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American Philological Association
The Development of the Decemviri Sacris FaciundisAuthor(s): Aline Abaecherli BoyceReviewed work(s):Source: Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 69 (1938),pp. 161-187Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/283175 .Accessed: 10/03/2012 06:15
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Vol. lxix] Decemviri Sacris Faciundis 161
VII.-The Development of the Decemviri Sacris Faciundis
ALINE ABAECHERLI BOYCE
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN
The early traditions of the duumviri and the Sibylline Books bear the marks of both legend and history. Sifted from the accounts of the origin of the libri and from other traditions of the regal period, the following statements can be regarded as true. 1. There were oracular statements current in Italy in the regal period.' 2. One of the Tarquins, like other kings in antiquity, was interested in oracles.2 3. Oracles were stored in the Capitoline temple in the form of compiled libri and inscriptions.3 4. There were OiXaKes in whose care these treasures were entrusted.4 These statements, substantiated individually by a variety of evidence, when taken together demonstrate a strong possibility of state control over such oracles as came into the king's hands in the later regal period
Herodotus 1.167 attests relations between Caere and Delphi. It is incon- ceivable that oracles were unknown in S. Italy as well as in Etruria. The earlier books of Dionysius of Halicarnassus contain many references to oracular sayings in Italy (1.19 (cf. Macrob. 1.7.28); 1.23-25; 1.40; 1.49; 1.55; 1.66; 3.67; 7.68; 8.37). For many of these Dionysius cites his authorities.
2 Dion. Hal. 4.62 (cf. Tarquin's interest in the meaning of the prodigy in 4.59-61); Lact. Inst. Div. 1.6. The appointment of the guardians is in strong contrast to the first indifference of Tarquin to the libri. I do not insist on the truth of the details of the story, however.
3 Serv. ad Aen. 6.72 (Begoe); Lact. Inst. Div. 1.6.12-13; cf. Tibull. 2.5.69-70 (Albunea); see also Wissowa in Pauly-Wissowa, R.E. II, 194, s.v. Begoe and I, 1337, s.v. Albunea. The libri called fatales, whether the whole collection or separate books, belong here. On the character of the collection see G. Bloch, in Daremberg-Saglio, Diet., "duumviri s. f.," 11.1.434. For an oracle from Dodona, recorded as an inscription and kept in the temple of Jupiter, see Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1.19; cf. Macrob. 1.7.28.
4 Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 4.62; 6.17. Dionysius speaks of their duty as a 4vXaKi. These men, like the pontifices and augurs of this period (J. B. Carter, "The Reorganization of the Roman Priesthoods at the Beginning of the Re- public," Memoirs Amer. Acad. in Rome I [1917], 9-17 were merely advisors to the king. Under the Republic they became a senatorial commission with certain sacerdotal privileges, e.g., appointment for life.
Aline A baecherli Boyce
of Roman history. That the libri Sibyllini were part of the organization which centered in the temple of the Capitoline Triad has been held before.5 Attention has been called, fur- thermore, to a parallel and contemporary situation in Athens, where oracles were kept on the Acropolis and came under the control of whoever happened to be in power.6 In Athens the ruler himself might be "very strictly versed in oracles."7 In Athens the exegete Onomacritus was banished for tampering with the oracles of Musaeus,8 and at Rome, one of the quXaKEs, whose name has come down to us, doubtless erroneously, as M. Atilius, was condemned to death and drowned for betray- ing Sibylline lore.9 Under the republic betrayal of the oracles, which could be made public only at the command of the
senate, was serious, but did not carry a death penalty.10 The
punishment of M. Atilius has an Etruscan quality which fits the tradition ascribing the appointment of 4)vXaKES for the libri to the Tarquin dynasty."
A characteristic of the regal tradition is the absence of ritual functions in the duties of the guardians of the books, so far as the records go. On the other hand, the fact that under the
republic the duties of the duumviri and the decemviri sacris
faciundis were chiefly the recommendation and performance of ritual has been taken as an indication that the libri were not oracular, and that the term Sibyllini was applied to them
only late in the republic, when the Romans first came to look
upon prodigies as signs for the future as well as indications of
5 F. Altheim, A History of Roman Religion, trans. H. Mattingly (New York, Dutton, 1937), 240-242.
6 Altheim,. op. cit. (see note 5), 240-242; Herod. 5.90. 7 Herod. 5.93. 8 Herod. 7.6. 9 Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 4.62; Val. Max. 1.1.13; Zonaras, 7.11. 10 Cic. De Div. 2.54; Dio 39.15.2. For a thorough discussion of the subject
see H. Diels, Sibyllinische Blitter (Berlin, Reimer, 1890), 6-20. n Cf. the drowning of prodigies on the recommendation of the haruspices:
Livy 27.37; 31.12; Iul. Obs. Lib. Prod. 22 [81]; 25 [84]; 27a; 32 [92]; 34 [94]; 36 [96]; 48 [108]; 50 [110].
162 [1938
Vol. Ixix] Decemviri Sacris Faciundis 163
divine wrath requiring propitiation.12 That the term Sibyllini was late can safely be accepted; but that there was no oracular
quality to the books before the second Punic War is contra- dicted by records of the preceding time which cannot be thrown out unconditionally,13 and by the composite nature of the
12 W. Hoffmann Wandel und Herkunft der Sibyllinischen Bucher in Rom
(Leipzig diss., 1933). 13 In 496 during a famine the books were consulted and it was learned oIr
robTovS EtXacraaoOaL roviS Neovs (Demeter, Dionysus, and Kore) ol xpfaofol
KeXeovowtv (Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 6.17). The vow by Postumius which follows
clearly shows that the honors promised the gods were conditioned by a return of prosperity in the future!
In 461 the duumviri, consulting the books, warned against impending external and internal danger: pericula a conventu alienigenarum praedicta, ne qui in loca summa urbis impetus caedesque inde fierent; inter cetera monitum, ut seditionibus abstineretur (Livy 3.10.7); ebpr . . . . . iroXeiOwfv a&XXooe0viv
7rapeXO6v,rwv eLs rT reTiXo, &'ywv bir&p &apaTro&oLr/oi KaraXeTar r'v TO r6XLV, a&pEL
6& TOV vrprs roVs a\XXo?OveIs roXiSov Tariats c/sXtos, v xpiv a&pXopYvrPjv e?EXabvovTas
(K rjS Tr6XEWS Kat 0eois TrapaLrovi,evovs Ovarats re Kal ebXaes &roTpi,tat ra beiLva'
Kal KpeTrrovS goovrat r&v iX6pCov (Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 10.2). To the year 348
must now be assigned the original circumstances of a secular oracle recorded by Phlegon, Hadrian's freedman (L. R. Taylor, "New Light on the History of the Secular Games," A.J.P. LV [1934], 110-111): rCv -yap avui,iaxov avrwv Kal
KOLVCWVoV pioj IpA.evAvrcov TraCs OuvvP'ijKaLs, a'XXia TrVKva /eraT3aaXXo.LieVfP KalL TioXeFOivoVTVw
avroTs, i 2tvuXXka iXpplojuitarflev rtreXeaOeffteLo r ioe Oewptuv rTOVTWYov Trora'yrlecrO0aL
ros a(f>earTras Aarivovs. F. Jacoby, Die Fragmente der Griechischen Historiker
(Berlin, Weidmann, 1927), iiB, 1189. For 293 the purpose for which the libri were consulted should be noted:
libri aditi, quinam finis aut quod remedium eius mali (pestilence) ab diis daretur. inventum in libris Aesculapium ab Epidauro Romam arcessendum (Livy 10.47). Yet it has been argued (Hoffman, op. cit. [see note 12]) that the interest of the libri in the destiny of Rome received its first impulse in the Second Punic War, as the result of the embassy of Fabius Pictor to Delphi in 216
(Livy 22.57; 23.11). An interest in oracles was consequently manifested for the first time by the decemviri when they received as valid the Marcian oracle which advised the introduction of the ludi Apollinares. (Is this incident not rather an illustration of the manner in which the decemviri functioned as censors of oracles and the way in which the libri were formed?) This interest is said to have been revealed again in the oracle relating to Magna Mater (Livy 29.10). A comparison of the evidence for 293 with the oracle from Delphi in 216 will
bring out significant resemblances. Compare the expressed purpose for the consultation of the libri in 293, quinam finis aut quod remedium eius mali ab
diis daretur, with the quest of Fabius in 216: quibus precibus suppliciisque deos
possent placare, et quaenam futura finis tantis cladibus foret (Livy 22.57.5). Can
164 Aline Abaecherli Boyce [1938
surviving fragments of the oracles, which implies a long tradi- tion and history behind them.14 It must never be forgotten, moreover, that the oracles were made public only in special cases,l5 and probably did not even appear in the records of the pontifices, whence they might have found their way into the writings of the annalists; whereas the ritual of the decemviri
usually was not only an open and public affair, but was par- ticipated in by the populus.l6 Lastly, we must distinguish we say that there was more interest in the future in 216 than in 293? The
assumption that the two-fold request for information on expiatory rites and on the final issue of Rome's disasters betrays that in 216 such a combination (interest in expiation and concern for the future) was not self-evident (Hoffman, op. cit. [see note 12], 24), ignores the fact that quinam finis (293) and quaenam finis (216) ask the same question, and that quod remedium . . . ab diis daretur
(293), the answer to which happened to be Aesculapium ab Epidauro Romam arcessendum, corresponds to quibus precibus suppliciisque deos possent placare (216). In both cases the future and expiation are sought.
