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INTRODUCTION
An often taught simplistic view of Roman religion is that its gods and practices were mostly just borrowed from the Greeks and given Roman names. In reality, this view is far too simplistic. Indeed, Roman religion did borrow, but from far more sources than just Greece. It was a religion that was quite eclectic, assimilating a variety of beliefs and practices from many ancient cultures. It is also a religion that changed in many ways over the long history of Roman civilization. This short study seeks to introduce the student to the most prominent of the influences and developments of the religion of ancient Rome.

EARLY ROME

Gods of early Rome:

Depicting the gods of early Rome is a difficult task. In the first place there were hundreds of different gods. In the second, the gods seemed to have very little personality. In early times there were no statues of gods and the gods were defined more or less by their function. Early Rome had no mythologies or cosmogonies, no genealogies of gods, no worship of heroes, no conceptions of life in the underworld.

The Romans employed two words to designate divine presences or powers, namely, deus, which we generally translate god, and numen, for which we have no proper term. Numen simply suggests some impersonal force or power, some will that is real but not tangible in any way.

The five most prominent gods (deus) of this early period are:

1. Jupiter: (Diespiter) He is the sky-god, the god of lightning, thunder, and rain. He is evidently of Indo-European origin. The obviously linguistically related Dyaus Pitar was the Hindu sky god while Zeus Pater was Greek. He gave men forewarnings of coming events by signs in the heavens and the flight of birds, which the augurs were supposed to read. His lightning was often seen as a judgement. His temple was built on the Capitoline hill.
2. Mars: A god of war. His symbols were the lance and shield. His sacred animal was the wolf.
3. Quirinus: A god of war. Perhaps Mars stood for offense and Quirinus for defense. Also a god of the community and of economic activity.
4. Janus: The god of beginnings and the keeper of the door.
5. Vesta: Goddess of the sacred fire and the hearth.

The most important of the numina were those of the home. The family cult was presided over by the father. Their were rituals honoring the ancestors (manes) and the general dead (parentes).

The numen of sowing was Saturnus, growth of grain was Ceres, harvesting was Consus, safe storage of grain was Ops. Flora made the fields blossom. Pomona ripened the fruit. Faunus presided over the woods. Terminus was the numen of the boundary stone, Fons of the springs, and Volturnus of the running water. Jupiter reigned over these numina.

The Penates presided over the cupboard. The Lares were the guardians of the sown fields and later on became the guardian of the household.
The procreating power of men was called Genius; the conceiving and bearing power of women was called Juno. Genius and Juno came into being and expired with the individual. They stood beside the individual in life as protecting spirits and could be represented as serpents. Later, under Greek influence, the power of Juno later became developed into the goddess, Juno, guardian of childbirth and motherhood.

Sanctuaries were built for many of the gods, mostly on the hills of Rome.

All sources of numen were honored and propitiated by a great variety of ceremonies and festivals. The essence of these festivals was ritual that had to be performed with exactness. The omission of a single word could make it all invalid. There were 104 days a year on which religious festivals or ceremonies were performed publicly. At the festivals the priests went about their duties performing a long list of ceremonies and tasks meticulously and dryly, whether anyone else was there or not.

At the head of the state cult was the King or Rex. The King or Rex was assisted by other orders of priests. For example, the Pontifices (originally three in number, but eventually fifteen) were concerned with the administration of sacred laws. The chief deities had priests called Flamines, who offered sacrifices. The Augures were concerned with the science of omens (at this time this basically amounted to verifying whether or not there were favorable signs), and with inaugurating buildings and religious leaders such as the Flamines.

The Vestal Virgins were consecrated women who took care of the sacred fire. This sacred fire represented the hearth for the state in the same way that Vesta represented the hearth for the family. This sacred fire was extinguished at the end of each year and relighted in the primitive way, with fire sticks. Each day the Vestal Virgins offered sacrifice on the hearth of the temple and performed a daily rite of purification with running water carried from a sacred fountain. They also said daily prayers. The dress of the Vestal Virgins resembled the gown of the Roman bride, white linen. To sacrifice they also wore purple-bordered white woolen veils. They were given tremendous honor and prestige. On assuming her vow, a Vestal Virgin was solemnly clasped by the Pontifex Maximus, the chief priest of the city, who said to her: "My Beloved, I take possession of thee." If the Vestal broke her vow of chastity, which she took for 30 years, she was buried alive.

