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The huge importance of
correct religious observance to the Romans may be discerned from
the writings of Cicero, who despite himself being something of a
sceptic on certain aspects of religious practice could still proudly
assert that
"..if we care to compare our national characteristics
with those of foreign peoples, we shall find that , while in all
other respects we are only the equals or even the inferiors of others,
yet in the sense of religion, that is in reverence for the gods,
we are far superior" (De Natura Deorum II.iii.8 - 9).
This national preoccupation with correct religious
practices is also confirmed by the Greek historian Polybius who
says that it "..is actually the element which holds the
Roman state together. These matters are treated with such solemnity
and introduced so frequently both into public and into private life
that nothing could exceed them in importance." (Histories VI,56.2)
The relationship between the Romans and their gods requires some
clarification before moving on to consider family religion specifically.
In the Regal period and the early Republic, Romans saw divine
hands behind the vital processes of life such as birth, health,
death, harvest, trade and war as well as many other aspects of their
family lives and identified a deity with each function.
As Rome matured and expanded many ancient religious forms were retained
as they had proved effective in the past, but new forms were developed
as a perceived need arose. Roman religion was not a matter of moral
rectitude but was rather a matter of establishing contractual agreements
with the gods in order to achieve a successful outcome, happiness
or wealth; Cicero asserts that for all mortals "..all the
comfort and prosperity of their lives, they think of as coming to
them from the gods ; but virtue no one ever imputed to a god's bounty"
(De Natura Deorum III, xxxvi.86). The view that correct usage
of tried and tested formulae for dealing with the gods was more
important than one's moral state persisted until the 2nd century
A.D. due to the Roman concern for mos - the customs of the ancestors.
Only one ancient text gives us a definition of what constituted
public religion and what private, the 'De Significatione Verborum'
of Sextus Pompeius Festus from the 2nd century A.D. Public religion
is that which is carried out at public expense either on behalf
of the populus as a whole or of specific subsections of the populus,
although private individuals could be permitted to finance temples
and festivals on behalf of the People. Private religion is on behalf
of individuals, familiae and gentes as well as certain other
small groups such as collegiae, guilds and sodalities.
Private religion did not require the services of state priests,
but there were several areas of overlapping between the two and
they did not operate separately. Thus state pontifices would
give advice on private religious matters and on inheritance passing
outside a familia on the death of the last member. This was
because both public and private religions were officially overseen
by the state through the ius divinum. But whereas public
religion was restricted to the worship of a limited number of approved
gods and select festivals private religion allowed for the worship
of any god and celebration of any festival providing that no breach
of the peace occurred.
Legally there was also a major difference between things dedicated
to the gods as part of public and private religion; things dedicated
for the people became consecrated res sacra whereas private
dedications did not and so theft of such items would constitute
sacrilegium in the first case but not in the second.
Before examining the details of the domestic cult I must present
some caveats. The picture of Roman domestic religion is clouded
by the restricted nature of the evidence currently available. Thus
much of our evidence comes from the Campanian towns of Pompeii
and Herculaneum as well as from Ostia and Rome itself
and thus a question arises as to how 'Roman' our current view of
the subject actually is.
Certainly we know of huge regional variations in terms of both the
patron deities, the festivals and the rituals used throughout Italy
as well as variations over the time period in question. I will seek
to point these out where the evidence for them is clear. Finally
I have omitted detailed discussion of the Mystery religions such
as Mithras and Isis on the basis that these were for individual
initiates rather than families as a whole.
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THE DOMESTIC CULT
Roman domestic religion was generally simpler and less formalized
than public religion and primarily concerned the acquisition of
support for the constituent members of the familia from several
groups of deities. Some of these protected and aided all within
the house while others benefited only the free or only the slaves
and still others were only concerned with a particular part of the
house or a particular function. Essentially "the household
shrine of the Roman bound the family to its past and encouraged
its present success" (Orr p. 1559).
As with state religion it was the leaders of any group or society
who were responsible for the proper observance of their religious
rites. Thus, as in state religion it was the senior magistrates
of the city who carried out most sacrifices for the people, who
were not required to be present in many cases, in private religion
the burden of ensuring the success of family endeavours through
the appropriate religious observance for the various groups of deities
of the household fell to the paterfamilias and sometimes to his
wife or a senior member of the familia.
