Editing Religion in ancient Rome (section)

== ''Religio'' and the state ==
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[[File:L'Image et le Pouvoir - Portrait d'Antonin le Pieux 02.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Portrait of the emperor [[Antoninus Pius]] (reigned 138–161 AD) in ritual attire as an [[Arval Brothers|Arval Brother]]]]
Roman ''[[:wikt:religio#Latin|religio]]'' (religion) was an everyday and vital affair, a cornerstone of the ''[[mos maiorum]]'', Roman tradition and ancestral custom. It was ultimately governed by the Roman state, and religious laws.<ref>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 ''et al.''., Vol. 1, 251.</ref>

<blockquote>Care for the gods, the very meaning of ''religio'', had therefore to go through life, and one might thus understand why Cicero wrote that religion was "necessary". Religious behavior – ''pietas'' in Latin, ''eusebeia'' in Greek – belonged to action and not to contemplation. Consequently, religious acts took place wherever the faithful were: in houses, boroughs, associations, cities, military camps, cemeteries, in the country, on boats. 'When pious travelers happen to pass by a [[lucus|sacred grove]] or a cult place on their way, they are used to make a vow, or a fruit offering, or to sit down for a while' ([[Apuleius]], ''Florides'' 1.1).<ref>Belayche, (verbatim) in Rüpke (ed.), 279.</ref></blockquote>

Religious law centered on the ritualised system of honours and sacrifice that brought divine blessings, according to the principle ''[[do ut des]]'' ("I give, that you might give"). Proper, respectful ''religio'' brought social harmony and prosperity. Religious neglect was a form of [[atheism]]: impure sacrifice and incorrect ritual were ''[[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#vitium|vitia]]'' (impious errors). Excessive devotion, fearful grovelling to deities and the improper use or seeking of divine knowledge were ''[[#Divination, magic and superstition|superstitio]]''. Any of these moral deviations could cause divine anger (''ira deorum'') and therefore harm the State.<ref>Beard et al., Vol. 1, 217.</ref> The official deities of the state were identified with its lawful offices and institutions, and Romans of every class were expected to honour the beneficence and protection of mortal and divine superiors. State cult rituals were almost always performed in daylight and in full public view, by priests who acted on behalf of the Roman state and the Roman people. Congregations were expected to respectfully observe the proceedings. Participation in public rites showed a personal commitment to the community and its values.<ref>Gradel, 3, 15.</ref>

Official cults were state funded as a "matter of public interest" (''[[res publica]]''). Non-official but lawful cults were funded by private individuals for the benefit of their own communities. The difference between public and private cult is often unclear. Individuals or collegial associations could offer funds and cult to state deities. The public Vestals prepared ritual substances for use in public and private cults, and held the state-funded (thus public) opening ceremony for the [[Parentalia]] festival, which was otherwise a private rite to household ancestors. Some rites of the ''domus'' (household) were held in public places but were legally defined as ''privata'' in part or whole. All cults were ultimately subject to the approval and regulation of the censor and ''pontifices''.<ref>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 et al., Vol. 1, 251.</ref>

=== Public priesthoods and religious law ===
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Rome had no separate priestly caste or class. The highest authority within a community usually sponsored its cults and sacrifices, officiated as its priest and promoted its assistants and acolytes. Specialists from the religious colleges and professionals such as [[Haruspex|''haruspices'']] and oracles were available for consultation. In household cult, the ''paterfamilias'' functioned as priest, and members of his ''familia'' as acolytes and assistants. Public cults required greater knowledge and expertise. The earliest public priesthoods were probably the ''[[Flamen|flamines]]'' (the singular is ''flamen''), attributed to king Numa: the major ''flamines'', dedicated to Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus, were traditionally drawn from patrician families. Twelve lesser ''flamines'' were each dedicated to a single deity, whose archaic nature is indicated by the relative obscurity of some. ''Flamines'' were constrained by the requirements of ritual purity; Jupiter's ''flamen'' in particular had virtually no simultaneous capacity for a political or military career.<ref>Smith, in Rüpke (ed.), 39–40.</ref>

