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5 Aspects of Ancient Roman Religious Warfare
If war was the enduring focus of Roman society, it was religion that governed that society.
Religious practice influenced all aspects of Roman warfare, fundamentally dictating the actions of the state, the army, and individuals. From archaic cultural traditions (Mos Maorum), many rituals governed Roman conflict. These were profoundly important in ensuring the security of Rome and its citizens during that most perilous of human activities.
Archaic, superstitious, and deeply formulaic, there were many strange practices in this dimension of Roman warfare. Often overlooked by contemporary commentators, we tend to be distracted by Rome’s capacity for more “modern” aspects of military proficiency.
Yet, near peerless in the arena of ancient warfare, Rome looked to its gods, first and foremost.
Spiritual Warfare
Marcus Aurelius Sacrificial Scene. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Roman religion, politics, and warfare were intrinsically intertwined. No elite career, whatever its focus, could neglect this.
Religious practice governing warfare was essential in maintaining the divine support of the gods. Only through strict observance (pietas) of certain essential rituals could Romans ensure religious harmony (pax deorum) and secure divine protection.
Molded in the Greco-Roman worldview, the paramount fixation of all practice was the fulfillment and appeasement of the state’s many deities. Fickle and vindictive, the opaque will of those gods was perilous to interpret, posing a hazard for the state and individuals alike.
“When you see such momentous consequences for human affairs flowing from the worship or the neglect of the gods, … ” [Livy, History of Rome, 5.52]
Council of the Gods, by Raffaello, 1517-18. Source: Picryl
Those who miscalculated this integral aspect of civic life simply did not survive, and many examples of fallen men, cities, and empires littered the ancient world. In this context, religion was not merely a cultural backdrop to Roman warfare; it was the “trophy-like” scaffold on which Rome’s military prowess hung.
Centuries of precedence and tradition surrounded divination, worship, and sacrifice, becoming rigidly formulaic. This led the Romans to obsess about religious process, which was essential to the success of campaigns, armies, and military reputations.
When the process failed, a religious crisis ensued, calling for unprecedented and extreme intervention. Failures on the battlefield were commonly attributed to failures of religious observance, not only in belief, but also in rigidly formulaic ritual. It was no coincidence that Rome’s greatest military challenges often triggered exceptional religious reactions.
While much originated with the Greeks, other aspects of Roman practice were inherited from the Etruscans or assimilated from Italic traditions. Unwritten, many practices echoed back to Rome’s earliest, tribal origins. As the city grew into an empire, ever more deities and rituals were assimilated from the Hellenized East.
Let’s consider just a few of those weird and wonderful practices.
1. The Fetial Rituals
Augustan Priests from the Ara Pacis Augustae. Source: Uffizi Gallery
From archaic times, the ritual act of declaring war fell to the fetiales, a special college of priests responsible for the practice of Roman diplomacy, treaties, and international relations.
The fetial rituals harked back to the earliest time of the kings (possibly Numa or Ancus Marcius), and formed a legal-religious framework designed to regulate the declaration of war.
A senior fetial priest (pater patratus) with a wooden block on his head would travel to an enemy state and declare Rome’s grievances in the name of Jupiter. Commonly demanding redress or compliance, the priest would allow a short period (Livy says 33 days) for resolution.
If redress was not forthcoming, the pater patratus returned to the frontier and symbolically announced hostilities by ritually launching a javelin into enemy territory. That was a Roman declaration of war right there—and you’d have to be a poor reader of body language to miss it.
The core part of this ceremony was legal, establishing a universal principle:
“No war is considered just unless it has been proclaimed and declared, or unless reparation has first been demanded.” [Cicero, The Republic, 3.35]
When Romans talked of a “just war,” they didn’t mean morally just; they referred purely to a war that satisfied legal, religious law.
Eventually, it became impractical to travel to distant frontiers, but the fetial rites continued symbolically well into the imperial age. Practiced at the Column of War, on the Campus Martius, outside the Temple of Bellona (the Roman goddess of war), the last clear instance of the symbolic practice occurred as late as the reign of Marcus Aurelius in c. 179 CE.
2. Interpreting the Will of the Gods
The Piaccenza Liver, 200 BCE. Source: Art History Project
Before war commenced, it was critical for the Romans to know if the signs were divinely favorable (propitious). An enormous focus of Roman culture was dedicated to interpreting the divine will of the gods.
