Numa Pompilius

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Template:Roman myth Numa Pompilius (April 21, 753 BC - 674 BC) succeeded Romulus as the second King of Rome. Though he was a Sabine by birth, the Romans selected him as their king to better unite the Romans and Sabines. During his reign the great cultural integration between the Romans and Sabines occurred. His reign was marked by a period of both great religious advancements but also of over forty years of continuous peace. Though his successor Tullus Hostilius would be remembered as the complete opposite to Numa, his biological grandson would serve as the fourth King of Rome and continue Numa's legacy of peace and religious devotion.

1 Early life
2 Ascent to the throne
3 Reign and religious reforms
- 3.1 The Ancilia and Salii
4 Administration
5 Death and Legacy
6 External links

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Early life

Numa Pompilius was born on the day Romulus founded the city of Rome. He was the youngest of four sons to Pomponius, an illustrious man. He lived in the Sabine city of Cures and lived a severe life of discipline and he banished all luxury from his home. He was endued with a soul rarely tempered by nature, and disposed to virtue, which he had yet more subdued by discipline and the study of philosophy. He tried to expel the baser passions by reason and the rule of law.

While friends and strangers alike found in him an incorruptible judge and counselor, in private he devoted himself not to amusement or self gratification, but to the worship of the gods, and rational contemplation of their divine power and nature. So famous was he, that Titus Tatius, the short-lived joint king with Romulus, chose him for his son-in-law, and gave him his only daughter, Tatia, which, however, did not stimulate his desire to dwell with his father-in-law at Rome. He rather chose to live with his Sabine friends, and care for his own father in his old age. Tatia, also, preferred the private conditions of her husband’s life in Cures over the honors and splendor she might have enjoyed with her father in Rome.

Tatia is said to have died after the two had been married for thirteen years. She had produced one daughter by Numa, Pompilia, who married Marcius II and had the future fourth King of Rome, Ancus Marcius. Numa also had four sons by Tatia, Pompo, Pinus, Calpus and Mamercus. However, the claim that from them descended the noble families of Pomponii, Pinarii, Calpurnii and Aemilii was a lie invented after the earliest records were destroyed by the Gauls when they sack Rome in 387 BC. Upon Tatia’s death, Numa left Cures, and retired to country life, when he lived in a solitary manner growing groves, tending to the fields and concentrating on the gods.

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Ascent to the throne

In the year 716 BC, after almost 38 years of unchallenged rule, Romulus was dead. Though it was thought that the Senate had him killed, it was forgotten once they voted him divine rights as the god Quirinius. The controversy following Romulus’ death was quickly followed by who would succeed him. Controversy surround this issue for the Sabines and Romans had not yet grown into perfect unity, however they all agreed that a king would be needed. As was to be expected, the Romans wanted a Roman king and the Sabines wanted a Sabine king. The Romans argued that they had already given a share of their land to the Sabines while the Sabines argued that after Tatius’ death they willing submitted to the sole rule of Romulus without objection. To the Sabines, it was their turn to have a king chosen from their own people.

While both parties argued over Romulus’ successor, discord fell upon Rome. So it was agreed by the Senate to appoint an Interrex to fill the king’s place until an appropriate replacement could be elected. This Interrex offered up the solemn sacrifices to the gods and dispatched with public business with the position being rotated between the hundred Senators from day to day. This form of government was termed by the Romans as interregnum. However, the people soon grew suspicious of the Senators, believing that the Senators were changing the form of government to an oligarchy, and designing to keep the supreme power in a sort of ward-ship under the Senate, without ever proceeding to choose a king.

Under pressure from the people of Rome, both parties finally came to the conclusion that the one should choose a king out of the body of the other: with the Romans making a choice out of the Sabines, or the Sabines naming a Roman, this way the King would owe allegiance to one party for electing him and the other party as his family. Though the Sabines nominated a Roman, the Romans would rather see a Sabine king elected by Romans than a Roman king elected by Sabines. Consultations were held accordingly, and they named Numa Pompilius, of the Sabine race, a person of high reputation for excellence, even though he was not actually residing in Rome. When his name was submitted to the Sabines, they rejoiced with greater pleasure than the Romans who nominated him.

