The Roman conceives of religion as an exchange of good offices; the worshipper brings offerings and homage; the god in return confers some advantage.[110] If after having made a present to the god the man receives nothing, he considers himself cheated.  During the illness of Germanicus the people offered sacrifices for his restoration.  When it was announced that Germanicus was dead, the people in their anger overturned the altars and cast the statues of the gods into the streets, because they had not done what was expected of them.  And so in our day the Italian peasant abuses the saint who does not give him what he asks.

=Worship.=—­Worship, therefore, consists in doing those things that please the gods.  They are presented with fruits, milk, wine, or animal sacrifices.  Sometimes the statues of the gods are brought from their temples, laid on couches, and served with a feast.  As in Greece, magnificent homes (temples[111]) were built for them, and diversions were arranged for them.

=Formalism.=—­But it is not enough that one make a costly offering to the gods.  The Roman gods are punctilious as to form; they require that all the acts of worship, the sacrifices, games, dedications, shall proceed according to the ancient rules (the rites).  When one desires to offer a victim to Jupiter, one must select a white beast, sprinkle salted meal on its head, and strike it with an axe; one must stand erect with hands raised to heaven, the abode of Jupiter, and pronounce a sacred formula.  If any part of the ceremonial fails, the sacrifice is of no avail; the god, it is thought, will have no pleasure in it.  A magistrate may be celebrating games in honor of the protecting deities of Rome; “if he alters a word in his formula, if a flute-player rests, if the actor stops short, the games do not conform to the rites; they must be recommenced."[112]

And so the prudent man secures the assistance of two priests, one to pronounce the formula, the other to follow the ritual accurately.

Every year the Arval Brothers, a college of priests, assemble in a temple in the environs of Rome where they perform a sacred dance and recite a prayer; this is written in an archaic language which no one any longer comprehends, so much so that at the beginning of the ceremony a written formulary must be given to each of the priests.  And yet, ever since the time that they ceased to comprehend it, they continued to chant it without change.  This is because the Romans hold before all to the letter of the law in dealing with their gods.  This exactness in performing the prescribed ritual is for them their religion.  And so they regarded themselves as “the most religious of men.”  “On all other points we are the inferiors or only the equals of other peoples, but we excel all in religion, that is, the worship we pay the gods.”