Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database

11051

Valerius Maximus, Memorable Deeds And Sayings, 1.1.12

nan Great also was the care of preserving religion among our ancestors, when Publius Cornelius and Baebius Tamphilus were consuls. For the labourers that were digging a field of L. Petillius the scribe, at the foot of Janiculum, delving somewhat deeper than ordinary, found two little stone-chests; in one whereof was some writing, declaring that it was the body of Numa Pompilius, son of Pomponius. In the other were seven books in the Latin language, treating of the law of the pontiffs; and as many books in Greek, discoursing of wisdom. For the preservation of the Latin books they took especial care; but the Greek ones, (for there seemed to be some things therein prejudicial to their religion) Q. Petillius the praetor by decree of senate caused to be burnt in a public fire made by the attendants of the sacrifices: for the ancient Romans could not endure that anything should be kept in the city, which might be a means to draw the minds of men from the worship of the gods.

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1. Cicero, On Duties, 2.76 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE) 2.76. Laudat Africanum Panaetius, quod fuerit abstinens. Quidni laudet? Sed in illo alia maiora; laus abstinentiae non hominis est solum, sed etiam temporum illorum. Omni Macedonum gaza, quae fuit maxima, potitus est Paulus tantum in aerarium pecuniae invexit, ut unius imperatoris praeda finem attulerit tributorum. At hic nihil domum suam intulit praeter memoriam nominis sempiternam. Imitatus patrem Africanus nihilo locupletior Carthagine eversa. Quid? qui eius collega fuit in censura. L. Mummius, numquid copiosior, cum copiosissimam urbem funditus sustulisset? Italiam ornare quam domum suam maluit; quamquam Italia ornata domus ipsa mihi videtur ornatior. 2.76.  Panaetius praises Africanus for his integrity in public life. Why should he not? But Africanus had other and greater virtues. The boast of official integrity belongs not to that man alone but also to his times. When Paulus got possession of all the wealth of Macedon — and it was enormous — he brought into our treasury so much money that the spoils of a single general did away with the need for a tax on property in Rome for all time to come. But to his own house he brought nothing save the glory of an immortal name. Africanus emulated his father's example and was none the richer for his overthrow of Carthage. And what shall we say of Lucius Mummius, his colleague in the censorship? Was he one penny the richer when he had destroyed to its foundations the richest of cities? He preferred to adorn Italy rather than his own house. And yet by the adornment of Italy his own house was, as it seems to me, still more splendidly adorned.
2. Polybius, Histories, 39.6 (2nd cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE) 39.6. 1.  The Roman general, after the general assembly had left Achaea, repaired the Isthmian course and adorned the temples at Delphi and Olympia, and on the following days visited the different cities, honoured in each of them and receiving testimonies of the gratitude due to him.,2.  It was only natural indeed that he should be treated with honour both in public and in private.,3.  For his conduct had been unexacting and unsullied and he had dealt leniently with the whole situation, though he had such great opportunities and such absolute power in Greece.,4.  If, indeed, he was thought to be guilty of any deflection from his duty I at least put it down not to his own initiative, but to the friends who lived with him.,5.  The most notable instance was that of the cavalrymen of Chalcis whom he slew. II. Affairs of Egypt
3. Dionysius of Halycarnassus, Roman Antiquities, 4.40.7, 4.62.5 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE) 4.40.7.  And it was made clear by another prodigy that this man was dear to the gods; in consequence of which that fabulous and incredible opinion I have already mentioned concerning his birth also came to be regarded by many as true. For in the temple of Fortune which he himself had built there stood a gilded wooden statue of Tullius, and when a conflagration occurred and everything else was destroyed, this statue alone remained uninjured by the flames. And even to this day, although the temple itself and all the objects in it, which were restored to their formed condition after the fire, are obviously the products of modern art, the statue, as aforetime, is of ancient workmanship; for it still remains an object of veneration by the Romans. Concerning Tullius these are all the facts that have been handed down to us. 4.62.5.  Since the expulsion of the kings, the commonwealth, taking upon itself the guarding of these oracles, entrusts the care of them to persons of the greatest distinction, who hold this office for life, being exempt from military service and from all civil employments, and it assigns public slaves to assist them, in whose absence the others are not permitted to inspect the oracles. In short, there is no possession of the Romans, sacred or profane, which they guard so carefully as they do the Sibylline oracles. They consult them, by order of the senate, when the state is in the grip of party strife or some great misfortune has happened to them in war, or some important prodigies and apparitions have been seen which are difficult of interpretation, as has often happened. These oracles till the time of the Marsian War, as it was called, were kept underground in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus in a stone chest under the guard of ten men.
