Dissertation on the Natural Knowledge of Angelic Existence

($\vartheta$) book on Avoiding Debt, p. 115.

also recognized certain daimones spirits cast down from heaven, or epagonideis contestants/wrestlers, Plutarch is the author ($\vartheta$).

§. VII.

($ι$) Curt. book 3, ch. 8, n. 22.
($κ$) book 1, Onomasticon, ch. 1, n. 23.
($λ$) book 3, Saturnalia, ch. 4.
($μ$) On the Divine Names.
($ν$) Adversaria, book 13, ch. 12.
($ξ$) in History of the Gods, Syntagma 1, p. 61 & 40.
($ο$) Theological Mythology, ch. 31.
($π$) On Occult Philosophy.
($ρ$) Treatise on the Angels of the Emperor.
($σ$) to Act 2, sc. 1, Bacchides.
($τ$) to book 1, Georgics.
($υ$) Saturnalia, book 3, ch. 9.
($φ$) book 4, ch. 3, n. 21.
($χ$) chapter 16.
($ψ$) in Life of Anthony.
($ω$) Aeneid, book 2, v. 391.

They assigned a certain Tutelary Genius not only to individual men, but also to every kingdom, province, region, city, and people, whom they called the Genius of the place, who presided over it as a patron and protector, promoting good things for it and averting evils. Indeed, they not only placed certain angels over individual provinces and cities, but also taught that the stewardships of Genii were distributed through mountains ($ι$), valleys, groves, fountains, and rivers, as the Gentiles were persuaded. This is taught by what is read everywhere among many authors concerning Topical, Tutelar, and Tutaniary Genii (whom Pollux calls polioukhous theous city-holding gods) ($κ$), such as Macrobius ($λ$), Censorinus ($μ$), Turnebus ($ν$), Lilius Giraldus ($ξ$), Pictor ($ο$), Agrippa ($π$), and Besoldus ($ρ$). Hence Taubmannus well notes that the pagans were persuaded there is no place without a Numen divine spirit/deity ($σ$). This opinion about the Genius of the Place settled so deeply into the minds of the peoples that it was a capital offense among the Romans to violate its sacred rites. Whence the true name of the Numen that presided over the City of Rome was prohibited by the law of sacred rites from being known; when a certain Tribune of the people dared to announce it, he was raised upon a cross, as Servius relates ($τ$). It was believed that the entire safety of the State was placed in this Numen, so that enemies, intending to conquer a certain city, would before all else take pains to evoke the Tutelary Numina by means of solemnly recited chants, the formula for which evocation Macrobius exhibits ($υ$). Sometimes also, having turned away from the morals of men, they would move of their own accord from the place committed to their protection, examples of which are provided by Curtius ($φ$), Lampridius ($χ$), and Plutarch ($ψ$). To this pertains what Aeneas complains of in the account of the destruction of Troy in Virgil ($ω$):

All the Gods, by whom this empire had stood,
departed, leaving their shrines and altars.