As we saw in the last lecture, they had been constantly +cheered and braced by religious expedients,--their often-recurring +_religio_ had been soothed and satisfied; now the same means were to be +used positively rather than negatively, to help in urging them to a +definite course of action. Some sixty years later Polybius, writing of +the extreme religiousness of the Romans, expressed his conviction that +religion was invented for political objects, and only serves as the +means of bridling the fickle and unreasoning Demos; for if it were +possible to have a State consisting of wise men only, no such +institution would be necessary.[706] The philosophic historian is here +thinking mainly of the way in which religion was turned to account by +the Roman authorities in his own lifetime. We cannot have a better +illustration of this than the events of the year 200 B.C. + +Already, in the autumn of the previous year, the ground had been +prepared. To the plebeian games in November there had been added a feast +of Jupiter (_Iovis epulum_), as had been done more than once during the +late war.[707] Jupiter, in the form of his image in the Capitoline +temple, lay on his couch at the feast of the outgoing plebeian +magistrates, with his face reddened with minium as at a triumph, and +Juno and Minerva sat each on her _sella_ on either side of him; and to +give practical point to this show, corn from Africa was distributed at +four asses the modius, or at most one quarter of the normal price. When +the new consuls entered on office on the ides of the following March, +further religious steps were at once taken; the political atmosphere was +charged with religiosity. On the first day of their office the consuls +were directed by the Senate, doubtless with the sanction of the +pontifices, to _sacrifice to such deities as they might select_, with a +special prayer for the success of the new war which Senate and people +(the latter by a clever anticipation) are contemplating. Haruspices from +Etruria had been adroitly procured, and no doubt primed, who reported +that the gods had accepted this prayer, and that the examination of the +victims portended extension of the Roman frontier, victory, and +triumph.[708] Yet, in spite of all this, the people were not yet +willing; in almost all the centuries, when the voting for the war took +place, they rejected the proposal of the Senate. Then the consul +Sulpicius was put up to address them, and at the end of Livy's version +of his speech we find him clinching his political arguments with +religious ones. "Ite in suffragium, bene iuvantibus dis, et quae Patres +censuerunt, vos iubete. Huius vobis sententiae non consul modo auctor +est, sed etiam di immortales; qui mihi sacrificanti ... laeta omnia +prosperaque portendere." Thus adjured, the people yielded; and as a +reward, and to stifle any _religio_ that might be troubling them, they +are treated to a _supplicatio_ of three days, including an "_obsecratio +circa omnia pulvinaria_" for the happy result of the war; and once more, +after the levy was over,--a heavy tax on the patience of the +people,--the consul made vows of _ludi_ and a special gift to Jupiter, +in case the State should be intact and prospering five years from that +day.[709] + +Exactly the same religious machinery was used a few years later to gain +the consent of the people for a war of far less obvious necessity,--that +with Antiochus of Syria. It was at once successful. The haruspices were +again on the spot and gave the same report; and then, _solutis religione +animis_, the centuries sanctioned the war. The vow that followed, of +which Livy gives a modernised wording, was for _ludi_ to last ten +continuous days, and for gifts of money at all the _pulvinaria_, where +now, as we gather from these same chapters, the images of the gods were +displayed on their couches during the greater part of the year.[710] + +We may realise in accounts like these how far we have left behind us the +old Roman religion we discussed in earlier lectures. That religion did +not any longer supply the material needed; it was not suited to be the +handmaid of a political or military policy; it was a real religion, not +invented for political purposes, to use Polybius' language, but itself a +part of the life of the State, whether active in war, or law, or +politics. In the ceremonies I have just been describing almost all the +features are foreign,--the _pulvinaria_, the haruspices, perhaps even +the _Iovis epulum_; and we feel that though the _religio_ in the minds +of the people is doubtless a genuine thing, yet the means taken to +soothe it are far from genuine,--they are _mala medicamenta_, quack +remedies. Such is the method by which a shrewd, masterly government +compels the obedience of a _populus religiosus_. After long experience +of such methods, can we wonder that Polybius could formulate his famous +view of religion, or that a great and good Roman lawyer, himself +pontifex maximus, could declare that political religion stands quite +apart from the religion of the poets, or that of the philosophers, and +must be acted on, whether true or false?[711] + +The reporting of _prodigia_ goes on with astonishing vigour in this +period, and seems to have become endemic. I only mention it here (for we +have had quite enough of it already) because the question arises whether +it is now used mainly for political purposes, or to annoy a personal +rival or enemy. This does not appear clearly from Livy's accounts, but +in an age of personal and political rivalries, as this undoubtedly was, +it can hardly have been otherwise. Certain it is that the interests of +the State were grievously interfered with in this way. The consuls at +this time, and until 153 B.C., did not enter on office until March 15, +and they should have been ready to start for their military duties as +soon as the levies had been completed; instead of which, they were +constantly delayed by the duty of expiating these marvels. In 199 +Flamininus, whose appointment to the command in Macedonia had of course +annoyed the friends of the man he was superseding, was delayed in this +way for the greater part of the year, and yet he is said to have left +Italy at an earlier date than most consuls.[712] Thus the change to +January 1 for the beginning of the consular year, which took place in +153 B.C., was an unavoidable political necessity. Even the Sibylline +books came to be used for personal and political purposes. In the year +144 the praetor Marcius Rex was commissioned to repair the Appian and +Aniensian aqueducts and to construct a new one. The _decemviri sacris +faciundis_, consulting the books, as it was said, for other reasons, +found an oracle forbidding the water to be conveyed to the Capitoline +hill, and seem on this absurd ground to have been able to delay the +necessary work. Our information is much mutilated, but the real +explanation seems to be that there was some personal spite against +Marcius, who, however, eventually completed the work.[713] Nearly a +century later a Sibylline oracle, beyond doubt invented for the purpose, +was used to prevent Pompeius from taking an army to Egypt to restore +Ptolemy Auletes to his throne. But all students of Roman history in the +last two centuries B.C. are familiar with such cases of the prostitution +of religion or religious processes, and I have already said enough about +it in the lecture on divination.[714] + +I do not, of course, mean to assert that personal and political motives +account for all or the greater number of _prodigia_ reported. There is +plenty of evidence that the genuine old _religio_ could be stirred up by +real marvels, which the government were bound to expiate in order to +satisfy public feeling. Thus in 193 B.C. earthquakes were so frequent +that the Senate could not meet, nor could any public business be done, +so busy were the consuls with the work of expiation. At last the +Sibylline books were consulted and the usual religious remedies applied; +but the spirit of the age is apparent in the edict of the consuls, +prompted by the Senate, that if _feriae_ had been decreed to take place +on a certain day for the expiation of an earthquake, no fresh earthquake +was to be reported on that same day.[715] This delicious edict, +unparalleled in Roman history, caused the grave Livy to declare that the +people must have grown tired, not only of the earthquakes, but of the +_feriae_ appointed to expiate them. + +Let us turn to another and more interesting feature of this age, which +is plainly visible in the sphere of religion, as in other aspects both +of private and public life: I mean the growth of _individualism_. Men, +and indeed women also, as we shall see, are beginning to feel and to +assert their individual importance, as against the strict rules and +traditions, civil or religious, of the life of the family and the State. +This is a tendency that had long been at work in Greece, and is +especially marked in the teaching of the two great ethical schools of +the post-Alexandrian period, the Epicureans and Stoics. The influence of +Greece on the Romans was already strong enough to have sown the seeds of +individualism in Italy; but the tendency was at the same time a natural +result of enlarged experience and expanding intelligence among the upper +classes. The second century B.C. shows us many prominent men of strong +individual character, who assert themselves in ways to which we have not +been accustomed in Roman history, _e.g._ Scipio the elder, Flamininus, +Cato, Aemilius Paulus and his son, Scipio Aemilianus; and among lesser +and less honourable men we see the tendency in the passionate desire for +personal distinction in the way of military commands, triumphs, and the +giving of expensive games. This is the age in which we first hear of +statues and portrait busts of eminent men; and magistrates begin to put +their names or types connected with their families on the coins which +they issue.[716] + +In religion this tendency is seen mainly in the attempts of the +individual, often successful, to shake himself free of the restrictions +of the old _ius divinum_. I pointed out long ago that it was a weak +point in the old Roman religion that it did little or nothing to +encourage and develop the individual religious instinct; it was +formalised as a religion of family and State, and made no appeal, as did +that of the Jews, to the individual's sense of right and wrong.[717] The +sense of sin was only present to the Roman individual mind in the form +of scruple about omissions or mistakes in the performance of religious +duties. Thus religion lost her chance at Rome as an agent in the +development of the better side of human nature. As an illustration of +what I mean I may recall what I said in an early lecture, that the +spirit of a dead Roman was not thought of as definitely individualised; +it joined the whole mass of the Manes in some dimly conceived abode +beneath the earth; there is no singular of the word Manes. It is only in +the third century B.C. that we first meet with memorial tombstones to +individuals, like those of the Scipios, and not till the end of the +Republican period that we find the words Di Manes representing in any +sense the spirit of the individual departed.[718] + +In practical life the quarrel of the individual with the _ius divinum_ +takes the form of protest against the restrictions placed on the old +sacrificing priesthoods, these of the Flamines and the Rex sacrorum, +who, unlike the pontifices and augurs, were disqualified from holding a +secular magistracy.[719] These priesthoods must be filled up, and when a +vacancy occurred, the pontifex maximus, who retained the power of the +Rex in this sphere, as a kind of _paterfamilias_ of the whole State, +selected the persons, and could compel them to serve even if they were +unwilling. But the interests of public life are now far more attractive +than the duties of the cults,--the individual wishes to assert himself +where his self-assertion will be noted and appreciated. + +These attempts at emancipation from the _ius divinum_ were not at first +successful. In 242 a flamen of Mars was elected consul; he hoped to be +in joint command with his colleague Lutatius of the naval campaign +against Carthage. But the _ius divinum_ forbade him to leave Italy, and +the pontifex maximus inexorably enforced it.[720] Of this quarrel we +have no details; but in 190 a similar case is recorded in full. A flamen +Quirinalis, elected praetor, who had Sardinia assigned him as his +province, was stopped by the _ius divinum_ administered by another +inexorable pontifex maximus; and it was only after a long struggle, in +which Senate, tribunes, and people all took part, that he was forced to +submit. So great was his wrath that he was with difficulty persuaded not +to resign his praetorship.[721] Naturally it became difficult to fill +these priesthoods, for it was invidious to compel young men of any +promise to commit what was practically political suicide. The office of +_rex sacrorum_ was vacant for two years between 210 and 208;[722] and in +180 Cornelius Dolabella, a _duumvir navalis_, on being selected for this +priesthood, absolutely refused to obey the pontifex maximus when ordered +to resign his secular command. He was fined for disobedience, and +appealed to the people; at the moment when it became obvious that the +appeal would fail, he contrived to escape by getting up an unlucky omen. +_Religio inde fuit pontificibus inaugurandi Dolabellae_; and here we +have the strange spectacle of the _ius divinum_ being used to defeat its +own ends. Such a state of things needs no comment.[723] + +But the most extraordinary story of this kind is that of a flamen of +Jupiter,--a story which many years ago I told in detail in the +_Classical Review_. Here I may just be allowed to reproduce it in +outline. In the year 209 a young C. Valerius Flaccus, the black sheep of +a great family, was inaugurated against his will as Flamen Dialis by the +pontifex maximus P. Licinius.[724] It was within the power of the head +of the Roman religion to use such compulsion, but it must have been +difficult and unusual to do so without the consent of the victim's +relations. In this case, as Livy expressly tells us, it was used because +the lad was of bad character,--_ob adolescentiam negligentem +luxuriosamque_; and it is pretty plain that the step was suggested by +his elder brother and other relations, in order to keep him out of +mischief. For, as we have seen, the taboos on this ancient priesthood +were numerous and strict, and among the restrictions laid on its holder +was one which forbade him to leave his house for a single night. Thus we +learn not only that this priesthood was not much accounted of in those +days, but also that for the _cura_ and _caerimonia_ of religion a pure +mind was no longer needed. But it might be utilised as a kind of penal +settlement for a libertine noble; and it is not impossible that a +century and a quarter later the attempt to put the boy Julius Caesar +into the same priesthood, though otherwise represented by the +historians, may have had the same object.[725] But the strange thing in +the case of Flaccus is that this very _cura_ and _caerimonia_, if Livy's +account is to be trusted, had such a wholesome disciplinary effect, that +the libertine became a model youth, the admiration of his own and other +families. Relying on his excellent character he even asserted the +ancient right of this flamen to take his seat in the Senate, a right +which had long been in abeyance _ob indignitatem flaminum priorum_; and +he eventually gained his point, in spite of obstinate opposition on the +part of a praetor. Some years later, in 200, this same man was elected +curule aedile.[726] This was clearly the first example of an attempt to +combine the priesthood with a magistracy, for a difficulty at once arose +and was solved in a way for which no precedent is quoted. Among the +taboos on this priest there was one forbidding him to take an oath; yet +the law demanded that a magistrate must take the usual oath within five +days of entering on office.[727] Flaccus insisted on asserting his +individuality in spite of the _ius divinum_, and the Senate and people +both backed him up. The Senate decreed that if he could find some one to +take the oath for him, the consuls might, if they chose, approach the +tribune with a view to getting a relieving _plebiscitum_; this was duly +obtained, and he took the oath by proxy. In his year of office as aedile +we find him giving expensive _ludi Romani_; and in 184 he only missed +the praetorship by an unlucky accident.[728] In this story we find the +self-assertion of an individual supported by Senate, consuls, and people +in breaking loose from the antiquated restrictions of a bygone age, and +we cannot but sympathise with it. But Roman history is full of +surprises, and among these I know none more amazing than the successful +attempt of Augustus two centuries later to revive this priesthood with +all its absurdities.[729] + +The self-assertion of members of the great families against the _ius +divinum_ was inevitable, and in the instances just noticed the attitude +of compromise taken up by the government was only what was to be +expected in an age of stress and change and new ideas. But in less than +twenty years after the peace with Carthage this government found itself +suddenly face to face with what may be called a religious rebellion +chiefly among the lower orders, including women; and the authorities +unhesitatingly reverted to the position of conscientious guardians of +the religious system of the City-state. They began to realise that they +had been holding a wolf by the ears ever since the beginning of the +Hannibalic war; that they had a population to deal with which was no +longer pure Roman or even pure Italian, and that even the genuine Romans +themselves were liable to be moved by new currents of religious feeling. +During the war they had done all that was possible to meet the mental as +well as the material troubles of this population, even to the length of +introducing the worship, under certain restrictions, of the great +Phrygian Mother of the gods. But now, in 186, the sudden outbreak of +Dionysiac orgies in Italy showed them that all their remedies were stale +and insufficient, and that the wolf was getting loose in their hands. + +Dionysus had long been housed at Rome, under the name of Liber, in that +temple of Ceres, Liber, and Libera which was discussed in detail in my +eleventh lecture.[730] But it is not likely that many Romans recognised +the identity of Liber and Dionysus, and it is quite certain that the +characteristic features of the Dionysiac ritual were entirely unknown at +Rome for three centuries after the foundation of the temple. That +ritual, as it existed in Greece from the earliest times, retaining the +essential features which it bore in its original Thracian home,[731] has +lately been thoroughly examined and clearly expounded by Dr. Farnell in +the fifth volume of his _Cults of the Greek States_, and the student of +the Roman religious history of this period would do well to study +carefully his fifth chapter. In most Greek states, as at Athens, in +spite of occasional outbreaks, the wilder aspects of the cult had not +been encouraged, but at Delphi and at Thebes, _i.e._ on Parnassus and +Cithaeron, the more striking phenomena of the genuine ritual are found +down to a late period. Dr. Farnell has summed these up under three heads +at the beginning of his account: "The wild and ecstatic enthusiasm that +it inspired, the self-abandonment and communion with the deity achieved +through orgiastic rites and a savage sacramental act, and the prominence +of women in the ritual, which in accordance with a certain psychic law +made a special appeal to their temperament."[732] It meant in fact +exactly that form of religious ecstasy which was peculiarly abhorrent to +the minds of the old Romans, who had built up the _ius divinum_ with its +sober ritual and its practical ideas of the supernatural powers around +them. We found nothing in our studies of this religion to lead us to +suppose for an instant that it had any mental effect such as "the +transcending of the limits of the ordinary consciousness and the feeling +of communion with the divine nature."[733] The Latin language indeed had +no native words for the expression of such emotions.[734] + +But it would be a great mistake to suppose that there was no soil in +Italy, or even at Rome, where such emotional rites might take root. We +may believe that the dignity and sobriety of the Roman character was in +part at least the result of the discipline of ordered religion in family +and state; but this is not to say that the Romans were never capable of +religious indiscipline,--far from it. The Italian rural festival, then +as now, was lively and indecorous, so far as we can guess from the few +glimpses we get of it; and at Rome the ancient festival of Anna Perenna, +in which women took part, was a scene of revelry as Ovid describes +it,[735]--of dancing, singing, and intoxication, and we need not wonder +that it found no place in the ancient calendar of the _ius divinum_. And +we have lately had occasion to notice, in the new ritual instituted +under the direction of the Sibylline books, and more especially during +the great war, clear indications that the natural emotions of women, +even of Roman women, had to be satisfied by shows and processions in +which they could share, and that the ideal dignity of the Roman matron +had often given way under the terrible stress of public and domestic +anxiety and peril. No wonder then that when Roman armies had been for +years in Greece, and Greeks were flocking into Rome in larger numbers +every year, the Dionysiac rites should find their way into Italy, and no +wonder too that they should instantly find a congenial soil, exotics +though they were. + +The story of the Bacchanalia is told by Livy in his best manner, and +whether or no it be literally true in every particular, is full of life +and interest. It is the fashion now to reject as false whatever is +surprising; and the latest historian of Rome dismisses Livy's account of +the discovery of the mischief as "an interesting romance."[736] +Fortunately we are not now concerned with this romance, if such it be; I +only propose to dwell on one or two points more nearly concerned with +our subject. + +First, let us note that the seeds of this evil crop were sown in +Etruria, the most dangerous neighbour of the Romans from a religious +point of view; for it is hardly too much to say that all Greek +influences that filtered through Etruria on their way to Rome were +contaminated in the process. According to the story,[737] a common Greek +religious quack (_sacrificulus et vates_, as Livy calls him), of the +type held up to scorn by Plato in the _Republic_,[738] came to Etruria +and began to initiate in the rites; drunkenness was the result, and with +drinking came crime and immorality of all kinds. From Etruria the +mischief spread to Rome, and was there discovered accidentally. +According to the evidence given, it began with a small association of +women, who met openly in the daytime only three times a year. Then it +fell under the direction of a priestess from Campania,--Rome's other +most dangerous neighbour in regard to religion and morals,--who gave it +a sinister turn. The meetings were held at night, and were accompanied +not only by the characteristic features of the old Thracian ritual, but, +as in Etruria, by the most abominable wickedness. It was said to have +infected a large part of the population, including young members of +noble families; for with the true missionary instinct, young people only +were admitted by the hierophants. We need not necessarily believe all +this; but it is certain, from the steps taken by the government, about +which there is no doubt, that it is in the main a true account. The +storm and stress of the long war with Hannibal would be enough to +account for the phenomena, even if they were not in keeping with +well-known psychical facts. + +Let us now turn for a moment to the attitude of the government in this +extraordinary episode of Roman religious experience. The danger is dealt +with entirely by the Senate and the magistrates; the authorities of the +_ius divinum_ as such have nothing to do with it. It is characteristic +of the age that it is not dealt with as a matter of religion merely, but +as a conspiracy--_coniuratio_.[739] This is the word used by Livy, and +we find it also in the document called _Senatusconsultum de +Bacchanalibus_, part of which has most fortunately come down to us. This +is the word also used, we may note, of the conspiracy of Catiline in the +century following, and it always conveys the idea of _rebellion_ against +the order and welfare of the State. In this case it was rebellion +against the whole body of the _mos maiorum_, the [Greek: ethos] of the +City-state of Rome. For it was an attempt to supersede the ancient +religious life of that State by _externa superstitio, prava +religio_--_prava_, because _deorum numen praetenditur sceleribus_; and +hence, as Livy expresses it in the admirable speech put into the mouth +of the consul, the Roman gods themselves felt their _numen_ to be +contaminated.[740] All the speeches in Livy, except perhaps the military +ones, are worth careful study by those who would enter into the Roman +spirit as conceived by an Augustan writer; and this is one of the most +valuable of them. + +Lastly, let us note the steps taken by the government in this emergency. +It is treated as a matter of police, both in Rome and Italy; the guilty +are sought out and punished as conspirators against the State, and a +precedent of tremendous force is hereby established for all future +dealings with _externa superstitio_, which held good even to the last +struggle with Christianity. Where foreign rites are believed to be +dangerous to the State or to morality, they must be rigidly suppressed +in the Roman world; when they are harmless they may be tolerated, or +even, like the cult of the Magna Mater, received into the sacred circle +of Roman worships.[741] But there is yet another lesson to be learnt +from the conduct of the government at this crisis. Who would have +suspected, while reading the horrible story, and noting the almost +arbitrary energy with which the _coniuratio_ was stamped out, that the +Dionysiac rites would even now be tolerated under certain conditions? +That this was so is a fact attested not only by Livy, but by the +_Senatusconsultum_ itself.[742] The government was now forced to +recognise the fact that there were Romans for whom the _ius divinum_ no +longer sufficed, and who needed a more emotional form of religion. If +any one (so ran in effect the _Senatusconsultum_) felt conscientiously +that he could not wholly renounce the new religion, he might apply in +person to the praetor urbanus; and the praetor would lay the matter +before a meeting of the Senate, at which not less than a hundred must be +present. The Senate may give leave for the worship, provided that no +more than five persons be present at it; and that there be no common +fund for its support, nor any permanent priest to preside at it. These +clauses, says Aust,[743] are a concession to the strong spiritual +current of feeling which sought for something fresher and better to take +the place of the old religion of forms; and on the whole we may agree +with him. All religious revivals are liable to be accompanied by moral +evil, but they all express unmistakably a natural and honourable +yearning of the human spirit. + +Not long after this, in 181, the government put its foot down firmly on +what seems to have been another attempt, though in this case a ludicrous +one, to introduce strange religious ideas at Rome. We have the story of +this on the authority not only of Livy, but of the oldest Roman +annalist, Cassius Hemina, from whose work Pliny has preserved a fragment +relating to this matter.[744] Cassius must almost certainly have been +alive in 181, and would remember the event;[745] and though his account +and Livy's differ in details, we may take the story as in the main true. +A secretary (_scriba_), who had land on the Janiculan hill, dug up there +a stone coffin with an inscription stating that the king Numa was buried +in it. No remains of a body were found, but in a square stone casket +inside the coffin were found books written on paper (_charta_) and +supposed to be writings of Numa about the Pythagorean philosophy. These +writings were read by many people, and eventually by a praetor, who at +once pronounced them to be subversive of religion. That anything +supposed to emanate from Numa should have this character was of course +impossible; and it is plain that the writings were believed even at the +time to be absurd forgeries, drawn up with the idea of investing strange +doctrines with the authority of Numa's name; for the legend of a +religious connection between Numa and Pythagoras must have been known at +the time. The discoverer appealed to the tribunes, who referred the +matter to the senate; and the senate authorised the praetor to burn the +books in the Comitium, which was done in the presence of a large +assembly. + +In a later lecture I shall have something to say of the revival of +Pythagoreanism in the time of Cicero, and I need not now attempt to +explain what such a revival might mean. All we need to note is that +something subversive of the Roman religion was believed to be +circulating in 181 in Roman society under the assumed authority of +Numa's name, and that the senate, warned by recent experience, +determined to stamp it out at once. They seem to have suddenly become +alive to the fact that Greece, and in this instance mainly Magna +Graecia, was sending clever agents to Rome for the propagation of ideas +which might make the people less tractable to authority. In the stress +of the great war, indeed for years afterwards, they had probably never +had leisure to reflect on the inevitable result of the writings of a man +like Ennius, who was not improbably responsible for the propagation of +these very Pythagorean notions.[746] Now a reaction seems to set in +against the flowing tide of admiration for everything Greek;[747] but it +was too late to arrest the flood. All that could be hoped for was that +in the lives and minds of the wiser Romans the new Greek civilisation +might so leaven the old Roman ignorance that no permanent harm should be +done to the instincts of _virtus_ and _pietas_: and to some extent this +hope was realised. But for the masses there was no such hope. What Greek +teaching reached their minds was almost wholly that of the _ludi +scenici_; and I must now say a word in conclusion about this unwholesome +influence--unwholesome, that is, so far as it affected the old religious +ideas. + +I had occasion, when dealing with Dr. Frazer's notion that the Roman +religion admitted such ideas as the marriage of the gods with all its +natural consequences,[748] to point out that his evidence was almost +wholly derived from the play-writers of the very period on which we are +now engaged. I said that he seems to be justified in concluding that +there was a popular idea of such a kind, which the State religion did +not recognise; but that it can very easily be explained as the natural +effect of a degenerate Greek mythology, popularised by Greek dramas +adapted to the Roman stage, upon certain peculiarities of the Roman +theology, and especially the functional combination of male and female +divine names in Italian invocations of the deities. Nothing could be +more natural than that playwrights should take advantage of such +combinations to invent or translate comic passages to please a Roman +audience, "now largely consisting of semi-educated men who had lost +faith in their own religion, and a host of smaller people of mixed +descent and nationality." We do not know enough of the older comedies to +be at all sure how far they had gone in this direction, though we are +certain, to use the words of Zeller,[749] that it was impossible to +transplant Greek poetry to Roman soil without bringing Greek mythology +with it; or, as I should put it, without subordinating the old +reasonable idea of the Power manifesting itself in the universe to the +Greek fancy for clothing that Power in the human form and endowing it +with human faults and frailties. + +But of the two great literary figures of the age we have now reached, +Ennius and Plautus, we know beyond all doubt that they taught the +ignorant Roman of their day not only to be indifferent to his deities, +but to laugh at them. Just at the very time when the forged books of +Numa were being burnt in the Comitium, Ennius' famous translation of the +_Sacred History of Euhemerus_ was becoming known at Rome, in which was +taught the doctrine of the human origin of all deities; and though we +have hardly a fragment left of the comedies of Ennius, we may presume +that he would not have hesitated for a moment to make the gods +ridiculous on the stage. It was he who wrote the celebrated lines in his +tragedy of Telamo:[750] + + ego deum genus esse semper dixi et dicam caelitum, + sed eos non curare opinor quid agat humanum genus, + +which (as I have said elsewhere)[751] strike a direct blow at the +efficacy of sacrifice and prayer by openly declaring that the gods did +not interest themselves in mankind. This is the same Epicurean doctrine +afterwards preached by Lucretius, and I must return to it in the next +lecture. At present let us select a couple of specimens of the more +explicit evidence of the extant plays of Plautus, which began to be +exhibited at Rome just about the end of the war with Hannibal. + +Here is an example of the way in which the family relationships of Greek +gods could be made amusing under Roman names. Alcesimarchus in the +_Cistellaria_ wishes to make a strong asseveration, and begins:[752] + + at ita me di deaeque, superi et inferi et medioxumi, + +but immediately goes on to specify these deities more particularly by +their names and relationships--_and gets the latter wrong_. Melaenis +corrects him in a way which (as Aust notes)[753] could only have seemed +comical to a Roman audience if they had already some acquaintance with +the divine family gossip. + + itaque me Iuno regina et Iovi' supremi filia + itaque me Saturnus eiius patruos--ME. ecastor, pater. + AL. itaque me Ops opulenta, illius avia--ME. immo mater quidem. + +Perhaps it was the fancy of the age for divine genealogy that is here +being made fun of rather than the gods themselves; but in any case the +passage shows how irrecoverably lost was the real impersonal character +of the old Roman _numen_, and how impossible it must have been in such +an age to believe that anything was really to be gained by the once +solemn rites of the _ius divinum_. + +But the most remarkable evidence is in the Amphitruo,[754] where Jupiter +and Mercurius are among the _dramatis personae_. This comedy is +extremely amusing, and was quite capable of entertaining the Parisians +in the form given it by Moliere; but for them it could hardly have been +so funny as for the Greeks in the age of the New Comedy and their +disciples the Romans of Plautus' day, who saw Zeus and Hermes, Jupiter +and Mercurius, brought by their own misdoings into absurd and degrading +situations. Jupiter personates Amphitruo, and so gains admission to his +wife, Alkmene! Comment is needless, unless we take the last line of the +play as a comment:-- + + Nunc, spectatores, Iovi' summi causa clare plaudite! + +I do not propose to follow further the downfall of the old Roman ideas +about the objects of worship, or the neglect and decay of the _ius +divinum_. They do not fall within the scope of my subject--the religious +experience of the Roman people. So long as there was any life in these +ideas and in the cult which was the practical expression of them, they +formed part of that experience. But I think I have sufficiently proved +that the life has gone out of the ideas, and that the worship has +consequently become meaningless. Ideas about the divine may be discussed +by philosophers as the Romans begin to read and in some degree to think; +and the outward forms of the cult may be maintained in such particulars +as most closely concern the public life of the community; but as a +religious system expressing human experience we have done with these +things. + + + NOTES TO LECTURE XV + + [706] Polybius vi. 56. + + [707] Livy xxxi. 4 _ad fin._, cp. xxv. 2, xxvii. 36, + etc. For the _Iovis epulum_ see _R.F._ 216 foll. and the + references there given. Wissowa, _R.K._ foll. 111. 385 + foll. I am not sure that I am right in limiting the + human partakers of the epulum of Nov. 13 to the plebeian + magistrates. + + [708] Livy xxxi. 5. The importance of the words + "prolationem finium" does not seem to have been noticed + by historians. If they are genuine they indicate an + undoubtedly aggressive attitude. + + [709] Livy xxxi. 7 and 8. + + [710] Livy xxxvi. 1. + + [711] Augustine, _Civ. Dei_, iv. 27: "Relatum est in + litteras doctissimum pontificem Scaevolam disputasse + tria genera tradita deorum: unum a poetis, alterum a + philosophis, tertium a principibus civitatis. Primum + genus nugatorium dicit esse, quod multa de diis + fingantur indigna, etc. Expedire igitur falli in + religione civitates." + + [712] Livy xxxii. 9, cp. 28. In connection with these + _prodigia_ it may be worth noting that in xxxii. 30 we + are told that a consul vowed a temple to Juno Sospita, + who had in her famous seat at Lanuvium been a constant + centre of marvel-mongering. Livy xxxiv. 53 places the + building of this temple _in foro olitorio_ three years + later, if we may read there Sospitae instead of the + Matutae of the MSS. with Sigonius: (cp. Aust, _de + Aedibus_, p. 21, and Wissowa, _R.K._ 117). This + interesting deity had been taken into the Roman worship + in 338 B.C., but not moved from Lanuvium, which had + peculiar religious relations with Rome. See _Myth. Lex._ + vol. ii. p. 608, where the attributes of this Juno in + art are described by Vogel. The date of the temple at + Rome was 194. Whether the object of it was to diminish + the portents at Lanuvium it is impossible to say, but + judging from the records of _prodigia_ in Julius + Obsequens it had that effect. I find only four + _prodigia_ reported from Lanuvium after this date. + + [713] See the passage in Frontinus, _de Aqueductibus_, + i. 7 (C. Herschel's edition gives the reading of the + best MS.), and the mutilated passage in the new epitomes + of Livy found by Grenfell and Hunt in Egypt + (_Oxyrrhyncus Papyri_, vol. iv. pp. 101 and 113). The + general bearing of the two passages taken together seems + to me to be that given in the text. + + [714] Cic. _ad Fam._ i. 1 and 2. A somewhat similar case + in 190 B.C. will be found in Livy xxxviii. 45, where the + oracle forbade a Roman army to cross the Taurus range. + + [715] Livy xxxiv. 55. + + [716] Livy xxxviii. 56, mentions statues which were + believed to be those of Scipio the elder, his brother + Lucius, and Ennius, "in Scipionum monumento" outside the + Porta Capena, and another of Scipio at Liternum, where + he had a villa; this one Livy says that he saw himself + blown down by a storm. On statues and busts at Rome, see + Pliny xxxiv. 28 foll.; Mrs. Strong, _Roman Sculpture_, + p. 28 foll.; _Cambridge Companion to Latin Studies_, p. + 550 foll.; and for coins, p. 456. + + [717] See above, p. 240, for the remarkable exception in + the case of the elder Scipio, whose practice when in + Rome was to go up to the Capitoline temple before + daybreak and contemplate the statue of Jupiter; the dogs + never barked at him, and the aedituus opened the _cella + Iovis_ at his summons. I see no good ground for + rejecting this story, which is not likely to have been + invented. It can be traced back to two writers, Oppius, + the friend of Caesar, and Julius Hyginus, the librarian + of Augustus (Gell. vi. 1. 1), and was probably based on + tradition. Livy mentions it in xxvi. 19, and suggests + that this and other ways of Scipio were assumed to + impress the multitude. The Roman mind was naturally + averse from such individualism in religion; but Scipio + was beyond doubt more familiar than his contemporaries + with Greek ideas. In a chapter on Idealism in his little + book on _Religion and Art in Ancient Greece_, Professor + Ernest Gardner writes: "The statue (of Athene) by + Phidias within the Parthenon offered not merely that + form in which she would choose to appear if she showed + herself to mortal eyes, but actually showed her form as + if she had revealed it to the sculptor. To look upon + such an image helped the worshipper as much as--perhaps + more than--any service or ritual, to bring himself into + communion with the goddess, and to fit himself, as a + citizen of her chosen city, to carry out her will in + contributing his best efforts to its supremacy in + politics, in literature, and in art." That Scipio had + some feeling of this kind need not be doubted, though + the statue was not a great work of art like that of + Phidias. Cp. Lucretius, vi. 75 foll. + + [718] See below, p. 386. + + [719] Marquardt, 332, and Mommsen, _Staatsrecht_, i. ed. + 2, p. 463 foll. + + [720] Livy, _Epit._ xix. + + [721] Livy xxxvii. 51: "Religio ad postremum vicit, ut + dicto audiens esset flamen pontifici." Here _religio_ is + used in the sense of obligation to the _ius divinum_. + + [722] Livy xxvii. 6; cp. 36. + + [723] This story is told in Livy xl. 42. + + [724] Livy xxvii. 8. For the compelling power (_capere_) + of the Pont. Max., see Marq. 314. The story may have + come from the annals of the Valerii Flacci, and also + from those of the pontifices; it was apparently well + known, as Valerius Maximus knew it (vi. 9. 2). + + [725] Velleius ii. 43. + + [726] Livy xxxi. 50. + + [727] For the oath see "Lex incerta reperta Bantiae," + lines 16 and 17, in Bruns, _Fontes Iuris Romani_. The + oath taboo is mentioned by Gellius 10. 15. 3.; Festus + 104, and Plutarch, _Quaest. Rom._ 113. + + [728] Livy xxxii. 7; xxxix. 39. + + [729] Tac. _Ann._ iv. 16. + + [730] See above, p. 255. + + [731] Farnell, _Cults of the Greek States_, vol. v. p. + 85 foll. Very interesting is the modern survival of + Dionysiac rites recently discovered in Thrace by Mr. + Dawkins (_Hellenic Journal_, 1906, p. 191). + + [732] Farnell, _op. cit._ vol. v. p. 150. + + [733] Quoted by Farnell, p. 151, from Rohde's _Psyche_. + + [734] It is possible that _superstitio_ may originally + have had some such meaning; see W. Otto in _Archiv fuer + Religionswissenschaft_, 1909, p. 548 foll.; Mayor's + edition of Cic. _de Nat. Deorum_, note on ii. 72 foll. + + [735] Ovid, _Fasti_, iii. 523 foll. See also _Roman + Society in the Age of Cicero_, p. 289. + + [736] See Mr. Heitland's _History of the Roman + Republic_, vol. ii. p. 229 note, and cp. Wissowa in + Pauly-Wissowa, _Real-Encycl._ _s.v._ "Bacchanalia." + + [737] Livy xxxix. 8 foll. + + [738] Plato, _de Rep._ 364 B; cp. _Laws_, 933 D. + + [739] "Quaestio de clandestinis coniurationibus decreta + est," Livy xxxix. 8; so also in chs. 14 and 17. Cp. + _Sctm. de Bacchanalibus_, line 13, "conioura (se)." This + document is, strictly speaking, a letter to the + magistrates "in agro Teurano" in Bruttium embodying the + orders of the Senatus consultum. It will be found in + Bruns, _Fontes Iuris Romani_, or in Wordsworth, + _Fragments and Specimens of Early Latin_. + + [740] Livy xxxix. 16: "Omnia, dis propitiis + volentibusque, faciemus, qui quia suum numen sceleribus + libidinibusque contaminari indigne ferebant," etc. + + [741] Mommsen, _Strafrecht_, p. 567 foll. + + [742] Livy xxxix. 18 _ad fin._ _Sctm. de Bacch._ lines 3 + foll. + + [743] _Religion der Roemer_, p. 78. + + [744] Livy xl. 29 seems to have put his account together + from Cassius Hemina and other annalists, so far as we + can judge from the reference to them in Pliny, _N.H._ + xiii. 84; Valerius Antias, who simply stated that the + writings were Pythagorean as well as Numan, Livy + rejects as ignorant of the chronological impossibility + of making the king contemporary with the philosopher. + The fragment of Cassius Hemina is quoted in Pliny, sec. + 86; Val. Max. i. 1, and Plutarch, _Numa_ 22, add nothing + to our knowledge of the incident. + + [745] See Schanz, _Gesch. der roem. Literatur_, i. 268; + Pliny, _loc. cit._, calls him "vetustissimus auctor + annalium," but his work was later than the _Annals_ or + _Origines_ of Cato. + + [746] Ennius came from South Italy (Rudiae in Messapia), + the home of Pythagoreanism. For traces of it in his + works, see Reid on Cicero, _Academica priora_, ii. 51. + + [747] This is the view taken by Colin, _Rome et la + Grece, 200-146 B.C._, p. 269 foll. This reaction was + probably only a part of the general reversion to + conservatism which we have been noticing in the action + of the government in religious matters. + + [748] See above, p. 149 foll. + + [749] Quoted by Aust, _Religion der Roemer_, p. 64. The + passage is in Zeller's _Religion und Philosophie bei den + Roemern_, a short treatise reprinted in his _Vortraege und + Abhandlungen_, ii. 93 foll. + + [750] Ribbeck, _Fragmenta Tragicorum Latinorum_, p. 54. + + [751] _Social Life at Rome in the Age of Cicero_, p. + 334. + + [752] _Cistellaria_, ii. 1. 45 foll. + + [753] Aust, _op. cit._ p. 66. + + [754] See Schanz, _Gesch. der roem. Literatur_, vol. i. + p. 75. + + + + +LECTURE XVI + +GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND ROMAN RELIGION + + +I said at the end of the last lecture that ideas about the Divine might +be discussed at Rome by philosophers, as the Romans began to read and in +some degree to think. At the era we have now reached, the latter half of +the second century B.C., this process actually began, and I propose in +this lecture to deal with it briefly. But my subject is the Roman +religious experience, and I can only find room for philosophy so far as +the philosophy introduced at Rome had a really religious side. Another +reason forbidding me to give much space to it is that it was at Rome +entirely exotic, did not spring from an indigenous root in Roman life +and thought, and never seriously affected the minds of the lower and +less educated population. And I must add that the types of Greek +philosophy which concern us at all have been fully and ably dealt with, +the one in vol. ii. of Dr. Caird's lectures on this foundation on _The +Evolution of Theology in the Greek Philosophers_, a work from which I +have learnt much, and the other by Dr. Masson in his most instructive +work on the great Epicurean poet Lucretius. + +We have seen in the two last lectures that in that second century B.C. +the Roman was fast becoming religiously destitute--a castaway without +consolation, and without the sense that he needed it. He was destitute, +first, in regard to his idea of God and of his relation to God; for if +we take our old definition of religion, which seems to me to be +continually useful, we can hardly say of that age that it showed any +effective desire to be in right relation with the Power manifesting +itself in the universe. The old idea of the manifestation of the Power +in the various _numina_ had no longer any relation to Roman life; the +kind of life in which it germinated and grew, the life of agriculture +and warlike self-defence, had passed away with the growth of the great +city, the decay of the small farmer, and the extension of the empire; +and no new informing and inspiring principle had taken its place. +Secondly, he was destitute in regard to his sense of duty, which had +been largely dependent on religion, both in the family and in the State. +No new force had come in to create and maintain conscience. In public +life, indeed, the religious oath was still powerful, and continued to be +so, though there are some signs that its binding force was less strong +than of yore, especially in the army.