The Roman theatre was of early origin. The dramatic representations, like the games in the circus and the amphitheatre, were religious. As early as 114 s.c. the Censors Massala and Cas sius desired to erect a permanent theatre, but were not permitted to do so for fear that the morals of the people would suffer. The first plays were given al fresco, and then in wooden structures without seats, the senate having de' creed against seats in order that Idle manly habit of standing, combined with mental re laxation, might be the peculiar mark of the Roman peoples A century after Massala and Cassius were refused a permit, a permanent theatre was erected by Pompey. As a peace offering to the many who still regarded perman ent theatres as immoral agencies he erected on the top of his a temple. to Venus Vincitrix, •thus,' as Tertullian conceived, ascreening a censurable project under the veil of religion.* The Roman religion was a vast symbolism of things seen and of qualities apprehended. The gods representing conceptions of physical phenomena were characteristically Latin. The oldest document which has come down from Roman antiquity— the Calendar of the Roman Community—is filled with the festivals of the gods and goddesses of germination, of seed sowing, harvest, the granary, protection of vines and vats, the shepherds, the fecundation of flocks, etc. The Roman desired the part nership of his gods in his every-day employ ments, to promote increase of substance by whatever means he resorted to, whether in the keeping of flocks, seafaring or commerce. There were innumerable deities for the field, the forest and the stream, and 12 great gods Mars, Jupiter, Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Mercury, Ceres, Venus, Neptune, Vulcan, Apollo and Diana. The greatest of these was Mars, the god of killing, the divine hurler of the spear and the protector of Roman life and substance. It was a religion devoid of morality and moral purposes, and rose no higher than the sphere of business and, eventually, under Greek in fluence, of physical and intellectual pleasure. the Romans saw gods everywhere; as all nature — sky, earth and water was to them full of divinities who watched over human beings with benevolent or jealous eyes, there was no act of life which did not require a prayer or an offering, a sacrifice or a purifica tion, according to the rights prescribed by the ministers of religion: This piety, being the offspring of fear, was all the more attentive in observing signs considered favorable or the reverse; so that everything depended on re ligion — private life, from the cradle to the tomb; public life from the comitia to the field of battle; even business and pleasure. Games and races were celebrated in honor of the gods; the people's songs were hymns; their dances a prayer; their music uncouth but sacred har monies; and, as in the Middle Ages, the earliest dramas were pions mysteries. By the continual intervention of the pontiffs, who knew the necessary rites and sacred formula, by that of augurs, aruspices and all the interpreters of omens, this religion, devoid of dogmas and of clergy, of ideal and of love, was yet a great . force of cohesion for the state and a powerful discipline for the citizen.* (Duruy).
While there was no clergy there were priest hoods, the most ancient bearing relation to Mars. But those who desired anything of the grids made their prayer to them and not to the priests. This was not always a simple matter, and the habit of consulting men of skiff — not mere altar menials — resulted in two se-called colleges or corporations: the augurs and the pontifices. The former six in number — in terpreted the 1ngua of the gods from the flight of birds; the latter, five engineers, de rived their name (pontifices, bridge-builders) from their profession, managed the calendar of the state and saw that every religions and judicial function was performed on the right day.
Temples, unknown in the earliest Roman worship, came to hold a large place in the life of the city, and were probably the first pubic buildings in time and importance. There were eight types; the axles, a sacred edifice with prescribed parts; the templum, an open space or edifice consecrated by the augurs ; the fanum, a plot of ground consecrated by the pontiff; the dulubrum, an edifice consecrated to several divinities; the testa, for the deities of a desert place; the zedictila, a little temple apart; the sacellurn, a roofed or unroofed cella containing the statue of its divinity, and the lucus, a sacred grove.
