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A Victim sacrificed to a Deity. The Aruspicina of the Antients was performed by looking into the Intrails of the Victims. The word Hostia comes ab hostibus, because they sacrificed Victims, either before they engag'd the Enemy, to beg the favour of the Gods; or after they had obtain'd the Victory, to give them thanks.
Writers give two different significations of these words Hostia and Victima. Isidorus l. 6. c. 18. says, that the Animal that the Emperor or the General of the Army sacri∣ficed before he engag'd the Enemy, to render the Gods favourable to him, was properly called Hostia, deriving that word from Hostis, Enemy, and from Hostire, to strike the Ene∣my. Hostiae apud veteres dicebantur sacrificia quae fiebant antequam ad hostem pergerent; victi∣mae vero sacrificia quae post victoriam devictis ho∣stibus immolabantur. And to confirm this opi∣nion, he brings in the Authority of Festus, who says that Hostia dicta est ab hostire to strike, as if by that Hostia, they had begg'd the fa∣vour of the Gods, to beat and overcome the Enemy.
The word Victim comes from the Sacri∣fice offered by the Emperor to the Gods, af∣ter a Victory obtained over the Enemy, à victis & profligatis hostibus. Ovid gives us this Etymology in the first Book of his Fasti v. 335.
Victima quae cecidit dextra victrice vocatur; Hostibus à victis, Hostia nomen habet.
Aulus Gellius tells us, that Hostiae might be indifferently sacrificed by every Priest, but that the Victim was only sacrificed by the vanquisher of the Enemy. Isidorus reports also l. 5. c. 13. that the Victim was offered for great Sacrifices, and taken out of the great Cattle; but Hostia was sacrificed for the least, and taken out of a Herd of Sheep. To this custom Horace alludes, Ode 17. l. 2. where he exhorts Maecenas to perform his vow for the recovery of his health, and offer Victims, while on his part he will sa∣crifice a Lamb.
Reddere victimas, Aedemque votivam memento; Nos humilem feriemus agnam.
What difference soever might be between these two words, they were often confound∣ed, and promiscuously taken one for another by ancient Writers.
Two kinds of Hostiae were offered to the Gods; some to know their will by looking into the Intrails and Inwards of the Sacri∣fices; in other Sacrifices, they contented themselves to offer the life of the Victim, wherefore these Sacrifices were called anima∣les Hostiae. As we learn of Trebatius, l. 1. de Relig. apud Macrob. l. 3. c. 25. Hostiarum duo genera fuisse docet, alterum in quo voluntas Dei per exta disquirebatur, alterum quo sola anima Deo sacrabatur, unde & animales Hostias voca∣bant Aruspices.
Virgil speaks of these Sacrifices in his Aeneid.
Pecudumque reclusis Pectoribus inhians spirantia consulit exta. l. 4. v. 64
And the same Virgil, l. 5. v. 483.
Hanc tibi Eryx meliorem animam pro morte Daretis, Persolvo.
The Ancients had many kinds of Hostia; called Hostiae ••urae, Praecidaneae, Bidentes, Injuges Eximiae, Succidaneae, Ambarvales, Amburbiales, Caneares, Prodigae, Piaculares, Ambegnae, Har∣vigae, Harugae Optata, Maxima, Medialis.