As for the traditions of 496 and 461, I am aware that some historians have thrown them out. Their reasons can .be refuted, but here there is space only to question Niebuhr's impatience with the tradition of 461 when he says: " But what weight can be attached to statements out of those times?" (see note 17 of this article), and to offer in answer a statement of a less skeptical historian of today (Hugh Last, Cambr. Anc. Hist. vii [Cambridge, 1928], 491): "... though chronological precision is not to be supposed, skepticism cannot be allowed its claim that the Fasti preserve no serious record of the men who
governed Rome in the time of Cleisthenes and Themistocles." 14For the fragments see Jacoby, op. cit. (see note 13), 1179-1182; Diels,
op. cit. (see note 10), 111-115. Ritual is combined with vague oracular lore. The ritual itself seems to be a combination of rites that were celebrated sepa- rately earlier (see my article "The Expiatory Rites of 207 B.c." in T.A.P.A. LXVIII (1937), 170-171, note 57).
16 Diels, op. cit. 6-20. 16 Their rites were not exclusive, but had a spectacular flare. They were
assisted by groups, namely, matrons, senators, boys and girls; they led the
populus in prayers and vows and gave freedmen and freedwomen a share in their ceremonies. Their rites led to honors which tended to break down the aristo- cratic monopoly of state privileges. The right of wearing the toga praetexta, for instance, was granted to sons of freedmen after freedwomen and sons of freedmen had taken part in some ritual during the Second Punic War (M. Laelius in Macrob. Sat. 1.6.13-14); on the praetexta as a sacred garment and as a
garment for children, see W. Warde Fowler, Class. Rev. x (1896), 317-319.
Playwrights and actors were granted the privilege described as consistere ac dona ponere in the temple of Minerva on the Aventine as a result of the success
Vol. lxix] Decemviri Sacris Faciundis 165
between the inspired oracles of priestesses and the oracles which emerge from state archives. This distinction implies also that the oracles were a collection, edited, and susceptible to manipulation. If we are careful to make this distinction, any objection to the definite form of oracles emanating from the Capitol, such as was voiced by Niebuhr,'7 can be dis- counted.
The ritual of the decemviri shows a slow growth from the conduct of simple, individual rites, such as an obsecratio or a lectisternium, to the introduction of festivals and whole com- plexes of ceremonies. Their recommendations for new temples and new rites, and the political allusions in their pronounce- ments, show a definite relation to the welfare, and therefore the future, of the Roman state.s1 This connection with the state points back to some basis of truth for the traditional origin of the group, whether vXaCKEs or duumviri, and the importance of their share in the Capitoline foundation. This basis is briefly indicated in the four points listed at the head of this article.
The transition from the kingdom to the republic appears to have been marked by the addition of ritual functions to the custodianship of the libri, and at this time the guardians probably first assumed the title duumviri sacris faciundis as a semi-administrative commission of the senate.'9 Evidence for their actually performing rites appears first in the latter half of the expiatory hymn written by Livius Andronicus for the rites of 207 (Festus, 446 Lindsay, 333 Mtiller, s.v. scribas).
17 Hist. of Rome, trans. J. Hare and C. Thirlwall (London, Walton and Maberly, 1855), 1.505, n. 1120.
18 See note 13. 19J. B. Carter, The Religion of Numa (London, Macmillan, 1906), 66;
G. Bloch, in Daremberg-Saglio, Diet., "duumviri s.f.," i.1.427 suggests that the commission was not properly a collegium until 367; cf. A. Bouche Leclerq, Hist. Div. (Paris, Leroux, 1882), xv.290. Bloch calls the commission "les artisans d'une religion a faire plut6t que comme les minstres d'une religion faite" and (op. cit. 432) "des devins commes les augures, des pretes commes les flamines, des administrateurs commes les pontifes." Livy (10.8.2) called the decemviri: carminum Sibyllae ac fatorum populi huius interpretes, antistites eosdem Apollinaris sacri caerimoniarumque aliarum.
Aline A baecherli Boyce
of the fifth century. For participation in ritual is not neces-
sarily indicated by the introduction of a temple to Ceres, Liber, and Libera, which is attributed to a recommendation of the libri in 496.20 The recommendation was simply that these
gods should be appeased; the expiation actually was the part of other officials. Of ritual for the duumviri not a word is
said, and we are even in possession of some evidence that the ritual was imported from the outside, from either Velia or
Naples.21 This was of course the Greek rite, which had al-
ready appeared in Rome, quite apart from the duumviri.22 All we can say for the duumviri is that they recommended it and saw that priestesses to practice it were admitted. That
they had a hand in its execution here is nowhere manifest. Their later trip to Ceres at Enna in the second century B.C.
is another story.23 That the introduction of this temple cult was bound up with the future of the state is clear from the nature of the vow made to the triad. The consequence of their appeasement was to be an increase in crops, and the vow was not fulfilled until the gods had proved their benevolence.
From this point to 461 we are in the dark. Then the duum-
viri speak up, finding justification in the libri for a warning
against aggression from the outside, and an impending seditio
within the city.24 Dionysius of Halicarnassus associates with
this warning a recommendation for ritual which would bring certain victory over the enemy. Livy prefaces the warning with the phrase inter cetera monitum. In view of Dionysius' remarks about ritual, we may safely conclude that Livy's cetera
refers to the sacrifices and prayers mentioned by Dionysius. We have therefore a clear combination of the oracular and
20 Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 6.17; 6.94. Plutarch Publicola 21 ascribes rites to
Publicola iK rvw 2tiuvXXeiwv; similar rites were held by Tarquinius Superbus "ex libris fatalibus," according to Serv. Dan. in Aen. 2.140; cf. Paulus, 479
Lindsay, 350 Miiller. 21 Val. Max. Mem. 1.1.1; Cic. Pro Balb. 55. 22 D.on. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1.40; 6.1; cf. Livy, 1.7.15. 23 Val. Max. Mem. loc. cit. 24 Livy 3.10.6-7; Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 10.2.
