Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/207

 1 CHAP. VI. THE GODS OF THE CITY. 201 religion was entirely local, entirely civic, taking this word in the ancient sense — that is to say, special to each city.' Generally a man knew only the gods of his own city,, and honored and respected them alone. Each one could say what, in a tragedy of -^schylus, a strarger said to the Argives — " I fear not the gods of your coun- try ; I owe. them nothing."* Every city looked to its gods for safety. Men in- voked them in danger, and thanked them in victory^ Often defeat was attributed to them; and they were- reproached for having badly fulfilled their duty as defenders of the city. Men even went so far, some- times, as to overturn their altars and stone their temples.^ Ordinarily, these gods took good care of the city whose worship they received ; and this was quite nat- ural : these gods were eager for offerings, and they received victims only from their own city. If they wished the continuation of the sacrifices and heca- tombs, it was very necessary that they should watch over the city's safety.* See, in Virgil, how Juno- "strove and labored" that her Carthage might one day obtain the empire of the world. Each of these gods, like the Juno of Virgil, had the grandeur of his city at heart. These gods had the same interests as the citizens themselves, and in times of war marched to battle in the midst of them. In Euripides we see a personage who says, on the eve of battle, "The god* ' There existed worships common to several cities only in th» case of confederations. We sliall spealc of them elsewhere. ' Suetoiius, Calig., 6; Seneca, De Vita Beata, 3G.
 * J2schylus, Siippl., 858.
 * This idea is often found among the ancients. Thcognis, 759i