287. Exclusion of the Plebs from the Patrician Organization. — The client had a subordinate place in the family worship (as indeed the slave had); possibly the client had a place also in the political gatherings of his patron's curia, though he certainly had no vote; but the free plebeians were wholly outside this patrician organization. Probably, however, they were not a mere mixed multitude. Many of them must have been brought to Rome as clans and tribes, and no doubt they kept up their gentile organization there, even though patrician (Roman) law and society knew nothing of it. (Cf. also § 317.)

IV. RELIGION.

288. Sources in Ancestor and Nature Worship; Greek Influence. The chief sources of the Roman religion were two: (1) for the family and curia, an ancestor worship similar to the Greek, but more intense, as we should expect from the nature of the Roman family; and (2) along with this, for the state, a nature worship. This latter was far ruder than in Greece. The Romans lacked imagination to give a live human character and real feeling to the powers of nature, and they could never create a rich and beautiful mythology, even though they did finally borrow the Greek gods-Zeus as Jupiter (Zeus-pater), Hera as Juno, Athené as Minerva, Ares as Mars, and so on through the Pantheon (§ 100).

289. Character: a Worship of Abstractions, by Formal Rites. In crossing to Rome these deities became less like men, and more like mere colorless abstractions. In consequence, Roman religion seems to us "insipid and dull," only "a dreary round of ceremonies," with little of adoration, no poetry, and no love. As a matter of prudence, the will of the gods was

1 This seems by far the preferable view. See Ihne, History, I. 109-114, and Early Rome, 112, and 114-116. See also Coulanges, 299-313, 341-349, 354359, and elsewhere. Mommsen used to state a view sharply opposed to this, but his position has been somewhat modified in his later writings.

2 Read Ihne's Early Rome, 114.

8 The phrases are Mommsen's.

sought out by a strict study of omens, and they were worshiped with rigid observance of rites and ceremonies. Divine favor could be lost by failure to observe exact times and precise gestures in a service, or by the omission or addition of a single word; while, on the other hand, the mysterious intricacies of worship had the value of a conjuror's charm, and almost compelled the aid of the gods.

290. Priesthoods; Pontiffs and Augurs. Under these conditions there grew up in Rome (as in other Italian towns) two important colleges of city priests-each a close corporation, holding office for life.

a. The six pontiffs (pontifices) had a general oversight of the whole complex system of divine law, and, indirectly, they became the guardians of human science also. Their care of the precise dates of festivals made them the keepers of the calendar and of the rude religious annals; they had oversight of weights and measures; and they themselves described their knowledge as the science of all things human and divine.

b. The gods at Rome manifested their will by omens, not by oracles. The two most important kinds of these auspices were the flight, or other conduct of birds, and the nature of the entrails of animals. The interpretation of such signs became a kind of science, in the special possession of a college of six

augurs.

Besides these skilled colleges for the religion of the whole city, each temple had its special priest. Of these, perhaps the most important were the six Vestal Virgins, who for centuries kept the sacred fire alive and pure on the city hearth.

291. Political Value (Religious Fiction). Despite its formalism, or perhaps because of it, Roman religion became a mighty political instrument. No public act, vote, election, or battle, could be begun without divine approval. That approval once

1 The Sibylline Books were the only approach to an oracle in Roman history. A good topic for brief oral report (see Etruscan influence, § 274).

given, the gods were to be held to strict account. They were preeminently the guardians of contracts; and they themselves were bound by implied contracts with the state. If they were properly consulted concerning a proposed measure and had manifested their approval, then they were under obligation to see the project to a successful issue.

Thus piety became a matter of foresight; and the thrifty, mercantile Roman mind drove hard bargains, too, with the gods. Many "legal fictions" were introduced into the worship, so that finally the state might do pretty nearly as it pleased and still hold the gods to a shrewdly-secured support.1 The soothsayers called for fresh animals until the entrails gave the signs desired by the ruling magistrate, and the gods were just as much bound as if they had shown favor at the first trial. The sky was watched until the desired birds did appear, and, in the later periods, tame birds were kept to give the required indications. If all signs failed, the augur could still declare that he found them. He himself thereby incurred divine wrath, but, since all forms had been complied with, the gods were bound to treat the obligation to the state as if the announcement had been true. In the earlier ages, of course, this element of crafty contrivance was probably absent, but even then the religion had the same bargain-and-sale character and a like formalism.

