ns were generally
made in the month of February, after the 23rd of the month. Their
management was left to the pontiffs--_ad metam eandem solis unde orsi
essent_--_dies congruerent_; "that the days might correspond to the same
starting-point of the sun in the heavens whence they had set out." That
is, taking for instance the tropic of Cancer for the place or
starting-point of the sun any one year, and observing that he was in
that point of the heavens on precisely the 21st of June, the object was
so to dispense the year, that the day on which the sun was observed to
arrive at that same _meta_ or starting-point again, should also be
called the 21st of June:--such was the _congruity_ aimed at by these
intercalations.]

[Footnote 25:

_Ille nefastus erit per quem tria verba silentur;
Fastus erit, per quem lege licebit agi._--Ov. F. i. 47.
]

20. Next he turned his attention to the appointment of priests, though
he performed many sacred rites himself, especially those which now
belong to the flamen of Jupiter. But, as he imagined that in a warlike
nation there would be more kings resembling Romulus than Numa, and that
they would go to war in person, he appointed a residentiary priest as
flamen to Jupiter, that the sacred functions of the royal office might
not be neglected, and he distinguished him by a fine robe, and a royal
curule chair. To him he added two other flamines, one for Mars, another
for Quirinus. He also selected virgins for Vesta, a priesthood derived
from Alba, and not foreign to the family of the founder. That they might
be constant attendants in the temple, he appointed them salaries out of
the public treasury; and by enjoining virginity, and other religious
observances, he made them sacred and venerable. He selected twelve Salii
for Mars Gradivus, and gave them the distinction of an embroidered
tunic, and over the tunic a brazen covering for the breast. He commanded
them to carry the celestial shields called [26]Ancilia, and to go
through the city singing songs, with leaping and solemn dancing. Then he
chose out of the number of the fathers Numa Marcius, son of Marcus, as
pontiff,[27] and consigned to him an entire system of religious rites
written out and sealed, (showing) with what victims, upon what days, and
in what temples the sacred rites were to be performed; and from what
funds the money was to be taken for these expenses. He placed all
religious institutions, public and private, under