The first of these groups of deities were the Lares. There is great
controversy about the origin of these various spirits that is not
aided by the fact that even the ancient authors disagree on the
subject. Nor did they have a specific sphere of influence but were
rather general protecting tutelary forces. Ovid (Fasti, ii, 615
- 6) identifies the earliest form of Lares, the Lares compitales
as the sons of the naiad Lara and Mercury (which tentatively identifies
the Mater Larum of the ritual of the Fratres Aruales). Current scholarship
splits into two camps one believing that the Lares were originally
gods of the fields who were first adopted at the compita by the
slaves of the familia and later taken by them to the household focus
indoors.
The alternative view suggests that they were deified ancestors;
possibly an idea of Greek origin given the similarity to Greek notions
of the which Dionysius of Halicarnassus uses in place of the word
lar (4.2.3) and also on account of certain Greek aspects of their
appearance in standard iconography, for example their hair styles,
footwear and rhyton cups.
The very vagueness and flexibility of the functions of the Lares
led, by the end of the Republic, to a range of adjectival epithets
being attached to the word to indicate more precisely the supplicants'
area of interest. It also indicates a major area of religious concern
to the Romans namely that any prayer offered should be "sent
to the right address" if it were to be effective. Thus they
went to great lengths to give all the possible names of the god
to whom they were praying and even added expressions like "..or
by whatever other style you wish to be addressed" (Servius,
On the Aeneid II, 351).
So a traveller about to leave home might pray to the Lares uiales
before journeying by road, to the Lares semitales if going by byways
and remote paths or to the Lares permarini if the journey were to
be a long sea voyage. Similarly a man on military service would
pray to the Lares militares.
Yet for the study of Roman family religion
the most significant was the Lar Familiaris. This spirit
gave protection to all the members of the household both free and
servile. Cato in his De Agri Cultura (143.1) makes it clear
that although "…it is the master who sacrifices on
behalf of all the familia" a uilicus or uilica could also do
so "…on the master's or mistresses express orders."
Indeed he goes on to show that these overseers had specific religious
responsibilities within the household; "On the Kalends,
Ides, Nones and other feast-days, she must put up a garland over
the hearth. And on the same days she must offer supplication to
the family lares as well as she can" (De Agri Cultura 143.2).In
the Imperial period there is evidence that such servile worship
became a virtual subsection of the domestic cult in the form of
collegiae of the lares domini (cf. Columella, De Re Rustica
11, 1, 19). These collegiae were recorded amongst both Imperial
slaves and freemen and amongst those of other notables and they
very rarely contained any free people.
Originally there was a single Lar Familiaris
as represented in Plautus' Aulularia, but by Imperial times
they are represented as a pair on all extant shrines and aediculae.
Typical offerings to the Lares recorded by ancient authors
include Spelt (Juvenal, 9.138) Grapes, Garlands of grain,
Honey cakes and Honeycomb (Tibullus, 1. 10. 21-4), as well
as first Fruits, Wine and Blood sacrifices (Plautus, Rudens,
1208).
Roman families would certainly worship their
lares on the principal days of each month and on feast-days as we
have seen Cato suggest, but they may well have done so on other
days too according to the piety of the householders. Thus in his Aulularia Plautus depicts the
miser Euclio as being scorned by his Lar Familiaris because he pays him scant respect, while Euclio's daughter is beloved
of the Lar since she carries out regular worship and shows proper
respect. |
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Before leaving the Lares mention must
also be made of the Lares Augusti. In 7 B.C. the emperor
Augustus carried out a major overhaul of Roman religious
affairs in response to a general feeling in Rome that religion had
been neglected during the preceding civil wars. One of his most
significant reforms was to significantly reduce the number of compita
sodalities, which had in the previous century become more like
hotbeds of political radicalism than religious institutions, and
at the same time to institute the worship of the Lares &
Genius Augusti at those remaining. In this way he effectively
included all his subjects as members of his familia by having all
people worship his own household gods and thus linked personal loyalty
to the emperor with religious duty.
Depicted with the Lares on the Campanian
painted shrines is the Genius Familiae, the second of the
major religious numena that formed the core of Roman family
religion during this period. He is depicted as a togate man sacrificing
from a patera and frequently holding a cornucopia.
The genius was the principal guiding numen of the
family, representing its continuity and fertility as well as the
embodiment of the male procreative power of the paterfamilias.