4. Horace, Letters, 2.1.192-2.1.193 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
5. Livy, History, 24.47.15, 27.25.7, 39.16.9, 40.29.2-40.29.14 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
6. Livy, Per., 52 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
7. Ovid, Fasti, 6.569-6.572, 6.613-6.626 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE) 6.569. Day, doubled the enemy’s strength. 6.570. Fortuna, the same day is yours, your temple 6.571. Founded by the same king, in the same place. 6.572. And whose is that statue hidden under draped robes? 6.613. Yet she still dared to visit her father’s temple 6.614. His monument: what I tell is strange but true. 6.615. There was a statue enthroned, an image of Servius: 6.616. They say it put a hand to its eyes 6.617. And a voice was heard: ‘Hide my face 6.618. Lest it view my own wicked daughter.’ 6.619. It was veiled by cloth, Fortune refused to let the robe 6.620. Be removed, and she herself spoke from her temple: 6.621. ‘The day when Servius’ face is next revealed 6.622. Will be a day when shame is cast aside.’ 6.623. Women, beware of touching the forbidden cloth 6.624. (It’s sufficient to utter prayers in solemn tones) 6.625. And let him who was the City’s seventh king 6.626. Keep his head covered, forever, by this veil.
8. Strabo, Geography, 6.3.1 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE) 6.3.1. Iapygia Now that I have traversed the regions of Old Italy as far as Metapontium, I must speak of those that border on them. And Iapygia borders on them. The Greeks call it Messapia, also, but the natives, dividing it into two parts, call one part (that about the Iapygian Cape) the country of the Salentini, and the other the country of the Calabri. Above these latter, on the north, are the Peucetii and also those people who in the Greek language are called Daunii, but the natives give the name Apulia to the whole country that comes after that of the Calabri, though some of them, particularly the Peucetii, are called Poedicli also. Messapia forms a sort of peninsula, since it is enclosed by the isthmus that extends from Brentesium as far as Taras, three hundred and ten stadia. And the voyage thither around the Iapygian Cape is, all told, about four hundred stadia. The distance from Metapontium is about two hundred and twenty stadia, and the voyage to it is towards the rising sun. But though the whole Tarantine Gulf, generally speaking, is harborless, yet at the city there is a very large and beautiful harbor, which is enclosed by a large bridge and is one hundred stadia in circumference. In that part of the harbor which lies towards the innermost recess, the harbor, with the outer sea, forms an isthmus, and therefore the city is situated on a peninsula; and since the neck of land is low-lying, the ships are easily hauled overland from either side. The ground of the city, too, is low-lying, but still it is slightly elevated where the acropolis is. The old wall has a large circuit, but at the present time the greater part of the city — the part that is near the isthmus — has been forsaken, but the part that is near the mouth of the harbor, where the acropolis is, still endures and makes up a city of noteworthy size. And it has a very beautiful gymnasium, and also a spacious market-place, in which is situated the bronze colossus of Zeus, the largest in the world except the one that belongs to the Rhodians. Between the marketplace and the mouth of the harbor is the acropolis, which has but few remts of the dedicated objects that in early times adorned it, for most of them were either destroyed by the Carthaginians when they took the city or carried off as booty by the Romans when they took the place by storm. Among this booty is the Heracles in the Capitol, a colossal bronze statue, the work of Lysippus, dedicated by Maximus Fabius, who captured the city.
