Sacra turbare: potenza emotiva, sensibilità e collettività religiosa alla prova dell’esercizio declamatorio. Per una lettura di Ps. Quint. decl. min. 265

Abstract

What happens if inside a temple during the celebration of sacred rites a person, beating an infamous, has the audacity to disrupt order, violate every divine law and undermine the very security guaranteed by a sacred space? This is the case that emerges in decl. min. 265. In this exercise, the declamator traces the characteristics of a ‘religious scenario’ aimed at promoting a series of images that contribute to delineating the typical traits of Roman religion in its pragmaticity: the religious collectivity, the performance of the sacred and the relative function of the temple. These aspects, in the rhetorical and communicative strategy adopted by the declamator, become true channels of communication, emotional ’stimuli‘ capable of eliciting certain ritual responses. In decl. min. 265 the pax deorum is at risk, and this is detected not as is usually the case by signs and divine prodigy, but by the powerful concreteness of the images that materialise in a dynamic interweaving of religion and law.