Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/285

 CHAP, XV. THE ALLIANCE OF THE GODS. 279 ties of two cities were represented by statues or medala holding one another by the hand. Thus it is that there are medals on which are seen united the Apollo of Miletus and the Genius of Smyrna, the Pallas of the Sideans and the Artemis of Perga, the Apollo of Hie- rapolis and the Artemis of Ephesus. Virgil, speaking of an alliance between Thi'ace and the Trojans, represents the Penates of the two nations united and associated. These strange customs corresponded j^erl'ectly with the idea which the ancients had of the gods. As every city had its own, it seemed natural that these gods should figure in battles and treaties. War or peace between two cities was war or peace between two religions. International law among the ancients was long founded upon this principle. When the gods were en- emies, there was war without mercy and without law ; as soon as they were friends, the men were united, and entertained ideas of reciprocal duties. If they could imagine that the protecting divinities of two cities had some motive for becoming allies, this was reason enough why the two cities should become so. The first city with which Rome contracted ties of friendship was Caere, in Etruria, and Livy gives the reason for this: in the disaster of the Gallic invasion, the Roman gods had found an asylum in Caere ; they had inhabited that city, and had been adored there ; a sacred bond of friendship was thus established between the Roman gods and the Etruscan city.' Thenceforth religion would not permit the two cities to be enemies ; they were allied forever.* ' Livy, V. 60. Aulas Gellius, XVI. 13. ' It does not enter into our plan to speak of tiie numerous confederations or araphictyonies in ancient Greece and Italy.