22.10
After
these resolutions had been passed in the senate the praetor consulted the
pontifical college as to the proper means of giving effect to them, and L.
Cornelius Lentulus, the Pontifex Maximus, decided that the very first step to
take was to refer to the people the question of a "Sacred Spring," as this
particular form of vow could not be undertaken without the order of the
people. The form of procedure was as follows: "Is it," the praetor asked the
Assembly, "your will and pleasure that all be done and performed in manner
following? That is to say, if the commonwealth of the Romans and the
Quirites be preserved, as I pray it may be, safe and sound through these
present wars -to wit, the war between Rome and Carthage and the wars
with the Gauls now dwelling on the hither side of the Alps -then shall the
Romans and Quirites present as an offering whatever the spring shall
produce from their flocks and herds, whether it be from swine or sheep or
goats or cattle, and all that is not already devoted to any other deity shall be
consecrated to Jupiter from such time as the senate and people shall order.
Whosoever shall make an offering let him do it at whatsoever time and in
whatsoever manner he will, and howsoever he offers it, it shall be accounted
to be duly offered. If the animal which should have been sacrificed die, it
shall be as though unconsecrated, there shall be no sin. If any man shall hurt
or slay a consecrated thing unwittingly he shall not be held guilty. If a man
shall have stolen any such animal, the people shall not bear the guilt, nor he
from whom it was stolen. If a man offer his sacrifice unwittingly on a
forbidden day, it shall be accounted to be duly offered. Whether he do so by
night or day, whether he be slave or freeman, it shall be accounted to be duly
offered. If any sacrifice be offered before the senate and people have ordered
that it shall be done, the people shall be free and absolved from all guilt
therefrom." To the same end the Great Games were vowed at a cost of
333,333 1/3 ases, and in addition 300 oxen to Jupiter, and white oxen and
the other customary victims to a number of deities. When the vows had been
duly pronounced a litany of intercession was ordered, and not only the
population of the City but the people from the country districts, whose
private interests were being affected by the public distress, went in
procession with their wives and children. Then a lectisternium was held for
three days under the supervision of the ten keepers of the Sacred Books. Six
couches were publicly exhibited; one for Jupiter and Juno, another for
Neptune and Minerva, a third for Mars and Venus, a fourth for Apollo and
Diana, a fifth for Vulcan and Vesta, and the sixth for Mercury and Ceres.
This was followed by the vowing of temples. Q. Fabius Maximus, as
Dictator, vowed the temple to Venus Erycina, because it was laid down in
the Books of Fate that this vow should be made by the man who possessed
the supreme authority in the State. T. Otacilius, the praetor, vowed the
temple to Mens.