For this reason the main feast-day of the genius was the
dies natalis of the paterfamilias. The genius
was worshipped by the whole household, and many examples of dedications
to him exist from all around the empire (e.g. ILS 3025 (GW27),
ILS 3643 (GW30)). Indeed the genius "served mainly to
personalise the unity of the family, which is why slaves swore by
their master's genius" (Ogilvie p.123). Paired with
the togate representations of the genius in the majority of cases
are depictions of snakes.
Snakes appear to have had a very wide range of religious associations
for the Romans and even served as portents according to Cicero
(De Divinatione 2, 29. 61). On these shrine paintings they are
generally believed to represent the genii loci or guardians
of the place and as such convey good luck. They also indicate that
the site is sacred and should be treated accordingly.
As with the Lares the genius
underwent some changes during the late Republic and early Imperial
period from the earlier form where he protects the vitality of the
family to include a wide variety of other tutelary roles. This may
well be when the genii loci began to be associated with the
zoomorphic depictions on aediculae paintings as snakes.
So by the early empire genii could
be found associated with individuals, households, places, guilds
and sodalities and even with military units.
Although the genius served as the procreative source for the entire
family and could thus represent either gender, there was also a
female spirit of the same kind that represented each woman in the
house. This was the Juno, which despite being a later addition
to the domestic cult became closely linked with the genius by the
late Republic. The cult of Juno Sospita, which was imported
from Lanuuium in the fourth century B.C., was associated
both with female fecundity and with a sacred serpent (Dumezil
vol.1 p.298). It is tempting therefore to see the representation
of twin snakes on many painted family shrines in Italy, one of which
is bearded and crested and one not, as being depictions of respectively
the genius and the Juno in their procreative capacity. This
idea is partly supported by Aelian's misconception of how
to tell male and female snakes apart; he believes that male snakes
have crests and beards and female ones do not (De Natura.Animalium.
11.26 & 10.25). Be this as it may, other representations
or epigraphical references to the Juno are very scarce indeed
(e.g. ILS 3644 (GW28)).
Usual sacrifices to the genius included wine
and honey-cakes that were shared by both the numen and the
worshippers. Tibullus infers that sacrifices to the genius
were bloodless (1.7.49), but in Carmina 3.17.14 Horace contradicts
him and says that pigs or occasionally lambs were suitable offerings.
The third group of the family numina are the Di Penates
with whom Vesta is closely linked. In fact the term Penates
was by the first century A.D. commonly being used as a blanket expression
for all the deities of the household who are worshipped at the hearth.
Cicero confirms the association:-
"..the name Vesta comes from the Greeks, for she is the goddess
whom they call Hestia. Her power extends over altars and hearths,
and therefore all prayers and all sacrifices end with this goddess,
because she is the guardian of the innermost things".
Closely related to this function are the Penates
or household gods, a name derived either from penus, which
means a store of human food of any kind, or from the fact that they
reside penitus , in the recesses of the house, owing to which
they are also called penetrales by the poets.(De Natura Deorum
II, xxvii, 67 - 68).
Whichever is the correct version their function
was to protect the innermost areas of the house and particularly
to safeguard the food supply, thus ensuring the family's survival
and continuance. So it is not surprising that many examples of shrines
have been discovered in and near kitchen areas in the houses of
Pompeii and Herculaneum, although they are rarer in
Ostia where the remains are mostly of later periods. Yet
as Bakker points out "these gods seem to have been
intimately related to the wealthier, free-born people" (p.43)
since no dedications survive to them from either slaves or freedmen.
Also there are dedications at some of these shrines to the Lares
from slaves, so can we justify them as the place of worship for
the Di Penates? I believe that we can for two reasons; firstly
as we have already seen the expression Penates by the early
first century was commonly used of all the household gods connected
with the hearth, including the lares, to whom servile dedications
certainly exist and secondly the ancient authors consistently state
that this was the area of the house that was under their protection.
Another interesting question exists however; both
Ovid (Fasti VI, 310) and Servius (Aen. 1.730) refer to the
rite before every meal when the gathered family remained silent
while a plateful of food is placed on the hearth or a portion thrown
to the flames for the Penates and until a slave declared
the gods to be satisfied.(cf. Dumezil p.354). If this was
the case then it appears that the slave is conducting the sacrifice
(perhaps in the kitchen). But if the sacrifice was performed by
the paterfamilias as head of the household in the more usual
Roman style, then presumably some facility must have been made for
sacrificing in the triclinium such as a portable altar with
coals from the hearth that could then have been removed, or perhaps
the portable bronze thermopodium stoves used for both cooking at
table and keeping food warm also filled this requirement.
