^{page 317 note 1} Liv. viii. 9 ‘Agedum (says Decius) pontifex publicus populi Romani, praei verba quibus me pro legionibus devoveam’. Pontifex eum togam praetextam sumere iussit, et velato capite, manu subter togam ad mentum exserta, super telum subiectum pedibus stantem sic dicere, &c.; Liv. x. 28 (of the younger Decius). Devotus inde eadem precatione eodemque hdbitu quo pater se iusserat devoveri

^{page 318 note 1} This is in fact attested by a passage in Columella (E.M. 12, 4), drawn as he asserts from older writers: ‘ne contraotentur pocula nee cibi nisi ab impube aut certe abstinentissimo a rebus venereis, quibus si fuerit operatus vel vir vel femina debere eos flumine aut perenni aqua priusquam penora contingant ablui. Propter quod his necessarium esse pueri vel virginis ministerium, per quos promantur quae usus postulaverit.’The penus, be it remembered, was a holy place, and for access to it bodily holiness was thought necessary. This could be acquired by an adult only by the ‘fiction’ of washing.