Once the choice was declared and made known to the people, principal men of both the Romans and Sabines were appointed to visit and entice him so that he would accept the administration of the government of Rome. Numa was around 38 years old when the ambassadors came to make him offers for the kingship. In the presence of his father and his son-in-law Marcius he declined the kingship. Numa told the ambassadors that he enjoyed his peaceful life in the country. He said that Romulus had the right to hold the office since Romulus was of divine birth, but that he was only a mere mortal. He argued that Romulus and the Romans were war-like people and that he did not possess the traits needed to lead a war-like people because he was more a farmer than a soldier. He even went as for as to say that he seemed pointless to teach the ways of the gods and give lessons in the love of justice and hatred of war to a city who had greater need for a general than for a king.

The ambassadors, upon hearing Numa’s decline, became more urgent, insisting that the people would follow him despite his mortal birth and peaceful nature. They told him that during the confusion of the Interrex, no other person was agreed upon by both the Romans and Sabines. However it was his father and Marcius that persuaded him to accept the kingship as a gift from the gods and not man. Pomponius convinced Numa that holding the office would be a great service to the gods through his qualities of justice and wisdom, as he could use the kingship to magnify the worship of the gods and introduce habits of piety and mercy to the Romans. Before Numa made his final decision, he took auspices from the gods showing divine support for his reign. Even the people of Cures came to him and asked him to accept the kingship of Rome as a means to bring the two races together.

Numa, yielding to their pleas, accepted the offer for the kingship and proceeded to Rome. While on the road to the city, he was met not only by the Roman Senate but by all the people of Rome, who, with an impatient desire, came forth to receive him. The crowds welcomed him with joyful acclamations, and sacrifices were offered for him in all the temples, and so universal was the joy, that people seemed to be receiving not a new king, but a new kingdom. In this procession he descended into the future site of the Roman Forum, where Spurius Vettius, whose was the current be Interrex, put Numa before the Senate in a vote. The Senators unanimously elected him King of Rome.

Then the robes and symbols of authority were brought to him, but he refused to bear them until he had first consulted and been confirmed by the gods. The priests and augurs accompanied Numa and ascended to the top of the Capitoline Hill. The chief of the augurs covered Numa's head, turned his face towards the south, and, standing behind him, laid his hand on his head and prayed. As he prayed the other augurs watched in expectation of some auspicious signal from the gods. Meanwhile, with silence and devotion, the people of Rome stood assembled in the forum in similar expectation and suspense, until auspicious birds appeared and passed over head. Then Numa, dawning in his royal robes, descended from the Capitoline to the people, who received him with congratulations, welcoming him as a holy king who was beloved of all the gods.

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Reign and religious reforms

The first thing Numa did after his entrance into government was to dismiss the Celeres, a band of three hundred men who had served as Romulus' personal guard. He justified this in saying that he would not distrust those who put confidence in him, nor would he rule over a people that distrusted him. He then focused his attention upon the worship of the gods. While Romulus may have founded the augurs, he had even been the greatest augur of all, he did little to honor the gods themselves aside from building a few temples within Rome. Since Romulus had been deified as the god Quirinius, Numa added a special priest dedicated to him, the Flamen Quirinalis. The Flamen Quirinalis jointed the Flamen Dialis and the Flamen Martialis, chief priests to Jupiter and Mars respectively, to form the Archaic Triad, the three flamines maiores.

