la, which was the word in
classical times for the homestead, was _hortus_, a
garden, and that this was _heredium_, private property.
See Mommsen, _Staatsrecht_, iii. 23. It would indeed be
strange if the house had no land immediately attached to
it; we know that in the Anglo-Saxon village community
the villani, bordarii and cotagii, had their garden
croft attached to their dwellings, apart from such
strips as they might hold from the lord of the manor in
the open fields. See Vinogradoff, _Villainage in
England_, p. 148. For the _centuriatus ager_, Roby
_l.c._ We have no direct knowledge of the system in the
earliest times, but it is almost certain that it was
old-Italian in outline, and not introduced by the
Etruscans, as stated, _e.g._, by Deecke-Mueller,
_Etrusker_, ii. 128.

[143] For Latium this is proved by the sepulchral
hut-urns found at Alba and also on the Esquiline. One of
these in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford shows the
construction well. See article "Domus" in Pauly-Wissowa,
_Real-Encyclopaedie_; Helbig, _Die Italiker in der
Poebene_, p. 50 foll. Later there was an opening in the
roof.

[144] Von Duhn in _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, 1896,
p. 125 foll., and article "Domus" in Pauly-Wissowa.

[145] This is Aust's admirable expression, _Religion der
Roemer_, p. 214.

[146] See the author's _Social Life at Rome in the Age
of Cicero_, p. 242.

[147] Serv. _Aen._ i. 270; Marquardt, p. 126.

[148] _Ap. Gellium_, iv. 1. 17. For the sacredness of
food and meals, see below (Lect. VIII. p. 172).

[149] See a paper by the author in _Classical Rev._ vol.
x. (1896) p. 317, and references there given. Cp. the
passage of Servius quoted above (_Aen._ i. 730), where a
boy is described as announcing at the daily meal that
the gods were propitious. For the purity necessary I may
refer to Hor. _Odes_, iii. 23 _ad fin._, "Immunis aram
si tetigit manus," etc.

[150] _Primitive Culture_, i. 393.

[151] The feminine counterpart of Genius was Juno, of
which more will be said later on. Each woman had her
Juno; but this "other-soul" has little importance as
compared with Genius.

[152] See J. B. Carter in Hastings' _Dict. of Religion
and Ethics_, i. 462 foll. For Genius in general, Birt in
_Myth. Lex._ s.v.; Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 154 fo