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 was all-important, and in the early Republic all binding formulae, whether for oaths that were to be effectual, for vows or for consecration, were known only to the pontiffs. The solemn forms of law (legis actiones) issued from the same authority, and in one of their most frequent manifestations, the sacramentum, the procedure was distinctly religious. But who could say whether the king, when he gave the prescribed form of words for an action, acted as a religious or a civil head, as the representative of fas or jus? Here we are on the borderland between the two.

(iii.) Nations know no common jus, and fas is the sole support of international law. Each people is protected by its own divine guardians; hence a war of two nations is a contest between their gods, and a treaty between two peoples a compact between their respective divinities. But each nation is to some extent under the protection of the other's gods. Jupiter of Rome is powerless if the war commenced by Rome is unjust, and will punish his own people if they have stained his honour by violating a treaty. Even though there is no belief in community of guardianship, the rights of other peoples are still conceived to be under the protection of the Roman gods.

These beliefs necessitated elaborate religious preliminaries to the declaration of a war in order that it might be just and holy (justum piumque), as well as ceremonies for the conclusion of a peace that was to bind the public conscience (fides publica). Such a ritual may have been performed, originally, by the king himself; but tradition states that, at a very early period, a special guild of priests, the Fetiales or public orators, were appointed for this purpose. Their chief functions were the*