Glossary of ancient Roman religion

{{Short description|none}} {{Ancient Roman religion}} {{bots|deny=Citation bot}} The vocabulary of ancient Roman religion was highly specialized. Its study affords important information about the religion, traditions and beliefs of the ancient Romans. This legacy is conspicuous in European cultural history in its influence on later juridical and religious vocabulary in Europe, particularly of the Christian Church.<ref>Robert Schilling, "The Decline and Survival of Roman Religion", ''Roman and European Mythologies'' (University of Chicago Press, 1982, from the French edition of 1981), p. 110 [https://books.google.com/books?id=sHFpkZg6NMUC&pg=PA110 online.]</ref> This glossary provides explanations of concepts as they were expressed in Latin pertaining to religious practices and beliefs, with links to articles on major topics such as priesthoods, forms of divination, and rituals.

For theonyms, or the names and epithets of gods, see List of Roman deities. For public religious holidays, see Roman festivals. For temples see the List of Ancient Roman temples. Individual landmarks of religious topography in ancient Rome are not included in this list; see Roman temple. __NOTOC__ {{compact TOC|j=|w=|x=|y=|z=}}

==Glossary==

===A===

====abominari====  The verb ''abominari'' ("to avert an omen", from ''ab-'', "away, off," and ''ominari'', "to pronounce on an omen") was a term of augury for an action that rejects or averts an unfavourable omen indicated by a ''signum'', "sign". The noun is ''abominatio'', from which English "abomination" derives. At the taking of formally solicited auspices (''auspicia impetrativa''), the observer was required to acknowledge any potentially bad sign occurring within the ''templum'' he was observing, regardless of the interpretation.<ref>Jerzy Linderski, "The Augural Law", ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16 (1982), p. 2266, note 472.</ref> He might, however, take certain actions in order to ignore the ''signa'', including avoiding the sight of them, and interpreting them as favourable. The latter tactic required promptness, wit and skill based on discipline and learning.<ref>J. Bayet ''Histoire politique et psychologique de la religion romaine'' Paris, 1969, p. 55.</ref> Thus the omen had no validity apart from the observation of it.<ref>Synonyms for ''abominari'' include ''improbare, execrari,'' and ''refutare'', with instances noted by Cicero, ''De divinatione'' 1.46; Livy, 1.7, 5.55, 9.14, and 29.29; and Servius, note to ''Aeneid'' 5.530; Auguste Bouché-Leclercq, ''Histoire de la divination dans l'antiquité'' (Jérôme Millon, 2003 reprint, originally published 1893), pp. 136–137.</ref>

===={{anchor|aedes}} aedes==== The ''aedes'' was the dwelling place of a god.<ref>Robert Schilling, "Roman Gods", ''Roman and European Mythologies'' (University of Chicago Press, 1992, from the French edition of 1981), p. 72.</ref> It was thus a structure that housed the deity's image, distinguished from the ''templum'' or sacred district.<ref>John W. Stamper, ''The Architecture of Roman Temples: The Republic to the Middle Empire'' (Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 10.</ref> ''Aedes'' is one of several Latin words that can be translated as "shrine" or "temple"; see also ''delubrum'' and ''fanum''. For instance, the Temple of Vesta, as it is called in English, was in Latin an ''aedes''.<ref>Mary Beard, Simon Price, John North, ''Religions of Rome: Volume 1, a History'', illustrated, Cambridge University Press, 1998. p. 22.</ref> See also the diminutive ''aedicula'', a small shrine.

[[File:Forum temple.jpg|upright|thumb|left|Ruins of the ''aedes'' of Vesta]] In his work ''On Architecture'', Vitruvius always uses the word ''templum'' in the technical sense of a space defined through augury, with ''aedes'' the usual word for the building itself.<ref>Morris H. Morgan, ''Notes on Vitruvius'' ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'' 17 (1903, pp. 12–14).</ref> The design of a deity's ''aedes'', he writes, should be appropriate to the characteristics of the deity. For a celestial deity such as Jupiter, Coelus, Sol or Luna, the building should be open to the sky; an ''aedes'' for a god embodying ''virtus'' (valour), such as Minerva, Mars, or Hercules, should be Doric and without frills; the Corinthian order is suited for goddesses such as Venus, Flora, Proserpina and the Lymphae; and the Ionic is a middle ground between the two for Juno, Diana, and Father Liber. Thus in theory, though not always in practice, architectural aesthetics had a theological dimension.<ref>Vitruvius, ''De architectura'' 1.2.5; John E. Stambaugh, "The Functions of Roman Temples," ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16.1 (1978), p. 561.</ref>

The word ''aedilis'' (aedile), a public official, is related by etymology; among the duties of the aediles was the overseeing of public works, including the building and maintenance of temples.<ref>Andrew Lintott, ''The Constitution of the Roman Republic'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999, reprinted 2002), pp. 129–130; Karl Loewenstein, ''The Governance of Rome'' (Martinus Nijhoff, 1973), p. 62.</ref> The temple ''(aedes)'' of Flora, for instance, was built in 241 BC by two aediles acting on Sibylline oracles. The plebeian aediles had their headquarters at the ''aedes'' of Ceres.<ref>Lawrence Richardson, ''A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), pp. 80–81 on Ceres, p. 151 on Flora; see also Barbette Stanley Spaeth, ''The Roman Goddess Ceres'' (University of Texas Press, 1996), p. 86ff.</ref>

====ager==== In religious usage, ''ager'' (territory, country, land, region) was terrestrial space defined for the purposes of augury in relation to ''auspicia''. There were five kinds of ''ager'': ''Romanus, Gabinus, peregrinus, hosticus'' and ''incertus''. The ''ager Romanus'' originally included the urban space outside the pomerium and the surrounding countryside.<ref>J. Linderski ''Augural law'' in ANRW pp.{{Citation needed|date=September 2010}}</ref> According to Varro, the ''ager Gabinus'' pertained to the special circumstances of the ''oppidum'' of Gabii, which was the first to sign a sacred treaty ''(pax)'' with Rome.<ref>Varro, ''De lingua latina'' 5.33. See also Roger D. Woodard, ''Indo-European Sacred Space: Vedic and Roman Cult'' (Chicago 2006), pp. 236-238. The treaty was preserved in the temple of Semo Sancus.</ref> The ''ager peregrinus''<ref>For usage of the term ''peregrinus'', compare also the status of a person who was ''peregrinus''.</ref> was other territory that had been brought under treaty ''(pacatus)''. ''Ager hosticus'' meant foreign territory; ''incertus'', "uncertain" or "undetermined," that is, not falling into one of the four defined categories.<ref>Varro, ''De lingua latina'' 5.33.</ref> The powers and actions of magistrates were based on and constrained by the nature of the ''ager'' on which they stood, and ''ager'' in more general usage meant a territory as defined legally or politically. The ''ager Romanus'' could not be extended outside Italy ''(terra Italia)''.<ref>Livy 27.5.15 and 29.5; P. Catalano, ''Aspetti spaziali del sistema giuridico-religioso romano'', ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16.1 (1978), pp. 529 ff.</ref>

[[File:Ara Lucius Iunius Paetus.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Altar ''(ara)'' from Roman Spain]]

====ara==== {{Main|Ara (ancient Rome)}} The focal point of sacrifice was the altar (''ara'', plural ''arae''). Most altars throughout the city of Rome and in the countryside would have been simple, open-air structures; they may have been located within a sacred precinct (''templum''), but often without an ''aedes'' housing a cult image.<ref>Mary Beard, J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, ''Religions of Rome: A Sourcebook'' (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 83.</ref> An altar that received food offerings might also be called a ''mensa'', "table."<ref>Ulrike Egelhaaf-Gaiser, "Roman Cult Sites: A Pragmatic Approach," in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'' (Blackwell, 2007), p. 206.</ref>

Perhaps the best-known Roman altar is the elaborate and Greek-influenced Ara Pacis, which has been called "the most representative work of Augustan art."<ref>Karl Galinsky, ''Augustan Culture: An Interpretive Introduction'' (Princeton University Press, 1996), p. 141.</ref> Other major public altars included the Ara Maxima.{{Citation needed|date=May 2026}}

====arbor felix==== {{See also|Ficus Ruminalis}} Some trees were ''felix'' and others ''infelix''. A tree ''(arbor)'' was categorized as ''felix'' if it was under the protection of the heavenly gods ''(di superi)''. The adjective ''felix'' here means not only literally "fruitful" but more broadly "auspicious". Macrobius<ref>Macrobius III 20, 2, quoting Veranius in his lost work ''De verbis pontificalibus''.</ref> lists ''arbores felices'' (plural) as the oak (four species thereof), the birch, the hazelnut, the sorbus, the white fig, the pear, the apple, the grape, the plum, the cornus and the lotus. The oak was sacred to Jupiter, and twigs of oak were used by the Vestals to ignite the sacred fire in March every year. Also among the ''felices'' were the olive tree, a twig of which was affixed to the hat of the Flamen Dialis, and the laurel and the poplar, which crowned the Salian priests.<ref>Macrobius III 12</ref>

''Arbores infelices'' were those under the protection of chthonic gods or those gods who had the power of turning away misfortune (''avertentium''). As listed by Tarquitius Priscus in his lost ''ostentarium'' on trees,<ref>Quoted by Macrobius, ''Saturnalia'' 3.20.</ref> these were buckthorn, red cornel, fern, black fig, "those that bear a black berry and black fruit," holly, woodland pear, butcher's broom, briar, and brambles."<ref>These are the modern English identifications of Robert A. Kaster in his translation of the ''Saturnalia'' for the Loeb Classical Library; in Latin, ''alternum sanguinem filicem, ficum atram, quaeque bacam nigram nigrosque fructus ferunt, itemque acrifolium, pirum silvaticum, pruscum rubum sentesque''. On the textual issues raised by the passage, see Kaster, ''Studies on the Text of Macrobius' Saturnalia'' (Oxford University Press, 2010), [https://books.google.com/books?id=aNr2UAvIZCsC&dq=%22eas+infelices+nominant%22&pg=PA48 p. 48.]</ref>

====attrectare==== The verb ''attrectare'' ("to touch, handle, lay hands on") referred in specialized religious usage to touching sacred objects while performing cultic actions. ''Attrectare'' had a positive meaning only in reference to the actions of the ''sacerdotes populi Romani'' ("priests of the Roman people"). It had the negative meaning of "contaminate" (= ''contaminare)'' or pollute when referring to the handling of sacred objects by those not authorized, ordained, or ritually purified.<ref>Vergil ''Aeneid'' II 717-720; Macrobius III 1, 1; E. Paratore ''Virgilio, Eneide'' I, Milano, 1978, p. 360 and n. 52; Livy V 22, 5; R. G. Austin ''P. Vergili Maronis Aeneidos liber secundus'' Oxford 1964, p. 264</ref>

====augur==== An augur (Latin plural ''augures'') was an official and priest who solicited and interpreted the will of the gods regarding a proposed action. The augur ritually defined a ''templum'', or sacred space, declared the purpose of his consultation, offered sacrifice, and observed the signs that were sent in return, particularly the actions and flight of birds. If the augur received unfavourable signs, he could suspend, postpone or cancel the undertaking (''obnuntiatio''). "Taking the auspices" was an important part of all major official business, including inaugurations, senatorial debates, legislation, elections and war, and was held to be an ancient prerogative of Regal and patrician magistrates. Under the Republic, this right was extended to other magistrates. After 300 BC, plebeians could become augurs.

====auguraculum==== The solicitation of formal auspices required the marking out of ritual space (''auguraculum'') from within which the augurs observed the ''templum'', including the construction of an augural tent or hut (''tabernaculum''). There were three such sites in Rome: on the citadel (''arx''), on the Quirinal Hill, and on the Palatine Hill. Festus said that originally the ''auguraculum'' was in fact the ''arx''. It faced east, situating the north on the augur's left or lucky side.<ref>William Warde Fowler, ''The Religious Experience of the Roman People'' (London, 1922), p. 209.</ref> A magistrate who was serving as a military commander also took daily auspices, and thus a part of camp-building while on campaign was the creation of a ''tabernaculum augurale''. This augural tent was the center of religious and legal proceedings within the camp.<ref>John Scheid, ''An Introduction to Roman Religion'' (Indiana University Press, 2003), pp. 113–114; Jerzy Linderski, "The Augural Law", ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16 (1986), pp. 2164–2288, especially p. 2174 on the military ''auguraculum''.</ref>

====augurium==== ''Augurium'' (plural ''auguria'') is an abstract noun that pertains to the augur. It seems to mean variously: the "sacral investiture" of the augur;<ref>Robert Schilling, ''Roman and European Mythologies'' (University of Chicago Press, 1992), p. 95.</ref> the ritual acts and actions of the augurs;<ref>In the view of Wissowa, as cited by Jerzy Linderski, "The Augural Law", ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16 (1986), p. 2150.</ref> augural law ''(ius augurale)'';<ref>Linderski, "The Augural Law," pp. 2241 ''et passim''.</ref> and recorded signs whose meaning had already been established.<ref>Linderski, "The Augural Law," p. 2237.</ref> The word is rooted in the IE stem ''*aug-'', "to increase," and possibly an archaic Latin neuter noun ''*augus'', meaning "that which is full of mystic force." As the sign that manifests the divine will,<ref name=":0">Schilling, "Augurs and Augury," ''Roman and European Mythologies'', p. 115.</ref> the ''augurium'' for a magistrate was valid for a year; a priest's, for his lifetime; for a temple, it was perpetual.<ref>Veit Rosenberger, "Republican ''nobiles'': Controlling the ''res publica''," in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'' (Blackwell, 2007), p. 299.</ref>

The distinction between ''augurium'' and ''auspicium'' is often unclear. ''Auspicia'' is the observation of birds as signs of divine will, a practice held to have been established by Romulus, first king of Rome, while the institution of augury was attributed to his successor Numa.<ref>Schilling, p. 115.</ref> For Servius, an ''augurium'' is the same thing as ''auspicia impetrativa'', a body of signs sought through prescribed ritual means.<ref>Linderski, "The Augural Law," p. 2196, especially note 177, citing Servius, note to ''Aeneid'' 3.89.</ref> Some scholars think ''auspicia'' would belong more broadly to the magistracies and the ''patres''<ref>See Livy, Book VI 41, for the words of Appius Claudius Crassus on why election to the consulate should be restricted to patricians on these grounds.</ref> while the ''augurium'' would be limited to the ''rex sacrorum'' and the major priesthoods.<ref>Linderski, "The Augural Law," pp. 2294–2295; U. Coli, ''Regnum'' Rome 1959.</ref>

Ancient sources record three ''auguria'': the ''augurium salutis'' in which every year the gods were asked whether it was ''fas'' (permissible, right) to ask for the safety of the Roman people (August 5); the ''augurium canarium'', a dog sacrifice (see also ''supplicia canum'') to promote the maturation of grain crops, held in the presence of the pontiffs as well as the augurs "when ears of wheat have already formed but are still in the sheaths";<ref>Pliny, ''Natural History'' 18.14.</ref> and the ''vernisera auguria'' mentioned by Festus, which should have been a springtime propitiary rite held at the time of the harvest (''auguria messalia'').

====auspex==== The ''auspex'', plural ''auspices'', is a diviner who reads omens from the observed flight of birds (''avi-'', from ''avis'', "bird", with ''-spex'', "observer", from ''spicere''). See ''auspicia'' following and auspice.

====auspicia==== The ''auspicia'' (''au-'' = ''avis'', "bird"; ''-spic-'', "watch") were originally signs derived from observing the flight of birds within the ''templum'' of the sky. Auspices are taken by an augur. Originally they were the prerogative of the patricians,<ref>Liv. VI 41; X 81; IV 6</ref> but the college of augurs was opened to plebeians in 300 BC.<ref>With the passing of the ''Lex Ogulnia''. The first plebeian consul was elected in 367 BC in consequence of the leges Liciniae Sextiae.</ref> Only magistrates were in possession of the ''auspicia publica'', with the right and duty to take the auspices pertaining to the Roman state.<ref>L. Schmitz, entry on "Augur," in ''A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities'' (London 1875).</ref> Favorable auspices marked a time or location as auspicious, and were required for important ceremonies or events, including elections, military campaigns and pitched battles.

According to Festus, there were five kinds of ''auspicia'' to which augurs paid heed: ''ex caelo'', celestial signs such as thunder and lightning; ''ex avibus'', signs offered by birds; ''ex tripudiis'', signs produced by the actions of certain sacred chickens; ''ex quadrupedibus'', signs from the behavior of four-legged animals; and ''ex diris'', threatening portents.<ref>Jerzy Linderski, "The ''libri reconditi''", ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'' 89 (1985), pp. 226–227; Robert Schilling, "Augurs and Augury", ''Roman and European Mythologies'' (University of Chicago Press, 1992), p. 116.</ref> In official state augury at Rome, only the auspicia ''ex caelo'' and ''ex avibus'' were employed.

The taking of the auspices required ritual silence ''(silentium)''. Watching for auspices was called ''spectio'' or ''servare de caelo''. The appearance of expected signs resulted in ''nuntiatio'', or if they were unfavourable ''obnuntiatio''. If unfavourable auspices were observed, the business at hand was stopped by the official observer, who declared ''alio die'' ("on another day").<ref>Schmitz, "Augur."</ref>

The practice of observing bird omens was common to many ancient peoples predating and contemporaneous with Rome, including the Greeks,<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/173354759 |title=A companion to Greek religion |date=2007 |publisher=Blackwell Pub |others=Daniel Ogden |isbn=978-1-4051-8216-4 |location=Malden, MA |pages=151 |oclc=173354759}}</ref> Celts,<ref>According to the Augustan historian Pompeius Trogus, who was himself a Celt of the Vocontii ''civitas'', the Celts had acquired expertise in the practice of augury beyond other peoples (''nam augurandi studio Galli praeter ceteros callent'', as epitomized by Justin {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20030902204737/http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/justin/english/trans24.html#4 42.4]}}). Discussion of Celtic augury by J.A. MacCulloch, ''The Religion of the Ancient Celts'' (Edinburgh, 1911), p. 247.</ref> and Germans.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cornelius Tacitus, Germany and its Tribes, chapter 10 |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0083:chapter=10 |access-date=2025-10-31 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref>

====auspicia impetrativa==== ''Auspicia impetrativa'' were signs that were solicited under highly regulated ritual conditions (see ''spectio'' and ''servare de caelo'') within the ''templum''.<ref name=":1">Robert Schilling, "Augurs and Augury", ''Roman and European Mythologies'' (University of Chicago Press, 1992, from the French edition of 1981), p. 116.</ref> The type of auspices required for convening public assemblies were ''impetrativa'',<ref name="autogenerated127">W. Jeffrey Tatum, ''The Patrician Tribune: Publius Clodius Pulcher'' (University of North Carolina Press, 1999), p. 127.</ref> and magistrates had the "right and duty" to seek these omens actively.<ref>Andrew Lintott, ''The Constitution of the Roman Republic'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999, reprinted 2002), p. 103 [https://books.google.com/books?id=yaFPohP2lB8C&dq=%22auspicia+impetrativa%22&pg=PA103 online.]</ref> These auspices could only be sought from an ''auguraculum'', a ritually constructed augural tent or "tabernacle" (''tabernaculum'').<ref>John Scheid, ''An Introduction to Roman Religion'' (Indiana University Press, 2003), pp. 113–114.</ref> Contrast ''auspicia oblativa''.

====auspicia maiora==== The right of observing the "greater auspices" was conferred on a Roman magistrate holding ''imperium'', perhaps by a ''Lex curiata de imperio'', although scholars are not agreed on the finer points of law.<ref>H. S. Versnel, ''Triumphus: An Inquiry into the Origin, Development and Meaning of the Roman Triumph'' (Brill, 1970), p. 324 [https://books.google.com/books?id=DswUAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22auspicia+maiora%22&pg=PA324 online] ''et passim''.</ref> A censor had ''auspicia maxima''.<ref>T. Corey Brennan, ''The Praetorship in the Roman Republic'' (Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 19 [https://books.google.com/books?id=Jd8N4LTUv8YC&dq=%22auspicia+maiora%22&pg=PA19 online.]</ref> It is also thought that the ''flamines maiores'' were distinguished from the ''minores'' by their right to take the ''auspicia maiora''; see Flamen.

====auspicia oblativa==== Signs that occurred without deliberately being sought through formal augural procedure were ''auspicia oblativa''. These unsolicited signs were regarded as sent by a deity or deities to express either approval or disapproval for a particular undertaking. The prodigy (''prodigium'') was one form of unfavourable ''oblativa''.<ref>Veit Rosenberger, "Republican ''nobiles'': Controlling the ''res publica''", in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'' (Blackwell, 2007), p. 293.</ref> Contrast ''auspicia impetrativa''.

====auspicia privata==== Private and domestic religion was linked to divine signs as state religion was. It was customary in patrician families to take the auspices for any matter of consequence such as marriages, travel, and important business.<ref>Cicero, ''De divinatione'' I 28.</ref> The scant information about ''auspicia privata'' in ancient authors<ref>Cicero, ''de Divinatione'' I 28; Cato the Elder, as quoted by Festus p. 342 L 2nd.</ref> suggests that the taking of private auspices was not different in essence from that of public auspices: absolute silence was required,<ref>Festus sv. ''Silentio surgere'', p. 438 L 2nd.</ref> and the person taking the auspices could ignore unfavourable or disruptive events by feigning not to have perceived them.<ref>G. Dumezil ''La religion romaine archaique'' Paris 1974 part IV chapt. 4; It. tr. Milano 1977 p. 526</ref> In matters pertaining to the family or individual, both lightning<ref>Pliny the Elder, ''Natural History'' 2, 13; Plautus, ''Curculio'' 438-484.</ref> and ''exta'' (entrails)<ref>Festus, sv. ''regalia exta'' p. 382 L 2nd (p. 367 in the 1997 [https://books.google.com/books?id=_Ugb6woUJLoC&dq=%22regalia+exta%22&pg=PA367 Teubner edition]).</ref> might yield signs for ''privati'', private citizens not authorized to take official auspices. Among his other duties, the Pontifex Maximus advised ''privati'' as well as the official priests about prodigies and their forestalling.<ref>Livy I 20, 7.</ref> By the time of Cicero, the taking of private auspices was falling into disuse.<ref>Elizabeth Rawson, "Religion and Politics in the Late Second Century B.C. at Rome," ''Phoenix'' 28.2 (1974), p. 196, citing ''De divinatione'' 1.28.</ref>

====averruncare==== In pontifical usage, the verb ''averruncare'', "to avert," denotes a ritual action aimed at averting a misfortune intimated by an omen. Bad omens ''(portentaque prodigiaque mala)'' are to be burnt, using trees that are in the tutelage of underworld or "averting" gods (see ''arbores infelices'' above).<ref>Macrobius, ''Saturnalia'' III 20 3, citing Tarquitius Priscus: "It is necessary to order evil portents and prodigies to be burnt by means of trees which are in the tutelage of infernal or averting gods," with an enumeration of such trees ''(Arbores quae inferum deorum avertentiumque in tutela sunt ... quibus portenta prodigiaque mala comburi iubere oportet)''.</ref> Varro says that the god who presides over the action of averting is Averruncus.<ref>Varro, ''De Lingua Latina'' VII 102: "Ab avertendo averruncare, ut deus qui in eis rebus praeest Averruncus."</ref>

===B===

====bellum iustum==== A "just war" was a war considered justifiable by the principles of fetial law ''(ius fetiale)''.<ref>Livy 1.32; 31.8.3; 36.3.9</ref> Because war could bring about religious pollution, it was in itself ''nefas'', "wrong," and could incur the wrath of gods unless ''iustum'', "just".<ref>William Warde Fowler, ''The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic'' (London 1925), pp. 33ff.; M. Kaser, ''Das altroemische Ius'' (Goettingen 1949), pp. 22ff; P. Catalano, ''Linee del sistema sovrannazionale romano'' (Torino 1965), pp. 14ff.; W. V. Harris, ''War and imperialism in Republican Rome, 327-70 B.C.'' (Oxford 1979), pp. 161 ff.</ref> The requirements for a just war were both formal and substantive. As a formal matter, the war had to be declared according to the procedures of the ''ius fetiale''. On substantive grounds, a war required a "just cause," which might include ''rerum repetitio'', retaliation against another people for pillaging, or a breach of or unilateral recession from a treaty; or necessity, as in the case of repelling an invasion.<ref>Livy 9.1.10; Cicero, ''Divinatio in Caecilium'' 63; ''De provinciis consularibus'' 4; ''Ad Atticum'' VII 14, 3; IX 19, 1; ''Pro rege Deiotauro'' 13; ''De officiis'' I 36; ''Philippicae'' XI 37; XIII 35; ''De re publica'' II 31; III 35; Isidore of Seville, ''Origines'' XVIII 1, 2; Modestinus, ''Libro I regolarum'' = ''Digesta'' I 3, 40; E. Badian, ''Roman Imperialism in the Late Republic'' (Ithaca 1968, 2nd ed.), p.11.</ref> See also ''Jus ad bellum''.

===C===

====caerimonia==== The English word "ceremony" derives from the Latin ''caerimonia'' or ''caeremonia'', a word of obscure etymology first found in literature and inscriptions from the time of Cicero (mid-1st century BC), but thought to be of much greater antiquity. Its meaning varied over time. Cicero used ''caerimonia'' at least 40 times, in three or four different senses: "inviolability" or "sanctity", a usage also of Tacitus; "punctilious veneration", in company with ''cura'' (carefulness, concern); more commonly in the plural ''caerimoniae'', to mean "ritual prescriptions" or "ritual acts." The plural form is endorsed by Roman grammarians.

Hendrik Wagenvoort maintained that ''caerimoniae'' were originally the secret ritual instructions laid down by Numa, which are described as ''statae et sollemnes'', "established and solemn."<ref>Valerius Maximus 1.1.1.</ref> These were interpreted and supervised by the College of Pontiffs, flamens, ''rex sacrorum'' and the Vestals. Later, ''caerimoniae'' might refer also to other rituals, including foreign cults.<ref>Hendrik Wagenvort, "Caerimonia", in ''Studies in Roman Literature, Culture and Religion'' (Brill, 1956), pp. 84–101.</ref> These prescribed rites "unite the inner subject with the external religious object", binding human and divine realms. The historian Valerius Maximus makes clear that the ''caerimoniae'' require those performing them to attain a particular mental-spiritual state (''animus'', "intention"), and emphasizes the importance of ''caerimoniae'' in the dedication and first sentence of his work. In Valerius's version of the Gallic siege of Rome, the Vestals and the Flamen Quirinalis rescue Rome's sacred objects (''sacra'') by taking them to Caere; thus preserved, the rites take their name from the place.<ref>Hans-Friedrich Mueller, ''Roman Religion in Valerius Maximus'' (Routledge, 2002), pp. 64–65 [https://books.google.com/books?id=1RUpQqic3e4C&dq=caerimoniae&pg=PA64 online.]</ref> Although this etymology makes a meaningful narrative connection for Valerius,<ref>See Davide Del Bello, ''Forgotten Paths: Etymology and the Allegorical Mindset'' (Catholic University of America Press, 2007), pp. 34–46, on etymology as a form of interpretation or construction of meaning among Roman authors.</ref> it is unlikely to be correct in terms of modern scientific linguistics. An Etruscan origin has sometimes been proposed. Wagenvoort thought that ''caerimonia'' derived from ''caerus'', "dark" in the sense of "hidden", hence meaning "darknesses, secrets."<ref>Wagenvoort, "Caerimonia", p. 100 [https://books.google.com/books?id=U9UUAAAAIAAJ&dq=caerimoniae&pg=PA100 online.]</ref>

In his ''Etymologiae'', Isidore of Seville says that the Greek equivalent is ''orgia'', but derives the word from ''carendo'', "lacking", and says that some think ''caerimoniae'' should be used of Jewish observances, specifically the dietary law that requires abstaining from or "lacking" certain foods.<ref>Isidore of Seville, ''Etymologiae'' 6.19.36 [https://books.google.com/books?id=igxC93_A-fIC&dq=caeremonia+OR+caeremoniae&pg=PT234 online.]</ref>

====calator==== The ''calatores'' were assistants who carried out day-to-day business on behalf of the senior priests of the state such as the ''flamines maiores''. A ''calator'' was a public slave.<ref>Festus, p. 354 L2 = [https://books.google.com/books?id=eDU_AAAAcAAJ&q=calatores+dicebantur+servi p. 58 M]; Jörg Rüpke, ''Religion of the Romans'' (Polity Press, 2007, originally published in German 2001), p. 227 [https://books.google.com/books?id=fcsynr0fQIoC&dq=calator+OR+calatores&pg=PA227 online.]</ref> Festus derives the word from the Greek verb ''kalein'', "to call."