There appears to have been a cult to the dead in early Rome. The dead were thought to live on in that world of spirits which contained all the Roman deities. On nine days in February the rites of burial were renewed to make sure the relation between the dead and the living was a happy one.

Characteristic points of this period:
1. The Roman believed himself to live in the midst of a population of spiritual beings.
2. It was necessary to be on good terms with these spiritual beings. This could be accomplished only by the constituted authorities of the state who had learned how to deal with them.
3. There was no real distinction between the laws of state and the laws of religion. Nor was there any real distinction between priest and magistrate.
4. This inseparable union between religion and state created a deep loyalty to the state.
5. The one feature of this religion that had a moral value was the indispensable attention to the details of duty.

THE ETRUSCAN PERIOD

When the Etruscans gained power over Rome it provoked several developments in Roman religion. These developments included:
1. New deities being brought into Roman society. For instance, a temple was erected for Diana on the Aventine. The Triumvirate of Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus was overshadowed by a bright new temple of Etruscan workmanship, built on the Capitoline to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. Juno is sometimes compared to Hera. Minerva is the goddess of arts and trades and is sometimes compared with Athena.
2. The Etruscans introduced statues of the gods into the temples.
3. The Etruscan soothsayers claimed to be able to foretell the future, either by examining entrails or observing lightning or observing marvels.
4. Even though the Sibylline oracles were of Greek origin, they were introduced to Rome by the last Etruscan king. The Sibylline oracles were purported to be prophetic verses, kept in the temple on the Capitoline hill. They were cared for by a new order of priests, the duoviri (originally two in number, then ten, then fifteen). These priests were asked on many grave occasions to consult the oracles and announce the course of procedure that should be taken. The findings were always subject for evaluation by the senate and the final decision on the course of action would be made by the senate. Because the oracles were Greek in origin the duoviri often prescribed remedies that resorted to deities and ceremonies not originally Roman.

THE REPUBLICAN PERIOD DOWN TO THE SECOND PUNIC WAR 218 bc.

When the Etruscan king was deposed in 509 bc the religious duties of the king were assumed by a religious official called the Rex Sacrorum. But as time went on in Republican times the real power soon passed to the Pontifex Maximus, the leader of the Pontifices. Most of the important religious decisions seemed to have needed the approval of him and his collegium. He named the Rex Sacrorum, the Flamines, and the Vestal Virgins. He oversaw the festival calendar, the public rituals, and the temple laws.

Besides the rituals of the state cult every Roman family had their own rituals. There were rituals for the worship of the door and the hearth and that of the dead ancestors. There were also rituals for birth, purification (ninth day for boys, eighth day for girls) marriage, and death. During this period these family rituals came to be supervised by the Pontifices. This was to ensure that the rituals could be done perfectly.

An important change in Roman religion that occurred in Republican times was the introduction of many Greek deities. This process was accelerated by the Sibylline oracles. In 493 bc the duoviri interpreted the verses to advise building a temple to house Ceres, Liber, and Libera (a Roman version of Demeter, Dionysus, and Persephone). In 431 bc they advised that a temple for Apollo be built. Among other Greek deities introduced in the same way were Artemis as Diana, Aphrodite as Venus, and Aesculapius. All these were worshiped with adopted Greek rituals.
In 399 bc the Sibylline priests suggested a lectisternium as a cure for a rampaging pestilence. For eight days the elegantly robed wooden statues of Apollo, Latona (Leto), Hercules, Diana (Artemis), Mercury (Hermes), and Neptune (Poseidon) were seen reclining on couches around a banquet table, on which was placed a sacramental meal. The Lectisternium was frequently repeated for the next 180 years, until 217 bc, and became the essential part of the Roman festivals of prayer and intercession.

One of the major changes that the introduction of Greek gods made on Roman religion was that the Roman gods became anthropomorphized (like man) and obtained a mythology. For instance, Ceres, instead of remaining an abstract concept of a creative force, was identified with Demeter in human form. The legend of her search for Persephone was adopted. Many other Greek myths were accepted by the Romans as the Greek gods assumed old Roman names.

Another new tendency was a search for a more emotional expression of religious feeling. The first Lectisternium marks the first appearance of that tendency. In the old Roman system only the priest took part in the religious rites and was alone admitted to the temple. At the Lectisternium the whole populace was expected to view the processions.

