Misplaced Pages

#499500

128-467: The augural ceremony and function of the augur was central to any major undertaking in Roman society – public or private – including matters of war, commerce, and religion . Augurs sought the divine will regarding any proposed course of action which might affect Rome's pax , fortuna , and salus (peace, good fortune, and well-being). Although ancient authors believed that the term "augur" contained

256-505: A piaculum before entering their sacred grove with an iron implement, which was forbidden, as well as after. The pig was a common victim for a piaculum . The same divine agencies who caused disease or harm also had the power to avert it, and so might be placated in advance. Divine consideration might be sought to avoid the inconvenient delays of a journey, or encounters with banditry, piracy and shipwreck, with due gratitude to be rendered on safe arrival or return. In times of great crisis,

384-421: A broad, inclusive and flexible network of lawful cults. At different times and in different places, the sphere of influence, character and functions of a divine being could expand, overlap with those of others, and be redefined as Roman. Change was embedded within existing traditions. Several versions of a semi-official, structured pantheon were developed during the political, social and religious instability of

512-539: A conspiracy to assassinate Octavian, but the plot was discovered by Gaius Maecenas . The younger Lepidus was executed, but the former triumvir himself was left unmolested. His wife Junia was, however, implicated. Lepidus had to plead with his former enemy Lucius Saenius Balbinus to grant her bail. Spending the rest of his life in relative obscurity, Lepidus was apparently obliged to return to Rome periodically to participate in Senate business. Octavian, now known as "Augustus",

640-461: A deal with the rebel leader, the quaestor Marcellus, and helped to defeat an attack by the Mauretanian king Bogud . Cassius and his supporters were allowed to leave and order was restored. Caesar and the Senate were sufficiently impressed by Lepidus's judicious mixture of negotiation and surgical military action that they granted him a triumph . Lepidus was rewarded with the consulship in 46 after

768-636: A dispute arose over whether he or Octavian had authority on the island. Lepidus had been the first to land troops in Sicily and had captured several of the main towns. However, he felt that Octavian was treating him as a subordinate, instead of an equal. He asserted that Sicily should be absorbed into his sphere of influence . After negotiation, he suggested an alternative: Octavian could have Sicily and Africa, if he agreed to give Lepidus back his old territories in Spain and Gaul, which should legally have been his according to

896-614: A distinctive definition that may hold for all the known cases. By such considerations Dumezil thinks that the two terms refer in fact to two aspects of the same religious act: In Varro's words " Agere augurium, aves specit ", "to conduct the augurium , he observed the birds". The auspicia were divided into two categories: requested by man ( impetrativa ) and offered spontaneously by the gods ( oblativa ). Both impetrativa and oblativa auspices could be further divided into five subclasses: Only some species of birds ( aves augurales ) could yield valid signs whose meaning would vary according to

1024-526: A donkey required to bear burdens. In Antony and Cleopatra he is portrayed as extremely gullible, asking Antony silly questions about Egypt while very drunk. Antony taunts him with an elaborately nonsensical description of a Nile crocodile. After Lepidus's fall from power, he is referred to as the "poor third" and "fool Lepidius". Modern writers have often been equally dismissive. Ronald Syme called him "a flimsy character...perfidious and despised". Weigel argues that these views are coloured by evidence that

1152-426: A lawful oath ( sacramentum ) and breaking a sworn oath carried much the same penalty: both repudiated the fundamental bonds between the human and divine. A votum or vow was a promise made to a deity, usually an offer of sacrifices or a votive offering in exchange for benefits received. In Latin, the word sacrificium means the performance of an act that renders something sacer , sacred. Sacrifice reinforced

1280-399: A long-form poem covering Roman holidays from January to June, Ovid presents a unique look at Roman antiquarian lore, popular customs, and religious practice that is by turns imaginative, entertaining, high-minded, and scurrilous; not a priestly account, despite the speaker's pose as a vates or inspired poet-prophet, but a work of description, imagination and poetic etymology that reflects

1408-446: A pig on behalf of the community. Their supposed underworld relatives, the malicious and vagrant Lemures , might be placated with midnight offerings of black beans and spring water. The most potent offering was animal sacrifice , typically of domesticated animals such as cattle, sheep and pigs. Each was the best specimen of its kind, cleansed, clad in sacrificial regalia and garlanded; the horns of oxen might be gilded. Sacrifice sought

SECTION 10

#1732845354500

1536-585: A position from which he had been unfairly thrust". Despite his role as "a slight, unmeritable man" in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and as a rambling drunk in Antony and Cleopatra , other Renaissance-era writers portrayed Lepidus in a more positive way. Caspar Brülow 's Latin play Caius Julius Caesar depicts Lepidus as Caesar's loyal ally, warning him against conspiracies and later planning revenge on his killers. Georges de Scudéry 's La Mort de César portrays him in

1664-635: A position that Caesar used to get himself elected as consul, resigning the dictatorship after eleven days. Lepidus was rewarded with the position of propraetor in the Spanish province of Hispania Citerior . Lepidus was also nominated interrex by the Senate in 52, being the last known Roman to hold this office. In Spain, Lepidus was called upon to quell a rebellion against Quintus Cassius Longinus , governor of neighbouring Hispania Ulterior . Lepidus refused to support Cassius, who had created opposition to Caesar's regime by his corruption and avarice. He negotiated

1792-449: A priest on behalf of the community. Public religious ritual had to be enacted by specialists and professionals faultlessly; a mistake might require that the action, or even the entire festival, be repeated from the start. The historian Livy reports an occasion when the presiding magistrate at the Latin festival forgot to include the "Roman people" among the list of beneficiaries in his prayer;

1920-773: A provincial Roman citizen who made the long journey from Bordeaux to Italy to consult the Sibyl at Tibur did not neglect his devotion to his own goddess from home: I wander, never ceasing to pass through the whole world, but I am first and foremost a faithful worshiper of Onuava . I am at the ends of the earth, but the distance cannot tempt me to make my vows to another goddess. Love of the truth brought me to Tibur, but Onuava's favourable powers came with me. Thus, divine mother, far from my home-land, exiled in Italy, I address my vows and prayers to you no less. Roman calendars show roughly forty annual religious festivals. Some lasted several days, others

