Consequently, there arose a body of rules, the jus divinum (“divine law”), ordaining what had to be done or avoided. [91] The motives of private haruspices – especially females – and their clients were officially suspect: none of this seems to have troubled Marius, who employed a Syrian prophetess. Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 30.1 – 18; see also Beard, Haensch, in Rüpke (ed), 186: about 200 of these British defixiones are from Sulla-Minerva's spring in urban Bath and the remainder from a shrine to a Celtic deity (. In 206 BC the Sibylline books commended the introduction of a cult to the aniconic Magna Mater (Great Mother) from Pessinus, installed on the Palatine in 191 BC. [124] The boundary between religio and superstitio is not clearly defined. Routledge, "Her cult at Aricia was first attested in Latin literature by, "Traditionally in 499, the cult of Castor and Pollux was introduced from Tusculum and temple was erected in the Forum." This page was last edited on 7 December 2020, at 13:47. Some ceremonies were processions that started at, visited, or ended with a temple or shrine, where a ritual object might be stored and brought out for use, or where an offering would be deposited. In the table below is a list of the Greek Gods and Heroes and their Roman equivalents: Greek Name Roman Name Role Zeus Jupiter King of the Gods Hera Juno Goddess of […] The rites of the Bona Dea excluded men entirely. By the Augustan era, the city of Rome was home to several thousand Jews. The survival of such a child for four years after its birth would have between regarded as extreme dereliction of religious duty. A senior magistrate-commander (sometimes even a consul) headed it, his chain of subordinates ran it and a ferocious system of training and discipline ensured that every citizen-soldier knew his duty. He had little or no civil authority. Christian apologists interpreted his eventual fate – a disgraceful capture and death – as divine judgement. Burial grounds and isolated crossroads were among the likely portals. Just as Rome itself claimed the favour of the gods, so did some individual Romans. Normally, if the gods failed to keep their side of the bargain, the offered sacrifice would be withheld. Roman religion was officially endorsed by the state and exerted considerable influence over the government of … During the late Republic, the political elite competed to outdo each other in public display, and the ludi attendant on a triumph were expanded to include gladiator contests. Roman beliefs about an afterlife varied, and are known mostly for the educated elite who expressed their views in terms of their chosen philosophy. Oaths—sworn for the purposes of business, clientage and service, patronage and protection, state office, treaty and loyalty—appealed to the witness and sanction of deities. 1, 1 – 2 & Vol. Erichtho, it is said, can arrest "the rotation of the heavens and the flow of rivers" and make "austere old men blaze with illicit passions". Failing that, it was often best to cover every contingency by admitting that the divinity was “unknown” or adding the precautionary phrase “or whatever name you want to be called” or “if it be a god or goddess.”. The augurs read the will of the gods and supervised the marking of boundaries as a reflection of universal order, thus sanctioning Roman expansionism as a matter of divine destiny. For Livy's use of prodigies and portents as markers of Roman impiety and military failure, see Feeney, in Rüpke (ed), 138 – 9. When the deity's portion was cooked, it was sprinkled with mola salsa (ritually prepared salted flour) and wine, then placed in the fire on the altar for the offering; the technical verb for this action was porricere. The legendary tales were meant to guide members, but the deities involved tended to be a lesser focus. GAIUS m Ancient Roman, Biblical Latin, Biblical Roman praenomen, or given name, of uncertain meaning. In the early Imperial period, the promotion of local elites to Imperial priesthood gave them Roman citizenship. In a Greek legend (the oldest surviving version appearing in Latin in Ovid's Metamorphoses) this is the name of a young woman from Babylon.Believing her to be dead, her lover Pyramus kills himself, after which she does the same to herself. [101] In the late Republic, a daytime comet at the murdered Julius Caesar's funeral games confirmed his deification; a discernible Greek influence on Roman interpretation.[102]. In the later Empire under Christian rule, the new Christian festivals were incorporated into the existing framework of the Roman calendar, alongside at least some of the traditional festivals.