The Religious Experience of the Roman People Part 10

[219] Arn.o.bius (v. 155) fortunately mentions that this story came from the second book of Valerius Antias, whose bad reputation is well known. It was plainly meant to account for the cult-t.i.tle of Jupiter Elicius, and the origin of the _procuratio fulminis_, and was invented by Greeks or Graecising Romans at a time (2nd century B.C.) when all reverence for the G.o.ds had vanished as completely as in Greece. Yet Dr. Frazer writes of Numa as "an adept at bringing down lightning from heaven" (_Early History of Kingship_, p. 204).

[220] On this subject, the evolution of the knowledge of G.o.d, I may refer to Professor Gwatkin's _Gifford Lectures_ of 1904-5, published by Messrs. T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh.

[221] The meaning of _deus_ is well put by Mr. C. Bailey in his sketch of _Roman Religion_ (Constable & Co.), p.

12.

[222] Guesses can be made about these, but little or nothing is to be learnt from them to help us in this lecture.

[223] I adhere to what was said in _R.F._ p.

312 foll. We do not know, and probably never shall know, the original deity concerned in that festival. The ritual is wholly unlike that of the _rustica Faunalia_ (_R.F._ p. 256 foll.). I believe that it dates from a time anterior to the formation of real G.o.ds--possibly from an aboriginal people who did not know any. (I am glad to see this view taken in the latest summary of German learning on this subject, _Einleitung in die Altertumswissenschaft_, by Gaercke and Norden, vol. ii.

p. 262.) At the moment of printing an interesting discussion of the Lupercalia, by Prof. Deubner, who treats it as a historical growth, in which are embodied ideas and rites of successive ages, has appeared in _Archiv_ (1910, p. 481 foll.). See Appendix B.

[224] Wissowa, _R.K._ pp. 170 and 250 foll.

[225] Strabo, p. 164. Cp. Usener, _Gotternamen_, p. 277, whose comment is, "Die Gotter aller dieser Stamme waren 'namenlos,' weil sie nicht mit Eigennamen sondern durch Eigenschaftsworte benannt wurden. Fur einen griechischen Reisenden vorchristlicher Zeit waren sie nicht fa.s.sbar." Arn.o.bius iii. 43, Gellius ii. 28. 2 are good pa.s.sages for the principle. The latter alludes to the anxiety of _veteres Romani_ on this point, "ne alium pro alio nominando falsa religione populum alligarent."

Hence the formulae "si deus si dea," or "sive quo alio nomine fas est nominare," Serv. _Aen._ ii. 351; "quisquis es," _Aen._ iv. 576. See also Farnell, _Evolution of Religion_, 184 foll.; Dieterich, _Eine Mithrasliturgie_, p. 110 foll.

[226] Serv. _Aen._ ii. 351. I am inclined to think it is only an inference from the want of substantival names in so many Roman deities; surely, it would be argued, the pontifices must have had some reason for this. It is contradicted by the fact that in such ancient formulae as that of the _devotio_ (Livy viii. 9) the great G.o.ds are called by their own names, though the army was in the field and in presence of the enemy. There was, however, an old idea that the name of the special tutelary G.o.d of the city was never divulged, lest he should become _captivus_, and that the true name of the city itself was unknown; see Macrob. iii. 9. 2 foll. I believe that these ideas were encouraged by the pontifices, but were not founded on fact.

[227] For the Indigitamenta see below, p. 159; _R.F._ p.

341; R. Peter's able article in _Myth. Lex._, _s.v._ Scholars do not seem to me to have reckoned sufficiently with the tendency of a legal priesthood, devoted to the strict maintenance of religious minutiae, to elaborate and organise the material for G.o.d-making which was within their reach. To judge by the elaboration of the ritual at Iguvium, the same tendency must have existed in other kindred Italian communities, both to develop ritualistic priesthoods, and through them to elaborate the ritual. This is, I think, the weak point of Usener's reasoning in his _Gotternamen_, and as applied to Roman deities it is the weak point of an interesting article by von Domaszewski, reprinted in his _Abhandlungen zur rom. Religion_, p. 155 foll.

[228] The best account of Tellus is in Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 159 foll.

[229] _R.F._ p. 71; Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 631 foll. This was a festival of the populus as a whole, and also of each Curia, like the Fornicalia in February. Both were clearly agricultural in origin, though the Curia as we know it was probably an inst.i.tution of the city. I must own that I am quite uncertain as to what the thing was which was originally meant by the word Curia; my friend Dr. J. B. Carter may have something to say on the subject in his book on the Roman religion in the Jastrow series.