2048-415: A sacred duty and privilege of office. Additional festivals and games celebrated Imperial accessions and anniversaries. Others, such as the traditional Republican Secular Games to mark a new era ( saeculum ), became imperially funded to maintain traditional values and a common Roman identity. That the spectacles retained something of their sacral aura even in late antiquity is indicated by the admonitions of

2176-459: A series of miraculous events. Romulus and Remus regained their grandfather's throne and set out to build a new city, consulting with the gods through augury , a characteristic religious institution of Rome that is portrayed as existing from earliest times. The brothers quarrel while building the city walls, and Romulus kills Remus, an act that is sometimes seen as sacrificial. Fratricide thus became an integral part of Rome's founding myth. Romulus

2304-405: A sign from the eagle would prevail on that from the woodpecker and the ossifragae (parra). During the last centuries of the republic the auspices ex caelo and ex tripudiis supplanted other types, as the other forms could be easily used in a fraudulent way, i.e. bent to suit the desire of the asking person. Cicero condemned the fraudulent use and denounced the decline in the level of knowledge of

2432-431: A similar light, warning Caesar, and later working closely with Antony, who refers to him as "sage et prudent Lépide". In Pierre Corneille 's Mort de Pompée his is a non-speaking role, simply presented as one of Caesar's entourage of officers. Lepidus appears in several 18th century French plays, such as Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon 's Le Triumvirat, ou la mort de Cicéron , in which he attempts to save Cicero's life, and

2560-524: A single day or less: sacred days ( dies fasti ) outnumbered "non-sacred" days ( dies nefasti ). A comparison of surviving Roman religious calendars suggests that official festivals were organized according to broad seasonal groups that allowed for different local traditions. Some of the most ancient and popular festivals incorporated ludi ("games", such as chariot races and theatrical performances ), with examples including those held at Palestrina in honour of Fortuna Primigenia during Compitalia , and

2688-503: A small altar for incense or libations . It might also display art works looted in war and rededicated to the gods. It is not clear how accessible the interiors of temples were to the general public. The Latin word templum originally referred not to the temple building itself, but to a sacred space surveyed and plotted ritually through augury: "The architecture of the ancient Romans was, from first to last, an art of shaping space around ritual." The Roman architect Vitruvius always uses

SECTION 20

#1732845354500

2816-418: A temple or shrine, where a ritual object might be stored and brought out for use, or where an offering would be deposited. Sacrifices , chiefly of animals , would take place at an open-air altar within the templum or precinct, often to the side of the steps leading up to the raised portico. The main room (cella) inside a temple housed the cult image of the deity to whom the temple was dedicated, and often

2944-558: A useful partisan of Caesar, Lepidus has always been portrayed as the least influential member of the Triumvirate. He typically appears as a marginalised figure in depictions of the events of the era, most notably in Shakespeare 's plays. While some scholars have endorsed this view, others argue that the evidence is insufficient to discount the distorting effects of propaganda by his opponents, principally Cicero and, later, Augustus. Lepidus

3072-457: A white cow); Jupiter a white, castrated ox ( bos mas ) for the annual oath-taking by the consuls . Di superi with strong connections to the earth, such as Mars, Janus, Neptune and various genii – including the Emperor's – were offered fertile victims. After the sacrifice, a banquet was held; in state cults, the images of honoured deities took pride of place on banqueting couches and by means of

3200-458: Is described in Livy's description of the inauguration of king Numa Pompilius : The augur asks Jupiter: " Si fas est " (i.e. if it is divine justice to do this) "... send me a certain signum (sign)" then the augur listed the auspicia he wanted to see. When they appeared Numa was declared king. Since the observation was complex, conflict among signs was common. A hierarchy among signs was devised: e.g.

3328-419: Is exceptionally detailed. All due care would be taken of the animals. If any died or were stolen before the scheduled sacrifice, they would count as already sacrificed, since they had already been consecrated. Normally, if the gods failed to keep their side of the bargain, the offered sacrifice would be withheld. In the imperial period, sacrifice was withheld following Trajan 's death because the gods had not kept

3456-418: Is portrayed as a conflicted figure, who respects traditional Roman values, but is unable to resist the will of his colleagues. Cicero rejects compromise, but Lepidus is too weak to do so. Voltaire 's Le Triumvirat refers to Lepidus as a pawn, merely used by Antony and Octavian. Lepidus appears in a number of novels. He is the principal character of Alfred Duggan 's 1958 historical novel Three's Company . As

3584-422: Is portrayed in the familiar way, as an inadequate rival for the powerhouses of Octavian and Antony. Much of his involvement in the second Triumvirate is barely mentioned in the series. No mention is made of his alliance with Antony and Caesar before the assassination. He is depicted as a general sent to defeat the weakened Antony after Mutina. His whole army immediately defects to his enemy. He appears sporadically as

3712-801: Is said to have belittled him by always asking for his vote last. Lepidus died peacefully in late 13 BC, upon which Augustus was elected to the position of Pontifex Maximus on 6 March 12 BC; afterwards, the chief priest's office was moved from the Regia to Augustus' palace , located on the Palatine Hill in Rome. Lepidus's biographer Richard D. Weigel says that he has been typically caricatured by both ancient and modern historians as "weak, indecisive, fickle, disloyal and incompetent". Cicero condemned Lepidus for "wickedness and sheer folly" after Lepidus allowed his forces to join with Mark Antony's after Antony's initial defeat at

3840-486: The sacra ("sacred things" or "rites") and were not the only way by which the gods made their will known. The augures publici (public augurs) concerned themselves only with matters related to the state. The role of the augur was that of consulting and interpreting the will of gods about some course of action such as accession of kings to the throne, of magistrates and major sacerdotes to their functions ( inauguration ) and all public enterprises. It sufficed to say that

3968-490: The spolia opima , the prime spoils taken in war, in the celebration of the first Roman triumph . Spared a mortal's death, Romulus was mysteriously spirited away and deified. His Sabine successor Numa was pious and peaceable, and credited with numerous political and religious foundations, including the first Roman calendar ; the priesthoods of the Salii , flamines , and Vestals; the cults of Jupiter , Mars, and Quirinus ; and

