Prayer to Jupiter

Romulus' prayer at the founding of Rome, given by Ovid within his account of the Parilia, the city's birthday.

It is drawn up with legal completeness. Three are named — Jupiter, Mavors, Vesta — and then the remainder is at once covered: "and all gods whom it is right to call upon". The same clause as in Scipio's prayer before sailing to Africa (livy-scipio-001): what cannot be enumerated is swept in.

Auspicibus vobis hoc mihi surgat opus — under your auspices let this work rise. Auspicium is a technical term: no Roman public act was valid without the taking of the auspices. Romulus is not asking for luck; he is declaring that the founding of the city is being carried out in due form, and asking the gods to serve as its officers.

And the request is boundless: long life, power over the earth as mistress, sunrise and sunset beneath it. This is the same imperium sine fine that Jupiter promises in Virgil — except that here it is not promised by a god but demanded by a man.

It is worth comparing with another vow of the same Romulus (jupiter-006), made a few years later: there, losing the citadel, he haggles over a single hill and stipulates "at least".