st prominent among them being the three great priests of Iuppiter
(_flamen Dialis_), Mars, and Quirinus; the _pontifices_ were sometimes
delegates of the king on special occasions, but more particularly
formed his religious _consilium_, a consulting body, to give him advice
as to ritual and act as the repositories of tradition. In later times
the _flamines_ still retain their original character, the _pontifices_
and especially the _pontifex maximus_ are responsible for the whole
organisation of the state-religion and are the guardians and
interpreters of religious lore. In the state-cult then the priests play
a very important part, but their relation to the worship of the
individual was very small indeed. They had a general superintendence
over private worship and their leave would be required for the
introduction of any new domestic cult; in cases too where the private
person was in doubt as to ritual or the legitimacy of any religious
practice, he could appeal to the _pontifices_ for decision. Otherwise
the priest could never intervene in the worship of the family, except
in the case of the most solemn form of marriage (_confarreatio_),
which, as it conferred on the children the right to hold certain of the
priesthoods, was regarded itself as a ceremony of the state-religion.

In his private worship then the individual had immediate access to the
deity, and it was no doubt this absence of priestly mediation and the
consequent sense of personal responsibility, no less than its emotional
significance, which caused the greater reality and permanence of the
domestic worship as compared with the organised and official cults of
the state.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] Etruscan builders were according to tradition employed on the
earliest Roman temples.

[4] This is all open to doubt, but see De Marchi, _Il Culto Privato_,
vol. ii.

CHAPTER IV

EARLY HISTORY OF ROME--THE AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITY

After this sketch of the main features which we must expect to find in
Roman religion, we may attempt to look a little more in detail at its
various departments, but before doing so it is necessary to form some
notion of the situation and character of the Roman community: religion
is not a little determined by men's natural surroundings and
occupations. The subject is naturally one of considerable controversy,
but certain facts of great significance for our purpose may fairly be
taken as established. The earliest settlement which