of the college in this century must have
been the adjustment of the civic religion of the Italian communities to
that of Rome. What deities were to be made citizens of Rome? Which were
to be left in their old homes undisturbed? No doubt many other questions
must have called for attention in religious matters after the conquest
of Italy, but this is the one of which we know most. The temple
foundations of this period have all been carefully put together (chiefly
from Livy's invaluable records) by Aust,[584] and show that there was a
certain tendency to bring in deities from outside, not so much because
they represented some special need of the Romans, corn or art or
industry, as two centuries earlier, but simply because they were deities
of the conquered whom it might be prudent to adopt. The great Juno
Regina of Veii was long ago induced by _evocatio_ to migrate to Rome;
Fors Fortuna from Etruria, Juturna from Lavinium, Minerva Capta from
Falerii, Feronia, a famous Latin goddess from Capena, Vortumnus from
Volsinii,[585] all attest the same liberal tone in religious matters
which on the whole marks the secular Italian policy of the Senate in
this period. If we had but more information about the former, we should
be able to understand the latter far better. We should like to know why
in some cases the chief deity of a community came to Rome, while in
others there is not trace of migration. The famous Vacuna of Reate, for
example, never left her home in the Apennines, possibly because she was
a kind of Vesta, who could not be spared from Reate, and was not wanted
at Rome.[586]

The list of foundations also points to other tendencies and experiences
of the time. We might guess that there was some attempt, with the aid of
pontifical skill, to encourage agriculture or give it a fresh start
after the invasion of Pyrrhus; for between 272 and 264, the years of the
pacification of Italy, we find temples built to four agricultural
deities, three indigenous Roman ones, Consus, Tellus, Pales, and one
Etruscan garden god, Vertumnus.[587] Then we have a group of foundations
in honour of deities connected with water--Juturna, Fons, Tempestates,
which seem to have some reference to the naval activity of the first
Punic war; they all fall between 259 and 241 B.C.[588] Lastly, we notice
a fresh accession of deified abstractions,--Salus (an old deity in a new
form), Spes, Honos et Virtus, Concordia, and Mens.[589] I am glad to
find that