ROMAN RELIGION
=The Roman Gods.=--The Romans, like the Greeks, believed that
everything that occurs in the world was the work of a deity. But in
place of a God who directs the whole universe, they had a deity for
every phenomenon which they saw. There was a divinity to make the seed
sprout, another to protect the bounds of the fields, another to guard
the fruits. Each had its name, its sex, and its functions.
The principal gods were Jupiter, god of the heaven; Janus, the
two-faced god (the deity who opens); Mars, god of war; Mercury, god of
trade; Vulcan, god of fire; Neptune, god of the sea; Ceres, goddess of
grains, the Earth, the Moon, Juno, and Minerva.
Below these were secondary deities. Some personified a quality--for
example, Youth, Concord, Health, Peace. Others presided over a certain
act in life: when the infant came into the world there were a god to
teach him to speak, a goddess to teach him to drink, another charged
with knitting his bones, two to accompany him to school, two to take
him home again. In short, there was a veritable legion of minor
special deities.
Other gods protected a city, a certain section of a mountain, a
forest; every river, every fountain, every tree had its little local
divinity. It is this that makes an old woman in a Latin romance
exclaim, "Our country is so full of gods that it is much easier to
find a god than a man."
=Form of the Gods.=--The Romans, unlike the Greeks, did not give their
gods a precise form. For a long time there was no idol in Rome; they
worshipped Jupiter under the form of a rock, Mars under that of a
sword. It was later that they imitated the wooden statues of the
Etruscans and the marbles of the Greeks. Perhaps they did not at first
conceive of the gods as having human forms.
Unlike the Greeks they did not imagine marriage and kinship among
their gods; they had no legends to tell of these relationships; they
knew of no Olympus where the gods met together. The Latin language had
a very significant word for designating the gods: they were called
Manifestations. They were the manifestations of a mysterious divine
power. This is why they were formless, without family relationship,
without legends. Everything that was known of the gods was that each
controlled a natural force and could benefit or injure men.
=Principles of the Roman Religion.=--The Roman was no lover of these
pale and frigid abstractions; he even seemed to fear them. When he
invoked them, he covered his face, perhaps that he might not see them.
But he thought that they were potent and that they would render him
service, if he knew how to please them. "The man whom the gods favor,"
says Plautus, "they cause to gain wealth."
The Roman conceives of religion as an exchange of good offices; the
worshipper brings offerings and homage; the god in return confers some
advantage.[110] If after having made a present to the god the man
receives nothing, he considers himself cheated. During the illness of
Germanicus the people offered sacrifices for his restoration. When it
was announced that Germanicus was dead, the people in their anger
overturned the altars and cast the statues of the gods into the
streets, because they had not done what was expected of them. And so
in our day the Italian peasant abuses the saint who does not give him
what he asks.
=Worship.=--Worship, therefore, consists in doing those things that
please the gods. They are presented with fruits, milk, wine, or animal
sacrifices. Sometimes the statues of the gods are brought from their
temples, laid on couches, and served with a feast. As in Greece,
magnificent homes (temples[111]) were built for them, and diversions
were arranged for them.
=Formalism.=--But it is not enough that one make a costly offering to
the gods. The Roman gods are punctilious as to form; they require that
all the acts of worship, the sacrifices, games, dedications, shall
proceed according to the ancient rules (the rites). When one desires
to offer a victim to Jupiter, one must select a white beast, sprinkle
salted meal on its head, and strike it with an axe; one must stand
erect with hands raised to heaven, the abode of Jupiter, and
pronounce a sacred formula. If any part of the ceremonial fails, the
sacrifice is of no avail; the god, it is thought, will have no
pleasure in it. A magistrate may be celebrating games in honor of the
protecting deities of Rome; "if he alters a word in his formula, if a
flute-player rests, if the actor stops short, the games do not conform
to the rites; they must be recommenced."[112]
And so the prudent man secures the assistance of two priests, one to
pronounce the formula, the other to follow the ritual accurately.
