tiative might come from the gods. Some marked
misfortune, an earthquake, lightning, a great famine, a portentous
birth, or some such occurrence would be recognised as a _prodigium_, or
sign of the god's displeasure. Somehow or other the contract must have
been broken on the human side and it was the duty of the state to see
to the restoration of the _pax deum_, the equilibrium of the normal
relation of god and man. The right proceeding in such a case was a
_lustratio_, a solemn cleansing of the people--or the portion of the
people involved in the god's displeasure--with the double object of
removing the original reason of misfortune and averting future causes
of the divine anger. The commercial notion is not perhaps quite so
distinct here, but the underlying legal relationship is sufficiently
marked.

If then the question be asked whether the relation between the Roman
and his gods was friendly or unfriendly, the correct answer would
probably be that it was neither. It was rather what Aristotle in
speaking of human relations describes as 'a friendship for profit': it
is entered into because both sides hope for some advantage--it is
maintained as long as both sides fulfil their obligations.

=3. Ceremonial.=--It has been said sometimes that the old Roman
religion was one of cult and ritual without dogma or belief. As we have
seen this is not in origin strictly true, and it would be fairer to say
that belief was latent rather than non-existent: this we may see, for
instance, from Cicero's dialogues on the subject of religion, where in
discussion the fundamental sense of the dependence of man on the help
of the gods comes clearly into view: in the domestic worship of the
family too cult was always to some extent 'tinged with emotion,' and
sanctified by a belief which made it a more living and in the end a
more permanent reality than the religion of the state. But it is no
doubt true that as the community advanced, belief tended to sink into
the background: development took place in cult and not in theology, so
that by the end of the Republic, to take an example, though the
festival of the Furrinalia was duly observed every year on the 25th of
July, the nature or function of the goddess Furrina was, as we learn
from Cicero, a pure matter of conjecture, and Varro tells us that her
name was known only to a few persons. Nor was it mere lapse of time
which tended to obscure theology and exalt ceremonial: their relative
positi