Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/491

 CHAP. II. THE ROMAN CONQUEST. 485 It had also the gods of the Etruscans, and their fes- tivals, and their augurs, and even their sacerdotal iu- signia. At a time when no one had the right to take part in the religious festivals of a nation unless he belonged by birth to that nation, the Roman had this incomparable advantage of being able to take part in the Latin holi- days, the Sabine festivals, the Etruscan festivals, and the Olympic games.' Now, religion was a powerful bond. When two cities had a single worship, they called themselves relations ; they were required to re- gard themselves as allies, and to aid each other. In ancient times men knew of no oth.er union than that which religion established. Rome therefore preserved with great care whatever could serve as an evidence of this precious relationship with other nations. To the Latins it presented its traditions of Romulus; to the Sabines its legend of Tarpeia and Tatius; to the Greeks it quoted the old hymns which it had presei'ved in honor of Evander's mother, hymns which Romans no longer understood, but which they persisted in sing- ing. They also preserved the recollection of ^neas with the greatest care; for if they could claim relation- ship with the Peloponnesians through Evandcr,'' they were related through uEneas to more than thirty cities,^ scattered through Italy, Sicily, Greece, Thrace, and Asia Minor, all having had ^neas for a founder, or being colonies of cities founded by him, — all having, consequently, a common worship with Rome. We can see in the wars which they waged in Sicily against > Pausanias, V. 23, 24. Comp. Livy, XXIX. 12 ; XXXVII. 37. " Tausanias, VIII. 43. Strabo, V. p. 232. ' Servius, ad ^n., III. 12.