Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/201

 CHAP. VI. THj; GODS OF THE CITY. 105 grandeur and stopped our progress, could have been started only by the hands of our most cruel enemies. Now, we have no more determined enemies than the inhabitants of Capaa,this city which is now the ally of Hannibal, and which aspires to take our place as the capital of Italy. These, therefore, are the men who have attempted to destroy our temple of Yesta, our eternal fire, this gage and guarantee of our future grandeur," ' Thus a consul, under the influence of his religious ideas, believed that the enemies of Rome coukl find no surer means of conquering it than by destroying its sacred hearth. Here v>*e see the behef of the an- cients; the public fire was the sanctuary of the city, the cause of its being, and its constant preserver. Just as the worship of the domestic hearth was secret, and the family alone had the right to take part in it, so the worship of the public fire was concealed from strangers. No one, unless he were a citizen, could take part at a sacrifice. Even the look of a stranger sullied the religious act.' Every city had gods who belonged to it alono. These gods were generally of the same nature as those of the primitive religion of families. They were called Lares, Penates, Genii, Demons, Heroes*^ under all these names were liuman souls deified. For we have seen that, in the Indo-European race, man had at first worshipped the invisible and immortal power which he felt in himself. These genii, or heroes, were, more gen- erally, the ancestors of the people.* ' Livj-, XXVI. 27. ' Virgil, III. 108. Pausanias, V. 15. Appian, Civil Wars, I. 54. ^ Ovid, Fast., 11. C16.
 * Plutarch, Aristides, 11.