A Companion Roman Religion - Spiritual Minds

we see that the divinity concerned with the sacrifice is also included. The rite was

doubtless addressed to a number of interested divinities, from which those sacrific-

ing sometimes extracted a particular figure that was more directly relevant. We might

suppose that it involved a summary of the rites which were to follow, by which the

intention was also expressed. As such, libation is one of the key subjects in images

of sacrifice, and comes to signify “pietas.”

After this introductory ritual, the sacrificer proceeded to the immolation (immo-

latio) of the victim (see Latte 1914). In the “Roman” rite, he scattered the back of

the victim with salted flour (mola salsa, from which the term in-molatiois derived),

pouring a small amount of wine on the animal’s forehead, and, finally, passed the

knife over its back. From the prayers that accompanied immolation and the com-

ments of Roman scholars, we can conclude that this ritual signified the consecration

Sacrifices for Gods and Ancestors 265

Figure 19.1 Initial libation at a portable altar (so-called Altar of Angera, Scott Ryberg
no. 101, ThesCRA1, pl. 48, no. 105) (photo: by permission of the Civiche Raccolte
Archeologiche e Numismatiche del Commune di Milano).