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So different was the old Roman from the classical Latin, that some of those ancient fragments were with difficulty intelligible to the cleverest and best educated scholars of the Augustan age. An example of the oldest Latin extant is contained in the sacred chant of the Fratres Arvales.

Other traces of the pure decimal system occur but sparingly in this field; among them are the -versus-, the Sabellian measure of surface of 100 square feet, and the Roman year of 10 months. The Duodecimal System The very earliest Latin priesthoods, the colleges of the Salii and Arvales, as well as the leagues of the Etruscan cities, were organized on the basis of the number twelve.

Other traces of the pure decimal system occur but sparingly in this field; among them are the -versus-, the Sabellian measure of surface of 100 square feet, and the Roman year of 10 months. The Duodecimal System The very earliest Latin priesthoods, the colleges of the Salii and Arvales, as well as the leagues of the Etruscan cities, were organized on the basis of the number twelve.

The old sacrificing priesthoods, such as the Fratres Arvales and the lesser Flamines, seem not to have been filled up by the pontifices whose duty it was to do so: and the Flamen Dialis, the priest of Jupiter himself, is not heard of from 89 to 11 B.C., when he appears again as a part of the Augustan religious restoration.

This can be tested by many a character; one will suffice, that of Caius Piso in the fifteenth book . Pliny and Juvenal tell us that Piso was consul suffectus under Claudius: the Tabulae Arvales add that he was a member of the College of Twelve who offered sacrifice when there was increase in the produce of the soil.

These early indications of race characteristics never died out, as we may see by the contrast between the Apollo Belvidere of the Greeks, and the Moses of Michelangelo. The oldest existing example of Latin or Roman literature is the sacred chant of the Frates Arvales. These latter composed a college of Priests whose prescribed duty was to offer prayers for abundant harvests.