Characteristic points:
1. There was an introduction of numerous new deities, both of Italian and Greek origin, and a more showy and emotional ritual.
2. The laws of religion were systematized as part of the civil laws to such a degree that all important acts of a Roman citizen, public and private, were regulated.
3. The rise to power of the two great colleges, particularly the Pontifices (the other was the Augures).

THE REPUBLICAN PERIOD DOWN TO THE EMPIRE 31 bc

The religious system which we have examined thus far can be described as the sum total of all those cults which were recognized and maintained by the State. In the period now to be dealt with we will find the care of the State for the old cults becoming rapidly relaxed, while at the same time new and foreign ones are introduced that are more incompatible with the old Roman ways.

The long struggle with Hannibal in the Second Punic War marks a turning point in Roman history and religion. The war was long, fought on Italian soil, and drained the energies of the people. The stress of war and constant danger caused the people to seek relief through religion. The people tried to satisfy the gods by numerous types of rituals and sacrifices after consultation of the oracles. But the strong fibre of the Roman people was giving way under the constant peril and anxiety. The people did not know what deity was persecuting them or where to turn for help. The numerous religious performances had not seemed to quiet the nerves of the masses. In 205 bc a singular step was taken. The Duoviri said they found in the oracles an assertion that Italy could be freed from the enemy if the sacred stone of the Magna Mater, Cybele, the great mother goddess of Phrygia (in modern western Turkey), was brought to Rome. The king of Pergamos, to whom the stone belonged, gave his consent. Almost immediately there was a good harvest, Scipio left for Carthage, and Hannibal left Italy. In 191 bc the stone was transferred to a temple on the Palantine hill. This cult was freely taken up by all classes and with it the fashion of consulting astrologers. The worship of Ma of Cappadocia, Isis, Dionysus, and Mithras were to follow in due course. Not all of these cults were accepted with open arms. For instance, there was a law passed forbidding Romans from becoming priests of Cybele because it usually meant castration. Thus, the priests of Cybele had to be imported from Asia Minor. The Dionysian cult, because of its secrecy, was suppressed by a decree of the senate in 186 bc. It came to life again later under the strict supervision of the state. The upshot of this importation of various eastern cults is that the Romans had begun to feel that their old system of religion was inadequate. The rites and ceremonies were very formalistic with little emotion and spiritual satisfaction. (See below for more on Cybele, Mithras, and Dionysius.)

Religion among the Roman upper classes was also eroded by Greek philosophy. Epicureanism appeared first, but was slow in gaining ground among the people. The enthusiastic denial of the value of religion and the appeal to the intellectual faculty of man to rid himself of the degrading bondage of religion were not in harmony with traditional Roman thought. Epicurus had taught that pleasure was the purpose of life and that pleasure is freedom from pain and fear. Mankind must overcome its superstitious belief in the fickle, anthropomorphic gods of popular tradition, because this belief and the fear of retribution after death, is above all the belief that causes human misery. Death is the extinction of life. Happiness in this life can best be achieved through withdrawal from the world of affairs to cultivate a quiet existence of simple pleasure in the company of friends.

While Epicureanism was only mildly successful in Roman society in this period, another Greek philosophy, Stoicism, laid a strong grasp on the best Roman minds. It did not deny the existence of the divine. It postulated a Supreme Deity, identical with Reason, Law, or Destiny, and left place for the existence of subordinate deities by making them functional emanations of the Supreme One. In the Stoic view, all reality was pervaded by an intelligent divine force, the Logos or universal reason which ordered all things. Man could achieve happiness only by attuning his life and character to this force. To be free was to live in conformity to God's will. What mattered finally in life was the virtuous state of the soul, not the circumstances of the outer life. The Stoic was generally conscientious of duty and indifferent to the difficulties of life. All human beings shared in the divine Logos were therefore part of a universal brotherhood.

Characteristic points:
1. The old Roman religion fell into disuse. The temples of the city were fast going to ruin. Many of the old cults and gods were neglected and forgotten. The Rex Sacrorum and the Flamines fell into partial or total neglect.
2. The Vestal Virgins kept the sacred fire going; it was too well recognized as a symbol of the state's vitality to be neglected. The Pontifices let the calendar get into a state of chaos and failed to keep up the sacrifices. The Augures forgot the ancient science of augury. The office of Pontifex Maximus began to be sought after because it brought social and political influence.
3. The unifying influence of the old Roman religion had ended. The decay had occurred so quickly that no efficient substitute had grown up to replace it. Morality declined.

