Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/222

 216 THE CITY. BOOK III. most ancient times. The pontiffs still regarded it as a religious act, while statesmen saw in it an excellent measure of administration, at least. 4. Heligion in the Assembly, in the Senate, in the Tribunal, in the Army, in the Triumph. There was not a single act of public life in which the gods were not seen to take a part. As he was under the influence of the idea that tiiey were by turns ex- cellent protectors or cruel enemies, man never dared to act without being sure that they were favorable The people assembled only on such days as religion permitted. They remembered that the city had suf- fered a disaster on a certain day; this was, doubtless, because on that day the gods had been eit])er absent or irritated ; they would probably be in the same mood at the same season every year, for reasons unknown to mortals. This day, therefore, was forever unlucky ; there were no assemblies, no courts ; public life was suspended. At Rome, before an assembly proceeded to business, the augurs were required to declare that the gods were propitious. The assembly commenced with a j)rayer, which the augur pronounced, and which the consul repeated after him. There was the same custom among the Athenians. The assembly always commenced by a religious act. Priests offered a sacrifice ; a large circle was then traced by pouring lustral water upon the ground, and within this sacred circle the citizens assembled.* Before any ' Aristophanes, Acharn., 44. jEschines, in Timarch.., I. 21 f t» Ctesiph., 176, and ScholiasL Dinarch., in Aristog., 14.