and thus the idea was maintained that in some sense all meals had a sacred character, _i.e._ all in which the members of a _familia_ (see above, p. 78), or of _gens_ or _curia_, met together. Cp. R. Smith, _op. cit._ p. 261 foll. We may remember that the Penates were the spirits of the food itself, not merely of the place in which it was stored; it had therefore a sacred character, which is also shown by the sanctification of the firstfruits (_R.F._ pp. 151, 195). (The _cenae collegiorum_, dinners of collegia of priests, were in no sense sacrificial meals; see Marquardt, p. 231, note 7; Henzen, _Acta Fratr. Arv._ pp. 13, 39, 40.) [352] Cic. _de Legibus_, ii. 8. 19. [353] Livy i. 18. For constitutional difficulties in this passage, see, _e.g._, Greenidge, _Roman Public Life_, p. 50. [354] For this and the augurs generally, see Lecture XII. [355] The passages are collected by Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 420, note 3. There is no doubt about the inauguratio of the three great flamines and the rex sacrorum, who were all specially concerned with sacrifice, and of the augurs, who would obviously need it in order to perform the same ceremony for others--as a bishop needs consecration for the same reason. As regards the pontifices, Dionysius (ii. 73. 3) clearly thought it was needed for them, and we might a priori assume that one who might become a pontifex maximus would need it; but Wissowa discounts Dionysius' opinion, and I am unwilling to differ from him on a point of the _ius divinum_, of which he is our best exponent. If he is right, it may be that the three _flamines maiores_, who were reckoned in strict religious sense as above the pontifices, including their head (Festus, p. 185), needed "holiness" more than any pontifex, and so with the augurs. The insignia of the pontifices, as well as many historical facts, show that the pontifices were competent to perform sacrifice in a general sense (Marq. p. 248 foll.); but it is possible that they never had the right, like the flamines, actually to slay the victim. I do not feel sure that the _securis_ was really one of their symbols, though Horace seems to say so in _Ode_ iii. 23. 12. The whole question needs further investigation. It may be found that the essential distinction between the pontifices and magistrates _cum imperio_ on the one hand, and the flamines on the other, is to be sought in the ideas of holiness connected with the shedding of blood in sacrifice. The flamen is permanently holy, having charge of constant sacrifices; _e.g._ the Dialis had duties every day. He is the duly sanctified guide for all rites within his own religious range. [356] Wissowa, _R.K._ pp. 339, 410 foll.