policy to keep the women of the city in good
humour, and in touch with the religion of the State, instead of going
after other gods, as they had already gone and were again to go with
amazing and perilous fervour. For Juno Regina of the Aventine was their
special deity; and in this case they were authorised--all _matronae_
living within ten miles of the city--to contribute in money to a noble
gift to the temple.

Hasdrubal was defeated and killed (207), and the danger passed away.
Then, when the news reached Rome (if Livy's account may be relied on),
there followed such an outburst of gratitude to the deities as we have
never yet met with, and shall not meet with again in Roman history.[702]
It was not only that the State ordered a _supplicatio_ of three days
thanksgiving; men and women alike took advantage of it to press in
crowds to the temples, the materfamilias with her children, and in her
finest robes: "cum omni solutae metu, perinde ac si debellatum foret,
deis immortalibus grates agerent." I would draw attention to the fact
that here is no mere fulfilment of a vow, of a bargain, as some will
have it; in this moment of real religious emotion the first thought is
one of thankfulness that the _pax deorum_ is restored, and that the
Power manifesting itself in the universe, though in the humble form of
these dwellers in Roman temples, would permit the long-suffering people
once more to feel themselves in right relation to him. As we go on with
our studies in the two centuries that follow, let us bear this moment in
mind; it will remind us that the religious instinct never entirely dies
out in the heart of any people.

I would fain stop at this point, and have done with the war and its
religious troubles; but there is one more event which cannot be
omitted,--the solemn advent of a new deity, this time neither Greek nor
Italian. After the Metaurus battle, the dreaded Hannibal yet remained in
Italy, and so long as he was there the Romans could know no security. So
far as religion could help them every possible means had been used;
there seemed no expedient left. In 205 a pretext for inspecting the
Sibylline books was found in an unusual burst of pebble-rain; and there,
as it was given out, an oracle was deciphered, which foretold that
Hannibal would have to leave Italy if the Magna Mater of Pessinus were
brought to Rome.[703] In whose brain this idea originated we do not
know, but it was a brilliant one. The eastern cu