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Smoke. Fire. Fear. Blood.
Inside the Episode
With Jonathan Stamp
Spooky thing, Roman religion. Or should that be, a spooked thing?
If you summed up Roman religion in a single word I would say that word should be fear. Fear of the gods and spirits all around you. Fear of what they might do if you crossed them. Fear if you failed to offer the right prayer, the right sacrifice. Fear if you failed to call upon the right one at the right time – no easy task when there were thousands to choose from.
The Christian writer St Augustine was later to say it was a wonder that the Romans ever ran an Empire at all. On waking they had to propitiate the god of the bed. On leaving their bedroom the god of the door – and the separate god of its hinges. Get it wrong and you may as well never have got up in the first place.
The mythological books on which we were brought up present a misleadingly jovial picture: Smiley, bearded, almost avuncular male gods, mostly sinuous, sexy female ones, with the occasional mother figure thrown in.
Insofar as the Romans ever bought in to such images – which was never very far – it was only as a palliative. The reality they concealed was one of vengeful, selfish forces at work in the world. Forces beyond your control, forces that fundamentally wished you ill, until persuaded – or bribed – to think otherwise.
This wasn't simply the thought-world of the illiterate poor, although there is no doubt that they particularly lived in its thrall. Even the most educated, powerful, ambitious Romans balked at atheism. This was partly because it wouldn't have gone down well with the electorate, but also I suspect because awe of the gods was present in even the most sophisticated. What if you denied them due respect and you were wrong?
The example of one patrician Roman admiral had not been forgotten. Before a great naval battle corn was fed, according to tradition, to chickens brought on board ship for the purpose. Diviners would interpret their movements as they ate, and predict the battle's outcome.
But the birds refused to touch the grain. Exasperated, the admiral is reported to have said, "If they will not eat, then let them drink", and thrown them over the side. He was humiliated in utter defeat.
So religious dread would, I believe, have cast its shade in some sense across the minds of all our players: the icy Octavian, the louche Maecenas, the stoical Cicero as he spoke before the Senate.
And across the mind of Lucius Vorenus, the self-styled 'Son of Hades', for all his defiant bearding of the gods.
Once Vorenus again has something to value and protect – his reunited family – his Roman-ness reasserts itself. Respect must be paid, or those above – never mind below – will be angry. And so we have that wonderful scene – one of my personal favorites – of the purification ceremony, what the Romans called a 'Lustratio', in which ancestral ritual will ward off evil, and a new start will be made.
Torches made of sulfur – thought to counteract 'fascinum', the evil eye – burn all around. The blood – a symbol of new life and offered sacrifice – is smeared on faces, including that of the disgusted Vorena the Elder. The priest intones – word perfect, one slip and he would have to start over lest the gods, any god, be offended – words unchanged since time immemorial.
Smoke, fire, fear, blood. For me this scene is 'Rome' truly capturing Rome, ancient Rome, just as it was.
Documentarian and historian Jonathan Stamp is a former Executive Producer in the BBC History Department and acted as Consultant and Co-Producer on Rome.
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Rome Logo Tee
An HBO SHOP(SM) exclusive features a soft cotton construction with the Rome logo across the front.
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Rome Fact
At its height the Roman Empire stretched from
Scotland to the Sahara and from the Atlantic Ocean to Afghanistan, an area that now contains more than 50 modern sovereign states?
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"Heroes of the Republic"
