Raphael Kahn
Latin 3, Period 7
5/26/14
Roman
Sacrificing
Roman sacrifices were held so that Romans could repay the
spirits that they had invoked. For instance, in order to repay Mother Earth for
harvesting crops, the Romans held the annual spring festival of the Fordicidia. In this festival, they would
kill a pregnant cow and make a burnt sacrifice of her aborted calf, in order to
transfer the cow’s fertility to the earth. Sacrifices could also be used to
symbolize the transfer of ownership. The typical sacrifice was performed
through four phases: the praefatio,
the immolatio, the slaughtering, and
the banquet. In the praefatio, after
the purification of the participants and victims, a procession led them to the altar
of sacrificing. In the immolatio,
wine was poured on the victim’s face and salted flour was sprinkled on the
victims back. In the slaughtering, the victim was killed, butchered, and had
its corpse opened up for the inspection of its vital organs. If the quality of
the organs were deemed unsatisfactory, the sacrifice was held again. In the
banquet, the victim was beheaded and the vital organs were set aside and
prepared for offering. The method of preparation depended on what type of
animal the victim was. After the vital organs were prepared, they were offered
to the deity for whom the sacrifice had been conducted for. The manner of
offering depended on which deity it was. For example, the offerings were thrown
into the water for an aquatic deity. After the offerings were given to the
deity, the rest if the victim was prepared for human consumption. While Romans
were perfectly content to sacrifice all manner of creatures, fruits, vegetables,
and even inanimate objects such as necklaces and bracelets, they abhorred human
sacrifice. The Roman government did not tolerate human sacrifice, and by extension,
did not tolerate Gaulish Druids. In Pliny the Elder’s writing, he denounces the
nature of the Druids as barbaric for their belied in human sacrificing.
While some people may have deemed the ancient Romans as
barbaric for their conquering, slavery, and sacrificing, they did hold high
standards for their time. They allowed more freedom of religion then was
expected for their time period, they allowed slaves to earn their freedom, and
they abhorred and outlawed human sacrificing. There is even a story about a man
who, in order to please the gods, sacrificed his son. To do this, he killed his
son, mutilated him, made him into a soup, and served it to the gods. Jupiter,
finding this disgusting, sent the man to the underworld as punishment and
reanimated the son. Yes, the ancient Romans had some questionable customs, but
hey-at least they were not Druids.
Sources:
- The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization edited by Simon Hornblower and Anthony Spawforth
- A History of the Roman People by Allen M. Ward, Fritz M. Heichelheim, and Cedric A. Yeo
- Google images
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