curios about rites and ceremony

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curios about rites and ceremony

Postby Anonymous on Sun Feb 15, 2004 11:26 pm

salve

i hope somebody could help me.

i read about the lararium rites and ceremonies
now i'm dizzy about the course of a rite
as i understand is:
first clean yourself with water
then invoke janus
then invoke janus for wine offering
then invoke janus for cake etc offering

then invoke juppiter, mars etc in the same way
after all you give offering to the god/goddess you want to offer for help in problems
that's realy complicated, isn't?

my opinion is, it would be rather easier to invoke janus first with incense and then give incense to the god you want to honour and then give the god/goddess the "food"-offering with prayer to help you

so, why the incense and wine offering for janus and juppiter in the beginnng?


how are you celebrating the sacred day for a god, like venus and faunus at the "valentines day"?


thank you for help
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Postby Horatius Piscinus on Mon Feb 16, 2004 3:25 pm

Salve Martine

The more formal is a ritual, the more complicated it will become. That is true in the rituals of any tradition. Formal rituals are the concern of priests and initiates, while the individual should only be concerned with performing their personal rites. We look at some of the ancient rites, what little can be gleaned from our sources, as a guide to our practices, but I doubt many of us here have ever participated in a formal rite. The closest to a formal rite we have conducted here has been the marriage of our conditor Florus and Maia.

If one flitters about from god to god, goddess to goddess, making offerings to whomever and whenever the mood or situation moves them, then that person is practicing a superstition. The distinction is made by Cicero between a superstitio and religio in his De Natura Deorum.

Roman pietus however consists of maintaining your relationship with the Gods through fulfilling your obligations to your Lares and the Gods. In that, Roman pietus flows from one's fides as you maintain the rites vowed by yourself and your ancestors. Some of the formality found in Roman rites is due to fulfilling vows in a precise manner, as the vow originally stipulated. Plautus wrote:

"The wife venerates (the Lares) in order that we who live in this house may reside with what is good, prosperous, happy and fortunate." (Trinum. 40-1)

The rites of private practice can be very simple. In many cases only an adoratio is performed. What you alluded to comes from some of Cato's rites. There are several parts to them, with deities called as witness to the rite during the praefatio, but not all private rites will have this. If you do however call more than one deity at a time to your rite, then you are to make sacrifice to each individually. Prayer is offered only along with a sacrificial offering, and a sacrificial offering can be made only when accompanied with prayer.

"Morever, the offering of sacrifice is thought to be ineffectual without prayer; and without a prayer the Gods are considered not to have been properly consulted (in a sacrifice)." (Pliny NH XXVIII.10)

Or as Sallustius was later to say, sacrifice enlivens the words of a prayer, while prayer gives meaning to a sacrifice.

It would be good to learn all the parts encompassed in a formal rite, but I do not think you need necessarily incorporate in your private rites what all is entailed in a formal rite. The important thing is that you do maintain your rites, as vowed, so that you maintain a proper relationship with your gods.

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Postby Anonymous on Tue Feb 24, 2004 7:28 pm

It seems rather extravagant for a simple household ritual, doesn't it?

Oviously, Janus is invoked a a god of beginnings, doesn't Iupiter witness oaths? That may be the reason why they are called upon, but it seems excessive.
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Postby Horatius Piscinus on Wed Feb 25, 2004 12:34 pm

Salve Marce Rubicunde

There are simple household rites, formal household rites, and then public rites that are always formal. For any rite to be good ritual it must be meaningful to the individuals involved. In that, it will depend in part on the individual's temperment as to what they think is meaningful or excessive.

There are, though, certain aspects of Roman rituals that make them Roman rituals rather than foreign rituals. Gods are called as witness at a formal rite, maybe not to an informal rite, and when so called there is a proper way to give each their due. It can be rather repetitive and seem excessive at times. But the distinction here is between simple rites and formal rites.

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Postby Anonymous on Wed Mar 03, 2004 7:55 pm

Salve Martine!

I can relate to this question quite strongly having gone through much the same confusion myself, thankfully before I had made any irrevocable commitments to the Gods!

It is certainly true that many of the rites listed are rather complex. My own instinct is to keep things simple especially at first and then, if you feel it to be appropriate, work up from there.

Speaking from personal experience, in a state of some confusion I decided upon just about the simplest daily rite I could find as a starting point and then took time out to mull things over and to decide what commitments I should make to my Lares . I also believe very strongly that you shouldn't enter into a commitment that will be too difficult to keep. In modern times and, especially if you are sharing a home with other people who may have different beliefs, there are many factors that you will have to take into account.

Of course maybe the Gods and the Lares and Penates themselves are the beings that know best and you should spend time thinking this over and trying to be open to any influence they made exercise. Sorry if this all sounds a bit preachy!

As regards how we celebrate the various days that are sacred to different deities all I do is light some incense and try to think about what the day meant to worshippers in ancient times. I think I would like to do more than this but it's difficult to know what exactly. Any ideas?

Vale!
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Postby Horatius Piscinus on Mon Mar 08, 2004 2:16 pm

Salve Gai Brute et omnes

Caius Durnovarius Brutus wrote: I think I would like to do more than this but it's difficult to know what exactly. Any ideas?


There is much to be said for the value of ritual. However ritual is merely a tool and one should remember its purpose is to promote a connection being made between the worshippper and the Gods. How one worships will therefore be quite unique to the individual, what works for him or her to place them in a receptive mind frame to experience the Gods. As for what to do, or how to do it, my suggestion is that you ask the Gods.

There are some examples that I have come across where the ancients called upon the Gods Themselves to teach the Romans of Their rites. The latest I found is in Statius' Thebaid VIII 332-32: "Joyfully grant, I pray, that I may know how to address you in prayer, reconcile me to the heavens and your prophetic altars, teach me all you are prepared to reveal to people." Then too are the stories told by Ovid in the Fasti of how Numa conducted rites of incubation to speak with Jupiter directly and thus learn how to conduct certain rites. The important aspect is that you speak with the Gods and you can only really do that by first speaking to them.

There were certain practices that the Romans regarded as rites performed in the Roman manner. Others were thought to be of foreign origin but part of Roman tradition nontheless. Then too, performing rites in a perfunctary way, immitating the motions and repeating words without meaning or understanding, was considered to be superstition. For example, I do not think it benefits anyone who does not understand Latin to repeat their prayers in Latin. It is more important to say your prayers with a heartfelt sentiment, so say them in your native language. IMHO reconstructions who focus on the details of Roman rites that are known from ancient sources, trying to duplicate them alone without sincerity in their worship, are in fact practicing a superstitio and not the Religio Romana. It is good to learn as much as you can about ancient practice, adopt it into your rites as you learn more, but you should do what is meaningful to yourself.

