Editing Human sacrifice (section)

====Greco-Roman antiquity====
{{Further|Ancient Greek religion|Ancient Roman religion}}
[[File:Sacrifice Polyxena BM GR1897.7-27.2.jpg|thumb|The mythological sacrifice of [[Polyxena]] by the triumphant Greeks at the end of the [[Trojan War]]]]The ancient ritual of expelling certain slaves, cripples, or criminals from a community to ward off disaster (known as [[pharmakos]]), would at times involve publicly executing the chosen prisoner by throwing them off of a cliff.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

References to human sacrifice can be found in Greek historical accounts as well as mythology. The human sacrifice in mythology, the ''[[deus ex machina]]'' salvation in some versions of [[Iphigeneia]] (who was about to be sacrificed by her father [[Agamemnon]]) and her replacement with a deer by the goddess [[Artemis]], may be a vestigial memory of the abandonment and discrediting of the practice of human sacrifice among the Greeks in favour of animal sacrifice.{{citation needed|date=November 2014}}

[[Human sacrifice in ancient Rome|In ancient Rome, human sacrifice]] was infrequent but documented. Roman authors often contrast their own behavior with that of people who would commit the heinous act of human sacrifice, as human sacrifice was often looked down upon. These authors make it clear that such practices were from a much more uncivilized time in the past, far removed.<ref name="Schultz, Celia E 2010">{{cite journal |last=Schultz |first=Celia E. |year=2010 |title=The Romans and ritual murder |journal=Journal of the American Academy of Religion |volume=78 |issue=2 |pages=516–541|doi=10.1093/jaarel/lfq002 |pmid=20726130 }}</ref> It is thought that many ritualistic celebrations and dedications to gods used to involve human sacrifice but have now been replaced with symbolic offerings. [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]]<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]] |title=[[Roman Antiquities]] |section=i.19, 38 |publisher=[[University of Chicago]] |via=Penelope.uchicago.edu |section-url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus/1B*.html#38.2 |access-date=3 February 2014}}</ref> says that the ritual of the [[Argei]], in which straw figures were tossed into the [[Tiber river]], may have been a substitute for an original offering of elderly men. [[Cicero]] claimed that puppets thrown from the ''[[Pons Sublicius]]'' by the [[Vestal Virgins]] in a processional ceremony were substitutes for the past sacrifice of old men.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Cicero|Marcus Tullius Cicero]] |title=Pro Roscio Amerino |at=35.100}}</ref>

After the [[Battle of Cannae|Roman defeat at Cannae]], two Gauls and two Greeks in male-female couples were buried under the [[Forum Boarium]], in a stone chamber used for the purpose at least once before.<ref name="z445">{{cite journal | last=Rosenberger | first=Veit | title=The Gallic Disaster | journal=The Classical World | volume=96 | issue=4 | date=2003 | doi=10.2307/4352787 | pages=365–373| jstor=4352787 }}</ref>{{pn|date=July 2024}}<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Titus Livius]] |title=[[Ab Urbe Condita (Livy)|Ab Urbe Condita]] |at=22.55–57}}</ref> In [[Livy]]'s description of these sacrifices, he distances the practice from Roman tradition and asserts that the past human sacrifices evident in the same location were "wholly alien to the Roman spirit."<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Titus Livius]] |title=[[Ab Urbe Condita (Livy)|Ab Urbe Condita]] |at=22.57}}</ref> The rite was apparently repeated in 113&nbsp;BCE, preparatory to an invasion of Gaul.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Titus Livius]] |title=[[Ab Urbe Condita (Livy)|Ab Urbe Condita]] |at=22.57.4 |postscript=;}} {{cite book |author=[[Plutarch]] |title=[[Roman Questions]] |at=83 |postscript=;}} {{cite book |author=[[Plutarch]] |title=[[Marcus Claudius Marcellus|Marcellus]] |at=3 |postscript=;}} {{cite book |author1-link=Mary Beard (classicist) |first1=M. |last1=Beard |first2=J.A. |last2=North |first3=S.R.F. |last3=Price |title=Religions of Rome: A history |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1998 |volume=1 |page=81}}</ref> They buried the two Greeks and the two Gauls alive as a plea to the gods to save Rome from destruction at the hands of [[Hannibal]].{{cn|date=July 2024}}

