The -mancipatio- in its developed form must have been more recent
than the Servian reform, as the selection of mancipable objects,
which had for its aim the fixing of agricultural property, shows,
and as even tradition must have assumed, for it makes Servius the
inventor of the balance. But in its origin the -mancipatio- must
be far more ancient; for it primarily applies only to objects which
are acquired by grasping with the hand, and must therefore in its
earliest form have belonged to the epoch when property consisted
essentially in slaves and cattle (-familia pecuniaque-). The enumeration
of those objects which had to be acquired by -mancipatio-, falls
accordingly to be ranked as a Servian innovation; the -mancipatio-
itself, and consequently the use also of the balance and of copper,
are older. Beyond doubt -mancipatio- was originally the universal
form of purchase, and occurred in the case of all articles even
after the Servian reform; it was only a misunderstanding of later
ages which put upon the rule, that certain articles had to be
transferred by -mancipatio-, the construction that these articles
only and no others could be so transferred.

5. Viz. for the year of ten months one twelfth part of the capital
(-uncia-), which amounts to 8 1/3 per cent for the year of ten,
and 10 per cent for the fear of twelve, months.

6. I. VII. Relation of Rome to Latium

7. I. VI. Dependents and Guests.

8. I. VII. Relation of Rome to Latium

9. I. VI. Class of --Metoeci-- Subsisting by the Side of the
Community

CHAPTER XII

Religion

Roman Religion

The Roman world of gods, as we have already indicated,(1) was a
higher counterpart, an ideal reflection, of the earthly Rome, in
which the little and the great were alike repeated with painstaking
exactness. The state and the clan, the individual phenomenon of
nature as well as the individual mental operation, every man, every
place and object, every act even falling within the sphere of Roman
law, reappeared in the Roman world of gods; and, as earthly things
come and go in perpetual flux, the circle of the gods underwent
a corresponding fluctuation. The tutelary spirit, which presided
over the individual act, lasted no longer than that act itself: the
tutelary spirit of the individual man lived and died with the man;
and eternal duration belonged to divinities of this sort only in
so far as similar acts and similarly constituted men and therefo