The evidence for other gods in the domestic cult
there is very varied. Janus was traditionally associated
both with the fauces or entry lobby (Ovid, Fasti I, 133 - 139)
and with Vesta whose hearth had originally been located
in the atrium beyond it. Prayers would be offered to him when about
to depart the house. However no specific evidence exists for his
presence in the Campanian house shrines, although as his
image is very rare in any case this is not conclusive. Deities that
have been found at these shrines include Jupiter the patron
god of Rome and protector of the state (eight times), Minerva
goddess of technology and patroness of artisans and doctors
(nine times), Fortuna the goddess of chance and patroness
of women and slaves and Hercules who represented success
in heroic activities and was patron to entrepreneurs (seven times
each). Bacchus the god of wine, Mercurius god of journeys
and patron of merchants, and Venus goddess of love who was
associated with couples and with both Rome and the gens Iulia
were all represented five times. Aesculapius the god
of healing and another patron of doctors is found in both house
and uiridaria a total of seven times and Apollo the
god of good order and patron of Augustus Caesar six. Egyptian
gods were discovered on seven occasions, but surprisingly the Imperial
cult is only detected once. Regional variation is also apparent
in the presence of Sarnus (a Campanian river god), Venus
Pompeiana and Vulcanus.
A further aspect of Roman family religion is evident
in the cults and festivals associated with various patrician gentes.
Dumezil has identified in the cognomina of the branch
of the gens Lucretia called Tricipitinus (vol.2 p.621)
a reference to an antique family cult. Festus (p.345 L2)
similarly shows that the gens Claudia had a special type
of victim associated with its rites called a propudialis porcus,
while tradition had it that the state had taken over the duties
of two extinct gentes, the Potitii and the Pinarii, in the
care of the rites at the Ara Maxima. The Fabii had
its own cult mentioned by Livy in his account of the siege
of the Capitol by the Gauls (5.46.2) elements of which seem to have
been shared with the Quinctii and subsequently preserved
in the popular festival of the Lupercalia where the two gentes
gave their names to the two teams of runners. The Aurelii are known
to have had cult associations with the worship of Sol and Festus
says that they did this on land gifted to them by the Roman
people (p.120 L2). Most of these subside in importance towards the
end of the Republic, but of all the gentes the most significant
was the gens Iulia with its associations with Venus and through
her son Iulus with the founding of Rome; for this was the cult of
Augustus and effectively from the institution of the Imperial
cult in 7 B.C. it became the cult of all loyal subjects.
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RITES OF PASSAGE
As with most societies both before and since,
the Romans were concerned to mark the key stages in the lifecycle
of its members with all due solemnity. Given their reputation as
a religious people and their desire to achieve a felicitous continuation
of their families, it is not surprising that these occasions were
marked with family religious rites nor that some of these overlapped
with state religion on particular festal days
Birth and naming - As
soon as a child was born to a Roman family it was customary for
it to be immediately laid upon the ground. Its father would then
lift it up with a ritual gesture to accept it as his own. That this
was performed immediately after birth is supported by Suetonius'
comments about the birth of Nero; "The sun was
rising and his earliest rays touched the newly-born boy almost before
he could be laid on the ground, as the custom was, for his father
either to acknowledge or disavow" (Nero, 6). Harmon adds
that "the door was wreathed and a flame was lit upon the
altar (Stat.Silv. 4.8.40)".
In Republican times a modest lectisternium or banquet was
laid for the ancient gods of babies, Pilumnus and Picumnus.
By the Imperial epoch these had come to be regarded as quaint, rustic
numena and a much grander lectisternium was set out in honour of
Juno Lucina. if the child was a girl and Hercules if
it was a boy. This would remain in place for eight days if the child
was a girl and nine days if a boy. The time immediately after birth
was an extremely dangerous time for both mother and infant, so Roman
families took every precaution to ensure the assistance of all the
appropriate gods in their survival and the continuance of the household.
