o them reverence. To withhold from them marks
of respect subjected the offender to public odium; a personal insult
was capitally punished. They possessed the exclusive privilege of
being buried within the city; an honour which the Romans rarely
extended to others.

11. The vestals were bound by a vow of perpetual virginity, and a
violation of this oath was cruelly punished. The unfortunate offender
was buried alive in a vault constructed beneath the Fo'rum by the
elder Tarquin. The terror of such a dreadful fate had the desired
effect; there were only eighteen instances of incontinence among the
vestals, during the space of a thousand years.

12. The mixture of religion with civil polity, gave permanence and
stability to the Roman institutions; notwithstanding all the changes
and revolutions in the government the old forms were preserved; and
thus, though the city was taken by Porsenna, and burned by the Gauls,
the Roman constitution survived the ruin, and was again restored to
its pristine vigour.

13. The Romans always adopted the gods of the conquered nations, and,
consequently, when their empire became very extensive, the number of
deities was absurdly excessive, and the variety of religious worship
perfectly ridiculous. The rulers of the world wanted the taste and
ingenuity of the lively Greeks, who accommodated every religious
system to their own, and from some real or fancied resemblance,
identified the gods of Olym'pus with other nations. The Romans never
used this process of assimilation, and, consequently, introduced so
much confusion into their mythology, that philosophers rejected the
entire system. This circumstance greatly facilitated the progress of
Christianity, whose beautiful simplicity furnished a powerful contrast
to the confused and cumbrous mass of divinities, worshipped in the
time of the emperors.

_Questions for Examination_.

1. How did the religion of the Romans differ from that of the Greeks?

2. Was the Roman religion connected with the government?

3. How was the right of taking the Auspices abused?

4. Who were the augurs?

5. From what did the augurs take omens?

6. What were the forms used in taking the auspices?

7. Who were the aruspices?

8. What other priests had the Romans?

9. What was the duty of the vestal virgins?

10. Did the vestals enjoy great privileges?

11. How were the vestals punished for a breach of their vows?

12. Why was the Roman constitution