This article will deal with one instance of a classic discussion in studies of Roman religion: the existence or not of rites of human sacrifice in this sphere, including how we may understand and properly define this polemically loaded term. I shall argue that the common claim in Christian apologetical writings, namely that Jupiter Latiaris was worshipped with human blood, was correct, notwithstanding the ubiquitous rejection of the statement in modern scholarship. Whether this, however, constituted a human sacrifice, as the apologists argued, is quite another matter.