Roman divination took numerous forms, including the reading of sacrificial animal entrails, as well as interpreting weather events, celestial events, natural events, and the supernatural. This included bizarre instances like bleeding statues, strange sounds, and heavenly voices.
A major preoccupation of Rome’s civic culture right up until Christianization, divination had the power to either bless or burden Rome’s military undertakings. Good omens were not just “nice to have,” they were essential to Rome’s success.
Many forms of divination existed and were highly regarded, requiring a plethora of specialists, including augurs, haruspices, soothsayers, and oracles to help interpret omens. Divination was practiced at the state level and even on campaign, before major undertakings and battles.
Augury
Augurs were crucial, with specialized priest experts reading omens and signs. Auguries included a broad range of natural phenomena, while auspices related more strictly to the condition and behavior of birds, a major Roman focus:
“Our ancestors thought that no action of great importance should be undertaken without taking the auspices.” [Cicero, On Divination, 1.77]
Divine information could be gleaned from the behavior of the animals. Plutarch tells us that the Republican general Marius had two collared vultures that flew in front of his army, lending the commander an air of divine prestige.
A haruspex examines a sacrificial liver, 1900. Source: GetArchive
Haruspicy
Haruspicy was commonly practiced with a priest’s expert reading of organs and entrails. A diseased or malformed liver could spell a dire omen for any campaign. Of Etruscan origin, haruspicy was an ancient practice. The archaeological discovery of the famous Piacenza Liver suggests that this practice was not so much “gut feeling” as it was a highly formalized practice.
Ritualized custom was so serious that it could cost some Roman commanders dearly. During the First Punic War in 229 BCE, Publius Claudius Pulcher, before the naval battle at Drepana, was so frustrated with his scared chickens that would not eat (thus portending a bad omen) that he threw them into the sea, saying:
“Since they will not eat, let them drink.” [Livy, History of Rome, 41.14]
Seen as the reason for Rome’s ensuing defeat, this reckless impiety seriously damaged the career of the commander.
When the Pannonian Legions mutinied following the death of Augustus in 14 CE, a bad sacrificial reading was “interpreted” as undermining divine favor and contributed to the soldiers coming to terms. Haruspicy continued well into later imperial periods.
Further supernatural and portentous readings came from omens and prodigies—events that conveyed divine messages or warnings. Romans took these extremely seriously.
Celestial events (comets and eclipses), freak weather (lightning, eclipses, hail), strange noises (screams and booming voices), abnormal animal births and behavior, as well as bleeding or weeping statues, were all common, especially preceding wars and battles.
Roman relief depicting haruspicy, Temple of Hercules. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Around Rome’s disastrous defeat at Cannae in 216 BCE, so many ill portents manifested that extra sacrifices were required to appease the gods. Frequent panics within Rome’s annals (in all periods) are dedicated to such occurrences.
With the common citizen prone to superstitious fears, Rome’s elites were not above exploiting supernatural beliefs. Scipio Africanus (c. 236-183 BCE) cultivated a deliberate mystique:
“…Scipio made the men under his command more sanguine and more ready to face perilous enterprises by instilling into them the belief that his projects were divinely inspired.” [Polybius, Histories 10.2.6]
At the siege of New Carthage in 209 BCE, Scipio—using topographical advice from local scouts—commanded his sceptical legions to march across a lagoon at low tide. Amazed to be seemingly “walking on water,” the soldiers thought their general was favored by the gods.
Polybius believed commanders like Scipio deliberately exploited religious superstition. What is clear is that he effectively harnessed religious sentiment to inspire his troops. He was far from the only Roman to do so.
This does not mean that Rome’s elites were sceptics about religion, far from it. Rather, it highlights that popular beliefs could be advantageously “spun” as a military and political tool. Cicero makes a clear distinction between superstition and religiosity, the latter in his view being utterly essential to the well-being of the state.
Leading Romans employed a wide array of soothsayers, sages, astrologers, dream interpreters, fortune tellers, and mystics. Marius had a Syrian prophetess, Martha, Sulla relied on a Chaldean soothsayer, with Julius Caesar sought supernatural counsel before crossing the Rubicon, though famously failing to heed divine warning before the Ides of March.
3. Appeasing the Gods
Trajan Sacrificing to Jupiter, by Pietro Santi Bartoli, 1672. Source: The Royal Academy
The Roman reaction to supernaturally unsettling signs was to seek appeasement or placation of their gods. In a way that can seem highly transactional, the Romans offered a wide range of symbolic offerings to their fickle guardians. In war, this was aimed at achieving victorious outcomes. Prayers, trophies, dedications, and sacrifices were practiced on a huge scale at the state and personal levels by priests, commanders, soldiers, and citizens.