[33]. Most of these were the same ones that the ancient Greeks worshipped, except that they had different names. Neighborhood shrines and sacred places such as springs and groves dotted the city. [5] One way that Rome incorporated diverse peoples was by supporting their religious heritage, building temples to local deities that framed their theology within the hierarchy of Roman religion. Contrary to usual practice, his, "From Etruria the Romans derived the idea of housing a deity in a temple and of providing him with a cult statue. In times of great crisis, the Senate could decree collective public rites, in which Rome's citizens, including women and children, moved in procession from one temple to the next, supplicating the gods. This is particularly true of those gods belonging to the archaic religion of the Romans dating back to the era of kings, the so-called "religion of Numa ", which was perpetuated or revived over the centuries. Origen discussed theological issues with traditionalist elites in a common Neoplatonist frame of reference – he had written to Decius' predecessor Philip the Arab in similar vein – and Hippolytus recognised a "pagan" basis in Christian heresies. In 217, Venus was brought from Sicily and installed in a temple on the Capitoline hill.[155]. See Henrik Mouritsen, Plebs and Politics in the Late Roman Republic (Cambridge, U.K., Cambridge University Press, 2001), 32ff. For Varro – well versed in Euhemerus' theory – popular religious observance was based on a necessary fiction; what the people believed was not itself the truth, but their observance led them to as much higher truth as their limited capacity could deal with. A magistrate with ius augurium (the right of augury) could declare the suspension of all official business for the day (obnuntiato) if he deemed the omens unfavourable. [104] Persons of low or negligible status might receive simple burial, with such grave goods as relatives could afford. Pluto: Pluto is the Latinized form of the Greek name Ploutos, meaning ‘wealth’. [13], Each of Rome's legendary or semi-legendary kings was associated with one or more religious institutions still known to the later Republic. In the mid-to-late Republican era, and probably much earlier, many of Rome's leading clans acknowledged a divine or semi-divine ancestor and laid personal claim to their favour and cult, along with a share of their divinity. [58] Livy avoids the word "sacrifice" in connection with this bloodless human life-offering; Plutarch does not. [72], Rome had no separate priestly caste or class. Religious law was collegial and traditional; it informed political decisions, could overturn them, and was difficult to exploit for personal gain. Yale University Press. This is a list of Roman gods and goddesses that are in Roman mythology. In the early Imperial era, the princeps (lit. These narratives focus on human actors, with only occasional intervention from deities but a pervasive sense of divinely ordered destiny. Augustus, the first Roman emperor, justified the novelty of one-man rule with a vast program of religious revivalism and reform. [20] Other major and minor deities could be single, coupled, or linked retrospectively through myths of divine marriage and sexual adventure. Color had a general symbolic value for sacrifices. Theodosius I briefly re-united the Empire: in 391 he officially adopted Nicene Christianity as the Imperial religion and ended official support for all other creeds and cults. Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 28, 27. [77], During the Imperial era, priesthood of the Imperial cult offered provincial elites full Roman citizenship and public prominence beyond their single year in religious office; in effect, it was the first step in a provincial cursus honorum. The Roman state had its own gods and, like the spirits, these were the product of diverse cultures and ancient beliefs. [52], Extraordinary circumstances called for extraordinary sacrifice: in one of the many crises of the Second Punic War, Jupiter Capitolinus was promised every animal born that spring (see ver sacrum), to be rendered after five more years of protection from Hannibal and his allies. Therefore, civil and religious law limited the number and kind of religious offices allowed an individual and his family. What is found at Rome is chiefly only a pseudomythology (which, in due course, clothed their own nationalistic or family legends in mythical dress borrowed from the Greeks). Juno, Lucina, Pax, and Pomona are among the rare Roman goddess names that belong on more baby name lists. The most important camp-offering appears to have been the suovetaurilia performed before a major, set battle. Otherwise, the haruspex tells him, the sacrifice is entirely acceptable to the gods. In the middle Republican era, even Scipio's tentative hints that he might be Jupiter's special protege sat