21. The whole multitude having been diverted from violence and arms to
the considering and adjusting these matters, both their minds had been
engaged in doing something, and the constant watchfulness of the gods
now impressed upon them, as the deity of heaven seemed to interest
itself in human concerns, had filled the breasts of all with such piety,
that faith and religious obligations governed the state, no less than
fear of the laws and of punishment. And while[29] the people were
moulding themselves after the morals of the king, as their best example,
the neighbouring states also, who had formerly thought that it was a
camp, not a city, situate in the midst of them to disturb the general
peace, were brought (to feel) such respect for them that they considered
it impious that a state, wholly occupied in the worship of the gods,
should be molested. There was a grove, the middle of which was irrigated
by a spring of running water, issuing from a dark grotto. As Numa went
often thither alone, under pretence of conferring with the goddess, he
dedicated the place to the Muses, because their meetings with his wife
Egeria were held there. He also instituted a yearly festival to Faith
alone, and commanded the priests to be carried to her temple in an
arched chariot drawn by two horses, and to perform the divine service
with their hands wrapt up to the fingers, intimating that Faith ought to
be protected, and that her seat ought to be sacred even in men's right
hands. He instituted many other sacred rites, and dedicated places for
performing them, which the priests call Argei. But the greatest of all
his works was his maintenance of peace, during the whole period of his
reign, no less than of his royal prerogative. Thus two kings in
succession, by different methods, the one by war, the other by peace,
aggrandized the state. Romulus reigned thirty-seven years, Numa
forty-three: the state was both strong and well versed in the arts of
war and peace.
[Footnote 29: _Cum ipsi se ---- formarent, tum finitimi etiam_, etc.
Some of the editors of Livy have remarked on this passage, that _cum_
when answering to _tum_ may be joined to a subjunctive, as here; the
fact however is, that _cum_ here does not answer to _tum_ at all; _cum_
is here "whilst,"--and so necessarily requires the verb to be in the
subjunctive mood.]
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