[218] Dionys. ii. 74; Festus p. 368.
[219] Plin. H.N. xviii. 3, 12.
[220] Bouché-Leclercq Les Pontifes p. 196. In the lex sacrata which protected the tribunes we meet with this distinction (Liv. iii. 55).
[221] Festus p. 318 “At homo sacer is est, quem populus judicavit ob maleficium; neque fas est eum immolari, sed qui occidit, parricidi non damnatur.” This is the meaning of sacer as employed in the leges sacratae of the early Republic (Liv. ii. 8; iii. 55).
[222] The sacramentum (literally “oath”) in the actio sacramento is best explained as an atonement (piaculum) in the form of a money payment for the expiable, because involuntary, perjury of the litigant who has maintained a false claim. When the process was secularised, the sacramentum came to be considered a simple wager. See Danz Der sacrale Schutz pp. 151 ff.
[223] Cic. de Rep. ii. 17, 31 “constituitque jus, quo bella indicerentur; quod per se justissime inventum sanxit fetiali religione, ut omne bellum, quod denuntiatum indictumque non esset, id injustum esse atque impium judicaretur.”
[224] Varro L.L. v. 86 “Fetiales ... fidei publicae inter populos praeerant; nam per hos fiebat ut justum conciperetur bellum et inde desitum, ut foedere fides pacis constitueretur. Ex his mittebantur, antequam conciperetur, qui res repeterent, etc.”
[225] Cic. de Leg. ii. 9, 21 “Foederum, pacis, belli, indutiarum ratorum fetiales judices nuntii sunto; bella disceptanto.” The word fetialis is probably connected with fateri (and Oscan fatium). Thus the “Fetiales” are speakers (oratores), cf. Festus p. 182. Dionysius (ii. 72) ascribes the creation of the Fetiales to Numa; Livy (i. 32) speaks as if they were due to Ancus Martius, but in another passage (i. 24) implies their earlier existence. Cicero attributes them to Tullus Hostilius (Cic. de Rep. ii. 17, 31). The ceremonies of the college are described in Dionys. ii. 72 and Liv. i. 32.
[226] Sometimes, the better to secure divine assistance, the enemy, his cities, and his lands were all devoted to the gods. For the incantation see Macrob. iii. 9, 10 “Dis pater Vejovis Manes, sive quo alio nomine fas est nominare ... uti vos eas urbes agrosque capita aetatesque eorum devotas consecratasque habeatis ollis legibus, quibus quandoque sunt maxime hostes devoti; eosque ego ... do devoveo.” The site of such cities was cursed, as in Republican times that of Fregellae, Carthage, and Corinth.
[227] Macrob. iii. 9, 7 “Si deus, si dea est, cui populus civitasque ... est in tutela, teque maxime, ille qui urbis hujus populique tutelam recepisti ... a vobis peto ut vos populum civitatemque ... deseratis ... proditique Romam ad me meosque veniatis, nostraque vobis loca templa sacra urbs acceptior probatiorque sit.”