sacrifice, Roman
sacrifice, RomanRoman sacrificial practices were not functionally different from Greek, although there are no sources for them earlier than the 2nd cent. bc, and the modalités of Roman sacrifice were complex, since several rites existed (Roman, Greek, and Etruscan). In any case, as in the Greek world, sacrifice was a central act of religion. The expression rem divinam facere, ‘to make a thing sacred’, often abridged to facere (‘to sacrifice’), and the etymology of the words designating sacrificial activity, sacrificare, sacrificium (sacrum facere, ‘to perform a religious ceremony’), show the importance of these acts and signal that sacrifice was an act of transfer of ownership. On its own or part of larger celebrations, the typical sacrifice embraced four phases: the praefatio, the immolatio, the slaughtering, and the banquet.
1. After the purification of the participants and of the...
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