pinion, and I am unwilling
to differ from him on a point of the _ius divinum_, of
which he is our best exponent. If he is right, it may be
that the three _flamines maiores_, who were reckoned in
strict religious sense as above the pontifices,
including their head (Festus, p. 185), needed "holiness"
more than any pontifex, and so with the augurs. The
insignia of the pontifices, as well as many historical
facts, show that the pontifices were competent to
perform sacrifice in a general sense (Marq. p. 248
foll.); but it is possible that they never had the
right, like the flamines, actually to slay the victim. I
do not feel sure that the _securis_ was really one of
their symbols, though Horace seems to say so in _Ode_
iii. 23. 12. The whole question needs further
investigation. It may be found that the essential
distinction between the pontifices and magistrates _cum
imperio_ on the one hand, and the flamines on the other,
is to be sought in the ideas of holiness connected with
the shedding of blood in sacrifice. The flamen is
permanently holy, having charge of constant sacrifices;
_e.g._ the Dialis had duties every day. He is the duly
sanctified guide for all rites within his own religious
range.

[356] Wissowa, _R.K._ pp. 339, 410 foll.

[357] The whole subject of the preparation of the
sacrificer for his work, and of the steps by which he
becomes separated from the profane, is well treated by
Hubert et Mauss, _Melanges d'histoire des religions_, p.
23 foll. The reference to Dr. Jevons is _Introduction_,
ch. xx. p. 270 foll.

[358] Serv. _Aen._ xii. 173; Virgil wrote "dant fruges
manibus salsas, et tempora ferro Summa notant pecudum";
to which Servius adds that the symbolic movement was a
(pretended) cut from head to tail of the victim.
Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 352.

[359] Pauly-Wissowa, _Real-Encycl., s.v._ "cinctus
Gabinus."

[360] Marquardt, p. 340. The Vestals were never, so far
as we know, directly concerned in animal sacrifice.

[361] See below, p. 190. For the colour of the garments,
and the explanation referred to, see Samter,
_Familienfeste_, p. 40 foll.; Diels, _Sibyllinische
Blaetter_, p. 70; and cp. von Duhn's paper, "Rot und Tot"
in _Archiv_, 1906, p. 1 foll. That red colouring was
used in various ways in sacred and quasi-sa