RITE OF DEVOTION. - It was a particular kind of votum in which an individual devoted himself and immolated himself in advance to the infernal deities in order to obtain, through the sacrifice of himself, the victory of his own people and the defeat of the enemy. Its original meaning appears from the d. of Decius Mus the father, at the foot of Vesuvius in 430 B.C.; when victory was in peril, he threw himself into the fray, invoking the tutelary gods of the fatherland that they might save the Roman army and annihilate with him that of the adversary.

The d. differs from the votum in that in the latter the human obligation is conditional upon the granting of the prayer by the deity, whereas in the d. the sacrifice precedes and binds the obligation of the gods. Livy (VIII, p. 6 ff.) has handed down the typical formula, which reflects this conception of the d., a formula that was suggested and prepared by the pontiff.

Alongside the d. of public value were the private devotiones that anyone could practice, in substitution for or on behalf of another, as in the devotiones pro salute principis, frequent during the Roman Empire. As for the particular formulas of d. to the harm of individuals, v. DEFISSIONE.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: I. Marquardt, Röm. Staatsverwaltung, III, 2nd ed., Leipzig 1885, p. 279 ff.; A. Pernice, Zum römischen Sacralrecht, I, Berlin 1885, p. 1143 ff.; S. Perozzi, Le obbligazioni romane, Bologna 1903, p. 60 ff.

Alberto Galietti

@incollection{ec4_devotio_rito_della, author = {Galieti, Alberto}, title = {Devotio, rito della}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IV}, pages = {1511}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/devotio-rito-della} }

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Rite of Devotion

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