Ernout and Meillet Reference Ernout and Meillet1979: 376 s.v. Neither of the acts that Pliny mentions is explicitly identified as sacrificium, or as any other rite in particular. ex Fest. 32 Peter=FRH F33. 84 The small size of the guttus and simpulum is assured by Varro (L. 5.124), who identifies both as vessels that pour out liquid minutatim. Cf., n. 89 below. Ryberg Reference Ryberg1955: figs 83 and 89b. Of this class of rituals, sacrificium does seem to have been somehow different from the others. 22 22.57.26, discussed also in Schultz Reference Schultz2012: 1267. As suggested by Bouma Reference Bouma1996: 1.23841. D. 6.9 (which probably draws on Varro) and possibly Paul. Contra Prescendi Reference Prescendi2007: 223. 6.34. 26. The corresponding substantive is magmentum, a type of offering laid out only at certain temples.Footnote 13 Peter=FRH F17. 90 Oliveira, Cludia Our modern idea of sacrifice can, with some refinement and clarification, remain a useful concept for constructing accounts of how and why the Romans dealt with their gods in the ways they didFootnote 38 Curius Dentatus, famous for his victory over Pyrrhus in 275 b.c.e. 94 Instead, their presence should be attributed to the status of those species as valuable and efficacious: the prevalence of dogs, lizards, and beavers in medicinal and magical recipes for potions is an indication of the exceptional value the animals were thought to have, an indication that they were somehow special, and therefore might be worthy of the gods. If the devotio was not successful (i.e., the devotus somehow survived), expiatory steps had to be taken: the burial of a larger-than-life-sized statue and piaculum hostia caedi. This disjuncture between physical remains and written accounts is another reminder of the bias of our ancient authors toward the activities of the rich and toward state ritual. Greek gods had heavy emphasis placed on their Macr., Sat. But upon further reflection, in fact, the use of cruets and plates actually emphasizes the importance of the meal that concluded a Roman sacrifice. 37 Has data issue: true See, however, C. Ando's concluding essay in Faraone and Naiden Reference Faraone and Naiden2012 along with A. Hollman's review of that same volume in BMCR 2013.04.44 and, in the same vein but with reference to ancient Egypt, Frankfurter Reference Frankfurter2011. 1; Sall., Hist. milk,Footnote Vaz, Filipe Costa 14.30; Sil. 40 Fontes, Lus Arguably, then, it is the Christians who bequeathed to future generations the metonymic equivalence of sacrifice and violence, Knust and Vrhelyi Reference Knust and Vrhelyi2011: 17. But it does bring things into sharper focus, helping the student of Roman religion to keep in view the extent to which we have interpreted the ancient sources to fit our own (rather than the Romans) intellectual categories. Expert solutions. Goats: Var., R. 1.2.19; Liv. Ernout and Meillet Reference Ernout and Meillet1979: 411 s.v. There is no evidence, contra Parker Reference Parker2004 and Wildfang Reference Wildfang2006: 589, that the Romans ever perceived the punishment of a Vestal as sacrifice. Polluctum is a rite of wider scope than sacrificium, however, in that it could be performed on money and goods that do not appear to have been linked to eating in any way. 78 WebOne major difference between Greek and Roman religion and Christianity is their understanding of the concept of deity. In Greek and Roman religion, the gods and Although the remains come from a known sacred area, it should not be assumed that all of them are evidence of sacrificium or other rituals: some may be garbage, material used as fill, or even the remains of animals (like mice) that died while exploring the refuse heap. Created by. 14 and first fruits.Footnote and Paul. The vast majority of the bones come from pigs, sheep, and goats. but in later texts as well. 344L, s.v. Another possible interpretation of the disappearance of some rituals from Latin literature is that the Romans no longer thought of them as distinct from one another, preferring to treat them all as sacrificium. It is important to note, however, that we cannot determine conclusively from the extant sources what relationship, if any, existed among them in the Roman mind. The answer is that human sacrifice, which the Romans are quick to dismiss as something other people do (note that, although Livy is clear that the burial of Gauls and Greeks is a sacrifice, he also says that it was hardly a Roman rite), is closely linked in the Roman mind with cannibalism. Dog corpses were sometimes deposited with tablets that contained curses, and dog figurines are among the required items for performing some spells.Footnote Reference Morris, Leung, Ames and Lickel1999 and Berry Reference Berry, Headland, Pike and Harris1990. 72 That we cannot fully recover what were the critical differences among these rites is frustrating, but the situation is certainly not unique in the study of Roman religion. Compare Var., R. 2.8.1. Knives would have been used only in conjunction with one or other of these implements. 49 17 At 8.10.1112, Livy notes that a commander could devote one of his soldiers rather than himself. This is suggested by Ov., F. 1.1278. 1.3.90 and 1.6.115; Juv. This is a bad answer - I don't have sources available. It is my understanding that we lack a great deal of the sources needed for an emic unders Subjects. 4.57. 80 Those poor Nacirema, who despise their physical form and try to improve it through ritual and ceremony, at first seem so different from us: primitive, superstitious, unsophisticated. 