166 [1938
Decemviri Sacris Faciundis
ritual elements in the statements of the duumviri. Unfortu- nately, the evidence does not tell us definitely which priests were in charge of the ritual r.ecommended, and we know only that the gods involved were called kCaKeT-r1,ptoL and arorpo6raoL.25 The rest of the evidence for ritual from this century does tell us, however, that the duumviri were concerned with prayers or vows, which coincide in character with the recommenda- tions of 461. For when in 435 a pestilence and earthquakes harassed the Romans, the people held an obsecratio and were led in pronouncing the prayer by the duumviri,26 a function which was subsequently taken over by the magistri of the decemviri sacris faciundis who succeeded the duumviri in 367.27 In 433 the duumviri did many things to appease the gods, and it is fairly clear from Livy's account that the vowing of a temple to Apollo was recommended, if not conducted, by this group: pestilentia eo anno aliarum rerum otium praebuit. aedis Apollini pro valetudine populi vota est. multa duum- viri ex libris placandae deum irae avertendaeque a populo pestis causa fecere.28
That there was a shrine of Apollo in Rome before the temple which was vowed in 433 and dedicated in 431 has been sup- posed from the existence of a place called Apollinare, men- tioned by Livy as a place of meeting for the senate in the tumultuous year 449.29 The occasion for the meeting in this place is important, for it illustrates the fact that ritual might pass beyond the control of the state now and then, and that control of rites was effective only in so far as the state showed the ability to adapt as well as to suppress. For in 449, at the time of the famous victory of the consuls Valerius and Horatius over the Aequi and the Sabines, the senate decreed
25 Dion. Hal. loc. cit. 26 Livy 4.21.5; cf. Pliny N.H. 28.12; cf. P. Romanelli, Not. Scav. (1931), 343,
and Plate facing p. 340, lines 48, 54. 27 Pliny N.H. 28.12. 28 Livy 4.25.3; for vows cf. 21.62; 22.9; 41.21.10. 29 Livy 3.63.5-11.
Vol. lxix] 167
Aline A baecherli Boyce
supplicationes in the name of the consuls for only one day.30 To this the people added without official sanction (iniussu) another day of supplicatio which is characterized as vaga, popu- laris, and studiis prope celebratior. Meanwhile the consuls returned to the city and called a meeting of the senate to take
place in the Campus Martius; the senate protested against the
place of meeting, since the presence of the soldiers in the
Campus Martius carried with it a threat of pressure. The consuls accordingly held the meeting at a place called the
Apollinare, a point in the prata Flaminia where-less than
twenty years later-the temple of Apollo was dedicated. When the senate refused to grant the consuls a triumph, the
people under the leadership of the tribunes ignored the senate and voted the triumph: tum primum sine auctoritate senatus
populi iussu triumphatum est. Here we have a case where
simultaneously two acts of ritual were carried out in express defiance of senatorial authority. The phrases iniussu and sine
auctoritate senatus contrast strongly with the language applied to a supplicatio during the year 462 when disease had carried
off an alarming number of prominent men: iussi cum coniugi- bus ac liberis supplicatum ire pacemque exposcere deum, and
auctoritate publica evocati omnia delubra implent.31 The
Apollinare, located close to the Forum Boarium and the Circus
Maximus, where there already existed a number of altars and
temples and doubtless some unofficial cult centers where honors
could be paid to the gods on the second day of supplicatio, was
30Livy 3.63.5; Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 11.50; Zonaras, 7.19, (cf. Dion. Hal.
Ant. Rom. 6.30, 58, the triumph of P. Servilius Priscus, which was shared,
though not sanctioned, by the populus; this triumph therefore was not recorded
in the Fasti, as was the triumph of Valerius and Horatius [C.I.L. I.12, pp. 44,
169]). The language of Livy here implies that victory in two battles should
rightly be honored with two days of supplicatio, especially when two consuls
were concerned; cf. supplicationes ob rem bene gestam consulis nomine decernunt
(Livy 10.21.6, 296 B.C.) and the four days of supplication in 293 (Livy 10.45.1). The first instance of supplicationes lasting four days occurred in connection
with the downfall of Veii, when the temples were filled with matres before the
senate had actually passed the decree (Livy 5.23.3). In this case the senate
could not object to informality on the part of the rejoicing populus. 31 Livy 3.7.7-8.
168 [1938
Decemviri Sacris Faciundis
certainly a propitious meeting place for an effective popular attack on the senate. Whether or not the duumviri were associated with a shrine of Apollo here at this time, they were
surely not ignorant of the nature of the place where less than a generation later they almost certainly had a hand in the foundation of the temple of Apollo. The association of the duumviri with this temple brought them definitely from the
lofty sanctuary on the Capitol to the busy atmosphere of the Tiber's banks, not far from the shrines of the Forum Boarium, the Aventine, and the Circus Maximus. From a topographical point of view therefore the situation of these officials was
considerably different from what it was in 461 when from their
position on the Capitol they could pronounce oracular senti- ments against impending sedition with reasonable effective- ness.32 In 449 the board of duumviri surely witnessed the
opposition to the senate which brought ritual procedure in some measure under popular control. Perhaps they read the
signs of the times. The temple of Ceres, which they had been instrumental in founding, had in this very year become the official bulwark of non-aristocratic elements.33 The oracles, a
heritage from the kingship, were an instrument of monarchy and dictatorship, as both earlier and later history demon- strates. But the ritual side of their activity necessarily im-
pelled the board toward a broader spirit. It was inevitable that the cult practices of the people should grow in spite of
attempts at control. This, too, history substantiates. The additional day of supplicatio in 449 may have changed the nature of the supplicatio.34 But the chief results of 449 were
32 Livy 3.10.6-7; Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 10.2. 33 The sacrosanctity of the tribunes was restored (along with that of the
aediles and iudices decemviri), and the property of those violating the law was to be sold at the temple of Ceres (Livy 3.55.6-7); hereafter senatus consulta were to be deposited with the aediles of the plebs at the temple of Ceres (Livy 3.55.13).
34 The implications of vaga are to be understood from other instances of supplicatio (Livy 7.28.8, 344 B.C.; 27.23.7, 208 B.C.; cf. lul. Obs. Lib. Prod. 13.72; Appian Punic War 135), and from Weissenborn's notes on Livy 3.63.5 and 7.28.8. There seem to have been definite schemes for the celebration of a
Vol. lxix] 169
Aline A baecherli Boyce
psychological, and it seems reasonable to suppose that the duumviri could not escape them. Their subsequent history, at any rate, shows a steady, though slow, growth of broader cult practices, within certain limitations. It was within this field of a living ritual that could be shared and appreciated by the whole people that their opportunities for expansion lay. The decemviral board's clumsy treatment of oracles is be-
trayed in the fragments of oracles dated under the year 125 35
and is exposed by Cicero in his De Divinatione.36 With the
exception of a few cases, the oracles disappear until they are
exploited by politicians in the first century B.C. Where we have the greatest amount of evidence, during the second Punic war and immediately afterwards, it is clear that the published interpretations of prodigies come in general from the haruspices, while recommendations for expiation are usually left to the decemviri.37 But the relation between interpretation of the future and expiatory ritual is proved by certain exceptions to this rule,38 by the association of the two groups of priests with
prodigies, and by the bond between the prodigies and the idea of fatum., which Altheim has treated so significantly.39
supplicatio, by tribes (Kard fqvXiv, Appian Punic War 135) or by compita (per
compita, Livy 27.23.7; cf. circa c., Iul. Obs. Lib. Prod. 13 [72]; Livy 38.36.4:
in omnibus compitis). In 344 the finitimi populi who joined the festival were
assigned an ordo in the celebration, which in this case was the day on which
they might take part. In commenting on this passage Weissenborn sees in
vaga of 3.63.5 the opposite of ordo, i.e., participation in rites without regard to
an appointed time. What further informality is implied in studiis prope celebratior would be well worth knowing.
