Religious Exempla and Moral Judgement in Valerius Maximus’ Facta et Dicta Memorabilia, Book 1

Book 1 of Valerius Maximus’ Facta et Dicta Memorabilia places cult, ritual failure, religious performance, and divine signs at the opening of the collection. This article examines how the book’s received organization guides the evaluation of human action. It argues that Book 1 presents a graded field of religious judgement. Religio and neglecta religio provide the clearest opposition; simulata religio and superstitio are more ambiguous; and auspices, omens, prodigies, dreams, and miracles acquire force through human response, narrative outcome, and public confirmation. The analysis combines structural reading with close examination of key cases. Because 1.2–1.4 survive only in late epitomes, it distinguishes between the explicit evaluation of 1.1, the less secure boundary cases of 1.2–1.4, and the fuller sign narratives of 1.5–1.8. Book 1 thus provides an opening framework in which ritual practice and responses to divine signs become objects of ethical and historical interpretation.