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{{About|the religious rite|the magazine of the Vienna Secession|Ver Sacrum (magazine)}}
{{Ancient Roman religion}}
{{Italictitle}}
'''''Ver sacrum''''' ("sacred spring") is a religious practice of [[Ancient peoples of Italy|ancient Italic peoples]], especially the [[Sabelli]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Salmon |first1=Edward Togo |last2=Potter |first2=T. W. |title=Oxford Classical Dictionary |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-954556-8 |page=1303 |url=https://oxfordre.com/classics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-5643 |access-date=2 August 2022 |chapter=Sabelli|year=2015 |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.5643 }}</ref> (or [[Sabini]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cornell |first1=Tim J. |editor1-last=Hornblower |editor1-first=Simon |editor2-last=Spawforth |editor2-first=Antony |editor3-last=Eidinow |editor3-first=Esther |title=Oxford Classical Dictionary |page=1304 |edition=4th |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bVWcAQAAQBAJ&dq=%22sabelli%22+oxford+classical+dictionary+google+books&pg=PA1304 |chapter=Sabini|date=29 March 2012 |isbn=978-0-19-954556-8 }}</ref>) and their offshoot [[Samnites]], concerning the deduction of colonies. It was of special interest to [[Georges Dumézil]], according to whom the ''ver sacrum'' perpetuated prehistoric migration practices of [[Proto-Indo-Europeans|Indo-European]]s to the end of the [[Iron Age]] and into the beginnings of history, when stable sedentary dwelling conditions had already become general.
==Religious meaning==
{{More citations needed section|date=May 2010}}
The practice consisted of a vow ''([[votum]]'') to the god [[Mars (god)|Mars]] of the generation of offspring born in the spring of the following year to humans or [[cattle]]. Among the Sabines, this was the period from March 1 to April 30.
The practice is related to that of ''[[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#devotio|devotio]]'' in [[Religion in ancient Rome|Roman religion]]. It was customary to resort to it at times of particular danger or strife for the community. Some scholars believe that in earlier times ''devoted'' or vowed children were actually [[human sacrifice|sacrificed]], but later expulsion was substituted.<ref>e.g. Leonhard Schmitz  in ''[[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities|A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities]]'' William Smith ed.  s.v.  London 1875.</ref> [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]] states the practice of child sacrifice was one of the causes that brought about the fall of the [[Pelasgians]] in Italy.
The human children who had been ''devoted'' were required to leave the community in early adulthood, at 20 or 21 years of age. They were entrusted to a god for protection, and led to the border with a veiled face. Often they were led by an animal under the auspices of the god. As a group, the youth were called ''sacrani'' and were supposed to enjoy the protection of Mars until they had reached their destination, expelled the inhabitants or forced them into submission, and founded their own settlement.
The tradition is recorded by [[Sextus Pompeius Festus|Festus]],<ref>Fest. s.v. Ver Sacrum</ref> [[Livy]],<ref>Livy ''[[Ab Urbe Condita Libri (Livy)|Ab Urbe Condita]]'' XXII 9, 10; XXXIV 44</ref> [[Strabo]],<ref>Strabo V p. 172</ref> Sisenna,<ref>Sisenna ap. Non. XII, 18</ref> [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]],<ref>Servius ''ad Aen.'' VII, 796</ref> [[Varro]], and [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]].<ref>Dyon. Hal. I, 16</ref>
==Animals and naming==
Guide animals that led the group sometimes became the [[eponym]]s of the new community.''<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sergent|first=Bernard|author-link=Bernard Sergent|date=1991|title=Ethnozoonymes indo-européens|url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/dha_0755-7256_1991_num_17_2_1932|journal=Dialogues d'histoire ancienne|volume=17|issue=2|pages=40|doi=10.3406/dha.1991.1932}}</ref>'' These included the wolf (''hirpus''), after which the [[Hirpini]] of [[Campania]] were supposed to have been named; the woodpecker (''picus''), which gave its name to the [[Piceni]] or Picentes who settled present-day [[Marche]] (hence the green woodpecker as the symbol of the region);<ref>G. Dumezil ''La religion romaine archaique'' Paris 1974 2nd; It. tr. p. 192</ref> the vulture (''vultur'') of the Vultures; and the horse (''equus'') of the [[Aequi]] or Aequicolae in [[Latium]]. The [[Samnites]] were led by an ox (''bos'')  after which was named their capital [[Bovianum Undecumanorum|Bovianum]], founded upon the hill on which the ox had stopped. The [[Mamertini]] of Sicily received their name directly from the god Mars.<ref>G. Dumezil ''La religion romaine archaique'' Paris 1974 2nd; It. tr. p.215 n. 58</ref>
==Animals in ''signa militaria''==
[[File:Denarius Mark Anthony-32BC-legIII.jpg|thumb|left|[[Denarius]] of [[Marcus Antonius]] (32 BC) depicting a [[Roman legion|legionary]] eagle ''([[Aquila (Roman)|aquila]])'' on the reverse]]
Guide animals from the ''ver sacrum'' and their legends may explain the use of animal insignia by the [[Roman army]].<ref>R. Merkelbach "Spechtfahne und Stammessage der Picenter" in ''Studi in onore di Ugo Enrico Paoli'' 1955, pp.513-520</ref> [[Gaius Marius]] was the first to adopt the eagle in all the ''[[signa militaria]]''; previously the eagle had been the first and highest of the ''signa''. Others in use were the wolf, the [[Minotaur]], the horse and the boar.<ref>Pliny the Elder ''Naturalis Historia'' 10, 16</ref>  [[Andreas Alföldi]]<ref>A. Alföldi, "Zu den Römischen Reiterscheiben" ''Germania'', '''30''', 1952, p.188  n. 11.</ref> has linked each animal with a [[List of Roman deities|Roman god]], starting with the eagle and [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]] and ending with the boar of [[Quirinus]]: thus the wolf would be related to [[Mars (mythology)|Mars]], the [[Minotaur]] to [[Liber]] and the horse to [[Neptune (mythology)|Neptune]].