35 See note 14. 36 2.54. 37 This is clear from a perusal of the lists of prodigies and the measures taken
with regard to them by the senate. See note 38. 38 Recommendations of ritual by the haruspices: Livy 24.10.13, 214 B.C.;
36.37.2, 191 B.C., when the decemviri probably carried out the rites (cf. a similar situation in Iul. Obs. Lib. Prod. 44 [104]); Livy 41.13.3, 177 B.C.; cf. Iul. Obs. 43 [103]; 44 [104]; 46 [106]. The decemviri issued statements on Rome's
destiny in 461 (Livy 3.10.7); 338 (see note 13); possibly in 228 and 226 (see note 58a); 205 (Livy 29.10.5); 181 (Livy 38.45.3); and of course there are the oracular pronouncements of the first century B.C. (see p. 187).
39 Op. cit. (see note 5), 197-199; 418-432. A parallel for the combination of
oracles and ritual may be found in the fact that ritual as well as oracles emanated
170 [1938
Vol. lxix] Decemviri Sacris Faciundis 171
The tendency of the duumviri toward broadening the scope of cult practices is strikingly illustrated on the occasion of the first lectisternium in 399.40 This was held publicly and pri- vately under the auspices of the duumviri and was attended
by hospitality that was remarkably democratic for Rome, for not only were strangers entertained lavishly but even slaves in chains and perhaps others were relieved of their bonds. About a decade later the prestige that enabled the duumviri to introduce this rite is revealed again in the part alloted to them after the Gallic invasion. They were asked to discover in the libri methods of expiation for such shrines as had fallen into the hands of the invaders.41
The subsequent history of the board is to be identified with the new college of the decemviri sacris faciundis, into which the duumviral college was expanded in 367. The membership in the college was thereafter divided equally between the
patricians and the plebs, the revision of the institution being one of the concessions of the Licinian laws to the plebs.42 Fortune did not immediately favor the new group. The third lectisternium (the second is not recorded; it probably occurred
during the expiatory ceremonies after the Gallic invasion) in 364 was ineffective.43 The decemviri are not mentioned by Livy, but it goes without saying that the rites were theirs.
from Delphi (Herod. 1.167); see the discussion about the wreath in decemviral ritual after the embassy of Fabius Pictor to Delphi in 216 in an article by A. Lake, "The Supplicatio and Graecus Ritus," in Quantulacumque, Studies Pre- sented to Kirsopp Lake (London, Christophers, 1937), 249-250.
40 Livy 5.13.6; Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. (Excerpt.) 12.9. 41 Livy 5.50.2. 42 Livy 6.37.12. This law was passed before the rest of the Licinian Laws.
It was more than a measure to clear the way for further legislation favoring the plebs. The tribunes' insistence on getting it passed can only be fully understood if these men themselves attached some real significance to its con- tent. Long before, in 461 (Livy 3.10.7), the tribunes had recognized the posi- tion of the duumviri as one of importance. The economic advantages of the Licinian Laws for the poor disappeared, but the wealthy among the plebs grew in decemviral, as well as consular, power, and the way was paved for admission to further religious offices at the end of the century.
43 Livy 7.2.
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The introduction of the ludi scaenici, recounted at length by Livy, was also ineffective.44 This meant a temporary break in the use of new rites, and an old Roman rite was revived with the hope that it would put an end to the pestilence. The dictator chosen to carry out this rite roused the ire of the tribunes and was forced to abdicate.45 In 349 another pesti- lence forced the senate to require an examination of the books
by the decemviri, and on their advice another lectisternium was held.46 The records of this period are important for the infor- mation they furnish about the influence of the decemviri in Latium. It is now clear that in the decade before the dis- solution of the Latin league (338) the college was instrumental in establishing or maintaining festivals which Rome shared with her neighbors, doubtless in the hope of keeping them
loyal. A recently discovered fragment of the Severan acta for the secular games, containing a prayer in which the phrase utique semper Latinus optemperassit occurs,47 has led to a fresh
study of the history of the games,48 and it now seems certain that the ludi Saeculares were first celebrated before the dis- solution of the Latin league (338), probably in 348, rather than in 249, the date usually taken as the date of their founda- tion as a national festival.49 Not only does the new inscription lead us to place the foundation of the games a century earlier than 249 but it implies that the festival was connected with the Latins and was therefore more than purely Roman.49a
44 Ibid. 46 Livy 7.3.9. 46 Livy 7.27.1. 47 P. Romanelli, Not. Scav. (1931), 313-345. 48 L. R. Taylor, "New Light on the History of the Secular Games," A.J.P.
LV (1934), 101-120. 49 On the basis of Varro in Censorinus, De Die Natali 17.8; Verrius Flaccus
in the Pseudo-Acro Scholia on Hor. Carm. Saec. 8; Zosimus 2.4.1; Livy Per. 49. But see Augustine De Civ. Dei 3.18, and the discussion in Taylor, op. cit. (see note 48), 112-114.
49a Cf. Ludos Latinos Saeculares (C.I.L. vi.32323, line 83) and Hor. Carm. Saec. 65-68. The prayer utique semper Latinus optemperassit is to be taken as the result of the situation in Latium described in the statement about the secular oracle made by Phlegon (see note 13 of this article), That this state-
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Decemviri Sacris Faciundis
There is definite evidence at hand that other rites were cele- brated jointly by the Romans and the Latins on the recom- mendation of the decemviri. In 344 after the dedication of the temple of Juno Moneta on the Capitol, a rain of stones com- parable to the first recorded instance of such a prodigy on the Alban Mount led to the consultation of the libri. In accord- ance with the advice received therefrom a dictator feriarum constituendarum, P. Valerius Publicola, was appointed. The festival was observed not only by the Roman people but also by finitimi populi, who were assigned their ordo in the festi- val.50 A Pompeian inscription of the time of Claudius honor-
ing a man who was among other things pater patratus populi Laurentis foederis ex libris Sibullinis percutiendi cum p(opulo) R(omano) and also sacrorum principiorum p(opuli) R(omani) Quirit(ium) nominisque Latini qui apud Laurentis coluntur,61 makes it absolutely certain that the decemviral college was a political force in Latium in the fourth century, for the title pater patratus populi Laurentis foederis . . . percutiendi cum P.R. in the imperial period can only represent the perpetuation of an office which goes back at least as far as 339 when as a reward for loyalty the treaty with Lavinium was renewed and the renewal made a yearly ceremony.51a Later on we shall discuss the extension of the influence of the decemviri through- out Italy. Suffice it to notice here that in the fourth century ment should be applied to 348 (Taylor, op. cit. [see note 48], 110-111) receives strong support from the evidence of an inscription which shows that the decem- viri were active in shaping Roman policy on the Latin question and that they authorized a treaty with Rome (C.I.L. x.797) which undoubtedly goes back to 339 (Livy 8.11.15). See p. 173 of this article.
60 Livy 7.28.7-8.
61 C.I.L. x.797. The inscription, cut on a black marble base, was found in the cella of the temple of Jupiter, and is now in the National Museum at Naples.
61a Livy 8.11.15: extra poenam fuere Latinorum Laurentes Campanorumque equites, quia non desciverant. Cum Laurentibus renovari foedus iussum, renovaturque ex eo quotannis post diem decimum Latinarum. Tradition speaks of a treaty between Rome and Lavinium as early as the time of Romulus and suggests that even then some religious rites were shared by the two peoples (Livy 1.14.2-3). Cf. Livy 5.52.8: [maiores nostril sacra quaedam in monte Albano Laviniique nobis facienda tradiderunt (cf. Lucan. Phars. 7.394).
