Superstition in the Roman World
The Romans, like their ancient neighbours, generally had a fundamental misunderstanding of the laws of cause and effect that are the cornerstones of modern science and reason. Theirs was a world of the unexplained, a world of wonder, fear and divine mystery. This inevitably led the Romans (and others, to be fair) to believe in what today we would view as occultism and superstition. They believed that inanimate objects or living beings were host to all manner of spirits - trees, stones, caves, animals - even items of furniture could be said to contain "numina". The Roman belief system also included bogeymen - the roots of many superstitions and fears that still survive today. Take, for instance, the "Lamia". This was a spirit who stalked the streets looking for stray children to eat. This sort of thing wasn't just confined to scaring children - the Romans also believed in "lemures", ghosts that roamed in the shadows. When terrible crimes such as murder were committed it was thought that lemures haunted the site of the crime and so no one would go near for fear of what might happen.
Another belief held by the common Romans was that those who died untimely deaths could wield great destructive powers at the point of death and immediately afterwards. They guarded the corpse and indulged in ceremonies to clear the evil energy from around the body before burial. There is a school of thought that places the origins of Christian exorcism here. The basis of Werewolf legends begin with the Romans: "verspilles" were men who could metamorphose into and run unnoticed with packs of real wolves...
Above all, the Romans believed strongly in the power of omens, which if ignored could bring down terrible calamity. Bad omens would befall certain months, making it imprudent to marry, conceive children, fight battles or perform certain religious ceremonies at these times. Certain accidental occurrences could also forshadow disaster - walking through the front door of your house with your left foot first, snakes falling from rooftops, the main beam of a house breaking (although given that this might make the house fall down, this is a pretty good omen that something bad is going to happen), spilling wine, or crossing the paths of certain animals
An unusual occurrence such as a comet was often considered an omen of terrible catastrophe to come. Similarly when a crisis threatened Romans on a grander scale, it was thought that this was due to the disapproval of the gods - at these times the Senate could authorise a reading from one of the Sybilline Books, great tomes containing advice on avoiding the wrath of the gods through prayer and sacrifice. These were destroyed by fire in 83BC, eventually causing Augustus to commission a quest to regain the knowledge from all corners of the known world. As an example of such a superstition, when a Vestal Virgin was struck by lightning in 100BC this was seen as the wrath of the gods. The Romans decided the Vestal Virgins had brought this catastrophe down on themselves by breaking their vows. To make amends a Greek couple and a Gallic couple were buried alive in the market square. Hard luck on the foreigners, but no one seems to have done anything to the Vestal Virgins...
Signs and omens even penetrated the political world. It was considered dangerous to decide on any form of action without consulting an "augur", a special government advisor with arcane knowledge who would observe any omens that might affect the decision. Decisions were even reversed if the omens had not been correctly observed There were even laws in place making it illegal to do certain things lest a bad omen occur. Women were prohibited to walk in the streets carrying spindles, as anyone seeing her might cause the harvest to fail Of course, these days presidents and prime ministers wouldn't admit to following the advice of magicians or soothsayers, although on the other hand reading a horoscope...
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