484 MUNICIPAL REGIME DISAPPEARS. BOOK V. vtrsity of origin. In the time of Augustus there wcr«, still some fifty families who, by ascending the series of their ancestors, arrived at the companions of ^neas.' Others claimed to be descendants of the Arcadian Evander, and from- time immemorial the men of these families wore upon their shoes, as a distinctive sign, a small silver crescent.' The Potilian and Pinarian fam- ilies were descended from those who were called the companions of Herctiles, and their descent was proved by the hereditary woi-ship of that god. The Tullii, Quinctii, and Servilii came from Alba after the con- quest of that city. Many families joined to their name a surname which recalled their foreign origin. There were thus the Sulpicii Camerini, the Corainii Arunci, the Sioinii Sabini, the Olaudii Kcgillenses, and the Aquillii Tusci. The Nautian family was Trojan, the Aurelii were Sabines; the Caecilii came from Praeneste, and the Octavii were originally from Velitra?. The effect of this mixing of the most diverse nations was, that from the beginning Rome was related to all the peoples that it knew. It could call itself Latin with the Latins, Sabine with the Sabines, Etruscan with the Etruscans, and Greek with the Greeks. Its national worship was also an assemblage of sev- eral quite different woi-ships, each one of which at- tached it to one of these nations. It had the Greek worship of Evander and Hercules, and boasted of pos- sessing the Trojan Palladium. Its Penates were in the Latin city of Lavinium, and it adopted from the begin- ning the Sabine worship of the god Census. Another Sabine god, Quirinus, was so firmly established at Rome that he was associated with Romulus, its founder.
- Dionysius, I. 85. * Plutarch, liom. Quest., 7G.