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the board was instrumental in shaping relations with the Latin towns. Under the auspices of the decemviri (ex libris Sibul- linis) a yearly treaty was to be struck with the Roman people, and through cult practices Lavinium was to be bound more
closely to Rome. Evidence for the fifth lectisternium in 327 shows that the
ritual had become fixed, for the decree provided for rites in honor of "the same gods as before".52
Down to the beginning of the third century the religious innovations of the decemviral college might be called special and extraordinary. Their recommendations down to this time included the introduction of new temples (Ceres, Apollo), the
expiation of temples contaminated by invasion, the introduc- tion of the ludi scaenici and the ludi saeculares. They con- ducted public prayer (obsecratio) and celebrated five iectisternia. Famine, pestilence, invasion, and threats of sedition on the
part of Romans or Latins lay behind their powers.53 The
extraordinary nature of their tasks is suggested by the occa- sions for the rites and by the time intervals between these
early public lectisternia. They were not common forms of
ceremony, however often ritual feasts may have been set be- fore single deities in their temples. Livy has been careful to number some of the lectisternia. Because he identifies the
first, third, and fifth, we know that there were five lectisternia within some seventy three years. This serves to show that the development of the college's activities was slow over the first two centuries of the republic. Altheim has pointed out
something significant here, namely, the poor contact with
things Greek in the fourth century.54 52 Livy 8.25.1. 53 Dionysius of Halicarnassus lists as occasions for the consultation of the
Sibylline Books sedition, disaster in war, and other prodigies or misfortunes. Famine and pestilence may be regarded as covered by the general terms
"prodigies" and "misfortunes", for Dionysius was aware of their r61e in the
history of the Books (6.17; 6.94; 12 [Excerpt.l, 9). 4 ""The First Roman Silver Coinage," in Transactions of the International
Numismatic Congress (London, 1936), 148.
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Decemviri Sacris Faciundis
In 300 the plebs gained the right of admission into the pon- tifical and augural colleges.55 These were the most important, though not the last, priesthoods in which they demanded a part. Jealousies between the orders persisted,56 but a gradual elimination of the practical distinctions between them oc- curred, however slowly, in the course of the following century. At the same time the new decemviral college showed no signs of curbing its activity in introducing new rites. The only evidence for their activity in this century before 218 is con- cerned with innovations-advising the introduction of Aescu- lapius in 293; 57 further development of the ludi saeculares, probably giving them the status of stativi, about the middle of the century; 58 and the performance of an extraordinary sacri- fice, namely, the burial alive of human beings in 226.58a The first was a remedy for pestilence, perhaps decided on because the lectisternia had not been successful and because the god had shown a tendency to quick acceptance.59 The ludi saecu- lares, renewed amid the stress of the First Punic War, were probably a step in the direction of creating peninsular soli- darity by honoring gods whose cult transcended local signifi- cance, a process carried farther in the Second Punic War, when deities were sought across the Straits of Messina and in Asia Minor. The sacrifice of 226 was apparently the Roman state's way of dealing with an unfavorable oracle that had spread abroad during the threat of another Gallic invasion.
66 Livy 10.9.1. 66 See page 176. 7 Livy 10.47.6-7.
58 See L. R. Taylor, op. cit. (see note 48), 114. s8a Cass. Dio, frag. 47 ed. U. P. Boissevain (Berlin, Weidmann, 1895), 1.183;
Zonaras 8.19: Aoytov bk T7ore rois 'Poxuatos iXO6vros Kail EXXivas Kai raXaras Tr &orTV KaraX?eo-atC, raXarat &vo Kat "EXXtives (TEPOL oK re rTO appevos Kai Tro OXe-os 7ye ovs NWvres iv rT &yop4 KarcopOyTrcrlav, v,' OiTroS 7reXes T6 re7rpwcoeov
'yeve,aOaL 5oK, KaI rT KareXeLv rTs 7ro16Xe KarTopUWpvyAfvoi voutrPWoraL; Plut. Marc. 3; Oros. 4.13.3. This story might be regarded as a doublet of Livy 22.57.6 (216 B.C.) if it were not for the evidence of Pliny N.H. 12.28, which suggests that the sacrifice occurred more than once.
69 Pliny N.H. 29.16; Pausan. 3.23.6-7; K. Latte, Gnomon vII (1931), 119f; G. Karo, Arch. Anz. XLVII (1932), 135.
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We have, then, between 293/1 (the recommendation of a temple to Aesculapius and the return of the Roman embassy from Epidaurus) and 249 (the renewal of the ludi saeculares) and between 249 and 226 two periods of silence in the decem- viral records, resulting from the loss of the second decade of
Livy and from the fragmentary condition of this portion of
Dionysius' Roman Antiquities. During this time there was a
progressive development of new rites and an increasing interest on the part of the decemviri in old Roman rites. This must be assumed from the spectacular character of the innovations mentioned above and from the burst of ritual activity in 218 and the years following, which cannot be explained merely by the extreme conditions created by the terror of the war. For not only the number of recommendations but their quality shows a definite extension of influence. The significance of the period immediately preceding is suggested by the impor- tant names of the only decemviri we know from this time, M'. Aemilius Numida and M. Livius Salinator, associated with the ludi saeculares under the fictitious date 236.60 To these we may possibly add a name from the beginning of the
century, Q. Ogulnius, who headed the embassy which brought the cult of Aesculapius to Rome in 291.61 The character of this period is further realized when one considers the fact that at its beginning the struggles of the patricians and the plebs over religious rights were not immediately ended by the ad- mission of the plebs to the pontifical and augural colleges in
300; this is shown by the jealous behavior of patrician women at the shrine of Pudicitia Patricia and the subsequent estab- lishment of a shrine of Pudicitia Plebeia in 296.62 At this time already for over seventy years the decemviri had come from the plebs as well as from the patriciate. The members from the plebs had undoubtedly faced jealousies after 367.
60 C.I.L. I, 12, p. 29, on the left margin of the third tabula of the Fasti Con- sulares Capitolini.
61 F. Miinzer, Rom. Adelsparteien (Stuttgart, Metzler, 1920), 87; Altheim, "The First Roman Silver Coinage," 148 (see note 54).
62 Livy 10.23.
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Decemviri Sacris Faciundis
This is perhaps evident in the mad scramble to discover an effective expiatory rite in 364,63 when all innovations failed,64 and an ancient Roman rite was revived to stop a pestilence. Nevertheless by the Second Punic War we find evidence of a balance between the old orders. Admission to the office of curio maximus was yielded to a man of the plebs without a
great deal of opposition. Decemviri from both groups were men of the highest ability and foremost in the state, working together to keep to a minimum, through cult practices, the dire reports of prodigies that poured into Rome from all directions.
In 218-217 there were several lectisternia, sacrifices, and the dedication of precious gifts to various deities.65 The Satur- nalia was transformed into a festival comparable to the lecti- sternium of 399.66 In 216 the faithlessness of two Vestals in a time of crisis brought the decemviri for the second time to an unusual kind of sacrifice, the burial alive of two Greeks and two Gauls, male and female, this time for expiatory purposes.67 A passage in Pliny, where it is stated that the magister of the quindecemviri led the prayer on such occasions,68 together with the evidence for a similar sacrifice, mentioned above, in the year 226, indicates that these ceremonies were the responsi- bility of the decemviri. In his account of the present instance, Livy described the rite as minime Romano sacro. Yet it was not in one sense different from the devotio of a Curtius, which, through voluntary, apparently received state sanction,69 or of incestuous Vestals, which was carried out under the direction
63 Livy 7.2-3. 64 A lectisternium and the ludi scaenici 65 Livy 21.62; 22.1; 22.9.10. 66 Livy 22.1.19-20. 67 Livy 22.57.6; cf. Plutarch, Quaest. Rom. 83 and H. J. Rose's note on this
passage (The Roman Questions of Plutarch [Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1924], 203-204; Minucius Felix Oct. 30.4; F. Schwenn, "Menschenopfer bei d. Griech. und R6m.," in Religionsgesch. Versuch. und Vorarb. xv.3 (Giessen, Tdpelmann, 1915), 148f.
