arranged all religious ceremonies, he built, near the
temple of Vesta, the Regia, as a kind of royal palace; and there he
spent most of his time, engaged in religious duties, instructing the
priests, or awaiting some divine colloquy. He had also another house on
the hill of Quirinus, the site of which is even now pointed out.

In all religious processions through the city the heralds went first to
bid the people cease their work, and attend to the ceremony; for just as
the Pythagoreans are said to forbid the worship of the gods in a cursory
manner, and to insist that men shall set out from their homes with this
purpose and none other in their minds, so Numa thought it wrong that the
citizens should see or hear any religious ceremony in a careless,
half-hearted manner, and made them cease from all worldly cares and
attend with all their hearts to the most important of all duties,
religion; so he cleared the streets of all the hammering, and cries, and
noises which attend the practice of ordinary trades and handicrafts,
before any holy ceremony. Some trace of this custom still survives in
the practice of crying out _Hoc age_ when the consul is taking the
auspices or making a sacrifice. These words mean "Do this thing," and
are used to make the bystanders orderly and attentive. Many of his other
precepts are like those of the Pythagoreans; for just as they forbid men
to sit upon a quart measure, or to stir the fire with a sword, or to
turn back when they set out upon a journey, and bid them sacrifice an
odd number to the gods above, and an even one to those below, all of
which things had a mystical meaning, which was hidden from the common
mass of mankind, so also some of Numa's rites can only be explained by
reference to some secret legend, such as his forbidding men to make a
libation to the gods with wine made from an unpruned vine, and his
ordering that no sacrifice should be made without flour, and that men
should turn round while worshipping and sit after they had worshipped.
The first two of these seem to point to cultivation of the fruits of the
earth, as a part of righteousness; the turning round of the worshippers
is said to be in imitation of the revolution of the globe, but it seems
more probable that, as all temples look towards the east, the worshipper
who enters with his back to the sun turns round towards this god also,
and begs of them both, as he makes his circuit, to fulfil his prayer.
Unless indeed ther