[Davis Introduction]:
To Numa, the traditional second king of Rome (assumed dates 715 to 673 B.C.)
later ages attributed many of the religious usages of the city. We may dismiss Numa as
legendary; but the institutions and customs ascribed to him were not legendary, and
survived nearly intact down to the triumph of Christianity, thus illustrating the
essentially conservative character of the Roman genius. Note that the old Roman religion
was almost formalism incarnate. The relations of god and worshiper are those of creditor
and debtor [i.e., "Do ut des" -- Arkenberg]; the latter must discharge
his duty literally, and in exchange require a due amount of favor. Almost no religion was
so deficient in spirituality as that of Rome. It did, however, put a premium on the
scrupulous performance of duty.
Plutarch, Life of Numa, ix-xiv, xix-xx:
The original constitution of the priests, called Pontifices, is ascribed unto
Numa, and he himself was, it is said, the first of them; and that they have the name of Pontifices from potens, powerful, because they attend the service of the gods, who have power
and command over all. The most common opinion is the most absurd, which derives this word
from pons, and assigns the priests the title of "bridge-makerrs" [Davis:
Nevertheless this seems the probable origin of the word. The Pontifices are said to have
had the making or maintenance of the Sublician bridge built over the Tiber by Ancus
Marcius]. The sacrifices performed on the bridge were amongst the most sacred and
ancient, and the keeping and repairing of the bridge attached, like any other public
sacred office, to the priesthood. It was accounted not simply unlawful, but a positive
sacrilege, to pull down the wooden bridge; which moreover is said, in obedience to an
oracle, to have been built entirely of timber and fastened with wooden pins, without nails
or cramps of iron. The stone bridge was built a very long time after, when Aemilius was
quaestor, and they do, indeed, say also that the wooden bridge was not so old as Numa's
time. . . .
The office of Pontifex Maximus, or chief priest, was to declare and interpret
the divine law . . . he not only prescribed rules for public ceremony, but regulated the
sacrifices of private persons, not suffering them to vary from established custom, and
giving information to everyone of what was requisite for purposes of worship or
supplication. He was also guardian of the vestal virgins, the institution of whom, and of
their perpetual fire, was attributed to Numa, who, perhaps, fancied the charge of pure and
uncorrupted flames would be fitly entrusted to chaste and unpolluted persons, or that
fire, which consumes but produces nothing, bears an analogy to the virgin estate.
Some are of opinion that these vestals had no other business than the preservation of
this fire; but others conceive that they were keepers of other divine secrets, concealed
from all but themselves. Gegania and Verenia, it is recorded, were the names of the first
two virgins consecrated and ordained by Numa; Canuleia and Tarpeia succeeded; Servius
Tullius afterwards added two, and the number of four has been continued to the present
time.
The statutes prescribed by Numa for the vestals were these: that they should take a vow
of virginity for the space of thirty years, the first ten of which they were to spend in
learning their duties, the second ten in performing them, and the remaining ten in
teaching and instructing others. Thus the whole term being completed, it was lawful for
them to marry, and leaving the sacred order, to choose any condition of life that pleased
them. But, of this permission, few, as they say, made use; and in cases where they did so,
it was observed that their change was not a happy one, but accompanied ever after with
regret and melancholy; so that the greater number, from religious fears and scruples
forbore, and continued to old age and death in the strict observance of a single life.
For this condition he compensated by great privileges and prerogatives; as that they
had power to make a will in the lifetime of their father; that they had a free
administration of their own affairs without guardian or tutor, which was the privilege of
women who were the mothers of three children; when they go abroad, they have the fasces carried before them; and if in their walks they chance to meet a criminal on his way to
execution, it saves his life, upon oath being made that the meeting was accidental, and
not concerted or of set purpose. Any one who presses upon the chair on which they are
carried is put to death.
