Viggen Posted April 4, 2012 Report Share Posted April 4, 2012 What was the relationship between Romans and Trees, did they have any? (post from Facebook) meanwhile in suburbia.... I was wondering, would Romans have built around the tree, cut the tree, or made it a place of worship? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melvadius Posted April 4, 2012 Report Share Posted April 4, 2012 Or just photoshopped it in or out? Seriously there were several of the Roman temples which either incoprotated sacred groves witihn their precincts or else had cult centres built within groves. Virgil, Aeneid VII.81-101 talks about the grove sacred to Faunus at Albunea and Ovid's Fasti, IV 649-72 covers the same cult centre but with some differences. There was a major cult centre of the Arval Brothers in a woodland clearing a few kilometers from Rome. Religions of Rome (Vol 2) by Mary Beard, John North and Simon Price gives more details of the above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dickonbard Posted April 5, 2012 Report Share Posted April 5, 2012 The most famous of them all was the rex Nemorensis, a priest of Diana of the Woods, who lived in a sacred grove near Lake Nemi in tha Alban Hills, just outside Rome. The priest was a runaway slave. To secure the job, he had to pluck a bough from the grove, and then fight and kill the incumbent priest. J G Frazer used this as the starting point for his pioneering anthropological work, 'The Golden Bough'. It is well attested in ancient sources, but it was a unique form of priesthood, about which Roman writers felt distinctly uneasy. It was a form of human sacrifice, which the Romans professed to detest (cf Caesar on the subject of druids), but it was such an ancient tradition that nobody felt comfortable about abolishing it. It survived, I think, until at least the 2nd century AD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Divus Iulius Posted June 29, 2012 Report Share Posted June 29, 2012 The Tree was an important symbol of Rome, when they have being Victorious during a War , they find a tree, cut it, shape it like a Cross known as a Crucifix. They take off the Armour, and they would place it on the Cross, including there Helmet, Shields, specifically, those Worn by Son of God, the Emperor. The Criminals would then be Tied up, upon the Ground, around the Tree, never on the Cross. Here is a Ancient Roman Coin, depicting this. http://tomross.ancients.info/images/Julius%20Caesar-Trophy%20RT1099.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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