Geschichtsschreibung_, 1909, p. 3.

[14] Most welcome to English readers has been Mr. T. E.
Peet's recently published volume on _The Stone and
Bronze Ages in Italy_, and still more valuable for our
purposes will be its sequel, when it appears, on the
Iron Age.

[15] _Roman Festivals_, p. 142 foll.; henceforward to be
cited as _R.F._

[16] See Virgil's _Messianic Eclogue_, by Mayor, Fowler,
and Conway, p. 75 foll.

[17] Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 227.

[18] An account of this in English, with photographs,
will be found in Pais's _Ancient Legends of Roman
History_, p. 21 foll., and notes.

[19] Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, p. 72 foll.

[20] _Ibid._, p. 156 foll.

[21] _Lectures on the Early History of Kingship_,
lectures 7-9.

[22] Not long after these last sentences were written, a
large work appeared by Dr. Binder, a German professor of
law, entitled _Die Plebs_, which deals freely with the
oldest Roman religion, and well illustrates the
difficulties under which we have to work while
archaeologists, ethnologists, and philologists are still
constantly in disagreement as to almost every important
question in the history of early Italian culture. Dr.
Binder's main thesis is that the earliest Rome was
composed of two distinct communities, each with its own
religion, _i.e._ deities, priests, and sacra; the one
settled on the Palatine, a pastoral folk of primitive
culture, and of pure Latin race; the other settled on
the Quirinal, Sabine in origin and language, and of more
advanced development in social and religious matters. So
far this sounds more or less familiar to us, but when
Dr. Binder goes on to identify the Latin folk with the
Plebs and the Sabine settlement with the Patricians, and
calls in religion to help him with the proof of this, it
is necessary to look very carefully into the religious
evidence he adduces. So far as I can see, the limitation
of the word _patrician_ to the Quirinal settlement is
very far from being proved by this evidence (see _The
Year's Work in Classical Studies_, 1909, p. 69). Yet the
hypothesis is an extremely interesting one, and were it
generally accepted, would compel us to modify in some
important points our ideas of Roman religious history,
and also of Roman legal history, with which Dr. B