[[File:Augustus as pontifex maximus.jpg|thumb|upright|Augustus, ''capite velato'']]

====capite velato==== At the traditional public rituals of ancient Rome, officiants prayed, sacrificed, offered libations, and practiced augury ''capite velato'',<ref>Robert E.A. Palmer, "The Deconstruction of Mommsen on Festus 462/464, or the Hazards of Interpretation", in ''Imperium sine fine: T. Robert S. Broughton and the Roman Republic'' (Franz Steiner, 1996), p. 83.</ref> "with the head covered" by a fold of the toga drawn up from the back. This covering of the head is a distinctive feature of Roman rite in contrast with Etruscan practice<ref>''Capite aperto'', "bareheaded"; Martin Söderlind, ''Late Etruscan Votive Heads from Tessennano'' («L'Erma» di Bretschneider, 2002), p. 370 [https://books.google.com/books?id=c4S4T06alPMC&dq=%22capite+velato%22&pg=PA370 online.]</ref> or ''ritus graecus'', "Greek rite."<ref>Robert Schilling, "Roman Sacrifice", ''Roman and European Mythologies'' (University of Chicago Press, 1992), p. 78.</ref> In Roman art, the covered head is a symbol of ''pietas'' and the individual's status as a pontifex, augur or other priest.<ref>''Classical Sculpture: Catalogue of the Cypriot, Greek, and Roman Stone Sculpture in the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology'' (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2006), p. 169.</ref>

It has been argued that the Roman expression of piety ''capite velato'' influenced Paul's prohibition against Christian men praying with covered heads: "Any man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head."<ref>{{bibleverse|1|Corinthians|11:4}}; see Neil Elliott, ''Liberating Paul: The Justice of God and the Politics of the Apostle'' (Fortress Press, 1994, 2006), p. 210 [https://books.google.com/books?id=mG0bQjqvUOgC&dq=%22capite+velato%22&pg=PA210 online]; Bruce W. Winter, ''After Paul Left Corinth: The Influence of Secular Ethics and Social Change'' (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2001), pp. 121–123 [https://books.google.com/books?id=sclZnr2SUIgC&dq=%22I.+Men+of+Status+Covering+Their+Heads%22&pg=PA121 online], citing as the standard source D.W.J. Gill, "The Importance of Roman Portraiture for Head-Coverings in 1 Corinthians 11:2–16", ''Tyndale Bulletin'' 41 (1990) 245–260; Elaine Fantham, "Covering the Head at Rome" Ritual and Gender," in ''Roman Dress and the Fabrics of Culture'' (University of Toronto Press, 2008), p. 159, citing Richard Oster, "When Men Wore Veils to Worship: The Historical Context of 1 Corinthians 11:4." New Testament Studies 34 (1988): 481-505. The passage has been explained with reference to Jewish and other practices as well.</ref>

====carmen==== In classical Latin, ''carmen'' usually means "song, poem, ode." In magico-religious usage, a ''carmen'' (plural ''carmina'') is a chant, hymn, spell, or charm. In essence "a verbal utterance sung for ritualistic purposes", the ''carmen'' is characterized by formulaic expression, redundancy, and rhythm.<ref>Frances Hickson Hahn, "Performing the Sacred: Prayers and Hymns", in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'' (Blackwell, 2007), p. 236, citing also Michael C.J. Putnam, ''Horace's Carmen Saeculare'' (London, 2001), p. 133.</ref> Fragments from two archaic priestly hymns are preserved, the ''Carmen Arvale'' of the Arval Brethren and the ''Carmina Saliaria'' of the Salii. The ''Carmen Saeculare'' of Horace, though self-consciously literary in technique, was also a hymn, performed by a chorus at the Saecular Games of 17 BC and expressing the Apollonian ideology of Augustus.<ref>Sarah Iles Johnston, ''Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide'' (Harvard University Press, 2004), p. 367.</ref>

A ''carmen malum'' or ''maleficum'' is a potentially harmful magic spell. A fragment of the Twelve Tables reading ''si malum carmen incantassit'' ("if anyone should chant an evil spell") shows that it was a longstanding concern of Roman law to suppress malevolent magic.<ref>J.B. Rives, "Magic in the XII Tables Revisited," ''Classical Quarterly'' 52:1 (2002) 288–289.</ref> A ''carmen sepulchrale'' is a spell that evokes the dead from their tombs; a ''carmen veneficum'', a "poisonous" charm.<ref>Georg Luck, ''Arcana Mundi'', p. 510.</ref> Through magical practice, the word ''carmen'' comes to mean also the object on which a spell is inscribed, hence a charm in the physical sense.<ref>Bernadotte Filotas, ''Pagan Survivals, Superstitions and Popular Cultures in Early Medieval Pastoral Literature'' (Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2005), p. 256.</ref>

====castus, castitas==== ''Castus'' is an adjective meaning morally pure or guiltless (English "chaste"), hence pious or ritually pure in a religious sense. ''Castitas'' is the abstract noun. Various etymologies have been proposed, among them two IE stems: *''k'(e)stos''<ref>Compare Sanskrit ''s'ista''.</ref> meaning "he who conforms to the prescriptions of rite"; or *''kas-'', from which derives the verb ''careo,'' "I defice, am deprived of, have none..." i.e. ''vitia''.<ref>M. Morani"Lat. 'sacer'..." ''Aevum'' LV 1981 p. 38. Another etymology connects it to Vedic ''s'asti'', 'he gives the instruction', and to Avestic ''saas-tu'', 'that he educate': in G. Dumezil ''La religion romaine archaique'' Paris, 1974, Remarques preliminaires IX</ref> In Roman religion, the purity of ritual and those who perform it is paramount: one who is correctly cleansed and ''castus'' in religious preparation and performance is likely to please the gods. Ritual error is a pollutant; it vitiates the performance and risks the gods' anger. ''Castus'' and ''castitas'' are attributes of the ''sacerdos'' (priest),<ref>Vergil, Aeneid, 6.661: "Sacerdotes casti dum vita manebat", in H. Fugier, ''Recherches...'' cit. p.18 ff.</ref> but substances and objects can also be ritually ''castus''.<ref>See, for instance, ''mola salsa''.</ref>

{{anchor|cinctus Gabinus}}

====cinctus Gabinus==== The {{lang|la|cinctus Gabinus}} ("Gabine cinch") was a way of wearing the toga thought to have originated in the Latin town of Gabii.<ref>Andrew C. Johnston and Marcello Mogetta, "Debating Early Republican Urbanism in Latium Vetus: The Town Planning of Gabii, between Archaeology and History," ''Journal of Roman Studies'' 110 (2020), p. 103 ''et passim''.</ref><ref>John Scheid, "''Graeco Ritu'': A Typically Roman Way of Honoring the Gods," ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'' 97 (1995), p. 19.</ref> It was also later claimed{{by whom|date=July 2024}} to have been part of Etruscan priestly dress.<ref>Servius, note to ''Aeneid'' 7.612; Larissa Bonfante, "Ritual Dress," p. 185, and Fay Glinister, "Veiled and Unveiled: Uncovering Roman Influence in Hellenistic Italy," p. 197, both in ''Votives, Places, and Rituals in Etruscan Religion: Studies in Honor of Jean MacIntosh Turfa'' (Brill, 2009).</ref> The cinch allowed free use of both arms,<ref name="Roman World 1935, p. 409">H.H. Scullard, ''A History of the Roman World: 753 to 146 BC'' (Routledge, 1935, 2013), p. 409.</ref><ref>John Scheid, ''An Introduction to Roman Religion'' (Indiana University Press, 2003), p. 80.</ref> essential when the toga was still worn during combat and later important in some religious contexts, particularly those involving use of the toga to cover the head ({{lang|la|capite velato}}).<ref name=catty/> The style's ancient martial associations caused it to be worn during Roman declarations of war. It was also used by the priest or official charged with guiding the plow creating the {{lang|la|sulcus primigenius}} during the rituals attending the foundation of new colonies.<ref name=catty>Cato, in Servius, commentary on Virgil's ''Aeneid'', [https://topostext.org/work/548#5.755 Book 5, §755].</ref> In Latin, {{lang|la|cinctus Gabinus}} could refer to the cinch itself or to the entire toga thus worn. In religious contexts, such a toga was also said to be worn {{lang|la|ritu Gabino}} ("in the Gabine rite").

====clavum figere==== ''Clavo trabali figere'' ("to fasten or fix with a beam (large) nail") was an expression that referred to the fixing or clinching of a matter.<ref>Cicero, ''In Verrem'' 5.21.53.</ref> A nail was one of the attributes of the goddess Necessitas<ref>Horace, ''Carmen'' 1.35, 17, 18; 3.24, 6, 6.</ref> and of the Etruscan goddess Athrpa (Greek Atropos). According to Livy, every year in the temple of Nortia, the Etruscan counterpart of Fortuna, a nail was driven in to mark the time. In Rome, the senior magistrate<ref>''Praetor maximus,'' the chief magistrate with ''imperium''; T. Corey Brennan, ''The Praetorship in the Roman Republic'' (Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 21.</ref> on the Ides of September drove a nail called the ''clavus annalis'' ("year-nail")<ref>Festus, 49 in the edition of Wallace Lindsay, says that "the year-nail was so called because it was fixed into the walls of the sacred ''aedes'' every year, so that the number of years could be reckoned by means of them". [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101077773990&seq=105]</ref> into the wall of the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. The ceremony occurred on the ''dies natalis'' ("birthday" or anniversary of dedication) of the temple, when a banquet for Jupiter ''(Epulum Jovis)'' was also held. The nail-driving ceremony, however, took place in a ''templum'' devoted to Minerva, on the right side of the ''aedes'' of Jupiter, because the concept of "number" was invented by Minerva and the ritual predated the common use of written letters.<ref>Livy, 7.3; Brennan, ''Praetorship,'' p. 21.</ref>

The importance of this ritual is lost in obscurity, but in the early Republic it is associated with the appointment of a ''dictator clavi figendi causa'', "dictator for the purpose of driving the nail,"<ref>Livy, 7.3.</ref> one of whom was appointed for the years 363, 331, 313, and 263 BC.<ref>The ''Fasti Capitolini'' record ''dictatores clavi figendi causa'' for 363, 331, and 263.</ref> Livy attributes this practice to ''religio'', religious scruple or obligation. It may be that in addition to an annual ritual, there was a "fixing" during times of pestilence or civil discord that served as a ''piaculum''.<ref>H.S. Versnel, ''Triumphus: An Inquiry into the Origin, Development and Meaning of the Roman Triumph'' (Brill, 1970), pp. 271–272.</ref> Livy says that in 363, a plague had been ravaging Rome for two years. It was recalled that a plague had once been broken when a dictator drove a ritual nail, and the senate appointed one for that purpose.<ref>Brennan, ''Praetorship,'' p. 21.</ref> The ritual of "driving the nail" was among those revived and reformed by Augustus, who in 1 AD transferred it to the new Temple of Mars Ultor. Henceforth a censor fixed the nail at the end of his term.<ref>Cassius Dio 55.10.4, as cited by Michael Lipka, ''Roman Gods: A Conceptual Approach'' (Brill, 2009), p. 108; Brennan, ''Praetorship,'' p. 21.</ref>

====collegium==== A ''collegium'' ("joined by law"), plural ''collegia'', was any association with a legal personality. The priestly colleges oversaw religious traditions, and until 300 BC only patricians were eligible for membership. When plebeians began to be admitted, the size of the colleges was expanded. By the Late Republic, three ''collegia'' wielded greater authority than the others, with a fourth coming to prominence during the reign of Augustus. The four great religious corporations (''quattuor amplissima collegia'') were: *''Pontifices'', the College of Pontiffs headed by the Pontifex Maximus; *''Augures''; *''Quindecimviri sacris faciundis'', the fifteen priests in charge of the Sibylline Books; *''Septemviri epulonum'', the board of seven priests who organized public banquets for religious holidays. Augustus was a member of all four ''collegia'', but limited membership for any other senator to one.<ref>David S. Potter, "Roman Religion: Ideas and Action", in ''Life, Death, and Entertainment in the Roman Empire'' (University of Michigan, 1999), pp. 139–140.</ref>

In Roman society, a ''collegium'' might also be a trade guild or neighborhood association; see Collegium (ancient Rome).

====comitia calata====

The ''comitia calata'' ("calate assemblies") were non-voting assemblies ''(comitia)'' called for religious purposes. The verb ''calare'', originally meaning "to call," was a technical term of pontifical usage, found also in ''calendae'' (Calends) and ''calator''. According to Aulus Gellius,<ref>Aulus Gellius, ''Noctes Atticae'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Gellius/15*.html#27 XV 27, 1-3], citing Laelius Felix in reference to M. Antistius Labeo.</ref> these ''comitia'' were held in the presence of the college of pontiffs in order to inaugurate the ''rex'' (the king in the Regal Period or the ''rex sacrorum'' in the Republic)<ref>George Willis Botsford, ''The Roman Assemblies from Their Origin to the End of the Republic'' (Macmillan, 1909), pp. 155–165.</ref> or the ''flamines''. The pontifex maximus auspiciated and presided; assemblies over which annually elected magistrates presided are never ''calata'', nor are meetings for secular purposes or other elections even with a pontiff presiding.<ref>Botsford, ''Roman Assemblies'', p. 153.</ref>

The ''comitia calata'' were organized by ''curiae'' or ''centuriae''.<ref>Botsford, ''Roman Assemblies'', p. 154.</ref> The people were summoned to ''comitia calata'' to witness the reading of wills, or the oath by which ''sacra'' were renounced (''detestatio sacrorum'').<ref>Botsford, ''Roman Assemblies'', pp. 104, 154.</ref> They took no active role and were only present to observe as witnesses.<ref>George Mousourakis, ''The Historical and Institutional Context of Roman Law'' (Ashgate, 2003), p. 105.</ref>

Mommsen thought the calendar abbreviation ''QRCF'', given once as ''Q. Rex C. F.''<ref>In the ''Fasti Viae Lanza''.</ref> and taken as ''Quando Rex Comitiavit Fas'', designated a day when it was religiously permissible for the ''rex'' to "call" for a ''comitium'', hence the ''comitia calata''.<ref>As summarized by Jörg Rüpke, ''The Roman Calendar from Numa to Constantine: Time, History, and the Fasti'' (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), pp. 26–27.</ref>

====commentarii augurales==== The ''Commentaries of the Augurs'' were written collections probably of the ''decreta'' and ''responsa'' of the college of augurs. Some scholarship, however, maintains that the ''commentarii'' were precisely ''not'' the ''decreta'' and ''responsa''.<ref>Jerzy Linderski, "The Augural Law", ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16 (1986), p. 2245, note 387.</ref> The commentaries are to be distinguished from the augurs' ''libri reconditi'', texts not for public use.<ref>Jerzy Linderski, "The ''libri reconditi''", ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'' 89 (1985), pp. 228–229.</ref> The books are mentioned by Cicero,<ref>Cicero ''de Div.'' II 42</ref> Festus,<ref>Festus, book 17, [https://archive.org/details/mverriiflacciqu01flacgoog/page/n327  p. 819.]</ref> and Servius Danielis.<ref>Serv. Dan. ''Aen.'' I 398</ref> Livy includes several examples of the augurs' ''decreta'' and ''responsa'' in his history, presumably taken from the ''commentarii''.<ref>Livy, IV 31, 4; VIII 15, 6; XXIII 31, 13; XLI 18, 8.</ref>

====commentarii pontificum==== The ''Commentaries of the Pontiffs'' contained a record of decrees and official proceedings of the College of Pontiffs. Priestly literature was one of the earliest written forms of Latin prose, and included rosters, acts (''acta''), and chronicles kept by the various ''collegia'',<ref>Moses Hadas, ''A History of Latin Literature'' (Columbia University Press, 1952), p. 15 [https://books.google.com/books?id=QnvOnY6ydngC&dq=%22commentarii+pontificum%22&pg=PA15 online.]</ref> as well as religious procedure.<ref>C.O. Brink, ''Horace on Poetry. Epistles Book II: The Letters to Augustus and Florus'' (Cambridge University Press, 1982), p. 64 [https://books.google.com/books?id=loI8AAAAIAAJ&dq=%22commentarii+pontificum%22&pg=PA64 online.]</ref> It was often ''occultum genus litterarum'',<ref>Cicero, ''De domo sua'' 136.</ref> an arcane form of literature to which by definition only priests had access. The ''commentarii'', however, may have been available for public consultation, at least by senators,<ref>Wilfried Stroh, "''De domo sua'': Legal Problem and Structure", in ''Cicero the Advocate'' (Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 341.</ref> because the rulings on points of law might be cited as precedent.<ref>W.S. Teuffel, ''History of Roman Literature'', translated by George C.W. Warr (London, 1900), vol. 1, p. 104 [https://books.google.com/books?id=WgrgAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22commentarii+pontificum%22+inauthor%3Ateuffel&pg=PA104 online.]</ref> The public nature of the ''commentarii'' is asserted by Jerzy Linderski in contrast to ''libri reconditi'', the secret priestly books.<ref>Jerzy Linderski, "The ''libri reconditi''", ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'' 89 (1985) 207–234, especially p. 216.</ref>

The ''commentarii'' survive only through quotation or references in ancient authors.<ref>For example, Pliny, ''Natural History'' 18.14, in reference to the ''augurium canarium'', a dog sacrifice. Other references include Cicero, ''Brutus'' 55 and ''De domo sua'' 186; Livy 4.3 and 6.1; Quintilian 8.2.12, as cited by Teuffel.</ref> These records are not readily distinguishable from the ''libri pontificales''; some scholars maintain that the terms ''commentarii'' and ''libri'' for the pontifical writings are interchangeable. Those who make a distinction hold that the ''libri'' were the secret archive containing rules and precepts of the ''ius sacrum'' (holy law), texts of spoken formulae, and instructions on how to perform ritual acts, while the ''commentarii'' were the ''responsa'' (opinions and arguments) and ''decreta'' (binding explications of doctrine) that were available for consultation. Whether or not the terms can be used to distinguish two types of material, the priestly documents would have been divided into those reserved for internal use by the priests themselves, and those that served as reference works on matters external to the college.<ref>Linderski, "The ''libri reconditi''", pp. 218–219.</ref> Collectively, these titles would have comprised all matters of pontifical law, ritual, and cult maintenance, along with prayer formularies<ref>Brink, ''Horace on Poetry'', p. 64.</ref> and temple statutes.<ref>Adolf Berger, ''Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law'' (American Philosophical Society, 1991 reprint), p. 399 [https://books.google.com/books?id=oR0LAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22commentarii+pontificum%22&pg=PA399 online.]</ref> See also ''libri pontificales'' and ''libri augurales''.

====coniectura==== ''Coniectura'' is the reasoned but speculative interpretation of signs presented unexpectedly, that is, of ''novae res'', "novel information." These "new signs" are omens or portents not previously observed, or not observed under the particular set of circumstances at hand. ''Coniectura'' is thus the kind of interpretation used for ''ostenta'' and ''portenta'' as constituting one branch of the "Etruscan discipline"; contrast ''observatio'' as applied to the interpretation of ''fulgura'' (thunder and lightning) and ''exta'' (entrails). It was considered an ''ars'', a "method" or "art" as distinguished from ''disciplina'', a formal body of teachings which required study or training.<ref>Jerzy Linderski, "The Augural Law", ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16 (1986), 2231–2233, 2238.</ref>

The origin of the Latin word ''coniectura'' suggests the process of making connections, from the verb ''conicio'', participle ''coniectum'' (''con-'', "with, together", and ''iacio'', "throw, put"). ''Coniectura'' was also a rhetorical term applied to forms of argumentation, including court cases.<ref>Greek ''stochasmos'' (στοχασμός); Tobias Reinhardt, "Rhetoric in the Fourth Academy", ''Classical Quarterly'' 50 (2000), p. 534. The Greek equivalent of ''conicere'' is ''symballein'', from which English "symbol" derives; François Guillaumont, "Divination et prévision rationelle dans la correspondance de Cicéron," in ''Epistulae Antiquae: Actes du Ier Colloque "Le genre épistolaire antique et ses prolongements (Université François-Rabelais, Tours, 18-19 septembre 1998)'' (Peeters, 2002).</ref> The English word "conjecture" derives from ''coniectura''.

====consecratio==== ''Consecratio'' was the ritual act that resulted in the creation of an ''aedes'', a shrine that housed a cult image, or an ''ara'', an altar. Jerzy Linderski insists that the ''consecratio'' should be distinguished from the ''inauguratio'', that is, the ritual by which the augurs established a sacred place (''locus'') or ''templum'' (sacred precinct).<ref>Jerzy Linderski, "The Augural Law", ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16 (1986), p. 2249 [https://books.google.com/books?id=eOe3Fv1UUKoC&dq=ara&pg=RA1-PA2373 online.]</ref> The consecration was performed by a pontiff reciting a formula from the ''libri pontificales'', the pontifical books.<ref>Cicero, ''De domo sua'' 139; F. Sini, ''Documenti sacerdotali di Roma antica'' (Sassari, 1983), p.152</ref> One component of consecration was the ''dedicatio'', or dedication, a form of ''ius publicum'' (public law) carried out by a magistrate representing the will of the Roman people.<ref>Cicero. ''De domo sua'' 136.</ref> The pontiff was responsible for the consecration proper.<ref>J. Marquardt, ''Römische Staatsverwaltung'' III (Leipzig, 1885), pp. 269 ff.; G. Wissowa, ''Religion und Kultus der Römer'', p.385.</ref>

====cultus==== Cicero defined ''religio'' as ''cultus deorum'', "the cultivation of the gods."<ref>Cicero, ''De Natura Deorum'' 2.8 and 1.117.</ref> The "cultivation" necessary to maintain a specific deity was that god's ''cultus,'' "cult," and required "the knowledge of giving the gods their due" ''(scientia colendorum deorum)''.<ref>Clifford Ando, ''The Matter of the Gods'' (University of California Press, 2009), p. 6.</ref> The noun ''cultus'' originates from the past participle of the verb ''colo, colere, colui, cultus'', "to tend, take care of, cultivate," originally meaning "to dwell in, inhabit" and thus "to tend, cultivate land ''(ager)''; to practice agriculture," an activity fundamental to Roman identity even when Rome as a political center had become fully urbanized. ''Cultus'' is often translated as "cult", without the negative connotations the word may have in English, or with the Anglo-Saxon word "worship", but it implies the necessity of active maintenance beyond passive adoration. ''Cultus'' was expected to matter to the gods as a demonstration of respect, honor, and reverence; it was an aspect of the contractual nature of Roman religion (''do ut des'').<ref>Ando, ''The Matter of the Gods,'' pp. 5–7; Valerie M. Warrior, ''Roman Religion'' (Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 6; James B. Rives, ''Religion in the Roman Empire'' (Blackwell, 2007), pp. 13, 23.</ref> St. Augustine echoes Cicero's formulation when he declares that "''religio'' is nothing other than the ''cultus'' of God."<ref>Augustine, ''De Civitate Dei'' 10.1; Ando, ''The Matter of the Gods,'' p. 6.</ref>

===D===

====decretum==== ''Decreta'' (plural) were the binding explications of doctrine issued by the official priests on questions of religious practice and interpretation. They were preserved in written form and archived.<ref name="autogenerated218">Jerzy Linderski, "The ''libri reconditi''" ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'' 89 (1985), pp. 218–219.</ref> Compare ''responsum''.

====delubrum==== A ''delubrum'' was a shrine. Varro says it was a building that housed the image of a ''deus'', "god",<ref>Sabine MacCormack, ''The Shadows of Poetry: Vergil in the Mind of Augustine'' (University of California Press, 1998), p. 75.</ref> and emphasizes the human role in dedicating the statue.<ref>Clifford Ando, ''The Matter of the Gods: Religion and the Roman Empire'' (University of California Press, 2008), p. 110.</ref> According to Varro,<ref>apud Nonius p. 792 L.</ref> the ''delubrum'' was the oldest form of an ''aedes'', a structure that housed a god. It is an ambiguous term for both the building and the surrounding area ''ubi aqua currit'' ("where water runs"), according to the etymology of the antiquarian Cincius.<ref>As recorded by Servius, ''ad Aen.'' II 225.</ref> Festus gives the etymology of ''delubrum'' as ''fustem delibratum'', "stripped stake," that is, a tree deprived of its bark ''(liber)'' by a lightning bolt, as such trees in archaic times were venerated as gods. The meaning of the term later extended to denote the shrine built to house the stake.<ref>Festus ''De verborum significatu'' s.v. ''delubrum'' p. 64 L; G. Colonna "Sacred Architecture and the Religion of the Etruscans" in N. T. De Grummond ''The Religion of the Etruscans'' 2006 p. 165 n. 59.</ref> Compare ''aedes'', ''fanum'', and ''templum''.

Isidore connected the ''delubrum'' with the verb ''diluere'', "to wash", describing it as a "spring-shrine", sometimes with annexed pool, where people would wash before entering, thus comparable to a Christian baptismal font.<ref>Isidore of Seville, ''Etymologiae'' 15.4.9; Stephen A. Barney, ''The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville'' (Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 310 [https://books.google.com/books?id=3ep502syZv8C&dq=delubrum&pg=PA310 online.]</ref>

====detestatio sacrorum==== When a person passed from one ''gens'' to another, as for instance by adoption, he renounced the religious duties ''(sacra)'' he had previously held in order to assume those of the family he was entering.<ref>Servius, note to ''Aeneid'' 2.156; Robert Turcan, ''The Gods of Ancient Rome'' (Routledge, 2000), p. 44.</ref> The ritual procedure of ''detestatio sacrorum'' was enacted before a calate assembly.<ref>George Willis Botsford, ''The Roman Assemblies from Their Origin to the End of the Republic'' (Macmillan, 1909), pp. 161–162.</ref>

====deus, dea, di, dii==== ''Deus'', "god"; ''dea'', "goddess", plural ''deae''; ''di'' or ''dii'', "gods", plural, or "deities", of mixed gender. The Greek equivalent is ''theos'', which the Romans translated with ''deus''. Servius says<ref>Servius, note to ''Aeneid'' 12.139.</ref> that ''deus'' or ''dea'' is a "generic term" ''(generale nomen)'' for all gods.<ref>David Wardle, "''Deus'' or ''Divus'': The Genesis of Roman Terminology for Deified Emperors and a Philosopher's Contribution", in ''Philosophy and Power in the Graeco-Roman World: Essays in Honour of Miriam Griffin'' (Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 182.</ref> In his lost work ''Antiquitates rerum divinarum'', assumed to have been based on pontifical doctrine,<ref>Servius ''Aen.'' II 141: "pontifices dicunt singulis actibus proprios deos praeesse, hos Varro certos deos appellat", the pontiffs say that every single action is presided upon by its own deity, these Varro calls ''certain gods''"; A. von Domaszewski, "Dii certi und incerti" in ''Abhandlungen fuer roemische Religion'' 1909 pp. 154-170.</ref> Varro classified ''dii'' as ''certi, incerti, praecipui'' or ''selecti'', i.e. "deities whose function could be ascertained",<ref>Jörg Rüpke, ''Religion in Republican Rome: Rationalization and Ritual Change'' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012), p. 183.</ref> those whose function was unknown or indeterminate, main or selected gods.<ref>As preserved by Augustine, ''De Civitate Dei'' VI 3.</ref> Compare ''divus''. For etymological discussion, see Deus and Dyeus. See also List of Roman deities.

====devotio==== The ''devotio'' was an extreme form of ''votum'' in which a Roman general vowed to sacrifice his own life in battle along with the enemy to chthonic deities in exchange for a victory. The most extended description of the ritual is given by Livy, regarding the self-sacrifice of Decius Mus.<ref>Livy 8.9; for a brief introduction and English translation of the passage, see Mary Beard, J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, ''Religions of Rome: A Sourcebook'' (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 157 [https://books.google.com/books?id=xQd82l39KX4C&dq=devotio&pg=PA157 online.]</ref> The English word "devotion" derives from the Latin. For another ''votum'' that might be made in the field by a general, see ''evocatio''.

