Prayer to the Lares

Thirty lines later in the same comedy — and already different Lares. At home the hero committed his property to Lar the father (lares-002); setting out on the road, he calls on the Lares viales, the Lares of the highways.

These are a distinct class of deities, attested in inscriptions as well: the Lar is not only domestic. He is attached to a place, not to a person, and a traveller leaving his own plot passes into the jurisdiction of others — those to whom the road belongs.

Hence the structure of Roman piety in general: the god changes not because the need has changed but because the location has. The same man on the same day prays to different Lares, having crossed a threshold.

The request is repeated word for word: ut me bene tutetis, that you keep me well — the same verb as in the previous prayer. One formula, different addressees.

The card cites line 865; the address begins with invoco at the end of 864.