1 Earliest Rome

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73 Prodigies mixed with blood and the spring of Hercules itself ran spattered with spots of blood; when they were taking in the harvest at Antium, bloody ears fell into the basket; the sky at Falerii was seen to gape as if with a great hole and, at the point where it lay open, an enormous light shone forth; the lots shrank spontaneously and one fell out giving the message: 'Mars shakes his spear.' 1 At the same time in <strong>Rome</strong>, the statue of Mars by the Appian Way and the images of the wolves sweated; and at Capua there was the appearance of the sky burning and of the moon falling to earth during a storm. 2 Trust was then placed in lesser prodigies as well: some goats grew wool; a hen turned into a male and a cock into a female. These events were expounded to the senate, just as they had been reported, and those who vouched for them were brought in; then the consul consulted the senators about the ritual implications. Their decree was that the prodigies should be dealt with by sacrifice partly of greater victims, partly of suckling victims; 3 a three-day supplication should take place at all the couches of the gods. 4 Next, when the decemviri had consulted the Books, 5 the gods should be addressed in sacred hymns according to the preferences of each one. By the advice of the decemviri the first gift was decreed to Jupiter, a golden thunderbolt fifty pounds in weight, Juno and Minerva were given silver gifts and Juno Regina on the Aventine and Juno Sospita of Lanuvium received sacrifices of greater victims; and the matrons, after the collecting of as much money as each one could bring together appropriately, should carry a gift to Juno on the Aventine and a lectisternium should be held ; 6 and that the women ex-slaves should also collect money, according to their ability, to offer a gift to Feronia. 7 When this had all been done, the decemviri should sacrifice in the forum at Ardea with greater victims. Finally, it being now December, a sacrifice and a lectisternium (the couch being set out by the senators) should be held in the temple of Saturn in <strong>Rome</strong>, and also a public feast; and that the cry 'Saturnalia' should be kept up through the city for a day and a night and the people bidden to hold it a sacred day and so to keep it in perpetuity." 1. Various towns in Italy had a 'lot' oracle: tablets of wood (or other material) each and inscribed with an oracle were drawn at random to give an oracular response. Ir was a bad omen when the lots shrank. 2. The meaning (and the Latin text) is uncertain here. 3. Greater victims were full-grown; suckling victims, still young. 4. For the gods' statues on couches, see 5.5c. 5. That is, the Sibylline Books; see 7.5 and 1.8. 6. For the lectisternium, see 5.5b and c. 7. Feronia was the divine patroness of the women ex-slaves, as Juno was of the matrons. 8. The Saturnalia was an ancient festival (see, e.g., 3.2, where it is marked in large capital letters); so Livy is either here mistakenly thinking it was a new invention in 213 B.C. or he meant to imply that only the day of public feasting was the innovation. See 5.3. 7.3b Pliny on portents It is not always easy to understand why some particular events were seen as prodigies, and others not. Historians, such as Livy, only give us the bald record of a prodigy, not the reasons for that classification. Occasionally, however, 73
7- D I V I N A T I O N A N D D I V I N E R S Pliny's Natural History - which includes all kinds of information about birds and animals in religion, science and popular thought - gives us some hint as to why the behaviour of a particular beast might be seen as prodigious. See further: Koves-Zulauf (1972) 166-314; Beagon (1992) 144-7. 7.3b(i) Ravens Pliny, Natural History'X.32-3 See further: on the habits of ancient ravens, R. L. Gordon (1980a) 25—32. Ravens have at the most five young. It is popularly believed that they give birth or have intercourse through their beaks; and that that is why pregnant women, if they eat a raven's egg, return the foetus by the mouth and, if the eggs are carried into the house, have a difficult delivery in general. Aristotle will have none of this; no more than with the Egyptian ibis, for he says that the kissing which is often seen, means no more than in the case of doves. Ravens are the only birds who in the auspices understand the messages that they convey. For when the guests of Meidias were killed, all of them fled from the Peloponnese and Attica. 1 The worst message is when they whine, as though they were being strangled. Pliny, Natural History'X.34 1. Meidias (or Medius) was a Thessalian war-lord, who massacred some Spartan mercenar ies (here called 'guests') at the start of the Corinthian War (395 B.C.). The ravens appar ently saw what was coming. 7.3b(ii) Owls The owl [bubo) is a funereal bird and a disastrous omen, particularly in the context of the public auspices. It lives in the deserts not just in the regions to which men do not go, but ones both inaccessible and awesome. It is a monster of the night-time, with a scream instead of musical notes for its cry. As a result of this, it is a direful omen whenever seen inside a city or at all in the daytime. I know of cases where it has rested on a private house, but not presaged a death. It never travels directly the way it means to go, but off- course and obliquely. 174 7.3c Eclipse before a battle Many events that were regarded as prodigies - and so signs from the gods - could be explained in other ways. On the eve of the Battle of Pydna in 168 B.C., the final battle between the Romans and King Perseus of Macedon (see 5.8a), there was an eclipse of the moon. Eclipses had traditionally been seen as prodigies and dealt with as religious events. However, those who understood the latest scientific views knew why they happened and how to predict them. The point of Livy's story is a paradox: you would have expected the Romans (regarded by the Greeks as barbarians) to have been ignorant of the latest