9. Vergil, Aeneis, 6.836-6.837 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE) 6.836. Or smites with ivory point his golden lyre. 6.837. Here Trojans be of eldest, noblest race
10. Vitruvius Pollio, On Architecture, 8.2.6 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
11. Petronius Arbiter, Satyricon, 50 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
12. Petronius Arbiter, Satyricon, 50 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
13. Pliny The Elder, Natural History, 13.84-13.88, 34.36, 35.6, 35.157, 36.163 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
14. Plutarch, Fabius, 22.6 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) 22.6. However, he removed the colossal statue of Heracles from Tarentum, and set it up on the Capitol, and near it an equestrian statue of himself, in bronze. He thus appeared far more eccentric in these matters than Marcellus, nay rather, the mild and humane conduct of Marcellus was thus made to seem altogether admirable by contrast, as has been written in his Life. Chapter xxi. Marcellus had enriched Rome with works of Greek art taken from Syracuse in 212 B.C. Livy’s opinion is rather different from Plutarch’s: sed maiore animo generis eius praeda abstinuit Fabius quam Marcellus, xxvii. 16. Fabius killed the people but spared their gods; Marcellus spared the people but took their gods.
15. Plutarch, Marcellus, 21.2-21.3, 21.5, 28.1 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) 21.2. but filled full of barbaric arms and bloody spoils, and crowned round about with memorials and trophies of triumphs, she was not a gladdening or a reassuring sight, nor one for unwarlike and luxurious spectators. Indeed, as Epaminondas called the Boeotian plain a dancing floor of Ares, and as Xenophon Hell. iii. 4,17. speaks of Ephesus as a work-shop of war, so, it seems to me, one might at that time have called Rome, in the language of Pindar, a precinct of much-warring Ares. Pyth. ii. 1 f. 21.3. Therefore with the common people Marcellus won more favour because he adorned the city with objects that had Hellenic grace and charm and fidelity; but with the elder citizens Fabius Maximus was more popular. For he neither disturbed nor brought away anything of this sort from Tarentum, when that city was taken, but while he carried off the money and the other valuables, he suffered the statues to remain in their places, adding the well-known saying: 21.5. and was inexperienced in luxury and ease, but, like the Heracles of Euripides, was Plain, unadorned, in a great crisis brave and true, A fragment of the lost Licymnius of Euripides (Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. 2 p. 507). he made them idle and full of glib talk about arts and artists, so that they spent a great part of the day in such clever disputation. Notwithstanding such censure, Marcellus spoke of this with pride even to the Greeks, declaring that he had taught the ignorant Romans to admire and honour the wonderful and beautiful productions of Greece. 28.1. After assuming his office, he first quelled a great agitation for revolt in Etruria, and visited and pacified the cities there; next, he desired to dedicate to Honour and Virtue a temple that he had built out of his Sicilian spoils, hut was prevented by the priests, who would not consent that two deities should occupy one temple; he therefore began to build another temple adjoining the first, although he resented the priests’ opposition and regarded it as ominous.
16. Plutarch, Numa Pompilius, 22.2-22.5 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) 22.2. They did not burn his body, because, as it is said, he forbade it; but they made two stone coffins and buried them under the Janiculum. One of these held his body, and the other the sacred books which he had written out with his own hand, as the Greek lawgivers their tablets. But since, while he was still living, he had taught the priests the written contents of the books, and had inculcated in their hearts the scope and meaning of them all, he commanded that they should be buried with his body, convinced that such mysteries ought not to be entrusted to the care of lifeless documents. 22.3. This is the reason, we are told, why the Pythagoreans also do not entrust their precepts to writing, but implant the memory and practice of them in living disciples worthy to receive them. And when their treatment of the abstruse and mysterious processes of geometry had been divulged to a certain unworthy person, they said the gods threatened to punish such lawlessness and impiety with some signal and wide-spread calamity. 22.4. Therefore we may well be indulgent with those who are eager to prove, on the basis of so many resemblances between them, that Numa was acquainted with Pythagoras. Antias, however, writes that it was twelve pontifical books, and twelve others of Greek philosophy, which were placed in the coffin. And about four hundred years afterwards, when Publius Cornelius and Marcus Baebius were consuls, heavy rains fell, and the torrent of water tore away the earth and dislodged the coffins. 22.4. Therefore we may well be indulgent with those who are eager to prove, on the basis of so many resemblances between them, that Numa was acquainted with Pythagoras. Antias, however, writes that it was twelve pontifical books, and twelve others of Greek philosophy, which were placed in the coffin. And about four hundred years afterwards, when Publius Cornelius and Marcus Baebius were consuls, heavy rains fell, and the torrent of water tore away the earth and dislodged the coffins. 22.5. When their lids had fallen off, one coffin was seen to be entirely empty, without any trace whatever of the body, but in the other the writings were found. These Petilius, who was then praetor, is said to have read, and then brought to the senate, declaring that, in his opinion, it was not lawful or proper that the writings should be published abroad. The books were therefore carried to the comitium and burned.
