Saturnalia (31 page)

Sibylline Books
These mysterious books of prophecies were brought to Rome in legendary times and were kept by a college of priests called, in pedantic Roman fashion, the
Quin-quedecemviri
(the Fifteen Men). In times of extraordinary calamity the Senate could order a consultation of the Sybilline Books. The prophecies were usually interpreted to mean that the gods wanted a foreign deity brought to Rome. Thus Rome built a temple to Ceres, a goddess of Asia Minor, and others. When the deity was Greek, the rites remained in the Greek rather than the Roman fashion.

Soothsayers
The Roman government used two types: First were the
augurs
. These were actual officials who belonged to a college and it was a great honor for a Roman to be adopted into the College of Augurs. They interpreted omens involving heavenly signs: lightning and thunder, the flight and other behavior of birds, etc. There were strict guidelines for this and personal inspiration was not involved. An augur could call a halt to all public business while he watched for omens. The augur wore a special, striped robe called a
toga trabaea
and
carried a crook-topped staff called a
lituus
, which survives to this day as a part of the Roman Catholic bishop’s regalia.

The second type was the
haruspex
(pl.
haruspices
). These were not officials but professional soothsayers and most were Etruscans. They took omens by examining the livers and other organs of sacrificial animals. Highly educated Romans considered them fraudulent but the plebs insisted on taking the
haruspices
(the term also referred to the omens themselves) before embarking on any important public project.

Official Roman soothsayers did
not
predict the future, a practice that was, in fact, forbidden by law. Omens were taken to determine the will of the gods
at that time
. They had to be taken repeatedly because the gods could always change their minds.

SPQR
Senatus populusque Romanus
. The Senate and people of Rome. The formula embodying the sovereignty of Rome. It was used on official correspondence, documents, and public works.

Tarpeian Rock
A cliff beneath the Capitol from which traitors were hurled. It was named for the Roman maiden Tarpeia who, according to legend, betrayed the Capitol to the Sabines.

Temple of Saturn
The state treasury was located in a crypt beneath this temple. It was also the repository for military standards.

Temple of Vesta
Site of the sacred fire tended by the vestal virgins and dedicated to the goddess of the hearth. Documents, especially wills, were deposited there for safekeeping.

Toga
The outer robe of the Roman citizen. It was white for the upper class, darker for the poor and for people in mourning. The
toga praetexta
, bordered with a purple stripe, was worn by
curule
magistrates, by state priests when performing
their functions, and by boys prior to manhood. The
toga picta,
purple and embroidered with golden stars, was worn by a general when celebrating a triumph, also by a magistrate when giving public games.

Transtiber
A newer district on the left or western bank of the Tiber. It lay beyond the old city walls.

Triumvir
A member of a triumvirate—a board or college of three men. Most famously, the three-man rule of Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus. Later, the triumvirate of Antonius, Octavian, and Lepidus.

Vigiles
A night watchman. The
vigiles
had the duty of apprehending felons caught committing crimes, but their main duty was as a fire watch. They were unarmed except for staves and carried fire buckets.

Witches
The Romans recognized three types. Most common were
saga
, “wise women” who were simply herbalists and specialists in traditional cures for disease and injury. More ominous were
striga
, true witches (“strega” still means witch in modern Italian). These could cast spells, had the power of the evil eye, could lay curses, and so forth. Most feared were
venefica
“poisoners.” Ancient peoples had a supernatural dread of poison and lumped its use together with sorcery rather than pharmacology. The punishments for poisoning were dreadful even by Roman standards. The Romans associated all forms of witchcraft and magic with the Marsians, a neighbor people who spoke the Oscan dialect.