Quotes from Robert Turcan

The Romans knew only war that was 'just and in keeping with piety' (bellum justum piumque), made legitimate by the preliminary steps taken by the fetiales. If not, it would be a sacrilege, nefas. Civil war was a bellum nefandum, as was any offensive in foreign territory without a declaration of intent (indictio belli) and statutory complaint, as in a lawsuit. A war could not be engaged in without the gods' approval:

The augur could choose which birds to observe, or ignore a sign simply by saying, non consulto. Having made a verbal declaration (effatio) of the area or templum in his field of vision, he remained the master of his own inner convictions (Liv., 1, 18, 8: animo finivit).

When peace returned, the Janus was closed; this happened only ten times in more than a thousand years.

the Stoics, from which notably Cicero (Rep., 6, 17) and Pliny the Elder (NH, 2,13) drew their inspiration, made the sun the soul or spirit of the world, 'who governs not only the seasons and the lands, but the very stars and the sky' (ibid.). So the imperial cult appropriated some solar theology.

Nevertheless, family gods in general held their ground, as did rural gods, right up to the period when government became Christian. In the early fifth century, in his commentaries on Isaiah (57), St Jerome bears witness to what he saw in Rome several years before. Like Tertullian in his De idololatria, he deplores the fact that nowhere escaped paganism. No sooner had one crossed the threshold of a house than one saw the idols of the domestic Lares, 'as they say!

As for the horde of minor gods who respectively watched over every stage of life and work, 'we believe that the angels carry out their duties,' said Tertullian (An., 37, 1).

After being the jealous custodians of the 'auspices', the patricians had had to share them with the plebeians. In 304 BC, the aedile Cn. Flavius made public the 'Fasti' or pontifical calendar and the secrets of civil law, which were linked with religion. Correspondingly, around 300 BC, the Ogulnian law granted the plebeians access to the augurship and priesthood.

Two and a half centuries later, Scipio Aemilianus brought Tanit from Carthage, and the Romans revered her under the title Caelestis:

Aurelian consecrated the cult of the 'Invincible Sun' (Sol Invictus) in a gigantic temple, embellished with the spoils of Palmyra. He gave it a special college of pontiffs, and instituted fouryearly games. We know nothing of the special rituals applied to this Sol Invictus. The new sanctuary followed an eastern tradition, with its tholos, or dome, in the centre of a closed courtyard isolating the sacred area from the profane world.

It irked St Augustine (CG, 6, 4, 1-2) that Varro put human affairs before divine ones, for - the Latin antiquary explained - cities had existed before religious institutions, 'as the artist exists before the picture and the architect before the building'. Such an attitude was typical of a Roman, for whom religion was not a matter of personal devotion, but concerned a collective interest.

They were so convinced of the effectiveness of the rite that they feared its power should it be used against them. They therefore kept secret the sacred name of their city and the deity who protected it (Serv. Dan., Aen., 2, 351; Macr., S, 3, 9, 3). Some identified her with Angerona, who puts her finger on her lips; others with Ops Consivia

In 493 Bc, at the foot of the Aventine, that extra-pomoerial hill where mostly non-native inhabitants settled, a temple was founded to Ceres, Liber and Libera, a plebeian triad who from then on matched the Capitoline trio. This cult, imported from Great Greece, was usually served by Greek priestesses (from Naples or Velia) 'and all the language used there is Greek' (Cic., Balb., 55).

It is known that pontifical law forbade the dedication of the same sanctuary to two deities (Liv., 27, 25, 8); therefore at least a double cella was required.

A city with universal authority could not become immovably set in its own national pantheon - which in any case incorporated its share of already longstanding Greek influences, together with the Etruscan heritage. As the family had opened out into the city, so Rome opened out to a world it had conquered or had yet to conquer.

It was the tradition to sacrifice to the Uenius publicus on 9 October, at the same time as to Fausta Felicitas and 'Victorious' Venus, two deities who had a vital and historic link with Rome.

By having himself elected Chief Priest, it was as if Caesar foresaw the future importance of this title, which would be assumed by Augustus in 12 Bc and by all the emperors who succeeded him.

The Genius populi Romani holds the patera for libations (sometimes in front of a lit altar) and the horn of plenty; these were attributes of the piety and felicity that symbolised Rome's vocation embodied by the emperor Pius Felix, two titles that had been added to his description since the time of Commodus.

It was again the Genius Publicus who appeared in a dream to Julian, on the eve of his proclamation as emperor in Paris in AD 360, and whom he saw passing sadly into his tent a few days before his death (Amm., 20, 5, 10; 25, 2, 3). This relationship of the Genius with the emperor's reign perhaps still inspired the pious loyalty of a few pagans.

In the sanctuary of Aesculapius, its site now occupied by the church of San Bartolomeo, opposite a hospital that is still faithful to the medical tradition of the island, people would come to sleep in order to receive the god's instructions in their dreams - a typically Greek procedure.

But the Christian emperor inherited a share of the devotion to the sovereign, and incense was burnt before his holy image (Philost., 2, 17), lamps were lit at the foot of his statues, and he was invoked on equal terms with a tutelary god to divert the ills that threatened people (C. Th., 15, 4, 1) just as in the heyday of official polytheism.

The first eastern religion was imported into Rome very officially, with the agreement of the Senate, after consultation of the Sibylline Books. In 205 Bc, after a new and more serious outbreak of showers of stones (hail?), customarily expiated by a sacrificial novena, the Books were believed to indicate that the interminable war with Carthage would end in victory if the 'Idaean Mother' was transferred from Pessinus to Rome (Liv., 29, 11, 4-5).

According to Ovid (F, 4, 259 f.), the Sibyl said: The Mother is far off: I command you, Roman, to go and seek the Mother. When she arrives, let a chaste hand receive her.

The cult was supervised (like that of Ceres) by foreign priests (a Phrygian man and woman), as well as by galli (priests of Cybele) castrated like Attis, the companion who was both lover and son to the goddess. They emerged from the sanctuary only on procession days, notably when they went to bathe the idol in the waters of the Almo, on 27 March.

That is why each year, from 4 to 10 April, games were celebrated (Megalesia): theatrical shows in front of the temple and chariot races in the Circus Maximus on the last day.