[230] Dieterich, _Mutter Erde_, pp. 11 and 73 foll.

[231] Virg. _Aen._ iv. 166, "prima et Tellus et p.r.o.nuba Iuno Dant signum"; commenting on which Servius wrote, "quidam sane etiam Tellurem praeesse nuptiis tradunt; nam et in auspiciis nuptiarum invocatur: cui etiam virgines, vel c.u.m ire ad domum mariti coeperint, vel iam ibi positae, diversis nominibus vel ritu sacrificant."

There is little doubt that Tellus is frequently concealed under the names of Ceres, Dea Dia, etc. For Ceres and Juno in marriage rites, see Marquardt, _Privatleben_, p. 49.

[232] See below, p. 206 foll.; Macrob. iii. 9. 11; Deubner in _Archiv_, 1905, p. 66 foll.

[233] See De Marchi, _La Religione_, _etc._, i. p. 188 and reff. (The reference to Gellius should be iv. 6. 7, not iv. 67.) Like some other operations of the Roman religion, this became a form, and was used as a kind of insurance, whether or no there had been any omission; Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 160.

[234] That Ceres represented the _fructus_ is shown by the fact that in the XII. Tables the man who raided a field of standing corn at night was made _sacer_ to her; Pliny, _N.H._ xviii. 12.

[235] Cato, _R.R._ 134. De Marchi, _op. cit._ p. 135.

Ja.n.u.s, Jupiter, and Juno are concerned in this rite, Ceres coming last. Varro has preserved the part of Tellus for us: "quod humatus non sit, heredi porca praecidanea suscipienda Telluri et Cereri, aliter familia non pura est" (_ap. Nonium_, p. 163).

[236] The verses are quoted by Dieterich, _Mutter Erde_, p. 75, among others from Buecheler's _Anthology of Roman Epitaphs_, Nos. 1544 and 1476. The story is told in Suetonius' _Life of Tib._ c. 75, and again of Gallienus by Aurelius Victor (_Caes._ c. 33).

[237] Marquardt, p. 326, who notes that the Romans themselves derived the word from _filum_, a fillet; _e.g._ Varro, _L.L._ v. 84, "quod in Latio capite velato erant semper, ac caput cinctum habebant _filo_." Modern etymologists equate the word with _Brahman_.

[238] Thus the Flamen Quirinalis sacrificed at the Robigalia, _R.F._ p. 89, and with the Pontifices and Vestals took part in the Consualia, Marq. 335.

[239] We may note here that the most general Latin name for a priest was _sacerdos_, which seems to have excluded all magic, etc.; it means an office sanctioned by the State. On the general question of the origin of priesthood see Jevons, _Introduction_, _etc._, ch. xx., with whose explanations, however, I cannot entirely agree. I should prefer to keep the word priest for an official who sacrifices and prays to his G.o.d. In this view I am at one with E. Meyer, _Geschichte des Altertums_, i.^2 p. 121 foll. G.o.d and priest go together as permanent, regular in function, and entrusted by a community with certain duties.

[240] Marquardt, p. 180; Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 427. The popa or victimarius is seen in many artistic representations of sacrifice, _e.g._ Schreiber, _Atlas of Cla.s.sical Antiquities_, plate xvii. figs. 1 and 3.

[241] Jevons, ch. xx.; Frazer, _G.B._ i. 245 foll., and _Lectures on Early History of Kingship_, Lectures ii.

and v.

[242] Virg. _Aen._ viii. 352.

[243] In a valuable paper in his _Gesammelte Abhandlungen_ (p. 284) Wissowa says that "personal conception of deity is absolutely strange to the old Roman religion of the _di indigetes_." I believe this to be essentially true; but my point is that localisation and ritual prepared the way for the reception of Greek ideas of personality. The process had already begun in the religion of the house; but it was not likely there to come in contact with foreign germs. When Ja.n.u.s and Vesta, who were in every house (Wissowa, p. 285), were localised in certain points in a city, they would be far more likely to acquire personality, if such an idea came in their way, than in the worship of the family.

