that
the god may make no mistake. If a libation is offered, one says,
"Receive the homage of this wine that I am pouring"; for the god might
think that one would present other wine and keep this back. The
prayers, too, are long, verbose, and full of repetitions.

=Omens.=--The Romans, like the Greeks, believe in omens. The gods,
they think, know the future, and they send signs that permit men to
divine them. Before undertaking any act, the Roman consults the gods.
The general about to engage in battle examines the entrails of
victims; the magistrates before holding an assembly regards the
passing birds (called "taking the auspices"). If the signs are
favorable, the gods are thought to approve the enterprise; if not,
they are against it. The gods often send a sign that had not been
requested. Every unexpected phenomenon is the presage of an event. A
comet appeared before the death of Caesar and was thought to have
announced it.

When the assembly of the people deliberates and it thunders, it is
because Jupiter does not wish that anything shall be decided on that
day and the assembly must dissolve. The most insignificant fact may be
interpreted as a sign--a flash of lightning, a word overheard, a rat
crossing the road, a diviner met on the way. And so when Marcellus had
determined on an enterprise, he had himself carried in a closed litter
that he might be sure of not seeing anything which could impose itself
on him as a portent.

These were not the superstitions of the populace; the republic
supported six augurs charged with predicting the future. It carefully
preserved a collection of prophecies, the Sibylline Books. It had
sacred chickens guarded by priests. No public act--assembly, election,
deliberation--could be done without the taking of the auspices, that
is to say, observation of the flight of birds. In the year 195 it was
learned that lightning had struck a temple of Jupiter and that it had
hit a hair on the head of the statue of Hercules; a governor wrote
that a chicken with three feet had been hatched; the senate assembled
to discuss these portents.

=The Priests.=--The priest in Rome, as in Greece, is not charged with
the care of souls, he exists only for the service of the god. He
guards his temple, administers his property, and performs the
ceremonies in his honor. Thus the guild of the Salii (the leapers)
watches over a shield which fell from heaven, they said, and which
was adored as an idol; every