Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Consecratio

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

CONSECRA'TIO (ἀποθέωσις, ἀφιέρωσις). The act of deification, or canonisation; by which ceremony a mortal was enrolled amongst the gods, and admitted to a participation in divine honours, a distinction usually conferred upon the Roman Emperors, but unknown under the republic. The chief part of this ceremony was performed in the Campus Martius, where a pyre of faggots and rough wood was raised, covered externally by an ornamental design, resembling a tabernacle of three or four stories, each of which lessened as they got higher, and were ornamented with statues, drapery, and other decorations. In the second story, a splendid couch, with a waxen image of the deceased lying on it, was deposited, and surrounded with all kinds of aromatic herbs. The whole mass was then ignited and an eagle let loose from the top story, which was believed to carry the soul up to heaven, as seen in the subjoined wood-cut (Consecratio/1.2), from a bas-relief on the arch of Titus, representing the deification of that emperor. The first wood-cut (Consecratio/1.1) shows the tabernacle, from a medal of Caracalla, which bears the inscription CONSECRATIO as a legend. Tac. Ann. xiii. 2. Suet. Dom. 2. Herodian. iv. 2.

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  Consecratio/1.2
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  Consecratio/1.1