According to [[Pliny the Elder]], human sacrifice was banned by law during the [[Roman consul|consulship]] of [[Publius Licinius Crassus (consul 97 BC)|Publius Licinius Crassus]] and [[Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus (consul 97 BC)|Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus]] in 97&nbsp;BCE, although by this time it was so rare that the decree was largely symbolic.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] |title-link=Natural History (Pliny) |title=Natural History |at=30.3.12}}</ref> Sulla's ''[[Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis]]'' in 82 BC also included punishments for human sacrifice.<ref>Paulus, Sententiae, 5.23.14–9</ref> The Romans also had traditions that centered around ritual murder, but which they did not consider to be sacrifice. Such practices included burying unchaste [[Vestal Virgin]]s alive and drowning visibly intersex children. These were seen as reactions to extraordinary circumstances as opposed to being part of Roman tradition. Vestal Virgins who were accused of being unchaste were put to death, and a special chamber was built to bury them alive. This aim was to please the gods and restore balance to Rome.<ref name="Schultz, Celia E 2010"/>{{efn|
Burying the convicted unchaste [[Vestal virgin|vestal]] in a sealed underground chamber was also a way to impose capital punishment on her for criminally endangering the city by her religious violation, without violating her still-sacred status: Among other prohibitions, no-one could touch her person.
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Human sacrifices, in the form of burying individuals alive, were not uncommon during times of panic in ancient Rome. However, the burial of unchaste Vestal Virgins was also practiced in times of peace. Their chasteness was thought to be a safeguard of the city, and even in punishment, the state of their bodies was preserved in order to maintain the peace.<ref>
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</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Reid|first=J. S.|date=1912|title=Human Sacrifices at Rome and other notes on Roman Religion|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-roman-studies/article/abs/human-sacrifices-at-rome-and-other-notes-on-roman-religion/CF02226957B67367A969D1D3BFA7D6E7|journal=The Journal of Roman Studies|language=en|volume=2|page=40|doi=10.2307/295940|jstor=295940|hdl=2027/mdp.39015017655666|s2cid=162464054 |issn=1753-528X|hdl-access=free}}</ref>

Captured enemy leaders were only occasionally executed at the conclusion of a [[Roman triumph]], and the Romans themselves did not consider these deaths a sacrificial offering.{{Citation needed|date=April 2013}} [[Gladiator]] combat was thought by the Romans to have originated as fights to the death among war captives at the funerals of Roman generals, and [[Christian polemic]]ists, such as [[Tertullian]], considered deaths [[Recreation and spectacle in the Roman Empire|in the arena]] to be little more than human sacrifice.<ref>{{cite book |first=Catharine |last=Edwards |author-link=Catharine Edwards (historian) |title=Death in Ancient Rome |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2007 |pages=59–60 |postscript=;}} {{cite book |first=David S. |last=Potter |section=Entertainers in the Roman Empire |title=Life, Death, and Entertainment in the Roman Empire |publisher=University of Michigan Press |year=1999 |page=305 |postscript=;}} {{cite book |author=[[Tertullian]] |title=[[De Spectaculis]] |at=12}}</ref> Over time, participants became criminals and slaves, and their death was considered a sacrifice to the [[Manes]] on behalf of the dead.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Piscinus |first1=M. Horatius |title=Human sacrifice in Ancient Rome |url=http://societasviaromana.net/Collegium_Religionis/human_sacrifice.php |website=Societas via Romana}}</ref>

Political rumors sometimes centered around sacrifice and in doing so, aimed to liken individuals to barbarians and show that the individual had become uncivilized. Human sacrifice also became a marker and defining characteristic of magic and bad religion.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Rives |first=J. |year=1995 |title=Asante: Human sacrifice among pagans and christians |journal=The Journal of Roman Studies |volume=85 |pages=65–85|doi=10.1017/S0075435800074761 }}</ref>
{{see also|Parthenon Frieze}}