identified a primitive core in a form of animism, itself based heavily on Varro’s unhelp-
ful claim that early Roman religion was not anthropomorphic. Wagenvoort, for instance,
in a book translated by H. J. Rose, had no difficulties comparing Roman beliefs with
Melanesian accounts of mana(Wagenvoort 1947).
Nor was Dumézil alone in his approach. A number of French and Italian scholars
have similarly gathered hints and allusions from all over ancient literature, and used
analogies from other societies, to reveal hidden stories and unknown versions of key
events, or found in the historical accounts rituals which had been rationalized (see
e.g. Gagé 1950, 1976; Hubaux 1958; Mastrocinque 1988; Carandini 1997). The
more sober German handbooks, and skeptical Anglo-American scholarship, largely
eschew this adventurous approach. Is there any way that these traditions can come
together?
The archaeological discoveries of the past thirty years or so indicate with increas-
ing clarity both the sophistication of Latin culture between the eighth and sixth cen-
turies, and the importance of that period in the development of an urban society
across the region. It is very important always to remember that, significant as Rome
was, it was not unique in developing public space, public buildings, and the other
indices of what we tend to call urbanism (C. Smith 2005). This process is accom-
panied universally by the development of votive deposits and subsequently temples,
and by the establishment of some kind of ritual order, which we see most clearly at
Rome through the calendar and the priestly offices which can be dated to the regal
period.
The significance of this should not be underestimated, and it is intimately bound
up with the development of religion. Although early Roman festivals do preserve in
various ways some of the concerns of an early agricultural society, and after all, agri-
culture was crucially important to all contemporary societies, the development of the
community brings other associations and other meanings to every ritual act. The act
of processing around Roman territory in the ceremony of the Robigalia – purifying
the fields – takes on new meanings as Roman territory expands, and becomes a state-
ment about boundaries as well as about mildew (C. Smith 1996b). The calendar’s
evolving complexity both preserves the great agrarian cycle, built around the solstices,
and adds a more civic layer, including, quite possibly, some ritualized memory of
the flight of the king, the Regifugium, which perhaps marked an end of a civic year,
which began again in the Liberalia on March 17, when young men assumed the
toga (Scheid 2003: 50 –1; Wiseman 2004: 64, 68).
In order fully to understand archaic Roman religion, one needs all the methodolo-
gical tools at our disposal. As archaeology increasingly gives shape and substance to
our picture of ancient society, we still need the careful analysis of the written sources
to enrich and secure our accounts. Much detailed analysis was predicated on a view
of the texts as concealing truths even from the ancients, which needed to be exca-
vated by the diligent scholar. This was of a piece with a view of early Rome as deeply
primitive; but archaic Rome was nothing like Melanesia, and whilst anthropological
methods and analogies are invaluable to the ancient historian, they should not mis-
lead one into a false image of the Roman past. Philological and analytical skills need
now to address the kinds of patterns of thought and behavior which existed in the
The Religion of Archaic Rome 41