p. 164. Cp. Usener, _Goetternamen_, p. 277,
whose comment is, "Die Goetter aller dieser Staemme waren
'namenlos,' weil sie nicht mit Eigennamen sondern durch
Eigenschaftsworte benannt wurden. Fuer einen
griechischen Reisenden vorchristlicher Zeit waren sie
nicht fassbar." Arnobius iii. 43, Gellius ii. 28. 2 are
good passages for the principle. The latter alludes to
the anxiety of _veteres Romani_ on this point, "ne alium
pro alio nominando falsa religione populum alligarent."
Hence the formulae "si deus si dea," or "sive quo alio
nomine fas est nominare," Serv. _Aen._ ii. 351;
"quisquis es," _Aen._ iv. 576. See also Farnell,
_Evolution of Religion_, 184 foll.; Dieterich, _Eine
Mithrasliturgie_, p. 110 foll.

[226] Serv. _Aen._ ii. 351. I am inclined to think it is
only an inference from the want of substantival names in
so many Roman deities; surely, it would be argued, the
pontifices must have had some reason for this. It is
contradicted by the fact that in such ancient formulae
as that of the _devotio_ (Livy viii. 9) the great gods
are called by their own names, though the army was in
the field and in presence of the enemy. There was,
however, an old idea that the name of the special
tutelary god of the city was never divulged, lest he
should become _captivus_, and that the true name of the
city itself was unknown; see Macrob. iii. 9. 2 foll. I
believe that these ideas were encouraged by the
pontifices, but were not founded on fact.

[227] For the Indigitamenta see below, p. 159; _R.F._ p.
341; R. Peter's able article in _Myth. Lex._, _s.v._
Scholars do not seem to me to have reckoned sufficiently
with the tendency of a legal priesthood, devoted to the
strict maintenance of religious minutiae, to elaborate
and organise the material for god-making which was
within their reach. To judge by the elaboration of the
ritual at Iguvium, the same tendency must have existed
in other kindred Italian communities, both to develop
ritualistic priesthoods, and through them to elaborate
the ritual. This is, I think, the weak point of Usener's
reasoning in his _Goetternamen_, and as applied to Roman
deities it is the weak point of an interesting article
by von Domaszewski, reprinted in his _Abhandlungen zur
roem. Religion_, p. 155 foll.

[228] The best acc