1 Earliest Rome

Let not the impious man dare to placate the gods' anger with gifts.
13.4 Satirizing women's religion
Let them fulfil vows scrupulously; let there be a penalty for violation. Let no one
consecrate a field; of consecrating gold, silver or ivory, let there be a limit.
Let the religious rights of families be maintained in perpetuity.
Let the rights of the Di Manes be respected. Let them
treat their dead kinsfolk as divine. Let there be limits to expenditure and mourning for
them. 18
1. For sacred groves, sec 4.11; for the Lares, 2.2a; 4.12.
2. For Romulus/Quirinus, see 2.8a.
3. See 2.3.
4. Later (ll.8), Cicero claims that the cult of Febris (Fever) and Mala Fortuna (Bad Fortune)
should therefore be abolished.
5. See 3.1.
6. Ceres, for example, received offerings of milk, wine and honey.
7. See 8.1.
8. See 8.4.
9. The quindecimviri sacris faciundis, see 7.3a; 7.5.
10. For temp/a, see 4.4; 'freed and unimpeded' are literal translations of technical augural
terms, implying spaces defined by religious rite.
11. Cicero here enhances the role of his own priestly college, the augures.
12. Sec 1.4a.
13. See 7.4.
14. The nocturnal sacrifices of Bona Dea (8.2b; 13.4) were offered 'on the people's behalf.
15. The meaning is not very clear, but it is likely that the ban on initiations is intended to
apply only to women, since the Greek cult of Ceres was a cult of women.
16. See 5.7.
17. For the Galli, the servants of Magna Mater, see 8.7.
18. In the chapters that follow, through the rest of the book, the speakers discuss the provisions
of this code in detail.
13.4 Satirizing women's religion
Juvenal, Satires 6.314-41
In his satire on women, Juvenal turns on women's religious festivals (in particular
the rites of the Bona Dea, see 8.2b) representing them as a thinly disguised
excuse for an orgy. Juvenal probably knew little more than we do about the
details of these rituals (for no men were allowed entry); but it is important,
nevertheless, to see that even some of the most traditional Roman rituals could
be the object not of reverence, but of humorous, satiric and - in this case -
wildly obscene attack.
See further: Henderson (1989).
The rites of Bona Dea are secret - and notorious: the flute gets their hips moving and
Priapus' Maenads 1
are carried away by the sound of the horn, as much as the wine; all in
a frenzy they toss their hair and howl. How fiercely they're burning with a passion to get
laid! How they shriek as their desires soar! What a vast torrent of pure vintage wine
355