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Daily life of the ancient Romans. War and religion in ancient Rome Holidays and games

Anyone who carefully read the previous chapter obviously understood that the Romans’ attitude to war was initially determined by two main circumstances. This is, firstly, the peasant craving for the land, and secondly, the aristocracy’s desire for glory. War was viewed by the Romans as a kind of continuation of peasant labor (and, as we have seen, required typically peasant qualities). On the other hand, it was a matter in which the true valor of those who want to become famous and take a high place in the Roman state can most fully manifest itself. At the same time, much in the Roman attitude to war will remain incomprehensible if one does not understand the original religious beliefs and customs of the Romans.

Of all the states of antiquity, perhaps only in Ancient Rome did war and conquest not only become the most important goal of society, but were also considered a matter approved and supported by the gods. Already in the early days of the Republic, censors, turning to the gods in prayer, called on them to contribute not only to the prosperity, but also to the expansion of the Roman state. The Romans themselves explained the power and military successes of their state by the special favor of the gods, which the Roman people earned with their exceptional piety. Cicero expressed this belief in one of his speeches: “We have not surpassed the Spaniards in numbers, nor the Gauls in strength, nor the Punes in cunning, nor the Greeks in arts; nor, finally, even the Italians and Latins with the inner and innate feeling of love for the homeland, characteristic of our tribe and country; but with piety, reverence for the gods and wise confidence that everything is guided and controlled by the will of the gods, we have surpassed all tribes and peoples.”

What was unique about the Roman religion? What role did religious beliefs and rituals play in the war?

Unlike the Greeks, the Romans initially did not imagine their gods in the form of living humanoid images and did not create vivid myths telling about their origin and adventures, about the emergence of the cosmos and man. The Romans served their own heroic history, filled with outstanding deeds for the glory of the fatherland, as a kind of mythology. For a long time in Rome, the images of deities were vague and their appearance was unknown, so the Romans even did without statues and other images of their gods. But the Romans had an innumerable number of deities. Not only the great forces of nature were deified, but even such actions and states as plowing, fencing borders, the first cry of a child, fear, shame, paleness, etc. The Roman gods were the spirituality of all kinds of earthly phenomena, and they lived everywhere: in trees, stones, springs and groves, in the hearth and barn. Dead ancestors were also considered special deities. In addition, each person and each locality, village, river or source had its own patron spirit - genius. But at the same time, in the Roman religion, unlike many religions of the East, there was nothing mysterious and supernatural. She did not arouse sacred awe in people. The Romans did not expect any miracles from the gods, but help in specific matters. To receive this help, one only had to carefully perform all the established rituals and make sacrifices pleasing to the gods. If the service was performed in an appropriate manner, then the gods, according to the Romans, were simply obliged to help. The relationship between them and the believers was purely business, contractual in nature. While performing worship and sacrifice, the Roman seemed to say to the deity: “I give to you so that you can give to me.”

However, the correct appeal to the deity turned out to be by no means a simple matter, since both the number of gods themselves and the number of situations when their participation was required was very large. And it was important to choose correctly which god or goddess, with what words and rituals and at what moment to turn. Even a small mistake could incur the wrath of the gods, disrupting what the Romans called “peace with the gods.” Therefore, in the life of Roman society, people knowledgeable in these matters played a huge role - priests, who acted as guardians of divine knowledge and traditions. The priests united in “associations” - collegiums, those in charge of the veneration of this or that deity or some specific type of sacred rites.

Among the priestly colleges, the most important were the colleges pontiffs, augurs And haruspices, as well as those who served the highest gods of Rome - Jupiter and Mars. The pontiffs exercised supreme supervision over divine services in Rome, compiled the state calendar, and determined the proper days for invoking the gods and holding public assemblies. Augurs - bird tellers - found out and interpreted the will of the gods by certain signs, or omens, which were atmospheric phenomena, flight and behavior of birds or other animals. Haruspices predicted the future from the entrails of sacrificial animals (mainly the liver). The “science” of prediction, mainly borrowed by the Romans from the Etruscans, was of exceptional importance in Rome. Any political, governmental or military decision was preceded by fortune telling, the results of which were interpreted by augurs and haruspices. These specialists were necessarily in the commander’s retinue with the army. In each Roman military camp, next to the commander’s tent, a special place was allocated for bird divination - augural Only with a successful outcome of fortune-telling was it considered possible to enter into battle, hold elections for public office, or vote on a law in the people's assembly.

Pontiff

Belief in omens was so strong among the Roman people because they were seen as a language through which the gods communicated with people, warning of impending disasters or approving a decision. It is no coincidence that Roman historians conscientiously list in their works all kinds of signs and predictions, speaking about them on a par with major events in public life. True, some of the signs mentioned in ancient legends already seemed to ancient writers to be a manifestation of absurd superstitions. It is all the more difficult for a modern person to understand what kind of will and how it could be expressed, for example, in the fact that mice gnawed gold in the temple of Jupiter, or in the fact that in Sicily a bull spoke in a human voice.

Augur with chicken

Of course, among the Roman magistrates there were people who openly disdained the signs of the divine will. But in historical stories about such very few cases, it is always edifyingly emphasized that any violation of the instructions of the gods inevitably results in disastrous consequences. Let us give some typical examples. Many ancient authors talk about the consul Claudius Pulcher, who commanded the Roman fleet during the first war with Carthage. When, on the eve of the decisive battle, the sacred chickens refused to peck the grain, foreshadowing defeat, the consul ordered them to be thrown overboard, adding: “If they don’t want to eat, let them drink!”, and gave the signal for battle. And in this battle the Romans suffered a crushing defeat.

Another example comes from the Second Punic War. Consul Gaius Flaminius, as expected, performed bird divination with sacred chickens. The priest who fed the chickens, seeing that they had no appetite, advised to postpone the battle to another day. Then Flaminius asked him what he should do if the chickens did not peck even then? He replied: “Don’t move.” “This is a nice fortune-telling,” remarked the impatient consul, “if it condemns us to inaction and pushes us into battle depending on whether the chickens are hungry or full.” Then Flaminius orders them to form a battle formation and follow him. And then it turned out that the standard bearer could not budge his banner, despite the fact that many came to his aid. Flaminius, however, neglected this too. Is it any wonder that three hours later his army was defeated, and he himself died.

But this is the case that the ancient Greek writer Plutarch talks about. When in 223 BC. e. Consuls Flaminius and Furius moved with a large army against the Gallic tribe of Insurbs, one of the rivers in Italy began to flow with blood, and three moons appeared in the sky. The priests who observed the flight of birds during the consular elections declared that the proclamation of new consuls was incorrect and was accompanied by ominous omens. Therefore, the Senate immediately sent a letter to the camp, calling on the consuls to return as soon as possible and relinquish power, without taking any action against the enemy. However, Flaminius, having received this letter, opened it only after he entered the battle and defeated the enemy. When he returned to Rome with rich booty, the people did not come out to meet him and, because the consul did not obey the message of the Senate, almost denied him his triumph. But immediately after the triumph, both consuls were removed from power. “That’s to what extent,” Plutarch concludes, The Romans submitted every matter to the consideration of the gods and, even with the greatest successes, did not allow the slightest disregard for divination and other customs, considering it more useful and important for the state for their commanders to honor religion than to defeat the enemy.”

These kinds of stories certainly strengthened the Romans' belief in omens. And she, despite everything, always remained serious and strong. The Romans always firmly believed that success in war was ensured by the favor and help of the gods. That is why it was necessary to impeccably perform all the prescribed rituals and fortune telling. But their diligent execution in accordance with ancient traditions also had a purely practical significance, as it aroused the military spirit and gave the soldiers the belief that divine forces were fighting on their side.

To attract the gods to their side, Roman commanders, before setting out on a campaign, or even in the midst of battle, often made vows, that is, promises to dedicate gifts to one or another deity or to build a temple in case of victory. The introduction of this custom, like many others, is attributed to Romulus. In one fierce battle, the Romans faltered under the onslaught of the enemy and fled. Romulus, wounded in the head by a stone, tried to delay the fleeing and return them to the line. But a real whirlpool of flight was boiling around him. And then the Roman king stretched out his hands to the sky and prayed to Jupiter: “Father of gods and men, repel the enemies, free the Romans from fear, stop the shameful flight! And I promise you to build a temple here.” Before he had time to finish the prayer, his army, as if having heard a command from heaven, stopped. Courage returned to the runners again, and the enemy was driven back. At the end of the war, Romulus, as promised, erected on this very spot the sanctuary of Jupiter-Stator, i.e. “The Stopper.”

Romulus's vow was later repeated by other generals. It is interesting that the victorious Roman military leaders, in gratitude for their help, erected temples to the deities who were directly “in charge” of wars and battles, such as Mars, the same Jupiter, Bellona (the very name of this goddess may come from the word bellum, “war” ) or Fortuna - the goddess of luck and fate, who, as the Romans believed, was subject to all human affairs, and most of all the affairs of war. Temples were also dedicated to gods and goddesses who seemed very far from military affairs, for example, the goddess of love and beauty, Venus. And the more successfully the Romans fought, the more temples there were in the city of Rome. Before the Second Punic War (218-201 BC), about 40 of them were built according to the vows of the commanders. And this custom was preserved for a long time afterwards.

However, man’s dependence on divine plans and the support of the celestials did not exclude the need for man himself to demonstrate his efforts and will. It is very significant that in the inscriptions made in honor of the victorious commanders, it was often indicated that the victory was won under the auspices of the military leader, his power, his leadership and his happiness. Auspices in this case mean the right and duty of the magistrate commanding the army to ascertain and carry out the divine will expressed through signs. From the point of view of the ancient Romans, the military leader was just an intermediary between the army and the gods, whose will he had to strictly carry out. But at the same time, it was believed that victory was achieved under the direct command of the commander, that is, on the basis of his personal energy, experience and knowledge. At the same time, the commander’s talents and valor were inextricably linked with his happiness, which seemed to the Romans a special gift. Only the gods could bestow this gift.

The right to conduct auspices and other religious rites was a necessary and very important part of the powers vested in the highest magistrates. The priests, in essence, only helped officials perform sacrifices and other rituals. The priestly positions themselves in Rome, like magistrates, were elective, although, as a rule, they were held for life. Both positions were often combined so that, as Cicero wrote, “the same persons directed both the service of the immortal gods and the most important affairs of state, so that the most prominent and illustrious citizens, by governing the state well, would protect religion, and by wisely interpreting the requirements of religion, would protect the well-being of the state.”

The connection between state policy, war and religion was clearly manifested in the activities of a special college of priests fetials. It appeared under the fourth Roman king Ancus Marcius. They say that as soon as he ascended the throne, the neighboring Latins became bold and raided Roman lands. When the Romans demanded compensation for the damage caused, the Latins gave an arrogant answer. They expected that Ancus Marcius, like his grandfather Numa Pompilius, would spend his reign amid prayers and sacrifices. But the enemies miscalculated. Ankh turned out to be similar in character not only to Numa, but also to Romulus and decided to adequately answer the challenge of his neighbors. However, in order to establish a legal order for war, Ankh introduced special ceremonies that accompanied the declaration of war, and entrusted their execution to fecial priests. Here is how the Roman historian Titus Livius describes these ceremonies: “The ambassador, having come to the borders of those from whom satisfaction is demanded, covers his head with a woolen blanket and says: “Listen, Jupiter, listen to the borders of the tribe of such and such (here he names the name); may the Supreme Law hear me. I am the messenger of the entire Roman people, by right and honor I come as an ambassador, and let my words be believed!” Next, he calculates everything required. Then he takes Jupiter as a witness: “If I wrongly and wickedly demand that these people and these things be given to me, may you forever deprive me of belonging to my fatherland.” If he does not receive what he demands, then after 33 days he declares war like this: “Listen, Jupiter, and you, Janus Quirinus, and all the gods of heaven, and you earthly, and you underground - listen!” I take you as a witness to the fact that this people (here he names which one) violated the law and does not want to restore it.”

Having said these words, the ambassador returned to Rome for a meeting. The king (and later the chief magistrate) sought the opinion of the senators. If the Senate voted in favor of war by a majority of votes and this decision was approved by the people, the fetials performed a ceremony of declaring war. According to custom, the head of the fetials brought a spear with an iron tip to the enemy’s borders and, in the presence of at least three adult witnesses, declared war, and then threw the spear into the enemy’s territory. Such a ritual was supposed to emphasize the justice of the war on the part of the Romans, and they invariably observed it. True, over time, as a result of the conquests of Rome, the distance to enemy land increased. It became very difficult to quickly reach the borders of the next enemy. Therefore, the Romans came up with such a way out. They ordered one of the captured enemies to buy a piece of land in Rome near the Temple of Bellona. This land now began to symbolize enemy territory, and it was on it that the chief fecial priest threw his spear, conducting a rite of declaration of war.

