Page:The City-State of the Greeks and Romans.djvu/140

116 have now passed out of the hands of the king, and belong to the magistrates and council of the aristocracy. Let us see how they might be used so as to favour the interests of the few as against those of the many.

The secrets of religion consisted of a knowledge of the ritual proper to each occasion; the knowledge, that is, of the art of keeping the human inhabitants of the city on good terms with its divine members. Every public act was accompanied by a sacrifice, and all sacrifices must be performed in exactly the right way. The sacrificial hymns must be rightly sung; the omens must be taken, the purificatory processions conducted, exactly in the received manner, or the gods would not answer and bless. The whole life and happiness of the State depended on the proper performance of these necessary duties.

Now in a State made up, as we have seen, by the union of lesser communities, each of which had its own peculiar worship conducted by its own noble family or families, it is plain that all these worships, now embodied in the State, must have remained in the hands of the aristocracy. The whole organisation of the State's religious life was theirs also. The regulation of festivals, of marriages, of funerals, of holy places and land belonging to the