umbers at the
celebrations, especially at the more popular festivals, but from some,
such as the Vestalia, he was actually excluded. On the other hand,
though it did not demand presence, the state did--at least
theoretically--demand the observance of the feast-day by private
individuals. The root-notion of _feriae_ was a day set apart for the
worship of the gods, and on it therefore the citizen ought to do 'no
manner of work.' The state observed this condition fully in the
closing of law-courts and the absence of legislative assemblies, and
in theory too the private citizen must refrain from any act which was
not concerned with the worship of the gods, or rendered absolutely
necessary, as, for instance, if 'his ox or his ass should fall into a
pit.' But it is characteristic of Rome that the state did not seek for
offence, but only punished it if accidentally seen: on a feast-day the
_rex sacrorum_ and the _flamines_ might not see work being done; they
therefore sent on a herald in advance to announce their presence, and
an actual conviction involved a money-fine. Perhaps more scrupulously
than the _feriae_ were observed the _dies religiosi_, days of
'abstinence,' on which certain acts, such as marriage, the beginning of
any new piece of work, or the offering of sacrifice to the gods, were
forbidden: such, in the oldest period, were the days on which the
_mundus_ was open, or the temple of Vesta received the matrons, the
days when the Salii carried the _ancilia_ in procession, and the
periods of the two festivals of the dead in February and May; but for
eluding their observance too devices were not unknown.

In the state-organisation of religion, then, we seem to see just the
same features from which we started: as a basis the legal conception
of the relation of god to man, as a result the extreme care and
precision in times and ceremonials, as a corollary in the state the
idea of legal representation and the consequent looseness of hold on
the action of the individual.

CHAPTER VIII

AUGURIES AND AUSPICES

So far we have been considering the regular relations of man and god,
seen in recurring or special offerings, in vows and in acts of
purification and lustration--all based on the contract-notion, all
endeavours on man's part to fulfil his bounden duty, that the gods may
be constrained in turn to theirs. But so strong was the feeling of
divine presence and influence in the Roman's mind, that he was not
co