primary object was no doubt still to protect the trade; but as time went
on they tended to become associations for feasting and enjoyment, and
more and more to depend on the munificence of patrons elected with the
object of eliciting it. Fuller information about them will be found in
G. Boissier, _La Religion romaine d'Auguste aux Antonins_, ii. 286
foll., and S. Dill, _Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius_, pp.
264 foll. How far they formed a basis or example for the gilds of the
early middle ages is a difficult question which cannot be answered here
(see GILDS); it is, however, probable that they gradually lost their
original business character, and became more and more associations for
procuring the individual, lost as he was in the vast desert of the
empire, some little society and enjoyment in life, and the certainty of
funeral rites and a permanent memorial after death.

We may now return to the associations formed for the maintenance of
cults, which were usually called _sodalitates_, though the word
_collegium_ was also used for them, as in the case of the college of the
Arval Brothers (q.v.). Of the ancient Sodales Titii nothing is known
until they were revived by Augustus; but it seems probable that when a
gens or family charged with the maintenance of a particular cult had
died out, its place was supplied by a _sodalitas_ (Marquardt,
_Staatsverwaltung_, iii. 134). The introduction of new cults also led to
the institution of new associations; thus in 495 B.C. when the worship
of Minerva was introduced, a _collegium mercatorum_ was founded to
maintain it, which held its feast on the _dies natalis_ (dedication day)
of the temple (Liv. ii. 27. 5); and in 387 the _ludi Capitolini_ were
placed under the care of a similar association of dwellers on the
Capitoline hill. In 204 B.C. when the Mater Magna was introduced from
Pessinus (see GREAT MOTHER OF THE GODS) a _sodalitas_ (or _sodalitates_)
was instituted which, as Cicero tells us (_de Senect._ 13. 45) used to
feast together during the _ludi Megalenses_. All such associations were
duly licensed by the state, which at all times was vigilant in
forbidding the maintenance of any which it deemed dangerous for
religious or political reasons; thus in 186 B.C. the senate, by a decree
of which part is preserved (_C.I.L._ i. 43), made all combination for
promoting the Bacchic religious rites strictly illegal. But legalized
_sodalitates_ are frequent later; the temple