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Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database



9606
Plutarch, Roman Questions, 83


nanWhen the Romans learned that the people called Bletonesii, Of Bletisa in Spain, according to Cichorius, Römische Studien (Berlin, 1922). a barbarian tribe, had sacrificed a man to the gods, why did they send for the tribal rulers with intent to punish them, but, when it was made plain that they had done thus in accordance with a certain custom, why did the Romans set them at liberty, but forbid the practice for the future? Yet they themselves, not many years before, had buried alive two men and two women, two of them Greeks, two Gauls, in the place called the Forum Boarium. It certainly seems strange that they themselves should do this, and yet rebuke barbarians on the ground that they were acting with impiety. Did they think it impious to sacrifice men to the gods, but necessary to sacrifice them to the spirits? Or did they believe that men who did this by tradition and custom were sinning, whereas they themselves did it by command of the Sibylline books? For the tale is told that a certain maiden, Helvia, was struck by lightning while she was riding on horseback, and her horse was found lying stripped of its trappings: and she herself was naked, for her tunic had been pulled far up as if purposely: and her shoes, her rings, and her head-dress were scattered apart here and there, and her open mouth allowed the tongue to protrude. The soothsayers declared that it was a terrible disgrace for the Vestal Virgins, that it would be bruited far and wide, and that some wanton outrage would be found touching the knights also. Thereupon a barbarian slave of a certain knight gave information against three Vestal Virgins, Aemilia, Licinia, and Marcia, that they had all been corrupted at about the same time, and that they had long entertained lovers, one of whom was Vetutius Barrus, Cf. Cicero, Brutus, 46 (169); Horace, Satires, i. 6. 30, if the emendation is right. the informer’s master. The Vestals, accordingly, were convicted and punished: but, since the deed was plainly atrocious, it was resolved that the priests should consult the Sibylline books. They say that oracles were found foretelling that these events would come to pass for the bane of the Romans, and enjoining on them that, to avert the impending disaster, they should offer as a sacrifice to certain strange and alien spirits two Greeks and two Gauls, buried alive on the spot. Cf. Life of Marcellus, chap. iii. (299 d); Livy, xxii. 57.


nanWhen the Romans learned that the people called Bletonesii, a barbarian tribe, had sacrificed a man to the gods, why did they send for the tribal rulers with intent to punish them, but, when it was made plain that they had done thus in accordance with a certain custom, why did the Romans set them at liberty, but forbid the practice for the future? Yet they themselves, not many years before, had buried alive two men and two women, two of them Greeks, two Gauls, in the place called the Forum Boarium. It certainly seems strange that they themselves should do this, and yet rebuke barbarians on the ground that they were acting with impiety. Did they think it impious to sacrifice men to the gods, but necessary to sacrifice them to the spirits? Or did they believe that men who did this by tradition and custom were sinning, whereas they themselves did it by command of the Sibylline books? For the tale is told that a certain maiden, Helvia, was struck by lightning while she was riding on horseback, and her horse was found lying stripped of its trappings; and she herself was naked, for her tunic had been pulled far up as if purposely; and her shoes, her rings, and her head-dress were scattered apart here and there, and her open mouth allowed the tongue to protrude. The soothsayers declared that it was a terrible disgrace for the Vestal Virgins, that it would be bruited far and wide, and that some wanton outrage would be found touching the knights also. Thereupon a barbarian slave of a certain knight gave information against three Vestal Virgins, Aemilia, Licinia, and Marcia, that they had all been corrupted at about the same time, and that they had long entertained lovers, one of whom was Vetutius Barrus, the informer's master. The Vestals, accordingly, were convicted and punished; but, since the deed was plainly atrocious, it was resolved that the priests should consult the Sibylline books. They say that oracles were found foretelling that these events would come to pass for the bane of the Romans, and enjoining on them that, to avert the impending disaster, they should offer as a sacrifice to certain strange and alien spirits two Greeks and two Gauls, buried alive on the spot.