As a first step I would suggest that you might include a performance of the sortes Virgilianae in your daily prayers. This is where you randomly open a copy of Virgil and read a small passage in answer to some question. Allow synchronicity to play. Remember the passage and meditate on its meaning throughout the day and see how it may relate to you personally. It is a simple method of divination that can give you some sense of the Gods speaking to you with signs. Also as you continue to perform it, you will create a little ritual of your own in how you consult the Virgilianae. The conclusion of any sacrifice was made by looking for signs from the Gods that the sacrifice was accepted and that the prayers had been heard. Consulting the sortes Virgilianae became one way of doing this in private rites during the latter imperial period, and remains a method that can be used by novices today. One thing you could use it for is to ask the Gods what They would think of any rites you wish to perform.

One aspect of Roman rites is that all prayers should be accompanied with some offering. Brutus mentions that he offers incense and indeed that was the most common offering made by the ancients. Perhaps we can continue this discussion by considering sacrifices in a modern setting?

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Postby Anonymous on Mon Mar 08, 2004 10:51 pm

Salve Piscine et omnes

Thank you for your comments which made interesting reading. I'm going to go away and 'mull' for a while now!

Somewhat coincidentally I bumbled across a battered old copy of Virgil a couple of days ago in a local charity shop. Obviously a snip at just 2 quid! I can see that it's going to have its work cut out from now on!

Vale!
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Postby Horatius Piscinus on Sat Mar 13, 2004 10:39 am

Salvete omnes

Since this thread is about curioes in Roman rites...

Festus reported that Cloatius Verus, Aurelius Opillus and Aelius each wrote a book on ?sacred things? in which they described a molucrum as ?wood arranged in a square where it is used in a sacrifice.? We read then in Ovid?s Fasti how two neighboring families come together at Terminalia to construct an altar of turf. Then ?the elder man chops wood, assembles the pieces with skill, and battles to stick the branches in the stiff earth. Then he arouses the first flames with dry bark.?

To me this suggests what in other contexts have been described as a fire ritual. What is meant by a ritual after all other than to alter one?s normal perception? One could of course simply build a fire, place into it some incense, and do no more than a perfunctory performance. That imho is not a ritual. Imagine instead what is being performed and the manner it is being done. At first one ?battles? to erect branches into a turf altar so that they stand at the four corners of a square. Then twigs are placed in a precise and deliberate manner around the branches, or one might say, ?assembles the pieces with skill.? The wood would overlap one another as though building a rail fence, and as one continues around, he will build a small tower of twigs. With the placement of each twig a chant is raised. ?I place this twig for the health of my parents. I place this twig for the health of my children.? And so on, for whatever purposes the rite is being made. After a certain point the action of placing the twigs will become almost automatic, and the mind will slowly detach as it becomes more mesmerized.

Kindling is then placed within the tower and the flame is set. We should recall Varro?s observation that ?the Romans worshipped the Gods without any images for a hundred and seventy years. ?Had that custom been retained the worship of the Gods would be more reverently performed?.? We should also recall that for the longest time only a living flame was thought a proper representation of Vesta. One focuses his attention on the flame as he continues the rite, feeding the flames with his offerings as he makes his prayers. The manner of Roman prayer in the Do ut des formula lends itself further to the ritual?s effect. ?I do this, offering You the leaf of sweet bay, in order that You will be propitious to me, to my family, and to our household.? Again each act of placing an offering into the flames is made in a deliberate fashion so that, mesmerized, the worshipper becomes almost a detached observer of what his body is doing. In other words, he has raised his consciousness to a level above the mundane where he may become receptive to a different array of senses than in normal experience, and in his ritual state of mind be able to perceive the presence of the Gods on Whom he calls.

A religious experience has been described as a sense of awe, and Rudolf Otto, in ?The Idea of the Holy,? described awe as a distinctive blend of fear and fascination. Fire rituals are found in diverse traditions simply because it builds on the fascination that observing flames can effect. Most rites of the Religio Romana include the offering of prayers and the sacrifice of offerings to a flame, so that the construction of a moulcrum is a basic step in most Roman rites. But as in all traditions it is not the action per se but the intent and manner of conduct that transforms the action into a ritual that may in turn allow for a religious experience to occur. Taking the time to build a molucrum in a precise and deliberate manner, performing its construction in a ritualistic manner, will add greater depth to your rites while still keeping them simple. Short of having a religious experience, where one might expect a vision or the reception of some other sign from the Gods, the rite can instill a sense of wellbeing. This in itself can place the worshipper in a proper frame of mind for conducting other rites.

If some of you try this I would like to hear back on what you may have observed or felt.

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Postby Anonymous on Sat Mar 13, 2004 5:12 pm

Save Piscine et omnes!

I've been thinking about sacrifices in the modern setting as mentioned in your previous post.

The first thing that strikes me is that for centuries now the nature of our civilisation has been such that the ancient Gods have received little or no worship or sacrifice. Before anyone gets enraged I am aware that small persecuted groups of witches and other pagans have held on in almost impossible circumstances and indeed that individual mystics, poets and ordinary people have continued to be inspired by the stories and philosophies of the ancient world. However in general terms I would argue that the classical religions have been dormant if not dead.

This said we now find ourselves in a position where we are seeking to breathe new life into these faiths and in so doing we find the ancient Deities to still be there and relevant. The point I'm trying to make is that the Gods do not appear to NEED sacrifice. Whether we worship or do not they are not in any way diminished. So why sacrifice at all?

Firstly there is the matter of greeting. When you go to visit a friend sometimes it is appropriate to take a gift whether it be a bottle of wine, a bunch of flowers and so on. Pagan Romans had a fairly matter of fact approach to their Gods and worship in the home, in particular, seems to me to have been almost akin to visiting a revered relative. Certainly there was a sense of familiarity but also one of veneration and respect. In such circumstances a gift/offering would seem to be proper and an effective way of creating a link with the Divinity thus invoked.

Secondly sacrifice serves a symbolic purpose. Certain specific offerings were deemed relevant to particular Deities and their presence on an altar or in the worshipper's hands would (and does) help to focus attention on the God being invoked. Obviously here ritual also comes into it as a further method of aiding concentration. In prayer it seems to me that the most important factors are the intention of the worshipper, concentration and receptivity to any inspiration that may come, and finally maintaining the proper relationship with the recipient of the prayer ie., one of respect, reverance and on a more homely level affection.

I am conscious that in recent times Christians, particularly with regard to Lent, have stressed the giving up of something that is important to you, the sacrifice being greater if it is of value to you. Hereabouts the ancient Celts used to smash up items (swords, mirrors, jewellry etc.,) and throw them into swamps and rivers for example. Ultimately however the purpose here is focus and is carried out for the worshippers' benefit. The Gods, Yahweh included, do not need weaponry or for us to give up smoking! I am also concerned that this sort of approach could easily lead to the sort of spiritual, emotional and even physical self-flagellation that has often characterised the more extreme manifestations of the Judaeo-Christian-Islamic traditions.