The fetials were also in charge of concluding peace treaties, which was accompanied by the corresponding rituals. These rituals, apparently, were of very ancient origin. This is indicated by the fact that the Fetials stabbed the sacrificed piglet with a flint knife. The flint was considered a symbol of Jupiter, and the ritual was intended to show how this god would strike the Romans if they violated the terms of the treaty. At the same time, the fetials acted not only as priests, but also as diplomats: they negotiated, signed treaties and kept them in their archives, and also monitored the safety of foreign ambassadors in Rome. In their actions, the fetials were subordinate to the senate and higher magistrates. There were no other peoples of this kind of priests, except the Latins related to the Romans.

Other peoples did not have special seasonal military holidays like the Romans had. Most of these festivals were dedicated to Mars, the oldest and most revered of the Italic gods. According to the poet Ovid, “in ancient times Mars was revered above all other gods: By this the warlike people showed their inclination to war.” The first day and first month of the year were dedicated to Mars - according to the ancient Roman calendar, the year began on March 1st. This month itself received its name from the name of God. The Romans represented Mars as a spear-throwing guardian of herds and a fighter for citizens. It was in March that the main military holidays were celebrated: the 14th - the day of forging shields; The 19th is the day of the military dance in the public square, and the 23rd is the day of the consecration of military trumpets, which marked the final readiness of the Roman community to start the war. After this day, the Roman army set out on another campaign, opening the war season, which lasted until the fall. In the fall, on October 19, another military holiday was held in honor of Mars - the day of cleansing weapons. It marked the end of hostilities by sacrificing a horse to Mars.

One of the sacred animals of Mars was also the wolf, which was considered a kind of coat of arms of the Roman state. The main symbol of God was the spear, which was kept in the royal palace along with twelve sacred shields. According to legend, one of these shields fell from the sky and was the key to the invincibility of the Romans. To prevent enemies from recognizing and stealing this shield, King Numa Pompilius ordered the skilled blacksmith Mammurius to make eleven exact copies. According to tradition, the commander, going to war, called on Mars with the words “Mars, watch out!”, and then set in motion these shields and a spear. Mars was served by two ancient priestly colleges. "Mars Burners" performed the ritual of burning the sacrifice, and 12 Saliev(“jumpers”) guarded the shrines of Mars and, wearing battle armor, performed military dances and songs in his honor at the spring festival. The procession of the Salii was supposed to show the readiness of the Roman army for the annual campaign.

Mars was primarily the god of war. Therefore, his most ancient temple was located on the Campus Martius outside the city walls, since, according to custom, armed troops could not enter the territory of the city. The point is not only that civil laws were in force in the City, and outside its borders there was the unlimited military power of the commander. According to Roman ideas, when going on a campaign, citizens turned into warriors who renounced peaceful life and had to kill, desecrating themselves with cruelty and bloodshed. The Romans believed that this defilement had to be removed through special cleansing rituals.

Sacrifice of a bull, sheep, pig

Therefore, in the cult of Mars, as in the Roman religion in general, great importance was attached to purification rites. Gathering on the Campus Martius, armed citizens turned to Mars in a ritual of cleansing the city. Ceremonies for the purification of horses, weapons and military trumpets were also dedicated to Mars during the aforementioned festivals, which began and ended the season of military campaigns. The rite of purification also accompanied the census and assessment of citizens' property. On this occasion, King Servius Tullius made a particularly solemn sacrifice for the entire army, lined up in centuries - a boar, a sheep and a bull. Such a cleansing sacrifice was called lustrum in Latin, and the Romans used the same word to describe the five-year period between the next census.

Another very interesting Roman holiday, celebrated on October 1 to mark the end of the summer hostilities, is also associated with the rites of cleansing the army. It included a kind of ritual: the entire army returning from a campaign passed under a wooden beam, which was thrown across the street and was called the “sister beam.” The origin of this ritual is told by the famous legend about the single combat of three Roman twin brothers Horatii and three twin Curiatii from the city of Alba Longa. According to legend, the third Roman king, Tullus Hostilius, who surpassed even Romulus in belligerence, began a war with the related people of the Albanians. Having come together for a decisive battle, the opponents, in order to avoid general bloodshed, agreed to decide the outcome of the war by a duel of the best warriors. The Romans fielded the Horatii brothers on their side, and the Alban army sent the Curiatii, equal in age and strength. Before the battle, the fecial priests, having carried out all the required rituals, entered into an agreement on the following conditions: whose fighters win in single combat, that people will peacefully rule over the other. According to a conventional sign, in front of the two armies, the young men engaged in a fierce battle. After a stubborn battle, three Albanians were wounded, but could still stand, and two Romans were killed. The curiatii, greeted by the joyful cries of their fellow citizens, surrounded the last of the Horatii. He, seeing that he could not cope with three opponents at once, turned to feigned flight. He figured that by pursuing him, the Curiatia brothers would fall behind each other, and he would be able to defeat them one by one. And so it happened. Horace, safe and sound, stabs three opponents in turn.

Proud of victory, the Roman army returned to Rome. The hero Horace walked first, carrying armor taken from his defeated enemies. Before the city gates he was met by his own sister, who was the bride of one of the Curiatii. Recognizing among her brother’s trophies a cloak that she had woven for her groom, she realized that he was no longer alive. Letting her hair down, the girl began to mourn her beloved groom. The sister's screams so outraged the stern brother that he pulled out a sword, on which the blood of the defeated enemies had not yet dried, and stabbed the girl. At the same time, he exclaimed: “Go to the groom, despicable one! You forgot about your brothers—the dead and the living—and you forgot about your fatherland. Let every Roman woman who begins to mourn the enemy die like this!”

According to the law, the court had to sentence the young man to death for this murder. But after Horace himself and his father addressed the people, the hero was acquitted. Horace the father said that he considered his daughter rightfully killed, and if it had happened differently, he himself would have punished his son with his father’s authority. So that the murder could still be atoned for, the father was ordered to cleanse his son. Having performed special cleansing sacrifices, the father threw a beam across the street and, covering the young man’s head, ordered him to walk under the beam, which formed a kind of arch. This beam was called “sisters”, and passing under the arch became a cleansing ritual for the entire army in Rome. It is possible that this simple arch became the prototype of those triumphal arches that were subsequently erected in Rome in honor of victorious commanders and their troops. The soldiers participating in the triumph, passing under the arch, like Horace, cleansed themselves of the traces of murder and cruelty committed in the war in order to again become normal civilians.

By the way, the Roman triumph itself (which we will talk about later) was essentially a religious event. It was dedicated to the supreme god of the Roman community - Jupiter Capitolinus. Going to war, the Roman commander took vows on the Capitoline Hill, where the main temple of Rome, dedicated to Jupiter, was located. Returning victorious, the commander brought gratitude to the gods for his successes on behalf of the Roman people, who rewarded him with triumph. The triumphant rode into the City on a chariot drawn by four white horses, similar to the horses of Jupiter and the Sun (which was also represented as a god). The commander himself was dressed in a purple toga with gold stars woven on it. This robe was given out from the temple treasury especially for the triumph. In one hand he held an ivory staff and in the other a palm branch. His head was decorated with a laurel wreath, and his face was painted with red paint. This appearance likened the triumphant commander to Jupiter himself. Behind the triumphant man stood a slave who held a golden crown above his head, also taken from the Temple of Jupiter. So that at the moment of his highest triumph the commander would not become arrogant, the slave exclaimed, turning to him: “Remember that you are a man!”, and called on him: “Look back!” At the end of the triumphal ceremony, the commander laid a golden crown and a palm branch to the statue of Jupiter, returned the robe to the temple treasury and arranged a ritual feast in honor of the gods on the Capitol.

Before the start of the triumphal procession, ordinary warriors performed cleansing rites in front of the altar of one of the gods, dedicated images to the gods and donated weapons captured from the enemy. After this, the warriors, together with other participants in the triumphal ceremony, made a thanksgiving sacrifice to Jupiter on the Capitol in the presence of the Senate. In honor of the supreme deity, white bulls with gilded horns were slaughtered.

Solemn holiday prayers in the Capitoline Temple were also dedicated to Jupiter on the occasion of the most outstanding victories of Roman weapons. And the more glorious the victory achieved, the more days this service lasted. Its participants put on wreaths and carried laurel branches in their hands; women let their hair down and lay down on the ground in front of the images of the gods.

As the main god of Roman power, victories and glory, Jupiter was revered under the name of the All-Good Greatest. During all periods of the history of Ancient Rome, Jupiter the All-Good Greatest acted as the patron of the Roman state. After the Empire replaced the republican system, Jupiter became the patron of the ruling emperor. It is quite natural that soldiers and veterans of the imperial army singled out Jupiter among other gods. Celebrating the birthday of their military unit, the soldiers made the main sacrifice to Jupiter. Every year on January 3, soldiers, according to established custom, took an oath of allegiance to the emperor. On this day, a new altar in honor of Jupiter was solemnly installed on the parade ground, and the old one was buried in the ground. Obviously, this was done in order to strengthen the power of the oath, consecrating it in the name of the most powerful deity.

The main shrine of each Roman legion, the legionary eagle, was also associated with Jupiter. The eagle was generally considered the bird of Jupiter and was depicted on many coins as a symbol of the Roman state. The following legend tells how the eagle became the legionary banner. One day the Titans, unbridled powerful deities, opposed the younger generation of gods, led by Jupiter. Before going to battle with the Titans, Jupiter performed bird divinations - after all, the gods, according to the ancient Romans and Greeks, were subject to omnipotent fate - and it was the eagle that appeared to him as a sign, becoming the herald of victory. Therefore, Jupiter took the eagle under his protection and made it the main sign of the legion.

Legion eagles were depicted with spread wings and were made of bronze and covered with either gold or silver. Later they began to be made from pure gold. Losing an eagle in battle was considered an incomparable shame. The legion that allowed this dishonor disbanded and ceased to exist. The badges of individual units that were part of the legion were also revered as special shrines. Roman soldiers believed that military insignia, including legionary eagles, possessed a divine supernatural essence, and treated them with great awe and love, surrounding them with the same worship as the gods. In the military camp, the eagle and other signs were placed in a special sanctuary, where statues of gods and emperors were also placed. In honor of the banners, sacrifices and dedications were made. On holidays, the eagle and banners were oiled and decorated in a special way using roses. An oath taken in front of military banners was tantamount to an oath before the gods. The birthday of a legion or military unit was revered as the birthday of the eagle or banners. The emblems of the military unit and images of the military awards that it earned in battles and campaigns were attached to military signs.

As in modern armies, banners were symbols of military honor and glory for the Romans. But their veneration in the Roman army was based primarily on religious feelings and ideas. Soldiers' love for their banners and religion were inseparable from each other. The sacred prohibition to abandon the standards was the first requirement of military duty in Rome. Many episodes of Roman military history convince us of this. In order to preserve their banners, Roman soldiers were ready to selflessly sacrifice their lives. Therefore, at critical moments of the battle, Roman commanders often used this characteristic technique: the standard bearer or the military leader himself threw the banner into the midst of the enemy or into the enemy camp, or he himself rushed forward with the banner in his hands. And in order not to disgrace themselves by losing the banner, the warriors were forced to fight with desperate dedication. They say that this technique was first used by Servius Tullius, fighting under the command of King Tarquin against the Sabines.

The Roman state always attached great importance to the return of banners lost in war. This event was celebrated as a national celebration. Commemorative coins were issued in his honor. And when in 16 AD. e. managed to recapture the Roman banners they had captured, including the eagle, from the Germans; a special memorial arch was erected in Rome in honor of this event.

A very important event in the life of the entire army and each individual soldier was the taking of the military oath. It was considered a sacred oath. By giving it, the warriors dedicated themselves to the gods, primarily Mars and Jupiter, and received their patronage for their actions. A solemn oath bound the army to the commander through fear of punishment from the gods in case of violation of military duty. A warrior who violated his oath was considered a criminal against the gods. At the beginning of the 3rd century. BC e., during a difficult war with the Samnites, a law was even passed according to which, if a young man did not respond to the commander’s call or deserted, breaking the oath, his head was dedicated to Jupiter. Apparently the Romans believed that a soldier who refused to obey his commander was insulting the god of Roman military glory.

Each soldier took an oath when joining the ranks of the army. The commanders gathered recruits into legions, chose the most suitable from among them and demanded an oath from him that he would unquestioningly obey the commander and, to the best of his ability, carry out the orders of his superiors. All the other warriors, coming forward one after another, swore that they would do in everything as the first had pledged.

During the period of the Empire (1st – 4th centuries AD), the imperial cult became widespread in the army, as well as throughout the Roman state. The rulers of Rome began to receive divine honors. Emperors, who possessed enormous power and unattainable greatness, were worshiped as real gods. Statues and other images of emperors were considered sacred, as were legionary eagles and other military insignia. At first, only dead rulers were deified. Later, some emperors began to be recognized as gods during their lifetime. Members of the imperial family, including women, were also surrounded by divine veneration. The immediate object of worship was the genius and virtues of the emperor. The birthdays of deified and living rulers, the days of accession to the throne and the days of the most glorious victories won under the leadership of the emperor were celebrated as special holidays. Over time, there were a lot of such holidays. Therefore, some of them were slowly cancelled. But there were still a lot of them left.

