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Salvete
In the two thousand seventy sixth year of the City, the citizens Gnaeus Salix
Astur, and Gnaeus Equitius Marinus, have entered office as consuls, Both for
the first time.
For Romans it is important at the start of the year to carry out a careful
observance to ensure success in public and private affairs. The first words
spoken on awakening in the morning, and the first actions accomplished within the
house must be cheerful and uncomplaining. To bring luck, laurel and saffron,
is placed around the door or burned on the little household altar. But unlike
these days, New Years Day in Rome was no holiday. As the year started, so would
it continue. The citizens must carry out a typical day. This means one could
visit and receive your friends & clients; reciprocate good wishes to one
other, give out little gifts of dates, figs and honey to sweeten the approaching
year; but then the citizens would be off to work.
If you were in Rome in the 200s BCE the first thing you would notice is along
the Sacred Way that led to Capitoline that the temples, normally kept shut,
are open for worship, and fire burns on all the altars that stands before them.
You would next notice a solemn procession of Romans along the Way, ready to
make its way up to the Temple of Jupiter, Best and Greatest to seek a blessing
on the city and the outside communities for the coming year. So early in the
day (hour after sunrise) the crowds have gathered in the Forum Romanum near
the the Senate house.
Each senator is wearing his heavy, woollen toga over the broad purple stripe
of his tunic, the patricians wearing scarlet shoes, the plebians regular
sandals. Of the 300 likely 250 would be present on such a special occasion-all th
ose not hindered by illness or extreme age or absent on the public service in
or outside Italy.
After them follows the 'knights' or Equities: wearing their togas over the
narrow purple stripe of their tunics, indicating they are men rich enough to
afford the expense of a horse, so that they can provide the cavalry of the army.
Next, came the people of the city themselves. The shopkeepers, artisans,
servants, laborers, as well as farmers in for the day from the nearby country;
and almost as numerous and not very detectable from their dress, freedmen and
the slaves, immigrants or the domestics climbing towards citizenship.
The procession would form up as the Consuls, dressed in the purple and
embroidered togas of consuls, appeared from the Senate house. At the front moved the
senators and knights; then, immediately preceding the consular pair, their
lictors, each with the fasces that traditional bundle of rods strapped round an
axe and supported in left hand and on left shoulder showing the imperium of a
Roman magistrate, having the power of life and death over the citizens. Behind
the Consuls would be carried the ceremonial Etruscan folding stools of metal
inlaid with carved ivory, their curule chairs (sellae curules).
Following the procession would be implements of the sacrifice, the priests, a
herald, flute player, the victimarius, (slayer) his assistant and young boy
(to follow the ancient tradition of Numa both his parents must be still
living), together with the sacrifices: white oxen from the Faliscan eights or the
plains of Clitunno, their horns covered in gilt.
At the foot of the Capitoline slope the congregation would turn left, and
move north-westwards towards the Capitol, past the high dais of the Temple of
Saturn, up the steep slope of the paved, slightly curving Sacred Way that led
along the south part of Capitoline Hill. Once through the gate and into the
sacred area, they squeezed into position among the columns fronting the Temple of
Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. Within the doorway of the central shrine, that of
Jupiter, the consuls would take their places for the first time upon their
sellae curules, facing outwards towards the altar, the body and Rome.
It would be now necessary to take the auspices and make sure, that the god
would accept the coming sacrifice. The cage containing the sacred chickens, was
administered by a special official, the pullarius. If the birds scurried away
instead of pecking at the pieces of pulse thrown to them, no sacrifice could
be carried out. Instead the ceremony will be resumed on the morrow. If all was
well the pullarius would report in due course that the birds had fed. The
altar fire would crackle with saffron, casting a glow on the gilded coffers of
the shaded pronaos. In the presence of the togate consuls, and of the Senate and
People of Rome, keeping holy silence, the purple-veiled priest offered
prayers for the state, a formulae repeated from a written page and checked for
correctness by a listener appointed for the purpose. Any slip of the tongue, any
stumble or mispronunciation tainted the proceedings, the spoken ritual would
have to start from the beginning. To muffle unlucky noises the piper played
while the ritual was carried out.
Then the head of the ox was sprinkled with meal by the priest, and turned
sideways; the animal's throat was slit; the victim was disembowelled and the
entrails laid upon the altar. Only if the ritual could be duplicated undeviatingly
like those of the past years could another year of success be expected to
come to Rome.
Afterwards would come a second offering, this time made by the twelve
Brethren of the Fields, an ancient and exclusive body. Its descent lay in the faraway
and obscure past, when Rome and her community was a little town dependent on
the yield of the land, so this yield must be assured by reverence.
Now only a few nobles would be left taught by their forebearers to carry on
the ancient traditions. Once this ceremony was concluded, the procession would
re-form and descend the way it came. The consuls, magistrates and senators
would make their way to the Senate house in the north-east corner of the
Forum for the first meeting of the year.
As it was then, it is now!
Happy New Year, Romans!
With best wishes from Q. Fabius Maximus.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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