A ceremony was carried out on the night of the birth that was described
by Varro and subsequently mocked by St.Augustine It
was designed to protect mother and child from the nocturnal depredations
of Siluanus the god of the wild, and invoked the protection of three
guardian deities including Pilumnus:
To represent the three guardian gods, three men go about the
thresholds of the house at night and strike the threshold first
with an axe, next with a pestle, and in the third place sweep it
with a broom. These symbols of agriculture prevent Siluanus
from entering- for trees are not cut down or pruned without iron
tools, nor is grain ground without a pestle, nor is the harvested
grain collected in a heap without a broom. From these operations
three gods get their names: Intercidona from cutting down (intercisio)
with an axe, Pilumnus from the pestle, Deuerra from the broom. These
gods were the guardians by whom the new mother was to be preserved
from attack by the god Siluanus." (De Ciuitate Dei 6.9.2)
Whether this rite persisted beyond the end of the Republic is not
clear, but given that St Augustine has taken the time to
mock it one would assume that his audience were expected to have
at least heard of it. The dies natalis or birthday would
now become a family festival (feriae familiares), and would call
for a major sacrifice to the household gods. As we have seen for
a boy this would become the principal festival of his genius once
he became a paterfamilias himself.
On the eighth day for a girl or the ninth day for a boy fell the
dies lustricus, when a lustratio or rite of purification
for both mother and child to remove the pollution of the birth process
were performed and when the child was named, presented as a person
to the household gods and officially became a member of the family.
To mark this the child also received a talisman called a bulla which
they would wear until they came of age. This bulla was only worn
by freeborn children and so would not have featured for slaves.
Coming of age - Just
as family religious observances marked a birth, so too did they
mark the reaching of manhood for a boy. This was generally held
to arrive between the ages of fourteen and seventeen. Propertius
remarks that this was the day:-
At novice age no more
Your neck put off the golden badge it bore,
And for boy's clothing you were called to don
The freeman's, while you mother's gods looked on" (IV.i.131
ff)
Here he refers to the setting aside of the
bulla and also of the striped toga praetexta in favour
of the plain white toga uirilis or toga libera as it is also
known. We know that the bulla was dedicated to the Lares
on this day with due sacrifices and was commonly hung from their
figurines at the shrines. This is used by Petronius to mock
the pretension of the nouveau riches freedman Trimalcio: "..three
boys entered with their white tunics ritually tucked into their
belts. Two of them placed images of the Lares wearing bullae round
their necks on the table, the other carried a dish of wine round
and cried, 'May the gods be favourable'."(Satyricon 60 (GW26))
Clearly as he had not been born free he was not entitled to a bulla
anyway.
Scheid mentions that the first beard
and toys also formed a part of the dedication to the household gods
(p.99). Although we know that certain people did celebrate this
landmark in their lives on other days, "we know, for instance,
that Virgil assumed the toga uirilis on 15 October and Nero on 7
July" (Ogilvie p.103), most seem to have celebrated it
on 17th March as part of the festival of Liberalia. This
public festival two days after the original Roman date of New Year
was sacred to Bacchus or Liber as he was also known. Ovid (Fasti
III 771 - 788) seems quite uncertain about why the association
with this day in particular had arisen, so it seems to be an ancient
one. Several sources indicate that it was customary for fathers
to take their sons with their friends to the Forum to enrol them
as men and voters with the Censor. The family also made appropriate
dedications to Iuuentas in the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus.
Girls did not go through so grand a rite of passage Instead a more
basic transition ceremony was conducted the day before they were
due to marry at which dolls (pupas), soft balls (mollis
pilas), hair-nets (reticula) and head bands (strophia) were
set aside as things of childhood (Harmon p.1598) and dedicated
to the lares.
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Marriage
Religious rites were only a requirement in one
of the three forms of Roman marriage, namely confarreatio,
which was only practiced by the patrician gentes. However there
is evidence to show that such an important stage in the lifecycle
of the family was generally accompanied by some degree of religious
devotion, particularly to Juno Pronuba
The confarreatio marriage was a requirement for holders of
the major state flaminates and for the rex sacrorum, and
was performed by the leading priests of the state and thus involved
a high level of state involvement in the wedding. As Gaius points
out "Women come into manus by farreum through a type of
sacrifice to Jupiter Farreus. A loaf of emmer is used in this, and
the name confarreatio derives from it. A number of acts and rituals
take place in performing this procedure in due order. There are
prescribed and solemn words and ten witnesses are present"
(1.112). This union "per fruges et molam salsam"
is confirmed by Seruius (Georgics !.31), and Treggiari
asserts that in at least some cases "a sheep was sacrificed
and the couple then, with their heads veiled, sat on two seats covered
by the sheepskin" (O.P.Collection p.108).