If we take into account that units of the Roman army celebrated all state festivals associated with the traditional gods of Rome, then there were a lot of holidays. On average, once every two weeks (unless, of course, there were hostilities), the soldiers of the imperial army had the opportunity to take a break from the hardships and monotony of daily service. On such days, instead of the usual simple soldier's ration, they could taste a hearty meal with meat, fruit and wine. But the significance of the festivities, of course, was not limited to this. Festive events were supposed to instill in the soldiers the idea that emperors were endowed with supernatural power, that the Roman state was helped by the gods, that the banners of military units were sacred. The main task of the army religion - and first of all the imperial cult - was to ensure the soldiers' devotion to Rome and its rulers.

At the same time, religion was supposed to show what it means to be a good soldier, what qualities he should have. For a long time, such qualities and concepts as Valor, Honor, Piety, and Loyalty were revered as deities in Rome. Separate temples and altars were built for them. In the II century. n. e. The military began to revere Discipline as a deity. The goddess of victory, Victoria, was very popular among the troops. She was usually depicted (including on banners) as a beautiful woman holding a wreath in her hands. Hercules, the son of Jupiter, an invincible warrior, a powerful defender of ordinary people, was very popular among the soldiers.

The religious life of the army was not limited only to traditional deities and the imperial cult, the implementation of which was prescribed and controlled by the authorities. It was important for a simple soldier and officer to feel the support of such divine patrons who were always nearby. Therefore, the cult of various kinds of geniuses became very widespread in the army. These patron spirits were depicted as young men holding a cup of wine and a cornucopia in their hands. The soldiers especially widely revered the geniuses of the century and the legion. The areas where the military unit was located, military camps, barracks, hospitals, parade grounds, and boards that united officers and soldiers of senior ranks also had their own geniuses. Even the military oath and banners had their own special geniuses, surrounded by cultic veneration.

Jupiter Dolichen

During the Empire, Roman troops served in different parts of the vast empire, made long campaigns and therefore had the opportunity, communicating with local residents, to get acquainted with their beliefs. Over time, not only Romans, but also representatives of other nations - Greeks, Thracians, Syrians, Gauls - began to be drafted into the ranks of the army. All this contributed to the penetration of foreign cults into the army. Thus, belief in eastern gods, for example, the god Baal from the Syrian city of Dolichen, spread among the soldiers. He was revered under the name of Jupiter of Dolichensky. After the war with the Parthians at the end of the 1st century AD. e. many Roman soldiers became fans of the Persian solar god Mithra, who personified strength and courage. Soldiers of non-Roman origin, entering the army, of course, worshiped the Roman gods, as required by the command, but at the same time they retained faith in their old tribal gods and sometimes even introduced their Roman colleagues to it.

Thus, the religious beliefs of Roman soldiers did not remain unchanged. However, it was in the army that ancient Roman cults and rituals were preserved much longer and more firmly than among the civilian population. While conquering numerous tribes and peoples, the Romans never sought to impose their faith on them. But they were always convinced that no military success was achievable without the support of domestic deities, without that special Roman military spirit, which was largely nurtured by the religious traditions of Rome.

In Ancient Rome there was a fairly decent range of executions for criminals: burning, strangulation, drowning, wheeling, throwing into the abyss, scourging to death and beheading, and in the Roman Republic an ax was used for this, and in the Empire - a sword. The division of classes in the Eternal City was strictly observed and influenced both the severity of the sentence and the choice of type of execution.

Book VII of the treatise of the Roman lawyer and statesman Ulpian (c. 170 - c. 223 AD) “On the duties of the proconsul” says: “The proconsul must decide whether to punish sacrilege more severely or mildly, in accordance with the personality (of the criminal), with the circumstances of the case and time, (as well as) with the age and gender (of the criminal). I know that many are sentenced to fight with beasts in the arena, some even to be burned alive, and others to crucifixion. However, the punishment should be moderated before fighting with animals in the arena for those who commit burglary in the temple at night and take away offerings to the deity. And if someone took something not very significant from the temple during the day, then he should be punished by being sentenced to the mines, but if he belongs to the venerable by birth (this concept included decurions, horsemen and senators), then he should be exiled to the island "

During the period of the Republic, one of the main places of execution was the Esquiline field behind the gate of the same name. The Esquiline Hill was originally home to a Roman cemetery. During the empire, the Campus Martius was chosen as the place of execution.

Ancient Rome also did not avoid sin before its descendants in the form of ritual executions. According to the ancient law of Romulus, criminals sentenced to death were sacrificed to the underground gods during the Lupercalia holiday. Ritual murders of children were carried out during the holidays of the compitalia Mania. True, not for long, during the time of Junius Brutus, babies were replaced with heads of poppy or garlic. During the Second Punic War, when the Romans suffered a crushing defeat from Hannibal near Cannae and the threat of capture of Carthage by its troops hung over Rome, Quintus Fabius Pictor was sent to Delphi to ask the oracle what prayers and sacrifices would be used to appease the gods and when the series of disasters would end. In the meantime, the Romans, as an emergency measure, offered human sacrifices to the gods. Gallus and his fellow tribesman, a Greek man and a Greek woman, were buried alive in the Bull Market, in a place fenced with stones, where human sacrifices had long ago been carried out.

Probably this measure, alien to the Roman traditions of that time, helped. The Romans gathered their strength and turned the tide of the war that had been unsuccessful for them. Some time later, Hannibal was defeated and Carthage was destroyed.

But most likely it was not sacrifices that helped, but the courage and fortitude of the Romans. They sacrificed themselves more than once for the sake of the freedom and greatness of Rome.

The act of the Roman commander Regulus Marcus Atilius went down in history. He was captured by the Carthaginians and was released to Rome on parole in order to achieve an exchange of prisoners. Regulus convinced the Romans to reject the enemy's proposals, after which he returned to Carthage and was executed.

The end to ritual executions was put in the consulate of Cornelius Lentulus and Licinius Crassus (97 BC), when they were prohibited by a decree of the Senate.

The word “sacrifice” refers to various ancient Greek rites performed in different circumstances and for different purposes. This includes offering fruits, grains and cakes to the gods, and burning incense, and killing animals and then eating the remaining meat, and burning whole animals, and the ritual libation of wine, milk, honey, water or oil, and the shedding of sacrificial blood to seal the oath .

The most common type of sacrifice among the ancient Greeks - the slaughter of livestock - was called thysia. The meat was partially burned: the gods got the smoke, and the ceremony participants got the meat.

The philosopher Theophrastus identified three purposes of sacrifice: to give honor to the gods, to thank them and to ask them for something. But this is only one of the possible interpretations of the ritual. Already in the twentieth century, the Hellenist and specialist in ancient Greek religion Walter Burkert put forward a new version: the meaning of the sacrifice is the feeling of guilt that you experience after the murder. The ritual neutralizes the outburst of aggression associated with killing an animal. However, this theory was refuted as contradicting ancient evidence. Some historians believe that the purpose of the sacrifice is to establish a social hierarchy between the participants in the ritual, including the gods, through the distribution of the best and worst pieces of meat during a joint meal. Thus, the sacrifice, as it were, consolidates and justifies the socio-economic and political reality. From an anthropological point of view, sacrifice is an analogue of a gift: people present a sacred gift to the gods, counting on gifts in return. Such gifts form the basis of relationships both between people and with otherworldly forces.

The Greeks did not have a separate class of priests, so anyone could perform the sacrifice. A butcher was often called in to cut the meat. The sacrifice was made not inside the temple, but next to it, at the altar in the open air. Chamber home sacrifices were often held with the family. If lunch or dinner was planned after the ritual, the ritual feast was held in special rooms at the sanctuary or at home. Sometimes sacrificial meat was sold, but still most bones of domestic animals are found in sanctuaries. It turns out that the Greeks almost always ate meat after the ritual slaughter of an animal - that is, quite often, judging by the surviving calendars with instructions on when and to which gods to make sacrifices. A large number of livestock were slaughtered on the occasion of annual city holidays. During private ceremonies, as a rule, one small animal was used.

Stele with a calendar of holidays and sacrifices from the city of Thorikos. 430–420 BC e. Remi Mathis / CC BY-SA 3.0

Fragment of a stele with a calendar of holidays and sacrifices from the city of Thorikos. 430–420 BC e.Dave & Margie Hill / CC BY-SA 2.0

The rules of the ceremony were not compiled into a rigid system: the sequence of actions varied in different policies. We know about different types, methods and procedures of sacrifice from special ritual texts that had the status of laws and were carved in stone for public viewing. Other sources include ancient literature, vase painting, reliefs, and, more recently, zooarchaeology (analysis of the remains of animals sacrificed). This evidence allows us to understand some patterns thysia and reconstruct the features of the ritual.

1. Choose a victim

Bull sacrifice. Crater painting. Attica, 410-400 BC. e. A crater is a vessel for mixing water and wine. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

First you need to determine the budget for the sacrifice. The most expensive animal is a cow. If a big holiday is coming up (for example, the patron goddess of the city), it makes sense to spend money, for example, on 50 cows. But piglets are a cheap option that is used in the purification ritual: the blood of the animal is sprinkled on the ritual participants, but the meat itself is not eaten. The most common sacrificial animal is the sheep: ideal value for money. The choice of animal also depends on who the sacrifice is intended for. Everything is important here - the animal’s age, gender and color. The gods will suit males, and the yum gods will suit females. Black animals are sacrificed to the underground chthonic gods. Before you start the ritual, check with special calendars and other ritual texts: for example, on the 12th day of the month of An-thesterion (falls in our February - March), the god of wine Dionysus needs to make a dark sacrifice -a red or black kid with undetected teeth, and to the goddess of fertility Demeter in the month of Munichion (April - May) - a pregnant sheep. The goddess of night witchcraft, Hecate, will have to sacrifice a dog, but this is a different type of sacrifice: the Greeks did not eat dog meat.

Important tip: Don't sacrifice people, even if you read about it in ancient Greek myths and literature. Human sacrifices are not attested in Greece.

2. Find a professional musician

Scene of sacrifice. A young man (left) plays the aulos. Crater painting. Attica, around 430-410 BC. e. The Trustees of the British Museum

Each stage of the ritual must be accompanied by music. Good performance pleases the gods and disposes them to the ritual. Special ritual hymns are called prosody and paeans. The first should be sung while the animal is being led to the altar (the music sets the rhythm of the procession), the second should be sung already at the altar itself. The singing takes place to the accompaniment of the pipe - avla. While the aulet plays, the procession waits for auspicious signs to begin the ceremony. The logic of the gods, however, is not always clear. Thus, Plutarch tells a story about the musician Ismenius, who played the flute for a long time, but there were still no signs. Then the impatient customer of the sacrifice took the flute from the professional and played it clumsily himself, and only then did the sacrifice take place. To which Ismenius replied that the gods liked his music, so they were in no hurry to make a decision, but, having heard the amateur’s music and deciding to get rid of it as quickly as possible, they nevertheless accepted the sacrifice.

Important tip: Avlet will have to pay, but this can be done by sharing the sacrificial meat with him.

3. Wash and dress up

Participants in the sacrifice ceremony wearing wreaths and white robes. Fragment of the crater painting. Attica, late 5th century BC. e. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Festive mood is important. Go to the baths, put on elegant white clothes and decorate your head with a wreath. At the altar you can take off your shoes to emphasize the sacred nature of what is happening. It is important not only to dress up yourself, but also to dress up the victim, because for the animal to participate in the ritual is a great honor. Gild the horns of a cow, as Elder Nestor did in the Odyssey, to please the goddess Athena (this service can be ordered in advance from a blacksmith). If finances do not allow, simply tie bows and wrap wreaths around the victim's head and stomach.

Important tip: Athenian laws say that sacrifices to Athena should be as beautiful as possible, so if you dedicate a festive ceremony to her, feel free to demand more money from the city budget for celebrations and decorations.

4. Organize a march

Girl with a basket with tools for the ceremony. Fragment of a skyphos painting. Attica, around 350 BC. e. Skyphos is a ceramic drinking bowl with a low stem and horizontal handles. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Everything is almost ready, and here one of the most important stages begins - the solemn procession. Participants in the ritual lead the animal to the altar accompanied by music and singing. It is important to organize the procession correctly and distribute roles: who follows whom, who has what in their hands and who does what. Don't forget to bring your ceremony tools to the altar - especially a knife. Place the knife in the basket, sprinkle it with barley grits (we'll explain why this is needed a little later) and decorate it with bows. Let a girl of aristocratic origin carry the basket on her head, she should lead the procession - after all, youth and innocence guarantee the success of the enterprise. If the girl could not be found, a simple slave will do. Someone must hold a jug of water for ritual sprinkling of the participants and the altar. Assign someone to carry the cakes and pies - they will also be useful for ritual purposes. At the beginning of the procession, loudly announce that a sacred act will now be performed. This can be done with the exclamation “Euphemia! Euphemia! — which literally translates as “reverent speech,” but in this case means more like “Attention! Attention!".