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VOLUME 2 A Sourcebook M A R Y BEARD
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Acknowledgements We would like to e
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Judaism and Christianity) whose ori
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Preface xii the religion of early R
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Conventions and abbreviations XIV I
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I EARLIEST ROME 2 Scullard (1981) 1
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1 EARLIEST ROME Ovid, Fasti n.639-4
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I EARLIEST ROME would have been die
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T EARLIEST ROME words when he cross
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I EARLIEST ROME Pliny, Natural Hist
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I EARLIEST ROME Livy History 1.45 1
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I EARLIEST ROME AE{1979) 136 The co
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I EARLIEST ROME buik himself, there
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I EARLIEST ROME 22 ] .7c(ii) Hephae
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I EARLIEST ROME literal truth of th
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2 The deities of Rome 26 Throughout
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28 THE DEITIES OF ROME 1. Trajan -
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2. THE DEITIES OF ROME sometimes is
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2. THE DEITIES OF ROME Ovid, Fasti
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2. THE DEITIES OF ROME Livy, Histor
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2. T H E DEITIES OF ROME Pectillus
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3 The calendar 60 The official stat
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3 . T H E C A L E N D A R Deerassi
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3- T H E C A L E N D A R G VINAL.
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4 Religious places 78 This chapter
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RELIGIOUS FLAGES 4.13 The house-tom
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5 Festivals and ceremonies 116 Ritu
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IO. ROME OUTSIDE ROME 244 4. Milita
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11 Threats to the Roman order 260 R
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348 Paul and Peter pray for Victor.
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13- P E R S P E C T I V E S Let us
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decemviri (sacris faciundis) see qu
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eligio (proper religious observance
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Deities and their epithets 370 Fort
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Bibliography 372 Cassius Dio, Roman
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Paul, Opinions: this work, compiled
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Attridge, H. W. (1978) 'The philoso
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Bibliography 378 Politics in the He
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Cameron, Averil (1969) 'Perronius a
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Bibliography 382 de See. Croix, G.
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Frickel, J. ( 1984) Hellenistische
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Gruen, E. S. (1990) Studies in Gree
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Kirsch, J. P. (1924) Der stadtrömi
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Bibliography 390 Long, A. A. (1974)
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Bibliography 392 Nock, A. D. (1925)
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Potter, D. (1991) Prophecy and Hist
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(1992) 'The religious roles of Roma
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Syme, R. (1978) 'Thepomerium'm the
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Walker, S. and Burnett, A. (1981) T
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Details of illustrations 1.5b(ii) L
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Detaih ofillustrations 404 6. If Re
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Gaius, Institutes ll. 1—11: 10.4c
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CI/72, 476, 523: 12.6d CILl 2 . 101
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General index References are to tex
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General index Dioscuri, see Castor
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General index festivals, sacrifices
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General index Tarquin the Elder (ki
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