(December 24, 2023) Marcus Varro (116-27 BCE) is gives more information on early Roman religion in his book on Divine Things. He was born in or near Reate (now Rieti in Lazio, Italy into a family thought to be of equestrian rank. He always remained close to his roots in the area, owning a large farm in the Reatine plain (reported as near Lago di Ripasottile,
He wrote Antiquitates rerum humanarum et divinarum (Antiquities of Human and Divine Things). The work has been lost, but it was quoted by many including Saint Augustine in his De civitate Dei Contra Paganos (City of God Against the Pagans distributed after 426). Additionally his quotes have been found in surviving texts from other authors, including (among others) Pliny (1st c.), Gellius (2nd c.), Censorinus (3rd c.), Servius (4th/5th c.), Nonius (4th/5th c.), Macrobius (5th c.), Priscian (5th/6th c.) etc..
Antquities 1 Human Things Book 7
Servius, ad Verg. Aen. VIII, 51: Evander, having been released from his province into exile, came not voluntarily to Italy, and, driven by the natives, held the places where Rome now is, and founded a small town on the Palatine Hill, as Varro says. Did not the exiles of the Arcades take refuge in the Palatine under the leadership of Evander? And this Mount Palatine ... is said ... according to Varro ... by the daughter of Evander Pallantia corrupted by Hercules and afterwards buried there ...
Antiquities 2 Divine Things, Book 1
Augustinus, de ciu. Dei VII, 6 et 9: Therefore the same Varro says, still speaking on natural theology, that God is to be thought of as the soul of the world, which the Greeks call kosmon, and that this world itself is God. But just as a wise man is said to be wise from his mind when he is of body and mind, so the world is to be called a god from his mind when he is of mind and body. - Then Varro adds: divide the world into two parts, heaven and earth, and divide heaven into ether and air, and divide the earth into water and earth. Of these, ether is the highest, air the second, water the third, and earth the lowest. That all four parts of souls are full in the ether and air of the immortals in the water and earth of the mortals; and from the highest circumference of heaven to the circle of the moon, that the stars and stars are ethereal souls, and that the celestial gods are not only to be understood, but also to be seen; families and geniuses.
Augustinus, de ciu. Dei, VII, 5 Thus Varro commends the physical interpretations to say that the ancients invented images of the gods and insignia and ornaments; those who had observed with their eyes, those who had added to the mysteries of the doctrine, could see with their minds the soul of the world and its parts, that is, the true gods, whose images they made in the form of man seem to have followed this, that the soul of mortals, which is in a human body, is most like the soul of the immortal ...
Augustinus, VI, 6: He says (Varro) that what the poets write is less than that which the people should follow, but that which the philosophers write is more than that it is expedient for the common people to scrutinize them. These things, he says, are so abhorrent that, nevertheless, not a few have been adopted by both sexes for civil purposes. Therefore let us write together with the commoners what are in common with the poets.
Id. ib. IV, 22: As a great favor, Varro boasts of offering himself to his citizens, for he not only mentions the gods whom the Romans ought to worship, but also says what belongs to each one. How, he says, it is of no use to men to know the name and form of a physician, and to be ignorant of what a physician is; so it is of no use to know that Aesculapius is a god, if you do not know that he favors your health, and so you do not know why you owe him supplication. This also affirms Varro in another similitude, saying, not only that no one can live well, but that no one can live at all if he does not know who is the carpenter, who is the baker, who is the roofer, from whom he can ask for what tools, from whom to hire a helper, who to guide, who to teach, and so on. There is no doubt that the knowledge of the gods is useful if it is known what power and ability each god has and the power of each thing. For from this we shall be able to know which god we ought to invoke and invoke for each cause, lest we do as mimes are wont to do, and let us ask for water from the Lymphs and wine from Liberos.
Antiquities 2 Divine Things, Book 5
Servius, ad Verg. ecl. V, 66: Varro asserts that altars were made for the gods above, altars for the earth, and hearths for the underworld.
Macrobius, Sat. I, 9, 227: Varro, in his book V Rerum divinarum, writes twelve altars dedicated to Janus for as many months.
Antiquities 2 Divine Things, Book 6
Philargyrus, ad Verg. georg. IV, 265: Varro in divine-things 6 called-out channels as feminine..