ill with his colleagues. Some of the most ancient and popular festivals incorporated ludi ("games", such as chariot races and theatrical performances), with examples including those held at Palestrina in honour of Fortuna Primigenia during Compitalia, and the Ludi Romani in honour of Liber. A ram, a boar and a bull were ritually garlanded, led around the outer perimeter of the camp (a lustratio exercitus) and in through a gate, then sacrificed: Trajan's column shows three such events from his Dacian wars. Rome offers no native creation myth, and little mythography to explain the character of its deities, their mutual relationships or their interactions with the human world, but Roman theology acknowledged that di immortales (immortal gods) ruled all realms of the heavens and earth. Apollo was the god of music and healing. She gave birth to twins, who were duly exposed by order of the king but saved through a series of miraculous events. By the end of the Imperial era, Nicene Christianity was the one permitted Roman religio; all other cults were heretical or pagan superstitiones.[182]. Apuleius, defending himself against accusations of casting magic spells, defined the magician as "in popular tradition (more vulgari)... someone who, because of his community of speech with the immortal gods, has an incredible power of spells (vi cantaminum) for everything he wishes to. As far as I know, they had no name for their religion as a whole. While the numbers per religion are only estimates, the overall message is that humans are a religious race. Constantine's permission for a new cult temple to himself and his family in Umbria is extant: the terms are vague – cult "should not be polluted by the deception of any contagious superstition". The original meaning of the Latin word templum was this sacred space, and only later referred to a building. The Western emperor Gratian refused the office of pontifex maximus, and against the protests of the Senate, removed the altar of Victory from the Senate house and began the disestablishment of the Vestals. Similar traditions existed throughout the empire, persisting until around the 7th century AD, well into the Christian era. After the sacrifice, a banquet was held; in state cults, the images of honoured deities took pride of place on banqueting couches and by means of the sacrificial fire consumed their proper portion (exta, the innards). Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007. Greek Gods 2. The first "outsider" Etruscan king, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, founded a Capitoline temple to the triad Jupiter, Juno and Minerva which served as the model for the highest official cult throughout the Roman world. Sporadic and sometimes brutal attempts were made to suppress religionists who seemed to threaten traditional morality and unity, as with the Senate's efforts to restrict the Bacchanals in 186 BC. [141], While the new plebeian nobility made social, political and religious inroads on traditionally patrician preserves, their electorate maintained their distinctive political traditions and religious cults. Religious neglect was a form of atheism: impure sacrifice and incorrect ritual were vitia (impious errors). In spite, however, of the antique features not far from the surface, it is difficult to reconstruct the history and evolution of Roman religion. Livy, 27.37.5–15; the hymn was composed by the poet. Innumerable smaller, personal or more secretive cults would have persisted and left no trace. Rome offers no native creation myth, and little mythography to explain the character of its deities, their mutual relationships or their interactions with the human world, but Roman theology acknowledged that di immortales (immortal gods) ruled all realms of the heavens and earth. Under the Principate, all such spectacular displays came under Imperial control: the most lavish were subsidised by emperors, and lesser events were provided by magistrates as a sacred duty and privilege of office. [123], In the everyday world, many individuals sought to divine the future, influence it through magic, or seek vengeance with help from "private" diviners. The earliest public priesthoods were probably the flamines (the singular is flamen), attributed to king Numa: the major flamines, dedicated to Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus, were traditionally drawn from patrician families. [184] Decius' edict appealed to whatever common mos maiores might reunite a politically and socially fractured Empire and its multitude of cults; no ancestral gods were specified by name. The first and last Roman known as a living divus was Julius Caesar, who seems to have aspired to divine monarchy; he was murdered soon after. [157] Greek deities were brought