Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/264

 258 • THE CITY. BOOK HI. citizen might live side by side during long years, with- out one's thinking of the possibility of a legal relation being established between them. Law was nothing more than one phase of religion. Where there was no common religion, there was no common law. CHAPTER XII. The Citizen and the Stranger. The citizen was recognized by the fact that he had a part in the religion of the city, and it was from this participation that he derived all his civil and political rights. If he renounced the worship, he renounced the rights. We have already spoken of the public meals, which were the principal ceremony of the national wor- ship. Now, at Sparta, one who did not join in these, even if it was not his fault, ceased at once to be count- <jd among the citizens.* At Athens, one who did not take part in the festivals of the national gods lost the rights of a citizen.'' At Rome, it was necessary to have been present at the sacred ceremony of the lustration, in order to enjoy political rights.' The man who had not taken part in this — that is to say. who had not joined in the common jirayer and the sacrifice — lost his citizenship until the next lustration. ' Aristotle, Politics, II. 6, 21 (II. 7). ^ Velleius, II. 15. Soldiers on a campaign were excepted; but the censor was required to have their names taken, so that, having been registered in the ceremony, they were considered as present.
 * Bocckh, Corp. Jnscr., 3G41, b.