The Roles of Children in Roman Religion

The Roles of Children in Roman Religion
Author(s): I. C. Mantle
Source: Greece & Rome, Vol. 49, No. 1 (Apr., 2002), pp. 85-106
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
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Greece & Rome, Vol. 49, No. 1, April 2002
THE ROLES OF CHILDREN IN ROMAN

RELIGION
By I. C. MANTLE
Scene VIII on Trajan's Column shows the lustration of a camp ca

out just before Trajan's Dacian campaigns, which he conducted f
A.D. 101 to 106.1 A lustration involved a ritual procession aroun
camp or city for the purpose of purification and then the sacrifice o
pig, a ram, and a bull - a suovetaurilia. At the heart of the scene,
inside the camp, and close to the emperor as he makes the prelim
offering into the altar flames from a sacred dish or patera, stands a
with long flowing hair, dressed in a full-sleeved tunic and holding a
pitcher for the libation. Such a child assistant appears in the pre
people surrounding the altar and the emperor at a sacrifice in six
scenes on the column. What are we to make of this?
If women can be called 'the silent women of Rome', then children are
even more completely silent. Nevertheless it is possible to discover
something about their lives, if not about their thoughts and attitudes
My aim in this article is to provide a survey of the roles of children in
Roman state religion, along with a brief look at their active roles in
household cult. This has never been systematically attempted, although
some scholars allude to aspects of their roles, Wiedemann2 being fuller
than most. In addition Wiedemann gives a useful list of religious and
other occasions when imperial children were put on public show.3
However, what I propose to examine is the religious occasions when a
more ordinary child or children, not the children of emperors, had a
positive and necessary function in the proceedings. For this purpose
Scott Ryberg's Rites of the State Religion in Roman Art has been
invaluable, while Boyce's Corpus4 has provided evidence, much of
which is no longer visible, about private cult in Pompeii. I propose to
exclude the Vestal Virgins from this study, partly because they have
received much academic attention, and partly because they were not
1 I. Scott Ryberg, Rites of the State Religion in Roman Art, MAAR 22 (1955), pl. xxxvi, fig. 55.
2 T. E. J. Wiedemann, Adults and Children in the Roman Empire (London, 1989).
3 Wiedemann, op. cit., ch. 4, 120-2.
4 G. K. Boyce, Corpus of the Lararia of Pompeii, MAAR 14 (1937).
86 THE ROLES OF CHILDREN IN ROMAN RELIGION
specifically children except at the time of th

members of the priesthood. By 'children' I
below the age of 19 and praetextati boys belo
(about 17). The sources, literary, epigraphic a
and poor, as one might expect, and range from th
the fourth century A.D.
Throughout the survey I shall consider some que
arise naturally from the material. What exactl
Were boys and girls used equally, or were boy
types of children religiously more valid than oth
to others? Why were children used in religious ri
A summary of the evidence is tabulated i
covering the main questions, that is, questions
functions of children and those concerning t
status. Their functions range from public to priv
the former first.
Choirs and Groups
Most publicly, groups of children, usually both girls and boys, partici-
pated in state religious ceremonies which were carried out in Rome itself
for occasional and specific purposes. The children typically sang a hymn
as part of a ceremonial carried out by other groups also representing the
population. Evidence comes mainly from Livy and from Obsequens'
fourth-century book on prodigies, and refers to occasions spanning the
period from 220 B.C. to A.D. 271. Whether such hymn-singing was
introduced in Rome only after the earliest period and owing to influence
from the Greek cities of southern Italy, as has been suggested by
Wiedemann,5 seems to be a question impossible to answer and possibly
not of great moment when we are discussing a state which absorbed
influences from whatever peoples it came into contact with.
Although the Ludi Saeculares had been founded in 509 B.C. according
to legend, or perhaps more probably in 348 B.C., it is only certain that
children's choirs participated in 17 B.C. under Augustus and in A.D. 88
under Domitian; but it can probably be presumed that they did so on
other occasions also. The fragmentary record of Augustus' Secular
Games indicates that on the third day, after offerings to Apollo and
5 Wiedemann, op. cit., ch. 6, 182.
CHOIRS/GROUPS CAMILLI/AE at WEDDI
patrimi & matrimi Gaius' dedication of Flaminius cam. & Flam.

noble/senatorial shrine to Augustus sacerdotula
z A.D. 37 (prerepublican)
(cf Elagabalus' victims) assistants to
Arvales
U (prerepublican-A.D.
p:=
304?)
patrimi & matrimi Ludi Saeculares (509/ Ludi Megalenses 3 boys in proce
C) freeborn (?) 348 B.C.-A.D. 248?) c.56 B.C. camillus/a at sacri
expiations at times of at triumphs (3C B.C.-
crisis (190 B.C.- 3C A.D.) rite of water
A.D. 271) lustrations on campaign
expiations after (1-4C A.D.)
O portents (girls only) other sacrifices
H
(207-92 B.C.) (1C B.C.-3C A.D.)
reconstruction of
Capitol A.D. 70
patrimi & matrimi expiation 220 B.C.

