He referred most of his prophetic utterances to the Muses, and taught
the Romans to worship one of them especially, whom he called Tacita,
which means silent or dumb. This seems to have been done in imitation of
Pythagoras, who especially revered silence. His legislation about images
was also connected with the Pythagorean doctrine, which says that first
principles cannot be touched or seen, but are invisible spiritual
essences; for Numa forbade the Romans to worship any likenesses of men
or of beasts. Among them there was no image of a god, either carved or
moulded, in the early times. For a hundred and seventy years they built
temples, and placed shrines in them, but made no image of any living
thing, considering that it was wrong to make the worse like the better,
and that God cannot be comprehended otherwise than by thought. Their
sacrifices also were connected with the Pythagorean doctrine; they were
for the most part bloodless, and performed with flour, libations of
wine, and all the commonest things. But besides these, there are other
distinct proofs of the connection of these two men with one another. One
of these is that the Romans enrolled Pythagoras as a citizen, as we are
told by Epicharmus the comic poet, in a letter which he wrote to
Antenor. He was a man who lived in old times and underwent the
Pythagorean training. Another proof is that of his four sons, King Numa
named one Mamercus after the son of Pythagoras; from whom sprung the
ancient patrician house of the Aemilii.
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