After Romulus ascended to heaven, Romans and Sabine began to compete for the throne, and Senate also noticed a different person at this time, Numa .
When the Sabines moved to Rome, Numa insisted on staying in place. He is a reading-type person, working in the field on sunny days, studying at home on rainy days, and working hard to explore knowledge after farming. The Romans had long heard of its noble morality and profound education.
The elders of the Senate found Numa and asked him to inherit the Roman throne. At first Numa refused because he was 40 years old. At that time, 40 years old was already considered old, but the elders did not give up, Numa finally agreed to come to Rome and become the king.
When it comes to being a king, Rome at the time was indeed quite advanced. They elected a highly respected king.
Numa has indeed lived up to expectations. After taking office, he carried out a series of reforms.
First carry out legislative reforms, establish order, and let the aggressive Romans first understand civility and politeness.
The God of War Yahusi is also the door god of Rome. His statue has two heads, facing the front and back directions. Numa Xiu built a temple of Yatrus, corresponding to the front and rear doors, and stipulated that the two doors were opened in wartime and closed in peacetime.
During the 43 years when Numa ruled Rome, it is said that this gate was always closed.
Numa advocates peace and he is committed to revitalizing agriculture and animal husbandry. The citizens were divided into occupations and belonged to various groups, such as the woodworking guild, the blacksmith guild, the dyeing guild, and the pottery guild.
He also carried out calendar reforms, according to the moon's profit and loss, the year was divided into 12 months, and the total number of days was 355 days. The remaining days are adjusted every 20 days. This calendar lasted for 650 years and regulated people's daily lives. It was not until Caesar revised the calendar that the total number of days in a year was set to 365 days.
There are many gods in Rome. After Numa came to the throne, they rectified these gods, although they were still confused with the Greek gods.However, some gods were equally important to Rome and Greece. Such as the king of gods Jupiter (Greek called Zeus), his wife Juno (Greek called Hera), goddess Venus (Greek called Aphrodite) ), goddess of hunting Diana (Greek called Artemis ), as well as , god of learning and art, Apollo, goddess of wisdom Athena, god of wars Mars, etc. In addition, gods such as Yabusi are the gods of the Latin nation since ancient times. The former king Romulus was deified by the Romans after his death and joined the ranks of Roman gods.
Zeus the Bearded
Numa established a hierarchy for the gods, but did not specify which are the Roman gods.
The difference between polytheism represented by Greece and Rome and monotheism represented by Judaism and Christianity is that polytheism never asks the gods to correct human behavior and morality. It is the exclusive privilege of God in monotheism.
We will find that the gods in polytheism have the same shortcomings as humans. Since their duty is not to correct the moral behavior of human beings, it is natural to have shortcomings. But the monotheistic god cannot have the slightest flaw, because its duty is to correct the moral behavior of mankind.
"The Ten Commandments of Moses" is composed of the following 10 items: 1. You must not have other gods besides me. 2. Don't carve idols for yourself. 3. Don't take the name of the Lord-your God in vain. 4. When commemorating the Sabbath, keep it as a holy day. 5. Be respectful to your parents. 6. Don't kill. 7. Don't commit adultery.8. Don't steal. 9. Don't give false witnesses to frame people. 10. Don't covet your lover's house.
The Romans believed that gods were everywhere, and they even worshiped the kings as gods, so the first commandment does not apply. In addition to statues of gods, Romans also like to carve ancestors, so the second commandment does not apply. Not to mention the latter few.
So here comes the question. Since the Romans did not pray to the gods to correct their morals and ethics, what did they pray for?
Apollo
The answer is the god of protection. What they pray for is the blessing of the gods.
The guardian god of Rome is the gods headed by Zeus. On the battlefield, there are Gods of War Mars and Yatrus blessing; in agriculture, there is the goddess of grain, Ceres, blessing; in winemaking, Bacchus, the god of wine, blessing; economically, there is the protector of business travel, , Mercury_ span2span bless; the old and sick, there is the god of medicine Asclepius, and the goddess Juno is the protector of happy marriages and women. There is also the goddess Velipraka, the director of women, who is the patron saint who mediates conflicts between husband and wife.