Before military undertakings, the Roman state would make a series of offerings and sacrifices. This ubiquitous practice endured throughout the Republican and later Roman Empire until Christianization. Various forms of sacrifice, including mass animal slaughters and specialized dedication ceremonies, took place.
Ritual purification ceremonies such as lustratio were also practiced by priests to cleanse citizens and the army, before and after a campaign. Purification was important both in advance of victory and following defeat.
Traditionally, lustratio would occur on the Campus Martius (the army’s traditional muster ground) and would typically involve the slaughter of sacrificial animals. Ceremonies might include a tubliustrium in which the sacred trumpets of the army were purified.
Colossal statue of Mars, 2nd century CE. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Associated with this was the suovetaurilia, originally involving the sacrifice of a pig, sheep, and bull, which was performed by state officials (possibly the censors, consuls, or pontifices) as part of ritual purification and consecration of the army.
In addition, vows (vota) and dedications were common, often performed for key gods of the state, such as Mars, the god of war, Jupiter for victory, and Bellona, the goddess of frenzied combat.
Offerings might be made in advance or after a campaign, promised transactionally as a kind of divine deal in lieu of victory. Victorious generals would often bring back spoils (gold, silver, coins, and armor) to adorn the temples of patron Roman gods. Formal triumphs, festivals, banquets, and dedicated temples in honor of the gods were all offered in thanks.
In 228 BCE, in the years preceding the battle of Telamon during a “Gallic Panic,” all the stops were pulled out to appease Rome’s gods. Consultation of the Sibylline Books, and state sacrifices included a lectisternium, a ritual banquet dedicated to the gods. Days of public prayers, sacrifice, libations, and supplications all followed.
Suovetaurilia scene from Trajan’s Column, by Pietro Santi Bartoli, 1672. Source: The Royal Academy
With the army in the field, Trajan’s Column depicts the emperor and soldiers engaged in formal ritual sacrifice and ceremony in preparation for the Dacian campaign (101-106 CE).
Military ritual was never truly static, with some emperors being more religiously minded than others. Dio tells us that Trajan actually reduced the number of public rituals with a view to saving the public finances. Religion was costly.
Sacrifice within the Roman military continued well into the later empire and only ceased with the state adoption of Christianity in the 3rd Century CE. Pagan military rituals enjoyed a marked though temporary revival under the pagan emperor Julian the Apostate.
If all this was common enough, there were some appeasement rituals of an altogether more exceptional nature.
4. Crisis Rituals
Roman Legionaries, reenactors from the Legio III Cyrenaica of New England. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Occurring often when Rome faced the most acute military crises, several extreme practices were undertaken by the state in periods of panic; an expression of Rome’s desperate desire to assuage divine displeasure.
Such extreme interventions included a particularly Roman method of god-theft. Evocatio was the act of luring enemy deities away from Rome’s enemies through a ritual incantation that usually promised the displaced god(s) a temple and honors back in Italy or Rome.
Somewhere between an enticement and an abduction, ritualized “god theft” happened several times within the ancient Republic, with cultural echoes extending into the Early Principate.
First used to entice the goddess Juno Regina back from their implacable enemy, the Veii, in 296 BCE, evidence suggests that instances of evocation were deployed at the fall of Carthage in 146 BCE and also as late as 75 BCE in Asia Minor. Pliny the Elder even attests that Roman Pontiffs as late as the 1st century CE were still versed in the secretive incantation rituals needed to practice this highly secretive aspect of Roman religious warfare.
The relative rarity of evocatio suggests that it was reserved for instances when Rome nurtured the most acute angst; presumably, that it might be in conflict with some serious supernatural forces.
Juno Sospita, a plaster cast based on an original in the Vatican Museums. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Moments of dire military crisis were a clear trigger for extreme religious behavior. Although considered exceptional, at least three instances of ritual human sacrifice occurred within the darkest days of the Republic.
Triggered by a periodic Gallic Panic (invasion threat from Celtic tribes) in 228 BCE, in the years before the battle of Telamon, the Romans consulted their sacred Sibylline Books and proceeded to undertake an archaic human sacrifice ritual.