THE IMPERIAL PERIOD

Augustus sought to restore the ancient religion as a means of restoring the character and unity of the State. He sought to return to the people the idea of sacrifice of self for the good of the State, and submission to the divine will in full confidence of ultimate success. Virgil's poem The Aeneid was part of this movement, a piece of propaganda extolling the virtue of the Roman State.

Augustus had for some time been a Pontifice as well as one of the Augures and Duoviri, when in 12 bc he became the Pontifex Maximus. As such, he restored 82 temples. He restored ceremonies. He restored the Flamines and the Rex Sacrorum. His new role identified religious authority with political power. From this time forward, the Pontifex Maximus would be permanently associated with the emperor. The emperor was in control of the public cults.

To further augment the unity of the empire, Augustus encouraged the worship of the imperial house. He erected a temple in the Forum, furnished with specially appointed priests and dedicated to the honor of Divus Julius (Julius Caesar, his father by adoption), who had already been declared a god by the Roman senate in 42 bc. He also permitted the erection of shrines in which his genius was worshiped (though not himself). The senate deified him at his death.

As time went on, it became mandatory in the provinces, as a sign of loyalty to the Roman imperium, to pay reverence to the emperor's genius, and sometimes to the emperor himself. In due time, consecration of the emperor as a god became part of every imperial funeral (see description of a funeral below). Finally the aura of divinity became attached to the emperor before death.

During the early imperial period several of the eastern cults spread in popularity. Some of them gained increasing official acceptance. Cybele had her own festival held in March.

A new variation of an old philosophy became popular. In the third century Plotinus (ad 205­c.270) expounded his ideas of Neo-Platonism. For Plotinus this world and this life were not the most desirable of all possible existences. Rather, the most desirable of existences was union or oneness with the supreme One, a state of pure beauty or truth or good, that might, in a very rough analogy, be considered Plotinus's god. This was the philosopher's quest, to be one with the supreme One, in a transcendent existence beyond reason. Plotinus saw the Neoplatonic cosmos as having overflowed from the supreme One, which is infinite in being and beyond all description or categories. This overflowing of the One, also called the Good, produced the "other" -- the created cosmos in all its variety -- in a hierarchical series of gradations moving away from this center to the extreme limits of the possible. The first level of existence beyond the One is the divine intellect or "Nous," the pervasive wisdom of the universe, within which are contained the archetypal Forms or Ideas that cause and order the world. From the Nous flows the World Soul, which contains and animates the world, is the source for the souls of all living beings, and constitutes the intermediate reality between the spiritual Intellect and the world of matter. The last level resulting from this divine overflow is the material world, existing in time and space and perceptible to the senses. It is the level of reality furthest from the One. As the final limit of creation, it is characterized in negative terms as the realm of multiplicity, restriction, and darkness. It holds the least degree of real being. Despite its deep imperfection it is also characterized in positive terms as a creation of beauty, an organic whole produced and held together by the World Soul in a universal harmony. It imperfectly reflects the glorious unity in diversity that exists on a higher level in the spiritual world of forms of the Nous.

Man, whose nature is soul-in-body, has potential access to the highest intellectual and spiritual realms, though this is dependent on his liberation from materiality. Man can rise to the consciousness of the World Soul and thence to the universal Intellect; or he can remain bound to the lower realms. In fact a man's soul could transmigrate into animals if it sinned in this realm. Because all things emanate from the One through the Intellect and the World Soul, and because the human imagination at its highest is part of the emanation from the One, man's rational soul can imaginatively reflect the transcendent Forms and thus, through this insight into the ultimate order of things, move toward its spiritual freedom or oneness. The philosopher's task is to overcome the human bondage to the physical realm by moral and intellectual self-discipline and purification, and to turn inward to a gradual ascent back to the One. A person must shed personal impurities. The final moment of illumination transcends knowledge in any usual sense, and cannot be defined or described. It is a mystical experience, intuitive, ineffable, and beyond description in human terms. It unites the philosopher with the One.

Characteristic points:
1. Rome continued to accept new gods, new cults, and new philosophies.
2. An emperor cult became established.
3. A return to old Roman values was attempted.
4. State and religion were even more inextricably woven together.