Augur - Misplaced Pages Continue

4096-454: The Battle of Mutina , the Senate sent word that Lepidus' troops were no longer needed. Antony, however, marched towards Lepidus's province with his remaining forces. Lepidus continued to assure the Senate of his loyalty, but engaged in negotiations with Antony. When the two armies met, large portions of Lepidus's forces joined up with Antony. Lepidus negotiated an agreement with him, while claiming to

4224-434: The Battle of Mutina . Cicero also privately suggested that Lepidus' wife, Junia, had been unfaithful to him. Decimus Brutus called him a "weathercock", and Velleius Paterculus called him "the most fickle of mankind" and incapable of command. According to Cassius Dio , while Mark Antony and Octavian were away from Rome fighting Brutus and Cassius, Lepidus was nominally in control of the city, but Mark Antony's wife, Fulvia ,

4352-571: The First Jewish–Roman War and the Bar Kokhba revolt . In the wake of the Republic's collapse , state religion had adapted to support the new regime of the emperors . Augustus , the first Roman emperor, justified the novelty of one-man rule with a vast program of religious revivalism and reform. Public vows formerly made for the security of the republic now were directed at the well-being of

4480-587: The Greek Olympians , and promoted a sense that the two cultures had a shared heritage. The impressive, costly, and centralised rites to the deities of the Roman state were vastly outnumbered in everyday life by commonplace religious observances pertaining to an individual's domestic and personal deities, the patron divinities of Rome's various neighbourhoods and communities, and the often idiosyncratic blends of official, unofficial, local and personal cults that characterised lawful Roman religion. In this spirit,

4608-501: The Lex Titia . Octavian accused Lepidus of attempting to usurp power and fomenting rebellion. Humiliatingly, Lepidus' legions in Sicily defected to Octavian and Lepidus himself was forced to submit to him. On 22 September 36 BC, Lepidus was stripped of all his offices except that of Pontifex Maximus ; Octavian then confined him to Circeii . After the defeat of Antony in 31 BC, Lepidus' son Marcus Aemilius Lepidus Minor became involved in

4736-515: The Ludi Romani in honour of Liber . Other festivals may have required only the presence and rites of their priests and acolytes, or particular groups, such as women at the Bona Dea rites. Other public festivals were not required by the calendar, but occasioned by events. The triumph of a Roman general was celebrated as the fulfillment of religious vows , though these tended to be overshadowed by

4864-583: The Lupercalia festival, an act that helped to precipitate the conspiracy to kill Caesar. When in February 44 Caesar was elected dictator for life by the Senate, he made Lepidus magister equitum for the second time. The brief alliance in power of Caesar and Lepidus came to a sudden end when Caesar was assassinated on March 15, 44 (the Ides of March ). Caesar had dined at Lepidus's house the night before his murder. One of

4992-560: The Palladium , Lares and Penates from Troy to Italy. These objects were believed in historical times to remain in the keeping of the Vestals , Rome's female priesthood. Aeneas, according to classical authors, had been given refuge by King Evander , a Greek exile from Arcadia , to whom were attributed other religious foundations: he established the Ara Maxima , "Greatest Altar", to Hercules at

5120-562: The Senate 's efforts to restrict the Bacchanals in 186 BC. Because Romans had never been obligated to cultivate one god or one cult only, religious tolerance was not an issue in the sense that it is for monotheistic systems. The monotheistic rigor of Judaism posed difficulties for Roman policy that led at times to compromise and the granting of special exemptions, but sometimes to intractable conflict. For example, religious disputes helped cause

5248-423: The consuls and the Senate and signalled the death of the Republic . The triumvirate's legal lifespan was for five years. At the beginning Lepidus was confirmed in possession of both the provinces of Hispania, along with Narbonese Gaul , but also agreed to hand over seven of his legions to Octavian and Antony to continue the struggle against Brutus and Cassius, who controlled the eastern part of Roman territory. In

Augur - Misplaced Pages Continue

5376-686: The druids as a positive consequence of the conquest of Gaul and Britain. Despite an empire-wide ban under Hadrian , human sacrifice may have continued covertly in North Africa and elsewhere. The mos maiorum established the dynastic authority and obligations of the citizen- paterfamilias ("the father of the family" or the "owner of the family estate"). He had priestly duties to his lares , domestic penates , ancestral Genius and any other deities with whom he or his family held an interdependent relationship. His own dependents, who included his slaves and freedmen, owed cult to his Genius . Genius

5504-532: The fetial priests. The first "outsider" Etruscan king, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus , founded a Capitoline temple to the triad Jupiter, Juno and Minerva which served as the model for the highest official cult throughout the Roman world. The benevolent, divinely fathered Servius Tullius established the Latin League , its Aventine Temple to Diana , and the Compitalia to mark his social reforms. Servius Tullius

5632-421: The harmonisation of the earthly and divine , so the victim must seem willing to offer its own life on behalf of the community; it must remain calm and be quickly and cleanly dispatched. Sacrifice to deities of the heavens ( di superi , "gods above") was performed in daylight, and under the public gaze. Deities of the upper heavens required white, infertile victims of their own sex: Juno a white heifer (possibly

5760-461: The libri Sibyllini ) Roman augury appears to be autochthonous and pre-historical, originally Latin or Italic, and attested in the Iguvine Tables ( avif aseria ) and among other Latin tribes. The very story or legend of the foundation of Rome is based on augury. the ascertaining of the will of gods through observation of the sky and of birds. Romulus and Remus indeed acted as augurs and Romulus

5888-532: The proscriptions that led to the death of Cicero and other die-hard opponents of Caesar's faction. Later historians were particularly critical of him for agreeing to the death of his brother Lucius Paullus , a supporter of Cicero. However, Cassius Dio hints that Lepidus helped Paullus to escape. After the pacification of the east and the defeat of the assassins' faction in the Battle of Philippi , during which he remained in Rome, Antony and Octavian took over most of Lepidus' territories, but granted him rights in