In the Regal era, a ''[[rex sacrorum]]'' (king of the sacred rites) supervised regal and state rites in conjunction with the king (''rex'') or in his absence, and announced the public festivals. He had little or no civil authority. With the abolition of monarchy, the collegial power and influence of the Republican ''pontifices'' increased. By the late Republican era, the flamines were supervised by the pontifical ''collegia''. The ''rex sacrorum'' had become a relatively obscure priesthood with an entirely symbolic title: his religious duties still included the daily, ritual announcement of festivals and priestly duties within two or three of the latter but his most important priestly role – the supervision of the [[Vestal Virgins|Vestals]] and their rites – fell to the more politically powerful and influential ''[[pontifex maximus]]''.<ref>Beard et al., Vol. 1, 18–34, 54–61: "[the underlying purpose being that] whoever bore the title ''rex'' should never again be in a position to threaten the city with tyranny." See also [[#Religion and politics|Religion and politics]] in this article.</ref>

Public priests were appointed by the ''collegia''. Once elected, a priest held permanent religious authority from the eternal divine, which offered him lifetime influence, privilege and immunity. Therefore, civil and religious law limited the number and kind of religious offices allowed an individual and his family. Religious law was collegial and traditional; it informed political decisions, could overturn them, and was difficult to exploit for personal gain.<ref>Beard et al., Vol. 1, 104–8: there can be no doubt that politicians attempted to manipulate religious law and priesthoods for gain; but were compelled to do so lawfully, and often failed.</ref>

Priesthood was a costly honour: in traditional Roman practice, a priest drew no stipend. Cult donations were the property of the deity, whose priest must provide cult regardless of shortfalls in public funding – this could mean subsidy of acolytes and all other cult maintenance from personal funds.<ref>Horster, in Rüpke (ed.), 331–2.</ref> For those who had reached their goal in the ''[[Cursus honorum]]'', permanent priesthood was best sought or granted after a lifetime's service in military or political life, or preferably both: it was a particularly honourable and active form of retirement which fulfilled an essential public duty. For a freedman or slave, promotion as one of the Compitalia ''seviri'' offered a high local profile, and opportunities in local politics; and therefore business.<ref>See Gradel, 9-15.</ref>

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''. In Rome, the same Imperial cult role was performed by the [[Arval Brethren]], once an obscure Republican priesthood dedicated to several deities, then co-opted by Augustus as part of his religious reforms. 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. Every 3 January they consecrated the annual vows and rendered any sacrifice promised in the previous year, provided the gods had kept the Imperial family safe for the contracted time.<ref>Gradel, 21.</ref>

==== The Vestals ====
[[File:Chief Vestal.jpg|thumb|150px|left|A [[Roman sculpture]] depicting a [[Vestal Virgin|Vestal]]]]
The [[Vestal Virgin|Vestals]] were a public priesthood of six women devoted to the cultivation of [[Vesta (mythology)|Vesta]], goddess of the [[Sacred fire of Vesta|hearth of the Roman state and its vital flame]]. A girl chosen to be a Vestal achieved unique religious distinction, public status and privileges, and could exercise considerable political influence. Upon entering her office, a Vestal was emancipated from her [[paterfamilias|father's authority]]. In archaic Roman society, these priestesses were the only women not required to be under the legal guardianship of a man, instead answering directly to the Pontifex Maximus.<ref>Gary Forsythe, ''A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War'' (University of California Press, 2005, 2006), p. 141.</ref>

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.<ref>Beard et al., Vol. 1, 52–53.</ref> Unlike male priests, Vestals were freed of the traditional obligations of marrying and producing children, and were required to take a vow of chastity that was strictly enforced: a Vestal polluted by the loss of her chastity while in office was buried alive.<ref>Beard et al., Vol. 1, 51–54, 70–71, 297. For comparison of Vestal constraints to those of Jupiter's flamen, see Smith, in Rüpke (ed.), 39–40</ref> Thus the exceptional honor accorded a Vestal was religious rather than personal or social; her privileges required her to be fully devoted to the performance of her duties, which were considered essential to the security of Rome.<ref>Forsythe, ''A Critical History of Early Rome'', p. 141.</ref>

