THE LAWS OF THE RITES AND OF THE PRIESTS: VARRO AND LATE REPUBLICAN ROMAN SACRAL JURISPRUDENCE

Starting from Cicero’s famous panegyric on Varro’s Antiquitates and attempting to look past the image of the book provided by Augustine, this article proposes a new reading of that work and its place in late Republican intellectual culture. Cicero’s specific claim that Varro opened up ‘the laws of t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bulletin - Institute of Classical Studies 2017-12, Vol.60 (2), p.34-48
Main Author: MACRAE, DUNCAN
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antiquitates Rerum Divinarum
Augustine of Hippo (354-430)
Cicero
Classical studies
Jurisprudence
Legal studies
pontifical college
pontifical law
Q. Mucius Scaevola
Roman civilization
Roman law
Varro
Varro, Marcus Terentius (116-27 BC)
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Summary:Starting from Cicero’s famous panegyric on Varro’s Antiquitates and attempting to look past the image of the book provided by Augustine, this article proposes a new reading of that work and its place in late Republican intellectual culture. Cicero’s specific claim that Varro opened up ‘the laws of the rites and of the priests’ for his readers allows us to contextualize the Antiquitates within a contemporary jurisprudence. The rise of Roman legal studies in general in the first century bc extended to the laws of the priestly colleges: there are signs of lively debate over their nature and the production of texts on the details of these iura. By re-reading the fragments from the Antiquitates alongside the evidence for this sacral-legal turn, we can gain both a new appreciation for the place of law (ius) in Varro’s textualization of Roman religion and a fuller understanding of Republican legal thinking.
ISSN:0076-0730
2041-5370
DOI:10.1111/2041-5370.12055