I would prefer to stress the approach which can be most simply rendered as 'one good turn deserves another' or of course 'Do ut des'.
We come before the Gods to honour them and to seek their help. To this end we bring gifts, sincere prayer and most importantly our good intentions. The appropriate offerings then would be those that serve best to achieve our ends and that seem most relevant to the Deities we approach. I read recently of a worshipper of the Goddess Eos/Aurora who made a libation of coffee every morning. My first reaction was that this seemed anachronistic but now, when I consider it, it seems strangely appropriate.
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Postby Horatius Piscinus on Mon Mar 15, 2004 10:38 pm

Salve mi Brute

Some of the ideas you express were not unknown to the ancients. Varro is quoted as having said, "The Gods do not want sacrifice, their statues even less." And Augustinus said that "Varro feared that many of the Gods would perish not by hostile action but by neglect." His great work on the ancient religious institutions of the City was an attempt, in his estimation, of restoring Their memory to good people everywhere, a project he thought was "more useful than Aeneas' rescue of the Penates from Troy."

I do not think that any of us can escape the fact that we are modern people, living in a modern world, with modern perspectives. Our individual approach to worshipping the Gods will therefore be modern in its scope. that is, how we perceive the Gods today will necessarily take into consideration the long evolution of our society and the modern psyche from that of the ancients. I would agree that our method of making offerings, and the very act of offering, is more for the benefit of the worshipper than the for the Gods, and I entirely agree that it is the sentiment behind the act more so than the offering itself that the Gods desire. I am no advocate of duplicating ancient practices, certainly not merely for the sake of it, but I think that by looking at ancient practice, trying to discern some of its essence, we can better develop what we might do in our modern world to make our worship more personal.

The point you make of a familiarity with the Gods is the most valuable. I have stated that it is best to think of Them and address Them in the manner one would treat one's grandparents. The other point you make, that sacrifice can be symbolic, I think is a position that should be further explored and built on. That approach could make modern worship more relevent to the individual and to a community than recreation of past practices. I shall think on that point further.

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Postby Horatius Piscinus on Sun May 02, 2004 4:59 pm

Salvete sodales et comreligiones omnes

I decided to continue this thread for a discussion of formal Roman rituals. A few long posts, footnoted, too. I will try then to go in some specifics in rituals in the threads for the various months, and related to all of this will also be the general discussion on Roman prayers. So to begin:

A public rite of the Religio Romana is a formal affair where the main celebrant directs, more so than performs, the actual ritual. In this he is accompanied by a number of assistants who each performs a different role. Since a public rite is conducted for the benefit of a community or a societas, the main celebrant is either elected for the purpose of holding the rite or otherwise is the highest elected official present. Thus a consul or other magistrate generally conducted public rites that were performed to benefit the city of Rome and its people during the Republic, and in later years the emperor or a member of his family would do so. During the Regal period the king initially served this role, although it appears that in the latter Regal period a rex sacrorum may have served as the city?s representative. Under the Republic a rex sacrorum was retained for certain rites. An example of an official elected for the sole purpose of conducting a public rite is found with the election of Lucius Manlius as dictator for the ceremony of hammering a nail in the Capitolium sanctuary of Minerva (1). A societas might be a private association or it could be a public societas as in the case of the Fratres Arvales. In the latter case a magister was elected a year in advance, whose main role was to conduct the rites of the societas including the election of his successor. In the absence of the magister, however, one of the other fratres would be chosen to fill his role as chief celebrant.

Pliny mentions how chief magistrates were assisted by priests at public ceremonies. "We observe that our chief magistrates pray according to fixed formulae; to prevent any word being omitted or misplaced, someone reads out in advance from a written text; another person is appointed as a monitor to keep watch, and yet another is charged with ensuring silence, while a flutist plays to prevent anything but the prayer being heard (2)." In one particular case the pontifex maximus was compelled to assist the curule aedile Gnaeus Flavius, who was initially refused assistance by the nobles because of his humble birth. Cornelius Barbatus, as pontifex maximus, then dictated the formula of dedication to Flavius for a temple to Concordia in the precinct of Vulcan (3). The popae and victimarii were special priests, usually public slaves, who performed the actual sacrifice of an animal. Even in the case of a private sacrifice at a temple, the celebrant would purchase an animal for sacrifice, but it would have been popae and victimarii he would order to perform the actual sacrifice. No less important in Roman rites than the chief priest were the flutists. Ovid tells one version of the story where all rites, public and private, came to a halt when the temple flutists abandoned the city in protest (4). Even children had a role in Roman rites. Child choirs formed part of the procession held for Augustus? saeculares, and all of the children of the city, it might be said, was represented by the camillus who assisted the main celebrant by carrying offerings. Both boys and girls were used to carry offerings while most often depicted is a boy holding the acerra, or box of incense. Depictions of Roman rites thus show a gathered crowd of celebrants either in the pompa, the procession to an altar, or else around the altar itself. Before the altar at the center would stand the main celebrant as he ordered all of the other participants in turn to perform their part.

"Ordering" was a chief feature of Roman formal ritual. For a private rite we find Cato say, "Order (impera) the sacrificial victims to be led around (the land to be purified) (5)." Also with Statius there is a private rite performed by a priest assisted by his daughter, herself a priestess, where the interaction is one of the priest ordering the priestess to perform actions at different stages of the rite (6). From several descriptive examples we can try to piece together the various parts of a formal Roman rite. Not all rites would have the various stages, and the order of various parts might vary among these stages, but for our own purposes of noting the various parts of a formal Roman ritual we can separate them among four stages. These are the praefatio, pompa, and the sacrificatio. the sacrificatio is itself divided into the Precatio, Oblatio, Probatio, Immolatio, Exta Caesatio, Scrutatio, Poriecta, and Redditio.



Praefatio

The initial part of a formal rite was called the praefatio. The praefatio itself may be divided into the call for silentium, and an "ordering" of the altars and vessels used for the rite. After the defeat of Perseus by Aemilius Paulus, some of the Macedonian leaders took shelter at a Greek sanctuary. Rather than defile the sanctuary, one of the Roman officers asked, "Why then have you allowed a murderer to pollute (this sanctuary) with the blood of king Eumenes when the praefatio to every rite warns away from holy things those whose hands are not pure?" (7) In Cicero's example of a rite of taking the auspices the main celebrant first requests, "Quintus Fabius, I wish you to be to me (as an assistant) in taking the auspices." To this Fabius replied, "Audivi. I have heard." The main celebrant, called a praesidium, then said, "Tell me if silentium appears to exist." Cicero said that in his day the assistant would immediately reply, without first looking around, "Silentium appears to exist (8)." This formula was based on earlier practice. We know that when a consul called for a vote of a comitia to be taken, his lictores would call out to the crowd, "Foreigners, slaves and unmarried women, be gone (9)!" Other examples of a call for silentium is Virgil's, "Far away, O faraway, may the profane be," and Calpurnius', "Go! Far from here, for this is a sacred place, go you who are profane!" For the arrival of the Magna Mater at Rome Silius Italicus has Scipio Nasica say, "Spare your guilty palms from touching these ropes. Away from here, I warn you, go far away from hence, whosoever among you is unchaste, do not share in this sacred task." Ovid's silentium is a terse statement, "Keep silent and attend," where Statius expands further on its meaning.

