Chapter 13 Flashcards
Marcus Valerius, son of Marcus, praetor, and the tribunes and the senate (of Rome) send greetings to the boule and the demos of Teos. Your decree was delivered to us by Mennipos, the envoy of king Antiochus, whom you had also selected as your envoy and who spoke to us enthusiastically in accordance with your decree. We received him well because of his previous repute and current good standing and looked on his requests with favour. The fact that we have, absolutely and consistently, placed reverence towards the gods as of the first importance is proved by the favour we have received from them on this account. In addition, we are quite certain for many other reasons that our high respect for the divine has been evident to everybody. Because of these considerations, and because of our goodwill towards you and towards the envoy who presented your request, we declare your city and its territory holy - as it already is - inviolable and free from taxation by the Roman people; we will seek to improve both honours towards the god (Dionysos) and privileges for you, so long as you are careful to maintain your goodwill towards us in the future. Farewell.
IGR IV.1557; Sylloge 601; This is a Greek inscription from the
Republican period. Interestingly, since the god honoured in
Dionysus, it is not much
before the Bacchanalian decree in Rome. The text shows how the Romans could parade their own religiousness in dealings with foreign states– claiming that it was partly at least for religious reasons that they were agreeing to the Tean requests. But the last clause makes the continuation of Roman favour, towards gods and men alike, conditional on the good conduct of the men of Teos.
The respect in which the Roman constitution is most markedly superior is in their behaviour towards the gods. It is, I think, the very thing that brings reproach amongst other peoples that binds the Roman state together: I mean their superstitiousness. For nothing could exceed the extent to which this aspect both of their private lives and of their public occasions is dramatized and elaborated. Many would find this astonishing. To me at least it seems clear that all this has been done for the sake of the common people. For if you could form a state entirely out of wise men, then perhaps it would not be necessary to adopt this course. But since the mass of every people is fickle and full of lawless desires, irrational anger and violent impulses, it is essential that they should be restrained by invisible terrors and suchlike melodramas. That is why I do not accept that the ancients were acting irrationally or at random when they introduced the notion of the gods or ideas about the terrors of Hades; it is rather our contemporaries who are being rash and unreasonable in banishing these. The result apart from anything else is that those in authority amongst the Greeks are unable to keep their faith, even if only entrusted with a single talent (of money), and given ten copyists, as many seals and twice as many witnesses; whereas Roman magistrates and legates behave properly, even when they are dealing with huge sums of money, simply because they have pledged their faith by oath.
Polybius, The Histories 6.56-6.14; Polybius, writing in Greek under the Republic, describes the Romans as superstitious rather than religious, but sees this as useful under the circumstances. The language is of theatre. Clearly there is a class distinction between the elite and the people. He treats it principally as an elite device for manipulating the superstitious masses; although he then strikingly contradicts his own theories by showing that pious behaviour was also characteristic of leading members of the ruling elite themselves. The wise men are clearly educated, upper-class people, and apparently philosophers.
From Diognetus: to avoid idle enthusiasms; to disbelieve the utterances of miracle-workers and magicians about incantations and exorcisms of spirits and suchlike; not to be a quail-fancier or to be excited about such things; to put up with frank speaking; to become familiar with philosophy and to listen first to the words of Baccheius, then of Tandasis and Marcian; to write dialogues in childhood; to long for a camp bed and a pelt and the other things which are part of Greek training.
Marcus Aurelius, Communing with Himself 1.6: In this passage, he is expressing gratitude to his many tutors (here for leading him away from superstition and toward philosophy). Here, Marcus lists ‘magic’ among a range of characteristics he had learnt to avoid.
The gods’ work is full of providence: the work of fortune is not divorced from nature or the spinning and the winding of the threads ordained by providence. Everything flows from the other world; and there is in addition necessity and the well-being of the whole universe, of which you are a part. To every part of nature a good is brought by the nature of the whole, and preserved that nature; the world is preserved as much by the changes of the compound bodies as by those of their individual elements. Let this be sufficient for you; let those always be your doctrines. Put aside your thirst for books, so that you may not die muttering, but truly reconciled and grateful from your heart to the gods.
Marcus Aurelius, Communing with Himself 2.3: In this passage, Marcus reviews some of the main elements of Stoic philosophy: providence, fortune, necessity, nature, and the gods. Emphasis on gratitude toward the gods– acceptance of what they give rather than trying to change it.
‘Live with the gods.’ He is living with the gods who continuously displays his soul to them, as content with what they have apportioned, as doing what is willed by the spirit, the portion of himself which Zeus has given each person to lead and guide him. And this spirit is each person’s mind and reason.
Marcus Aurelius, Communing with Himself 5.27: Mind and reason as given by the gods: reason is divine, the religious act is simply reasonable.
