Numa Pompilius ( Numa Pompilius ) - semi-legendary king of Rome (the second in a row). Rules from 715 to 673/672 BC. er He is credited with streamlining the calendar, the establishment of priestly and craft colleges, religious cults and festivals of Agony .
Numa Pompilius | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
lat Numa pompilius | |||||||
Portrait of Numa Pompilius on the obverse of the Calpurnius Piso coin | |||||||
| |||||||
Predecessor | Romulus | ||||||
Successor | Tull Gostiliy | ||||||
Birth | April 21, 753 BC. e. | ||||||
Death | 673 BC e. | ||||||
Rod | |||||||
Spouse | 1. Tatsiya 2. Egeria | ||||||
Children | Pompilius | ||||||
Content
Origin
Numa Pompilius was born on the day of the founding of Rome (April 21, 753 BC) in the family of Pomponius, a Sabinean by birth. Numa was the fourth son in the family, brought up in strictness - his father, although he held a high position in the Sabi community, did not allow any luxury in his home. Numa spent his youth in the city of Evre. He married Tatsiya , the daughter of the king Sabinean Tatius , co-ruler of Romulus . Tatsiya died shortly after the wedding, at the age of 13. Grievously lamenting this loss, Numa retired in the direction of the Alban Mountains , in the valley of Aricia. There he met the nymph Ageria , who taught him lawmaking.
According to one version, Numa had one daughter - Pompilius (according to one version she was a child of Tatia, on the other - his second wife, Lucretia), who later married Numa Marcia and gave birth to the future king Anka Marcia . Plutarch mentions, among other options, the four sons of Numa, Pomp, Pina, Kalpa and Mamerka, quoting the opinion of some historians that the noble Roman names Pomponiev , Pinaria , Calpurnia and Emiliev descended from them. But this option seems doubtful even to him, since all the early family lists were destroyed during the first invasion of the Gauls , and, apparently, belongs to the hand of an unknown compiler of long aristocratic pedigrees popular in the ancient world.
Election to the kingdom
After the death of Romulus, the Senate , which at that time consisted of one hundred "fathers", first ruled without unity of command, each patrician ruled for 24 hours, transferring his authority to another. But then it was decided that the indigenous Romans would choose a king from among the Sabines, in order to compensate for the fact of a smaller number of Sabines. The pious Sabine Numa Pompilius was elected senator because it was thought that this could strengthen the alliance between the Romans and the Sabines. At first, he refused to be honored, but his father and Martius I convinced him that only his wisdom could teach the warlike people of Rome to prosper not only with war, but also with peace.
The Board of Numa Pompilius
The following achievements and innovations made by Numa Pompiliy should be noted:
- During his reign all the lands belonging to Rome were counted, the land survey was carried out with stone pillars.
- He established craft workshops , setting separate festivals for each of them. Here is what Plutarch tells about this in his “Comparative biographies” [1] :
The people were divided, by occupation, into flutists, goldsmiths, carpenters, dyers, shoemakers, tanners, tinkers and potters. The king joined other crafts together and formed one workshop. Each workshop had its own meetings, meetings and religious ceremonies. Thus, the king for the first time expelled that discord, which forced some to consider and call themselves Sabines, others — Romans, some Tatians, others — Romulus, as a result of which division into guilds brought harmony and unanimity everywhere.
- Numa Pompilius was the first to establish religious worship. He introduced among the people the veneration of Terminus (the god of frontiers) and Phides (the goddess of the world and the personification of honesty in labor). He introduced the post of priests to serve Jupiter , Mars and Quirinus . Finally, he introduced the worship of the goddess Vesta and established the position of Vestalos for her (arguably, since Romulus and Rem’s mother was Vestal).
- He also established posts of fetsial and pontiffs .
- He banned human sacrifice and introduced bloodless (bow, hair, etc.).
- Numa Pompilius introduced a new lunar-solar calendar , each year which consisted of 355 days. He is also credited with dividing days into festivals .
- His palace was built by the second Roman king on Veli, between the Quirinale and the Palatine , which symbolized the unification of the two communities: the Roman and Sabinean.
Unlike all the other Roman kings who actively fought wars, the gates of the Temple of Janus , which usually opened at the beginning of armed conflicts, never opened at the time of Numa Pompilius.
In the seventh year of the reign of Numa Pompilius, an epidemic broke out in Italy , which resulted in the death of thousands of people both in Rome and in its vicinity. According to legend, once the king was walking in the forest, concerned about the thought of national salvation, and suddenly, with thunder and lightning, a skillfully decorated shield fell at his feet. Immediately she was the patroness of Numa Pompilius, Egeria , and said that this shield was a gift of Jupiter , and described a special ritual with which it is possible to ward off any misfortune from Rome. Numa Pompilius followed the advice of the goddess and ordered to make 11 copies of this shield, which he ordered to hang and store in the temple of Vesta. Also, the king established a special brotherhood of the salies , which were to be annually in March, armed with these shields, to perform a sacred dance in the city (a dance of the salies ).
Upon the death of the king, the nymph, from tears, turned to the source.
Numa Pompilius Calendar
Numa Pompilius carried out a serious calendar reform, on the basis of which the Julian calendar was subsequently introduced. Before him, the Romans divided the year into ten months, beginning with the March account and ending with December. According to the new calendar, two new months were introduced - January and February in honor of the gods Janus and Phoebus. Thus, the calendar introduced by Num Pompiliy consisted of twelve months:
- March (31 days),
- April (29 days),
- May (31 day),
- June (29 days),
- quintilis (31 days),
- Sextilis (29 days),
- September (29 days),
- October (31 days),
- November (29 days),
- December (29 days),
- January (29 days),
- February (28 days)
Quintilius and sextilius were subsequently renamed July and August, respectively, in honor of Julius Caesar and Octavian Augustus .
The death of Numa Pompilius and the fate of his manuscripts
Numa Pompilius died of natural causes in 673 BC. er at the age of 80, leaving, according to legend, a great written heritage. He bequeathed all his books with him. In 181 BC. er 2 stone caskets were accidentally found on Janicula, with inscriptions in Greek and Latin, from which it was found that the ashes of Numa Pompilius lay in one casket, and in his other books - 7 books on pontifical right and 7 on Greek philosophy. The manuscripts were intact, but the city praetor decided to burn them, as he considered that they contained opinions that threatened the modern religious ideas of the Romans. Subsequently, among the alchemists, it was believed that some of the manuscripts of Numa Pompilius escaped fire, and they contain the secret of the philosopher's stone . And his grave, in turn, was hidden, and it has not yet been found.
Tull Gostiliy became the new king of Rome after the death of Numa.
In the cinema
- 1961 - Romulus and Rem ( Romolo e Remo ) - thin. film director - Sergio Korbuchchi , Numu plays Enzo Cheruzico .
Notes
- ↑ Plutarch - Comparative biographies. Lycurgus and Numa Pompilius
Links
- Plutarch . Comparative biographies , Camille,: Text in ancient Greek and Russian
- Plutarch . " Comparative biographies ", The Life of Romulus
- Plutarch . " Comparative biographies ", Numa Pompilius
- Titus Livius . History from the founding of the city , I, 18-21: text in Latin and Russian
- A. N. Greshnykh - “ Once again to the question of the calendar reform of Numa Pompilius ”.
- The sanctuary of the times of Numa Pompilius
- Lukyanov A. Italy and early Rome . 2014