68 Pliny N.H. 28.12. 69 Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 14 (Excerpt.), 11; Livy 7.6.
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of the pontifex maximus.70 In the rites of 214 the haruspices and pontifices were given the powers of procuration, the decem- viri being ignored, at least in the record.7" In 212 sacrificial rites for Apollo and Latona prescribed by the senate for the ludi Apollinares were conducted by the decemviri and appar- ently originated with them.72 The procurations of 210 were in the hands of the pontifices.73 In 207, after a series of prodi- gies ineffectively expiated, and as the direct result of the birth of a monstrosity at Frusino, the decemviri with the support of the pontifices introduced processional rites accompanied by a
hymn, ritual dance, sacrifice, and dedications to Juno Regina.74 These rites remained fixed for a century in connection with similar prodigies,75 and were revised by Augustus' quindecem- viri for the imperial secular games. The success of this per- formance, which was associated with Livius Andronicus, who wrote the hymn, as well as with the decemviri, marks the peak of decemviral influence in the republic. Interestingly enough, it coincides roughly with other innovations in religion-a new
victory for the cult of Apollo through the introduction of the ludi Apollinares (212) and their establishment as stativi (208),76 and the successful and easy contest of the plebs in 209 to
capture the old office of curio maximus.77 The story of the
70 Jut preceding the human sacrifice mentioned here, a Vestal was so
punished (Livy 22.57.2). 71 Livy 24.10.13 (haruspices); 24.44.9 (pontifices). 72Livy 25.12.13; cf. Macrob. Sat. I. 17, 27-29. 73 Livy 27.4.14-15. 74 Livy 27.37. 75Livy 31.12; Iul. Obs. Lib. Prod. 27a; 34 [94]; 36 [96]; 48 [108]; 53 [1131;
cf. Diels, op. cit. (see note 10), 38-39; 49; 111-115. 76 Livy 25.12; 27.23.7. 77 Livy 27.8.1-3. We seldom think of the struggle of the orders as extending
down into the Second Punic War. The sacred offices were the last to be
yielded, it will be remembered (Botsford, The Roman Assemblies [New York, Macmillan, 1909], 309), and technically the plebs were the equals of the
patricians in matters of religion in 300 B.c. By the turn of the war following the year 207 a man of plebeian family had won one more religious office, the chief priesthood of the curiae. Previously three men of the plebs had become
pontifex maximus, Ti. Coruncanius, L. Caecilius Metellus, and P. Licinius
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introduction of Magna Mater is too well known to repeat.77a The introduction of this goddess was the last of the innova- tions that came in under official sanction in the republic. The reasons for this we shall mention later. At this point it will be well to examine more closely the nature of the rites and the
gods honored in this period. In the lists of 218-217 one is immediately struck by the
number of rites prescribed by the decemviri that are new in their recommendations, such as the precious gifts to the vari- ous goddesses and to the Capitoline Triad; 78 the lectisternia for individual gods in various places,79 the sacrifice of hostiae maiores,80 a ver sacrum,8l the conscription of senators for a
leading part in a lectisternium,82 and instauratio.83 Old ele-
Crassus Dives (F. Mtinzer, Rom. Adelsparteien [Stuttgart, Metzler, 1920], 185-191; 414); from 253 to 180 with only one interruptidn (221-213) the plebs held the chief pontificate. Along with the yielding of old priesthoods to the plebs we see the taboos surrounding them falling away. The office of Flamen Dialis itself had to be glorified by the pretty story of a profligate who was forced to become Flamen and thereby became proverbially pious (Livy 27.8.4-10; Warde Fowler, Class. Rev. vII [1893], 193-195). This situation is indicative of what was occurring and fits into the picture quite beautifully with the new rites, the new gods, the new games, and the assimilation of the orders. All of the triumphs mentioned above had been strictly legal, but as so often happens, the influx of new things brought with it the possibilities of misuse and abuse. Excesses in religious fervor cropped up within twenty years, when all kinds of unauthorized rites tried to gain entrance to the Forum, not content, like Apollo, to remain outside the boundary of the sacred city under official control (C.I.L. I, 22, 581; Cic. De Leg. 2.37; Livy 39.8-19).
77a Livy 29.14. 78 For Juno Sospita at Lanuvium: donum ex auri pondo 40 (Livy 21.62); Juno
Regina on the Aventine: signum aeneum (Livy 21.62); donum (Livy 22.1); Jupiter Capitolinus: fulmen aureum pondo 50 (Livy 22.1); Juno and Minerva on the Capitol: ex argento dona (Livy 22.1); Feronia also received a gift (Livy 22.1).
79 Lectisternia: Iuventas (Livy 21.62); Juno Regina on the Aventine; Saturn (Livy 22.1). Supplicatio: Fortuna in Algido (Livy 21.62); Hercules (Livy 21.62).
80Various deities (Livy 21.62); the Genius (Livy 21.62); Juno Sospita at Lanuvium, Juno Regina on the Aventine, and a deity at Ardea (Livy 22.1).
81 Livy 22.9-10. 82 Livy 22.1. 83 Livy 22.9.9: votum Marti . . . non rite factum de integro atque amplius
faciundum esse.
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ments for the decemviri in these rites are the vows,84 the public lectisternium for a group of gods (though in this case there are additions to the number and changes in the nature of the
gods),86 the recommendation of new temples,86 and the renewal of an old festival, giving it a new status,87 with which we may compare the case of the ludi saeculares.88 It should be noted that in both groups occur old Roman elements.89 It is prob- able, though not certain, that they had advised lustration of the city before.90
New in the decemviral list of gods receiving honors are 1. outside Rome: a deity (or deities) at Caere, Juno Sospita at Lanuvium, Fortuna on Algidus, and a deity (or deities) at
Ardea; 2. inside Rome: Iuventas, the Genius, Feronia, the
Capitoline Triad, Saturn, Mars, Venus, Mens, Vulcan, and Vesta.91 This list excludes consideration of the names of gods whose shrines were recommended for expiation after the Gallic
invasion, since we have not the names of these places, which the record groups together as: fana omnia quoad hostis ea
possidisset.92 The Greek and Roman character of the gods making up the lectisternium in 217 in contrast to the exclu-
sively Greek character of the gods in 399 has been pointed out ;93
one may further note that before this lectisternium in 217 went a lectisternium in 218 to a deity on the Capitol older than the
84 Livy 22.9.9; cf. note 28. 86 Livy 22.10.9. Even here there are additions to the list of gods honored
by the decemviri, namely, Vulcan and Vesta. 86 Livy 22.9.10. 87 Livy 22.1.19-20. 88 See p. 175. 89 The ver sacrum and instauratio. The vow, too, which is in the second
group, or group of previous recommendations, was a Roman rite. On the decemviri and Roman rites see W. Hoffmann, op. cit. (see note 12), 19-22.
90 E.g., in 390, in connection with the expiations after the Gallic invasion. 91 Livy 21.62; 22.1; 22.9.9-10; 22.10.9-10. 92 Livy 5.50.2. 93 Altheim, op. cit. (see note 5), 284-285; W. Hoffmann, "Rom und die
griechische Welt im 4 Jahrhundert," Philologus, Supplementbd. xxvii, Heft 1
(1934), 78.