freeborn/libertini
<i)
freeborn all boys = secular camilli wedding hymn
freeborn/slave sacrifice to Diana subsidiary attendant s

(fresco) (3-4C A.D.) roles (A.D.)
Fig. 1: Summary of evidence by role and status.
Diana on the Palatine, choirs of 27 boys and 2

two gods both there and on the Capitol (C
The carmen had been written by the poet
participation of children in the Games of
Domitian6 on which three children are sho
apparently a girl, to judge from her long t
merely be a token of the whole choir. The f
Secular Games held by Septimius Severus i
36) do not contain any mention of childre
reason to suppose that they were not in fa
other celebrations of the Ludi in 249 B.C.,
From the sources we do have, we learn that th
a great responsibility themselves for the w
learned a hymn written especially for the o
Carmen) that the girls were associated with th
feature we shall meet again.
The second type of occasion involving grou
moment of crisis for the state, when it was
the gods on the Roman side and to make go
surprising perhaps that the first of these
occurred around the time of the Second Punic War: in 220 B.C.,
according to Macrobius (Sat. 1.6.14) and Servius (on Aen. 3.437), an
obsecratio, a public supplication, was made, with boys and girls singing
a hymn to Juno. In 190 B.C., after various portents had been seen,
including the temple of Juno being struck by lightning, ten boys and
ten girls participated in a supplicatio in accordance with instructions
from the Decemviri who had charge of the Sibylline Books (Livy
37.3.4-6; Obsequens 1). Then in 108 B.C. thirty boys and as many
girls took part in a sacrifice, again following portents and a consultation
of the sacred books (Obsequens 40). This evidence is slight enough; I
would suggest that there might well have been more if more of Livy's
history were complete and if Obsequens too had been able to report
more fully and consistently. The only other evidence belongs to
A.D. 271 at another time of crisis, when Rome was threatened by
the Marcomanni: the Sibylline Books were consulted again and various
rites, including a lustration of the city to ensure its safety and hymns
sung by pueri (it is not clear whether girls are to be understood as
6 Scott Ryberg, op. cit., pl. lxiii, fig. 105.i.

K. Dowden, Religion and the Romans (London, 1992), ch. 3, 33.
THE ROLES OF CHILDREN IN ROMAN RELIGION 89
included in the group), were carried out (H

Aurelian 19.6 & 20.3).
The third category really forms part of th
the fact that girls alone were involved. Alth
main source, reports rather inconsistently, it
say that when portents occurred which were
or some other goddess, girls were sometim
expiations. The first record of such an occa
the Second Punic War period, when Livy (
after the appearance of portents and before t
provinces in 207 B.C., 27 girls (a very lucky number: 3 x 9) were
instructed by the pontifices to learn a hymn written by Livius Androni-
cus. While they were thus engaged the temple of Juno Regina on the
Aventine was struck by lightning, and, the haruspices judging that an
expiation should be carried out by matronae, a procession consisting of
the Decemviri and 27 girls in long dresses entered the city along with the
married women, bearing two cypress-wood statues of the goddess; two
victims were sacrificed. The ordo virginum took part by singing the
hymn to the goddess as they processed and then by performing a ritual
involving a rope and a sung and danced accompaniment in the forum.
Livy's account is worth reading in full as he gives the most complete
narrative of an expiatio performed with the help of a group of girls.
Obsequens is the source for another six examples, all requiring the
efficacious number 27 and all requiring the lustratio of the city, after the
observation of portents, by the girls singing. These took place in 133,
119, 117, 99, 97, and 92 B.C. (Obsequens 27a, 34, 36, 46, 48, 53).
Obsequens mentions a goddess or goddesses in connection with
expiatory rites in four out of the six examples. In 133 an omen was
heard in the temple of Juno Regina; in 99 the people (populus) offered a
collection of money, the matronae treasure, and the girls gifts to Ceres
and Proserpina, while two cypress-wood statues were given to Juno
Regina, all in addition to the lustration with singing; in 97 Juno Regina
received another two statues and the girls' hymn; while in 92 B.C. there
was another donation of money for Ceres and Proserpina, along with the
girls' singing during the lustration of the city. According to MacBain,8
these and several other expiations were carried out in response to the
reporting of prodigies at least partly for political reasons: it was deemed
tactful in Rome to respect Etruscan religious feeling, and indeed the use
8 B. MacBain, Prodigy and Expiation: a study in religion and politics in Republican Rome (Brussels,
1982).
of groups of girls in the rites may have

