ProQuest Dissertations - Historia Antigua

games and sacrifices.In keeping with the rigid need for orthopraxy in Roman religion,often a priest (or a different priest if the magistrate himself was one) would be present atthese events to dictate or prescribe the correct formulae for prayers or to offer advice onprocedure. 97For example, Livy recounts the devotio of Decius Mus with the assistanceof the pontiff M. Livius:haec locutus M. Liuium pontificem, quern descendens in aciem digredi uetueratab se, praeire iussit uerba quibus se legionesque hostiumpro exercitu populiRomani Quiritium deuoueret. Deuotus inde eadem precatione eodemque habituquo pater P. Decius ad Veserim bello Latino se iusserat deuoueri. Livy10.28.14-15.When he had uttered these words he ordered the pontiff, M. Livius, whom hehad kept by his side all through the battle, to recite the prescribed form in whichhe was to devote "himself and the legions of the enemy on behalf of the army ofthe Roman people, the Quirites." He was accordingly devoted in the same wordsand wearing the same garb as his father, P. Decius, at the battle of Veseris in theLatin war. [Trans. Roberts]In this passage, Decius Mus called upon a priest to dictate to him the correct form of aritual, of which he knew and was determined to uphold in the correct manner. DeciusMus, himself, relied on his own memory of a possible solution to his military problem;the priest, perhaps forewarned of the necessity, must have carried some sort of memoryaid from which to dictate the formula. This indicates that a colonial commissioner, whohad been a magistrate, would be qualified to outline ceremonies and rituals to thecolonists based on his performance and memory of the religious actions. By Romancustom, however, he required a priest to dictate the correct formula to him or access to aBeard, North, and Price (1998), Vol. 1 pp. 22 and 29. Moreover, if there was a break in the line ofsuccession of priests, the auspices returned to the patres until the proper succession was restored. Beard,North, and Price (1998), Vol. 1 p. 22 n. 57. Cf. Magdelain (1964).97 On the need to participate and the ideal of correct participation, see the introduction to Bispham (2006),p. 6 and Livy 22.9-10 and 34.44.1-5. For the presence of priests at ceremonies, cf. Beard, North, and Price(1998), Vol. 1 p. 29 and Livy 8.9.1-10.