For there would not in that case have been the paramount necessity for every citizen to be present.

All females and children under power were purified through the list given to the censor, and there seems no reason why absent citizens could not have been purified in the same manner.

But participation in this sacrifice was itself the very test and essence of citizenship.

And it has been seen that a public meal was the principal religious rite of the city.

The conclusion therefore seems reasonable that the Suovetaurilia was originally also a sacrificial meal of which each citizen partook, and that the eating of the deified domestic animals in common was the essence of the rite and the act which conferred the privilege of citizenship.