Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/284

 278 THE CITY. BOOK III. " Alabandos," said he, "is a god, and Hercules is not one." ' With such ideas it was important, in a treaty of peace, that eacli city called its own gods to bear witness to its oatiis. " We made a treaty, and poured out the libations," said the Platzeans to the Spartans; "we called to witness, you the gods of your fathers, we the gods who occupy our country."' Both parties tried, indeed, if it was possible, to invoke divinities that were common to both cities. They swore by those gods that were visible eveiywhere — the sun, which shines upon all, and the nourishing earth. But the gods of each city, and its protecting heroes, touched men much more, and it was necessary to call them to witness, if men wished to have oaths really confirmed by religion. As the gods mingled in the battles during the war, they had to be included in the treaty. It was stipulated, therefore, that there should be an alliance between the gods as between the men of the two cities. To indicate this alliance of the gods, it sometimes happened that the two peojDles agreed mutually to take part in each other's sacred festivals.' Sometimes they opened their temples to each other, and made an exchange of religious rites. Rome once stipulated that the city god of Lanuviura should thence- forth protect the Romans, who should have the right to invoke him, and to enter his temple.'' Afterwards each of the contracting parties engaged to worship the divinities of the other. Thus the Eleans, having con- cluded a treaty with the ^tolians, thenceforth offered an annual sacrifice to the heroes of their allies.'' It often happened, after an alliance, that the divini- > Cicero, De Nat. Dear., III. 19. ^ Thucydidcs, II. ' Thucydides, V. 23. Plutarch, Theseus, 25, 33.
 * Livy, VIII. 14. ^ Pausariias, V. 15.