The enemy has been conquered, our citizens are safe, the state quiet, peace accom-
plished, the war over, the state’s business well done, the army and garrisons safe. Since
you Jupiter and all the other heavenly gods have prospered us, I express my gratitude
to you, because I have rightly avenged my enemy. (Persa 753 –7)While some political themes are to be expected in official prayers, the extent to which
these dovetail with debates over whether or not a particular elite commander was
deserving of the honor of a state-sponsored triumph is striking.
Given the close links between prayers and the activities of the political elite, it is
reasonable to ask whose interests were served by the system of public prayer. The
prayer of the triumphant general, in combination with the triumphal procession, which
it verbally mirrored, suggests some possibilities. In this specific case, the prayer served
in part to justify a triumph by calling attention to the commander’s fulfillment of
requirements, and therefore promoted the prestige and influence of the individual
commander. At the same time, the prayer provided a justification for the war itself
through the proclamation of victory and its rewards. In this way, the prayer
benefited not only the individual commander but the senatorial class, which had the
primary responsibility for foreign relations. The triumphal thanksgiving also recalled
prior petitions for the safe return of the army, which bolstered public confidence
that divine assistance was available.
Turning to the broader system of public prayer, the pattern is similar. Clearly,
individual priests and magistrates benefited from the starring roles they played in
public ritual. Significantly, the wording of public prayers typically employs the first
person singular of verbs of prayer. When considered as a system, however, what stands
out is the virtual monopoly of public religion and prayer by the elite class. There
was a recurring theme in Roman politics that the welfare of the state was dependent
on divine favor shown especially toward the ruling class, a theme voiced in the conflict
over the admission of plebeians to magistracies and priesthoods. The highly visible
roles of the elite in public ritual, in particular the recitation of prayers, served to
construct and reinforce their political domination. Priests and magistrates performed
as mediators between gods and citizens, and just as divine favor was necessary for
continued prosperity of the state, so the religious services of the elite were repres-
ented as equally necessary.
Beyond reflecting and maintaining the traditional socio-political hierarchy, prayer
could serve as a medium for initiating and legitimating change as well. The most
obvious examples of this process are prayers surrounding the transition from repub-
lic to principate, which employed conventional formulae and presentation to lend
an aura of tradition to innovative practices. One feature of the transition was the
attribution to the ruler of a special divine gift of good fortune in war (felicitas). A
major vehicle for representing this divine favor was the public thanksgiving for vic-
tory traditionally offered in the name of the victorious general, but under Julius Caesar
and his successor in their names as well. Augustus’ Secular Games also involved major
modification of rituals and prayers to reflect the new era. As Putnam (2001: 98) has
eloquently argued, the accompanying secular hymn incorporated numerous innova-
tions, including a change of emphasis from apotropaic petition to preservation of
246 Frances Hickson Hahn