I. THE CONSTANTS

Roman religion had its centre in politics, military activity and public life. The gods of the Roman state, in co-operation with its political leaders, ensured Rome’s safety, prosperity and victory in war; while, on the part of men, the proper fulfilment of ritual and cult obligations ensured the gods’ continuing support of the city. Religion was not principally concerned with private morality, ethics or the conduct of the individual Roman citizen.

The support of the gods for the fortunes of Rome was direct and active. They did not merely offer remote sanction to the conduct of Rome’s political and military leaders; they intervened directly on Rome’s behalf. Sometimes this intervention occurred, on the pattern of Greek divine epiphanies, in the midst of battle – as when, according to legend, Castor and Pollux came to the Romans’ aid at the battle of Lake Regillus in 499 B.C. On other occasions the gods were seen to be active in the internal politics of the state. So Cicero claimed in his letters to Atticus that they had been involved in the suppression of the Catilinarian conspiracy, and, in the midst of Roman assemblies, a clap of thunder or other ill omen might be taken as a direct sign of divine displeasure at the proposal under discussion.

When the state fared badly, it was assumed that the gods had withheld their support. The major axioms of state religion were reversible: just as the safety of Rome depended on the co-operation of the gods, which in turn depended on the proper fulfilment of ritual, so it followed that Rome’s failures stemmed ultimately from lapses, conscious or unconscious, in the performance of cult obligations. The strength of this logic was reinforced by a series of exemplary anecdotes, such as the story of Publius Claudius Pulcher, during a naval campaign in the First Punic War; exasperated that the oracular chickens kept on his ship would not produce a favourable omen for engaging battle, he cast them overboard to their deaths; as a consequence the Romans suffered a disastrous defeat. The same logic may also be seen to have operated in a notorious form of Roman ritual punishment.