[203] Varro, _L.L._ v. 64, says, "Ab _satu_ dictus Saturnus." And in Augustine (_Civ. Dei_, vi. 8) he is quoted as holding the opinion "quod pertineat Saturnus ad semina, quae in terram de qua oriuntur iterum recidunt." He was probably the _numen_ of the seed-sowing (Saeturnus), and as his festival comes after the end of sowing, we may presume that he was the _numen_ of the sown as well as of the unsown seed. In the article "Saturnus" in Roscher's _Lexicon_, which has appeared since the above note was written, Wissowa provisionally accepts Varro's etymology. [204] Festus, p. 245a, "Publica sacra quae publico sumptu pro populo fiunt, quaeque pro montibus, pagis, curiis, sacellis." See article "Sacra" in _Dict. of Antiqq._ ii. 577. [205] "Routine is the only safeguard of a people under a perfect autocracy" (_Select Charters_, Introduction, p. 19). [206] The annalists believed that the publication first took place in the year 304 B.C.: Livy ix. 46. Mommsen (_Chronologie_, p. 31) thought it possible that it had already been done by the Decemvirs in one of the two last of the XII. Tables, but again withdrawn. The object of keeping the Fasti secret was, of course, to control the times available for legal and political business. [207] This paragraph is abridged from a passage in the author's paper in the _Hibbert Journal_ for 1907, p. 848. [208] See _Anthropology and the Classics_ (Oxford, 1908), p. 44. [209] _R.F._ p. 241 foll. [210] Wissowa holds that it dates from the third century B.C.: Pauly-Wissowa, _Real-Encycl._, _s.v._ "Argei." I endeavoured to refute this view in the _Classical Review_ for 1902, p. 115 foll., and Dr. Wissowa criticised my criticism in his _Gesammelte Abhandlungen_, p. 222. It is dealt with at length in _R.F._ p. 111 foll. See below, p. 321 foll. [211] This is not exactly the view expressed in _R.F._ p. 315 foll., where I was inclined to adopt that of Mannhardt that the laughing symbolised the return to life after sacrificial death. I am now disposed to think of it as parallel with the ecstasy of the Pythoness and other inspired priests, or the shivering and convulsive movements which denote that a human being is "possessed" by a god or spirit. See Jevons, _Introduction_, p. 174. Mannhardt's view seems, however, to gain support from Pausanias' description of the ordeal he underwent himself at the cave of Trophonius, after which he could laugh again: Paus. ix. 39. See also Miss Harrison, _Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion_, p. 580. Deubner in _Archiv_, 1910, p. 501.