VV. Roman Worship of a Supreme Deity Without Image or Statue

Comte de Gabalis [1913], at sacred-texts.com

p. 298

ROMAN WORSHIP OF A SUPREME DEITY WITHOUT IMAGE OR STATUE.

VV"Numa forbade the Romans to represent the Deity in the form either of man or beast. Nor was there among them formerly any image or statue of the Divine Being; during the first hundred and seventy years they built temples, indeed, and other sacred domes, but placed in them no figure of any kind: persuaded that it is impious to represent things divine by what is perishable, and that we can have no conception of God but by the understanding." PLUTARCH, LIFE OF NUMA.