====dies imperii==== A Roman emperor's ''dies imperii'' was the date on which he assumed ''imperium'', that is, the anniversary of his accession as emperor. The date was observed annually with renewed oaths of loyalty and ''vota pro salute imperatoris'', vows and offerings for the wellbeing ''(salus)'' of the emperor. Observances resembled those on January 3, which had replaced the traditional vows made for the ''salus'' of the republic after the transition to one-man rule under Augustus. The ''dies imperii'' was a recognition that succession during the Empire might take place irregularly through the death or overthrow of an emperor, in contrast to the annual magistracies of the Republic when the year was designated by the names of consuls serving their one-year term.<ref>Carlos F. Noreña, ''Imperial Ideals in the Roman West: Representation, Circulation, Power'' (Cambridge University Press, 2011), p. 142.</ref>

The ''dies Augusti'' or ''dies Augustus'' was more generally any anniversary pertaining to the imperial family, such as birthdays or weddings, appearing on official calendars as part of Imperial cult.<ref>C.E.V. Nixon, ''In Praise of Later Roman Emperors: The Panegyrici Latini'' (University of California Press, 1994), pp. 179–185; Albino Garzetti, ''From Tiberius To The Antonines'' (Methuen, 1974), originally published 1960 in Italian), p. 618. ''Paganism and Christianity, 100-425 C.E.: A Sourcebook'' edited by Ramsay MacMullen and Eugene N. Lane (Augsburg Fortress, 1992), p. 154; Roger S. Bagnall and Raffaella Cribiore, ''Women's Letters from Ancient Egypt 300 BC–AD 800'' (University of Michigan Press, 2006), pp. 346–347.</ref> References to a ''dies Caesaris'' are also found, but it is unclear whether or how it differed from the ''dies Augusti''.<ref>Nixon, ''In Praise of Later Roman Emperors,'' p. 182.</ref>

====dies lustricus==== The ''dies lustricus'' ("day of purification") was a rite carried out for the newborn on the eighth day of life for girls and the ninth day for boys. Little is known of the ritual procedure, but the child must have received its name on that day; funerary inscriptions for infants who died before their ''dies lustricus'' are nameless.<ref>Macrobius, ''Saturnalia'' 1.16.36; William Warde Fowler, ''The Religious Experience of the Roman People'' (London, 1922), pp. 28, 42.</ref> The youngest person found commemorated on a Roman tombstone by name was a male infant nine days old (or 10 days in Roman inclusive counting).<ref>Vernaclus was buried by his father, Lucius Cassius Tacitus, in ''Colonia Ubii''. Maureen Carroll, ''Spirits of the Dead: Roman Funerary Commemoration in Western Europe'' (Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 172.</ref> Because of the rate of infant mortality, perhaps as high as 40 percent,<ref>M. Golden, "Did the Ancients Care When Their Children Died?" ''Greece & Rome'' 35 (1988) 152–163.</ref> the newborn in its first few days of life was held as in a liminal phase, vulnerable to malignant forces (see List of Roman birth and childhood deities). Socially, the child did not exist.<ref>Christian Laes, ''Children in the Roman Empire: Outsiders Within'' (Cambridge University Press, 2011), p. 66.</ref> The ''dies lustricus'' may have been when the child received the ''bulla'', the protective amulet that was put aside when a boy passed into adulthood.<ref>Jens-Uwe Krause, "Children in the Roman Family and Beyond," in ''The Oxford Handbook of Social Relations in the Roman World'' (Oxford University Press, 2011), p. 627.</ref>

====dies natalis==== [[File:03 natales.png|thumb|upright=1.1|Page listing imperial ''natales'' by month from the 17th-century ''Codex Vaticanus Barberini latinus'', based on the Calendar of Filocalus (354 AD)]] A ''dies natalis'' was a birthday ("natal day"; see also ''dies lustricus'' above) or more generally the anniversary of a founding event. The Romans celebrated an individual's birthday annually, in contrast to the Greek practice of marking the date each month with a simple libation. The Roman ''dies natalis'' was connected with the cult owed to the Genius.<ref>Denis Feeney, ''Caesar's Calendar: Ancient Time and the Beginnings of History'', University of California Press (2008) p. 148.</ref> A public figure might schedule a major event on his birthday: Pompeius Magnus ("Pompey the Great") waited seven months after he returned from his military campaigns in the East before he staged his triumph, so he could celebrate it on his birthday.<ref>Feeney, ''Caesar's Calendar,'' pp. 148–149.</ref> The coincidence of birthdays and anniversaries could have a positive or negative significance: news of Decimus Brutus's victory at Mutina was announced at Rome on his birthday, while Caesar's assassin Cassius suffered defeat at Philippi on his birthday and committed suicide.<ref name="Feeney, p. 149">Feeney, ''Caesar's Calendar,'' p. 149.</ref> Birthdays were one of the dates on which the dead were commemorated.<ref>Regina Gee, "From Corpse to Ancestor: The Role of Tombside Dining in the Transformation of the Body in Ancient Rome," in ''The Materiality of Death: Bodies, Burials, Beliefs'', Bar International Series 1768 (Oxford, 2008), p. 64.</ref>

The date when a temple was founded, or when it was rededicated after a major renovation or rebuilding, was also a ''dies natalis'', and might be felt as the "birthday" of the deity it housed as well. The date of such ceremonies was therefore chosen by the pontiffs with regard to its position on the religious calendar. The "birthday" or foundation date of Rome was celebrated April 21, the day of the Parilia, an archaic pastoral festival.<ref>Gary Forsythe, ''A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War'' (University of California Press, 2005, 2006), p. 131.</ref> As part of a flurry of religious reforms and restorations in the period from 38 BC to 17 AD, no fewer than fourteen temples had their ''dies natalis'' moved to another date, sometimes with the clear purpose of aligning them with new Imperial theology after the collapse of the Republic.<ref>Michael Lipka, ''Roman Gods: A Conceptual Approach'' (Brill, 2009), p. 47.</ref>

The birthdays of emperors were observed with public ceremonies as an aspect of Imperial cult. The ''Feriale Duranum'', a military calendar of religious observances, features a large number of imperial birthdays. Augustus shared his birthday (September 23) with the anniversary of the Temple of Apollo in the Campus Martius, and elaborated on his connection with Apollo in developing his special religious status.<ref name="Feeney, p. 149"/>

A birthday commemoration was also called a ''natalicium,'' which could take the form of a poem. Early Christian poets such as Paulinus of Nola adopted the ''natalicium'' poem for commemorating saints.<ref>Patricia Cox Miller, "'The Little Blue Flower Is Red': Relics and the Poeticizing of the Body," ''Journal of Early Christian Studies'' 8.2 (2000), p. 228.</ref> The day on which Christian martyrs died is regarded as their ''dies natalis''; see Calendar of saints.

====dies religiosus==== According to Festus, it was wrong ''(nefas)'' to undertake any action beyond attending to basic necessities on a day that was ''religiosus'' on the calendar. On these days, there were to be no marriages, political assemblies, or battles. Soldiers were not to be enlisted, nor journeys started. Nothing new was to be started, and no religious acts ''(res divinae)'' performed. Aulus Gellius said that ''dies religiosi'' were to be distinguished from those that were ''nefasti''.<ref>H.H. Scullard, ''Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic'' (Cornell University Press, 1981), p. 45.</ref>

====dies vitiosus==== The phrase ''diem vitiare'' ("to vitiate a day") in augural practice meant that the normal activities of public business were prohibited on a given day, presumably by ''obnuntiatio'', because of observed signs that indicated defect ''(morbus''; see ''vitium'').<ref>Cicero, ''Ad Atticum'' 4.9.1; Festus 268 in the edition of Lindsay; Jerzy Linderski, "The Augural Law", ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16 (1986), pp. 2187–2188.</ref> Unlike a ''dies religiosus'' or a ''dies ater'' ("black day," typically the anniversary of a calamity), a particular date did not become permanently ''vitiosus,'' with one exception. Some Roman calendars ''(fasti)'' produced under Augustus and up to the time of Claudius<ref>Jörg Rüpke, ''The Roman Calendar from Numa to Constantine: Time, History, and the Fasti,'' translated by David M.B. Richardson (Blackwell, 2011, originally published 1995 in German), pp. 151–152. The ''Fasti Maffeiani'' (= Degrassi, ''Inscriptiones Italiae'' 13.2.72) reads ''Dies vitios[us] ex s[enatus] c[onsulto]'', as noted by Rüpke, ''Kalender und Öffentlichkeit: Die Geschichte der Repräsentation und religiösen Qualifikation von Zeit in Rom'' (De Gruyter, 1995), p. 436, note 36. The designation is also found in the ''Fasti Praenestini''.</ref> mark January 14 as a ''dies vitiosus'', a day that was inherently "vitiated". January 14 is the only day to be marked annually and officially by decree of the Roman senate ''(senatus consultum)'' as ''vitiosus''. Linderski calls this "a very remarkable innovation."<ref>Linderski, "The Augural Law," p. 2188.</ref> One calendar, the ''Fasti Verulani'' (c. 17–37 AD), explains the designation by noting it was the ''dies natalis'' of Mark Antony, which the Greek historian and Roman senator Cassius Dio says had been declared ἡμέρα μιαρά ''(hēmera miara)'' (= ''dies vitiosus'') by Augustus.<ref>Cassius Dio [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/51*.html#19.3 51.19.3]; Linderski, "The Augural Law," pp. 2187–2188.</ref> The emperor Claudius, who was the grandson of Antony, rehabilitated the day.<ref>Suetonius, ''Divus Claudius'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Claudius*.html#11.3 11.3], with commentary by Donna W. Hurley, ''Suetonius: Divus Claudius'' (Cambridge University Press, 2001), p. 106.</ref>

====dirae==== The adjective ''dirus'' as applied to an omen meant "dire, awful." It often appears in the feminine plural as a substantive meaning "evil omens." ''Dirae'' were the worst of the five kinds of signs recognized by the augurs, and were a type of oblative or unsought sign that foretold disastrous consequences. The ill-fated departure of Marcus Crassus for the invasion of Parthia was notably attended by ''dirae'' (see Ateius Capito). In the interpretive etymology of ancient writers,<ref>Servius, note to ''Aeneid'' 4.453; Festus 69 (edition of Lindsay).</ref> ''dirae'' was thought to derive from ''dei irae'', the grudges or anger of a god, that is, divine wrath. ''Dirae'' is an epithet for the Furies, and can also mean curses or imprecations,<ref>David Wardle, ''Cicero on Divination, Book 1'' (Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 178, 182; Jerzy Linderski, "The Augural Law", ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16 (1986), p. 2203.</ref> particularly in the context of magic and related to ''defixiones'' (curse tablets).<ref>William Warde Fowler, ''The Religious Experience of the Roman People'' (London, 1922), p. 59; Georg Luck, ''Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985, 2006, 2nd ed.), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ROcBMDUXCMoC&q=dirae passim]''.</ref> In explaining why Claudius felt compelled to ban the religion of the druids, Suetonius<ref>The phrase is ''Druidarum religionem ... dirae immanitatis'' ("the malevolent inhumanity of the religion of the druids"), where ''immanitas'' seems to be the opposite of ''humanitas'' as also evidenced among the Celts: Suetonius, ''Claudius'' 25, in the same passage containing one of the earliest mentions of Christianity as a threat.</ref> speaks of it as ''dirus'', alluding to the practice of human sacrifice.<ref>P.A. Brunt, ''Roman Imperial Themes'' (Oxford University Press, 1990, 2001), p. 485 [https://books.google.com/books?id=szcwAJG84EsC&dq=dirae&pg=RA1-PA485 online.]</ref>

====disciplina Etrusca==== [[File:Piacenza Bronzeleber.jpg|thumb|Etruscan liver of Piacenza]] The collective body of knowledge pertaining to the doctrine, ritual practices, laws, and science of Etruscan religion and cosmology was known as the ''disciplina Etrusca''.<ref>The phrase is used for instance by Servius, note to ''Aeneid'' 4.166.</ref> Divination was a particular feature of the ''disciplina''. The Etruscan texts on the ''disciplina'' that were known to the Romans are of three kinds: the ''libri haruspicini'' (on haruspicy), the ''libri fulgurales'' (lightning), and the ''libri rituales'' (ritual).<ref>Massimo Pallottino, "The Doctrine and Sacred Books of the ''Disciplina Etrusca''", ''Roman and European Mythologies'' (University of Chicago Press, 1992, from the French edition of 1981), pp. 43–44.</ref> Nigidius Figulus, the Late Republican scholar and praetor of 58 BC, was noted for his expertise in the ''disciplina''.<ref>Elizabeth Rawson, "Caesar, Etruria, and the ''Disciplina Etrusca''", ''Journal of Roman Studies'' 68 (1978), p. 138.</ref> Extant ancient sources on the ''Etrusca disciplina'' include Pliny the Elder, Seneca, Cicero, Johannes Lydus, Macrobius and Festus.

====divus==== {{See also|Imperial cult (ancient Rome)#Divus, deus and the numen}} The adjective ''divus'', feminine ''diva'', is usually translated as "divine." As a substantive, ''divus'' refers to a "deified" or divinized mortal. Both ''deus'' and ''divus'' derive from Indo-European ''*deywos'', Old Latin ''deivos''. Servius confirms<ref>Servius, note to ''Aeneid'' 5.45, also 12.139.</ref> that ''deus'' is used for "perpetual deities" ''(deos perpetuos)'', but ''divus'' for people who become divine ''(divos ex hominibus factos = gods who once were men)''. While this distinction is useful in considering the theological foundations of Imperial cult, it sometimes vanishes in practice, particularly in Latin poetry; Virgil, for instance, mostly uses ''deus'' and ''divus'' interchangeably. Varro and Ateius,<ref>Servius is unclear as to whether Lucius Ateius Praetextatus or Gaius Ateius Capito is meant.</ref> however, maintained that the definitions should be reversed.<ref>David Wardle, "''Deus'' or ''Divus'': The Genesis of Roman Terminology for Deified Emperors and a Philosopher's Contribution", in ''Philosophy and Power in the Graeco-Roman World'' (Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 181–183.</ref>

====do ut des==== The formula ''do ut des'' ("I give that you might give") expresses the reciprocity of exchange between human being and deity, reflecting the importance of gift-giving as a mutual obligation in ancient society and the contractual nature of Roman religion. The gifts offered by the human being take the form of sacrifice, with the expectation that the god will return something of value, prompting gratitude and further sacrifices in a perpetuating cycle.<ref>Jörg Rüpke, ''Religion of the Romans'' (Polity Press, 2007, originally published in German 2001), p. 149 [https://books.google.com/books?id=aDlNfUeeuIYC&dq=%22do+ut+des%22&pg=PA149 online.]</ref> The ''do ut des'' principle is particularly active in magic and private ritual.<ref>Georg Luck, ''Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985, 2006), p. 479 [https://books.google.com/books?id=g7EKsAdHdL4C&dq=%22do+ut+des%22&pg=PA479 online.]</ref> ''Do ut des'' was also a judicial concept of contract law.<ref>Adolf Berger, ''Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law'' (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 1953, 2002), p. 414.</ref>

In Pauline theology, ''do ut des'' was viewed as a reductive form of piety, merely a "business transaction", in contrast to God's unilateral grace (χάρις, ''charis'').<ref>James R. Harrison, ''Paul's Language of Grace in Its Graeco-Roman Context'' (C.B. Mohr, 2003), p. 284. See Charites for the ancient Greek goddesses known as the Graces.</ref> Max Weber, in ''The Sociology of Religion'', saw it as "a purely formalistic ethic."<ref>Max Weber, ''The Sociology of Religion'' (Beacon Press, 1963, 1991, originally published in German 1922), p. 82 [https://books.google.com/books?id=abS61el-VEMC&dq=%22do+ut+des%22&pg=PA82 online.]</ref> In ''The Elementary Forms of Religious Life'', however, Émile Durkheim regarded the concept as not merely utilitarian, but an expression of "the mechanism of the sacrificial system itself" as "an exchange of mutually invigorating good deeds between the divinity and his faithful."<ref>Émile Durkheim, ''The Elementary Forms of Religious Life'' (Oxford University Press, 2001 translation), p. 257 [https://books.google.com/books?id=3j5tyWkEZSYC&dq=%22there+is+an+exchange+of+mutually+invigorating+good+deeds%22&pg=PA257 online.]</ref>

===E===

====effatio==== The verb ''effari'', past participle ''effatus'', means "to create boundaries ''(fines)'' by means of fixed verbal formulas."<ref>Festus 146 (edition of Lindsay).</ref> ''Effatio'' is the abstract noun. It was one of the three parts of the ceremony inaugurating a ''templum'' (sacred space), preceded by the consulting of signs and the ''liberatio'' which "freed" the space from malign or competing spiritual influences and human effects.<ref>Jerzy Linderski, "The Augural Law", ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16 (1986), pp. 2156–2157.</ref> A site ''liberatus et effatus'' was thus "exorcized and available."<ref name=":0"/> The result was a ''locus inauguratus'' ("inaugurated site"), the most common form of which was the ''templum''.<ref>Daniel J. Gargola, ''Lands, Laws and Gods: Magistrates and Ceremony in the Regulation of Public Lands'' (University of North Carolina Press, 1995), p. 27.</ref> The boundaries had permanent markers (''cippi'' or ''termini''), and when these were damaged or removed, their ''effatio'' had to be renewed.<ref>Linderski, "Augural Law," p. 2274.</ref>

====evocatio==== [[File:Nike warrior Louvre Ma969.jpg|thumb|Relief (1st century AD) depicting the Palladium atop a column entwined by a snake, to which Victory presents an egg as a warrior attends in a pose of peace]] The "calling forth" or "summoning away" of a deity was an ''evocatio'', from ''evoco, evocare'', "summon." The ritual was conducted in a military setting either as a threat during a siege or as a result of surrender, and aimed at diverting the favor of a tutelary deity from the opposing city to the Roman side, customarily with a promise of a better-endowed cult or a more lavish temple.<ref>Mary Beard, J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, ''Religions of Rome: A Sourcebook'' (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 41.</ref> As a tactic of psychological warfare, ''evocatio'' undermined the enemy's sense of security by threatening the sanctity of its city walls (see pomerium) and other forms of divine protection. In practice, ''evocatio'' was a way to mitigate otherwise sacrilegious looting of religious images from shrines.<ref>Nicholas Purcell, "On the Sacking of Corinth and Carthage", in ''Ethics and Rhetoric: Classical Essays for Donald Russell on His Seventy'' (Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 140–142.</ref>

Recorded examples of evocations include the transferral of Juno Regina ("Juno the Queen", originally Etruscan ''Uni'') from Veii in 396 BC;<ref>Beard ''et al.'', ''Religions of Rome: A Sourcebook'', pp. 41–42, with the passage from Livy, 5.21.1–7; Robert Turcan, ''The Cults of the Roman Empire'' (Blackwell, 1996, 2001, originally published in French 1992), p. 12; Robert Schilling, "Juno", ''Roman and European Mythologies'' (University of Chicago Press, 1992, from the French edition of 1981), p 131.</ref> the ritual performed by Scipio Aemilianus in 146 BC at the defeat of Carthage, involving Tanit (Juno Caelestis);<ref>Daniel J. Gargola, ''Lands, Laws, and Gods: Magistrates and Ceremonies in the Regulation of Public Lands in Republican Rome'' (University of North Carolina Press, 1995), p. 30. Elizabeth Rawson expresses doubts as to whether the ''evocatio'' of 146 BC occurred as such; see "Scipio, Laelius, Furius and the Ancestral Religion", ''Journal of Roman Studies'' 63 (1973) 161–174.</ref> and the dedication of a temple to an unnamed, gender-indeterminate deity at Isaura Vetus in Asia Minor in 75 BC.<ref>Evidenced by an inscription dedicated by an ''imperator'' Gaius Servilius, probably at the vowed temple; Beard ''et al.'', ''Religions of Rome: A Sourcebook'', p. 248.</ref> Some scholars think that Vortumnus (Etruscan ''Voltumna'') was brought by evocation to Rome in 264 BC as a result of M. Fulvius Flaccus's defeat of the Volsinii.<ref>As implied but not explicitly stated by Propertius, Elegy 4.2; Daniel P. Harmon, "Religion in the Latin Elegists", ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16.3 (1986), pp. 1960–1961.</ref> In Roman myth, a similar concept motivates the transferral of the Palladium from Troy to Rome, where it served as one of the ''pignora imperii'', sacred tokens of Roman sovereignty.<ref>Eric Orlin, ''Foreign Cults in Rome: Creating a Roman Empire'' (Oxford University Press, 2010), pp. 37–38.</ref> Compare ''invocatio'', the "calling on" of a deity.

Formal evocations are known only during the Republic.<ref>Mary Beard, J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, ''Religions of Rome: A History'' (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 254.</ref> Other forms of religious assimilation appear from the time of Augustus, often in connection with the establishment of the Imperial cult in the provinces.<ref>Arnaldo Momigliano, ''On Pagans, Jews, and Christians'' (Wesleyan University Press, 1987), p. 178; Greg Woolf, ''Becoming Roman: The Origins of Provincial Civilization in Gaul'' (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 214.</ref>

''Evocatio'', "summons", was also a term of Roman law without evident reference to its magico-religious sense.<ref>George Mousourakis, ''The Historical and Institutional Context of Roman Law'' (Ashgate, 2003), p. 339 [https://books.google.com/books?id=2MqfUsMiDbYC&dq=evocatio&pg=PA308 online.]</ref>

====exauguratio==== A site that had been inaugurated ''(locus inauguratus)'', that is, marked out through augural procedure, could not have its purpose changed without a ceremony of reversal.<ref>Daniel J. Gargola, ''Lands, Laws, and Gods: Magistrates and Ceremony in the Regulation of Public Lands'' (University of North Carolina Press, 1995), p. 27; Jerzy Linderski, "The Augural Law", ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16 (1986), p. 2273.</ref> Removing a god from the premises required the correct ceremonial invocations.<ref>Clifford Ando, ''The Matter of the Gods: Religion and the Roman Empire'' (University of California Press, 2008), p. 184, citing Servius, note to ''Aeneid'' 2.351: "Pontifical law advises that unless Roman deities are called by their proper names, they cannot be exaugurated" ''(et iure pontificum cautum est, ne suis nominibus dii Romani appellarentur, ne exaugurari possint)''.</ref> When Tarquin rebuilt the temple district on the Capitoline, a number of deities were dislodged by ''exauguratio'', though Terminus and Juventas "refused" and were incorporated into the new structure.<ref>Livy 5.54.7; Dionysius of Halicarnassus 3.69.5; J. Rufus Fears, "The Cult of Virtues and Roman Imperial Ideology," ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.17.2 (1981), p. 848.</ref> A distinction between the ''exauguratio'' of a deity and an ''evocatio'' can be unclear.<ref>Clifford Ando, "Exporting Roman Religion," in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'' (Blackwell, 2007), p. 442.</ref> The procedure was in either case rare, and was required only when a deity had to yield place to another, or when the site was secularized. It was not required when a site was upgraded, for instance, if an open-air altar were to be replaced with a temple building to the same god.<ref>Fay Glinister, "Sacred Rubbish," in ''Religion in Archaic and Republican Rome and Italy: Evidence and Experience'' (Edinburgh University Press, 2000), p. 66.</ref>

The term could also be used for removing someone from a priestly office ''(sacerdotium)''.<ref>Jörg Rüpke, ''Fasti sacerdotum: A Prosopography of Pagan, Jewish, and Christian Religious Officials in the City of Rome, 300 BC to AD 499'' (Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 530, 753.</ref> Compare ''inauguratio''.

====eximius==== An adjective, "choice, select," used to denote the high quality required of sacrificial victims: "Victims ''(hostiae)'' are called 'select' ''(eximiae)'' because they are selected ''(eximantur)'' from the herd and designated for sacrifice, or because they are chosen on account of their choice ''(eximia)'' appearance as offerings to divine entities ''(numinibus)''."<ref>Macrobius, ''Saturnalia'' III 5, 6, quoting a passage from Veranius, ''De pontificalibus quaestionibus'': ''eximias dictas hostias quae ad sacrificium destinatae eximantur e grege, vel quod eximia specie quasi offerendae numinibus eligantur.''</ref> The adjective here is synonymous with ''egregius'', "chosen from the herd ''(grex, gregis)''."<ref>F. Sini''Sua cuique civitati religio'' Torino 2001 p. 197</ref> Macrobius says it is specifically a sacerdotal term and not a "poetic epithet" ''(poeticum ἐπίθετον)''. <!-- ====expiatio==== To give satisfaction, or atonement of sin, past participle stem of expiare "make amends," from ex- "completely" and piare "propitiate," (appease) as in pius (meaning faithful, loyal, devout)

====execrari==== To pronounce abhorrent - present active infinitive of execrate meaning to curse or detest -->

====exta==== 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'').<ref>Cicero, ''De divinatione'' 2.12.29. According to Pliny (''Natural History'' 11.186), before 274 BC the heart was not included among the ''exta''.</ref> The ''exta'' were exposed for litation (divine approval) as part of Roman liturgy, but were "read" in 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 the fire on the altar for the offering; the technical verb for this action was ''porricere''.<ref>Robert Schilling, "The Roman Religion", in ''Historia Religionum: Religions of the Past'' (Brill, 1969), vol. 1, pp. 471–472, and "Roman Sacrifice," ''Roman and European Mythologies'' (University of Chicago Press, 1992), p. 79; John Scheid, ''An Introduction to Roman Religion'' (Indiana University Press, 2003, originally published in French 1998), p. 84.</ref>

===F===

====fanaticus==== ''Fanaticus'' means "belonging to a ''fanum''," a shrine or sacred precinct.<ref>Georg Luck, ''Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985, 2006, 2nd ed.), p. 511.</ref> ''Fanatici'' as applied to people refers to temple attendants or devotees of a cult, usually one of the ecstatic or orgiastic religions such as that of Cybele (in reference to the Galli),<ref>Juvenal, ''Satire'' 2.110–114; Livy 37.9 and 38.18; Richard M. Crill, "Roman Paganism under the Antonines and Severans," ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16.2 (1976), p. 31.</ref> Bellona-Ma,<ref>Juvenal, ''Satire'' 4.123; Stephen L. Dyson, ''Rome: A Living Portrait of an Ancient City'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010), pp. 228, 328; John E. Stambaugh, "The Functions of Roman Temples," ''ANRW'' II.16.2 (1976), p. 593; Robert Turcan, ''The Cults of the Roman Empire'' (Blackwell, 1992, 2001 printing), p. 41.</ref> or perhaps Silvanus.<ref>Anonymous author of the ''Historia Augusta'', ''Tacitus'' 17.1: ''Fanaticus quidam in Templo Silvani tensis membris exclamavit'', as cited by Peter F. Dorcey, ''The Cult of Silvanus: A Study in Roman Folk Religion'' (Brill, 1992), p. 90, with some due skepticism toward the source.</ref> Inscriptions indicate that a person making a dedication might label himself ''fanaticus'', in the neutral sense of "devotee".<ref>''CIL'' VI.490, 2232, and 2234, as cited by Stambaugh, "The Function of Roman Temples," p. 593, note 275.</ref> Tacitus uses ''fanaticus'' to describe the troop of druids who attended on the Icenian queen Boudica.<ref>''Fanaticum agmen'', Tacitus, ''Annales'' 14.30.</ref> The word was often used disparagingly by ancient Romans in contrasting these more emotive rites to the highly scripted procedures of public religion,<ref>See for instance Cicero, ''De domo sua'' 105, ''De divinatione'' 2.118; and Horace's comparison of supposedly inspired poetic frenzy to the ''fanaticus error'' of religious mania (''Ars Poetica'' 454); C.O. Brink, ''Horace on Poetry: Epistles Book II, The Letters to Augustus and Florus'' (Cambridge University Press, 1982), p. 357; Marten Stol, ''Epilepsy in Babylonia'' (Brill, 1993), p. 121 [https://books.google.com/books?id=Tu-MYstDdvoC&q=%22fanaticus+error%22 online.]</ref> and later by early Christians to deprecate religions other than their own; hence the negative connotation of "fanatic" in English.

Festus says that a tree struck by lightning is called ''fanaticus'',<ref>''Fanatica dicitur arbor fulmine icta'', apud Paulus, p. 92M.</ref> a reference to the Romano-Etruscan belief in lightning as a form of divine sign.<ref>Festus s.v. delubrum p. 64 M; G. Colonna "Sacred Architecture and the Religion of the Etruscans" in N. Thomas De Grummond ''The Religion of the Etruscans'' 2006 p. 165 n. 59</ref> The Gallic bishop Caesarius of Arles, writing in the 5th century, indicates that such trees retained their sanctity even up to his own time,<ref>''S.'' 53.1, ''CCSL'' 103:233–234, as cited by Bernadotte Filotas, ''Pagan Survivals, Superstitions and Popular Cultures in Early Medieval Pastoral Literature'' (Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2005), p. 68.</ref> and urged the Christian faithful to burn down the ''arbores fanaticae''. These trees either were located in and marked a ''fanum'' or were themselves considered a ''fanum''. Caesarius is somewhat unclear as to whether the devotees regarded the tree itself as divine or whether they thought its destruction would kill the ''numen'' housed within it. Either way, even scarcity of firewood would not persuade them to use the sacred wood for fuel, a scruple for which he mocked them.<ref>"What a thing is that, that when those trees to which people make vows fall, no one carries wood from them home to use on the hearth! Behold the wretchedness and stupidity of mankind: they show honour to a dead tree and despite the commands of the living God; they do not dare to put the branches of a tree into the fire and by an act of sacrilege throw themselves headlong into hell": Caesarius of Arles, ''S.'' 54.5, ''CCSL'' 103:239, as quoted and discussed by Filotas, ''Pagan Survivals'', p. 146.</ref>

====fanum==== A ''fanum'' is a plot of consecrated ground, a sanctuary,<ref>As for instance in Livy 10.37.15, where he says that the temple of Jupiter Stator, established by the wartime ''votum'' of the consul and general M. Atilius Regulus in the 290s BC, had already been vowed by Romulus, but had remained only a fanum, a site ''(locus)'' delineated by means of verbalized ritual ''(effatus)'' for a ''templum''.</ref> and from that a temple or shrine built there.<ref>Roger D. Woodard, ''Indo-European Sacred Space: Vedic and Roman Cult'' (University of Illinois Press, 2006), p. 150 [https://books.google.com/books?id=EB4fB0inNYEC&dq=fanum&pg=PA150 online.]</ref> A ''fanum'' may be a traditional sacred space such as the grove (''lucus'') of Diana Nemorensis, or a sacred space or structure for non-Roman religions, such as an Iseum (temple of Isis) or Mithraeum. Cognates such as Oscan ''fíísnú'',<ref>''Fíísnú'' is the nominative form.</ref> Umbrian ''fesnaf-e'',<ref>The form ''fesnaf-e'' is an accusative plural with an enclitic postposition.</ref> and Paelignian ''fesn'' indicate that the concept is shared by Italic peoples.<ref>Woodard, ''Indo-European Sacred Space'', p. 150.</ref> The Greek temenos was the same concept. By the Augustan period, ''fanum'', ''aedes'', ''templum'', and ''delubrum'' are scarcely distinguishable in usage,<ref>S.P. Oakley, ''A Commentary on Livy, Books 6–10'' (Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 378; Michel P.J. van den Hout, ''A Commentary on the Letters of M. Cornelius Fronto'' (Brill, 1999), p. 164.</ref> but ''fanum'' was a more inclusive and general term.<ref>Lawrence Richardson, ''A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), p. 2.</ref>

The ''fanum'', Romano-Celtic temple, or ambulatory temple of Roman Gaul was often built over an originally Celtic religious site, and its plan was influenced by the ritual architecture of earlier Celtic sanctuaries. The masonry temple building of the Gallo-Roman period had a central space (''cella'') and a peripheral gallery structure, both square.<ref>Patrice Méniel, "''Fanum'' and sanctuary," in ''Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia'' (ABC-Clio, 2006), pp. 229, 733–734 [https://books.google.com/books?id=f899xH_quaMC&dq=fanum&pg=PA733 online.]</ref> Romano-Celtic ''fana'' of this type are found also in Roman Britain.<ref>See [http://www.roman-britain.org/places/bourton_grounds.htm Romano-Celtic Temple Bourton Grounds in Great-Britain] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130216021402/http://www.roman-britain.org/places/bourton_grounds.htm |date=2013-02-16 }} and [http://www.roman-britain.org/romano-british-temples.htm Romano-British Temples] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120907120812/http://www.roman-britain.org/romano-british-temples.htm |date=2012-09-07 }}</ref>{{better source needed|date=February 2013}}

The English word "profane" ultimately derives from Latin ''pro fano'',<ref>T.F. Hoad, ''English Etymology'', Oxford University Press 1993. p. 372a.</ref> "before, i.e. outside, the temple", "In front of the sanctuary," hence not within sacred ground.