Dumézil emphasizes the affinity of [[Indo-Iranians|Indo-Iranian]] human and warrior gods with animal forms: among the [[Iranian peoples|Iranian]] god of victory ''V(e)r(e)thragna''{{'}}s [[incarnation]]s, seven are of animal form, including the bull, horse, boar and hawk, each of which is associated at one time or another with a ''ver sacrum'' and Roman army insignia.
On the ''recto'' of coins from Campania appears a human character bearing over his head that of a boar, and on the ''verso'' the word ''ROMA''.<ref>H. E. Grüber ''The coins of the Roman republic in the British Museum'' III, 1910, tab. 75, 9 and 13</ref> German scholar C. Koch<ref>C. Koch "Bemerkungen zum Römischen Quirinuskult" in ''Religio'' 1960 p. 21, n. 12.</ref> interprets this character as god [[Quirinus]], since he identifies the boar, ''aper'', as the animal symbol of the god.  Dumézil remarks that the boar is the animal symbolizing [[Freyr]], a ''[[Vanir|Vane]]'' (god) in Scandinavian mythology, who rides one.
==The Roman ''ver sacrum''==
Dumézil<ref>G. Dumezil ''La religion romaine archaique'' Paris, 1974, part I, chap.4</ref> argues that of the two major traditions of the [[founding of Rome]], one seems to make reference to a ''ver sacrum'' and the other makes an explicit identification. This last one says that ''sacrani'' who had come from the town of [[Reate]], today Rieti, expelled the indigenous [[Ligures]] and [[Sicels]] from the place that would later become the [[Septimontium]].<ref>Fest. p. 414 L2.</ref> In the version accepted as canonic by Livy and Dionysius of  Halicarnassus Rome was founded by two twins, sons of Mars, who were nurtured by a she-wolf and who had left the town of [[Alba Longa|Alba]] of their own accord. Dumézil's interpretation is not universally shared by scholars: in the ''Cambridge Ancient History'', [[Arnaldo Momigliano]] states flatly that "[[Romulus]] did not lead a ''ver sacrum''."<ref>[[Arnaldo Momigliano]], "The Origins of Rome", in ''The Cambridge Ancient History: The Rise of Rome to 220 B.C.'' (Cambridge University Press, 1989, 2002 reprint), vol 7, part 2, p. 58 [https://books.google.com/books?id=3qXuay2SEtIC&dq=%22ver+sacrum%22&pg=PA58 online.]</ref>
The last ''ver sacrum'' recorded in history occurred at Rome during the [[Second Punic War]] after the defeats at [[Battle of Trasimene|Trasimene]] and [[Battle of Cannae|Cannae]] and concerned only cattle.<ref>Livy XXXIII, 44; Plutarch Fabius  Maximus 4.</ref> Livy's narrative of the event provides information on two important points of pontifical  jurisprudence.  Firstly, the pontifex maximus [[Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Caudinus]] made it clear the ''votum'' would be valid only after a vote of the Roman people (''iussu populi''), then he specified a long series of unfavourable events and circumstances which were as a rule regarded as invalidating but would not be so as far as the present ''votum'' was concerned in the case they happen.<ref>
Francesco Sini
''A quibus iura civibus praescribebantur. Ricerche sui giuristi del III secolo a.C.''
Torino, G. Giappichelli Editore, 1995
pp. 172 – {{ISBN|978-88-348-4188-4}} pp. 103-112. Livy XXII 10, 1-6.</ref> The overall authenticity of the formula preserved in Livy's passage has been noticed by Dumézil<ref>Dumézil 1977 p. 411.</ref> while the exceptional theological and juridical prudence showed by Lentulus in ensuring that both fraud and ignorance of private citizens would not affect the validity of the ''sacrum'' and harm the Roman people has been remarked by Bouché-Leclercq.<ref>A. Bouché-Leclercq ''Les pontiffs de l'ancienne Rome. Étude historique sur les institutions religieuses de Rome'' Paris 1871 p. 167 f. as cited by F. Sini ''Sua cuique civitati religio'' Torino Giappichelli 2001 p. 217 n. 25.</ref>
== See also ==
* [[Kóryos]]
* [[Ostracism]]
* [[Relegatio]]
==References==
{{Reflist|2}}
{{Authority control}}
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[[Category:Italic religion]]
[[Category:Samnites]]
[[Category:Animals in religion]]
[[Category:Forced migrations in Europe]]