were first rooted in justice, and not in affective links with the gods, even if such a
contractual approach did not prevent feelings. The formula that went with the offer-
ing, “ut tibi ius est” (“according to your right/as you must get on the basis of your
right”), assumed this fact, as much as the gesture of putting one’s hand on his heart
to express fairness when the vow was made. The rite was built up with words
and gestures, both following precise rules that left no place free for imagination or
improvisation, in “magical” contexts a fortiori. Gestures were in accordance with
divine beings’ personalities. During thedeuotio, which offered the enemy people in
a vow, the general who devoted himself “touches the earth while saying Tellus, and
raises his hands toward heaven when pronouncing the name of Jupiter” (Macr.
Sat.3.9.12).
From the smallest individual prayers up to the state’s safety, however grave or import-
ant the request might be, all vows displayed the same structure, which can be summed
up by the formula “do ut dem,” “give to me and I shall give to you (back).” “One
who had gained his prayer would with his own hands bring the honey-cake, his
little daughter following with the pure honeycomb in hers. O Lares, turn the bronze
javelin away from me... and <as thank offering for my safe return shall fall>” (Tibullus
1.10.21– 6). In Rome, women “whose prayer has got an answer (potens uoti)” went
up to Nemi at the temple of Diana, the goddess concerned with birth, already crowded
with ex-votos, and “carry from the city burning torches, while garlands wreathe her
brows” (Ov. Fast.3.267–70). The epigraphic protocols of the Arval Brethren per-
fectly testify to the structure of a votive relationship. For instance, the vow pronounced
on March 25, 101, “for safeness, return, and victory” of the emperor Traianus
provides us with a model of its architecture (CFA62, 23 –36, passim):The Arval Brethren uttered the vows in these words, written below: “Jupiter best and
greatest, we ask, beseech, and conjure you that you make the emperor Caesar, the son
of divine Nerva, Nerva Trajan Augustus Germanicus...return well and lucky and safely
as a victor from those places and provinces that he visits... if you do this as we vow,
we vow that then a gilded ox will be yours in the name of the college of the Arval
Brethren. Queen Juno, in the words by which we have today sworn to Jupiter best and
greatest for the well-being and return and victory of the emperor Caesar..., if you
do the same, we vow in the like formula that a gilded ox will be yours in the name of
the college of the Arval Brethren.” (trans. Rüpke)Most votive offerings (ex uotoor uotum soluitin Latin, euchèn or kat ’ euchènin
Greek) were made for the safety (pro salute, hyper sôtèrias), well-being (pro incolu-
mitate), or good health (pro ualetudine, hyper hygeias; Plautus, Amphitryo1–16) of
living people or institutions (MacMullen 1981; Veyne 2005: 425– 8). In 174 bce,
a harmful plague decided the Roman people to vow a two-day festival and a sup-
plicatio(Livy 41.21.11). On every January calends, Salus publicareceived a vow in
terms of caution and anticipation for the year. Vowing was used as a regular means
to keep control of the future, as was the case through the Navigium Isidis, intended
to open the sea for safe sailing each March (Apul. Met.11.16.7; Alföldi 1937). Other
vows might last for a longer period, ten or twenty years for a taurobolium(ILS4153.12
=Duthoy 17). The emperor and his domusreceived periodical, official vows as well.
They were decreed for Augustus by a senatus consultum(Res Gestae8); on January 3,
Religious Actors in Daily Life 281