====fata deorum==== ''Fata deorum'' or the contracted form ''fata deum'' are the utterances of the gods; that is, prophecies.<ref>Servius, note to ''Aeneid'' 2.54; Nicholas Horsfall, ''Virgil, Aeneid 2: A Commentary'' (Brill, 2008), p. 91.</ref> These were recorded in written form, and conserved by the state priests of Rome for consultation. The ''fata'' are both "fate" as known and determined by the gods, or the expression of the divine will in the form of verbal oracles.<ref>Horsfall, ''Virgil, Aeneid 2,'' p. 91.</ref> ''Fata deum'' is a theme of the ''Aeneid,'' Virgil's national epic of Rome.<ref>Elisabeth Henry, ''The Vigour of Prophecy: A Study of Virgil's Aeneid'' (Southern Illinois University Press, 1989) ''passim.''</ref>

The Sibylline Books ''(Fata Sibyllina'' or ''Libri Fatales)'', composed in Greek hexameters, are an example of written ''fata''. These were not Roman in origin but were believed to have been acquired in only partial form by Lucius Tarquinius Superbus. They were guarded by the priesthood of the ''decemviri sacris faciundis'' "ten men for carrying out sacred rites", later fifteen in number: ''quindecimviri sacris faciundis''. No one read the books in their entirety; they were consulted only when needed. A passage was selected at random and its relevance to the current situation was a matter of expert interpretation.<ref>Jerzy Linderski, "Founding the City," in ''Ten Years of the Agnes Kirsopp Lake Michels Lectures at Bryn Mawr College'' (Bryn Mawr Commentaries, 2006), p. 93.</ref> They were thought to contain ''fata rei publicae aeterna'', "prophecies eternally valid for Rome".<ref>R.L. Rike, ''Apex Omnium: Religion in the ''Res Gestae'' of Ammianus'' (University of California Press, 1987), p. 123.</ref> They continued to be consulted throughout the Imperial period until the time of Christian hegemony. Augustus installed the Sibylline books in a special golden storage case under the statue of Apollo in the Temple of Apollo Palatinus.<ref>Cynthia White, "The Vision of Augustus," ''Classica et Mediaevalia'' 55 (2004), p. 276.</ref> The emperor Aurelian chastised the senate for succumbing to Christian influence and not consulting the books.<ref>Rike, ''Apex Omnium'', pp. 122–123.</ref> Julian consulted the books regarding his campaign against Persia, but departed before he received the unfavorable response of the college; Julian was killed and the Temple of Apollo Palatinus burned.<ref>Ammianus Marcellinus, ''Res gestae'' 23.1.7, as cited by Rike, ''Apex Omnium,'' p. 122, note 57; Sarolta A. Takács, ''Vestal Virgins, Sibyls, and Matrons: Women in Roman Religion'' (University of Texas Press, 2008), p. 68.</ref>

{{anchor|Fas}}

====fas==== ''Fas'' is a central concept in Roman religion. Although translated in some contexts as "divine law,"<ref>See Mary Beard ''et al.'', ''Religions of Rome: Volume 1, a History'' (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 370 [https://books.google.com/books?id=2rtaTFYuM3QC&dq=fas&pg=PA370 online], in a Christianized context with reference to Constantine I's AD 314 address of the Donatist dispute.</ref> ''fas'' is more precisely that which is "religiously legitimate,"<ref>Robert Schilling, "Roman Festivals," ''Roman and European Mythologies'' (University of Chicago Press, 1992), p. 92. So too R. Orestano, "Dal ius al fas," ''Bullettino dell'Istituto di diritto romano'' 46 (1939), p. 244 ff., and ''I fatti di normazione nell 'esperienza romana arcaica'' (Turin 1967), p.106 ff.; A. Guarino, ''L'ordinamento giuridico romano'' (Naples 1980), p. 93; J. Paoli, ''Le monde juridique du paganisme romain'' p. 5; P. Catalano, ''Contributi allo studio del diritto augurale'' (Turin 1960), pp. 23 ff., 326 n. 10; C. Gioffredi, ''Diritto e processo nelle antiche forme giuridiche romane'' (Rome 1955), p. 25; B. Albanese, ''Premesse allo studio del diritto privat romano'' (Palermo 1978), p.127.</ref> or an action that is lawful in the eyes of the gods.<ref>Valerie M. Warrior, Roman Religion, Cambridge University Press, 2006, p.160 [https://books.google.com/books?id=15eoNRxOrN8C&dq=fas&pg=PA160-IA4]</ref> In public religion, ''fas est'' is declared before announcing an action required or allowed by Roman religious custom and by divine law.<ref>Michael Lipka, ''Roman Gods: A Conceptual Approach'' (Brill, 2009), p.113 [https://books.google.com/books?id=1zGZQnqWH2MC&dq=%22The+basic+parameter+for+the+decision+whether+a+ritual+focus%22&pg=PA113 online.]</ref> ''Fas'' is thus both distinguished from and linked to ''ius'' (plural ''iura''), "law, lawfulness, justice," as indicated by Virgil's often-cited phrase ''fas et iura sinunt'', "''fas'' and ''iura'' allow (it)," which Servius explains as "divine and human laws permit (it), for ''fas'' pertains to religion, ''iura'' to the human being."<ref>Vergil, ''Georgics'' 1.269, with Servius's note: "divina humanaque iura permittunt: nam ad religionem fas, ad hominem iura pertinunt". See also Robert Turcan, ''The Gods of Ancient Rome: Religion in Everyday Life from Archaic to Imperial Times'' (Routledge, 2000), p.5 [https://books.google.com/books?id=6IAsHrDuSAwC&q=%20fas&pg=PR5 online.] and discussion of the relationship between ''fas'' and ''ius'' from multiple scholarly perspectives by Jerzy Linderski, "The Augural Law", ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16 (1986), pp. 2203–04 [https://books.google.com/books?id=eOe3Fv1UUKoC&dq=fas&pg=PA2203 online.]</ref>

[[File:Roman-calendar.png|thumb|The ''Fasti Antiates Maiores'', a pre-Julian calendar in a reconstructed drawing]] In Roman calendars, days marked ''F'' are ''dies fasti'', when it is ''fas'' to attend to the concerns of everyday life.<ref>Schilling, ''Roman and European Mythologies'', p. 92.</ref> In non-specialized usage, ''fas est'' may mean generally "it is permissible, it is right."

The etymology of ''fas'' is debated. It is more commonly associated with the semantic field of the verb ''for, fari'', "to speak,"<ref>The ''Oxford Latin Dictionary'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982, 1985 reprinting), entry on ''fas'' p. 676, considers the etymology dubious but leans toward ''for, fari''. The Indo-Europeanist Emile Benveniste derives ''fas'', as a form of divine speech, from the IE root ''*bhā'' (as cited by Schilling, ''Roman and European Mythologies'', p. 93, note 4).</ref> an origin pressed by Varro.<ref>Varro, ''De Lingua Latina'', 6.29, because on ''dies fasti'' the courts are in session and political speech may be practiced freely. Ovid pursues the connection between the ''dies fasti'' and permissible speech ''(fas est)'' in his calendrical poem the ''Fasti''; see discussion by Carole E. Newlands, ''Playing with Time: Ovid and the Fasti'' (Cornell Studies in Classical Philology, 1995), p. 175 [https://archive.org/details/playingwithtimeo00newl  online.]</ref> In other sources, both ancient and modern, ''fas'' is thought to have its origin in an Indo-European root meaning "to establish," along with ''fanum'' and ''feriae''.<ref>Dumézil holds that ''fas'' derives from the IE root ''*dhē'' (as noted by Schilling, ''Roman and European Mythologies'', p. 93, note 4). One ancient tradition associated the etymology of ''fas'' with that of Themis as the "establisher". See Paulus, epitome of Festus, p. 505 (edition of Lindsay); Ausonius, ''Technopaegnion'' 8, and ''de diis'' 1. For the scholarship, see U. Coli, "Regnum" in ''Studia et documenta historiae et iuris'' 17 1951; C. Ferrini "Fas" in ''Nuovo Digesto Italiano'' p. 918; C. Gioffredi, ''Diritto e processo nelle antiche forme giuridiche romane'' (Roma 1955) p. 25 n.1; H. Fugier, ''Recherches sur l' expression du sacre' dans la langue latine'' (Paris 1963), pp. 142 ff.; G. Dumezil, ''La religion romaine archaique'' (Paris 1974), p. 144.</ref> See also Fasti and nefas.

====fasti==== A record or plan of official and religiously sanctioned events. All state and societal business must be transacted on ''dies fasti'', "allowed days". The ''fasti'' were the records of all details pertaining to these events. The word was used alone in a general sense or qualified by an adjective to mean a specific type of record. Closely associated with the ''fasti'' and used to mark time in them were the divisions of the Roman calendar.

The ''Fasti'' is also the title of a six-book poem by Ovid based on the Roman religious calendar. It is a major source for Roman religious practice, and was translated into English by J. G. Frazer.

====felix==== In its religious sense, ''felix'' means "blessed, under the protection or favour of the gods; happy." That which is ''felix'' has achieved the ''pax divom'', a state of harmony or peace with the divine world.<ref>H. Fugier ''Recherches sur l'expression du sacre' dans la langue latine'' Paris, 1963</ref> It is rooted in Indo-European ''*dhe(i)l,'' meaning "happy, fruitful, productive, full of nourishment." Related Latin words include ''femina'', "woman" (a person who provides nourishment or suckles); ''felo'', "to suckle"; and ''filius'', "son" (a person suckled).<ref>W. W. Skeat ''Etymological Dictionary of the English Language'' New York 1963 sv felicity, feminine</ref> See also ''Felicitas'', both an abstraction that expressed the quality of being ''felix'' and a deity of Roman state religion.

====feria==== {{Further|Roman festivals}} A ''feria'' on the Roman calendar is a "free day", that is, a day in which no work was done. No court sessions were held, nor was any public business conducted. Employees were entitled to a day off, and even slaves were not obliged to work. These days were codified into a system of legal public holidays, the ''feriae publicae'', which could be *''stativae'', "stationary, fixed", holidays which recurred on the same date each year; * ''conceptivae'', recurring holidays for which the date depended on some other factor, usually the agrarian cycle. They included Compitalia, Paganalia, Sementivae and Latinae (compare the moveable Christian holiday of Easter); * ''imperativae'', one-off holidays ordered to mark a special occasion, established with an act of authority of a magistrate.

In the Christian Roman Rite, a feria is a day of the week other than Saturday or Sunday.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06043a.htm |title=Catholic Encyclopedia: Feria |publisher=Newadvent.org |date=1909-09-01 |accessdate=2022-08-27}}</ref> The custom throughout Europe of holding markets on the same day gave rise to the word "fair" (Spanish ''Feria'', Italian ''Fiera'', Catalan ''Fira'').

====festus==== In the Roman calendar, a ''dies festus'' is a festive or holy day, that is, a day dedicated to a deity or deities. On such days it was forbidden to undertake any profane activity, especially official or public business. All ''dies festi'' were thus ''nefasti''. Some days, however, were not ''festi'' and yet might not be permissible as business days ''(fasti)'' for other reasons. The days on which profane activities were permitted are ''profesti''.<ref>G. Dumezil ''La religion romaine archaique'' Paris 1974 part IV chapt. 2; ''Camillus: a study of Indo-European religion as Roman history'' (University of California Press, 1980), p. 214 [https://books.google.com/books?id=GLVpSyzhto0C&q=profesti online], citing Macrobius, ''Saturnalia'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Macrobius/Saturnalia/1*.html#16 1.16.2.]</ref>

====fetial==== The ''fetiales'', or fetial priests.

====finis==== The ''finis'' (limit, border, boundary), plural ''fines'', was an essential concept in augural practice, which was concerned with the definition of the ''templum''. Establishing ''fines'' was an important part of a magistrate's duties.<ref>Livy I.18.9; Varro, ''De lingua latina'' V.143, VI.153, VII.8-9; Aulus Gellius [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Gellius/13*.html#14 XIII.14.1] (on the ''pomerium''); Festus p. 488 L, ''tesca''.</ref> Most scholars regard the ''finis'' as having been defined physically by ropes, trees, stones, or other markers, as were fields and property boundaries in general. It was connected with the god Terminus and his cult.<ref>Joseph Rykwert, ''The Idea of a Town: The Anthropology of Urban Form in Rome, Italy and the Ancient World'' (MIT Press, 1988, originally published 1976), pp. 106–107, 126–127; Wissowa, ''Religion und Kultus der Römer'' (Munich 1912) 2nd pp. 136 ff.; G. Dumezil, ''La religion romaine archaique'' (Paris 1974) 2nd, pp. 210 ff.; Varro, ''De lingua latina'' V.21; Isidore, ''Origines'' XV.14.3; Paulus, ''Fest. epit.'' p. 505 L; Ovid, ''Fasti'' II 639 ff.</ref>

====flamen==== thumb|upright|left|Flamen wearing the distinctive hat of his office, with the top point missing ''(3rd century AD)'' The fifteen ''flamines'' formed part of the College of Pontiffs. Each flamen served as the high priest to one of the official deities of Roman religion, and led the rituals relating to that deity. The ''flamines'' were regarded as the most ancient among the ''sacerdotes'', as many of them were assigned to deities who dated back to the prehistory of Latium and whose significance had already become obscure by classical times.

The archaic nature of the flamens is indicated by their presence among Latin tribes. They officiated at ceremonies with their head covered by a ''velum'' and always wore a ''filamen'', thread, in contrast to public rituals conducted by Greek rite ''(ritus graecus)'' which were established later. Ancient authors derive the word ''flamen'' from the custom of covering the head with the ''filamen'', but it may be cognate to Vedic ''brahmin''. The distinctive headgear of the flamen was the ''apex''.

====Fratres Arvales==== The "Brothers of the Field" were a college of priests whose duties were concerned with agriculture and farming. They were the most ancient religious ''sodalitas'': according to tradition they were created by Romulus, but probably predated the foundation of Rome.{{Citation needed|date=September 2010}}

===G===

====Gabinus==== The adjective ''gabinus'' describes an element of religion that the Romans attributed to practices from Gabii, a town of Latium with municipal status about 12 miles from Rome. The incorporation of Gabinian traditions indicates their special status under treaty with Rome. See ''cinctus gabinus'' and ''ager gabinus''.<ref name="Roman World 1935, p. 409"/>

===H===

====hostia==== thumb|upright|Ritual implements The ''hostia'' was the offering, usually an animal, in a sacrifice. The word is used interchangeably with ''victima'' by Ovid and others, but some ancient authors attempt to distinguish between the two.<ref name="google159">Discussion and citation of ancient sources by Steven J. Green, ''Ovid'', Fasti'' 1: A Commentary'' (Brill, 2004), pp. 159–160 [https://books.google.com/books?id=yPUDE65WEMoC&dq=victima+hostis+OR+hostia&pg=PA159 online.]</ref> Servius says<ref>Servius, note to ''Aeneid'' 1.334.</ref> that the ''hostia'' is sacrificed before battle, the ''victima'' afterward, which accords with Ovid's etymology in relating the "host" to the "hostiles" or enemy (''hostis''), and the "victim" to the "victor."<ref>''Hostibus a domitis hostia nomen habet'' ("the ''hostia'' gets its name from the 'hostiles' that have been defeated"), Ovid, ''Fasti'' 1.336; ''victima quae dextra cecidit victrice vocatur'' ("the victim which is killed by the victor's right hand is named [from that act]"), 1.335.</ref>

The difference between the ''victima'' and ''hostia'' is elsewhere said to be a matter of size, with the ''hostia'' smaller (''minor'').<ref name="Char403.38" /> ''Hostiae'' were also classified by age: ''lactentes'' were young enough to be still taking milk, but had reached the age to be ''purae''; ''bidentes'' had reached two years of age<ref>Macrobius ''Sat.'' VI 9, 5-7; Varro ''Ling. Lat.'' V</ref> or had the two longer ''(bi-)'' incisor teeth ''(dentes)'' that are an indication of age.<ref>Macrobius ''Sat.'' VI 9, 7; Festus s.v. ''bidentes'' p.33 M</ref>

''Hostiae'' could be classified in various ways. A ''hostia consultatoria'' was an offering for the purpose of consulting with a deity, that is, in order to know the will of a deity; the ''hostia animalis'', to increase the force (''mactare'') of the deity.<ref>Macrobius, ''Saturnalia'' III 5, 1 ff.</ref>

The victim might also be classified by occasion and timing. The ''hostia praecidanea'' was an "anticipatory offering" made the day before a sacrifice.<ref>Nathan Rosenstein, ''Imperatores Victi: Military Defeat and Aristocratic Competition in the Middle and Late Republic'' (University of California Press, 1990), p. 64.</ref> It was an advance atonement "to implore divine indulgence" should an error be committed on the day of the formal sacrifice.<ref>Robert Turcan, ''The Gods of Ancient Rome'' (Routledge, 2001; originally published in French 1998), p. 9.</ref> A preliminary pig was offered as a ''praecidanea'' the day before the harvest began.<ref>Turcan, ''The Gods of Ancient Rome'', p. 39.</ref> The ''hostia praecidanea'' was offered to Ceres a day in advance of a religious festival (''sacrum'', before the beginning of the harvest) in expiation for negligences in the duties of piety towards the deceased.{{clarify|date=April 2012}} The ''hostia praesentanaea'' was a pig offered to Ceres during a part of the funeral rites conducted within sight of the deceased, whose family was thereby ritually absolved.<ref>Veranius, ''Iur.'' 7: ''praesentanaea porca dicitur ... quae familiae purgandae causa Cereris immolatur, quod pars quaedam eius sacrificii fit in conspectu mortui eius, cuius funus instituitur''.</ref> A ''hostia succidanea'' was offered at any rite after the first sacrifice had failed owing to a ritual impropriety (''vitium'').<ref>Aulus Gellius ''Noctes Atticae'' IV 6, 3-10 for '' hostia succidanea'' and ''praecidanea''; also Festus p. 250 L. s. v. ''praecidanea hostia''; Festus p. 298 L. s.v. ''praesentanea hostia''. Gellius's passage implies a conceptual connexion between the ''hostia praecidanea'' and the ''feriae succidaneae'', though this is not explicated. Scholarly interpretations thus differ on what the ''feriae praecidaneae'' were: cf. A. Bouché-Leclercq ''Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines'' III Paris 1898 s. v ''Inauguratio'' p. 440 and n. 1; G. Wissowa ''Religion und Kultus der Römer'' München 1912 p.438 f.; L. Schmitz in W. Smith ''A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities'' London 1875 s. v. feriae; P. Catalano ''Contributi allo studio del diritto augurale'' Torino 1960 p. 352.</ref> Compare ''piaculum'', an expiatory offering.

''Hostia'' is the origin of the word "host" for the Eucharistic sacrament of the Western Church; see Sacramental bread: Catholic Church. See also ''votum'', a dedication or a vow of an offering to a deity as well as that which fulfilled the vow.

===I===

====inauguratio==== A rite performed by augurs by which the concerned person received the approval of the gods for his appointment or their investiture. The augur would ask for the appearance of certain signs ''(auspicia impetrativa)'' while standing beside the appointee on the ''auguraculum''. In the Regal period, ''inauguratio'' concerned the king and the major ''sacerdotes''.<ref>Cicero, ''De legibus'' ii 8,20; Dionysius Halicarnassus II 22,3.</ref> After the establishment of the Republic, the ''rex sacrorum'',<ref>Livy XXVII 36, 5; XL 42, 8-10; Aulus Gellius XV 17, 1</ref> the three ''flamines maiores'',<ref>Gaius I 130; III 114; Livy XXVII 8,4; XLI 28, 7; XXXVII 47, 8; XXIX 38, 6;XLV 15,19; Macrobius II 13, 11;</ref> the augurs, and the pontiffs<ref>Cicero, ''Brutus'' 1; Livy XXVII 36, 5; XXX 26, 10; Dionysius Halicarnassus II 73, 3.</ref> all had to be inaugurated.

The term may also refer to the ritual establishing of the augural ''templum'' and the tracing of the wall of a new city.{{Citation needed|date=September 2010}}

====indigitamenta==== The ''indigitamenta'' were lists of gods maintained by the College of Pontiffs to assure that the correct divine names were invoked for public prayers. It is sometimes unclear whether these names represent distinct minor entities, or epithets pertaining to an aspect of a major deity's sphere of influence, that is, an indigitation, or name intended to "fix" or focalize the local action of the god so invoked.<ref>William Warde Fowler, ''The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic'' (London, 1908), p. 89.</ref> Varro is assumed to have drawn on direct knowledge of the lists in writing his theological books, as evidenced by the catalogues of minor deities mocked by the Church Fathers who used his work<ref>In particular, Book 14 of the non-extant ''Antiquitates rerum divinarum''; see Lipka, ''Roman Gods'', pp. 69–70.</ref> as a reference.<ref>W.R. Johnson, "The Return of Tutunus", ''Arethusa'' (1992) 173–179; Fowler, ''Religious Experience'', p. 163. Wissowa, however, asserted that Varro's lists were not ''indigitamenta'', but ''di certi'', gods whose function could still be identified with certainty; ''Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics'' (unknown ed.), vol. 13, p. 218. See also Kurt Latte, ''Roemische Religionsgeschichte'' (Munich, 1960), pp. 44-45.</ref> Another source is likely to have been the non-extant work ''De indigitamentis'' of Granius Flaccus, Varro's contemporary.<ref>Lactantius, ''Div. inst.'' 1.6.7; Censorinus 3.2; Arnaldo Momigliano, "The Theological Efforts of the Roman Upper Classes in the First Century B.C.", ''Classical Philology'' 79 (1984), p. 210.</ref> Not to be confused with the ''di indigetes.''

====invocatio==== The addressing of a deity in a prayer or magic spell is the {{lang|la|invocatio}}, from {{lang|la|invoco, invocare}}, "to call upon" the gods or spirits of the dead.<ref>Georg Luck, ''Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985, 2006, 2nd ed.), p. 513.</ref> The efficacy of the {{lang|la|invocatio}} depends on the correct naming of the deity, which may include epithets, descriptive phrases, honorifics or titles, and arcane names. The list of names ({{lang|la|nomina}}) is often extensive, particularly in magic spells; many prayers and hymns are composed largely of invocations.<ref>Matthias Klinghardt, "Prayer Formularies for Public Recitation: Their Use and Function in Ancient Religion", ''Numen'' 46 (1999), pp. 44–45; Frances Hickson Hahn, "Performing the Sacred: Prayers and Hymns", in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'' (Blackwell, 2007), p. 240; Nicole Belayche, "Religious Actors in Daily Life: Practices and Shared Beliefs", in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'', p. 279.</ref> The name is invoked in either the vocative<ref>The vocative is the grammatical case used only for "calling" or invoking, that is, hailing or addressing someone paratactically.</ref> or the accusative case.<ref>Gábor Betegh, ''The Derveni Papyrus: Cosmology, Theology and Interpretation'' (Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 137.</ref> In specialized usage pertaining to augural procedure, {{lang|la|invocatio}} is a synonym for {{lang|la|precatio}}, but specifically aimed at averting ''mala'', evil occurrences.<ref>Jerzy Linderski, "The Augural Law", Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.16 (1986), pp. 2253</ref> Compare ''evocatio''.

The equivalent term in ancient Greek religion is ''epiklesis''.<ref>Luck, ''Arcana Mundi'', pp. 497, 498.</ref> Pausanias distinguished among the categories of theonym proper, poetic epithet, the ''epiclesis'' of local cult, and an ''epiclesis'' that might be used universally among the Greeks.<ref>Pausanias gave specific examples in regard to Poseidon (7.21.7); Claude Calame, "The ''Homeric Hymns'' as Poetic Offerings: Musical and Ritual Relationships with the Gods," in ''The Homeric Hymns: Interpretive Essays'' (Oxford University Press, 2011), p. 338.</ref> ''Epiclesis'' remains in use by some Christian churches for the invocation of the Holy Spirit during the Eucharistic prayer.

====ius====  ''Ius'' is the Latin word for justice, right, equity, fairness and all which came to be understood as the sphere of ''law''. It is defined in the opening words of the Digesta with the words of Celsus as "the art of that which is good and fair" and similarly by Paulus as "that which is always just and fair".<ref>A. Berger ''Encyclopedical Dictionary of Roman Law'' Philadelphia 1968 sv. ius</ref> The polymath Varro and the jurist Gaius<ref>''Inst.'' 2, 2 ap. Dig. 1, 8, 1: ''Summa itaque rerum divisio in duos articulos diducitur: nam aliae sunt divini iuris, aliae humani'', 'thus the highest division of things is reduced into two articles：some belong to divine right, some to human right'.</ref> consider the distinction between divine and human ''ius'' essential<ref>F.Sini ''Bellum nefandum'' Sassari 1991 p. 110</ref> but divine order is the source of all laws, whether natural or human, so the pontifex is considered the final judge (iudex) and arbiter.<ref>In Festus: ''...iudex atque arbiter habetur rerum divinarum humanarumque'': 'he is considered to be the judge and arbiter of things divine and human'... his authority stems from his regal (originally king Numa's) investiture. F. Sini ''Bellum nefandum'' Sassari 1991 p. 108 ff. R. Orestano ''Dal ius al fas'' p.201.</ref> The jurist Ulpian defines jurisprudence as "the knowledge of human and divine affairs, of what is just and unjust".<ref>Ulpian ''Libr. I regularum'' ap. Digesta 1, 1, 10, 2: ''Iuris prudentia est divinarum atque humanrum rerum notitia, iusti atque iniusti scientia''</ref>

====ius divinum==== {{anchor|ius divinum}} "Sacred law"<ref>Mary Beard, J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, ''Religions of Rome: A History'' (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 105.</ref> or "divine law", particularly in regard to the gods' rights pertaining to their "property", that which is rightfully theirs.<ref>Jörg Rüpke, ''Religion of the Romans'' (Polity Press, 2007, originally published in German 2001), p. 130, citing Gaius, ''Institutes'' 2.1–9.</ref> Recognition of the ''ius divinum'' was fundamental to maintaining right relations between human beings and their deities. The concern for law and legal procedure that was characteristic of ancient Roman society was also inherent in Roman religion.<ref>William Warde Fowler, ''The Religious Experience of the Roman People'' (London, 1922), p. 122ff.</ref> See also ''pax deorum''.

====ius pontificum==== Pontifical law governing Roman religion covered ''sacra'', rites; ''vota'', pledges; ''feriae'', holy days; and ''sepulchra'', graves.<ref>A. J. B. Sirks, "Sacra, Succession and the ''lex Voconia''," ''Latomus'' 53:2 (1994), p. 273,</ref> Cicero describes it as ''absconditum'', secret.<ref>Jerzy Linderski, ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'' 89 (1985), p. 214, citing ''De domo sua'' 138.</ref> A book on pontifical law, probably the one written in the mid-2nd century BC by Fabius Pictor, was consulted by Aulus Gellius in the 2nd century AD as a source on the ''flamen'' and ''flaminica Dialis''.<ref>The book was less likely by the more famous historian Fabius Pictor (3rd century BC) who wrote in Greek; Meghan J. DiLuzio, ''A Place at the Altar: Priestess in Republica Rome'' (Princeton University Press, 2016), p. 33.</ref>

===L=== ====lavatio==== The bathing of the cult image of a deity, particularly goddesses, might be prescribed in an annual ritual. A ''lavatio'' was an especial part of the imported cult of Cybele, whose statue and associated objects were carried in procession for bathing in the river Almo.<ref>Kirk Summers, "Lucretius' Roman Cybele," in ''Cybele, Attis and Related Cults: Essays in Memory of M.J. Vermaseren'' (1996), pp. 342–345.</ref> Ovid says that the statue of Venus Verticordia was bathed as part of the Veneralia on the first of April, but the absence of this ''lavatio'' in any other source may indicate that since it was meant to be conducted by women, the magistrates did not attend.<ref>Elaine Fantham, ''Ovid:'' Fasti ''Book IV.'' (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 117.</ref>

====lectisternium==== The ''lectisternium'' was a propitiatory ceremony that took the form of a meal offered to divinities, as if seated for banqueting on a couch ''(lectus)''.