6016-488: The Church Fathers that Christians should not take part. The meaning and origin of many archaic festivals baffled even Rome's intellectual elite, but the more obscure they were, the greater the opportunity for reinvention and reinterpretation – a fact lost neither on Augustus in his program of religious reform, which often cloaked autocratic innovation, nor on his only rival as mythmaker of the era, Ovid . In his Fasti ,

6144-544: The Compitalia shrines, were thought a symbolic replacement for child-sacrifice to Mania, as Mother of the Lares . The Junii took credit for its abolition by their ancestor L. Junius Brutus , traditionally Rome's Republican founder and first consul. Political or military executions were sometimes conducted in such a way that they evoked human sacrifice, whether deliberately or in the perception of witnesses; Marcus Marius Gratidianus

6272-561: The Elder declared that "a sacrifice without prayer is thought to be useless and not a proper consultation of the gods." Prayer by itself, however, had independent power. The spoken word was thus the single most potent religious action, and knowledge of the correct verbal formulas the key to efficacy. Accurate naming was vital for tapping into the desired powers of the deity invoked, hence the proliferation of cult epithets among Roman deities. Public prayers ( prex ) were offered loudly and clearly by

6400-647: The Emperor safe for the stipulated period. In Pompeii , the Genius of the living emperor was offered a bull: presumably a standard practise in Imperial cult, though minor offerings (incense and wine) were also made. The exta were the entrails of a sacrificed animal , comprising in Cicero 's enumeration the gall bladder ( fel ), liver ( iecur ), heart ( cor ), and lungs ( pulmones ). The exta were exposed for litatio (divine approval) as part of Roman liturgy, but were "read" in

6528-600: The Late Republican era. Jupiter , the most powerful of all gods and "the fount of the auspices upon which the relationship of the city with the gods rested", consistently personified the divine authority of Rome's highest offices, internal organization and external relations. During the archaic and early Republican eras, he shared his temple , some aspects of cult and several divine characteristics with Mars and Quirinus , who were later replaced by Juno and Minerva . A conceptual tendency toward triads may be indicated by

SECTION 50

#1732845354500

6656-594: The Republic with Consular Power (Triumviri Rei Publicae Constituendae Consulari Potestate) by the Lex Titia of 43. With the triumvirs in possession of overwhelming numerical superiority, Decimus Brutus' remaining forces melted away, leaving the triumvirs in complete control of the western provinces. Unlike the First Triumvirate of Caesar, Pompey , and Crassus , this one was formally constituted. In effect, it sidelined

6784-551: The Senate could decree collective public rites, in which Rome's citizens, including women and children, moved in procession from one temple to the next, supplicating the gods. Extraordinary circumstances called for extraordinary sacrifice: in one of the many crises of the Second Punic War , Jupiter Capitolinus was promised every animal born that spring (see ver sacrum ), to be rendered after five more years of protection from Hannibal and his allies. The "contract" with Jupiter

6912-449: The Senate that he had no choice. It is unclear whether Lepidus' troops forced him to join with Antony, whether that was always Lepidus's plan, or whether he arranged matters to gauge the situation and make the best deal. Antony and Lepidus now had to deal with Octavian Caesar , Caesar's great-nephew, who had been adopted by Caesar in Caesar's will. Octavian was the only surviving commander of

7040-548: The State oracles (including the Sibylline books ), and used his powers as censor to suppress the circulation of "unapproved" oracles. Despite their lack of political influence under the Empire , the augurate, as with its fellow quattuor amplissima collegia , continued to confer prestige on its members. In ancient Rome the auguria (augural rites) were considered to be in equilibrium with

7168-504: The Temple of Janus , whose doors stayed open in times of war but in Numa's time remained closed. After Numa's death, the doors to the Temple of Janus were supposed to have remained open until the reign of Augustus. Each of Rome's legendary or semi-legendary kings was associated with one or more religious institutions still known to the later Republic. Tullus Hostilius and Ancus Marcius instituted

7296-566: The Younger . Lepidus joined the College of Pontiffs as a child. He started his cursus honorum as triumvir monetalis , overseeing the minting of coins, from c. 62 to 58 BC. Lepidus soon became one of Julius Caesar 's greatest supporters. He was appointed as a praetor in 49 BC, being placed in charge of Rome while Caesar defeated Pompey in Greece. He secured Caesar's appointment as dictator ,

7424-506: The afterlife, were a matter of personal choice for an individual, practiced in addition to carrying on one's family rites and participating in public religion. The mysteries, however, involved exclusive oaths and secrecy, conditions that conservative Romans viewed with suspicion as characteristic of " magic ", conspiratorial ( coniuratio ), or subversive activity. Sporadic and sometimes brutal attempts were made to suppress religionists who seemed to threaten traditional morality and unity, as with

7552-404: The appearance of auspicia oblativa (unexpected sign) – was reserved for the officiating augur, which would require the interruption of the proceedings then underway. The Roman historian Livy stressed the importance of the augurs: "Who does not know that this city was founded only after taking the auspices, that everything in war and in peace, at home and abroad, was done only after taking

7680-547: The augur or magistrate had heard a clap of thunder to suspend the convocation of the comitia . Since auguria publica and inaugurations of magistrates are strictly connected to political life this brought about the deterioration and abuses that condemned augury to progressive and irreversible debasement, stripping it of all religious value. According to Varro, before his time augures had distinguished five kinds of territory: ager Romanus, ager Gabinus, ager peregrinus, ager hosticus, ager incertus. These distinctions clearly point to

7808-522: The auspices?" In the Regal period , which ended 509 BC, tradition holds that there were three augurs at a time; they numbered nine by the third century BC; Sulla increased their number to fifteen. By the Principate , their numbers swelled even further to an estimated 25 members. During the Republic, priesthoods were prized as greatly as the consulship , the censorship , and the triumph . Membership gave

SECTION 60

#1732845354500

7936-483: The broad humor and burlesque spirit of such venerable festivals as the Saturnalia , Consualia , and feast of Anna Perenna on the Ides of March , where Ovid treats the assassination of the newly deified Julius Caesar as utterly incidental to the festivities among the Roman people. But official calendars preserved from different times and places also show a flexibility in omitting or expanding events, indicating that there

