Quaestiones Romanae

Why may not the priest of Jupiter (Flamen Dialis) take an oath?[*](Cf. Livy, xxxi. 50; Aulus Gellius, x. 15.)

Is it because an oath is a kind of test to prove that men are free-born, and neither the body nor the soul of the priest must be subjected to any test?

Or is it because it is unreasonable to distrust in trivial affairs him who is entrusted with holy matters of the greatest importance?

Or is it because every oath concludes with a curse

Or is it because the danger of perjury is a public danger if an impious and perjured man leads in prayer and sacrifice on behalf of the State?

Why on the festival of the Veneralia do they pour out a great quantity of wine from the temple of Venus?[*](Cf. Ovid, Fasti, iv. 877 ff.: Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, i. 65; Pliny, Natural History, xiv. 12 (88), where the authority cited is Varro. Plutarch speaks of the festival of Vinalia (April 23) as Veneralia perhaps because Venus (together with Jupiter) was the protecting deity of the vine.)

Is it true, as most authorities affirm, that Mezentius, general of the Etruscans, sent to Aeneas and offered peace on condition of his receiving the year’s vintage? But when Aeneas refused, Mezentius promised his Etruscans that when he had prevailed in battle, he would give them the wine. Aeneas learned of his promise and consecrated the wine to the gods, and after his victory he collected all the vintage and poured it out in front of the temple of Venus.

Or is this also symbolic, indicating that men should be sober and not drunken on festival days, since the gods take more pleasure in those who spill much strong drink than in those who imbibe it?

Why did the men of old keep the temple of Horta continually open?

Is it, as Antistius Labeo has stated, that since to

Or rather do they call her, as at present, Hora, with the first syllable lengthened, an attentive and very considerate goddess, who, since she was protective and thoughtful, they felt was never indifferent nor neglectful of human affairs?

Or is this too, like many other Latin words, a Greek word, and does it signify the supervising and guardian goddess? Hence her temple was continually open since she neither slumbers nor sleeps.

If, however, Labeo be right in pointing out that Hora is derived from parorman [*](Plutarch here (in hora, horman, (h)orator), as often, makes havoc of etymology and quantity.) (to urge on), consider whether we must not declare that orator is thus to be derived, since an orator is a counsellor or popular leader who stimulates, as it were, and incites: and it is not to be derived from imprecating or praying (orare), as some assert.

Why did Romulus build the temple of Vulcan outside the city?

Was it in consequence of Vulcan’s fabled jealousy of Mars because of Venus[*](Cf. Homer, Od. viii. 266-359.) that Romulus, the reputed son of Mars, did not give Vulcan a share in his home or his city?

Or is this a foolish explanation, and was the temple originally built as a secret place of assembly and council-chamber for himself and his colleague Tatius,

Or was it that since Rome, from the very beginning, has been in great danger from conflagrations, they decided to show honour to this god, but to place his temple outside of the city?[*](Cf. Vitruvius, i. 7. 1.)

Why is it that at the festival of the Consualia they place garlands on both the horses and the asses and allow them to rest?

Is it because they celebrate this festival in honour of Poseidon, god of horses,[*](Cf.Life of Romulus, chap. xiv. (25 d).) and the ass enjoys a share in the horse’s exemption?

Or is it that since navigation and transport by sea have been discovered, pack animals have come to enjoy a certain measure of ease and rest?

Why was it the custom for those canvassing for office to do so in the toga without the tunic, as Cato has recorded?[*]( Cf.Life of Coriolanus, chap. xiv. (219 f-220 a).)

Was it in order that they might not carry money in the folds of their tunic and give bribes?

Or was it rather because they used to judge candidates worthy of office, not by their family nor their wealth nor their repute, but by their wounds and scars? Accordingly that these might be visible to those that encountered them, they used to go down to their canvassing without tunics.

Or were they trying to commend themselves to popular favour by thus humiliating themselves by their scanty attire, even as they do by hand-shaking, personal appeals, and fawning behaviour?

Why did the priest of Jupiter (Flamen Dialis) resign his office if his wife died, as Ateius has recorded?[*](Cf. Aulus Gellius, x. 15.)

Is it because the man who has taken a wife and then lost her is more unfortunate than one who has never taken a wife? For the house of the married man is complete, but the house of him who has married and later lost his wife is not only incomplete, but also crippled.

Or is it because the wife assists her husband in the rites, so that many of them cannot be performed without the wife’s presence, and for a man who has lost his wife to marry again immediately is neither possible perhaps nor otherwise seemly? Wherefore it was formerly illegal for the flamen to divorce his wife: and it is still, as it seems, illegal, but in my day Domitian once permitted it on petition. The priests were present at that ceremony of divorce and performed many horrible, strange, and gloomy rites.[*](Cf.Cambridge Ancient History, vol. vii. p. 422.)

One might be less surprised at this resignation of the flamen if one should adduce also the fact that when one of the censors died, the other was obliged to resign his office[*](Cf. Livy, v. 31. 6, 7; vi. 27. 4, 5; ix. 34.); but when the censor Livius Drusus died, his colleague Aemilius Scaurus was unwilling to give up his office until certain tribunes ordered him to be led away to prison.

Why is a dog placed beside the Lares that men call by the special name of praestites, and why are the Lares themselves clad in dog-skins?[*](Cf. Ovid, Fasti, v. 129 ff.)

Is it because those that stand before are termed

Or is the truth rather, as some Romans affirm, that, just as the philosophic school of Chrysippus[*](Cf.Moralia, 361 b, 419 a, 1051 c.) think that evil spirits stalk about whom the gods use as executioners and avengers upon unholy and unjust men, even so the Lares are spirits of punishment like the Furies and supervisors of mens lives and houses? Wherefore they are clothed in the skins of dogs and have a dog as their attendant, in the belief that they are skilful in tracking down and following up evil-doers.