Nevertheless girls are not said to have been
Another aspect which might be considere
prodigies: did this have anything to do with
rather than mixed groups of children? Among
monstrous births, and of these, hermaphrodit
class. MacBain9 lists the expiations carried out
hermaphrodite births. Out of 16 reported b
125 B.C., Phlegon, girls participated nine times
seven occasions no mention is made of girl
necessarily mean that they were not in fact pr
record is too abbreviated. So should we suppose
sexuality and about to be mothers of normal c
efficacious in placating the goddesses of wome
Juno, Ceres, and Proserpina, when they had be
births of children of doubtful sex?
Groups of children might be required to participate in other, less
sinister religious events. When Gaius Caligula dedicated a shrine to
Augustus in A.D. 37 (Cassius Dio 59.7.1), a choir of well-born boys and
girls sang the hymn, senators, their wives, and the people enjoyed a
banquet, and there were all sorts of spectacles. Tacitus describes another
occasion in A.D. 70 (Hist. 4.53), when Vespasian dedicated the Capitol
site for reconstruction: on 21 June, the site of the templum having been
marked out, soldiers with lucky names holding lucky branches, the Vestal
Virgins along with boys and girls sprinkling water, the Pontifex and a
praetor performing a lustration with a suovetaurilia, prayers were said to
Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva; then other officials, priests, senators, knights,
and members of the people pulled the foundation stone into place and
cast gold and silver offerings into the foundations. In this case the group
of children evidently represents one section of the population of Rome.
Choirs of boys - and of men, this time - featured once more, in the
funeral of Pertinax which Septimius Severus carried out in A.D. 193, by
singing a lament in the procession (Cassius Dio 75.4.5).
Lastly, a group of children, probably boys, is shown on a fresco from
Ostia in the Vatican Museums: they stand holding torches and offerings
beside a statuette of Diana. This painting no doubt does not represent a
formal occasion, but it encourages us to imagine that groups of children
may have been even more involved in Roman religion than might at first
9 MacBain, op. cit., Appendix E.
appear. And as Wiedemann has noted"1 child

significant role in Christian ritual.
Camilli, camillae
The other major religious role of children was to act as assistants or

acolytes to priests and other sacrificants in carrying out rituals, usually
sacrifices. Such children were called camilli and camillae. According to
an ancient poem alluded to by Festus (Paulus-Festus p. 82, 16-22L) the
term camillus referred to any boy at one time, but later, and in modern
terminology, the word denotes the acolyte of a priest, or indeed the
assistant of a god (Plutarch Numa 7.5; Macrobius 3.8.6-7; Servius on
Aen. 11.543 and 558). The earliest visual representation of a camillus
appears on a third-century B.C. Praenestine bronze cista in the
Antiquario, Berlin:" he is wearing a long unbelted tunic and holding
three sacred utensils. During the first centuries B.C. and A.D. the
camillus wears a simple tunic, and sometimes a toga also, and holds
one or more utensils. There were changes in fashion. In the second
century in particular the tunic is evidently made of plentiful material,
with longer and very full sleeves. The child at this period also has long
waving or curly hair which is often dressed in a very feminine style and
sometimes shows the built-up tiers at the front typical of later first-
century and early second-century imperial women's styles. Clear
representations of camilli appear on the Ara Pacis in the scene showing
Aeneas' sacrifice, for example, and on the panel in the Conservatori
Museum, Rome, showing Marcus Aurelius sacrificing at the Capitol,12
while there is a nice little camillus on the well-known fourth-century
ivory diptych of the Symmachi in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Whereas the camillus is usually shown as child-sized, or even extremely
small and out of scale, as on a wall-painting at Pompeii (Fig. 2),13 he can
confusingly be portrayed as the same size as an adult, as in the
procession of senators and priests on the north side of the Ara Pacis,14
either because he might be a youth of sixteen or so or because in
aesthetic terms he fitted into the design better as an adult. He is always
1o Wiedemann, op. cit., ch. 6, 186-7.

11 Scott Ryberg, op. cit., pl. vi, fig. 13.
12 Scott Ryberg, op. cit., pl. Ivi, fig. 86.
13 Boyce, 271.
14 Scott Ryberg, op. cit., pl. xiii, figs. 24a-b.
41
so.
bF
Fig. 2: Drawing of part of a lararium painting f

Pompeii (VII iv 20; Boyce 271): the sacrifice of a
camillus, tibicen and Genius.
recognizable by the fact that he carries

sacred utensil or utensils, and that he st
sacrificant and the altar in a scene of sacr
other necessary participants in the sacr
tibicen, and the victimarii, who carried ou
victims. Gordon says disgustedly, of th
arch at Benevento,'5 'The insignificant
centre of the relief'." I wonder if they we
Girls appear but rarely in art, and are
tunics, perhaps with a long overfold. Th
in the Bardo Museum is portrayed as a camilla on her funerary
monument"7 wearing a longish tunic made of a lot of material and
with long narrow sleeves, and having a built-up hairstyle (Fig. 3). On
the sarcophagus of the Belvedere in the Vatican Museums, Rome, a
camilla wearing a tunic with a long overfold participates in a wedding
sacrifice.18
As for literary evidence, we know from Macrobius (3.8.7) and Servius
(on Aen. 11.543 and 558) that camilli and camillae were prepubescent
children. This does not seem to be entirely borne out by artistic
representation.
The most definite type of camillus known today is the Flaminius
15 Scott Ryberg, op. cit., pl. liv, figs. 82a-c (A.D. 114).
16 R. Gordon, 'The Veil of Power: emperors, sacrificers and benefactors' in Pagan Priests, edd.
M. Beard and J. North (London, 1990).
17 Bardo Museum, Tunis inv. 3514B.
18 Scott Ryberg, op. cit., pl. lix, fig. 93.
t~-i
JN
Fig. 3: Drawing of a secon

