Sources of knowledge about Roman deities. What did the Romans themselves know about them? No personal deity in the religion of the family. Those of the City-state are _numina_, marking a transition from animism to polytheism. Meaning of _numen_. Importance of names, which are chiefly adjectival, marking functional activity. Tellus an exception. Importance of priests in development of _dei_. The four great Roman gods and their priests: Janus, Jupiter, Mars, Quirinus. Characteristics of each of these in earliest Rome. Juno and the difficulties she presents. Vesta 114-144 LECTURE VII THE DEITIES OF THE EARLIEST RELIGION: GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS No temples in the earliest Rome; meaning of _fanum, ara, lucus, sacellum_. No images of gods in these places, until end of regal period. Thus deities not conceived as persons. Though masculine and feminine they were not married pairs; Dr. Frazer's opinion on this point. Examination of his evidence derived from the _libri sacerdotum_; meaning of Nerio Martis. Such combinations of names suggest forms or manifestations of a deity's activity, not likely to grow into personal deities without Greek help. Meaning of _pater_ and _mater_ applied to deities; procreation not indicated by them. The deities of the _Indigitamenta_; priestly inventions of a later age. Usener's theory of Sondergoetter criticised so far as it applies to Rome 145-168 LECTURE VIII RITUAL OF THE IUS DIVINUM Main object of _ius divinum_ to keep up the _pax deorum_; meaning of _pax_ in this phrase. Means towards the maintenance of the _pax_: sacrifice and prayer, fulfilment of vows, lustratio, divination. Meaning of _sacrificium_. Little trace of sacramental sacrifice. Typical sacrifice of _ius divinum_: both priest and victim must be acceptable to the deity; means taken to secure this. Ritual of slaughter: examination and _porrectio_ of entrails. Prayer; the phrase _Macte esto_ and its importance in explaining Roman sacrifice. Magical survivals in Roman and Italian prayers; yet they are essentially religious 169-199 LECTURE IX RITUAL (continued) _Vota_ (vows) have suggested the idea that Roman worship was bargaining. Examination of private vows, which do not prove this; of public vows, which in some degree do so. Moral elements in both these. Other forms of vow: _evocatio_ and _devotio_. _Lustratio_: meaning of _lustrare_ in successive stages of Roman experience. _Lustratio_ of the farm and _pagus_; of the city; of the people (at Rome and Iguvium); of the army; of the arms and trumpets of the army: meaning of _lustratio_ in these last cases, both before and after a campaign 200-222 LECTURE X