The vocabulary of ancient Roman religion was highly specialized. Its study affords important information about the religion, traditions and beliefs of the ancient Romans. This legacy is conspicuous in European cultural history in its influence on later juridical and religious vocabulary in Europe, particularly of the Christian Church.Robert Schilling, "The Decline and Survival of Roman Religion", Roman and European Mythologies (University of Chicago Press, 1982, from the French edition of 1981), p. 110 online. This glossary provides explanations of concepts as they were expressed in Latin pertaining to religious practices and beliefs, with links to articles on major topics such as priesthoods, forms of divination, and rituals.

For theonyms, or the names and epithets of gods, see List of Roman deities. For public religious holidays, see Roman festivals. For temples see the List of Ancient Roman temples. Individual landmarks of religious topography in ancient Rome are not included in this list; see Roman temple. __NOTOC__

Glossary

A

abominari

The verb abominari ("to avert an omen", from ab-, "away, off," and ominari, "to pronounce on an omen") was a term of augury for an action that rejects or averts an unfavourable omen indicated by a signum, "sign". The noun is abominatio, from which English "abomination" derives. At the taking of formally solicited auspices (auspicia impetrativa), the observer was required to acknowledge any potentially bad sign occurring within the templum he was observing, regardless of the interpretation.Jerzy Linderski, "The Augural Law", Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.16 (1982), p. 2266, note 472. He might, however, take certain actions in order to ignore the signa, including avoiding the sight of them, and interpreting them as favourable. The latter tactic required promptness, wit and skill based on discipline and learning.J. Bayet Histoire politique et psychologique de la religion romaine Paris, 1969, p. 55. Thus the omen had no validity apart from the observation of it.Synonyms for abominari include improbare, execrari, and refutare, with instances noted by Cicero, De divinatione 1.46; Livy, 1.7, 5.55, 9.14, and 29.29; and Servius, note to Aeneid 5.530; Auguste Bouché-Leclercq, Histoire de la divination dans l'antiquité (Jérôme Millon, 2003 reprint, originally published 1893), pp. 136–137.

aedes The aedes was the dwelling place of a god.Robert Schilling, "Roman Gods", Roman and European Mythologies (University of Chicago Press, 1992, from the French edition of 1981), p. 72. It was thus a structure that housed the deity's image, distinguished from the templum or sacred district.John W. Stamper, The Architecture of Roman Temples: The Republic to the Middle Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 10. Aedes is one of several Latin words that can be translated as "shrine" or "temple"; see also delubrum and fanum. For instance, the Temple of Vesta, as it is called in English, was in Latin an aedes.Mary Beard, Simon Price, John North, Religions of Rome: Volume 1, a History, illustrated, Cambridge University Press, 1998. p. 22. See also the diminutive aedicula, a small shrine.

In his work On Architecture, Vitruvius always uses the word templum in the technical sense of a space defined through augury, with aedes the usual word for the building itself.Morris H. Morgan, Notes on Vitruvius Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 17 (1903, pp. 12–14). The design of a deity's aedes, he writes, should be appropriate to the characteristics of the deity. For a celestial deity such as Jupiter, Coelus, Sol or Luna, the building should be open to the sky; an aedes for a god embodying virtus (valour), such as Minerva, Mars, or Hercules, should be Doric and without frills; the Corinthian order is suited for goddesses such as Venus, Flora, Proserpina and the Lymphae; and the Ionic is a middle ground between the two for Juno, Diana, and Father Liber. Thus in theory, though not always in practice, architectural aesthetics had a theological dimension.Vitruvius, De architectura 1.2.5; John E. Stambaugh, "The Functions of Roman Temples," Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.16.1 (1978), p. 561.

The word aedilis (aedile), a public official, is related by etymology; among the duties of the aediles was the overseeing of public works, including the building and maintenance of temples.Andrew Lintott, The Constitution of the Roman Republic (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999, reprinted 2002), pp. 129–130; Karl Loewenstein, The Governance of Rome (Martinus Nijhoff, 1973), p. 62. The temple (aedes) of Flora, for instance, was built in 241 BC by two aediles acting on Sibylline oracles. The plebeian aediles had their headquarters at the aedes of Ceres.Lawrence Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), pp. 80–81 on Ceres, p. 151 on Flora; see also Barbette Stanley Spaeth, The Roman Goddess Ceres (University of Texas Press, 1996), p. 86ff.

ager In religious usage, ager (territory, country, land, region) was terrestrial space defined for the purposes of augury in relation to auspicia. There were five kinds of ager: Romanus, Gabinus, peregrinus, hosticus and incertus. The ager Romanus originally included the urban space outside the pomerium and the surrounding countryside.J. Linderski Augural law in ANRW pp. According to Varro, the ager Gabinus pertained to the special circumstances of the oppidum of Gabii, which was the first to sign a sacred treaty (pax) with Rome.Varro, De lingua latina 5.33. See also Roger D. Woodard, Indo-European Sacred Space: Vedic and Roman Cult (Chicago 2006), pp. 236-238. The treaty was preserved in the temple of Semo Sancus. The ager peregrinusFor usage of the term peregrinus, compare also the status of a person who was peregrinus. was other territory that had been brought under treaty (pacatus). Ager hosticus meant foreign territory; incertus, "uncertain" or "undetermined," that is, not falling into one of the four defined categories.Varro, De lingua latina 5.33. The powers and actions of magistrates were based on and constrained by the nature of the ager on which they stood, and ager in more general usage meant a territory as defined legally or politically. The ager Romanus could not be extended outside Italy (terra Italia).Livy 27.5.15 and 29.5; P. Catalano, Aspetti spaziali del sistema giuridico-religioso romano, Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.16.1 (1978), pp. 529 ff.

