will known by the method of casting lots, which appears in its origin Italian;(15) while from very ancient times—­although not apparently until the impulse was received from the East—­the more talkative gods of the Greeks imparted actual utterances of prophecy.  The Romans made efforts, even at an early period, to treasure up such counsels, and copies of the leaves of the soothsaying priestess of Apollo, the Cumaean Sibyl, were accordingly a highly valued gift on the part of their Greek guest-friends from Campania.  For the reading and interpretation of the fortune-telling book a special college, inferior in rank only to the augurs and Pontifices, was instituted in early times, consisting of two men of lore (-duoviri sacris faciundis-), who were furnished at the expense of the state with two slaves acquainted with the Greek language.  To these custodiers of oracles the people resorted in cases of doubt, when an act of worship was needed in order to avoid some impending evil and they did not know to which of the gods or with what rites it was to be performed.  But Romans in search of advice early betook themselves also to the Delphic Apollo himself.  Besides the legends relating to such an intercourse already mentioned,(16) it is attested partly by the reception of the word -thesaurus- so closely connected with the Delphic oracle into all the Italian languages with which we are acquainted, and partly by the oldest Roman form of the name of Apollo, -Aperta-, the “opener,” an etymologizing alteration of the Doric Apellon, the antiquity of which is betrayed by its very barbarism.  The Greek Herakles was naturalized in Italy as Herclus, Hercoles, Hercules, at an early period and under a peculiar conception of his character, apparently in the first instance as the god of gains of adventure and of any extraordinary increase of wealth; for which reason the general was wont to present the tenth of the spoil which he had procured, and the merchant the tenth of the substance which he had obtained, to Hercules at the chief altar (-ara maxima-) in the cattle-market.  Accordingly he became the god of mercantile covenants generally, which in early times were frequently concluded at this altar and confirmed by oath, and in so far was identified with the old Latin god of good faith (-deus fidius-).  The worship of Hercules was from an early date among the most widely diffused; he was, to use the words of an ancient author, adored in every hamlet of Italy, and altars were everywhere erected to him in the streets of the cities and along the country roads.  The gods also of the mariner, Castor and Polydeukes or, in Roman form, Pollux, the god of traffic Hermes—­the Roman Mercurius—­and the god of healing, Asklapios or Aesculapius, became early known to the Romans, although their public worship only began at a later period.  The name of the festival of the “good goddess” (-bona dea-) -damium-, corresponding to the Greek —­damion—­ or —­deimion—­, may likewise reach