Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/275

* KOMAN RELIGION. 251 ROMAN RELIGION. L tlicy belong, and which sciuimlously pays theiu the proper rites and oli'erings. Tliiis Jaiuis and Vesta guard the door and the hearth, the Lar protects the field, Pales the pasture, Saturnus the sowing. Census and Ops the harvest, Ceres the giowfli of the grain, and Pomona the fruit. Even Jupiter, who seems to lie the god of heaven, is honored ehietly for the aid his rains may give to the farms and vine- yards, though he also, through the lightning, guides the acts of men, and by his widespread do- main can aid Romans outside their borders. That war was a large part of this early life seems clear from the prominence given to the two war gods, Mars and Quirinns, of whom the former was specially honored in March and October, i.e. at the opening and closing, of the campaign, while the latter seems to be patron of the armed com- munity in time of peace. In this early stage of the Koman. religion thei'e seem to be no temples or images of the gods, who are worshiped in sacred groves, or at altars in the open air ; Vesta, as her nature requires, has her own house. In fact, there is no real individuality in these early gods, nor are there any marriages or genealogies. Mytliology is not a Roman invention. The scanty traces of legend sometimes gather about a sacied animal, which Is a sign of the presence of the deity or some token which could recall him to the worshiper, sueh as the flint of Jupiter, or the spear and shields borne by the Salii in honor of Mars. This older worship is associated by Ro- man legend with the early days of the city, and especially with Numa Pompilius, and though the name may be an invention, the location of the sanctuaries indicates an early period in the growth of the city. At an early date, however, new elements were added to this ancient system. The legend ascribes to the royal house of Tarquin the establishment of the great Capitoline triad, of .Jupiter Optimus Maximtis, Juno, and ilinerva, which soon as- .sumed the supreme place in the Roman religion. Other additions were the worship of Diana on the Aventine, and the introduction of the Sibyl- line Books, and the appointment of men to eare for them, and to carry out the sacred rites which the.v directed. All these changes are the intro- duction of foreign cults; partly apparently from the Latin league in which Rome had acquired a leading position, parti}' from Etruria, where, however, Greek influence had also been at work, and partly from the Greek cities of Southern Ital.v, especially Cumte, with which legend di- rectl,v connects the Sibvlline Books. This new movement brings with it temples, built at first in the Etruscan stvle and apparentl,v by Etrus- can architects, though later by Greeks. The Capi- toline sanctuary became the central shrine of the Roman State, and one of the privileges granted a colony (colonia) was the right to found a simi- lar Capitolium in honor of the three gods. Thus, though a later introduction, these new deities quickly assumed a place beside or even above the ancient gods, and their representatives were recognized as equal members of the hier- archy. From this time, which must have pre- ceded the establishment of the Republic, the his- tory of the Roman religion is that of a constant- ly increasing number of divinities. The cults brought from foreign parts, especiall.v Greek lands, under the direction of the oracular books and requiring the importation of a native priest- VoL. XVll.— 17. hood, were eareluUy kept out.-idi' the Pointoriuni, and wlien sueh (ireek gods as the Dioscuri hiul a temple in the Korum, the apparent e.veeption is easily explained by the high position of Castor and Pollux at Tuseuluiii, whence their worship was brought to Rome. The absorption of the neighboring native gods is easily nnderstood. Since the earlier gods had been regarded as peculiar to tln' |{omuui Stale, at that State grew and conquered the surrounding territory, the new local gods became entitled to receive at the hands of the Romans those lionorn which had before been their due. In many case-s we h('ar of a formal invitation to these gods to take up their abode in the new sanctuaries pro- vided at Home. Moreover, the growth of the city attracted foreigners, who were allowed to con- tinue the worship of their own gods. IScsidcs Castor and I'ollu.x the Italian eoniniiinities .seem to have contributed to the Roman pantheon Diana, Minerva, Hercules, 'enus, and others of lesser rank, some of whom of course were orig- inallv derived from Greece, though others may well have been llellcnizcd from Italian divinities. From the Greeks eame at an early date Apollo, and in n.c. 4S)0 the Sibylline Books ordered atone- ment to Demeter, Dionysus, and Kore, whose temple was dedicated under the Latin name of Ceres, Liber, and l^ibera, through an identillea- tion of the Greek divinities with the old Roman gods. About the same time Hermes, under the name ]Iercnrius, was recognized as the god of merchants and trade. Both these culls arc con- nected by legends with a famine, which may well have led to their introduction along with the grain of the south. Poseidon appears among the Roman gods under the name of an old Italian di- vinity, Neptunus, as early as n.c. 3il!). These cults seem all to have been introduced at a rela- tively carl.v date in the history of the Republic: and then for a time the expansion seems to have taken place rather by the assimilation of Italian divinities, often as new phases of the old cults, or by the creation of new gods, especially from ab.stract qualities such as Fides (Fidelity) or Bellona (as goddess of war). In n.c. 29.3, how- ever, under the destruction wrought by a severe plague, the Sibylline Books advised summoning the god .Eseulajiius from ICpidarus. In n.c. 24!) followed the introduction of the cult of Hades and Pcrse])iione under the Latinized names of Dis Pater and Proserpina, and in their honor the first celebration of the ceremonies from which de- veloped the secular games (q.v. ). In H.r. 205 the circle was further widened by the jirescnee of the first of the Eastern gods, Cybele, the imitfnn mater, whose sacred stone, jirobabl.v meteoric, was brought with great jioiup and amid many miracles from Pergamum, through the favor of Attains, who seems to have .secured it from the holy temple of Pessinus. At the same time the process of Hellenizalion was advancing in other ways, and the pressure of the Second Punic War seems to have aided its lirogress, from the need then fell of appeasing the angry gods by more powerful atonements. Now we find a cycle of twelve gods (di vonxcnlcs) obviously derived from the Greek, though tlio divinities are partly Itoman, otheially recognized by statues in the Forum, and from this time we hear little of the introduction of new Greek divinities; the change takes place rather in flic identification of Greek gods with Roman, and the