Intertexts (texts cited often on the same page as the searched text):

8 results
1. Cicero, On Divination, 1.97 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)

1.97. Ad nostra iam redeo. Quotiens senatus decemviros ad libros ire iussit! quantis in rebus quamque saepe responsis haruspicum paruit! Nam et cum duo visi soles sunt et cum tres lunae et cum faces, et cum sol nocte visus est, et cum e caelo fremitus auditus, et cum caelum discessisse visum est atque in eo animadversi globi, delata etiam ad senatum labe agri Privernatis, cum ad infinitam altitudinem terra desedisset Apuliaque maximis terrae motibus conquassata esset (quibus portentis magna populo Romano bella perniciosaeque seditiones denuntiabantur; inque his omnibus responsa haruspicum cum Sibyllae versibus congruebant); quid? 1.97. I now return to instances at home. How many times the Senate has ordered the decemvirs to consult the Sibylline books! How often in matters of grave concern it has obeyed the responses of the soothsayers! Take the following examples: When at one time, two suns and, at another, three moons, were seen; when meteors appeared; when the sun shone at night; when rumblings were heard in the heavens; when the sky seemed to divide, showing balls of fire enclosed within; again, on the occasion of the landslip in Privernum, report of which was made to the Senate; and when Apulia was shaken by a most violent earthquake and the land sank to an incredible depth — in all these cases of portents which warned the Roman people of mighty wars and deadly revolutions, the responses of the soothsayers were in agreement with the Sibylline verses.
2. Livy, History, 8.15.7 (1st cent. BCE - missingth cent. CE)

3. Appian, Civil Wars, 1.24 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

4. Phlegon of Tralles, On Miraculous Things, 10 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

5. Plutarch, Marcellus, 3.4 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

3.4. For though they have no barbarous or unnatural practices, but cherish towards their deities those mild and reverent sentiments which especially characterize Greek thought, at the time when this war burst upon them they were constrained to obey certain oracular commands from the Sibylline books, and to bury alive two Greeks, a man and a woman, and likewise two Gauls, in the place called the forum boarium, or cattle-market; and in memory of these victims, they still to this day, in the month of November, perform mysterious and secret ceremonies.
6. Plutarch, Numa Pompilius, 10.6 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

10.6. Then the culprit herself is placed on a litter, over which coverings are thrown and fastened down with cords so that not even a cry can be heard from within, and carried through the forum. All the people there silently make way for the litter, and follow it without uttering a sound, in a terrible depression of soul. No other spectacle is more appalling, nor does any other day bring more gloom to the city than this.
7. Plutarch, Roman Questions, 96 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

96. Why do they inflict no other punishment on those of the Holy Maidens Plutarch elsewhere uses a similar expression ( παρθένος ἱέρεια ) for the vestal virgins, e.g. in his Life of Publicola, chap. viii. (101 b) or Moralia, 89 e. who have been seduced, but bury them alive? Cf. Life of Numa, chap. x. (67 a-c); Ovid, Fasti, vi. 457-460; Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, ii. 67. 4, viii. 89. 5; Pliny, Epistles, iv. 11. 6. Is it because they cremate their dead, and to use fire in the burial of a woman who had not guarded the holy fire in purity was not right? Or did they believe it to be against divine ordice to annihilate a body that had been consecrated by the greatest of lustra! ceremonies, or to lay hands upon a holy woman? Accordingly they devised that she should die of herself; they conducted her underground into a chamber built there, in which had been placed a lighted lamp, a loaf of bread, and some milk and water. Thereafter they covered over the top of the chamber with earth. And yet not even by this manner of avoiding the guilt have they escaped their superstitious fear, but even to this day the priests proceed to this place and make offerings to the dead. 96. Why do they inflict no other punishment on those of the Holy Maidens who have been seduced, but bury them alive? Is it because they cremate their dead, and to use fire in the burial of a woman who had not guarded the holy fire in purity was not right? Or did they believe it to be against divine ordice to annihilate a body that had been consecrated by the greatest of lustral ceremonies, or to lay hands upon a holy woman? Accordingly they devised that she should die of herself; they conducted her underground into a chamber built there, in which had been placed a lighted lamp, a loaf of bread, and some milk and water. Thereafter they covered over the top of the chamber with earth. And yet not even by this manner of avoiding the guilt have they escaped their superstitious fear, but even to this day the priests proceed to this place and make offerings to the dead.
8. Obsequens, De Prodigiis, 29 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE)



