Devotio and Human Sacrifice in Archaic Italy and Rome 1 Gaius Stern, UC Berkeley gaius@berkeley.edu ABSTRACT The Roman father and son of the same name, P. Decius Mus, became paragon patriotic heroes by deliberately giving their lives in battle that Rome might win over a fierce enemy. Both engaged in a special ritual called devotio (from which our word “devotion” derives) to offer themselves to the gods of the Underworld, with whom regular people have very little interaction and to whom they rarely sacrifice. While the Mus family is the most famous for this act, it turns out the willingness to sacrifice oneself for the good of Rome frequently occurs within stories of great patriots, including the story of Horatius Cocles, Mettius Curtius, Atilius Regulus, and in a completely backwards fashion, the traitors Coriolanus and Tarpeia. Romans regarded self-sacrifice as a very high, noble endeavor, whereas they loathed and persecuted practitioners of human sacrifice. It is therefore quite amazing to read that the Romans thrice engaged in state-sponsored human sacrifice, a fact they rarely mention and generally forget. The most famous enemy practitioners of human sacrifice were the Druids, whom the Romans massacred on Mona Island on Midsummer Night’s Eve at the great Druid convention. But the Carthaginians, the Germans, the Celts, and the Thracians all did so as well. To Romans, the act of human sacrifice falls just short of cannibalism in the spectrum of forbidden practices, and was an accusation occasionally thrown upon an enemy to claim they are totally barbaric and not worth saving. On the other hand, Romans recognized their own who committed acts of self- sacrifice for the good of the society, as heroes. There can be no better patriot than he who gives his life to save his country. Romans considered as heroes many of the archaic individuals whose legacy was to have given their lives for Rome. Often the stories of their heroism have been exaggerated or sanitized. These acts of heroism often turn out to be acts of human sacrifice, supposedly a crime. It turns out that Romans have a strong legacy of practicing human sacrifice that lasts into the historic era, despite their alleged opposition to it. Numerous sources relate one story each. Collecting them all makes it impossible to deny the longevity of human sacrifice in Rome, although most Romans under the emperors were probably unaware of it. The paradox of condemning but still practicing human sacrifice demonstrates the nature of Roman religion, where do ut des plays a crucial role in standard sacrifice as well as in unpleasant acts like human sacrifice. Devotio was an inverted form of sacrifice, precisely because it was an offering to the gods of the Underworld, rather than to Jupiter or the Parcae. Romans may have forsaken devotio, but they continued to practice human sacrifice far longer than most of us have suspected. Key words: Devotio, human sacrifice, Vestal Virgins, Forum Boarium, Decius Mus, Horatius Cocles, Aemilius Paulus, Tarpeia, Coriolanus. 1 The author wishes to offer profuse thanks if not burnt thighs of sleek sheep covered with fat to the many friends and colleagues who helped edit this paper down to size, including Patricia Johnston, Charles King, Attilio Mastrocinque, Korneel Van Lommel, Kathleen Toohey, Sofia Vasconcelos Nunes, Kresimir Vuković. I also thank Leonardo Saccho and Giorhio Ferri for sharing their work with me when I was late in the stages of this article. 0