The Religion of Numa

The Religion of Numa

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Title: The Religion of Numa And Other Essays on the Religion of
Ancient Rome
Author: Jesse Benedict Carter
Release Date: April 21, 2006 [EBook #18222]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE RELIGION OF NUMA
AND OTHER ESSAYS ON THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME
BY JESSE BENEDICT CARTER

London MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED NEW YORK: THE
MACMILLAN COMPANY 1906
All rights reserved

TO
K.F.C.

PREFACE
This little book tries to tell the story of the religious life of the Romans
from the time when their history begins for us until the close of the
reign of Augustus. Each of its five essays deals with a distinct period
and is in a sense complete in itself; but the dramatic development
inherent in the whole forbids their separation save as acts or chapters.
In spite of modern interest in the study of religion, Roman religion has
been in general relegated to specialists in ancient history and classics.
This is not surprising for Roman religion is not prepossessing in
appearance, but though it is at first sight incomparably less attractive
than Greek religion, it is, if properly understood, fully as interesting,
nay, even more so. In Mr. W. Warde Fowler's Roman Festivals
however the subject was presented in all its attractiveness, and if the
present book shall serve as a simple introduction to his larger work, its
purpose will have been fulfilled.
No one can write of Roman religion without being almost inestimably
indebted to Georg Wissowa whose Religion und Cultus der Römer is
the best systematic presentation of the subject. It was the author's
privilege to be Wissowa's pupil, and much that is in this book is
directly owing to him, and even the ideas that are new, if there are any
good ones, are only the bread which he cast upon the waters returning
to him after many days.
The careful student of the history of the Romans cannot doubt the

psychological reality of their religion, no matter what his personal
metaphysics may be. It is the author's hope that these essays may have
a human interest because he has tried to emphasise this reality and to
present the Romans as men of like passions to ourselves, in spite of all
differences of time and race.
Hearty thanks are due to Mr. W. Warde Fowler and to Mr. Albert W.
Van Buren for their great kindness in reading the proofs; and the
dedication of the book is at best a poor return for the help which my
wife has given me.
J.B.C. ROME, November, 1905.

CONTENTS
PAGE
THE RELIGION OF NUMA 1
THE REORGANISATION OF SERVIUS 27
THE COMING OF THE SIBYL 62
THE DECLINE OF FAITH 104
THE AUGUSTAN RENAISSANCE 146

THE RELIGION OF NUMA
Rome forms no exception to the general rule that nations, like
individuals, grow by contact with the outside world. In the middle of
the five centuries of her republic came the Punic wars and the intimate
association with Greece which made the last half of her history as a
republic so different from the first half; and in the kingdom, which
preceded the republic, there was a similar coming of foreign influence,
which made the later kingdom with its semi-historical names of the

Tarquins and Servius Tullius so different from the earlier kingdom with
its altogether legendary Romulus, Numa, Tullus Hostilius and Ancus
Martius. We have thus four distinct phases in the history of Roman
society, and a corresponding phase of religion in each period; and if we
add to this that new social structure which came into being by the
reforms of Augustus at the beginning of the empire, together with the
religious changes which accompanied it, we shall have the five periods
which these five essays try to describe: the period before the Tarquins,
that is the "Religion of Numa"; the later kingdom, that is the
"Reorganisation of Servius"; the first three centuries of the republic,
that is the "Coming of the Sibyl"; the closing centuries of the republic,
that is the "Decline of Faith"; and finally the early empire and the
"Augustan Renaissance." Like all attempts to cut history into sections
these divisions are more or less arbitrary, but their convenience
sufficiently justifies their creation. They must be thought