Evocatio: Taking Gods away from Enemy States and Peoples

Abstract

<p>When the city of Ur fell to the Elamites in about 1940 BC and lost its brief but widespread empire in Mesopotamia, a scribe of the city penned <i>The Lament of Ur</i>, describing how the gods had abandoned the city to its fate. Such a concept became a prevalent one in the ancient world, but nowhere more so than amongst the Romans of the Republican period. They developed a pronounced military ideology in which it was believed that it was necessary to invite the major 'protector' god of a besieged enemy city to abandon its worshippers and come to Rome. This was the <i>evocatio</i> ritual, which found its material expression in the transfer of that god's main statue from a captured city to Rome when the city was overcome. The <i>evocatio</i> was the 'calling out' of the enemy's god (plural: <i>evocationes</i>). Such a god was also asked to take an active role – not simply to abandon and desert the worshippers, leaving them bereft of divine support, but also to strike fear and panic into them. In return for doing so, the Roman commander promised that the god would have an equal or superior place of worship in Rome, and receive worship equivalent to or better at Rome. Roman generals, in attacking cities, might also make a vow to build a temple for a Roman god they prayed to for divine assistance in defeating the enemy.</p>