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XV.—Notes on Human Sacrifices among the Romans, by the Very Rev. Henry George Liddell, D.D. Dean of Christchurch: communicated in a Letter to the Earl Stanhope, President

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2012

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Extract

I felt much interested in the little tract which you were good enough to send me on the question of the use of Human Sacrifices among the Romans. It was pleasant to see that the cares and duties of political life had not prevented Sir Robert Peel and Lord Macaulay from discussing eagerly an obscure point of classical lore.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1866

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References

page 242 note a Printed for private circulation in 1860, and since published in “Miscellanies, collected and edited by Earl Stanhope.” London, 1863.

page 242 note b Plutarch, Vita Marcelli, 3; Oros. iv. 13.

page 242 note c Liv. xxii. 57; Dion. Cass. Excerpt. Vales, xii.; cf. Plin. Hist. Nat. xxviii. §3.

page 243 note a No. lxxxiii. Opera Moral, p. 283, F.

page 243 note b Clemens Alex. Protreptr. p. 37, ed. Potter.; Plutarch, Parallela, No. xx, Opera Mor. p. 310, E. They both cite the historian Dorotheus as their authority.

page 244 note a Plutarch, Vita Mar. 17.

page 244 note b Antiqq. ii. 10.

page 244 note c Liv. iii. 55; cf. Dionys. Antiqq. vi. 89.

page 244 note d Dion Cass. xliii. 24.

page 244 note e Sueton. Octav. 15.

page 245 note a Pro Fonteio, c. 10.

page 245 note b Hist. Nat. vii. 2; cf. xxx. § 4.

page 245 note c Ibid. xxx. § 3.

page 245 note d Antiqq. 99, iv. 49.

page 246 note a De Laud. Constantini, c. xvi.; cf. Porphyr. de Abstinentia, ii. 56; Lactant. i. 21.

page 246 note b Apologia Secunda, p. 50, ed. Paris; written about 164 A.D.

page 246 note c Oratio ad Grœos, c. 46; written a little after Justin.

page 246 note d Ad Autolycum, iii.; written about 180 A.D.

page 246 note e Apologia, c. 9; cf. de Spectaculis, c. 6; about 200 A.D.

page 246 note f Epist. de Spectaculis, c. 5; of doubtful date.

page 246 note g Octav. c. 21; about 230 A.D.

page 246 note h Ibid. c. 30.

page 247 note a De Abstinentia, ii. 56; about 270 A.D.

page 247 note b Institt. i. 21; about 290 AD.

page 247 note c De Errore Profan. Relig. p. 456; written before 350 A.D.

page 247 note d Contra Gentes, p. 24; about 350 A.D.

page 247 note e Contra Symmachum, i. v. 380, sqq.; about 370 A.D.

page 248 note a Præp. Evang. ii. 16; Be Laud. Constantini, 13.

page 248 note b To show how eagerly the Christians interpreted these gladiatorial atrocities as connected with sacrificial rites, Thirlby, in his excellent note on Justin (to which I am indebted for many of my citations and arguments) quotes a curious passage from Cyrill of Alexandria: ἐν ἀκμαῖς δὲ οὔσης ἔτι τῆςλληνικῆς δεισιδαιμονίας ἄμιλλαι μονομαχίας ἐπετελοῦντο παϱὰωμαίοις κατὰ καιϱούς, κέκϱυπτο δέ τις ὑπὸ γῆν Κρόνος λ ίθοις τετρημένοις ὑπόκεχηνώς, ἵνα τῷτοῦ πεσόντος καταμιαίνοιτο λύθρῳ (Contra Julianum, p. 128.) Here we find a distinct statement that the figure of the god Cronos was placed beneath perforated stones in order that the blood of the combatants might trickle through and fall upon it. Thirlby suggests that he had heard some account of the underground altar of the Sabine god, Consus, mentioned by Dionysius, Antiqq. ii. 31; Plutarch, Vit. Romul. v. 14; and Tertullian, De Spectac. c. 5, which, however, was not in the gladiatorial arena, but the Hippodrome.