Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/283

 JHAP. XV. PEACE. 277 the victors. We shall relate, farther on, wliat the result of this was under the dominion of Rome. When a war did not end by the extermination or subjection of one of the two parties, a treaty of peace might terminate it. But for this a convention was not (sufficient ; a religious act was necessary. Every treaty was marked by the immolation of a victim. To sign a treaty is a modern expression ; the Latins said, strike a kid, icere hcEclus, ov foedus ; the name of the victim most generally employed for this purpose has remained in the common language to designate the entire act.* The Greeks expressed themselves in a similar maimer; they said, offer a libation — anii'dtadui. The ceremony of the treaty was always accomplished by priests, who conformed to the ritual.^ In Italy they were called feciales, and spendophoroi^ or libation-carriers, in Greece. These religious ceremonies alone gave a sacred and inviolable character to international conventions. The history of the Caudine Forks is Avell known. An entire army, through its consuls, questors, tribunes, and cen- turions had made a convention with the Samnites ; but no victims had been offered. The senate, theiefore, believed itself justified in declaring that the treaty was not valid. In annulling it, no pontiff or patrician be^ lieved that he was committing an act of bad faith. It was the universal opinion among the ancients that a man owed no obligations except to his own gods. We may recall the saying of a certain Greek, whose city adored the hero Alabandos ; he was speaking to an iniiabitant of another city, that worshipped Hercules. ' Festus, Fwdum, and Fasdits.
 * In Greece they wore a crown. Xenophon, Hell., IV. 7, 3.