Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/193

 CHAP. IV. THE CITY. 187 divinity. The gods inhabit it." What Livy said of Rome any man might say of his own city; for if it had been founded according to the rites, it had received witliin its walls protecting gods who were, as we may say, implanted in its soil, and could never quit it. Every city was a sanctuary; every city might be called holy.' As the gods were attached to a city forever, so the people could never again abandon a place where their gods were established. In this respect there was a reciprocal engagement, a sort of contract between gods and men. At one time the tribunes of the people pro- posed, as Rome, devastated by the Gauls, was no longer anything but a lieap of ruins, and as, five leagues dis- tant, there was a city all built, large, beautiful, well situated, and without inhabitants, — since the Romans had conquered it, — that the people should abandon the ruins of Rome, and remove to Veil. But the pious Camillus replied, "Our city was religiously founded ; the gods themselves pointed out the place, and took up their abode here with our fathers. Ruined as it is, it still remains the dwelling of our national gods." And the Romans remained at Rome. Something sacred and divine was naturally associated with these cities which the gods had founded," and which they continued to fill with their presence. "We know that Roman traditions promised that Rome should be eternal. Every city had similar traditions. The ancients built all their cities to be eternal. ' 'JXioi iQr^, "enai '^Si'jQai (Aristoph., Knights, 1319). Jaxt- iaiuort 5<'>j (Theognis, v. 837) ; ?eoav nvitr, says Theognis, speak- ing of Mcgara. .(Weloker.)
 * Neptunia Troja, BeoSfn^Toi 'ASijrat. See Theognis, 755.