17. Valerius Maximus, Memorable Deeds And Sayings, 1.1.1, 1.1.8, 1.1.13-1.1.14, 1.3.3, 1.8.11 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
18. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 58.7.2 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) 58.7.2.  (for he was wont to include himself in such sacrifices), a rope was discovered coiled about the neck of the statue. Again, there was the behaviour of a statue of Fortune, which had belonged, they say, to Tullius, one of the former kings of Rome, but was at this time kept by Sejanus at his house and was a source of great pride to him:
19. Lactantius, Divine Institutes, 1.22, 1.22.1, 1.22.3, 1.22.5-1.22.8 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE) 1.22. The author and establisher of these vanities among the Romans was that Sabine king who especially engaged the rude and ignorant minds of men with new superstitions: and that he might do this with some authority, he pretended that he had meetings by night with the goddess Egeria. There was a very dark cavern in the grove of Aricia, from which flowed a stream with a never failing spring. Hither he was accustomed to withdraw himself without any witnesses, that he might be able to pretend that, by the admonition of the goddess his wife, he delivered to the people those sacred rites which were most acceptable to the gods. It is evident that he wished to imitate the craftiness of Minos, who concealed himself in the cave of Jupiter, and, after a long delay there, brought forward laws, as though delivered to him by Jupiter, that he might bind men to obedience not only by the authority of his government, but also by the sanction of religion. Nor was it difficult to persuade shepherds. Therefore he instituted pontiffs, priests, Salii, and augurs; he arranged the gods in families; and by these means he softened the fierce spirits of the new people and called them away from warlike affairs to the pursuit of peace. But though he deceived others, he did not deceive himself. For after many years, in the consulship of Cornelius and Bebius, in a field belonging to the scribe Petilius, under the Janiculum, two stone chests were found by men who were digging, in one of which was the body of Numa, in the other seven books in Latin respecting the law of the pontiffs, and the same number written in Greek respecting systems of philosophy, in which he not only annulled the religious rites which he himself had instituted, but all others also. When this was referred to the senate, it was decreed that these books should be destroyed. Therefore Quintus Petilius, the pr tor who had jurisdiction in the city, burnt them in an assembly of the people. This was a senseless proceeding; for of what advantage was it that the books were burnt, when the cause on account of which they were burnt - that they took away the authority due to religion - was itself handed down to memory? Every one then in the senate was most foolish; for the books might have been burnt, and yet the matter itself have been unknown. Thus, while they wish to prove even to posterity with what piety they defended religious institutions, they lessened the authority of the institutions themselves by their testimony. But as Pompilius was the institutor of foolish superstitions among the Romans, so also, before Pompilius, Faunus was in Latium, who both established impious rites to his grandfather Saturnus, and honoured his father Picus with a place among the gods, and consecrated his sister Fatua Fauna, who was also his wife; who, as Gabius Bassus relates, was called Fatua because she had been in the habit of foretelling their fates to women, as Faunus did to men. And Varro writes that she was a woman of such great modesty, that, as long as she lived, no male except her husband saw her or heard her name. On this account women sacrifice to her in secret, and call her the Good Goddess. And Sextus Claudius, in that book which he wrote in Greek, relates that it was the wife of Faunus who, because, contrary to the practice and honour of kings, she had drunk a jar of wine, and had become intoxicated, was beaten to death by her husband with myrtle rods. But afterwards, when he was sorry for what he had done, and was unable to endure his regret for her, he paid her divine honours. For this reason they say that a covered jar of wine is placed at her sacred rites. Therefore Faunus also left to posterity