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triad itself, namely, Iuventas,93a and a sacrifice to the Genius, who probably had a shrine on the Capitol, too; and exceedingly precious gifts to the Capitoline Triad. Heretofore, apart from the extraordinary circumstance when the decemviri had been charged with finding expiations for fana omnia quoad hostis ea possidisset in 390, and from the rites circa omnia pulvinaria in 218,94 they had made no recommendations relating to gods within the pomerium, in spite of the fact that their traditional
headquarters were on the Capitol. It was only a further step that the temples of Venus Erycina and Mens, the first of whom at least was a peregrina, were in 217 suggested for enshrine- ment on the Capitol,95 and that a lectisternium and a reformed cult of Saturn were set up in the Forum. From this it can be seen that the direction of the college's influence within Rome was from the introduction of special gods outside the pomerium (e.g. Ceres, Aesculapius), to some control over gen- eral shrines everywhere (including those within the pomerium; cf. Livy 5.50), to specific cults established within the pomerium (e.g. Genius, Capitoline Triad), to the introduction of new cults within the pomerium (e.g. Venus Erycina). Whether the possession of the second decade of Livy would alter this outline of the development cannot be said.96
New rites that became permanent were established officially in the course of the war, namely, the ludi Apollinares (212
9a Livy 5.54.7; Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 3.69; Florus 1.1.7; Augustine De Civ. Dei 4.23.
94 Livy 21.62.9. 95 Livy 22.9.10. 96 Reference must be made here to the emphasis on the cult of Juno during
the war. Whether this emphasis has some peculiar relation to the decemviral college, to the popularity of the Juno cult in Latium, or to an association of Juno with Carthage in current legend, is not safe to conjecture. One thing we do know; it was believed that the consul Varro had suffered defeat at Cannae because he had once offended Juno, when as aedile in charge of a circus pro- cession he placed a beautiful boy-actor in a tensa to hold the exuviae of Jupiter (Val. Max. Mem. 1.1.16). The record tells us that when the incident was recalled after some years, expiatory sacrifices were performed. If these sacri- fices took place after Cannae, as one might expect, they cannot be included among the rites of 218-217.
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and 208),97 the expiatory procession of maidens (207),98 and the cult of Magna Mater (204), with which the ludi Megalenses were associated in 191.99 With each of these the decemviri were connected. Thereafter no striking innovations were
brought in by the college. A ieiunium Cereris was recom- mended and established in the same year as the ludi Megalenses (191).100 From this time there was a complete cessation of
innovations, together with a standardization of ritual prac- tices; the century following the second Punic war is dis-
tinguished by the disappearance of those innovations which were a conspicuous part of decemviral policy from the be-
ginning of the republic-the introduction of new deities and
temples. The reasons for the disappearance of this custom were, first, that the great periods of crisis were over and the need was no longer felt; second, a period of censorship of cults
exceeding in rigor any comparable action taken earlier set in
during the first quarter of the second century. This last step was the natural consequence of the religious fury of 212,101 of the practices which led to the senatus consultum de Bacchanal- ibus in 186 102 (a year which, incidentally, saw the arrival in Rome of numerous Greek performers, including those who
gave the Romans their first spectacle of an athletarum cer- tamen 103); and of the "discovery" of the "Books of Numa"
and other writings in 181.104 A part of the program to foster the official cult practices may have been the recommendation
by the decemviri of a supplicatio to last three days throughout the.whole of Italy.105
97 Livy 25.12; 27.23.7. 98 Livy 27.37. I cannot accept Altheim's belief that there was a precedent
for this procession in 249 B.C. (Terra Mater [Giessen, T6pelmann, 1931], 8; A Hist. of Roman Religion (see note 5), 288.
99 Livy 29.14; 36.36.4. '00 Livy 36.37.4. It was made quinquennial. 101 Livy 25.1.6-12. 102 C.I.L. I.22.581 (Dessau, Insc. Sel. i.18); Cic. De Leg. 2.37; Livy 39.14. 103 Livy 39.22. 104 Livy 40.29. 105 Livy 40.19. This, however, was earlier than the finding of the books.
182 [1938
Vol. lxixl Decemviri Sacris Faciundis 183
While innovations drop out in the following century, certain forms, conspicuous as recommendations of the libri during the second Punic war, recur, some of them throughout the century: the supplicatio,l06 hostiae maiores,107 dona,108 lustratio.109 The sacrifice which, to judge from the records, was the rite with which the decemviri concerned themselves most frequently,"l0 perhaps because the college was itself involved in the per- formance of many of the sacrifices, reached a point of extrava-
gance in 169 "l and 167,112 when the number of animals to be sacrificed by the consuls or other magistrates, was set by the decemviri as forty and fifty. One is tempted to compare these
figures with a figure we have for 125 B.C.113 and to contrast them with the rites during the ludi Apollinares of 212, when four animals were sacrificed to Apollo and Latona.114 In 218 the Genius had received five maiores hostiae, and during the elaborate and important ceremonies of 207 Juno Regina had received only two boves feminae.ll5 It is unfortunate that
Livy's narrative breaks off with 167, leaving us with a mere
106 In 193 B.C. (Livy 34.55.3; 35.9.5); 191 (36.37.5); 190 (37.3.5); 188 (38.36.4); 187 (38.44.7); 183 (39.46.5); 181 (40.19.5); 180 (40.37.3); 179 (40.45.5); 174 (41.21.11); 173 (42.2.6-7, two supplicationes); 172 (42.20.3); 169 (43.13.8); 167 (45.16.6); 142 (Iul. Obs. Lib. Prod. 22 [81]); perhaps in 97
(Iul. Obs. 48 [108]) and 92 (Iul. Obs. 53 [113]). 107In 172 (Livy 42.20.3: victimis maioribus); 169 (43.13.8); 167 (45.16.6). 108 In 189 (38.35.4); 130 (Iul. Obs. 28 [87]); perhaps in 99 (Iul. Obs. 46 [106])
and 97 (Iul. Obs. 48 [108]; cf. Livy 27.37; 31.12). 109 Described as urbs lustrata: 193 (Livy 35.9.5); 172 (42.20.3: lustrandum
oppidum); 167 (45.16.6); 165 (Iul. Obs. 13 [72]). For the lustral processions of virgines, see notes 74 and 75.
110 Instances of sacrifice recommended from the beginning of the second century are recorded for 191 (Livy 36.37.5); 190 (37.3.5); 179 (40.45.5); 173 (42.2.6); 172 (42.20.3); 169 (43.13.7-8); 167 (45.16.6); 165 (Iul. Obs. 13 [72]); 143 (21 [80]); 125 (Jacoby, op. cit. [see note 13], 1179-1182; Diels, op. cit. [see note 10], 38; 49; 111-115); 118 (Iul. Obs. 35 [95]); 108 (40 [100]); 102 (44 [104]); 98 (47 [107]).
m Livy 43.13.8. "2 Livy 45.16.6. 11 Diels, op. cit. (see note 10), 38; 112. 114 Livy 25.12.13. 11 Livy 21.62.10; 27.37.11, 15.
184 Aline Abaecherli Boyce [1938
skeleton of information about the subsequent rites, to be derived from the epitomes.
As for gods, the evidence here is much less full than in the case of the rites. In spite of this we are able to glean the information that Ceres 11 and Apollo 117 retain first place in the interest of the decemviri sacris faciundis, together with
Juno Regina,1l8 Jupiter,"1 and the gods of the underworld.120 These are the very gods that are so conspicuous in the acta of the imperial ludi saeculares. The Augustan ritual makers, eager to build their festival upon tradition, were clearly more
respectful to the ritual history of the decemviri than to their
chronological records of the secular games.120a We have seen that decemviral influence was working in
Latium by the middle of the fourth century, some twenty years after the college of decemviri came into being. At the
11s 191 B.C. (ieiunium Cereris: Livy 36.37.4); 174 (a supplicatio, perhaps under the decemviri: Livy 41.28.2); in the Gracchan period, Gracchano tumultu, the decemviri made a propitiatory journey to the temple of Ceres at Enna
(Val. Max. Mem. 1.1.1). She is honored as Demeter in the ritual described
in the oracles of 125 B.C. (Jacoby, op. cit. [see note 13], 1179-1182; Diels, op. cit.