How to mediate conflicts?
When the husband and wife had a quarrel, they went to the temple of the goddess Velipraka. There was no one in the temple but the statue of the goddess. The rule is that in front of the goddess, only one person at a time when talking. In this way, when one party complains, the other cannot interrupt, so most of them realize that the other party's words are not completely unreasonable, so in the process of taking turns to complain and listen, they gradually calm down until the reconciliation is as good as before.
The number of gods is innumerable. The Romans firmly believed that these gods were blessing themselves.
The reason why there are so many gods in Rome is naturally the specific and realistic character of the Romans. The Romans never squeezed out the gods of other nations, and they even took the initiative to introduce gods from other nations. They believe that silently supporting people who are working hard and making progress is a proper posture of the protector.
Artemis, goddess of hunting
Numa also rectified the clergy organization.The priests were dedicated to serving the gods, as well as the god sons who were responsible for protecting the holy fire. They had to work continuously for 30 years, during which time they must remain virgins. There is also the priest , who fortune telling about the good or bad of the state and war according to the way the bird flies and the way of pecking.
What’s interesting is that no matter whether the fortune-telling is good or bad, it does not affect the leadership’s decision to fight. They acquiesce that even if it’s a bad lot, they close their eyes and don’t see it, and they know that the good and bad are all good and bad. The priest explained subjectively, as long as the soldiers believe that the lucky lottery is the lucky lottery.
Therefore, in any era, people with high positions are always the most sober.
It can also be seen from this that Rome has no priests to replace gods, and there is no substitute for gods on the earth. Their priests are elected by the citizens' assembly, in fact, they are like national civil servants who work for public affairs. Rome will not be overly obsessed with religion, and there will be no conflicts and conflicts of interests between religion and politics. What is shown is the separation of state and religion in the natural state, and this is perhaps the most important achievement of Numa.
The Greek historian Dionysus has this sentence in his book "History of Ancient Rome": What makes Rome strong lies in their views on religion.
For the Romans, religion is not a guiding principle, it is only a spiritual sustenance . Because of religious beliefs, human nature is no longer imprisoned. The Romans were not blindly superstitions about religion.
In the book " Romans' Story ", there is a passage:
The difference between monotheism and polytheism is not only in the number of pure gods, but also in whether they identify with the gods believed by others. To recognize the gods of others means to recognize the existence of others.
When religions that are willing to correct human ethics and behavior do not appear, as long as we do not want to be reduced to being with the wild beasts, then there must be a system of self-discipline. For the Romans,This system is the law.
Religion has no effect among people of different denominations, but the law can also play its role among people who do not have the same values.
The Romans realized the necessity of the law earlier and more strongly than anyone.
The Greeks, another ethnic group of polytheism, chose to explore the truth in philosophy. Philosophy originated in Greece.
It is Jews who seeks to correct the human code of conduct from religion.
It is the Greeks who seek philosophy to correct the norms of human behavior.
It is the Romans who seek the law to correct the human code of conduct.
Numa
As a foreigner, how did Numa succeed in his reforms?
Numa was once the son-in-law of King Sabine, but he did not like the fight for power. The reason why was able to succeed to the throne was because the senate had taken care of it. Such a political foundation was obviously weak.
After he assumed the throne, he immediately disbanded the king's guard, often wearing a white toga robe , ran to the forest alone. At this time, there are rumors that Numa is talking to the goddess deep in the forest. People firmly believe that Numa received the will of the gods through the goddess there.
In fact, every time he comes out of the forest, Numa will make new suggestions to the citizens' assembly. For his suggestions, not only the citizens' assembly will unconditionally adopt them, but also the Senate will pass them unanimously.
Numa, the second king of Rome, was known as the Emperor of Rome. He ruled for 43 years. never fought a war and enriched the internal affairs. established the culture, religion, law, politics and other aspects of later generations of Rome. The basics. Numa’s sons and daughters became the ancestors of later Roman families.
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