no slight error, which all that are intelligent see through. For Lucilius in these verses derides the folly of those who imagine that images are gods: The terrestrial Lami, which Faunus and Numa Pompilius and others instituted; at and these he trembles, he places everything in this. As infant boys believe that every statue of bronze is a living man, so these imagine that all things feigned are true: they believe that statues of bronze contain a heart. It is a painter's gallery; there is nothing true; all things are fictitious. The poet, indeed, compares foolish men to infants. But I say that they are much more senseless than infants. For they (infants) suppose that images are men, whereas these take them for gods: the one through their age, the others through folly, imagine that which is not true: at any rate, the one soon ceased to be deceived; the foolishness of the others is permanent, and always increases. Orpheus was the first who introduced the rites of father Liber into Greece; and he first celebrated them on a mountain of Bœotia, very near to Thebes, where Liber was born; and because this mountain continually resounded with the strains of the lyre, it was called Cith ron. Those sacred rites are even now called Orphic, in which he himself was lacerated and torn in pieces; and he lived about the same time with Faunus. But which of them was prior in age admits of doubt, since Latinus and Priam reigned during the same years, as did also their fathers Faunus and Laomedon, in whose reign Orpheus came with the Argonauts to the coast of the Trojans. Let us therefore advance further, and inquire who was really the first author of the worship of the gods. Didymus, in the books of his commentary on Pindar, says that Melisseus, king of the Cretans, was the first who sacrificed to the gods, and introduced new rites and parades of sacrifices. He had two daughters, Amalth a and Melissa, who nourished the youthful Jupiter with goats' milk and honey. Hence that poetic fable derived its origin, that bees flew to the child, and filled his mouth with honey. Moreover, he says that Melissa was appointed by her father the first priestess of the Great Mother; from which circumstance the priests of the same Mother are still called Meliss . But the sacred history testifies that Jupiter himself, when he had gained possession of power, arrived at such insolence that he built temples in honour of himself in many places. For when he went about to different lands, on his arrival in each region, he united to himself the kings or princes of the people in hospitality and friendship; and when he was departing from each, he ordered that a shrine should be dedicated to himself in the name of his host, as though the remembrance of their friendship and league could thus be preserved. Thus temples were founded in honour of Jupiter Atabyrius and Jupiter Labrandius; for Atabyrius and Labrandius were his entertainers and assistants in war. Temples were also built to Jupiter Laprius, to Jupiter Molion, to Jupiter Casius, and others, after the same manner. This was a very crafty device on his part, that he might both acquire divine honour for himself, and a perpetual name for his entertainers in conjunction with religious observances. Accordingly they were glad, and cheerfully submitted to his command, and observed annual rites and festivals for the sake of handing down their own name. Æneas did something like this in Sicily, when he gave the name of his host Acestes to a city which he had built, that Acestes might afterwards joyfully and willingly love, increase, and adorn it. In this manner Jupiter spread abroad through the world the observance of his worship, and gave an example for the imitation of others. Whether, then, the practice of worshipping the gods proceeded from Melisseus, as Didymus related, or from Jupiter also himself, as Euhemerus says, the time is still agreed upon when the gods began to be worshipped. Melisseus, indeed, was much prior in time, inasmuch as he brought up Jupiter his grandson. It is therefore possible that either before, or while Jupiter was yet a boy, he taught the worship of the gods, namely, the mother of his foster-child, and his grandmother Tellus, who was the wife of Uranus, and his father Saturnus; and he himself, by this example and institution, may have exalted Jupiter to such pride, that he afterwards ventured to assume divine honours to himself.