"Come, be present, gods and men, to these holy rites. Begone, you wicked folk, begone far from here, all whose hearts harbor unspoken an unholy desire, any who thinks their elderly relatives have lived too long, or you who are conscious of ever having struck your own mother, fears the urn of unbending Aeacus in the Underworld. I call only upon the innocent and the chaste (10)."

Silentium is most often translated as "silence." However it would be more proper to think of it as meaning "assume a reverent decorum" as would be expected at solemn ceremonies. The purpose for calling for silentium is twofold. Cicero defined it as "free of every augural defect (11)." Implied in this, especially during the taking of auspices, was that those attending did not interrupt the ceremony with any distracting sounds or actions. Also it was not proper for everyone to attend certain rites. In an example given by Servius women and children are dismissed from the rites of Hercules, while in a story of Hercules coming upon a women's rite it is men who are ordered to leave. The other reason, not so explicitly stated, was to prevent the secret names of the deities from being revealed. The Gods would first be invoked aloud by using titles. These are the names that would be heard by the audience and which we know as they appear in poetry. However the actual invocations were made in hushed tones as the celebrant bowed over the offerings and murmured the hidden names of the deities. The danger of revealing the hidden names was that the gods could then be called away from preserving Rome, just as the Romans had performed an evocatio against Veii and Carthage (12).

With silentium established and all those who might vitiate a rite ordered away, the main celebrant then ordered altars to be set up and sacred vessels brought forward. In some cases this would mean that altars had to be constructed on the spot, made from cut turf. In the case of rites to the Manes or Di Inferni pits would be dug in which pyres were then ordered built (13). But even where altars already stood, these would have to be first prepared in order to hold a ceremony. Thus Virgil's sorceress calls to her servant, "Bring water, and gird this altar with soft wool fillets, burn rich vervain and male frankincense (14)." The mention of vervain here goes along with Pliny's comment that, "among the Romans there is no plant that enjoys a more extended renown than the holy plant, known to some as pigeon plant, and more generally among us as vervain. It is this plant that we have already mentioned as being borne in the hands of envoys when treating with the enemy, with this that the table of Jupiter is cleansed, with this that houses are purified and due expiation made (15)." The altar and the area around it would be swept and then altar's top surface scrubbed with vervain. In some cases tables set up to serve the Gods might also be scrubbed with vervain or mints. The process of sweeping may have entailed first spreading roasted spelt and salt, just as the lictores carried for the purpose of purifying the houses where someone had died. Then the area was aspersed with pure water, as was the temple precinct in the rededication of the Capitolium. Cicero wrote, "impurity is removed by the sprinkling of water (16)." In the consecration of the Capitolium in 70 CE the Vestal Virgins led a troop of boys and girls aspersing the area with spring water. An altar was further purified by winding woolen fillets around it at least three times (17). The fillets might be of raw wool, otherwise they were dyed in three colours - white, red and black. At least in the case of the various flamines purified woolen fillets were provided each February by the rex sacrorum and flamen Dialis (18). While the main celebrant would simply order the altars to be set up, it was likely one of his priestly assistants would direct this so that it too as would be "free of every augural defect." This would indeed have been a prerequisite as any ill omen at this stage could cancel the rite even if its discovery was made later. Upon the altar would be built the molucrum that according to Aelius Stilo and Cloatius Verus was a square arrangement of firewood (19). Where Ovid describes a turf altar built for the Terminalia he said that the elder man struggled to fix the wood firmly into the earth (20). From this we may assume that an upright frame marking the corners of a square was constructed first, and the other firewood would be placed around it to form a kind of small tower. On a stone altar the wood would had to have been placed in an interlacing pattern, similar to a rail fence, to provide air spaces. Kindling would be placed inside and bark then used to begin the fire. Only certain kinds of wood were thought beneficial, and certain trees were associated with different deities, so the selection of what wood would be used might depend on which deity was being invoked.

Also required for holding Roman rites would be sacramental vessels. These too would be ordered made proper and brought forward. Thus we hear one of Plautus? characters exclaim, "Go home, and order your vessels to be straight made fit, that I may with many offerings seek Jove?s kind favor (21)." At a temple certain furnishings were reserved for the God or Goddess. These would include the tables on which the Gods would be served offerings, the couches on which Their statues would be placed, the images of the deities, as well plates, bowls and cups in which offerings were placed. Macrobius mentioned that such temple furnishings would be consecrated to their purpose along with an altar at the time a temple was dedicated (22). Other implements would be later given as offerings to the God or Goddess at Their temple and these too would had to have been consecrated. We hear, as examples, the golden bowl offered to Juno by the matrons of the city and Pompey's dedication of fluorspar bowls and cups to Jupiter (23). Sacramental vessels were stored away in wooden boxes as have been found in Pompei. When replaced, due to age or wear, as consecrated items they would have to be specially deposited in favisse as Varro mentioned, and these buried deposits could not be disturbed as Q. Catulus was to learn when he proposed excavating part of the Capitoline Hill in order to enlarge the Capitolium. Some were brought along in travel, as we are told by Pliny that a Roman general never went anywhere without his patera and saltcellar. Certain items that were stored at temples would likewise take on a sacred aura. The Senate and the concilium plebis often met before the Capitolium where special urns were kept for drawing lots. A sortition was a special rite in itself, the favour of the Gods being sought, and thus the lots and sitella were treated as sacramental vessels, "specially designated and ritually stored (24)." When, therefore, the sacramental vessels were needed for a ceremony, they had to be removed from storage, cleansed, and some were perfumed or fumigated. These, along with the altar and even the area around it, might also be decorated beforehand. In the praefatio they would then be ordered forward.

Prior to performing a ritual the participants would have cleansed themselves and donned the proper attire. In some cases a period of purification preceded a ritual, in which prayer, cleansing, sacrifice, abstinence and fasting might be performed (25). For private rites purification might include dipping the head in a river (26). The praefatio though would include a ceremonial cleansing of the main celebrant. An assistant would pour pure water over his or her hands and some water would be sprinkled onto his head. In Ovid's description of a rite, "twice Numa sprinkles his unshorn head with spring water." A bough of bay would be dipped in pure water and the water then allowed to drip onto the head. Elsewhere Propertius has a celebrant order his assistant, "sprinkle my head with pure water and on the new shrines (27)." Propertius would indicate that the celebrant was cleansed along with the altars he would use, making a direct connection between the celebrant and the sacrifices he will order.