The gods are either powerless or powerful. If they are not powerful, why do you pray? But if they are powerful, why not rather pray for the gift of not fearing any of these things, or of not desiring any of them, or of not feeling grief for any of them, rather than that any one of them should be absent or present? For surely, if the (gods) can co-operate with human, they can cooperate to these ends. But perhaps you will say: ‘The gods put these things in my power.’ Then is it not better to use what is in your power with a free spirit than to be concerned with what is not in your power in a spirit of slavery and abjection? And who said to you that the gods did not cooperate with us, even in relation to things in our power? Begin at least to pray about these things and you will see. This man prays ‘How may I sleep with this woman?’ You should pray: ‘How may I not desire to sleep with that woman?’ Another prays: ‘How may I be rid of that man?’ You should pray: ‘How may I not wish to be rid of him?’ Another prays: ‘How may I not lose my child?’ You should pray: ‘How may I not be afraid of losing him?’ Turn your prayers round in this way and observe what happen.
Marcus Aurelius, Communing with Himself 9.40: Marcus argues that prayer is properly connected with our own attitudes, not particular benefits or rewards. Very different from the idea of prayer as simply saying the right words. The evidence would suggest that Marcus Aurelius prayed in the traditional Roman way at sacrifices, but here he urges himself to pray in a philosophical (Stoic) way when he is alone.
A contrast to the prayers in the curse tablets, which are also secret but not in line with any obvious idea of virtue.
Another prays: ‘How may I be rid of that man?’ You should pray: ‘How may I not wish to be rid of him?’ Another prays: ‘How may I not lose my child?’ You should pray: ‘How may I not be afraid of losing him?’ Turn your prayers round in this way and observe what happens.
Marcus Aurelius, Communing with Himself 9.40: Philosophers associate the gods with the virtues. Interestingly, Marcus Aurelius, who is a philosopher encourages himself to do what Cicero’s Cotta (2 centuries earlier). Prayer is properly concerned with our own attitudes, not particular benefits or awards.
Let them approach the deities chastely, let them show piety, let them set aside their wealth. To anyone who acts otherwise, the god himself shall be the avenger.
* Let no one have gods of their own, neither new ones nor from abroad, unless introduced to Rome publicly; let their private worship be for those gods whose worship they have duly received from their fathers.
* In towns let them have shrines. In the countryside, let them have groves and places for the Lares.
* Let them preserve the rituals of their families and of their fathers.
* Let them worship as deities those who have always been recognized as heavenly beings; and those who have won a place in heaven through their merits, such as Hercules, Liber, Aesculapius, Castor, Pollux and Quirinus; and those qualities through which men may gain access to heaven- Mens (Mind), Virtus (Virtue), Pietas (Piety), Fides (Faith); of these virtues let there be shrines, but none of any of the vices.
Cicero, On the Laws II.19-22: This is a view of Roman religion which is clearly influenced by Greek philosophy but also conservative on questions of form (limits on introducing new gods). Cicero offers a ‘religious constitution’ of his ideal state – which amounts to an idealized version of the Roman religious institutions of his own day. Because of that idealization it is probably an unreliable guide to day-to-day contemporary religious practice; but it shows how a Roman commentator could reflect on his own religious system as a whole.
Let them observe the established religious ceremonies.
* At the festivals, let them refrain from litigation. Let them celebrate these with their slaves after their work is finished. Let the cycle of festivals be so established that they fall at annual intervals. Let the priests offer publicly the prescribed grains and fruits according to prescribed rituals on prescribed days; let them also keep for other days the rich surplus of milk and of animal births. And so that nothing should be omitted of these rites, let the priests determine the system for their annual rotation; let them also define which victims shall be proper and pleasing to each deity.
* Let there be priests for the different deities, the pontifices for all of them, the flamines for single ones. Let the Vestal Virgins in the city guard the eternal flame for the public hearth.
* By what means and by what sacrifices, whether private or public, should be performed, let those who do not know, learn from the public priests.
Cicero, On the Laws II.19-22: This gives a great deal of power to the priests (and perhaps obscures the fact that other bodies like the senate also had power in religious matters, though the senators often were priests as well).
Let there be no nocturnal sacrifices by women except for those offered in proper form on the people’s behalf. Nor let there be initiations except into the Greek cult of Ceres.
* Let sacrileges committed that cannot be expiated be deemed impious. Whatever can be expiated, let the public priests expiate.
* At the public games, those that do not involve chariot racing or bodily conflict, let them regulate the provision of public pleasure with moderate song and music of harps and flutes, and let that be conjoined with the honouring of the gods.
* From the ancestral rites, let them cultivate the best.
* Except for the servants of the Magna Mater - and they only on their fixed days - let no one beg for contribution
Cicero, On the Laws II.19-22: Roman religion was generally not quite this restrictive on religious groups.
