Editing Novensiles (section)

==The invocation of Decius Mus==
{{Further|Devotio}}
The ''novensiles'' are invoked in a list of deities in a prayer formula preserved by the [[Augustan literature (ancient Rome)|Augustan]] historian [[Livy]]. The prayer is uttered by [[Publius Decius Mus (consul 340 BC)|Decius Mus (consul 340 BC)]] during the [[Samnite Wars]] as part of his vow (''[[devotio]]'') to offer himself as a sacrifice to the infernal gods when a battle between the Romans and the [[Latins (Italic tribe)|Latins]] has become desperate. Although Livy was writing at a time when [[Augustus]] cloaked religious innovation under appeals to old-fashioned [[pietas|piety]] and [[mos maiorum|traditionalism]], archaic aspects of the prayer suggest that it represents a traditional formulary as might be preserved in the official pontifical books. The other deities invoked — among them the [[Capitoline Triad|Archaic Triad]] of Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus, as well as the [[Lares]] and [[Manes]] — belong to the earliest religious traditions of Rome. Livy even explains that he will record the archaic ritual of ''devotio'' at length because "the memory of every human and religious custom has withered from a preference for everything novel and foreign."<ref>Livy, 8.11.1: ''omnis divini humanique moris memoria abolevit nova peregrinaque omnia praeferendo''; Andrew Feldherr, ''Spectacle and Society in Livy's History'', (University of California Press, 1998), p. 41, note 125.</ref> That the ''novensiles'' would appear in such a list at all, and before the ''indigetes'', is surprising if they are "new."<ref>Schilling, "Roman Gods," p. 70–71; Beard, ''Religions of Rome: A Sourcebook'', p. 158; Roger D. Woodard, ''Indo-European Sacred Space: Vedic and Roman Cult'' (University of Illinois Press, 2006), pp. 7–8; William Francis Allen, "The Religion of the Ancient Romans," in ''Essays and Monographs'' (Boston, 1890), p. 68.</ref>

Both the Lares and the Manes are "native" gods often regarded in ancient sources as the deified dead. [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]] says that the ''novensiles'' are "old gods" who earned [[numen|numinous]] status (''dignitatem numinis'') through their ''[[Virtus (virtue)|virtus]]'', their quality of character.<ref>Servius, note to ''Aeneid'' 8.187: ''sane quidam veteres deos novensiles dicunt, quibus merita virtutis dederint numinis dignitatem.''</ref> The early [[Christian apologist]] [[Arnobius]] notes other authorities who also regarded them as mortals who became gods. In this light, the ''novensiles'', like the Lares and Manes, may be "concerned with the subterranean world where ancestors were sleeping."<ref>Robert Turcan, ''The Gods of Ancient Rome: Religion in Everyday Life from Archaic to Imperial Times'' (Routledge, 1998, 2001), p. 97.</ref>