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.Here the cultivation of friendship (amicitiae cultus)becomes quite literally the worship of a god (Augusti cultus).Closer examination reveals a curious incorporation of republican politicalprocedure in the rhetorical service of these two paragons of virtue.Theyprovide leadership (ductu) for a blessed crowd (beatae turbae), and are asked tocome forth confidently (certa mente), because they have been selected by lotwith favorable omens (secundis ominibus sortiti).We view no republic, norrepublican politicians.Once practical religious usages and the historicalexemplars, who once employed them in solving practical tasks, both servethe restored republic of Valerius Maximus as guarantors of virtue.Religiousinstitutions, that once (because directed by gods) served politics, lendinstead the authority and prestige of ritual vocabulary to a new master, notthe politician, but the moralist.There is more.Valerius concludes the anecdote and his evocation with arousing apostrophe that explicitly mingles worship, reverence, and praisewith law and religion:uestros enim constantis animos, uestra strenua ministeria, uestraminexpugnabilem taciturnitatem proque dignitate et saluteamicorum perpetuam excubationem et stationem beniuolentiae etrursus harum rerum uberrimos fructus posterior intuens aetas inexcolendo iure amicitiae qua libentius qua etiam religiosius eritoperata.(Valerius 4.7.7)For our own later age, in gazing upon your loyal hearts, upon yourenergetic services, upon your invincible silence, as well as upon youreternal guard for the dignity and safety of your friends as well asupon your vigils of well wishing, and again (and again) upon therich harvest of your works, will remain more willingly and evenmore religiously devoted to its own cultivation of the laws offriendship.Spirit must be constant.One is on guard for friends in a fashion analogousto the guard kept by Chastity (Pudicitia) upon the cushions of Juno (6.1.init.).50Friendship (Amicitia) is cared for (almost worshipped ; excolendo) accordingto its own laws (iure) and religiously (religiosius) at that.After hemming in Roman friendship by means of Roman religion s ritualinheritance, Valerius may turn to foreign examples of friendship, but he doesnot turn to foreign gods.His first foreign example derives from the friend-ship of the Pythogoreans, Damon and Phintias:136 RITUAL VOCABULARY AND MORAL IMPERATIVESDamon et Phintias Pythagoricae prudentiae sacris initiati tamfidelem inter se amicitiam iunxerant &.(Valerius 4.7.ext.1)Damon and Phintias, initiates in the sacred ceremonies of Wisdom,forged such a faithful friendship, that &.This first foreign friendship is founded upon a religious basis, at least inValerius rhetoric.And again, the emphasis is on the faith one puts in one sfriends, the same kind of trust one places in gods.Damon and Phintiasdevotion to one another, even in the face of cruel tyranny, inspires even thetyrant himself (Dionysius of Syracuse) to set them free and beg their friend-ship:eos rogauit ut se in societatem amicitiae tertium sodalicii gradummutua culturum beniuolentia reciperent.hascine uires amicitiae?mortis contemptum ingenerare, uitae dulcedinem extinguere,crudelitatem mansuefacere, odium in amorem conuertere, poenambeneficio pensare potuerunt.quibus paene tantum uenerationisquantum deorum inmortalium caerimoniis debetur: illis enimpublica salus, his priuata continetur, atque ut illarum aedes sacradomicilia, harum fida hominum pectora quasi quaedam sanctospiritu referta templa sunt.(Valerius 4.7.ext.1)He begged them to admit him into the brotherhood of their friend-ship, as he would cultivate his third-degree membership withreciprocal kindness.Are these the powers of friendship? To inspirecontempt of death? To quench the sweetness of life? To calmcruelty? To convert hate to love? To recompense punishment withfavor? The powers of friendship could (and did)! And to her powerswe owe almost as much veneration as to the services of the immortalgods: indeed, public safety is maintained by the gods, private healthby friendship s forces, and, just as the shrines of gods are conse-crated habitations, the temples of friendship are the faithful heartsof human beings, brimming, as it were, with a holy spirit.Cultivation of friendship is more than simply similar to the worship of gods.Friendship, which is both a virtue and a god, incubates in her temples as aholy spirit (sancto spiritu) animated by faith upon cushions of human flesh(fida hominum pectora).Friendship is an especially apt virtue for approaching as nearly as possibleto Valerius rhetoric of his personal emotional life.Our author uses the finalanecdote of this chapter on friendship (4.7.ext.2) to describe his own137 RITUAL VOCABULARY AND MORAL IMPERATIVESfriendship to Sextus Pompeius.It is immaterial whether the feelings ondisplay are authentic or merely artfully contrived.What we are after is themanner in which Valerian rhetoric seems to encourage the reader to believethat the emotions represented in his rhetoric stuff the temple of his heart
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