A distinguishing part of a praefatio would include the calling of deities to witness the rite. Since Roman piety required that rites to the Gods be maintained it was important that Gods be called to the rites in order to attest to their performance. Some rites entailed a bargain being struck, either as a wedding proposal, a treaty being struck or some business action, where oaths would be sworn, and here too the Gods were called as witness. Often the prayers of a rite were contractual in nature, either making a vow to perform something for the Gods in exchange for some favour, or else the fulfillment of such a vow. The Gods were thus called to act as guarantors to a vow (28). A kind of formulary for a vow is found with Plautus, "Goddess, I call on you to witness that if... then I - I speak, Goddess, that you may hear - I will give... And if I do anything to violate this, I pray that I shall suffer misfortune." Invoking divine wrath on the parties who failed to fulfill an agreement was part of a treaty made by the fetiales. It would also appear in declarations made by magistrates and even private citizens. "If I should willfully break my oath, may Jupiter Optimus Maximus inflict upon me the worst, most shameful ruin, and on my house, my family, and all I possess (29)." In another example of a vow taken from Plautus we find several deities called upon, "By Jupiter and all the gods and goddesses, Juno and Ceres, Minerva, Latona, Hope, and Ops, Virtue, Venus, Castor and Pollux, Mars, Mercurius, Hercules, Summanus, Sol and Saturnus, I swear (30)." In the formal convention of public rites, at least by the Middle Republic, such prayers of calling the Gods as witness would always begin with Janus and end with Vesta (31). The primary example of the position of Janus in Roman prayers comes from the devotio of Decius.

"Janus, Jupiter, Father Mars, Quirinus, Bellona, Lares, You divine Novensiles and You divine Indigetes, deities whose power extends over us and over our foes, and to You, too, Divine Manes, I pray, I do You reverence, I crave Your grace and favour will bless the Roman People, the Quirites, with power and victory, and will visit fear, dread and death on the enemies of the Roman People, the Quirites (32)."

The fact that these were preliminary prayers to most if not all formal rites, and not part of the main ritual itself, may be found in Cato. In De Agricultura CXXXIV Cato tells of a ritual to be performed to Ceres prior to the harvest. But he says to first pray to Janus, Jupiter and Juno before performing the rite. Another point brought out by Cato is that each deity called upon to witness a rite should be given offerings separately. Wine, incense and bread are offered to the attesting deities, and each offering is made with a separate prayer. Thus Cato has:

Offer piled cakes to Janus while saying, "Father Janus, to You I pray with good prayers, offering You this pile of cakes, so that You might willing be favorable to me and my children, to my home and household." Offer fertum cakes to Jupiter and honor Him thus, "Jupiter, to You I pray good prayers, offering You this pile of fertum cakes, in order that You, honored to receive these fertum cakes, may willingly be favorable to me and to my children, to my house and home." Afterwards give an offering of wine to Janus, "Father Janus, for the same reasons given in the good prayers I prayed while offering You piled cakes, may You accept and be honor by this portion of wine I pour." Likewise for Jupiter, say, "Jupiter, be strengthened by this fertum, be honored by this portion of wine I now pour." Next sacrifice the porca praecidanea (to Ceres). When after the entrails are cut into portions and offered on the altar, offer a pile of cakes and honor Janus once more, in the same manner as before. Then honor Jupiter with an offering of fertum as before. Likewise (make your offerings to Juno and Ceres).

In another rite Cato said that after making a sacrifice to Jupiter Daplis an offering is made to Vesta "if you want (33)." Most commentators and historians agree with Cicero that Janus was invoked first and Vesta last. However Ovid made a statement that Vesta was invoked first. This might be explained if we consider that a sacrifice was made in various steps. Since prayers to any deity would be coupled with an offering placed into the altar fire it would necessarily follow that it be lit prior to calling the Gods as witness. Vesta's assistance in this might well have been invoked, yet it would have been separate from the preliminary prayers of the praefatio. Also we should recall that Cicero was referring to calling the Gods to witness, and where Vesta would be properly called last in that instance, this would precede the main prayers of the rite. There is a symbolic significance to calling Janus first as the beginning of all things. Some commentators have noted that as guardian of the doorway Janus was associated with the front of a house, where Vesta, associated with the hearth, would be towards the rear of an ancient house, or associated with the inner sanctum of a temple. If we therefore think of a ritual in the same way, the preliminary prayers of the praefatio moves us from the beginning of the rite into an ?inner sanctum? where the main sacrifice is to be conducted. There may also be a practical aspect to invoking Vesta last in the preliminary prayers, calling on Her assistance to keep the flames burning for the main sacrifice. In this case She is being invoked prior to the next stage of a rite.




Notes
1. Livy VII 3
2. Pliny Natural History XXVIII 11
3. Livy IX 46.1 ff.
4. Ovid Fasti VI 652-92
5. Cato De Agricultura 141
6. Statius Thebiad IV 443?89
7. Livy XLV 5.4
8. Cicero De Divinatione II 34.71-2
9. Festus p. 83M (s. v. exesto extra esto): Hostis vinctus mulier Virgo exesto.
10. Virgil Aeneis VI 258: Procul, o procul, este profane; Calpurnius Bucolia II 54: Ite procul, sacer est locus, te profani; Silius Italicus Punica 17.28-9: Parcite pollutis contigere vinicula polaris, et procul hinc, moneo, procul hinc, quaecumque profani ferte gradus nec vos casto misce te labori; Ovid Amores III 2.43: Linguis animisque favete; Statius Silvae III 3.12-17: Adeste dique hominesque sacris. Procul hinc, procul ite nocentes, si cui corde nefas tacitum fessique senectus longa patris, si quis pulsatae conscius umquam matris et inferna rigidum timet Aeacon urna: insontes castosque voco. See also Ovid Metamorphoses VII 255; Servius Ad Aen. VIII 179; Suetonius Claudius c 22; and Propertius IV 9.53-60.
11. Cicero De Div. II 34.71-2: id enim silentium dicimus in auspiciis, quod omni vitio caret.
12. Livy V 21.3; Pliny Nat. Hist. XXVIII 18; Servius Ad Aen. II 351; Georg. I 498; Macrobius Saturnalia III 9.2; III 9.7-8; Plutarch Aet. Rom. 61 (278 f); Iguvinian Tablets IA
13. Statius Thebaid IV 457: sacerdos? iubet esse focos. IV 459-60: hunc iuxta cumulo minor ara profundae erigitur.
14. Virgil Eclogues VIII 64-6
15. Pliny Nat. Hist. XXV 59
16. Tacitus Histories IV 53; Cicero De Legibus II 10.24-5;
17. Propertius IV 6 for winding woolen fillets around an altar. Also see Valerius Flaccus Argonautica VIII 246 for conducting a bride around an altar three times, and Statius Thebaid IV 646-5 for carrying libation thrice around the altar.
18. Ovid Fasti II 21-4 for the lictores carrying roasted spelt and salt and the flamines receiving woolen fillets each February.
19. Festus p. 141a, 25; GRF Aelius fr. 62; GRF Cloatius fr. 11
20. Ovid Fasti 2. 645-9
21. Plautus Amphitryon 1126-27
22. Macrobius Saturnalia III 11.60
23. Livy XXVII 377-15; Pliny Nat. Hist. XXXVII 18
24. Livy XXV 3.14-17; XXVI 26.5; Plutarch T. Gracchus 11.1. Also see Roberta Stewart, Public Office in Early Rome, 1998, p. 32.
25. Livy V 22.4; Ovid Amores III 10; Fast IV 657; Statius Theb. VIII 294
26. Statius Theb. IX 602; Persius Satires II 15-16
27. Ovid Fasti IV 655; Propertius IV 6
28. Silius Italicus Pun. II 282: deos iuridico modo testes advocare.
29. Plautus Rudens 1338-49; Livy I 24.8; VI29.2; XXII 53.12. Also see Virgil Aeneid II 153; XII 176; XII 197; Silius Italicus Pun. VI 113; Lucan Pharsalia VII 690
30. Plautus Bacchides 892-95
31. Cicero Nat. Deor. II 67
32. Livy VIII 9.6
33. Cato De Agricultura CXXXII
M Horatius Piscinus

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Postby Horatius Piscinus on Wed May 05, 2004 5:08 am

Salvete

Another long one. It seems to only get worse, but to continue...

