[239] We may note here that the most general Latin name for a priest was _sacerdos_, which seems to have excluded all magic, etc.; it means an office sanctioned by the State. On the general question of the origin of priesthood see Jevons, _Introduction_, _etc._, ch. xx., with whose explanations, however, I cannot entirely agree. I should prefer to keep the word priest for an official who sacrifices and prays to his god. In this view I am at one with E. Meyer, _Geschichte des Altertums_, i.^2 p. 121 foll. God and priest go together as permanent, regular in function, and entrusted by a community with certain duties. [240] Marquardt, p. 180; Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 427. The popa or victimarius is seen in many artistic representations of sacrifice, _e.g._ Schreiber, _Atlas of Classical Antiquities_, plate xvii. figs. 1 and 3. [241] Jevons, ch. xx.; Frazer, _G.B._ i. 245 foll., and _Lectures on Early History of Kingship_, Lectures ii. and v. [242] Virg. _Aen._ viii. 352. [243] In a valuable paper in his _Gesammelte Abhandlungen_ (p. 284) Wissowa says that "personal conception of deity is absolutely strange to the old Roman religion of the _di indigetes_." I believe this to be essentially true; but my point is that localisation and ritual prepared the way for the reception of Greek ideas of personality. The process had already begun in the religion of the house; but it was not likely there to come in contact with foreign germs. When Janus and Vesta, who were in every house (Wissowa, p. 285), were localised in certain points in a city, they would be far more likely to acquire personality, if such an idea came in their way, than in the worship of the family.