In addition to these special religious observances for confarreatio
there is a large corpus of evidence concerning marriage in general.
Both Cicero (De Diuinatione1.104) and Catullus (poem 61 v.4)
make reference to the established practice of taking the auspices
for the marriage, and there were many days each year that were automatically
considered to be inauspicious because of their religious associations.
In the same poem Catullus describes many of the customs associated
with marriage, including the torch lit procession from the bride's
house to the groom's, accompanied by bawdy jokes and the throwing
of nuts, and the still performed act of carrying the bride across
the threshold to avoid the bad omen of her tripping (poem 61 v.33).
She would then be presented with the fire and
water, traditional symbols of the basic essentials of life "because
fire purifies and water cleanses, and a married woman must remain
pure and clean (Plutarch, Roman Questions, 1). The bride also
seems to have carried with her three as ,"one in her hand,
which she gave to her husband; the second on her foot, which she
placed on the hearth "of the Lares familiares "..and
the last in a purse, which she jingled (?) at the neighbouring crossroads
(Non.p.852 L). In this way she incorporated herself in her household,
her home, and her neighbourhood" (Dumezil vol.2, p.615).
It is unclear if this happened in all marriages, however. Treggiari
says of the wife in manu that "when she entered
her husband's family, the wife became part of his kindred for legal
and religious purposes" (O.P.Collection p.112). This poses
the interesting question about the religious status of non manu
wives; as they were legally a part of their natural family it seems
highly likely that they would also remain as a religious part of
that entity. It could also explain to some extent the testamentary
dislocation between such wives and their children who were affiliated
to her husband's household gods and not hers. Unfortunately the
evidence here is inconclusive. The wife brought too her Juno with
her and placed it on the lectus genialis alongside the genius of
her husband as a religious representation of the main reason for
marriage in the Romans' eyes, the procreation of children.
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DEATH, BURIAL AND REMEMBRANCE
Just as it was central to the life of the Roman
family, so too religion was pivotal in how they reacted to death.
Although there was considerable confusion and scepticism about what
happened after death it was certainly recognised by the Romans that
all care had to exercised in performing the proper rites of the
dead. The main concern was that the defilement of death should be
removed from the living members of the family. This was achieved
by an elaborate set of religious rituals. First the body was washed,
anointed and dressed in fine clothing. It was then taken in procession
with more or less pomp and ceremony according to the family's social
standing either to the public burial grounds (ustrina) which
were located along the roadsides of the highways outside the city
gates, or to similar private ones on the boundaries of country estates.
From the first century B.C. until the reign of Hadrian the
usual form of disposing of the body was by cremation, after that
burial became once more the favoured method. Whichever was the style
of the moment the deceased person was believed to have joined their
di manes. There are huge numbers of tomb inscriptions dedicated
to these spirits often with the abbreviated formula D.M.
A sacrifice was then made to Ceres of
a sow known as the porca praesentanea and offerings were
made to the di manes of the deceased of perfume, wine and
oil either on the pyre itself or on a fire next to the tomb in the
case of burials. This 'meal' was not shared by the relatives,
but rather seems to have symbolised the deceased's change of status
from living to spirit as their food changed from solid to smoke.
The family also sacrificed to the Penates and did share in this
meal known as the "silicernium". The bones and
ashes were then collected up, washed in wine, and placed in an urn,
which was deposited in the tomb(Scheid, p.168). Thereafter
the anniversary of the funeral would be observed as feriae with
offerings of perfume, wine and oil being made at the graveside.
To aid in the cleansing of the family the house
would be specially swept after the corpse had departed and as the
mourning family returned from the funeral they would undergo a ritual
cleansing by fire and water called a suffitio. The family would
then remain in mourning for a further eight days during which they
would wear dark clothing and would neither shave nor attend to personal
grooming. Nor would they carry out any public function during this
period.