8064-570: The city. After this event, Lepidus was given six of Antony's legions to govern Africa. In 37 BC the treaty of Tarentum formally renewed the Triumvirate for another five years. During Lepidus' proconsulship of Africa, he promoted the distribution of land to veterans , possibly in order to build up a network of clients. He appears to have encouraged the Romanisation of Thibilis in Numidia and to have demolished illicit extensions to Carthage . In result,

8192-465: The context of the disciplina Etrusca . As a product of Roman sacrifice, the exta and blood are reserved for the gods, while the meat (viscera) is shared among human beings in a communal meal. The exta of bovine victims were usually stewed in a pot ( olla or aula ), while those of sheep or pigs were grilled on skewers. When the deity's portion was cooked, it was sprinkled with mola salsa (ritually prepared salted flour) and wine, then placed in

8320-653: The defeat of the Pompeians in the East. Caesar also made Lepidus magister equitum (" Master of the Horse "), effectively his deputy. Caesar appears to have had greater confidence in Lepidus than in Mark Antony to keep order in Rome, after Antony's inflammatory actions led to disturbances in 47. Lepidus appears to have been genuinely shocked when Antony provocatively offered Caesar a crown at

8448-542: The deities and cults of other peoples rather than try to eradicate them, since they believed that preserving tradition promoted social stability. One way that Rome incorporated diverse peoples was by supporting their religious heritage, building temples to local deities that framed their theology within the hierarchy of Roman religion. Inscriptions throughout the Empire record the side-by-side worship of local and Roman deities, including dedications made by Romans to local gods. By

8576-469: The divinely ordained condition of peace ( pax deorum ) was an outcome of successful augury. Those whose actions had led to divine wrath ( ira deorum ) could not have possessed a true right of augury ( ius augurum ). Of all the protagonists in the Civil War, only Octavian could have possessed it, because he alone had restored the pax deorum to the Roman people. Lucan, writing during the Principate , described

8704-448: The doctrine by the augurs of his time, but in fact the abuse developed from the evasion of negative signs, described in the next subsection. The interpretation of signs was vast and complex, and magistrates devised protective tricks to avoid being paralysed by negative signs. Against the negative auspicia oblativa the admitted procedures included: Contrary to other divinatory practices present in Rome (e.g. haruspicina , consultation of

8832-447: The emperor. So-called "emperor worship" expanded on a grand scale the traditional Roman veneration of the ancestral dead and of the Genius , the divine tutelary of every individual. The Imperial cult became one of the major ways in which Rome advertised its presence in the provinces and cultivated shared cultural identity and loyalty throughout the Empire. Rejection of the state religion

8960-406: The event of a defeat, Lepidus' territories would provide a fall-back position. Lepidus was to become consul and was confirmed as Pontifex Maximus. He would assume control of Rome while they were away. According to Lepidus's biographer Richard D. Weigel, Lepidus' willingness to give up his legions inevitably consigned him to a subsidiary role in the triumvirate. Lepidus had in fact already reached

9088-399: The family's domestic deities were offered. Neighbourhood shrines and sacred places such as springs and groves dotted the city. The Roman calendar was structured around religious observances. Women , slaves , and children all participated in a range of religious activities. Some public rituals could be conducted only by women, and women formed what is perhaps Rome's most famous priesthood,

9216-404: The festival had to be started over. Even private prayer by an individual was formulaic, a recitation rather than a personal expression, though selected by the individual for a particular purpose or occasion. Oaths—sworn for the purposes of business, clientage and service, patronage and protection , state office, treaty and loyalty—appealed to the witness and sanction of deities. Refusal to swear

9344-512: The fire on the altar for the offering; the technical verb for this action was porricere . Human sacrifice in ancient Rome was rare but documented. After the Roman defeat at Cannae two Gauls and two Greeks were buried under the Forum Boarium , in a stone chamber "which had on a previous occasion [228 BC] also been polluted by human victims, a practice most repulsive to Roman feelings". Livy avoids

9472-473: The forces that had defeated Antony at Mutina (modern Modena ). The Senate instructed Octavian to hand over control of the troops to Decimus Brutus, but he refused. Antony and Lepidus met with Octavian on an island in a river, possibly near Mutina, but more likely near Bologna. Their armies lined along opposite banks. They formed the Second Triumvirate , legalized with the name of Triumvirs for Confirming

9600-452: The form of a holocaust or burnt offering, and there was no shared banquet, as "the living cannot share a meal with the dead". Ceres and other underworld goddesses of fruitfulness were sometimes offered pregnant female animals; Tellus was given a pregnant cow at the Fordicidia festival. Color had a general symbolic value for sacrifices. Demigods and heroes, who belonged to the heavens and

9728-582: The formally cursed area of the old city, destroyed after the Third Punic War , was not built upon. In 36 BC, during the Sicilian revolt , Lepidus raised a large army of 14 legions to help subdue Sextus Pompey. However, this was to lead to an ill-judged political move that gave Octavian the excuse he needed to remove Lepidus from power. After the defeat of Sextus Pompey, Lepidus had stationed his legions in Sicily and

9856-483: The foundation and rise of the city. These narratives focus on human actors, with only occasional intervention from deities but a pervasive sense of divinely ordered destiny. For Rome's earliest period, history and myth are difficult to distinguish. According to mythology, Rome had a semi-divine ancestor in the Trojan refugee Aeneas , son of Venus , who was said to have established the basis of Roman religion when he brought

9984-572: The founding of the Latin League under Servius Tullius. Many temples in the Republican era were built as the fulfillment of a vow made by a general in exchange for a victory: Rome's first known temple to Venus was vowed by the consul Q. Fabius Gurges in the heat of battle against the Samnites , and dedicated in 295 BC. All sacrifices and offerings required an accompanying prayer to be effective. Pliny

