the more
childish parts of Etruscan divination were regarded at Rome as
superstitious, though private persons might frequently resort to
them.

Greek Gods in Rome.--While Greek ideas thus came indirectly from the
north, the south of the peninsula was becoming more and more Greek,
and the gods and temples of Hellas, established first at the
sea-ports and colonies, gradually came to Rome. This movement is
connected with the Sibylline books which were acquired by the last of
the kings. These books were brought to Rome from the Greek town of
Cumae; they were written in Greek, and contained oracles which were
ascribed to an old Greek prophetess. They were consulted in grave
emergencies of state through the officials who had charge of them,
and what they generally prescribed was that a god should be sent for
from Greece, and his worship set up in Rome. Many foreign worships
were thus imported. First came Apollo, disguised under the Latin name
of Aperta, "opener," for the books contained many of his oracles; he
was received and worshipped as a god of purification, since the state
was in need of that process at the time, as well as of prophecy. In
the year 496 B.C. came in the same way Demeter, Persephone, and
Dionysus, identified with the old Latin Ceres, Libera, and Liber;
and, a century later, Heracles, identified with the Latin Hercules.
In the year 291, on the occurrence of a plague, Asclepios, in Latin
Aesculapius, was brought from Epidauros; and when the crisis of the
contest with Hannibal was at hand (204 B.C.) Cybele, the great mother
of the gods, was fetched from Pessinus in Phrygia. The people of that
town generously handed over to the Roman ambassadors the field-stone
which was their image of the goddess, and her journey to Rome had the
desired effect, in the expulsion of Hannibal from Italy. The Venus of
Mount Eryx in Sicily arrived in Rome about the same time; a goddess
combining the characters of Aphrodite and Astarte, and quite
different from the simple old Roman Venus, who was a goddess of
Spring, and presided over gardens.

The process of which these are the outward landmarks went on during
the whole period of the Republic, and resulted in the substitution of
what may be called with Mommsen the Graeco-Roman, for the old Roman
religion. The change was a very profound one. Not only were some new
gods added to the old ones, not only did Greek art come to be
employed in Roman temples, not only were new rites i