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Sacrifices in Ancient Rome

Варнаков М.С.

Sacrifice was one way Romans addressed the gods. Offerings could include wine, incense, fruit, cakes or an animal; the choice depended on the deity, occasion and local custom. Public rites (sacra publica) were performed on behalf of a community, while private rites (sacra privata) belonged to a household or another group. This distinction does not mean that every public rite involved slaughter or that private rites never did.

Public offerings

Magistrates or priests conducted public sacrifices with the help of attendants. Ritual purity, dress and the precise wording of prayers mattered, but no single sequence applied to every festival or period. The phrase favete linguis called those present to maintain an auspicious silence. The officiant named the deity, prayed and made an offering; in Roman practice the head was often covered by a fold of the toga (capite velato).

Before slaughter an animal might be decorated and led to the altar. Pouring wine and sprinkling the victim with salted meal (mola salsa) formed part of many rites; the term immolatio is connected with this action. Details nevertheless depended on the particular cult and source. One reconstructed sequence should not be treated as compulsory for all Roman sacrifices.

Roman relief from the Louvre showing a haruspex awaiting inspection of a sacrificial animal's entrails.

Trajan offering sacrifice to the gods; relief on Trajan's Column, early 2nd century AD.

In an animal sacrifice attendants performed the slaughter; the entrails were then inspected, and a share was set apart for the deity. The result of inspection could affect how the rite proceeded. Where the cult's rules allowed it, meat was distributed among participants. A sacrifice could thus bring together prayer, an offering to a god and a communal meal. Butchery, tools and the treatment of meat varied between rites.

The interpretation of entrails should not be confused with the work of the person who killed the animal: a haruspex might be consulted about signs. Ancient evidence must be read in context. Cato's On Agriculture, for example, gives particular prayers and offerings before harvest, but his instructions concern a specific agricultural rite, not every public sacrifice at Rome.

Sacrifice to Mars: suovetaurilia on a marble relief from the Louvre, first half of the 1st century AD.

Sacrifice to Jupiter Capitolinus; relief panel from the Arch of Marcus Aurelius, AD 176-180; marble.

Private sacrifices

Household offerings could accompany a meal or family festival. The householder or another family member might address the Lares, Penates or the head of household's genius. Wine, incense and portions of food could be offered without slaughtering an animal. Private worship did not, however, follow one universal schedule of morning and evening prayers; practices varied by time, place and family.

Cato describes offerings to Janus, Jupiter and Ceres before harvest, involving both cakes and an animal victim. The example shows that “private” and “public” refer to whose behalf a rite was performed, not simply to what was offered.

Sacrificial utensils

Images and archaeological finds show offering bowls, jugs for libations, incense burners, baskets, knives and axes. Shape alone does not prove that every such object had a ritual use; find context, depictions of rites and traces of use matter. A reconstruction should select equipment for a particular rite, period and place rather than combine every known implement into one supposedly universal set.

Literature and sources

Cato the Elder. On Agriculture. 132–134 (prayers and pre-harvest offerings).
Cicero. On Divination. Books 1–2 (interpretation of signs).
Mary Beard, John North and Simon Price. Religions of Rome. Cambridge University Press, 1998.