The mos maiorum (; "ancestral custom"[Karl-J. Hölkeskamp, Reconstructing the Roman Republic: An Ancient Political Culture and Modern Research (Princeton University Press, 2010), p. 17 online.] or "way of the ancestors"; : mores, cf. English "mores"; maiorum is the Genitive case plural of "greater" or "elder") is the unwritten code from which the Ancient Rome derived their . It is the core concept of Roman traditionalism,[ Mos Maiorum, Brill Online.] distinguished from but in dynamic complement to Roman law. The mos maiorum was collectively the time-honoured principles, behavioural models, and social practices that affected private, political, and military life in ancient Rome.[Hölkeskamp, Reconstructing the Roman Republic, pp. 17–18.]
Family and society
The Roman family (the
, better translated as "household" than "family") was hierarchical, as was Roman society. These hierarchies were traditional and self-perpetuating, that is, they supported and were supported by the
mos maiorum. The
pater familias, or head of household, held absolute authority over his
familia, which was both an autonomous unit within society and a model for the social order,
[Hölkeskamp, Reconstructing the Roman Republic, p. 33.] but he was expected to exercise this power with moderation and to act responsibly on behalf of his family. The risk and pressure of social censure if he failed to live up to expectations was also a form of
mos.
The distinctive social relationship of ancient Rome was that between patron (patronus) and client (cliens). Although the obligations of this relationship were mutual, they were also hierarchical. The relationship was not a unit, but a network (clientela), as a patronus might himself be obligated to someone of higher status or greater power, and a cliens might have more than one patron, whose interests might come into conflict. If the familia was the discrete unit underlying society, these interlocking networks countered that autonomy and created the bonds that made a complex society possible.[Carlin A. Barton, The Sorrows of the Ancient Romans: The Gladiator and the Monster (Princeton University Press, 1993), pp. 176–177.] Although one of the major spheres of activity within patron-client relations was the law courts, patronage was not itself a legal contract; the pressures to uphold one's obligations were moral, founded on the quality of fides, "trust" (see Values below), and the mos.[Hölkeskamp, Reconstructing the Roman Republic, pp. 33–35.] Patronage served as a model[Cicero, De officiis 1.35.] when conquerors or Roman governor abroad established personal ties as patron to whole communities, ties which then might be perpetuated as a family obligation. In this sense, mos becomes less a matter of unchanging tradition than precedent.[Erich S. Gruen, " Patrocinium and clientela," in The Hellenistic World and the Coming of Rome (University of California Press, 1986), vol. 1, pp. 162–163.]
Tradition and evolution
Roman conservatism finds succinct expression in an edict of the
Roman censor from 92 BC, as preserved by the 2nd-century historian
Suetonius: "All new that is done contrary to the usage and customs of our ancestors, seems not to be right."
[Suetonius, De Claris Rhetoribus , i.] However, because the
mos maiorum was a matter of custom, not written law, the complex norms that it embodied evolved over time. The ability to preserve a strongly-centralised sense of identity while it adapted to changing circumstances permitted the expansionism that took Rome from city-state to world power.
[See, for instance, Hölkeskamp's reference to the Republic's "capacity for self-regulation", Reconstructing the Roman Republic, p. 18. Erich S. Gruen, The Last Generation of the Roman Republic (University of California Press, 1974), p. 535.] The preservation of the
mos maiorum depended on consensus and moderation among the ruling elite whose competition for power and status threatened it.
[Hölkeskamp, Reconstructing the Roman Republic, pp. 29, 41–42 et passim.]
Democratic politics, driven by the charismatic appeal of individuals (populares) to the SPQR, potentially undermined the conservative principle of the mos.[Hölkeskamp, Reconstructing the Roman Republic, p. 42.] Because the higher magistracies and priesthoods were originally the prerogative of the patricians, the efforts of plebeians (the plebs) for access could be cast as a threat to tradition (see Conflict of the Orders). Reform was accomplished by legislation, and written law replaced consensus.[Gruen, The Last Generation of the Roman Republic, pp. 258, 498, 507–508.] When plebeians gained admission to nearly all the highest offices, except for a few arcane priesthoods, the interests of plebeian families who ascended to the elite began to align with those of the patricians, creating Rome's nobiles, an elite social status of nebulous definition during the Roman Republic.[The Second Samnite War was a crucial period in the formation of this new elite; see E.T. Salmon, Samnium and the Samnites (Cambridge University Press, 1967), p. 217, and Erich S. Gruen, " Patrocinium and Clientela," in The Hellenistic World and the Coming of Rome (University of California Press, 1984), p. 163 online.] The plebs and their support of popular politicians continued as a threat to the mos and elite consensus into the late Republic, as noted in the rhetoric of Cicero.[T.P. Wiseman, Clio's Cosmetics (Leicester University Press, 1979), pp. 67–69, 85, et passim.]
During the transition to the Christian Empire, Quintus Aurelius Symmachus argued that Rome's continued prosperity and stability depended on preserving the mos maiorum, and the early Christian poet Prudentius dismissed the conservative adherence to native Roman traditions as "the superstition of old grandpas" (superstitio veterum avorum) and inferior to the new revealed truth of Christianity.[Clifford Ando, "The Palladium and the Pentateuch: Towards a Sacred Topography of the Later Roman Empire," Phoenix 55 (2001), p. 388.]
After the final collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD and ascension of the various Barbarian kingdoms, the old Roman mores were then either superseded by or synthesized with the traditions of the Germanic peoples elite and subsequent feudalism values.
Values
Traditional Roman values were essential to the
mos maiorum:
Fides
-
The Latin word fides encompasses several English words, such as trust/trustworthiness, good faith/faithfulness, confidence, reliability and credibility.