[244] Aug. _Civ. Dei_, vii. 28, "quem alii caelum, alii dixerunt esse mundum." Dr. Frazer, citing this pa.s.sage (_Kingship_, p. 286) in support of his view that Ja.n.u.s was a duplicate of Jupiter, has omitted to notice that some theorisers fancied he was the _universe_, which by itself is enough to betray the delusive nature of this kind of theological speculation. Varro elsewhere gives us a clue to the liability of Ja.n.u.s to be exalted in this unnatural fashion, _L.L._ vii. 27, "divum deo" (in the Salian hymn), if this be taken as referring to Ja.n.u.s, as it may be, comparing Macrob. i. 9. 14. But this is easily explained by the position of Ja.n.u.s in prayers; cp. Cic. _Nat. Deor._ ii. 27. 67, "c.u.m in omnibus rebus vim haberent maximam prima et extrema, principem in sacrificando Ianum esse voluerunt." The phrase "Deorum" or "Divum deus" is indeed remarkable, and unparalleled in Roman worship; but no one acquainted with Roman or Italian ritual will for a moment suspect it of meaning "G.o.d of G.o.ds" in either a Christian or metaphysical sense. I shall have occasion to notice the peculiar use of the genitive case and of genitival adjectives in worship later on. See below, p. 153 foll.

[245] _Fasti_, i. 89 foll.; _R.F._ p. 281 foll.

[246] Frazer, _l.c._ (a page of which every line appears to me to be written under a complete misapprehension of the right methods of research into the nature of Roman G.o.ds); A. B. Cook, _Cla.s.sical Review_, vol. xviii. 367 foll.; Professor Ridgeway, _Who were the Romans?_ p. 12, where, among other remarkable statements, Ja.n.u.s is confidently said to have been introduced at Rome by the Sabine Numa, and therefore to have been a Sabine deity, an a.s.sumption quite irreconcilable with those of Dr.

Frazer and Mr. Cook. In striking contrast with such speculations is a sensible paper on Ja.n.u.s in M.

Toutain's _etudes de mythologie et d'histoire_, p. 195 foll. (Paris, 1909).

[247] Dr. Frazer is aware of this; see his _Kingship_, p. 285, note 1. See also Roscher in _Myth. Lex._, _s.v._ "Ja.n.u.s," p. 45 foll.

[248] For the evidence for this and the following facts, see Roscher's article just cited, or Wissowa, _R.K._ p.

91 foll.; cp. _R.F._ p. 280 foll. The cult epithets of Ja.n.u.s are thus explained by von Domaszewski, _Abhandlungen_, p. 223, note 1, "Bei Ia.n.u.s tritt regelma.s.sig der Begriff des Wesens hinzu, dessen Wirkung er von Anfang an bestimmt, so I. Consevius der Anfang der in Consus wirkenden Kraft, und in derselbe Weise I.

Iunonius, Matutinus," etc. This is reasonable, but it does not suit with I. Patulcius-Clusius, and I cannot accept it with confidence at present.

[249] Roscher, _op. cit._ p. 34.

[250] Wissowa, _Gesammelte Abhandlungen_, p. 284 foll.

[251] Festus, p. 185.

[252] It is due to the good sense and learning of Dr.

Roscher; he had previously, when working on the old methods, tried to prove that Ja.n.u.s was a "wind-G.o.d"

(_Hermes der Windgott_, Leipzig, 1878); but a more searching inquiry into the Roman evidence, when the prepossessions had left him which the comparative method is so likely to produce, brought him to the view I have explained in outline, which has been adopted in the main by Wissowa, Aust, and J. B. Carter, as well as by myself in _R.F._ The last word about so puzzling a deity can of course never be said; but if we indulge in speculations about him we must use the Roman evidence with adequate knowledge of the criticism it needs.

[253] This difference between Zeus and Jupiter has been pointed out by Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 100; Jupiter stands for the heaven even in cla.s.sical Latin literature, as we all know.

[254] See his papers in the _Cla.s.sical Review_, vol.

xvii. 270 and xviii. 365 foll., and in _Folklore_, vol.

xv. 301; xvi. 260 foll.

[255] _Kingship_, p. 196 foll.

[256] Macrobius i. 15. 14. In historical times a white victim, _ovis idulis_, was taken to the Capitol by the _via sacra_ in procession (Ov. _Fasti_, i. 56. 588).

Festus says that some derived the term _via sacra_ from this procession (p. 290); and to this Horace may be alluding in _Ode_ iii. 30. 8, "dum Capitolium Scandet c.u.m tacita virgine pontifex."

[257] _R.F._ pp. 86, 204.

[258] _R.F._ p. 160.

[259] No doubt Jupiter was specially connected with the oak, as Mr. Cook has shown with great learning in the paper cited above, note 36; but at Rome he had an ancient shrine among beeches, and was known as I.

f.a.gutalis: Varro, _L.L._ v. 152; Paulus 87. For I.

Viminalis, see _R.F._ p. 229.