Editing Manes (section)

==Lapis manalis==
{{Main|Lapis manalis}}

When a new town was founded, a round hole would be dug  and a stone called a ''lapis manalis'' would be placed in the foundations, representing a gate to [[Hades|the underworld]].<ref name="Larousse" /> Due to similar names,  the ''lapis manalis'' is often confused with the ''lapis manilis'' in commentaries even in antiquity: "The 'flowing stone' … must not be confused with the stone of the same name which, according to [[Festus (historian)|Festus]], was the gateway to the underworld."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Burriss |first=Eli Edward |date=1931 |title=Taboo, Magic, Spirits: A Study of Primitive Elements in Roman Religion |url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/tms/tms06.htm#fr_365 |location=New York |publisher=Macmillan Company |page=365 |access-date=2007-08-21 }}</ref>

{{Blockquote
|author=[[Cyril Bailey]]
|source=The Religion of Ancient Rome<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bailey |first=Cyril |date=1907 |title=The Religion of Ancient Rome |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18564 |location=London |publisher=Archibald Constable & Co. |page=5 |access-date=2007-08-21 }}</ref>
|text=Of this we have a characteristic example in the ceremony of the ''[[aquaelicium]]'', designed to produce rain after a long drought. In classical times the ceremony consisted in a procession headed by the [[College of Pontiffs|pontifices]], which bore the sacred [[rain-stone]] from its resting-place by the [[Porta Capena]] to the [[Capitolium|Capitol]], where offerings were made to the sky-deity, Iuppiter, but from the analogy of other primitive cults and the sacred title of the stone (''[[lapis manalis]]''), it is practically certain that the original ritual was the purely imitative process of pouring water over the stone.
}}