356 ELEMENTS OF SCIENCE 



pertained to the divinities of Olympus, while they were 

 served with greater devotion and more respect. Strong, 

 however, as was the religious sentiment of the Romans, 

 and important as everything was deemed which related 

 to the worship of the gods, nevertheless this induced no 

 tendency towards a theocracy. Religion was entirely 

 subordinated to the State, and its priests had also civil 

 functions, not as priests but as citizens : they were 

 thorough laymen, and not animated by the sacerdotal 

 spirit. Religion consisted of formal acts, and not in the 

 acceptance of dogmas or in devout aspirations. The pious 

 man was he who knew well how to honour the gods 

 according to the laws of the State, and who presented 

 himself in the temples properly dressed, in prescribed 

 attitudes the priest serving but as a master of the 

 ceremonies, and to read the formulae which the 

 worshipper had to repeat. 



It was a religion which accustomed the people to 

 discipline and obedience, and was essentially much 

 more moral than that of Greece. The Romans believed 

 that it was through religion the aid of the gods, 

 especially Jupiter that they had conquered the world, 

 and Rome was considered by the Greeks, as well as by 

 its own inhabitants, to be the most religious city in the 

 world. 



At an early period, however, many of the Greek and 

 Roman gods became fused and confounded together 

 and other pagan religious influences from the East came 

 afterwards to exercise a powerful influence on the beliefs 

 and practices of the Italians. 



Towards the close of the republic, a profound spirit 

 of scepticism had, indeed, asserted itself in Rome ; and 

 Cicero and Csesar (and the writings of Lucretius) may be 

 taken as examples of the unbelieving spirit of Roman 