Important tip: If you don't know where to recruit participants in the procession, call your household, children and slaves. Wife, daughters-in-law and daughters will be needed to perform the ritual female cry ololygmos during the slaughter of the victim. It is not entirely clear why the scream was needed - either to drown out the roar of the animal, or to mark the importance of what was happening.

5. Don't forget the details

You will need to say a prayer at the altar: think in advance what you want to ask the gods for. Before killing the animal, sprinkle barley grits on all participants Most likely, the use of barley in rituals is due to its psychedelic properties. and sprinkle with water. Now take out the ritual knife, cut off a clump of wool and throw it into the fire. If the animal is large, it is wiser to stun it with an ax and only then cut its throat with a knife. It is now that women must let out a ritual cry. It is important that the blood of the animal is spilled on the altar and not on the ground. Getting sacrificial blood on the ground is a bad sign and can lead to revenge and another bloodshed. In some cases, it makes sense to collect spilled blood in a special vase.

Sphageion is a vessel for collecting blood. Canossa, late 4th - early 3rd century BC. e.
From the collection of the Pushkin Museum. A. S. Pushkin / Wikimedia Commons

During cutting, the most important thing is to correctly separate those parts of the meat that are assigned to the gods. Usually these are the femurs. They need to be cleaned of meat, wrapped in fat and covered with other small pieces on top. You can keep the best pieces of meat for yourself: as the experience of Prometheus shows, the gods will not notice anything anyway. Add a tail with a rump, a gallbladder and any other internal organs to the altar. Burn it. It is important that the smoke goes to the sky, to the gods. Spill some wine on the altar so that the gods have something to wash down the meat. To cut up and cook the remaining meat, it is better to call a butcher. Now start the festive dinner. Don't forget to give the best pieces to the most honored guests.

Important tip: Watch the signs carefully. For example, how an animal’s tail behaves in fire or what happens to internal organs. The correct interpretation will allow you to understand whether the gods liked the ceremony. It is a good sign when the tail curls on fire and the liver is healthy, with equal shares. If the ritual is performed before a battle, victory is indicated by a strong fire that destroys the entire victim. Bad omens include scanty flames, as well as splashes from burning the gallbladder and other internal fluids.

Sources

Aristophanes. World.
Aristophanes. Birds.
Hesiod. Theogony.
Homer. Odyssey.
Naiden F.S. Smoke Signals for the Gods: Ancient Greek Sacrifice from the Archaic through Roman Periods.
Oxford University Press, 2013.
Ullucci D. Contesting the meaning of animal sacrifice.
Ancient Mediterranean Sacrifice. Oxford University Press, 2011.
Van Straten F. T. Hierà kalá: Images of Animal Sacrifice in Archaic and Classical Greece.

Alexander Valentinovich Makhlayuk

Roman wars. Under the sign of Mars

Pontiff

Augur with chicken

But this is the case that the ancient Greek writer Plutarch talks about. When in 223 BC. e. Consuls Flaminius and Furius moved with a large army against the Gallic tribe of Insurbs, one of the rivers in Italy began to flow with blood, and three moons appeared in the sky. The priests who observed the flight of birds during the consular elections declared that the proclamation of new consuls was incorrect and was accompanied by ominous omens. Therefore, the Senate immediately sent a letter to the camp, calling on the consuls to return as soon as possible and relinquish power, without taking any action against the enemy. However, Flaminius, having received this letter, opened it only after he entered the battle and defeated the enemy. When he returned to Rome with rich booty, the people did not come out to meet him and, because the consul did not obey the message of the Senate, almost denied him his triumph. But immediately after the triumph, both consuls were removed from power. “This is the extent to which,” Plutarch concludes, “the Romans submitted every matter to the consideration of the gods and, even with the greatest successes, did not allow the slightest disregard for divination and other customs, considering it more useful and important for the state that their commanders honor religion than defeated the enemy."

The right to conduct auspices and other religious rites was a necessary and very important part of the powers vested in the highest magistrates. The priests, in essence, only helped officials perform sacrifices and other rituals. The priestly positions themselves in Rome, like magistrates, were elective, although, as a rule, they were held for life. Both positions were often combined so that, as Cicero wrote, “the same persons would direct both the service of the immortal gods and the most important affairs of state, so that the most prominent and illustrious citizens, while governing the state well, would protect religion, and wisely interpreting the requirements religions, protected the well-being of the state.”

The connection between state policy, war and religion was clearly manifested in the activities of a special college of fetial priests. It appeared under the fourth Roman king Ancus Marcius. They say that as soon as he ascended the throne, the neighboring Latins became bold and raided Roman lands. When the Romans demanded compensation for the damage caused, the Latins gave an arrogant answer. They expected that Ancus Marcius, like his grandfather Numa Pompilius, would spend his reign amid prayers and sacrifices. But the enemies miscalculated. Ankh turned out to be similar in character not only to Numa, but also to Romulus and decided to adequately answer the challenge of his neighbors. However, in order to establish a legal order for war, Ankh introduced special ceremonies that accompanied the declaration of war, and entrusted their execution to fecial priests. This is how the Roman historian Titus Livy describes these ceremonies: “The ambassador, having come to the borders of those from whom satisfaction is demanded, covers his head with a woolen blanket and says: “Hear, Jupiter, listen to the borders of the tribe of such and such (here he names the name); may the Supreme Law hear me. I am the messenger of the entire Roman people, by right and honor I come as an ambassador, and let my words be believed!” Next, he calculates everything required. Then he takes Jupiter as a witness: “If I wrongly and wickedly demand that these people and these things be given to me, may you forever deprive me of belonging to my fatherland.” If he does not receive what he demands, then after 33 days he declares war like this: “Listen, Jupiter, and you, Janus Quirinus, and all the gods of heaven, and you earthly, and you underground - listen!” I take you as a witness to the fact that this people (here he names which one) violated the law and does not want to restore it.”

Other peoples did not have special seasonal military holidays like the Romans had. Most of these festivals were dedicated to Mars, the oldest and most revered of the Italic gods. According to the poet Ovid, “in ancient times Mars was revered above all other gods: By this the warlike people showed their inclination to war.” The first day and first month of the year were dedicated to Mars - according to the ancient Roman calendar, the year began on March 1st. This month itself received its name from the name of God. The Romans represented Mars as a spear-throwing guardian of herds and a fighter for citizens. It was in March that the main military holidays were celebrated: the 14th - the day of forging shields; The 19th is the day of the military dance in the public square, and the 23rd is the day of the consecration of military trumpets, which marked the final readiness of the Roman community to start the war. After this day, the Roman army set out on another campaign, opening the war season, which lasted until the fall. In the fall, on October 19, another military holiday was held in honor of Mars - the day of cleansing weapons. It marked the end of hostilities by sacrificing a horse to Mars.

One of the sacred animals of Mars was also the wolf, which was considered a kind of coat of arms of the Roman state. The main symbol of God was the spear, which was kept in the royal palace along with twelve sacred shields. According to legend, one of these shields fell from the sky and was the key to the invincibility of the Romans. To prevent enemies from recognizing and stealing this shield, King Numa Pompilius ordered the skilled blacksmith Mammurius to make eleven exact copies. According to tradition, the commander, going to war, called on Mars with the words “Mars, watch out!”, and then set in motion these shields and a spear. Mars was served by two ancient priestly colleges. “Mars Incendiaries” performed the ritual of burning the victim, and 12 salii (“jumpers”) guarded the shrines of Mars and, wearing battle armor, performed military dances and songs in his honor at the spring festival. The procession of the Salii was supposed to show the readiness of the Roman army for the annual campaign.

Sacrifice of a bull, sheep, pig

Jupiter Dolichen

Roman army during the Republic era

When at the beginning of the 5th century. n. e. The Roman state, under the blows of warlike barbarian tribes, was already heading towards final decline; one Roman writer decided to write a book about the military affairs of the Romans in order to remind his contemporaries what the Roman army was like in the glorious past. This writer's name was Flavius Vegetius Renatus. He himself was not a military man, but he very carefully studied a large number of ancient works and selected for his “Summary of Military Affairs” all the most valuable from the experience of previous generations. The author hoped that his book would help revive the former power of the Roman army.

This hope, however, was not destined to come true. But Vegetius was able to understand perfectly what the real strength of the Roman military system was. At the very beginning of his work, looking back at the great past of Rome, he wrote:

“We see that the Roman people subjugated the entire universe only thanks to military exercises, thanks to the art of organizing a camp well and their military training. In what other way could a handful of Romans show their strength against the mass of Gauls? What else could the short Romans rely on in their bold struggle against the tall Germans? It is quite obvious that the Spaniards outnumbered ours not only in numbers, but also in physical strength. We have never been equal to the Africans in either cunning or wealth. No one will dispute that in the art of war and theoretical knowledge we were inferior to the Greeks. But we always won because we knew how to skillfully select recruits, teach them, so to speak, the laws of weapons, harden them with daily exercises, pre-foresee during exercises everything that could happen in the ranks and during battle, and, finally, severely punish idle people "

In his book, Vegetius talks mainly about the Roman army of the first centuries of our era, and we will turn to his information when we come to this period of the military history of Rome. However, one should not lose sight of the fact that many military orders, traditions, methods of battle and training arose much earlier, even during the time of the Republic. And although Roman military art and the army itself were constantly evolving, their main fundamentals remained unchanged for many centuries.

Long before Vegetius, the military organization of the Romans aroused the admiration of those who could observe it in action or experience its invincible strength. One of these people was the great Greek historian Polybius, who lived in the 2nd century. BC e. Finding himself in Rome for many years, he carefully observed and studied its state and military structure. He learned a lot from communicating with famous Roman military leaders and statesmen. Polybius himself was deeply versed in military affairs and even dedicated several of his works to it. He summed up his thoughts about the reasons for the rapid rise of Rome in his main work, “General History.” In it, Polybius described in detail the great Roman conquests of the 3rd – 2nd centuries. BC e. At the same time, he paid the closest attention to the Roman military organization, which precisely in his time, after a number of centuries of continuous wars, fully took shape and revealed its greatest strengths. It is in Polybius that we find the most detailed and reliable information about the Roman army of the Republican era. We will mainly rely on them in this chapter.

What does the Greek historian see as the main reasons for the invincibility of the Roman army, its unsurpassed advantages?

He puts the unity of the people and troops in first place. Comparing Rome with its most powerful enemy, Carthage, Polybius points out:

“...preference should be given to the Roman state structure over the Carthaginian one, for the Carthaginian state each time places its hopes on the preservation of freedom, on the courage of mercenaries, and the Roman state on the valor of its own citizens and on the help of its allies. Therefore, if sometimes the Romans are defeated at the beginning, but in subsequent battles they completely restore their strength, and the Carthaginians, on the contrary... Defending their homeland and children, the Romans can never lose interest in the fight and wage the war with unrelenting zeal until the end, until they defeat the enemy.”

The very foundation of the city of Rome was marked, if not by a sacrifice in the literal sense, then by a ritual murder. When the descendants of Aeneas, who fled from burning Troy, the twins Romulus and Remus, in the middle of the eighth century BC. e. started to build a city in which they intended to settle themselves and the crowd of vagabonds surrounding them, the brothers immediately had disagreements about the location of the future city, its name and the candidacy of the ruler. It was decided to resolve the dispute by fortune telling by the flight of birds. The brothers sat down separately and began to look at the sky. Rem saw six kites. Romulus saw twelve, but there was a suspicion that they appeared later than the kites of Remus, although Romulus claimed the opposite. As a result, the question of supremacy remained open, but Romulus made a strong-willed decision and began to dig a ditch with which he wanted to surround the wall of his future city. Remus, mocking his brother, jumped over the ditch and was killed, according to some sources - by Romulus himself, according to others - by someone from his entourage. The Roman historian Titus Livius, in his History of Rome from the Founding of the City, attributed to Romulus the phrase:

“So let anyone who jumps over my walls perish.”

The walls of Rome were built over shed blood, which largely signified the “construction sacrifice” accepted by many nations. However, Romulus himself, having buried his brother, later limited himself to bloodless victims when laying the city. As Plutarch writes, he invited specialists from Etruria who gave him detailed advice on the rituals that should have been carried out before construction began. A ditch was dug in the center of the future city, where they placed “the first fruits of everything that people recognized as useful for themselves in accordance with the laws, and everything that nature made necessary for them.” Then each of the future citizens threw there a handful of native land they brought with them.

The Romans considered the eleventh day before the Kalends of May (March 22) to be the founding day of the city. Plutarch writes that the Romans called it the birthday of the fatherland and that at first “not a single living creature was sacrificed on this day: the citizens believed that a holiday bearing such a significant name should be kept pure, not stained with blood.”

