Psychology

It couldn't be true, and yet there it was, printed for all to see: "Once in a lifetime travel experience available only to a recent graduate who had majored in history or classics. Must be healthy, young and enthusiastic about Rome. No experience necessary. Will pay all expenses and a $10,000 stipend upon return and completion of a 10-page essay. Email Professor Juno ASAP!" This was amazing! I was desperate for money, needed a job for the summer and crazy for all things Roman. This assignment had my name on it. Luckily, when I called Prof. Juno, the assignment had not yet been filled. What follows is an account of what I learned about the religion of ancient Rome. I was there in 387 B.C. to hear the speech of Camillus and how he urged the people to stay in the city of Rome because of the sacred nature of the place itself. The city of Rome is inextricibly linked to its religious festivals and celebrations because the ground has been the home of many of the gods from even before the arrival of Aeneas. The hills, groves and streams were sacred a long time ago, making the place of worship just as important, if not more so than the actual ritual or festival itself. Religion, as practiced in ancient Rome, was very different from what is usually thought of in the modern, Western world. Judeo-Christian religion is a faith-based relationship between mankind and an all-powerful, all-knowing deity who is everywhere and yet unseen. Prayers can be offered up at any time and in any place. Not so for the religion of the ancient Romans. They worshipped dozens of gods and had hundreds of rituals and festivals to acknowledge them each year. Their calendar, which differed greatly from the one we know today, had nearly every day or fasti (religious holiday) to honor and sacrifice to one god or another. Divination, in the form of augury and taking the auspices were of extreme importance to the Roman religion but do not figure so prominently in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Jewish temples and Christian churches can be moved to a new location for as small a reason as a leaky roof, but this was not the case in Rome. The Roman religion had no qualms about inviting foreign gods to come to Rome (evocatio) when at war with that gods' city, but moving Roman gods out of Rome was an entirely different matter. Roman religion recognized the place as well as the date on the calendar as well as the space the temple occupied when worshipping the gods. When Rome had been utterly destroyed by war with the Gauls, the Romans had hidden their religious relics in order to preserve them from landing in enemy hands. The Sibylline Books, that were said to be oracles of the Sibyl of Cumae, were amongst the hidden things. These books had been the guide for correct religious procedure for the Romans since the books arrived in 619 B.C. As the tide turned, the Romans, under the leadership and auspices of Camillus(Livy pg. 334). The dictator, Camillus, after taking back his country from the enemy, returned to the city in triumph. Without question, Camillus saved his country in war and again in peace time by preventing the scheme to migrate to Veii, which the tribunes and the plebs advocated since the burning of Rome. This was the reason he did not resign the dictatorship after his triumph, for the senate begged him to not leave the state in such an unsettled condition (Livy pg. 335). His first act as a man of religious sensibility was to bring before the Senate matters pertaining to the immortal gods. The Senate handed down a decree that all shrines should be rebuilt, marked with boundary stones and purified since they had been in the hands of the enemy (Livy pg.335). The method of purification was to be sought in the Sibylline Books by the 2 men in charge of them. The Capitoline Games should be instituted because Jupiter Optimus Maximus had protected his temple and citadel of the Roman people at a terrifying time. All these decisions were made while the people were settled into the idea of moving to Veii. The location, Rome, was to still have its sacred places, but Veii would be the new home of her people. Camillus could not tolerate the very thought of abandoning the place augurs had approved of and the auspices had favored from the foundation of the city. The place, the space and the time all matter and interconnect in the religion of the Romans. Camillus reminds the Romans that there is only one place for the Vestal Virgins and nothing can move them but the capture of the city and that the Flamen Dialis may not even spend a single night outside the city. There are many other things whose performance depends on taking the auspices, most of which take place within the city's sacred boundary (Livy pg. 338). The city of Rome itself had a particular religious status within the pomerium (sacred boundary). Military activity did not take place within this boundary and in early Rome, temples of most foreign gods were located outside the pomerium. Magistrates operating in the city could take the auspices within this boundary and so establish correct relations with the gods (BNP pg.91). The Romans were very involved with correct ritual with regards to worshipping and sacrificing to their gods and would repeat a ritual or ceremony (instauratio) over and again until it was done to the specific guidelines required. Romans were interested in results from their gods. They sacrificed to their gods in order that the gods would reciprocate and give them what they wanted in return. They did not deviate from a formula that had worked for them in the past. Plutarch tells us that Romulus plowed the boundary of the city according to sacred laws learned from Etrurians. The space inside the furrow had been considered before any temple had been built inside it. Religious buildings are found throughout the city of Rome but some areas had particularly strong religious associations (BNP pg. 88). The Forum contained many temple buildings from some of the most ancient foundations of the city, such as the Temple of Vesta. All temples to Vesta were round in shape and had entrances facing the east to symbolize the connection between Vesta's fire and the sun as sources of life. The round shape remembered the hut of Romulus. Romans believed the flame and the fortune of Rome itself were closely tied,so the Vestal Virgins made sure the hearth and the flame were closely watched. Again, it was a sacred place within a sacred space. Consecration was a complex operation. Once a construction was completed, it was dedicated or concecrated according to the dedicatory formula which transferred the building and the space from public property to the gods-they were now sacred(Scheid pg. 64). Rome itself was built upon hills that were sacred places from before the time of the Etruscans and during the regal period Rome was increasingly influenced by the Etruscans. It