The annual festival of Cybele-Attis was held on the spring equinox and lasted four days, from March 22 to 25. On the first day, the trunk of a pine tree wreathed with violets and swathed with woolen cloth was carried ceremonially into the temple. Then, an effigy of the god Attis, Cybele's lover who was reputed to have died by emasculating himself under a pine tree, was fastened to the decorated tree trunk. On the second day, a procession of mourners followed the statue of the goddess Cybele through the streets. They screamed, whirled, leaped, and in their frenzy slashed themselves with knives and swords. On the third day, the bloody passion-drama reached its climax. The novitiates sacrificed their virility by emasculation, so they could share Attis's resurrection. The severed organs were offered on the altar of the goddess Cybele. The effigy was then removed and laid in a tomb, while the castrated initiates watched and fasted until the next morning. Early at dawn on the fourth day, the tomb was opened and the crowds of worshipers shouted in joy, because the god Attis was resurrected and the tomb was empty. The festival ended with a huge and joyous procession carrying the black meteorite stone (representing Cybele) to the river, where it was ceremonially bathed, after which it was returned to its sacred place in the temple.

In addition to that festival, there were some rituals performed only by the emasculated initiates. Those ceremonies consisted of an initiatory rite, known as the taurobolium, and a sacramental meal. The taurobolium was a baptismal font in the form of a pit into which the newly inducted members descended, to stand under a grating that supported a sacred bull. The sacrificial bull was ceremonially slain on the grating so that its blood ran over the inductees below, who, by the ritual, were considered to be purified. The ritual of purification was followed by a sacramental meal, at which the inductees shared a sense of oneness or of unity as they ate from a common drum and drank from a common cymbal. [S.A. Nigosian, World Religions, 209.]

Of all the foreign religions adopted by the Romans, the worship of the Persian (Iranian) god Mithra became the most popular and the most widespread. Introduced into the Roman Empire in the first century bc, Mithraism spread so rapidly that in a very short time hundreds of Mithraeums (temples) had been established from India to Scotland through the agency of zealous Mithraic proselytes, who communicated their convictions with missionary fervor along the ancient trade routes of Africa, Italy, Germany, Spain, France, and Britain. Roman emperors, senators, soldiers, and civil servants were among the most ardent supporters of Mithra. That was not surprising, because Mithra was the invincible god of war, the protector of stable government, and the upholder of social justice and brotherhood.

Mithra was an ancient Indo-Aryan god that appeared in the religion and mythologies of the Persians and the Indians. As the lord of heavenly light, he was identified with the sun, but he was also the god of cattle, agriculture, war, and truth. In addition, Mithra was one of the judges who welcomed the souls of humans after death and, as the god of immortality, conferred everlasting life on his faithful followers. No documents or scriptures are extant on Mithra, but scholars have been able to analyze the cult based on fragmentary references, inscriptions, bas-reliefs, and sculptures. On the basis of all that material, scholars have reconstructed the following story about Mithra.

According to the story, the god Mithra was born miraculously in a cave on December 25. The event was witnessed only by some shepherds who came to worship the newborn god with their gifts. From infancy, Mithra's mission was to become master of the earth. To that end, he made the sun subject to his will and consequently was identified with it. Next, he considered it his duty to sacrifice a bull, the pristine creation of the ancient Iranian god Ahura Mazda. That sacrifice was imperative, because the Persians believed that the soul of the bull was the regenerative source of all celestial elements and its body the source of human life and all life on earth: all useful herbs from its carcass; wheat from its spinal marrow; all useful animals from its semen; and grapes, which produced the sacramental wine consumed during Mithraic rituals, from its blood. Mithra, therefore, was identified with the slain bull as the creator of all beneficent creatures and herbage. Above all, Mithra was the savior god who protected his devotees in this world and granted them salvation in the next.

Mithraic congregations consisted only of male communicants, who gathered in small numbers of perhaps a hundred or so in underground or subterranean meeting places, because Mithra was born in a cave. Members passed through seven orders or degrees, including an initiation ritual, in which the outline of a cross was branded on their foreheads. Newly inducted members, like their counterparts in Cybelian tauroboliums, stood under a grating on which a sacred bull was ceremonially slain, drenching them in the bull's blood. They also took an oath never to reveal the secrets of the order or the mysteries of Mithra. Induction into higher orders involved purification; baptism by fire, in a ceremony that required postulants to submit to a sign marked on their foreheads with a hot iron; and the sacraments of bread and wine, representing mystical union with the god Mithra.

