The History of Rome, Book I: The Period Anterior to the Abolition of the MonarchyMommsen, Theodor
History
The History of Rome, Book I: The Period Anterior to the Abolition of the Monarchy
Mommsen, Theodor
Rome -- History
The Roman world of gods, as we have already indicated,(1) was a
higher counterpart, an ideal reflection, of the earthly Rome, in
which the little and the great were alike repeated with painstaking
exactness. The state and the clan, the individual phenomenon of
nature as well as the individual mental operation, every man, every
place and object, every act even falling within the sphere of Roman
law, reappeared in the Roman world of gods; and, as earthly things
come and go in perpetual flux, the circle of the gods underwent
a corresponding fluctuation. The tutelary spirit, which presided
over the individual act, lasted no longer than that act itself: the
tutelary spirit of the individual man lived and died with the man;
and eternal duration belonged to divinities of this sort only in
so far as similar acts and similarly constituted men and therefore
spirits of a similar kind were ever coming into existence afresh.
As the Roman gods ruled over the Roman community, so every foreign
community was presided over by its own gods; but sharp as was the
distinction between the burgess and non-burgess, between the Roman
and the foreign god, both foreign men and foreign divinities could
be admitted by resolution of the community to the freedom of Rome,
and when the citizens of a conquered city were transported to Rome,
the gods of that city were also invited to take up their new abode
there.
Oldest Table of Roman Festivals
We obtain information regarding the original cycle of the gods, as
it stood in Rome previous to any contact with the Greeks, from the
list of the public and duly named festival-days (-feriae publicae-)
of the Roman community, which is preserved in its calendar and is
beyond all question the oldest document which has reached us from
Roman antiquity. The first place in it is occupied by the gods
Jupiter and Mars along with the duplicate of the latter, Quirinus.
To Jupiter all the days of full moon (-idus-) are sacred, besides
all the wine-festivals and various other days to be mentioned
afterwards; the 21st May (-agonalia-) is dedicated to his counterpart,
the "bad Jovis" (-Ve-diovis-). To Mars belongs the new-year of the
1st March, and generally the great warrior-festival in this month
which derived its very name from the god; this festival, introduced
by the horse-racing (-equirria-) on the 27th February, had during
March its principal solemnities on the days of the shield-forging
(-equirria- or -Mamuralia-, March 14), of the armed dance at the
Comitium (-quinquatrus-, March 19), and of the consecration of
trumpets (-tubilustrium-, March 23). As, when a war was to be waged,
it began with this festival, so after the close of the campaign
in autumn there followed a further festival of Mars, that of
the consecration of arms (-armilustrium-, October 19). Lastly,
to the second Mars, Quirinus, the 17th February was appropriated
(-Quirinalia-). Among the other festivals those which related to
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