====lex==== {{Main|Roman law}} The word ''lex'' (plural ''leges'') derives from the Indo-European root ''*leg'', as do the Latin verbs ''lego, legare, ligo, ligare'' ("to appoint, bequeath") and ''lego, legere'' (" to gather, choose, select, discern, read": cf. also Greek verb ''legein'' "to collect, tell, speak"), and the abstract noun ''religio''.<ref>W.W. Skeat, ''Etymological dictionary of the English Language'' entries on legal, legion, diligent, negligent, religion.</ref> Parties to legal proceedings and contracts bound themselves to observance by the offer of sacrifice to witnessing deities.<ref>For example in Livy, ''Ab Urbe Condita'', 1.24.7, Jupiter is called on to hear the oath.</ref>

Even though the word ''lex'' underwent the frequent semantic shift in Latin towards the legal area, its original meaning of set, formulaic words was preserved in some instances. Some cult formulae are ''leges'': an augur's request for particular signs that would betoken divine approval in an augural rite (augurium), or in the inauguration of magistrates and some ''sacerdotes'' is named ''legum dictio''.<ref>Serv. ''in Aen.'' III, 89: ''legum'' here is understood as the uttering of a set of fixed, binding conditions.</ref> The formula ''quaqua lege volet'' ("by whatever lex, i.e. wording he wishes") allowed a cult performer discretion in his choice of ritual words.<ref>M. Morani "Lat. 'sacer'..." ''Aevum'' LV 1981 p. 38 n.22</ref> The ''leges templi'' regulated cult actions at various temples.<ref>For example, those dated to 58 BC, relating to the temple of Jupiter Liber at Furfo: CIL IX 3513</ref><ref>G. Dumezil ''la religion romaine archaic'' Paris, 1974.</ref>

In civil law, ritualised sets of words and gestures known as ''legis actiones'' were in use as a legal procedure in civil cases; they were regulated by custom and tradition ''(mos maiorum)'' and were thought to involve protection of the performers from malign or occult influences.<ref>P. Noailles RH 19/20 (1940/41) 1, 27 ff; A. Magdelain ''De la royauté et du droit des Romaines'' (Rome, 1995) chap. II, III</ref>

thumb|Libation preceding a sacrifice, depicted on a 3rd-century sarcophagus

====libatio==== Libation (Latin {{lang|la|libatio}}, Greek ''spondai'') was one of the simplest religious acts, regularly performed in daily life. At home, a Roman who was about to drink wine would pour the first few drops onto the household altar.<ref>Paul Veyne, ''The Roman Empire'' (Harvard University Press, 1987), p. 213.</ref> The drink offering might also be poured on the ground or at a public altar. Milk and honey, water, and oil were also used.<ref>H.S. Versnel, ''Transition and Reversal in Myth and Ritual'' (Brill, 1993, 1994), pp. 62–63.</ref>

====liberatio==== The ''liberatio'' (from the verb ''liberare'', "to free") was the "liberating" of a place ''(locus)'' from "all unwanted or hostile spirits and of all human influences," as part of the ceremony inaugurating the ''templum'' (sacred space). It was preceded by the consulting of signs and followed by the ''effatio'', the creation of boundaries ''(fines)''.<ref>Jerzy Linderski, "The Augural Law", ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16 (1986), pp. 2156–2157, 2248.</ref> A site ''liberatus et effatus'' was "exorcized and available" for its sacred purpose.<ref name=":1"/>

====libri augurales==== The augural books (''libri augurales'') represented the collective, core knowledge of the augural college. Some scholars<ref>F. Sini ''Documenti sacerdotali di Roma antica'' Sassari, 1983; S. Tondo ''Leges regiae e paricidas'' Firenze, 1973; E. Peruzzi ''Origini di Roma'' II</ref> consider them distinct from the ''commentarii augurum'' (commentaries of the augurs) which recorded the collegial acts of the augurs, including the ''decreta'' and ''responsa''.<ref>Francesco Sini, ''Documenti sacerdotali di Roma antica. I. Libri e documenti'' Sassari, 1983, IV, 10, p. 175 ff.</ref> The books were central to the practice of augury. They have not survived, but Cicero, who was an augur himself, offers a summary in ''De Legibus''<ref>Cicero, ''De Legibus'' ("On Laws"), 2, 21.</ref> that represents "precise dispositions based certainly on an official collection edited in a professional fashion."<ref>M. Van Den Bruwaene, "Precison sur la loi religieuse du ''de leg''. II, 19-22 de Ciceron" in ''Helikon'' 1 (1961) p.89.</ref>

====libri pontificales==== The ''libri pontificales'' (pontifical books) are core texts in Roman religion, which survive as fragmentary transcripts and commentaries. They may have been partly annalistic, part priestly; different Roman authors refer to them as ''libri'' and ''commentarii'' (commentaries), described by Livy as incomplete "owing to the long time elapsed and the rare use of writing" and by Quintillian as unintelligibly archaic and obscure. The earliest were credited to Numa, second king of Rome, who was thought to have codified the core texts and principles of Rome's religious and civil law (''ius divinum'' and ''ius civile'').<ref>F. Sini ''Documenti sacerdotali di Roma antica I. Libri e commentari'' Sassari 1983 p. 22; S. Tondo ''Leges regiae e paricidas'' Firenze, 1973, p.20-21; R. Besnier "Le archives privees publiques et religieuses a' Rome au temps des rois" in ''Studi Albertario'' II Milano 1953 pp.1 ff.; L. Bickel "Lehrbuch der Geschichte der roemischen Literatur" p. 303; G. J. Szemler ''The priests of the Roman Republic'' Bruxelles 1972.</ref> See also ''commentarii pontificum''.

====litatio==== In animal sacrifice, the ''litatio'' followed the opening up of the body cavity for the inspection of the entrails (''inspicere exta''). ''Litatio'' was not a part of divinatory practice as derived from the Etruscans (see extispicy and Liver of Piacenza), but rather a certification according to Roman liturgy of the gods' approval. The point was not that those sacrificing had to make sure that the victim was perfect inside and out; rather, the good internal condition of the animal was evidence of divine acceptance of the offering. The need for the deity to approve and accept (''litare'') underscores that the reciprocity of sacrifice (''do ut des'') was not to be taken for granted.<ref>Jörg Rüpke, ''Religion of the Romans'' (Polity Press, 2007, originally published in German 2001), pp. 149–150.</ref>

If the organs were diseased or defective, the procedure had to be restarted with a new victim (''hostia''). In 176 BC<ref>Livy 41.14–15.</ref> the presiding consuls attempted to sacrifice an ox, only to find that its liver had been consumed by a wasting disease. After three more oxen failed to pass the test, the senate's instructions were to keep sacrificing bigger victims until ''litatio'' could be obtained.<ref name=":2"/>

[[File:Augur Vespasianus.JPG|thumb|''Lituus'' (at right) and other priestly implements under the title ''augur'']]

====lituus==== The ''lituus'' is the distinctively curved staff of an augur, frequently depicted on Roman coins and most often accompanied by a ritual jug or pitcher. The presence of the ''lituus'' indicates that either the moneyer or person honored on the obverse was an augur.

====lucus==== In religious usage, a ''lucus'' was a grove or small wooded area considered sacred to a divinity. Entrance might be severely restricted: Paulus<ref>Paulus ''Festi epitome'' p. 57 L s.v. capitalis lucus</ref> explains that a ''capitalis lucus'' was protected from human access under penalty of death. ''Leges sacratae'' (laws for the violation of which the offender is outlawed)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iklePELtR6QC&dq=Leges+sacratae&pg=PA546 |title=Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law |first=Adolf |last=Berger |location=Philadelphia | publisher=The American Philosophical Society |year=1953|isbn=1584771429 |series=Transactions of The American Philosophical Society |volume=43 |page=546}}</ref> concerning sacred groves have been found on ''cippi'' at Spoleto in Umbria and Lucera in Apulia.<ref>''CIL'' I 2nd 366; XI 4766; ''CIL'' I<sup>2</sup> 401, IX 782; R. Del Ponte, "Santità delle mura e sanzione divina" in ''Diritto e Storia'' 3 2004.</ref> See also ''nemus.''

====ludi==== ''Ludi'' were games held as part of religious festivals, and some were originally sacral in nature. These included chariot racing and the ''venatio'', or staged animal-human blood sport that may have had a sacrificial element.

====Luperci==== The "wolf priests", organized into two colleges and later three, who participated in the Lupercalia. The most famous person to serve as a ''lupercus'' was Mark Antony.

====lustratio==== The lustratio is a ritual of purification that was held every five years under the jurisdiction of censors in Rome. Its original meaning was purifying by washing in water (Lat. ''lustrum'' from verb ''luo'', "I wash in water"). The time elapsing between two subsequent lustrations being of five years the term ''lustrum'' took up the meaning of a period of five year.<ref>W.W. Skeat ''Etymological Dictionary of the English Language'' New York 1973 s.v. lustration</ref>

===M===

====manubia==== [[File:Calyx-krater olympian assembly MAN.jpg|thumb|Zeus (Etruscan Tinia, Roman Jupiter) holding a three-pronged lightning bolt, between Apollo and Hera/Juno (red-figure calyx-krater from Etruria, 420-400 BC)]] ''Manubia'' is a technical term of the Etruscan discipline, and refers to the power of a deity to wield lightning, represented in divine icons by a lightning bolt in the hand. It may be either a Latinized word from Etruscan or less likely a formation from ''manus'', "hand," and ''habere'', "to have, hold."<ref>Stefan Weinstock, "Libri fulgurales," ''Papers of the British School at Rome'' 19 (1951), p. 125.</ref> It is not apparently related to the more common Latin word ''manubiae'' meaning "booty (taken by a general in war)."<ref>Weinstock, p. 125.</ref> Seneca uses the term in an extended discussion of lightning.<ref>Seneca, ''Naturales Questiones'' 2.41.1.</ref> Jupiter, as identified with Etruscan Tinia,<ref>Massimo Pallottino, "The Doctrine and Sacred Books of the ''Disciplina Etrusca''," ''Roman and European Mythologies'' (University of Chicago Press, 1992), p. 44.</ref> held three types of ''manubiae''<ref>According to Seneca, ''NQ'' 2.41.1. See also Festus p. 219M = 114 edition of Lindsay; entry on ''peremptalia fulgura'', p. 236 in the 1997 [https://books.google.com/books?id=_Ugb6woUJLoC&dq=manubia+OR+manubiae&pg=PA236 Teubner edition]; Pliny, ''Natural History'' 2.138; and Servius, note to ''Aeneid'' 1.42, as cited and discussed by Weinstock, p. 125ff. Noted also by Auguste Bouché-Leclercq, ''Histoire de la divination dans l'antiquité'' (Jérôme Millon, 2003 reprint, originally published 1883), p. 845, note 54.</ref> sent from three different celestial regions.<ref>Pallottino, "Doctrine and Sacred Books," p. 44.</ref> Stefan Weinstock describes these as: # mild, or "perforating" lightning; # harmful or "crushing" lightning, which is sent on the advice of the twelve Di Consentes and occasionally does some good; # destructive or "burning" lightning, which is sent on the advice of the ''di superiores et involuti'' (hidden gods of the "higher" sphere) and changes the state of public and private affairs.<ref>Weinstock, p. 127. See also ''The Religion of the Etruscans'', pp. 40–41, where an identification of the ''dii involuti'' with the Favores Opertaneii ("Secret Gods of Favor") referred to by Martianus Capella is proposed.</ref> Jupiter makes use of the first type of beneficial lightning to persuade or dissuade.<ref>Georges Dumézil, ''La religion romaine archaïque'' (Paris 1974), pp. 630 and 633 (note 3), drawing on Seneca, ''NQ'' 2.41.1–2 and 39.</ref> Books on how to read lightning were one of the three main forms of Etruscan learning on the subject of divination.<ref>Pallottino, "Doctrine and Sacred Books", pp. 43–44.</ref>

====miraculum==== One of several words for portent or sign, ''miraculum'' is a non-technical term that places emphasis on the observer's response (''mirum'', "a wonder, marvel").<ref>Auguste Bouché-Leclercq, ''Histoire de la divination dans l'antiquité: Divination hellénique et divination italique'' (Jérôme Millon, 2003 reprint), p. 873; T.P. Wiseman, "History, Poetry, and ''Annales''", in ''Clio and the Poets: Augustan Poetry and the Traditions of Ancient Historiography'' (Brill, 2002), p. 359 "awe and amazement are the result, not the cause, of the ''miraculum''.</ref> Livy uses the word ''miraculum'', for instance, to describe the sign visited upon Servius Tullius as a child, when divine flames burst forth from his head and the royal household witnessed the event.<ref>Livy 1.39.</ref> Compare ''monstrum'', ''ostentum'', ''portentum'', and ''prodigium''.

''Miraculum'' is the origin of the English word "miracle." Christian writers later developed a distinction between ''miracula'', the true forms of which were evidence of divine power in the world, and mere ''mirabilia'', things to be marveled at but not resulting from God's intervention. "Pagan" marvels were relegated to the category of ''mirabilia'' and attributed to the work of demons.<ref>George Williamson, "Mucianus and a Touch of the Miraculous: Pilgrimage and Tourism in Roman Asia Minor", in ''Seeing the Gods: Pilgrimage in Graeco-Roman and Early Christian Antiquity'' (Oxford University Press, 2005, 2007), p. 245 [https://books.google.com/books?id=FPy2voYIeZ8C&q=miracula&pg=PA245 online.]</ref>

thumb|upright|Emmer wheat, used for ''mola salsa''

====mola salsa==== Flour mixed with salt was sprinkled on the forehead and between the horns of sacrificial victims, as well as on the altar and in the sacred fire. This ''mola salsa'' ('salted flour') was prepared ritually from toasted wheat or emmer, spelt, or barley by the Vestals, who thus contributed to every official sacrifice in Rome.<ref>Ariadne Staples, ''From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins: Sex and Category in Roman Religion'' (Routledge, 1998), pp. 154–155.</ref> Servius uses the words ''pius'' and ''castus'' to describe the product.<ref>Servius, note to ''Eclogue'' 8.82:</ref> The ''mola'' was so fundamental to sacrifice that "to put on the ''mola''" (Latin ''immolare'') came to mean "to sacrifice." Its use was one of the numerous religious traditions ascribed to Numa, the Sabine second king of Rome.<ref>Fernando Navarro Antolín, ''Lygdamus. Corpus Tibullianum III.1–6: Lygdami Elegiarum Liber'' (Brill, 1996), pp. 272–272 [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZKGO1swPh84C&dq=%22mola+salsa%22&pg=PA273 online.]</ref>

====monstrum==== A ''monstrum'' is a sign or portent that disrupts the natural order as evidence of divine displeasure.<ref>David Wardle, ''Cicero on Divination, Book 1'' (Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 102.</ref> The word ''monstrum'' is usually assumed to derive, as Cicero says, from the verb ''monstro'', "show" (compare English "demonstrate"), but according to Varro it comes from ''moneo'', "warn."<ref>Varro as recorded by Servius, note to ''Aeneid'' 3.336, cited by Wardle, ''Cicero on Divination'', p. 330 [https://books.google.com/books?id=TSpRlugE_7oC&dq=monstrum&pg=PA330 online.]</ref> Because a sign must be startling or deviant to have an impact, ''monstrum'' came to mean "unnatural event"<ref>Philip R. Hardie, ''Virgil: Aeneid, Book IX'' (Cambridge University Press, 1994, reprinted 2000), p. 97.</ref> or "a malfunctioning of nature."<ref>Mary Beagon, "Beyond Comparison: M. Sergius, ''Fortunae victor''", in ''Philosophy and Power in the Graeco-Roman World: Essays in Honour of Miriam Griffin'' (Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 127.</ref> Suetonius said that "a ''monstrum'' is contrary to nature (or exceeds the nature) we are familiar with, like a snake with feet or a bird with four wings."<ref name="autogenerated330">As cited by Wardle, ''Cicero on Divination'', p. 330.</ref> The Greek equivalent was ''teras''.<ref>Beagon, "Beyond Comparison", in ''Philosophy and Power'', p. 127.</ref> The English word "monster" derived from the negative sense of the word. Compare ''miraculum'', ''ostentum'', ''portentum'', and ''prodigium''.

In one of the most famous uses of the word in Latin literature, the Augustan poet Horace calls Cleopatra a ''fatale monstrum'', something deadly and outside normal human bounds.<ref>Michèle Lowrie, ''Horace's Narrative Odes'' (Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. 151–154.</ref> Cicero calls Catiline ''monstrum atque prodigium''<ref>Cicero, ''In Catilinam'' 2.1.</ref> and uses the phrase several times to insult various objects of his attacks as depraved and beyond the human pale. For Seneca, the ''monstrum'' is, like tragedy, "a visual and horrific revelation of the truth."<ref>Gregory A. Staley, ''Seneca and the Idea of Tragedy'' (Oxford University Press, 2010), pp. 80, 96, 109, 113 ''et passim''.</ref>

====mundus====  Literally "the world", also a pit supposedly dug and sealed by Romulus as part of Rome's foundation rites. Its interpretation is problematic; it was normally sealed, and was ritually opened only on three occasions during the year. Still, in the most ancient Fasti, these days were marked C(omitiales)<ref>L. Banti; G. Dumézil ''La religion romaine archaïque'' Paris 1974, It. tr. p. 482-3.</ref> (days when the Comitia met) suggesting the idea that the whole ritual was a later Greek import.<ref>M. Humm, "Le mundus et le Comitium : représentations symboliques de l'espace de la cité," Histoire urbaine, 2, 10, 2004. [http://www.cairn.info/revue-histoire-urbaine-2004-2-page-43.htm French language, full preview.]</ref> However Cato and Varro as quoted by Macrobius considered them ''religiosi''.<ref>''Dies religiosi'' were marked by the gods as inauspicious, so in theory, no official work should have been done, but it was not a legally binding religious the rule. G. Dumézil above.</ref> When opened, the pit served as a cache for offerings to underworld deities, particularly Ceres, goddess of the fruitful earth. It offered a portal between the upper and lower worlds; its shape was said to be an inversion of the dome of the upper heavens.<ref>Festus p. 261 L2, citing Cato's commentaries on civil law. An inscription at Capua names a ''sacerdos Cerialis mundalis'' (CIL X 3926). For the connection between deities of agriculture and the underworld, see W. Warde Fowler, "Mundus Patet" in ''Journal of Roman Studies'', 2, (1912), pp. 25–33</ref>

===N===

====nefandum==== An adjective derived from ''nefas'' (following). The gerund of verb ''fari'', to speak, is commonly used to form derivate or inflected forms of ''fas''. See Virgil's ''fandi'' as genitive of ''fas''. This use has been invoked to support the derivation of ''fas'' from IE root *bha, Latin fari.

====nefas==== Any thing or action contrary to divine law and will is ''nefas'' (in archaic legalese, ''ne'' (not) ... ''fas'').<ref>A. Guarino ''L'ordinamento giuridico romano'' Napoli, 1980, p. 93.</ref> ''Nefas'' forbids a thing as religiously and morally offensive, or indicates a failure to fulfill a religious duty.<ref>Olga Tellegen-Couperus, A Short History of Roman Law, Routledge, 1993. {{ISBN|978-0-415-07250-2}} pp17-18.</ref> It might be nuanced as "a religious duty not to", as in Festus' statement that "a man condemned by the people for a heinous action is ''sacer''" — that is, given over to the gods for judgment and disposal — "it is not a religious duty to execute him, but whoever kills him will not be prosecuted".<ref>Festus p. 424 L: ''At homo sacer is est, quem populus iudicavit ob maleficium; neque fas est eum immolari, sed qui occidit, parricidi non damnatur''.</ref>

Livy records that the patricians opposed legislation that would allow a plebeian to hold the office of consul on the grounds that it was ''nefas'': a plebeian, they claimed, would lack the arcane knowledge of religious matters that by tradition was a patrician prerogative. The plebeian tribune Gaius Canuleius, whose ''lex'' it was, retorted that it was arcane because the patricians kept it secret.<ref>Livy, ''Ab Urbe Condita'', 4.3.9.</ref>

====nefastus==== Usually found with ''dies'' (singular or plural), as ''dies nefasti'', days on which official transactions were forbidden on religious grounds. See also nefas, fasti and fas.

====nemus==== ''Nemus'', plural ''nemora'', was one of four Latin words that meant "forest, woodland, woods." ''Lucus'' is more strictly a sacred grove,<ref>Paul Roche, ''Lucan: De Bello Civili, Book 1'' (Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 296.</ref> as defined by Servius as "a large number of trees with a religious significance",<ref>Servius, note to ''Aeneid'' 1.310, ''arborum multitudo cum religione''.</ref> and distinguished from the ''silva'', a natural forest; ''saltus'', territory that is wilderness; and a ''nemus'', an arboretum that is not consecrated (but compare Celtic ''nemeton'').<ref>Jörg Rüpke, ''Religion of the Romans'' (Polity Press, 2007), p. 275, noting that he finds Servius's distinction "artificial."</ref> In Latin poetry, a ''nemus'' is often a place conducive to poetic inspiration, and particularly in the Augustan period takes on a sacral aura.<ref>Fernando Navarro Antolin, ''Lygdamus: Corpus Tibullianum III.1–6, Lygdami Elegiarum Liber'' (Brill, 1996), p. 127–128.</ref>

Named ''nemora'' include: * The ''nemus'' of Anna Perenna.<ref>Martial, 4.64.17, as cited by Robert Schilling, "Anna Perenna," ''Roman and European Mythologies'' (University of Chicago Press, 1992), p. 112.</ref> * ''Nemus Caesarum'', dedicated to the memory of Augustus's grandsons Gaius and Lucius.<ref>Stephen L. Dyson, ''Rome: A Living Portrait of an Ancient City'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010), p. 147.</ref> *The ''nemus Aricinum'' sacred to Diana, Egeria and Virbius.

====nuntiatio==== The chief responsibility of an augur was to observe signs ''(observatio)'' and to report the results ''(nuntiatio)''.<ref>Jerzy Linderski, "The Augural Law," ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16 (1986), pp. 2159–2160, 2168, ''et passim''.</ref> The announcement was made before an assembly. A passage in Cicero states that the augur was entitled to report on the signs observed before or during an assembly and that the magistrates had the right to watch for signs ''(spectio)'' as well as make the announcement ''(nuntiatio)'' prior to the conducting of public business, but the exact significance of Cicero's distinction is a matter of scholarly debate.<ref>S.W. Rasmussen, ''Public Portents in Republican Rome''' [https://books.google.com/books?id=VLzRD9tnaaAC&dq=nuntiatio&pg=PA163 online.]</ref>

===O===

====obnuntiatio==== ''Obnuntiatio'' was a declaration of unfavourable signs by an augur in order to suspend, cancel or postpone a proposed course of public action. The procedure could be carried out only by an official who had the right to observe omens (''spectio'').<ref>W. Jeffrey Tatum, ''The Patrician Tribune: Publius Clodius Pulcher'' (University of North Carolina Press, 1999) p. 127.</ref>

The only source for the term is Cicero, himself an augur, who refers to it in several speeches as a religious bulwark against popularist politicians and tribunes. The ''Lex Aelia Fufia'' (ca. 150 BC) may have extended the right of ''obnuntiatio'' beyond the augural college to all magistrates. Legislation by Clodius as tribune of the plebs in 58 BC was aimed at ending the practice,<ref>Beard, M., Price, S., North, J., ''Religions of Rome: Volume 1, a History'', illustrated, Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp 109-10.</ref> or at least curtailing its potential for abuse; ''obnuntiatio'' had been exploited the previous year as an obstructionist tactic by Julius Caesar's consular colleague Bibulus. That the Clodian law had not deprived all augurs or magistrates of the privilege is indicated by Mark Antony's use of ''obnuntatio'' in early 44 BC to halt the consular election.<ref>J.P.V.D. Balsdon, "Roman History, 58–56 B.C.: Three Ciceronian Problems", ''Journal of Roman Studies'' 47 (1957) 16–16.</ref>

====observatio==== ''Observatio'' was the interpretation of signs according to the tradition of the "Etruscan discipline", or as preserved in books such as the ''libri augurales''. A haruspex interpreted ''fulgura'' (thunder and lightning) and ''exta'' (entrails) by ''observatio''. The word has three closely related meanings in augury: the observing of signs by an augur or other diviner; the process of observing, recording, and establishing the meaning of signs over time; and the codified body of knowledge accumulated by systematic observation, that is, "unbending rules" regarded as objective, or external to an individual's observation on a given occasion. Impetrative signs, or those sought by standard augural procedure, were interpreted according to ''observatio''; the observer had little or no latitude in how they might be interpreted. ''Observatio'' might also be applicable to many oblative or unexpected signs. ''Observatio'' was considered a kind of ''scientia'', or "scientific" knowledge, in contrast to ''coniectura'', a more speculative "art" or "method" (''ars'') as required by novel signs.<ref>Jerzy Linderski, "The Augural Law", ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16 (1986), pp. 2232–2234, 2237–2241.</ref>

====omen==== {{Main|Omen (ancient Rome)}} An omen, plural ''omina'', was a sign intimating the future, considered less important to the community than a ''prodigium'' but of great importance to the person who heard or saw it.<ref>The etymology is debated. The older Latin form is ''osmen", which may have meant "an utterance"; see W. W. Skeat ''Etymological Dictionary of the English Language'' sv omen New York 1963. It has also been connected to an ancient Hittite exclamation ''ha'' ("it's true"); see R. Bloch ''Les prodiges dans l'antiquite' - Rome'' Paris 1968; It. tr. Rome 1978 p. 74, and E. Benveniste "Hittite et Indo-Europeen. Etudes comparatives" in ''Bibl. arch. et hist. de l'Institut francais a, ''Arch. de Stambul'' V, 1962, p.10.</ref> Omens could be good or bad. Unlike ''prodigia'', bad omens were never expiated by public rites but could be reinterpreted, redirected or otherwise averted (see ''abominari'').

====ostentarium==== One form of arcane literature was the ''ostentarium'', a written collection describing and interpreting signs (''ostenta'').<ref>Jerzy Linderski, "The ''libri reconditi''", ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'' 89 (1985), p. 231–232.</ref> Tarquitius Priscus wrote an ''Ostentarium arborarium'', a book on signs pertaining to trees, and an ''Ostentarium Tuscum'', presumably translations of Etruscan works.<ref>Both are mentioned by Macrobius, ''Saturnalia'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Macrobius/Saturnalia/3*.html#20 3.20.3] and 3.7.2; Nancy Thomson de Grummond, "Introduction: The History of the Study of Etruscan Religion", in ''The Religion of the Etruscans'' (University of Texas Press, 2006), p. 2.</ref> Pliny cites his contemporary Umbricius Melior for an ''ostentarium aviarium'', concerning birds.<ref>Pliny, ''Natural History'' 10.6–42.</ref> They were consulted until late antiquity; in the 4th century, for instance, the haruspices consulted the books of Tarquitius before the battle that proved fatal to the emperor Julian — according to Ammianus Marcellinus, because he failed to heed them.<ref>''Ex Tarquitianis libris in titulo "de rebus divinis"'': Ammianus Marcellinus XXV 27.</ref> Fragments of ''ostentaria'' survive as quotations in other literary works.<ref>Robert Schilling, "The Disciplina Etrusca", ''Roman and European Mythologies'' (University of Chicago Press, 1992, from the French edition of 1981), p. 44.</ref>

====ostentum==== According to Varro, an ''ostentum'' is a sign so called because it shows (''ostendit'') something to a person.<ref>Varro quoted by Servius, note to ''Aeneid'' 3.336, as cited by David Wardle, ''Cicero on Divination, Book 1'' (Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 330 [https://books.google.com/books?id=TSpRlugE_7oC&dq=monstrum&pg=PA330 online.]</ref> Suetonius specified that "an ''ostentum'' shows itself to us without possessing a solid body and affects both our eyes and ears, like darkness or a light at night."<ref name="autogenerated330"/> In his classic work on Roman divination, Auguste Bouché-Leclercq thus tried to distinguish theoretical usage of ''ostenta'' and ''portenta'' as applying to inanimate objects, ''monstra'' to biological signs, and ''prodigia'' for human acts or movements, but in non-technical writing the words tend to be used more loosely as synonyms.<ref>Wardle, ''Cicero on Divination'', p. 330; Auguste Bouché-Leclerq, ''Histoire de la divination dans l'antiquité'' (Jérôme Millon, 2003, originally published 1882), pp. 873–874 [https://books.google.com/books?id=L8gUAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22C%27est+une+entreprise+vaine+que+de+chercher%22&pg=PA77 online.]</ref>

The theory of ''ostenta'', ''portenta'' and ''monstra'' constituted one of the three branches of interpretation within the ''disciplina Etrusca'', the other two being the more specific ''fulgura'' (thunder and lightning) and ''exta'' (entrails). ''Ostenta'' and ''portenta'' are not the signs that augurs are trained to solicit and interpret, but rather "new signs", the meaning of which had to be figured out through ''ratio'' (the application of analytical principles) and ''coniectura'' (more speculative reasoning, in contrast to augural ''observatio'').<ref>Jerzy Linderski, "The Augural Law", ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16 (1986), pp. 2150 and 2230–2232; see Cicero, ''De Divinatione'', 1.72 and 2.49.</ref>

====ordo sacerdotum==== A religious hierarchy implied by the seating arrangements of priests (sacerdotes) at sacrificial banquets. As "the most powerful", the ''rex sacrorum'' was positioned next to the gods, followed by the Flamen Dialis, then the Flamen Martialis, then the Flamen Quirinalis and lastly, the Pontifex Maximus.<ref>Festus rationalises the order: the ''rex'' is "the most powerful" of priests, the Flamen Dialis is "sacerdos of the entire universe", the Flamen Martialis represents Mars as the parent of Rome's founder Romulus, and the Flamen Quirinalis represents the Roman principle of shared sovereignty. The Pontifex Maximus "is considered the judge and arbiter of things both divine and human": Festus, p. 198-200 L</ref> The ''ordo sacerdotum'' observed and preserved ritual distinctions between divine and human power. In the human world, the Pontifex Maximus was the most influential and powerful of all ''sacerdotes''.

