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XXI

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Sacrificia




Please add updates or make corrections to the NumisWiki text version as appropriate.
Sacrificia. Sacrifices.-- To make these
constituted a principal part of the worship which
the heathens paid to their fabled deities. In this
act the ceremonies performed had relation to the
individuals who sacrificed, the animals to be
immolated, and the sacrifices themselves. With
reference to the sacrificers, they were, in the
first place, required to be pure and chaste, and
without spot or blemish ; secondly, to wash
themselves, especially their hands, for which
purpose near the temples there were vases,
called Fanissae, or Futilia. The sacrificer was
clothed in white, and wore a crown formed of
the leaves of the tree sacred to the god to whom
he made the sacrifice. When the sacrifice was
votive, or promised by a vow, the priest performed
it with dishevelled hair, with robe
unloosed, with naked feet, and the ceremony
always began with pledges and prayers. The
animals intended to be offered up were called
Victimae or Hostiae.-- At the commencement of
the sacrificial rites a herald proclaimed silence,
the profane were driven away, and the priests
threw upon the victim a sort of paste made of
wheaten flour and of salt ; this was termed
immolatio, or the offering. He afterwards
lightly tasted of wine, and gave it to others
present, for them in like manner to taste, pouring
the remainder between the horns of the
victim. This was called Libatio, or the drink
offering. After the libations, the fire was
lighted, and, as soon as incense had been burnt,
certain menial attendants, named Popae, naked
to the middle, led up the victim before the
altar ; another of the priest's servants, named
Cultrarius, struck it with an axe, and instantly
cut its throat. The blood was received into
goblets, or broad circular plates, called paterae,
and poured over the altar. The slain victim was
then laid on the sacred table, Anclabris, and
there it was skinned and cut into pieces. Sometimes
it was burnt whole, but more frequently
the sacrificers and their friends shared it with
the gods, whence it often happened that many
persons performed this religious solemnity solely
from gluttony. The ceremony being finished,
the sacrificers washed their hands, said some
prayers, and, having made fresh libations, were
dismissed in the customary form. If the
sacrifice was in the name of the public, it was
succeeded by a public feast, called Epulae
sacrificales
, but if it was a private act of
worship the feasting was also in private, and
the parties eat of that portion of the victims
shared with the gods.-- Allusion having just
been made to public, in contradistinction to
private, sacrifices, it should be mentioned that
the Romans had, in effect, three sorts of
sacrifices-- viz, public, private or domestic, and
foreign. The first of these was conducted at
the expense of the state ; the second was
performed by each family, and at the expense of
the particular family on whose account the
sacrifice was undertaken, and they were called
Gentilitia ; the third class was celebrated on
occasions when the tutelary gods of conquered
citeies and provinces, together with their mysteries
or ceremonies, were transported to Rome.-- The
sacrifices themselves differed from each other
according to the diversity of gods adored by the
ancients. There were sacrificial rites peculiar to
the celestial deities, others for the infernal gods,
others again for marine deities, for those of
the air, and for those of the earth. So there
was, moreover, as already observed, a difference
both in the victim and in the manner of
sacrificing it. In the public sacrfices, there
were some called Stata, fixed and solemn ones,
which were reckoned as feast days, marked in
the Roman calender ; others extraordinary,
named Indicta, because they were ?????ed for
some extraordinary and important reason ; others
again depended on chance ; such were those of
the Expiationes, or atonement ; the Denicales
and Novendiales feriae, viz., ten or nine days
together kept holy, for the expiation of some
awful prodigy or calamitous event.
Sacrificial preperations are minutely set forth
on Roman coins, revealing the clearest represen- tations of sacred vestments and instruments.
Thus we see the pontifical mitre, or albogalerus,
with its infulae or labels hanging on each side.
The peculiar form of the apex or top of this
cap, said to be the sign of the flamen martialis,
is also learnt from medals. Then there is the
whole apparatus of sacrificial weapons spread
before us through the same ancient medium--
viz., secespita, a species of knife ; securis, the
axe ; praefericulum, the vase ; urceolus, the
small water pitcher ; patera, the broad dish ;
simpulum, a ladle, or cup with long handle ;
and capeduncula, a little pitcher ; all suited
to hold wine or blood ; acerra, or turibulum,
the censer ; also altars and tripods in great
variety. on coins of M. Antony the lituus,
or augural staff, is frequently seen with the
praefericulum.-- The aspergillum, or sprinkler,
as well in its ordinary form (see the word)
as in that of the lustral branch, which the
censors used in their office of purification
may also be seen on coins of Augustus.-- Nor
are the instruments solely, but all the "pomp
and circumstances" of the sacrifice are offered to
our view, on coins of the Imperial series, as in
the PIETAS of Caligula, the VOTA PVBLICA of
Commodus, &c. The sacrificer dressed in the
toga and veiled ; the doomed and decorated ox
held bound by the victimarius, and standing
under the uplifted axe of the popa ; the sacerdos,
with head veiled, pouring from a patera libations
on the altar ; lastly, the augural crows, together
with the tibicen, or flute player, the citharoedus,
the harper, and other assistants at a pagan
sacrifice, are clearly and graphically displayed on
these medallic monuments of Roman antiquity.

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