In general, it should be noted that the Romans, although, unlike the Greeks, did not declare their humanity and treated the shedding of blood - both that of others and their own - quite calmly, they did not abuse human sacrifices (although they did use them in emergency cases). The only exceptions - admittedly very widespread ones - were, firstly, the executions of criminals (who, according to Roman law, were not just executed, but dedicated to the gods) and, secondly, gladiatorial games. They were born from funeral games and at first were, to some extent, sacrifices in honor of the deceased. But we will talk specifically about justice and gladiatorial games.

Romulus's successor on the Roman throne was Numa Pompilius, elected by the people. The new king was famous for his justice and piety, in which, according to Roman authors, his wife the nymph Egeria helped him a lot with advice. He built temples, appointed priests, formed priestly colleges and established numerous cults. Livy writes:

“...he chose a pontiff... and charged him with overseeing all the sacrifices, which he himself had prescribed and appointed, indicating with what kind of sacrifices, on what days and in what temples they should be performed and from where the money needed for this should be issued. And all other sacrifices, public and private, he subordinated to the decisions of the pontiff, so that the people would have someone to turn to for advice..."

Numa's ethical views were in many ways close to the views of the Pythagoreans, and legend even calls him a student of Pythagoras (which, however, could not be, for Numa died before the birth of Pythagoras). The Pythagoreans categorically did not recognize any shedding of blood. About the rules of sacrifice introduced by Numa, Plutarch writes: “The order of sacrifices completely follows the Pythagorean rites: the sacrifices were bloodless and mostly consisted of flour, wine and generally the cheapest substances.”

Tradition has preserved the story of how Numa, from whom Jupiter demanded purifying human sacrifices, outwitted and out-argued the supreme god and ensured that sacrifices began to be made with onions, hair and small fish. Plutarch describes Numa’s conversation with Jupiter as follows:

“God... declared that cleansing must be done with heads. “Onion-shaped?” - Numa picked up. "No. Human…” - began Jupiter. Wanting to bypass this terrible order, Numa quickly asked: “With hair?” - “No, alive...” - “Fish,” interrupted Numa, taught by Egeria. Then Jupiter withdrew, having mercy.”

From then on, the Romans performed purification sacrifices to Jupiter in the manner negotiated by Numa. Ovid writes that Jupiter was so pleased with the king’s wisdom that he promised to give him a heavenly sign confirming his power over Rome. Such a sign was given on the appointed day: at a gathering of people, the heavens opened, and a wonderful shield fell to the ground, from which Numa immediately ordered eleven copies to be made. In honor of the significant event, on March 1, a holiday was established for the “Sali” priests dancing with shields. On this day, sacrifices were made to Jupiter and Saturn, but human sacrifices were abolished.

In general, Roman tradition knows many cases of replacing human sacrifices with bloodless gifts. This indirectly suggests that in ancient times human blood was shed quite often on the altars of Italy. The Romans had a legend that at one time, even before the ships of the Trojans led by Aeneas landed at the mouth of the Tiber, Greek settlers - Pelasgians from Arcadia - appeared in these places. If they arrived safely, the oracle ordered them to sacrifice a tenth of their property to Apollo, human heads to Jupiter, and a human body to Saturn. Probably, the Greeks did not mean Saturn and Jupiter, but their corresponding Cronus and Zeus - however, this did not change the situation. But Hercules (or, in the Roman style, Hercules), who in Roman legend for some reason turned out to be the bearer not of brute force, but of culture and education, arrived in the same places, softened the order of the oracle. Hercules taught the Italians writing, and ordered to replace human sacrifices with symbolic ones. Macrobius, the author of the treatise “Saturnalia,” wrote that the famous hero ordered that, during the festival of Saturnalia, wax candles be sacrificed to Saturn instead of people (since the words “man” and “torch” are consonant), and to Jupiter Ditu (i.e., the Underground) instead human heads - human figurines made of clay or wax. In addition, in Rome there was a custom of painting the statues of Jupiter with red ocher - it was supposed to replace the blood with which they were irrigated in ancient times.

However, the same Macrobius reports that human sacrifices in honor of Saturn were performed on the banks of the Tiber and later, by the descendants of Hercules and the Pelasgians. The tradition of sacrificing people to Saturn also existed among the Romans, and it was in relation to Saturn, unlike other gods, that it lasted quite a long time. It was associated primarily with the holiday of Saturnalia. This holiday was reminiscent of the time when the world was ruled by Saturn, the father of Jupiter, who later became the supreme god of the Romans. Under Saturn, a golden age reigned on earth, slavery did not exist, therefore, during the days of Saturnalia, slaves received temporary freedom, the stocks were removed from the chained ones according to tradition, and they all feasted with their masters. But, surprisingly, it was during the days of Saturnalia that free people could be enslaved. The fact is that in November it was customary for the Romans to repay debts. At the same time, a ten percent land tax was collected and paid to the Temple of Saturn. And in December, on the festival of Saturnalia, those who could not pay off their debts and taxes were executed by sacrificing them on the altar of Saturn. Later, around the fifth century BC. e., execution began to be replaced by sale into slavery. True, in 326 BC. e. the conversion of free citizens into debt slavery was abolished by the Petelian law.

In addition to the execution of debtors, another human sacrifice was made at Saturnalia: during the holiday, the Romans elected the so-called “King of Saturnalia,” who was ritually killed at the end of the week. The “king” could be a guilty slave or a criminal, that is, a person who was to be executed one way or another. Therefore, this tradition existed for quite a long time, it was celebrated even in those times when human sacrifices among the Romans had long since been replaced by symbolic ones. Then this sacrifice was replaced by its symbol: during the Saturnalia, the Romans chose by lot among the free citizens a jester “king”, who became the leader of the holiday, gave funny orders, but remained alive and well at the end of the ritual.

On the days of Saturnalia, it was customary for the Romans to give gifts to each other. This custom in itself is quite natural for any holiday, but it is interesting that one of the traditional Saturnal gifts were terracotta human figurines. A special day was set aside for their donation - the sigillary. The Romans themselves probably did not think about the origins of this tradition, but modern scientists see in Saturnal souvenirs a reminder of the human sacrifices with which the holiday was celebrated in the distant past.

However, no matter what replacements for bloodshed the Romans came up with, the ancient tradition turned out to be tenacious. The last case of the sacrifice of the “king of Saturnalia” is described at the beginning of the fourth century AD. e. This happened in the city of Durostorum, in the imperial province of Moesia Inferior (modern Silistra in Bulgaria). Frazer describes these events as follows:

“The Roman soldiers at Durostorum in Moesia Inferior celebrated Saturnalia every year in the following manner. 30 days before the start of the holiday, they chose by lot a young and handsome man, who, to resemble Saturn, was dressed in royal clothes. In this attire, he walked around the city, accompanied by a crowd of soldiers. He was given complete freedom to satisfy his sensual desires and receive all types of pleasures, even the most base and shameful. But the cheerful reign of this warrior was short-lived and ended tragically: at the end of the thirty-day period, on the eve of the festival of Saturn, his throat was cut on the altar of this god whom he represented.

In 303 AD e. the lot fell on the Christian soldier Dasius, who refused to play the role of a pagan god and stain the last days of his life with debauchery. Dasius’s unyielding determination was not broken by the threats and arguments of his commander, Officer Bassus, and, as the life of the Christian martyr reports with scrupulous accuracy, on Friday the twentieth day of November, the twenty-fourth day of the lunar calendar, at four o’clock he was beheaded in Durostorum by the soldier John.” .

Frazer states that he bases this story on narratives “the authenticity of which there is no reason to doubt.” However, he contradicts his own statement by admitting that only one of his sources “may even be based on official documents.” It is known that human sacrifices in Rome were prohibited by a decree of the Senate in 97 BC. e. This decree was repeatedly violated - both due to the tyranny of the emperors, and the fact that the law interpreted the execution of criminals as sacrifices, and the fact that gladiatorial fights were, in fact, a continuation of the tradition of funeral games. But it is difficult to imagine that the Roman legionnaires, completely official and accountable persons, openly and regularly sacrificed free and innocent people, contrary to the law. One must assume that the choice of victim was made among convicted criminals. The fact that a Christian soldier was elected as the next “King of Saturnalia” only confirms this assumption. Indeed, in 303, a campaign was carried out throughout the empire to cleanse the army of Christians, and the Caesar of the eastern provinces Galerius urgently demanded that August Diocletian issue a law on the complete extermination of Christianity (which he tried to fulfill by issuing four corresponding edicts, three of them in 303 and the last, most terrible, in 304; according to it, all Christians were condemned to torture in order to renounce their faith). Thus, it can be assumed that the legionnaires elected and executed the “King of Saturnalia” as part of an official campaign to persecute Christians. However, this campaign did not last very long (if we think about it on a historical scale) - in 311, Galerius, frightened by illness and near death, issued a decree on religious tolerance. And two years later, his successors Constantine and Licinius issued the Edict of Milan, proclaiming the free practice of Christianity.

But let's take a break from Saturnalia and return to the question of substitutionary sacrifices. On a holiday called Compitalia, the Romans sacrificed dolls made of wool to the goddess Mania. This was an echo of an ancient bloody tradition, abolished either by King Numa, or by the semi-mythical Hercules. Mania was associated with the deified souls of deceased ancestors - manas, she was the mother of the household patron gods of the Lares (who were sometimes identified with manas), was in charge of the well-being in the house, and she had to make a sacrifice for each living family member. But despite her motherhood and penchant for family and domestic virtues, Mania was one of the most bloodthirsty goddesses of ancient Italy: for each family member she demanded the head of one child as a sacrifice. This custom, which the Romans also traced back to an oracle given to the Pelasgians, was abolished in time immemorial, and the children were replaced by woolen dolls. But in the sixth century it was restored by King Tarquin the Proud. However, Tarquin was not popular with the Romans. He seized power at the cost of killing his father-in-law; his reign was distinguished by despotism and cruelty; he covered not only the altars with blood, but the whole of Rome. After the son of Tarquin became famous for his scandalous violence against Lucretia, the king was expelled from Rome. As a result of the ensuing civil war, the Romans developed a strong aversion to royal power, established republican rule and elected Lucius Junius Brutus, the main fighter against the hated Tarquins, as first consul.

After becoming consul, Brutus abolished child sacrifices and ordered their heads to be replaced with poppy heads. And, as Macrobius writes, “it was done so that, instead of the souls of individual people, figures dedicated to manas would atone for danger, if any threatened the household.” Since, in addition to the lares of individual families, there were also lares that patronized neighboring societies and good neighborly relations in general, the Romans began to build sanctuaries for them not only at home, but also at crossroads. Each of them had as many openings as were adjacent to this intersection of estates. In the sanctuary, the heads of families hung dolls according to the number of their loved ones. Slaves were also not forgotten, but they were not awarded personal dolls: a woolen ball was hung for each slave.

Another religious tradition of the Romans, dating back centuries, also directly speaks of human sacrifices that were once made. On the night of May 14-15, the main priests of the city threw straw dolls with their hands and feet tied from the bridge into the Tiber. The Vestals and the first persons of Rome were to be present at the ritual. And Flaminica - the high priestess of Juno - had to wear mourning on this day, take off her jewelry and avoid ablutions. There were many dolls sacrificed: in the first century BC. e. the encyclopedist writer Marcus Terence Varro calls the number twenty-seven, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who wrote “Roman Antiquities” around the same time, calls it thirty. Apparently, in the distant past, on this night the Romans or their predecessors made mass human sacrifices. But by the time this custom was described by Roman authors, no one remembered the true essence of the ritual.

Ovid, who described this ritual in his Fasti at the turn of the era, gives different versions of its origin. According to one, it was dedicated to the “old man carrying the sickle,” i.e., Saturn. Like many other murderous rites, this custom, according to Ovid, owed its origin to Greek settlers. In the chapter dedicated to the Greeks, we talked about how the inhabitants of the Greek island of Lefkada threw a criminal from a cliff, who was supposed to atone for all the sins of the islanders with his death. In historical times, the humane Leucadians hung feathers around the poor man (as Strabo wrote, “to make the jump easier by floating”) and insured him in the water, trying to both observe the custom and save the life of the victim. But in ancient times this ritual was apparently much more cruel. It is him who Ovid remembers, talking about how

...from the Vestal Oak Bridge
Stuffed animals of old men are thrown into the rivers.

Until the hero of Tirinth came to us, every year
Here this gloomy covenant, as on Lefkada, was carried out.
He was the first to drown straw effigies instead of people, -
And, according to his orders, they have been doing this ever since.

Dionysius also writes that Hercules ordered to replace people with straw effigies. But there are many other versions of the origin of this ritual. Ovid mentions that in ancient times

...youths threw old men off the platform,
So that only your own votes can be used in the elections...

However, this theory can be left on the conscience of Ovid, but not the Roman youths. In the fourth century BC. e. The Romans actually passed a law prohibiting citizens over sixty years of age from participating in elections, but there is no evidence of old people being thrown into the river, and this version seems highly unlikely. Ovid himself, having expressed his point of view about the mass execution of old people that was once carried out, refutes it in the following lines:

For it is impossible to believe that the ancestors are so cruel,
To execute everyone over sixty without exception.

