60 four in number, besides their chief," were intrusted with the superintendence of all the forms and all the laws that were then established in the religion of Rome. Three Flamens, or officiating priests, were next appointed: one to the service of the Etruscan 58 Jupiter, another to that of the Latin 59 Mars, and the third to that of the Sabine Quirinus; so that the principal gods of the three races united in the Roman had each his minister and his sanctuary.61 The worship of Vesta, to whom the reputed mother of Romulus had been unfaithful, was instituted, as if the goddess were to be the more especial deity of the new city, where the immortals were only too freely adored to be singly persuaded to show their favor; and her eternal fire was intrusted to the keeping of four virgins, chosen with peculiar care, and invested with peculiar sanctity, who bore her name as Vestals. As soon as these things were accomplished, it was probable for the legend to relate that the influence of the newly ordained religion was tried upon the warlike duties from which neither Numa nor any other 57 Cic., De Rep., II. 14. 58 Etruscan, because Pelasgian. See Malden's History, pp. 108, 135. The god was called Dijovis; his Flamen, Dialis. 59 Latin, according to the legend of Romulus; but more generally worshipped by many of the early people throughout Italy, at first, as a rural rather than a warlike deity. See Hartung, Rel. der Röm., Vol. II. pp. 169 et seq. 60 Dion. Hal., II. 48. It was the same deity whom the Romans transformed into Romulus deified. Quirinus was also a surname of Mars and Janus. 61 Dionysius (II. 64) and Livy (I. 20) both attribute the three priesthoods to Numa, in opposition to Plut., Num., 7. On the union of the various religions, see Wachsmuth, Alt. Gesch. Röm. Staat., pp. 217, 218; and cf. Ruperti, Alterth., Vol. III. pp. 460, 461. 62 Plut., Num., 9, 10. king would seek to alienate the Romans. The college, as it was termed, of the Fetiales was charged with the declaration of war and the negotiation of peace, after rites and rules committed to their observance; 63 it may have been to the amelioration of warfare, both in its conduct and its prevalence. And in the same spirit, it would appear that a new dignity was imparted to the assembly of the Curies, by its investment, under the presidency of the Pontiffs, with participation in the management of certain ecclesiastical and civil concerns.64 But a much more intimate connection between the religion and the government of Rome existed through the auspices, on which the entire state, as well as every individual in it, relied for public and for private prosperity. The Augur, originally called the Auspex,65 was, as we should style him, the seer, through whose exalted knowledge the will of the gods was made known on earth. He might be an observer of the heavens, or of the flight and song of birds, or of any phenomena in animate and inanimate nature; but he was always the interpreter, according to whose report the battle was fought or delayed, the law accepted or refused, and the festival celebrated or postponed; while all the domestic relations were more or less dependent upon the signs he studied and expos 63 Dion. Hal., II. 72. Cic., De Legg., II. 9. 64 In meeting for which, it was called the Comitia Calata. See Smith's Dict. Gr. and Rom. Ant., s. v. Comitia. 65 Plut., Quæst. Rom., ed. Reiske, Tom. VII. p. 134. The Haruspex was a very different title, belonging to an inferior order of soothsayers. 66 ed. Whether the office were introduced by Etruscans, or, as is more likely, by Latins, into Rome, it appears to have been adopted betimes; and tradition refers to Romulus himself the appointment of three Augurs for life, one for every Tribe, with whom he as well as each of his successors was, after being formally inaugurated as monarch, joined as a colleague, making four in all. The three, however, were probably the acting observers of the auspices; one or more of them being attached, as occasion required, to the magistrate or the assembly, to whom their assistance was commonly indispensable. In some cases, indeed, the magistrate was able to take the auspices for himself; but it then remained for the Augurs to pronounce upon their validity; and it was generally the custom for the highest officers under the monarchy, or in the commonwealth, to have an Augur by their side, to whose interpretation of signs celestial or signs terrestrial they first attended, before beginning their levy, their onset, or their harangue. It was chiefly thus that the liberties of Rome were, in great measure, under subjection; and so long as the auspices were reverentially obeyed, the college of Augurs, though not considered an independent institution, according to the letter of the law, was yet, of all others, the body by which the state was publicly and privately controlled.67 66 Cic., Rep., II. 9. Liv., X. 6. "Romulus ipse etiam optimus augur fuisse traditur." Cic., De Div., I. 2. 67"Et reges augures, et postea privati, eodem sacerdotio præditi, 38 VOL. I. rempublicam religionum auctoritate rexerunt." Cic., De Div., I. 40. Compare the description in Legg., II. 12, and that in Liv., I. 36. In the reform which Numa is said to have achieved, and which must have affected the auspices as much as the other articles of religion, he is expressly described as having adhered to the superstition and the obscurity which prevailed in all the heathen creeds.63 If this were true, it is readily accounted for, not so much by the desire to preserve the majesty of the Patricians in presence of the more numerous classes of their inferiors, as by the simple inability of the reformer to set himself or his Patricians, either, free from the shackles of their ancestors. Numa is not represented as having merely favored the order to which he belonged and by which he was elected ; but as having likewise united the clients and the artisans, by distributing them in different guilds according to their trades; and as having further consecrated the temples to Faith and Terminus, in which all ranks of his vehement people were alike interested. A heavenly bosom, it was told in after times, beat with love for the mortal king; and the nymph Egeria gave him her knowledge" in return for his devotion. The more practical testimonies to Numa's excellence are the reports that strangers sought him for their arbitrator, because he was wise and just above their own rulers,72 and that the doors of the temple which he built to Janus were, in his reign, closed in peace.73 68 Cic., Rep., II. 14. Tertullian., Apol., 21 (cited by Angelo Mai). 69 Plut., Num., 17. 70 The god of boundaries. Plut., Num., 16. 71 She was a wise divinity, dai 70 μwv σopn, says Plutarch. De Fort. 74 This temple, or rather this arch, beneath which the statue of the two-faced Janus stood, was soon opened in war, after Numa's death. Tullus Hostilius, elected king from the Latin, as Numa had been from the Sabine tribe, represents the reaction of the rudeness and violence, inherent in the character of his people, against the temporary restraint they had been compelled to bear. But if he was the fierce warrior," he was also the superstitious and the popular king. He led his forces against many of his neighbours; and though often hard-pressed by his enemies, he conquered with the aid of champions like the three Horatii, or of the gods, upon whom, in the hour of need, he was always swift to call. After Alba, the birthplace, it will be remembered, of Romulus, was destroyed, its inhabitants were brought, in part at least, to Rome, and some of the principal men admitted to the Curies, while to others were assigned places amongst the Celeres, and in the army.75 Tullus sought, it was said, to increase the dignity of his office by assuming, with the consent of the Curies, the insignia common to the monarchs or the magistrates of the surrounding states; 76 while, as if in return for the grant of the Patricians, he was related to have confirmed the right of appeal, which they must have long possessed, from the sentence of the king or his judges to their own assembly." Such 76 Cic., Rep., II. 17. 74 "Ferocior etiam Romulo." Liv., I. 22. 75 Liv., I. 30. The remark of the historian describes the whole history of Rome : "Roma interim crescit Albæ ruinis." : |