Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/208

 202 THE CITY. BOOK III. who fight with us are more powerful tlian those who are on the side of the enemy," ' The JEginctans never commencetl a campnign without carrying with them the statues of their national heroes, the .^acidae. The Spartans in all their expeditions carried with them the Tyndaridaj.* In the combat the gods and the citizens mutually sustained each other, and if they con- quered, it was because all had done their duty. If a city was conquered, the gods were supposed to have been vanquished with it.' If a city was taken, its gods themselves were captives. On this last point, it is true, opinions were uncertain and diverse. Many were persuaded that a city never could be taken so long as its gods remained in it. When ^neas sees the Greeks masters of Troy, he cries that the gods have departed, deserting their tem- ples and their altars. In ^schylus, the chorus of Thebans expresses the same belief when, at the approach of the enemy, it implores the gods not to abandon the city.^ According to this opinion, in order to take a city it was necessary to make the gods leave it. For this purpose the Romans employed a certain formula which they had in their rituals, and which Macrobius has pre- served : "O thou great one, who hast this city under thy protection, I pray thee, I adore thee, I ask of thee as a favor, to abandon this city and this people, to quit these temple's, these sacred places, and, having sepa- rated thyself from them, to come to Rome, to me and mine. May our city, our tem])les, and our sacred places be more agreeable and more dear to thee ; take us under ' Euripides, Ileracl., 347. " Herodotus, V. G5; V. 80. 3 Virgil, ^n., I. C8. * ^sch., Sept. Coni. Theb., 202.