1 Earliest Rome

4- R E L I G I O U S P L A C E S
4.4 The Roman templum
The English word 'temple' (meaning 'temple-building') has a different range of
meanings from the Latin templum, from which it is derived. Templum'm Latin
was used in at least three distinct (though interrelated) senses: (1) to refer to an
area of the sky within which signs from the gods were observed; (2) to refer to
a piece of'inaugurated' space on earth - a place from which the auspices (see
7-2) might be taken; and so (3), in a more general sense, to reier to a place that
was perceived to be in a special relationship with the gods (overlapping with
our own sense of'temple').
One of the formulae used by the priests (augures) in defining a templum on
earth (2) is recorded by Varro. Already in Vatro's day this augural formula must
have been obscure to many readers or listeners, and his explanation (mainly
concerned with the precise words employed) is almost as difficult to understand
as the formula Itself.
See further: Catalano (1978) 467-79; Linderski (1986) 2256-96*; Scheid
(1993a); and, on the linguistic details of the formula, Norden (1939) 3-106;
L. R. Paimer (1954) 64-6*. See also, for a wider use of the term templum, 9. Id.
Varro, On the Latin Language Vll.8-10
On the earth 1
, templum is the word used for a place marked out by particular formulae
for the purposes of augury or taking the auspices. The same formulae are not used
everywhere. On the Arx 1
they run as follows: 3
Let the boundaries of my temples and wild lands be as 1
shall declare them with my words.
That tree of whatever kind it is which I deem myself to have named, let it
be the boundary of my temple and wild land to the right.
That tree, of whatever kind it is, insofar as I deem myself to have named it,
let it be the boundary of my temple and wild land to the left.
Berween these points by
means of directing , viewing , reflecting ,
as far as 1 have been most rightly aware of it within this limit.
In creating this templum it appears that trees are established as the boundaries, and within
those boundaries the areas established where the eyes may take their view, that is where
we may gaze . The word templum is derived from the word 'to gaze' ,
and so likewise is the word 'to contemplate' , as in the line from Ennius'
play Medea:
Contemplate and see the temple of Ceres on the left —
'Contemplate' and View' seem to mean the same thing. So it
seems to be for this reason that, when he is making a templum, the augur says 'by viewing'
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