Involving the gods in public matters was not restricted to magistrates. The gods could send signa (signs) to anybody. Private omina (omens) were taken seriously even by public institutions, for example, in the context of military conscription (see above). A more difficult problem was presented by the private observation of signs that might be of public importance. Romans were taught how such a conflict ought to be resolved in the Roman way - not by a myth but by an episode from the Republic’s early history preserved by Livy (2.36.1-8). The gods warned of a ritual fault in the Roman games by sending a dream to an ordinary citizen, Titus Latinius. His reluctance to risk being held up to ridicule by telling the magistrate about his dream caused the gods to send a massive warning to do so, the death of his son within a few days. However, only after another dream and another warning in form of a sickness that befell Latinius himself did he venture to approach the consul. His message was taken seriously, the message to the Senate was verified by a miracle, and the games were splendidly repeated (Livy 2.37.1). Such a repetition to expiate ritual faults was called instauratio.
The Romans dealt with the broad spectrum of obtrusive, oblative signs related to public life under the heading of prodigia (prodigies). These could be observed by anyone but had to be reported to a magistrate who would present them to the Senate for discussion. The Senate either made its decision directly or brought the priesthoods in for interpretation and recommendation concerning expiation. Private initiative hence caused senatorial reaction. Within the diffused religious authority of the Roman aristocracy the Senate held a central place and a position of control.
The procedure was frequent and routine. Its importance is demonstrated by the rise of a third college. While the pontifices were frequently consulted about prodigies and gave advice on the necessary expiatory rituals (procuratio prodigiorum), they seldom performed these. The augurs had no part in the procedures. For very special or new cases, the Sibylline books, a collection of oracles written in Greek, were consulted. For that purpose a small commission of two men was set up, the duoviri sacris faciundis, who slowly evolved into a priesthood second only to augurs and pontiffs. The Ogulnian law of 300 initiated this process which created, however, a college with ten members (decemviri), a number more appropriate to a political commission than a priesthood (the augurs and pontiffs each had nine members). The assimilation of the decemviri to these other priesthoods must have been complete by the end of the third century, and was sealed by the common increase of all three to fifteen and then sixteen members in the first century. The decemviri chose a fitting oracle and interpreted it in response to a prodigium. Their hallmark was the introduction of new cults, gods, and rituals from the Greek world. Thus, they formed an element of organized innovation within the senatorial system. Occasionally the Senate called upon haruspices, Etruscan specialists in divination, particularly extispicy, the examination of the entrails of sacrificial victims. Thus when the Senate ordered it, foreign wisdom could confer legitimacy.
The signs reckoned as prodigies included a wide variety of events. Earthquakes, rains of blood, bleeding statues, temples and statues struck by lightning, hermaphrodites, two-headed animals, a swarm of bees establishing itself in a temple were all typical signs and brought forth standard expiation, but anything unusual with an ominous quality could be discussed. The system allowed input from everybody, and as Roman territory expanded so, too, did the area regarded as relevant for prodigies and their expiation.43 Times of crisis encouraged People to involve themselves and the gods even more in Roman life and politics. Auspication as interpreted in the preceding section was but one form of divine presence. It should, however, be stressed that Roman institutions were not prepared to accept communications from the gods without limits. Individual observations of signs could be rejected as not pertaining to society as a whole, and reports of signs could be totally banned.4
Prodigies included the misbehavior of priests, especially the priestesses of Vesta, the virgines Vestales. These were six girls (from the age of 6 onwards) and women who performed a minimum of 30 years’ religious service in the center of Rome, the aedes Vestae (see also Chapter 15). The supposedly uniconic cult of the public hearth was (and was regarded by the Romans) as archaic. The concept of their purity made a Vestal’s sexual contact with men an offence, stuprum, punishable by death. From the perspective of late republican noble families, their daughters, if serving as Vestals, were hostages in the hands of the supreme pontiff, yet the latter’s ascendancy was not earlier than the third century. More generally, the Vestals were a female priesthood that symbolized and indicated the purity of the religious system as a whole. Experiments attempting to create a comparable role for the priest of Jupiter, the flamen Dialis, were restricted to a few instances in the late third century (Val. Max. 1.1.4-5) and were always resisted by the priests subjected to such regulations.45
World History