However, the Roman grammarian and historian Verrius wrote that when the Gauls besieged Rome in the same fourth century and there was a shortage of food in the city, the elderly could be killed to reduce the number of mouths to feed. Titus Livy also reports that during the siege of Rome by the Gauls, the Roman elders, unable to hold weapons, actually decided that “they should not burden the combatants with themselves, who will already be in need of everything.” They refused to take refuge in the Capitol, remained in their homes, dressed in their best clothes, and met the enemies who burst into the city with “majestic severity.” All of them were killed by the Gauls. Livy writes: “Some say that they decided to sacrifice themselves for the fatherland and the Roman Quirites, and that the great pontiff Marcus Fabius himself cast a dedicatory spell over them.”

Another version of the origin of the ritual of drowning effigies, which Ovid cites, says that once one of the Greek settlers, who retained “attachment to his dear fatherland,” bequeathed after his death to lower his body into the waters of the Tiber, so that they would carry his ashes to their native shores. The heir did not fulfill the will and buried the deceased in the ground, as was customary. And in order to at least somehow comply with the will of the deceased, a reed doll was lowered into the water, “so that it would float to Greece in the distance by sea.” In this interpretation, the custom of drowning dolls gets rid of its cruel backstory.

But this is the only humane version. Plutarch in his “Roman Questions” suggests that this custom dates back to the times when “in ancient times the barbarians who inhabited these places dealt with captive Hellenes in this way.” He also admits that the leader of the Arcadians who moved to these places, Evander, could have acted in this way with his enemies, who lived here from Argolid.

Thus, it can be seen that the Romans replaced calendar and holiday human sacrifices to the gods with symbolic sacrifices. Nevertheless, in exceptional cases, especially when the homeland was in danger, the Quirites did not hesitate to commit ritual murders. Although it is not always possible to draw a line between ritual and murder caused by other reasons.

So, when the famous duel took place between the Horace brothers and the Curiatii brothers, which was supposed to decide the fate of the confrontation between Rome and Alba, Publius Horace, who defeated all three Curiatii after the death of his brothers, exclaimed: “I sacrificed two to the shadows of my brothers, the third I will give to the altar of the cause for which this war is being waged, so that the Roman may rule over the Albanian.”

Some of the few reliable cases of unequivocal human sacrifice were the ritual burials of living people at the Bull Market. Descriptions of one such sacrifice, performed during the Second Punic War, in 217 BC, have been preserved. e. When the Roman army suffered defeat after defeat from the Carthaginians and Hannibal was already almost under the walls of the Eternal City, the Romans were frightened by several terrible omens. Plutarch writes:

“...A girl named Helvia was once riding on horseback and was killed by lightning. The horse was found without harness, and the girl’s tunic was pulled up, as if on purpose, her sandals, rings, and blanket were scattered around, and her tongue was hanging out of her mouth. The fortune tellers said that this was a sign of the terrible shame of the Vestals, about which everyone would talk, and that one of the horsemen was involved in this daring crime. And so the slave of the horseman Barr reported that three vestals - Emilia, Licinia and Marcia - were seduced and for a long time were in a criminal alliance with men, one of whom was Vetucius Barr, the informer's master. The Vestals were exposed and executed, and since this matter seemed terrible, they considered it necessary that the priests turn to the Sibylline books. They say that a prophecy was found there, from which it became clear that these events bode ill and that in order to avert future troubles, alien barbarian demons must be appeased by burying two Hellenes and two Gauls alive.”

Livy says that there were only two Vestals who sinned, but one way or another, atoning sacrifices were made: “Quintus Fabius Pictor was sent to Delphi to ask the oracle with what prayers and sacrifices to appease the gods and when the end of such disasters would come; so far, in obedience to the instructions of the Books, they have made unusual sacrifices; among other things, the Gaul and his fellow tribesman, a Greek and a Greek woman, were buried alive in the Bull Market, in a place fenced with stones; Human sacrifices, completely alien to Roman sacred rites, had already been performed here before.”

It is interesting that Livy, although he admits that human sacrifices had been performed in the Bull Market before, nevertheless calls them “completely foreign” to the Romans. By the way, Plutarch, describing this story, also considers it atypical for Rome. He remembers her in connection with the events that took place on the Iberian Peninsula, subject to Rome. The historian writes:

“Why did the Romans, having heard that the Bletonesii (nationality - O.I.) were committing human sacrifices, ordered their rulers to be brought in for reprisals, but, having learned that everything was done according to custom, they released them, having forbidden them in advance, however, to do such a thing? Meanwhile, they themselves, shortly before, at the Bull Market, buried alive two Greeks - a man and a woman - and two Gauls - a man and a woman; But it’s strange to punish the barbarians for the very thing that they themselves did as impiety.”

Plutarch, trying to explain the logic of the Romans, is inclined to believe that it was the “law and custom” of human sacrifice that they considered criminal. If this is done as an exception, “according to the prescription of the Sibylline books,” then there is no crime in this. In addition, he admitted that, from the Roman point of view, “to sacrifice people to the gods is impious, and to demons is inevitable ...”, and the sacrifice at the Bull Market was carried out in order to “propitiate alien barbaric demons.”

However, when making sacrifices to the gods, the inhabitants of the Eternal City did not always condemn slaves or foreigners to death. For the Romans, who placed above all else civic virtues and the willingness to sacrifice their lives on the altar of the fatherland, it was a fairly typical situation when a person offered himself as a sacrifice to the gods in the name of the prosperity of his homeland. Livy describes such an incident that occurred in 362 BC. e.:

“... Either from an earthquake, or from some other force, the earth, they say, settled almost in the middle of the forum and fell through a huge crack to an unknown depth. Everyone, one after another, began to bring and pour earth there, but they could not fill this abyss; and only then, enlightened by the gods, they began to find out what the main strength of the Roman people was, for this was precisely what, according to the prophecies of the soothsayers, it was necessary to sacrifice this place so that the Roman state would stand forever. It was then, the legend says, that Marcus Curtius, a young and glorious warrior, reproachfully asked the confused citizens if the Romans had anything stronger than weapons and valor. As silence reigned, turning his gaze to the Capitol and the temples of the immortal gods towering above the forum, he stretched out his hands into the sky and into the yawning abyss of the earth to the underworld gods and doomed himself to them as a sacrifice; and then, riding a horse, dressed in all pomp, in full armor, rushed into the hole, and a crowd of men and women threw offerings and fruits after him. It was in his honor that Lake Kurtsiyevo received the name..."

Generals happened to sacrifice themselves voluntarily in the name of the victory of Roman weapons. There was even a special religious act called “devotia”. Before the battle, the consul commanding the army pronounced a sacred formula to which he dedicated himself to the underground gods. After that, he rushed to the most dangerous places of the battle, because only his death could mean that the sacrifice was accepted by the gods. Seeing the death of their leader, the warned soldiers did not experience confusion, but, on the contrary, inspiration and confidence in divine help and in the coming victory. If the commander failed to die, a doll was buried in his place, and the consul himself was forever deprived of the right to make sacrifices to the celestials.

Generally speaking, a military leader could perform such a ritual not necessarily on himself, but also on any citizen included in the legion’s list. But not only individual commanders are known, but also the entire Decii dynasty, in which representatives of three generations in a row of their own free will committed this act of ritual suicide: the father in the war with the Latins, the son in the war with the Etruscans and the grandson in the war with Pyrrhus.

In 340 BC. e. Under the consuls Manlius Torquatus and Publius Decius Musa, Rome entered into a war with the Latins who claimed Roman citizenship. On the eve of the decisive battle, as Livy relates, both consuls commanding the army had the same dream: “A man, more majestic and gracious than an ordinary mortal, declared that the commander of one side and the army of the other should be given to the gods of the underworld and the Mother Earth; in which army the commander sacrificed the enemy’s army, and with them himself, victory is granted to that people and that side.”

When fortune telling by the entrails of animals confirmed the authenticity of the dream, the consuls called legates and tribunes to their presence and ordered the will of the gods to be declared to the army, “so that during the battle the voluntary death of the consul would not frighten the army.” Then they agreed that the one of the consuls on whose wing the army began to retreat would doom himself to sacrifice... The armies moved into battle. Decius led the left wing, and it was here that the legionnaires faltered and began to retreat. Livy writes:

“At this alarming moment, the consul Decius loudly called Marcus Valerius: “I need the help of the gods, Marcus Valerius,” he said, “and you, priest of the Roman people, tell me the words so that with these words I can condemn myself as a sacrifice for the salvation of the legions.” The Pontiff ordered him to put on the pretext, cover his head, touch his chin under that hand and, standing with his feet on the spear, say: “Janus, Jupiter, Mars the father, Quirinus, Bellona, Lara, the alien deities and the gods here, the gods in whose in the hands of us and our enemies, and the gods of the underworld, I conjure, urge, ask and implore you: grant the Roman people of the Quirites victory and victory, and strike the enemies of the Roman people of the Quirites with horror, fear and death. As I uttered these words, so in the name of the state of the Roman people of the Quirites, in the name of the army, legions, comrades-in-arms of the Roman people of the Quirites, I condemn the enemy armies, their helpers and myself along with them as a sacrifice to the gods of the underworld and the Earth.” So he pronounces this spell and orders the lictors to go to Titus Manlius and quickly inform his comrade that he has doomed himself as a sacrifice in the name of the army. He himself girded himself in the Gabin style, armed himself, jumped on his horse and rushed into the midst of the enemy. He was noticed in both the army and the other, for his appearance seemed to become more majestic than that of an ordinary mortal, as if, to further atone for the wrath of the gods, heaven itself had sent one who would turn away destruction from his own and turn it on his enemies. And then the fear he inspired gripped everyone, and the advanced ranks of the Latins scattered in trepidation, and then the horror spread to their entire army. And it was impossible not to notice that, wherever Decius directed his horse, everywhere the enemies stood frozen with horror, as if struck by a deadly comet; when he fell under a hail of arrows, the already openly frightened cohorts of Latins took to their heels, and a wide breakthrough opened up in front of the Romans. Coming out of their pious stupor, they rushed into battle again with enthusiasm, as if they had just been given a sign for battle...

Decius's body was not found immediately, as the darkness of the night prevented the search; the next day it was found in a huge pile of enemy corpses, and it was completely riddled with arrows.

Titus Manlius gave Decius a funeral worthy of such a death.”

The son of Publius Decius Musa, who had the same name as his father, repeated his feat. It was a difficult time for Rome when, as the mid-second century historian Lucius Annaeus Florus writes, “twelve Etruscan cities, the Umbrians, the most ancient people of Italy, by that time still full of strength, and the remnants of the Samnites suddenly swore that they would destroy the very name of the Roman people.” . The younger Decius, when his army was surrounded, called the priest and repeated the sacred formula that his father had pronounced forty-five years earlier. Livy writes:

“... He added to the prescribed curses that he would drive ahead of him horror and flight, blood and death, the wrath of the heavenly and underground gods and would turn ominous curses on the banners, weapons and armor of his enemies, and the place of his death would be the place of extermination of the Gauls and Samnites. With these curses both to himself and to his enemies, he let his horse go to where he noticed that the Gauls were standing most densely, and, throwing himself on the exposed spears, met his death.

From that moment on, the battle ceased to resemble the work of human hands. Having lost their leader, which usually leads to confusion, the Romans stopped fleeing and intended to start the battle again. The Gauls, especially those huddled in a crowd near the body of the consul, as if maddened, threw their spears and arrows into the void, while others became numb, forgetting both about battle and flight. On the Roman side, Pontiff Livy, to whom Decius handed over his lictors and ordered to remain behind the praetor, began to shout loudly that victory belonged to the Romans, and the Gauls and Samnites were now doomed by the death of the consul to Mother Earth and the gods of the underworld, which Decius was attracting and calling for the doomed with him is an army, and everything among the enemies is filled with madness and horror.”

The battle was long and bloody, but Decius’s sacrifice was not in vain. “Twenty-five thousand enemies were killed that day, eight thousand were captured.”

And finally, the third representative of the Decius family repeated the feat of his ancestors and doomed himself as a sacrifice to the underground gods during the war with the Epirus king Pyrrhus in 279 BC. e.

The Romans also had another tradition, which they resorted to only in case of extreme danger threatening the state - the tradition of the “Sacred Spring”. This custom came from ancient times and was practically not used in historical times. It consisted in the fact that the gods, if they rejected the threat hanging over the community or state, were promised to sacrifice all living things that would be born in the coming spring, including their own children. Later, human sacrifice was replaced by the fact that children born in the fateful spring were expelled from the state upon reaching adulthood. We know of this custom from the Roman grammarian Sextus Pompey Festus, as recounted by the eighth-century historian Paul the Deacon. However, only one single case of this ritual actually being performed is known, and in a very relaxed version.