The priests and augurs, too, were the servants of the state, not its masters. They did not make a distinct hereditary class, but were themselves warriors and statesmen. In their priestly functions they acted only at the command of the civil magistrate. The augurs sought no omen, and made no announcement, except when directed to do so.

FOR FURTHER READING. Coulanges, 1-48.

On ancestor worship: Tighe, 35-43, and For the state religion in general: Ihne, Early Rome, 92-104; How and Leigh, 288-292; or a longer discussion in Mommsen,

1 Such" fiction" is common in early religion, but nowhere else has it played so large a part as at Rome (see references at close of section).

bk. i. ch. xii. For Greek influence: Tighe, 105-108. On "legal fiction" in the Roman religion: How and Leigh, 290; or better, Ihne, Early Rome, 99, 100, 103, 125.

V. EARLIEST POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS.

292. The King (rex). The three political elements-king, council of chiefs, and popular assembly of tribesmen - which we saw in Homeric Greece (§§ 95-97), appeared also in legendary Rome. The king, however, held a more prominent place. He stood to the Roman state as the father to the Roman family. The royal imperium was only an enlarged copy of the paternal potestas. The king was judge, without appeal, in all cases outside the individual family. He was absolute over the lives of the citizens. He alone could call together senate or Assembly, or make proposals to them. The consent of the Assembly was required for the accession of a new king; but, regularly, that consent could be given only to some one nominated by the previous king. (See also § 294.)

So long, indeed, as the king claimed to keep within old custom, there was no legal check upon his power. But he did not hold this authority against the popular will. He was absolute, because Roman ideas favored such power in the head of the family and of the state. Like the house-father, moreover, he was limited in practice by custom and by public opinion. He was expected to consider the advice of the senate, as the father was to consider that of relatives, and he could not change an existing custom without the consent both of the Assembly and the senate. If he ceased to respect these indefinite but very real checks, he was very likely to cease to rule.

293. The Comitia Curiata. The earliest popular Assembly was an assembly by curias. Each curia had one vote. If clients were present, they had no voice in determining the vote of their patrons' curias (§ 287 and note). The gathering politically was purely patrician. The curias met at call of the

king, usually only to hear his commands, but their approval was required for all change, -for offensive war, new laws,1 the adoption of new clans into a curia or of strangers into a family, or the alienation of property by will. The Assembly also approved or rejected the king's nominees for offices.

294. The Senate seems originally to have been a council of the chiefs (cf. § 96) of the three hundred clans. It kept this number, but the kings gradually got the power of appointing to vacancies - probably at first when there were conflicting claims within a clan, and finally at will. The senate had become mainly an advisory body, though it had also a veto on any change. When a king died without a successor, it resumed more of its original power: its members ruled by turns, for five days each, as inter-reges ("kings for an interval"). The first inter-rex was chosen by lot; each one then designated his successor, and any one after the first could nominate a permanent king; but no election could take place except upon such nomination. Each inter-rex for his brief rule retained the regal imperium in full.

VI. TWO PREHISTORIC REVOLUTIONS.3

A. THE PATRICIAN CURIATE ASSEMBLY GIVES WAY TO A CENTURIATE ASSEMBLY.

295. The Military "Census of Servius."-The first great political change (admission of the plebs to citizenship) grew out of military reform, or at least was intimately connected with it. Originally, the army was made up of "the Roman people"the patricians and their immediate clients. The plebeians paid a tax, probably, but as they grew in importance, the state

1 But cf. Pelham, 28.

2 On these institutions, see Mommsen, bk. i. ch. vi. In particular, read pp. 80-85, on the king, and 96-102, on the senate.

8 The first two radical changes, as in Hellas, were the expulsion of the kings and the entrance of the plebs into the political city.