[755] But in a society so complex +as that of Rome in the last two centuries B.C. much more was wanted than +a bond sanctioned by civil and religious law; there was needed a sense +of duty to the family, the slave, the provincials, the poor and +unfortunate. There was no spring of moral action, no religious +consecration of morality, no stimulus to moral endeavour. The individual +was rapidly developing, emancipating himself from the State and the +group-system of society; but he was developing in a wrong direction. The +importance of self, when realised in high and low alike, was becoming +self-seeking, indifference to all but self. We have now to see whether +philosophy could do anything to relieve this destitution of the Romans +in regard both to God and duty. + +The first system of philosophy actually to make its appearance at Rome +was that of Epicurus[756]; but it speedily disappeared for the time, and +only became popular in the last century B.C., and then in its most +repulsive form. It was indeed destined to inspire the noblest mind among +all Roman thinkers with some of the greatest poetry ever written; but I +need say little of it, for it was never really a part of Roman religious +experience. Though capable of doing men much good in a turbulent and +individualistic age, it did not and could not do this by establishing a +religious sanction for conduct. The Epicurean gods were altogether out +of reach of the conscience of the individual. They were superfluous even +for the atomic theory on which the whole system was pivoted;[757] and +what Epicurus himself understood by them, or any of his followers down +to Lucretius, is matter of subtle and perplexing disputation.[758] One +point is clear, that they had no interest in human beings;[759] and the +natural inference would be that human beings had no call to worship +them; yet, strange to say, Epicurus himself took part in worship, and in +the worship of the national religion of his native city. Philodemus, the +contemporary of Lucretius, expressly asserts this,[760] and even insists +that Epicurism gave a religious sanction to morality which was absent in +Stoicism.[761] Lucretius himself clearly thought that worship was +natural and possible. "If you do not clear your mind of false notions," +he says, "nec delubra deum placido cum pectore adibis."[762] Man might +go on with his ancestral worship, but entirely without fear, and as with +"placid mind" he took part in the rites of his fathers, a mysterious +divine influence might enter his mind; "the images of a Zeus, a +Heracles, an Athene, might pass in and impress on him the aspect and +character of each deity, and carry with them suggestions of virtue, of +courage, of wise counsel in difficulty."[763] Evidently both Epicurus +and his followers had felt the difficulty and the peril of breaking +entirely with the religious habits of the mass of the people, and had +conscientiously done their best to reconcile their own belief with +popular practice--an attempt which has its parallel in the religious +speculation of the present day. + +But for the Roman follower of Epicurus, wholly unused to such subtle +ideas as the passage of divine influence into the mind by means of +religious contemplation, this lame attempt to bring apathetic gods into +relation with human life must have been quite meaningless. Cicero well +expresses the common sense of a Roman at the very beginning of his +treatise on the _Nature of the Gods_.[764] "If they are right who deny +that the gods have any interest in human affairs, where is there room +for _pietas_, for _sanctitas_, for _religio_?" What, he adds, is the use +of worship, of honour, of prayer? If these are simply make-believes, +_pietas_ cannot exist, and with it we may almost assume that _fides_ and +_iustitia_, and the social virtues generally, which hold society +together, must vanish too. Such criticism is characteristically Roman, +and we may take it as representing accurately the feeling of the +old-fashioned Roman of Cicero's day, as well as of the Stoic or Academic +critic of Epicurism. On the other hand, the believing Epicurean at Rome +was not more likely to accept the compromise; he had done with his own +gods and their worship, and such a "ficta simulatio" was not likely to +attract him. Even Lucretius, whose mind was in a sense really religious, +does no more in the passage I quoted just now than _allude_ to actual +worship of the gods, and he makes it quite clear that the tranquillity +and happiness coming from contemplation, and the punishment that follows +misdoing, are both purely subjective; the gods are not active in +influencing man's life, but man influences that life himself by opening +his mind to the contemplation of the gods. This passage of Lucretius +(vi. 68 foll.) is, if I am not mistaken, the nearest approach to real +religion that we find in the history of Roman Epicurism; yet so far as +we know it bore no fruit. It seems to me to express a genuine feeling, a +_religio_, but the expression is blurred by a consciousness of +inconsistency. + +The fact is that in the system of Epicurus the Power manifesting itself +in the universe is not a divine Power, but a mechanical one; the gods +have nothing to do with it, they cannot be active, their perfection is +found in repose; they are an adjunct, an after-thought in the system. +Thus all attempts to reconcile the Power with the popular religion must +inevitably be failures, and more especially so in the Roman world. At +best the Epicurean gods could but set an example of quietism which could +not possibly be a force for good in that active world of business and +government.[765] The real force of Epicurism, for the Roman at least, if +I am not mistaken, was _analogous_ to a religious force, though far +indeed from being one in reality--I mean the profound and touching +belief in the Founder himself as a saviour, which is so familiar to all +readers of Lucretius.[766] And the real legacy of Lucretius himself to +Roman religion is only indirectly a religious one--I mean the wholesome +contempt for "_superstitio_" and all the baser side of religious belief +and practice, old and new.[767] If his devotion to the Master had been +rooted more in the love of goodness and less in the admiration for his +speculations, and if his contempt for _superstitio_ had been less +harshly dogmatic, had he been more sympathetic and generous in his +attitude to the Italian ideas of the divine--the power of Lucretius +might possibly have been strong and permanent. + +Thus for the Roman's destitution in regard to God Epicurism could find +no remedy, and as a consequence it could provide no religious sanction +for his conduct in life. What power it had upon conduct as a system of +ethics is a question outside the range of my subject. No doubt a certain +type of mind, naturally pure and good, and apt to retire upon itself, +might find in Epicurism not only no harm but even positive help; perhaps +the best way to appreciate this fact, too often overlooked, is to read +the defence of the Epicurean ethics put into the mouth of Torquatus, in +the first book of the _de Finibus_,[768] by one who was far from being +in sympathy with the creed. But for the Roman of that age, when ideas of +duty and discipline were losing strength, this enticing faith, with +pleasure as its _summum bonum_, and with quietism as its ideal of human +life,[769] could hardly be a real stimulus to active virtue; the Roman +needed bracing, and this was not a tonic, but a sedative. Far more +valuable in every way, and far better suited to the best instincts of +the Roman character, was the rival creed of Stoicism, and I must devote +the rest of this lecture to the consideration of its religious aspect. + +It was most fortunate for Rome that her best and ablest men in the +second century B.C. fell into the hands, not of Epicureans, but of +Stoics--into the hands, too, of a single Stoic of high standing, fine +character, and good sense. For destitute as the Roman was both in regard +to God and to Duty, he found in Stoicism an explanation of man's place +in the universe,--an explanation relating him directly to the Power +manifesting itself therein, and deriving from that relation a _binding_ +principle of conduct and duty. This should make the religious character +of Stoicism at once apparent. It is perfectly true, as the late Mr. +Lecky said long ago,[770] that "Stoicism, taught by Panaetius of Rhodes, +and soon after by the Syrian Posidonius, became the true religion of the +educated classes. It furnished the principles of virtue, coloured the +noblest literature of the time, and guided all the developments of moral +enthusiasm." To this I only need to add that it woke in the mind an +entirely new idea of Deity, far transcending that of Roman _numina_ and +of Greek polytheism, and yet not incapable of being reconciled with +these; so that it might be taken as an inpouring of sudden light upon +old conceptions of the Power, glorifying and transfiguring them, rather +than, like the Epicurean faith, a bitter and contemptuous negation of +man's inherited religious instincts. But before we go on to consider +this illumination more closely, let me say a few words about Panaetius +the Stoic missionary, and Scipio Aemilianus, his most famous disciple. + +Scipio, born 184, was a happy combination of the best Roman aristocratic +character and the receptive intelligence which for a Roman was the chief +result of a Greek liberal education. He had been educated by his famous +father, Aemilius Paulus, in a thoroughly healthy way; he was no mere +book-student, but a practical courageous Roman, with a solid mental +foundation of moral rectitude (_pietas_) fixed firmly in the traditions +and instincts of his own family. On this foundation, as has been well +said,[771] a superstructure of intellectual culture might be built +securely without destroying it, and this was exactly what did take +place, both for Scipio and for that circle of friends of his which has +become so famous in Roman history. In very early life he became the +intimate friend of Polybius, whose account of their first unreserved +intercourse is one of the most delightful passages in all ancient +literature;[772] and from Polybius he doubtless learnt to think. He must +have learnt to understand the real nature of the Roman empire, to +appreciate the forces which had called it into being,[773] the qualities +which had preserved it through the fearful struggle with Hannibal, and +the duty of a noble Roman in regard to it. From Polybius, indeed, it is +not likely that he gained much light on matters either of religion or +morality; but that statesman and historian must inevitably have +accustomed him, in the course of their long intercourse, to think more +deeply than Roman had ever yet thought, about the world in which he +lived and was to act for many years the leading part. Thus he was well +prepared for the friendship of a more spiritual guide. + +Panaetius, who was probably about the same age as Scipio, had the +advantage, as a visitor at Rome, of being a Rhodian, _i.e._ a citizen of +the one Greek State which had been almost continuously on good terms +with Rome, and of great value to her. He was also a scion of an old and +honoured family in that city, and was thus in every way a fit friend and +companion for a great Roman noble. When their friendship began we do not +know for certain; but it is a fact that he lived for some two years, +together with Polybius, in the house of Scipio, and these years were +probably between 144 and 141 B.C., after Scipio's return from the +conquest of Carthage.[774] When Scipio in 141 was commissioned by the +Senate to go and set things in order in the eastern Mediterranean, he +took Panaetius with him,[775] and brought him home to live with him +again as a guest, perhaps until he left for the Numantine war in 134, +after which it is not likely that they met again before Scipio's sudden +death in 129. I am particular about the extent of their intimacy, +because I wish to make it clear that this was no ordinary or fleeting +friendship between a commonplace Greek philosopher and an average Roman +statesman. Both statesman and philosopher were far above the usual level +of their kind, and in the course of this long intimacy must have had +full opportunity of learning from each other. From Scipio Panaetius +would learn the secrets of the Roman temperament, and divine the right +methods of dealing with it, and the result of this was a happy +modification of the old rigidity of the Stoic principles--an adaptation +of them to the Roman character which had far-reaching consequences. From +Panaetius Scipio and his friends would learn a new and illuminating +conception of man's place in the universe, and of his relation to the +Power manifested in it. To understand the power of Stoicism on the mind +of these Romans and their intellectual successors, it is necessary to +have a clear idea of this illumination. + +Hitherto there had been nothing in the religion of Rome, or of any other +city-state, to make it inevitable, reasonable, that man should worship +the Power, except tradition and self-interest, involved in the tradition +and self-interest of the family and the city. The gods belonged, as we +saw, to family or city as divine inhabitants, and if you neglected them +they would show their anger against you. Originally it was _religio_, +the feeling of awe for something distinct from man and unknown to him, +which forced him to propitiate that which he might fear, but had no +reason, except the instinct of self-preservation, to reverence; and +later on, as he came to know his _numina_ better, to make them, so to +speak, his own, and to formulate the methods of propitiating them, he +gradually came also to take them for granted, and to worship them as a +matter of traditional duty. The idea of conforming his life to the will +of any of these _numina_ would, of course, be absolutely strange to +him--the expression would have no meaning whatever for him. The help +which he sought from them was not moral help, but material.[776] But +now, when the _religio_ has been hypnotised and soothed away, and when +the tradition of ceremonial observance was growing dim and weak, when he +is left alone with his fellow-men, and without any binding reason for +right conduct towards them, he may learn from Stoicism that there is a +Power above and beyond all his _numina_, yet involving and embracing +them all, to which, and by the help of which, as a man endowed with +reason, he _must_ conform his life. + +The theology held and taught by Panaetius, in common with all Stoics at +all periods, was based upon two leading thoughts, in the correlation of +which lay the kernel of the Stoic ethical system. The first of these +thoughts is this: the whole universe, in all its forms and +manifestations, shows unmistakably the work of Reason, of Mind; without +mind, reason, _spiritus_, as Cicero calls it,[777] the universe could +not exist. I need not go here into the origin and history of this +thought; what is important for us is to make clear the theological +consequences of it. Obviously it was natural that the Stoic should be +led on to the conviction that this universe endowed with Reason--with a +Reason far transcending all human capacity--must itself be God. The +Stoic arguments in support of this further step are indeed lame, as they +inevitably must be; they are well set forth at the beginning of Book ii. +of Cicero's work _de Natura Deorum_ (based upon one by Posidonius, the +successor and disciple of Panaetius), where they seem to us rather cold +and formal. That step is indeed incapable of being made convincing by +any syllogism; it is only when we try to think with the minds of those +old thinkers, living in a world of unmeaning worship, that we begin to +realise the nobility of a conviction which they tried in vain to reduce +to a syllogism. _Sapiens a principio mundus, et deus habendus est_;[778] +these words, which sound like an article of a creed, suffice for us +without the laborious arguments of Cleanthes and Chrysippus which we may +read in the fifth and sixth chapters of Cicero's book. Cicero has added +to these a characteristic illustration from city life, which I may quote +as more useful for us. "If a man enters a house or a gymnasium or a +forum, and sees reason, method, and discipline reigning there, he cannot +suppose that these came about without a cause, but perceives that there +is someone there who rules and is obeyed: how much more, when he +contemplates the motions and revolutions to be seen in the universe +(_e.g._, in the heavenly bodies), must he conclude that they are all +governed by a conscious Mind!" And this Mind can be nothing else but +God. + +This sounds like the Deism of the eighteenth century, and might be +described as "natural religion"; but the Stoics took yet another step, +and developed their thought into Pantheism. The idea of a personal +Deity, distinct from the universe and its Creator, was obnoxious to +them; it would have committed them to a dualism of Mind and Matter +which, from the very outset of their history, they emphatically +repudiated; their conviction was of a Unity in all things, and to this +they consistently held in spite of constant and damaging criticism. The +theological result of this conviction has lately been well expressed by +Dr. Bussell.[779] He is speaking of Seneca in particular, but what he +says applies to all Stoics equally well: "Though he yearns to see God +in 'the moral order of the Universe,' he is forced in the interests of +Unity to identify Him with every other known force. As He is everything, +so any name will suit Him. He is the sum of existence: or the secret and +abstract law which guides it: He is Nature or Fate. The partial names of +special deities are all His, and together they make up the fulness of +the divine title; but _they disappear in the immense nothingness_, +rather than colour or qualify it." This is a point of immense importance +for the study of Stoicism at Rome; it was fully developed by Posidonius, +and copied from him both by Cicero and Varro. "God," says Cicero in the +book I have been quoting, "pervading all nature (_pertinens per naturam +cuiusque rei_), can be understood as Ceres on the land, as Neptune on +the sea, and so on, and may be and should be worshipped in all these +different forms;" not in superstitious fear and grovelling spirit--the +mental attitude which Lucretius had condemned years before this treatise +was written--but with pure heart and mind, following the one and true +God in all his various manifestations.[780] Thus the Stoic Pantheism, in +spite of its weak points, could find room for the deities of the +city-state, and put new illuminating life into them. To us it may seem, +as it seems to Dr. Bussell, that they would disappear in an immense +nothingness; but to the Roman mind of Scipio's age, if I am not +mistaken, they might, on the contrary, save the great Pantheistic idea +from so itself disappearing. I cannot but think that the Roman's idea of +divinity, the force or will-power which he called _numen_,[781] would +find here a means of reviving its former hold on the Roman mind, and +enabling it to grasp as a concrete fact, and not merely as an abstract +idea, the "deus pertinens per naturam cuiusque rei." In particular the +Roman conception of the great Jupiter, the father of heaven, might gain +new life for the people who had so long been used to call him "the Best +and Greatest." Almost from the very beginning of Stoicism the school had +seized upon Zeus to convey, under the guise of a personality and a name, +some idea of the Reason in the universe;[782] and the same use might +just as well, perhaps even better, be made of the great deity of the +Capitoline temple, whom his people recognised as the open heaven with +all its manifestations, the celestial representative of good faith and +righteous dealing, and the special protector of the destinies of Rome +and her empire. + +The second thought which lies at the base of the religion or theology of +Stoicism, is this: that Man himself, alone in all the Universe, shares +with God the full possession of Reason. In other words, Man alone, +besides God, is strictly individual, self-conscious, capable of +realising an end and of working towards it; he is so utterly different +from the animals, so far above them (or if we call him an animal, he is, +in Cicero's language,[783] _animal providum, sagax, multiplex, acutum, +memor, plenum rationis et consilii_), that he must surely be of the same +nature as God. And this is what, in strict conformity with all Stoic +teaching, Cicero in this same passage expressly says--man is _generatus +a deo_. So too in the famous hymn of Cleanthes,[784] quoted by St. Paul +at Athens ("For we are also his offspring,"):-- + + Chiefest glory of deathless Gods, Almighty for ever, + Sovereign of Nature that rulest by law, what name shall + we give thee? + Blessed be Thou, for on Thee should call all things that are mortal. + For that we are Thy offspring: nay, all that in myriad motion + Lives for its day on the earth bears one impress, Thy likeness, + upon it; + Wherefore my song is of Thee, and I hymn Thy power for ever. + +In these splendid lines it is plain that not Man only is thought of, but +all living things, animals included with Man; and this is in accordance +with the true Stoic Pantheism. But none the less on this account did +the Stoics believe Man to be the one living thing in the universe +comparable with God, and capable of communion with him by virtue of the +possession of Reason. As Cicero says, a few lines farther on in the work +I am quoting, "virtus eadem in homine ac deo est, neque ullo alio +ingenio praeterea." And since every creature seeks to maintain and +augment its own being, to bring it to perfection, to express it fully, +by an innate law of its nature, Man being endowed with Reason above all +other creatures, strives, or should strive, to bring himself to a +perfect expression, by identifying himself with the divine principle +which he shares with God. As Dr. Caird puts it,[785] "the ruling power +of Reason so dominates his nature that he cannot be described as +anything but a self-conscious _ego_ (_i.e._ in contrast with other +animals); and just because of this, all his impulses become concentrated +in one great effort after self-realisation." But the self that he tries +to realise must be his true self, not his irrational impulses: the self +which is a part of the divine principle. He must desire to realise +himself as having Reason, and so to come into close communion with God, +the Reason of the universe. Those who are at all familiar with the later +Roman Stoics, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus, if we may +include him among them, will recognise in this inspiring thought, vague +and impalpable as it may seem, the germ of many beautiful expressions of +the relation of Man to God, which seem to bring Stoicism into closer +spiritual connection with Christianity than any other doctrine of the +ancient world. + +The work of Cicero from which I have been quoting, the first book of his +treatise on the Laws, _i.e._ the Roman constitution, is very probably +based on one by Panaetius himself,[786] of whom we are expressly told +that he used to discuss that constitution together with Polybius and +Scipio in the days of their happy intimacy at Rome.[787] In any case we +may find it helpful, taken together with the earlier fragmentary work +_de Republica_, in trying to form some idea of the effect of this second +leading Stoic thought on the best Roman minds of the last ages of the +Republic. We find, as we might expect, that it is not on Man simply as +individual that stress is here laid. Man is not thought of as hoping to +realise his own Reason in isolation; the Stoics, though, like their +rivals, they represent a reaction of the individual against the State, +were all along perfectly clear that man in isolation would be helpless, +and that his own reason bade him realise himself in association with his +fellow-men.[788] It is the position of Man, as associated, 1, with God, +2, with other men, that is here made prominent; and the bond of +connection is in each case Law, which is indeed only one name for the +Supreme Reason and the highest Good. I must say a word about these two +aspects of Man's position in the world, in order to explain what I +believe to have been the effect of this teaching on the Roman mind. + +1. In explaining the relation of Man to God Cicero uses an expression +which some years before he had developed in a fine passage in the +Republic: _true law_, he says, _is right reason_.[789] In the Laws he +takes it up again, and argues that as both God and Man have reason, +there must be a direct relation between them.[790] And as Law and right +reason are identical, we may say that Law is the binding force of that +relation. And again, this means that the universe may be looked on as +one great State (_civitas_), of which both God and Man (or gods and men) +are citizens, or in another way as a State of which the constitution is +itself the Reason, or God's law, which all reasonable beings must obey. +Such obedience is itself the effort by which Man realises his own +reason: he is a part of a reasonable universe, and he cannot rebel +against its law without violating his own highest instinct. It is not +hard to see how this way of expressing the Stoic theological principle +would appeal to the Roman mind. That mind was wholly incapable of +metaphysical thinking; but it could without effort understand, with the +help of its social and political principles and experience, the idea of +supreme intelligent rule--a supreme _imperium_, as it were, to rebel +against which would be a moral _perduellio_, high treason against a +supreme Law, unwritten like his own, and resting, as he thought of his +own as resting, on the best instincts, tradition, reason, of his +community; from his own constitution and laws he could lift his mind +without much difficulty to the constitution and law of the _communis +deorum et hominum civitas_. The idea of God in any such sense as this +was indeed new to him; but he could grasp it under the expression +"universal law of right reason" when he would have utterly failed, for +example, to conceive of it as "the Absolute." He can feel himself the +citizen of a State whose maker and ruler is God, and whose law is the +inevitable force of Reason; he can realise his relationship to God as a +part of the same State, gifted with the same power of discerning its +legal basis, nay, even helping to administer its law by rational +obedience. + +2. Reason as thus ruling the universe can also provide a basis for Man's +reasonable association with his fellow-men, and a religious basis if +conceived as God; for Man's recognition of the divine law, the _recta +ratio_, as binding on him, is followed quite naturally by his +recognition of the application of that law to the world he lives in. +"Human law comes into existence," says Zeller, explaining this +point,[791] "when man becomes aware of the divine law, and recognises +its claim on him." Here, again, it is easy to see how illuminating would +be this conception of law for the Roman of Scipio's time. So far the +Roman idea and study of law (as I have elsewhere expressed it)[792] had +been of a crabbed, practical character, wanting in breadth of treatment, +destitute of any philosophical conception of the moral principles which +lie behind all law and government. The new doctrine called up life in +these dry bones, and started Roman lawyers, many of whom were Stoics +more or less pronounced, on a career of enlightened legal study which +has left one of the most valuable legacies inherited by the modern +world from ancient civilisation. In another way too it had, I think, an +immediate effect on Scipio himself and his circle, and on their mental +descendants, of whom Cicero was the most brilliant: it made them look on +the law and constitution of their State as eminently reasonable, and on +rebellion against it as unreason, or as the Romans call it, _lascivia_, +wanton disregard of principle. So far as I know, no great Roman lawyer +was ever a revolutionary like Catiline or Clodius, nor yet an obstinate +conservative like Cato, whose Stoicism was of the older and less +Romanised type; the two of whom we know most in the century following +the arrival of Panaetius were both wise, just, and moderate men, Mucius +Scaevola and Servius Sulpicius, of whom it may be truly said they +contributed as much to civilisation as the great military and political +leaders of the same period.[793] + +There now remains the question whether this noble Stoic religion, as we +may fairly call it, with its ideas of the relation of Man to God and to +his fellow-men, had, after all, sufficient definiteness for a Roman to +act as a grip on his conscience and his conduct in his daily dealings +with others. It could deduce the existence and beauty of the social +virtues from its own principles; if Man partakes of the eternal Reason, +or, as they otherwise put it, if he is through his Reason a part of God +himself in the highest sense, and if God and Reason are in the highest +sense good, then in realising his own Reason, in obeying the voice of +the God within him,[794] he must be himself good by the natural instinct +of his own being. Accordingly, these social virtues, duties, _officia_, +as the Romans called them, were set forth by Panaetius in two books, +which in a Latinised form we still fortunately possess,--the first two +of Cicero's work _de Officiis_,--and without the uncompromising rigidity +which characterised the original Stoic ethical doctrine inherited from +the Cynics.[795] In the first book he treated of the good simply +(_honestum_), in the second of the useful (_utile_), and in a third, +which it was left for Cicero to execute, of the cases of conflict +between these two. In this charming work there is much to admire, and +even much to learn: the social virtues--benevolence, justice, +liberality, self-restraint, and so on, are enlarged upon and illustrated +by historical examples[796] in perfect Latin by Cicero; and as we read +it we cannot but feel that the influence of Panaetius upon his educated +Roman pupils must have been eminently wholesome. + +But at the same time we inevitably feel that there is something wanting. +What power could such a discussion really have to constrain an ordinary +man to right action? The constraint, such as it is, seems purely an +intellectual process, and this is indeed noticeable in the Stoic ethics +of all periods. No Stoic brought his doctrine nearer to a religious +system than Epictetus; yet this is how Epictetus puts the matter:[797] +"If a man could be thoroughly penetrated, as he ought to be, with this +_thought_, that we are all in an especial manner sprung from God, and +that God is the Father of men as well as gods, full sure he would never +conceive aught ignoble or base of himself.... Those few who _hold_ that +they are born for fidelity, modesty, and unerring rightness in dealing +with the things of sense, never conceive aught base or ignoble of +themselves." He means that, for the real Stoic, _self-respect is the +necessary consequence of his intellectual conception of his place in the +universe_, and that self-respect must as inevitably result in virtue. +Can this intellectual attitude really act as a constraining force on the +will of the average man? This is far too complicated a question for me +to enter upon here, and I can but suggest the study of it for anyone who +would wish to test the actual life-giving moral power of this +philosophy. Suffice it to say that their idea of the universe as Reason +and God naturally led the Stoics into a kind of Fatalism, a destined +order in the world which nothing could effectually oppose;[798] and they +were naturally in some difficulty in reconciling this with the freedom +of Man's will. That freedom they constantly and consistently asserted; +but it comes after all to this, that Man is free to bring his will into +conformity, _through knowledge_, with the Power and the universal +Reason; or, as Dr. Caird puts it,[799] "Man has the choice whether he +will be a willing or an unwilling servant (of the universal Reason): +unwilling, if he makes it his aim to satisfy his particular self, an aim +which he can only attain so far as the general system of things allows +him; willing, if he identifies himself with the divine reason which is +manifested in that system." But that identification of himself with the +divine Reason is again an intellectual process; it can only be realised +by minds highly trained in thinking; it could not have the smallest grip +on the conduct of the ordinary ignorant man, or on the minds of women +and children. + +And here we come upon another weak point in Stoicism as presented to the +Roman world in this last century B.C. It was an age in which gentleness, +tenderness, pity, and the philanthropic spirit were most sadly needed, +and it cannot be said of Stoicism that it had any mission to encourage +their growth. The Stoics looked on the mass of men as ignorant and +wicked,[800] and it never occurred to them that it was a duty of the +Good Man to teach and redeem them,--to sacrifice his life, if need be, +in the work of enlightenment. They seem to have thought even of women +and children as hardly partaking of Reason; their ideally good man was +virtuous in a strictly virile way,[801] and it never occurred to them +that training in goodness must begin from the earliest years, and be +gradually developed with infinite sympathy and tenderness. If a man is +to learn that there is something within him which partakes of God, and +which should naturally lead him to right conduct, he must begin to learn +this truth in his infancy.[802] But the absence of a place for emotion +and sympathy in the Stoic system, resulting from the purely intellectual +nature of their central doctrine of Reason, meant also the absence of +any spirit of enthusiastic propaganda. Their notion that emotion or +passion is "a movement of mind contrary to reason and nature,"[803] +lamed their whole system as a progressive force in the world of that +day. Such religious power as it could exercise worked simply through +the radiating influence of a few wise and good men, by nature pure and +unselfish, who gradually familiarised the educated part of society with +a nobler idea of God than the old religion had ever been able to supply, +and with that other inspiring idea of the near relation of Man to God as +partaking of His nature. But the active enthusiasm of a real +religion--the _effective_ desire to be in right relation with the +Power--was strange to Stoicism. In one way or another it had many +excellent results; it cleared the ground, for example, for a new and +universal religion by putting into the shade, if not altogether out of +the way, the old local cults with their narrow and limited civic force: +it glorified the idea of law and order in an age when the Roman world +seemed to be forgetting what these sacred words meant; _but a real +active enthusiasm of humanity was wanting in it_. Hence there is a +certain hopelessness about Stoicism, which increased rather than +diminished as the world went on, and such as is seen in a kind of sad +grandeur in Marcus Aurelius, the Stoic emperor. Of him it may be said, +both as emperor and philosopher, as has been said of the Stoic in +general, that "he was essentially a soldier left to hold a fort +surrounded by overpowering hosts of the enemy. He could not conquer or +drive them away, but he could hold out to the last and die at his post." + + + NOTES TO LECTURE XVI. + + [755] See, _e.g._ Livy iii. 20: "Sed nondum haec, quae + nunc tenet saeculum, neglegentia deum venerat; nec + interpretando sibi quisque iusiurandum et leges aptas + faciebat, sed suos potius mores ad ea accommodabat." Cp. + Cic. _de Off._ iii. 111. + + [756] Two Epicureans were expelled from Rome in 173 + (probably), Athenaeus, p. 547. Cicero, _Tusc._ iv. 3, 7, + gives some idea of the later popularity of the school in + the first half of the last century B.C. + + [757] So Masson, _Lucretius_, i. 263, 271. + + [758] See Masson i. ch. xii. and ii. p. 141 foll.; + Mayor's Cicero _de Nat. Deor._ vol. i. xlviii. and 138 + foll.; Guyau, _La Morale d'Epicure_ (ed. 4), p. 171 + foll. + + [759] Cic. _N.D._ i. 19, 49 foll., and many other + passages; Diog. Laert. x. 55; Zeller, _Stoics, + Epicureans, and Sceptics_, p. 441 foll.; Masson i. 292, + who aptly quotes Cotta the academic critic in Cicero's + dialogue: "When Epicurus takes away from the gods the + power of helping and doing good, he extirpates the very + roots of religion from the minds of men" (Cic. _N.D._ i. + 45. 121). One may add with Dr. Masson (i. 416 foll.) + that a machine cannot command worship; the _Natura_ of + Lucretius, _i.e._, was really a machine. + + [760] Masson i. p. 284, and citations of Philodemus + there given. + + [761] Mayor's Cic. _N.D._ vol. i. p. xlix. + + [762] Lucr. vi. 68 foll. + + [763] Masson i. p. 285. + + [764] Cic. _N.D._ i. 2. 3. + + [765] Cic. _N.D._ i. 37. 102; to believe the gods idle + "etiam homines inertes efficit." + + [766] For this profound reverence for Epicurus see also + Cic. _N.D._ i. 8. 18. It amounted to a faith. In this + passage the Epicurean is described as "nihil tam verens + quam ne dubitare aliqua de re videretur, tanquam modo ex + deorum concilio et ex Epicuri intermundiis + descendisset." See also sec. 43 and Mayor's note; Cic. + _de Finibus_, i. 5. 14; Masson i. 354-5, who quotes the + most striking passages from Lucretius, _e.g._ v. 8-10: + + deus ille fuit, deus, inclyte Memmi, + qui princeps vitae rationem invenit eam quae + nunc appellatur sapientia, etc. + + + In a paper entitled "Die Bekehrung (conversion) im + klassischen Altertum," by W. A. Heidel (_Zeitschrift fuer + Religionspsychologie_, vol. iii. Heft 2), the author, an + American disciple of W. James, argues that the exordium + of Bk. iii. indicates a psychological conversion of + Lucretius. + + [767] See Masson's chapter (p. 399 foll.) on the + teaching and personality of Lucretius. _Social Life at + Rome in the Age of Cicero_, p. 327 foll., and references + there given. I may note here that the power of Epicurism + as a faith depended also largely on the directness, + downrightness, and audacity of its system, working on + minds weary of philosophers' disputations and political + quarrels. + + [768] Cic. _de Finibus_, i. viii. to end (translation by + J. S. Reid, Camb. Univ. Press). The following sentence + in ch. 18, sec. 57, puts the Epicurean ethics in a + nutshell: "Clamat Epicurus, is quem vos nimis + voluptatibus esse deditum dicitis, non posse iucunde + vivi nisi sapienter, honeste, iusteque vivatur, nec + sapienter, honeste, iuste, nisi iucunde." + + [769] What this quietism might mean for a Roman may be + gathered from the following passage in Cic. _de + Finibus_, i. 13. 43, in which _sapientia_ is practical + wisdom, the Aristotelian [Greek: phronesis] or the _ars + vivendi_, as Cicero has explained it just before: + "Sapientia est adhibenda, quae, et terroribus + cupiditatibusque detractis et omnium falsarum opinionum + temeritate derepta, certissimam se ducem praebeat ad + voluptatem. Sapientia enim est una, quae maestitiam + pellat ex animis, quae nos exhorrescere metu non sinat; + qua praeceptrice in tranquillitate vivi potest, omnium + cupiditatum ardore restincto. Cupiditates enim sunt + insatiabiles, quae non modo singulos homines, sed + universas familias evertunt, totam etiam labefactant + saepe rempublicam. Ex cupiditatibus odia discidia + discordiae seditiones bella nascuntur." And so on to the + end of the chapter. The message of Lucretius to the + Roman was practically the same. The remedy was the wrong + one in that age; though it does not necessarily entail + withdrawal from public life with all its enticements + and risks, it must inevitably have a strong tendency to + suggest it; and such withdrawal had, as a matter of + fact, been one of the characteristics of the Epicurean + life. See Zeller, _Stoics_, etc., ch. xx.; Guyau, _La + Morale d'Epicure_, p. 141 foll. + + [770] _History of European Morals_ (1899), vol. i. p. + 225. The treatment of Stoicism in this work, though not, + strictly speaking, philosophical, is in many ways most + instructive. + + [771] F. Leo, _Die griechische und lateinische + Literatur_, p. 337. See the author's _Social Life at + Rome in the Age of Cicero_, p. 105. + + [772] Polybius xxxii. 9-16. + + [773] See a discussion by the author of the meaning of + [Greek: tyche] in Polybius, _Classical Review_, vol. + xvii. p. 445, and the passages there quoted relating to + the growth of the Roman dominion. + + [774] See Schmekel, _Die mittlere Stoa_, p. 3 foll. + + [775] _Ib._ p. 6, note 3. + + [776] See above, p. 251. + + [777] Cic. _N.D._ ii., end of sec. 19. He is translating + the Greek [Greek: pneuma], which in Stoicism is not a + spiritual conception, but a material one, in harmony + with their theory of the universe as being itself + material, including reason and the soul. This is one of + the weak points of the Stoic idea of Unity. For the + meaning of _spiritus_ see Mayor's note on the passage; + it is "the ether or warm air which penetrates and gives + life to all things, and connects them together in one + organic whole." + + [778] Cic. _N.D._ ii. xiii. 36 _ad fin._ On all this + department of the Stoic teaching see Zeller, _Stoics_, + etc., p. 135 foll.; Caird, _Gifford Lectures_, vol. ii., + Lectures 16 and 17. + + [779] _Marcus Aurelius and the Later Stoics_, by F. W. + Bussell p. 42. + + [780] Cic. _N.D._ ii. ch. 28 (secs. 70-72), with Mayor's + commentary; Zeller, _op. cit._ p. 327 foll.; Mayor, + introduction to vol. ii. of his edition of Cic. _N.D._ + xi. foll.; _Social Life at Rome in the Age of Cicero_, + p. 334 foll. It is important to note the distinction + drawn by Cicero between religion and superstition; what + Lucretius called _religio_ as a whole Cicero (and Varro + too, cf. Aug. _Civ. Dei_, vi. 9) thus divided. See + Mayor's valuable note, vol. ii. p. 183. Some interesting + remarks on the Stoic way of dealing with popular + mythology will be found in Oakesmith's _Religion of + Plutarch_, p. 68 foll. + + [781] See above, p. 118 foll. + + [782] See Mayor's note on Cic. _N.D._ ii. 15. 39 (vol. + i. p. 130), with quotation from Philodemus. Zeller, + _Stoics_, etc., p. 337 foll. + + [783] Cic. _de Legibus_, i. 7. 22. + + [784] _Fragmenta Philosophorum Graecorum_, Paris, 1883. + I have borrowed the beautiful translation of my friend + Hastings Crossley, printed p. 183 foll. of his _Golden + Sayings of Epictetus_, in Macmillan's Golden Treasury + Series. + + [785] _Gifford Lectures_, ii. p. 94. + + [786] So Schmekel, _Die mittlere Stoa_, p. 61 foll. The + evidence is not conclusive, and the process of argument + is one of elimination; but it raises a fairly strong + probability. + + [787] Cic. _de Rep._ i. 21. 34. + + [788] See Zeller, _Stoics_, etc., p. 294 foll. + + [789] Cic. _de Rep._ iii. 22. 33. + + [790] Cic. _de Legibus_, i. 7. 22 foll.: "Est igitur, + quoniam nihil est ratione melius, eaque in homine et in + deo, prima homini cum deo rationis societas. Inter quos + autem ratio, inter eosdem etiam recta ratio communis + est," etc. + + [791] Zeller, _Stoics_, etc., p. 226 foll. + + [792] _Social Life at Rome_, p. 117. + + [793] _Ib._ p. 118 foll. + + [794] I may take this opportunity of noting that a Roman + might better understand this notion of his Reason as the + voice of God within him, or conscience, from his own + idea of his "other soul," or genius; see above, p. 75. + But we do not know for certain that it was presented to + him in this way by Panaetius, though Posidonius (_ap. + Galenum_, 469) used the word [Greek: daimon] in this + sense, as did the later Stoics; see Mulder, _de + Conscientiae notione_, p. 71. Seneca, _Ep._ 41. 2, uses + the word _spiritus_: "Sacer intra nos spiritus sedet ... + in unoquoque virorum bonorum, quis deus incertum est, + habitat deus" (from Virg. _Aen._ viii. 352). Cp. Marcus + Aurelius iii. 3. Seneca uses the word genius clearly in + this sense in _Ep._ 110 foll. On the Stoic daemon + consult Zeller, _Stoics_, etc., p. 332 foll.; Oakesmith, + _Religion of Plutarch_, ch. vi. + + [795] See, _e.g._, Zeller, p. 268. + + [796] This habit of illustrating by historical examples + had an educational value of its own, but serves well to + show how comparatively feeble was the appeal of Stoicism + to the conscience. It may be seen well in Valerius + Maximus, whose work, compiled of fact and fiction for + educational purposes, is far indeed from being an + inspiring one. See _Social Life at Rome_, p. 189. + + [797] Arrian, _Discourses_, i. 3. 