===P===

====paludatus==== [[File:Mars Pyrrhus cropped.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Mars wearing the ''paludamentum'']] ''Paludatus'' (masculine singular, plural ''paludati'') is an adjective meaning "wearing the ''paludamentum'',"<ref>H.S. Versnel, ''Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion: Transition and Reversal in Myth and Ritual'' (Brill, 1993, 1994), p. 158, especially note 104.</ref> the distinctive attire of the Roman military commander. Varro<ref>''De lingua latina'' 7.37.</ref> and Festus say that any military ornament could be called a ''paludamentum'', but other sources indicate that the cloak was primarily meant. According to Festus, ''paludati'' in the augural books meant "armed and adorned" ''(armati, ornati)''.<ref>Festus, p. 291 L, citing Veranius (1826 edition of Dacier, p. 1084 [https://books.google.com/books?id=dypMAAAAYAAJ&q=paludamenta online]); R. Del Ponte, "Documenti sacerdotali in Veranio e Granio Flacco," ''Diritto e Storia'' 4 (2005).[http://www.dirittoestoria.it/4/Tradizione-Romana/Del-Ponte-Documenti-sacerdotali-Veranio-Granio-Flacco.htm]</ref> As the commander crossed from the sacred boundary of Rome ''(pomerium)'', he was ''paludatus'', adorned with the attire he would wear to lead a battle and for official business.<ref>Jerzy Linderski, "Q. Scipio Imperator," in ''Imperium sine fine: T. Robert S. Broughton and the Roman Republic'' (Franz Steiner, 1996), p. 168; Jonathan Edmondson and Alison Keith, ''Roman Dress and the Fabrics of Roman Culture'' (University of Toronto Press, 2008), p. 12.</ref> This adornment was thus part of the commander's ritual investiture with ''imperium''.<ref>Fred K. Drogula, "''Imperium, potestas'' and the ''pomerium'' in the Roman Republic," ''Historia'' 56.4 (2007), pp. 436–437.</ref> It followed upon the sacrifices and vows the commander offered up on the Capitol, and was concomitant with his possession of the auspices for war.<ref>Christoph F. Konrad, "Vellere signa," in ''Augusto augurio: rerum humanarum et divinarum commentationes in honorem Jerzy Linderski'' (Franz Steiner, 2004), p. 181; see Cicero, ''Second Verrine'' 5.34; Livy 21.63.9 and 41.39.11.</ref>

Festus notes elsewhere that the "Salian virgins", whose relation to the Salian priests is unclear, performed their rituals ''paludatae'',<ref>Festus 439L, as cited by Versnel, ''Inconsistencies'', p. 158 [https://books.google.com/books?id=kWU33X4gPmUC&dq=%22the+so-called+Saliae+virgines%22&pg=PA158 online.]</ref> dressed in military garb.<ref>Thomas N. Habinek, ''The World of Roman Song: From Ritualized Speech to Social Order'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005), p. 256.</ref>

====pax deorum==== ''Pax'', though usually translated into English as "peace", was a compact, bargain, or agreement.<ref>The noun derives from the past participle of ''pacisci'' to agree, to come to an agreement, allied to ''pactus'', past participle of verb ''pangere'' to fasten or tie. Compare Sanskrit ''pac'' to bind, and Greek ''peegnumi'', I fasten: W. W. Skeat ''Etymological Dictionary of the English Language'' s.v. peace, pact</ref> In religious usage, the harmony or accord between the divine and human was the ''pax deorum'' or ''pax divom'' ("the peace of the gods" or "divine peace").<ref>As in Plautus, ''Mercator'' 678; Lucretius, {{Lang|la|De rerum natura}} V, 1227; Livy III 5, 14.</ref> ''Pax deorum'' was only given in return for correct religious practice. Religious error (''vitium'') and impiety led to divine disharmony and ''ira deorum'' (the anger of the gods).

====piaculum==== A ''piaculum'' is an expiatory sacrifice, or the victim used in the sacrifice; also, an act requiring expiation.<ref>Jörg Rüpke, ''Religion of the Romans'' (Polity Press, 2007, originally published in German 2001), p. 81 [https://books.google.com/books?id=fcsynr0fQIoC&dq=piaculum&pg=PA81 online.]</ref>

Because Roman religion was contractual (''do ut des''), a ''piaculum'' might be offered as a sort of advance payment; the Arval Brethren, for instance, offered a ''piaculum'' before entering their sacred grove with an iron implement, which was forbidden, as well as after.<ref>William Warde Fowler, ''The Religious Experience of the Roman People'' (London, 1922), p. 191.</ref> The pig was a common victim for a ''piaculum''.<ref>Robert E.A. Palmer, "The Deconstruction of Mommsen on Festus 462/464 L, or the Hazards of Interpretation", in ''Imperium sine fine: T. Robert S. Broughton and the Roman Republic'' (Franz Steiner, 1996), p. 99, note 129 [https://books.google.com/books?id=wEtE8c1jGY4C&dq=piaculum&pg=PA99 online]; Roger D. Woodard, ''Indo-European Sacred Space: Vedic and Roman Cult'' (University of Illinois Press, 2006), p. 122 [https://books.google.com/books?id=EB4fB0inNYEC&dq=piaculum&pg=PA122 online.]</ref> The Augustan historian Livy says P. Decius Mus is "like" a ''piaculum'' when he makes his vow to sacrifice himself in battle (see ''devotio'').<ref>Livy 8.9.1–11.</ref>

====pietas==== {{Main|Pietas}} ''Pietas'', from which English "piety" derives, was the devotion that bound a person to the gods, to the Roman state, and to his family. It was the outstanding quality of the Roman hero Aeneas, to whom the epithet ''pius'' is applied regularly throughout the ''Aeneid''.

====pius==== In Latin and other Italic languages,<ref>Volscian, ''pihom estu''; Umbrian, ''pihaz'' (a past participle equivalent to Latin ''piatum''); and Oscan, ''pehed''; from the Proto-Indo-European root ''*q(u)ei-''. Compare Sanskrit ''cayati''. See M. Morani "Latino sacer..." in ''Aevum'' LV 1981 pp. 30-46. ''Pius'' may derive from Umbrian and thus appear with a ''p'' instead of a ''q''; some Indo-European languages resolved the original velar ''k(h)'' into the voiceless labial ''p'', as did Greek and Celtic. Umbrian is one of such languages although it preserved the velar before a ''u''. In Proto-Italic it has given ''ii'' with a long first ''i'' as in ''pii-'': cfr. G. L. Bakkum ''The Latin Dialect of the Ager Faliscus: 150 Years of Scholarship'' p. 57 n. 34 quoting Meiser 1986 pp.37-38.</ref> ''pius'' seems to have meant "that which is in accord with divine law." Later it was used to designate actions respectful of divine law and even people who acted with respect towards gods and godly rules. The ''pius'' person "strictly conforms his life to the ''ius divinum''."<ref>William Warde Fowler, ''The Religious Experience of the Roman People'' (London, 1922), p. 462.</ref> "Dutiful" is often a better translation of the adjective than the English derivative "pious."<ref>Gerard Mussies, "Cascelia's Prayer," in ''La Soteriologia dei culti orientali nell' impero romano'' (Brill, 1982), p. 160.</ref> ''Pius'' is a regular epithet of the Roman founding hero Aeneas in Virgil's ''Aeneid'', along with ''pater'', "father."<ref>Hendrik Wagenvoort, "Horace and Vergil," in ''Studies in Roman Literature, Culture and Religion'' (Brill, 1956), pp. 82–83.</ref> See also pietas, the related abstract noun.

====pollucere==== A verb of unknown etymology meaning "to consecrate."<ref>M. Morani "Latino Sacer..." In ''Aevum'' 1981 LV.</ref>

====pontifex==== The ''pontifex'' was a priest of the highest-ranking college. The chief among the ''pontifices'' was the Pontifex Maximus. The word has been considered as related to ''pons'', bridge, either because of the religious meaning of the pons Sublicius and its ritual use<ref>Varro Lingua Latina V 15, 83; G. Bonfante "Tracce di terminologia palafitticola nel vocabolario latino?" ''Atti dell' Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere e Arti'' 97 (1937: 53-70)</ref> (which has a parallel in Thebae and in its ''gephiarioi'') or in the original IE meaning of way.<ref>K. Latte ''Römische Religionsgeschichte'', Munich 1960 p. 400-1; H. Fugier ''Recherches sur l'expression du sacré dans la langue latine'' Paris 1963 pp.161-172.</ref> Pontifex in this case would be the "opener of the way" corresponding to the Vedic adharvayu, the only active and moving ''sacerdos'' in the sacrificial group who takes his title from the figurative designation of liturgy as a way.

Another hypothesis<ref>First proposed by F. Ribezzo in "Pontifices 'quinionalis sacrificii effectores', ''Rivista indo-greco-italica di Filologia-Lingua-Antichità'' '''15''' 1931 p. 56.</ref> considers the word as a loan from the Sabine language, in which it would mean a member of a college of five people, from Osco-Umbrian ''ponte'', five. This explanation takes into account that the college was established by Sabine king Numa Pompilius and the institution is Italic: the expressions ''pontis'' and ''pomperias'' found in the Iguvine Tablets may denote a group or division of five or by five. The pontifex would thus be a member of a sacrificial college known as ''pomperia'' (Latin ''quinio'').<ref>For a review of the proposed hypotheses cfr. J. P. Hallet "Over Troubled Waters: The Meaning of the Title Pontifex" in ''Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association'' '''101''' 1970 p. 219 ff.</ref>

thumb|upright=.7|left|Attendant at a sacrifice with ax

====popa==== The ''popa'' was one of the lesser-rank officiants at a sacrifice. In depictions of sacrificial processions, he carries a mallet or axe with which to strike the animal victim. Literary sources in late antiquity say that the ''popa'' was a public slave.<ref name="autogenerated332">Marietta Horster, "Living on Religion: Professionals and Personnel", in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'', pp. 332–334.</ref> See also ''victimarius''.

====porricere==== The verb ''porricere'' had the specialized religious meaning "to offer as a sacrifice," especially to offer the sacrificial entrails ''(exta)'' to the gods.<ref>Macrobius, ''Saturnalia'' III 2, 3- 4: R. Del Ponte, "Documenti sacerdotali in Veranio e Granio Flacco" in ''Diritto estoria'', 4, 2005.</ref> Both ''exta porricere'' and ''exta dare'' referred to the process by which the entrails were cooked, cut into pieces, and burnt on the altar. The Arval Brethren used the term ''exta reddere'', "to return the entrails," that is, to render unto the deity what has already been given as due.<ref name=":2">Robert Schilling, "Roman Sacrifice," ''Roman and European Mythologies'' (University of Chicago Press, 1992, from the French edition of 1981), p. 79 [https://books.google.com/books?id=Uf2_kHAs22sC&dq=porricere&pg=PA79 online.]</ref>

====portentum==== A ''portentum'' is a kind of sign interpreted by a haruspex, not an augur, and by means of ''coniectura'' rather than ''observatio''. ''Portentum'' is a close but not always exact synonym of ''ostentum, prodigium'', and ''monstrum''.<ref>Jerzy Linderski, "The Augural Law", ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16 (1986), pp. 2232, 2247.</ref> Cicero uses ''portentum'' frequently in his treatise ''De divinatione'', where it seems to be a generic word for prodigies.<ref>Claude Moussy, "Signa et portenta", in ''Donum grammaticum: Studies in Latin and Celtic Linguistics in Honour of Hannah Rosén'' (Peeters, 2002), p. 269 [https://books.google.com/books?id=LJZ-SYBvQekC&dq=portentum&pg=PA269 online.]</ref> The word could also refer in non-technical usage to an unnatural occurrence without specific religious significance; for instance, Pliny calls an Egyptian with a pair of non-functional eyes on the back of his head a ''portentum''.<ref>Pliny, ''Natural History'' 11.272, [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/11*.html#272 Latin text] at LacusCurtius; Mary Beagon, ''Roman Nature: The Thought of Pliny the Elder'' (Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 146.</ref> Varro derives ''portentum'' from the verb ''portendere'' because it portends something that is going to happen.<ref>Varro's passage is preserved by Servius, note to ''Aeneid'' 3.336, as cited by David Wardle, ''Cicero on Divination, Book 1'' (Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 330 [https://books.google.com/books?id=TSpRlugE_7oC&dq=monstrum&pg=PA330 online.]</ref>

In the schema of A. Bouché-Leclercq, ''portenta'' and ''ostenta'' are the two types of signs that appear in inanimate nature, as distinguished from the ''monstrum'' (a biological singularity), ''prodigia'' (the unique acts or movements of living beings), and a ''miraculum'', a non-technical term that emphasizes the viewer's reaction.<ref>Auguste Bouché-Leclercq, ''Histoire de la divination dans l'antiquité: Divination hellénique et divination italique'' (Jérôme Millon, 2003 reprint), pp. 873–874.</ref> The sense of ''portentum'' has also been distinguished from that of ''ostentum'' by relative duration of time, with the ''ostentum'' of briefer manifestation.<ref>Blandine Cuny-Le Callet, ''Rome et ses monstres: Naissance d'un concept philosophique et rhétorique'' (Jérôme Millon, 2005), p. 48, with reference to Fronto.</ref>

Although the English word "portent" derives from ''portentum'' and may be used to translate it, other Latin terms such as ''ostentum'' and ''prodigium'' will also be found translated as "portent".<ref>For instance, ''Roman and European Mythologies'' (University of Chicago Press, 1992, from the French edition of 1981), pp. 43 and 98. Despite its title, S.W. Rasmussen's ''Public Portents in Republican Rome'' (''L'Erma'', Bretschneider, 2003) does not distinguish among ''prodigium'', ''omen'', ''portentum'' and ''ostentum'' (p. 15, note 9).</ref> ''Portentum'' offers an example of an ancient Roman religious term modified for Christian usage; in the Christian theology of miracles, a ''portentum'' occurring by the will of the Christian God could not be regarded as contrary to nature (''contra naturam''), thus Augustine specified that if such a sign appeared to be unnatural, it was only because it was contrary to nature as known (''nota'') by human beings.<ref>Augustine, ''De civitate Dei'' 21.8: ''Portentum ergo fit non contra naturam, sed contra quam est nota natura'' ("therefore a portent does not occur contrary to nature, but contrary to what is known of nature"). See Michael W. Herren and Shirley Ann Brown, ''Christ in Celtic Christianity'' (Boydell Press, 2002), p. 163.</ref>

====precatio==== The {{lang|la|precatio}} was the formal addressing of the deity or deities in a ritual. The word is related by etymology to ''prex'', "prayer" (plural {{lang|la|preces}}), and usually translated as if synonymous. Pliny says that the slaughter of a sacrificial victim is ineffectual without {{lang|la|precatio}}, the recitation of the prayer formula.<ref>Pliny, ''Natural History'' 28.11, as cited by Matthias Klinghardt, "Prayer Formularies for Public Recitation: Their Use and Function in Ancient Religion", ''Numen'' 46 (1999), p. 15.</ref> Priestly texts that were collections of prayers were sometimes called ''precationes''.<ref>Jerzy Linderski, "The Augural Law", ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16 (1986), p. 2246.</ref>

Two late examples of the {{lang|la|precatio}} are the ''Precatio Terrae Matris'' ("The Prayer of Mother Earth") and the ''Precatio omnium herbarum'' ("Prayer of All the Herbs"), which are charms or ''carmina'' written metrically,<ref>A.A. Barb, "''Animula Vagula Blandula'' ... Notes on Jingles, Nursery-Rhymes and Charms with an Excursus on Noththe's Sisters", ''Folklore'' 61 (1950), p. 23; Maarten J. Vermaseren and Carel C. van Essen, ''The Excavations in the Mithraeum of the Church of Santa Prisca on the Aventine'' (Brill, 1965), pp. 188–191.</ref> the latter attached to the medical writings attributed to Antonius Musa.<ref>W.S. Teuffel, ''History of Roman Literature'' (London, 1900, translation of the 5th German edition), vol. 1, p. 547.</ref> ''Dirae precationes'' were "dire" prayers, that is, imprecations or curses.<ref>Pliny, ''Natural History'' 28.19, as cited by Nicole Belayche, "Religious Actors in Daily Life", in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'' (Blackwell, 2007), p. 287.</ref>

In augural procedure, {{lang|la|precatio}} is not a prayer proper, but a form of invocation ''(invocatio)'' recited at the beginning of a ceremony or after accepting an oblative sign. The ''precatio maxima'' was recited for the ''augurium salutis'', the ritual conducted by the augurs to obtain divine permission to pray for Rome's security (''salus'').<ref>Linderski, "The Augural Law", pp. 2252–2256.</ref>

In legal and rhetorical usage, {{lang|la|precatio}} was a plea or request.<ref>Steven M. Cerutti, ''Cicero's Accretive Style: Rhetorical Strategies in the'' Exordia ''of the Judicial Speeches'' (University Press of America, 1996), ''passim''; Jill Harries, ''Law and Empire in Late Antiquity'' (Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 36.</ref>

====prex==== ''Prex'', "prayer", usually appears in the plural, {{lang|la|preces}}. Within the tripartite structure that was often characteristic of formal ancient prayer, {{lang|la|preces}} would be the final expression of what is sought from the deity, following the invocation and a narrative middle.<ref>Fritz Graf, "Prayer in Magic and Religious Ritual", in ''Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion'' (Oxford University Press, 1991), p. 189.</ref> A legitimate request is an example of ''bonae preces'', "good prayer."<ref>Robert Schilling, "Roman Sacrifice", ''Roman and European Mythologies'' (University of Chicago Press, 1992), p. 77.</ref> ''Tacitae preces'' are silent or ''sotto voce'' prayers as might be used in private ritual or magic; {{lang|la|preces}} with a negative intent are described with adjectives such as ''Thyesteae'' ("Thyestean"), ''funestae'' ("deadly"), ''infelices'' (aimed at causing unhappiness), ''nefariae'',<ref>Georg Luck, ''Arcana Mundi'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985, 2006), p. 515.</ref> or ''dirae''.<ref>''Dirae'' is used by Tacitus (''Annales'' 14.30) to describe the {{lang|la|preces}} uttered by the druids against the Romans at Anglesey.</ref>

In general usage, {{lang|la|preces}} could refer to any request or entreaty. The verbal form is ''precor, precari'', "pray, entreat." The Umbrian cognate is ''persklu'', "supplication." The meaning may be "I try and obtain by uttering appropriate words what is my right to obtain." It is used often in association with {{lang|la|quaeso}} in expressions such as ''te precor quaesoque'', "I pray and beseech you", or ''prece quaesit'', "he seeks by means of prayer."<ref>As in Lucretius, {{Lang|la|De rerum natura}} 5.1229. According to Emile Benveniste (''Le vocabulaire'', p. 404) {{lang|la|quaeso}} would mean "I use the appropriate means to obtain"; in the interpretation of Morani,{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}} {{lang|la|quaeso}} means "I wish to obtain, try and obtain", while ''precor'' designates the utterance of the adequate words to achieve one's aim.</ref> In Roman law of the Imperial era, {{lang|la|preces}} referred to a petition addressed to the emperor by a private person.<ref>Adolf Berger, ''Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law'' (American Philosophical Society, 1991 reprint), p. 648; Detlef Liebs, "Roman Law", in ''The Cambridge Ancient History. Late Antiquity: Empire and Successors, A.D. 425-600'' (Cambridge University Press, 2000), vol. 15, p. 243.</ref>

====prodigium==== {{redirect|Prodigium|the EP|Prodigium (EP)}} ''Prodigia'' (plural) were unnatural deviations from the predictable order of the cosmos. A ''prodigium'' signaled divine displeasure at a religious offense and must be expiated to avert more destructive expressions of divine wrath. Compare ''ostentum'' and ''portentum'', signs denoting an extraordinary inanimate phenomenon, and ''monstrum'' and ''miraculum'', an unnatural feature in humans.

Prodigies were a type of ''auspicia oblativa''; that is, they were "thrust upon" observers, not deliberately sought.<ref>Andrew Lintott, ''The Constitution of the Roman Republic'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999, reprinted 2002), p. 103 [https://books.google.com/books?id=yaFPohP2lB8C&dq=%22auspicia+oblativa%22+inauthor%3Alintott&pg=PA103 online.]</ref> Suspected prodigies were reported as a civic duty. A system of official referrals filtered out those that seemed patently insignificant or false before the rest were reported to the senate, who held further inquiry; this procedure was the ''procuratio prodigiorum''. Prodigies confirmed as genuine were referred to the pontiffs and augurs for ritual expiation.<ref>Orlin, in Rüpke (ed), 60.</ref> For particularly serious or difficult cases, the decemviri sacris faciundis could seek guidance and suggestions from the Sibylline Books.<ref>R. Bloch ibidem p. 96</ref>

The number of confirmed prodigies rose in troubled times. In 207 BC, during one of the worst crises of the Punic Wars, the senate dealt with an unprecedented number, the expiation of which would have involved "at least twenty days" of dedicated rites.<ref>Rosenberger, in Rüpke (ed), 297.</ref> Major prodigies that year included the spontaneous combustion of weapons, the apparent shrinking of the sun's disc, two moons in a daylit sky, a cosmic battle between sun and moon, a rain of red-hot stones, a bloody sweat on statues, and blood in fountains and on ears of corn. These were expiated by the sacrifice of "greater victims". The minor prodigies were less warlike but equally unnatural; sheep became goats; a hen become a cock, and vice versa. The minor prodigies were duly expiated with "lesser victims". The discovery of a hermaphroditic four-year-old child was expiated by drowning<ref>Rosenberger, in Rüpke (ed), 295 - 8: the task fell to the haruspex, who set the child to drown in the sea. The survival of such a child for four years after birth would have been regarded as extreme dereliction of religious duty.</ref> and a holy procession of 27 virgins to the temple of Juno Regina, singing a hymn to avert disaster; a lightning strike during the hymn rehearsals required further expiation.<ref>Livy, 27.37.5–15; the hymn was composed by the poet Livius Andronicus. Cited by Halm, in Rüpke (ed) 244. For remainder, see Rosenberger, in Rüpke (ed), 297.</ref> Religious restitution was proved only by Rome's victory.<ref>See Livy, 22.1 ff.</ref>

The expiatory burial of living human victims in the Forum Boarium followed Rome's defeat at Cannae in the same wars. In Livy's account, Rome's victory follows its discharge of religious duties to the gods.<ref>For Livy's use of prodigies and portents as markers of Roman impiety and military failure, see Feeney, in Rüpke (ed), 138 - 9. For prodigies in the context of political decision-making, see Rosenberger, in Rüpke (ed), 295 - 8. See also R. Bloch ''Les prodiges dans l'antiquite'-Les prodiges a Rome'' It. transl. 1981, chap. 1, 2</ref> Livy remarked the scarcity of prodigies in his own day as a loss of communication between gods and men. In the later Republic and thereafter, the reporting of public prodigies was increasingly displaced by a "new interest in signs and omens associated with the charismatic individual."<ref>Dennis Feeney, in Jörg Rüpke, (Editor), ''A Companion to Roman Religion'', Wiley-Blackwell, 2007. p.140.</ref>

====profanum==== Profanum (literally, 'in front of the shrine'), therefore not within a sacred precinct; not belonging to the gods but to humankind.

====propitius====

An adjective of augural terminology meaning favourable. From ''pro-'', "before", and ''petere'', "seek" but originally "fly". It indicates a pattern in the flight of ''praepetes aves'', birds that make the auspices favorable by flying before the person who is taking them or by pointing in the direction of that which is wished for. A synonym is ''secundus'', "favorable" or "following".<ref>Festus s. v. ''praepetes aves'' p. 286 L "aves quae se ante auspicantem ferunt" "who go before the a.", 224 L "quia secundum auspicium faciant praetervolantes...aut ea quae praepetamus indicent..." "since they make the auspice favourable by flying nearby...or point to what we wish for...". W. W. Skeat ''An Etymological Dictionary of the English language'' s. v. ''propitious'' New York 1963 (reprint).</ref>

====pulvinar==== The ''pulvinar'' (plural ''pulvinaria'') was a special couch used for displaying images of the gods, that they might receive offerings at ceremonies such as the ''lectisternium'' or ''supplicatio''.<ref>William Warde Fowler, ''The Religious Experience of the Roman People'' (London, 1922), pp. 265–266; Mary Beard, J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, ''Religions of Rome: A History'' (Cambridge University Press, 1998), vol. 1, p. 40.</ref> In the famous ''lectisternium'' of 217 BC, on orders of the Sibylline books, six ''pulvinaria'' were arranged, each for a divine male-female pair.<ref>Charlotte Long, ''The Twelve Gods of Greece and Rome'' (Brill, 1987), pp. 235–236.</ref> By extension, pulvinar can also mean the shrine or platform housing several of these couches and their images. At the Circus Maximus, the couches and images of the gods were placed on an elevated ''pulvinar'' to "watch" the games.

===R===

====regina sacrorum==== The regina sacrorum is the wife of the ''rex sacrorum'', who served as a high priestess with her own specific religious duties.

====religio==== The word ''religio'' originally meant an obligation to the gods, something expected by them from human beings or a matter of particular care or concern as related to the gods.<ref>Jerzy Linderski, "The Augural Law", ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16 (1986), p. 2180, and in the same volume, G.J. Szemler, "Priesthoods and Priestly Careers in Ancient Rome," p. 2322.</ref> In this sense, ''religio'' might be translated better as "religious scruple" than with the English word "religion".<ref>Clifford Ando, ''The Matter of the Gods: Religion and the Roman Empire'' (University of California Press, 2008), p. 126.</ref> One definition of ''religio'' offered by Cicero is ''cultus deorum'', "the proper performance of rites in veneration of the gods."<ref>Cicero, ''De natura deorum'' 2.8.</ref>

''Religio'' among the Romans was not based on "faith", but on knowledge, including and especially correct practice.<ref>Ando, ''The Matter of the Gods'', p. 13.</ref> ''Religio'' (plural ''religiones'') was the pious practice of Rome's traditional cults, and was a cornerstone of the ''mos maiorum'',<ref>Nicole Belayche, in Rüpke, Jörg (Editor), ''A Companion to Roman Religion'', Wiley-Blackwell, 2007, p. 279: "Care for the gods, the very meaning of religio, had [therefore] to go through life, and one might thus understand why Cicero wrote that religion was "necessary". Religious behavior – ''pietas'' in Latin, ''eusebeia'' in Greek – belonged to action and not to contemplation. Consequently religious acts took place wherever the faithful were: in houses, boroughs, associations, cities, military camps, cemeteries, in the country, on boats."</ref> the traditional social norms that regulated public, private, and military life. To the Romans, their success was self-evidently due to their practice of proper, respectful ''religio'', which gave the gods what was owed them and which was rewarded with social harmony, peace and prosperity. [[File:CILVII,45=RIB152Bath.jpg|thumb|Dedication from Roman Britain announcing that a local official has restored a ''locus religiosus''<ref>''CIL'' VII.45 = ''ILS'' 4920.</ref>]]

Religious law maintained the proprieties of divine honours, sacrifice and ritual. Impure sacrifice and incorrect ritual were ''vitia'' (faults, hence "vice," the English derivative); excessive devotion, fearful grovelling to deities, and the improper use or seeking of divine knowledge were ''superstitio''; neglecting the ''religiones'' owed to the traditional gods was atheism, a charge leveled during the Empire at Jews,<ref>Jack N. Lightstone, "Roman Diaspora Judaism," in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'' (Blackwell, 2007), pp. 360, 368.</ref> Christians, and Epicureans.<ref>Adelaide D. Simpson, "Epicureans, Christians, Atheists in the Second Century," ''Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association'' 72 (1941) 372–381.</ref> Any of these moral deviations could cause divine anger (''ira deorum'') and therefore harm the State.<ref>Beard ''et al''., Vol. 1, 217.</ref> See Religion in ancient Rome.

====religiosus==== ''Religiosus'' was something pertaining to the gods or marked out by them as theirs, as distinct from ''sacer'', which was something or someone given to them by humans. Hence, a graveyard was not primarily defined as ''sacer'' but a ''locus religiosus'', because those who lay within its boundaries were considered belonging to the di Manes.<ref>F. De Visscher "Locus religiosus" ''Atti del Congresso internazionale di Diritto Romano'', 3, 1951</ref> Places struck by lightning were taboo<ref>Warde Fowler considers a possible origin for ''sacer'' in taboos applied to holy or accursed things or places, without direct reference to deities and their property. W. Warde Fowler "The Original Meaning of the Word Sacer" ''Journal of Roman Studies'', I, 1911, p.57-63</ref> because they had been marked as ''religiosus'' by Jupiter himself.<ref>Varro. LL V, 150. See also Festus, 253 L: "A place was once considered to become ''religiosus'' which looked to have been dedicated to himself by a god": "''locus statim fieri putabatur religiosus, quod eum deus dicasse videbatur"''.</ref> See also sacer and sanctus.

