A Dictionary of Greek and Roman
Antiquities (1890)
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“SCINUM FASE 'LUS FASTI FASTI’GIUM FAUCES FAX FEBRUUM FECIA’LES FEMINA‘LIA
FENESTRA FENUS FERA‘LIA FE’RCULUM FERENTA ‘RI FERETRUM FE’RIAE FERRUM FESCENNI
DIES FES’ “BULA FI'CTILE FV'CTIO
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FETIA‘LES
FETIA‘LES a college (Liv. 36.3) of Roman priests who acted as the guardians of the public faith. It was their
province, when any dispute arose with a foreign state, to demand satisfaction, to determine the circumstances
under which hostilities might be commenced, to perform the various religious rites attendant on the solemn
declaration of war, and to preside at the formal ratification of peace. These functions are briefly but
comprehensively defined by Varro (L._L. 5.86, ed. Miller): “Fetiales .. . fidei publicae inter populos [p.
1,840 }praeerant: nam per hos fiebat ut justum conciperetur bellum et inde desitum, ut foedere fides pacis
constitueretur, Ex his mittebantur, antequam conciperetur, qui res repeterent, et per hos etiam mune fit foedus,” t
which we may add the old law quoted by Cicero (de Leg. 2.9, 21), “FOEDERUM, PACIS, BELLI,
INDUTIARUM ORATORES FETIALES IUDIt }QUE SUNTO (IVS NOSCVNTO, Madvig); BELLA
DISCEPTANTO.” Dionysius (2.72) and Livy (1.32) detail at considerable length the ceremonies observed by th
Romans in the earlier ages, when they felt themselves aggrieved by a neighbouring people. It appears that when
an injury had been sustained, four fetiales (Varr. ap, Non.) were deputed to seek redress, who again elected one
of their number to act as their representative, This individual was styled the pater patratus populi Romani. (It is
an error to suppose that the pater patvatus was the permanent head of the college: Mommsen, Staaist,? 2.670.)
‘They were dressed in the garb of priests, and a wreath of sacred herbs gathered within the enclosure of the
Capitoline hill (verbenae, sagmina) [SAGMINA], was borne before them by one of their number, who was hene
called Verbenarius. (Plin. Nat. 22.5.) Thus equipped, at least two of their number proceeded to the confines of
the offending tribe, where they halted and the pater patratus addressed a prayer to Jupiter, calling the god to
witness, with heavy imprecations, that his complaints were well founded and his demands reasonable. He then
crossed the border, and the same form was repeated in nearly the same words to the first native of the soil whom
he might chance to meet; again a third time to the sentinel or any citizen whom he encountered at the gate of the
chief town; and a fourth time to the magistrates in the forum in presence of the people. If a satisfactory answer
was not returned within thirty days, after publicly delivering a solemn denunciation--in which the gods celestial,
terrestrial, and infernal were invoked--of what might be expected to follow, he returned to Rome, and,
accompanied by the rest of the fetiales, made a report of his mission to the senate. If the people (Liv. 10.45), as
well as the senate, decided for war, the pater patratus again set forth to the border of the hostile territory, and
launched a spear tipped with iron, or charred at the extremity and smeared with blood (emblematic doubtless of
fire and slaughter) across the boundary, pronouncing at the same time a solemn declaration of war. The demand
for redress and the proclamation of hostilities were alike termed clarigatio, which word the Romans in later
times explained by clare repetere (Plin. L.e.; Serv. ad Verg. A. 9.53, 10.14: cf. |, 5). When the Romanshad to carry on wars beyond the sea, this proceeding was inconvenient. Hence a characteristic device was
adopted. They transferred a piece of land in the Circus Flaminius to a prisoner taken from the enemy, and set up
on this before the temple of Bellona a column, which was accounted as standing on hostile territory. (Servius,
Le)
Several of the formulae employed on these occasions have been preserved by Livy (1.24, 32) and Aulus Gellius
(16.4), forming a portion of the Jus Fetiale by which the college was regulated. The services of the fetiales were
considered absolutely essential in concluding a treaty (Liv. 9.5); and we read that at the termination of the
second Punic war fetiales were sent over to Africa, who carried with them their own verbenae and their own flin
stones for smiting the victim, Here also the chief was termed pater patratus. (Liv. 30.43.)
‘The institution of these priests was ascribed by tradition, in common with other matters connected with religion,
to Numa (Dionys. A. R. 2.71); and although Livy (1.32) speaks as if he attributed their introduction to Ancus
Martius, yet in an earlier chapter (1.24) he supposes them to have existed in the reign of Hostilius. The whole
system is said to have been borrowed from the Aequicolae or the Ardeates (Liv. and Dionys, l.c.), but this is
extremely improbable, and is due only to an etymological explanation: similar usages undoubtedly prevailed
among the Latin states ; for it is clear that the formula preserved by Livy (1.32) must have been employed when
the pater patratus of the Romans was put in communication with the pater patratus of the Prisci Latini.
The number of the fetiales cannot be ascertained with certainty, but Varro quoted by Nonius (12.43) states that it
amounted to twenty; of whom Niebuhr supposes ten were elected from the Ramnes and ten from the Titienses.
‘They were originally selected from the most noble families; their office lasted for life (Dionys. A. R. 2.72); and i
seems probable that vacancies were filled up by the college (cooptatione) until the passing of the Lex Domitia,
when in common with most other priests they would be nominated in the comitia tributa. This, however, is
nowhere expressly stated. (Mommsen, lc.)
The etymology of fétiais is uncertain. Varro (L._L. 5.86) would connect it with fidus and foedus; Festus with
ferio or facio: but it is more probably connected with fateti and the Osean fatium, so that fetiales would be
oratores, speakers. In early inscriptions we always find fetialis; in Greek MSS. the word always appears under
some one of the forms (gnuiciAcic, peruiAcic, preudAcic: hence there is no doubt as to the orthography. (Cf.
Corssen, i.2 422.)
The explanation given by Livy (1.24) of the origin of the term Pater tisfuctory :—“Pater Patratus ad
jusjurandum patrandum, id est, sanciendum fit foedus;” and we may at once reject the speculations of Servius
(Serv. ad Aen. 9.53, 10.14, 12.206) and Plutarch (Quaest. Rom. p. 279 B); the former of whom supposes that he
was so called because it was necessary that his father should be alive, the latter that the name indicated that his,
father was living, and that he himself was the father of children
[WR] [A.S.W]
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquiti
Street, London. John Murray. 1890.
er)
s. William Smith, LD. William Wayte. G. E. Marindin. Albemarl