Cynthia Jordan Bannon (Indiana University)
After the disaster at Trasimene in 217 BCE the Romans sought the gods’ help, vowing a ver sacrum, an archaic ritual sacrifice of all the year’s offspring (Livy 22.10.1-6). Livy’s report of the vow has been interpreted as evidence for archaic religious practice as well as the ritual origins of Roman law. This paper reassesses the Ver Sacrum vow by analyzing its Latin style and narrative contexts to offer insight into Livy’s presentation of law, a neglected topic (cf. Milnor 2007). The investigation also contributes to our understanding of Roman legal culture, specifically the ways that Romans without legal expertise handled the law and its technicalities. Livy recognized the verbal precision of legal and ritual language even if he did not always accurately represent it. His treatment of the Ver Sacrum vow operates in the so-called ‘shadow of the law’ (Mnookin and Kornhauser, 1979) where law shapes social reality as individuals adapt it to their own agendas, in this case literary and historical aims.
The Ver Sacrum vow’s archaic language purportedly demonstrates its antiquity as well as the shared origins of law and religion. The apparently contractual language of the vow connects it with legal contracts (Briscoe and Hornblower 2020, 181). Histories of Roman religion endorse this interpretation and the vow’s authenticity (e.g. Beard, North, and Price 1998, 1.33; Scheid 1998; Heurgon 1957, 147). Studies of archaic law give the vow little or no attention (e.g. De Meo 2005, 139; Schiavone 2012; Dilberto 1982; included in Elster 2003, 195-97; only for fraus in Kaser 1971 1.250n46); others question it openly (Crawford 1996, 29; Moreau 1987, 487). Yet the vow is often presented in quotation marks in published texts (e.g. Briscoe 2016, 85-86; Vallet 1966, 62-64). The consensus view of Livy’s reliability argues that, although he reports events with some accuracy, details are hard to verify (Oakley 1997, 83, 100-102).
To re-evaluate the vow this paper analyzes its Latin expression, related legal procedures, and Livy’s narrative choices. Stylistic analysis identifies in the vow features of archaic Latin, religious and legal (Clackson 2020, 20-21; De Meo 2005, 141; Courtney 1999). Its expression however is not consistently archaic nor aligned with its legal context. Livy presents the vow as a rogatio, a formal legislative proposal but he follows legislative procedure only selectively (cf. Crawford 1996, 10-34). Finally, the discussion considers how Livy integrates the vow and similar legal events into his narrative. Comparison with other rogationes highlights his approach; the laws on the Bacchic cult (186 BCE) are especially helpful because they are documented in both Livy and an inscription. Without attempting the impossible (i.e. to prove that the vow is not authentic), this exercise illuminates Livy’s working methods as well as the relationship between law and religion in the early imperial imagination. It also advises caution in regarding Livy’s Ver Sacrum vow as authentically archaic and, more generally, in the evaluation of literary sources for Roman law.