he second Punic war and afterwards
were buried alive, as it was said, in the Forum Boarium.
Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 355 and notes. I shall return to this
in Lecture XIV.

[215] The earliest mention of the slaying of a victim
(_bestiarius_) to Jupiter is in Minucius Felix, _Octav._
22 and 30, _i.e._ towards the end of the second century
A.D. or even later. Cp. Tertull. _Apol._ 9, Lactantius
i. 21. I do not go so far as to say with Wissowa (p.
109, note 3) that this story is "ganz gewiss apokryph,"
but I take it as simply a case of degeneracy under the
influence of the amphitheatre and of Orientalism.

[216] For Numa see Schwegler, _Rom. Gesch._ i. 551 foll.

[217] See Dr. Frazer's most recent account of this
subject, in his _Lectures on the Early History of the
Kingship_, chaps, iii.-v. Prof. Ridgeway's idea that the
Flamen Dialis was really a Numan institution is of
course simply impossible, and the arguments he founds on
it fall to the ground. Ovid, probably reflecting Varro,
speaks of the Flamen Dialis as belonging to the
Pelasgian religion, which at least means that he was
aware of the extreme antiquity of the office; _Fasti_,
ii. 281. Dr. Doellinger (_The Gentile and the Jew_, vol.
ii. p. 72) with his usual insight was inclined to see
in this Flamen the "ruins of an older system of
ceremonial ordinances."

[218] He was _sui iuris_ (Gaius i. 130), as soon as he
was chosen or taken (_captus_) by the Pontifex maximus;
but he was subject to the authority of the P.M., like
all the other flamines and the Vestals. See Wissowa,
_R.K._ p. 438; Tac. _Ann._ iv. 16.

LECTURE VI

THE DIVINE OBJECTS OF WORSHIP

We must now turn our attention to what is the most difficult part of our
subject, the ideas of the early Romans about "the Power manifesting
itself in the universe." In my first lecture I indicated in outline what
the difficulties are which beset us all through our studies; they are in
no part of it so insurmountable as in this. Material fails us, because
there was no contemporary literature; because the Romans were not a
thinking people, and probably thought very little about the divine
beings whom they propitiated; and again, because comparative religion,
as it is called, is of scant value in such a study. We have to try and
get rid of our own ideas about God or gods, to keep our minds fr