PUBLIC PORTENTS
Public portents played a key role in ancient Roman religion and society. The three main categories that made up public portents were auspicia (portents from birds and lightning), exta (portents from the entrails of animals) and finally prodigia (the prodigies).
The prodigies were by definition unfavourable portents, requiring public expiation in order to re-establish a good relationship with the gods (pax deorum). Examples of such prodigies were unusual phenomena, such as earthquakes; the raining of stones; hermaphrodites; cult statues dripping with sweat, weeping or bleeding; cows speaking; and mules giving birth.Scholarship sometimes insists on a distinction between physically possible prodigies, such as hermaphrodites or fertile mules, and prodigies that are physically impossible, such as speaking cattle (cf. Rasmussen 2003: 35-41, 25-34). The (modern) question of physical plausibility, however, seems rather irrelevant in an ancient Roman religious context. What matters is that the reports of such unusual phenomena had real consequences for Roman society, regardless of whether or not we accept the idea of a Latin-speaking cow today. Throughout the republican period such prodigies were reported, registered and expiated year in and year out. The prodigies were regarded as signs of religious and societal imbalance, while ritual expiation was perceived as an effective means of reestablishing equilibrium in relations with the gods. The procedure concerning this kind of portent clearly demonstrates both their importance and the interplay between religion and politics in ancient Rome. Prodigies must be reported to the Roman Senate, which then decided whether this or that unusual phenomenon was actually a prodigium publicum, or not. If it was accepted by the Senate as a public portent, it was also the Senate’s duty to authorize the subsequent expiation.
In these matters the Senate could consult various priesthoods: the pontifices, the decemviri sacris faciundis or the haruspices, whose responsum contained interpretations and ritual instruction for the required expiation. Several sources testify to the fact that the prodigies and their ritual expiation were matters of vital significance to Roman society: according to Livy, prodigies and their expiation stood at the head of the Senate’s agenda, followed by other matters of the state and questions of war and peace in the Roman world. Livy (24.11.1, 27.11.1, 32.9.1) explicitly states that the prodigies were reported and had to be expiated after the new consuls had been appointed but before they departed to their respective provinces. Consequently, the necessity of the ritual expiation could even delay the consuls leaving Rome.Furthermore, based on the ancient records of prodigies, it can be concluded that besides various unusual phenomena, examples of unusual and inappropriate human behaviour could also be perceived as public prodigies (cf. Rasmussen 2003: 41-116). This applied to actions that contradicted the mos maiorum in various social, religious, political and military contexts, and which therefore threatened the basic fabric and continued existence of society. From a sociological point of view, this category of prodigies is a clear-cut example of how the institution of public portents in the hands of the religio-political Roman elite served to define and (re)construct Roman identity, by sanctioning and consolidating a variety of values and behavioural norms in Roman society.