Prayer to Neptune

A formula against plague, preserved by Arnobius — a Christian apologist who quoted pagan prayers in order to ridicule them.

That determines how the text is to be read. Arnobius was not compiling a service book; he was copying formulae out of Roman books that have not survived, in order to display the incoherence of polytheism. Quotations of this kind are usually accurate — the argument depends on their being genuine — but there is nothing to check them against, and the selection is hostile.

Adeste, adestote — be present, be present. The same verb twice, the second time in the archaic -tote form; doubling is normal in ancient formulae.

Averruncate — avert. Averruncare, to turn away evil, is a purely ritual word, long out of living speech by the third century; the same root stands in bene verruncent in Scipio's prayer (livy-scipio-001). Fossil words of this kind are the surest sign that a formula is being reproduced rather than composed.

The composition of the divine list is precisely what Arnobius fastened on: the Penates, Apollo and Neptune together. Apollo belongs at a plague — he both sends it and averts it; Neptune here is inexplicable, and the apologist quotes the list exactly because it looks arbitrary.