Every year the Arval Brothers, a college of priests, assemble in a
temple in the environs of Rome where they perform a sacred dance and
recite a prayer; this is written in an archaic language which no one
any longer comprehends, so much so that at the beginning of the
ceremony a written formulary must be given to each of the priests. And
yet, ever since the time that they ceased to comprehend it, they
continued to chant it without change. This is because the Romans hold
before all to the letter of the law in dealing with their gods. This
exactness in performing the prescribed ritual is for them their
religion. And so they regarded themselves as "the most religious of
men." "On all other points we are the inferiors or only the equals of
other peoples, but we excel all in religion, that is, the worship we
pay the gods."
=Prayer.=--When the Roman prays, it is not to lift his soul and feel
himself in communion with a god, but to ask of him a service. He is
concerned, then, first to find the god who can render it. "It is as
important," says Varro, "to know what god can aid us in a special case
as to know where the carpenter and baker live." Thus one must address
Ceres if one wants rich harvests, Mercury to make a fortune, Neptune
to have a happy voyage. Then the suppliant dons the proper garments,
for the gods love neatness; he brings an offering, for the gods love
not that one should come with empty hands. Then, erect, the head
veiled, the worshipper invokes the god. But he does not know the exact
name of the god, for, say the Romans, "no one knows the true names of
the gods." He says, then, for example, "Jupiter, greatest and best, or
whatever is the name that thou preferrest...." Then he proposes his
request, taking care to use always the clearest expressions so that
the god may make no mistake. If a libation is offered, one says,
"Receive the homage of this wine that I am pouring"; for the god might
think that one would present other wine and keep this back. The
prayers, too, are long, verbose, and full of repetitions.
=Omens.=--The Romans, like the Greeks, believe in omens. The gods,
they think, know the future, and they send signs that permit men to
divine them. Before undertaking any act, the Roman consults the gods.
The general about to engage in battle examines the entrails of
victims; the magistrates before holding an assembly regards the
passing birds (called "taking the auspices"). If the signs are
favorable, the gods are thought to approve the enterprise; if not,
they are against it. The gods often send a sign that had not been
requested. Every unexpected phenomenon is the presage of an event. A
comet appeared before the death of Caesar and was thought to have
announced it.
When the assembly of the people deliberates and it thunders, it is
because Jupiter does not wish that anything shall be decided on that
day and the assembly must dissolve. The most insignificant fact may be
interpreted as a sign--a flash of lightning, a word overheard, a rat
crossing the road, a diviner met on the way. And so when Marcellus had
determined on an enterprise, he had himself carried in a closed litter
that he might be sure of not seeing anything which could impose itself
on him as a portent.
These were not the superstitions of the populace; the republic
supported six augurs charged with predicting the future. It carefully
preserved a collection of prophecies, the Sibylline Books. It had
sacred chickens guarded by priests. No public act--assembly, election,
deliberation--could be done without the taking of the auspices, that
is to say, observation of the flight of birds. In the year 195 it was
learned that lightning had struck a temple of Jupiter and that it had
hit a hair on the head of the statue of Hercules; a governor wrote
that a chicken with three feet had been hatched; the senate assembled
to discuss these portents.
=The Priests.=--The priest in Rome, as in Greece, is not charged with
the care of souls, he exists only for the service of the god. He
guards his temple, administers his property, and performs the
ceremonies in his honor. Thus the guild of the Salii (the leapers)
watches over a shield which fell from heaven, they said, and which
was adored as an idol; every year they perform a dance in arms, and
this is their sole function.
The augurs predict the future. The pontiffs superintend the ceremonies
of worship; they regulate the calendar and fix the festivals to be
celebrated on the various days of the year.
Neither the priests, the augurs, nor the pontiffs form a separate
class. They are chosen from among the great families and continue to
exercise all the functions of state--judging, presiding over
assemblies, and commanding armies. This is the reason that the Roman
priests, potent as they were, did not constitute, as in Egypt, a
sacerdotal caste. At Rome it was a state religion, but not a
government by the priests.
