DISCOVERY 



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to a royal festival ; how war between the Romans and 

 the Sabines followed when the Romans carried off the 

 Sabine maidens to be their wives, and how at last the 

 women rushed in to make peace and union between 

 the two peoples ; Livy records how, further, Romulus 

 was succeeded by Numa Pompilius, the Sabine. The 

 Sabines were believed to have occupied the Quirinal 

 Hill, whose name was derived from that of the Sabine 



Amongst the Roman gods there were at least three 

 — Mars, lanus, and Quirinus — which were of Sabine 

 origin. Mars among the Sabines was a god of war ; 

 Quirinus was connected with the Sabine town of Cures ; 

 and the worship of lanus was introduced at Rome by 

 the Sabine king Numa Pompilius ; so every Roman 

 believed. Now the three priests who attended upon 

 these three deities, the priests of Mars, lanus, and 



THE PEOPLES OF ANCIENT ITALY. 



god Quirinus. This legend is typical of a series of the 

 same character which show how strongly the Romans 

 held to the tradition of the composite nature of their 

 population. But, apart from such traditions, we find 

 institutions surviving in ancient Rome which help us 

 to explain the tradition, and which connect the ruling 

 class of the Patricians with the Sabines. A number 

 of Sabine words deeply embedded in the Latin language 

 itself lend us further rather striking support. 



Quirinus, were called by the ancient name of Flamen, 

 which has been attractively identified with the Hindoo 

 name for a member of the great priestly caste. Brahman. 

 All three together were called the " greater priests " 

 [flamines maiores), and had to be Patricians and the 

 children of Patricians married in the proper Patrician 

 usage, in distinction from the three " minor priests " 

 (flamines minores, of certain other deities) who had to 

 be Plebeians. This shows that the deities of the 



