Page:The history of Rome. Translated with the author's sanction and additions.djvu/199

Rh were the Roman engineers, who understood the mystery of measures and numbers; whence there devolved upon them also the duties of managing the calendar of the state, of proclaiming to the people the time of new and full moon and the days of festivals, and of seeing that every religious and judicial act took place on the right day. As they had thus an especial supervision of all religious observances, it to them in case of need (as on occasion of marriage, testament, or arrogatio) that the preliminary question was addressed, whether the matter proposed did not in any respect offend against divine law; and it was they that fixed and promulgated the general exoteric precepts of ritual, which were known under the name of the "royal laws." Thus they acquired (although not probably in its full extent till after the abolition of the monarchy) the general oversight of Roman worship and of whatever was connected with it—and what was there that was not so connected? They themselves described the sum of their knowledge as "the science of things divine and human." In fact the rudiments of spiritual and temporal jurisprudence as well as of historical composition had their origin in the bosom of this college. For the writing of history was associated with the calendar and the book of annals; and as, according to the organization of the Roman courts of law, no tradition could originate in these courts themselves, it was necessary that the knowledge of legal principles and procedure should be traditionally preserved in the college of the pontifices, which alone was competent to give an opinion respecting court-days and questions of religious law.

By the side of these two oldest and most eminent corporations of men versed in spiritual lore may be, to some extent, ranked the college of the twenty state-heralds (fetiales, of uncertain derivation), destined as a living repository to preserve a traditionary remembrance of the treaties concluded with neighbouring communities, to pronounce an authoritative opinion on alleged infractions of treaty-rights, and in case of need to demand satisfaction and declare war. They had precisely the same position with reference to international, as the pontifices had with reference to religious, law, and were therefore, like the latter, entitled to point out the law, although not to administer it.

But in however high repute these colleges were, and important and comprehensive as were the functions assigned to