95
foll., and 289. See also De Marchi, _La Religione nella
vita privata_, i. p. 41 foll. and p. 90 foll.

[134] De Marchi, _op. cit._ i. 13 foll. In the ordinary
and regular religion of the family the State, _i.e._ the
pontifices, did not interfere; but they might do so in
matters such as the succession of _sacra_, the care of
graves, or the fulfilment of vows undertaken by private
persons. See Cicero, _de Legibus_, ii. 19. 47.

[135] Mucius Scaevola, the great lawyer, defined
_gentiles_ as those "qui eodem nomine sunt, qui ab
ingenuis oriundi sunt, quorum maiorum nemo servitutem
servivit, qui capite non sunt deminuti," Cic. _Topica_,
vi. 29. This is the practical view of a lawyer of the
last century B.C., and does not take account of the
_sacra gentilicia_, which had by that time decayed or
passed into the care of _sodalitates_: Marquardt, p. 132
foll.; De Marchi, ii. p. 3 foll. The notion of descent
from a common ancestor is of course ideal, but none the
less a factor in the life of the gens; it crops up,
_e.g._, in Virgil, _Aen._ v. 117, 121, and Servius _ad
loc._

[136] Crawley, _The Tree of Life_, p. 47.

[137] For the alleged extinction of the gens Potitia,
and the legend connected with it, Livy i. 7, Festus 237.

[138] See Marquardt, _Privataltertuemer_, p. 56, and note
6.

[139] There is, I believe, no doubt that the
etymological affinities of the word _familia_ point to
the idea of settlement and not that of kin; _e.g._ Oscan
_Faama_, a house, and Sanscrit _dha_, to settle.

[140] The exact meaning and origin of the word has been
much discussed. It is tempting to connect it with _pax_,
_paciscor_, and make it a territory within whose bounds
there is _pax_; see Rudorff, _Gromatici veteres_, ii.
239, and Nissen, _Italische Landeskunde_, ii. 8 foll.

[141] See Rudorff, _Grom. vet._ ii. 236 foll.; Mommsen,
_Staatsrecht_, iii. 116 foll.; Kornemann in _Klio_, vol.
v. (1905) p. 80 foll.; Greenidge, _Roman Public Life_,
p. 1 foll.

[142] Mommsen, _Staatsrecht_, iii. 22 foll.; Kornemann,
_l.c._; Roby in _Dict. of Antiquities_, _s.v._
"Agrimetatio," p. 85. The view that there was freehold
garden land attached to the homestead gains strength
from a statement of Pliny (_N.H._ xix. 50) that the word
used in the XII. Tables for vil