1-6 (_Golden Sayings + of Epictetus_, No. 9). + + [798] Schmekel, _Die mittlere Stoa_, p. 190 foll. + (Panaetius), and 244 foll. (Posidonius), Zeller 160 + foll. This is the Fate or Providence on which the moral + lesson of the _Aeneid_ is based; see below, p. 409 + foll. Aeneas is the servant of Destiny. If he had + persisted in rebelling against it by remaining at + Carthage with Dido, that would not have changed the + inevitable course of things, but it would have ruined + him. + + [799] _Gifford Lectures_, ii. 96. + + [800] Zeller, _Stoics_, etc., p. 255. This, of course, + did not diminish the duty of general benevolence, _ib._ + p. 310 and references, where fine passages of Cicero and + Seneca are quoted about duties to one's inferiors. But + an enthusiasm of humanity was none the less wanting in + Stoicism, and this was largely owing no doubt to their + hard and fast distinction between virtue and vice, and + their want of perception of a growth or evolution in + society. See Caird, _op. cit._ ii. 99; Lecky, _Hist. of + European Morals_, i. 192 foll.; Zeller 251 foll. + + [801] See some excellent remarks in Lecky, _op. cit._ i. + p. 242 foll. + + [802] See above, note 40. + + [803] Zeller, _Stoics_, etc., p. 229. Cic. _de Finibus_, + iii, 10, 35; _Tusc. Disp._ iv. 28, 60. + + + + +LECTURE XVII + +MYSTICISM--IDEAS OF A FUTURE LIFE + + +We have now reached the end of the period of the Republic; but before I +go on to the age of Augustus, with which I must bring these lectures to +an end, I must ask attention to a movement which can best be described +by the somewhat vague term Mysticism, but is generally known to +historians of philosophy as Neo-pythagoreanism. The fact is that such +tendency as there ever was at Rome towards Mysticism--which was never +indeed a strong one till Rome had almost ceased to be Roman[804]--seems +to have taken the form of thinking known as Pythagorean. The ideas at +the root of the Pythagorean doctrine, the belief in a future life, the +conception of this life as only preparatory to another, the conviction +of the need of purgation in another life and of the preparatory +discipline and asceticism to be practised while we are here,--these are +truly religious ideas; and even among Romans the religious instinct, +though it might be hypnotised, could never be entirely destroyed. When +it awoke from time to time in the minds of thinking men it was apt to +express itself in Pythagorean tones. With the ignorant and vulgar it +might find a baser expression in superstition pure and simple,--in the +finding of portents, in astrology, in Dionysiac orgies; but with these +Pythagoreanism must not be reckoned. These, as they appeared on the soil +of Italy, were the bastard children of quasi-religious thought. But the +movement of which I speak marks a reaction, among men who could both +feel and think, against the whole tendency of Roman religious experience +as we have been tracing it; against the extreme formalism, now +meaningless, of the Roman State religion; against the extreme scepticism +and indifference so obvious in the last century and a half of the +republican era; against the purely intellectual appeal of the ethical +systems of which I have been recently speaking. Stoicism indeed, as we +shall see, held out a hand to the new movement, simply because Stoicism +had a religious side which was wanting in Epicurism. But the thought +that our senses and our reason are not after all the sole fountains of +our knowledge, a thought which is the essence of mysticism, was really +foreign to Stoicism; and when this thought did find a soil in the mind +of a thinking Roman of this age, it was likely to spring up in a +transcendental form which we may call Pythagoreanism. + +South Italy was indeed the true home of the Pythagorean teaching. There +its founder had established it, and there, mixed up with more popular +Orphic doctrine and practice, it must have remained latent for +centuries.[805] "Tenuit magnam illam Graeciam," says Cicero of +Pythagoras, "cum honore disciplinae, tum etiam auctoritate; multaque +saecula post sic viguit Pythagoreorum nomen, ut nulli alii docti +viderentur."[806] To South Italy Plato is said to have travelled to +study this philosophy, and to learn the doctrine of the immortality of +the soul; and the story is generally accepted as true.[807] But of any +missionary attempt of Pythagoreanism on Rome we know nothing--and +probably there was nothing to tell--till that mysterious plot to +introduce it after the Hannibalic war which I mentioned in a recent +lecture.[808] That war brought Rome into close contact with Tarentum and +southern Italy, and it is likely enough that the attempt to connect King +Numa with the philosopher, both in the familiar legend and in the +alleged discovery of the stone coffin with its forged manuscripts, had +its origin in this contact. The Senate could not object to the legend, +but it promptly stamped out this grotesque attempt at propagandism. Then +we hear no more of the doctrine for a century at least; but in the last +century B.C. we know that there appeared a number of Pythagorean +writings, falsely attributed to the founder himself or his +disciples,[809]--a method of propagandism which, like that of the +previous century, may perhaps be taken as marking the religious nature +of the doctrine, which needed the _ipse dixit_ of the founder or +something as near it as possible.[810] But of the immediate influence of +these writings we know nothing. The person really responsible for the +tendency to this kind of mysticism was undoubtedly the great Posidonius, +philosopher, historian, traveller, who more than any other man dominated +the Roman world of thought in the first half of the last century B.C., +and whose writings, now surviving in a few fragments only, lie at the +back of nearly all the serious Roman literature of his own and indeed of +the following age.[811] Panaetius, there can be little doubt, had done +something to leaven Stoicism with Platonic-Aristotelian psychology,[812] +the general tendency of which was towards a dualism of Soul and Body. +The Stoics, in the strict sense of the name, "could not be content with +any philosophy which divided heaven from earth, the spiritual from the +material." "They rebelled against the idea of a transcendent God and a +transcendent ideal world, as modern thought has rebelled against the +supernaturalism of mediaeval religion and philosophy."[813] In their +passion for unity they would not separate soul and body. But when once +Panaetius had hinted at a reversion to the older mode of thought, it was +natural and easy to follow his lead in a society which had long ago +abandoned burial for cremation, and bidden farewell to the primitive +notion that the body lived on under the earth: in a society, too, which +had always believed in that "other soul," the _Genius_ of a man, as +distinct from his bodily self of this earthly life.[814] + +Now as soon as this dualism of body and soul was suggested, it was taken +up by Posidonius into what we may call his neo-Stoic system, and at once +gave mysticism,--or transcendentalism, if we choose so to call it--its +chance. For in such a dualistic psychology it is the soul that gains in +value, the body that loses. Life becomes an imprisonment of the soul in +the body; the soul seeks to escape, death is but the beginning of a new +life, and the imagination is set to work to fathom the mysteries of +Man's future existence, nay, in some more fanciful minds, those of his +pre-existence as well. This kind of speculation, half philosophic, half +poetical, is the transcendental side of the Platonic psychology, and in +the last age of the Republic was able to connect Platonism and +Pythagoreanism without deserting Stoicism.[815] We can see it reflected +from Posidonius in the Dream of Scipio, the beautiful myth, imitated +from those of Plato, with which Cicero concluded his treatise on the +State, written in the year 54 B.C., after his retirement from political +life. In this, and again in the first book of his _Tusculan +Disputations_, composed nearly ten years later, Cicero is beyond doubt +on the tracks of Posidonius, and therefore also of Pythagoreanism.[816] +Listen to the words put into the mouth of the elder Scipio and addressed +to his younger namesake: "Tu vero enitere et sic habeto, non esse te +mortalem, sed corpus hoc; non enim tu es, quem forma ista declarat; sed +_mens cuiusque is est quisque_, non ea figura quae digito demonstrari +potest."[817] Here is the body plainly losing, the soul gaining +importance. But he goes still further: "_deum igitur te scito esse_: si +quidem deus est qui viget qui sentit qui meminit: qui providet, qui tam +regit et moderatur et movet id corpus cui propositus est, quam hunc +mundum ille princeps deus, et ut mundum ex quadam parte mortalem ipse +deus aeternus, sic fragile corpus animus sempiternus movet."[818] + +With such a view of the soul in relation to the body, we can understand +how in this myth it is described as flying upwards, released from +corporeal bondage, and ascending through heavenly stations to pure +aether, if at least (and here we may note the characteristic Roman +touch) its abode on earth has been the body of a good citizen.[819] All +that is of earth earthy, all old ideas of burial, all notions of a +gloomy abode below the earth, are here fairly left behind. So too in the +first book of the _Tusculans_, written after the death of his beloved +daughter, Cicero would persuade himself and others that death cannot be +an evil if we once allow the soul to be immortal: for from its very +nature it must rise into aethereal realms, cannot sink like the body +into the earth.[820] Into its experiences in the aether I do not need to +go here. Enough has been said to show that, as it were, the heavens were +opened, and with the psychological separation of soul from body the +imaginative faculty was released also; not indeed that any Roman, or +even Posidonius himself, could revel in cosmological dreams as did +Plato, but they found in him all they needed, and it would seem that +they made much use of it. Plato's _Timaeus_ was made by Posidonius the +subject of a commentary,[821] and by Cicero himself it was in part at +least translated, about the time when he was writing the _Tusculans_, +and still deeply moved by his recent loss. Of this translation a +fragment survives; and in the introductory sentences he indicates a +second stimulus to his Pythagorean tendencies, besides Posidonius. He +tells how he had met at Ephesus, when on his way to his province of +Cilicia, the famous Pythagorean Nigidius Figulus, and had enjoyed +conversation with him.[822] Nigidius was an old friend, who had helped +Cicero in his consulship; he was one of those "polyhistores" who are +characteristic of the age, like Posidonius and Varro, and wrote works on +all kinds of subjects of which but few fragments remain. But his +reputation as a Pythagorean survived for centuries;[823] and this +mention of him by Cicero is only another proof of the direction the +thoughts of the latter were taking in these last two years of his life. + + +Clearly, then, Cicero in his philosophical writings of these years was +affected by the current of mysticism that was then running. But to me it +is still more interesting to find it moving him in a practical matter of +which he has himself left the truth on record; for Cicero is a real +human being for whom all who are familiar with his letters must have +something in the nature of affection, and with whom, too, we feel +genuine sympathy in the calamity which now fell upon him. It was early +in 45 B.C. that he lost his only and dearly loved daughter, and the blow +to his sensitive temperament, already hardly tried by political anxiety, +was severe. We still have the private letters which he wrote to Atticus +after her death from his solitude at Astura on the edge of the +melancholy Pomptine marshes;[824] and here, if our minds are +sufficiently divested of modern ideas and trained to look on death with +Roman eyes, we may be startled to find him thinking of her as still in +some sense surviving, and as divine rather than human: as a deity or +spirit to whom a _fanum_ could be erected. He makes it clear to Atticus, +who is acting as his business agent at Rome, that he does not want a +mere tomb (_sepulcrum_), but a _fanum_, which as we have seen was the +general word for a spot of ground sacred to a deity. "I wish to have a +_fanum_ built, and that wish cannot be rooted out of my heart. I am +anxious to avoid any likeness to a tomb, not so much on account of the +penalty of the law, as in order to attain as nearly as possible to an +_apotheosis_. This I could do if I built it in the villa itself, but ... +I dread the changes of owners. Wherever I construct it on the land, I +think that I could secure that posterity should respect its +sanctity."[825] The word here translated sanctity is _religio_; we may +remember that all burial places were _loca religiosa_, not consecrated +by the State, yet hallowed by the feeling of awe or scruple in +approaching them; but Cicero is probably here using the word rather in +that wider sense in which it so often expresses the presence of a deity +in some particular spot.[826] + +Atticus was a man of the world and probably an Epicurean, and his +friend in two successive letters half apologises for this strong +desire. "I should not like it to be known by any other name but +_fanum_,--unreasonably, you will perhaps say." And again, "you must bear +with these silly wishes (_ineptiae_) of mine."[827] But this only makes +the intensity of his feeling about it the more plain and significant; he +really seems to want Tullia to be thought of as having passed into the +sphere of divinity, however vaguely he may have conceived of it. Perhaps +he remembered his own words in Scipio's dream, "Deum te esse scito." +The ashes of Tullia rested in the family tomb, but the godlike thing +imprisoned in her mortal body was to be honoured at this _fanum_, which, +strange as it may seem to us, her father wished to erect in a public and +frequented place. She does not fade away into the common herd of Manes, +but remains, though as a spirit, the same individual Tullia whom her +father had loved so dearly. + +I long ago explained the old Roman idea of Manes,[828] a vague +conception of shades of the dead dwelling below the earth, and hardly, +if at all, individualised. But in Tullia's case we meet with a clear +conception of an individual spirit; and this alone would lead us to +suspect a Pythagorean influence at work, such as that under which Virgil +wrote the famous words "Quisque suos patimur Manes," which simply mean +"Each individual of us must endure his own individual ghosthood."[829] +This process of individualisation must have been gradually coming on, +but the steps are lost to us; we only know that the earliest sepulchral +inscription which speaks to it, in the vague plural Di Manes so familiar +in later times, is dateable somewhere about this very time.[830] My +friend Dr. J. B. Carter would explain it, in part at least, by the Roman +conception of Genius to which I alluded just now, and doubtless this +must be taken into account. For myself I would rather think of it as the +natural result of the growth of individualism in the living human being +during the last two centuries B.C. Surely it was impossible for +personality to grow as it did in that period without a corresponding +growth of the idea of individual immortality in the minds of all who +believed in a future life of any kind at all. The Epicureans did not so +believe; but Roman Stoics instructed by Panaetius and Posidonius might +not only believe in immortality but in an immortality of the individual. + +Let me take this opportunity of noting that there was, of course, no +sort of restriction on a man's belief about this or any other religious +question. It was perfectly open to every one to hold what view best +pleased him about the state of the dead: all that the State required of +him was that he should fulfil his obligations at the tombs of his own +kin. No dogma reigned in the necropolis, only duty, _pietas_,--and that +_pietas_ implied no conviction. The Parentalia in February were +originally, so far as we can discern, only a yearly renewal of the rite +of burial on its anniversary;[831] this implies civilisation and some +kind of calendar, but not a creed. Later on, in the Fasti of the +City-state, the day was fixed for all citizens without regard of +anniversaries; and here the rites become a matter of _ius_, the _ius +Manium_, to the observance of which the Manes are entitled. Still there +is no creed, though Cicero speaks of this _ius_ as based on the idea of +a future life.[832] As a fact these rites are a survival from an age in +which the dead man was believed to go on living in the grave, but that +primitive idea was no longer held by the educated. Each man was free in +all periods to believe what he pleased about the dead, and as the Romans +began to think, this freedom becomes easy to illustrate. Cicero himself +is usually agnostic, as is in keeping with his Academic tendency in +philosophy; even in one of these very letters he seems to speak of his +own non-existence after death.[833] So, too, the excellent Servius +Sulpicius, in the famous letter of condolence written to Cicero at this +time from Athens, seems to be uncertain.[834] We all know the words of +Caesar (reported by Sallust), which are often quoted with a kind of holy +horror, as though a pontifex maximus might not hold any opinion he +pleased about death, and as though his doubt were not the common doubt +of innumerable thinking men of the age.[835] Catullus wrote of death as +"nox perpetua dormienda"; Lucretius, of course, gloried in the thought +that there is no life beyond. In the following century the learned Pliny +could write of death as the relapsing into the same nothingness as +before we were born, and could scoff at the absurdities of the cult of +the dead.[836] + +But when a man like Cicero was deeply touched by grief, his emotional +nature abandoned its neutral attitude, and turned for consolation to +mysticism. As I have said, he was persuading himself that Tullia was +still living,--a glorified spirit. We can gain just a momentary glimpse +of what was in his mind by turning to the fragments of the _Consolatio_ +which he was now writing at Astura. + +This was a _Consolatio_ of the kind which was a recognised literary form +of this and later times,[837] though in this case it was addressed by +the writer to himself; to write was for Cicero second nature, and he was +sure to take up his pen when he had feelings that needed expression. It +is unfortunately lost, all but one fragment, which he quotes himself in +the first book of his _Tusculans_, and one or two more preserved by the +Christian writer Lactantius, a great admirer of Cicero, who came near to +catching the beauty of his style. The passage quoted by himself is +precious.[838] It insists on the spiritual nature of the soul, which can +have nothing in common with earth or matter of any kind, seeing that it +thinks, remembers, foresees: "ita quicquid est illud, quod sentit, quod +sapit, quod vivit, quod viget, caeleste et divinum, ob eamque rem +aeternum sit necesse est." And in the concluding words he hints strongly +at the _divinity_ of the soul, which is of the same make as God +himself,--of the same immaterial nature as the only Deity of whom we +mortals can conceive. His daughter, therefore, is not only still living +in a spiritual life, but she is in some vague sense divine; that word +_apotheosis_, which he twice uses in the letters, has a real meaning for +him at this moment; and in a fragment of the _Consolatio_ quoted by +Lactantius he makes this quite plain; "Te omnium optimam doctissimamque, +approbantibus dis immortalibus ipsis, in eorum coetu locatam, ad +opinionem omnium mortalium consecrabo."[839] + +Undoubtedly Cicero is here under the influence of the Pythagoreans as +well as of his own emotion. In another chapter Lactantius seems to make +this certain;[840] he begins by combining Stoics and Pythagoreans as +both believing the immortality of the soul, goes on to deal with the +Pythagorean doctrine (or one form of it) that in this life we are +expiating the sins of another, and ends by quoting Cicero's _Consolatio_ +to that effect: "Quid Ciceroni faciemus? qui cum in principio +Consolationis suae dixit, luendorum scelerum causa nasci homines, +iteravit id ipsum postea, quasi obiurgans eum qui vitam poenam non esse +putet." Another lost book, the _Hortensius_, which was written +immediately after the _Consolatio_, March to May 45,[841] shows in one +or two surviving fragments exactly the same tendency of thought and +reading.[842] Our conclusion then must be that Cicero, always +impressionable, and in his way also religious, had in this year 45 a +real religious experience. He was brought face to face with one of the +mysterious facts of life, and with one of the great mysteries of the +universe, and the religious instinct awoke within him. How many others, +even in that sordid and materialistic age, may have had the like +experience, with or without a mystical philosophy to guide their +thoughts? In the last words of the famous Laudatio Turiae, of which I +have written at length in my _Social Life in the Age of Cicero_,[843] we +may perhaps catch an echo of a similar religious feeling: "Te di Manes +tui ut quietam patiantur atque ita tueantur opto" (I pray that thy +divine Manes may keep thee in peace and watch over thee). These words, +expressing the hope of a practical man, not of a philosopher, are very +difficult to explain, except as the unauthorised utterances of an +individual. They hardly find a parallel either in literature or +inscriptions. We must not press them, yet they help us to divine that +there was in this last half-century B.C. some mystical yearning to +realise the condition of the loved ones gone before, and the relation of +their life to that of the living. This religious instinct, let us note +once for all, is not identical with the old one which we expressed by +the formula about the Power manifesting itself in the universe. The +religious instinct of the primitive Roman was concerned only with this +life and its perils and mysteries; the religious instinct of Cicero's +time was not that of simple men struggling with agricultural perils, but +that of educated men whose minds could pass in emotional moments far +beyond the troubles of this present world, to speculate on the great +questions, why we are here, what we are, and what becomes of us after +death. + +But what of the ordinary Roman of this age--what of the man who was not +trained to think, and had no leisure or desire to read? What did he +believe about a future life, or did he believe anything? This brings us +to a curious question about which I must say a very few words--did this +ordinary Roman, as Lucretius seems to insist, believe in Hades and its +torments? Not in one passage only does Lucretius insist on this. "That +fear of Hell" (so Dr. Masson translates him) "must be driven out +headlong, which troubles the life of man from its inmost depth, and +overspreads everything with the blackness of death, and permits no +pleasure to be pure and unalloyed."[844] I need not multiply quotations; +evidently the poet believed what he said, though he may be using the +exaggeration of poetical diction. And to a certain extent he is borne +out by the literature of his time. In fact Polybius, writing nearly a +century earlier of the Romans and their religion, implies that such +notions were common, and that they were invented by "the ancients" to +frighten the people into submission.[845] Cicero, though he of course +thinks of them as merely the fables of poets, seems to suggest that the +ordinary man did believe in them; thinking of his own recent loss, he +says that our misery would be unbearable when we lose those we love, if +we really thought of them as "_in iis malis quibus vulgo +opinantur_."[846] Of course all these fables were Greek, not Roman. +There is no reason to believe that the old Romans imagined their own +dead experiencing any miseries in Orcus--the old name, as it would seem, +for the dimly imagined abode of the Manes, afterwards personified after +the manner of Plutus.[847] No doubt they believed that the dead were +ghosts, desiring to get back to their old homes, who, in the +well-ordered religion of the City-state, were limited in this strong +desire to certain days in the civic year.[848] But their first +acquaintance with Hades and its tortures may probably be dated early, +_i.e._ when they first became acquainted with Etruscan works of art, +themselves the result of a knowledge of Greek art and myth.[849] Early +in the second century B.C. Plautus in the _Captivi_ alluded to these +paintings as familiar;[850] and we must not forget that the Etruscans +habitually chose the most gruesome and cruel of the Greek fables for +illustration, and especially delighted in that of Charon, one likely +enough to strike the popular imagination. The play-writers themselves +were responsible for inculcating the belief, as Boissier remarked in his +work on the Roman religion of the early empire.[851] In the theatre, +with women and children present, Cicero says in the first book of his +_Tusculans_, the crowded auditorium is moved as it listens to such a +"grande carmen" as that sung by a ghost describing his terrible journey +from the realms of Acheron; and in another passage of the same book he +mentions both painters and poets as responsible for a delusion which +philosophers have to refute.[852] I need not say that the Roman poets +too continually use the imagery of Tartarus; but they use it as +literary tradition, and in the sixth _Aeneid_ it is used also to enforce +the idea of duty to the State which is the real theme of the poem. + +As Dr. Masson truly observes, we have the literature but we have not the +folklore of the age of Cicero and Virgil; and it must be confessed that +without the folklore such scanty literary evidence as I have just +mentioned does not come to much. Dr. Masson indeed concludes on this +evidence that the fear of future torments played a considerable part in +the religious notions both of the common people and possibly of some of +the educated. I think it may have been so, but on other grounds, which I +must briefly explain. + +From all that I have said in these lectures about the religious ideas +represented in the earliest calendar, _i.e._ those of the governing +Romans of the earliest City-state, it will be plain that a gruesome +eschatology was an impossibility for them. Just the same may be said of +the Greek ideas represented in the Homeric poems; for with the exception +of the Nekuia of the _Odyssey_, which almost all scholars agree in +attributing to a later age than the bulk of the two Homeric epics, in +this poetry _il se fait grand jour_.[853] This is not the first time +that I have compared the religion of the Roman patricians to that of +Homer;[854] and there is a growing conviction among experts that we have +in each case the ideas of a comparatively civilised immigrant +population, whose religion, though it has developed in very different +ways, has the common characteristic of cleanness and brightness. In +Italy it is practical, in Homer imaginative; but in both it is free from +the brutal and the grotesque. Even the eschatology of the eleventh +_Odyssey_ is not cruel, it is comparatively colourless; and, as I said +just now, this also may be said of the Roman ideas of Orcus and the +Manes. + +In each case it is life, not death, that is of interest to the living; +death is rather a negation than anything distinctly realised. The state +of the dead in Homer is shadowy and _triste_, a state not to be desired, +as Achilles so painfully expresses it in a famous passage; but the +_life_ of the Achaean in the poems is vivid--nay, such a vivid +realisation of life can alone account for the production of such poems. +So, too, the immigrant population at Rome, to whom is due the regulation +of the religion as we know it, and the inspiring force that made for +ordered government and warlike enterprise, was too full of practical if +not of imaginative vitality to be apt to dwell upon the possibilities of +existence after death, to conceive of such existence as either happy or +miserable, the reward or the punishment for things done in this world. + +But in each peninsula this immigrant race was living in the midst of a +far more primitive population; and it is perhaps to this population that +we must look for the origin of the more detailed and imaginative notions +of the life of the dead. Of the Greeks in this matter I have not space +here to speak, nor am I competent to do so. But the conviction is +steadily gaining ground that in early Rome we have to recognise the +existence of two races; whether the older of these was Ligurian, as +Prof. Ridgeway thinks, or primitive Latin, _i.e._ old Italic, as Binder +believes, does not matter for our present purpose;[855] nor are the +arguments drawn from religion which these writers have used at all +convincing to my intelligence. But they have not noticed what is to me a +really valid argument, viz. the double festival of the dead in the +calendar of Numa. In February we find the cheerful and orderly festival +of the Parentalia, the yearly renewal of the seemly rite of burial; in +May, on the other hand, the student of the calendar is astonished to +find three several days called Lemuria, the rites belonging to which are +never mentioned, except where Ovid treats us to a grotesque account of +the driving out of ancestral spirits from the house.[856] No one +doubts, I think, that the Lemuria represents an older stratum of thought +about the dead than the other festival,[857] but no one, so far as I +know, has ventured to claim the Lemures and their three days as +belonging to the religion of the more primitive race. If I make this +suggestion now, it must be taken as a hypothesis only, but as a +hypothesis it can at least do no harm. If I am asked why Lemuria should +have been admitted into the patrician calendar, I answer that I have +long held that a few of the non-patrician religious customs were +absorbed into the religion of the city of the four regions, the +Lupercalia, for example;[858] and nothing could be more likely than that +the old barbarous ideas about the dead should win this amount of +respect, seeing that by the limitation to three days in the year order +and decency might be brought into their service. I may repeat, with a +slight addition, what I wrote ten years ago about these two Roman +festivals of the dead: "If we compare Ovid's account of the grotesque +domestic rites of the Lemuria with those of February, which were of a +systematic, cheerful, and even beautiful character, we may feel fairly +sure that the latter represent the organised life of a City-state, the +former the ideas of an age when life was wilder and less secure, and the +fear of the dead, of ghosts and demons, was a powerful factor in the +minds of the people. If we may argue from Ovid's account, it is not +impossible that the Lemuria may have been one of those periodical +expulsions of demons of which we hear so much in the _Golden Bough_, and +which are performed on behalf of the community as well as in the +domestic circle among savage peoples. It is noticeable that the offering +of food to the demons is a feature common to these practices, and that +it also appears in those described by Ovid."[859] To this I should now +add the suggestion above made, that the Lemuria represents the ideas of +the older race that occupied the site of Rome, while the Parentalia is +originally the festival of the patrician immigrants. + +But what has all this to do with the eschatology which Lucretius +attributes to the common people at Rome in his own day? Simply this, +that the ideas at the root of the Lemuria may well have provided the raw +material for such an eschatology, while those at the root of the +Parentalia could not have done this. Dr. Westermarck has recently shown +that primitive religions do spontaneously generate the idea of moral +retribution after death, _e.g._ the notion that the souls of bad people +may reappear as evil spirits or obnoxious animals.[860] We have no proof +whatever of the existence of such notions at Rome; but I contend that +the permanence of this type of belief about the dead which is +represented by the Lemuria--a permanence which is attested by Ovid's +description--raises a presumption that the lower stratum of the Roman +population, if the chance were given it, would the more readily +understand the pictures of Etruscan artists and the allusions of Greek +playwrights, and the more easily become the prey of the eschatological +horrors which Lucretius describes as terrifying them. The material was +there from the earliest times, and all that was needed was for Greeks +and Etruscans to work upon it. + +Before leaving this point it may be worth while to remember that though +the well-to-do and educated classes cremated their dead, the poor of the +crowded city population of the period I am now dealing with enjoyed no +such orderly and cleanly funeral rites. The literary evidence is +explicit on this point, and has been confirmed by modern excavation on +the Esquiline, where we know from Varro and Horace that the poor and the +slaves were thrown _en masse_ into _puticuli_, _i.e._ holes where it was +impossible that any memorial ceremonies could be kept up.[861] Horace's +lines are familiar (_Sat._ 8. 8): + + huc prius angustis eiecta cadavera cellis + conservus vili portanda locabat in arca. + hoc miserae plebi stabat commune sepulcrum, etc. + +It is dangerous to be too confident about the effect on the religious +imagination of different ways of dealing with the dead; but it is at +least not improbable that any inherited tendency to believe in a +miserable future for the soul would be confirmed and maintained by so +miserable a fate for the body. The mass of the population had little +chance of ridding itself of eschatological superstition. + +Thus I am inclined to come to Dr. Masson's conclusion, though on +somewhat different grounds. I think it quite possible that the +uneducated in the age of the poet may have really been inoculated with +these ideas of cruel retribution, and that in many cases this may have +resulted in despair or at least discomfort. Only we must remember that +in a great city like Rome, as in Paris or London to-day, both the +miseries and the enjoyments of life would tend to accustom the minds of +the lower strata to consider the present rather than the future; the +necessities and pleasures of the moment are with them the only material +of thought. Neither comfort nor remonstrance could reach them from +pulpit or from missioner; neither fear nor hope could largely enter into +their lives. In fact I half suspect that most of them were, after all, +so long as they were healthy and active, much what Lucretius would have +them be--free from all religious scruple; but, alas, utterly destitute +of the intellectual support which he claimed from the study of +philosophy. We can well understand how it was among the lower population +of the great cities that early Christianity found its chance. They had +no education or philosophy to stand between them and the gospel of +redemption. + +I must say one word about another kind of transcendentalism which was +pushing its way into favour in Roman society at this time--I mean +astrology. One may call it transcendental because it was based, in its +original home in the East, on a mystical notion of sympathy between the +phenomena of the starry heavens and the phenomena of human life;[862] +and that this notion was carefully inculcated by those who taught the +"science" at Rome is shown by the long and wearisome poem on astrology +written by Manilius in the succeeding age. But it is not likely that +this form of mysticism had become really popular before the period of +the Empire, and in any case it can hardly be called a part of Roman +religious experience. I only mention it here as helping to illustrate +the way in which men's minds were now beginning to turn with interest to +speculations altogether beyond the range of that practical ethical +philosophy which was natural and congenial to the Roman, altogether +beyond the horizon of man's daily prospect in this world. The growing +interest in Fortuna, both as natural force and deity, which became +intense under the Empire, is another indication of the same +tendency.[863] + +As soon as Rome had come into close contact with Greece, which had long +before been overrun by the eastern astrology--by the Chaldaeans or +_mathematici_, as they are so often called--these experts began to +appear also in Italy. We first hear of them from old Cato, who advises +that the steward of an estate should be strictly forbidden to consult +_Chaldaei_, _harioli_, _haruspices_, and such gentry.[864] In 139 +B.C.--a year in which there happened to be in Rome an embassy from Simon +Maccabaeus--Chaldaeans were ordered to leave Rome and Italy within ten +days; but I think there is some evidence that these were really Jews who +were trying to propagate their own religion.[865] For some time we hear +nothing more of these intruders; but they probably gained ground again +in the course of the Mithridatic wars, which were responsible for the +introduction of much Oriental religion into Italy. They are mentioned in +87, together with [Greek: thytai] and Sibyllistae, as persuading the +ill-fated Octavius to remain in Rome to meet his death, as it turned +out, at the hands of the Marians.[866] But no Roman seems to have taken +up astrology as a quasi-scientific study till that Nigidius, of whom I +have already said a word, was persuaded thus to waste his time and +brains. He is said to have foretold the greatness of Augustus at his +birth in 63 B.C.;[867] and from this time forward the taking of +horoscopes or _genethliaca_ became a favourite pursuit at +Rome--unfortunately for the people of Europe, who caught the infection +and kept it endemic for at least fifteen centuries. + +Astrology is in no sense religion, and I must leave it with these few +remarks. It represents the individual and his personal interests, not +even the advantage of the community, and it was for this reason that the +Chaldaei were disliked by the Roman government. The individual is not +satisfied with legitimate Roman means of divination; he is employing +illegitimate ways when he entrusts himself to these Orientals, who, most +of them doubtless, well deserved the scathing contempt which Tacitus has +contrived to put into six words: "Genus hominum potentibus infidum, +sperantibus fallax," adding, with no less contempt for the Roman +authorities who had to deal with them, that they will always be +forbidden, and always will be found at Rome.[868] + + + NOTES TO LECTURE XVII + + [804] For the Pythagoreanism of the Neo-platonic + movement in the third century A.D. consult Bussell, + _Marcus Aurelius and the Later Stoics_ (Edin. 1910), p. + 30 foll., who explains the reaction from Stoicism to + Neo-Platonism. See also Caird, _Gifford Lectures_, ii. + 162 foll. + + [805] Schmekel, _Die mittlere Stoa_, p. 403, says that + it had ceased to exist for centuries as a philosophy, + but cautiously adds in a note that the knowledge of it + was not extinct. The famous Orphic tablets from South + Italy are taken as dating from the third and fourth + centuries B.C., and if not actually Pythagorean, they + are next door to being so. See Miss Harrison, + _Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion_, p. 660. + + [806] _Tusc. Disp._ i. 38. + + [807] See, _e.g._, Prof. Taylor's little book on Plato + (Constable), p. 11. + + [808] See above, p. 349. + + [809] Sextus Empiricus, _adv. Physicos_, ii. 281 foll. + + [810] For the devotion of the believers to the founder + and his _ipse dixit_, see Cicero, _Nat. Deor._ i. 5. 10. + + [811] The relation of Posidonius to Roman literature has + been much discussed of late. See, _e.g._, Norden, + Virgil, _Aen._ vi., index, _s.v._ "Stoa"; Schmekel, _Die + mittlere Stoa_, 85 foll., 238 foll. + + [812] For Panaetius' enthusiasm for Plato and his + teaching, see Cic. _Tusc. Disp._ i. 32. 79; the whole + passage indicates, though it does not exactly prove, an + approach to the Platonic psychology. + + [813] Caird, _Gifford Lectures_, vol. ii. p. 85. + + [814] See above, p. 75. The idea that the practice of + cremation influenced the ideas of the Roman about the + soul was first, I think, suggested by Boissier, + _Religion romaine_, i. 310. Cicero himself hints at this + conclusion in _Tusc. Disp._ i. 16. 36: "In terram enim + cadentibus corporibus, hisque humo tectis, e quo dictum + est humari, sub terra censebant reliquam vitam agi + mortuorum. Quam eorum opinionem magni errores consecuti + sunt; quos auxerunt poetae." + + [815] This point is well put by Dill, p. 493 of _Roman + Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius_. See also + Dieterich, _Eine Mithras-Liturgie_, p. 200 fol.; + Stewart, _Myths of Plato_, 352-53. + + [816] Schmekel, _Die mittlere Stoa_, p. 400 foll. + + [817] _De Rep._ vi. 26. + + [818] _Ib._ The word _providet_ reminds us that this + transcendental philosophy supplied the later Stoics with + an explanation of divination. See Bouche-Leclercq, + _Hist. de divination_, i. 68; Dill, _op. cit._ p. 439; + Seneca, _Nat. Quaest._ ii. 52, fully accepted + divination. Cp. Cic. _Tusc. Disp._ i. 37. 66, where he + quotes his own _Consolatio_; see above, p. 388. + Panaetius, however, had courageously denied divination: + Cic. _Div._ i. 3. 6; Zeller, _Stoics_, etc., p. 352. + + [819] _De Rep._ vi. 15, 26, and 29. + + [820] _Tusc. Disp._ i. 16. 36 foll. On the whole subject + of the rise of the soul after death see Dieterich, _Eine + Mithras-Liturgie_, p. 179 foll. + + [821] Schmekel, _op. cit._ p. 438; Stewart, _Myths of + Plato_, p. 300. + + [822] For Nigidius, see Schanz, _Gesch. der roem. + Literatur_ (ed. 2), vol. ii. p. 419 foll. + + [823] "Nigidius Figulus Pythagoreus et magus in exilio + moritur" is the notice of him in St. Jerome's Chronicle + for the year 45 B.C. + + [824] These letters are in the 12th book of those to + Atticus, Nos. 12-40. + + [825] _Ad Att._ xii. 36. The translation is Shuckburgh's. + + [826] A good example is Virg. _Aen._ viii. 349, but it + is needless to multiply instances of the _religio loci_. + Serv. _ad Aen._ i. 314 defines _lucus_ as "arborum + multitudo cum religione." + + [827] _Ad Att._ xii. 36; cp. 35. He uses the Greek word + [Greek: apotheosis] in 35. 1, which seems to have come + into use in his own time; see Liddell & Scott, _s.v._ + + [828] See above, p. 58. + + [829] _Aen._ vi. 743. The meaning of these words seems + to be quite plain, though commentators have worried + themselves over them from Servius downwards. The mistake + has been in not sufficiently considering the force of + _quisque_, and puzzling too much over the vague word + _Manes_. Henry discerned the true meaning in our own + time. See his _Aeneidea_, vol. iii. p. 397. Cp. the + words quoted above from _Somn. Scip._: "mens cuiusque is + est quisque." M. S. Reinach (_Cultes_, etc. ii. 135 + foll.) is not far out: "Nous souffrons chacun suivant le + degre de souillure de nos ames." + + [830] _C.I.L._ i. 639, with Mommsen's note. + + [831] See _R.F._ p. 308. + + [832] _Tusc. Disp._ i. 12. 27. For the "ius Manium," _de + Legibus_, ii. 22 and 54 foll. + + [833] _Ad Att._ xii. 18: "Longum illud tempus _cum non + ero_ magis me movet quam hoc exiguum," etc. Cp. _Tusc._ + i. _ad fin._ + + [834] _Ad Fam._ iv. 5. 6: "Quod si quis apud inferos + sensus est, qui illius in te amor fuit pietasque in + omnes suos, hoc certe illa te facere nonvult." + + [835] Sall. _Cat._ ch. 51: "Mortem cuncta mortalium + dissolvere, ultra neque curae neque gaudio locum esse." + This is the Epicurean doctrine, which Caesar was said to + hold. + + [836] Catull. 5. 6; Pliny, _N.H._ vii. 188. The whole + passage is worth quoting: "Post sepulturam vanae Manium + ambages. Omnibus a supremo die eadem quae ante primum, + nec magis a morte sensus ullus aut corpori aut animae + quam ante natalem. Eadem enim vanitas in futurum etiam + se propagat et in mortis quoque tempora sibi vitam + mentitur, alias immortalitatem animae, alias + transfigurationem, _alias sensum inferis dando et Manes + colendo deumque faciendo qui iam etiam homo esse + desierit_, ceu vero ullo modo spirandi ratio ceteris + animalibus praestet, aut non diuturniora in vita multa + reperiantur quibus nemo similem divinat immortalitatem," + etc. + + [837] There is an essay on this form of literature in + the _Etudes morales sur l'antiquite_ of Constant Martha, + p. 135 foll. + + [838] _Tusc. Disp._ i. 27. 66. + + [839] Lact. _Inst._ i. 15. 20. + + [840] Lact. iii. 18. + + [841] See Schanz, _Gesch. der roem. Literatur_, vol. ii. + p. 376. + + [842] Fragments 54 and 55. + + [843] P. 158 foll. + + [844] Lucr. vi. 764 foll. Cp. iii. 966 foll.; Masson, + _Lucretius_, i. p. 402. Mr. Cyril Bailey also reminds me + of Lucr. iii. 31-93, and 1053 to end; and adds a decided + opinion that the poet is not here thinking of the common + Roman, but of the educated Roman brought up on Greek and + Graeco-Roman poetry and philosophy. + + [845] Polyb. vi. 56. + + [846] _Tusc._ i. 46. 111. + + [847] See Roscher's _Myth. Lex._ _s.v._ "Orcus"; + Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 192. + + [848] See above, p. 107. + + [849] Mueller-Deecke, _Etrusker_, ii. 108 foll. + Illustrations can be seen in Dennis, _Cities and + Cemeteries of Etruria_, ed. 2. + + [850] _Captivi_, v. 4. 1. + + [851] _La Religion romaine d'Auguste aux Antonins_, vol. + i. p. 310. + + [852] Cic. _Tusc._ i. 16. 