VOCES PRECATIONUM: THE LANGUAGE OF PRAYER IN THE "HISTORY" OF LIVY AND THE "AENEID" OF VERGIL

This study examines the religious language of prayers appearing in Livy and in the Aeneid of Vergil. A catalogue of religious usage in prior and contemporary sources provides the foundation for considering the meanings and associations of this language in the Augustan period. Analysis of the character of these words and formulae enables us to appreciate more fully the coloring which the prayers themselves possess and which they contribute to the larger works.

In the prayers of Livy's history, the use and repetition of technical terms and formulae, combined with the avoidance of poetic words, creates a strongly official tone. Since most of this technical language is attested on late republican or Augustan sources, the effect was to create not only an official tone, but a contemporary one. In addition, occasional antiquarian, poetic, and colloquial language recall prayers which Livy's audience knew from earlier authors or, in the case of colloquial language, which they themselves had spoken.

Vergil, however, maintains his poetic diction within the language of prayers in the Aeneid; he avoids all technical formulae, while employing many words which occur only in the prayers of poets, both Greek and Roman. Even when Vergil uses individual technical words, the resulting effect is literary. This is due not only to the overall language and content of the prayers, but sometimes to subtle changes in usage or meaning. Vergil separates some technical terms from their traditional formulae, thus lessening cultic associations. He alters the tone of other technical terms by using them in situations where they evoke a note of irony. The poet effects a similar transformation of colloquial prayers by expanding the usual formulae.

Despite these differences in language, both Livy and the Aeneid illustrate a similar view of Roman history. Because prayer is a necessary feature of a world in which the pax deum assures success, neither epic verse nor epic history could be realistic without them.