EARLY ROMAN RELIGION. 59 



Christian form still possesses strongly marked national features in 

 the various Christian countries, if we look not at the indwelling spirit 

 of Christianity, but at its formal side as a Church. In the particular 

 case under discussion this national relation is very marked, for to 

 a very large extent this religion bears the impress of the national 

 character, especially where we look most for it, in its ritual and the 

 conception of the nature of the gods. In the last place, I may sug- 

 gest that in the case of the religion of the Romans there is the added 

 historic interest that naturally attaches to the question of what were 

 the beliefs of the great Empire builders of old, of the practical, or- 

 ganising, unimaginative, sober and law-abiding Roman. The inten- 

 tion of this paper is to discuss the religion of the Romans, not 

 throughout its history, but in its earlier form, its essentially Roman 

 form, wherein it connects so closely with the Roman character, that 

 is, as soon as the Roman community emerges into the light of his- 

 tory. 



This means that we must at the outset clear our minds of many 

 erroneous ideas, strip away from the religion much that in later ages 

 was added to it from external un-Roman sources. We are not look- 

 ing at the religious beliefs and practices current in the time of 

 Cicero; nor must we start from a vague conception that the Roman 

 and Greek Deities were much the same, and the religion of the two 

 nations in many ways identical ; the only way in which they resemble 

 is that the two races come from a common stock, and passed through 

 a similar stage of religious development, though at different epochs. 



We may for the sake of clearness distinguish four stages in the 

 history of Roman religion : 



1. The national (or better, tribal) religion developed 

 along its own independent lines. 



2. The period of the influence from the North of 

 Etruscan beliefs, leaving a permanent and gloomy mark on 

 Roman belief. 



3. The influence from Magna Graecia of Greek reli- 

 gion, accompanied by the gradual, unreflecting identification 

 of the gods of the two races by the Roman himself. 



4. The gradual acceptance of the various Egyptian and 

 Oriental Deities and beliefs — marking the breakdown of the 

 old creed, its failure to satisfy the spiritual needs of a na- 

 tion become more reflective and at the same time more 

 cosmopolitan. 