Granting Romulus recognition as equal along Jupiter and Mars won the favor and affection of the people. He used his new found popularity to begin the task of bringing the hard iron Roman temper of violence and war to one of gentleness and justice. Numa faced a huge challenge for the population saw Rome’s perpetual wars and incursions on its neighbors as a means of growth and substance. As a means to an end, Numa began a huge religious campaign. He sacrificed often and used processions and religious dances, in which most commonly he offered in person, to demonstrate to the Romans how to treat the gods. At times he also filled their imaginations with religious terrors, professing that strange apparitions had been seen, and dreadful voices heard; thus subduing their warmongering and humbling their minds by a sense of supernatural fears. Numa also instituted the original constitution of the priests, called Pontifices, and he himself was the first of them, as Romulus had been with the augurs.

The office of Pontifex Maximus, or chief priest, was instituted to serve as the head of the Roman Religion after the King. The Pontifex Maximus was to declare and interpret the divine law, and to preside over sacred rites. He not only prescribed rules for public ceremony, but regulated the sacrifices of private persons, making certain they did not vary from established custom, and giving information to every one of what was requisite for purposes of worship or supplication. He was also placed as the guardian of the Vestal Virgins, the institution of whom, and of their perpetual fire, is attributed to Numa.

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The Ancilia and Salii

In the eighth year of the reign of Numa, a terrible pestilence, which traversed all Italy, ravaged the city of Rome. The citizens were in distress and despondent, when (according to legend) a brazen shield fell from heaven into hands of Numa called the Anchilia. It was believed that the shield possessed the cure and instructions for the safety of the city. Numa was instructed to command the Vestal Virgins to use the waters of a spring which was sacred to Vesta to wash and cleanse the Temple of Vesta with its holy waters. After the Vestals had done as Numa had ordered, the pestilence ceased and good health return rapidly.

To keep the shield safe, Numa ordered his blacksmiths to make eleven others, so like in dimensions and form to the original that no thief should be able to distinguish the true from the counterfeit. The keeping of these shields was committed to the charge of priests to Mars called Salii. Every March, the Salli carried the sacred shield through the city, during the procession they wear a short purple tunic, a breastplate, a short red cloak, a brass helmet, and a gladius, with which they would clash against the shields.

After Numa had instituted these orders of priests, he erected, near the Temple of Vesta, what is called to this day Regia, or king's house, where he spent most of his time performing divine service, instructing the priests, or conversing with them on sacred subjects. In all public processions and solemn prayers, criers were sent before to give notice to the people that they should forbear their work, and rest. Numa wished that his citizens should neither see nor hear any religious service in a perfunctory and inattentive manner, but, laying aside all other occupations, should apply their minds to religion as to a most serious business; and that the streets should be free from all noises and cries that accompany manual labor, and clear for the sacred solemnity.

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Administration

Numa next set his eyes on land distribution. It is very clear that it was this king who first prescribed bounds to the territory of Rome. Romulus never placed boundaries on the lands which he had taken from his neighbors because he saw them not as a defense to those who choose to observe them, but only a testimony against the dishonesty of those who break through them. However, the truth is, the portion of lands which the Romans possessed at the beginning was very small, until Romulus enlarged them by war. All of those acquisitions Numa now divided amongst the people of Rome, wishing to turn the people to husbandry, to bring them, as well as their lands, into better order. Numa knew there is no employment that gives so keen and quick a desire for peace as husbandry and a country life which also leaves in men courage that makes them ready to fight in defense of their country.

Numa, hoping agriculture would be a sort of charm to captivate the affections of his people to peace, and viewing it rather as a means to moral than to economical profit, divided all the lands into several parcels, to which he gave the name of pagus, or parish, and over every one of them he ordained chief overseers. He even took delight in sometimes inspecting his colonies in person, forming judgment of every man’s habits by his results.

But of all his measures the most commended was his distribution of the people by their trades into companies or guilds. By distinguishing the whole people by the several arts and trades, he formed the companies of musicians, goldsmiths, carpenters, dyers, shoemakers, skinners, braziers, and potters; and all other handicraftsmen he composed and reduced into a single company, appointing every one their proper courts, councils, and religious observances. In this manner all factious distinctions ended, the new division became a source of general harmony and intermixture. For the first time no person was thought of as or spoken of as being either a Sabine or a Roman, simply a citizen of Rome.