10112-555: The gods, especially Jupiter , who embodied just rule. As a result of the Punic Wars (264–146 BC), when Rome struggled to establish itself as a dominant power, many new temples were built by magistrates in fulfillment of a vow to a deity for assuring their military success. As the Romans extended their dominance throughout the Mediterranean world, their policy in general was to absorb

10240-475: The height of the Empire, numerous international deities were cultivated at Rome and had been carried to even the most remote provinces , among them Cybele , Isis , Epona , and gods of solar monism such as Mithras and Sol Invictus , found as far north as Roman Britain . Foreign religions increasingly attracted devotees among Romans, who increasingly had ancestry from elsewhere in the Empire. Imported mystery religions , which offered initiates salvation in

10368-531: The historical period influenced Roman culture , introducing some religious practices that became fundamental, such as the cultus of Apollo . The Romans looked for common ground between their major gods and those of the Greeks ( interpretatio graeca ), adapting Greek myths and iconography for Latin literature and Roman art , as the Etruscans had. Etruscan religion was also a major influence, particularly on

10496-403: The histories of Rome's leading families , and oral and ritual traditions. According to Cicero, the Romans considered themselves the most religious of all peoples, and their rise to dominance was proof they received divine favor in return. Rome offers no native creation myth , and little mythography to explain the character of its deities, their mutual relationships or their interactions with

10624-438: The human world, but Roman theology acknowledged that di immortales (immortal gods) ruled all realms of the heavens and earth. There were gods of the upper heavens, gods of the underworld and a myriad of lesser deities between. Some evidently favoured Rome because Rome honoured them, but none were intrinsically, irredeemably foreign or alien. The political, cultural and religious coherence of an emergent Roman super-state required

10752-567: The later agricultural or plebeian triad of Ceres , Liber and Libera , and by some of the complementary threefold deity-groupings of Imperial cult. Other major and minor deities could be single, coupled, or linked retrospectively through myths of divine marriage and sexual adventure. These later Roman pantheistic hierarchies are part literary and mythographic, part philosophical creations, and often Greek in origin. The Hellenization of Latin literature and culture supplied literary and artistic models for reinterpreting Roman deities in light of

10880-438: The law with the right of spectio (observation of auspices) would establish the requested auspicium (observation platform) before taking the auspicia impetrativa ("requested" or "sought" auspices; see above). The templum , or sacred space within which the operation would take place had to be established and delimited (it should be square and have only one entrance) and purified ( effari , liberare ). The enunciation of

11008-413: The lifelong right to participate prominently in processions at ludi and in public banquets; augurs proudly displayed the symbol of the office, the lituus . Roman augurs were part of a college (Latin collegium ) of priests who shared the duties and responsibilities of the position. At the foundation of the Republic in 510  BC , the patricians held sole claim to this office; by 300 BC,

11136-569: The middle of his grape yard facing South. He divided the sky into four sections and observed birds: when they appeared he walked in that direction and found an extraordinary large grape that he offered to the gods. His story was immediately famous and he became the augur of the king (see above the episode with king Tarquinius narrated by Livy). Henceforth he was considered the patron of the augurs. Religion in ancient Rome Religion in ancient Rome consisted of varying imperial and provincial religious practices, which were followed both by

11264-614: The moral strength to live by the traditional virtues he admires and pretends to possess." He is portrayed as a more competent figure in W. G. Hardy 's The Scarlet Mantle and The Bloodied Toga . In Allan Massie 's Let the Emperor Speak , he is a weasely politician. He is also mentioned in Robert Harris ' Dictator , told from the perspective of Cicero 's secretary Tiro . In the BBC/HBO TV series Rome , Lepidus ( Ronan Vibert )

11392-445: The most powerful authority in the Republic. Cicero himself was co-opted into the college only late in his career. In the later Republic, augury was supervised by the college of pontifices , a priestly-magistral office whose powers were increasingly woven into the cursus honorum . The office of pontifex maximus eventually became a de facto consular prerogative. The effectiveness of augury could only be judged retrospectively;

11520-490: The novel's title implies, it is centered on the second triumvirate, but relates the period through the lens of Lepidus' life and experiences. According to Weigel, he becomes a kind of "a Don Quixote in a toga". The novel follows the standard portrayal of him as "cowardly, stupid, shying away from combat, dominated by women, and longing for someone to give him orders". A reviewer at the time of publication referred to Duggan's Lepidus as "the eternal conservative stuffed shirt without

11648-407: The office was open to plebeian occupation as well. Senior members of the collegium put forth nominations for any vacancies, and members voted on whom to co-opt . According to Cicero, the auctoritas of ius augurum included the right to adjourn and overturn the process of law: Consular election could be – and was – rendered invalid by inaugural error. For Cicero, this made the augur

11776-411: The peak of his power. By becoming pontifex maximus and triumvir he had gained a level of recognition that would preserve his name and save a very small niche for him in the history of western civilization. However, in agreeing to yield seven of his legions and allow Octavian and Antony the glory of defeating Brutus and Cassius, he had consigned himself to a minor role in the future. Lepidus also agreed to

11904-458: The people of Rome as well as those who were brought under its rule. The Romans thought of themselves as highly religious, and attributed their success as a world power to their collective piety ( pietas ) in maintaining good relations with the gods . Their polytheistic religion is known for having honoured many deities . The presence of Greeks on the Italian peninsula from the beginning of

12032-408: The performance of their official duties. Magistracies included senior military and civil ranks, which were therefore religious offices in their own right, and magistrates were directly responsible for the pax , fortuna , and salus of Rome and everything that was Roman. The presiding magistrate at an augural rite held the "right of augury" ( ius augurii ). The right of nuntiatio – announcing

12160-408: The political and social significance of the event. During the late Republic, the political elite competed to outdo each other in public display, and the ludi attendant on a triumph were expanded to include gladiator contests. Under the Principate , all such spectacular displays came under Imperial control: the most lavish were subsidised by emperors, and lesser events were provided by magistrates as

12288-431: The powers and attributes of divine beings, and inclined them to render benefits in return (the principle of do ut des ). Offerings to household deities were part of daily life. Lares might be offered spelt wheat and grain-garlands, grapes and first fruits in due season, honey cakes and honeycombs, wine and incense, food that fell to the floor during any family meal, or at their Compitalia festival, honey-cakes and

