Sublime

This convocation was called the calatio, whence came the name of calends, which was given to this day.

All this history was a material proof of the existence of the national gods; for the events which it contained were the visible form under which these gods had revealed themselves from age to age. Even among these facts there were many that gave rise to festivals and annual sacrifices. The history of the city told the citizen what he must believe a

The association naturally continued to increase, and after the same fashion; several phratries, or curies, were grouped together, and formed a tribe.

in ancient times, instead of designating marriage by its particular name, they designated it simply by the word , which signifies sacred ceremony,76

Thus religion was entirely local, entirely civic, taking this word in the ancient sense — that is to say, special to each city.297

Family, phratry, tribe, city, were, moreover, societies exactly similar to each other, which were formed one after the other by a series of federations.

In ancient times men knew of no other union than that which religion established.