=The Dead.=--The Romans, like the Hindoos and the Greeks, believed
that the soul survived the body. If care were taken to bury the body
according to the proper rites, the soul went to the lower world and
became a god; otherwise the soul could not enter the abode of the
dead, but returned to the earth terrifying the living and tormenting
them until suitable burial was performed. Pliny the Younger[113]
relates the story of a ghost which haunted a house and terrified to
death all the inhabitants of the dwelling; a philosopher who was brave
enough to follow it discovered at the place where the spectre stopped
some bones which had not been buried in the proper manner. The shade
of the Emperor Caligula wandered in the gardens of the palace; it was
necessary to disinter the body and bury it anew in regular form.
=Cult of the Dead.=--It was of importance, therefore, to both the
living and the dead that the rites should be observed. The family of
the deceased erected a funeral pile, burned the body on it, and placed
the ashes in an urn which was deposited in the tomb, a little chapel
dedicated to the Manes,[114] _i.e._, the souls that had become gods.
On fixed days of the year the relatives came to the tomb to bring
food; doubtless they believed that the soul was in need of
nourishment, for wine and milk were poured on the earth, flesh of
victims was burned, and vessels of milk and cakes were left behind.
These funeral ceremonies were perpetuated for an indefinite period; a
family could not abandon the souls of its ancestors, but continued to
maintain their tomb and the funeral feasts. In return, these souls
which had become gods loved and protected their posterity. Each
family, therefore, had its guardian deities which they called Lares.
=Cult of the Hearth.=--Each family had a hearth, also, that it adored.
For the Romans, as for the Hindoos, fire was a god and the hearth an
altar. The flame was to be maintained day and night, and offerings
made on the hearth of oil, fat, wine, and incense; the fire then
became brilliant and rose higher as if nourished by the offering.
Before beginning his meal the Roman thanked the god of the hearth,
gave him a part of the food, and poured out for him a little wine
(this was the libation). Even the sceptical Horace supped with his
slaves before the hearth and offered libation and prayer.
Every Roman family had in its house a sanctuary where were to be found
the Lares, the souls of the ancestors, and the altar of the hearth.
Rome also had its sacred hearth, called Vesta, an ancient word
signifying the hearth itself. Four virgins of the noblest families,
the Vestals, were charged with keeping the hearth, for it was
necessary that the flame should never be extinguished, and the care of
it could be confided only to pure beings. If a Vestal broke her vow,
she was buried alive in a cave, for she had committed sacrilege and
had endangered the whole Roman people.
THE FAMILY
=Religion of the Family.=--All the members of a family render worship
to the same ancestors and unite about the same hearth. They have
therefore the same gods, and these are their peculiar possession. The
sanctuary where the Lares[115] were kept was concealed in the house
and no stranger was to approach it. Thus the Roman family was a little
church; it had its religion and its worship to which no others than
its members had access. The ancient family was very different from the
modern, having its basis in the principles of religion.
=Marriage.=--The first rule of this religion is that one should be the
issue of a regular marriage if one is to have the right of adoring the
ancestors of the family. Roman marriage, therefore, is at the start a
religious ceremony. The father of the bride gives her away outside the
house when a procession conducts her to the house of the groom
chanting an ancient sacred refrain, "Hymen, O Hymen!" The bride is
then led before the altar of the husband where water and fire are
presented, and there in the presence of the gods of the family the
bride and groom divide between them a cake of meal. Marriage at this
period was called confarreatio (communion through the cake). Later
another form of marriage was invented. A relative of the bride in the
presence of witnesses sells her to the husband who declares that he
buys her for his wife. This is marriage by sale (coemptio).
For the Romans as for the Greeks marriage is a religious duty;
religion ordains that the family should not become extinct. The Roman,
therefore, declares when he marries that he takes his wife to
perpetuate the family through their children. A noble Roman who
sincerely loved his wife repudiated her because she brought him no
children.