If these vestals commit any minor fault, they are punishable by the Pontifex Maximus
only, who scourges the offender, sometimes with her clothes off, in a dark place, with a
curtain drawn between; but she that has broken her vow is buried alive near the gate
called Collina, where a little mound of earth stands inside the city reaching some
little distance, called in Latin agger; under it a narrow room is constructed, to
which a descent is made by stairs; here they prepare a bed, and light a lamp, and leave a
small quantity of victuals, such as bread, water, a pail of milk, and some oil; that so
that body which had been consecrated and devoted to the most sacred service of religion
might not be said to perish by such a death as famine. The culprit herself is put in a
litter, which they cover over, and tie her down with cords on it, so that nothing she
utters may be heard. They then take her to the forum; all people silently go out of the
way as she passes, and such as follow accompany the bier with solemn and speechless
sorrow; and, indeed, there is not any spectacle more appalling, nor any day observed by
the city with greater appearance of gloom and sadness. When they come to the place of
execution, the officers loose the cords, and then the Pontifex Maximus, lifting his hands
to heaven, pronounces certain prayers to himself before the act; then he brings out the
prisoner, being still covered, and placing her upon the steps that lead down to the cell,
turns away his face with the rest of the priests; the stairs are drawn up after she has
gone down, and a quantity of earth is heaped up over the entrance to the cell, so as to
prevent it from being distinguished from the rest of the mound. This is the punishment of
those who break their vow of virginity.
[Davis: From Numa's day also were dated twelve sacred targets of bronze,
said to have the virtue of guarding the city from pestilence]. The keeping of
these targets was committed to the charge of certain priests, called Salii, who
received their name from that jumping dance which the Salii themselves use, when in
the month of March they carry the sacred targets through the city; at which procession
they are habited in short frocks of purple, girt with a broad belt studded with brass; on
their heads they wear a brass helmet, and carry in their hands short daggers, which they
clash every now and then against the targets. But the chief thing is the dance itself.
They move with much grace, performing, in quick time and close order, various intricate
figures, with a great display of strength and agility. The targets are not made round, nor
like proper targets, of a complete circumference, but are cut out into a wavy line, the
ends of which are rounded off and turned in at the thickest part towards each other.
After Numa had in this manner instituted these several orders of priests, he erected,
near the temple of Vesta, what is called to this day the Regia, or king's house,
where he spent the most part of his time, performing divine service, instructing the
priests, or conversing with them on sacred subjects. He had another house upon the Mount
Quirinalis, the site of which they show to this day. In all public processions and solemn
prayers, criers were sent before to give notice to the people that they should forbear
their work, and rest [Davis: The people were not bound to stop working on religious
holidays; but the priests must not see them work. Therefore, the crier
was sent ahead when the priests passed to warn the people to cease their labor just for
the moment. Anyone beheld working by the priest was subject to a fine].
January was so called from [the god] Janus, and precedence given to it by Numa
before March, which was dedicated to the god Mars; because, as I conceive, he wished to
take every opportunity of intimating that the arts and studies of peace are to be
preferred before those of war. For this Janus, whether in remote antiquity he were a
demi-god or a king, was certainly a great lover of civil and social unity, and one who
reclaimed men from brutal and savage living; for which reason they figure him with two
faces, to represent the two states and conditions out of the one of which he brought
mankind to lead them into the other. His temple at Rome has two gates, which they call the
Gates of War, because they stand open in the time of war, and shut in the times of peace;
of which latter there was very seldom an example, for, as the Roman state was enlarged and
extended, it was so encompassed with barbarous nations and enemies to be resisted that it
was seldom or never at peace. Only in the time of Augustus Caesar, after he had overcome
Antony, this temple was shut; as likewise once before, when Marcus Atilius and Titus
Manlius were consuls [Davis: in 235 B.C., shortly after the close of the First Punic
War]; but then it was not long before, wars breaking out, the gates were again
opened. But, during the reign of Numa, those gates were never seen open a single day, but
continued constantly shut for a space of forty-three years together; such an entire and
universal cessation of war existed [Davis: the reign of Numa was regularly looked back
upon as a kind of a golden age].
