The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Religion of Ancient Rome, by Cyril Bailey

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Title: The Religion of Ancient Rome

Author: Cyril Bailey

Release Date: June 12, 2006 [EBook #18564]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE RELIGION OF
ANCIENT ROME

By
CYRIL BAILEY, M.A.
FELLOW AND TUTOR OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD

LONDON
ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO LTD

1907

I wish to express my warm thanks to Mr. W. Warde Fowler for his
kindness in reading my proofs, and for many valuable hints and
suggestions.

C.B.

BALLIOL COLLEGE,
_Jan 25th, 1907_.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. INTRODUCTION--SOURCES AND SCOPE 1

II. THE 'ANTECEDENTS' OF ROMAN RELIGION 4

III. MAIN FEATURES OF THE RELIGION OF NUMA 12

IV. EARLY HISTORY OF ROME--THE AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITY 31

V. WORSHIP OF THE HOUSEHOLD 36

VI. WORSHIP OF THE FIELDS 58

VII. WORSHIP OF THE STATE 75

VIII. AUGURIES AND AUSPICES 96

IX. RELIGION AND MORALITY--CONCLUSION 103

THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION--SOURCES AND SCOPE

The conditions of our knowledge of the native religion of early Rome
ma