6.343 and 11.108. Aldrete counts at least fifty-six sculptural reliefs dating from the seventh century b.c.e. 6 In what follows, I aim to clear away a few of the accretions that have arisen from more than a century of modern theorizing about the nature and meaning of sacrifice as a universal human phenomenon in order to gain a better understanding of those actions that the Romans identify by the Latin words sacrificium and sacrificare.Footnote 28 It is the only one of these terms that does not come to be used outside the realm of the divine. pecunia sacrificium makes clear that, despite its name, this ritual did not involve money. Let me be clear. One relatively well documented example is the collection of bones dating to the seventh and sixth centuries b.c.e. 11 23 and indeed it certainly fits the modern notion of an act by which one suffers great loss for the benefit of others. 49 Indeed these two rituals appear at first glance to be identical live interment in underground chambers, though admittedly in different locations within the city and with different victims. Footnote mactus; Serv., A. If we allow only items explicitly identified as sacrificia in Roman sources, our list includes beans,Footnote This study argues, however, that the apparent continuity is illusory in some important ways and that we have lost sight of some fine distinctions that the Romans made among the rituals they performed. 132.12). Far less common in the S. Omobono collection, but still present in significant amounts, is a range of animals that do not seem to have formed a regular part of the Roman diet, such as deer, a beaver, lizards, a tortoise, and several puppies.Footnote WebIn Greek mythology the king of gods is known as Zeus, whereas Romans call the king of gods Jupiter. The most recent and most comprehensive analysis of the material details the criteria applied to the osteoarchaeological evidence for determining what is likely to be evidence for sacrifice.Footnote Livy also uses the language of sacrifice when he describes the underground room as a place that had already seen human victims.Footnote The modern assumption that sacrifice requires an animal victim obfuscates the full range of sacrificium among the Romans. The Greek gods domain over law had been mostly limited to the hereditary kings of individual city-states, but Rome grew into a unified Republic. There is a small amount of evidence for a form of auspicium performed with beans: Fest. The same two interment rituals would be performed alongside one another again just about a century later, in 113 b.c.e. Paul. Modern scholars sometimes group all of these rites under the rubric sacrifice.Footnote At the centre of the whole complex was the immolatio, during which the animal was sprinkled with mola salsa (a mixture of spelt and salt), the flat of a knife was run along its back, and then it was slaughtered. e.g., O'Gorman Reference O'Gorman2010: 1217 and Versnel Reference Versnel1976. 12 95 This has repercussions for our understanding of some elements of Roman religious thought. Although Roman sources identify some specific types of sacrifice (e.g., sollemne, piaculare, lustrale, anniversarium), they do not identify any of the other rituals under discussion here as types of sacrificium.Footnote Dear Mr. Chang, Aside from the obvious differences in language (one culture speaks as much Latin as the Vatican, while the other is all Greek to me), the Romans art largely imitated that of the Greeks. 132; Cass. In addition to such great disasters, the people were terrified both by other prodigies and because in this year two Vestals, Opimia and Floronia, were discovered to have had illicit affairs. According to Pliny, Curius declared under oath that he had appropriated for himself no booty praeter guttum faginum, quo sacrificaret (N.H. 16.185). 34 Van Straten Reference Van Straten1995: 188. the ritual began with a procession that was followed by a praefatio, a preliminary offering of prayers, wine and incense. thysa. Marcellus, de Medicamentis 8.50; Palmer Reference Palmer and Hall1996: 234. 77 subsilles. 73 82 52 I owe many thanks to C. P. Mann, B. Nongbri, and J. N. Dillon for their thoughtful, challenging responses to earlier drafts of this article, and to audiences at Trinity College, Baylor University, and Bryn Mawr College for comments on an oral version of it. 16 MacKinnon Reference MacKinnon2004: 5974. favisae. Mar. 15 were linked.Footnote hasContentIssue true, Copyright The Author(s) 2016. 92 Although they are universally referred to as votive offerings in the scholarly literature, it is possible that they are, technically, sacrifices. 113L, s.v. (ed.) For the possible link between this instance and the revelation of an unchaste Vestal, see Schultz Reference Schultz2012: 126 n. 18. Through the outsider point of view, we can interpret it in light of comparable behaviours in other cultures. Through the insider point of view, we can understand its meaning to the people who experience it. Cornell, T. J. 24 to the fourth century c.e. An exception is Scheid Reference Scheid2005: 52. 73 5 The Christian fathers equation of sacrifice with violence has shaped twentieth-century theorizations of sacrifice as a universal human phenomenon,Footnote Although there is some evidence for Roman consumption of dog in the form of canine skeletons with butchery marks (e.g., De Grossi Mazzorin and Tagliacozzo Reference De Grossi Mazzorin and Tagliacozzo1997: 4378), there is no evidence that dogs were raised for meat production (MacKinnon Reference MacKinnon2004: 74). On the contrary, Greek religion did not prefer to execute rituals as much as 3.2.16. WebRoman sacrificial practices were not functionally different from Greek, although the Roman rite was distinguishable from the Greek and Etruscan. As the most extensive survey of meat production in Roman Italy has concluded, Dogs were variously trained as guards, protectors, companions, and pets, but they were not raised to be eaten (MacKinnon Reference MacKinnon2004: 74). 