Pompa

Featured in most formal rituals that the Romans held in public was a procession. The manner of how the procession would be organized and conducted depended on the ritual itself. A special kind of procession, as one example, was the pompa triumphi conducted by a victorious general. Over time these became quite elaborate affairs. Notable was Pompey?s triumph in 61 BCE and Caesar's four-day extravaganza in 46 BCE, but the first lavish triumph witnessed by the City was that of Aemilius Paulus for his victory over King Perseus. This pompa triumphi of 167 BCE extended over three days, and the doors of all the City?s temples were opened for the Gods to view it (34). The first day was taken up by a procession of statues and artwork brought back from Greece and transported on two hundred and fifty chariots. The second day featured the captured enemy arms and three thousand men carrying silver coins in vessels followed by others bearing silver bowls, drinking horns, dishes and cups. The third day began with military trumpet calls at dawn. The trumpeters were followed by one hundred and ten oxen with gilded horns and decorated with ribbons and wreaths. These were led by young men wearing purple bordered aprons and each group of four bearing one of seventy seven vessels of gold coin, three talents in each vessel. After them was carried a bowl that Aemilius had had made as an offering to Jupiter, made of ten talents of gold and studded with gems. Along with this bowl were several golden drinking horns to represent different parts of Greece, as well as the golden dinner-ware of Perseus. A chariot next followed bearing the arms and crown of Persus, followed by his children and then by Perseus at the head of his attendants. These prisoners were followed by four hundred gold wreaths, sent by the cities of Greece to Aemilius as victory prizes. Aemilius Paulus next entered the city in a chariot, dressed as though he were Jupiter. A practice begun with the triumph of Camillus over Veii in the fourth century saw the general painted red with cinnabar, after the same fashion as the statue of Jupiter on the Capitolium (35). Aemilius was then dressed in a purple robe with gold embroidery, again after the fashion of Jupiter Capitolius, and carried a wreath of laurel. He was then followed by his army arranged in their ranks and divisions. Each soldier carried a laurel wreath and the entire company sang hymns of victory, songs of ribaldry, and the praises of Aemilius Paulus.

A pompa triumphi may be compared to the procession held at the beginning of the Ludi Romani that honored Jupiter Optimus Maximus. The description of this procession as provided by Dionysius of Halicarnassus may be questioned on several points, since his purpose in writing it was to prove that Rome originated as a Greek colony. Dionysius also stated that his description was not based on personal observation but rather on the Annales of Fabius Pictor written around 200 BCE. However certain features that he describes can be compared to descriptions of other Roman processions. Dionysius said that the procession was led by the sons of Rome who would soon reach manhood. These were organized into companies according to the status of their fathers in the census. First would come the sons of Equestrians on horseback, followed on foot by the sons of other Roman citizens. Athletes who would compete in the coming games followed next, first the charioteers and jockeys, then the boxers, wrestlers, and other athletes. Next came dancers divided into three companies, according to age. These were followed by flute players, then musicians who played the lyre and barbita. Young men wearing red tunics, would perform military steps led by one man in a bronze helmet. Next came companies of dancers dressed as satyrs and fauni in comic mime. More flute and lyre players followed, and next came men with censers of frankincense and perfumes. Behind these came more men bearing vessels of gold and silver, some were the sacred vessels of the temple while others were those used in state ceremonies. Towards the end of the procession came the statues of the Gods, each borne by poles on the shoulders of young men (36).

A visit to the chariot races always provided Ovid with a new flirtation. On one occasion he described a procession before the races in which images of the Gods were carried in the fashion described above. "Careful of your language and attend," as the Gods pass. Victory led the procession of the Gods with Her wings outspread. Next came Neptune followed in turn by Mars, Apollo, Diana, Minerva, Bacchus, Ceres, Castor and Pollux, and finally Venus. "When the procession crowded with ivory images of the Gods comes along, be sure to applaud Venus (37)." On another occasion, visiting the hometown of his wife at Falerii, Ovid came upon a festival of Juno led by priestesses. Inside a sacred grove stood "a rough old altar where worshippers burn incense, mutter a prayer." To the sound of flutes and the cheers of the crowd came the annual procession leading snow-white heifers, sows and sheep. Ahead of an image of Juno walked a choir of youths and maidens. In the maidens' hair were jewels and gold, at their feet gilded shoes. Veiled, they carried sacred vessels on their heads. "Then the crowd hushes in reverence as Juno Herself passes on a gilded float drawn by priestesses (38)." Such annual processions of the image of one goddess or another took place throughout the empire. In some cases we know that these involved the annual lavatoria or washing of the cult image. In April "the Berecyntian flute's curved horn will blow and the Idean Mother's festival begin; the eunuchs will parade and pound the hollow drums, and their clashing cymbals will ring. She will ride on the soft necks of Her acolytes, howled along the City's major streets, the stages roar, the show calls." The highlight of the festival came where the Almo flowed into the Tiber, when "a silver-haired priestess, robed in purple, bathed the Mistress and Her emblems." Along the shore the crowd continued to howl as flutes and drums played (39). Roughly 250 such annual processions are known to have occurred at different sites in the empire, another one hundred on single occasions, mostly in the Eastern provinces. In the Western provinces annual processions for a lavatoria were especially associated with the Eastern mystery religions. A feature that Dionysius of Halicarnassus was eager to point out was the influence of Greek rites on such Roman processional displays. This began at Rome under the Republic with the introduction of the lectersternia.