37. For the eschatology of the + sixth _Aeneid_, a curious melange of religion, + philosophy, and folklore, see Norden's work on Virgil, + _Aeneid_, vi. (index, p. 468). Norden believes, I may + note, that the philosophical and religious elements in + it are mainly derived from Posidonius. Cp. also Glover, + _Studies in Virgil_, ch. x. (Hades). For popular + beliefs in Hades, etc., under the Empire, see + Friedlaender's _Sittengeschichte_, vol. iii. last + chapter. + + [853] Weil, _Etudes sur l'antiquite grecque_, p. 12, + quoted by Glover, p. 218. + + [854] See above, p. 105. + + [855] Since this lecture was written a most interesting + discussion of Greek ideas, Achaean and Pelasgic, about + the relation of soul and body after death, has appeared + in Mr. Lawson's _Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek + Religion_, especially in chapters v. and vi., confirming + me, to some extent at least, in the conjecture I had + here hazarded. The working of the imagination in regard + to a future state is in Greece, in his view, peculiar to + the older or Pelasgic population; and if the Etruscans + were of Pelasgic stock, as is now believed by many, + their imaginative grotesqueness, a degraded form perhaps + of the original characteristic, acting on the ideas of a + still more primitive population of which the Lemuria is + a survival, might explain the later prevalence of a + gruesome eschatology at Rome. But whoever studies Mr. + Lawson's chapters closely will find serious difficulties + in the way even of such a hypothesis as this. + + [856] Ovid, _Fasti_, v. 430 foll.; _R.F._ p. 109. + Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 192, attributes the ideas of larvae + (ghosts) and of Orcus, not to religion, but to popular + superstition. If he here means by religion the State + religion and the _Parentalia_ in particular, I can agree + with him. + + [857] Dr. Carter allows this in Hastings' _Dict. of + Religion and Ethics_, vol. i. (Roman section of article + "Ancestor Worship.") + + [858] See _R.F._ p. 334. + + [859] _R.F._ p. 107. + + [860] _Origin and Development of Moral Ideas_, ii. 693 + foll. + + [861] Varro, _L.L._ v. 25; Paulus p. 216; + Huelsen-Jordan, _Roem. Topogr._ iii. p. 268 foll. The + remains of these puticuli were unluckily very + imperfectly reported, and have been lost in the building + of the Rome of to-day. On the question of the religious + aspect of the two ways of disposing of the dead, burial + and cremation, it is as well to remember Dieterich's + warning in _Mutter Erde_, p. 66, note: "den Versuch, aus + der Verbreitung und dem Wechsel der Sitte des + Verbrennens und Begrabens fuer meine Untersuchung + Schluesse zu gewinnen, habe ich voellig aufgegeben, als + ich angesichts der ungeheueren Materialen meines + Kollegen von Duhn die Unmoeglicheit solcher Schluesse + einsehen musste." In Mr. Lawson's book quoted above it + seems to me to be proved that the object of both methods + is the same, viz. to destroy the body as quickly as + possible in order to prevent the soul from re-entering + it and annoying the survivors. + + [862] This is well explained by Cumont in his _Religions + orientales dans le paganisme romain_, p. 196 foll., + following Bouche-Leclercq's work on astrology in Greece. + Cumont thinks that astrology took over the business of + the augurs and haruspices, which was now dropped, and + this is true in the main as regards the individual, but + not as regards the State; see above, p. 308 foll. + + [863] For Fortuna in the writings of Caesar, etc., see + _Classical Review_, vol. xvii. p. 153. The _locus + classicus_ for Fortuna as a deity under the early empire + is Pliny, _N.H._ ii. 22. + + [864] Cato, _R.R._ ch. v. 4. + + [865] Val. Max. i. 3. 2, who no doubt was following + Livy; for in the Epitomes of some lost books of Livy + discovered at Oxyrrhyncus by Grenfell and Hunt (_Oxyrrh. + Papyri_, vol. iv. p. 101), the same fact is alluded to. + For the embassy, Maccab. i. 14. 24; xv. 15-24. Two + extracts from the text of Valerius, which is here lost, + both state that proselytising Jews were at this time + driven from Rome; the Jupiter Sabazius, whose cult they + were propagating, can hardly be other than that of + Jehovah; see Schuerer, _Jewish People in the Time of + Christ_, pt. ii. vol. ii. p. 233 of the English + translation. The expulsion of Chaldaei may, however, + have been a separate measure of the praetor Hispalus. + + [866] Plutarch, _Marius_, 42. + + [867] Suet. _Aug._ 1. I have seen a learned work about a + century old, now entirely forgotten, in which it is + maintained that Virgil's fourth Eclogue is simply a + genethliacon of Augustus; the arguments, which are + ingenious but futile, are drawn from the poem of + Manilius. + + [868] Tacitus, _Hist._ i. 22. + + + + +LECTURE XVIII + +RELIGIOUS FEELING IN THE POEMS OF VIRGIL + + +My justification for devoting a whole lecture to Virgil must be that +this great poet, more warmly and sympathetically than any other Latin +author, gives expression to the best religious feeling of the Roman +mind. And this is so not only in regard to the tendencies of religion in +his own day; he stands apart from all his literary contemporaries in +that he sums up the past of Roman religious experience, reflects that of +his own time, and also looks forward into the future. No other poet, no +historian, not even Livy, who sprang from the same region and in his +tone and spirit in some ways resembles Virgil, has the same broad +outlook, the same tender interest in religious antiquity, the same +all-embracing sympathy for the Roman world he knew, and the same +confident and cheerful hope for its future. Each of the Augustan +poets--Horace, Ovid, Propertius, Tibullus--has his own peculiar gift and +charm; but those who know Virgil through and through will at once +acknowledge the difference between these and the man possessed of +spiritual insight. They are helpful in various ways to the student of +Roman religion, and Tibullus especially has a simple reverence for the +old religion which has inspired a few exquisite descriptions of this +aspect of Italian life. But, if I may use the word, they had no +mission; they were true poets, yet not poets of the prophetic order; +they had not thought deeply and reached conviction, like Lucretius and +Virgil. A few words from the conclusion of an Edinburgh professor's +admirable work on Virgil will sufficiently express what I mean. "His +religious belief," says Sellar, "like his other speculative convictions, +was composite and undefined; yet it embraced what was purest and most +vital in the religions of antiquity, and in its deepest intuitions it +seems to look forward to the belief which became dominant in Rome four +centuries later."[869] In fact, Virgil gathers up what was valuable in +the past of Rome and adds to it a new element, a new source of life and +hope. It was this that made it possible for a great French critic to +assert that for those who have read Virgil there is nothing astonishing +in Christianity.[870] Let us try and realise what these writers mean. +The Scotsman is sober and earnest, the Frenchman epigrammatically +exaggerating; but the feeling that underlies both utterances is a true +one. + +We have traced the gradual paralysis of the secularised State religion. +We have glanced at the two types of philosophical thought which took the +place of that religion in the minds of the cultivated section of Roman +society, neither of which could adequately supply the Roman and Italian +mind with an expression of its own natural feeling, never wholly +extinct, of its relation to the Power manifesting itself in the +universe. Stoicism came near to doing what was needed, by rehabilitating +itself on Italian soil and indulging Roman preconceptions of the divine; +but it could not greatly affect the mass of men, and its appeal was not +to feeling, but to reason. Epicurism, though perhaps more popular, was +in reality more in conflict with what was best in the Italian nature, +and the passionate appeal of Lucretius to look for comfort to a +scientific knowledge of the _rerum natura_ had no enduring power to +cheer. Lastly, we have examined the tendency of the same age towards +mysticism and Cicero's doubting and embarrassed expression of it, and we +found that this tendency rather illustrates a sense of something +wanting than hopefully satisfies it. We may well feel ourselves, now we +have arrived at the close of the Republican era, just as the best men of +that day felt, that there _is_ something wanting. In their minds this +feeling almost amounted to despair; in ours, as we read the story of the +troublous time after the death of Caesar, it is pity and wonder. There +was, in fact, more than a sense of weariness and discomfort, moral and +material, in the Roman mind of that generation--there was also what we +may almost call a sense of sin, such a feeling, though doubtless less +real and intense, as that which their prophets, from time to time, awoke +in the Jewish people, and one not unknown in the history of Hellas. It +was essentially a feeling of neglected duty--of neglected duty to the +Power and of goodwill wanting towards men. Lucretius had been +unconsciously a powerful witness to this feeling, but had not found the +remedy. In the early Augustan age it is again expressed by Horace, by +Sallust, and more deeply and truly in the beautiful preface to Livy's +History.[871] Livy there says that he devoted himself to the early +annals of Rome that he might shut his eyes to the evils of his own +time--"tempora quibus nec vitia nostra nec remedia pati possumus." + +This something wanting was then a feeling, a _religio_, if we can +venture to use the old word once more in the sense which I have so often +attributed to it. Not an unreasonable or ungovernable feeling, not a +_superstitio_, but a feeling of happy dependence on a higher Power, and +a desire to conform to His will in all the relations of human life. This +is the kind of feeling that had always lain at the root of the Roman +_pietas_, the sense of duty to family and State, and to the deities who +protected them. In the jarring of factions, the cruelty and bloodshed of +tyrants, and the luxurious self-indulgence of the last two generations, +the voice of _pietas_ had been silenced, the better instincts of +humanity had gone down. We have to see what was done by our poet to +awake that voice again and to put fresh life into those instincts. Only +let us remember that more permanent good is done in this world by a +beautiful nature giving itself its natural expression, than by precept +or denunciation; and beware of attributing to Virgil more direct +consciousness of his mission than he really felt. It is the nature of +the man that is of value to us in our studies, as it was to the Romans +in their despair, a nature ruled by sweet, calm feeling, full of +sympathy and full of hope. + +The something wanting in others which we find in Virgil only, or in him +more convincingly felt and more resonantly expressed, is a kindly and +hopeful outlook on the world, with a deep and real sympathy for all +sorrow and pain. It is not the result of any definite religious +conviction; it is in the nature of the man, and is of the very fibre of +his being; but it made him a better religious teacher than the rest, +just because real religion is not a matter of reason only, or of +convention, or of art, but of feeling. This was the true antidote to +despair or depression--a sympathy with man in all he does or suffers, +not an indignant cry of remonstrance like that of Lucretius. Virgil's +sympathetic outlook includes not only Man, but the animal world, and +there can be no better proof that his feeling was genuine. The +nightingale robbed of her young,[872] + + quem durus arator + observans nido implumes detraxit: at illa + flet noctem, ramoque sedens miserabile carmen + integrat et maestis late loca questibus implet; + +the cattle smitten by the plague,[873] the migrating birds coming in +from the sea,[874] and many another tender touch, all show us the +feeling of which I am speaking; for he who could so feel towards animals +must needs have a soul of pity for man. So, too, with the inanimate +nature of Italy; the land in which Virgil's shepherds and husbandmen +live and work is one full of such detailed loveliness as might suggest a +beneficent Power presiding over it all, inviting man to lift up his +heart in gratitude or prayer. As Sellar has well remarked,[875] the +sense of natural beauty is in the _Georgics_ intertwined with the toil +of man, raising, as it were, the toiler to a higher level of humanity as +he lifts his eyes from his work. And this natural beauty is made real +for the reader by the life and force that everywhere pervades it; all +nature is alive and full of feeling; the fruit trees, for example, in +the second _Georgic_ seem instinct with an almost human life.[876] The +moment this comes home to us we see how it harmonises with all we have +learnt of the old Italian conception of the divine, of the forceful +_numina_ working for man's benefit if properly propitiated. And even +when Virgil is using the language of the Stoics to explain the life of +nature, we feel that behind the philosophical theory there lies this +feeling of the Italian: + + deum namque ire per omnes + terrasque tractusque maris caelumque profundum: + hinc pecudes, armenta, viros, genus omne ferarum.[877] + +This is the religious spirit of the _Georgics_; the divine forces are +everywhere, and a man must submit himself to them and seek their aid. He +finds his true resource rather in prayer than in philosophy, his part in +the world is "laborare et orare." The hard lot of the Hesiodic labourer +is not that of the _agricola_ of the _Georgics_, who carries on his +campaign of toil with a cheerful heart and a clear conscience, for he is +in right relation with the Power manifesting itself in the life around +him. + +This, then, so far as I can describe it without going too far into +detail, is the feeling, the _religio_, which was needed in the Italy of +that day. We may, perhaps, venture to compare its revival in the work of +Virgil with the return to nature in the English poetry of a century ago, +which also brought with it a revival of religious fervency. Though +Virgil and Wordsworth are in many ways as unlike as two poets can be, +they are alike in the possession of that gentle and trustful outlook on +the world of nature which stimulates the mind to think of itself in its +relation to the Power. We do not need to analyse the process or to put +it into any logical shape; we may rest content with it as a fact in the +history of Roman religious experience. + +In Virgil's case, as in Wordsworth's, this feeling had the effect of +reconciling the poet's mind to the old forms of religious worship. +Reconcile is, perhaps, hardly the right word; we may doubt whether he +had ever quarrelled with them. As he believed in the Power and its +manifestations, so too he believed in the traditional modes of +propitiating it, not asking himself the _raison d'etre_ of this or that +ceremony, still less looking on them with pity and contempt, like +Lucretius, but accepting them in his broad humanity as part of the life +and thought of man in Italy. + + fortunatus et ille Deos qui _novit_ agrestes.[878] + +Let us mark the word _novit_. The husbandman has come to recognise these +emanations of the Power and to know them as friends; the word could not +have been used of malignant spirits. As I said in an early lecture, man +advances in his knowledge of the Power as he advances in civilisation. +So the rural rites have a claim on his sympathy no less than the men who +performed them; he knew them in their detail, and he knew them in the +spirit which animated them. He must have studied them in detail, and not +only the rural cults, but those of the city too; every gesture in +worship has an interest for him, and so great is our respect for his +accuracy that we accept what he tells us even if we cannot explain +it.[879] His careful learning in all these details has been the means of +preserving for us large sources of knowledge; for Servius, Macrobius, +and other commentators accumulated stores of it in endeavouring to +interpret him. + +Now, this is not mere antiquarianism in Virgil, any more than is the +detail of old life which abounds in Scott's poems and novels. These two +men had the same wide, sympathetic outlook on the world. Scott was +interested in everything and everybody, whether living or dead long ago, +and in all they did; and I think we may say the same of Virgil, though +he is said to have been rather reserved and shy than genial and +talkative like Scott. Virgil's mind was not so much "curious," I think, +as sympathetic, and his delight in these religious details arises from +his love of Italy and all that man did in it. He caught the spirit of +the old Italian worship, which, as we saw, demanded that each act should +be performed accurately according to rules laid down. He recognises the +necessity, and with true Italian instinct he acts upon it as he writes. +He knows that these acts of cult are one outward expression of that +quality which had made Rome great--_pietas_, the sense of duty to +family, State, and Deity. + +So far I have been considering what I may call the psychological basis +of Virgil's religion--the man's sympathetic nature and wide outlook, +which included in its love of Italy even the old practical worship of +Italians. I have now to go on to the poet's greatest work, in which the +idea of duty was not merely recognised in religious acts but exemplified +in an ideal Roman. It is mainly in the _Aeneid_ that we see him looking +forward as well as backward, for it is there that we have the chart of +the Roman's duty drawn to the scale of his past history, and meant to +guide him in the future in still more glorious travel. + +There are two ways in which we may contemplate the _Aeneid_ as a whole +and the teaching it offered the Roman of that day. We may think of it +(if I may for a moment use musical language) as a great fugue, of which +the leading subject is the mission of Rome in the world. Providence, +Divine will, the Reason of the Stoics, or, in the poetical setting of +the poem, Jupiter, the great protecting Roman deity, with the Fates +behind him somewhat vaguely conceived,[880] had guided the State to +greatness and empire from its infancy onwards, and the citizens of that +State must be worthy of that destiny if they were to carry out the great +work. This mighty theme pervades the whole poem and, like the subject of +a fugue, enters and re-enters from time to time in thrilling tones. It +is given out in the prophecy put into the mouth of Jupiter himself at +the beginning of the first book; it is heard in still more magnificent +music from the shade of old Anchises in the last moments of the hero's +visit to Hades in the sixth book, and again in the description of the +shield which Venus gives her son.[881] Though the poem is unequal and +some parts of it are left without the final touches, yet whenever the +poet comes upon this great theme the tone is that of a full organ. This +is, I think, apart from those exquisite beauties of detail which are for +those only who have been initiated in the Virgilian mysteries, what +chiefly moves the modern reader of Virgil. There are drawbacks which, +for us moderns at least, detract from the general effect: the +intervention of gods and goddesses after the Homeric manner, but without +the charm of Homer; the seeming want of warm human blood in the hero; +the stern decrees of Fate overruling human passions and interests; but +he who keeps the great theme ever in mind, watching for it as he reads, +as one watches for the new entry of a great fugue-subject, will never +fail to see in the _Aeneid_ one of the noblest efforts of human art--to +understand what makes it the world's second great epic. + +But this great destiny of Rome has been accomplished by the service of +man; by his loyalty, self-sacrifice, and sense of duty; by that quality +known to the Romans as _pietas_; and the second lesson or reminder of +the _Aeneid_ lies in the exemplification of this truth in the person and +character of the hero. We moderns find it hard to interest ourselves in +the character of Aeneas. But as Prof. Nettleship remarked long ago,[882] +a Roman reader would not have thought him dull or uninteresting; if that +had been so, the poem could hardly have become popular from the moment +of its publication. I am inclined to think that the _development_ of the +character of Aeneas under stress of perils, moral and material, was much +more obvious to the Roman than it is to us, and much more keenly +appreciated. For him it was the chief lesson of the poem, which makes it +as it were a "whole duty of the Roman"; and as this lesson is really a +part of Roman religious experience I am going to occupy the rest of this +lecture with it. + +The development of the character of Aeneas, under the influence of +perils and temptations through which he is guided by Jupiter and the +Fates, is not a subject which has received much attention from modern +criticism.[883] Yet to me, at least, it would be surprising if the +leading character of the poem were, so to speak, a statue once and for +all conceived and executed by the artist, instead of a human being +subjected to various experiences which work upon his character as well +as his career. There were circumstances in Virgil's time which made it +natural that a poet of a serious and philosophical turn of mind should +be interested in the development of character and make it part of his +great subject. We have more than once had occasion to notice the growth +of individualism in the last two centuries B.C. Beyond doubt personal +character had a great interest at this time for thinking men, apart from +its development; the world was ruled by individuals, and at no time has +so much depended on the disposition of individuals. Men had long begun +to take themselves very seriously, and to write their own biographies. +So entirely had the individual emancipated himself from the State, that +he had almost forgotten that the State existed and claimed his _pietas_; +he worked and played for his own ends.[884] Even the armies of that +melancholy age were known and thought of, not as the servants of the +State, but as Sullani, Pompeiani, and so on. This almost arrogant +self-assertion of the individual was a fact of the time, and could not +be suppressed entirely; it was henceforward impossible to return to the +old times when the State was all in all and the individual counted for +little. + +But in the _Aeneid_, if I am not mistaken, there is an almost perfect +balance between the two conflicting interests. The State is the pivot on +which turns all that is best in individual human character; in other +words, Aeneas is not playing his own game, but fulfilling the order of +destiny which was to bring the world under Roman dominion. Individualism +of the wrong type, that of Dido, Turnus, Mezentius, has to be escaped or +overcome by the hero, for whom the call of duty is that of the State to +be; but, all the same, the hero is an _individual_, and one conceived +not merely as a type or a force. True, he is typical of Roman _pietas_, +and bears his constant epithet accordingly; but if we look at him +carefully we shall see that his _pietas_ is at first imperfect, and that +his individualism has to be tamed and brought into the service of the +State _with the help of the State's deities_. This is what makes the +_Aeneid_ a religious poem; the character of Aeneas is pivoted on +religion; religion is the one sanction of his conduct. There is no +appeal in the _Aeneid_ to knowledge, or reason, or pleasure,--always to +the will of God. _Pietas_ is Virgil's word for religion, as it had been +Cicero's in his more exalted moments. In the Dream of Scipio we read +that "_piis_ omnibus retinendus est animus in custodia corporis: nec +iniussu eius a quo ille est vobis datus, ex hominum vita migrandum est, +_ne munus humanum adsignatum a deo defugisse videamini_."[885] In these +words, as is shown by those that follow, the _munus hominum_ is exactly +what it is in the _Aeneid_, duty to Man and the State, and as it is laid +down for man by God, it is also duty to Him. The State finds its +perfection in the individual so long as he thus fulfills the will of +God.[886] + +Let us now go on to watch Aeneas as he gradually develops this perfect +balance of motive. + +Aeneas is marked at the very outset of the poem as "insignem pietate +virum"; the key-note of his character is sounded here at once with +skill, and the key thus suggested (to use musical metaphor once more) is +maintained steadily throughout it. The quality demanded by the gods from +every true Roman who would take his part in carrying out the divine +mission of Rome must be emphasised in the ideal Roman. Yet, as we read +on, we soon discover that Aeneas was by no means as yet a perfect +character. It can hardly be by accident that the poet has described him +as yielding to despair and bewailing his fate on the first approach of +danger--forgetting the mission before him and the destiny driving him +on, and wishing that he were lying dead with Hector under the walls of +Troy (i. 92 foll.). It would have been easy enough for Virgil to have +taken up at once the heroic vein in the man, as it was left him by +Homer,[887] and to have made him urge his men to bestir themselves or to +yield bravely to fate. And this is precisely what Aeneas does _when the +storm is over and the danger past_ (198 foll.); yet even then he is not +whole-hearted about it: + + talia voce refert, curisque ingentibus aeger + _spem voltu simulat_, premit alto corde dolorem. + +At the very moment, that is, when he expresses his belief in his destiny +and the duty of making for Italy, he still has misgivings, though he +dare not express them. + +Heinze has remarked[888] that before this, at the sack of Troy, he had +shown a want of self-control, and yielded to a mad passion of desperate +fighting that is not to be found in the Aeneas of the last six books +(ii. 314 foll.): + + arma amens capio nec sat rationis in armis. + +_Furor_ and _ira_ drive him headlong; we are reminded of the mad fury of +Mezentius or Turnus. + +Again, after the death of Priam Venus has to remind him of his duty to +his father, wife, and son (ii. 594 foll.), reproaching him for his loss +of sanity and self-control: + + nate, quis indomitas tantus dolor excitat iras? + quid furis, aut quonam nostri tibi cura recessit? + non prius aspicies ubi fessum aetate parentem + liqueris Anchisen, superet coniunxne Creusa + Ascaniusque puer?[889] + +During the wanderings narrated in the third book it is Anchises who +leads, and who receives and interprets the divine warnings; he seems to +be the guardian and guide of his son: to that son he is "omnis curae +casusque levamen" (iii. 709), and he is "felix nati pietate" (iii. 480). +He is, in fact, the typical Roman father, who, unlike Homer's Laertes, +maintains his activity and authority to the end of his life, and to whom +even the grown-up son, himself a father, owes reverence and obedience. +As Boissier has pointed out,[890] the death of Anchises is postponed in +the story as long as possible, and it is only after his death that +Aeneas is exposed to a really dangerous temptation; it is immediately +after this event that, as we saw, he loses heart at the first storm, and +then, on landing in Africa, falls a victim for the moment to the queenly +charms of Dido. We may notice that up to this point his _pietas_ has +been a limited one, hardly called upon for exercise beyond the bounds of +family life and duty; when he is himself at the head, not only of the +family, but, so to speak, of the State, it has to take a wider range, +and to be put to a severe test. + +To all that has at different times been written about Virgil's treatment +of the Dido legend I must venture here to add another word. Heinze has +shown[891] that no certain origin can be discovered for the form of the +story as Virgil tells it; it may have been Naevius who first took Aeneas +to Sicily, but we do not know whether he or any successor of his +invented the essential point of Virgil's story,--the suicide of Dido as +a consequence of her desertion by Aeneas.[892] In any case the question +arises, why our poet should have deliberately abandoned the current and +popular version, and exposed his hero to such imminent danger of +deserting the path which Jupiter and the Fates had marked out for +him,--of sacrificing his great mission to the passion of a magnificent +woman, and to the prospect of illicit ease and unsanctioned dominion. +Heinze is of opinion that Virgil's motive was here a purely artistic +one; he wanted an opportunity to introduce the pathetic element into his +epic. "There was no lack of models; the latest bloom of Greek poetry had +been in nothing more inventive than in dealing with all the phenomena of +the passion of love,--its agony, shame, and despair, and the +self-immolation of its victims."[893] He enforces this view with great +learning, and all he writes about it is of value; but I must confess +that he has not convinced me that this was Virgil's chief motive. He +seems to me to leave out of account two important considerations: first, +that though the poet drew freely on every available source, Greek and +Roman, for the enrichment of his subject and its treatment, yet the +whole design and purpose of the _Aeneid_ is Roman and not Greek, and the +introduction of a love-story _as such_ would have been foreign to that +design, and also to the aims and hopes of Augustus and the best men of +the age. Secondly, Heinze seems to forget, like so many others who have +written about the Dido episode, that Virgil had before his very eyes +facts sufficiently striking, a romance quite sufficiently appalling, to +suggest the adoption of the form of the story as we have it in the +fourth book. Twice in his own lifetime did a single formidable woman +work a baleful spell upon the destinies of the Roman empire. In neither +case did the spell take fatal effect; Julius escaped in time from the +wiles and the splendour of Cleopatra; Antony failed indeed to escape, +but brought himself and her to fortunate ruin. It is to me inexplicable, +considering how all Virgil's poems abound with allusions to the events +of his time, and with side-glances at the chief agents in them, that +neither Heinze nor Norden should have even touched on the possibility +that Cleopatra was in the poet's mind when he wrote the fourth book. It +is perhaps difficult for one who puts the poem on the dissecting-board, +and whose attention is continually absorbed in the investigation of +minute points in the fibre of it, to bear in mind the extraordinary +events of the poet's lifetime,--the civil war, the murder of Julius, the +division of the Roman world, the distraction of Italy, the attempt of +Antony, or rather, indeed, of his enslaver, to set up a rival Oriental +dominion, and the rescue of Romanism and civilisation by Augustus. Had +Lucretius himself lived in that generation, he could hardly have escaped +the influence of these appalling facts. Whoever will turn to the late +Prof. Nettleship's essay on the poetry of Virgil, appended to his +_Ancient Roman Lives of Virgil_,[894] can hardly fail to be convinced +that on the later poet's mind they had produced a profound impression, +the effects of which are traceable throughout the whole mass of his +work. His Roman readers, whose state and empire had been brought to the +verge of ruin by the exaltation of individual passions and ambitions, +would look for these constant allusions and understand them far better +than we can. + +I maintain, then, that the poet adopted his version of the story of Dido +not simply as an affecting and pathetic episode, but (in keeping with +his whole design) to emphasise the great lesson of the poem by showing +that the growth and glory of the Roman dominion are due, under +providence, to Roman _virtus_ and _pietas_--that sense of duty to +family, State, and gods, which rises, in spite of trial and danger, +superior to the enticements of individual passion and selfish ease. +Aeneas is sorely tried, but he escapes from Dido to perform the will of +the gods; it is Jupiter, ruler of the Fates and the Roman destinies, who +rescues him, and thus the divine care for Rome, an idea of which +Augustus wished to make the most, is carefully preserved in the tale. If +for us the character of Aeneas suffers by his desertion of Dido, that is +simply because the poet, seized with intense pity for the injured queen, +seems for once, like his own hero, to have forgotten his mission in the +poem, and at the very moment when he means to show Aeneas performing the +noblest act of self-sacrifice, renouncing his individual passion and +listening to the stern call of duty, human nature gets the better of +him, and what he meant to paint as a noble act has come out on his +canvas as a mean one. + +In Virgil's story, then, we have in contrast and conflict the opposing +principles of duty and pleasure, of patriotism and selfishness, and the +victory of the latter in the person of Aeneas by the help of the great +god who was the guardian of the destinies of Rome, and of the goddess +who was the mother of the hero and the reputed progenitor of the Julian +family. When once this great trial is over, the way is clear for the +accomplishment of Aeneas' mission, though he still has trials to face, +and as yet is not fully equipped for meeting them. + +Whoever, after reading the stormy scenes of the fourth book, will go +straight on to the fifth, cannot but be struck with a change of tone +which would have been doubly welcome to a man of that true Roman feeling +which Virgil was counting on as well as inculcating throughout his +work--doubly welcome, because he would find it not only in the +incidents, but in the character of Aeneas. We here leave self and +passion behind, and are introduced to scenes where the careful +performance of religious and family duties seems to produce ease of mind +and the tranquillity that comes of a soothed conscience. For the first +time in the poem we meet with a characteristic of that best Roman life +which was dear to the heart of Augustus, and with which we may be quite +certain that the poet himself was entirely in sympathy. Strange, indeed, +it is that this should be the case in a book so wholly based for its +externals on Greek poetical traditions; but it is none the less true, +and it is a striking example of Virgil's wonderful genius for +transforming old things with new light and meaning.[895] + +It is not only then, or even mainly, the traditional necessity of +describing games in an epic poem, that is the _raison d'etre_ of the +fifth book; the object was rather, as I understand it, to gain the +needful contrast to the stormy passion of the fourth, and a relief for +the mind of the Roman reader before he approached the awful scenery and +experiences of the sixth, while at the same time there could be +indicated--and for a Roman reader more than indicated--the _first +beginning of a change_ in the character of the hero. All this is +effected with wonderful skill by making Aeneas perform with detailed +carefulness the Roman ritual of the _Parentalia_ as it was known to the +Romans of the Augustan age. The _Parentalia_, as I have said +elsewhere,[896] were not days of terror or ill-omen, but rather days on +which the performance of duty was the leading idea in men's minds; that +duty was a pleasant and cheerful one, for the dead were still members of +the family, and there was nothing to fear from them so long as the +living performed their duties towards them under the due regulations of +the _ius divinum_. The ritual indicates the idea of the yearly renewal +of the rite of burial, with the propitiation of the departed which was +necessary for the welfare of the family; and when the liturgical nine +days were over, the living members met together in the _Caristia_, a +kind of love feast of the family, at which all quarrels were to be +forgotten, and from which all guilty members were excluded. In families +of wealth and distinction in Virgil's time the days of mourning might be +followed by _games in honour of the departed_. Thus a Roman would at +once recognise the fact that Aeneas is here presented to us for the +first time as a Roman father of a family, discharging the duties +essential to the continuance and prosperity of that family with +cheerfulness as well as with _gravitas_; and that his _pietas_ here +takes a definite, practical, and truly Roman form, though it is not as +yet extended to its full connotation as the performance of duty towards +the State and its gods. + +All this is quite in keeping with the little touches of characterisation +which we can also notice in this book. In the second line Aeneas pursues +his way _certus_, even while he gazes at the flames of Dido's funeral +pyre, not knowing what they meant. He presides at the games with the +dignity of a Roman magistrate, and reproachingly consoles the beaten +Dares with words which seem to reflect his late experience at Carthage +(v. 465): + + infelix, quae tanta animum dementia cepit? + non vires alias conversaque numina sentis? + _cede deo_. + +When the ships are burnt he does not give way to despair, as in the +storm of the first book, but prays for help to the omnipotent Jupiter, +in whose hand were the destinies of his descendants (v. 687 foll.). But +he is not yet perfect in his sense of duty; he feels the blow severely, +and for a moment wavers (v. 700 foll.): + + ... casu concussus acerbo + nunc huc ingentis, nunc illuc pectore curas + mutabat versans, Siculisne resideret arvis + oblitus fatorum, Italasne capesseret oras. + +It needs the cheering advice of old Nautes (_quicquid erit, superanda +omnis fortuna ferendo est_), and the appearance of the shade of +Anchises, to confirm his wavering will with renewed sense of his +mission. This appearance of his father, "omnis curae casusque levamen," +with the summons to meet him in Hades, is, as Heinze has seen,[897] a +turning-point in the fortunes and the character of Aeneas, and prepares +us for the final ordeal and initiation which he undergoes in the +following book. + +I here use the word initiation because I have no doubt that Virgil had +in his mind when writing it the Greek idea of initiation into mysteries +preparatory to a new life. An actual initiation was, of course, out of +the question; on the other hand a _catabasis_, a descent into Hades, was +part of the epic inheritance he derived from Homer, and this, like the +funeral games in the fifth book, he might use with an earnestness of +purpose wanting in Homer, to work in with the great theme of his poem, +not merely as an artistic effort. The purpose here was to make of Aeneas +a new man, to regenerate him; to prepare him by mystic enlightenment for +the toil, peril, and triumph that await him in the accomplishment of his +divine mission. We must not look too closely into the process; it is a +strange melange of popular and philosophic ideas and scenery, made at +once intelligible and magnificent by the wonderful resources of the +poet; but we may be sure that it has the same general meaning as the +visions of Dante long afterwards. As Mr. Tozer has said, Dante's +conversion and ultimate salvation were the primary object of his journey +through the three realms of the spiritual world.[898] In this sense it +can be called an initiation, an ordeal, a sacrament. + +So much has been written about this wonderful book that I do not need +to dwell upon it here. I will content myself with pointing out very +briefly a fact which struck me when I last read it. The ordeal of +preparation is not complete till the very end of the book, when the +shade of Anchises has shown his son all the great things to come, the +due accomplishment of which depends on his sense of duty, his _pietas_. +Up to that moment Aeneas is always thinking and speaking of the past, +while in the last six books he is always looking ahead, absorbed in the +work each hour placed before him, and in the prospect of the glory of +Rome and Italy. The poet had contrived that his hero should himself +narrate the story of the sack of Troy and his subsequent wanderings, and +narrate them to the very person who would have made it impossible for +him ever again to look forward on the path of duty. Surely this is +significant of a moral as well as an artistic purpose; the passionate +love of the queen urges her to keep his mind fixed on the past, to +engage him in the story of events that concerned himself and not his +mission (i. 748): + + necnon et vario noctem sermone trahebat + infelix Dido, longumque bibebat amorem + multa super Priamo rogitans, super Hectore multa, etc. + +After the shade of Creusa had told him of his destiny, which she was not +to share, the past was still in his mind, and he seems to have forgotten +the warning; he calls himself an exile (iii. 10): + + litora cum patriae lacrimans portusque relinquo + et campos ubi Troia fuit. Feror exsul in altum-- + +I find an exception after the meeting with Andromache, when he thinks of +the future for a moment, but even then half-heartedly as it seems to me, +with a very distinct reluctance to face the dangers to come, and with a +touching envy of those who could "stay at home at ease" (iii. 493 +foll.). His want of faith in the future is again shown in Book v., in +the passage quoted just now; and even in Book vi. he is at first +purposely depicted as "slack," as having his attention caught by what is +for the moment before him, or with the figures of old friends and +enemies whom he meets, until the last awakening revelation of Anchises. +Thus no sooner has he landed in Italy than he is attracted by the +pictures in the temple of Apollo and incurs a rebuke from the priestess +(vi. 37 foll.): + + non hoc ista sibi tempus spectacula poscit; + nunc grege de intacto septem mactare iuvencos + praestiterit, etc.; + +so also a little farther on she has to warn him again (50 foll.) at the +entrance to the cave: + + "cessas in vota precesque, + Tros" ait "Aenea, cessas?" + +It may be fancy in me to see even in his prayer which follows a leaning +to think of Troy and his past troubles (56 foll.). But I cannot but +believe that in this book he is meant to take a last farewell of all who +have shared his past fortunes, have helped him or injured him; he meets +Palinurus, Dido, Tydeus, Deiphobus, and the rest, and while meditating +over these he has once more to be hurried by his guide (538): + + sed comes admonuit breviterque adfata Sibylla est: + nox ruit, Aenea, nos flendo ducimus horas. + +When Anchises appears the whole tone changes, and his famous words seem +to me to show conclusively that hesitation and want of fixed, +undeviating purpose had been so far his son's chief failing (806): + + et dubitamus adhuc virtutem extendere factis, + aut metus Ausonia prohibet consistere terra? + +The father's vision and prophecy are of the _future_ and the great deeds +of men to come, and henceforward Aeneas makes no allusion to the past +and the figures that peopled it, abandons talk and lamentations, +"virtutem extendit factis." At the outset of Book vii. we feel the ship +moving at once; three lines suffice for the fresh start; Circe is passed +unheeded. "Maior rerum mihi nascitur ordo," says the poet in line 43; +"maius opus moveo;" for the real subject of the poem is at last reached, +and a heroic character by heroic deeds is to lay the foundation of the +eternal dominion of Rome. + +A very few words shall suffice about the Aeneas of the later books. Let +us freely allow that he is not strongly characterised; that for us +moderns the interest centres rather in Turnus, who is heroic as an +individual, but not as a pioneer of civilisation divinely led; that +there is no real heroine, for feminine passion would be here out of +place and un-Roman, and the courtship of Lavinia is undertaken, so to +speak, for political reasons. The role of Aeneas, as the agent of +Jupiter in conquest and civilisation, would appeal to a Roman rather +than to a modern, and it was reserved for the modern critic to complain +of a lack of individual interest in him. So, too, it is in Jewish +history; we feel with Esau more than with Jacob, and with David more +than with Moses, who is none the less the grandest typical Israelite in +the Old Testament. And, indeed, Virgil's theme here is less the +development of a character or the portraiture of a hero than the +idealisation of the people of the Italy which he loved so well, who +needed only a divinely guided leader and civiliser to enter upon the +glorious career that was in store for them. + +I cannot escape the belief, as I read again through these books, that +Virgil did intend to depict in Aeneas his ideal of that Roman character +to which the leading writers of his day ascribed the greatness of their +race. His _pietas_ is now confirmed and enlarged, it has become a sense +of duty to the will of the gods as well as to his father, his son, and +his people, and this sense of duty never leaves him, either in his +general course of action or in the detail of sacrifice and propitiation. +His courage and steadfastness never fail him; he looks ever forward, +confident in divine protection; the shield he carries is adorned--a +wonderful stroke of poetic genius--with scenes of the future, and not of +the past (viii. 729 foll.): + + talia per clipeum Volcani, dona parentis, + miratur rerumque ignarus imagine gaudet + attollens umero famamque et fata nepotum. + +He is never in these books to be found wanting in swiftness and +vigilance; when he cheers his comrades it is no longer in a half-hearted +way, but as at the beginning of the eleventh book, with the utmost +vigour and confidence, "Arma parate, animis et spe praesumite bellum" +(xi. 18). + +His _humanitas_ again is here more obvious than in his earlier career, +and it is plainly meant to be contrasted with the heroic savagery of +Mezentius and Turnus. So keenly did the poet feel this development in +his hero's character, that in his descriptions of the death of Lausus +and the burial of Pallas--noble and beautiful youths whom he loved in +imagination as he loved in reality all young things--his tenderness is +so touching that even now we can hardly read them without tears. And not +only is the hero heroic and humane, but he is a just man and keeps +faith; when, in the twelfth book, the Rutulians break the treaty, and +his own men have joined in the unjust combat (xii. 311): + + at pius Aeneas dextram tendebat inermem + nudato capite atque suos clamore vocabat: + "quo ruitis? quove ista repens discordia surgit? + o cohibete iras; ictum iam foedus et omnes + compositae leges: mihi ius concurrere soli." + +He claims for himself alone, under the guiding hand of providence, the +right to deal with Turnus, the enemy of humanity and righteousness. And +we may note that when it came to that last struggle, though conquering +by divine aid, he was ready to spare the life of the conquered till he +saw the spoils of the young Pallas upon him. + +The character of Aeneas, then, though not painted in such strong light +as we moderns might expect or desire, is _intentionally_ developed into +a heroic type in the course of the story--a type which every Roman would +recognise as his own natural ideal. And this growth is the direct result +of religious influence. It is partly the result of the hero's own +natural _pietas_, innate within him from the first, as it was in the +breast of every noble Roman; partly the result of a gradually enlarged +recognition of the will of God, and partly of the strengthening and +almost sacramental process of the journey to Hades, of the revelation +there made of the mysteries of life and death, and of the great future +which Jupiter and the Fates have reserved for the Roman people. In these +three influences Virgil has summed up all the best religious factors of +his day: the instinct of the Roman for religious observance, with all +its natural effect on conduct; the elevating Stoic doctrine which +brought man into immediate relation with the universal; and, lastly, +the tendency to mysticism, Orphic or Pythagorean, which tells of a +yearning in the soul of man to hope for a life beyond this, and to make +of this life a meet preparation for that other. + +Only one word more. We can hardly doubt the truth of the story that the +poet died earnestly entreating that this greatest work of his life +should perish with him, and this may aptly remind us that though I have +been treating the Aeneid as a poem of religion and morals, yet, after +all, Virgil was a poet rather than a preacher, and thought of his +Aeneid, not as a sermon, but as a work of art. Had he thought of it as a +sermon he could hardly have wished to deprive the Roman world of it. The +true poet is never a preacher except in so far as he is a poet. If the +Greeks thought of their poets as teachers, says the late Prof. Jebb, +"this was simply a recognition of poetry as the highest influence, +intellectual and spiritual, that they knew." "It was not merely a +recreation of their leisure, but a power pervading and moulding their +whole existence." Surely this is also true of Virgil, and of the best at +least of his Roman readers. No one can read the sixth Aeneid, the +greatest effort of his genius, without feeling that poetry was all in +all to him; that learning, legend, philosophy, religion, whatever in the +whole range of human thought and fancy entered his mind, emerged from it +as poetry and poetry only.