Finally their period of isolation ended after the funeral with the
feast known as the nouemdialis cena that was for both family
and friends and in the case of the great patrician gentes could
include memorial games. After this the family was free of any pollution
and could both conduct business as usual and deal with inheritance
matters. However, this was not the end of the matter as far as family
religious duties to the dead were concerned. There existed a number
of state religious festivals that overlap with private religion
that Festus called popularia sacra (p.357 L2), and
several of these relate to the dead. First of these was the Parentalia
from 13th February to 21st February the last day of which was
also known as the Feralia. During this festival every family
went into mourning and was expected to pay respects to their dead
with the usual offerings of perfume, wine and oil. The kind of pious
commemoration of the departed that was made can be seen in Ausonius'
poem called the Parentalia (O.P.Collection, p.186). Another
of these festivals was the Caristia the day after the Feralia
which Ovid tells us was when "a crowd of near
relations comes to meet the family gods…Give incense to the
family gods, ye virtuous ones (on that day above all others Concord
is said to lend her gentle presence); and offer food, that the Lares,
in their girt-up robes, may feed at the platter presented to them
as a pledge of the homage that they love." (Fasti, II.618 -
634)
For those deceased whose burials had not been carried
out properly, or indeed at all, there was another of these popularia
sacra on 9th, 11th and 13th May called the Lemuria. On
each of these nights the paterfamilias would seek to appease
these wandering spirits (lemures) with a token repast of
beans. At midnight he would process through the house ensuring that
"no knots constrict his feet; and he makes a sign with his
thumb in the middle of his closed fingers, lest in his silence an
unsubstantial shade should meet him. And after washing his hands
clean in spring water, he turns, and first he receives black beans
and throws them away with face averted; but while he throws them
, he says: 'These I cast; with these beans I redeem me and mine.'
This he says nine times, without looking back; the shade is thought
to follow unseen behind. Again he touches water, and clashes Temesan
bronze, and asks the shade to go out of his house. When he has said
nine times 'Ghosts of my fathers, go forth!' he looks back, and
thinks that he has duly performed the sacred rites." (Fasti.
V.432 - 444).
Thus concluded the rites for the dead.
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OTHER FAMILY FESTIVALS
In addition to these rites for the dead there
were several other festivals of the popularia sacra that
should be mentioned as of particular religious significance to the
Roman family. First of these was the Compitalia at the beginning
of January. This was the feast day of the lares compitales and
thus had great significance for the entire household including the
slaves and also for whole neighbourhoods. It was a time of much
celebration and very popular. Next came the Fornacalia which
was the feast of Ovens and baking on around 20th February.
One of the most important for the Roman family was the Matronalia
of the kalends of March that was the dies natalis of Juno
Lucina. It was set aside for the mother of the family to visit
the shrine of the goddess on the Esquiline hill while her
husband offered prayers at home for the preservation of their marriage.
It was usual for the husband to bestow his wife with gifts and money
on this day too, while she prepared a special feast in person for
the serui according to Macrobius (1.12.7).
The Saturnalia of 17th December also
was an occasion for great public and household celebration and here
too the slaves took a full part, being served at the feast before
their masters.
Finally a brief mention should be made of the
several festivals relating to the agrarian cycle of the year. Although
these are not specifically related to the family they too held a
deep significance for a mostly agricultural economy such as Rome
was in her earlier days, even if by the Imperial age this was only
one aspect of state revenue. They none the less retain some of their
importance for the Roman family since, as the continued veneration
of the Penates shows, there is always concern about the availability
of adequate food. Each had its primary focus from growth of crops
and their protection to broaching of the new vintage, the harvest
and its storage and the locating of water springs. Many of these
would have a huge daily significance for large numbers of Roman
families in particular families in rural areas for which we have
less information
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CONCLUSION
Although there were undoubtedly huge variations
in how strictly religious rites were observed from one time to another
and in different parts of Italy and the Empire, it cannot be denied
that religion is to be found behind all the key aspects of the lifecycle
of the Roman family. If a man is as sceptical as Cicero and
can yet assert that "our empire was won by those commanders
who obeyed the dictates of religion" (De Natura Deorum, II.iii.8), then surely it must have been one of the key shaping influences
of Roman society.
That much in Roman religious observance, both
public and private, survived unchanged up until the advent of Christianity
indicates two things; firstly that for most of society it fulfilled
its role satisfactorily and secondly it became an integral part
of the much revered mos maiorum. In these circumstances then, no
study of the Roman family can be considered complete if it does
not consider the role played by the sacra priuata.
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