[see note 10], 111-115). 117 In 130 B.C. (Iul. Obs. 28 [87]), the decemviri are not mentioned, but must
have taken a leading part in the rites; 125 B.C. (Jacoby, op. cit., 1179-1182;
Diels, op. cit., 111-115); 98 B.C. (Iul. Obs. 47 [107]). 118 Specifically mentioned for 200 B.C. (Livy 31.12); it is assumed that the
many similar processions and gifts in her honor, listed by Iulius Obsequens
(see note 75), were associated with the decemviri, though at times the haruspices seem to have taken over their rites (see note 131). In the oracles of 125
(Jacoby, op. cit., 1179-1182; Diels, op. cit., 111-115) she is honored as flaaiXLacra. 119 Livy 38.35.4 (189 B.C.): eo anno in aede Herculis signum dei ipsius ex
decemvirorum responso et seiuges in Capitolio aurati a P. Cornelio positi.
In 172 victimae maiores were sacrificed on the Capitol and games to I.O.M.
were celebrated (Livy 42.20). According to Diels, op. cit., 38, Jupiter shared
in the honors listed in the oracles of 125. 120 A sacrifice was performed at night in 190 (Livy 37.3.6). These deities
shared in the honors prescribed in the oracles of 125 (Jacoby, op. cit., 1179-1182;
Diels, op. cit., 111-115). Proserpina was honored with Ceres in 104 (Iul. Obs.
43 [103]), 102 (Iul. Obs. 44 [104]), and 99 (Iul. Obs. 46 [106]). 120a Convenient, therefore, for them was the destruction of the libri in
Sulla's time. On the chronology and the ritual of the ludi Saeculares, see
L. R. Taylor, op. cit. (see note 48), 105-107.
Decemviri Sacris Faciundis
beginning of the second Punic war this influence is still mani-
fest, and Caere, an Etruscan town, is included among the towns for which the decemviri recommend rites. Twenty years after the second Punic war their rites were decreed for the whole of Italy, and by the end of the second century their influence had spread still farther. By the end of the second Punic war the years of assimilation were over, and a counter- movement had set in whereby official ritual emanating from Rome was prescribed in territory under Roman control. Sig- nificant is the policy recommended for the the year 143 B.c.:
cum a Salassis illata clades esset Romanis, decemviri pro- nuntiaverunt se invenisse in Sibyllinis, quoties bellum Gallis illaturi essent, sacrificari in eorum finibus oportere (Iul. Obs. 21 [80]). The following list shows how this influence was ex- tended from Rome:
Latium finitimi populi Latium and
Etruria
348 344
ludi saec.121 feriae, supplicatio 121
218 Lanuvium Caere Algidus
217 Lanuvium Ardea
Italy 181 per totam It Latium? 180 in urbe et p
fora concili Campania 172 ad Minerva
muntoriui Gaul
Juno gifts 122
lectisternium 122
Fortuna supplicatio 122
Juno maiores hostiae 123
maiores hostiae 123
(decemviri present) aliam supplicatio, feriae 124
er omnia supplicatio 125
iabulaque ,e pro- m
143
victimae maiores 126
sacrifice 127 (two decemviri present)
121 See pp. 172-173. 122 Livy 21.62. 123 Livy 22.1. 124 Livy 40.19.5. 125 Livy 40.37.3.
'26 Livy 42.20.3. 127 Iul. Obs. Lib. Prod. 21 [80]; Dio 22, frag. 74.1.
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Sicily Gracchan period Enna propitiatory rites128 (Gracchano (decemviri present) tumultu)
Aegean 108 Island of Cimolus sacrifice by 30 boys and 30 girls 129
The activity of the decemviri was carried on without much
change or interruption until the end of the second century and the beginning of the first.129" At this time two events which weakened the prestige of the college took place. In 104 a law was passed which took away the board's power of co6pting its new members and made the priesthood elective at the hands of the people.130 This was an invasion of the board's sanctity as well as a renewal of previous efforts to break the hold of the aristocrats on religious privileges. Some indication of the effect may be seen in the fact that in the year 104 and a little later the haruspices were pronouncing on ritual policy which was normally the sphere of the decemviral college, namely, the cults of Ceres, Proserpina, Apollo, and the rite of lustra-
tion.13' Following these events sacrifices conducted by the decemviri were interrupted by prodigies. This occurred in
98 B.C.,132 and is the last word we have about the decemviri as such. When their title is mentioned again, they have become the quindecemviri.133 This change has always been attributed to Sulla,134 with whose regime the second blow to the decem-
128 Val. Max. Mem. 1.1.1. 129 Iul. Obs. 40 [100]. 123a But a hint of a change in the board's status may be seen in the un-
successful attempt of the decemviri to forbid the introduction of water from the
Aqua Marcia and the Anio Vetus to the Capitol in the years 143-140 (Livy,
Epit. Oxyrhync. 188-190; Frontinus, de Aquis, 1.7). 130 Cic. Leg. Agr. 2.18; Veil. Pat. 2.12; Suet. Nero 2; Dio 37.37; Ascon. (ed.
A. C. Clark [Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1907]), 21; Th. Mommsen, Rom., Staats-
recht ii3.1 (Leipzig, Hirzel, 1887), 29; Bloch in Daremberg-Saglio, Dict., s.v.
"duumviri s.f.," Ii.1.428 and note 24. The law was repealed in 81 (Pseud. Ascon. In Div. 8; Dio 37.37) and reestablished in 63.
131 Iul. Obs. 43 [103]; 44 [104]; 46 [106]; cf. their behavior in Augustine, De
Civ. Dei 3.11. 332 Jul. Obs. 47 [107]. 133 Cic. Ad Fam. 8.4.1. 134 Bloch in Daremberg-Saglio, Diet., "duumviri s.f.," II. 1. 428.
186 [1938
Decemviri Sacris Faciundis
viral college is related through the fire of 83 on the Capitol which destroyed the libri Sibyllini and provided an oppor- tunity for the creation of a similar collection under dictatorial control.l35 The rites usually associated with the decemviri went on after 98; 136 there is no evidence that they were not in the hands of the quindecemviri. As for the oracles, what
happened in this period is to be gathered from the vigorous expurgation of the new collection by Augustus 37 as well as from other indications.138 The uncertainty of the future and the desire to manipulate it led individuals like Sulla and Cassius to have a personal following of haruspices.139 Since the haruspex was the personal attendant of the great general this obviously put the quindecemviri in a difficult position. Attached as they were to senatorial policy they naturally fell a prey to men seeking for power, who attempted to possess or corrupt their lore, chiefly on the oracular side.140 The oracles were yet to see another redaction,1'4 and were to be deposited in a new sanctuary on the Palatine, while a new form for the ritual which had evolved in the course of republican history was to take shape after the founding and stabilization of the principate.
136 Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 4.62; cf. an excerpt of the Byzantine writer, Maximus Planudes, quoted in Boissevain, op. cit. (see n. 58a), Praef. cxxII.43, where it is stated that a thunderbolt struck the Capitol; Tac. Ann. 6.12; Lact. Inst. Div. 1.6.11, 14; De Ira Dei 22.6.
36 E.g. in 97 (Iul. Obs. 48 [108]); in 92 (Iul. Obs. 53 [113]). 137 Suet. Aug. 31; cf. Dio 54.17. 138 See note 140. 139 Iul. Obs. 56b; 70 [130]. 140 Sallust Cat. 47; Cic. In Cat. 3.4, 5; Plutarch Cic. 17; Cic. Ad Fam. 1.7.4-5,
together with Dio 39.15.2. 141 See note 137.
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