[899] + + + NOTES TO LECTURE XVIII + + [869] Sellar, _Virgil_, p. 371. + + [870] Sainte-Beuve, _Etude sur Virgile_, p. 68. + + [871] Horace, _Epode_ 16, where, however, he is not + quite so much in earnest as in _Odes_ iii. 6. Sallust, + prefaces to Jugurtha and Catiline: these do not ring + quite true. + + [872] _Georg._ iv. 511 foll. + + [873] _Georg._ iii. 440 foll. The famous lines (498 + foll.) about the horse smitten with pestilence will + occur to every one. + + [874] _Aen._ vi. 309. + + [875] _Op. cit._ p. 231. He cites _Georg._ i. 107 and + 187 foll. + + [876] Sellar, _Virgil_, p. 232. + + [877] _Georg._ iv. 221 foll. + + [878] _Georg._ ii. 493. + + [879] Prof. Hardie recently asked me an explanation of + the double altar that we meet with more than once in + Virgil in connection with funeral rites: _e.g._, _Ecl._ + 5. 66; _Aen._ iii. 305; v. 77 foll. Servius tries to + explain this, but clearly did not understand it. Of + course I could offer no satisfactory solution. Yet we + are both certain that there is a satisfactory one if we + could only get at it. + + [880] Much has been written about the part of the Fates + in the _Aeneid_ and their relation to Jupiter. See + Heinze, _Vergils epische Technik_, p. 286 foll.; Glover, + _Studies in Virgil_, 202 and 277 foll. I may be allowed + to refer also to my _Social Life at Rome in the Age of + Cicero_, p. 342 foll. + + [881] _Aen._ i. 257 foll., vi. 756 foll., viii. 615 + foll. + + [882] _Suggestions preliminary to a Study of the + Aeneid_, p. 36. + + [883] It is not likely to strike us unless we read the + whole _Aeneid_ through, without distracting our minds + with other reading, and this few of us do. I did it some + ten years ago; before that the development of character + had not dawned on me fully. I later on found it shortly + but clearly set forth in Heinze's _Vergils epische + Technik_, p. 266 foll.; and this caused me to read the + poem through once more, with the result that I became + confirmed in my view, and read a paper on the subject + to the Oxford Philological Society, which I have in part + embodied in this lecture. + + [884] This is dwelt on in _Social Life at Rome in the + Age of Cicero_, p. 124 foll. + + [885] _De Republica_, vi. 15. + + [886] It may be as well to note here that the actual + representation of God in the _Aeneid_ is its weakest + point. It was an epic poem, and could not dispense with + the Homeric machinery: hence Jupiter is practically the + representative of the Stoic all-pervading deity, with + the Fates behind him. But it is not unlikely that Virgil + may thus have actually helped to make the way clear for + a nobler monotheistic idea by damaging Jupiter in the + course of this treatment; see _Social Life at Rome in + the Age of Cicero_, p. 341 foll. + + [887] On the Homeric Aeneas there are some good remarks + in Boissier's _Nouvelles Promenades + archaeologiques_ (_Horace et Virgile_), p. 130 + foll. Of all the Homeric heroes he seems to come + nearest, though but slightly sketched, to the Roman + ideal of heroism. + + [888] Heinze, _Vergils epische Technik_, p. 17. + + [889] I should be disposed to consider this passage as + decisive of the point, but that it immediately follows + upon the doubtful lines 567-588, in which Aeneas is + tempted in his mad fury to slay Helen; and if those + lines are not Virgil's, we have not sufficient + explanation of the rebuke which Venus here administers + to her son. On the other hand, if they were really + Virgil's, and omitted (as Servius declares) by the + original editors Tucca and Varius, we should have a + convincing proof that the poet meant his hero, in these + terrible scenes, to come so short of the true Roman + heroic type as to be capable of slaying a woman in cold + blood, and while a suppliant at an altar of the gods. + Into this much-disputed question I must not go farther, + except to note that while Heinze is absolutely confident + that Virgil never wrote these lines, the editor of the + new Oxford text of Virgil is equally certain that he + did. My opinion is of no value on such a point; but I am + disposed to agree with Mr. Hirtzel that "versus valde + Vergilianos, ab optimis codicibus omissos, iniuria + obleverunt Tucca et Varius." They are certainly in + keeping with the picture of Aeneas' _impotentia_ which + is generally suggested in Book ii. If it should be + argued that this _impotentia_, _i.e._ want of + self-control, is only put into the mouth of Aeneas in + order to heighten the effect of his stirring narrative, + it will be well to remember the remonstrances of Venus, + which make such a hypothesis impossible. + + [890] _Op. cit._ p. 231. + + [891] _Vergils epische Technik_, p. 113 foll. + + [892] The original story was, that unable to escape from + an enforced marriage with Iarbas, she killed herself to + mark her unflinching faithfulness to her first husband + Sicharbas. Servius quotes Varro as stating that it was + not Dido, but Anna who committed suicide for love of + Aeneas (on _Aen._ iv. 682); and as Varro died before the + Aeneid was begun, this may be taken as proving that + Virgil's version of the love-story was not his own + invention. But it is quite possible that Servius here + only means that Varro's version differed in this point + from that which the poet soon afterwards adopted; it may + be that the story in the poem is thus practically his + own. + + [893] _Op. cit._ p. 116. + + [894] _Ancient Lives of Vergil_, Clarendon Press, 1879. + + [895] The critics have, I think, been weaker in dealing + with the fifth book than with any of the others. Prof. + Tyrrell is too violent in his contempt for it to admit + of quotation here. Heinze has some good and acute + remarks on Virgil's motive in placing the book where it + is, but seems to me to miss the real importance of it + (_op. cit._ 140 foll.). Even Boissier, whose delightful + account of the scenery of Eryx should be read by every + one who would appreciate this book (_op. cit._ p. 232), + goes so far as to say that it is the one book with which + we feel we might easily dispense so far as the story is + concerned. + + [896] _Roman Festivals_, p. 307. + + [897] _Op. cit._ p. 270. + + [898] _Commentary on Dante's Divina Commedia_, pp. 615 + foll. I am indebted for this reference to Stewart's + _Myths of Plato_, p. 367. + + [899] Nettleship remarked most truly that there is no + better way of appreciating the heroic Aeneas of these + last books than by studying carefully the early part of + the eleventh. + + + + +LECTURE XIX + +THE AUGUSTAN REVIVAL + + +It is a long descent from the inspiring idealism of Virgil to the cool, +tactical attempt of Augustus to revive the outward forms of the old +religion. It seems strange that two men so different in character and +upbringing should have been working in the same years in the same +direction, yet on planes so far apart. How far the two were directly +connected in their work we cannot know for certain. It is said that the +subject of the Aeneid was suggested to Virgil by Augustus, and it is +quite possible that this may be true; but it by no means follows from +this that the inspiration of the poem came from any other source but +Virgil's own thought and feeling. We also know that Augustus from the +first appreciated the Aeneid, and that he saved it for all time; but it +is by no means clear that it inspired him in his efforts towards moral +and religious regeneration. Perhaps the truth is that both were moved by +the wave of mingled depression and hope that swept over Italy for some +years after the death of Julius, and that each used his experience in +his own way and according to his opportunities. They had at least this +in common, that they utilised the past to encourage the present age, and +that by filling old forms and names with new meaning they set men's +minds upon thinking of the future.[900] + +Yet the revival of the State religion by Augustus is at once the most +remarkable event in the history of the Roman religion, and one almost +unique in religious history. I have repeatedly spoken of that State +religion as hypnotised or paralysed, meaning that the belief in the +efficacy of the old cults had passed away among the educated classes, +that the mongrel city populace had long been accustomed to scoff at the +old deities, and that the outward practice of religion had been allowed +to decay. To us, then, it may seem almost impossible that the practice, +and to some extent also the belief, should be capable of resuscitation +at the will of a single individual, even if that individual represented +the best interests and the collective wisdom of the State. For it is +impossible to deny that this resuscitation was real; that both _pax +deorum_ and _ius divinum_ became once more terms of force and meaning. +Beset as it was by at least three formidable enemies, which tended to +destroy it even while they fed on it, like parasites in the animal or +vegetable world feeding on their hosts,--the rationalising philosophy of +syncretism, the worship of the Caesars, and the new Oriental cults,--the +old religion continued to exist for at least three centuries in outward +form, and to some extent in popular belief. + +We must remember the tenacious conservatism of the Roman mind: the +emotional stimulus of the age of depression and despair which preceded +this revival: and the conscientious care with which the successors of +Augustus, Tiberius in particular, carried out his religious policy.[901] +Then as we become more familiar with the Corpus of inscriptions and the +writings of the early Christian fathers, we begin to appreciate the fact +that the natural and inherited religion of a people cannot altogether +die, and that to describe this old Roman religion as _dead_ is to use +too strong a word. The votive inscriptions of the Empire show us +overwhelming proof of surviving belief in the great deities of the olden +time, and of the care taken of their temples. Antoninus Pius is honoured +"ob insignem erga caerimonias publicas curam et religionem."[902] Marcus +Aurelius himself did not hesitate in times of public distress to put in +action the whole apparatus of the old religion.[903] Constantius in A.D. +329 was shown round the temples when he visited Rome for the first time, +and in spite of his Christianity took a curious interest in them.[904] +That the private worship, too, went on into the fourth century we know +from the Theodosian code, where in the interest of Christianity the +worship of Lares Penates and Genius is strictly forbidden.[905] Again, +the constant ridicule with which the Christian writers speak of the +_minutiae_ of the heathen worship makes it quite plain that they knew it +as actually existing, and not merely from books like those of Varro. +They do not so much attack the Oriental religions of their time as the +genuine old Roman cults; more especially is this the case with St. +Augustine, from whose _de Civitate Dei_ we have learnt so much about the +latter. The very necessity under which the leaders of Christianity +found themselves of suiting their own religious character, and in some +ways even their own ceremonies, to the habits and prejudices of the +pagans, tells the same story. But the question how far Latin +Christianity was indebted to the religion of the Romans must be +postponed to my last lecture; I have said enough to indicate in which +direction we must go for evidence that the work of Augustus was not in +vain, that it gave fresh stimulus to a plant that still had some life in +it. + +If, then, the Augustan revival was not a mere sham, but had its measure +of real success, how are we to account for this? I think the explanation +is not really difficult, if we bring to bear upon the problem what we +have learnt from the beginning about the religious experience of the +Romans. Let us note that Augustus troubled himself little about the +later political developments of religion, which we have lately been +examining,--about pontifices, augurs, and Sibylline books; these +institutions, which had been so much used in the republican period for +political and party purposes, it was rather his interest to keep in the +background. But in one way or another he must have grasped the +fundamental idea of the old Roman worship, that the prosperity and the +fertility of man, and of his flocks and herds and crops on the farm, and +the prosperity and fertility of the citizen within the city itself, +equally depended on the dutiful attention (_pietas_) paid to the divine +beings who had taken up their abode in farm or city.[906] The best +expression of this idea in words is _pax deorum_,--the right relation +between man and the various manifestations of the Power,--and the +machinery by which it was secured was the _ius divinum_.[907] We shall +not be far wrong if we say that it was Augustus' aim to re-establish the +_pax_ by means of the _ius_; but if we wished to explain the matter to +some one who has not been trained in these technical terms, it would be +better to say that he appealed to a deeply-rooted idea in the popular +mind,--the idea that unless the divine inhabitants were properly and +continually propitiated, they would not do their part in supporting the +human inhabitants in all their doings and interests. This popular +conviction he deliberately determined to use as his chief political +lever. + +This has, I think, been insufficiently emphasised by historians, who +contemplate the work of this shrewd statesman too entirely from the +political point of view. I am sure that he had learnt from his +predecessors in power that reform on political lines only was without +any element of stability, and that he knew that it was far more +important to touch a spring in the feeling of the people, than to occupy +himself, like Sulla, in mending old machinery or inventing new. If he +could but induce them to believe in him as the restorer of the _pax +deorum_, he knew that his work was accomplished. And I believe that we +have what is practically his own word for this conviction; not in his +Res Gestae, the _Monumentum Ancyranum_, which is a record of facts and +of deeds only, but in the famous hymn which Horace wrote at his instance +and to give expression to his ideas, for use in the Secular Games of 17 +B.C., to which I am coming presently. Ferrero has lately described that +hymn as a magnificent poem,[908] an opinion which to me is +incomprehensible. It is neat, and embodies the necessary ideas +adequately, but it is far too flat to be the genuine offspring of such a +poet as Horace. To me it reads as though Augustus had written it in +prose and then ordered his poet to put it into metre; and assuredly it +expresses exactly what we should have expected Augustus to wish to be +sung by his youthful choirs. I shall refer to it again shortly to +illustrate another point; all I need say now is that he who reads it +carefully and thinks about it will find there the conviction of which I +have been speaking, that prosperity and fertility, whether of man, +beast, or crop, depend on the Roman's attitude toward his deities; +religion, morality, fertility, and public concord are the points which +the astute ruler wished to be emphasised.[909] That this hymn was a +really important part of the ceremony is certain from the fact that it +was given to the best living poet to write, and that his name is +mentioned as its author in the inscription, discovered not many years +ago, which commemorated the whole performance: "CARMEN COMPOSUIT Q. +HORATIUS FLACCUS."[910] + +If, then, I am right, this strange movement was not merely a revival of +religious ceremonies, but an appeal through them to the conscience of +the people. A revival of religious _life_ it, of course, was not, for +what we understand by that term had never existed at Rome; but it was an +attempt to give expression, in a religious form and under State +authorisation, to certain feelings and ideas not far removed in kind +from those which in our own day we describe as our religious experience. +Whether Augustus himself shared in these feelings and ideas it is, of +course, impossible to conjecture. But as a man's religious convictions +are largely the result of his own experience and of that of the society +in which he lives, and as Augustus' own experience for the twenty years +before he took this work in hand had been full of trial and temptation, +I am disposed to guess that he was rather expressing a popular +conviction which he shared himself than merely standing apart and +administering a remedy. And this view seems to me to be on the whole +confirmed by the tone and spirit of the great literary works of the age. + +Augustus did not become pontifex maximus till the year 12 B.C., nineteen +years after he had crushed Antony at Actium; he waited with scrupulous +patience until the headship of the Roman religion became vacant by the +death of Lepidus.[911] But this did not prevent him from pursuing his +religious policy with great earnestness before that date, for he had +long been a member of the pontifical college, as well as augur and +quindecemvir. No sooner had he returned to Rome from Egypt than the work +of temple restoration began, the outward and visible sign to all that +the _pax deorum_ was to be firmly re-established. The fact of the +restoration he has told us in half a dozen words in his own Res +Gestae:[912] "Duo et octaginta templa deum in urbe ex decreto senatus +refeci," adding that not one was neglected that needed repair. Among +them was that oldest and smallest temple of Jupiter Feretrius on the +Capitol to which I referred in a former lecture;[913] and his personal +interest in the work is attested by Livy, who says that he himself heard +Augustus tell how he had found an inscription, relating to the second +_spolia opima_ dedicated there, when he went into the temple bent on the +work of restoration.[914] It needs but a little historical imagination +to appreciate the psychological importance of all this work. We have to +think not only of the bystanders who watched, but of the very workmen +themselves, rejoicing at once in new employment and in the revival of an +old sense of religious duty. Little more than twenty years earlier, no +workman could be found to lay a hand upon the newly-built temple of +Isis, when the consul Aemilius Paulus gave orders for its destruction as +a centre of _superstitio_;[915] now abundant work was provided which +every man's conscience would approve. When I think of the Rome of that +year 28, with all its fresh hope and confidence taking visible shape in +this way, even Horace's famous lines seem cold to me (_Od._ ii. 6. 1): + + delicta maiorum immeritus lues + Romane, donec templa refeceris + aedesque labentis deorum et + foeda nigro simulacra fumo. + +The restoration of the temple buildings implies also a revival of the +old ritual, the _cura et caerimonia_. As to this we are very imperfectly +informed,--we have no correspondence of this age, as of the last, and +the details of life in the Augustan city are not preserved in abundance. +But Ovid comes to the rescue here, as in secular matters, and on the +whole the evidence in his _Fasti_ suggests that the old sacrificing +priesthoods, the Rex and the flamines, were set to their work again. He +tells us, for example, how he himself, as he was returning to Rome from +Nomentum,[916] had seen the flamen Quirinalis carrying out the _exta_ of +a dog and a sheep which had been sacrificed in the morning in the city, +to be laid on the altar in the grove of Robigus. In spite of all its +disabling restrictions, it was possible once more to fill the ancient +priesthood of Jupiter; and of the Rex sacrorum and the other flamines we +hear in the early Empire.[917] They were in the _potestas_ of the +pontifex maximus, and as after 12 B.C. that position was always held by +the Princeps himself, it was not likely that they would be allowed to +neglect their duties. Other ancient colleges were also revived or +confirmed by the inclusion of the Emperor himself among their members (a +fact which Augustus was careful to record in his own words), _e.g._ the +Fetiales, of whom he had made use when declaring war with Antony and +Cleopatra;[918] the Sodales Titienses, an institution of which we have +lost the origin and meaning; the Salii, Luperci, and above all the +Fratres Arvales, the brotherhood whose duty it had once been to lead a +procession round the crops in May, and so to ensure the _pax deorum_ for +the most vital material of human subsistence. The corn-supply now came +almost entirely from Africa and Egypt; the inner meaning of this old +ritual could not be revived, and we must own that all this restoration +of the old _caerimonia_ must have appealed rather to the eye than the +mind of the beholder. It was necessary to put some new element into it +to give it life. Here we come upon a most important fact in the work of +Augustus, which will become apparent if we take a rapid glance at the +work and history of the Fratres, and then go on to find further +illustration of the curious mixture of old and new which the Roman +religion was henceforward to be. + +The fortunate survival of large fragments of the records of the +Brotherhood, dating from shortly after the battle of Actium, show that +it continued to work and to flourish down to the reign of Gordian (A.D. +241), and from other sources we know that it was still in existence in +the fourth century.[919] These records have been found on the site of +the sacred grove, at the fifth milestone on the via Campana between Rome +and Ostia, which from the time of this revival onwards was the centre of +the activity of the Fratres. + +The brethren were twelve in number, with a _magister_ at their head and +a flamen to assist him; they were chosen from distinguished families by +co-optation, the reigning Emperor being always a member.[920] Their +duties fell into two divisions, which most aptly illustrate respectively +the old and the new ingredients in the religious prescriptions of +Augustus, as they were carried out by his successors. The first of these +is the performance of the yearly rites in honour of the Dea Dia, the +goddess or _numen_ without a substantival name (a form perhaps of Ceres +and Tellus), whose home was in the sacred grove, and who was the special +object of this venerable cult. Secondly, the care of vows, prayers, and +sacrifices for the Emperors and other members of the imperial house. I +must say a few words about each of these divisions of duty. + +The worship of the Dea Dia took place in May on three days, with an +interval always of one day between the first and second, according to +the old custom of the calendar.[921] On the first, preliminary rites +were performed at Rome, in the house of the magister; on the second was +the most important part of the whole ceremony, which took place at the +sacred grove. These rites will give a good idea of the old Roman +worship, and of the exactness with which Augustus sought to restore it. +At dawn the magister sacrificed two _porcae piaculares_ to the Dea, and +then a _vacca honoraria_, after which he laid aside the _toga praetexta_ +or sacrificial vestment, and rested till noon, when all the brethren +partook of a common meal, of which the _porcae_ formed the chief part. +Then resuming the _praetexta_, and crowned with wreaths of corn-ears, +they proceeded to the altar in the grove, where they sacrificed the +_agna opima_, which was the principal victim in the whole +ceremonial.[922] Other rites followed, _e.g._ the passing round, from +one to another of the brethren, fruits gathered and consecrated on the +previous day, each brother receiving them in his left, _i.e._ lucky +hand, and passing them on with his right; and the singing of the famous +Arval hymn to Mars and the Lares to a rhythmic dance-tune. Then after +another meal and chariot-racing in the neighbouring circus, they +returned to Rome and finished the day with further feasting.[923] A +cynical reader of these Acta might suggest that the appetites of the +good brethren were made more of than their _pietas_; but the feasting +may be just as much a part of the ancient practice as any of the other +curiosities of ritual. + +The utensils employed were of the primitive sun-baked clay (_ollae_), +and seem to have been regarded with a veneration almost amounting to +worship.[924] Long ago I had occasion to note how the old form of +piacular sacrifice was used and recorded whenever iron was taken into +the grove, or any damage done to the trees by lightning or other +accident. Once, when a tiny fig-tree sprouted on the roof of the temple, +piacula of all suitable kinds had to be offered to Mars, Dea Dia, Janus, +Jupiter, Juno, Virgines divae, Famuli divi, Lares, Mater Larum, sive +deus sive dea in cuius tutela hic lucus locusque est, Fons, Hora, Vesta +Mater, Vesta deorum dearumque, Adolenda Commolenda Deferunda,--and +sixteen _divi_ of the imperial families![925] As the date of this +extraordinary performance is A.D. 183, nothing can better show the +extent to which the revival of elaborate ritual had been carried by +Augustus, and the amazing tenacity with which it held its ground. + +The second part of the activity of the brethren well illustrates the new +element which Augustus adroitly insinuated into the old religious forms: +but I shall not dwell upon it, for the worship of the Caesars in its +developed form is not of either Roman or Italian origin, any more than +the other kinds of cult which were now pressing in from the East; and it +thus lies outside the range of my subject. The revival of this old +priesthood, and doubtless of others, the Salii for example, was turned +to account to mark the sacred character and political and social +predominance of the imperial family. All events of importance in the +life of the Emperor himself and his family were the occasion of vows, +prayers, or thanksgivings on the part of the Fratres; births, marriages, +successions to the throne, journeys and safe return, and the assumption +of the consulship and other offices or priesthoods. These rites all took +place at various temples or altars in Rome, or at the Ara Pacis, +recently excavated, which Augustus had built in the Campus Martius. +Here, by way of example of them, is a "votum susceptum pro salute novi +principis," on his accession.[926] + +"Imperatore M. Othone Caesare Augusto, L. Salvio Othone Titiano iterum +consulibus, III kalendas Februarias magistro Imperatore M. Othone +Caesare Augusto, promagistro L. Salvio Othone Titiano: collegi fratrum +Arvalium nomine immolavit in Capitolio ob vota nuncupata pro salute +imperatoris M. Othonis Caesaris Augusti in annum proximum in III nonas +Ianuarias Iovi bovem marem, Iunoni vaccam: Minervae vaccam: Saluti +publicae populi Romani vaccam: divo Augusto bovem marem, divae Augustae +vaccam: divo Claudio bovem marem: in collegio adfuerunt, etc." + +This record, which belongs to the year 69 and the accession of Otho, +shows the _divi_, _i.e._ the deified emperors Augustus and Claudius, +together with the deified Livia, associated with the _trias_ of the +Capitoline temple and the _Salus publica_ in the sacrificial rites. But +under the Flavian dynasty which followed this association was +judiciously dropped.[927] It may serve for the moment to illustrate what +was to come of this new element so subtly introduced into the old +worship; how it led to practices which are utterly repulsive to us, and +repulsive too to an honest man even in that day. The noble words of +Tiberius, declining to have temples erected to him in Spain, have been +preserved by Tacitus from the senatorial records:[928] "Ego me, patres +conscripti, mortalem esse fateor"; and he added that his only claim to +immortality lay in the due performance of duty. Tiberius, whatever else +he may have been, was beyond doubt an honest man; and so too was Seneca, +the author of the famous skit on the deification of Claudius. But the +extravagances of Caesar-worship are not to be met with in Augustus' +time; for him the new element may be defined, as in Rome (and in Italy +too, so far as his own wish could limit it) nothing more than _the +encouragement of the belief in him, and loyalty to him as the restorer +of the pax deorum_. To this end he sought to magnify his own +achievements as avenger of the crime of the murder of Julius, by which +the _pax_ had been grievously disturbed. I propose to finish this +lecture by giving some account of the way in which he attained this +object. Let us briefly examine the famous ritual of the _Ludi +saeculares_, of which we have more detailed knowledge than of any other +Roman rite of any period; it marks the zenith of his prosperity and +religious activity, and belongs to the year 17 B.C., two years after the +death of Virgil,--a date which may be said to divide the long power of +Augustus into two nearly equal halves. + +This famous celebration is an epoch in the history of the Roman +religion, if not in the history of Rome herself. It stands on the very +verge of an old and a new regime. It was the outward or ritualistic +expression of the idea, already suggested by Virgil in the fourth +_Eclogue_ and the _Aeneid_, that a regeneration is at hand of Rome and +Italy, in religion, morals, agriculture, government; old things are put +away, new sap is to run in the half-withered trunk and branches of a +noble tree. The experience of the past, as with Aeneas after the descent +into Hades, is to lead to new effort and a new type of character, of +which _pietas_ in its broadest sense is the inspiring motive. +Henceforward the Roman is to look ahead of him in hope and confidence, +_virtutem extendere factis_. Augustus, the Aeneas of the actual State, +was firmly established in a prestige which extended beyond Italy even to +the far East; his faithful and capable coadjutor Agrippa was by his side +to take his part in the ritual, and no cloud in that year 17 seemed to +be visible on the horizon. + +The _Ludi saeculares_ are also unique in respect of the records we have +of them. By wonderful good fortune we can construct an almost complete +picture of what was done in that year on the last days of May and the +first three of June. We have the text of the Sibylline oracle,--how +manufactured we do not know, nor does it much matter,--which prescribed +the ritual, preserved by Zosimus, a Greek historian of the fifth century +A.D., together with his own account.[929] Thus the outline of the ritual +has been known all along, together with many details; and to help it out +we have also the perfect text of the hymn written by Horace for the +occasion, and sung by two choirs of boys and girls respectively. But +great was the delight of the learned world when, in September 1890, +workmen employed on the Tiber embankment, close, as it turned out, to +the spot where the nightly rites of the _ludi_ took place, came upon a +mediaeval wall partly made of ancient material, in which some marbles +were found covered with inscriptions relating to this same +celebration.[930] This treasure was badly mutilated, but the inscription +was easily decipherable; it contains a letter from Augustus giving +instructions, two decrees of the Senate, and a series of records of the +Quindecemviri, who were of course in charge of a ritual which had been +ordered by a Sibylline oracle. Some few points were at first puzzling, +but have been cleared up since the discovery. Mommsen, of course, took +the work in hand, and his exposition is still, and always will be, the +starting-point for students. Wissowa has an excellent popular account of +it, and recently, in the fifth volume of his _Greatness and Decline of +Rome_, Ferrero has utilised it to give an animated account of the whole +ceremony.[931] + +The _Ludi saeculares_ take their name from the word _saeculum_; and the +old Italian idea of a _saeculum_ seems to have been a period stretching +from any given moment to the death of the oldest person born at that +moment,--a hundred years being the natural period so conceived.[932] +Thus a new saeculum might begin at any time, and might be endowed with +special religious significance by certain solemn ceremonies; in this way +the people might be persuaded that a new leaf, so to speak, had been +turned over in their history: that all past evil, material or moral, had +been put away and done with (_saeculum condere_), and a new period +entered on of innocence and prosperity. There are faint traces of three +early celebrations of this kind, beginning in 463 B.C., traditionally a +disastrous year, and renewed in 363 and 263. But in 249, another year of +distress and peril, a new saeculum was entered on with a new and a Greek +ritual, ordered by a Sibylline oracle. A subterranean altar in a spot +by the Tiber, near the present Ponte St. Angelo, and called Tarentum +(possibly to mark the original home of the rite), was dedicated to Dis +and Proserpina, Greek deities of the nether world; and here for three +successive nights black victims were offered to them. The subterranean +altar and the use of the word _condere_ (to put away), might suggest +that this rite may have had something in common with those well-known +quasi-dramatic ones in which objects are _buried_ or thrown into the +water, to represent the cessation of one period of vegetation and the +beginning of another.[933] Or we may look on it in the light of one of +those _rites de passage_ in which a transition is made from one state of +things to another, without any definite religious idea being attached to +it. There is no doubt some mystical element in the primitive idea of the +beginning and ending of periods of time, which has not as yet been +thoroughly investigated.[934] + +Now it is easy to see how exactly a rite of this kind, with suitable +modifications, would fit in with Augustus' purposes as we have explained +them. Fortunately too Varro had in 42 B.C. published a book in which the +mystic or Pythagorean doctrine was set forth of the palingenesis of All +Souls after four saecula of 110 years each; the fourth _Eclogue_ of +Virgil may have been influenced by this, among other mystical ideas, as +it was written only three years later; and in any case the doctrine was +well known.[935] But Augustus had to wait a while, until peace and +confidence were restored. Why eventually he chose the year 17 is quite +uncertain; it does not exactly fit in with any calculation of four +saecula of 110 years starting from any known date. But a saeculum, as we +have seen, might begin at any moment; and in any case it was easy to +manufacture a calculation, which was now duly accomplished by trusty +persons, chief among them being the great lawyer, Ateius Capito, an +ardent adherent of Augustus and his projects.[936] Probably too it was +necessary to take advantage of the popular feeling of the moment, that a +better time had come, and that it should be started on its way in some +fitting outward form. + +So an elaborate programme was drawn up, the main features of which I +must now explain. On 26th May and the two following days (for the mystic +numbers three, nine, and twenty-seven are noticeable throughout the +ritual)[937] the means of purification (_suffimenta_)--torches, sulphur, +bitumen[938]--were distributed by the priests to all free persons, +whether citizens or not; for this once, all in Rome at the time, with +the exception of slaves, were to give an imperial meaning to the +ceremony by their share in it. Even bachelors, though forbidden to +attend public shows under a recent law _de maritandis ordinibus_, were +allowed to do so on this occasion. No doubt the idea was that the whole +people were to be purified from all pollution of the past; it is what M. +van Gennep calls a _rite de separation_, the first step in a _rite de +passage_. The next three days all the people came to the Quindecemviri +at certain stated places, and made offerings of _fruges_, the products +of the earth, as we do at our harvest festivals; these were the +firstfruits of the coming harvest.[939] It may be worth while to recall +the facts that it was on these same days that the procession of the +Ambarvalia used to go round the ripening crops, and that in the early +days of June the symbolic _penus_ of Vesta was being cleansed to receive +the new grain.[940] That Augustus wished to emphasise the importance of +Italian agriculture is beyond doubt, and is apparent also in the hymn of +Horace, _Fertilis frugum pecorisque Tellus spicea donet Cererem corona, +etc._ + +When the _suffimenta_ had been distributed and the offerings made, all +was ready for the putting away or burying of the old _saeculum_. On the +night before 1st June Augustus himself, together with Agrippa, +sacrificed to the Greek Moirae, the Parcae of Horace's hymn, perhaps in +some sense the Fata of the _Aeneid_; on the second night to Eilithyia, +the Greek deity of childbirth; and on the third to Mother Tellus. The +form of prayer accompanying the sacrifice is preserved in the +inscription; it is Latin in language and form, as dry and concise as any +we examined in my lectures on ritual, and contains the _macte esto_ +which I was then at pains to explain. Augustus prayed for the safety and +prosperity of the State in every way, and also for himself, his house, +and his familia.[941] The scene on the bank of the Tiber, illuminated by +torches, must have been most impressive. + +These were the nightly ceremonies. But each day also had its ritual, in +which the Roman deities of the heaven were the objects of worship, not, +as by the Tiber bank, Greek deities of the earth and the nether world. +On the first two days Augustus and Agrippa offered the proper victims to +Jupiter and Juno respectively on the Capitol; Minerva is omitted, and +probably the other two are reckoned in Greek fashion as a married pair. +The form of prayer was the same as that used by night, with the +necessary modifications. Thus the great Capitoline temple and its +deities have a full share of attention, and they go too far who think +that Augustus was so wanting in tact as to put them in the shade.[942] +But on the third and last day the scene changes from the Capitol to the +Palatine, the residence of Augustus, where he had built his great temple +of Apollo; here for the first time in the ceremony Horace's hymn was +sung. On all the days and nights there had been shows and amusements, +and a hundred and ten chosen matrons had taken solemn part in the +services.[943] But I must pass these over and turn in the last place to +the question, as interesting as it is old and difficult, as to how and +where Horace's hymn was sung, and how we are to understand it. + +The instructions given to the poet by Augustus are obvious as we read +the Carmen in the light of the ceremonial of which it was to mark the +conclusion. He was to bring into it, as we have already seen, the ideas +which were to be revived and made resonant, of religion, morality, and +the fertility of man, beast, and crop; and they are all there. He was +also to include all the deities who had been addressed in prayer both by +day and night, by Tiber bank and on the Capitol, and to give the most +prominent place to those who on this last day were worshipped on the +Palatine; to Apollo, for whom Augustus had built a great temple close to +his own house (_in privato solo_[944]), as his own specially protecting +deity since Actium, and Diana, who as equivalent to Artemis, could not +but be associated with Apollo. Thus the deities of the hymn are both +Latin and Greek,[945] and this expresses the undoubted fact that the +religion of the Romans was henceforward to be even in outward expression +a cosmopolitan or Romano-Hellenic one, in keeping with the fact that all +free men of every race might take part in this great festival. But it +cannot fail to strike every careful reader that the great trias of the +Capitol is hardly visible in the poem, though Jupiter and Juno had been +the chief objects of worship on the two previous days. Jupiter is twice +incidentally named, but in no connection with the Capitol;[946] and it +is only when we read between the lines of the fourteenth stanza that we +discover Jupiter and Juno as the recipients of the white oxen which had +been sacrificed to them there. I have already said that we must not make +too much of the neglect of Jupiter and Juno by Augustus; but it is plain +that he directed Horace not to make them too prominent in this hymn, and +I think it is quite possible that Horace a little overdid his obedience. + +The result of all this is that the hymn, in spite of its neatness and +adequacy, is wanting in spontaneity, and presents the casual reader with +an apparently unmeaning jumble of Greek and Roman gods and goddesses. +The only way to clear it up is by taking it in immediate relation with +what we know about the places in which it was sung. To me at last it has +become clear enough in all its main points; and I will give here my own +results, which do not altogether coincide with those of other recent +inquirers. + +Before the discovery of the great inscription we knew that this hymn was +sung before the new temple of Apollo on the Palatine; we now know that +it was also sung on the Capitol,[947] thus uniting in one performance +the old religion of republican Rome with the new imperial cult of +Apollo. But this new fact has, in my opinion, led to misapprehensions +both of the manner of singing and the order of subjects in the hymn. +Mommsen thought that the first part was sung on the Palatine, the middle +part on the Capitol, and the last again on the Palatine, and he is +followed by Wissowa; and both seem to think it possible that there may +have been singing too during the procession from the one hill to the +other.[948] I think we need not trouble ourselves about the latter +point, for the Via Sacra, by which the procession must have gone, was +far too narrow and irregular to allow fifty-four singers, with the +_tibicines_ who must have been accompanying them, to walk and perform at +the same time.[949] The inscription, too, says plainly that the hymn was +sung on the Palatine and then on the Capitol, and by that plain +statement of fact we had better abide. + +Now let us note that these two stations on the two hills were the best +possible positions for Augustus' purpose, not only because of their +religious importance, but because they afforded the most spacious views +of the city, now everywhere adorned with new or restored buildings. The +temple of Apollo was built upon a large and lofty area at the north-east +end of the Palatine.[950] Recent excavations have shown it to be some +hundred yards broad by a hundred and fifty in length, and Ovid, in a +passage of his _Tristia_[951] gives us an idea of its height: + + inde tenore pari gradibus sublimia celsis + ducor ad intonsi candida templa dei. + +On this area the choirs of boys and girls took their station, facing the +marble temple, on the _fastigium_ of which was represented the Sun +driving his four-horse chariot.[952] After singing, probably together, +the first two stanzas or exordium of the hymn, they addressed this Sol: + + alme Sol, curru nitido diem qui + promis et celas, aliusque et idem + nasceris, possis nihil urbe Roma + visere maius. + +As they sang these last words, they would turn towards the city that lay +behind them, and look over it to the Tiber and the scene of the nightly +sacrifices of the Tarentum; and with the deities of these rites, who +must of course be taken before those of day and light, as in the order +of the festival, the next five stanzas are occupied:[953] Eilithyia, the +Moirae (Parcae), and Tellus or Ceres. When that duty is over they turn +once more to the temple, and the Greek deities of the Tarentum are +mentioned no more. Three stanzas are devoted to Apollo and Diana (Luna), +with a happy allusion to the _Aeneid_, and then once more the choirs +turn, and this time they face the Capitol; the hymn is long, and these +changes of movement would be at once a relief to the singers and a +pleasant sight to the spectators. They address the deities of the +Capitol in appropriate language: + + di probos mores docili iuventae, + di, senectuti placidae quietem, + Romulae genti date remque prolemque + et decus omne. + +The allusion to Jupiter and Juno is thus veiled: + + quaeque vos bobus veneratur albis + clarus Anchisae Venerisque sanguis, + impetret, bellante prior, iacentem + lenis in hostem. + +Horace has cleverly made Augustus himself the leading figure in this and +the following stanza, and the listeners forget the Capitoline gods as +they note the allusion to Venus, the ancestress of the Julii, the +prestige of Augustus that has brought envoys to him from Scythia, Media, +and India, and in the next stanza the public virtues, presented here as +deities--Fides, Pax, Honos, Pudor, Virtus--on whose aid and worship the +new regime is based.[954] + +At the sixteenth stanza the choirs again face about to the temple of +Apollo, and with him and Diana again the next two stanzas have to do. +Only one remains, in which as an _exodos_ we may be sure the two choirs +of boys and girls joined; it sums up the whole body of deities, but with +Apollo and Diana as the special objects of the day's worship: + + haec Iovem sentire deosque cunctos + spem bonam certamque domum reporto, + doctus et Phoebi chorus et Dianae + dicere laudes. + +The performance on the Palatine was now over, and the procession +streamed down the hill to join the Via Sacra near the Regia and the +Vesta temple, and so to make its way up to the Capitol, where the +performance was repeated.