Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/287

 CHAP. XVI. THE ROM AX. 281 where, little gods, gods easily irritated and malevolent. It crushed man with the fear of always having gods against him, and left him no liberty in his acts. We must inquire what place religion occupied in the life of a Roman. His house was for him what '' temple is for us. He finds there his worship and his- gods. His fire J'' a god ; the walls, the doors, the thresh- old are gods ; ' the boundary marks which surround his field are also gods. The tomb is an altar, and hi* ancestors are divine beings. Each one of his daily actions is a rite; his whole day belongs to his religion. Morning and evening he invokes his fire, his Penates, and his ancestors; in leav- ing and entering his house he addresses a prayer to them. Every meal is a religious act, which he shares with his domestic divinities. Birth, initiation, the taking of the toga, marriage, and the anniversaries of all these events, are the solemn acts of his worship. He leaves his house, and can hardly take a step with- out meeting some sacred object — either a chapel, or a place formerly struck by lightning, or a tomb ; some- times he must step back and pronounce a prayer; some- times he must turn his eyes and cover his face, to avoid the sight of some ill-boding object. Every day ho sacrifices in his house, eveiy month in his cury, several months a year with his gens or his tribe. Above all these gods, he must offer worship ta those of the city. There are in Rome more gods tiian citizens. He ofiers sacrifices to thank the gods ; he oficrs them, and by far the greater number, to appease their wraths ' St. Aug-ustine, City of God, VI. 7. Tertullian, Ad. Nat.y II. 15.