(inv. 3514B): Aninia Laet
camillus, assistant to
Paulus-Festus p. 82. 16-22L; Macrobius 3.8.7; Servius on Aen.
11.543).
Even if the office of Flamen Dialis had lapsed by the latter half of
the first century B.C., Augustus restored it (Suetonius Aug. 31.4),
and the Flamen himself can be seen in the Ara Pacis procession and
on the Marcus Aurelius panel mentioned above. The Flamen's wife,
the Flaminica, who was bound to him for life in a marriage by
confarreatio (the most aristocratic, binding, and public type of
marriage), was assisted by a girl, the Flaminia sacerdotula (Paulus-
Festus p. 82. 23-25L; Macrobius and Servius loc. cit.). It is possible
that these child acolytes were, or sometime

own children.
One would expect that other priests too were assisted by camilli as
they made the preliminary offerings at the altar before the main
sacrifice, but literary evidence is silent on this point. The occasional
representation in art may lead us to suppose that this was more often
the case than the interests of the rich and powerful compelled them to
portray it. Cicero does mention the need for a boy assistant to perform
his duty with regard to the cart and the reins of the Great Mother at the
Ludi Megalenses of 56 B.C. correctly (De har. resp. 23), but this seems to
have been an unusual duty for a camillus. Normally he assisted the
sacrificant by standing ready with a sacred utensil or cloth for him to
use in making offering. The most frequently shown utensil in art is the
incense box or acerra;19 others are a dish or tray or basket (lanx) of
fruit,20 a jug or pitcher (guttus or urceus)21 filled with wine for the
libation, a ladle,22 a sacrificial dish or patera,23 an aspergillum for
sprinkling water,24 a towel or mantele, often shown crinkled as if
knitted,25 and finally, sacred ribbons or fillets (infulae).26 The latter
were to be seen in Pompeii and reflect private religion of the first
century only. Typically one or two camilli hold one or more sacra each.
Typically too they are boys.
Some sacrifices depicted in art seem to be unspecific, while others
often take the form of major suovetaurilia at the triumphal celebrations
of successful generals or emperors, with a time span from the third
century B.C. to the third A.D., and at dedications of temples, for
example the temple of Neptune in the Campus Martius associated
with the first-century B.C. altar of Ahenobarbus in the Louvre,27 on
which three camilli togati assist. Another occasion for holding a
suovetaurilia was the closing of the lustrum, as on the fine relief of
probable Claudian date also in the Louvre:28 on this, two camilli shown
as young men in togas surround the sacrificant, ready with open acerra
and pitcher. This type of sacrifice would likewise be held in order to
19 26 instances in the plates in Scott Ryberg; only 3 in Boyce.

20 4 in Scott Ryberg; 19 in Boyce.
22 1 in Scott Ryberg.
26 11 in Boyce.
27 Scott Ryberg, pl. viii, figs. 17a-c.
28 Scott Ryberg, pl. xxxv, fig. 54a.
carry out the lustration of a military camp

critical military moments when Trajan fo
(Fig. 4),29 before crossing the Danube for i
on Trajan's Column; other reliefs belong to
Marcus Aurelius, Constantine, Diocletian, and so on.
Camilli had a part in other sacrifices, such as Gaius' sacrifice of an ox to
Divus Augustus,30 or the sacrifice in pursuance of an oath of loyalty to
Roma on a relief in the theatre at Sabratha, Africa, on which a camillus
pours wine into the emperor Septimius Severus' patera.3 The best
preserved, most stylish, and much illustrated sacrificial scene, in the
Conservatori Museum, Rome, shows Marcus Aurelius during a sacrifice
in front of the Capitol as part of his triumph over the Germans and
Sarmatians in A.D. 176: to the left of the portable altar the emperor, with
his head veiled by his toga, is in the act of casting incense into the flames;
close beside him and behind the altar a camillus with long curly hair holds
the incense box open for him, while to the right a tibicen plays to exclude
unpropitious sounds; he in turn is flanked by a victimarius holding his axe;
behind this tight-knit group appears the head of the Flamen Dialis and of
the sacrificial bull. Thus the impending sacrifice of the victim and the
sacred moment are caught for ever, for ever efficacious. Who exactly was
this boy at the centre of a scene like this? The son of the emperor, the son
of the Flamen Dialis or of one of the leading men? A slave boy? Artistic
representations cannot tell us, and literature is silent.
If we turn from the major state sacrifices usually carried out by the
emperor to somewhat less public sacrifices made by other individuals
we get a similar impression of the role of the camillus. The sacrifice of
a bull to Pax on an Augustan relief in Ince Blundell Hall32 is
particularly interesting because the acolyte is a girl camilla holding a
large acerra. Two altars show scenes of the sacrifice of a bull to the
Genius Augusti, one of Julio-Claudian date, the Altar of Manlius in
the Lateran,33 and the other an altar in the temple of Vespasian at
Pompeii.34 A Sevir offers a sacrifice to Jupiter Optimus Maximus on
an altar of Trajanic date in the Musei Civici, Milan,35 while two camilli
assist at a sacrifice to the Gens Augusta on the altar of Carthage in the
Bardo, Tunis.36 A camillus holds open his acerra for T. Flavius
29 Scott Ryberg, pl. xxxvii, fig. 56; also e.g. pl. xliv, fig. 67.
30 L. Adkins and R. A. Adkins, Dictionary of Roman Religion (New York, 1996), 196, showing a
coin of A.D. 40/41.
31 Scott Ryberg, pl. xlviii, fig. 74. 32 Scott Ryberg, pl. xi, fig. 25.
33 Scott Ryberg, pl. xxv, fig. 38a. 34 Scott Ryberg, pl. xxv, fig. 39a.
3 Scott Ryberg, pl. xxxiii, fig. 51. 36 Scott Ryberg, pl. xxvii, fig. 41 d.
I.1Le I??' . 5;':?1;?r. ,r ~ ;r.? ?C
( I
a
'P,
I
o 1~ f
^ =j-
r? B i' ,
I 5/1 I )) r
c I I~I
?~
rC ?1 I I~-r ~a~F I
I? ~.
rl I r t ~i~yTf~.j~?3j_~J~~ 1 ?'
.? r I c r I
L~ '' I
I~ /
/ /Ulip~ .? ~llfrt ~\'ll?h? E 1 L~~,vi?L;c;?~

