ollo and the Sibyl.

[412] Marquardt, p. 266; Mommsen, _Staatsrecht_, i.^2
594 foll. The ceremony is best described by Ovid, _Ex
Ponto_, iv. 9. 5 foll. He is addressing the consul of
the year from his place of exile:

at cum Tarpeias esses deductus in arces,
dum caderet iussu victima sacra tuo,
me quoque secreto grates sibi magnus agentem
audisset media qui sedet aede deus.
(II. 28 foll.)

[413] Valerius Maximus iv. 1. 10.

[414] A list of these is given in Aust, _De aedibus
sacris populi Romani_ (Marpurg, 1889). A valuable work,
which will be of service to us later on.

[415] Livy xxxvi. 2. 3.

[416] _Ib._ xxii. 10.

[417] _Ib._ sec. 6. The meaning is that if any one has
stolen an animal which was intended to be dedicated, no
blame attaches to the person so robbed; and that if a
man performs his dedication on a day of ill omen
unwittingly, it will hold good none the less.

[418] Farnell, _Evolution of Religion_, p. 195.

[419] The fact that words like _reus_ and _damnatus_
were applied respectively to persons who had made a vow
and to those who had performed it, _i.e._ as being
liable like a defendant, and then released from that
position by a verdict or sentence (see Wissowa, _R.K._
p. 320), is of course significant of the idea of the
transaction in the mind of the Roman, who, as Macrobius
says (iii. 2. 6) _se numinibus obligat_, as an accused
person is _obligatus_ to the authorities of the State
(Mommsen, _Strafrecht_, 189 foll.). It is the natural
tendency of the Roman mind to give all transactions a
legal sanction; but it does not thence follow that the
original idea was really thought of as a contract, and
we have only to reflect that the final act was a
thank-offering to see the difference between the civil
and the religious process.

[420] Livy v. 21.

[421] Macr. iii. 9, 6. He says that he found it in the
fifth book of _Res reconditae_ by one Sammonicus
Serenus, and that the latter had himself found it "in
cuiusdam Furii vetustissimo libro."

[422] On this subject see article "Devotio" in
Pauly-Wissowa.

[423] Livy viii. 10, "licere consuli dictatori
praetori...." Cp. Cic. _de Nat. deorum_, ii. 10, "at
vero apud maiores tanta religionis vis fuit, ut quidam