only civil, legal, and military, but also private, primarily as a means of affirming the
truthfulness of a statement. Thus the parties to a betrothal took an oath to finalize
their promises, just as the parties to a treaty solemnized their agreement with an
oath ceremony.
The history of Livy provides a good idea of the structure and content, if not a
verbatim record, of treaty oaths performed by the Fetial priests, whose domain included
the rituals for declaring war and ratifying treaties. This passage contains all of the
elements characteristic of an oath in its fullest expression: the invocation of witnesses,
statement to be affirmed, references to intent, and self-curse. Here the Fetial priest
in charge of the ritual, the pater patratus, addresses the Fetial priest and citizens of
Alba Longa as well as Jupiter, the Roman god most frequently invoked in oaths.
This dual audience, human and divine, points to the primary function of oaths as a
means of affirming the truthfulness of a statement made to others. Without this social
context, there would be no need for an oath. Not surprisingly, of all forms of prayer,
oaths share the greatest similarities with legal texts. Of particular note in this ex-
ample are the two references to the intentions of the parties involved, a concept early
enshrined in the Roman legal code, that is, that without intent there is no crime.
The priest refers to the recitation of the treaty terms “without evil intent” and the
potential violation of those terms “with evil intent.” In the latter reference, the
priest also adds the phrase “and official deliberation,” to preclude the possibility of
individual violations. The oath recalls the cautionary language of vows with their
various escape clauses. In the conclusion, the priest prays for Jupiter to punish the
Roman people if they should violate the treaty – first. Some form of self-curse appears
in all complete oaths, but is often missing from briefer literary or colloquial oaths.
Still, the presumption of divine punishment in the case of perjury always looms as
the effective force of an oath.
Thanksgiving
Although prayers of thanksgiving were certainly a very common form of address to
the gods in both the public and private spheres, we do not possess any complete
prayer of thanksgiving representing an authentic cultic text. Nevertheless, numerous
prayers of gratitude in the comic writers, as well as references to such prayers in his-
toriographical writers, give us some idea of their character. Like petitionary prayers
they open with an invocation. There follows, instead of a verb of “praying,” a phrase
meaning “to give thanks.” Most importantly, the speaker offers a brief description
of the divine blessing for which thanks is given. For example, in Plautus’ play Poenulus,
Hanno prays “All you gods and goddesses, I deservedly give great thanks to you,
since you have blessed me with this very great happiness and these joys, that my
daughters return to me and into my possession” (1274 – 6).
The idea of reciprocity is an important aspect of any prayer, but notably of thanks-
giving; the prayer, usually coupled with an offering, is considered to be a necessary
response and exchange for a divine act. As in this Plautine prayer, the word for thanks
242 Frances Hickson Hahn