Note 895 — Chapter IV · INDUSTRY: SMITHS, CUTLERS, ARMOURERS, THE ART OF MINING, CHARCOAL-MAKING, ETC.

Thus, speaking of the Alani, Ammianus Marcellinus relates: Nec templum apud eos visitur, aut delubrum ne tugurium quidem culmo tectum cerni usquam potest: sed gladius barbarico ritu humi figitur nudus, eúmque ut Martem, regionum quas circumcircant præsulem verecundiùs colunt. l. xxxi. c. 2. p. 673. Ed. Gronov. 1693. Pomp. Mel. ii. 1. In Justin too, we find relics of the worship paid of old to arms: Ab origine rerum, pro diis immortalibus veteres hastas coluêre. xliii. 3. At Chæronea in Bœotia there subsisted, down to very late times, the worship of a sceptre on which they bestowed the name of the Spear. Θεῶν δὲ μάλιστα Χαιρωνεῖς τιμῶσι τὸ σκῆπτρον ὃ ποιῆσαι Διί φησιν Ὅμηρος Ἥφαιστον, παρὰ δὲ Διὸς λαβόντα Ἑρμῆν δοῦναι Πέλοπι, Πέλοπα δὲ Ἀτρεί καταλιπεῖν, τὸν δὲ Ἀτρεά Θυέστῃ, παρὰ Θυέστου δὲ ἔχειν Ἀγαμέμνονα· τοῦτο οὖν τὸ σκῆπτρον σέβουσι, δόρυ ὀνομάζοντες. Pausan. ix. 40. 11.