12416-498: The practice of augury , used by the state to seek the will of the gods. According to legends , most of Rome's religious institutions could be traced to its founders , particularly Numa Pompilius , the Sabine second king of Rome , who negotiated directly with the gods . This archaic religion was the foundation of the mos maiorum , "the way of the ancestors" or simply "tradition", viewed as central to Roman identity. Roman religion

12544-511: The provinces of Numidia and Africa as proconsul. For a while he managed to distance himself from the frequent quarrels between his colleagues Antony and Octavian. When the Perusine War broke out in 41, Octavian tasked Lepidus with the defence of Rome against Lucius Antonius , Mark Antony's brother. Lucius, with superior forces, easily took the city. Lepidus was forced to flee to Octavian's camp. Lucius soon withdrew from Rome and Octavian retook

12672-492: The recent Civil War as "unnatural" – a mirror to supernatural disturbances in the greater cosmos. His imagery is apt to the traditional principles of augury and its broader interpretation by Stoic apologists of the Imperial cult. In the Stoic cosmology the pax deorum is the expression of natural order in human affairs. When his colleague Lepidus died, Augustus assumed his office as pontifex maximus , took priestly control over

12800-404: The requested auspicia that began the observation portion of the ceremony was called legum dictio . Observation conditions were rigorous and required absolute silence for validity of the operation. Technically the sky was divided into four sections or regions: dextera , sinistra , antica , and postica (right, left, anterior and posterior). The prototype of the ritual of inauguration of people

12928-483: The ringleaders of the conspiracy, Gaius Cassius Longinus, had argued for the killing of Lepidus and Mark Antony as well, but Marcus Junius Brutus had overruled him, saying the action was an execution and not a political coup d'état . As soon as Lepidus learned of Caesar's murder, he acted decisively to maintain order by moving troops to the Campus Martius . He proposed using his army to punish Caesar's killers, but

13056-431: The sacrificial fire consumed their proper portion ( exta , the innards). Rome's officials and priests reclined in order of precedence alongside and ate the meat; lesser citizens may have had to provide their own. Chthonic gods such as Dis pater , the di inferi ("gods below"), and the collective shades of the departed ( di Manes ) were given dark, fertile victims in nighttime rituals. Animal sacrifice usually took

13184-504: The site that would become the Forum Boarium , and, so the legend went, he was the first to celebrate the Lupercalia , an archaic festival in February that was celebrated as late as the 5th century of the Christian era. The myth of a Trojan founding with Greek influence was reconciled through an elaborate genealogy (the Latin kings of Alba Longa ) with the well-known legend of Rome's founding by Romulus and Remus . The most common version of

13312-399: The species. Among them were ravens , woodpeckers , owls , ossifragae , and eagles . Signs from birds were divided into alites , from the flight, and oscines , from the voice: The alites included region of the sky, height and type of flight, behaviour of the bird and place where it would come to rest. The oscines included the pitch and direction of the sound. Magistrates endowed by

13440-607: The state-supported Vestals , who tended Rome's sacred hearth for centuries, until disbanded under Christian domination. The priesthoods of most state religions were held by members of the elite classes . There was no principle analogous to separation of church and state in ancient Rome. During the Roman Republic (509–27 BC), the same men who were elected public officials might also serve as augurs and pontiffs . Priests married, raised families, and led politically active lives. Julius Caesar became pontifex maximus before he

13568-441: The times of the prehistory of Latium and testify the archaic quality of the art of augury. The jus augurale (augural law) was rigorously secret, therefore very little about the technical aspects of ceremonies and rituals has been recorded. We have only the names of some auguria : The terms augurium and auspicium are used indifferently by ancient authors. Modern scholars have debated the issue at length but have failed to find

13696-407: The twins' story displays several aspects of hero myth. Their mother, Rhea Silvia , had been ordered by her uncle the king to remain a virgin, in order to preserve the throne he had usurped from her father. Through divine intervention, the rightful line was restored when Rhea Silvia was impregnated by the god Mars . She gave birth to twins, who were duly exposed by order of the king but saved through

13824-543: The underworld, were sometimes given black-and-white victims. Robigo (or Robigus ) was given red dogs and libations of red wine at the Robigalia for the protection of crops from blight and red mildew. A sacrifice might be made in thanksgiving or as an expiation of a sacrilege or potential sacrilege ( piaculum ); a piaculum might also be offered as a sort of advance payment; the Arval Brethren , for instance, offered

13952-463: The word templum to refer to this sacred precinct, and the more common Latin words aedes , delubrum , or fanum for a temple or shrine as a building. The ruins of temples are among the most visible monuments of ancient Roman culture. Temple buildings and shrines within the city commemorated significant political settlements in its development: the Aventine Temple of Diana supposedly marked

14080-503: The word "sacrifice" in connection with this bloodless human life-offering; Plutarch does not. The rite was apparently repeated in 113 BC, preparatory to an invasion of Gaul. Its religious dimensions and purpose remain uncertain. In the early stages of the First Punic War (264 BC) the first known Roman gladiatorial munus was held, described as a funeral blood-rite to the manes of a Roman military aristocrat. The gladiator munus

14208-540: The words avis and gerō – Latin for "directing the birds", historical-linguistic evidence points instead to the root augeō : "to increase, to prosper". Political, military and civil actions were sanctioned by augury and by haruspices . Historically, augury was performed by priests of the college of augurs on behalf of senior magistrates. The practice itself likely comes from the neighboring region of Etruria, where augurs were highly respected as officials. Magistrates were empowered to conduct augury as required for

14336-487: Was a Roman general and statesman who formed the Second Triumvirate alongside Octavian and Mark Antony during the final years of the Roman Republic . Lepidus had previously been a close ally of Julius Caesar . He was also the last pontifex maximus before the Roman Empire , and (presumably) the last interrex and magister equitum to hold military command. Though he was an able military commander and proved