Macrobius, I, 8: Although Varro, in book VI which deals with the sacred houses, writes that the house of Saturn was rented by L. Tarquinius, king T., to make a forum, but that the dictator Lartius dedicated it to the Saturnalia.
Antiquities 2 Divine Things, Book 7
Gellius, II, 28: [The Romans] when they felt that the earth had moved, or that it had been announced, they ordered the holidays for the matter by edict, but the name of the god, as it is customary, to establish and to proclaim the holiday, they refrained from binding the people to a false religion by naming one for another. M. Varro says that if any one had polluted those holidays, and for this purpose a chalice would have been needed, and if they had sacrificed a sacrifice to a god or to a goddess, M. Varro says that this was thus observed by a pontifical decree, since it was uncertain whether by what force and by whom the earth would tremble.
Antiquities 2 Divine Things, Book 14
Gellius, XVI, 17: for just as Aius was called a god and an altar was established for him, which is the lowest new way, because in that place a voice was associated with the divine, so Vaticanus was named a god, close to which were the beginnings of the human voice, since children, being at the same time and part of it, utter that first voice. which was the first syllable in the Vatican; and therefore it is said to wander as a word expressing the sound of a fresh voice.
Antiquities 2 Divine Things, Book 16
Augustinus, de ciu. Dei, VII, 14:: therefore Mercury is said to be called as a running medium, because the word runs between men; therefore Hermes in Greek, which is a speech or an interpretation, which of course belongs to a speech, is called hermeneia; therefore also to be in charge of the goods, because the conversation becomes a medium between those who see and those who buy.
Augustinus, de ciu. Dei, VII, 2: Varro compiled the chosen gods in the last volume: and there are twenty: twelve males, eight females: Janus, Jupiter, Saturn, Genius, Mercury, Apollo, Mars, Vulcan, Neptune, Sun, Orcus, Liber father, Earth, Ceres, Juno, Luna , Diana, Minerva, Venus, Vesta.
Arnobius, III, 40: Varro supposes that the gods of heaven, of whom we speak, who are inward and inwardly penetrating, neither their number nor their names are known. The Etruscans say and name these consenting and accomplices, that they rise together and kill together, six men and as many women with unknown names. But consider them the counselors and leaders of the supreme Jupiter. (Life powers of Ancient Pagan Paradigm)
Augustinus, de ciu. Dei, VII, 7: Janus, from whom Varro took the beginning, when he prefaced his natural theology, is the world, to which the beginnings of things belong, while the ends belong to another, which they call Terminus.
Augustinus, de ciu. Dei, VII, 9: Jove, who is also called Jupiter, is a God, who has power over the causes by which something happens in the world. Janus is preferred to him, because the feet of Janus are the first, next to Jupiter the highest. Jupiter is rightly considered the king of all.
Augustinus, de ciu. Dei, VII, 6: Janus himself first, when the child is conceived. whence all these works take their beginning, distributed minute by minute by the gods, he opens the way by receiving the seed. Saturn is also there because of the seed itself; there is the Book that frees the sea with spilled seed; there they want Venus to be free, which will confer this same benefit on the woman, so that she herself may also be freed by the emitted seed. (Janus, as the 2-faced god seems to be their version of the hermaphrodite deity Athe, Athene)
Augustinus, de ciu. Dei, VII, 24: Varro ... wants to be a goddess of the Earth. In the same way, he says, they say the Great Mother: that she has a drum, is signified to be the globe of the earth. if they need seed, it is necessary to follow the earth: for in it all things are to be found. Those who worship the earth are enjoined not to sit down as they flaunt themselves near it; for it is always what they do. The sound of cymbals, the throwing of irons, and the clatter of hands and such things, signify what is going on in the field of worship, therefore brass, because the ancients worshiped brass, before iron was invented. They add the lion loose and tame, in order to show that there is no race of the earth so remote, and fiercely wild, that it is not suitable to be tamed and tamed. Then he adds: Mother Earth, and by the many names and surnames which they called, were supposed to be several Gods.
Tertullianus, ad nat., II, 4: : aiunt quidam propterea deos theous appellatos, quod theein id est hieothai pro currere ac motari interpretatio est. . - some say that therefore some gods are called theous, because that is the interpretation of the power for running and moving. (Derivative from Thu)
Quotes collected online at:
http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/antiquitates.html