Evocatio deorum: some notes on the Romanization of Etruria

Abstract

Evocatio deorum is an institution known in antiquity in the Roman and in the Hettite religions. It has therefore been regarded as part of the common Indo-European heritage. It is uncertain towhat extent the Etruscans had inaugurated the evocatio in their world of religious practices. Suggestions that the Etruscans transmitted the institution of the evocatio to Italy and Rome have been taken to prove the Asiatic origin of the Tyrrhenoi. In this context, however, these theories are of little interest. Basically evocatio is a kind of vow. In a trial of strength between two opposing armies, most frequently in the course of a siege, the Roman commander (because evocatio in our sources appears as a Roman institution, the subject, the agent is always a Roman) invokes the assistance of the tutelary god of the besieged, in fact evokes him urging him to desert his people and promising him a sacred precinct, temple, cult and devotion in Rome. Evocatio is a precaution, or a weapon against the enemies of the Roman.

Mass spectra of diterpene resin acid methyl esters

“…The presence of a M+-C2H5 (20% intensity) in the spectrum of 7,154sopimaradien-18-oate(isopimarate, XII) is unexpected in that the compound does not have an ethyl substituent. [This peak is seen in the spectra published by other workers (2,3).] Formation of this m/e 287 (C19H2702) peak can be visualized as occurring via cleavage of the C9-C11 bond, which is /3 to the 7-ene position, followed by hydrogen transfer from C14 to CI 1 and cleavage of the C12-C13 bond:…”

“…Rowe (1).] The MS for a few of the more common of these resin acid esters have been published (2)(3)(4) and Genge (5) has used a mass spectrometer with heated inlet system for the quantitative analysis of rosin constituents. The study of fragmentation mechanisms for the resin acid esters, however, has been limited to the work of Biemann (3) on pimarate, isopimarate and sandaracopimarate, and the work of Audier et al (4) on several additional dienic, diterpene hydrocarbons, acids and esters.…”

A warlike culture? Religion and war in the Aztec world

“…When a city surrendered, the temple precinct was burnedthe pictoglyph for a conquered town is a burning temple with its roof askew (Figure 1) -and the gods were carried off to the coateocalli ('house of many gods') (López Austin and Luján 2016, 610). 6 This is a similar process to the ancient Roman ritual of evocatio deorum (the 'calling out of the gods'), by which the tutelary deity of a besieged city was exhorted to leave its temple and voluntarily come to Rome, where it would be given a temple and cult, asserting Roman superiority and weakening the city by removing its divine protection (Eastman 2011, 103-104;Bruun 2014). The Aztecs also saw these patron gods as emblems of defeated rivals, and their 'idols' were, quite literally, incorporated into the imperial capital, held in the Templo Mayor precinct at the heart of Tenochtitlan.…”