1,
-J~(;, ~1
-( =
:7~J 1?.
i i r ???-
?, j . r ?,
/ -\r34 )
- -4 ----A-.?l
Fig. 4: Drawing of scene LIII on

standard-bearers, victi
Constans as he makes offering to the Ger

custis on a second-century relief in th
Museum, K61n (Fig. 5).37 Two sarcophagi
The one in the Museo del Palazzo Ducale in Mantua shows a tall
camillus associated with the deceased's payment of vota wi
another German altar, in the Provincial Museum, Bonn, two camilli
wearing what seem to be second-century tunics and holding jug,
patera, and acerra assist at a sacrifice to Celtic goddesses.39 Lastly,
an altar in the Museo Nazionale, Naples, is interesting as it shows a
sacrifice to Sol Invictus on behalf of the safety of the emperor Marcus
Aurelius by L. Arruntius Philippus and Q. Codius Iason; their assist-
ant, a little boy, is described as Mercurius, the son of Codius Iason -
nice evidence for the identity of at least one camillus.40
Camilli had specific roles to play in the ritual of the Arval Brothers.
They were the oldest priestly college in Rome, who are known to have
existed at least until A.D. 304, although their surviving acta only cover
the period from 21 B.C. to A.D. 241, and that in fragmentary form. One
of their functions was to celebrate the rites of Dea Dia, a goddess of
cereal crops, in May. On the first day of the celebrations it seems that
sons of senators (probably Arval Brothers themselves) assisted in the
usual way with wine and incense, mantelia, and - in A.D. 218 at least -
mantelia, unguent, and garlands.41 According to the acta for A.D. 218
four sons of senators also had a ritual banquet themselves, as did two
named boys, L. Alfenius Iulianus and L. Alfenius Avitianus,42 in
A.D. 240. It is not clear whether what is recorded for these two years
would have applied to other years also. On the third day of the rites the
senators' sons took the offering from the feast to the altar.43 A
suovetaurilia depicted on a frieze of probable Antonine date in the
Musee du Palais des Arts, Lyon, with at least one camillus, may be to
Dea Dia and thus form part of the Arval rites.44
In addition to the standard camillus role, it seems from a small
37 ILS 9000 = CIL xiii 12057.

38 Scott Ryberg, pl. Iviii, figs. 90 & 92.
39 Scott Ryberg, pl. lxii, fig. 102a.
40 Scott Ryberg, pl. lxii, fig. 104.
41 CIL Vi 2059 for A.D. 80, CIL vi 2060 for A.D. 81, ILS 5039 = CIL vi 2104 for A.D. 218, ILS
9522 for A.D. 240, CIL vi 2114 for A.D. 241; there are also very fragmentary records for A.D. 14 -
CIL vi 2023, and for A.D. 27 - CIL vi 2024.
42 ILS 9522; 3 (or 4) boys are named in CIL vi 2114 for A.D. 241: Bo[...] Iulianus, L. Aleius
Verus, Avitius Avitianus.
43 CIL vi 2060 for A.D. 81, ILS 5041 = CIL vi 2086 for A.D. 213, ILS 5040 = CIL vi 2067 for
A.D. 219.
44 Scott Ryberg, pl. xl, figs. 60a-c.
. . ... ' ..~..:` .-:?; .? ?;- -