within the sacred pomerium: temples were dedicated to Juventas (Hebe) in 191 BC,[158] Diana (Artemis) in 179 BC, Mars (Ares) in 138 BC), and to Bona Dea, equivalent to Fauna, the female counterpart of the rural Faunus, supplemented by the Greek goddess Damia. [75], Priesthood was a costly honour: in traditional Roman practice, a priest drew no stipend. Every vocation and every household transaction had its presiding Roman gods or goddesses. The introduction of new or equivalent deities coincided with Rome's most significant aggressive and defensive military forays. The fulfillment of sacrificial obligation by loyal subjects would define them and their gods as Roman. Military success was the touchstone of a special relationship with the gods, and to Jupiter Capitolinus in particular; triumphal generals were dressed as Jupiter, and laid their victor's laurels at his feet. There were gods of the upper heavens, gods of the underworld and a myriad of lesser deities between. A girl chosen to be a Vestal achieved unique religious distinction, public status and privileges, and could exercise considerable political influence. There were gods of the upper heavens, gods of the underworld and a myriad of lesser deities between. Julius Caesar became pontifex maximus before he was elected consul. Ares is the unpopular and feared Greek god of war and his Roman counterpart is Mars who is the revered martial fertility god. [149] These are supposedly the first Roman deities whose images were adorned, as if noble guests, at their own inaugural banquet. [79], A Vestal's dress represented her status outside the usual categories that defined Roman women, with elements of both virgin bride and daughter, and Roman matron and wife. [162], Another result of eastern influence in the Roman Empire was the emergence of the mystery cults with ideals originating from the east which operated through a hierarchy consisting of transference of knowledge, virtues and powers to those initiated through secret rites of passage. Their functions were sharply defined; and in approaching them it was important to use their right names and titles. [164] Romanisation offered distinct political and practical advantages, especially to local elites. If any died or were stolen before the scheduled sacrifice, they would count as already sacrificed, since they had already been consecrated. [39] The historian Livy reports an occasion when the presiding magistrate at the Latin festival forgot to include the "Roman people" among the list of beneficiaries in his prayer; the festival had to be started over. Belayche describes this as a votive offering (, "The change that comes about at the end of the republic and solidifies under Augustus is not political, but cultural". "In a very real sense the senate was the caretaker of the Romans’ relationship with the divine, just as it was the caretaker of their relationship with other humans". Robert Schilling, "The Roman Religion", in, The sacrifice was demanded by an oracle during the reign of the last king, the Etruscan, See also Severy, 9-10 for interpretation of the social, economic and religious role of the, Gradel, 9-15: citing legal definitions from Festus (epitome of Verrius Flaccus) "De verborum significatu" p.284 L: in Wissowa, 1912, 398ff: and Geiger, 1914): see also Beard. The Junii took credit for its abolition by their ancestor L. Junius Brutus, traditionally Rome's Republican founder and first consul. See Rosenberger, in Rüpke (ed), 300, and Orlin, in Rüpke (ed), 67. Foreign religions increasingly attracted devotees among Romans, who increasingly had ancestry from elsewhere in the Empire. His own dependents, who included his slaves and freedmen, owed cult to his Genius. From that point on, Roman official policy towards Christianity tended towards persecution. See Beard. Traders, legions and other travellers brought home cults originating from Egypt, Greece, Iberia, India and Persia. A date of 302 is regarded as likely. Numen, as the belief in a pantheistic inhabitation of all things is called, would later take root in more clearly defined system of gods, but early on this belief that … Ambrose, the influential Bishop of Milan and future saint, wrote urging the rejection of Symmachus's request for tolerance. Roman religion was based on knowledge rather than faith,[125] but superstitio was viewed as an "inappropriate desire for knowledge"; in effect, an abuse of religio. [206][207] Constantine's unique form of Imperial orthodoxy did not outlast him. In the wake of the Republic's collapse, state religion had adapted to support the new regime of the emperors. Greek allies had their own traditional cults to rulers as divine benefactors, and offered similar cult to Caesar's successor, Augustus, who accepted with the cautious