[305] Cp. Ovid, _Fasti_, iii. 850, "_forti_ sacrificare deae." In _R.F._ p. 60 foll., I have criticised the attempts, ancient and modern, to make this Nerio the subject of myths.
[306] Macrob. i. 12. 18. This word Maiestas shows the doubtful nature of these feminine names, and probably betrays the real meaning of Maia. I may mention here that Bellona instead of Nerio is ascribed as wife to Mars by Seneca ap. Aug. _C.D._ vi. 10; also Venus to Volcanus instead of Maia. Neither have any connection, so far as we know, with the gods to whom Seneca ascribes them as wives: Venus-Vulcan is, of course, Greek. Both Augustine and Dr. Frazer might with advantage have abstained from citing Seneca on such a point: as a Spaniard by birth he was not likely to know much about technical questions of Roman ritual.
[307] See Schanz, _Gesch. der röm. Literatur_, i. 274.
[308] In the Graeco-Roman age Mars seems to have been rather a favourite subject of myth-making; see Usener's article on Italian myths in _Rhein. Mus._ vol. xxx.; Roscher in _Myth. Lex._ for works of Graeco-Etruscan art in which he appears in certain mythical scenes.
[309] H. Jordan, quoted in _R.F._ p. 61 note. I relegate to an appendix what needs to be said about the other pairs of deities mentioned by Gellius.
[311] Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 168. Carter, _op. cit._ p. 21.
[312] See Buecheler, _Umbrica_, pp. 22 and 98.
[313] So Fides is usually explained, as originally belonging to Jupiter (Wissowa, _R.K._ p. 103 foll.); but a different view is taken by Harold L. Axtell in his work on the _Deification of Abstract Ideas at Rome_ (Chicago, 1907), p. 20.
[314] In the Festschrift f. O. Hirschfeld, p. 243 foll.
[315] _Religion of the Babylonians_, introductory chapter.
[318] This fragment is No. 503 in Baehrens, _Fragm. Poet. Rom._
[320] Crawley, _The Tree of Life_, p. 256; Farnell, _Evolution of Religion_, p. 180; von Domaszewski, _Abhandlungen_, p. 166, "Man ruft sie an im Gebete als pater und mater zum Zeichen der Unterwerfung unter ihren Willen, wie der Sohn dem Gebote des paterfamilias sich fügt. Der sittlich strenge Gehorsam, der das Familienleben der Römer beherrscht, die pietas, ist der Sinn der römischen religio." Cp. also Appel, _de Rom. precationibus_, pp. 102-3, who thinks that they regarded the gods "velut patriarchas sive patres familias." He quotes Preller-Jordan i. 55 and Dieterich, _Eine Mithrasliturgie_, p. 142 sq. So too with mater--"velut mater familias."