'' 'Y r~3 ?
.,VAGDA\,V ER~ I~
E.tF4LA
.,. , .9 V
.
c? CCNSTAPRAEF
PRAETTV
P.R.A
? ]:
IIt d7)
o ,4
'j '??
i
" o.. ir
.,.,
? ir
I
'?' I I ~ B ~ ? I\ ' r
?r .r L ' 9 .L?~I~~CIIl I .r
S .,,i.
Fig. 5: Drawing of a seco
Kaln (illustrated in Huskin
sacrificant T. Flavius Constans.
amount of the inscriptional and literary ev

fulfil other subsidiary functions in ritual
Clito, who died when he was eight, was a
college of lyre-players in Rome (ILS 4967
Ferox was a servant of the priesthood of t
age of 15 (ILS 4976 = CIL vi 2188); and a little girl called Flavia
Vera, who died aged six, was a dancer at the head of religious
processions conducted by the priesthood of the Tusculani (ILS
5018 = CIL vi 2177).45 It is probably relevant to mention the
mediation of a boy in the interpretation of lots drawn at temples in
an effort to foresee the future (Tibullus 1.3.11-12). These few
examples suggest that many more children may have been involved
in religious ritual, children who reached adulthood rather than dying
young and whose childhood roles were not thought to be of sufficient
importance to feature on their tombstones as adults.
Weddings
At this point I wish to consider wedding ceremonies and the role of

children therein, since, although weddings largely belonged of course to
the private domain, they nevertheless had a public aspect: it was
important that it be publicly known that a wedding was taking place,
and so the bride went in rather noisy procession from her former home
to that of her bridegroom. Earliest evidence for the role of children
comes from Varro: a camillus carried a cumerum, a box containing some
sort of ritual objects in the procession (Varro LL 7.34); boys uttered
obscenities (to heap fertility on the bride?) (Varro Sat. Men. Riese p. 95);
the bride lit a whitethorn torch at her own hearth and a boy carried it in
front of her as she proceeded to the new hearth (Varro in Non. p. 161 L;
Catullus 61.121). Festus, writing much later but in the present tense, is
more specific: there were three boys, one to carry the torch, two to lead
the bride by the hand (p. 282.22-25L). In addition, the bridegroom
scattered nuts for the children, who gathered them with a lot of noise, in
order to bring good luck, according to Catullus (61.128-34), Festus
(Paulus-Festus p. 179.8-9L) and Servius (on Ecl. 8.29) - in Festus'
words ut nouae nuptae intranti domum noui mariti secundum fiat
45 Cf. also the imperial freedman Cosmus, aged 12, who was a temple attendant (aedituus) of the
Mater Deum in CIL vi 2211.
auspicium. There might also be a choir, one o

9), or a mixed choir as in Ausonius' fourth-cent
nupt. 68-9). Servius alone mentions a foot-wa
the bride by a lucky boy or girl, from a pur
present tense and therefore presumably conte
4.167). Where weddings are portrayed in art,
sarcophagi which are symbolic of the married l
with others showing important aspects of t
holding a torch is usually identified as Hymen
mind the boys in the wedding procession, bo
examples of the successful outcome of marr
shown attendant on the wedding sacrifice on a
part of the wedding procession.47 On the sar
in the Vatican Museums the couple making thei
altar are attended by a little girl holding open an incense box;
Hymenaeus meanwhile is grouped with naked gods and goddesses.48
Private cult
It is reasonable to expect that the role of the camillus in public reli

had a parallel in private religion. Although visual evidence in par
is restricted to Pompeii, what there is of it, along with literary
evidence, which is mostly from poetry, shows that this was the case.
A child, who was usually a boy but sometimes a girl, acted as assistant
at family sacrifices, both on special occasions and in the course of
everyday ritual. While Horace places the assistance of the farmer's
wife and children at a harvest sacrifice to Tellus, Silvanus and the
Genius in the rustic past (Epistles 2.1.139-44), and Virgil has the
unmarried princess Lavinia assisting her father Latinus at the altar in
legendary times (Aen. 7.71-2), Tibullus describes a man's little
daughter bringing a honeycomb for the household gods as in the
recent past (1.10.23-4), and Ovid in exile enlists the help of a camillus
with incense and wine as he celebrates his wife's birthday (Tristia
5.5.11-12). Thus Varro could say that pueri liberi et puerae were
acolytes at home (Varro in Nonius p. 229L). The painted sacrificial
46 E.g. on sarcophagi in the Museo del Palazzo Ducale, Milan and in the Uffizi, Florence: Scott
Ryberg, pl. Iviii, figs. 90 & 92.
47 Scott Ryberg, pl. lix, fig. 94 in the Vatican Museums.
48 Scott Ryberg, pl. lix, fig. 93.
scenes associated with private cult at Pomp

