[50] There has been much discussion of this question; I entirely agree with Wissowa (_R.K._ p. 354, where references are given for the opposite opinion) that there is no evidence for human sacrifice in the old Roman religion or law, except in the rule that a condemned criminal was made over to a deity (_sacer_), which may have been a legal survival of an original form of actual sacrifice. The alleged sacrifice by Julius Caesar of two mutinous soldiers in the Campus Martius (Dio Cass. xliii. 24) is of the same nature as the sacrifice of captives to Orcus in _Aen._ xi. 81, _i.e._ it is outside of the civil life and religious law; this is shown in the latter case by the mention of blood in the ritual (_caeso sparsurus sanguine flammas_), and in the former by the beheading of the mutineers. [51] Mommsen, _Strafrecht_, p. 917 foll.; Livy x. 9; Cic. _de Rep._ ii. 31. 65. All other methods of execution were bloodless. _Decollatio_ remained in use in the army (as in the case just mentioned), but the axe disappeared from the fasces in the city with the abolition of kingship. As further illustration of the dislike of all bloodshed, cp. the rule of XII. Tables, "mulieres genas ne radunto," _i.e._ at funerals, Cic. _de Legibus_, ii. 59, and Serv. _Aen._ iii. 67 from Varro, and v. 78. The gladiatorial _ludi_ may have been a revival of an old custom akin to human sacrifice of captives in the field. See _Social Life at Rome in the Age of Cicero_, p. 304, note 3. We may also note in this connection that there is no distinct trace of the blood-feud in old Roman law; see _Zum aeltesten Strafrecht der Kulturvoelker_, p. 38 (questions of comparative law suggested by Mommsen and answered by various specialists). Doubtless it once existed, but vanished at an early date. [52] Fowler, _R.F._ p. 242. The tail of the sacrificed horse was carried to the Regia, where the blood was allowed to drip on the sacred hearth (_participandae rei divinae gratia_), Festus, p. 178. [53] _R.F._ p. 311 foll., from Plutarch, _Rom._ 21. [54] For this practice in many ancient religions, and its substitute, the smearing of the stone with turmeric or other red stain, see Jevons, _Introduction_, p. 139 foll.; Robertson Smith, _Semites_, p. 415. [55] This is found in Zosimus ii. 1. 5; Diels, _Sibyllinische Blaetter_, 132, and 73 note. Cp. Virg. _Aen._ viii. 106; also a Greek rite. [56] _G.B._ ed. 2, i. 241 foll. [57] The bronze and iron ages, of course, overlap; see Helbig, _Italiker in der Poebene_, p. 78 foll. [58] Henzen, _Acta Fratr. Arv._ pp. 22 and 128 foll. Other examples are collected by Helbig, _op. cit._ p. 80.