Plan of this and following lectures. The formalised Roman religion meets with perils, material and moral, and ultimately proves inadequate. Subject of this lecture, the introduction of Greek deities and rites; but first a proof that the Romans were a really religious people; evidence from literature, from worship, from the practice of public life, and from Latin religious vocabulary.

Temple of Ceres, Liber, Libera (Demeter, Dionysus, Persephone); its importance for the date of Sibylline influence at Rome. Nature of this influence; how and when it reached Rome. The keepers of the "Sibylline books"; new cults introduced by them. New rites: lectisternia and supplicationes, their meaning and historical importance 248-269

The Religious Experience of the Roman People — Part 5

THE PONTIFICES AND THE SECULARISATION OF RELIGION

The Religious Experience of the Roman People — Part 5

Historical facts about the Pontifices in this period; a powerful exclusive "collegium" taking charge of the _ius divinum_. The legal side of their work; they administered the oldest rules of law, which belonged to that _ius_. New ideas of law after Etruscan period; increasing social complexity and its effect on legal matters; result, publication of rules of law, civil and religious, in XII. Tables, and abolition of legal monopoly of Pontifices. But they keep control of (1) procedure, (2) interpretation, till end of fourth century B.C. Publication of Fasti and _Legis actiones_; the college opened to Plebeians. Work of Pontifices in third century: (1) admission of new deities, (2) compilation of annals, (3) collection of religious formulae. General result; formalisation of religion; and secularisation of pontifical influence 270-291

The Religious Experience of the Roman People — Part 5

Divination a universal practice: its relation to magic. Want of a comprehensive treatment of it. Its object at Rome: to assure oneself of the _pax deorum_; but it was the most futile method used. Private divination; limited and discouraged by the State, except in the form of family _auspicia_. Public divination; _auspicia_ needed in all State operations; close connection with _imperium_. The augurs were skilled advisers of the magistrates, but could not themselves take the auspices. Probable result of this: Rome escaped subjection to a hierarchy. Augurs and _auspicia_ become politically important, but cease to belong to religion. State divination a clog on political progress. Sinister influence on Rome of Etruscan divination; history of the _haruspices_ 292-313