He attempted, also, the formation of a calendar, not with absolute exactness, yet not without some scientific knowledge. During the reign of Romulus, they had let their months run on without any certain or equal term; some of them contained twenty days, others thirty-five, others more; they had no sort of knowledge of the inequality in the motions of the sun and moon; they only kept to the one rule that the whole course of the year contained three hundred and sixty days. Numa, calculating the difference between the lunar and the solar year at eleven days, for that the moon completed her anniversary course in three hundred and fifty-four days, and the sun in three hundred and sixty-five. Numa’s calendar consisted of January (29 days), February (28 days), March (31 days), April (29 days), May (31 days), June (29 days), Quintilis (31 days), Sextilis (29 days), September (29 days), October (31 days), November (29 days), December (29 days). The months Quintilis and Sextilis were later renamed July and August after Julius Caesar and Caesar Augustus, respectively.

Numa added the months January and February to the Roman Calendar. The Romans, at first, comprehended the whole year within ten, and not twelve months, plainly appears by the name of the last, December, meaning the tenth month and that March was the first is likewise evident, for the fifth month after it was called Quintilis, and the sixth Sextilis, and so on. Though originally following December in sequence, Numa later decreed to begin the year on the month of Janurary, named after the Roman god of doors, Janus.

For this Janus was certainly seen a great lover of civil and social unity, and one who reclaimed men from brutal and savage living. For this reason they figure him with two faces, to represent the two states and conditions: one of which he brought mankind out of and the other he lead them into. His temple at Rome has two gates, which they call the Gates of War, because they stand open in the time of war, and shut in the times of peace. During the reign of Numa, those gates were never seen open a single day, but continued constantly shut for a space of forty-three years together, for such an entire and universal cessation of war existed. Numa had not only softened and charmed the people of Rome into a peaceful temper, but even the neighboring cities began to experience a change of feeling, and partook in the general longing for the sweets of peace and order. Festival days and sports, and the secure and peaceful interchange of friendly visits and hospitalities prevailed all through the whole of Italy occurred. Love of virtue and justice flowed from Numa's wisdom to all of Italy.

For during the whole reign of Numa, there was neither war, nor sedition, nor innovation in the state, nor any envy or ill-will to his person, nor plot or conspiracy from views of ambition. Either fear of the gods that were thought to watch over him, or reverence for his virtue, or divine felicity of fortune that in his days preserved human innocence, made his reign, by whatever means, a living example of the use of virtue to control and master vice.

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Death and Legacy

Numa lived seventy-nine years, and was not taken out of the world by a sudden disease, but died of old age and by a gradual and gentle decline in the year 673 BC. At his funeral all the glories of his life were consummated, when all the neighboring states in alliance and amity with Rome met to honor and grace the rites of his interment with garlands and public presents. The Senators carried the bier on which his corpse was laid, and the priests followed and accompanied the solemn procession while a general crowd, in which women and children took part, followed with such cries and weeping as if they had lost a most dear relation taken away in the prime of life, and not an old and worn-down king. It is said that his body, by his particular command, was not burnt, but that they made, in conformity with his order, two stone coffins, and buried both under the Janiculum Hill, in one of which his body was laid, and the other his sacred books, on which he had written out for himself.

Numa was remembered as an even greater king than he was as the succeeding five kings served as foils to set off the brightness of his reputation. The fifth king after him, Tarquinius Superbus, ended his old age in banishment, being deposed from his crown. Of the other four, three (Ancus Marcius, Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius) were assassinated and murdered by treason. The other, who was Tullus Hostilius, who immediately succeeded Numa, derided his virtues, and especially his devotion to religious worship. Hostilius viewed worship of the gods as a cowardly and mean-spirited occupation, and diverted the minds of the people to war. Aside from Romulus (possibly even surpassing him), no other king was ever seen as deeply devoted to the gods as he.

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