signs received during the vow could provide the faithful with their first information
about its reception. The litatioperformed on the dead sacrificial animal gave a clue
about the gods’ dispositions toward the human will, either favorable or hostile (Tibullus
2.1.25 –26; ThesCRA 1. 228 –30). If rationalistic thinkers were dubious about false
dreams, which “fill affrighted souls with false alarms” that are propitiated at dawn
thanks to an offering (Tibullus 3.4.7–10), the majority used the Oneirocriticon, writ-
ten by Artemidoros of Chalcis, as a “technique d’existence” (Foucault 1984: 17) for
interpreting dreams. Epigraphs record quite frequently that the faithful made their
consecration by divine order (ex iussu,ex epitagèsin Greek), after a vision (ex uisu)
considered as being premonitory (ex monitu), after a dream (kat ’ onar; van Straten
1976; Veyne 1986). Reliance on divine justice and its benevolent power – which is
the very meaning of ancient “belief ” (fidesin Latin and pistisin Greek) – assumes
gods are epèkoos(listening), a theological quality frequently honored in the imperial
period (Weinreich 1912). The faithful could also choose to have ears or footprints
depicted on the dedicated stone as a symbol of divine care, or to consecrate a
monumental, sculptured foot in order to portray the godly presence. We may thus
catch the reason why Nemesis, who undertakes divine judicial power, is invoked as
exaudientissimaat Apulum in Dacia (CIL3.1126).
The devotee got back divine anger if he neglected to fulfill the vow once it had
been satisfied. Even public legislation recalled the fact (Digest50.12.2: De pollici-
tationibus). In Lydia, a devotee promised (euxeto) a stele if his son recovered good
health “without spending money at the doctor’s.” The vow was indeed listened to,
but he did not offer the stele in return; after the father had been punished, the deity
“accomplished the vow for his son” (Petzl 1994: no. 62). Otherwise, the votive engage-
ment had to be renegotiated. The historian Livy records many of these public debates
upon fulfillment of vows (e.g. the vow made to Apollo during the siege of Veii, Livy
5.23, 25), and allows us to follow the stages from the uer sacrumvow pronounced
in 217 up to its fulfillment in 195 (Livy 22.10; 33.44; Scheid 1998c). If the divine
being had not satisfied the vow, the faithful were released from it. Therefore the
deity had to respect the contract in order to get his return. For all these reasons,
votive processes logically lasted for a long period, even if travelers’ vows (“to go and
return,” “pro itu et reditu”) were probably fulfilled in the middle of the trip. A
temple to Mars Ultor was vowed by Octavian before the battle of Philippi in 42 bce,
and the dedication by Augustus occurred 40 years later (Suet. Augustus 29.2). When
vows are regular ones, the periodicity is fixed: one year for the vota publicaon January
1, for the Pariliavows, or for vows for the health of oxen, according to Cato (Agr.
83: Hoc uotum in annos singulos... uouere). Thus Varro (Ling. 6.60) could imagine
that the verb nuncupare(to pronounce a vow) had been formed on the epithet nouus
(new
Fulfillment of a vow might be accompanied by gratulatory ceremonies that were
not part of the contract strictly speaking (habere gratias, eulogia, eucharistôn, and
the lexicon of the same family in Greek). A Plautus character declares: “Seeing I
have managed this affair well, I must go in the temple here and pray (in fano
supplicare)” (Curcullio527). These thanksgiving rites are similar to honorific ones
(see chapter 17).
Religious Actors in Daily Life 285