====res divinae==== ''Res divinae'' were "divine affairs," that is, the matters that pertained to the gods and the sphere of the divine in contrast to ''res humanae'', "human affairs."<ref>Cicero, ''De natura deorum'' 2.3.82 and 2.28.72; Ittai Gradel, ''Emperor Worship and Roman Religion'' (Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 4-6.</ref> ''Rem divinam facere'', "to do a divine thing," simply meant to do something that pertained to the divine sphere, such as perform a ceremony or rite. The equivalent Etruscan term is ''ais(u)na''.<ref>Massimo Pallottino, "Sacrificial Cults and Rites in Pre-Roman Italy," in ''Roman and European Mythologies'' (University of Chicago Press, 1992), p.33.</ref>

The distinction between human and divine ''res'' was explored in the multivolume ''Antiquitates rerum humanarum et divinarum'', one of the chief works of Varro (1st century BC). It survives only in fragments but was a major source of traditional Roman theology for the Church Fathers. Varro devoted 25 books of the ''Antiquitates'' to ''res humanae'' and 16 to ''res divinae''. His proportional emphasis is deliberate, as he treats cult and ritual as human constructs.<ref>Clifford Ando, "Religion and ''ius publicum''," in ''Religion and Law in Classical and Christian Rome'' (Franz Steiner, 2006), pp. 140–142.</ref> Varro divides ''res divinae'' into three kinds: * the mythic theology of the poets, or narrative elaboration; * the natural theology of the philosophers, or theorizing on divinity among the intellectual elite; * the civil theology concerned with the relation of the state to the divine. The schema is Stoic in origin, though Varro has adapted it for his own purposes.<ref>Gian Biagio Conte, ''Latin Literature: A History'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994, originally published 1987 in Italian), p. 213.</ref>

''Res divinae'' is an example of ancient Roman religious terminology that was appropriated for Christian usage; for St. Augustine, ''res divina'' is a "divine reality" as represented by a ''sacrum signum'' ("sacred sign") such as a sacrament.<ref>Herbert Vorgrimler, ''Sacramental Theology'' (Patmos, 1987, 1992), p. 45.</ref>

====responsum==== ''Responsa'' (plural) were the "responses," that is, the opinions and arguments, of the official priests on questions of religious practice and interpretation. These were preserved in written form and archived.<ref name="autogenerated218"/> Compare ''decretum''.

====rex sacrorum==== The ''rex sacrorum'' was a senatorial priesthood<ref>Jörg Rüpke, ''Religion of the Romans'' (Polity Press, 2007, originally published in German 2001), p. 223 [https://books.google.com/books?id=fcsynr0fQIoC&dq=%22rex+sacrorum%22&pg=PA194 online.]</ref> reserved for patricians. Although in the historical era the Pontifex Maximus was the head of Roman state religion, Festus says<ref>Festus on the ''ordo sacerdotum'', 198 in the edition of Lindsay.</ref> that in the ranking of priests, the ''rex sacrorum'' was of highest prestige, followed by the ''flamines maiores''.<ref>Gary Forsythe, ''A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War'' (University of California Press, 2005), p. 136 [https://books.google.com/books?id=aEfvR1Qcd0gC&dq=%22rex+sacrorum%22&pg=PA136 online.]</ref>

====ritus==== Although ''ritus'' is the origin of the English word "rite" via ecclesiastical Latin, in classical usage ''ritus'' meant the traditional and correct manner (of performance), that is, "way, custom". Festus defines it as a specific form of ''mos'': "''Ritus'' is the proven way ''(mos)'' in the performance of sacrifices." The adverb ''rite'' means "in good form, correctly."<ref>Festus, entry on ''ritus'', p. 364 (edition of Lindsay): ''ritus est est mos comprobatus in administrandis sacrificis''. See also the entry on ''ritus'' from Paulus, ''Festi Epitome'', p. 337 (Lindsay), where he defines ''ritus'' as ''mos'' or ''consuetudo'', "customary use", adding that ''rite autem significat bene ac recte.'' See also Varro ''De Lingua Latina'' II 88; Cicero ''De Legibus'' II 20 and 21.</ref> This original meaning of ''ritus'' may be compared to the concept of ''ṛtá'' ("visible order", in contrast to ''dhāman, dhārman'') in Vedic religion, a conceptual pairing analogous to Latin ''fas'' and ''ius''.<ref>G. Dumézil ARR It. tr. Milan 1977 p. 127 citing A. Bergaigne ''La religion védique'' III 1883 p. 220.</ref>

For Latin words meaning "ritual" or "rite", see ''sacra'', ''caerimoniae'', and ''religiones''.<ref>Jean-Louis Durand, John Scheid ''Rites'' et ''religion''. Remarques sur certains préjugés des historiens de la religions des Grecs et des Romains" in ''Archives de sciences sociales des religions'' '''85''' 1994 pp. 23-43 part. pp. 24-25.</ref>

====ritus graecus==== A small number of Roman religious practices and cult innovations were carried out according to "Greek rite" ''(ritus graecus)'', which the Romans characterized as Greek in origin or manner. A priest who conducted ''ritu graeco'' wore a Greek-style fringed tunic, with his head bare ''(capite aperto)'' or laurel-wreathed. By contrast, in most rites of Roman public religion, an officiant wore the distinctively Roman toga, specially folded to cover his head (see ''capite velato''). Otherwise, "Greek rite" seems to have been a somewhat indefinite category, used for prayers uttered in Greek, and Greek methods of sacrifice within otherwise conventionally Roman cult.

Roman writers record elements of ''ritus graecus'' in the cult to Hercules at Rome's Ara Maxima, which according to tradition was established by the Greek king Evander even before the city of Rome was founded at the site. It thus represented one of the most ancient Roman cults. "Greek" elements were also found in the Saturnalia held in honor of the Golden Age deity Saturn, and in certain ceremonies of the Ludi saeculares. A Greek rite to Ceres (''ritus graecus cereris'') was imported from Magna Graecia and added to her existing Aventine cult in accordance with the Sibylline books, ancient oracles written in Greek. Official rites to Apollo are perhaps "the best illustration of the ''Graecus ritus'' in Rome."

The Romans regarded ''ritus graecus'' as part of their own ''mos maiorum'' (ancestral tradition), and not as ''novus aut externus ritus'', novel or foreign rite. The thorough integration and reception of rite labeled "Greek" attests to the complex, multi-ethnic origins of Rome's people and religious life.<ref>John Scheid, "Graeco Ritu: A Typically Roman Way of Honoring the Gods", ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'', Vol. 97, Greece in Rome: Influence, Integration, 1995, pp. 15–31.</ref>

===S===

====sacellum==== ''Sacellum'', a diminutive from ''sacer'' ("belonging to a god"),<ref>Aulus Gellius, ''Attic Nights'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Gellius/7*.html#12.5 7.12.5], discounting the etymology proffered by Gaius Trebatius in his lost work ''On Religions'' (as ''sacer'' and ''cella'').</ref> is a shrine. Varro and Verrius Flaccus give explanations that seem contradictory, the former defining a ''sacellum'' in its entirety as equivalent to a ''cella'',<ref>Varro, ''Res Divinae'' frg. 62 in the edition of Cardauns.</ref> which is specifically an enclosed space, and the latter insisting that a ''sacellum'' had no roof.<ref>Verrius Flaccus as cited by Festus, p. 422.15–17 L.</ref> "The ''sacellum''," notes Jörg Rüpke, "was both less complex and less elaborately defined than a temple proper."<ref>Jörg Rüpke, ''Religion of the Romans'' (Polity Press, 2007, originally published in German 2001), pp. 183–185.</ref> Each curia had its own ''sacellum''.<ref>Dionysius Halicarnassus II 64, 3.</ref>

====sacer==== {{See also|homo sacer}} ''Sacer'' describes a thing or person given to the gods, thus "sacred" to them. Human beings had no legal or moral claims on anything ''sacer''. ''Sacer'' could be highly nuanced; Varro associates it with "perfection".<ref>Varro, ''De res rustica'', 2.1., describes ''porci sacres'' (pigs considered ''sacer'' and thus reserved for sacrifice) as necessarily "pure" (or perfect); "porci puri ad sacrificium".</ref> Through association with ritual purity, ''sacer'' could also mean "sacred, untouchable, inviolable".

Anything not ''sacer'' was ''profanum'': literally, "in front of (or outside) the shrine", therefore not belonging to it or the gods. A thing or person could be made ''sacer'' (consecrated), or could revert from ''sacer'' to ''profanum'' (deconsecrated), only through lawful rites ''(resecratio)'' performed by a pontiff on behalf of the state.<ref>M. Morani "Lat. ''sacer''...cit. p. 41. See also Festus. p. 414 L2 & p.253 L: ''Gallus Aelius ait sacrum esse quodcumque modo atque instituto civitatis consecratum est, sive aedis sive ara sive signum, locum sive pecunia, sive aliud quod dis dedicatum atque consecratum sit; quod autem privati suae religionis causa aliquid earum rerum deo dedicent, id pontifices Romanos non existimare sacrum'': "Gallus Aelius says that ''sacer'' is anything made sacred (consecratum) in any way or by any institution of the community, be it a building or an altar or a sign, a place or money, or anything that else can be dedicated to the gods; the Roman pontiffs do not consider ''sacer'' any things dedicated to a god in private religious cult."</ref> Part of the ''ver sacrum'' sacrificial vow of 217 BC stipulated that animals dedicated as ''sacer'' would revert to the condition of ''profanum'' if they died through natural cause or were stolen before the due sacrificial date. Similar conditions attached to sacrifices in archaic Rome.<ref>...''si id moritur...profanum esto'' "if the animal dies...it shall be profane": Livy, ''Ab Urbe Condita'', 22.10. For the archaic variant, see G. Dumezil ''La religion romaine archaique'' Paris, 1974, Considerations preliminaires</ref> A thing already owned by the gods or actively marked out by them as divine property was distinguished as ''religiosus'', and hence could not be given to them or made ''sacer''.<ref>F. De Visscher "Locus religiosus" ''Atti del Congresoo internazionale di Diritto Romano'', 3, 1951</ref><ref>Warde Fowler considers a possible origin for ''sacer'' in the taboos applied to things or places holy or accursed without direct reference to deities and their property. W. Warde Fowler "The Original Meaning of the Word Sacer" ''Journal of Roman Studies'', I, 1911, p.57-63</ref>

Persons judged ''sacer'' under Roman law were placed beyond further civil judgment, sentence and protection; their lives, families and properties were forfeit to the gods. A person could be declared ''sacer'' who harmed a plebeian tribune, failed to bear legal witness,<ref>As in Horace, ''Sermones'' II 3, 181,</ref> failed to meet his obligations to clients, or illicitly moved the boundary markers of fields.<ref>As in Servius, ''Aeneid'' VI, 609: Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II 10, 3; Festus 505 L.</ref> It was not a religious duty ''(fas)'' to execute a ''homo sacer'', but he could be killed with impunity.<ref>Festus, p422 L: ''"homo sacer is est quem populus iudicavit ob maleficium; neque fas est eum imolari, sed qui occidit, parricidii non damnatur"''. For further discussion on the ''homo sacer'' in relation to the plebeian tribunes, see Ogilvie, R M, ''A Commentary on Livy'' 1-5, Oxford, 1965.</ref><ref>H. Bennet ''Sacer esto..'' thinks that the person declared sacred was originally sacrificed to the gods. This hypothesis seems to be supported by Plut. ''Rom.'' 22, 3 and Macr. ''Sat.''III, 7, 5, who compare the ''homo sacer'' to the victim in a sacrifice. The prerogative of declaring somebody ''sacer '' supposedly belonged to the king during the regal era; during the Republic, this right passed to the pontiff and courts.</ref>

''Dies sacri'' ("sacred days") were ''nefasti'', meaning that the ordinary human affairs permitted on ''dies profani'' (or ''fasti'') were forbidden.

''Sacer'' was a fundamental principle in Roman and Italic religions. In Oscan, cognate forms are ''sakoro'', "sacred," and ''sakrim'', "sacrificial victim". Oscan ''sakaraklum'' is cognate with Latin ''sacellum'', a small shrine, as Oscan ''sakarater'' is with Latin ''sacratur, consecrare'', "consecrated". The ''sacerdos'' is "one who performs a sacred action" or "renders a thing sacred", that is, a priest.<ref>G. Devoto ''Origini Indoeuropee'' (Firenze, 1962), p. 468</ref>

[[File:Bas relief from Arch of Marcus Aurelius showing sacrifice.jpg|thumb|Marcus Aurelius ''capite velato'' carries out a sacrifice. By his left side is a flamen wearing an ''apex''. The ''victima'' is the bull, who will be struck by the ''popa'' to the right. The music of the ''aulos'' was to drive off inauspicious noise. The setting is the Temple of Capitoline Jupiter.]]

====sacerdos==== {{Main|Priest (ancient Rome)}} A ''sacerdos'' (plural ''sacerdotes'', a word of either masculine or feminine gender) was any priest or priestess, from ''*sakro-dho-ts'', "the one who does the sacred act."<ref>John Scheid, ''An Introduction to Roman Religion'' (Indiana University Press, 2003), p. 129.</ref> There was no priestly caste in ancient Rome, and in some sense every citizen was a priest in that he presided over the domestic cult of his household. Senators, magistrates, and the decurions of towns performed ritual acts, though they were not ''sacerdotes'' per se.<ref>Scheid, ''Introduction to Roman Religion'', pp. 129–130.</ref> The ''sacerdos'' was one who held the title usually in relation to a specific deity or temple.<ref>Lesley E. Lundeen, "In Search of the Etruscan Priestess: A Re-Examination of the ''hatrencu''," in ''Religion in Republican Italy'' (Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 46; Celia E. Schultz, ''Women's Religious Activity in the Roman Republic'' (University of North Carolina Press, 2006), pp. 70–71.</ref> See also ''collegium'' and flamen.

====sacra==== ''Sacra'' (neuter plural of ''sacer'') are the traditional cult practices of classical Roman religion, either ''publica'' or ''privata'', both of which were overseen by the College of Pontiffs.

The ''sacra publica'' were those performed on behalf of the whole Roman people or its major subdivisions, the tribes and ''curiae''. They included the ''sacra pro populo'', "rites on behalf of the Roman people," i.e., all the ''feriae publicae'' of the Roman calendar year and the other feasts that were regarded of public interest, including those pertaining to the hills of Rome,<ref>Varro. ''De Lingua Latina'' VI 24; Festus sv Septimontium p. 348, 340, 341L; Plut. ''Quest. Rom.'' 69</ref> to the ''pagi'' and ''curiae'', and to the ''sacella'', "shrines".<ref>Festus sv Publica sacra; Dionys. Hal. II 21, 23; Appian. Hist. Rom. VIII 138; de Bello Civ. II 106; Plut. Quaest. Rom. 89; Christopher John Smith, ''The Roman Clan: The'' gens ''from Ancient Ideology to Modern Anthropology'' (Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 44.</ref> The establishment of the ''sacra publica'' is ascribed to king Numa Pompilius, but many are thought to be of earlier origin, even predating the founding of Rome. Thus Numa may be seen as carrying out a reform and a reorganisation of the ''sacra'' in accord with his own views and his education.<ref>Plutarch ''Numa'' 14, 6-7 gives a list of Numa's ritual prescriptions: obligation of sacrificing an uneven number of victims to the heavenly gods and an even one to the ''inferi'' (cf. Serv. ''Ecl.'' 5, 66; Serv. Dan. ''Ecl.'' 8, 75; Macrobius I 13,5); the prohibition to make libations to the gods with wine; of sacrificing without flour; the obligation to pray and worship divinities while making a turn on oneselves (Livy V 21,16; Suetonius ''Vit.'' 2); the composition of the ''indigitamenta'' (Arnobius ''Adversus nationes'' II 73, 17-18).</ref> ''Sacra publica'' were performed at the expense of the state, according to the dispositions left by Numa, and were attended by all the senators and magistrates.<ref>Livy I, 20; Dion. Hal. II</ref>

''Sacra privata'' were particular to a ''gens'', to a family, or to an individual, and were carried out at the expense of those concerned. Individuals had ''sacra'' on dates peculiar to them, such as birthdays, the ''dies lustricus'', and at other times of their life such as funerals and expiations, for instance of fulgurations.<ref>Macrobius I 12. Macrobius mentions in former times the inadvertent nomination of Salus, Semonia, Seia, Segetia, Tutilina required the observance of a ''dies feriatus'' of the person involved.</ref> Families had their own ''sacra'' in the home or at the tombs of their ancestors, such as those pertaining to the Lares, Manes and Penates of the family, and the Parentalia. These were regarded as necessary and imperishable, and the desire to perpetuate the family's ''sacra'' was among the reasons for adoption in adulthood.<ref>Cic. de Leg. II 1, 9-21; Turcan, ''The Gods of Ancient Rome'', p. 44.</ref> In some cases, the state assumed the expenses even of ''sacra privata,'' if they were regarded as important to the maintenance of the Roman religious system as a whole; see ''sacra gentilicia'' following.

====sacra gentilicia==== ''Sacra gentilicia'' were the private rites (see ''sacra'' above) that were particular to a ''gens'' ("clan"). These rites are related to a belief in the shared ancestry of the members of a ''gens'', since the Romans placed a high value on both family identity and commemorating the dead.<ref>William Warde Fowler, ''The Religious Experience of the Roman People'' (London, 1922), p. 86.</ref> During the Gallic siege of Rome, a member of the ''gens Fabia'' risked his life to carry out the ''sacra'' of his clan on the Quirinal Hill; the Gauls were so impressed by his courageous piety that they allowed him to pass through their lines.<ref>Livy 5.46.2–3; Clifford Ando, ''The Matter of the Gods: Religion and the Roman Empire'' (University of California Press, 2009), pp. 142–143; Emmanuele Curti, "From Concordia to the Quirinal: Notes on Religion and Politics in Mid-Republican/Hellenistic Rome," in ''Religion in Archaic and Republican Rome and Italy: Evidence and Experience'' (Routledge, 2000), p. 85; Robert E.A. Palmer, "The Deconstruction of Mommsen on Festus 462/464, or the Hazards of Interpretation", in ''Imperium sine fine: T. Robert S. Broughton and the Roman Republic'' (Franz Steiner, 1996),</ref> The Fabian ''sacra'' were performed in Gabine dress by a member of the ''gens'' who was possibly named a flamen.<ref>Liv. V 46; XXII 18; Dionys. Hal. ''Ant. Rom.'' IX 19; Cic. ''Har. Resp.'' XV 32; Turcan, ''The Gods of Ancient Rome'', p. 43ff.; Smith, ''The Roman Clan'', p. 46.</ref> There were ''sacra'' of Minerva in the care of the Nautii, and rites of Apollo that the Iulii oversaw.<ref>Mommsen thought, perhaps wrongly, that the Julian ''sacra'' for Apollo was in fact a ''sacrum publicum'' entrusted to a particular ''gens''. Mommsen ''Staatsrecht'' III 19; G. Dumézil ''La religion romaine archaique'' It. tr. Milano 1977 p. 475</ref> The Claudii had recourse to a distinctive "propudial pig" sacrifice ''(propudialis porcus'', "pig of shame") by way of expiation when they neglected any of their religious obligations.<ref>Festus, p. 274 (edition of Lindsay); Robert Turcan, ''The Gods of Ancient Rome'' (Routledge, 2001; originally published in French 1998), p. 44; Smith, ''The Roman Clan'', p. 45.</ref>

Roman practices of adoption, including so-called "testamentary adoption" when an adult heir was declared in a will, were aimed at perpetuating the ''sacra gentilicia'' as well as preserving the family name and property.<ref>Legal questions might arise about the extent to which the inheritance of property was or ought to be attached to the ''sacra''; Andrew R. Dyck, A Commentary on Cicero, De Legibus (University of Michigan Press, 2004), pp. 381–382, note on an issue raised at ''De legibus'' 2.48a.</ref> A person adopted into another family usually renounced the ''sacra'' of his birth (see ''detestatio sacrorum'') in order to devote himself to those of his new family.<ref>Cicero, ''De legibus'' 2.1.9-21; Turcan, ''The Gods of Ancient Rome'', p. 44.</ref>

''Sacra gentilicia'' sometimes acquired public importance, and if the ''gens'' were in danger of dying out, the state might take over their maintenance. One of the myths attached to Hercules' time in Italy explained why his cult at the Ara Maxima was in the care of the patrician ''gens Potitia'' and the ''gens Pinaria''; the diminution of these families by 312 BC caused the ''sacra'' to be transferred to the keeping of public slaves and supported with public funding.<ref>Jörg Rüpke, ''Religion of the Romans'' (Polity Press, 2007, originally published in German 2001), p. 26.</ref>

====sacra municipalia==== The ''sacra'' of an Italian town or community ''(municipium)'' might be perpetuated under the supervision of the Roman pontiffs when the locality was brought under Roman rule. Festus defined ''municipalia sacra'' as "those owned originally, before the granting of Roman citizenship; the pontiffs desired that the people continue to observe them and to practice them in the way ''(mos)'' they had been accustomed to from ancient times."<ref>Festus 146 in the edition of Lindsay.</ref> These ''sacra'' were regarded as preserving the core religious identity of a particular people.<ref>Olivier de Cazanove, "Pre-Roman Italy, Before and Under the Romans," in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'' (Blackwell, 2007), p. 55.</ref>

====sacramentum==== {{Main|Sacramentum (oath)}} ''Sacramentum'' is an oath or vow that rendered the swearer ''sacer'', "given to the gods," in the negative sense if he violated it.<ref>Jörg Rüpke, ''Domi Militiae: Die religiöse Konstruktion des Krieges in Rom'' (Franz Steiner, 1990), pp. 76–80.</ref> ''Sacramentum'' also referred to a thing that was pledged as a sacred bond, and consequently forfeit if the oath were violated.<ref>D. Briquel "Sur les aspects militaires du dieu ombrien Fisus Sancius" in ''Revue de l' histoire des religions''{{full citation needed|date=November 2012}} i p. 150-151; J. A. C. Thomas ''A Textbook of Roman law'' Amsterdam 1976 p. 74 and 105.</ref> Both instances imply an underlying ''sacratio'', act of consecration.

In Roman law, a thing given as a pledge or bond was a ''sacramentum''. The ''sacramentum legis actio'' was a sum of money deposited in a legal procedure<ref>Varro ''De Lingua latina'' V 180; Festus s.v. ''sacramentum'' p. 466 L; 511 L; Paulus Festi Epitome p.467 L.</ref> to affirm that both parties to the litigation were acting in good faith.<ref>George Mousourakis, ''A Legal History of Rome'' (Routledge, 2007), p. 33.</ref> If correct law and procedures had been followed, it could be assumed that the outcome was ''iustum'', right or valid. The losing side had thus in effect committed perjury, and forfeited his ''sacramentum'' as a form of ''piaculum''; the winner got his deposit back. The forfeited ''sacramentum'' was normally allotted by the state to the funding of ''sacra publica''.<ref>Mousourakis, ''A Legal History of Rome'', pp. 33, 206.</ref>

The ''sacramentum militare'' (also as ''militum'' or ''militiae'') was the oath taken by soldiers in pledging their loyalty to the consul or emperor. The ''sacramentum'' that renders the soldier ''sacer'' helps explain why he was subjected to harsher penalties, such as execution and corporal punishment, that were considered inappropriate for civilian citizens, at least under the Republic.<ref>See further discussion at ''fustuarium''</ref> In effect, he had put his life on deposit, a condition also of the fearsome ''sacramentum'' sworn by gladiators.<ref>Gladiators swore to commit their bodies to the possibility of being "burned, bound, beaten, and slain by the sword"; Petronius, ''Satyricon'' 117; Seneca, ''Epistulae'' 71.32.</ref> In the later empire, the oath of loyalty created conflict for Christians serving in the military, and produced a number of soldier-martyrs.<ref>Carlin A. Barton, ''The Sorrows of the Ancient Romans: The Gladiator and the Monster'' (Princeton University Press, 1993), pp. 14–16, 35 (note 88), 42, 45–47.</ref> ''Sacramentum'' is the origin of the English word "sacrament", a transition in meaning pointed to by Apuleius's use of the word to refer to religious initiation.<ref>Apuleius, ''Metamorphoses'' 11.15.5; Robert Schilling, "The Decline and Survival of Roman Religion," in ''Roman and European Mythologies'' (University of Chicago Press, 1992, from the French edition of 1981)</ref>

The ''sacramentum'' as pertaining to both the military and the law indicates the religious basis for these institutions. The term differs from ''iusiurandum'', which is more common in legal application, as for instance swearing an oath in court. A ''sacramentum'' establishes a direct relation between the person swearing (or the thing pledged in the swearing of the oath) and the gods; the ''iusiurandum'' is an oath of good faith within the human community that is in accordance with ''ius'' as witnessed by the gods.<ref>Arnaldo Momigliano, ''Quinto contributo alla storia degli studi classici e del mondo antico'' (Storia e letteratura, 1975), vol. 2, pp. 975–977; Luca Grillo, ''The Art of Caesar's Bellum Civile: Literature, Ideology, and Community'' (Cambridge University Press, 2012), p. 60.</ref>

====sacrarium==== A ''sacrarium'' was a place where sacred objects ''(sacra)'' were stored or deposited for safekeeping.<ref>Ulpian, ''Digest'' I.8.9.2: ''sacrarium est locus in quo sacra reponuntur.''</ref> The word can overlap in meaning with ''sacellum'', a small enclosed shrine; the ''sacella'' of the Argei are also called ''sacraria''.<ref>Ittai Gradel, ''Emperor Worship and Roman Religion'' (Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 10.</ref> In Greek writers, the word is ἱεροφυλάκιον ''hierophylakion'' (''hiero-'', "sacred" and ''phylakion'', something that safeguards).<ref>Robert E. A. Palmer, ''The Archaic Community of the Romans'', p. 171, note 1.</ref> See ''sacellum'' for a list of ''sacraria''.

The ''sacrarium'' of a private home lent itself to Christian transformation, as a 4th-century poem by Ausonius demonstrates;<ref>R.P.H. Green, "The Christianity of Ausonius," ''Studia Patristica: Papers Presented at the Eleventh International Conference on Patristic Studies Held in Oxford 1991'' (Peeters, 1993), vol. 28, pp. 39 and 46; Kim Bowes, "'Christianization' and the Rural Home," ''Journal of Early Christian Studies'' 15.2 (2007), pp. 143–144, 162.</ref> in contemporary Christian usage, the sacrarium is a "special sink used for the reverent disposal of sacred substances" (see ''piscina'').<ref>''Built of Living Stones: Art, Architecture, and Worship: Guidelines'' (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2005), p. 73. See also Wolfred Nelson Cote, ''The Archaeology of Baptism'' (Lond, 1876), p. 138.</ref>

====sacrificium==== An event or thing dedicated to the gods for their disposal. The offer of sacrifice is fundamental to religio. See also Sacer and Religion in ancient Rome: Sacrifice.

====sacrosanctus==== The Valerio-Horatian laws of 449 BC introduced the adjective ''sacrosanctus'' to define the inviolability of the power ''(potestas)'' of the tribunes of the plebs and of other magistrates sanctioned by law (Livy 3.55.1). The sacrality of the tribune's function had been established in earlier times through a ''religio'' and a ''sacramentum'' (Livy 2.33.1; 3.19.10), but it obliged only the contracting parties. To make it an obligation for everyone required a ''sanctio'' that was not only civil but religious: the trespasser was to be declared ''sacer'', and his family and property sold, according to the Greek historian Dionysius (6.89.3). ''Sacer'' thus defined the religious compact, and ''sanctus'' the law. According to other passages in Livy, the law was not approved of by some jurists of the time, who maintained that only those who infringed the commonly recognised divine laws could fall into the category of those to be declared ''sacri''. Elsewhere Livy states (Livy 4.3.6, 44.5; 20.20.11) that only the ''potestas'' and not the person of the tribune was ''sacrosancta''. The critics of the law objected, "These people postulate they themselves should be ''sacrosancti'', they who do not hold even gods for sacred and saint?"<ref>M. Morani, ''Latino sacer...'' ''Aevum'' LV 1981 p. 40, citing Livy 3.19.10.</ref>

H. Fugier gives the meaning of ''sacrosanctus'' as ''guaranteed by an oath'', but M. Morani interprets the first part of the compound as a consequence of the second: ''sanxit tribunum sacrum'', the tribune is sanctioned by the law as ''sacer''. This kind of word composition based on an etymological figure has parallels in other IE languages in archaic constructions.

====Salii==== The Salii were the "leaping priests" of Mars.

====sancio==== A verb meaning to ratify a compact and put it under the protection of a ''sanctio'', a sanction or penalty. The formation and original meaning of the verb are debated. Some scholars think it is derived from the IE stem *''sak'' (the same as ''sacer'') through the insertion of a nasal ''n''<ref>Compare Lithuanian ''iung-iu'' from IE stem *''yug''.</ref> infix and the suffix -''yo''. Thence ''sancio'' would mean to render something ''sacer'', i.e. belonging to the gods in the sense of having their guarantee and protection.<ref>H. Fugier, ''Recherches sur l'expression du sacre' dans la langue latine'' Paris 1963; E. Benveniste ''Le vocubulaire des institutions indoeuropeenees'' Paris 1939, p. 427 ff.</ref> Others think it is a derivation from the theonym Sancus, the god of the ratification of ''foedera'' (treaties) and the protection of good faith, from the root ''sancu-'' plus suffix ''-io''.<ref>As inquio>incio: P.Krestchmer in ''Glotta'' 1919, X, p. 155</ref> In that case, the verb would mean an act that reflects or conforms to the function of this god, i.e. the ratifying and guaranteeing of compacts.