Paganism was leaving its wonted temples and fans and the Christian religion was entering. Rodolfo Lanciani, after 25 years of active ex ploration of ancient Rome, by excavation and otherwise, declared that every pagan building that was capable of giving shelter to a congre gation was transformed, at one time or another, into a church or a chapel, and that patient in vestigation of the ruins of such edifices always disclosed traces of the work of the Christians, as in the faint delineation of the Saviour and the four saints in the temple of the Sybil at Tivoli and the diminutive figure of Christ on the Cross in one of the flutings of a column in the temple of Neptune. There were discernible remains of religious painting in the apse of the Basilica of Constantine disclosed by the excavations in 1828. The same excellent au
thority bears testimony to the great number of churches, there seeming to be, at one period. more of them than of habitations. Saint Paul could have said in the Eternal City that the Romans were in all things religious, whether they were of the pagan ages or the succeeding Christian era. It requires centuries for the spiritual development that gave Rome its re supremacy through the powerful agency the Roman Catholic Church.
Recent excavations have thrown consider able light on the subterranean galleries con nected with the games held in the time of Cesar in the Forum. It is clear that 12 ele vators were used to deposit quickly the various parties of combatants. Equestrian statues- were later placed above them. The square basement of Janus Medius, wells containing fragments of pottery, graves. containing chalices, have also been discovered. Under the substructure, nar row prison cells have come to light. At the foot of the Palatine were revealed the re mains of an imperial palace, later trans formed into a Christian sepulchre; also some prehistoric tombs. The ancient graffiti — that is the rough sketch or misspelled word scratched upon walls or columns by early Chris tians and thoughtless idlers — have solved many topographical problems of the ancient mono-, meats of the "Eternal City' History.— The entire period from the date of the foundation of the city, 753 B.C., to the establishment of the republic, 509 ac., is in its detailed history unknown to us, and from the mass of myth and legend it is poisible to derive the very broadest conceptions only of the be ginnings of the Roman state. This is due to the fact that the authentic records of Rome date only from 390 s.c., the year of the destruction of the city by the Gauls. Tradition, then, speaks of seven kings who, including Romulus, ruled over the city for 243 years and assigns to each definite services rendered to the state. Romulus was the founder and conqueror; his successor, Numa Pompilius, was a religious teacher; Ser vius Tullius, a political reformer and law-giver, etc. The last three kings, Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius and Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, were of Etruscan origin, whereas the earlier rulers had come from Latin stock. With the overthrow of Tarquinius Superbus in 510 the Roman kingship comes to an end. A critical study of this legendary period makes all these names and the events connected with them doubtful, but preserves the general outline of development. Rome, in the modern- view, is regarded as having had its origin in the union of three tribes, the so-called Ramnes, Tities and Luceres, of whons'.the first were of Latin blood, the second of Sabine stock and the third of doubtful affinity. The situation of Rome on the hills near the mouth of the Tiber was favor able for its development, and in the course of time the city extended its authority over the neighboring country until with the destruction of .filba Longa, the' ancient religious centre of the Latin peoples, it came to assume a pre dominant position in Latium. The Etruscan character ascribed to the last three kings points to an Etruscan conquest, and indeed throughout the early period of Rome the influence of the Etruscans to the north is marked, especially in religious customs and in architecture. From the very earliest period the inhabitants of Rome appear to have been divided into two classes, the patricians and the plebeians or plebs, with whom probably may be ranked the class of clients. It was the patricians alone that con stituted the state; the plebs had no political rights whatsoever. In fact early Rome should be regarded as consisting of two isolated com munities, one comprising the original settlers or, possibly, the conquerors of the city, the other the conquered population and later immigrants, such as those attracted to Rome by the excellent opportunities for trade it offered. Not only was the political power in the hands of the patricians, but even the early Roman religion was largely in the nature of a narrow national creed to which the plebs could not be admitted. Intermarriage between members of the populus and plebeians was forbidden. The patricians alone had the right to bear arms. Within the populus or state, the headship was vested in the rex or king, who combined in himself the functions of war leader, judge and priest, and was assisted by a council of elders or senate. The Roman "people" were divided into wards, class or Bens, and households. When assembled for the exercise of its sovereign powers it was known as the comitia curiata. A change in the relations between patricians and plebs was effected by a reform which legend ascribes to Servius Tullius. By this innovation the right of bearing arms was conferred on the plebs, and the entire free-holding Roman community was divided into five classes, on the basis of wealth. These classes were subdivided into centuries or "hundreds," and the entire military assembly of the inhabitants bore the name of coinitia centuriata, which, instituted undoubtedly for purposes of national defense, soon carne to exercise important political powers.