20. Augustine, Confessions, 1.8.13 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE)
21. Augustine, The City of God, 7.34-7.35 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) 7.34. But, on the other hand, we find, as the same most learned man has related, that the causes of the sacred rites which were given from the books of Numa Pompilius could by no means be tolerated, and were considered unworthy, not only to become known to the religious by being read, but even to lie written in the darkness in which they had been concealed. For now let me say what I promised in the third book of this work to say in its proper place. For, as we read in the same Varro's book on the worship of the gods, A certain one Terentius had a field at the Janiculum, and once, when his ploughman was passing the plough near to the tomb of Numa Pompilius, he turned up from the ground the books of Numa, in which were written the causes of the sacred institutions; which books he carried to the pr tor, who, having read the beginnings of them, referred to the senate what seemed to be a matter of so much importance. And when the chief senators had read certain of the causes why this or that rite was instituted, the senate assented to the dead Numa, and the conscript fathers, as though concerned for the interests of religion, ordered the pr tor to burn the books. Let each one believe what he thinks; nay, let every champion of such impiety say whatever mad contention may suggest. For my part, let it suffice to suggest that the causes of those sacred things which were written down by King Numa Pompilius, the institutor of the Roman rites, ought never to have become known to people or senate, or even to the priests themselves; and also that Numa him self attained to these secrets of demons by an illicit curiosity, in order that he might write them down, so as to be able, by reading, to be reminded of them. However, though he was king, and had no cause to be afraid of any one, he neither dared to teach them to any one, nor to destroy them by obliteration, or any other form of destruction. Therefore, because he was unwilling that any one should know them, lest men should be taught infamous things, and because he was afraid to violate them, lest he should enrage the demons against himself, he buried them in what he thought a safe place, believing that a plough could not approach his sepulchre. But the senate, fearing to condemn the religious solemnities of their ancestors, and therefore compelled to assent to Numa, were nevertheless so convinced that those books were pernicious, that they did not order them to be buried again, knowing that human curiosity would thereby be excited to seek with far greater eagerness after the matter already divulged, but ordered the scandalous relics to be destroyed with fire; because, as they thought it was now a necessity to perform those sacred rites, they judged that the error arising from ignorance of their causes was more tolerable than the disturbance which the knowledge of them would occasion the state. 7.35. For Numa himself also, to whom no prophet of God, no holy angel was sent, was driven to have recourse to hydromancy, that he might see the images of the gods in the water (or, rather, appearances whereby the demons made sport of him), and might learn from them what he ought to ordain and observe in the sacred rites. This kind of divination, says Varro, was introduced from the Persians, and was used by Numa himself, and at an after time by the philosopher Pythagoras. In this divination, he says, they also inquire at the inhabitants of the nether world, and make use of blood; and this the Greeks call νεκρομαντείαν . But whether it be called necromancy or hydromancy it is the same thing, for in either case the dead are supposed to foretell future things. But by what artifices these things are done, let themselves consider; for I am unwilling to say that these artifices were wont to be prohibited by the laws, and to be very severely punished even in the Gentile states, before the advent of our Saviour. I am unwilling, I say, to affirm this, for perhaps even such things were then allowed. However, it was by these arts that Pompilius learned those sacred rites which he gave forth as facts, while he concealed their causes; for even he himself was afraid of that which he had learned. The senate also caused the books in which those causes were recorded to be burned. What is it, then, to me, that Varro attempts to adduce all sorts of fanciful physical interpretations, which if these books had contained, they would certainly not have been burned? For otherwise the conscript fathers would also have burned those books which Varro published and dedicated to the high priest C sar. Now Numa is said to have married the nymph Egeria, because (as Varro explains it in the forementioned book) he carried forth water wherewith to perform his hydromancy. Thus facts are wont to be converted into fables through false colorings. It was by that hydromancy, then, that that over-curious Roman king learned both the sacred rites which were to be written in the books of the priests, and also the causes of those rites - which latter, however, he was unwilling that any one besides himself should know. Wherefore he made these causes, as it were, to die along with himself, taking care to have them written by themselves, and removed from the knowledge of men by being buried in the earth. Wherefore the things which are written in those books were either abominations of demons, so foul and noxious as to render that whole civil theology execrable even in the eyes of such men as those senators, who had accepted so many shameful things in the sacred rites themselves, or they were nothing else than the accounts of dead men, whom, through the lapse of ages, almost all the Gentile nations had come to believe to be immortal gods; while those same demons were delighted even with such rites, having presented themselves to receive worship under pretence of being those very dead men whom they had caused to be thought immortal gods by certain fallacious miracles, performed in order to establish that belief. But, by the hidden providence of the true God, these demons were permitted to confess these things to their friend Numa, having been gained by those arts through which necromancy could be performed, and yet were not constrained to admonish him rather at his death to burn than to bury the books in which they were written. But, in order that these books might be unknown, the demons could not resist the plough by which they were thrown up, or the pen of Varro, through which the things which were done in reference to this matter have come down even to our knowledge. For they are not able to effect anything which they are not allowed; but they are permitted to influence those whom God, in His deep and just judgment, according to their deserts, gives over either to be simply afflicted by them, or to be also subdued and deceived. But how pernicious these writings were judged to be, or how alien from the worship of the true Divinity, may be understood from the fact that the senate preferred to burn what Pompilius had hid, rather than to fear what he feared, so that he could not dare to do that. Wherefore let him who does not desire to live a pious life even now, seek eternal life by means of such rites. But let him who does not wish to have fellowship with malign demons have no fear for the noxious superstition wherewith they are worshipped, but let him recognize the true religion by which they are unmasked and vanquished.