====sanctus==== ''Sanctus'', an adjective formed on the past participle of the verb ''sancio'', describes that which has been "established as inviolable" or "sacred", most times in a sense different from that of ''sacer'' and ''religiosus''. Its original meaning would be "that which is protected by a sanction" (''sanctio''). The concept is connected to the name of the Umbrian or Sabine founder-deity Sancus, in Umbrian ''Sancius'', whose most noted function was the ratifying and protecting of treaties (''foedera'').<ref>H. Fugier, ''Recherches'', pp. 125 ff; E. Benveniste, ''Le vocabulaire'', pp. 427 ff.; K. Latte ''Roemische Religionsgeshichte'' Muenchen 1960 p.127 ff.; D. Briquel "Sur les aspects militaires du dieu Ombrien Fisius Sancius" Paris 1978</ref>

The Roman jurist Ulpian distinguishes ''sanctus'' as "neither sacred (''sacer'') nor profane (''profanum'') ... nor [is it] ''religiosus''."<ref>Ulpian ''Digest'' 1.8.9: ''dicimus sancta, quae neque sacra neque profana sunt''.</ref> Gaius writes that a building dedicated to a god is ''sacrum'', but a town's wall and gate are ''res sanctae'' because they belong "in some way" to divine law, while a graveyard is ''religiosus'' because it is relinquished to the di Manes. Some scholars think that ''sanctus'' was originally a concept related to space as concerning inaugurated places, because they enjoyed the armed protection (''sanctio'') of the gods.<ref>G. Dumezil''La religion Romaine archaique'' It. transl. Milano 1977 p. 127; F. Sini "Sanctitas: cose, uomini, dei" in ''Sanctitas. Persone e cose da Roma a Costantinopoli a Mosca'' Roma 2001; Cic. ''de Nat. Deor.'' III 94; Festus sv tesca p. 488L</ref><ref>Gaius, following Aelius Gallus: ''inter sacrum autem et sanctum et religiosum differentias bellissime refert [Gallus]: sacrum aedificium, consecrato deo; sanctum murum, qui sit circa oppidum''. See also Marcian, ''Digest'' 1.8.8: ''"sanctum" est quod ab iniuria hominum defensum atque munitum est'' ("it is ''sanctum'' that which is defended and protected from the attack of men").</ref>

Various deities, objects, places and people – especially senators and magistrates – can be ''sanctus''. Claudia Quinta is described as a ''sanctissima femina'' (most virtuous woman) and Cato the Younger as a ''sanctus civis'' (a morally upright citizen).<ref>Huguette Fugier, Recherches sur l'expression du sacré dans la langue latine, Archives de sciences sociales des religions, 1964, Volume 17, Issue 17, p.180 [http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/assr_0003-9659_1964_num_17_1_1762_t1_0179_0000_3?_Prescripts_Search_tabs1=standard&]</ref><ref>Servius glosses ''Amsancti valles'' ([https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Serv.+A.+7.565&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0053 ''Aeneid'' 7.565]) as ''loci amsancti, id est omni parte sancti'' ("''amsancti'' valleys: ''amsancti'' places, that is, ''sanctus'' here in the sense of secluded, protected by a fence, on every side"). The ''Oxford Latin Dictionary'', however, identifies ''Ampsanctus'' in this instance and in Cicero, ''De divinatione'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cicero/de_Divinatione/1*.html#79 1.79] as a proper noun referring to a valley and lake in Samnium regarded as an entrance to the Underworld because of its mephitic air.</ref> See also sanctuary.

Later the epithet ''sanctus'' is given to many gods including Apollo Pythius by Naevius, Venus and Tiberinus by Ennius and Livy. Ennius renders the Homeric ''dia theaoon'' as ''sancta dearum''. In the early Imperial era, Ovid describes Terminus, the god who sanctifies land boundaries, as ''sanctus''<ref>Ovid, Fasti 2.658.</ref> and equates ''sancta'' with ''augusta'' (august).<ref>Ovid ''Fasti'' 1.608-9.</ref> The use of ''sanctus'' as an epithet of the river Tiber and of the boundary god Terminus retains the original and ancient sense of delineating space: borders are ''sancti'' by definition, and rivers often mark borders.

''Sanctus'' as applied to people over time came to share some of the sense of Latin ''castus'' (morally pure or guiltless) and ''pius'' (pious), with none of the ambiguity attached to ''sacer'' and ''religiosus''.

In ecclesiastical Latin, ''sanctus'' is the word for saint, but even in the Christian era it continues to appear in epitaphs for people who had not converted to Christianity.<ref>Nancy Edwards, "Celtic Saints and Early Medieval Archaeology", in ''Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West'' (Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 229 [https://books.google.com/books?id=8awpnzSjLC8C&dq=%22though+the+epithet+sanctus%22&pg=PA229 online.]</ref>

====servare de caelo==== Literally, "to watch (for something) from the sky"; that is, to observe the ''templum'' of the sky for signs that might be interpreted as auspices. Bad omens resulted in a report of ''obnuntiatio''.<ref>Robert A. Castus, ''CIcero: Speech on Behalf of Publius Sestius'' (Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 416; Susanne William Rasmussen, ''Public Portents in Republican Rome'' (Rome, 2003), p. 163 [https://books.google.com/books?id=OTaqSseM_oIC&dq=%22servare+de+caelo%22&pg=PA163 online.]</ref>

====signum==== A ''signum'' is a "sign, token or indication".<ref>C.T. Lewis & C. Short, ''A Latin Dictionary'', Oxford. Clarendon Press, 1879. Online at [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3Dsignumperseus.tufts.edu]</ref> In religious use, ''signum'' provides a collective term for events or things (including signs and symbols) that designate divine identity, activity or communication, including ''prodigia'', ''auspicia'', ''omina'', ''portenta'' and ''ostenta''.

====silentium==== Silence was generally required in the performance of every religious ritual.<ref>Pliny ''Naturalis Historia'' XXVIII 11; Seneca ''De Vita Beata'' XXVI 7; Cicero ''De Divinatione'' I 102; Servius Danielis ''In Aeneidem'' V 71.</ref> The ritual injunction ''favete linguis'', "be favourable with your tongues," meant "keep silent." In particular, silence assured the ritual correctness and the absence of ''vitia'', "faults," in the taking of the auspices.<ref>Cicero ''De Divinatione'' II 71 and 72; Festus v. ''Silentio surgere'' p. 474 L; v. ''Sinistrum''; Livy VII 6, 3-4; T. I. VI a 5-7.</ref> It was also required in the nomination (''dictio'') of the ''dictator''.<ref>Livy VIII 23, 15; IX 38, 14; IV 57, 5.</ref>

====sinister==== In ancient times, augurs (augures ex caelo) faced south, so the happy orient, where the sun rose, lay at their left. Consequently, the word ''sinister'' (Latin for left) meant well-fated. When, under Greek influence, it became customary for augurs to face north, sinister came to indicate the ill-fated west, where light turned into darkness. It is this latter and later meaning that is attached to the English word sinister.{{source needed|date=April 2026}}

====sodalitas==== {{Priesthoods of ancient Rome}} A ''sodalitas'' was a form of voluntary association or society. Its meaning is not necessarily distinct from ''collegium'' in ancient sources, and is found also in ''sodalicium'', "fraternity."<ref>Jörg Rüpke, ''Religion of the Romans'' (Polity Press, 2007, originally published in German 2001), p. 206.</ref> The ''sodalis'' is a member of a ''sodalitas'', which describes the relationship among ''sodales'' rather than an institution. Examples of priestly ''sodalitates'' are the ''Luperci, fetiales'', Arval brothers and ''Titii''; these are also called ''collegia'', but that they were a kind of confraternity is suggested by the distinctive convivial song associated with some.<ref>Thomas N. Habinek, ''The World of Roman Song: From Ritualized Speech to Social Order'' pp. 36–37.</ref> An association of ''sodales'' might also form a burial society, or make religious dedications as a group; inscriptions record donations made by women for the benefit of ''sodales''.<ref>For instance, a woman and her associates ''(socii)'' donated a lot with a "clubhouse" ''(schola)'' and colonnade to Silvanus and his ''sodalicium'', who were to use it for sacrifice, banquets, and dinners; Robert E.A. Palmer, "Silvanus, Sylvester, and the Chair of St. Peter", ''Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society'' 122 (1978), pp. 237, 243.</ref> Roman Pythagoreans such as Nigidius Figulus formed ''sodalicia'',<ref>Attilio Mastrocinque, "Creating One's Own Religion: Intellectual Choices", in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'' (Blackwell, 2007), p. 382.</ref> with which Ammianus Marcellinus compared the fellowship ''(sodalicia consortia)'' of the druids in Gallo-Roman culture.<ref>Ammianus Marcellinus, 15.9.8; Georges Dottin, ''Manuel pour servir à l'étude de l'Antiquité Celtique'' (Paris, 1906), pp. 279–289: the ''sodalicia consortia'' of the druids "ne signifie pas autre chose qu'associations corporatives, collèges, plus ou moins analogues aux collèges sacerdotaux des Romains" (''sodalicia consortia'' can "mean nothing other than corporate associations, colleges, more or less analogous to the priestly colleges of the Romans").</ref> When the cult of Cybele was imported to Rome, the eunuchism of her priests the ''galli'' discouraged Roman men from forming an official priesthood; instead, they joined ''sodalitates'' to hold banquets and other forms of traditional Roman ''cultus'' in her honor.<ref>Eric Orlin, "Urban Religion in the Middle and Late Republic", in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'', pp. 63–64; John Scheid, "Sacrifices for Gods and Ancestors", p. 268.</ref>

The ''sodalitates'' are thought to originate as aristocratic brotherhoods with cultic duties, and their existence is attested as early as the late 6th or early 5th century BC. The Twelve Tables regulated their potential influence by forbidding them to come in conflict with public law ''(ius publicum)''.<ref>Gaius, ''Digest'' xlvii.22.4 = Twelve Tables viii.27; A. Drummond, "Rome in the Fifth Century", ''Cambridge Ancient History: The Rise of Rome to 220 B.C.'' (Cambridge University Press, 1989, 2002 reprint), vol. 7, part 2, p. 158 [https://books.google.com/books?id=3qXuay2SEtIC&dq=sodalitas&pg=PA158 online.]</ref> During the 60s BC, certain forms of associations were disbanded by law as politically disruptive, and in Ciceronian usage ''sodalitates'' may refer either to these subversive organizations or in a religious context to the priestly fraternities.<ref>J.-M. David, S. Demougin, E. Deniaux, D. Ferey, J.-M. Flambard, C. Nicolet, "Le ''Commentariolum petitionis'' de Quintus Cicéron", ''Aufstieg under Niedergang der römischen Welt'' I (1973) pp. 252, 276–277.</ref> See also Sodales Augustales. For the Catholic concept, see sodality.

====spectio==== ''Spectio'' ("watching, sighting, observation") was the seeking of omens through observing the sky, the flight of birds, or the feeding of birds. Originally only patrician magistrates and augurs were entitled to practice ''spectio'', which carried with it the power to regulate assemblies and other aspects of public life, depending on whether the omens were good or bad.<ref>W. Jeffrey Tatum, ''The Patrician Tribune'' (University of North Carolina Press, 1999), p.127.</ref> See also ''obnuntiatio''.

====sponsio==== [[File:Duenos inscription.jpg|thumb|Duenos inscription]] ''Sponsio'' is a formal, religiously guaranteed obligation. It can mean both betrothal as pledged by a woman's family, and a magistrate's solemn promise in international treaties on behalf of the Roman people.<ref>W. H. Buckler ''The origin and history of contract in Roman law'' 1895 pp. 13-15</ref>

The Latin word derives from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning a libation of wine offered to the gods, as does the Greek verb ''spendoo'' and the noun ''spondai, spondas'', and Hittite ''spant-''.<ref>The Hittite is also written as ''sipant'' or ''ispant-''.</ref> In Greek it also acquired the meaning "compact, convention, treaty" (compare Latin ''foedus''), as these were sanctioned with a libation to the gods on an altar. In Latin, ''sponsio'' becomes a legal contract between two parties, or sometimes a ''foedus'' between two nations.

In legal Latin the ''sponsio'' implied the existence of a person who acted as a ''sponsor'', a guarantor for the obligation undertaken by somebody else. The verb is ''spondeo, sponsus''. Related words are ''sponsalia'', the ceremony of betrothal; ''sponsa'', fiancée; and ''sponsus'', both the second-declension noun meaning a husband-to-be and the fourth declension abstract meaning suretyship.<ref>Servius, note to ''Aeneid'' X 79</ref> The ceremonial character of ''sponsio'' suggests<ref>In conjunction with archaeological evidence from Lavinium.</ref> that Latin archaic forms of marriage were, like the ''confarreatio'' of Roman patricians, religiously sanctioned. Dumézil proposed that the oldest extant Latin document, the Duenos inscription, could be interpreted in light of ''sponsio''.<ref>G. Dumezil "La deuxieme ligne de l'''inscription de Duenos''" in ''Latomus'' 102 1969 pp. 244-255; ''Idees romaines'' Paris 1969 pp. 12 ff.</ref>

====superstitio==== ''Superstitio'' was excessive devotion and enthusiasm in religious observance, in the sense of "doing or believing more than was necessary",<ref>Jörg Rüpke, "Roman Religion — Religions of Rome," in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'' (Blackwell, 2007), p. 5.</ref> or "irregular" religious practice that conflicted with Roman custom. "Religiosity" in its pejorative sense may be a better translation than "superstition", the English word derived from the Latin.<ref>Mary Beard, J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, ''Religions of Rome: A History'' (Cambridge University Press, 1998), vol. 1, pp. 215–217.</ref> Cicero defined ''superstitio'' as the "empty fear of the gods" ''(timor inanis deorum)'' in contrast to the properly pious cultivation of the gods that constituted lawful ''religio'',<ref>Maijastina Kahlos, ''Debate and Dialogue: Christian and Pagan Cultures c. 360-430'' (Ashgate, 2007), p. 95.</ref> a view that Seneca expressed as "''religio'' honours the gods, ''superstitio'' wrongs them."<ref>Seneca, ''De clementia'' 2.5.1; Beard et al, ''Religions of Rome: A History'', p. 216.</ref> Seneca wrote an entire treatise on ''superstitio,'' known to St. Augustine but no longer extant.<ref>Beard et al, ''Religions of Rome: A History'', p. 216.</ref> Lucretius's famous condemnation of what is often translated as "Superstition" in his Epicurean didactic epic ''De rerum natura'' is actually directed at ''Religio''.<ref>Yasmin Haskell, "Religion and Enlightenment in the Neo-Latin Reception of Lucretius," in ''The Cambridge Companion to Lucretius'' (Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 198 [https://books.google.com/books?id=HwblQVvCav8C&dq=lucretius+superstition+religio&pg=PA198 online.]</ref>

Before the Christian era, ''superstitio'' was seen as a vice of individuals. Practices characterized as "magic" could be a form of ''superstitio'' as an excessive and dangerous quest for personal knowledge.<ref>Beard et al, ''Religions of Rome: A History'', pp. 217–219.</ref> By the early 2nd century AD, religions of other peoples that were perceived as resistant to religious assimilation began to be labeled by some Latin authors as ''superstitio,'' including druidism, Judaism, and Christianity.<ref>Beard et al, ''Religions of Rome: A History'', p. 221.</ref> Under Christian hegemony, ''religio'' and ''superstitio'' were redefined as a dichotomy between Christianity, viewed as true ''religio,'' and the ''superstitiones'' or false religions of those who declined to convert.<ref>Lactantius, ''Divine Institutes'' 4.28.11; Beard et al, ''Religions of Rome: A History'', p. 216.</ref>

====supplicatio==== ''Supplicationes'' are days of public prayer when the men, women, and children of Rome traveled in procession to religious sites around the city praying for divine aid in times of crisis. A ''suplicatio'' can also be a thanksgiving after the receipt of aid.<ref>Frances Hickson Hahn, "Performing the Sacred: Prayers and Hymns," pp. 238, 247, and John Scheid, "Sacrifices for Gods and Ancestors," p. 270, both in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'' (Blackwell, 2007).</ref> Supplications might also be ordered in response to prodigies; again, the population as a whole wore wreaths, carried laurel twigs, and attended sacrifices at temple precincts throughout the city.<ref>Veit Rosenberger, in "Religious Actors in Daily Life: Practices and Related Beliefs," in ''A Companion to Roman Religion,'' p. 296.</ref>

===T===

====tabernaculum==== See ''auguraculum.'' The origin of the English word "tabernacle."

====templum==== {{See also|Roman temple}} A ''templum'' was the sacred space defined by an augur for ritual purposes, most importantly the taking of the auspices, a place "cut off" as sacred: compare Greek ''temenos'', from ''temnein'' to cut.<ref>W. W. Skeat ''Etymological Dictionary of the English Language'' New York 1963 sv temple</ref> It could be created as temporary or permanent, depending on the lawful purpose of the inauguration. Auspices and senate meetings were unlawful unless held in a ''templum''; if the senate house (Curia) was unavailable, an augur could apply the appropriate religious formulae to provide a lawful alternative.<ref>Mary Beard, Simon Price, John North, ''Religions of Rome: A History'' (Cambridge University Press, 1998), vol. 1, p. 23.</ref>

To create a ''templum'', the augur aligned his zone of observation (''auguraculum'', a square, portable surround) with the cardinal points of heaven and earth. The altar and entrance were sited on the east-west axis: the sacrificer faced east. The precinct was thus "defined and freed" (''effatum et liberatum'').<ref>Beard ''et al.'', "Religions of Rome," vol. 1, p. 23.</ref> In most cases, signs to the augur's left (north) showed divine approval and signs to his right (south), disapproval.<ref>Servius ''Ad Aeneid'' 4.200; Festus. s.v. calls the ''auguraculum'' ''minora templa''.</ref> Temple buildings of stone followed this ground-plan and were sacred in perpetuity.<ref>G. Dumezil ''La religion romaine archaique Paris'', 1974 p.510: J. Marquardt "Le cult chez les romaines" ''Manuel des antiquités romaines'' XII 1. French Transl. 1889 pp. 187-188: See also Cicero, ''De Legibus'', 2.2, & Servius,''Aeneid'', 4.200.</ref>

Rome itself was a kind of ''templum'', with the ''pomerium'' as sacred boundary and the ''arx'' (citadel), and Quirinal and Palatine hills as reference points whenever a specially dedicated ''templum'' was created within. Augurs had authority to establish multiple ''templa'' beyond the pomerium, using the same augural principles.

===V=== <!-- ====venia====

====venerari==== -->

====verba certa==== ''Verba certa'' (also found nearly as often with the word order ''certa verba'') are the "exact words" of a legal or religious formula, that is, the words as "set once and for ever, immutable and unchangeable." Compare ''certae precationes'', fixed prayers of invocation, and ''verba concepta'', which in both Roman civil law and augural law described a verbal formula that could be "conceived" flexibly to suit the circumstances.<ref>Jerzy Linderski, "The Augural Law", ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16 (1986), pp. 2266–2267 [https://books.google.com/books?id=eOe3Fv1UUKoC&dq=%22The+formula+described+as+certa+verba%22&pg=PA2266 online], and 2292–2293. On legal usage, see also Elizabeth A. Meyer, ''Legitimacy and Law in the Roman World'' (Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 80ff.; Daniel J. Gargola, ''Land, Laws and Gods: Magistrates and Ceremony in the Regulation of Public Lands in Republican Rome'' (University of North Carolina Press, 1995), p. 202, note 55 [https://books.google.com/books?id=kTXkGnbHLHYC&dq=%22The+distinction+between+certa+verba+and+concepta+verba%22&pg=PA202 online.]</ref> With their emphasis on exact adherence, the archaic ''verba certa''<ref>Meyer, ''Legitimacy and Law'', p. 62 [https://books.google.com/books?id=Va7nqinPZE0C&dq=%22oldest%2C+most+fixed+form%22&pg=PA62 online.]{{Dead link|date=May 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> are a magico-religious form of prayer.<ref>Hendrik Wagenvoort, "Augustus and Vesta", in ''Pietas: Selected Studies in Roman Religion'' (Brill, 1980), p. 211 [https://books.google.com/books?id=xWaOxU28Nn4C&dq=%22verba+certa%22&pg=PA211 online.]</ref> In a ritual context, prayer (''prex'') was not a form of personal spontaneous expression, but a demonstration that the speaker knew the correct thing to say. Words were regarded as having power; in order to be efficacious, the formula had to be recited accurately, in full, and with the correct pronunciation. To reduce the risk of error (''vitium''), the magistrate or priest who spoke was prompted from the text by an assistant.<ref>Matthias Klinghardt, "Prayer Formularies for Public Recitation: Their Use and Function in Ancient Religion", ''Numen'' 46 (1999) 1–52.</ref>

====verba concepta==== In both religious and legal usage, ''verba concepta'' ("preconceived words") were verbal formulas that could be adapted for particular circumstances. Compare ''verba certa'', "fixed words." Collections of ''verba concepta'' would have been part of the augural archives. Varro preserves an example, albeit textually vexed, of a formula for founding a ''templum''.<ref>Jerzy Linderski, "The Augural Law", ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16 (1986), pp. 2246, 2267ff.</ref>

In the legal sense, ''concepta verba'' (the phrase is found with either word order) were the statements crafted by a presiding praetor for the particulars of a case.<ref>The jurist Gaius (4.30) says that ''concepta verba'' is synonymous with ''formulae'', as cited by Adolf Berger, ''Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law'' (American Philosophical Society, 1991 reprint), p. 401, and Shane Butler, ''The Hand of Cicero'' (Routledge, 2002), p. 10.</ref> Earlier in the Roman legal system, the plaintiff had to state his claim within a narrowly defined set of fixed phrases ''(certa verba)''; in the Mid Republic, more flexible formulas allowed a more accurate description of the particulars of the issue under consideration. But the practice may have originated as a kind of "dodge," since a praetor was liable to religious penalties if he used ''certa verba'' for legal actions on days marked ''nefastus'' on the calendar.<ref>T. Corey Brennan, ''The Praetorship in the Roman Republic'' (Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 131–132.</ref>

St. Augustine removed the phrase ''verba concepta'' from its religious and legal context to describe the cognitive process of memory: "When a true narrative of the past is related, the memory produces not the actual events which have passed away but words conceived ''(verba concepta)'' from images of them, which they fixed in the mind like imprints as they passed through the senses."<ref>Augustine, ''Confessions'' 11.xviii, as cited by Paolo Bartoloni, ''On the Cultures of Exile, Translation, and Writing'' (Purdue University Press, 2008), p. 69 [https://books.google.com/books?id=G48l_ZyEBm4C&dq=%22verba+concepta%22&pg=PA69 online.]</ref> Augustine's conceptualizing of memory as verbal has been used to elucidate the Western tradition of poetry and its shared origins with sacred song and magical incantation (see also ''carmen''), and is less a departure from Roman usage than a recognition of the original relation between formula and memory in a pre-literate world.<ref>For instance, Karla Taylor, ''Chaucer Reads "The Divine Comedy"'' (Stanford University Press, 1989), p. 27 [https://archive.org/details/chaucerreadsthed00tayl/page/27  online.] For an overview of the Indo-European background regarding the relation of memory to poetry, charm, and formulaic utterance, see Calvert Watkins, ''How to Kill a Dragon: Aspects of Indo-European Poetics'' (Oxford University Press, 1995), ''passim'', especially pp. 68–70 on memory and the poet-priest (Latin ''vates'') as "the preserver and the professional of the spoken word". "For the Romans", notes Frances Hickson Hahn, "there was no distinction between prayer and spell and poetry and song; all were intimately linked to one another"; see "Performing the Sacred: Prayers and Hymns", in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'' (Blackwell, 2007), p. 236</ref> Some scholars see the tradition of stylized, formulaic language as the verbal tradition from which Latin literature develops, with ''concepta verba'' appearing in poems such as ''Carmen'' 34 of Catullus.<ref>Gian Biagio Conte, ''Latin Literature: A History'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994, originally published 1987 in Italian), pp. 15–23; George A. Sheets, "Elements of Style in Catullus," in ''A Companion to Catullus'' (Blackwell, 2011) [https://books.google.com/books?id=2buHe449NoAC&dq=%22concepta+verba%22&pg=PT190 n.p.]</ref>

====ver sacrum==== {{main|Ver sacrum}} The sacred spring was a ritual migration.

====victima==== [[File:D319- rome - procession religieuse. - L1-Ch5.png|thumb|right|400px|Victimae for a suovetaurilia led to the altar by {{lang|la|victimarii}}]] The ''victima'' was the animal offering in a sacrifice, or very rarely a human. The victim was subject to an examination (''probatio victimae'') by a lower-rank priest (''pontifex minor'') to determine whether it met the criteria for a particular offering.<ref>Katja Moede, "Reliefs, Public and Private", in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'' (Blackwell, 2007), p. 173.</ref> With some exceptions, male deities received castrated animals. Goddesses were usually offered female victims, though from around the 160s AD the goddess Cybele was given a bull, along with its blood and testicles, in the Taurobolium. Color was also a criterion: white for the upper deities, dark for chthonic, red for Vulcan and at the Robigalia. A sacred fiction of sacrifice was that the victim had to consent, usually by a nod of the head, perhaps induced by the ''victimarius'' holding the halter. Fear, panic and agitation in the animal were bad omens.<ref>John Scheid, "Sacrifices for Gods and Ancestors", in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'' (Blackwell, 2007), pp. 264, 266.</ref><ref>For the Taurobolium, see Duthoy, Robert, ''The Taurobolium: Its Evolution and Terminology'', Volume 10, Brill, 1969, p. 1 ff, and Cameron, Alan, ''The Last Pagans of Rome'', Oxford University press, 2011, p. 163. The earliest known Taurobolium was dedicated to the goddess Venus Caelestis in 134 AD.</ref>

The word ''victima'' is used interchangeably with ''hostia'' by Ovid and others, but some ancient authors attempt to distinguish between the two.<ref>Steven J. Green, ''Ovid, Fasti 1: A Commentary'' (Brill, 2004), pp.159–160.</ref> Servius says<ref>Servius, note to ''Aeneid'' 1. 334.</ref> that the ''hostia'' is sacrificed before battle, the ''victima'' afterward, which accords with Ovid's etymology of "victim" as that which has been killed by the right hand of the "victor" (with ''hostia'' related to ''hostis'', "enemy").<ref>''Victima quae dextra cecidit victrice vocatur'', Ovid, ''Fasti'' 1.335:; ''hostibus a domitis hostia nomen habet'' ("the ''hostia'' gets its name from the 'hostiles' that have been defeated"), 1.336.</ref>

The difference between the ''victima'' and ''hostia'' is elsewhere said to be a matter of size, with the ''victima'' larger (''maior'').<ref name="Char403.38">Char. 403.38.</ref> See also piaculum and votum.

====victimarius==== {{Main|victimarius}} The ''victimarius'' was an attendant or assistant at a sacrifice who handled the animal.<ref>Mary Beard, J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, ''Religions of Rome: A Sourcebook'' (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 368.</ref> Using a rope, he led the pig, sheep, or bovine that was to serve as the victim to the altar. In depictions of sacrifice, a ''victimarius'' called the ''popa'' carries a mallet or axe with which to strike the ''victima''. Multiple ''victimarii'' are sometimes in attendance; one may hold down the victim's head while the other lands the blow.<ref>Katja Moede, "Reliefs, Public and Private", in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'' (Blackwell, 2007), p. 168.</ref> The ''victimarius'' severed the animal's carotid with a ritual knife (''culter''), and according to depictions was offered a hand towel afterwards by another attendant. He is sometimes shown dressed in an apron (''limus''). Inscriptions show that most ''victimarii'' were freedmen, but literary sources in late antiquity say that the ''popa'' was a public slave.<ref>Marietta Horster, "Living on Religion: Professionals and Personnel", in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'' (ed. Rüpke), pp. 332–334.</ref>

====vitium==== A mistake made while performing a ritual, or a disruption of augural procedure, including disregarding the auspices, was a ''vitium'' ("defect, imperfection, impediment"). ''Vitia'', plural, could taint the outcome of elections, the validity of laws, and the conducting of military operations. The augurs issued an opinion on a given ''vitium'', but these were not necessarily binding. In 215 BC the newly elected plebeian consul M. Claudius Marcellus resigned when the augurs and the senate decided that a thunderclap expressed divine disapproval of his election.<ref>Therefore the election must have been vitiated in some way known only to Jupiter: see Veit Rosenberger, in Rüpke, Jörg (Editor), ''A Companion to Roman Religion'', Wiley-Blackwell, 2007, p.298; citing Cicero, ''De Divinatione'', 2.77.</ref> The original meaning of the semantic root in ''vitium'' may have been "hindrance", related to the verb ''vito, vitare'', "to go out of the way"; the adjective form ''vitiosus'' can mean "hindering", that is, "vitiating, faulty."<ref>David Wardle, ''Cicero on Divination, Book 1'' (Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 178.</ref>

====vitulari====  A verb meaning chanting or reciting a formula with a joyful intonation and rhythm.<ref>Macrobius, ''Saturnalia'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Macrobius/Saturnalia/3*.html#2.10 III 2,12.]</ref> The related noun ''Vitulatio'' was an annual thanksgiving offering carried out by the pontiffs on 8 July, the day after the ''Nonae Caprotinae''. These were commemorations of Roman victory in the wake of the Gallic invasion. Macrobius says ''vitulari'' is the equivalent of Greek ''paianizein'' (παιανίζειν), "to sing a paean", a song expressing triumph or thanksgiving.<ref>William Warde Fowler, ''The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic'' (London, 1908), p. 179'; Robert Turcan, ''The Gods of Ancient Rome'' (Routledge, 2001), p. 75.</ref>

====votum==== In a religious context, ''votum'', plural ''vota'', is a vow or promise made to a deity. The word comes from the past participle of ''voveo, vovere''; as the result of the verbal action "vow, promise", it may refer also to the fulfillment of this vow, that is, the thing promised. The ''votum'' is thus an aspect of the contractual nature of Roman religion, a bargaining expressed by ''do ut des'', "I give that you might give."<ref>John Scheid, "Sacrifices for Gods and Ancestors", in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'' (Blackwell, 2007), p. 270; William Warde Fowler, ''The Religious Experience of the Roman People'' (London, 1922), pp. 200–202.</ref>

==See also== * Religion in ancient Rome * Imperial cult (ancient Rome) * Roman festivals, on religious holidays * Roman polytheistic reconstructionism

==References== {{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Glossary Of Ancient Roman Religion}} Category:Ancient Roman religion Roman Category:Ancient Rome-related lists Category:Wikipedia glossaries using subheadings