Romans believed the genius of somebody was an entity that embodied his essential character, personality, and also originally his vital, generative force and "raison d' être". However the genius had no direct relationship with sex, at least in the conceptions of the classical period, even though the nuptial bed was named "lectus genialis" in honour of the Genius and brides on the day of marriage invoked the genius of their grooms. This seems to hint to a significance of the "Genius" as the propagative spirit of the "gens", of whom every human individual is an incarnation: Censorinus states: "Genius is the god under whose tutelage everyone is born and lives on", and that "many ancient authors, among whom Granius Flaccus in his "De Indigitamentis", maintain that he is one and the same with the Lar", meaning the Lar Familiaris. Festus calls him "a god endowed with the power of doing everything", then citing an Aufustius: "Genius is the son of the gods and the parent of men, from whom men receive life. Thence is he named my genius, because he begot me". Festus's quotation goes on saying: "Other think he is the special god of every place", a notion that reflects a different idea. In classic age literature and iconography he is often represented as a snake, that may appear in the conjugal bed, this conception being perhaps the result of a Greek influence. It was easy for the Roman concept of Genius to expand annexing other similar religious figures as the Lares and the Greek δαίμων ἀγαθός.