[556] See Mulder, _De notione conscientiae, quae et qualis fuerit Romanis_, Leyden, 1908, cap. 2. On p. 56 he quotes Luthard (_Die antike Ethik_, p. 131), who says of the Roman religion that it was even more an affair of the State than with any other people; hence its peculiar legal character. Though Mulder overworks his point, his chapter (especially p. 61 foll.) is full of interest. [557] Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 431. The first chapter of Ambrosch's _Studien und Andeutungen_, in which the nature and history of the Regia was first really investigated, is still valuable. An excellent short account is given by Mr. Marindin in his article in the _Dict. of Antiquities_, ed. 2. It is now generally maintained that the Regia in historical times was rather a building for sacred purposes than a residence for a man and his family, and this I hold to be correct; but it may for all that have originally been the residence of the Rex and of the Pont. Max. when the Rex had disappeared. [558] See Schanz, _Gesch. der roem. Literatur_, i. 43, where a succinct account is given of modern opinion as to the so-called _ius Papirianum_. The main argument for the late date of the collection is that Cicero does not seem to have known of it when he wrote the letter _ad Fam._ ix. 21 in 46 B.C. This of course in no way affects the primitive character of the rules themselves. [559] The inference that the rules were found in the _Libri pontificum_ is inevitable in any case, but seems proved by the fact that one of them, that relating to the _spolia opima_, is stated by Festus, p. 189 (_s.v._ "opima"), to have been extracted from those books. [560] Festus, _s.v._ "pellices" and _s.v._ "plorare," which latter word is interpreted as = _inclamare_. [561] The _divi parentum_ are here generally taken as those of the particular family, and this may have been so; but cf. Wissowa, _R.K._ 192. [562] For the attempts of Pais in Italy and Lambert in France to date the Tables at the end of the fourth century or later, see Schanz, _op. cit._ i. 41. In Germany opinion is universally in favour of the traditional date. [563] See _Social Life at Rome in the Age of Cicero_, p. 135. [564] On the religious character of _confarreatio_ see De Marchi, _La Religione nella vita privata_, i. p. 145 foll. [565] Cic. _de Domo_, 12. 14; Gellius, v. 19.