[955] Taking station at this noble point of +view, he who will can again follow its movement with the hymn in his +hand. The area in front of the Capitoline temple looked across to the +Palatine, and the image of Sol and his _quadriga_ must have been in full +view; thus the _exordium_ and the next stanza (alme Sol) would be sung +looking in that direction. Equally well in view, if they turned to the +right, would be the scene of the midnight sacrifices across the Campus +Martius; and so on throughout the singing the changes of position would +be easy and graceful, here as on the Palatine. + +Here I prefer to make an end of the performance, following the text of +the inscription, which tells us nothing of a return to the Palatine. It +would be far more in keeping with Roman practice that the Capitol should +be the scene of the conclusion of the processional ceremony, even on a +day when Apollo was, with Augustus himself, the principal figure. From +the musical point of view, too, a third performance is improbable, for +the singers were young and tender. + +And here, too, with this impressive scene, which can hardly fail to move +the imagination of any one who has stood on Palatine and Capitol, I will +close my account of the religious experience of the Romans. A few +remarks only remain for me to make about its contribution, such as it +was, to the Latin form of Christianity. + + +NOTES TO LECTURE XIX + + + [900] A summary of the relations between Virgil and + Augustus may be found in Mr. Glover's _Studies in + Virgil_, p. 144 foll. + + [901] Tiberius added to his Augustan inheritance a + curious and possibly morbid anxiety about religious + matters and details of cult, of which examples may be + found in Tac. _Ann._ iii. 58, vi. 12, among other + passages. Perhaps, however, the most interesting is that + connected with the famous story of "the Great Pan is + dead," told by Plutarch in the _de Defectu Oraculorum_, + ch. xvii. The news of this strange story reached the + ears of Tiberius, who at once set the learned men about + him to inquire into it; and they came to the no less + strange conclusion that "this was the Pan who was born + of Hermes and Penelope." S. Reinach has recently offered + an explanation of this story, which is at least better + than previous ones, in _Cultes, mythes, et religions_, + vol. iii. p. 1 foll. + + [902] _C.I.L._ vi. 1001. + + [903] Jul. Capitolinus, 13. + + [904] Symmachus, _Rel._ 3. + + [905] _Cod. Theod._ xvi. 10. 2. On this subject + generally consult Dill's _Roman Society in the Last + Century of the Western Empire_, bk. i. chs. i. and iv. + + [906] This idea is exactly expressed by Horace in _Odes_ + iii. 23, perhaps addressed to the _vilica_ of his own + farm. Cp. Cato, _R.R._ 143, where the _vilica_ is to + pray to the _Lar familiaris pro copia_. Horace mentions + only the Kalends for this rite; Cato adds Nones and + Ides. Cp. Tibull. i. 3. 34; i. 10. 15 foll. + + [907] See above, Lectures iv. and v. + + [908] _Greatness and Decline of Rome_ (E.T.), v. 93. + + [909] See especially lines 45 foll. and 56 foll. + + [910] _C.I.L._ vi. 32,323, or Dessau, _Inscriptiones + selectae_, vol. ii. part i. p. 284. + + [911] For this reason the veiled figure in one of the + fine sculptures on the Ara Pacis frieze, which used to + be taken as Augustus Pont. Max., cannot be so identified + (see Domaszewski, _Abhandlungen zur roemischen Religion_, + p. 90 foll.), for the date of the Ara Pacis is 13 B.C., + the year before Lepidus died. The figure can be most + conveniently seen by English students in Mrs. Strong's + _Roman Sculpture_, plate xi. p. 46. It may be Agrippa + acting as Pont. Max. for Lepidus. + + [912] _Monumentum Ancyranum_, ed. Mommsen (Lat.), iv. + 17. + + [913] See above, p. 129. + + [914] Livy iv. 20. 7. + + [915] Valerius Maximus, _Epit._ 3, 4. + + [916] Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 901 foll. + + [917] See Marquardt, 326 foll. + + [918] Dio Cassius, l. 4, 5. + + [919] Henzen, _Acta Fratrum Arvalium_, p. xxv. of the + exordium. + + [920] Henzen, p. 154. + + [921] See above, p. 98. + + [922] Henzen, pp. 24, 28. + + [923] For the hymn, Henzen, p. 26; Dessau, _Inscr. + select._ ii. pt. i. p. 276. See also above, p. 186. + + [924] Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 487, note 5. + + [925] Henzen, 142 foll.; Dessau, p. 279; see above, p. + 162. + + [926] Henzen, p. 105. + + [927] _Ib._ p. 107. + + [928] Tac. _Ann._ iii. + + [939] Zosimus, ii. 5 and 6. The oracle and the extract + from Zosimus are printed in Dr. Wickham's introduction + to the _Carmen saeculare_, and in Diels, _Sibyllinische + Blaetter_, p. 131 foll. + + [930] _C.I.L._ vi. 32,323. _Ephemeris epigraphica_, + viii. 255 foll., contains the text and Mommsen's + exposition. Dessau, _Inscr. selectae_, ii. pt. i. 282, + does not give the whole document. + + [931] Wissowa, _Gesammelte Abhandlungen_, p. 192 foll.; + Ferrero, vol. v. 85 foll. + + [932] The word was first explained by Mommsen, _Roem. + Chronologie_, ed. 2, p. 172. + + [933] See, _e.g._, _Golden Bough_, ed. 2, vol. ii. p. 70 + foll. + + [934] The religious or mystical conception of time is + the subject of an interesting discussion by Hubert et + Mauss, _Melanges d'histoire et de religion_, p. 189 + foll.; but the _saeculum_ does not seem to have + attracted their attention. + + [935] The actual words of Varro, from his work _de gente + Populi Romani_, are quoted by St. Augustine, _de Civ. + Dei_, xxii. 28: "Genethliaci quidam scripserunt esse in + renascendis hominibus quam appellant [Greek: + palingenesian] Graeci; hac scripserunt confici in annis + numero quadringentis quadraginta, ut idem corpus et + eadem anima, quae fuerint coniuncta in homine aliquando, + eadem rursus redeant in coniunctionem." The passage well + illustrates the mystical tendency of which I was + speaking in the last lecture. + + [936] For attempts to explain the difficulty see + Wissowa, _op. cit._ p. 204. + + [937] The cakes offered to Eilithyia, and again to + Apollo, are nine in number; see the inscription lines + 117 and 143. The choirs of boys and girls were each + twenty-seven. + + [938] The _suffimenta_ are described by Zosimus, _l.c._ + There is a coin of Domitian, who also celebrated _Ludi + saeculares_, in which he appears seated and distributing + the _suffimenta_, as the inscription shows. + + [939] So Zosimus, who says they consisted of wheat, + barley, and beans. + + [940] _R.F._ p. 148 foll. + + [941] See the inscription, line 92 foll. Ferrero assumes + that these words were to be taken as representing the + families of all worshippers present, who would repeat + the words "mihi domo familiae." But this is arbitrary; + the prayer follows the old form as we have it, _e.g._, + in Cato, _R.R._ (see above, p. 182), and as Cato or any + landowner would represent the rest of the human beings + on the estate, so did Augustus represent the whole + community. + + [942] So J. B. Carter, _Religion of Numa_, p. 160. + + [943] The matrons, equal in number to the years of the + _saeculum_, first appear on 2nd June in the worship of + Juno. + + [944] _Mon. Ancyr._ (Lat.), iv. 21. + + [945] Zosimus, _l.c._, says that "hymns" were sung in + Greek as well as Latin; but this is not borne out by any + other authority. + + [946] Line 31 (_et Iovis aurae_), where Jupiter simply + stands for the heaven and its influence on the earth; + and line 73 (_haec Iovem sentire_, etc.), where he is + introduced in the most general way as head of all + deities. + + [947] Line 147 of the inscription: "Sacrificioque + perfecto puer[i X] XVII quibus denuntiatum erat patrimi + et matrimi et puellae totidem carmen cecinerunt: + _eodemque modo in Capitolio_. Carmen composuit Q. + Horatius Flaccus." + + [948] _Eph. epigr._ viii. 256. Wissowa, _Gesamm. + Abhandl._ p. 206, note, who refers to Vahlen and Christ + as differing from Mommsen, in papers which I have not + seen. Wissowa says that the threefold division of the + hymn "springt in die Augen"; but this has never been my + experience. + + [949] Apart from the awkwardness for singers of the + descent from the Palatine and the steep ascent to the + Capitol, we may remember that they would have to pass + under the fornix Fabianus, which was not much more than + nine feet broad (Lanciani, _Ruins and Excavations_, p. + 217). + + [950] See Huelsen-Jordan, _Topographie_, iii. 72 and + note. See also map at the end of the volume, No. 1 of + the series. There is, however, some doubt as to whether + the site was not on the side of the Palatine looking + towards the Tiber over the Circus maximus. See my paper + in the _Classical Quarterly_, 1910, p. 145 foll. If so, + my explanation of the performance of the hymn seems + rather to be confirmed than weakened. + + [951] Ovid, _Tristia_, iii. 1. 59 foll. + + [952] Propertius, iii. 28 (31): "In quo Solis erat supra + fastigia currus." No one seems to have noticed the + connection between this and Horace's allusion to Sol, + which is otherwise not easy to explain. + + [953] I will not enter on the insoluble question as to + what stanzas or parts of stanzas were sung by the boys + and girls respectively. That the hymn was so sung in + double chorus is intrinsically probable, and stated in + the oracle, lines 20, 21. Some of the schemes which have + been propounded are given in Wickham's _Horace_. I + imagine that the stanzas may have been sung alternately + except in the case of the first two and the last, but + the ninth looks as though it might have been divided + between the two choirs. Ferrero has a scheme of his + own, p. 91 foll.; and if he had taken a little more + pains might have worked out the whole problem + satisfactorily. + + [954] Of these quasi-deities Fides is the oldest, and + was associated with Jupiter on the Capitol; Wissowa, + _R.K._ 103 foll. Thus we may find a _callida iunctura_ + between the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth + stanzas, for Fides and Pax would fit in well with the + _responsa petunt_ of the fourteenth. Whether Pax was + recognised as a deity at this time is not quite certain; + but a few years later, in 9 B.C., an altar of Pax + Augusta was dedicated. The Ara Pacis was begun in 13 + B.C. See Axtell, _Deification of Abstract Ideas_ + (Chicago, 1907), p. 37, who may also be consulted for + the other deities here mentioned. See also above, p. + 285. In Tibull. i. 10. 45 foll., Pax seems to be on the + verge of deification, but not to have attained it except + in the poet's fancy. + + [955] The route may be followed in the map of the Via + Sacra in Lanciani's _Ruins and Excavations_, and in his + chapter entitled, "A Walk through the Sacra Via," or + more shortly in my _Social Life in the Age of Cicero_, + p. 18 foll. + + _Note._--The whole question of the singing of + the _Carmen saeculare_ in its relation to the two + principal sites and to the topography of the festival + generally, is fully discussed by the author in + _Classical Review_ for 1910, p. 145 foll. + + + + +LECTURE XX + +CONCLUSION + + +"A time of spiritual awakening, of a calling to higher destinies, came +upon the world, the civilised world which lay around the Mediterranean +Sea, at the beginning of our era. The calling was concentrated in the +life and death of the Founder of Christianity."[956] The writer of these +words goes on to point out that the beginning of our era was "a time of +general stirring in all the higher fields of human activity," and that +all such stirring, all that brings higher ideals before the minds of men +of action, of imagination, or of reflection, if not itself religion, is +in some sense religious, and in that age must be taken into account as +having some bearing on the origin of Christianity, the greatest of all +religious movements. And inasmuch as the new spirit of the age seems to +have put new life into the old religious systems, with the help of +philosophy and poetry, as well as of a purer and more effective +conception of Man's relation to the Power manifesting itself in the +universe, he finds it useful and legitimate to show how the ideas and +characteristics of the leading types of religion in the civilised world +of which he speaks were absorbed or "baptized" into the spirit of +Christianity. In other words, we may ask what was the contribution of +each of these religious types to the formation of the Christian type of +religion; for however new was the inspiration which was the essential +living germ of our religion, yet that germ was of necessity planted in +soil full of other religious ingredients, which found their way into the +sap of the plant as it grew towards maturity. + +I have all along wished to bring our subject, the religious experience +of the Roman people, into touch with Christianity, whether by marking +points of contact, or of contrast, or both. In the last few lectures I +have laid stress on certain points likely to be useful to us in this +last stage of our studies, and these will, I hope, furnish us with some +amount of material. But I confess that I have approached this subject +with great hesitation. What I shall have to say will be tentative and +suggestive only; but I hope that the account that I have given in these +lectures of Roman religious experience may be of use in helping a better +qualified student to carry on the work more adequately. + +Let us glance back for a moment at the results of the last four +lectures, in which I have been dealing with Roman religious experience +after the paralysis or hypnotism of the old religion of the State. We +saw, in the first place, that the educated part of Roman society had +been brought to the very threshold of a new and more elevating type of +religion, by Greek philosophy transplanted to Roman soil, and chiefly by +Stoicism. True, one great Epicurean genius had had his share in this +process, by denouncing the weakness and wickedness of the Roman society, +and the futility of all the religious forms and fancies with which they +still dallied; but Lucretius had nothing to offer in the place of these +forms and fancies--nothing, that is, which could grip the conscience and +act as a real force upon conduct. The Roman was in a religious sense +destitute, both of a real sense of duty to his fellow-men of all grades, +and in regard to God; and for this destitution Lucretius' remedy, the +accurate knowledge of a philosophical theory of the universe, was wholly +inadequate. The first real appeal to the conscience of the Roman came +from Stoicism, the reasonable and less austere type of Stoicism which +Panaetius preached to the Scipionic circle. From this the Roman learnt +that as a part of the divine universe Man himself is divine: that as +endowed with a portion of that Reason which itself is God, he has a +sacred duty to perform in using it. Thus, as the Universal was revealed, +so the Individual was ennobled; and the only thing wanting to make of +this a real religion was a bond that might unite the two more +effectually in conduct as well as in thought. Though a later development +of Stoicism did indeed all but achieve this union, that of the later +Republic failed to do so, because it inherited the old Stoic neglect of +the emotional side of man's nature, and could take little advantage from +a strong current of mystical feeling that was running side by side with +it. The Stoic ingredient in the soil which was being prepared for +Christianity was rich and valuable, but in this one respect it was poor. +It was intellectually beautiful, but it stirred as yet no "enthusiasm of +humanity."[957] + +Another ingredient in the soil was that imaginative transcendentalism +which we discussed under the name of Mysticism, in which the soul +becomes of greater interest than the body, and a strange yearning +possesses the mind to speculate on the nature of the soul, its existence +before this life, and its lot in another world. These imaginative +yearnings were not native to the Roman, who had never had any very +definite idea of a future life, nor had ever troubled himself about a +previous one; they filtered through the Pythagorean and Platonic +philosophy into that type of later Stoicism which attracted him. They +were hardly treated in Roman society with real religious earnestness, +except perhaps in some few moments of sorrow and emotion such as I dwelt +on in the experience of Cicero. But the mere fact that they were in the +air at Rome is of importance for us. They _stimulated the imaginative +faculty in religious thought_; they kept alive in the minds at least of +some men the questions why we are here, what we are, and what becomes of +us after death. They prepared the Roman mind for Christian eschatology; +and this, though never so important in the Latin Church as in the +Greek, was yet an important part of the teaching of the early Church. +St. Paul exactly expresses the yearning thus dimly foreshadowed in the +mystical movement of which I am speaking: "We that are in this +tabernacle do groan, being burdened; not for that we would be unclothed, +but that we would be clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed +up of life" (2 Cor. v. 4). It was essential that the Roman should be +able to understand words like these, and to associate them with a +religion which, though in its most vital points one mainly affecting +this life, was also, like those of Isis and Mithras, strongly tinged +with mysticism. "All religions of that time," it has lately been said, +"were religions of hope. Stress was laid on the future: the present time +was but for preparation. So in the mysterious cults of Hellenism, whose +highest aim is to offer guarantees for other worldly happiness; so too +in Judaism, whose legacy has but the aim of furnishing the happy life in +the kingdom of the future. But Christianity is a religion of faith, the +gospel not only giving guarantees for the future life, but bringing +confidence, peace, joy, salvation, forgiveness, righteousness--whatever +man's heart yearns after."[958] + +Yet another ingredient was that kindly, charitable, sympathetic outlook +on the world which we found in the poems of Virgil, and which is +associated throughout them with the idea of duty and honourable service. +The husbandman toiling cheerfully and doing his simple acts of worship, +among the patient animals that he loves, and the scenes of natural +beauty that inspire him with pure and tender thoughts; and then again in +the _Aeneid_ the warrior kept true to his goal by a sense of duty +stimulated by supernatural influence: both these sides of the Virgilian +spirit show well how the soil is being prepared for another and a richer +crop. Love and Duty are the essentials of Christian ethics; they are +both to be found in this poet, and through him made their way into the +ideas of the better Romans of the next generation, and so into the +philosophy of Seneca and Marcus Aurelius. "To minds touched with the +same sense of life's problems which pervades the poetry of Virgil, the +ideas that came from Galilee brought the rest and peace which they could +not find elsewhere."[959] The early Christian writers loved the "vates +Gentilium," and St. Augustine in particular is for ever quoting him; but +I should be going beyond the limits of my subject if I were to follow +his gentle influence farther down the stream of time. + +In my last lecture we discussed the revival of the old religious forms +by Augustus, and the consummation of this work of his in the splendid +ritual of the _Ludi saeculares_. Can it be said that such an astute and +worldly policy as this had any value in the way of preparation for +Christianity? Only, I think, in one way; it renewed the idea of the +connection between religion and the State, and of the religious duties +of the individual citizen towards the State. It preserved the outward +features of the old State religion, such as the calendar, the ritual, +and the terminology or vocabulary, and handed these down to a time when +they could be of service to a Latin Christian church.[960] Had the old +forms been allowed to go utterly to rack and ruin, as they had been +already doing for the last two centuries, the Roman State would have +been as such without religion, or the worship of the Caesars would have +become disastrously powerful and prominent, or maybe the State would +have adopted the religion of Isis or Mithras or some other Oriental cult +and belief, before Christianity could lay a firm grasp on it. I think it +might be shown that the continuity of the old religion in its connection +with the State was really of value in keeping these growths from +occupying too much ground: of value in checking too rapid a growth of +individualism:[961] of value too in cherishing certain really precious +religious characteristics, orderliness and decency in ritual, for +example, which, as we have seen, were very early developed in the Roman +religious system, and which owed their continued vitality to the +overwhelming influence of the Roman State over all her citizens and +their ideas. Thus when at last, after a period of anxious conflict +between rival religions, the State proclaimed itself Christian, and +henceforward for good or ill extended its protection to the Church, its +religious tradition was still one of decency and order, still free from +almost all that the old Roman State knew and dreaded as _superstitio_. +There was, in fact, a legacy, not indeed a spiritual one, but yet one of +some small value, left by the old Roman religion to the Latin Church: +and this I will turn for a few minutes to examine. + +As an example of the orderly, sane, and decent character which the +Church inherited from the Roman religion, I might recall what I said in +Lecture IX. about _lustratio_, that slow and orderly processional +movement in which the old Romans delighted, and which is familiar still +to all travellers in Italy.[962] Another is the tender and reverential +care for the resting-places of departed relatives. I am not sure that +Prof. Gardner is right in asserting that the prayers for the dead of the +Catholic Church took the place of the worship of the dead in the Roman +family;[963] for it is not easy to say how far it is true that the dead +were ever really worshipped at Rome, and the idea of prayer for the +dead, if it can be traced to Roman sources at all, may be rather due to +those tendencies which we discussed under Mysticism, than to anything +inherent in the old Roman attitude to the departed. None the less there +is in the _sacra privata_ of the Parentalia, and especially of the +Caristia which concluded it--a kind of love-feast of all members of the +family, where all quarrels and differences were to be laid +aside,[964]--something that suggests the Christian attitude towards the +dead, and in some dim way too the doctrine of the Communion of Saints. +And we may also notice how closely in regard to externals the great +events of family life,--those critical moments when the aid of the +_numina_ was most needed--the first days of infancy, the eras of puberty +and of marriage, passed on in their sober and orderly ritual into the +baptism, confirmation, and sacramental wedding of the Christian Church. +In such ways the private religion of the Roman family had doubtless a +real continuity in the new era, though the line of connection is +difficult to trace. This, and many other examples of survival, the +worship of local saints which took the place of that of local deities, +the use of holy water and of incense as symbolic elements in worship, +and the general resemblance of the arrangement of festivals in the +Calendars, Roman and Christian, might be interesting matter for a +complete course of lectures, but must be omitted here. + +Another point of interest, which might also be widely expanded, is the +influence of the Roman religious _spirit_, as distinct from the outward +form, on Christian thought and literature in the Western half of the +Empire. The subtle transcendentalism of the Greek fathers was foreign to +Latin Christianity; the characteristics of Roman life as reflected in +Roman worship are plainly visible in the Latin fathers. From Minucius +Felix onwards, the Christians who wrote in Latin, so far from being +imaginative and dreamy, are one and all matter-of-fact; historical, +abounding in illustration of life and conduct; ethical rather than +speculative; legal in their cast of thought rather than philosophical; +rhetorical in their manner of expression rather than fervent or +poetical. They were well versed in the great literature of Rome, but +most of them, and especially the African school (which carried Roman +tendencies to an extreme), knew comparatively little of Greek. St. +Augustine, for example, could not bring himself to work at Greek with +ardour, nor could he explain why this was so.[965] Of Augustine, as the +type of the literature of Latin Christianity, Bishop Westcott wrote with +something of an exaggerated criticism, lamenting that he had not the +Greek which had so large a place in the Bishop's own training. "He +looked" (more particularly in the _de Civitate Dei_) "at everything from +the side of law and not of freedom: from the side of God, as an +irresponsible sovereign, and not of man, as a loving servant. In spite +of his admiration for Plato, he was driven by a passion for system" (how +this reminds us of the old Roman religious lawyers!) "to fix, to +externalise, to freeze every idea into a rigid shape. In spite of his +genius he could not shake off the influence of a legal and rhetorical +training, which controversy called into active exercise."[966] The +lecture from which I am quoting is an interesting one, on the work and +character of Origen, the great Alexandrian of the third century A.D., +with whom Augustine is contrasted, as in an earlier age we might +contrast Seneca with Philo; the Latin writers rhetorical, practical, +realistic; the Greek authors idealistic and fervent, apt to see deep +moral significance in all human life. And this is really the manner and +mental attitude of all the famous Latin fathers: of Lactantius, the +clear, precise Ciceronian, whose every page shows the perennial value of +the Latin tongue; of Tertullian, the subtle and acute rhetorician, more +gifted with imagination than his fellows; of Arnobius, another Roman +African, the reputed teacher of Lactantius. + +One of the characteristics of these Latin fathers is their fondness for +using the famous words of the old Roman religion, but in new senses. +They inherit that Roman love for a strong technical word of pregnant +meaning which has left us so many imperishable legacies in terminology. +_Municipium_, _colonia_, _imperium_, _collegium_, rise in one's mind the +moment the subject is mentioned; and a few minutes' thought will reveal +another score of words which in various forms pervade all our modern +European terminology. So, too, with the language of religion. These +Latin advocates of Christian doctrine took the old words which we have +so often dwelt on in the course of these lectures, and gave them new but +almost equally clear and pregnant meanings. Let us glance at three or +four of these; for such a legacy as this is no mean property of the +Christian religion of the West. + +Let us take, to begin with, the greatest of all these words--_religio_. +I have maintained throughout these lectures that the original sense of +this word was the natural feeling of man in the presence of the +supernatural; and though this has actually been questioned since I began +them,[967] I see no good reason to alter my conviction. But in the age +of Cicero and Lucretius the word begins to take on a different meaning, +of great importance for the future. Though Cicero as a young man had +defined _religio_ as "the feeling of the presence of a higher or divine +nature, which prompts man to worship,--to _cura et caerimonia_,"[968] +yet later on in life he uses it with much freedom of that _cura et +caerimonia_ apart from the feeling. To take a single example among many: +in a passage in his _de Legibus_ he says that to worship private or +strange or foreign gods, "confusionem habet religionum";[969] and again +he calls his own imaginary _ius divinum_ in that treatise a _constitutio +religionum_, a system of religious duties.[970] In many other passages, +on the other hand, we find both the feeling which prompts and the +cult-acts which follow on it equally connoted by the word; for example, +the phrase _religio sepulcrorum_ suggests quite as much the feeling as +the ritual. So it would seem that _religio_ is already beginning to pass +into the sense in which we still use it--_i.e._, _the feeling which +suggests worship, and the forms under which we perform that worship_. In +this broad sense it is also used by Lucretius, who included under it all +that was for him the world's evil and folly, both the feeling of awe +which he believed to be degrading, and the organised worship of the +family and the State, which he no less firmly believed to be futile. +"Tantum _religio_ potuit suadere malorum."[971] The fact is that in that +age, when the old local character of the cults was disappearing, and +when men like Posidonius, Varro, and Cicero were thinking and writing +about the nature of the gods and kindred subjects, a word was wanted to +gather up and express all this religious side of human life and +experience: it must be a word without a definite technical meaning, and +such a word was _religio_. + +Thus while _religio_ continues to express the feeling only or the cult +only, if called on to do so, it gains in the age of Cicero a more +comprehensive connotation, as the result of the contemplation of +religion by philosophy as a thing apart from itself; and this enabled +the early Christian writers, who knew their Cicero well, to give it a +meaning in which it is still in use among all European nations. + +But there was yet to be a real change in the meaning of the word, one +that was inevitable, as the contrast between Christianity and other +religions called for emphasis. The second century A.D. was that in which +the competition was keenest between various religious creeds and forms, +each with its own vitality, and each clearly marked off from the others. +It is no longer a question of religion as a whole, contemplated by a +critical or a sympathetic philosophy; the question is, which creed or +form is to be the true and the victorious religion. Our wonderful word +again adapts itself to the situation. Each separate religious system can +now be called a _religio_. The old polytheistic system can now be called +_religio Deorum_ by the Christian, while his own creed is _religio Dei_. +In the _Octavius_ of Minucius Felix, written about the end of the second +century, the word is already used in this sense. _Nostra religio, vera +religio_,[972] is for him the whole Christian faith and practice as it +stood then--the depth of feeling and the acts which gave it outward +form. The one true religion can thus be now expressed by the word. In +Lactantius, Arnobius, Tertullian, in the third century A.D., this new +sense is to be found on almost every page, but a single noble passage of +Lactantius must suffice to illustrate it. "The heathen sacrifice," he +says, "and leave all their religion in the temple; thus it is that such +_religiones_ cannot make men good or firm in their faith. But 'nostra +_religio_ eo firma est et solida et immutabilis, quia mentem ipsam pro +sacrificio habet, quia tota in animo colentis est.'"[973] + +Here at last we come upon a force of meaning which the word had never +before attained. _Religio_ here is not awe only or cult only, but _a +mental devotion capable of building up character_. "The kingdom of God +is within you." Surely this is a valuable legacy to the Christian faith +from our hard, dry, old Roman religion. + +Another legacy in words is that of _pius_. Our English word "pious" has +suffered some damage from the sanctimoniousness of a certain type of +Puritanism; but _piety_ still remains sweet and wholesome, and, like its +Latin original in the middle ages it seems to express one beautiful +aspect of the Christian life better than any other word. In the old +Roman religion _pius_ meant the man who strictly conforms his life to +the _ius divinum_; this we know from the very definite ancient +explanations of its contrary, _impius_. The _impius_ is the man who +_wilfully_ breaks the _ius divinum_ and the _pax deorum_; for him no +_piaculum_ was of avail.[974] Such a crime is the nearest approach in +Roman antiquity to our idea of sin. _Pius_ is therefore, as we saw in +discussing Aeneas, the man who knows the will of the gods, and so far as +in him lies adjusts his conduct thereto, whether in the life of the +family or as a citizen of the State. As applied to things, to a war for +example, the word _pium_ is almost equivalent to _iustum_ or _purum_, +_i.e._, _pium bellum_ is a war declared and conducted in accordance with +the principles of the _ius divinum_.[975] _Pietas_ is therefore a +virtue, that of obedience to the will of God as shown in private and +public life, and it herein differs from _religio_, which is not a +virtue, but a feeling. But we need not be surprised to find that in +Lactantius _pietas_ can be used to explain _religio_; for _religio_ is +no longer a feeling only or a cult only, but, as we saw just now, a +mental devotion capable of building up character. In one passage he says +that it is no true philosophy which "veram religionem, id est summam +pietatem, non habet."[976] In another interesting chapter he shows +plainly enough that he uses _pietas_ just as he uses _religio_, to +express the whole Christian mental furniture.[977] He begins by +scornfully pointing to Aeneas as the typical _pius_, and asking what we +are to think of the _pietas_ of a man who could bind the hands of +prisoners in order to slaughter them as a sacrifice to the shade of +Pallas[978] (little dreaming, indeed, that Christian piety should ever +be guilty of such slaughter in the cause of the faith); and ends by +asking, "What, then, is _pietas_? Surely it is with those who know not +war; who keep at peace with all men; who love their enemies and count +all men their brethren; who can control their anger and curb all mental +wilfulness." And once again, _pietas_ is the main ingredient in +_iustitia_, that is, in Christian righteousness, for "pietas nihil aliud +est quam Dei notio." Even here it is not so far removed from its old +meaning; but in a Christian writer it can mean conformity to the will of +God, based on a real knowledge of Him, in a sense which shows us by a +sudden illuminating flash the deep gulf set between the old religion and +the new. + +Another word, bequeathed in this case rather by the Latin language than +the Roman religion, in which it held no strictly technical meaning, is +_sanctus_, which has played so large a part in the terminology of the +Catholic Church, and passed thence into the language of Puritanism for +the living Christian, as in Baxter's famous book, _The Saints' Rest_. +The exact meaning of _sanctus_ is extremely difficult to fix, and this +may be why it was found to be a convenient word for a type of character +negative rather than positive. The lawyers defined it as meaning what is +_sancitum_ by the State,[979] without tracing it back to a time when the +State was a religious as well as a civil entity. But there was beyond +doubt a religious flavour in it from the beginning, as in other old +Italian words connected with it; and thus it seems to be able to express +a certain conjunction of religious and moral purity which finally +brought it into the hands of the Christian writers. A single verse of +Virgil will serve to explain what I mean. Turnus, before he rushes forth +to meet his death at Aeneas' hand, and knowing that he is to meet it, +asks the Manes to be good to him, "quoniam superis aversa voluntas," +for-- + + _sancta_ ad vos _anima_ atque istius nescia culpae + descendam magnorum haud unquam indignus avorum.[980] + +He goes to the shades with a conscience clear of guilt or of _impietas_; +as the ancient scholiast interprets the word, it is equivalent to +_incorrupta_.[981] In this sense it became one of the favourite +superlatives to describe in sepulchral inscriptions, pagan or Christian, +the purity of departed women and children.[982] + +Lastly, we have the great word _sacer_, with its compounds _sacrificium_ +and _sacramentum_. The adjective itself has no new or special +significance, I think, in the language of the early Christians, and in +our Teutonic languages the Roman sense of it, "that which is made over +to God," is expressed by the word _holy_, _sacred_ being retained in a +general sense for that which is not "common." But _sacrificium_, the act +of making a thing, animate or inanimate, or yourself, as in _devotio_, +over to the gods, is indeed a great legacy on which I do not need to +dwell. _Sacramentum_, on the other hand, needs a word of explanation. + +_Sacramentum_ in Roman public law meant (1) a legal formula (_legis +actio_), under which a sum of money was deposited, originally in a +temple,[983] to be forfeited by the loser in a suit. The deposition _in +loco sacro_ gives the word to the process, and helps us to see that it +must mean some act which has a religious sanction. So with (2) its other +meaning, _i.e._ the oath of obedience taken by the soldier, who was +_iuratus in verba_, that is, sworn under a formula with a religious +sanction attached.[984] It is tempting to suppose that it is through +this channel that it found its way into the Christian vocabulary--the +soldier of Christ affirming his allegiance in the solemn rites of +baptism, marriage, or the Eucharist. It is a curious fact that it seems +to be used in this way in the religion of Mithras,[985] which was +especially powerful among the Roman legions of the Empire, and in which +there was a grade of the faithful with the title of _milites_. +_Sacramentum_ was here the word for the initiatory rites of a grade. In +the earliest Christian writers of Latin it usually means a mystery; thus +Arnobius writes of the Christian religion as revealing the "veritatis +absconditae sacramenta";[986] but in another passage the idea in his +mind seems to be that of military service. It is better, he says, for +Christians to break their worldly contracts, even of marriage, than to +break the _fides Christiana_, "_et salutaris militiae sacramenta +deponere_;"[987] and Tertullian more than once attaches the same +military meaning to it: "Vocati sumus ad militiam Dei vivi iam tunc _cum +in verba sacramenti spopondimus_."[988] Perhaps we may take it that the +word, though of general significance for a religiously binding force +produced by certain mysterious rites, had a special attraction for +writers of the painful third century A.D., as reflecting into the +Christian life from old Roman times something of the spirit of the duty +and self-sacrifice of the loyal legionary. In any case we have once more +a verbal legacy of priceless value.[989] + +To sum up what I have been saying, there were certain ingredients in the +Roman soil, deposits of the Roman religious experience, which were in +their several ways favourable to the growth of a new plant. There were +also certain direct legacies from the old Roman religion, of which +Christianity could dispose with profit, in the shape of forms of ritual, +and, what was even of greater value, words of real significance in the +old religion, which were destined to become of permanent and priceless +value in the Christian speech of the western nations. There were also +other points in the society and organisation of the Roman Empire which +were of great importance for the growth of the new creed; but these lie +outside my proper subject, and have been dealt with by Professor Gardner +in the lecture to which I alluded at the beginning of this lecture, and +most instructively by Sir W. M. Ramsay in more than one of his books, +and especially in _St. Paul, the Traveller and Roman Citizen_. + +And yet, all this taken together, so far from explaining Christianity, +does not help us much in getting to understand even the conditions under +which it grew into men's minds as a new power in the life of the world. +The plant, though grown in soil which had borne other crops, was wholly +new in structure and vital principle. I say this deliberately, after +spending so many years on the study of the religion of the Romans, and +making myself acquainted in some measure with the religions of other +peoples. The essential difference, as it appears to me as a student of +the history of religion, is this, that whereas the connection between +religion and morality has so far been a loose one,--at Rome, indeed, so +loose, that many have refused to believe in its existence,--the _new +religion was itself morality_,[990] but morality consecrated and raised +to a higher power than it had ever yet reached. It becomes active +instead of passive; mere good nature is replaced by a doctrine of +universal love; _pietas_, the sense of duty in outward things, becomes +an enthusiasm embracing all humanity, consecrated by such an appeal to +the conscience as there never had been in the world before--the appeal +to the life and death of the divine Master. + +This is what is meant, if I am not mistaken, by the great contrast so +often and so vividly drawn by St. Paul between the spirit and the flesh, +between the children of light and the children of darkness, between the +sleep or the death of the world and the waking to life in Christ, +between the blameless and the harmless sons of God and the crooked and +perverse generation among whom they shine as lights in the world. I +confess that I never realised this contrast fully or intelligently until +I read through the Pauline Epistles from beginning to end with a special +historical object in view. It is useful to be familiar with the life and +literature of the two preceding centuries, if only to be able the better +to realise, in passing to St. Paul, a Roman citizen, a man of education +and experience, the great gulf fixed between the old and the new as he +himself saw it. + +But historical knowledge, knowledge of the Roman society of the day, +study of the Roman religious experience, cannot do more than give us a +little help; they cannot reveal the secret. History can explain the +progress of morality, but it cannot explain its consecration. With St. +Paul the contrast is not merely one of good and bad, but of the spirit +and the flesh, of life and death. No mere contemplation of the world +around him could have kindled the fervency of spirit with which this +contrast is by him conceived and expressed. Absolute devotion to the +life and death of the Master, apart even from His work and teaching (of +which, indeed, St. Paul says little), this alone can explain it. The +love of Christ is the entirely new power that has come into the +world;[991] not merely as a new type of morality, but as "_a Divine +influence transfiguring human nature in a universal love_." The passion +of St. Paul's appeal lies in the consecration of every detail of it by +reference to the life and death of his Master; and the great contrast is +for him not as with the Stoics, between the universal law of Nature and +those who rebel against it; not as with Lucretius, between the blind +victims of _religio_ and the indefatigable student of the _rerum +natura_; not, as in the _Aeneid_, between the man who bows to the +decrees of fate, destiny, God, or whatever we choose to call it, and the +wilful rebel, victim of his own passions; not, as in the Roman State +and family, between the man who performs religious duties and the man +who wilfully neglects them--between _pius_ and _impius_; but between the +universal law of love, focussed and concentrated in the love of Christ, +and the sleep, the darkness, the death of a world that will not +recognise it. + +I will conclude these lectures with one practical illustration of this +great contrast, which will carry us back for a moment to the ritual of +the old Roman _ius divinum_. That ritual, we saw, consisted mainly of +sacrifice and prayer, the two apparently inseparable from each other. I +pointed out that though the efficacy of the whole process was believed +to depend on the strictest adherence to prescribed forms, whether of +actions or words, the prayers, when we first meet with them, have got +beyond the region of charm or spell, and are cast in the language of +petition; they show clearly a sense of the dependence of man on the +Power manifesting itself in the universe. There was here, perhaps, a +germ of religious development; but it was arrested in its growth by the +formalisation of the whole Roman religious system, and no substitute was +to be found for it either in the imported Greek ritual, or in the more +enlightening doctrines of exotic Greek philosophy. The prayers used in +the ritual of Augustus' great festival, which was almost as much Greek +as Roman in character, seem to us as hard and formal as the most ancient +Roman prayers that have come down to us. In the most emotional moments +of the life of a Roman of enlightenment like Cicero, when we can truly +say of him that he was touched by true religious feeling, as well as by +the spiritual aspirations of the nobler Greek philosophers, prayers find +no place at all. + +But for St. Paul and the members of the early Christian brotherhood the +whole of life was a continuous worship, and the one great feature of +that worship was prayer. It has been said by a great Christian writer +of recent times that "when the attention of a thinking heathen was +directed to the new religion spreading in the Roman Empire, the first +thing to strike him as extraordinary would be that a religion of prayer +was superseding the religion of ceremonies and invocation of gods; that +it encouraged all, even the most uneducated, to pray, or, in other +words, to meditate and exercise the mind in self-scrutiny and +contemplation of God."[992] And, as the same writer says, prayer thus +became a motive power of moral renewal and _inward civilisation_, to +which nothing else could be compared for efficacy. And more than this, +it was the chief inward and spiritual means of maintaining that +universal law of love, which, so far as this life was concerned, was the +great secret of the new religion. + + + NOTES TO LECTURE XX + + [956] P. Gardner, _The Growth of Christianity_, 1907, p. + 2. Cp. some remarks of Prof. Conway in _Virgil's + Messianic Eclogue_, p. 39 foll. + + [957] The phrase "enthusiasm of humanity" is, of course, + that of the author of _Ecce Homo_, a most inspiring book + for all students of religious history, as indeed for all + other readers. + + [958] Dobschuetz on "Early Christian Eschatology," in + _Transactions of the Third Congress for the History of + Religions_, vol. ii. (Oxford, 1908), p. 320. + + [959] The words are those of Mr. Glover in the last page + of his _Studies in Virgil_. + + [960] It should be understood that these legacies, with + the exception of the last (the vocabulary), were only + taken up by the Church after the first two centuries of + its existence. And even the vocabulary of the early + Roman Church was mainly Greek (Gwatkin, _Early Church + History_, ii. 213), and it was not till the rise of the + African school of writers (Tertullian, Arnobius, + Augustine) that the Latin vocabulary really established + itself. Any real assimilation of Christian and pagan + forms of worship was not possible until the latter were + growing meaningless; then "the assimilation of + Christianity to heathenism from the third century is + matter of history" (Gwatkin, i. 269). + + [961] Caird, _Gifford Lectures_, vol. ii. p. 353, has + some interesting remarks on this point. + + [962] See above, p. 211. + + [963] _Growth of Christianity_, p. 144. + + [964] See _Roman Festivals_, p. 308. + + [965] _Confessions_, i. 14. + + [966] Westcott, _Religious Thought in the West_, p. 246. + Gwatkin writes (vol. ii. 236) that all Augustine's + conceptions are shaped by law and Stoicism. Cp. p. 237. + So, too, of Tertullian. + + [967] By W. Otto, in the _Archiv fuer + Religionswissenschaft_, vol. xii. (1909) p. 533 foll. + + [968] _De Inventione_, ii. 161. + + [969] _De Legibus_, ii. 10. 