_Religious Ceremonies of the Romans._
The Romans were, as a people, remarkably attached to the religion they
professed; and scrupulously attentive in discharging the rites and
ceremonies which it enjoined.
Their religion was Idolatry, in its grossest and widest acceptation. It
acknowledged a few general truths, but greatly darkened these by fables
and poetical fiction.
All the inhabitants of the invisible world, to which the souls of people
departed after death, were indiscriminately called _Inferi_. _Elysium_
was that part of hell (_apud Inferos_,) in which the good spent a
spiritual existence of unmingled enjoyment, and _Tartarus_ (pl. -ra) was
the terrible prison-house of the damned.
The worship of the gods consisted chiefly in prayers, vows, and
sacrifices. No act of religious worship was performed without prayer;
while praying, they stood usually with their heads covered, looking
towards the east; a priest pronounced the words before them;--they
frequently touched the altars or knees of the images of the gods;
turning themselves round in a circle towards the right, sometimes
putting their right hand to their mouth, and also prostrating themselves
on the ground.
They vowed temples, games, sacrifices, gifts, &c. Sometimes they used to
write their vows on paper or waxen tablets, to seal them up, and fasten
them with wax to the knees of the images of the gods, that being
supposed to be the seat of mercy.
Lustrations were necessary to be made before entrance on any important
religious duty, viz. before setting out to the temples, before the
sacrifice, before initiation into the mysteries, and before solemn vows
and prayers.
Lustrations were also made after acts by which one might be polluted; as
after murder, or after having assisted at a funeral.
In sacrifices it was requisite that those who offered them, should come
chaste and pure; that they should bathe themselves, be dressed in white
robes, and crowned with the leaves of the tree which was thought most
acceptable to the god whom they worshipped.
Sacrifices were made of victims whole and sound (_Integrae et sanae_.) But
all victims were not indifferently offered to all gods.
A white bull was an acceptable sacrifice to Jupiter; an ewe to Juno;
black victims, bulls especially, to Pluto; a bull and a horse to
Neptune; the horse to Mars; bullocks and lambs to Apollo, &c. Sheep and
goats were offered to various deities.
The victim was led to the altar with a loose rope, that it might not
seem to be brought by force, which was reckoned a bad omen. After
silence was proclaimed, a salted cake was sprinkled on the head of the
beast, and frankincense and wine poured between his horns, the priest
having first tasted the wine himself, and given it to be tasted by those
that stood next him, which was called _libatio_--the priest then plucked
the highest hairs between the horns, and threw them into the fire--the
victim was struck with an axe or mall, then stabbed with knives, and the
blood being caught in goblets, was poured on the altar--it was then
flayed and dissected; then the entrails were inspected by the aruspices,
and if the signs were favorable, they were said to have offered up an
acceptable sacrifice, or to have pacified the gods; if not, another
victim was offered up, and sometimes several. The parts which fell to
the gods were sprinkled with meal, wine, and frankincense, and burnt on
the altar. When the sacrifice was finished, the priest, having washed
his hands, and uttered certain prayers, again made a libation, and the
people were dismissed.
Human sacrifices were also offered among the Romans: persons guilty of
certain crimes, as treachery or sedition, were devoted to Pluto and the
infernal gods, and therefore any one might slay them with impunity.
Altars and temples afforded an asylum or place of refuge among the
Greeks and Romans, as well as among the Jews, chiefly to slaves from the
cruelty of their masters, and to insolvent debtors and criminals, where
it was considered impious to touch them; but sometimes they put fire and
combustible materials around the place, that the person might appear to
be forced away, not by men, but by a god: or shut up the temple and
unroofed it, that he might perish in the open air.