Sunday was holy to the followers of Mithra, because it glorified the sun god, Mithra. December 25 was hallowed because it was the birthday of Mithra, and devotees kept a vigil on the preceding night. [S.A. Nigosian, World Religions, 210-212.]

Dionysus was probably introduced to Greece by immigrants from Thrace in the seventh and sixth centuries bc. In Thrace he seems to have been the vegetation spirit of some of the tribes of the north, who worshipped him with rude orgies in the mountains. He came to Greece as a god of all living things, including the vine. His death was apparent in the dying autumn vegetation, and his returning to life was equally obvious in the green of the spring. This recurring theme of life and death inspired in Greece a cult composed mostly of women, called maenads, who sought ecstatic communion with the gods in wild dances, sexual irregularities, and animal sacrifices, as well as the tearing apart of living animals and eating their raw flesh. This rite -- called omophagia -- of eating the flesh and drinking the blood of a kid or bull that was identified with the god was seen as a sacramental way of communion with Dionysius. There was also theatre involved in some Dionysiac rites.

"Greek drama has been thought to have originated in the initiation rites dedicated to Dionysius. The central feature of the Dionysiac and Orphic rites at such shrines as Delphi, Eleusis and Agrae was the worshipper's belief that he could actually become one with and share the destiny of Dionysius or Orpheus, just as in Egypt initiates shared the destiny of Osiris, and in Christianity the destiny of Christ. There was a strong pantomimic element in the Dionysiac cults, in which initiates played the roles of various deities in the cycle of dramatic stories revolving around that deity. The end result of the rituals was that the initiate would overcome the effects of death. Plutarch consoled his wife upon the death of their young daughter by telling her that she should remember 'the mystic symbols of the rites of initiation to Dionysius.'" [John Lundquist. The Temple: Meeting Place of Heaven and Earth, 22.]

"[Septimus Severus] announced that a chariot drawn by elephants would carry a golden statue of Pertinax to the Circus Maximus, and that a throne would be set out for Pertinax at public shows. And he staged a magnificent funeral -- one of the finest funerals that Romans had ever witnessed.

An ornamental platform was constructed in the Forum--a platform looking like stone but really made of wood. On it, in a shrine with columns of marble and gold, was a couch draped in gold and purple, and on the couch lay a wax replica of Pertinax in his triumphal robes. He seemed to be sleeping. A handsome slave, plying a fan from the tail of a peacock, kept flies away from his realistic but motionless countenance. The object was to make him look alive as possible, since this was his funeral. The senators and their ladies, in robes of mourning for the murdered divinity, seated themselves around the structure, the ladies under porticoes. Severus was very much in evidence.

After a period of solemnity, the funeral procession began. Images of heroic Romans from the past were carried by; then came men and boys singing a funeral hymn; then, bronze figures representing the many peoples that Rome had conquered and ruled, identifiable by their native costumes; then, further to illustrate the greatness of Rome, the bronze busts of men who had performed noble exploits, the standards of societies, infantry and cavalry units, and choice horses from the Circus Maximus. Last came a gilt altar decorated with ivory and jewels.
The Emperor Septimus Severus mounted the Rostra and read a speech to the assembly. He praised Pertinax highly, in a formal manner. From time to time, the listening senators shouted acclamations; they also moaned and wept. Magistrates and priests picked up the couch draped in purple and gold, with the wax Pertinax still lying on it, and put it in the care of members of the knightly order, who would bear it to the Campus Martius.

The senators walked in front of the couch, wailing and striking their chests, or chanting a funeral song, while flutes played. At the end of the procession was Severus himself.

In the Campus Martius, a three-story tower had been built. It was richly ornamented with gold, ivory, and statues, and on top of it had been placed a gilded chariot which Pertinax had driven. The couch was now placed on the tower. Severus and the kin of Pertinax filed past and kissed the lips of the waxen image. IN front of the tower, the magistrates, knights, cavalry, and infantry executed a military maneuver. The two consuls, chief magistrates of the state, set the tower on fire.

Up from the flames flew an eagle which had been imprisoned in the tower. Probably frantic, the bird soared into the sky, carrying the soul of Pertinax to its home with the other divine Emperors." [George C. Brauer, Jr, The Decadent Emperors, (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1967) pp. 9-10.]