The Vestals embody the profound connection between domestic cult and the religious life of the community.<ref>Beard et al., Vol. 1, 50–53.</ref> Any householder could rekindle their own household fire from Vesta's flame. The Vestals cared for the [[Lares]] and [[Penates]] of the state that were the equivalent of those enshrined in each home. Besides their own festival of [[Vestalia]], they participated directly in the rites of [[Parilia]], [[Parentalia]] and [[Fordicidia]]. Indirectly, they played a role in every official sacrifice; among their duties was the preparation of the ''[[mola salsa]]'', the salted flour that was sprinkled on every [[Animal sacrifice|sacrificial victim]] as part of its immolation.<ref>Ariadne Staples, ''From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins: Sex and Category in Roman Religion'' (Routledge, 1998), pp. 154–155.</ref>

One mythological tradition held that the mother of Romulus and Remus was a Vestal virgin of royal blood. A tale of miraculous birth also attended on [[Servius Tullius]], sixth king of Rome, son of a virgin slave-girl impregnated by a disembodied [[phallus]] arising mysteriously on the royal hearth; the story was connected to the ''[[fascinus]]'' that was among the cult objects under the guardianship of the Vestals.

Augustus' religious reformations raised the funding and public profile of the Vestals. They were given high-status seating at games and theatres. The emperor [[Claudius]] appointed them as priestesses to the cult of the deified [[Livia]], wife of Augustus.<ref>Beard et al., Vol. 1, 193-4.</ref> They seem to have retained their religious and social distinctions well into the 4th century, after political power within the Empire had shifted to the Christians. When the Christian emperor [[Gratian]] refused the office of ''pontifex maximus'', he took steps toward the dissolution of the order. His successor [[Theodosius I]] extinguished Vesta's sacred fire and vacated her temple.

=== Augury ===
{{Main|Augur}}
Public religion took place within a sacred precinct that had been marked out ritually by an [[augur]]. The original meaning of the Latin word ''templum'' was this sacred space, and only later referred to a building.<ref name="Scheid, in Rüpke ed, 263–271" /> Rome itself was an intrinsically sacred space; its ancient boundary ''([[pomerium]])'' had been marked by Romulus himself with oxen and plough; what lay within was the earthly home and protectorate of the gods of the state. In Rome, the central references for the establishment of an augural ''templum'' appear to have been the [[Via Sacra]] (Sacred Way) and the pomerium.<ref>Smith, in Rüpke (ed.), 36.</ref> Magistrates sought divine opinion of proposed official acts through an augur, who read the divine will through observations made within the ''templum'' before, during and after an act of sacrifice.<ref>Beard et al., Vol 1, 12-20.</ref>

Divine disapproval could arise through unfit sacrifice, errant rites ([[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#vitium|''vitia'']]) or an unacceptable plan of action. If an unfavourable sign was given, the magistrate could repeat the sacrifice until favourable signs were seen, consult with his augural colleagues, or abandon the project. Magistrates could use their right of augury (''ius augurum'') to adjourn and overturn the process of law, but were obliged to base their decision on the augur's observations and advice. For Cicero, himself an augur, this made the augur the most powerful authority in the Late Republic.<ref>Brent, 17-20: citing Cicero, ''De Natura Deorum'', 2.4.</ref> By his time (mid 1st century BC) augury was supervised by the college of ''[[pontifices]]'', whose powers were increasingly woven into the magistracies of the ''[[cursus honorum]]''.<ref name="Brent, 21-25">Brent, 21-25.</ref>

==== Haruspicy ====
{{Main|Haruspex}}
[[File:Piacenza Bronzeleber.jpg|thumb|The bronze [[Liver of Piacenza]] is an Etruscan artifact that probably served as an instructional model for the haruspex]]

[[Haruspex|Haruspicy]] was also used in public cult, under the supervision of the augur or presiding magistrate. The haruspices divined the will of the gods through examination of entrails after sacrifice, particularly the liver. They also interpreted omens, prodigies and portents, and formulated their expiation. Most Roman authors describe haruspicy as an ancient, ethnically Etruscan "outsider" religious profession, separate from Rome's internal and largely unpaid priestly hierarchy, essential but never quite respectable.<ref>Beard et al., Vol 1, 12-20. See also [[John Scheid|Scheid]], in Rüpke (ed.), 266.</ref> During the mid-to-late Republic, the reformist [[Gaius Gracchus]], the populist politician-general [[Gaius Marius]] and his antagonist [[Sulla]], and the "notorious [[Verres]]" justified their very different policies by the divinely inspired utterances of private diviners. The Senate and armies used the public haruspices: at some time during the late Republic, the Senate decreed that Roman boys of noble family be sent to Etruria for training in haruspicy and divination. Being of independent means, they would be better motivated to maintain a pure, religious practice for the public good.<ref>Horster, in Rüpke (ed.) 336–7.</ref> 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.<ref>Cicero finds all forms of divination false, except those used in State rituals; most Romans were less skeptical. See Rosenberger, in Rüpke (ed.), 300, and Orlin, in Rüpke (ed.), 67.</ref>

