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WERE HUMAN SACRIFICES IN USE AMONG THE ROMANS?

1847.

[First printed in 1860 for private circulation, with a Notice as
follows prefixed.]

I AM induced to print a few copies of the following correspondence, partly from the just value that must ever attach to any views indicated either by Lord Macaulay or Sir Robert Peel, and partly from the great interest of the subject itself.

It may be noticed in these letters that Lord Macaulay discussed the question before him in a more general manner, and with less consultation of authorities, than did Sir Robert Peel. This, however, was owing solely to the difference of their positions at the time. In December, 1847, Sir Robert had ceased to be a Minister, or even in great measure a party chief. Lord Macaulay, on the contrary, was filling an office involving very numerous details, and accompanied by a seat in the Cabinet. Whenever he had sufficient time to spare from other tasks, no one loved better to explore any point of classical antiquity. No man brought to it a higher amount of critical skill. Deeply versed as he was in the literature and the language of

both Greece and Rome, and possessing powers of memory far indeed beyond those of ordinary men, it was his delight at every interval of leisure to renew, and, if possible, extend the course of his early reading,

As one proof among many of this last assertion, I will allow myself the pleasure of transcribing a passage from a subsequent letter to me of Lord Macaulay. It is dated Clifton, August 23, 1852.

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"I am certainly much better, and I begin to hope that six weeks more of the Downs will completely restore me. I have been reading a great deal of execrably bad Latin-Suetonius, Vulcatius, Spartianus, Trebellius Pollio, Julius Capitolinus, Lampridius, Vopiscus-and I am going to try to take the taste of all the barbarisms which I have been devouring out of my mouth with the 'Andria' and the Heautontimorumenos.' I have read Herodian too. His Greek is not first-rate, but is immeasurably superior to the Latin of his contemporaries. After all, there is a great deal to be learned from these writers. Hume was quite in the right when he said that Gibbon ought to have made more of the materials for the History of the Empire' from the Antonines to Diocletian. Indeed Gibbon very candidly admitted the justice of Hume's criticism."

6

As to the merits of the controversy on Human Sacrifices at Rome, I must confess myself to remain in a state of considerable doubt. The two passages

from Livy and Suetonius which Sir Robert Peel transmitted to me on the 26th of December, 1847, were not at all within my recollection when I wrote to him on the same day, and they seem but little in accordance with the theory which I then proposed. In the face of such a passage as that from Suetonius, it is not easy to contend that the occasional practice of human sacrifices was entirely unknown even to the contemporaries and the friends of Cicero.

Those who may desire any further to investigate this curious question will do well to consult a note (vol. i. p. 27) in the learned and able "History of Christianity" by Dr. Milman. S.

March, 1860.

MONDAY, December 13, 1847.-Breakfast at Mr. Hallam's, where I met, amongst others, Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft, Mr. Macaulay, Dr. Milman, and Sir Robert Peel. The party did not break up till nearly one.

In one part of our conversation I mentioned a note in a German work which I had lately been reading, the "History of the Church," by Dr. Gieseler, Professor of Theology at Göttingen. The note, I said, alleges in substance that human sacrifices existed in the classic days of ancient Rome, and that, as Lactan

tius states, a man was still in his time immolated every year at the festival of Jupiter Latialis.

Mr. Macaulay had not seen Dr. Gieseler's book, but declared himself convinced that there was no real foundation for this story. A day or two afterwards I sent him in a note the exact words of Lactantius, as given by Dr. Gieseler: "Latialis Jupiter etiam nunc sanguine colitur humano."

The following correspondence ensued :—

Right Hon. T. B. Macaulay to Lord Mahon.

DEAR LORD MAHON,

Albany, December 15, 1847.

I know nothing of Gieseler but the passage which you have sent me, and, if I were to form my judgment of him from that passage, I must pronounce him a dunce, or something worse.

In the first place, he misquotes Lactantius. He makes Lactantius say positively, "Jupiter Latiaris is even now propitiated with human blood." But Lactantius's words are these: "Ne Latini quidem hujus immanitatis expertes fuerunt, siquidem Jupiter Latiaris etiam nunc sanguine colitur humano." I should translate the sentence thus: "Nor have even the Latins been free from this enormity, if it be true that even now Jupiter Latiaris is propitiated with human blood." It is quite plain to me that Lactantius wished to insinuate what he dared not assert.

Suppose that there were discovered in the British

Museum a Puritan pamphlet of 1641, containing the following passage: "Nor is even Lambeth free from the worst corruptions of Antichrist, if it be true that the Archbishop of Canterbury and his chaplains pray to an image of the Virgin;" and suppose that I were to quote the passage thus, "The Archbishop of Canterbury and his chaplains pray to an image of the Virgin "-what would you think of my sense or honesty?

But this is not all. Where did Gieseler find that these human sacrifices were annual, rather than triennial, quinquennial, or decennial? Where did he find that they were performed at Rome, and not at Tibur or Præneste? Where did he find that the victim was a man, and not a woman? Not in Lactantius, I am sure. Yet he quotes no other authority, and I firmly believe that he has none.

As to the rest, I should certainly never admit the fact on Lactantius's authority, even if he had asserted it in the most positive manner. He was a rhetorician at Nicomedia, writing a party pamphlet in a time of violent excitement. I should think it as absurd to give credit to an affirmation of his, in contradiction to the whole literature and history of antiquity, as to believe Mac-Hale when he tells the Irish that the English Government starved two millions of them last year. But, as I have said, Lactantius affirms nothing. He was evidently afraid to do so.

...

Ever yours,

T. B. MACAULAY.

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