In 399 BCE, in response to a pestilence, the duumviri consulted the Sibylline oracles and decided to hold the first lectisternium. Images of Apollo and Latona, Diana and Hercules, Mercury and Neptune were placed on three couches before the temples where the deities were invited to feast (40). In order to hold the lectisternia the images of the Gods were first drawn from Their temples and paraded through the city streets, while everyone opened the doors to their houses and set tables of food and incense. Lectisternia were held only on special occasions, generally in response to some crisis. Livy mentions the first five being performed in the fourth century. Perhaps the most important came in 217 BCE when for the first time twelve deities were honored with a lectisternium (41). Each of these twelve deities were by then Roman Gods and Goddesses, but could be assimilated with Greek counterparts and were known collectively as the Di Consentes. Private rites were conducted along with these public affairs, and even private lectisternia came to be celebrated (42). By the end of the Republic there was an annual lectisternium celebrated for Ceres at the temple of Tellus in Rome and at Praeneste. Other goddesses received the similar rite of a sellisternium where the image of the goddess would remain seated on a chair rather than reclining on a couch as a god (43). This type of ritual appeared in the City at the time Rome was first acquiring an interest in northern Campania at the beginning of the Samnite Wars. While generally regarded as Greek in origin their source, from Cumae, Capua and the cities of the Campanian League, were by then populated by Sabellians. The women's rites of Ceres, introduced in 217 BCE as well, likewise originated in these Sabellian cities but were generally characterized as Greek (44). There were distinct differences between the culti Cererri of Magna Graecae and the cults of Demeter in mainland Greece, each apparently developing from local customs of the native people as well as the Oscan speaking tribes that arrived in the fifth century. That is to say that the plebeian cultus of Ceres at Rome and the lectisternia that was associated with Her had Italic origins, with some Greek features. The same was true of entertainments - choirs, mimes, and plays - that came to be featured in later Roman celebrations; their arrival coming from southern Italy. By the third century of the common era we learn the names given to some of these performances, "Anubis the Adulterer, Mr. Moon, Diana Flogged, Jove's Last Testament, and as a comedy, Three Hungry Hercules (45)." While these performances of the imperial period, and some of the earlier performances depicting Greek myths, had drawn on Greek and Eastern cultures for their themes, the bawdy exhibitions and language that they were known for would seem to have been more Italic than Greek in origin.

Of greater importance in any survey of the rites of the Religio Romana than these later foreign adornments was the kind of pompa that saw sacrificial victims led to an altar. "While I, my head crowned in stripped green olive, will offer gifts. Even now it pleases me to lead the solemn pompa to the delubrum before the temple and see the victims felled (46)." Several depictions of Roman rites offer a scene of priests and magistrates leading a pig, a ram and a bull. This special form of triple sacrifice, called a suovetaurilia, was used for consecrating sacred sites and for lustrations. A version of a lustratio for a private estate is found in Cato's manual on agriculture.

The proper way to purify the grainfields is in this manner. Order a piglet, a lamb, and a calf to be led around: With the favor of the Gods, everything may turn out well, so I entrust to you, Manius, that you may lead or carry as many of the sacrificial victims as you wish around my estate, my field, and my land (47).

Cato?s lustratio indicates an annual rite meant to benefit the estate by calling on Mars to "prevent, repel, and avert, seen and unseen <decay and> disease, deprivation, desolation, calamities, and intemperate weather." A similar prayer is found in the record of the Fratres Arvales calling on Mars to defend the city against "plague and ruin," and with Cicero and Varro there are indications of an annual rite of blessing the wheatfields, orchards and vineyards with the same intent (48). However, the lustrationes mentioned in Latin texts were generally made in response to some dire omens. In that case a state ceremony saw the pontifices perform a lustratio around the City's pomerium (49). Lucan described in great detail one such lustratio that was carried out in January 49 CE, "next you order the (victims) entirely quaking in terror to go around the citizens of the city." The solemn pompa in that case saw all of the various colleges of priests following the pontifices, ordered in their degree of importance down to the Sodales Titii. At times parts of a city might receive a lustratio instead. At Alexandria Roman merchants held a lustratio that probably only included the business district, while the dedication of a new temple at Ostia saw a lustratio that presumably only enclosed the forum (50). The Flavian rededication of the Capitolium in 70 CE saw a similar lustratio of only the temple precinct, the pompa proceeding around the Capitolium templum first conducted the sacrificial victims of the souvetaurlia around its perimeter.

"On 21 June, beneath a cloudless sky, the entire space devoted to the sacred enclosure was encompassed with chaplets and garlands. Soldiers, who bore auspicious names, entered the precinct with sacred boughs. Then the Vestal Virgins, with a troop of boys and girls, whose fathers and mothers were still living, sprinkled the whole space with water drawn from the fountains and rivers. After this Helvidius Priscus, the praetor, first purified the spot with the usual sacrifice of a sow, a sheep, and a bull, and duly placed the entrails on turf altars. Then in terms dictated by Publius Aelianus, the high priest, besought Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, and the tutelary deities of the place, to prosper the undertaking, and to lend their divine help to raise the abodes which the piety of men had founded for Them (51)."

The founding of a city or a colony had its own preliminary rites. Afterwards these would have their boundaries blessed through a lustratio with a suovetaurilia sacrifice. The same would be made at the founding of any shrine or temple precinct, or small precinct within a larger temple precinct, as when dedicating an altar for example, and likewise for public buildings, new city districts, and military camps (52). Not all such locations were regarded as sacred ground, but would have annual rites performed on their anniversaries and these often included a lustratio with a suovetaurilia sacrifice to renew their borders. Rural communities would hold similar ceremonies in Spring and Autumn.

Before all else worship the Gods, and to great Ceres pay Her annual due upon the happy sward with sacrifice, near the utmost end of winter and when Spring begins to smile. Then are the lambs fat and wines mellow, then is sleep sweet, and dark shadows fall across the mountains. Let your rustic youth do obeisance to Ceres, one and all; and for Her pleasure mix honeycombs with milk and offerings of Bacchus' ripe wine. Thrice for luck around the fresh shoots of grain drive the victims. And the chorus, following in a joyous company, attend it, and with shouts bid Ceres come to be their house-mate. Let no man put sickle to ripened ears of grain until, with woven wreath of oak on his temples, foot the rugged dance and chant the lay (53).


While sacrificial victims were not always led in a circuit, a pompa would conduct them to an altar. A rite described by Valerius Flaccus has a priest prepare the sacrificial altars in the praefatio at one place, while Jason leads his men along the beach, wearing sacramental robes and leading sheep to the altars. In another rite described by Statius, a priestess leads sacrificial victims to a priest who then gilds their horns and places wreaths on them before leading them to the altar for slaughter (54). This was an important part in any blood sacrifice since the victims had to go willingly, and any attempt by an animal to stall or leave the pompa would be taken as reluctance, and thus an ill omen that delayed the rite until another day with new victims. Even where blood sacrifices would not be used, offerings would be carried to an altar in a pompa. An example is provided by Ovid's description of the rites made for Terminalia. The wife carries hot coals from her hearth to the altar while her son carries a basket of grain and her daughter holds honeycombs. Others carried flasks of wine (55).