[Hölkeskamp, Reconstructing the Roman Republic, p. 34.] It was an important concept in Roman law, as oral contracts were common.[“Bona fides,” Berger. pg 374] The concept of fides was personification by the goddess Fides whose role in the mos maiorum is indicated by the history of her cult.[Adkins. pg 78] Her temple is dated from around 254 BC[Ziolkowski, “Temples”] and was located on the Capitoline Hill in Rome, near the Temple of Jupiter.
Pietas
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Pietas was the Roman attitude of dutiful respect towards the gods, homeland, parents and family, which required the maintenance of relationships in a moral and dutiful manner.
[Adkins. p. 180] Cicero defined pietas as "justice towards the gods.”[ De Natura Deorum. 1.116] It went beyond sacrifice and correct ritual performance to inner devotion and righteousness of the individual, and it was the cardinal virtue of the Roman hero Aeneas in Vergil's Aeneid. The use of the adjectival form Pius as a cognomen reflects its importance as an identifying trait. Like Fides, Pietas was cultivated as a goddess, with a temple vowed to her in 191 BC[According to Livy, Ab urbe condita. xxxx. 34] and dedicated ten years later.
Religio and Cultus
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Related to the Latin verb religare, "to bind", religio was the bond between gods and mortals, as carried out in traditional religious practices
[Adkins. pg 190] for preserving the pax deorum (“peace of the gods”). Cultus was the active observance and the correct performance of rituals.[Adkins. pg 55] Religious practice, in this sense, is to be distinguished from pietas and its inherent morality. See religion in ancient Rome and imperial cult (ancient Rome).
Disciplina
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The military character of Roman society suggests the importance of disciplina, as related to education, training, discipline and self-control.
Gravitas and constantia
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Gravitas was dignified self-control.
[Ward. p. 58] Constantia was steadiness or perseverance.[ Ab urbe condita. xxii. 58. See also Ogilvie’s Commentary on Livy 1-5.] In the face of adversity, a good Roman was to display an unperturbed façade. Roman myth and history reinforced this value by recounting tales of figures such as Gaius Mucius Scaevola,[ Ab urbe condita. ii. 12] who in a founding legend of the Republic demonstrated his seriousness and determination to the Etruscan king Lars Porsenna by holding his right hand in a fire.
Virtus
-
Derived from the Latin word vir ("man"), virtus constituted the ideal of the true Roman male.
[ Ward. p. 57] Gaius Lucilius discusses virtus in some of his work and says that it is virtus for a man to know what is good, evil, useless, shameful or dishonorable.[Cantarella, Bisexuality in the Ancient World, p. xi; Marilyn B. Skinner, introduction to Roman Sexualities (Princeton University Press, 1997), p. 11.] In extension, it was accepted for freeborn Roman males to engage in male-male intercourse only if he took the active penetrative role (otherwise his virtus would be in question or violated).[Craig A. Williams, Roman Homosexuality (Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 18.] Romans relatedly described both sexual and imperial domination in terms of transgressing the recipient's virtus.[Davina C. Lopez, "Before Your Very Eyes: Roman Imperial Ideology, Gender Constructs and Paul's Inter-Nationalism," in Mapping Gender in Ancient Religious Discourses (Brill, 2007), pp. 135–138.] One of Rome's most important ethical rubrics, sexual morality, was therefore heavily associated with virtus and its varied implications for freeborn Roman males.
Dignitas and auctoritas
-
Dignitas and auctoritas were the result of displaying the values of the ideal Roman and the service of the state, in the forms of priesthoods, military positions and magistracies. Dignitas was reputation for worth, honour and esteem. Thus, a Roman who displayed their gravitas, constantia, fides, pietas and other values of a Roman would possess dignitas among their peers. Similarly, by that path, a Roman could earn auctoritas ("prestige and respect").
[ Ward. p. 58]
See also
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Religion in ancient Rome – religious practices in ancient Rome
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The Ancient City – perennial 1864 book by Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges
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O tempora, o mores! – exclamation by Cicero, most famously in first Catilinarian oration ("Oh what times! Oh what customs!")
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Roman Polytheistic Reconstructionism – contemporary movement reviving traditional Roman religion
Notes
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Adkins, L. and Adkins, R. Dictionary of Roman Religion. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
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Berger, Adolph. Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law. Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, 1991.
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Brill's New Pauly. Antiquity volumes edited by: Huber Cancik and Helmuth Schneider. Brill, 2008 Brill Online.
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Oxford Classical Dictionary. 3rd Revised Ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
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Stambaugh, John E. The Ancient Roman City. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988.
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Ward, A., Heichelheim, F., Yeo, C. A History of the Roman People. 4th Ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2003.
Further reading
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Fredericks, S. C. 1969. Mos maiorum in Juvenal and Tacitus. University of Pennsylvania Pr.
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Hoffmann, Zsuzsanna. 1982. "The Parody of the Idea of mos maiorum in Plautus." Oikumene, III, 217–223.
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Hölkeskamp, Karl-Joachim. 2010. Reconstructing the Roman Republic: An Ancient Political Culture and Modern Research (translated by Henry Heitmann-Gordon; revised, updated, and augmented by the author). Princeton/Oxford: Princeton University Press.
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Kenty, Joanna. 2016. "Congenital Virtue: Mos Maiorum in Cicero's Orations." Classical Journal 111.4:429-462
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Segal, Erich. 1976. “ O tempora, o mos maiorum.” In The Conflict of Generations in Ancient Greece and Rome, Edited by Bertman, Stephen S., 135–142. Amsterdam: Grüner.
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Tröster, Manuel. 2012. "Plutarch and mos maiorum in the Life of Aemilius Paullus." Ancient Society 42, 219–254.
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