by Horatius Piscinus on Sun Aug 17, 2003 4:27 pm
Salvete
SILENTIUM
"In the time of our forefathers the magistrates would call in some expert to assist on such occasions when the auspices were to be taken, but nowadays anyone will do. However one must be an expert to know what constitutes silentium, for by that term we mean 'free of every augural defect'. To understand that belongs to a perfect augur. After the celebrant auspex has said to his assistant, 'Tell me when silence appears to exist,' the latter, without himself looking up or about, immediately replies, 'Silence appears to exist' (Cicero On Divination, 2.71-2)."
SILENTIUM may best be translated as "awed solemnity" of the kind needed for "ritual correctness." Cicero above defines SILENTIUM in a negative sense, applicable to all Roman rituals, where any sign of impropriety would vitiate the ceremony of the rite. That is, the traditional and proper manner in which any ritual of the Religio Romana was to be performed. Virgil employs a double entendre of SILENTIUM where the envoys of the Latins came to ask a truce of Aeneas. After they addressed him and he responded, "they stood astonished and amazed into silence, their dazed eyes staring, turning about to behold one another's face (Aeneid 11.120-1)." Servius Honoratus, commenting on this passage, said simply that Virgil's use of obstipuere silentes meant that "they were amazed and astonished and they began to be still and silent (Ad Aen. 11.120)." This is generally taken to mean that the envoys were surprised by the generosity of Aeneas' reply. However it should be kept in mind that the presentation of Latin envoys and Aeneas' reply to the envoys is conducted within a formal ritual. Having spoken their messages, the envoys would naturally have stood silent awaiting a reply. Virgil indicates that this was done in a ritual manner with due solemnity. The amazement and astonishment of the envoys, while indicated to be directed towards Aeneas, would also be their countenance towards Jupiter in whose presence they perform their ambassadorial duties. Virgil's intent is to convey that whatever took place in this scene was conducted in a ritualistic manner.
A call for SILENTIUM thus means, "Be attentive!" more than that it commands silence, since the purpose of this portion in any rite is to avoid distractions that may vitiate it. An anecdotal precaution is given by Valerius Maximus:
"The disturbing sound of a shrewmouse squeaking gave cause to Fabius Maximus to lay down his Dictatorship and C. Flaminius his Mastership of the Horse (Val. Max. 1.1.5; Plut. Marc. 5)."
It is likewise referred to in the "Lampoon of the Shrewmouse," as that "mouse among the augurs who was bestowed by Saturn (Mar. Vict. 2470 P)." The squeak of the mouse broke the ritual silence, true. But more so his presence broke the attention of the rite's participants so that they did not perform the rite properly attentive. The AUSPEX has previously drawn his toga up to veil his head (capite velato) in the manner of the cinctu Gabinu and he remains seated slightly within the tabernaculum. Both precautions muffle undesired sounds and also prevent him from being distracted by his peripheral vision. He is seated on a sella solida as Numa had sat on a stone rather than a creaking chair. The tibicines play flutes so that no distant sound may be heard and interrupt the rite. The AUSPEX remains seated "wrapped in his robe, a trabea according to the augurs, while the others who are present with him remain standing still (Serv. Aen. 9, 4)." We may consider that all of the preliminary steps leading up to the taking of the auspices has placed the AUSPEX into a proper ritual composure where by he becomes receptive to the signs that will present themselves. All those present are thus conjoined not to disturb his ritual composure, and thus calling for silentium marks the beginning of a new phase in the rite. Cicero claimed that in his day the taking of the public auspices had become wholly a ritualized performance. He gives the ritual beginning with the AUSPEX saying to another nearby, "Quintus Fabius, I wish you to assist me at the auspices," to which is replied, "I will." Next we may assume that a signal was give to the audience, or some call was given to indicate that the public portion of the ceremony was to begin, in order that the observing crowd would settle into a proper decorum. It is only then that the AUSPEX would ask whether SILENTIUM had been established.
There were different formulae for exhorting SILENTIUM at public sacrifices and for public auspices (Paul. Festus. P 78; 249; Cic. Div 2.71-2; 2.82-3. G. Appel De Romanorum Precationibus, 1909). In the one case that is known, from the Late Republic, SILENTIUM was called at the beginning of the assembly of a Comitia by calling out, in effect, "Depart, all those who have no business being here. Depart!" Aspects of any assembly included religious rites, including a form of augury in sortition. Therefore proper decorum was required, if not always attained, in performing an augury by sortition. (See Roberta Stewart, Public Office in Early Rome, 1998). In domestic rites and private auguries such formulae may have been used, but not necessarily were they required. If a paterfamilias needed to take auspices he would wait until everything in the household seemed silent enough. Little did it matter, according to Cato, if a servant girl whispered or made sounds beneath a blanket, so long as the paterfamilias did not hear, or pretended not to hear any sounds (Fest. p. 268, 16-20). In order to make a private rite more formal the manner of public rites was adopted. Such is the case in a play by Plautus where there is a scene of the drawing of lots. It is performed as an example of augury, the scene's humor possibly made by the displacement of a public rite into a very different context. If so, then two examples of a silentium formulae are possibly given.