lararia in 1937 (including those which only
excavation reports) likewise sometimes inclu
typical group of Genius /paterfamilias, Lares,
sometimes a victimarius, when a pig is about
There are eighteen instances of camilli note
scene with three and one with two.so Other
once have been visible at Pompeii: for instan
little boy holding pitcher and patera is illu
mann.5s In the same volume there is a p
undamaged funerary altar relief of Claudia
one holding a parasol, the other a basket of
towel (Fig. 6). Thus first-century evidence f
ably good. From the fourth-century manusc
Vatican comes a miniature painting of Dido o
two victims and actually making the prelimi
with the help of a camillus and what looks li
her sister?); they both hold trays of fruit.
Children were also said to worship the hous
Lares, in their own right rather than as assistan
to have taken over the household cult as in t
the miser Euclio in Plautus Aulularia (e.g. 2
boy who saw to the worship of Domitian's L
general this seems to have been true at least do
when Prudentius complains bitterly about
child to the pagan worship of the Lares and
201-11).
There is some evidence that children had a
(presumably formal) domestic meal-times. A
post-Augustan, Columella in the first century
to-fifth are writing about the past. One aspect
stemmed from the requirement for food to
pure (Columella 12.4.3). The other aspect was
made to the Lares (and Vesta?) in the course of a meal. Quintilian
49 Boyce 419 - a kitchen at IX v 2; also Boyce 271 in a taberna kitchen at VII iv 20 = Fig. 2 above,
265 in a kitchen at VII iii 11/12; and see also a painting from IX xiii 3 reproduced in D. G. Orr,
Roman Domestic Religion, ANRWii. 16.2, 1557 (Dissertation of the University of Maryland, 1972),
fig. 4.
50o Boyce 419 in a kitchen at IX v 2 and 489 in the Villa Rustica at Boscoreale.
51 W. Zschietzschmann, Hellas and Rome: the Classical World in Pictures (London, 1959): exact
provenance not stated.
I i kv ?-
).: t
M'
Fig.
(illus
carr
mer
(Sat
off
ann
In a
per
god
girl
52 P.
stated.
Why children?
After this survey of what children actually di

Firstly, why was childhood a prerequisite f
Wiedemann argues that children had a spec
were on the edge of society,53 Onians becau
been expended in sexual intercourse,54 and R
had not wasted their numen.55
If children were needed because they were on the margins of the
community, would the same not be true of lower-class citizens, women,
non-citizens, freed slaves and slaves? If again they were preferred
because they were sexually pure, we would have to ask whether this
was a Christian society where sex was regarded as evil. And how would a
requirement for purity accord with the sexual status of priests and of
adults in general conducting their private cults? Is it not more likely that
children had a place in Roman religion, whether as members of choirs or
as camilli, because they did form part of society, along with other parts?
The major state occasions described above also involved groups of
priests, senators, married women, for example. In addition, children
surely acted as camilli because assistants were in practice needed at
sacrifices, and this type of duty was commensurate with their youth. The
original reason for valuing a child in a religious context may well have
been what Rose and Onians suggest. However I would like to suggest
that, in the classical period and after, the reasons were largely practical.
Gender
The second question concerns the issue of gender. Were boys prefera
to girls, and if so, why? The short answer, in that male-oriented societ
must be 'yes'. Girls, like women, were regarded as weaker and more
need of protection; obviously, when they were of marriageable age, the
risked suffering sexual abuse and pregnancy and the consequent loss
their prime role as members of Roman society. Therefore it seem
reasonable that boys should on the whole have had a more active role
public religion.
Wiedemann, op. cit., ch. 6, 176-80.
54 R. B. Onians, The Origins of European Thought (New York, 1973), 110, n. 4.
5 H. J. Rose, Religion in Greece and Rome (New York, 1959), ch. 1.
Nevertheless there was a certain degree of equ

sexes. Groups of boys and girls were emplo
numbers in state processions and lustrations. In
preferred when there was a question of car
expiation after the occurrence of certain ty
with reference to the goddesses Juno Regin
Apparently their femaleness, along with that
participated at times, was felt to be more appr
case of divinities of marriage and fertility.
While the Flamen Dialis was assisted by a bo
girl, the ancient priesthood of the Fratres
camilli, and boys assisted at the major sacrifice
can be difficult to decide whether acolytes por
female, since they are often shown with elab
hair arrangements or with long hair; at times
cannot be seen. The smaller assistant on the
sacrifice to the Genius Augusti has a simple Augustan woman's
hairstyle, with the hair pulled severely back into a bun; on the other
hand the tunic is shortish; so we are perhaps forced to conclude that
this is a boy.56 Is it conceivable that boys were portrayed in a rather
feminine way because they were supposed to stand in for both sexes,
or to be of ambivalent sex? In this regard we may compare Beard's
interpretation of the Vestal Virgins as on the brink between categories,
between married and unmarried and between female and male.57 On
the other hand camilli of Augustan and pre-Augustan date are usually
shown as unequivocally male; this would weigh against such an
interpretation.
It would seem that the less important public sacrifices and rituals and
private sacrifices were another matter. Both literary and visual evidence
shows that girls were acceptable as assistants as well as boys, and
although evidence for the Roman wedding procession itself emphasizes
the presence of boys, girls as well as boys can be found at other moments
of the ceremony. In sum, what we get is a complex mixed picture which
shows a certain, but not a universal, preference for boys as participants
in religious rites.
56 Scott Ryberg, pl. xxv, fig. 38a.