is during this time that the first 'Capitoline Triad' (Jupiter, Juno and Minerva) almost completely effaced the pre-Capitoline triad of Jupiter, Mars and Quintinus(BNP pg.21). In the early centuries of the Republic, the center of Rome was dominated by the great temple of Jupiter (jointly dedicated to Juno and Minerva) which seems to have been built on a far greater scale than other early temples. The face of Jupiter was painted red on festive days and when a successful general entered the city at the head of a triumph, his body was likewise painted red. During his speech, Camillus reminded the people that they could see the Capitoline Hill in front of their eyes, where long ago a human head was discovered that was said to foretell of Rome, located on this spot, would become the head of a great nation and a world leader. Romans were very interested in what could be foretold of the future. As mentioned, divination in the form of augury and taking auspices was very important as they were interested in controlling events in the present time and in the future. They did not hear from the gods in any advice-giving way, but once a particular matter had been arrived at they did want the gods' approval. They did not have continuous communication with the gods, but they took the auspices to have an answer for the day in question. The priests of Rome had power to set dates for festivals and arrange the calendar to influence political outcomes, but they did not create the kind of man-god communication that modern religions associate with clergymen. The Romans sometimes communicated by sacrificing and dedicating temples and games in honor of their gods, sometimes to fullfil a vow and as a means of supplication. The sanctity of the place was a part of their religious experience. In order for rituals to be performed perfectly, they had to take place on the correct date, saying and doing the correct things, in a correctly dedicated and consecrated space and place. The Romans wanted full control of the outcome and this was their way to ensure it. This definition of ritual is offered by Walter Burkert: "Ritual is a form of standardized behavior whose function is communicative and whose pragmatic basis may be secondary or even vanish completely. Action is the central issue. (Rupke pg.87). The oldest and most sacred places in Rome had the most temples and sacred spaces associated with them. Therefore, the Capitoline, Palatine and Aventine Hills, as well as the Roman Forum are crowded with temples. Rome is filled with gods and sacred places that could not be carried away to Veii. Camillus' speech does not name every temple or place of worship but he did communicate his idea to the Roman people. They should not move to Veii, as if running away from a disaster visited upon them by the Gauls, but rather stay and rebuild Rome in its original location. One of the oldest buildings in Rome which connected religion with politics was the Regia, the home of the original kings of Rome and later the office of the Pontifex Maximus. It occupied the triangular patch of ground between the Temple of Vesta and the Temple of Divius Julius and was destroyed and rebuilt many times. Traditionally said to be built by Numa as a regal palace, and later as a place of assembly for the College of Pontiffs, where the archives of pontifices kept formulas on paper for vows and sacrifices, as well as the state calendar of sacred days, the Annales and laws pertaining to marriage, death and wills. At the west end of the Forum stood the temple dedicated to the goddess Concordia, first vowed by Camillus in 367 B.C. This temple's main focus was for fostering harmony in the Roman state and it was occasionally used for meetings of the Senate, especially in times of civil disturbance. The Temple of Divius Julius, mentioned above, was vowed to Caesar in 42 B.C. by his adoptive son, Octavian (Augustus) after the Senate deified him. It was Ionic in style and dedicated on August 18 29 B.C. after the battle of Actium. It sits on the main square of the Forum between the Regia, the Temple of Castor and Pollux and the Basillica Amelia on the site of Caesar's cremation. Ceasar was the first man to be deified and honored with the construction of a temple. The high platform that the temple sits upon served as a rostra, like the Rostra at the other end of the Forum and was decorated with ships' beaks from Actium. In the frontal side of the platform there is a recessed semi-circular niche and altar to mark the site of Caesar's funeral pyre. This unique detail in Roman architecture was the result of the narrow space available in the Forum and its construction excluded the Regia and Temple of Vesta from the main square of the Forum. The Regia and the Domus Publica (the home of the Pontifex Maximus) were located within close proximity of each other, thus linking the royal history of Rome with the politics and religion at the time of the Republic. There are more than a dozen temples dedicated to the god Jupiter in Rome. The Temple of Jupiter Feretio was important as the repository of the Supreme Spoils, the sacred flint used for marking the beginning of wars and a sceptor that declared the end of a war with a Roman victory. No trace of this small temple remains but it was on the Capitoline Hill at the time of Camillus' triumph. This was the first temple consecrated to Rome (Livy pg.5-7). Camillus won the day with his speech and the people of Rome stayed home. They continued to grow and expand in power and their religion evolved with time. The main point of their religion was that the people were controlled in their behavior, by the gods that were percieved to be everywhere in the city, ready to punish or reward depending upon the scruples (religio) and piety of the people. The Romans maintained household gods and lived with a sanctuary in their home. They remembered the gods at every crossroad and event of significance in their life. Camillus' speech gave them a reason to stay where they were and live on sacred ground as they had done for hundreds of years. The calendars with their sacred days and the temples dedicated to their sacred events and gods kept them very active in religious life. The experience of traveling back to ancient Rome and actually seeing the importance they placed on sacred spaces was a very valuable tool in analyzing why Camillus was so adament about not leaving Rome. Although many of the rituals, sacrifices and festivals were laughable to me, I could see the serious way in which the Romans held their religious rites and the prominence assigned to the various places in which they were performed. I wish that I could have had a longer time to stay and enjoy the religious activities that occupied so much of the ancient Roman's time and energy, maybe then I could fully understand the reasons why space was such an important feature of their daily lives.