Carmen et prophéties à Rome

The privileged form of expression of Roman prayer, before Christianism, was the carmen, a « religious formula » carefully scanned, with an aura often archaic and mysterious, if not magical. This book offers a systematic inquiry into the carmen. The author examines its technical aspects within the realm of archaic latin meter, then, based upon the latest research, pursues in-depth studies of the oldest manifestations of this type of prayer : the carmina of the ancient sodalities of Rome, the Salians and the Arval Brothers and the carmina of the corpus of Cato the Elder (the « Censor »), who provides us with precepts and prayers stemming from the earliest beliefs of the farmers of Latium. He adds a study of the carmen taken in another sense, although under foreign influence, that of « oracular formula », « prophetic discourse », a discourse which was assumed to come from the divinity itself. The most famous were the oracles of the Sibyl, entrusted to the strange Sibylline Books, which allowed divination, notably in times of crisis. The Romans also had recourse to the oracles of Etruscan divination, to the renowned « responses » of the haruspices. Charles Guittard thus analyses fundamental aspects and concepts of the Roman religion of the Pagan age, matters upon which Pagans and Christians will greatly debate in later periods.

Charles Guittard is professor of Latin language and literature at the University of Paris at Nanterre (Paris X). A recognized specialist in Roman religion, author of numerous books and articles, he has in particular edited Livy and translated Lucretius.