22. Macrobius, Saturnalia, 1.8.5 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE)
23. Macrobius, Saturnalia, 1.8.5 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE)
24. Prudentius, Contra Symmachum, 1.501-1.505 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE)

Subjects of this text:

subject	book bibliographic info
access	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
achilles	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
action, and cult	Mackey, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022) 277
action, as ritual	Mackey, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022) 277
action, cultural	Mackey, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022) 277
action, joint	Mackey, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022) 277
aetiology	Mackey, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022) 277
ages, etruscan	Santangelo, Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond (2013) 129
alexander the great	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
astrology	Bricault and Bonnet, Panthée: Religious Transformations in the Graeco-Roman Empire (2013) 51
augustalia	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
bible	Rohmann, Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity (2016) 228
caecilia, gaia	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 171
causal opacity	Mackey, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022) 277
chaldea	Bricault and Bonnet, Panthée: Religious Transformations in the Graeco-Roman Empire (2013) 51
cicero	Mackey, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022) 277
clastidium	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
claudius marcellus, m.	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
conquers sicily, loots syracuse	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
constantinople	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
cornelius scipio africanus, p., rivalry with q. fabius maximus	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
cosmology	Konstan and Garani, The Philosophizing Muse: The Influence of Greek Philosophy on Roman Poetry (2014) 7
cult, action	Mackey, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022) 277
cult, practices	Mackey, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022) 277
cult statues (idols)	Rohmann, Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity (2016) 228
cultural learning	Mackey, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022) 277
curiosity	Rohmann, Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity (2016) 228
de iure pontificum (numa)	Mackey, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022) 277
demons	Rohmann, Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity (2016) 228
divinatory jurisprudence	Santangelo, Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond (2013) 129
exempla	Galinsky, Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity (2016) 102, 103
fabius maximus, q., captures tarentum	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
fabius maximus, q., dedicates colossal hercules on capitoline	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
fabius maximus, q.	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
four-element theory	Konstan and Garani, The Philosophizing Muse: The Influence of Greek Philosophy on Roman Poetry (2014) 7
gods/goddesses, pleasure of	Mackey, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022) 277
greece, culture appropriated by romans	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
greek, art	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
hannibal	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
hercules	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
homer, the iliad	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
impietas against, and memory	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
inference	Mackey, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022) 277
instauratio	Mackey, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022) 277
institution	Bricault and Bonnet, Panthée: Religious Transformations in the Graeco-Roman Empire (2013) 51
interpretatio	Bricault and Bonnet, Panthée: Religious Transformations in the Graeco-Roman Empire (2013) 51
janiculum	Santangelo, Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond (2013) 129
judgment day	Rohmann, Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity (2016) 228
jupiter, capitoline cult statue of	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 171
jupiter, capitolinus	Santangelo, Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond (2013) 129
knowledge, control of	Galinsky, Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity (2016) 102, 103
knowledge, role in roman religion	Galinsky, Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity (2016) 102, 103
koine	Bricault and Bonnet, Panthée: Religious Transformations in the Graeco-Roman Empire (2013) 51
luxury, attitudes towards	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
lysippus, and alexander the great	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
lysippus, his colossal hercules	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
lysippus	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
marcellus, m. claudius, consul	Galinsky, Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity (2016) 102
martyrs	Rohmann, Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity (2016) 228
mithridates vi eupator	Santangelo, Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond (2013) 129
museum, the capitoline museum	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
mysteries	Bricault and Bonnet, Panthée: Religious Transformations in the Graeco-Roman Empire (2013) 51
norms, ritual	Mackey, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022) 277
north, j.	Santangelo, Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond (2013) 129
numa	Konstan and Garani, The Philosophizing Muse: The Influence of Greek Philosophy on Roman Poetry (2014) 7; Mackey, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022) 277; Santangelo, Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond (2013) 129
