In the city of Rome the _compita_ were the meeting-places of _vici_ (streets with houses), where sacella were erected to the Lares compitales[1236]—two in each case. For the inhabitants of the vici which thus crossed each other, the compitum was the religious centre; and thus arose a quasi-religious organization, which, as including the lowest of the population and even slaves[1237], became of much importance in the revolutionary period in connexion with the machinery of electioneering. The ‘collegia compitalicia’ were abolished by the Senate in B.C. 64, and reconstituted in B.C. 58 by a bill of Clodius _de collegiis_. Caesar again prohibited them, and the ludi compitalicii with them; but the latter were once more revived by Augustus and made part of his general reorganization of the city and its worship[1238]. The Compitalia, which the Romans ascribed to Servius Tullius or Tarquinius Superbus[1239], was probably first organized as part of the religious system of the united city in the Etruscan period, though it doubtless had its origin in the rustic ideas and practice of which we get a glimpse in the passage quoted from the Scholiast on Persius. Two features of it seem to fit in conveniently with this conjecture: (1) that already mentioned, that even the slaves had a part in it, as well as the plebs; (2) the fact that the _magistri vicorum_, who were responsible for the festival, wore the _toga praetexta_ on the day of its celebration[1240]—which looks like a Tarquinian innovation in an anti-aristocratic sense. V ID. IAN. (JAN. 9). NP? AGON. (MAFF. PRAEN.) A mutilated note in Praen. gives the word Agonium. It may be doubted whether the Roman scholars themselves knew for certain what was meant by AGON, and whether the explanations they give are anything better than guesses based on analogy[1241]. Ovid calls the day ‘dies agonalis’: Ianus agonali luce piandus erit (_Fasti_, 1. 318). Nomen agonalem credit habere diem (Ibid. 1. 324). and gives a number of amusing derivations which prove his entire ignorance. Festus[1242] gives Agonium as the name of the day (which agrees with Verrius in Fast. Praen.), and says that _agonia_ was an old word for hostia. Varro calls the day ‘agonalis’[1243]; Ovid in another place Agonalia[1244]. A god Agonius mentioned by St. Augustine[1245] is probably only an invention of the pontifices. The fact is that the Romans knew neither what the real form of the word was, nor what it meant. The attempt to explain it by the apparitor’s word at a sacrifice, _agone_? (shall I slay?) is still approved by some, but is quite uncertain[1246].