The rite of sortition begins when Lysidamus says, "Be silent, speak well. I trust in the gods, we will put our hopes in the gods (Casina 346: BENEDICTA. DIS SOM FRETUS; DEOS SPERABIMUS)."
Another character later says, "I am silent. I ask the gods, please, that it comes to me by taking the auspices what may be good and fortunate for me" (Casia 382: TACEO. DEOS QUAESO IN MIHI EVENIAT QUOD BONAM ATQUE FORTUNATUM SIT MIHI).
Lysidamus' injunction is neither "Be silent" nor one to encourage eloquence. It does command, however, that the characters present change their mood into one of proper respect for the rite about to be performed. The other character does not respond with silence. He says, "I am silent" to indicate he will not continue talking on other matters, and couples this with a little prayer to the gods that is proper to the new situation begun by the invoking of a SILENTIUM. In the scene, the banter between characters over their divergent interests, conducted by interchanges, is suddenly stilled. They continue to speak, but in asides to the audience, respecting the rite being performed on stage. It is as though a mantle of silentium was called down over the scene. The conduct of the characters is altered by their respect and awe for a mysterious power, the scene transposed then into an artificial solemnity. Elsewhere among the poets we may see that silentium refers more to a solemnity, one brought on by coming into the presence of the gods, than how it is usually translated as simply "silence."
Gods, who rule the realms of souls, those regions unrevealed to human sight and held in silence, and Chaos, and Phlegethon, that River of Fire, the regions of the night, and broad silent tracts, grant that I may be allowed to report your words that my ears have heard, to explain your numina, mystic powers from distant lands immersed in mists. (Virgil Aeneid 6.264 ff)
Servius Honoratus offers an explanation in his commentaries on the Aeneid that the umbraeque silentes mentioned at 6.264 are "the secret infernal places that remain always hidden from human sight and in SILENTIUM." Then for the next line, 6.265, he gives the "regions of the night, broad silent tracts, or what is held to be above what he calls a 'shadowy and silent realm,' in other words what he wished to show as part of the world that lies in a perpetual darkness of obscurity." With Suetonius we hear how Caesar gave thanksgiving (supplicatio) near the "temples of the major deities" (apud superiores aedes) and then descended to the sedentibus ac silentibus cunctis (De Vita Caesarum 21.1). The "seats and silent places" to which he refers are the stations of the augures and sacred groves, as were those of Faunus, that were shaded places used to perform incubations. Virgil speaks of one such place where king Latinus went to consult his father Faunus in a "sacred grove beneath mount Albunea whose shady wood rings her haunted fountain, through whose gloom breathes forth a deadly sulphurous vapor (Aeneid 7.81 ff)." Latinus sacrifices sheep. then spreads out their skins, upon which he lies sub nocte silenti. The image is one of the darkness and silence and stillness of the night, or of a forested sacred grove. The description of this rite follows one that Ovid has Numa perform (Fasti 4.649-67). Faunus is said to "give response to stilled minds in the quiet of the night" rather than use the term SILENTIUM. We do not need though to assume that this rite was necessarily performed at night. The attributes of stillness and silence, and of relative darkness, would be present in such a forest, especially near Albunea's sulphurous springs that would keep animals and birds at bay. Likewise in Faunus' "ancient forest," or the "grove beneath the Aventine, black with shady oak" where Numa also met Faunus (Fasti 3.295). At the same time such the Albunea site was associated with the Underworld and evoked astonishment, awe, and amazement due to its nature. We can see then that the silentibus were more than just "silent places" in a literal sense. They were such places that inspired silentium in the sense of an awed wonder, and they were such places associated with prophecy and oracles (the grove of Egeria or the cave of the Sibyl of Cumae), with incubations (the sacred groves of Faunus), and with augury (the augural "seats" or stations). That is, the silentibus were not "silent places" as such, but places of ritual where silentium, as a ceremonial decorum, was naturally evoked.
Today if you walked into a church, a synagogue, a mosque, a Buddhist shrine, the ruins of an ancient temple, an Amerindian ceremonial ground, or even into a grove of natural wonder, immediately one's composure changes into that of silentium. You adopt a subdued demeanor. You speak, if at all, in hushed tones. You show respect towards the mystical presence residing in the place by taking on a solemn manner. In the Religio Romana silentium refers to such a solemn composure. The augur calls for silentium through some fitting formula such as "Benedicta; I trust in the gods; let us put our hopes in the gods." This signals to the Auspex that the time has arrived in the rite for him to actually take the auspices. He responds then that he is ready to perform his part by saying something like "Taceo." At the same time it signals to the others present, and to those watching the performance of the rite, that they too are to adopt a solemn behavior.
Valete optime
M Horatius Piscinus
Sapere aude!