The ritual was repeated, following the existential shock of the military disaster at Cannae in 216 BCE:
“… in obedience to the Books of Destiny, some strange and unusual sacrifices were made, human sacrifices amongst them. A Gaulish man and a Gaulish woman and a Greek man, and a Greek woman were buried alive under the Forum Boarium. They were lowered into a stone vault, which had on a previous occasion also been polluted by human victims, a practice most repulsive to Roman feelings.” [Livy, History of Rome, 22.57]
This exceptionally rare and perplexing ritual revealed a far darker component of Roman religion. Not an area Romans were culturally comfortable in acknowledging, Latin sources regularly abhorred human sacrifice, disdaining other peoples for such “barbaric” rituals.
This and other radical religious reactions—like the periodic condemnation and live burial of unchaste Vestal Virgins—punctuated times of military, political, and social upheaval. It has led many historians to see these events as classic (though unconscious) Roman crisis rituals.
5. Ritualized Warfare
Consecration of Decius Mus, by Peter Paul Rubens, 1616-17. Source: RKD Images
Religious acts also influenced individuals in their personal conduct of war. Influenced by Homeric ideals—where mortals emulated heroes on the battlefield—Roman combat included numerous aspects of ritualized warfare.
Two interesting acts of ritual, centered on leadership, with both demanding extreme risk and individual sacrifice.
Devotio
In 340 BCE, after a prophecy by a haruspex that he would not survive a battle with the Latins, Publius Decius Mus ritually dedicated his life in combat.
This rare example of devotio (religious self-sacrifice) required a precise incantation to various key gods that included the spirits of the underworld.
Following dedication, Decius launched himself suicidally into combat:
“… he appeared something awful and superhuman, as though sent from heaven to expiate and appease all the anger of the gods and to avert destruction from his people and bring it on their enemies. All the dread and terror which he carried with him threw the front ranks of the Latins into confusion, which soon spread throughout the entire army.” [Livy, History, 8.9.9-11]
Maintaining familial tradition, Publius Decius Mus (son of the above) similarly sacrificed himself in 295 BCE in the Third Samnite War.
Dedicating their lives in payment for victory, devotio (as a ritual act) was an extremely rare event, although broader cultural ideals promoted paradigms of suicidal heroism.
Spolia Opima
The Spolia Opima (rich spoils) was another warrior ritual. Originating from the Homeric tradition that idealized single combat, it required leaders to personally stalk and kill the opposing commander, stripping them of their armor.
Dedicating the spoils to the god Jupiter Feretrius, Rome’s kingly founder, Romulus was said to have stripped the king of Caenina:
“I dedicate a temple to receive the spolia opima, which posterity following my example shall bear hither, taken from the kings and generals of our foes slain in battle.” [Livy, History of Rome, 1.10]
Silver coin with head of Ceres (right), and trophy with kneeling captive with hands tied behind back (left), 56 BCE. Source: The British Museum
War trophies dedicated to significant temples were religious acts and a recurrent feature of Roman practice. The arms of an enemy leader were especially prized.
Another legendary instance is cited when the king of Veii (Lars Tolumnius) was slain by the Roman tribune Aulus Cornelius Cossus at the battle of Fidenae, c. 437 BCE.
Marcus Claudius Marcellus, consul of 22 BCE, also won rich spoils when he personally felled and stripped the Gallic chieftain Viridomarus, king of the Gaesatae.
Conferring great status to the victor, as warfare professionalized, the Spolia Opima was an act that became ever more antiquated. However, there is more than one credible example of its emulation into the Augustan era and the Principate. In actuality, its broader legacy in shaping the ideals of leadership endured for centuries after its passing.
Roman Religious Warfare: In Conclusion
Suovetaurilia, animal sacrifice on the Campus Martius, 1553. Source: The MET Museum
The influence of religion within Roman warfare was profound. Centuries of precedence saw Romans practicing many obscure rituals.
Ubiquitous practices like sacrifice, divination, and purification extended throughout all periods of Rome’s pagan history. However, other “niche” practices such as evocatio and spolia opima were far rarer and highly contextual, a legacy of archaic Greco-Roman culture.
At both the state and personal level, religious practice was integral to Rome’s conduct in war, influencing both decisions to fight and the conduct of armies and individuals within combat. Integral to state security, maintaining the divine favor of the gods was deemed essential.
From a modern perspective, this certainly made for some complex “theater.” However, through the ancient lens, things were truly simple. Roman arms flourished through the divine patronage of the gods, and that continued benevolence was underpinned by rigid, ritual observance.
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