Subjects of this text:

subject book bibliographic info
aemilia the vestal Mowat (2021), Engendering the Future: Divination and the Construction of Gender in the Late Roman Republic, 109
ager stellas Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 88
apollo,temple of apollo on the palatine Mowat (2021), Engendering the Future: Divination and the Construction of Gender in the Late Roman Republic, 109
apulia Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 88
atilius,marcus Mowat (2021), Engendering the Future: Divination and the Construction of Gender in the Late Roman Republic, 103
augurs Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 88
carthage Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 88
ceres Mowat (2021), Engendering the Future: Divination and the Construction of Gender in the Late Roman Republic, 103
eques,equites Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 88
fabia the vestal Mowat (2021), Engendering the Future: Divination and the Construction of Gender in the Late Roman Republic, 103, 104
haruspices,prophecies Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 88
haruspicy Mowat (2021), Engendering the Future: Divination and the Construction of Gender in the Late Roman Republic, 104
helvia Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 88
helvius,p. Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 88
intersexuality Mowat (2021), Engendering the Future: Divination and the Construction of Gender in the Late Roman Republic, 103, 104, 109
juno Mowat (2021), Engendering the Future: Divination and the Construction of Gender in the Late Roman Republic, 103
licinia the vestal Mowat (2021), Engendering the Future: Divination and the Construction of Gender in the Late Roman Republic, 109
liminality Mowat (2021), Engendering the Future: Divination and the Construction of Gender in the Late Roman Republic, 104
mantis Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 88
marcia the vestal Mowat (2021), Engendering the Future: Divination and the Construction of Gender in the Late Roman Republic, 109
marius,c. Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 88
minucia the vestal Mowat (2021), Engendering the Future: Divination and the Construction of Gender in the Late Roman Republic, 103
pax deorum Mowat (2021), Engendering the Future: Divination and the Construction of Gender in the Late Roman Republic, 103, 104
pontifex maximus Mowat (2021), Engendering the Future: Divination and the Construction of Gender in the Late Roman Republic, 104
pontiffs Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 88
pontifical college Mowat (2021), Engendering the Future: Divination and the Construction of Gender in the Late Roman Republic, 103, 104
privernum Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 88
prodigy,expiation Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 88
prodigy Mowat (2021), Engendering the Future: Divination and the Construction of Gender in the Late Roman Republic, 103, 104, 109; Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 88
proserpina Mowat (2021), Engendering the Future: Divination and the Construction of Gender in the Late Roman Republic, 103
public divination' Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 88
quinctius cincinnatus,l.,and haruspicy Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 88
sacrifice Mowat (2021), Engendering the Future: Divination and the Construction of Gender in the Late Roman Republic, 103, 104, 109
senate Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 88
sergius catilina,lucius (catiline) Mowat (2021), Engendering the Future: Divination and the Construction of Gender in the Late Roman Republic, 104
sibyl,sibylline books Mowat (2021), Engendering the Future: Divination and the Construction of Gender in the Late Roman Republic, 103, 104, 109
sibylline books,consultation Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 88
vestal virgins Mowat (2021), Engendering the Future: Divination and the Construction of Gender in the Late Roman Republic, 103, 104, 109; Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 88
virginity Mowat (2021), Engendering the Future: Divination and the Construction of Gender in the Late Roman Republic, 103