ara

The focal point of sacrifice was the altar (ara, plural arae). Most altars throughout the city of Rome and in the countryside would have been simple, open-air structures; they may have been located within a sacred precinct (templum), but often without an aedes housing a cult image.Mary Beard, J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, Religions of Rome: A Sourcebook (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 83. An altar that received food offerings might also be called a mensa, "table."Ulrike Egelhaaf-Gaiser, "Roman Cult Sites: A Pragmatic Approach," in A Companion to Roman Religion (Blackwell, 2007), p. 206.

Perhaps the best-known Roman altar is the elaborate and Greek-influenced Ara Pacis, which has been called "the most representative work of Augustan art."Karl Galinsky, Augustan Culture: An Interpretive Introduction (Princeton University Press, 1996), p. 141. Other major public altars included the Ara Maxima.

arbor felix

Some trees were felix and others infelix. A tree (arbor) was categorized as felix if it was under the protection of the heavenly gods (di superi). The adjective felix here means not only literally "fruitful" but more broadly "auspicious". MacrobiusMacrobius III 20, 2, quoting Veranius in his lost work De verbis pontificalibus. lists arbores felices (plural) as the oak (four species thereof), the birch, the hazelnut, the sorbus, the white fig, the pear, the apple, the grape, the plum, the cornus and the lotus. The oak was sacred to Jupiter, and twigs of oak were used by the Vestals to ignite the sacred fire in March every year. Also among the felices were the olive tree, a twig of which was affixed to the hat of the Flamen Dialis, and the laurel and the poplar, which crowned the Salian priests.Macrobius III 12

Arbores infelices were those under the protection of chthonic gods or those gods who had the power of turning away misfortune (avertentium). As listed by Tarquitius Priscus in his lost ostentarium on trees,Quoted by Macrobius, Saturnalia 3.20. these were buckthorn, red cornel, fern, black fig, "those that bear a black berry and black fruit," holly, woodland pear, butcher's broom, briar, and brambles."These are the modern English identifications of Robert A. Kaster in his translation of the Saturnalia for the Loeb Classical Library; in Latin, alternum sanguinem filicem, ficum atram, quaeque bacam nigram nigrosque fructus ferunt, itemque acrifolium, pirum silvaticum, pruscum rubum sentesque. On the textual issues raised by the passage, see Kaster, Studies on the Text of Macrobius' Saturnalia (Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 48.

attrectare The verb attrectare ("to touch, handle, lay hands on") referred in specialized religious usage to touching sacred objects while performing cultic actions. Attrectare had a positive meaning only in reference to the actions of the sacerdotes populi Romani ("priests of the Roman people"). It had the negative meaning of "contaminate" (= contaminare) or pollute when referring to the handling of sacred objects by those not authorized, ordained, or ritually purified.Vergil Aeneid II 717-720; Macrobius III 1, 1; E. Paratore Virgilio, Eneide I, Milano, 1978, p. 360 and n. 52; Livy V 22, 5; R. G. Austin P. Vergili Maronis Aeneidos liber secundus Oxford 1964, p. 264

augur An augur (Latin plural augures) was an official and priest who solicited and interpreted the will of the gods regarding a proposed action. The augur ritually defined a templum, or sacred space, declared the purpose of his consultation, offered sacrifice, and observed the signs that were sent in return, particularly the actions and flight of birds. If the augur received unfavourable signs, he could suspend, postpone or cancel the undertaking (obnuntiatio). "Taking the auspices" was an important part of all major official business, including inaugurations, senatorial debates, legislation, elections and war, and was held to be an ancient prerogative of Regal and patrician magistrates. Under the Republic, this right was extended to other magistrates. After 300 BC, plebeians could become augurs.

auguraculum The solicitation of formal auspices required the marking out of ritual space (auguraculum) from within which the augurs observed the templum, including the construction of an augural tent or hut (tabernaculum). There were three such sites in Rome: on the citadel (arx), on the Quirinal Hill, and on the Palatine Hill. Festus said that originally the auguraculum was in fact the arx. It faced east, situating the north on the augur's left or lucky side.William Warde Fowler, The Religious Experience of the Roman People (London, 1922), p. 209. A magistrate who was serving as a military commander also took daily auspices, and thus a part of camp-building while on campaign was the creation of a tabernaculum augurale. This augural tent was the center of religious and legal proceedings within the camp.John Scheid, An Introduction to Roman Religion (Indiana University Press, 2003), pp. 113–114; Jerzy Linderski, "The Augural Law", Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.16 (1986), pp. 2164–2288, especially p. 2174 on the military auguraculum.

augurium