57 M. Beard, 'The Sexual Status of Vestal Virgins', JRS 70 (1980), 12.
Religious status
Thirdly, I wish to consider the religious s

children. Words we meet repeatedly in this
matrimi. Children described like this had both
situation not nearly as usual in that era of
today. Clearly such children were more desira
were more religiously valid, than those who
of a parent. Presumably the reason was that t
untouched by the pollution of death, as th
Flaminica themselves had to be. The univira, the married woman who
had, or had had, only one husband, is perhaps comparable, in that she
enjoyed the highest religious status; but in her condition there was also a
sexual element - of Roman pudicitia.58 Child assistants specifically
described in our sources as patrimi et matrimi included mixed groups
or choirs of girls and boys, the camilli of the Flamen Dialis and the
Flaminica and of the Arval Brothers, and, according to Festus only
(p. 282.22-25L), the boys who conducted the bride to her new home.
On the other hand the girls who lustrated the city after portents are not
specifically noted as patrimae et matrimae by Obsequens; this does not,
of course, mean that they did not indeed enjoy this status. It is obvious
that artistic representations of acolytes at state sacrifices cannot indicate
their status; nevertheless it is reasonable to suppose that these boys also
had to have both their parents living.
Otherwise and in a general way it looks as if the religious status of
children was associated with their social status. Thus the acolytes of the
most ancient priesthoods were upper-class: as Macrobius explains,
'Romani quoque pueros et puellas nobiles et inuestes camillos et camillas
appellant flaminicarum et flaminum praeministros' (3.8.7; also Servius
on Aen. 11.543), while those of the Arval Brothers are said in the acta to
be the sons of senators, and in the acta of A.D. 219 to be the sons of the
senators qui supra, that is, of the Fratres Arvales themselves (ILS 5040 =
CIL vi 2067); in addition the boys and girls who sang the hymn at Gaius'
dedication of the temple of Augustus in A.D. 37 were not only patrimi et
matrimi but also the most well-born children.59 In the records of most
58 I. C. Mantle, Roman Household Religion (unpublished Ph.D. thesis) (University of Edinburgh,

1978); and Beard, op. cit.
59 Perhaps cf. the purported hideous incident when Elagabalus had human victims slain: they
were noble boys from the whole of Italy with both parents living: Lampridius, Elagab. 8.1.
state religious occasions the social class of par

stated. An exception is the obsecratio of 220
children and the children of freedmen (who wer
sang the hymn (Macrobius Sat. 1.6.14). Howev
such a hierarchical society as that of Rome,
normally preferred.
As for the private sphere, Varro is clear about
priuatis domibus pueri liberi et puerae ministrabant' (in Nonius
p. 229L), and indeed it does seem likely that if a freeborn child were
available he or she would be employed as a suitable assistant. If there
were no son or daughter in the household the sacrificant presumably had
to resort to a slave child: I suspect that the exiled Ovid's puer (at Tristia
5.5.11-12) is a slave, and perhaps Tibullus' also (2.1.59-60).
To conclude, the above survey of the roles of children in Roman
religion has provided some partial answers to the questions asked at the
beginning, while raising further questions. Children clearly had a part to
play, and they may well have had a larger part than the surviving
evidence allows us to deduce with any certainty. But the original
question as to the identity of the child at the centre of the scenes of
sacrifice on Trajan's Column and the panel of Marcus Aurelius remains
unanswered and unanswerable.

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The Roles of Children in Roman Religion

THE ROLES OF CHILDREN IN ROMAN

Scene VIII on Trajan's Column shows the lustration of a camp ca

specifically children except at the time of th

Choirs and Groups

5 Wiedemann, op. cit., ch. 6, 182.

patrimi & matrimi Gaius' dedication of Flaminius cam. & Flam.

patrimi & matrimi expiation 220 B.C.

freeborn/slave sacrifice to Diana subsidiary attendant s

Fig. 1: Summary of evidence by role and status.

Diana on the Palatine, choirs of 27 boys and 2

6 Scott Ryberg, op. cit., pl. lxiii, fig. 105.i.

included in the group), were carried out (H

of groups of girls in the rites may have

9 MacBain, op. cit., Appendix E.

appear. And as Wiedemann has noted"1 child

The other major religious role of children was to act as assistants or

1o Wiedemann, op. cit., ch. 6, 186-7.

Fig. 2: Drawing of part of a lararium painting f

recognizable by the fact that he carries

Fig. 3: Drawing of a secon

that these child acolytes were, or sometime

19 26 instances in the plates in Scott Ryberg; only 3 in Boyce.

carry out the lustration of a military camp

/ /Ulip~ .? ~llfrt ~\'ll?h? E 1 L~~,vi?L;c;?~

Fig. 4: Drawing of scene LIII on

Constans as he makes offering to the Ger

37 ILS 9000 = CIL xiii 12057.

. . ... ' ..~..:` .-:?; .? ?;- -

amount of the inscriptional and literary ev

At this point I wish to consider wedding ceremonies and the role of

auspicium. There might also be a choir, one o

It is reasonable to expect that the role of the camillus in public reli

scenes associated with private cult at Pomp

After this survey of what children actually di

Nevertheless there was a certain degree of equ

56 Scott Ryberg, pl. xxv, fig. 38a.

Thirdly, I wish to consider the religious s

58 I. C. Mantle, Roman Household Religion (unpublished Ph.D. thesis) (University of Edinburgh,

state religious occasions the social class of par

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