Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/272

 266 THE CITY. BOOK III both fire and water.' By this fire we are to understand the sacred fire of the hearth ; by this water the lustral water which served for the sacrifices. Exile, therefore, placed man beyond the reach of religion. "Let him flee," were the words of the sentence, " nor ever ap- proach the temples. Let no citizen speak to or receive him ; let no one admit him to the prayers or the sacri- fices ; let no one ofier the lustral water." * Every house was defiled by his presence. The man who received him became impure by his touch. "Any one who shall have eaten or drank with him, or who shall have touched him," said the law, " should purify himseU'" Under the ban of this excommunication the exile could take part in no religious ceremony ; he no longer had a worship, sacred lepabts, or prayers; he was disin- herited of his jJortion of religion. We can easily understand that, for the ancients, God was. not everywhere. If they had some vague idea of a God of the universe, this was not the one whom they considered as their providence, and whom they invoked. Every man's gods were those who inhabited his house, his canton, his city. The exile, on leaving his country behind liim, also left his gods. He no longer found a religion that could console and protect him ; be no longer felt that providence was watching over him; the happiness of praying was taken away. All that could satisfy the needs of his soul was far away. Now, religion was the source whence flowed civil and political rights. The exile, therefore, lost all this in losing his religion and country. Excluded from the city worship, he saw at the same time his domestic ' Herodotus, VII. 231. Cratinus, in Atheneeus, XI. 3. Cicero, /Vo Domo, 20. Livy, XXV. 4. Ulpian, X. 3.
 * Sophocles, (Edipus Rex, 239. Plato, Laws, IX. 881.