After the fall of the Roman empire and the abandonment of the Roman cultus deorum, the Roman People’s contract with the Roman gods was broken and it evanesced. With the founding of the New Roman People, by the re-establishment of the Palladium and Pignora Imperii, and by making new vows about honoring and placating the gods and maintaining the Pax Deorum, Nova Roma has established a new contract with the gods, which has been built up by 20 years of devote religious preparation and sacrifices, by atonement, and by the renewal of the rites and observances of the sacred obligations of the Roman People. The message below was sent to the Nova Romans by interrex and temporary rex sacrorum Cn. Lentulus Alexander after the rites of the Completion of the Founding of Nova Roma and the sealing of new contract with the gods had been performed:
Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Alexander interrex senatui populoque Novo Romano s. p. d.
The other task I had to do before my term of office ends was to publish the Official Contract with the Roman Gods (that we made during the Ides of October Completion of the Founding of Nova Roma ritual) which confirms the bounds between the Nova Roman Nation and the Gods of Rome, which serves as the foundation of the sacra publica and the religio within Nova Roma, and which establishes Nova Roma as the home community of the Roman ancestral spirits, the Manes and Roman gods, the Lares and the Penates.
The full text of the contract will not yet be published, but the obligations that we undertook in the name of the Nova Roman People as our part of the contract, is now listed below. Later more obligations will be added to these, but we didn’t want to made too heavy vows at the beginning, especially because we have very few priests. The number of obligatory holidays will be increased as we grow.
OUR OBLIGATIONS TO THE GODS
The Nova Roman People vows to the Gods of the Roman People to honor them in the following holidays, festivals and ceremonies:
- The Feriae of the Kalends of January
- The Feriae of the Kalends of March, the Concordialia, Founding of Nova Roma
- The Ludi Novi Romani
- The Feriae of Anna Perenna
- The Ludi Megalenses
- The Feriae of the Parilia, Founding of Rome
- The Ludi Cereales
- The Ludi Apollinares
- The Feriae of the Volturnalia, Genius of the Roman People in the Sacred Pignus
- The Ludi Romani
- The Feriae of the October Horse, the Completion of the Founding of the Nova Roman Nation
- The Ludi Plebeii
- The Feriae of the Saturnalia
- The Feriae of the Civilia, End of the Year Piaculum
By completing these rituals each year, we will be able to maintain the Pax Deorum, and to have the favor of the Gods on Nova Roma.
Valete!
Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Alexander interrex
– With assistance by Cn. Lentulus filius pontifex