In 217 BC. e. The Romans suffered another defeat from Hannibal: they were defeated at Lake Trasimene. In order to win the gods to their side, the Quirites made a decision that was allowed only in case of extreme danger: they opened the ancient Sibylline books, which were kept by the priests in a stone box in the temple of Jupiter Capitoline. After consulting with the books, the priests announced that in order to eliminate the danger, new temples should be built, abundant sacrifices should be made to the gods, the promise of “Great Games” to Jupiter, and also the promise of a “sacred spring” in case the war went well.

As Livy writes, the Pontifex Maximus sought the consent of the people to carry out the ceremony:

“Do you wish, do you command, that it be done this way: if the state of the Roman people of the Quirites over the next five years is preserved unharmed in the current wars, namely in the war of the Roman people with the Carthaginian people and in the wars of the Roman people with the Gauls living on this side of the Alps , then let the Roman people of the Quirites give as a gift to Jupiter everything that spring brings in the herds of pigs, sheep, goats and bulls - from the day that the Senate determines, and that, in addition, is not promised to other gods ... "

The people agreed and the vows were made. There was not a word in them about human sacrifices, at least in the exposition of Roman authors that has reached us. Nevertheless, indirect evidence suggests that the Romans intended to involve children born in the fateful spring in this ritual. Naturally, no one was going to kill them on the altars - apparently, they were supposed to be expelled from the city. This is evidenced by the fact that for some reason the ritual was postponed for twenty-one years, i.e. until the time when the grown-up youth could be resettled, for example, by setting up a colony. But this, apparently, did not happen. The “Sacred Spring” was held only in 195, and the very next year the priests announced that it was held “in violation of sacred decrees.” It was decided to repeat the ritual, which the Romans performed. However, there is no evidence that in 196 the Romans founded a colony anywhere populated by young people. Apparently, the gods were appeased in some other way.

From everything that has been said above, one might get the impression that the Romans were a nation of humanists who sought to eliminate human sacrifice whenever possible. But this is not entirely true. There were two areas of activity for which the Romans did not spare ritual blood. Firstly, jurisprudence. The world owes the Quirites an exceptionally developed and progressive system of Roman law, which to this day underlies the legislation of many states. But despite their meticulous adherence to secular legislation, the Romans considered any death penalty to be a kind of sacrifice. It is not for nothing that the words “punishment” and “death penalty” (supplicium) also meant “sacrifice.” Professor of the Law Faculty of Kyiv University A.F. Kistyakovsky wrote in his book “Research on the Death Penalty”:

“...In ancient times, the death penalty in Rome was carried out in the form of a sacrifice. In the Roman laws that have come down to us, expressions have been preserved that directly indicate that the criminal was sacrificed to some god as punishment: sacer alicui deorum, sacer estot, caput Jovi sacratum esset, diis devotus, furiis consignatus (“dedicated to one of gods, let him be sacrificed, let his life be dedicated to Jupiter, vowed to the gods, doomed to the Furies”) - this is the usual formula for determining the death penalty in later times. The type of sacrifice and the method of its performance were determined by the nature of the crime. Thus, whoever violated the sacred laws was dedicated to the gods; whoever encroached on the inviolability of the person of the people's tribune was doomed to be sacrificed to Jupiter; whoever violated the sacred boundary was doomed along with the oxen to Jupiter, the keeper of borders (Jupiter terminalis); a son who raised his hand against his parents was doomed to the household gods; whoever devastated the harvest of another was doomed to Ceres, the patroness of the plant kingdom... When the dominance of the priests was shaken and criminal justice passed into secular hands, the expressions of the ancient Roman laws on the dedication of criminals to the gods remained in use for a long time, although they already received a different meaning, meaning simply the condemnation of a criminal to death execution."

Not only criminals, but also oathbreakers were sacrificed to the gods. Contractual relations and contracts between citizens since the time of King Numa were sealed with a sacred oath, the violation of which automatically meant that a person was dedicated to the god whom he had deceived. In ancient times, an oathbreaker (or a debtor who violated his obligations) was actually killed on the altar. Later, with restrictions on human sacrifice, he could be killed by anyone with impunity and was usually forced into exile until the priests performed a rite of purification on him.

But even after contractual relations and criminal cases completely came under the shadow of secular laws, the executions of criminals were very often timed to coincide with games that were dedicated to one of the gods. At these games, the convicts were poisoned by wild animals, burned on crosses (as arsonists were usually punished), or forced to act out the bloodiest scenes from mythology and history. All this, despite the fact that the people perceived these spectacles as entertainment, was of a religious nature and was, as a rule, dedicated to one of the gods and associated with some sacred event (a religious holiday, the victory of Roman weapons granted by the gods, the entry into position of magistrates, etc.).

But, in addition, there were public executions, which had nothing to do with entertaining the crowd and were purely ritual in nature. Here we must first of all talk about the execution of the Vestals who were convicted of violating the vow of chastity. They were buried alive in the ground, dedicating them to the underground gods. However, the goddess of the sacred hearth Vesta herself was associated with the underground gods. Ovid wrote about the burial of the Vestal Virgins who sinned:

So the wicked are executed and buried in the same ground,
What was defiled: Earth and Vesta are one deity.

Girls between the ages of six and ten were elected as Vestal Virgins from the most noble and respected families of Rome. Their service lasted thirty years: the first ten years they studied themselves, the second ten years they applied their knowledge by serving the goddess, and the third decade they taught young Vestal Virgins. Then the term of their vow ended, and the priestesses could leave the temple and even get married (although usually the Vestals preferred to maintain their status, which provided them with enormous honor and influence). But during the thirty years that the service lasted, the Vestal Virgin was obliged to maintain chastity. It was believed that violation of this vow could lead to the most tragic consequences for the entire state. Plutarch wrote:

“...The woman who has lost her virginity is buried alive in the ground near the so-called Collin Gate. There, within the city, there is a hill, very elongated in length... In the slope of the hill they set up a small underground room with an entrance from above; in it they place a bed with a bed, a burning lamp and a meager supply of products necessary to support life - bread, water in a jug, milk, butter: the Romans seem to want to absolve themselves of the accusation that they starved a communicant of the greatest mysteries. The condemned woman is placed on a stretcher, the outside so carefully closed and secured with straps that even her voice cannot be heard, and she is carried through the forum. Everyone silently steps aside and follows the stretcher - without uttering a sound, in the deepest despondency. There is no sight more terrible, no day that would be darker for Rome than this. Finally the stretcher is at its destination. The attendants loosen the belts, and the head of the priests, having secretly made some prayers and stretched out his hands to the gods before the terrible deed, takes out the woman, wrapped up with her head, and places her on the stairs leading to the underground chamber, and he and the rest of the priests turn back. When the condemned woman comes down, the stairs are raised and the entrance is blocked, filling the hole with earth until the surface of the hill is completely leveled. This is how a violator of sacred virginity is punished.”

The most massive human sacrifices in Rome were gladiatorial games. One can only be surprised that the Romans, who in the matter of sacrifices since the time of King Numa tried to show humanity and even prohibited bloody rituals among the peoples under their control, starting from the end of the third century BC. e. become passionate fans of the cruel spectacle. Of course, the Roman crowd's fascination with the circus was not directly related to the ritual. And when the officials of the republic, and later the emperors, staged spectacles for the people, extraordinary both in splendor and in the amount of blood shed, this was not so much a divine service as a desire to bribe the mob. But nevertheless, both in their origin and in their officially declared goals, gladiatorial games were precisely sacrifices. They originated from Etruscan funeral games.

The Etruscans inhabited the north-west of the Apennine Peninsula even before the founding of Rome; their culture had a huge influence on the Roman one. And in this culture, human sacrifices, including funeral ones, occupied a significant place. Archaeologists who examined Etruscan cemeteries drew attention to a situation where the remains of one or two people, most often women, were buried next to an urn containing ashes. It has been suggested that these people, who were not entitled to cremation, were slaves of the deceased, sacrificed to him. During excavations of the ancient necropolis of Rome, similar burials were discovered, and this suggests that the Romans in the first years of the city's existence used the Etruscan funeral ritual with human sacrifices. By the way, it is no coincidence that Tarquin the Proud, the king who restored child sacrifice in Rome (fortunately, not for long), came from an Etruscan family.

An Etruscan bas-relief from the 3rd–2nd centuries BC is known. e. with a scene of sacrifice, apparently funeral. It depicts two young men, one of them kneeling. Behind them stand two priests with raised daggers. There are also servants with a variety of equipment, including a ladder that was used in the cremation ceremony. Of course, at the time when the bas-relief was sculptured, it did not tell about events contemporary to the author, but about the fairly distant past of Etruria.

An Etruscan fresco known as the Games of Persu has survived. In the fresco, a dog is tormenting a man who is trying to fight it off with a club. The victim is wearing a bag over his head, and his arms and legs are tied with ropes, the ends of which are held in the hands of a man wearing a mask with the inscription “Phersu”. Bloody wounds are already visible on the victim’s legs...

In general, scenes of sacrifices and funeral games are a common theme in Etruscan fine art. Fights were apparently accepted at Etruscan funeral feasts. The Romans ignored this custom for many years. The first gladiatorial match took place in the Eternal City in 264 BC. e. at the Bull Market - it was organized in honor of the late father by the sons of a certain Decimus Junius Brutus Pera. Three pairs of gladiators fought on it. At first, the custom did not take root - the next games took place only half a century later, in memory of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. They were organized by the three sons of the deceased, but now the games took place at the Forum, lasted three days, and twenty-two pairs of gladiators performed at them. This action was not directly related to entertainment at that time; it was called “ludi funebres” - “funeral games”. They also got another name - “munus” - duty, obligation.

The games were considered by the heirs as their last duty to the deceased; they were usually held on the ninth day after the funeral. On this day, relatives brought a modest sacrifice to the grave: eggs, lentils, salt, beans. Then there was a funeral dinner. The rich and noble Romans considered it their duty to arrange a public treat on this day. Those who could afford it accompanied the commemoration with a gladiator fight. At first, the organization of battles was a private matter for the heirs, and only in 105 BC. e. In addition, state games were introduced, the organization of which was to be taken care of by the magistrates and which were usually dedicated to some significant events or religious holidays. But the funeral games did not stop. Thus, Gaius Julius Caesar organized gladiatorial fights in memory of his father. For the first time in Roman history, he organized fights at the funeral of a woman - his daughter Julia.

In 186 BC. e. For the first time, baiting of wild animals was added to the battle of gladiator couples. At first, the animals “fought” against specially trained gladiators - “venators” (literally “hunters”), and then with each other. And soon, in 167 BC. e., Lucius Aemilius Paulus ordered that defectors and deserters be trampled by elephants. This is how the tradition of giving criminals to be torn to pieces by wild animals arose. In addition, already in imperial times, one of the gladiator schools, which arose in large numbers throughout the country, trained exclusively Venators; The school bore the idyllic name "Morning".

Soon the games, retaining to some extent their ritual character, turned primarily into a favorite spectacle of the Romans. The comedian Terence wrote that at the first performance of his comedy “Mother-in-Law” in 164 BC. e. A rumor spread throughout the theater that gladiator fights were taking place somewhere, and the theater was instantly empty. Those who stood for election began to organize gladiatorial fights to secure votes.

In 122 BC. e. The tribune of the people and the famous fighter for the rights of the poor, Gaius Gracchus, having learned that the Roman authorities were going to sell seats for the upcoming gladiatorial games and were putting together platforms for this in the Forum, began to demand that the people be able to watch the massacre for free. Having failed to achieve his goal through diplomatic methods, the fighter for the rights of the plebs on the night before the games ordered the demolition of the platforms with paid seats, which won the approval of the people.

In 63 BC. e. Cicero passed a law that prohibited a candidate for the highest government positions from fighting for two years before an election. But this changed little, because the games were still considered a sacrifice and no one could prohibit a private person from giving games if it was his duty under the will. And if the testator died too early, then it was possible to wait until a more opportune moment - for example, Gaius Julius Caesar organized gladiatorial fights in memory of his father twenty years after his death.

The organization of gladiator games brought huge political dividends to their organizers, so emperors to some extent began to limit the rights of individuals to hold games, setting quotas on the number of gladiators, and on the duration and frequency of the games. However, the emperors themselves were not behind the costs. Augustus, listing his deeds, mentions that he gave games eight times, in which about ten thousand gladiators took part, and twenty-six times he organized animal persecution, in which 3,500 animals died. Emperor Trajan after his victory over the Dacians in 107 AD. e. organized games in which ten thousand gladiators and eleven thousand animals took part.

We have already mentioned that back in 97 BC. e., during the consulate of Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus and Publius Licinius Crassus, human sacrifices were prohibited by a special resolution of the Senate. But this decree did not affect gladiatorial games. Apparently, by this time they had completely lost their original sacred content. And even funeral games become not so much a sacrifice to the manam of the deceased, but rather an entertainment that was given to the people in memory of the deceased. Games are increasingly given on social occasions and are turning into increasingly complex theatrical performances. Octavian Augustus, in his "Acts of Augustus", which he took care to carve on two bronze pillars and install in Rome, among other things says:

“I gave the spectacle of a sea battle to the people beyond the Tiber, in which place the Caesars’ grove is now located, having dug out the ground one thousand eight hundred feet in length and one thousand two hundred in width. There, thirty ships with rams, triremes or biremes, and many small ships fought among themselves. Apart from the rowers, about three thousand people fought on these ships.”

