[434] Cp. the language used by Livy of the second Decius (x. 29): "prae se agere formidinem ac fugam ... contacturum funebribus diris signa tela arma hostium." For spells or curses of this kind see Westermarck i. 563: a curse is conveyable by speech, especially if spoken by a magistrate or priest. "Among the Maoris the anathema of the priest is regarded as a thunderbolt that an enemy cannot escape." See also Robertson Smith, _Semites_, p. 434, for the Jewish ban, by which impious sinners, or enemies of the city and its God, were devoted to destruction. He remarks that the Hebrew verb to ban is sometimes rendered "consecrate": Micah iv. 13; Deut. xiii. 16; and Joshua vi. 26 (Jericho), which exactly answers to the consecratio of Carthage. For curses conveyable by sacrifices, as in all the cases I have mentioned, see Westermarck ii. 618 foll. 624, and the same author's paper on conditional curses in Morocco, in _Anthropological Essays_, addressed to E. B. Tylor, p. 360. [435] "Abate their pride, assuage their malice, and confound their devices." I well remember hearing this read in church throughout the Crimean war. [436] "Pro republica Quiritium," in the formula quoted above. [437] Livy viii. 10 _ad fin._ [438] See above, note 28. [439] See Marquardt, p. 276 and notes; Mommsen, _Strafrecht_, 900 foll. The subject has generally been treated from the legal point of view rather than the religious; but from the religious point of view it has generally been assumed that the sacrifice was to appease the god. So no doubt it was; but I venture also to conjecture that the victim was _vicarius_ for the contamination of the community. On the subject generally Westermarck's two chapters on human sacrifice and blood-revenge (xix. and xx. in vol. i.) are extremely well worth reading. [440] _Aen._ i. 607 foll. Cp. _Aen._ iii. 429-- praestat Trinacrii metas lustrare Pachyni cessantem, longos et circumflectere cursus, where the slow movement and circuitous course of a lustratio must have been in Virgil's mind. The movement round an object for lustral purposes is seen in _Aen._ vi. 229, "idem ter socios pura circumtulit unda," where Servius explains _circumtulit_ by _purgavit_. As early as Livius Andronicus (second century B.C.) we find "classem lustratur" of fishes swimming round a fleet (Ribb. _Trag. Fragmenta_, p. 1).