proviso that expatriate Roman citizens refrain from such worship; it might prove fatal. Through divine intervention, the rightful line was restored when Rhea Silvia was impregnated by the god Mars. Constantius was an Arian and his brothers were Nicene Christians. The Arvals offered prayer and sacrifice to Roman state gods at various temples for the continued welfare of the Imperial family on their birthdays, accession anniversaries and to mark extraordinary events such as the quashing of conspiracy or revolt. [162], A common theme among the eastern mystery religions present in Rome became disillusionment with material possessions, a focus on death and a preoccupation with regards to the afterlife. The meeting reached consensus on the Nicene Creed. Had he failed to die, his sacrificial offering would have been tainted and therefore void, with possibly disastrous consequences. In 16 BC Tiberius expelled them under extreme penalty because an astrologer had predicted his death. A thanksgiving prayer offered in Naples' harbour to the princeps Augustus, on his return from Alexandria in 14 AD, shortly before his death.[148]. He not only refused to restore Victory to the senate-house, but extinguished the Sacred fire of the Vestals and vacated their temple: the senatorial protest was expressed in a letter by Quintus Aurelius Symmachus to the Western and Eastern emperors. Priests married, raised families, and led politically active lives. Pliny saw the ending of human sacrifice conducted by the druids as a positive consequence of the conquest of Gaul and Britain. gentes). Camillus promised Veii's goddess Juno a temple in Rome as incentive for her desertion (evocatio), conquered the city in her name, brought her cult statue to Rome "with miraculous ease" and dedicated a temple to her on the Aventine Hill. In Cicero's time, the better-off sacrificed a sow at the funeral pyre before cremation. During the Augustan era, the city of Rome probably housed around a million people, including an unknown number of provincials: by Mouritsen's estimate, around 200,000 Roman citizens were eligible to vote in Rome itself during the late Republican era but during major elections, the influx of rural voters and the bottleneck of the city's ancient electoral apparatus meant that perhaps 12% of eligible citizens actually voted. [191] The Christian churches were disunited; Paul of Samosata, Bishop of Antioch was deposed by a synod of 268 both for his doctrines, and for his unworthy, indulgent, elite lifestyle. When he offers sacrifice, the victim's liver appears "damaged where it refers to his own fortunes". [78], The Vestals were a public priesthood of six women devoted to the cultivation of Vesta, goddess of the hearth of the Roman state and its vital flame. The Romans took the (Etruscan and) Greek gods and renamed them, making them their pantheon. Fratricide thus became an integral part of Rome's founding myth. Servius Tullius was murdered and succeeded by the arrogant Tarquinius Superbus, whose expulsion marked the beginning of Rome as a republic with annually elected magistrates. Literary sources vary in their depiction of women's religiosity: some represent women as paragons of Roman virtue and devotion, but also inclined by temperament to self-indulgent religious enthusiasms, novelties and the seductions of superstitio. Most others were plebeians, the lowest class of Roman citizens. In Latin, the word cupido means lust, passion, or desire, all of … [208] He proposed the rebuilding of Jerusalem's temple as an Imperial project and argued against the "irrational impieties" of Christian doctrine. [26] A comparison of surviving Roman religious calendars suggests that official festivals were organized according to broad seasonal groups that allowed for different local traditions. [51], The same divine agencies who caused disease or harm also had the power to avert it, and so might be placated in advance. Cornell, T., in Walbank et al., 299, citing Livy 21.8-9 and 22.3-6. [71], Official cults were state funded as a "matter of public interest" (res publica). [40] Even private prayer by an individual was formulaic, a recitation rather than a personal expression, though selected by the individual for a particular purpose or occasion.[41]. The commander's headquarters stood at the centre; he took the auspices on a dais in front. Her symbols were a pomegranate and a peacock. [166] Major cult centres to "non-Roman" deities continued to prosper: notable examples include the magnificent Alexandrian Serapium, the temple of Aesculapeus at Pergamum and Apollo's sacred wood at Antioch. Sourcebook: Letter of St. ambrose, trans empire-wide ban under Hadrian, human sacrifice in ancient Rome was but. 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