cause his festival coincided with the much more popular
festival of the _curiae_, the _stultorum feriae_: of his character, we
can only conjecture that he was to the Colline settlement what Mars was
to the Palatine, whereas later after the complete amalgamation he seems
to have been distinguished from Mars as representing 'armed peace'
rather than war--an idea which is borne out by the associations of the
closely allied word _Quirites_. Be that as it may, we have in Iuppiter,
Mars, and Quirinus the great state-triad of the synoecismus, who held
their own until at the beginning of the next epoch they were supplanted
by the new Etruscan triad of the Capitol, Iuppiter, Iuno and Minerva.

=2. Organisation.=--It might perhaps be thought that the organisation
of religion is a matter remote from its spirit, and is not therefore a
suitable subject for discussion, where the object is rather to bring
out underlying motives and ideas: but in dealing with the Roman
religion, where ceremonial and legal precision were so prominent, it
would be even misleading to omit some reference to the very
characteristic manner in which the state, taking over the rather
chaotic elements of the agricultural worship, organised them into
something like a consistent whole. Its most complete achievement in
this direction was without doubt the regulation of the religious year.
We have spoken many times of the Calendars (_Fasti_): it is necessary
now to obtain some clearer notion of what they were. In Rome itself and
various Italian towns have been found some thirty inscriptions, one
almost complete (Maffeiani), the others more or less fragmentary,
giving the tables of the months and marking precisely the character and
occurrences of every day in the year. We may take as a specimen the
latter half of the month of August from the Fasti Maffeiani.

A. EID. [NP]. | C. VOLC. [NP].
B. F. | D. C.
C. C. | E. OPIC. [NP].
D. C. | F. C.
E. PORT. [NP]. | G. VOLT. [NP].
F. C. | H. [NP].
G. VIN. F.P. | A. F.
H. C. | B. F.
A. CONS. [NP]. | C. C.
B. EN. |

In the first column are given the nundinal letters of the days, showing
their position in the eight days' 'week' from one market day
(_nundinae_) to the next. In the second column are noted first the
great divisions of the month, Calends, Nones, and Ides, and then the
religious character