Curriculum for the Religio Romana

[Horatius Piscinus]

Salvete comreligiones

Some days ago I posted this at Triclinium in response to an inquiry. I have not yet fully developed an idea on providing a course of study for the Religio Romana. This post represents some of my early thoughts, but it is a start and should be of interest for all those interested in learning about the religio.


"Lares, gods of my fathers, preserve me!
While young and still nursing, you guided me when I played at your feet." (Tibullus I.x.15)

At a makeshift altar of built-up turf, young Gaius? family had come to meet with their gruff neighbor, Aulius Curius. Atop this altar Gaius? father and the other man had built a frame of sticks. His mother and another woman each held out lebetes, deep basins in which they each carried hot coals from their respective hearths. The coals were placed in the wooden frame, and more kindling was added until a flame arose in the focus. Curius and Gaius? father then each placed a wreath of laurel on the altar, their sweet scent and crackling sounds filled the air. Urged forward by his mother, Gaius brought a basket of the fruits to the altar. His sister Titia then shook out an offering from his basket into the fire. Titia next took honey-cakes from a patella, careful not to handle or drop any as each was offered into the flame. The other members of Gaius? family, and Curius as well, then poured offerings of wine to Terminus. Lamb and a suckling pig were slaughtered, their blood poured as another libation, and the meat roasted for a feast among the neighbors. It was the first time that young Gaius had participated in a ritual outside his family?s house, in front of strangers. He was quite pleased by his performance, as everyone else seemed to be, too. And Aulius Curius no longer seemed so gruff, as he and Gaius? father held a jovial argument about how much wine Gaius should be allowed to drink. Gaius beamed from all the watered wine that Curius let him sip. Then sitting in Curius? lap, his head pressed against the old man?s chest, Gaius fell fast asleep while listening to the rhythm of a strong heartbeat.

Through such ceremonies, from the moment they are born, children learn the traditions of their families. At first, on the day they are born, they are only half-aware of their fathers lifting them into the air towards the gods, presenting them to the rest of the family. They are unaware of their uncles performing rites outside their house, by which they are protected from the wiles of Faunus. As they grow older they will join with their family before hearth and lararium to offer prayers each day to the family ancestors and to the gods. They will be raised on tales of the heroic deeds performed by their forefathers, and on the myths of the mighty gods. After they have learned the rites of their household they will pass on to other rites where they will come to meet their neighbors, just as young Gaius above. Then in public festivals they will enter into their community. One day Gaius would travel to Rome at Liberalia, there to put aside his childhood, don the toga virilis and become a man and a citizen of Rome. At each passage of his life, Gaius will participate in other ceremonies, festivals, private rites, someday to marry, present his own children to the gods and then to his neighbors and community. Later still rites will be performed for Gaius after he passes, his own descendents making offerings to him when he returns to his family, himself becoming an ancestor among the Lares.

One learns a tradition by living within the tradition. No amount of reading can take the place of practice. It is therefore essential that new practitioners of the Religio Romana be encouraged to begin practicing the tradition immediately. Normally this is done through instruction on how to establish a lararium and begin daily rites. While a start, this base should be built upon until the entire house and property is developed into the tradition, with several household shrines, and little rites that can be performed throughout the day and night. The other part of learning the religio to new tirones can only come from reading and direct instruction from the sacredoti. In the modern world the sacerdotus will take the place of instructor as the paterfamilias once held. In considering a curriculum for tirones therefore, we should also look forward to developing sacredoti as future instructors.

Mucius Scaevola was quoted by Varro, among others, as telling of three theologies to the Religio Romana. These are the mythical theology of the poets, the physical or natural theology of philosophers, and then the civil theology of priests that governs the rites of all practitioners. Any curriculum we may propose would then need to cover all three theologies. As each is indispensable from the other two, they would all need to be taught together but at different levels. So with different ideas in mind I have begun to think about what might be developed as a curriculum on the Religio Romana and what books would be needed at different stages.

Tiro: The beginner:

An Introduction to Roman Religion, John Scheid, 2003
Ovid?s Metamorphoses (The only source on most Roman and Greek myths.)
Cato?s Monosticha
Virgil?s Eclogues
Selections of Plautus
Livy AUC Libri I, II and III

Instruction: setting up lararium and daily rites.


Disciplinus: The student

Religions of Rome, Mary Beard et al., 1998
The Gods of Ancient Rome, Robert Turcan, trans. A. Nevill, 2001
Fasti, Ovid, trans. A. S. Boyle and R. D. Woodard, 2000
The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Roman Republic, Fowler, 1899
Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic, H. H. Scullard, 1981
Valerius Maximus: trans. D. R. Shackleton Bailey, 2000
Virgil?s Georgics
The Golden Sayings, Epictetus
Selections of Cato?s De Agricultura
Livy AUC Libri IV to X

Instruction: Roman prayer and sacrifices, Roman calendar and festivals.


Opifex: The practitioner

The Beginnings of Rome, T. J. Cornell, 1995
Death and Burial in the Roman World, J. M. C. Toynbee, 1971
Meditations, Marcus Aurelius
De Natura Deorum, Cicero
Selections from Virgil?s Aeneid
Livy AUC Libri XIX to XXX

Instruction: Auspices and Roman divination; cultus geniale


Opifex: Advanced student

Public Office in Early Rome, Roberta Stewart, 1998
Servilius, Commentaries on Virgil
Argonautica, Valerius Flaccus
De Legibus, Cicero
Paganism in the Roman Empire. R. MacMullen, 1981
The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, R. Calasso, 1993
Arcahic Roman Prose, E. Courtney, 1999

Instruction: Performing public rites


Sacerdotus: The priest

A sacerdotus will need to specialize and thus each will follow an individual course of study. Research will lead to many more sources than I have placed above. While many books might be recommended, access to the books listed below I think is essential for a sacerdotus.

Festus De Verborum Significatu quae Supersunt cum Pauli Epitome
De Romanorum Precationibus, G. Appel
Grammatica Romanae Fragmenta, ed. G. Funaioli
Corpus Inscritionum Latinarum or Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae
Varro, De Lingua Latina
De Augurum Publicorum Libris, P. Regell, 1878
Fragmenta Auguralia, P. Regell, 1882