Why do they sacrifice a bitch to the goddess called Geneta Mana[*](Cf. Pliny, Natural History, xxix. 4 (58).) and pray that none of the household shall become good?

Is it because Geneta is a spirit concerned with the generation and birth of beings that perish? Her name means some such thing as flux and birth or flowing birth. [*](An attempt to derive the name from genitus (-a, -um) and manare.) Accordingly, just as the Greeks sacrifice a bitch to Hecatê,[*](Cf. 280 c, infra.) even so do the Romans offer the same sacrifice to Geneta on behalf of the members of their household. But Socrates[*](Müller, Frag. Hist. Graec. iv. p. 498.) says that the Argives sacrifice a bitch to Eilioneia by reason of the ease with which the bitch brings forth its young. But does the import of the prayer, that none of them shall become good, refer not to the human members of a household, but to the dogs? For dogs should be savage and terrifying.

Or, because of the fact that the dead are gracefully called the good, are they in veiled language asking in their prayer that none of their household may die? One should not be surprised at this: Aristotle,[*](Frag. 592 (ed. V. Rose); Cf.Moralia, 292 b, infra.) in fact, says that there is written in the treaty of the Arcadians with the Spartans: No one shall be made good[*](Cf.χρηστὲ χαῖρ on Greek tombstones.) for rendering aid to the Spartan party in Tegea: that is, no one shall be put to death.

Why do they even now, at the celebration of the Capitoline games, proclaim Sardians for sale!,[*](So apparently Plutarch; but the Latin Sardi venales can mean nothing but Sardinians for sale. Plutarch, or his authority, has confused Sardi with Sardiani (Sardians).) and why is an old man led forth in derision, wearing around his neck a child’s amulet which they call a bulla [*](Cf.Life of Romulus, xxv. (33 e).)?

Is it because the Etruscans called Veians fought against Romulus for a long time, and he took this city last of all[*](This is quite contrary to the traditional account (Cf. for example, Livy, vi. 21-23), according to which Veii was not captured until 396 b.c.) and sold at auction many captives together with their king, taunting him for his stupidity and folly? But since the Etruscans were originally Lydians, and Sardis was the capital city of the Lydians, they offered the Veians for sale under this name: and even to this day they preserve the custom in sport.

Why do they call the meat-markets macella and macellae?

Is this word corrupted from mageiroi (cooks) and has it prevailed, as many others have, by force of habit? For c and g have a close relationship in

Or must this problem also be solved by history? For the story goes that there once lived in Rome a violent man, a robber, Macellus by name, who despoiled many people and was with great difficulty caught and punished: from his wealth the public meat-market was built, and it acquired its name from him.

Why is it that on the Ides of January the flute-players are allowed to walk about the city wearing the raiment of women[*](Cf. Livy, ix. 30; Ovid, Fasti, vi. 653 ff.; Valerius Maximus, ii. 5. 4; see also Classical Weekly, 1921, p. 51.)?

Is it for the reason commonly alleged? They used to enjoy, as it seems, great honours, which King Numa had given them by reason of his piety towards the gods. Because they were later deprived of these honours by the decemviri, who were invested with consular power,[*](Consulari potestate.) they withdrew from the city. There was, accordingly, inquiry made for them, and a certain superstitious fear seized upon the priests when they sacrificed without flutes. But when the flute-players would not hearken to those sent to summon them to return, but remained in Tibur, a freedman secretly promised the officials to bring them back. On the pretext of having sacrificed to the gods, he prepared a sumptuous banquet and invited the flute-players. Women were present, as well as wine, and a party lasting all the night was being celebrated with merriment and dancing, when

Why are the matrons supposed to have founded the temple of Carmenta originally, and why do they reverence it now above all others?

There is a certain tale repeated that the women were prevented by the senate from using horse-drawn vehicles[*](Cf. Livy, v. 25. 9, and xxxiv. 1 and 8.); they therefore made an agreement with one another not to conceive nor to bear children, and they kept their husbands at a distance, until the husbands changed their minds and made the concession to them. When children were born to them, they, as mothers of a fair and numerous progeny, founded the temple of Carmenta.

Some assert that Carmenta was the mother of Evander and that she came to Italy: that her name was Themis, or, as others say, Nicostratê; and that because she chanted oracles in verse, she was named Carmenta by the Latins, for they call verses carmina.

But others think that Carmenta is a Fate, and that this is the reason why the matrons sacrifice to her. The true meaning of the name is deprived of sense, [*](That is, carens mente.) by reason of her divine transports. Wherefore Carmenta was not so named from carmina, but rather carmina from her, because, in her divine frenzy, she chanted oracles in verse and metre.[*](Cf.Life of Romulus, xxi. (31 a); Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, i. 31; Strabo, v. 33. p. 230; Ovid, Fasti, i. 619 ff.)

Why do the women that sacrifice to Rumina pour milk over the offerings, but make no oblation of wine in the ceremony?

Is it because the Latins call the teat ruma, and assert that Ruminalis[*](Cf. 320 d, infra, and Life of Romulus, iv. (19 d); Ovid, Fasti, ii. 411 ff.) acquired its name inasmuch as the she-wolf offered its teat to Romulus? Therefore, as we call wet-nurses thelonai from thele (teat), even so Rumina is she that gives suck, the nurse and nurturer of children: she does not, therefore, welcome pure wine, since it is harmful for babes.