confederate states.​[90] At any rate it testifies to a belief that the grove had been from early times a common place of worship for many of the oldest cities of the country, if not for the whole Latin confederacy.​[91] [Sidenote: Evidence of the antiquity of the grove.] Another argument of antiquity may be drawn from some of the votive offerings found on the spot, such as a sacrificial ladle of bronze bearing Diana’s name in archaic Greek letters,​[92] and pieces of the oldest kind of Italian money, being merely shapeless bits of copper, unstamped and valued by weight.​[93] But as the use of such old-fashioned money {p24} survived in offerings to the gods long after it vanished from daily life,​[94] no great stress can be laid on its occurrence at Nemi as evidence of the age of the shrine. § 2. _Artemis and Hippolytus_ [Sidenote: Origin of the Arician myths of Orestes and Hippolytus.] I have said that the Arician legends of Orestes and Hippolytus, though worthless as history, have a certain value in so far as they may help us to understand the worship at Nemi better by comparing it with the ritual and myths of other sanctuaries. We must ask ourselves, Why did the authors of these legends pitch upon Orestes and Hippolytus in order to explain Virbius and the King of the Wood? In regard to Orestes, the answer is obvious. He and the image of the Tauric Diana, which could only be appeased with human blood,​[95] were dragged in to render intelligible the murderous rule of succession to the Arician priesthood. In regard to Hippolytus the case is not so plain. The manner of his death suggests readily enough a reason for the exclusion of horses from the grove; but this by itself seems hardly enough to account for the identification. We must try to probe deeper by examining the worship as well as the legend or myth of Hippolytus. [Sidenote: Worship of Hippolytus at Troezen. Hippolytus a mythical being of the Adonis type.]