Votum

In

Latin verb voveo, vovere, "vow, promise". As the result of this verbal action, a votum is also that which fulfills a vow, that is, the thing promised, such as offerings, a statue, or even a temple building. The votum is thus an aspect of the contractual nature of Roman religion, a bargaining expressed by do ut des, "I give that you might give."^[1]

Private vota

In everyday life, individuals might make votive offerings to a deity for private concerns. Vota privata are attested in abundance by inscriptions, particularly for the later Imperial era. These are regularly marked with the letters V.S.L.M., votum solvit libens merito, noting that the person making the dedication "He has fulfilled his vow, willingly, as it should." William Warde Fowler found in these offerings "expressions of … religious feeling" and a gratitude for blessings received that go deeper than contractual formalism.^[2]

Military vota

During the

plebeian general to vow and oversee the building of a temple; he honored the goddess Salus, "Salvation".^[5] A vow would also be made in connection with the ritual of evocatio, negotiations with the enemy's tutelary deity to offer superior cult. An extreme form of votum was the devotio, the ritual by which a general sacrificed himself in battle and asked the chthonic deities to take the enemy as offerings along with him.^[6]

Public vota

In the Republic, public vota (vota publica) or vota pro salute rei publicae ("vows for the well-being of the republic") were offered on the day the

Ian.).^[7] These were joined by vota for Caesar (vota pro Caesare or pro salute Caesaris) in 44 BC.^[8]

Under the Empire, the Senate decreed vota on behalf of Octavian (later Augustus) as princeps in 30 BC.^[9]^[8] These vows for the well-being of the emperor (vota pro salute imperatoris, principis,^[10] or Augusti)^[11] were moved to 3 January—the usual date of the Compitalia—under Caligula in AD 38.^[8] Vota for the state continued to be held on January 1st, while the vows for the emperor came to include his family as well.

During these public vows, offerings were made to

Christians

.

Subsequently, the

5 year (quinquennalia) and 10 year anniversaries

(decennalia). Incomplete records have led scholars to debate whether particular quinquennalia and decennalia were celebrated at the beginning of the year, on the dies imperii, or at some other time for specific reasons in each case.

Vota publica continued in Rome even after Christianity had become the official religion of the Empire, possibly as late as the 6th century.[15] Because the vows were as much affirmations of political loyalty as religious expressions, they were difficult to abolish without undermining the sacral aura of the emperor's authority.^[16]

In the

Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (r, 905–959).^[17]

References

Citations

^ John Scheid, "Sacrifices for Gods and Ancestors", in A Companion to Roman Religion (Blackwell, 2007), p. 270; William Warde Fowler, The Religious Experience of the Roman People (London, 1922), pp. 200–202.
^ Fowler, Religious Experience, pp. 201–202.
^ J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, Religions of Rome: A History (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 15.
^ Friederike Fless and Katja Moede, "Music and Dance: Forms of Representation in Pictorial and Written Sources", in A Companion to Roman Religion, pp. 259–260.
^ Anna Clark, Divine Qualities: Cult and Community in Republican Rome (Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 50; Richard D. Weigel, "Roman Generals and the Vowing of Temples, 500–100 B.C.", Classica et Mediaevalia (Museum Tusculanum Press, 1998), p. 122; Eric M. Orlin, Temples, Religion, and Politics in the Roman Republic (Brill, 1997), pp. 179–180.
^ Fowler, Religious Experience, pp. 206–207.
^ Frances Hickson-Hahn, "The Politics of Thanksgiving", in Augusto augurio: rerum humanarum et divinarum commentationes in honorem Jerzy Linderski (Franz Steiner, 2004), pp. 35–36.
^ ^a ^b ^c King (2006), p. 243.
^ Duncan Fishwick, The Imperial Cult in the Latin West (Brill, 1987), vol. I,1, p. 89.
JSTOR 40310628
.

JSTOR 27686173
.

^ J. Rufus Fears, "The Cult of Jupiter and Roman Imperial Ideology", Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, II.17.2 (1981), p. 98.

^ Fishwick, The Imperial Cult in the Latin West, pp. 89–90.

^ Peter Herz, "Emperors: Caring for the Empire and Their Successors", in A Companion to Roman Religion, p. 312; Fowler, Religious Experience, p. 200.

^ Fritz Graf, "Roman Festivals in Syria Palaestina", in The Talmud Yerushalmi and Graeco-Roman Culture (Mohr Siebeck, 2002), vol. 3, p. 441.

imitatio Dei
was easily Christianized. … It is precisely in this association of emperor with the high god that we observe most clearly that continuity between pagan and Christian imperial ideology" (pp. 121–122).

^ Trombley, Frank R. "Bota". The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Retrieved December 24, 2023.

Bibliography

King, Richard Jackson (2006), Desiring Rome: Male Subjectivity and Reading Ovid's Fasti,
ISBN 978-0-8142-1020-8
.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Votum&oldid=1203155889"

[1] John Scheid, "Sacrifices for Gods and Ancestors", in A Companion to Roman Religion (Blackwell, 2007), p. 270; William Warde Fowler, The Religious Experience of the Roman People (London, 1922), pp. 200–202.

[2] Fowler, Religious Experience, pp. 201–202.

[3] J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, Religions of Rome: A History (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 15.

[4] Friederike Fless and Katja Moede, "Music and Dance: Forms of Representation in Pictorial and Written Sources", in A Companion to Roman Religion, pp. 259–260.

[5] Anna Clark, Divine Qualities: Cult and Community in Republican Rome (Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 50; Richard D. Weigel, "Roman Generals and the Vowing of Temples, 500–100 B.C.", Classica et Mediaevalia (Museum Tusculanum Press, 1998), p. 122; Eric M. Orlin, Temples, Religion, and Politics in the Roman Republic (Brill, 1997), pp. 179–180.

[6] Fowler, Religious Experience, pp. 206–207.

[7] Frances Hickson-Hahn, "The Politics of Thanksgiving", in Augusto augurio: rerum humanarum et divinarum commentationes in honorem Jerzy Linderski (Franz Steiner, 2004), pp. 35–36.

[FOOTNOTEKing2006[httpsbooksgooglefrbooksid1FChM3QiG5kCpgPA243_243]-8] King (2006), p. 243.

[9] Duncan Fishwick, The Imperial Cult in the Latin West (Brill, 1987), vol. I,1, p. 89.

[10] JSTOR 40310628
.

[11] JSTOR 27686173
.

[12] J. Rufus Fears, "The Cult of Jupiter and Roman Imperial Ideology", Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, II.17.2 (1981), p. 98.

[13] Fishwick, The Imperial Cult in the Latin West, pp. 89–90.

[14] Peter Herz, "Emperors: Caring for the Empire and Their Successors", in A Companion to Roman Religion, p. 312; Fowler, Religious Experience, p. 200.

[15] Fritz Graf, "Roman Festivals in Syria Palaestina", in The Talmud Yerushalmi and Graeco-Roman Culture (Mohr Siebeck, 2002), vol. 3, p. 441.

[16] tatio Dei
was easily Christianized. … It is precisely in this association of emperor with the high god that we observe most clearly that continuity between pagan and Christian imperial ideology" (pp. 121–122).

[17] Trombley, Frank R. "Bota". The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Retrieved December 24, 2023.

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Private vota

Military vota

Public vota

See also

References

Citations

Bibliography