Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/141

 OHAP. X. THE GENS AT ROME AND IX GREECE. 135 At Rome, too, each gens had religious ceremonies to perform; the day, the place, and the rites were fixed by its particular religion.' When the capital is be- sieged by the Gauls, one of the Fabii, clothed in re- ligious robes, and carrying sacred objects in his hands, IS seen to go out and cross the enemy's lines; he goes to offer sacrifice on the altar of his gens, which is situ- ated on the Quirinal. In the second Punic war, another Fabius, whom they called the Shield of Home, is making head against Hannibal. Certainly it is of the first importance to the rejiublic that he remains with his army ; and yet he leaves it in the hands of the im- prudent Minucius: this is because the anniversary of the sacrifice of his gens has arrived, and he must be at Rome to perform the sacred act.^ It was a duty to perpetuate this worship from genera- tion to generation, and every man was required to leave sons after him to continue it. Claudius, a per- sonal enemy of Cicero, abandoned his gens to enter a plebeian family, and Cicero says to him, " Why do you expose the religion of the Claudian gens to the risk of becoming extinct through your fault ? " The gods of the gens — Dii gentiles — protected no other gens, and did not desire to be invoked by an- other. No stranger could be admitted to the religious ceremonies. It was believed that if a stranger had a part of the victim, or even if he merely assisted at the sacrifice, the gods of the gens were offended, and all the members wei'e guilty of grave impiety. Just as every gens had its worship and its religious ' Cicero, De Arnsp. Resp., 15. Dion. Halic, XI. 14. Fes- tus, Propudi. ^ Livy, V.4G; XXII. 18. Valer. Max., I. 1, 11. Polytius, III, 94. Pliny, XXXIV. 13. Macrobius, III. 5.