Emperor Claudius in 52 AD e. organized a battle of two flotillas on Lake Fuqing. The Sicilian and Rhodian fleets consisted of twelve triremes each, with a total of nineteen thousand men fighting on both sides. The sign for the start of the battle was given by a silver statue of a triton, rising from the water with the help of a special machine. In addition, Claudius staged a battle on the Campus Martius reenacting the capture and sack of the city, and showed scenes depicting the conquest of Britain.

The famous Strabo in his “Geography” writes: “Not long ago, in our time, a certain Selur, nicknamed the Son of Etna, was sent to Rome, who for a long time, at the head of an armed gang, devastated the environs of Etna with frequent raids. I saw him torn to pieces by wild animals during a gladiator fight held in the forum. The robber was placed on a high platform, as if on Etna; the platform suddenly disintegrated and collapsed, and he fell into a cage with wild animals under the platform, which easily broke, as it was specially designed for this purpose.”

The great geographer and intellectual, apparently, allowed himself to take a break from his work for the benefit of science and relax by attending circus performances. The famous philosopher Seneca also did not shy away from this kind of entertainment. In one of his “Moral Letters to Lucilius” he writes: “...I went to the midday performance, hoping to relax...” True, the philosopher’s hopes were not justified: as it turns out from the letter, he went to the circus, “expecting games and witticisms,” and ran into a bloody massacre, which, however, he stayed to watch. The fact is that in the mornings the circus usually featured animal baiting, and in the afternoon there were gladiator fights; Mimes sometimes performed between them. Apparently, these were the mimes that Seneca had in mind when he spoke of “witticisms.” By “games” he meant the performances of “ordinary couples and the most beloved fighters” mentioned below - single combat of skilled gladiators who, before dying, showed the public the high art of combat. But instead of seeing professionals dying beautifully, the humanist philosopher ran into a mass slaughter in which fighters without armor took part, which led him to the saddest conclusions about the morals of Roman society.

No matter how we feel about Seneca, who, while castigating Roman morals, himself visited the circus in order to take a break from writing treatises on morality, we must admit that his opinion about the decay of these morals was completely objective. In imperial times, life was worth little, and the Senate's ban on human sacrifice was forgotten. True, now sacrifices were made not so much to please the gods, but to intimidate political opponents or because of the tyranny of emperors. Thus, Suetonius writes about the Emperor Octavian Augustus:

“After the capture of Perusia, he executed many prisoners. He cut off everyone who tried to beg for mercy or make excuses with three words: “You must die!” Some write that he selected three hundred people of all classes from those who surrendered, and on the Ides of March, at the altar in honor of the divine Julius, he killed them like sacrificial cattle.” .

When Emperor Caligula fell ill, among his entourage there were, according to Suetonius, “those who took written oaths to fight to the death for the sake of the patient’s recovery or to give their lives for him.” Both of these promises were a ritual act known in Rome. With the first of them everything is clear, the second implied that a written tablet was dedicated to the temple with a promise to take one’s life if the gods descended and fulfilled the request of the supplicant. These cases belonged to the initial period of Caligula’s reign, when he had not yet had time to fully demonstrate his inclinations, and his associates apparently believed that the matter would be limited to a beautiful vow. However, Caligula demanded the literal fulfillment of the promise. “From the man who promised to fight as a gladiator for his recovery, he demanded the fulfillment of his vow, he himself watched as he fought, and released him only as a winner, and even then after long requests. He gave the one who swore to give his life for him, but hesitated, to his slaves - to drive him through the streets in wreaths and sacrificial bandages, and then, in fulfillment of his vow, throw him off the roller coaster.”

The same Caligula, according to Suetonius, provoked another ritual murder. In the sacred grove of Diana on Lake Nemi there was a temple, the priest of which, according to tradition, could only be a runaway slave who killed his predecessor. With this sacrifice, he seemed to sanctify his entry into the priesthood. Similar traditions, by the way, existed among other peoples. It is unknown why the priest who performed his duties during his reign did not please Caligula, but the emperor sent him a stronger rival, who killed the “king of Lake Nemi” and took his place.

During the period of the empire, eastern cults penetrated into Rome, and many emperors became fans of them. In the imperial palaces, in conditions of complete decay of morals and equally complete impunity, these cults, although in their pure form not alien to self-torture, sometimes acquire a perversely sadistic coloring. The book “Lives of the Augusti” by an unknown Roman author describes the “piety” of Emperor Commodus (second half of the second century AD):

“He revered the sacred rites in honor of Isis so much that he shaved his head and wore the image of Anubis. Being bloodthirsty, he ordered Bellona's servants to inflict real wounds on his arm. He forced the priests of Isis to beat themselves to death in the chest with pine cones. When he wore the image of Anubis, he painfully hit the shaved heads of the priests of Isis with the muzzle of the idol. Dressed in women's clothing or in the skin of a lion, with his club he struck not only lions, but also many people. He dressed up those who had weak legs and could not walk as giants, and from the knees down he transformed them into dragons with the help of rags and linens; then he killed them with arrows. He tainted the sacred rites in honor of Mithras with real murder, whereas usually they only say or depict something capable of causing fear.”

The same “Lives of the Augustans” talk about human sacrifices performed by Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, better known as Heliogabalus. It was no coincidence that the emperor received his nickname - he grew up in the province of Syria, where he was initiated into the priesthood of the Phoenician sun god El (a) - Gabala. Due to the consonance of the first part of this name with the Greek “Helios” - the Sun - the Romans called him Heliogabalus. Having become emperor at the age of fourteen, the teenager surpassed all his predecessors in absolutely fantastic perverted debauchery, desecration of shrines and trading in government positions. He also carried out a religious reform, exalting his god, completely alien to the Romans, and placing him above all the gods of the empire: “... As soon as Heliogabalus entered Rome... he consecrated Heliogabalus on the Palatine Hill, near the imperial palace, and built a temple for him. He sought to transfer to this temple the stucco image of the Mother of the Gods, the fire of Vesta, Palladium, and sacred shields, in a word - everything that the Romans deeply honor. He sought to ensure that only one god, Heliogabalus, was worshiped in Rome. In addition, he said that the religious rites of the Jews and Samaritans, as well as Christian services, should be transferred here so that the priesthood of Heliogabalus would hold in its hands the secrets of all cults...

Heliogabalus also made human sacrifices, choosing for this throughout Italy noble and beautiful boys whose father and mother were alive - I think in order to intensify the grief of both parents. All kinds of magicians were with him and acted daily, and he encouraged them and thanked the gods, who, according to his ideas, were their friends, and at the same time he examined the entrails of children and tormented sacrificial animals according to the rites of his tribe.

Heliogabalus remained in power for four years and died at the age of eighteen. He also dreamed of framing his death as a kind of ritual.

“The Syrian priests predicted to him that he would die a violent death. Therefore, he prepared ropes in advance, twisted from silk and crimson and scarlet material, so that - if necessary - he would end his life by hanging himself in a noose. He also prepared golden swords so that he could stab himself with them if any force forced him to do so. In cat's eyes, hyacinths and emeralds, he prepared poisons for himself to poison himself if he was in any serious danger. He also built a very high tower and placed below, in front of him, golden slabs decorated with precious stones in order to throw himself down; he said that his death should be precious and luxuriously furnished: let them say that no one died like him.”

The death of Heliogabalus was indeed of a ritual nature - the conspirators who killed him took care of this. But everything turned out to be completely different from what the emperor himself expected:

“First of all, the accomplices of his debauchery were killed in various ways, some were killed by cutting off the organs necessary for life, others were pierced in the lower part of the body so that their death would correspond to their lifestyle. After this, they rushed at Heliogabalus and killed him in the latrine where he had fled. Then his corpse was dragged out in full view of everyone. The warriors - seeing the last outrage - wanted to throw his corpse into the sewer. But since it turned out that this cesspool could not contain him, they threw him from the Aemilium Bridge into the Tiber, tying a weight to him so that he would not float to the surface and could never be buried. But before the corpse was thrown into the Tiber, it was dragged throughout the circus. His name, that is, the name of Antonin, to which he so stubbornly clung, wanting to be considered the son of Antonin, was scraped off from everywhere by order of the Senate... After his death, he was called... Dragged, Dirty and many other names - depending on what event happened during his time wanted to note. He is the only sovereign whose corpse was dragged through the streets, thrown into a sewer and thrown into the Tiber.”

Heliogabalus was killed at the beginning of the third century. Perhaps he was the last of the Roman emperors who made human sacrifices (if he really made them - not a single source other than the “Biographies ..." mentions this). True, Eusebius of Caesarea in his “Ecclesiastical History” accuses Emperor Valerian, who ruled in the middle of the third century, of the same crime. The latter really became famous for the most severe repressions against Christians, but what Eusebius writes about him, referring to Dionysius of Alexandria, looks unconvincing. Firstly, the Egyptians, to whose influence Eusebius refers, abandoned human sacrifice three thousand years before the events described, and secondly, Eusebius’s accusations are too similar to what an unknown author wrote about the already mentioned Heliogabalus. Nevertheless, let us give the floor to Eusebius:

“Valerian took power together with his son Gallienus... None of the emperors was so merciful and benevolent to us; even those who were said to have openly become Christians did not receive us with such obvious friendliness and love as he did at the beginning of his reign. His whole house was full of pious people; it was the Church of God. But his teacher, the head of the Egyptian magicians, gradually convinced him to get rid of them. He advised him to execute pure and pious men and drive out, as enemies, those who were an obstacle to his vile, disgusting spells (after all, there were people who could destroy all the machinations with just their presence and glance, even with just a sigh and the sound of their voice destroyer demons). He invited him to perform unclean initiations, criminal witchcraft rituals, divine services displeasing to God, convinced him to destroy unfortunate children, sacrifice the babies of unfortunate parents, examine the entrails of newborns, cut and tear apart the creations of God, as if for the sake of his own happiness.”

Christian authors generally readily attributed human sacrifice to the Roman emperors, but in this they were not impartial. Despite the fact that mass persecution and executions of Christians, with rare interruptions, continued in the empire until 311, it is perhaps impossible to call these executions sacrifices in the literal sense of the word. However, this is a terminological issue. On the one hand, Christians were executed within the framework of criminal law. On the other hand, as we have already written, Roman law interpreted any execution as a sacrifice. And even more so, this could apply to people who were sent to death because of their refusal to worship the pagan gods. Therefore, we present, with slight abbreviations, an excerpt from a text written by one of the first Christian historians, Sextus Julius Africanus, in the first half of the second century.

“One day, Emperor Hadrian built himself a palace and wanted to dedicate it to the gods, resorting to unholy pagan rituals for this. When he made sacrifices to the gods, the demons living in the idols said to the emperor: “The widow named Symphorosa and her seven sons oppress us day after day, praying to their God. If she and her children agree to make a sacrifice to us, we promise to fulfill your every desire and bless you.” Then Adrian ordered the widow and her sons to be brought in and, with all politeness, asked them to make sacrifices to the gods. But the blessed Symphorosa answered him: “My husband Getulius and his brother Amantius were tribunes of the people, serving you and Rome. Both of them endured persecution for the name of Christ, refusing to sacrifice to idols, and as good soldiers of Christ, they defeated your demons with their death... Now, in heaven, they are reaping the fruits of their exploits, enjoying eternal life in the presence of the Eternal King.”

Adrian replied: “Either you and your sons will sacrifice to the almighty gods, or I myself will sacrifice you and your children.” The Blessed Symphorosa said to this: “Where did I get such an honor - that I was considered worthy to become a sacrifice for My Lord?” The emperor did not understand: “I will sacrifice you to my gods.” Symphorosa replied: “Your gods cannot accept me as a sacrifice, but if you burn me for the name of Christ, then with my death I will most likely destroy your gods...” Then the emperor ordered her to be taken to the temple of Hercules, where they began to beat her on the cheeks and hang her from the the ceiling by the hair. When neither persuasion nor threats succeeded in persuading her to idolatry, the emperor ordered a large stone to be tied around her neck and thrown into the Tiber. Her brother, Eugene, being the governor of that area, caught her body and buried it outside the city.

The next day, Adrian ordered all the sons of Symphorosa to be brought to him. When they were brought, he began to call on them to make sacrifices to idols. When they refused, despite all the persuasion and threats of the emperor, he ordered seven fires to be built around the temple of Hercules and the sons of Symphorosa hung over them. He ordered the eldest, Chriskent, to pierce his throat. He ordered the next most senior, Julian, to have his chest pierced. The third, Nemesia, was pierced through the heart. The fourth, Primitivus, was pierced in the stomach, the fifth, Justin, was stabbed in the back with a sword, the sixth, Stractius, was pierced in the side, and the seventh, Eugene, was hung upside down and cut in half.”

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