14464-485: Was a gruesome example. Officially, human sacrifice was obnoxious "to the laws of gods and men". The practice was a mark of the barbarians , attributed to Rome's traditional enemies such as the Carthaginians and Gauls. Rome banned it on several occasions under extreme penalty. A law passed in 81 BC characterised human sacrifice as murder committed for magical purposes. Pliny saw the ending of human sacrifice conducted by

14592-430: Was an augur, saw religion as a source of social order. As the Roman Empire expanded, migrants to the capital brought their local cults , many of which became popular among Italians. Christianity was eventually the most successful of these beliefs, and in 380 became the official state religion . For ordinary Romans, religion was a part of daily life. Each home had a household shrine at which prayers and libations to

14720-407: Was considered a great augur throughout the course of his life. The character that best represented and portrayed the art however was Attus Navius. His story is related by Cicero: He was born into a very poor family. One day he lost one of his pigs. He then promised the gods that if he found it, he would offer them the biggest grapes growing in his vineyard. After recovering his pig he stood right at

14848-499: Was credited with several religious institutions. He founded the Consualia festival, inviting the neighbouring Sabines to participate; the ensuing rape of the Sabine women by Romulus's men further embedded both violence and cultural assimilation in Rome's myth of origins. As a successful general, Romulus is also supposed to have founded Rome's first temple to Jupiter Feretrius and offered

14976-410: Was dissuaded by Antony and Aulus Hirtius . Lepidus and Antony both spoke in the Senate the following day, accepting an amnesty for the assassins in return for preservation of their offices and Caesar's reforms. Lepidus also obtained the post of pontifex maximus , succeeding Caesar. At this point, Pompey's surviving son Sextus Pompey tried to take advantage of the turmoil to threaten Spain. Lepidus

15104-421: Was elected consul . The augurs read the will of the gods and supervised the marking of boundaries as a reflection of universal order, thus sanctioning Roman expansionism and foreign wars as a matter of divine destiny. The Roman triumph was at its core a religious procession in which the victorious general displayed his piety and his willingness to serve the public good by dedicating a portion of his spoils to

15232-597: Was in large part politically motivated, and that Lepidus's career was no more perfidious or inconsistent than that of the other major players in the power struggles at the time. Léonie Hayne says that he acted "skillfully and consistently in support of Antony and (indirectly) of the Caesarian faction". She also argues that his power bid over Sicily was logical and justifiable. Alain Gowing has also argued that his actions in Sicily, though "futile", were no more than an "attempt to regain

15360-434: Was murdered and succeeded by the arrogant Tarquinius Superbus , whose expulsion marked the end of Roman kingship and the beginning of the Roman republic, governed by elected magistrates . Roman historians regarded the essentials of Republican religion as complete by the end of Numa's reign, and confirmed as right and lawful by the Senate and people of Rome : the sacred topography of the city , its monuments and temples,

15488-522: Was never explicitly acknowledged as a human sacrifice, probably because death was not its inevitable outcome or purpose. Even so, the gladiators swore their lives to the gods, and the combat was dedicated as an offering to the Di Manes or the revered souls of deceased human beings. The event was therefore a sacrificium in the strict sense of the term, and Christian writers later condemned it as human sacrifice. The small woollen dolls called Maniae , hung on

15616-457: Was no single static and authoritative calendar of required observances. In the later Empire under Christian rule, the new Christian festivals were incorporated into the existing framework of the Roman calendar, alongside at least some of the traditional festivals. Public religious ceremonies of the official Roman religion took place outdoors, and not within the temple building. Some ceremonies were processions that started at, visited, or ended with

15744-416: Was practical and contractual, based on the principle of do ut des , "I give that you might give". Religion depended on knowledge and the correct practice of prayer, rite, and sacrifice, not on faith or dogma, although Latin literature preserves learned speculation on the nature of the divine and its relation to human affairs. Even the most skeptical among Rome's intellectual elite such as Cicero , who

15872-557: Was sent to negotiate with him. Lepidus successfully negotiated an agreement with Sextus that maintained the peace. The Senate voted him a public thanksgiving festival. Lepidus thereafter administered both Hispania and Narbonese Gaul as proconsul . When Antony attempted to take control of Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy) by force and to displace Decimus Brutus , the Senate, led by Cicero , called on Lepidus to support Brutus – one of Caesar's killers. Lepidus prevaricated, recommending negotiation with Antony. After Antony's defeat at

16000-459: Was tantamount to treason. This was the context for Rome's conflict with Christianity , which Romans variously regarded as a form of atheism and novel superstitio , while Christians considered Roman religion to be paganism . Ultimately, Roman polytheism was brought to an end with the adoption of Christianity as the official religion of the empire. The Roman mythological tradition is particularly rich in historical myths, or legends , concerning

16128-529: Was the essential spirit and generative power – depicted as a serpent or as a perennial youth, often winged – within an individual and their clan ( gens (pl. gentes ). A paterfamilias could confer his name, a measure of his genius and a role in his household rites, obligations and honours upon those he fathered or adopted. His freed slaves owed him similar obligations. Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (triumvir) Marcus Aemilius Lepidus ( / ˈ l ɛ p ɪ d ə s / ; c. 89 BC – late 13 or early 12 BC)

16256-512: Was the real power. Dio wrote, "She, the mother-in‑law of Octavian and wife of Antony, had no respect for Lepidus because of his slothfulness, and managed affairs herself, so that neither the senate nor the people transacted any business contrary to her pleasure". Such views are reflected in Shakespeare 's portrayal of Lepidus in Julius Caesar in which Antony describes him as "a slight, unmeritable man, meant to be sent on errands", comparable to

16384-686: Was the son of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (consul in 78 BC); his mother may have been a daughter of Lucius Appuleius Saturninus . His brother was Lucius Aemilius Lepidus Paullus (consul in 50). His father was the first leader of the revived populares faction after the death of Sulla , and led an unsuccessful rebellion against the optimates in 78–77 (he was defeated just outside of Rome and fled to Sardinia where he died in 77). Lepidus married Junia Secunda , half-sister of Marcus Junius Brutus and sister of Marcus Junius Silanus , Junia Prima and Junia Tertia , Cassius Longinus 's wife. Lepidus and Junia Secunda had at least one child, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus

#499500