A pompa did not only display offerings and the individuals who would sacrifice them. The pompa was itself thought to be an offering. A main feature in some of the pompae already mentioned was the performance of dance. To dance before the Gods was to provide Them an entertainment, and the performer was especially blessed for offering it. Pompae often included professional dancers who were regarded as some of the lowest members of society. But more often the very wealthiest members of society would be expected to join in dances honoring the Gods. In the Eastern provinces Lucian said that ?at Delos not even the sacrifices are offered without dance,? while also telling us that "people of the best lineage and foremost in every city dance (56)." Although he was speaking about Greek rites that he witnessed, Lucian's remarks would also apply in Roman ceremonies. The Salii was a religious sodales of the sons of some of Rome's most prestigious families, and their special rite was a processional dance calling on Mars to protect the City from disease, pestilence, and foreign dangers. Disdaining to share in other sacrifices, Propertius prays to Venus, "For me it shall be enough if able to dance along the Sacred Way in praise of the Gods." Even so solemn a Goddess as Minerva was called "the virtuous Dancer (57)." A rite held to honor Juno led from the temple of Apollo, through the Porta Carmentales, to the Forum. Two heifers were led through the City ahead of two statues of Juno made of cypress wood, followed by twenty-seven maidens dressed with trains who in turn led the decemvirs that were crowned in laurel and wearing their praetexta togae. Upon arriving at the Forum, these girls, singing a hymn composed especially for the occasion by Livius Andronicus, held the final note while each stamped her one foot in the rhythm of the hymn, and this was done as the heifers were being sacrificed (58). Comparable would be the youths and maidens chosen for the choirs that performed the hymn specially written by Horace for the Saeculares that Augustus celebrated in 17 BCE (59). The maidens and youths who were chosen to give such performances in a pompa often were required to be of parents who were still both living and married to one another, preferably in a first marriage. Most often they were also the children of Senators. The soldiers "with auspicious names" who purified the grounds of the Capitolium, the Salii and Vestales Virgines, and then, too, performers who sang and danced as a form of worship in pompae, were chosen from Rome's finest families. Their performance was comparable to the self-sacrifice of Marcius Curtius, offering to the Gods the finest Rome had to offer.

Finally we should note that a funeral procession was itself a pompa funuris meant to honor the deceased. A funeral procession was led by the praeco, heralding others to attend. Before him would come musicians - four pipers, a trumpeter and two cornicines. Behind would come the praeficae or professional mourners. Then the deceased, led by torchbearers, was carried on his bier by vespillones, four for a poor man, more for the wealthy with large biers. The family followed, led by a boy who carried a palm and basket. Two women flanked him, one holding a spade-like instrument. Then would come those family members who were wearing masks of ancestors whose build and gait they imitated. In later times busts were carried rather than death masks. The rest of the family would follow in mourning garb, its younger members carried in litters. Sons were veiled and the daughters bareheaded (60). Offerings that would be made to the flames in a cremation, and wine used to cool the bones afterwards, would be carried in the pompa in a fashion similar to a sacrificial procession. But the arrangement of the participants in a pompa funuris differed in some ways from that used in other forms of pompae.

Historians have noted the positioning of participants at a sacrifice and in the pompae as a display of the City's hierarchy. John Scheid has carried this further to claim that the meaning behind a sacrifice was to display "a clear line in the hierarchy of beings" between the Gods, men, and lower forms of life (61). It was the case that in each section of a procession the most prestigious members would lead. For example, when the priests of Rome were included in a pompa they were led in turn by the Rex Sacrorum, the Pontifex Maximus and Flamen Dialis, then each of the various colleges of priests followed according to rank. These were "the most eminent and illustrious citizens," according to Cicero, but they were not always placed in the most prominent position within the pompa. Public ceremonies were often, though not always, conducted by magistrates as the elected representatives of the people of Rome to the Gods. A person might be specially elected to conduct a rite, as was the case for some dictators, or in the case where Publius Cornelius Scipio was chosen to greet the Magna Mater on Her arrival to Rome, even though he had not yet reached an age to become quaestor (62). Certain rites might be conducted by a special priest or priestess, as in the Autumn rite of blessing the arms of soldiers conducted by the flamen Portualis or the special priestess who held the women?s rites of Ceres. The main celebrant of a ceremony, the person who ordered each part of a rite, was the most prominent member of a pompa, and his placement in the procession would vary according to the particular ceremony performed. One could say that there was a hierarchial structure to every pompa, but this was an internal arrangement not made in accordance with the social hierarchy.



Notes
34. Plutarch Life of Aemilius Paulus 32-4
35. Pliny Natural History XXXIII 111
36. Dionysius of Halicarnassus Roman Antiquities VII 72.1-3
37. Ovid Amores III 2; Ars Amatoria 1.147
38. Ovid Amores III 13
39. Ovid Fasti IV 179-86; 337-42
40. Lectisternia: Livy V.13.4-8; VII.2; VIII.25
41. Livy XXII 10.9
42. Livy V 13.7; CIL 5, 5272
43. Fasti Praenestre 13 December; Valerius Maximus II 1.2
44. Cicero Balb. 55
45. Tertullian Ad Nationes 15; and see Tertullian Apolegia 15.4; Minucius Felix 37.2; Apuleius Metamorphoses 10.3f
46. Virgil Georgic III 21-3
47. Cato De Agricultura CXLI
48. Varro De Lingua Latine V.85: sacra public faciunt ut fruges ferant arva; Cicero De Ligibus II 21
49. Tacitus Annales XIII 24; Histories I 87.1; Strabo 5.3.2; Livy I.44.2
50. CIL III Supp. 12047
51. Tacitus Histories 4.53
52. Livy I.44.2
53. Virgil Georgic I.338-350; , Eclogue V.63-80; Cato: De Agricultura 141
54. Valerius Flaccus Argonautica 3.411-58; Statius Thebaid IV.443-87
55. Ovid Fasti II.645-54
56. Lucian De Sal. 16; 79
57. Propertius 3.4.19-22; Scriptores Historiae Augustae Vita Probi c. 12.7
58. Livy XXVII.37.715
59. CIL VI 32323 = ILS 5050 Acta Sacrorum Saecularium; Horace Carmen Saeculares
60. Cicero Pro Milo 13; Livy 2.54.4; Martial 8.75.9; Plut. QR 14.267 b; Seneca Apolog. 12; Suetonius Julius 84; Tacitus Annales II.73; III.5; IV.9; XIII.17; Histories III.67; Terentius Afer Heautontimorumenos Act IV, scene 4, line 23
61. John Scheid, An Introduction to Roman Religion, trans. Janet Lloyd, 2003; 6.2.1
62. Livy VII.3; XXIX.14.5
M Horatius Piscinus

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Postby Horatius Piscinus on Wed May 05, 2004 5:20 am

Salvete comreligiones omnes

I realize these posts must seem a bit much, even confusing to many, especially if you wish simple answers on how to conduct Roman rites. For the Romans themselves, living in a culture where such festivies and rites were taking place all around them all the time, it was fairly simple. It was the norm. Conventions of the day. For your own rites I suggest you do keep it simple, follow your own conventions so that your rites have more meaning to you personally. The purpose of these posts is so that you can see the range of things that were done, and then researching more on your own, learning about what Romans did, you might want to adopt some of the ancient practices into your own conventions. When in doubt over what to do, just dance. Dancing was considered an offering to the Gods, something to entertain them. And for the modern practitioner you will get a closer feeling to what the Romans experienced in their rites by dancing to Three Doors Down or some other contemporary music, than anything else you might try to reconstruct.

Oh, well, expect more such posts as I try to go into more details about Roman rites.

Di Deaeque vos semper ament
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