43
Is it because Saturn was a foreigner, and consequently takes pleasure in foreigners, or is the solution of this question also to be found in history? For it seems that in early days the treasurersPresumably the quaestores aerarii. used to send gifts to the ambassadors, which were called lautia, and they cared for the ambassadors when they were sick, and buried them at public expense if they died: but now, owing to the great number of embassies that come, this expensive practice has been discontinued: yet there still remains the preliminary meeting with the prefects of the treasury in the guise of registration.
44
Why may not the priest of Jupiter (Flamen Dialis) take an oath? Cf. Livy, xxxi. 50; Aulus Gellius, x. 15.
44
Is it because an oath is a kind of test to prove that men are free-born, and neither the body nor the soul of the priest must be subjected to any test?
44
Or is it because it is unreasonable to distrust in trivial affairs him who is entrusted with holy matters of the greatest importance?
44
Or is it because every oath concludes with a curse on perjury, and a curse is an ill-omened and gloomy thing? This is the reason why priests may not even invoke curses upon others. At any rate the priestess at Athens who was unwilling to curse Alcibiades at the people’s bidding won general approval, for she declared that she had been made a priestess of prayer, not of cursing. Cf. Life of Alcibiades, xxii. (202 f).