images had become common, the little statuettes of Lares and Penates
would be fetched from the shrine (_lararium_) and placed upon the table
in token of their presence at the meal. Even in the luxurious,
many-roomed house of the imperial epoch, when the dining-table was far
from the kitchen-hearth, a pause was made in the meal and an offering
sent out to the household-gods, nor would the banquet proceed until the
slave had returned and announced that the gods were favourable (_deos
propitios_): so persistent was this tradition of domestic piety. Prayer
might be made at this point on special occasions to special deities,
as, for instance, before the beginning of the sowing of the crops,
appeal was made to Iuppiter, and a special portion of the meal (_daps_)
was set aside for him. The sanctification of the one occasion when the
whole household met in the day cannot fail to have had its effect on
the domestic life, and, even if it was no direct incentive to morality,
it yet bound the family together in a sense of dependence on a higher
power for the supply of their daily needs.

We observed incidentally how the small events of domestic life were
given their religious significance, particularly in connection with the
worship of Lar and Genius, but to complete the sketch of domestic
religion, we must examine a little more closely its relation to the
process of life, and especially to the two important occasions of birth
and marriage. In no department of life is the specialisation of
function among the _numina_ more conspicuous than in connection with
birth and childhood. Apart from the general protection of Iuno Lucina,
the prominent divinity of childbirth, we can count in the records that
have come down to us some twenty subordinate spirits, who from the
moment of conception to the moment of birth watched, each in its own
particular sphere, over the mother and the unborn child. As soon as the
birth had taken place began a series of ceremonies, which are of