17.
They worship as their divinity, Mercury in particular, and have many images of
him, and regard him as the inventor of all arts, they consider him the guide of
their journeys and marches, and believe him to have great influence over the
acquisition of gain and mercantile transactions. Next to him they worship Apollo, and Mars, and Jupiter , and Minerva; respecting these
deities they have for the most part the same belief as other nations: that Apollo averts diseases, that Minerva imparts the invention of manufactures, that Jupiter possesses the sovereignty of the heavenly powers; that
Mars presides over wars. To him, when they have
determined to engage in battle, they commonly vow those things which they shall
take in war. When they have conquered, they sacrifice whatever captured animals
may have survived the conflict, and collect the other things into one place. In
many states you may see piles of these things heaped up in their consecrated
spots; nor does it often happen that any one, disregarding the sanctity of the
case, dares either to secrete in his house things captured, or take away those
deposited; and the most severe punishment, with torture, has been established
for such a deed.
C. Julius Caesar. Caesar's Gallic War. Translator. W. A. McDevitte. Translator. W. S. Bohn. 1st Edition. New York. Harper & Brothers. 1869. Harper's New Classical Library.
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