25. + + [970] _Ib._ 10. 23. + + [971] Lucretius i. 101. + + [972] _E.g._ Octavius 38. 2; and again at the end of + that chapter. + + [973] Lactantius, bk. v. (_de Iustitia_) ch. 19. I may + note here that the paragraph in the text where this is + quoted was first published in the _Transactions of the + Congress for the History of Religions_ (Oxford, 1908), + vol. ii. p. 174. I may also add that the restricted + sense of the word _religio_ as meaning the monastic + life is, of course, comparatively late. This restrictive + use of heathen words, from the third century onwards, is + the subject of some valuable remarks by Prof. Gwatkin in + his _Early Church History_, vol. i. p. 268 foll. + + [974] See _Roman Festivals_, p. 299, and the references + there given. + + [975] Livy i. 32, ix. 8. 6; Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 476; + Greenidge, _Roman Public Life_, p. 56. + + [976] Lactantius iv. 3 (_de vera sapientia_). + + [977] _Ib._ v. (_de Iustitia_) ch. 10. + + [978] _Aen._ xi. 81. + + [979] Marquardt, 145, note 5. + + [980] _Aen._ xii. 648. + + [981] Servius, _ad Aen._ xii. 648. + + [982] The original meaning of _sanctus_ as applied to + things, _e.g._ walls and tombs, was probably + "inviolable"; Nettleship, _Contributions to Latin + Lexicography_, _s.v._ "sanctus," who also suggests a + connection between the word and the attitude of the + Roman towards his dead: thus Cicero in _Topica 90_ + writes of _aequitas_ as consisting of three + parts,--_pietas_, _sanctitas_, and _iustitia_,--meaning + man's relation to the gods, the Manes, and his + fellow-men. Nettleship also quotes _Aen._ v. 80 (_salve + sancte parens_), Tibull. ii. 2. 6, and other passages, + which show that the word was specially used of the dead + and their belongings. But when used of persons living, + as frequently in the last century B.C., it expresses a + certain purity of life, not without a religious + tincture, which could not so well be expressed by any + other word, owing to the original meaning being that of + religious inviolability. Thus Cicero uses it in the 9th + Philippic of his old friend Sulpicius, one of the best + and purest men of his time; and long before Cicero, Cato + had used it of an obligation at once ethical and + religious: "Maiores _sanctius_ habuere defendi pupillos + quam clientem non fallere." It is interesting to notice + that it was used later on of Mithras and other oriental + deities (Cumont, _Mon. myst. Mithra_, i. p. 533; _Les + Religions orientales_, p. 289, note 45); in the case of + Mithras, at least, this meant that his life was pure, + and that he wished his worshippers to be pure also. + + [983] Marquardt, p. 318, note 4; Mommsen, _Strafrecht_, + pp. 902, 1026. See also Greenidge, _Roman Public Life_, + p. 56; Festus, p. 347. + + [984] Greenidge, _op. cit._ p. 154. + + [985] Cumont, _Mysterien von Mithras_, p. 116 of the + German edition. See also De Marchi, _La Religione nella + vita privata_, vol. ii. 114. It may be worth noting that + the idea of life as the service of a soldier bound to + obedience by his oath is found also in Stoicism; see + Epictetus (_Arrian_), _Discourses_, i. 14, iii. 24, + 99-101, ii. 26, 28-30; (Crossley's _Golden Sayings of + Epictetus_, Nos. 37, 125, 132, 134). + + [986] Arnobius, _adv. Nationes_, i. 3. + + [987] _Ib._ ii. 6. + + [988] Tertull., _ad Martyr._ c. 3. Cp. _de Corona + Militiae_, c. 11. + + [989] It is curious that the word _sacerdos_ did not + find its way into the Christian vocabulary. Apparently + it had its chance; for Tertullian uses it in several + ways, _e.g._, "summus sacerdos" for a bishop (_de Bapt._ + 17; "disciplina sacerdotalis," _de Monog._ 7. 12; and + for other examples see Harnack, _Entstehung und + Entwickelung der Kirchenverfassung und des Kirchenrechts + in den zwei ersten Jahrhunderten_, 1910, p. 85). But the + words finally adopted for the grades of the priesthood + were Greek: bishop, priest, and deacon. Nevertheless, + the general word for the priesthood, as distinguished + from the laity, is Latin (_ordo_); hence "ordination" + and holy "orders." It is not of religious origin, but + taken from the language of municipal life, _ordo et + plebs_ being contrasted just as they were contrasted in + _municipia_ as senate (_decuriones_) and all + non-official persons. See Harnack, _op. cit._ p. 82. + + [990] This is, of course, in one light, the legitimate + development of the union of religion and morality in the + Hebrew mind. "For the Israelite morality, righteousness, + is simply doing the will of God, which from the earliest + age is assumed to be ascertainable, and indeed + ascertained. The Law in its simplest form was at once + the rule of morality and the revealed will of God." "The + central feature of O.T. morality is its religious + character" (Alexander, _Ethics of St. Paul_, p. 34). In + the religious system we have been occupied with, + religion can only be reckoned as one of the factors in + the growth of morality; it supplied the sanction for + some acts of righteousness, but (in historical times at + least) by no means for all. + + Prof. Gwatkin, in his _Early Church History_, vol. i. p. + 54, states the relation of early Christianity to + morality thus: "Christ's person, not His teaching, is + the message of the Gospel. If we know anything for + certain about Jesus of Nazareth, it is that He steadily + claimed to be the Son of God, the Redeemer of mankind, + and the ruler of the world to come, and by that claim + the Gospel stands or falls. Therefore, the Lord's + disciples went not forth as preachers of morality, but + as witnesses of his life, and of the historic + resurrection which proved his mightiest claims. Their + morality is always an inference from these, never the + forefront of their teaching. They seem to think that if + they can only fill men with true thankfulness for the + gift of life in Christ, morality will take care of + itself." I cannot but think that this is expressed too + strongly, or baldly; but it is in the main in keeping + with the impression left on my mind by a study of St. + Paul. It must, however, be remembered that the Pauline + spirit is not exactly that of early Christianity in + general: see Gwatkin, vol. i. p. 98. In the _Didache_, + _e.g._, there is no trace of St. Paul's influence (104). + + [991] In a book which had just been published when I was + delivering these lectures at Edinburgh (_The Ethics of + St. Paul_, by Archibald Alexander), I found a very + interesting chapter on "The Dynamic of the New Life," p. + 126 foll. The word which for the author best expresses + that dynamic is _faith_, which is "the spring of all + endeavour, the inspiration of all heroism" (p. 150). "It + brings the whole life into the domain of spiritual + freedom, and is the animating and energising principle + of all moral purpose." What exactly is here understood + by faith is explained on p. 151 to the end of the + chapter, of which I may quote the concluding words: + "Faith in Christ means life in Christ. And this complete + yielding of self and vital union with the Saviour, this + dying and rising again, is at once man's supreme ideal + and the source of all moral greatness." + + [992] Doellinger, _The First Age of Christianity and the + Church_ (Oxenham's translation), p. 344 foll. + + + + +APPENDIX I + +ON THE USE OF HUTS OR BOOTHS IN RELIGIOUS RITUAL + + +This may be taken as an addendum to Lecture II. on taboo at Rome; but +owing to the uncertainty of the explanation given in it, I reserved it +for an Appendix. The custom here dealt with is found both in the public +and private worship of the Romans, and also in Greece and elsewhere, but +has never, so far as I know, been investigated by anthropologists. + +On the Ides of March, at the festival of Anna Perenna, a deity explained +as representing "the ring of the year," whose cult is not recognised in +the ancient religious calendar, the lower population came out of the +city, and lay about all day in the Campus Martius, near the Tiber. Ovid, +fortunately, took the trouble to describe the scene in the third book of +his _Fasti_, as he had witnessed it himself. Some of them, he says, lay +in the open, _some constructed tents, and some made rude huts of stakes +and branches, stretching their togas over them to make a shelter_. + + plebs venit ac virides passim disiecta per herbas + potat, et accumbit cum pare quisque sua. + sub Iove pars durat, pauci tentoria ponunt, + sunt quibus e ramis frondea facta casa est, + pars, ubi pro rigidis calamos statuere columnis, + desuper extentas imposuere togas. + sole tamen vinoque calent, annosque precantur, + quot sumant cyathos, ad numerumque bibunt.[993] + +It appears also from Ovid's account that there was much drunkenness and +obscene language; this was, in fact, a _festa_ very different in +character from those of the Numan calendar; and that there was a magical +element in the cult of the deity seems proved by the mysterious allusion +to "virgineus cruor" in connection with her grove not far from this +scene of revelry, in Martial iv. 64. 17 (cp. Pliny, _N.H._ xxviii. 78, +and Columella x. 558). Tibullus describes something of the same kind at +a rustic festival,[994] though he does not make it clear what time of +year he is speaking of; a few lines before he had mentioned the drinking +and leaping over the fire at the Parilia, the shepherd's festival in +April, though I cannot feel sure that the following lines are also meant +to refer to it:-- + + tunc operata deo pubes discumbet in herba, + arboris antiquae qua levis umbra cadit, + aut e veste sua tendent umbracula sertis + vincta, coronatus stabit et ipse calix. + +Here it is too much to suppose that the _umbracula_ were contrived +to make up for the want of shade in a country so covered +with woodland as Italy was then; and the words "_sertis vincta_" +show that there was some special meaning in the practice. I +think we may guess that in both instances the extemporised huts +had some forgotten religious meaning. Yet another passage of +Tibullus, which also describes a rural festival, alludes to a similar +custom.[995] I have given reasons in the _Classical Review_ for +thinking that this was a summer festival, accompanied as it was, +like many midsummer rites all over Europe, by bonfires and +revelry, though the usual interpretation ascribes it to the winter.[996] + + tunc nitidus plenis confisus rusticus agris + ingeret ardenti grandia ligna foco, + turbaque vernarum, saturi bona signa coloni, + ludet et ex virgis exstruet ante casas. + +The slaves can here hardly be playing at building houses of +twigs, like the children in Horace's _Satire_,[997] unless we are to +suppose that Tibullus is thinking of slave children only, which +is indeed possible; but even if that were so, how are we to +account for the popularity of this curious form of sport? + +There was, however, at Rome a public summer festival, +included in the calendar, in which we find this same custom. +At the Neptunalia, on July 23, huts or booths were erected, +made of the foliage of trees. "Umbrae vocantur Neptunalibus +_casae frondeae pro tabernaculis_," says Festus[998] (following Verrius +Flaccus), where the last word is one in regular use for military +tents. This is the only thing that is told us about this festival, +and we may assume that even this would not have come down +to us if it had not been a survival rigidly adhered to, _i.e._ the +construction of shelters from the foliage of trees, instead of +using tents, which could easily have been procured in the city. +As the festival was in the hot month of July, we might suppose +that shelter from the sun was the real object here; but we do +not hear of it at other summer festivals, and the parallel practices +I shall now mention make the rationalising explanation very +doubtful. It is unlucky that we know hardly anything about +the older and un-Graecised Neptunus, and nothing about his +festival except this one fact; the comparative method is here +our only hope. + +The Jewish feast of tabernacles will, of course, occur at once to every +one; this was in the heat of the summer, and the booths were here, as at +the Neptunalia, made of the branches of trees;[999] the explanation +given to the Israelites was not that they were thus to shelter +themselves from the heat, but to be reminded of their homeless +wanderings in the wilderness, plainly an aetiological account, as in the +case of the passover. There are distinct examples in Greece of the same +practice, _e.g._ the [Greek: skiades] at the Spartan Carneia,[1000] and +tents ([Greek: skenai]) in several cases, as at the mysteries of +Andania, where the peculiar regulations for the construction of the +tents points to a ritualistic origin almost unmistakably.[1001] But +perhaps the most striking parallel is to be found in the famous letter +of Gregory the Great, preserved by Bede, about the British converts to +Christianity, who were to be allowed to use their heathen temples as +churches: + +"Et quia boves solent in sacrificio daemonum multos occidere, +debet iis etiam hac in re aliqua solemnitas immutari: ut die +dedicationis, vel natalicii sanctorum martyrum quorum illic +reliquiae ponuntur, _tabernacula sibi circa easdem ecclesias quae ex +fanis commutatae sunt, de ramis arborum faciant_, et religiosis conviviis +sollemnitatem celebrent: nec diabolo iam animalia immolent, +et ad laudem Dei in esu suo animalia occident," etc.[1002] + +Why should Gregory here take the trouble to describe the +material out of which these huts were to be made? Surely +because the custom was one which had been described to him +by Augustine or Mellitus as part of the heathen practice, and +one which he was willing to condone as harmless (possibly with a +recollection of the Jewish feast), since the Britons set great store +by it. + +If these examples from Europe and Palestine are sufficient to +suggest that there was originally a religious or mystic meaning in +the custom, we must look for its explanation in anthropological +research. Robertson Smith was,[1003] I think, the first to suggest a +possible explanation of the Feast of Tabernacles, by comparing +with it the rule, stated in Numbers xxxi. 19, that men might not +enter their houses after bloodshed: "Do ye abide without the +camp seven days: whosoever hath killed any person, and whosoever +hath touched any slain, purify both yourselves and your +captives on the third day and on the seventh day." He also +pointed out that pilgrims are subject to the same rule, or +taboo, in Syria and elsewhere. Since then an immense mass of +evidence has been collected showing that all the world over +persons in a holy or unclean state are placed under this or some +similar restriction;[1004] and if this be the case with pilgrims and +warriors after a battle, it may also have been so with worshippers +at some particular festival, even if we are quite unable to recover +the special character of the worship which produced the +restriction.[1005] In the Feast of Tabernacles, which was a harvest +festival, the cause seems to have been the great sanctity of the +first-fruits, which are regarded with extreme veneration in many +parts of the world. In the now famous festival of the first-fruits +among the Natchez Indians of Louisiana, of which the details +have been recorded with singular care and obvious accuracy,[1006] we +find that the chief, the Great Sun, and all the celebrators, have +to live in huts two miles from their village, while the corn, grown +for the purpose in a particular spot, is sacramentally eaten. It +is quite impossible, without further evidence, which is not likely +ever to be forthcoming, to explain either the Greek, Roman, or +British customs in this way; we must be content with the +general principle that the holiness of human beings at particular +times is liable to carry with it the practice of renouncing your +own dwelling and living in an extemporised hut or booth. The +tents that we hear of in the Greek rites I look upon as late +developments of this primitive practice. The inscription of +Andania, which is the best Greek evidence we possess, dates +only from 91 B.C.; and by that time there would have been +every opportunity for the rude huts to become civilised tents. +The _casae_ made by the _vernae_ in Tibullus' poem were, I would +suggest, a kind of unconscious survival of the same feeling and +practice, the real religious meaning being almost entirely lost. + +Lastly, I will venture to suggest that the _casae_ of the Roman +custom, made of branches at the Neptunalia and the feast of +Anna Perenna, and of _virgae_ by the slaves on the farm, are +a reminiscence of the earliest form of Italian dwelling, which +survived to historical times in the round temple of Vesta, and of +which we have examples in the hut-urns discovered in the +necropolis at Alba.[1007] The earliest form of all was probably +a round structure made of branches of trees stuck into the +ground, bent inwards at the top and tied together.[1008] Just as +bronze instruments survived from an earlier stage of culture in +some religious rites at Rome, so, I imagine, did this ancient +form of dwelling, which really belongs to an age previous to +that of permanent settlement and agricultural routine. The hut +circles of the neolithic age, such as are abundant on Dartmoor, +were probably roofed with branches supported by a central +pole.[1009] + + [993] _Fasti_, iii. 525 foll. See _R.F._ p. 50 foll. + + [994] Tibull. ii. 5. 89 foll. Mr. Mackail has pointed + out to me a passage in the _Pervigilium Veneris_, line + 5, which seems to contain a hint of the same practice + (cp. line 43). + + [995] Tibull. ii. 1. 1-24. + + [996] _Classical Review_, 1908, p. 36 foll. My + conclusions were criticised by Dr. Postgate in the + _Classical Quarterly_ for 1909, p. 127. + + [997] Hor. _Sat._ ii. 3. 247. + + [998] Festus, ed. Mueller, p. 377. + + [999] Leviticus xxiii. 40-42. Cp. Plutarch, _Quaest. + conviv._ 4. 2. This was a feast of harvest and + first-fruits (Exodus xxiii. 16). Nehemiah viii. 13 foll. + gives a graphic account of the revival of this festival + after the captivity. + + [1000] Athenaeus iv. 41. 8 F. Cp. Farnell, _Cults of the + Greek States_, vol. iv., p. 260. + + [1001] Dittenberger, _Sylloge inscript._ (ed. 2), 653, + lines 34 foll. Cp. p. 200 (Teos). + + [1002] Baeda, _Hist. eccl._ i. 30 (ed. Plummer). There + is a curious case of isolation in a hut in a process by + which the sacrificer of the _soma_ in the Vedic religion + becomes divine, quoted by Hubert et Mauss, _Melanges_, + p. 34. This may possibly afford a clue to the mystery. + + [1003] _Religion of the Semites_, notes K and N at the + end of the volume. + + [1004] See _e.g._ Frazer, _G. B._ ed. 2, index, _s.v._ + "Seclusion." + + [1005] It has occurred to me that the shedding of blood + in animal sacrifice may possibly be the reason in some + of these rites. The last words of the passage quoted + above from Baeda suggest this explanation in the case of + the Britons. In the first-fruits festivals the "killing + of the corn" may be a parallel cause of taboo. See _G. + B._ i. 372. + + [1006] Du Pratz, translated in _G. B._ ii. 332 foll. + + [1007] See _e.g._ Helbig, _Die Italiker in der Poebene_, + p. 50 foll. Lanciani, _Ruins and Excavations of Ancient + Rome_, p. 132. It is worth noting that in a passage + quoted by Helbig, Plutarch (_Numa_ 8) uses for some of + the most ancient Roman attempts at temple building the + same word by which he describes the booths at the feast + of tabernacles ([Greek: kaliades]). + + [1008] Whether there was in later days any special + religious signification in the use of green foliage and + branches I will not undertake to say, but I have been + struck by the constant use of them in cases of + religious seclusion, even where the person is secluded + in some part of the house, and not outside it. See _e.g. + G. B._ ii. pp. 205-214. + + [1009] Prof. Anwyl, _Celtic Religion_ (Constable's + series), p. 10. Mr. Baring-Gould told Mr. Anwyl that he + had seen in some of the Dartmoor circles central holes + which seemed meant for the fixing of this pole. I will + add here that it has occurred to me that these huts + must, in one sense at least, be a survival (like other + points of ritual), from the days of pastoral life, and + of the migration of the Aryans. Temporary huts are + characteristic of pastoral as contrasted with + agricultural life, and must have been used during the + wanderings, as by the Israelites. See Schrader, + _Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples_ (Eng. + Trans., London, 1890), p. 404. + + + + +APPENDIX II + +PROF. DEUBNER'S THEORY OF THE LUPERCALIA +(See pp. 34 and 106) + + +In the _Archiv fuer Religionswissenschaft_, 1910, p. 481 foll., Prof. +Deubner has published an interesting study of this puzzling festival, to +which I wish to invite attention, though it has reached me too late for +use in my earlier lectures. + +It has long been clear to me that any attempt to explain the details of +the Lupercalia on a single hypothesis must be a failure. If all the +details belong to the same age and the same original festival, we cannot +recover the key to the whole ceremonial, though we may succeed in +interpreting certain features of it with some success. Is it, however, +possible that these details belong to _different_ periods,--that the +whole rite, as we know it, with all the details put together from +different sources of knowledge, was the result of an accretion of +various features upon an original simple basis of ceremonial? Prof. +Deubner answers this question in the affirmative, and works out his +answer with much skill and learning. + +He begins by explaining the word _lupercus_ as derived from _lupus_ and +_arceo_, and meaning a "keeper off of wolves." The _luperci_ were +originally men chosen from two gentes or families to keep the wolves +from the sheepfolds, in the days when the Palatine was a shepherd's +settlement, and they did it by running round the base of the hill in a +magical circle (if I understand him rightly). If that be so, we need not +assume a deity Lupercus, nor in fact any deity at all, nor need we see +in the runners a quasi-dramatic representation of wolves as +vegetation-spirits, as Mannhardt proposed (see my _Roman Festivals_, p. +316 foll.). This view has the advantage of making the rite a simple and +practical one, such as would be natural to primitive Latins; and the +etymology is apparently unexceptionable, though it will doubtless be +criticised, as in fact it has been long ago. + +But in course of time, Prof. Deubner goes on, there came to be engrafted +on this simple rite of circumambulation without reference to a deity, a +festival of the rustic god Faunus; and now there was added a sacrifice +of goats, which seem to have been his favourite victims (kids in Hor. +_Odes_, iii. 18). The _luperci_, who had formerly run round the hill +quite naked, as in many rites of the kind (see p. 491), now girt +themselves with the skins of the goats, in order to increase their +"religious force" in keeping away the wolves, with strength derived from +the victims. + +But the _luperci_ also carried in their hands, in the festival as we +know it, strips of the skins of the victims, with which they struck at +women who offered themselves to the blows, in order to make them +fertile. This, Prof. Deubner thinks, was a still later accretion. Life +in a city had obliterated the original meaning of the rite--the keeping +off wolves; but a new meaning becomes attached to it, presumably growing +out of the use of the skins as magical instruments of additional force. +Here, too, Juno first appears on the scene as the deity of women, for +the strips were known as _amicula Iunonis_ (_R.F._ 321 and note). The +strips may have been substituted for something carried in the hand to +drive away the wolves; the goat, it should be noted, is prominent in the +cult of Juno, _e.g._ at Lanuvium. The mystical meaning of striking or +flogging has been sufficiently explained in this instance by Mannhardt +(_R.F._ p. 320), and is now familiar to anthropologists in other +contexts. + +In the period when the fertilisation of women became the leading feature +of the rite, the State took up the popular festival, and it gained +admittance to the religious calendar, which was drawn up for the city of +the four regions (see above, Lect. IV., p. 106). The State was +represented, as we learn from Ovid, by the Flamen Dialis (_Fasti_, ii. +282). + +But we still have to account for some strange detail, which has never +been satisfactorily explained in connection with the rest of the +ceremony. The runners had their foreheads smeared with the blood of the +victims, which was then wiped off with wool dipped in milk; after which, +says Plutarch (_Romulus_, 21), they were obliged to laugh. These +details, as Prof. Deubner remarks, seem very un-Roman; we have no +parallel to them in Roman ritual, and I have remarked more than once in +these lectures on the absence of the use of blood in Roman ceremonial. I +have suggested that they were allowed to survive in the religion of the +city-state, though actually belonging to that of a primitive population +living on the site of Rome. Prof. Deubner's explanation is very +different, and at first sight startling. These, he thinks, are Greek +cathartic details added by Augustus when he re-organised the Lupercalia, +as we may guess that he did from Suet. _Aug._ 31. They can all be +paralleled from Greek religion. We know of them only from Plutarch, who +quotes a certain Butas as writing Greek elegiacs in which they were +mentioned; but of the date of this poet we know nothing. Ovid does not +mention these details, nor hint at them in the stories he tells about +the festival. (It is certainly possible that Augustus's revision may +have been made after Ovid wrote the second book of the _Fasti_; it could +not have been done until he became Pont. Max. in 12 B.C., and perhaps +not till long after that, and the _Fasti_ was written some time before +Ovid's banishment in A.D. 9.) That Augustus should insert Greek +cathartic details in the old Roman festival is certainly surprising, but +not impossible. We know that in the _ludi saeculares_ he took great +pains to combine Greek with Roman ritual. + +The above is a mere outline of Prof. Deubner's article, but enough, I +hope, to attract the attention of English scholars to it. Whether or no +it be accepted in whole or part by learned opinion, it will at least +have the credit of suggesting a way in which not only the Lupercalia, +but possibly other obscure rites, may be compelled ultimately to yield +up their secrets. + + + + +APPENDIX III + +THE PAIRS OF DEITIES IN GELLIUS xiii. 23 (see page 150) + + +The first paired deity mentioned by Gellius is _Lua Saturni_, also known +as _Lua Mater_, of whom Dr. Frazer writes (p. 412), "In regard to Lua we +know that she was spoken of as a mother, which makes it not improbable +that she was also a wife." We are not surprised to find him claiming +that because Vesta is addressed as Mater in the _Acta Fratr. Arv._ +(Henzen, p. 147), that virgin deity was also married. This he does in +his lectures on Kingship (p. 222), quoting Ennius and Lactantius as +making Vesta mother of Saturnus and Titan. No comment on this is needed +for any one conversant with Graeco-Roman religion and literature from +Ennius onward. The title Mater here means simply that Vesta was to her +worshippers in a maternal position: "quamvis virginem, indole tamen +quadam materna praeditam fuisse nuper exposuit Preunerus," says Henzen, +quoting Preuner's _Hestia-Vesta_, an old book but a good one (p. 333). +But to return to Lua: I freely confess that I cannot explain why she was +styled Mater. We only know of her, apart from the list in Gellius and +one passage of Servius, from the two passages of Livy quoted without +comment by Dr. Frazer. The first of these (viii. 1), which may be taken +from the pontifical books, seems to let in a ray of light on her nature +and function. In 338 B.C. the Volscians had been beaten, and "armorum +magna vis" was found in their camp. "Ea Luae Matri se dare consul dixit, +finesque hostium usque ad maritimam oram depopulatus est." That is, as I +understand the words, he dedicated the enemy's spoils to the _numen_ who +was the enemy of his own crops.[1010] For if Lua be connected +etymologically with _lues_, she may be the hurtful aspect of Saturnus, +like _Tursa_ Cerfia Cerfii Martii as Buecheler explains it (_Umbrica_, +p. 98). + +A curious passage of Servius may be quoted in support of this view, in +which Luae is an almost certain correction for Lunae (see Jordan's +edition of Preller's _Rom. Mythol._ vol. ii. p. 22). Commenting on +Virgil's "Arboribusque satisque lues" (_Aen._ iii. 139), he writes: +"quidam dicunt, diversis numinibus vel bene vel male faciendi potestatem +dicatam, ut Veneri coniugia, Cereri divortia, Iunoni procreationem +liberorum: sterilitatem horum tam Saturno quam Luae, hanc enim sicut +Saturnum orbandi potestatem habere." Whatever Lua may originally have +been, she seems to have been regarded as a power capable of working for +evil in the crops and in women; if you could get her to work on your +enemy's crops (cp. the _excantatio_, above p. 58), so much the better, +and the better would her claim be to the title of Mater (but Dr. Frazer +supplies us with examples of a _hostile_ spirit being called by a +family name, _e.g._, Grandfather Smallpox, _G.B._ iii. p. 98). When the +consul had dedicated the spoils to her he proceeded to assist her in her +functions by ravaging the crops of the enemy; thus she became later on a +deity of spoils. In the Macedonian triumph of B.C. 167 we find her in +company with Mars and Minerva as one of the deities to whom "spolia +hostium dicare ius fasque est" (Livy xlv. 33). + +I may add here that Dr. Frazer has another arrow in his quiver to prove +that Saturnus was married: if Lua was not his wife (which no Roman +asserts) certainly (he says) Ops was. He quotes a few words from +Macrobius (i. 13. 19) in which these two are mentioned as husband and +wife. If he had quoted the whole passage, his reader would have been +better able to judge of the value of the writers of whom Macrobius says +that they "crediderunt" that Ops was wife of Saturn. For it appears that +some of them fancied that Saturnus was "a satu dictus _cuius causa de +caelo est_"--(a desperate attempt to make the old spirit of the seed +into a heaven-god), while Ops, whose name speaks for itself, was the +earth. But the real companion deity to Ops was not Saturnus, but Consus. +This has been placed beyond all reasonable doubt by Wissowa in his _de +Feriis_ (reprinted in _Gesammelte Abhandlungen_, p. 154 foll.). See also +my _R.F._ p. 212. The names Ops and Consus obviously refer to stored +corn, and everything in their cult points the same way. Saturnus' +connection with Ops is a late and a mistaken one, derived from the +Graecising tendency, which brought Cronos and Rhea to bear on them. + +Next a word about Hora Quirini. As this coupling of names is followed by +Virites Quirini, in the characteristic method explained in the text (cp. +Cic. _Nat. Deor._ ii. 27 of Vesta, "_vis_ eius ad aras et focos +pertinet"), it is hardly necessary to comment on it. Hora is perhaps +connected with Umbrian Heris (cp. Buecheler, _Umbrica_, index), which +with kindred forms means will, willingness. Thus in "Nerienem Mavortis +et Herem" (Ennius, fragm. 70, in Baehrens, _Fragm. Poet. Lat._) we may +see the strength and the will of Mars (cp. Herie Iunonis). Hora is also +connected in legend with Hersilia (Ov. _Met._ 14. 829), and this helps +to show how the Alexandrian erotic legend-making faculty got hold of +her. But, says Dr. Frazer, Ennius regarded her as wife of Quirinus: +"Teque Quirine pater veneror, Horamque Quirini" (fragm. 71 of the +_Annales_). This is Dr. Frazer's interpretation of the words, but Ennius +says nothing of conjugal relations; and even if he had, his evidence as +to ancient Roman conceptions would be worthless. Ennius was not a Roman; +he came from Magna Graecia; and if Dr. Frazer will read _all_ that is +said about him, _e.g._ in Schanz's history of Roman literature, he will +allow that every statement of such a man about old Roman ideas of the +divine must be regarded with suspicion and subjected to careful +criticism. + +Next we come to Salacia Neptuni. Of this couple Dr. Frazer says that +Varro plainly implies that they were husband and wife, and that this is +affirmed by Augustine, Seneca, and Servius. The accumulation of evidence +seems strong; but Varro implies nothing of the kind (_L.L._ v. 72). He +is indulging in fancy etymologies, and derives Neptunus from _nubere_, +"quod mare terras obnubit ut nubes caelum, ab nuptu id est opertione ut +antiqui, a quo nuptiae, nuptus dictus." If he had meant to make Salacia +wife of Neptunus, this last sentence would surely have suggested it; but +he goes on after a full stop, "Salacia Neptuni a salo." It is only the +later writers, ignorant of the real nature of Roman religious ideas, who +make Salacia into a wife. It is worth noting that Varro adds another +feminine deity in his next sentence, Venilia, whom Virgil makes the +mother of Turnus (_Aen._ x. 76); and Servius, commenting on this line, +goes one better, and says she was identical with Salacia. Perhaps both +were sea or water spirits, connected with Neptunus as _famulae_ or +_anculae_ (see Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 19), but they are lost to us, and +speculation is useless. In _R.F._ p. 186, I suggested an explanation of +Salacia which I am disposed to withdraw. But for anyone wishing to study +the treatment of old Roman _numina_ by the mythologists and philosophers +of the Graeco-Roman period, I would recommend an attentive reading of +the whole chapter of Augustine from which Dr. Frazer quotes a few words +(_C.D._ vii. 22); and further a careful study of the Graeco-Roman +methods of fabricating myths about Roman divine names, for which he will +do well to read the passages referred to by Wissowa in _R.K._ pp. 250 +and 251, and notes. + +Lastly, comes Maia Volcani. Here for once we get a fact of cult, which +is a relief, after the loose and reckless statements of non-Roman and +Christian writers. The flamen Volcanalis sacrificed to Maia on May 1st, +which proves that there was a real and not a fancied connection between +Volcanus and Maia, but certainly not that they were husband and wife. +Dr. Frazer, however, quotes Cincius "on the _Fasti_" as (ap. Macrob. i. +12. 18) stating this, and refers us to Schanz's _Gesch. der roem. Lit._ +for information about him. In the second edition of that work he will +find a discussion of the very doubtful question as to whether the +Cincius he quotes is the person whom he asserts him to be, viz., the +annalist of the second Punic War. The writer of the article "Cincius" in +Pauly-Wissowa _Real-Encycl._ is very confident that the one who wrote on +the _Fasti_ lived as late as the age of Augustus. But putting that +aside, what are we to make of the fact that another annalist, L. +Calpurnius Piso (famous as the author of the first lex de repetundis, +149 B.C.), said that the wife of Volcanus was not Maia, but Maiestas? +Piso was not a good authority (see above, p. 51), but he seems here to +bring the "consort" of the fire-god into line with such expressions of +activity as Moles, Virites, and so on; and it seems that as early as the +second century B.C., sport and speculation with these names were +beginning. I have quoted the whole pedantic passage from Macrobius in my +_Roman Festivals_, p. 98, where the reader may enjoy it at leisure. I +shall not be surprised if he comes to the conclusion that neither +Macrobius nor his learned informers knew anything about Maia. When he +reads that she was the mother of Mercurius, he will recollect that +Mercurius was not a Roman deity of the earliest period, and did not +belong to the _di indigetes_; and when he finds that she is identified +with Bona Dea, he must not forget that that deity, as scholars are now +pretty well agreed, was introduced at Rome from Tarentum in the age of +the Punic Wars. The one fact we know is the sacrifice by the flamen +Volcanalis on May 1. Someone went to work to explain this and another, +viz. that the Ides of the month was the dedication day of the first +temple of Mercurius (B.C. 495), and also the fact that the temple of the +Bona Dea on the Aventine was dedicated on the Kalends. The result was an +extraordinary jumble of fancy and myth, which has been recognised as +such by those who have studied closely the methods of Graeco-Roman +scholarship. The unwary, of course, are taken in. A student of these +methods might do well to take as an exercise in criticism the three +"specimens of Roman mythology" which Dr. Frazer says (p. 413) have +"survived the wreck of antiquity"--the loves of Vertumnus and Pomona, of +Jupiter and Juturna, of Janus and Cardea. In the last of these +especially he will find one of the most audacious pieces of charming and +wilful invention that a Latin poet could perpetrate, in imitation of +Hellenistic love tales, and to suit the taste of a public whose +education was mainly Greek. + +The above lengthy note was written before I had seen von Domaszewski's +paper on this subject ("Festschrift fuer O. Hirschfeld") reprinted in +_Abhandlungen zur roem. Religion_, p. 104 foll. cp. p. 162.) His +explanations are different in detail from mine, but rest on the same +general principle that the names Salacia, etc., indicate functions or +attributes of the male deity to whom they are attached. + + [1010] For the taboo on such spoils, and their + destruction, see M. S. Reinach's interesting paper + "Tarpeia," in _Cultes, mythes, et religions_, iii. 221 + foll. + + + + +APPENDIX IV + +(LECTURE VIII., PAGE 169 FOLL.) IUS AND FAS + + +In historical times the two kinds of _ius_, _divinum_ and _humanum_, +were strongly distinguished (see Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 318, who quotes +Gaius ii. 2: "summa itaque rerum divisio in duos articulos diducitur, +nam aliae sunt divini iuris, aliae humani"). But it is almost certain +that there was originally no such clear distinction. The general opinion +of historians of Roman law is thus expressed by Cuq (_Institutions +juridiques des Romains_, p. 54): "Le droit civil n'a eu d'abord qu'une +portee fort restreinte. Peu a peu il a gagne du terrain, il a entrepris +de reglementer des rapports qui autrefois etaient du domaine de la +religion. Pendant longtemps a Rome le droit theocratique a coexiste avec +le droit civil." (See also Muirhead, _Introduction to Roman Law_, ed. +Goudy, p. 15.) Possibly the formation of an organised calendar, marking +off the days belonging to the deities from those which were not so made +over to them, first gave the opportunity for the gradual realisation of +the thought that the set of rules under which the citizen was +responsible to the divine beings was not exactly the same as that under +which he was responsible to the civil authorities. The distinction took +many ages to realise in all its aspects, and is not complete even under +the XII. Tables or later, because the sanction for civil offences +remained in great part a divine one; on this point Jhering is certainly +wrong (_Geist des roem. Rechts_, i. 267 foll.). As Cuq remarks (p. 54, +note 1), one institution of the _ius divinum_ kept its force after the +complete secularisation of law, and retains it to this day, viz. the +oath. + +If there was originally no distinction between religious and civil rules +of law, it follows that there were originally no two distinguishing +terms for them. The earliest passage in which they are distinguished as +_ius divinum_ and _humanum_ (so far as I know) is Cicero's speech for +Sestius (B.C. 56), sec. 91, quoted by Wissowa, p. 319: "domicilia +coniuncta quas urbes dicimus, _invento et divino iure et humano_, +moenibus cinxerunt." But by all British writers on Roman law, and by +many foreign ones, the word _fas_ is used as equivalent to the ius +divinum, and sharply distinguished from _ius_. Thus the late Dr. +Greenidge, in his useful work on Roman public life (p. 52 and +elsewhere), makes this distinction; he writes of the _rex_ as the chief +expounder of the divine law (_fas_), and of the control exercised by +_fas_ over the citizen's life. Cp. Muirhead, ed. Goudy, p. 15 foll., +where Mommsen is quoted thus: "Mommsen is probably near the mark when he +describes the _leges regiae_ as mostly rules of the _fas_." But Mommsen, +like Wissowa in his _Religion und Kultus_, does not use the word _fas_, +but speaks of "Sakralrecht." Sohm, on the other hand (_Roman Law_, +trans. Ledlie, p. 15, note), compares _fas_ with Sanscrit _dharma_ and +Greek _themis_, as meaning unwritten rules of divine origin, which +eventually gave way before _ius_, as in Greece before [Greek: dikaion]. +(Cp. Binder, _Die Plebs_, p. 501.) But it is safer in this case to leave +etymology alone, and to try to discover what the Romans themselves +understood by _fas_, which is indeed a peculiar and puzzling word. (For +its possible connection with _fari_, _effari_ (ager effatus), _fanum_, +and _profanum_, etc., see H. Nettleship's _Contributions to Latin +Lexicography_, s.v. "Fas.") + +_Fas_ was at all times indeclinable, and is rarely found even as an +accusative, as in Virg. _Aen._ ix. 96: + + mortaline manu factae immortale carinae + fas habeant? + +In the oldest examples of its use, _i.e._ in the ancient calendar QRCF, +on March 24 and May 24, _i.e._ "quando rex comitiavit fas" (Varro, +_L.L._ vi. 31), and QStDF on June 15, _i.e._ "Quando stercus delatum +fas" (Varro, _L.L._ vi. 32), it is hard to say whether it is a +substantive at all, and not rather an adverb like _satis_. So, too, in +the antique language of the _lex templi_ of Furfo (58 B.C.) we read, +"Utii tangere sarcire tegere devehere defigere mandare ferro oeti +promovere referre _fasque esto_" (_liceat_ should probably be inserted +before _fasque esto_). See _CIL._ i. 603, line 7; Dessau, _Inscript. +Lat. selectae_, ii. 1. 4906, p. 246. In these examples _fas_ simply +means that you may do certain acts without breaking religious law; it +does not stand for the religious law itself. To me it looks like a +technical word of the _ius divinum_, meaning that which it is lawful to +do under it; thus a _dies fastus_ is one on which it is lawful under +that _ius_ to perform certain acts of civil government, "sine piaculo" +(Varro, _L.L._ vi. 29). _Nefas_ is, therefore, in the same way a word +which conveys a prohibition under the divine law. By constant +juxtaposition with _ius_, _fas_ came in course of time to take on the +character of a substantive, and so too did its opposite _nefas_. The +dictionaries supply many examples of its use as a substantive and as +paralleled with _ius_, but the only one I can find that is earlier than +Cicero is Terence, _Hecyra_, iii. 3. 