numa pompilius	Galinsky, Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity (2016) 102, 103
numa popilius	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 171
numas books	Rohmann, Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity (2016) 228
objects, access to	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
ornamenta, östenberg, i.	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
orthopraxy	Mackey, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022) 277
ovid	Mackey, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022) 277
pasiteles	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 171
persecutors, persecution	Rohmann, Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity (2016) 228
petilius, q.	Santangelo, Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond (2013) 129
philosophy	Bricault and Bonnet, Panthée: Religious Transformations in the Graeco-Roman Empire (2013) 51
pietas	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 171
plutarch, on marcellus plundering of sicily	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
plutarch	Mackey, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022) 277
poetry, poets	Rohmann, Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity (2016) 228
polybius, on marcellus plundering of sicily	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
pseudo-pythagorean, pseudopythagoreanism	Konstan and Garani, The Philosophizing Muse: The Influence of Greek Philosophy on Roman Poetry (2014) 7
psychological mode, attitude	Mackey, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022) 277
pythagoreans, pythagoreanism, pythagorizing	Konstan and Garani, The Philosophizing Muse: The Influence of Greek Philosophy on Roman Poetry (2014) 7
pythagoreans	Rohmann, Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity (2016) 228
pythagorism	Bricault and Bonnet, Panthée: Religious Transformations in the Graeco-Roman Empire (2013) 51
quinctius cincinnatus, l., (quin)decemuiri s.f.	Santangelo, Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond (2013) 129
religion, roman	Mackey, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022) 277
religion (roman, pre-christian), building/dedication of temples	Galinsky, Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity (2016) 102
religion (roman, pre-christian), control of knowledge	Galinsky, Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity (2016) 102, 103
religion (roman, pre-christian)	Galinsky, Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity (2016) 102, 103
ritual, acts	Mackey, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022) 277
ritual, and imitation	Mackey, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022) 277
ritual, high-fidelity	Mackey, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022) 277
ritual, norms of	Mackey, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022) 277
roman questions (plutarch)	Mackey, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022) 277
roman religion, and orthopraxy	Mackey, Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion (2022) 277
rome, access to	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
rome, capitoline hill	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
rome, forum boarium	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 171
rome, temple of divus augustus, victoria in	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
rome, temple of fortuna	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 171
rome, temple of honos et virtus	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
rome, temple of jupiter capitolinus, cult statue of	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 171
rome, temple of mater matuta	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 171
rome, temple of saturn, cult statue of	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 171
rome	Bricault and Bonnet, Panthée: Religious Transformations in the Graeco-Roman Empire (2013) 51
romulus, his lituus	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 171
saturnalia	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 171
scheid, j.	Santangelo, Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond (2013) 129
senate, senators	Rohmann, Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity (2016) 228
senate	Santangelo, Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond (2013) 129
servius tullius, and fortuna	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 171
servius tullius, robe of	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 171
servius tullius, wooden image of	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 171
sibylline books	Santangelo, Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond (2013) 129
sicily	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
sin	Rohmann, Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity (2016) 228
statuary, colossal	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
statuary, equestrian	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
statuary, miraculous properties of	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 171
tanaquil	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 171
tarentum	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 38
tarquin the proud, commissions jupiters statue	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 171
temples, dedication'	Galinsky, Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity (2016) 102
tiberius	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 171
toga, praetexta	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 171
valerius maximus, treatment of religion	Galinsky, Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity (2016) 102, 103
valerius maximus	Galinsky, Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity (2016) 102, 103
varro	Bricault and Bonnet, Panthée: Religious Transformations in the Graeco-Roman Empire (2013) 51
vulca, and jupiter capitolinus cult statue	Rutledge, Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting (2012) 171