93L, s.v. Resp. Significant exceptions to this rule in the study of Roman sacrifice are the treatment of the sacrifice of wheat and wine in Scheid Reference Scheid2012 and the argument for the increased popularity of vegetal sacrifice in Late Antiquity advanced by Elsner Reference Elsner2012. ex Fest. See Oakley Reference Oakley1998: 481 and Sacco Reference Sacco2004: 316. The two texts are nearly identical and perhaps go back to the original lex sacra of the altar of Diana on the Aventine hill in Rome, to which the inscriptions explicitly appeal. A wider range of scholarly approaches is presented by McClymond Reference McClymond2008: 124. 74 Modern etymologists disagree on the origin of the term. ex Fest. Another major difference between Greek gods and Roman gods is in the physical appearance of the deities. But one of the things that I consider quite interesting was the difference approaches that the Greeks and Romans had towards the Gods as a whole. sacrifice, Roman in OCD The ritual seems to be even more flexible than sacrificium in the range of objects on which it could be performed. Max. 93 There is also evidence that the Romans had a variety of rites, only one of which was sacrificium, that involved presenting foodstuffs to the gods. Bottom line: The Greeks tended towards greater personification of their gods; the Romans tended towards their religion being a series of quid pro quo transactions with Therefore, instead of privileging either the emic or etic, I argue for an increased awareness of the insider-outsider distinction and for an approach to Roman religion that makes use of both emic and etic concepts. The Romans were aware of the link, as is made clear by Paul. 74 1 Answer. 57 Tagliacozzo Reference Tagliacozzo1989: 66. We can push this second issue, what kinds of items can be the object of sacrifice, even further: Roman sacrifice, especially among the poor, was not limited to edible offerings. and the second century c.e. See Rosenblitt Reference Rosenblitt2011 for the connection between these two passages. Furthermore, because there were multiple rituals not just sacrificium through which the Romans could share food and other goods with their gods, we can see that the Romans had a wider range of ritual tools available to them for communicating with the divine. 3, 13456; Prescendi Reference Prescendi2007: 1225; Rpke Reference Rpke and Gordon2007: 1378. We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. It is a hallmark of poverty, whether in a religious context or not, appearing often in poetic passages where the narrator describes a low-budget lifestyle.Footnote Now, the Romans did not eat people, so how does their performance of human sacrifice reinforce the link between sacrifice and dining? 97L: Immolare est mola, id est farre molito et sale, hostiam perspersam sacrare (To immolate is to make sacred a victim sprinkled with mola, that is, with ground spelt and salt), a passage which also suggests that the link between immolatio and mola salsa was active in the minds of Romans in the early imperial period when the ultimate source of Paulus redaction, the dictionary written by Verrius Flaccus, was compiled.Footnote For example, Ares is the Greek 62 For this same poverty is, among the Greeks, just in Aristides, kind in Phocion, vigorous in Epaminondas, wise in Socrates, and eloquent in Homer. and for front limbs.Footnote 30 Classicists generally assume that the modern idea of sacrifice as the ritual killing of an animal applies to the Roman context. We also find that the gods were open to receiving sacrifices of vegetables, grains, liquids, and, when those were not available, miniature versions of the serveware that would normally have contained them. The literary evidence for this is slender but persuasive. e.g., Martens Reference Martens2004 and Lentacker, Ervynck and Van Neer Reference Lentacker, Ervynck, Van Neer, Martens and De Boe2004 on a mithraeum at Tienen in Belgium, King Reference King2005 on Roman Britain, and the various contributions to Lepetz and Van Andringa Reference Lepetz and van Andringa2008 on Roman Gaul. Another famous instance of this scene is on the Boscoreale cup (Aldrete Reference Aldrete2014: 33, fig. Emic and etic, terms drawn originally from the field of linguistics (Pike Reference Pike1967: 3744; reprinted in McCutcheon Reference McCutcheon1999: 2836), are one of several pairs of words used to present the insider-outsider distinction. 25 But in reality, the relative silence of our sources about a ritual form that seems to have been available to the poor is not unique. e.g., J. Scheid, s.v. 20 For example, Cic., Rep. 3.15 and Font. uncovered in votive deposits throughout Italy. At present, large-scale analysis of faunal remains from sacred sites in Roman Italy remains a desideratum, but analysis of deposits of animal bones from the region seems to bear out the prevalence of these species in the Roman diet and as the object of religious ritual (whether sacrificium or not it is difficult to say).Footnote 50, From all this, it is reasonable to conclude that the poor could substitute small vessels for more expensive, edible sacrificial offerings. 22.57.26; Cass. The presence of bones from these species at S. Omobono should not be taken to mean that the site was what scholars call a healing sanctuary, or that it was a place where people came to cast spells on their enemies.