27, _i.e._ in the work of a +non-Roman. + +I cannot find that it is so used by Varro, where we might naturally have +expected it. Cicero does not call his imaginary ius divinum a _fas_, but +iura religionum, constitutio religionum (_de Legibus_ ii. 10-23, 17-32). +_Ius_ is the word always used technically of particular departments of +the religious law, _e.g._ ius pontificium, ius augurale, and ius fetiale +(_CIL._ i. p. 202, is preimus ius fetiale paravit). The notion that +_fas_ could mean a kind of code of religious law is probably due to +Virgil's use of the word in "Quippe etiam festis quaeddam exercere +diebus Fas et iura sinunt," _Georg._ i. 269, and to the comment of +Servius, "id est, divina humanaque iura permittunt: nam ad religionem +fas, ad homines iura pertinent." + +It is strange to find it personified as a kind of deity in the formula +of the fetiales, used when they announced the Roman demands at an +enemy's frontier (Livy i. 32): "Audi Iuppiter, inquit, audite Fines +(cuiuscunque gentis sunt nominat), _audiat Fas_." Whence did Livy get +this formula? We have no record of a book of the fetiales; if this came +from those of the pontifices, as is probable, the formula need not be of +ancient date, and the personification of Fines also suggests a doubt as +to the genuineness of the whole formula. + + + + +APPENDIX V + +THE WORSHIP OF SACRED UTENSILS (page 436) + + +There can be no doubt that some kind of worship was paid by the Arval +Brethren to certain _ollae_, or primitive vessels of sun-baked clay used +in their most ancient rites. This is attested by two inscriptions of +different ages which are printed on pp. 26 and 27 of Henzen's _Acta +Fratrum Arvalium_. After leaving their grove and entering the temple "in +mensa _sacrum fecerunt ollis_"; and shortly afterwards, "in aedem +intraverunt et _ollas precati sunt_." Then, to our astonishment, we read +that the door of the temple was opened, and the _ollae_ thrown down the +slope in front of it. This last act seems inexplicable; but the worship +finds a singular parallel in the dairy ritual of the Todas of the +Nilghiri hills. + +Dr. Rivers, in his work on the Todas (Macmillan, 1906, p. 453), in +summing up his impressions of their worship, observes that "the attitude +of worship which is undoubtedly present in the Toda mind is becoming +transferred from the gods themselves to the material objects used in the +service of the gods." "The religious attitude of worship is being +transferred from the gods themselves _to the objects round which centres +the ritual of the dairy_." These objects are mainly the bells of the +buffaloes and the dairy vessels; and an explicit account of them, the +reverence in which they are held, and the prayers in which they are +mentioned, will be found in the fifth, sixth, and eighth chapters of Dr. +Rivers' work, which, as an account of what seems to be a religion +atrophied by over-development of ritual, is in many ways of great +interest to the student of Roman religious experience. The following +sentence will appeal to the readers of these Lectures:-- + +"The Todas seem to show us how the over-development of the ritual aspect +of religion may lead to atrophy of those ideas and beliefs through which +the religion has been built up; and then how, in its turn, the ritual +may suffer, and acts which are performed mechanically, with no living +ideas behind them, may come to be performed carelessly and incompletely, +while religious observances which involve trouble and discomfort may be +evaded or completely neglected." + +Whether the worship of the _ollae_ was a part of the original ritual of +the Brethren, or grew up after its revival by Augustus, it is impossible +to determine. But if we can allow the dairy ritual of the Todas to +help us in the matter, we may conclude that in any case it was not +really primitive, and that it was a result of that process of +over-ritualisation to which must also be ascribed the _piacula_ caused +by the growth of a fig-tree on the roof of the temple, and the three +Sondergoetter Adolenda Commolenda Deferunda. (See above p. 161 foll., +and Henzen, _Acta Fratr. Arv._ p. 147.) + + + + +INDEX + + +Acca Larentia, 67 + +Acolytes, 177 + +Adolenda, 162 + +Addenda Commolenda Deferunda, 162, 490 + +Aedes Vestae: _see_ Vesta + +Aediles, plebeian, 255 + +Aemilius Paulus, 340, 362, 433 + +_Aeneid_, the, 119, 206, 230, 250, 251; + as a means of understanding the spirit of the Roman religion, 254; + a poem of religion and morals, 409-425 + +Aesculapius, 260 + +_Ager paganus_: lustration, 80, 213 + _Romanus_: lustration, 78, 100 + +Agriculture, the economic basis of Roman life, 99; + festivals, _see_ Festivals + +Agrippa, 442, 443 + +Alba Longa, 109, 128 + +Alban Mount: Latin festival, 172; + temple of Jupiter Latiaris, 237, 238, 245 + +Alexander, Archibald, on faith, 472 + +Ambarvalia, procession of the, 214, 218, 442 + +Amburbium, 214, 218, 332 + +Amulets, 42, 59, 60, 74, 84 + +Ancilia, 97; + lustration, 96, 217; + moving, 36 + +Angerona, 117 + +Animism, 65, 122, 148, 164, 287 + +Anna Perenna: festival, 65, 105, 346; + Ovid's account of, 473 + +Antoninus Pius, 429 + +Apollo, 257, 449; + cult of, 268; + associated with Diana, 443, 446; + with Latona, 262; + the Pythian, 323; + temple, 443-445; + institution of Apolline games, 326 + +Appius Claudius, 300 + +Aquaelicium, ceremony of the, 50, 52 + +_Ara_, meaning of, 146 + +Ara Maxima in the Forum Boarium 29, 230 + +Ara Pacis of Augustus, 177, 437, 448 + +Argei: festival, 36, 65; + puppets thrown into the Tiber, 54, 105, 321, 322; + chapels called, 321, 322 + +Armilustrium, 97 + +Army: lustration of, 96, 100, 215, 217 + +Arnobius, 51, 52, 459, 461, 465 + +Artemis, 235, 443 + +Arval Brethren: _see_ Fratres Arvales + +Asclepios, 260 + +Astrology, 396-398, 401 + +Ateius Capito, 441 + +Athene Polias, 234 + +Attalus, king of Pergamus, 330 + +Atticus, Cicero's letters to, 385 + +Attus Navius, soothsayer, 297 + +_Augurium canarium_, 310 + +Augurs, 174-176, 193, 271, 276; + and the art of divination, 292-309; + in relation to the Rex, 301; + art strictly secret, 301; + compared with pontifices, 303 + lore preserved in books, 303; + political importance, 305 + +Augustus, 35, 133, 213, 344; + revival of religion, 428-447; + his connection with Virgil, 428; + pontifex maximus, 433; + restoration of temples, 433-434; + revival of ancient ritual, 434-436; + restorer of the _pax deorum_, 438 + +Aurelius, Marcus, 456 + +_Auspicia_, 175, 214; + in life of family, 299; + in State operations, 300; + indissolubly connected with _imperuim_, 301 + +Aust, on religion of the family, 68; + on Roman deities, 157; + on prayer, 198; + on reaction against the _ius divinum_, 349 + +Aventine: plebeian quarter, 255; + temples, 95, 147, 233, 234, 237, 244, 484 + +Axtell, Harold L., on Fortuna, 245 + + +Bacchic rites, introduction of, 344-348 + +Bailey, Cyril, cited, 400 + +Beans, used to get rid of ghosts, 85, 107; + taboo on eating, 91, 98 + +Bellona, connection with Mars, 166 + +Bibulus, 305 + +Binder, Dr., on the plebs, 23, 86, 242, 289, 393 + +Birds, used in augury, 293, 296, 299, 302 + +Birth, spirits invoked at, 83, 84, 164 + +Blood: taboo on, 33; + mystic use of, 33, 34, 82; + not prominent in Roman ritual, 180-181; + consecration through, 194; + wine as substitute for, 196 + +Boissier, G., 391; + on the _Aeneid_, 414, 427 + +Bona Dea, 484 + +Bouche-Leclercq, M., on divination, 310 + +Boundary festivals: _see_ Terminalia + +Boundary stones, 81-82, 212; + sprinkled with blood of victims, 34, 82, 196 + +_Bulla_ worn by children, 60, 74 + +Burial places _loca religiosa_, 37, 385 + +Bussell, F. W., cited, 366, 367 + + +Caesar, Julius: belief in spells, 59; + calendar, 95; + pontifex maximus, 305; + and the priesthood, 343 + +Caesar-worship, 437, 438, 456 + +Caird, Professor, 357; + on Reason in man, 368, 373 + +Cakes: honey, 82; + sacred, 83, 130, 141, 180, 183, 184, 274, 449; + _see also_ Salt-cake + +Calendar, the ancient religious, 12, 14, 34, 38, 55, 65, 217, 225; + described, 94-109; + in relation to agricultural life, 100-102, 282, 295; + festivals necessarily fixed, 102; + a matter of routine, 103; + its psychological result, 104-105; + a document of religious law, 106; + exclusion of the barbarous and grotesque, 107; + attributed to Numa Pompilius, 108 + Julian, 95 + +Calpurnius Piso, L.: _see_ Piso + +_Camilli_ and _camillae_, 177, 195 + +Campus Martius, 34, 447; + lustrum of censors, 203, 210, 215, 219 + +Cannae, religious panic after the battle of, 319 + +Cantorelli, on the _annales maximi_, 290 + +Capitolium, 238, 239, 246, 339; + _Carmen saeculare_ sung, 444-445; + temples, 95, 115, 146, 203, 239, 242, 245, 254, 266, 433, 443, 447 + +Caprotinae, Nonae, 143 + +Cardea, 76; + connection with Janus, 485 + +Caristia, 418, 457 + +_Carmen_, meaning of, 186; + used at siege of Carthage, 206, 219 + _Arvale_, 78, 132, 186, 187, 436 + used by _Attiedii_, 187 + _saeculare_, 431, 432, 439, 443-447, 450, 451 + _Saliare_, 186 + +Carmenta, 36, 122, 297 + +Carmentalia, 98 + +Carna, 117 + +Carter, J. B., on cult-titles, 153; + on the Latins, 229-230; + on Castor-cult, 232, 244; + on Diana, 236; + on Fortuna, 245; + on Hercules, 231; + on Janus, 141; + on Juno, 144; + on the Manes, 386; + on Mars, 133; + on Poseidon-Neptune, 260 + +Cassius Hemina, 349, 356 + +Castor and Pollux, 231, 244; + temple, 231, 244 + +Cato, the Censor, 121, 132, 182-184, 251, 296, 298, 340 + +Catullus, on death, 387 + +Censors, lustrum of the, 203, 210, 215, 219 + +Census, 215, 218 + +Cerealia, 100, 121, 269 + +Ceres, 100, 121, 139, 161, 162, 260, 435, 446; + temple, 255, 269 + +Cerfius, or Cerus, 158 + +Chaldeans, 296; + expelled from Rome, 397, 402 + +Charms, 59-62; + _see also_ Amulets + +Chickens, sacred, as omens, 314, 315 + +Children: purificatory rites, 28; + naming of, 28-29, 42; + amulets and _bulla_ worn by, 42, 60, 74, 84; + dedication of, 204-205 + +Christianity, early: contributions from the Roman religion, 452-467; + the Greek and Latin fathers compared, 458-459; + its relation to morality, 471 + +Cicero, 58, 178, 296, 309; + on religiousness of the Romans, 249-250; + on Titus Coruncanius, 281-282; + on divination, 299, 312; + on interest of the gods in human affairs, 360; + on Stoicism, 365-368, 377; + on relation of man to God, 370; + affected by revival of Pythagoreanism, 381, 383, 389; + turns to mysticism, 384, 388; + his letters to Atticus, 385; + his Somnium Scipionis, 383, 386, 412; + belief in a future life, 389; + definition of _religio_, 460 + +Claudius, Emperor, 309, 438 + +Claudius Pulcher, P., 315 + Quadrigarius, 39 + +Cleanthes, hymn of, 368, 377 + +Clusius (or Clusivius), cult-title of Janus, 126 + +Coinquenda, 162 + +Colonia, religious rites at founding of, 170 + +Compitalia, 61, 78, 81, 88, 102 + +Concordia, 285 + +Conditor, 161 + +_Confarreatio_, marriage by, 83, 130, 274 + +_Coniuratio_, 347, 348, 356 + +_Consolatio_, 388 + +Constantius, 430 + +Consualia, 101, 139 + +Consuls, annual ceremony at the Capitoline temple, 203, 219, 239-240 + +Consus, 285; + connection with Ops, 482 + +Convector, 161 + +Conway, Professor, on Quirinus and Quirites, 143 + +Cook, A. B., on Jupiter, 128, 141; + on Janus, 140; + on Quirinus and Quirites, 143 + +Corn deities, Greek, 255, 259 + +_Corpus Inscriptionum_, 13, 201 + +Coruncanius, Titus, 271, 279, 281, 290 + +Coulanges, Fustel de, on the Lar, 77 + +Crawley, Mr., on the fatherhood of gods, 157; + on religion and morality, 227, 242 + +Cremation, 382, 395, 398, 401 + +Crooke, Mr., on luck in odd numbers, 98 + +Cult-titles, invention of, 153 + +Cumont, Professor, on the religion of the Romans, 2; + on Jupiter, 246 + +Cunina, 159 + +Cuq, on civil and religious law, 486 + +_Cura et caerimonia_, Cicero's expression, 81, 104, 106, 108, 145, + 162, 170, 270, 282, 343, 434, 460 + +Curia, 138 + +Curiatius, 126 + +Cynics, the, 372 + + +Days, lucky and unlucky, 38-41; + _see also_ Dies + +De Marchi, on votive offerings, 201, 202 + +Dea Dia, 146; + description of rites, 435-436; + veneration for utensils used, 436; + temple, 161, 436 + +Dead: disposal of the, 45, 84, 121, 395, 401; + cult, 91, 102, 457, 470; + festivals, 40, 112, 418; + contrast between Lemuria and Parentalia, 107, 393-395 + +Decemviri, 259, 317, 318, 326 + +Decius Mus, self-sacrifice of, 206-207, 220, 286, 320 + +Deities, Roman: _see also_ Numen _and_ Spirits; + sources of our knowledge of, 114-115; + mental conception of the Romans regarding, 115-117, 122-123, + 139-140, 145, 147, 157, 224-225; + _di indigetes_, 117, 139, 149, 180, 214; + functional spirits with will-power, 119; + the four great gods, 124-134; + epithets of Pater and Mater applied to, 137, 155-157; + the question of marriage, 148-152, 166, 350, 481-485; + fluctuation between male and female, 148-149; + nomenclature, 118, 149-156, 163; + compared with Greek gods, 158; + presence of, at meals, 172-173, 193; + introduction of new, 96, 229-242, 255-262; + women's, _see_ Women + +Delphic oracle consulted during Hannibalic war, 323-324, 326 + +Demeter, 255; + supersession of Ceres by, 100 + +Deubner, Professor, his theory of the Lupercalia, 138, 478-480 + +_Devotio_, 206-209, 219-221; + formula, 207-208, 220; + sacrificial nature, 207, 220 + +Di Manes: _see_ Manes + +Di Penates: _see_ Penates + +Diana: associated with Janus, 76, 125, 166; + connection with Artemis, 235, 443; + with Apollo, 443, 446; + with Hercules, 262; + functions, 234-236; + temples, 95, 147, 234, 237, 244 + +_Dies comitiales_, 103 + _endotercisi_, 181 + _fasti_, 98, 103, 181 + _lustricus_, 28, 42, 90 + _nefasti_, 38, 40, 98, 103, 181 + _postriduani_, 39, 40 + _religiosi_, 38-40, 105 + +Dieterich, on disposal of the dead, 401 + +Dill, Professor, on Roman worship, 200 + +Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 130, 193, 215, 234, 250 + +Dionysus: identified with Liber, 255, 344; + ritual, in Greece, 344-345; + outbreak of Dionysiac orgies in Italy, 344 + +Dis, black victims sacrificed to, 440 + +Dius Fidius, connection with Jupiter, 130, 142 + +Divination, 56, 180; + a universal instinct of human nature, 292, 306; + connection with magic, 293, 310; + views on the origin of, 293; + formalised by State authorities, 295, 300; + private, 295; + quack diviners, 296-298; + _auspicia_ of family religion, 298-300; + public, 301; + duties of the Rex, 302; + lore preserved in books, 303; + divination by lightning, 51, 52, 304, 305, 307, 309; + no lasting value in sphere of religion, 306; + a clog on progress, 307; + sinister influence of Etruscan divination on Rome, 307 + +Dobschuetz, on Christianity, 455 + +Dogs: sacrifices: _see_ Sacrifices + +Dolabella, Cornelius, 342 + +Doellinger, Dr., on the Flamen Dialis, 112; + on prayer, 468 + +Domaszewski, von, cited, 99, 110, 154, 167; + definition of _numen_, 119; + on the cult epithets of Janus, 140; + on Juno, 144; + on evolution of _dei_ out of functional _numina_, 165 + +Duhn, Professor von, cited, 31, 89 + +Dynamic theory of sacrifice, 177, 184, 190, 194 + + +Earthquakes, expiation of, 339 + +Eilithyia, Greek deity of childbirth, 442, 446, 449 + +Ennius, cited, 65, 152, 183, 298, 322, 350, 351, 356 + +Epictetus, 369, 372 + +Epicurism, 352, 358, 360, 361, 375, 376, 381, 404, 453 + +Epicurus, 359 + +Epulum Iovis: _see_ Jupiter + +Equirria, 96, 99, 217 + +Eschatology, Christian: preparation of the Roman mind for, 454 + +Esquiline, 87, 395 + +Etruscans, 17; + domination in Rome, 237, 239, 245, 258; + art of divination, 299, 304; + sinister influence on Rome, 307, 346, 347, 391 + +Evil spirits, 11, 29, 75, 76, 84, 93; + wolf's fat as a charm against, 90 + +_Evocatio_, 58, 206 + +_Excantatio_, 58, 482 + +_Extipicina_, Etruscan rite of, 180 + + +Fabius Pictor, 161, 261, 318, 320, 323, 326 + +Falacer, 122 + +Family (_familia_): origin and meaning of, 70, 86; + religion in the, 68, 70, 73, 92, 116, 224, 226-228, 251, 270, 274, + 298-300; + description of the house, 72-73, 87; + its holy places, 73; + spirits of the household: _see_ Spirits; + the Lar familiaris, 77; + position of slaves, 78; + _religio terminorum_, 82; + marriage, 83; + childbirth, 83; + burial of the dead, 73, 92; + maintenance of the _sacra_, 274-275 + +_Fanum_, meaning of, 146 + +_Far_, sacred cakes of, 45, 83, 130, 141, 180, 274 + +Farnell, Dr., cited, 19, 27, 160, 161, 205; + on the vow of the _ver sacrum_, 219; + on Dionysiac ritual, 345, 355 + +Farreus, connection with Jupiter, 130 + +_Fas_, early usage of, 487-488 + +Fasti: _see_ Calendar + +Faunalia, 137 + +Faunus, 81, 89, 297, 479; + connection with Lupercalia, 117 + +_Februum_, meaning of, 210, 222 + +Feretrius, cult-title of Jupiter: _see_ Jupiter + +Feriae Iovis, 129 + Latinae, 40, 61, 172 + +Feronia, 284, 318 + +Ferrero, on the _Carmen saeculare_, 431, 450; + on the _ludi saeculares_, 440 + +Fertility, customs to produce, 100, 106, 143, 210, 222, 479 + +Festivals, 78-81, 97, 105; + agricultural, 34, 82, 98, 100, 120; + harvest, 98, 101, 121; + vintage, 100, 129; + of the dead: _see_ Dead; + Latin festival on Alban mount, 172; + in calendar, necessarily fixed, 95, 99, 102; + women's: _see_ Women + +Festus, 33, 61, 141, 217 + +Fetiales, 31, 130, 143, 157, 251, 434, 488 + +Fides, 154, 446, 450; + connection with Jupiter, 167 + +Fig-tree: sprouting of, on roof of temple, 162; + _piacula_ offered to various deities, 436, 490 + +Flamen Cerealis, 161, 163 + Dialis, 32, 112, 124, 129, 193, 239, 246, 327, 342, 479; + insignia, 177; + taboos on, 33-35, 44, 45, 108, 109, 327, 342, 343 + Martialis, 124, 131, 142, 341 + Quirinalis, 124, 131, 134, 139, 142, 181, 197, 342, 434 + Volcanalis, 484 + +Flamines, 113, 122, 123, 175, 193, 280, 341, 434; + insignia, 177; + personal purity essential, 178, 195 + +Flaminica Dialis, 135, 144; + insignia, 177; + taboos on, 35-36 + +Flaminius, 315, 317, 338, 340 + +Flora, 122 + +Fons, 117, 285 + +Forculus, the door spirit, 76 + +Fordicidia, 100, 120, 121 + +Fornacalia, 173 + +Fortuna (Fors Fortuna), 201, 235, 245, 284, 297, 396, 401 + +Forum Boarium, human sacrifices, 112, 320 + +Fratres Arvales: Acta Fratrum Arvalium, 161, 213, 435; + altar, 164; + carmen, 78, 132, 186, 187, 436; + ritual of, 35, 100, 146, 149, 157, 162, 182, 191, 195, 213; + revived by Augustus, 434; + duties of the Brethren, 435; + worship of sacred utensils, 489-490 + Attiedii, 157, 187, 215 + +Frazer, Dr. J. G., his definition of religion, 8; + his theory of divine kingship, 19, 20, 49, 51, 52, 115, 128, 140; + on totemism, 25, 26; + on taboo, 30, 34, 47; + on _oscilla_, 61, 62, 67; + on the Parilia, 100, 222; + on marriage of gods, 144, 149, 150, 152, 155, 156, 165, 350, 481-485; + on cult of Jupiter, 167; + on appointment of _camillae_, 177, 195; + on Diana, 235; + on superstition, 264 + +Fulgur, cult-title of Jupiter, 129 + +Furrina, 18, 117, 122 + + +Gallus, Aelius, on _religiosum_, 37 + +Games instituted to divert attention in times of trouble, 262-263; + Apolline, 326; + _see also_ Ludi + +Gardner, Professor E., cited, 355 + +Gardner, Professor P., on Christianity, 452; + on prayers for the dead, 457; + cited, 465 + +Gellius, Aulus, on the conjunction of divine names, 150-152; + story of Scipio, 240; + on religiousness of the Romans, 250 + +Genius: the male principle of life, 30, 92, 154, 317, 332; + of the paterfamilias, 30; + doubtful identification of Hercules with, 30; + in combination with Hercules and Juventas, 332; + Juno the feminine counterpart of, 87 + +Gennep, M. van, on taboo, 42, 44; + on religious ceremonies, 65, 90, 442; + on lustrations, 211, 212 + +_Gentes_, 69, 259 + +_Georgics_, the religious spirit of the, 407 + +Ghosts, 75, 85, 91, 92, 107 + +Gilds, trade, 230 + +Glover, Mr., on Christianity, 456 + +God, as represented in the _Aeneid_, 426 + +Gods: _see_ Deities + +Gratitude, not a prominent characteristic of the Roman, 252, 267 + +Greek comedy, influence on Roman religion, 351-353 + gods, compared with Roman, 158; + introduced into Rome, 230-242 + literature, 296 + philosophy, influence on Roman religion, 357-375 + +Greenidge, Dr., on the _auspicia_ and the _imperium_, 301 + +Gregory the Great, 475 + +Gwatkin, Professor, on Augustine, 469; + on the relation of early Christianity to morality, 471 + + +Haddon, Professor, on supernaturalism, 21 + +Hades, 390, 391 + +Hannibalic War: revival of _religio_, 315, 317; + Sibylline books consulted, 316-319, 329; + sacrifices and offerings made to deities, 318; + religious panic after battle of Cannae, 319; + human sacrifices, 320; + Delphic oracle consulted, 323, 324, 326; + outbreak of _lascivia_, 324; + institutio$1 $2 Apolline games, 326; + religious history of last years, 327-329; + gratitude to deities, 329; + the Magna Mater of Pessinus brought to Rome, 330 + +Hardie, Professor, and the double altar in connection with funeral + rites, 425 + +Hariolus, 297, 298, 311 + +Harrison, Miss, on covering the head at sacrifices, 195 + +Haruspices, 296, 313, 337, 338, 397; + history of the, 307-309 + +Hebe, 332 + +Heinze, on the _Aeneid_, 413-415, 419, 426, 427 + +Heitland, Mr., on Bacchanalia, 346, 356 + +Heracleitus, 257 + +Hercules: associated with Diana, 262; + with Juno, 17; + in combination with Juventas and Genius, 317, 332; + doubtful identification with Genius, 30; + identified with the Greek Heracles, 230, 243; + Victor or Invictus, 230, 231, 236, 243, 244; + cult of, 231, 244; + festival, 243; + worship confined to men, 29 + +Hermes, 260 + +Hirtzel, Mr., cited, 426 + +Homer, religion of, compared with that of Roman patricians, 392 + +Honey cakes, 82 + +Honos et Virtus, 285, 446; + temple, 328 + +Horace, 81, 299, 403, 405; + _Carmen saeculare_, 431-432, 439, 443-447, 450, 451 + +Hora Quirini, 482-483 + +Horses: lustrations, 96, 215; + races, 97; + sacrifice of, _see_ Sacrifices + +Howerth, Ira W., his definition of religion, 8 + +Hubert et Mauss, on magic, 64, 65; + on sacrifice, 190, 194, 195, 198 + +Human sacrifice, 33, 44, 107, 112, 226, 320, 440 + +Hut-urns, sepulchral, 87, 477 + +Huts or booths, use of, in religious ritual, 473-477 + +Huvelin, M., on magic, 64 + + +Ides, 39, 65, 95, 251, 484; + sacred to Jupiter, 129 + +Iguvium: ritual, 22, 138, 181, 197; + lustration of the _arx_, 187, 214, 215; + of the people, 31, 208, 215-216 + +Images and statues of gods, 146, 147, 165, 239, 262, 264, 336, 337; + statue of Athene, 355 + +Immortality, belief in, 69, 386-387, 389, 424 + +Imporcitor, 161 + +_Inauguratio_ of the priest-king Numa, 174-175, 193 + +Incense, 164, 180, 330, 458 + +Indigetes, di, 117, 139, 149, 180, 214 + +Indigitamenta, 76, 84, 88, 130, 138, 153, 159-161, 163, 165, 168, 281, + 286, 291 + +Individualism, growth of, 240, 266, 287, 340, 358, 411, 456 + +Innocent, Bishop of Rome, 309 + +Iron, tabooed in religious ceremonies, 32, 35, 45, 214 + +Isis: religion, 455, 456; + temple, 433 + +_Ius_, early usage of, 486-487 + _augurale_, 296 + _civile_, 5, 169; + and the _ius divinum_, 58, 276-279 + _divinum_, 13, 24, 33, 38, 49, 68, 104, 106, 107, 128, 146, 227, 228, + 241, 271-273, 286, 287, 296, 345; + and the _ius civile_, 58, 276-279; + ritual, 169-191, 467; + the pontifical books the pharmacopoeia of, 286; + decay and neglect, 203, 314, 327, 352, 353; + reaction against, 324, 340-344, 348; + Augustan revival, 429 + _hospitii_, 31, 32 + _Manium_, 387 + + +Janus: the door spirit, 76, 127, 146; + bifrons of the Forum, 77; + speculations regarding, 125, 140, 141; + cult-titles, 126; + worship, 183, 212; + connection with Cardea, 485; + with Diana, 76, 125, 166; + with Juno, 126, 135; + with Vesta, 140, 145; + temple, 126 + +Jebb, Professor, on poetry of the Greeks, 424 + +Jevons, Dr., 19; + on totemism, 26; + on taboo, 28, 41; + on magic, 48, 186; + on priests, 176 + +Jews, proselytising, expelled from Rome, 139 B.C., 397, 402 + +Jhering, von, on origin of Roman divination, 293, 294, 311 + +Jordan, H., 13; + on pairing of deities, 152 + +Junius, 315 + +Juno, 121, 479; + Caprotina, 143; + Curitis, 144; + Moneta, 135; + Populonia, 144; + Regina, (of Ardea) 318, + (of the Aventine) 318, 329, + (of Veii) 135, 206, 284; + Sospita, 318, 354; + connection with Hercules, 17; + with Janus, 126, 135; + with Jupiter, 136, 144, 166, 443, 444, 446; + one of the Etruscan trias, 94, 237; + representative of female principle, 17, 87, 135, 144; + temples, 135, 172, 237, 328, 329, 354 + +Junonius, cult-title of Janus, 126 + +Jupiter, 115, 118, 124, 127, 128, 141, 143, 147, 159, 183, 212; + difference between Jupiter and Zeus, 141; + connection with Diana, 76; + with Dius Fidius, 130, 142, 167, 450; + with Juno, 136, 144, 166, 443, 444, 446; + with Juturna, 485; + with Tellus, 121; + with Terminus, 82; + Capitolinus, 120, 129, 204, 205, 237, 238, 240, 241, 318, 319, 333, + 367; + Dapalis, 141; + Elicius, 36, 50-52, 129, 137; + Fagutalis, 141; + Farreus, 130; + Feretrius, 129, 433; + Fulgur, 129; + Grabovius, 187; + Latiaris, 237, 238; + Lucetius, 129; + Sabazius, 402; + Summanus, 129; + one of the Etruscan trias, 94, 172, 237, 336; + cult at Praeneste, 167; + cult-titles Optimus Maximus, 129, 238; + Ides sacred to, 129; + worshipped on Alban Mount, 109, 128, 172; + epulum Iovis, 172, 263, 268, 336, 338, 353; + temples, 95, 115, 129, 146, 172, 237-238, 241, 245, 246, 254, 266, + 433, 443 + +Juturna, 284, 285; + connection with Jupiter, 485 + +Juventas, in combination with Genius and Hercules, 317, 332 + + +Kalends, 39, 95, 126, 135, 251, 484 + +Kobbert, Maximilianus, on _religio_, 46 + +Kronos, identified with Saturnus, 118 + + +Lactantius, 156, 165, 388, 459, 461, 462, 469 + +Lang, Mr., 19; + cited in connection with the calendar of Numa, 105 + +_Lapis_: _see_ Stones + +Laralia: _see_ Compitalia + +Larentia, Acca, 67 + +Lar familiaris, 77, 78, 92, 251 + +Lares compitales, 61, 117, 132, 186 + +Latin Festival: _see_ Feriae Latinae + +Latins, the, 10, 23, 25, 86, 123, 130, 172, 193, 229 + +Latona, associated with Apollo, 262 + +Laughing, in ritual of Lupercalia, 106, 111 + +Laurel branches carried in procession, 265 + +Lawson, J. C., on burial and cremation, 91, 400, 401 + +Leather, tabooed in the worship of Carmenta, 36 + +Lecky, Mr., on Stoicism, 362, 377 + +Lectisternium, 263-266, 268, 317-319, 327 + +_Leges regiae_, connection with the _ius divinum_, 272 + +Leland, C. G., 67 + +Lemuria, 40, 85, 98, 107, 401; + compared with the Parentalia, 393-395 + +Lepidus, pontifex maximus, 433, 438 + +Liber, 158, 260, 332; + identified with Dionysus, 255, 344; + temple, 255 + +Libera, 260; + identified with Persephone, 255 + +Liberalia, 332 + +Libitina, 159 + +Licinius Imbrex, 151 + +Licinius, P., pontifex maximus, 342 + +Lightning, divination by, 51, 52, 304, 305, 307, 309 + +Limentinus, spirit of the threshold, 76 + +Livius Andronicus, 328 + +Livy, cited, 170, 174, 204, 205, 216, 217, 252, 261, 264, 269, 280, + 300, 316, 324, 405; + on Bacchanalia, 346-348 + +Lua, 165, 481, 482 + +Lucaria, 98 + +Lucetius, cult-title of Jupiter, 129 + +Lucilius, 156, 183 + +Lucretius, cited, 352, 359, 360, 376, 387, 394, 396, 403-406, 453; + his contempt for _superstitio_, 361, 367; + on Roman belief in Hades, 390; + his use of _religio_, 460 + +_Lucus_, meaning of, 146 + +_Ludi_, 44, 95, 122, 204: _see also_ Games + _magni_, vowed to Jupiter during Hannibalic war, 319, 333 + _saeculares_, 34, 431, 480; + prayers used in, 198, 468; + ritual described, 438-447; + discovery of inscriptions, 439 + _scenici_, 261, 263, 350 + +Lupercalia, 20, 34, 53, 65, 106, 118, 179, 194, 210, 393; + whipping to produce fertility, 54, 479; + Prof. Deubner's theory, 137, 478-480 + +Luperci, 34, 54, 106, 434, 479 + +Lupercus, 478 + +Lustrations: meaning of _lustrare_, 209-210; + lustration of the _ager paganus_, 80, 213; + of the _ager Romanus_, 78, 100; + of _ancilia_, 96, 217; + of the army, 96, 100, 215, 217; + of the _arx_ of Iguvium, 187, 199; + of cattle and sheep, 100; + of the city, 214, 317; + of the farm, 132, 212; + of horses, 96, 215; + of people, 31, 216; + of trumpets, 96, 215; + animistic conception of, 211; + ultimately adapted by Roman Church to its own ritual, 211, 218, 457 + +Luthard, on Roman religion, 288 + + +Macrobius, cited, 28, 196, 206, 208, 219, 220, 484 + +_Macte esto_, meaning of the phrase, 182, 183, 197, 442 + +Magic: allied to taboo, 27, 47; + contagious and homoeopathic, 48; + and divination, 293, 309; + harmless, 59; + prayers and incantations, 185, 186, 198; + private, 57, 68; + in purificatory processes, 210; + and religion, 47-49, 56, 224, 253; + rigorously excluded from State ritual, 49, 57, 105, 107, 224; + sympathetic, 50, 55 + +Magna Mater of Pessinus, brought to Rome, 330, 344, 348 + +Maia, 165, 166; + connection with Volcanus, 151, 484 + +Maiestas, 151, 484 + +_Mana_, the positive aspect of taboo, 27, 30, 42, 48, 60 + +Manes, 39, 50, 75, 85, 92, 102, 106, 121, 208, 320, 341, 391, 392; + individualisation of, 386; + Di Manes, 341, 386 + +Mania, mother of the Lares, 61 + +Manilius, his poem on astrology, 396 + +Mannhardt, his theory of the Vegetation-spirit, 19-20, 478; + on laughing in ritual of the Lupercalia, 111-112 + +Marcellus, 315, 328 + +Marcius, Latin oracles supposed to be written by, 326 + +Marcius Rex, praetor, 339 + +Marcus Aurelius, 369, 429 + +Marett, Mr., on taboo, 42, 45; + on _sacrificium_, 192; + on divination, 310 + +Marquardt, on Roman religion, 13, 16; + on naming of children, 42 + +Marriage: a religious ceremony, 83, 177, 274, 279; + Tellus an object of worship at, 121; + among deities, 148-152, 166, 350, 481-485 + +Mars, 124, 129, 147, 204, 208, 215, 246, 319; + various forms of his name, 131; + as a married god, 150-152, 166; + invocations to, 186, 212; + connection with Bellona, 166; + with Nerio, 150-151, 166; + with Quirinus, 134, 150; + pater, 212; + Silvanus, 29, 132, 142; + cult of, 132-134; + festival, 96-97; + temple, 133 + +Martianus Capella, 308 + +Masson, Dr., 357, 395; + on Roman fear of future torments, 391 + +Mastarna, Etruscan name of Servius Tullus, 237, 246 + +Masurius Sabinus, 90 + +Matutinus, cult-title of Janus, 126 + +Meals, sacrificial, 172, 173, 193, 436; + epulum Iovis: _see under_ Jupiter + +Megalesia, 330 + +Mens, 285 + +Mercurius (Hermes), 260, 262, 268, 484 + +Messor, 161 + +Mildew, spirit of the: _see_ Robigus + +Minerva, one of the Etruscan trias, 94, 237; + name Italian, not Etruscan, 234, 245; + associated with trade gilds, 233, 234, 236; + Capta, 284; + temples, 172, 233, 234, 244 + +Minium, faces painted with, 82, 115, 336 + +Minucius Felix, 461 + +Mithras, religion of, 455, 456, 464 + +Moirae (Parcae), 442, 446 + +_Mola salsa_: _see_ Salt-cake + +Moles, 150, 154, 158 + +Mommsen, cited, 200, 440; + and the religion of the Romans, 2; + on the _Fasti anni Romani_, 95, 96, 111; + on _Carmen saeculare_, 444 + +Mucius Scaevola: _see_ Scaevola + +_Murus_, 94 + +Mysticism, 380-398, 404; + in the form of astrology, 396, 401; + not native to the Roman, 454 + + +Neo-Pythagoreanism: _see_ Mysticism + +Neptunalia, 474 + +Neptunus, 117; + identified with Poseidon, 118, 260; + connection with Salacia, 150, 483; + with Mercurius, 262 + +Nerio: connection with Mars, 150-151, 166; + meaning of Nerio Martis, 150, 154 + +Nettleship, Professor, on the phrase _macte esto_, 197; + on the character of Aeneas, 410, 427; + on _sanctus_, 470 + +Nigidius Figulus, 299, 384, 397 + +Nones, 39, 95, 251; + Nonae Caprotinae, 143 + +Numa Pompilius, priest-king: Livy's account of his _inauguratio_, + 174-175; + legends, 108, 115, 170, 180, 233, 322; + Calendar described, 92-109; + spurious books found in stone coffin, 349, 381 + +Numbers, mystic, 98, 328, 334, 441, 449 + +_Numen_, 34, 111, 250, 264, 364, 365, 367, 407; + meaning of the word, 118; + von Domaszewski's definition of, 119; + evolution of _dei_ out of functional _numina_, 165; + _see also_ Spirits _and_ Deities + + +Oak-gods, 125, 129, 141, 143 + +Oaths: connection of Castor and Pollux with, 232; + of Hercules, 231; + of Jupiter, 130; + taken in open air, 141-142; + the religious, in public life, 358, 375; + used by women, 244; + taboo on, 343, 355 + +Oberator, 161 + +October horse, 20, 34, 65, 106; + sacrifice of, 45, 105, 179 + +Odd numbers, luck in, 98 + +_Ollae_, worship of, 489-490 + +Opalia, 101 + +Opiconsiva, 101 + +Ops, 156; + connection with Consus, 482; + with Saturnus, 482 + +Oracles, 339, 354; + _see also_ Delphic oracle + +Orcus, 166; + the old name for the abode of the Manes, 391, 392; + sacrifice of captives to, 44 + +Orosius, 333 + +Orphic doctrine, 381; + tablets, 398 + +Oscilla, 61, 67; + Dr. Frazer's theory, 61; + _see also_ Puppets + +Otto, W., on connection of _religio_ with practice of taboo, 46 + +Ovid, on Roman gods, 22; + his picture of the Sementivae, 79, 80; + rite of pagus, 82; + on the Lemuria, 107, 112, 394; + on Janus, 125; + on images of gods, 147; + on the Robigalia, 181, 196, 197, 434; + on meals at sacrifices, 193; + on the word _februum_, 210; + on annual ceremony by consuls, 219; + on the festival of Anna Perenna, 346, 473 + + +Paganalia, 61, 62, 67, 102 + +Pagus: the _familia_ in relation to, 71; + meaning of the word, 87; + festival of the Lar, 78; + other festivals, 79; + the _religio terminorum_, 81-82; + lustrations of the, 213, 214 + +Pais, on Acca Larentia, 67; + on the Tarquinii and Mastarna, 245 + +Palatine: _Carmen saeculare_ sung on the, 443-447, 450; + temple of Apollo, 443-445 + +Pales, 122, 149 + +Panaetius: and the Scipionic circle, 363-364, 453; + his theology, 365; + and Platonic psychology, 382, 398 + +Pantheism, Stoic, 366-368 + +Papirius, the consul, 314, 315, 331 + +Parentalia, 40, 107, 387, 401, 418, 457; + compared with the Lemuria, 393-395 + +Parilia, 100, 120, 193, 222, 474 + +Pater and Mater, as applied to deities, 155-157 + +Patricians, 259, 304; + religious system a monopoly of, 229 + +Patulcius, cult-title of Janus, 126 + +Pax (deity), 446, 451 + +_Pax deorum_, 169, 224, 261, 264, 272, 276, 286, 302, 328, 329; + means towards maintenance of, 171, 180, 273, 300; + violation of, 320; + re-established by Augustus, 429, 431, 433 + +Pebble-rain, 316, 329, 332 + +Penates, 73, 74, 86, 92, 116, 193 + +Persephone, 255 + +Peter, R., on Indigitamenta, 160 + +Petronius, on ceremony of the aquaelicium, 64 + +Philodemus, 359, 375 + +Picus, 297 + +_Pietas_, 174, 227, 250, 254, 387, 405, 409-412, 466; + meaning of, 462-463; + Virgil's word for religion, 412 + +Piso, L. Calpurnius, 51-53, 484 + +_Pius_, 63, 462; + see _Pietas_ + +Plague, Sibylline books consulted at outbreak of, 261 + +Plato, 258, 381 + +Plautus, 151, 351-352 + +Playwrights, their influence on Roman religion, 240, 351, 353 + +Plebeians, 105, 170; + aediles, 255; + the Plebs as the original inhabitants of Latium, 242, 259, 268, 289; + emotional tendency of, 263-264; + opening of priesthoods to, 268, 271, 279; + increase of importance under the Etruscan dynasty, 275; + first plebeian praetor, 279; + pontifex maximus: _see_ Coruncanius, Titus + +Pliny, 51, 256; + on spells and charms, 53, 57, 59, 60, 65, 66, 90, 186; + on human sacrifice, 320; + on death, 388, 400 + +Polybius, cited, 250, 253, 316, 363, 369, 390; + on religion, 336 + +_Pomoerium_, 94, 214, 225, 230, 231 + +Pomona (or Pomunus), 122, 149; + connection with Vertumnus, 485 + +Pompeianus, prefect of Rome, 309 + +Pomponius, 278, 289 + +Pons sublicius: no iron used in building, 35; + Argei thrown from, 54, 105, 321 + +Pontifex Maximus, 175, 271, 280, 341; + _tabula_ kept by, 283; + compelling power of, 342, 355 + +Pontifices, 120, 177, 200, 341; + share in festivals, 106, 139; + the question of their origin, 180, 195, 271; + insignia of, 193; + College of, 271; + open to plebeians, 268, 271, 279; + legal side of their work, 272-276; + the XII. Tables, 58, 276-278, 289; + self-elected, 276; + abolition of legal monopoly, 279; + work of, in third century B.C., 282; + admission of new deities, 284; + compilation of annals, 285; + collection of religious formulae, 287; + the Pontifical books, 76, 159, 182, 197, 283, 285-286 + +_Porca praecidanea_, rite of the, 121, 183, 191 + +Portunus, 118, 122 + +Poseidon, identified with Neptunus, 118 + +Posidonius, 250, 365, 367, 382-384, 398 + +Prayers, 76, 106, 126, 153, 215, 224, 225, 251; + at the _inauguratio_ of the priest-king Numa, 175; + at making of new clearing, 169, 182; + at sacrifices, 181-191; + at flowering of the pear-trees, 182; + when wine is offered, 182; + for the ceremony of lustration, 183; + form and manner of Roman, 185, 189, 196; + magical survivals in, 188-189; + in ritual of _Ludi saeculares_, 442, 449, 468 + +_Precatio_, 53, 166 + +Priests: _see_ Pontifices + +Processions: of _lustratio_, adapted to the ritual of the Roman + Church, 211, 218, 457; + of the _triumphus_, 217, 239-240; + Roman fondness for, 263; + _see also_ Lustrations + +_Procuratio_, 316, 328; + _fulminis_, 115 + +_Prodigia_, 281, 316, 324, 325, 328, 338, 339, 354 + +Promitor, 161 + +Propertius, 22, 147, 403 + +Proserpina, black victims sacrificed to, 440 + +Pudor, 446 + +_Pulvinaria_, 337, 338 + +Punic War: _see_ Hannibalic War + +Puppets: Argei thrown into Tiber, 54, 105, 321; + oscilla, 61, 67 + +Purification: _see_ Lustrations + +_Puticuli_, 395, 401 + +Pythagoras, legend of a religious connection between Numa and, 349, 381 + +Pythagoreanism, 349, 380-381 + +Pythagoreans, 98 + + +Quindecemviri, 440, 442 + +Quinquatrus, 217 + +Quirinal, 134 + +Quirinus, 94, 118, 124, 143, 147, 246; + identified with Mars, 134; + with Romulus, 135 + +Quirites, 134, 143 + + +Rain-making: _see_ Aquaelicium + +Ramsay, Sir W. M., 465 + +Red colouring in sacred rites and its connection with blood, 89, 177, + 194 + +Redarator, 161 + +Regia, 45, 105, 106, 271, 288; + sacrarium Martis in, 133, 208 + +Regifugium, 99 + +Reinach, M. Salomon, cited, 26, 42, 114, 131, 481 + +_Religio_, 9, 28, 30, 36, 38, 72, 76, 83, 85, 93, 104, 106, 174, 223, + 227, 241, 248, 261, 263, 267, 270, 273, 282, 287, 294, 364, 405, 407; + meanings and uses of the word, 21, 37, 41, 186, 192, 198, 249, 254, + 385, 462, 470; + Cicero's definition of, 460; + and taboo, 34, 36, 40, 46; + revival of, during Hannibalic war, 315, 317, 336-339 + +_Religio Larium_, 79 + _terminorum_, 81, 82 + +Religion, definitions of, 7-9; + and magic, 47-49, 56, 224, 253; + and morality, 227, 242, 292, 466, 471; + primitive, 25-28, 63, 69; + real, a matter of feeling, 406 + +Roman: a highly formalised system, 3, 63, 103-104, 200, 226, 248-249, + 340; + compared with Roman law, 5; + a technical subject, 6; + its difficulties, 13; + aid from archaeology and anthropology, 16-20, 25; + primitive survivals in, 24, 30; + examples of real magic in, 50, 53-54; + a reality, 62-63, 103, 249; + in the family, _see_ Family; + of the State, 93, 105, 226-228, 270; + the Calendar of Numa the basis of our knowledge of, 94-109; + moral influence mainly disciplinary, 108, 228; + Greek influence, 120, 255-262, 346, 350-353; + Roman ideas of divinity, 115-117, 122-123, 145-164; + ritual of the _ius divinum_, 169-222; + personal purity essential in all worshippers, 178; + discouraged individual development, 226; + introduction of new deities, 96, 229-242, 255-262; + priesthoods limited to patrician families, 229; + religious instinct of the Romans, 249; + neglect and decay, 263-265, 287, 314, 429; + growth of individualism, 240, 266, 287, 340, 358, 411, 456; + Sibylline influence, 242, 255-262; + secularisation of, 270-291; + sinister influence of Etruscan divination, 307-309, 346; + _see_ Divination; + used for political purposes, 336; + attempt to propagate Pythagoreanism, 349-350, 381; + destitution of Romans in regard to idea of God and sense of duty, + 357-358; + no remedy in Epicurism, 361; + arrival of Stoicism: _see_ Stoicism _and_ Mysticism; + belief in future torments, 390; + religion compared with that of Homer, 392; + early Christianity, 396; + religious feeling in Virgil's poems, 403-427; + Augustan revival, 428-451; + contributions to the Latin form of Christianity, 452-472; + _see also_ Prayer _and_ Sacrifice + +Renan, cited, 185 + +Renel, M., cited, 26 + +Reville, M. Jean, on the formalism of the Roman religion, 3; + his definition of religion, 8 + +Rex Nemoreusis, 235 + sacrorum, 128, 174, 175, 180, 193, 207, 229, 271, 273, 341, 434; + relation of the Rex to the augurs, 301-302 + +Ridgeway, Professor, on the Flamen Dialis, 112; + on Janus, 140; + on original inhabitants of Latium, 242, 393 + +Rivers, Dr., on the ritual aspect of religion among the Todas, 489-490 + +Robertson Smith, Professor, 19, 26, 27, 172, 221; + on the Feast of the Tabernacles, 476 + +Robigalia, 139, 196 + +Robigus, 100, 117, 122, 146, 179, 434; + Ovid's version of prayer to, 197 + +Roman Church, survival of old religious practices in the, 25, 211, 218, + 456-458, 469 + +Romulus, 51, 130, 135 + +Roscher, Dr., 141 + + +_Sacellum_, meaning of, 146 + +_Sacer_ and _sacramentum_, 36, 277, 464 + +Sacred utensils, worship of, 436, 489-490 + +Sacrifices, 29, 90, 224, 225; + description of the act, 179-181; + honorific, 172, 173; + piacular, 35, 172, 173, 182, 189, 191, 208, 273, 436; + sacramental, 141, 172; + vicarious, 208; + dynamic theory of, 177, 184, 190, 194; + meals in connection with, 172, 173, 193, 436; + mystic use of blood, 34, 82; + victim must be acceptable to the deity, 179; + women and strangers excluded from rites, 29-31; + prayers at, 181-191; + sacrifice of cakes, 82, 83, 180, 183, 184; + cow, 100, 120, 436; + dog, 181, 197, 216, 434; + goat, 54, 106, 179, 479; + horse, 34, 97, 105, 179; + lamb, 37, 82, 436; + ox, 132, 179, 212, 215, 444; + pig, 82, 132, 170, 179, 212, 215, 436; + red dog, 179, 310; + salt-cake, 73, 207; + sheep, 132, 179, 181, 212, 215, 434; + sow, 121, 183; + white heifer, 172, 177, 239; + wine, 82, 180, 182-184, 196; + _see also_ Human sacrifice + +_Sacrificium_, meaning of, 171, 464 + +_Sacrum_, 171, 254 + +_Saeculum_, the old Italian idea of a, 440 + +St. Augustine, cited, 58, 76, 120, 149, 159, 163, 297, 430, 458; + on Decius, 220 + +Sainte Beuve, on Virgil, 404 + +St. Paul, 455, 466-468 + +Salacia, 165; + connection with Neptunus, 483 + +Salii, 40, 96, 110, 132, 133, 143, 176, 182, 217, 229, 434; + ritual, 97 + Collini, 134 + Palatini, 134 + +Sallust, 405 + +Salt-cake, 73, 207 + +Salus, 154, 285 + +_Sanctus_, meaning of, 463-464, 470 + +Sarritor, 161 + +Saturnalia, 81, 99, 101-103, 107, 112 + +Saturnus, 101, 111, 118, 318; + identified with Kronos, 118; + connection with Consus, 482; + with Ops, 482 + +Sayce, Professor, 155 + +Scaevola, P. Mucius, 283 + Q. Mucius, 73, 86, 338, 353, 371 + +Scipio, the elder, 240, 247, 267, 340, 354; + receives the Magna Mater at Rome, 330 + Aemilianus, 198, 203-204, 340; + his friendship with Polybius and Panaetius, 362-364, 369, 371 + +Scott, Sir Walter, compared with Virgil, 408 + +Sellar, Professor, on Virgil, 404, 406 + +Sementivae, festival, 79, 89 + +_Senatusconsultum de Bacchanalibus_, 347, 348, 356 + +Seneca, 369, 378, 438, 455 + +Septimontium, 110 + +Servius, cited, 58, 62, 119, 120, 134, 138, 142, 143, 146, 183, 184, + 194, 210 + Sulpicius, 371, 387 + Tullius, 235; + his Etruscan name Mastarna, 237 + +Sibyl of Cumae, 257-258 + +Sibylline books, 173, 242, 255-257, 261, 323; + consulted during the Hannibalic war, 316-319, 329; + used for personal and political purposes, 339 + +Silvanus, 76, 81, 89, 132, 142 + +Slaves, 53, 78, 395, 401, 474; + Greek, buried alive in the _Forum boarium_, 112, 320 + +Sodales Titienses, 434 + +Sol, image of, on the Palatine, 445, 447, 450 + +Sondergoetter, Usener's theory of, 161-164, 168 + +Spells, 48, 53, 57-59, 208, 221; + origin of prayer in, 185, 189 + +Spes, 285 + +Spirits, 34, 58; + agricultural, 161, 251, 285; + dead, _see_ Ghosts; + of the doorway, 75-76, 92, 127; + evil, _see_ Evil spirits; + household, 11, 68, 73, 74, 77, 83, 84, 86, 92, 104, 193; + spring, 92; + water, 285; + woodland, 76, 81, 83, 92, 132; + development into _dei_, 116, 117, 119, 120, 123-124, 161, 165; + _see also_ Deities _and_ Numen + +Spolia opima, 138, 141, 288; + dedicated at temple of Jupiter Feretrius, 130, 433 + +Stanley, on religion and morality, 292 + +Statues and busts at Rome, first mention of, 340, 354; + _see also_ Images + +Stoicism, 359, 377, 381-383; + introduced into Rome, 362; + its influence on the Roman mind, 370-372, 404, 453; + weak points in Roman, 372-374; + failed to rouse an "enthusiasm of humanity," 375, 454 + +Stones: lapis manalis, 50; + silex, 130; + stone representing Magna Mater, 330; + _see also_ Boundary stones + +Strangers, fear of, 30-32 + +Stubbs, Bishop, 103 + +Subrincator, 161 + +Subterranean altar, black victims offered at, 440, 445 + +_Suffimenta_, 441, 442, 449 + +Sulpicius, consul 211 B.C., 337 + +Summanus, cult-title of Jupiter, 129 + +_Suovetaurilia_, 132, 212, 215 + +_Superstitio_, 106, 355, 361, 405; + temple of Isis condemned as a centre of, 433 + +_Supplicatio_, 262, 265, 269, 337; + ordered during Hannibalic war, 317, 319, 323, 325, 329 + + +Tabernacles, Feast of the, 475, 476 + +Taboo, 25, 83, 223; + definition of, 27; + its ethical value, 28; + on children, 28; + on women, 29; + on strangers, 30-32; + on criminals, 32; + on inanimate objects, 32; + on places, 36; + on times and seasons, 38-41; + on iron, 35, 44, 214; + on leather, 36; + on the Flamen Dialis, 33-35, 44, 45, 108, 109, 327, 342, 343; + on the Flaminica Dialis, 35 + +Tacitus, 398 + +Tarentum, sacrifices on subterranean altar, 440, 445 + +Tarquinii, the, 146, 237, 245 + +Tellus (Terra Mater), 100, 120, 122, 136, 138, 139, 156, 158, 161, + 162, 320, 435, 442, 446; + an object of worship at marriage, 121; + connection with Jupiter, 121; + temple, 285 + +Tempestates, 285 + +Temples: absence of, in earliest Rome, 146; + restored by Augustus, 343; Aesculapius, 260; + Apollo, on the Palatine, 443-445; + Bona Dea on the Aventine, 484; + Castor, 231, 244; + Ceres, Liber, and Libera, 255-257, 269, 344; + Consus, 285; + Dea Dia, 161; + Diana, on the Aventine, 95, 147, 234, 237, 244; + Isis, 433; + Janus, 126; + Juno Moneta, 135, 328-329; + Juno Sospita, 354; + Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, 146, 172, 237-238, 246, 254, 443; + Jupiter Feretrius, on the Capitol, 95, 115, 129-130, 146, 147, 203, + 245, 266, 433; + Jupiter Latiaris, on the Alban Hill, 237, 238, 245; + Mars, 133; + Minerva, on the Aventine, 233, 234, 244; + Pales, 285; + Tellus, 285; + Vertumnus, 285; + Vesta, _see_ Vesta: aedes + +Terminalia, 34, 193, 196 + +Terminus, 82, 117, 239 + +Terra Mater, _see_ Tellus + +Tertullian, cited, 159, 163, 459, 461, 465 + +Theodosian code, 430 + +Tiberius, 429, 438, 447 + +Tibicines, 180, 195, 233, 445 + +Tibullus, cited, 22, 80, 147, 178, 403; + on use of huts at rural festivals, 474 + +Time, religious or mystical conception of, 440-441, 449 + +_Toga praetexta_, worn by priests and children, 29, 42, 50, 61, 74, 84, + 175-177, 194-195, 436 + _virilis_, 42 + +Tombstones, memorial, first mention of, 341 + +Totemism, 25-27 + +Toutain, M., 26 + +Tozer, Mr., on Dante, 419 + +Trade: deities brought to Rome by, 230; + connection of Hercules with, 231; + gilds, 233 + +Trasimene, outbreak of _religio_ after the battle of, 318 + +Treaties, Jupiter's connection with, 130 + +_Tripodatio_, 187, 198 + +Tubilustrium, 96, 217 + +Turiae, Laudatio, cited, 389 + +Turnus, 483 + +Tylor, Dr., 26, 49, 74, 293 + + +Usener, H., 19, 138, 160; + his theory of the Sondergoetter, 161-164, 168 + + +Vacuna of Reate, 284, 290 + +Valerius Antias, 52, 115, 137 + Flaccus, C., 342-343, 355 + Maximus, 203-204, 299, 378 + +Varro, cited, 16, 59, 76, 79, 81, 89, 103, 120, 125, 142, 143, 149, 156, + 159, 168, 210, 222, 235, 251, 321 + +_Vates_, meaning of, 297-298 + +Vedic ritual, 185 + +Vegetation-spirit, Mannhardt's theory, 19, 20, 478 + +Venilia, 483 + +Venus, connection with Volcanus, 166 + +_Ver sacrum_, 196, 204-205, 318 + +_Verbenarius_, 31, 43 + +Verrius Flaccus, 16, 30 + +Vertumnus, 147, 291; + connection with Pomona, 485; + temple, 285 + +Vervactor, 161 + +Vesta, 73, 74, 76, 92, 116, 126, 136, 137, 140, 147, 481; + aedes, 39, 40, 126, 136, 146, 477; + penus Vestae, 36, 73, 101, 136, 442 + +Vestal virgins, 53, 113, 120, 139, 175, 177, 194, 320; + at the ceremony of the Argei, 54, 55, 106, 321; + salt-cake baked by, 73; + representative of daughters of the family, 136; + statues of, 144 + +_Vicus_, 71 + +Vilicus, 78 + +Vinalia, 100 + +Virgil, on _religio_, 37; + on the Paganalia, 62, 67; + on _lustratio_, 80, 213, 221; + on the Manes, 386, 399; + religious feeling in his poems, 403-427, 455; + compared with Wordsworth, 407-408; with Scott, 408; + his idea of _pietas_, 409; + his connection with Augustus, 428; + see also _Aeneid_ + +Virites, 150, 158 + +Virtus, 446 + +Volcanalia, 98, 101 + +Volcanus, 118, 122, 124; + connection with Maia, 151, 484; + with Venus, 166 + +Volturnus, 117, 118, 122, 124 + +Vortumnus, 165, 284 + +Vows, 188, 226, 286; + private, 201-202; + public, 200, 202-204; + extraordinary, 204-208; + see also _Devotio_ and _Evocatio_ + + +Waltzing, on Roman trades, 233 + +Westcott, Bishop, on Augustine, 458 + +Westermarck, Dr., cited, 31, 44, 123, 179; + on magic, 47; + on religion of primitive man, 63, 394; + on Roman prayers, 185; + on religion and morality, 227 + +Williamowitz-Moellendorf, on Hercules, 243 + +Wine, used at sacrifices, 82, 180, 182-184; + as a substitute for blood, 196 + +Winter, J. G., cited, 243 + +Wissowa, Georg, cited, 13, 14, 16-18, 33, 36, 112, 122, 146, 193, 199, + 319, 440; + on _dies religiosi_, 38-40; + on the Argei, 54, 55, 65, 111, 321, 322; + on the ritual of the Salii, 97; + his list of _di indigetes_, 117, 139; + on Faunus, 118; + on Janus, 126, 141; + on Mars, 142; + on the Indigitamenta, 159, 161-163, 168; + on cult of Jupiter, 167; + on prayer, 198; + on Hercules, 243; + on Hebe, 332; + on _Carmen saeculare,_ 444, 450 + +Wolf's fat, used as a charm against evil spirits, 83, 90 + +Women, 264, 265; + taboo on, 29; + excluded from certain sacrificial rites, 29-30; + at the ceremony of the aquaelicium, 64; + rites to produce fertility, 54, 106, 143, 479; + oaths used by, 244; + excitement among, during Hannibalic war, 324; + rebellion against the _ius divinum,_ 344; + festivals, 143, 346, 443, 450; + deities, 135, 235, 272, 297, 318, 332, 479 + +Wordsworth, compared with Virgil, 407 + + +Zeller, cited, 351, 356; + on human law and divine law, 371 + +Zeus, 367 + +Zosimus, cited, 309, 439, 449, 450 + + + +THE END + +_Printed by_ R. & R. 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