Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/224

 21S THE CITY. BOOK TIL rificc' In Homer's time the judges assembled "in a holy circle." Festus says, that in the rituals of the Etruscans were •directions as to the founding of a city, the consecra- tion of a temple, the arrangement of curies and tribes in a public assembly, and the ranging of an army in ordei of battle. All these things were marked in the ritual, because all these things were connected with religion. In war, religion was as influential, at least, as in peace. In the Italian cities' there were colleges of priests, called fetiales, who presided, like the heralds among the Greeks, at all the sacred ceremonies to which international relations gave rise. A jfetialis, veiled, and with a crown upon his head, declared war by pro- nouncing a sacramental formula. At the same time, the consul, in priestly robes, offered a sacrifice, and fiolemnly opened the temple of the most venerated and most ancient divinity of Italy. Before setting out on an expedition, the army being assembled, the general repeated prayers and offered a sacrifice. The custom was the same at Athens and at Sparta.^ During a campaign the army presented the image of the city; its religion followed it. The Greeks took with them the statues of their divinities. Every Greek or Roman army carried with it a hearth, on which the sacred fire was kept up night and day.* A Roman ' Aristophanes, Wasps, 8G0-8G5. Homer, Iliad, XVIII. 504. =* Dionjsius, IX. 57. Virgil, VII. GOl. Xenophon, Uellen., VI. 5. Xenophon, Gov. Laced., 14. Dionysius, IX. G. Stobaeus, 42. Julius Obsequens, 12, 116.
 * Dionysius, II. 73. Servius, X. 14.
 * Herodotus, VIII. G. Plutarcii, Agesilaus, G ; PuUicola, 17.