Sacrifices were
offered in the temples, and with impressive ceremonies the new
authority was joyfully entrusted to him (715 B.C.).
As Romulus had given the Romans their warlike customs, so now Numa gave
them the ceremonial laws of religion; but before entering upon this
work, he divided among the people the public lands that Romulus had
added to the property of the city by his conquests, by this movement
showing that he was possessed of worldly as well as of heavenly wisdom.
He next instituted the worship of the god Terminus, who seems to have
been simply Jupiter in the capacity of guardian of boundaries. Numa
ordered all persons to mark the limits of their lands by consecrated
stones, and at these, when they celebrated the feast of Terminalia,
sacrifices were to be offered of cakes, meal, and fruits. Moses had
done something like this hundreds of years before, in the land of
Palestine, when he wrote in his laws: "Thou shalt not remove thy
neighbor's landmark, which they of old time have set, in thine
inheritance which thou shalt inherit, in the land that the Lord thy God
giveth thee." He had impressed it upon the people, repeating in a
solemn religious service the words: "Cursed be he that removeth his
neighbor's landmark," to which all the people in those primitive times
solemnly said "Amen!" You will find the same sentiment repeated in the
Proverbs of Solomon.
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