=The Roman Woman.=--The Roman woman is never free. As a young girl,
she belongs to her father who chooses her husband for her; married,
she comes under the power of her husband--the jurisconsults say she is
under his "manus," _i.e._, she is in the same position as his
daughter. The woman always has a master who has the right of life and
death over her. And yet, she is never treated like a slave. She is the
equal in dignity of her husband; she is called the mother of the
family (materfamilias) just as her husband is called the father of the
family (paterfamilias). She is the mistress in the house, as he is the
master. She gives orders to the slaves whom she charges with all the
heavy tasks--the grinding of the grain, the making of bread, and the
cooking. She sits in the seat of honor (the atrium), spins and weaves,
apportions work to the slaves, watches the children, and directs the
house. She is not excluded from association with the men, like the
Greek woman; she eats at the table with her husband, receives
visitors, goes into town to dinner, appears at the public ceremonies,
at the theatre, and even at the courts. And still she is ordinarily
uncultured; the Romans do not care to instruct their daughters; the
quality which they most admire in woman is gravity, and on her tomb
they write by way of eulogy, "She kept the house and spun linen."
=The Children.=--The Roman child belongs to the father like a piece of
property. The father has the right of exposing him in the street. If
he accepts the child, the latter is brought up at first in the house.
Girls remain here until marriage; they spin and weave under the
supervision of their mother. The boys walk to the fields with their
father and exercise themselves in arms. The Romans are not an artistic
people; they require no more of their children than that they know how
to read, write, and reckon; neither music nor poetry is taught them.
They are brought up to be sober, silent, modest in their demeanor, and
obedient.
=The Father of the Family.=--The master of the house was called by the
Romans the father of the family. The paterfamilias is at once the
proprietor of the domain, the priest of the cult of the ancestors, and
the sovereign of the family. He reigns as master in his house. He has
the right of repudiating his wife, of rejecting his children, of
selling them, and marrying them at his pleasure. He can take for
himself all that belongs to them, everything that his wife brings to
him, and everything that his children gain; for neither the wife nor
the children may be proprietors. Finally he has over them all[116] the
"right of life and death," that is to say, he is their only judge. If
they commit crime, it is not the magistrate who punishes them, but the
father of the family who condemns them. One day (186 B.C.) the Roman
Senate decreed the penalty of death for all those who had participated
in the orgies of the cult of Bacchus. The men were executed, but for
all the women who were discovered among the guilty, it was necessary
that the Senate should address itself to the fathers of families, and
it was these who condemned to death their wives or their daughters.
"The husband," said the elder Cato, "is the judge of the wife, he can
do with her as he will; if she has committed any fault, he chastises
her; if she has drunk wine, he condemns her; if she has been
unfaithful to him, he kills her." When Catiline conspired against the
Senate, a senator perceived that his own son had taken part in the
conspiracy; he had him arrested, judged him, and condemned him to
death.
The power of the father of the family endured as long as life; the son
was never freed from it. Even if he became consul, he remained subject
to the power of his father. When the father died, the sons became in
turn fathers of families. As for the wife, she could never attain
freedom; she fell under the power of the heir of her husband; she
could, then, become subject to her own son.
FOOTNOTES:
[110] A legend represents King Numa debating with Jupiter the terms of a
contract: "You will sacrifice a head to me?" says Jupiter. "Very well,"
says Numa, "the head of an onion that I shall take in my garden." "No,"
replies Jupiter, "but I want something that pertains to a man." "We will
give you then the tip of the hair." "But it must be alive." "Then we
will add to this a little fish." Jupiter laughed and consented to this.
[111] In Rome, as in Greece, the temple was called a house.
[112] The remark is Cicero's.
[113] Pliny, Epistles, vii, 27. See another story in Plautus's
Mostellaria.
[114] The letters D.M. found on Roman tombs are the initials of Dei
Manes.
[115] They were called the Penates, that is to say, the gods of the
interior.
[116] In the language of the Roman law the wife, children, and slaves
"are not their own masters."