Romani_. The rex no doubt himself made
the selection and supervised the inauguratio of the other priests at
whose head he was. When the kingship came to an end, his powers of this
kind passed to the pontifex maximus; and it may be as well to add at
once that his sacrificial powers, though they were in a special sense
inherited by a priest who took his title, the _rex sacrorum_, passed
with the civil power to all magistrates _cum imperio_, who wore the
_toga praetexta_ symbolic of priestly function, and had the right of
presiding at sacrificial rites both at home and in the field. Thus
magistrate and priest, though quite distinct under the Republic from the
point of view of public law, have certain characteristics in common as
deriving from a common source in the powers of the rex.[356]

But to return to the period of Numa and the calendar: it was not only
necessary that the priest should be acceptable to the gods, but that he
should be marked off from the rest of the community as being dedicated
to their service. As Dr. Jevons says,[357] in all early religions
priests are marked off from other worshippers, partly by what they do,
and partly by what they may not do; and what he means is (1) that the
priest originally was the person who alone could slay a victim; (2) that
in consequence of his sacredness he was subject to a great number of
restrictions. I have already spoken of these restrictions or priestly
taboos in my second lecture; and as I believe that in the period we are
now dealing with they were little more than a survival, I shall not
return to them now. But of the outward insignia, which marked off the
priest as alone entitled to perform the essential act of worship, the
sacrifice, and which bring him out of the region of the _profanum_ into
that of _sacrum_, I must say a few words before going farther.

In historical times the actual slaying of the victim was done by
subordinates, _popae_, _victimarii_, etc.; but there is no doubt
whatever that it was originally the work of the priest, for he seems at
all times to have used one gesture which is clearly symbolic of it,[358]
and there are traces also of a practice of wearing the toga in such a
way as to leave the right arm free for the act.[359] That toga, or any
other special robe worn by the priest, was always in whole or part red
or purple. The purple-edged _toga praetexta_ was worn both by priests
and magistrates, and by children under age; and I think ther