==== Omens and prodigies ====
[[Omen]]s observed within or from a divine augural templum – especially the flight of birds – were sent by the gods in response to official queries. 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.<ref>Caesar used his ''ius augurium'' to declare ''obnuntiato'' to Cicero's disadvantage: and vice versa.</ref> Conversely, an apparently negative omen could be re-interpreted as positive, or deliberately blocked from sight.<ref>Orlin, in Rüpke (ed.), 65–66.</ref>

[[Prodigy (divination)|Prodigies]] were transgressions in the natural, predictable order of the cosmos – signs of divine anger that portended conflict and misfortune. The Senate decided whether a reported prodigy was false, or genuine and in the public interest, in which case it was referred to the public priests, augurs and haruspices for ritual expiation.<ref>Orlin, in Rüpke (ed.), 60.</ref> In 207 BC, during one of the Punic Wars' worst crises, the Senate dealt with an unprecedented number of confirmed prodigies whose expiation would have involved "at least twenty days" of dedicated rites.<ref>Rosenberger, in Rüpke (ed.), 297.</ref> Citing [[Polybius]], [[Livy]] records a number of these including a "phantom navy" of ships flying through the sky and an ox climbing to the third story of a home. Later historians viewed these accounts as reactions to the unfolding military crisis.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.70252 |title=The Cambridge Ancient History: Rome and the Mediterranean |volume=VIII |editor-last=Cook |editor-first=S. A. |editor2-last=Adcock |editor2-first=F. E. |editor3-last=Charlesworth |editor3-first=M. P. |date=1930 |pages=44–45}}</ref>

Livy presents these as signs of widespread failure in Roman ''religio''. The major prodigies included the spontaneous combustion of weapons, the apparent shrinking of the sun's disc, two moons in a daylit sky, a cosmic battle between sun and moon, a rain of red-hot stones, a bloody sweat on statues, and blood in fountains and on ears of corn: all were expiated by sacrifice of  "greater victims". The minor prodigies were less warlike but equally unnatural; sheep become goats, a hen become a [[rooster|cock]] (and vice versa) – these were expiated with "lesser victims". The discovery of an androgynous four-year-old child was expiated by its drowning<ref>Rosenberger, in Rüpke (ed.), 295–8: the task fell to the haruspex, who set the child to drown in the sea. The survival of such a child for four years after its birth would have between regarded as extreme dereliction of religious duty.</ref> and the holy procession of 27 virgins to the temple of [[Juno (mythology)#Epithets|Juno Regina]], singing a hymn to avert disaster: a lightning strike during the hymn rehearsals required further expiation.<ref>Livy, 27.37.5–15; the hymn was composed by the poet [[Livius Andronicus]]. Cited by Halm, in Rüpke (ed.) 244. For remainder, see Rosenberger, in Rüpke (ed.), 297.</ref> Religious restitution is proved only by Rome's victory.<ref>See Livy, 22.1 ff: The expiatory [[#Sacrifice|burial of living human victims]] in the Forum Boarium followed Rome's defeat at Cannae in the same wars. In Livy's account, Rome's victory follows its discharge of religious duties to the gods.</ref><ref>For Livy's use of prodigies and portents as markers of Roman impiety and military failure, see Feeney, in Rüpke (ed.), 138–9. For prodigies in the context of political decision-making, see Rosenberger, in Rüpke (ed.), 295–8.</ref>

In the wider context of Graeco-Roman religious culture, Rome's earliest reported portents and prodigies stand out as atypically dire. Whereas for Romans, a comet presaged misfortune, for Greeks it might equally signal a divine or exceptionally fortunate birth.<ref>Rosenberger, in Rüpke (ed.), 293.</ref> 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.<ref>Hertz, in Rüpke (ed.), 315.</ref>