In ancient Rome incense was a daily and public gesture, domestic and political alike. It was burned before the household Lares, on temple altars, in processions and at funerals. Precisely because it was so widespread, it also became a test: offering or refusing a pinch of incense could mean choosing a side. The history of incense in Rome is, in part, the history of a religious conflict.
A widespread use
Incense reached Rome along the trade routes from Arabia, and it was an expensive commodity. Yet its use in worship was common. Latin called it tus, and the altars on which it burned were described by poets as turicremae, altars where incense is burned: the adjective appears in Virgil's Aeneid as well.
To store and offer the grains the Romans used the acerra, a small incense box often seen in reliefs of sacrificial scenes, held by an attendant beside the priest. On household altars, before the Lares and Penates, small amounts of incense were offered together with wine, cakes and flowers.
The splendour of funerals
Incense also had a role in funeral rites, especially among the wealthiest families. Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History, reports that at the funeral of Poppaea, wife of Nero, the emperor burned more incense than Arabia produced in a year. Whatever the accuracy of the figure, the anecdote shows how far incense had become a sign of power and display.
Incense and the emperor
With the rise of the imperial cult, incense took on a political meaning. Burning a little before the image of the emperor amounted to recognising his sacred dignity and his authority over the empire. For most subjects this was a gesture of loyalty, compatible with their own religion. For Jews and Christians, who worshipped one God, it was an impossible act.
The letter of Pliny the Younger
One of the earliest testimonies to this conflict is a letter from Pliny the Younger, governor of Bithynia, to the emperor Trajan, written early in the second century. Pliny relates that he had questioned people accused of being Christians. Those who denied it were asked to invoke the gods and to offer incense and wine before the emperor's image, which he had had brought into court together with the statues of the gods. Those who complied were released.
The letter shows clearly how incense had become an instrument of verification: a minimal gesture which nonetheless separated loyalty to the empire from loyalty to one's faith.
The Decian persecution and the libelli
The most systematic moment came in 250, under the emperor Decius. An edict required all inhabitants of the empire to perform a sacrifice to the gods before appointed commissions. Those who did so received a certificate, called a libellus, confirming that the sacrifice had taken place. Some of these documents, written on papyrus, have survived in Egypt.
Bishop Cyprian of Carthage, in his writings, distinguishes several categories of Christians who had given way:
| Category | What they had done |
|---|---|
| Sacrificati | Had performed an animal sacrifice |
| Thurificati | Had burned incense |
| Libellatici | Had obtained a certificate without sacrificing, often by paying |
The term thurificati comes precisely from tus: those who had burned incense. The question of how to readmit these believers to the community deeply divided the Churches of the third century.
The paradox of Christian incense
After the end of the persecutions, in the fourth century, Christians began to use incense in their own liturgy. What had been the sign of apostasy became a sign of prayer and honour. The paradox is only apparent: the meaning of a gesture depends on its recipient and its intention. The same smoke, directed at the emperor as at a god, was refused; directed at God as prayer, it was welcomed.
A symbolic reflection
The Roman history of incense reminds us that even the smallest gesture can carry enormous weight. A pinch of resin on the embers seems like nothing; yet for many men and women it was the point at which the integrity of their life was decided. From the perspective of tradition, every offering says to whom we belong.
In short
- In Rome incense, called tus, was burned on household and public altars and kept in the acerra.
- Pliny the Elder tells of the vast quantity Nero burned at Poppaea's funeral.
- With the imperial cult, offering incense to the emperor's image became an act of political loyalty.
- Pliny the Younger and the edict of Decius show incense as a test imposed on Christians.
- The thurificati were those who had given way by burning incense.
