e. do, dico, addico) sine piaculo licet fari.’
Footnote 19:
Liv. 9. 46.
Footnote 20:
Macr. 1. 16. 14. Cp. the mutilated note of Verrius in _Fasti
Praenestini_ (Jan. 3).
Footnote 21:
Gell. 4. 9. 5. Varro, _L. L._ 6. 29. 30.
Footnote 22:
Livy, 6. 1. 11. Macrob. i. 16. 22.
Footnote 23:
Festus 165. See Mommsen’s restoration of the passage in _C. I. L._ 290
B.; another, less satisfactory, in Huschke, _Röm. Jahr_, 240.
Footnote 24:
Mommsen (_C. I. L._ 290, A) still holds to his view that NP is only an
old form of N, brought into use for purposes of differentiation. His
criticism of other views makes it difficult to put faith in them; but
I cannot help thinking that the object of the mark was not only to
distinguish the religious character of the days from those marked N,
but to show that civil business might be transacted on them after the
sacrificial rites were over, owing to the rapid increase of legal
business. Ovid may be alluding to this, though confusing NP with EN,
in _Fasti_ i. 51, where the words, ‘Nam simul exta deo data sunt,
licet omnia fari,’ do not suit with Verrius’ note on EN, but may
really explain NP.
Footnote 25:
_Fasti Praen._, Jan. 10. Varro, _L. L._ 6. 31. Maer. 1. 16. 3.
Footnote 26:
For the names of the fragments of _Fasti_, see next section.
Footnote 27:
‘Fastos circa forum in albo proposuit, ut quando lege agi posset
sciretur,’ Liv. 9. 46. 5; Cic. _Att._ 6. 1. 8. On the latter passage
Mommsen has based a reasonable conjecture that the Fasti had been
already published in one of the last two of the Twelve Tables, and
subsequently again withdrawn. (_Chron._ 31 and note.)
Footnote 28:
Macrob. 1. 12. 16.
Footnote 29:
_C. I. L._ 207 B. Petronius (_Cena_ 30) suggests the way in which
copies might be set up in private houses. In municipia copies might be
made and given to the town by private persons (so probably were Maff.
and Praen.) or put up by order of the decuriones.
Footnote 30:
Including the Fasti Maffeiani, which is almost complete.
Footnote 31:
No. 20 in _C. I. L._ (Guidizzolenses), found at Guidizzolo between
Mantua and Verona.
Footnote 32:
Maffeiani, Tusculani, Pinciani, Venusini.
Footnote 33:
Those of Caere, Praeneste, Amiternum, and Antium.
Footnote 34:
Suet. _de Grammaticis_, 19.
Footnote 35:
Circ. A.D. 10: cf. _C. I. L._ 206. There are a few additional notes
apparently by a later hand.
Footnote 36:
Menologium rusticum Colotianum, and Men. rusticum Vallense in _C. I.
L._ 280, 281.
Footnote 37:
Merkel’s edition (1841), with its valuable Prolegomena, is
indispensable; very useful too is that by H. Peter; Leipzig, 1889.
Footnote 38:
_Tristia_, ii. 549.
Footnote 39:
_C. I. L._ 297 foll. (de feriis).
Footnote 40:
To these we may perhaps add the _Poplifugia_ and _Lucaria_ in July,
the legends about which we can neither accept nor refute.
Footnote 41:
See Festus, 245; and _Dict. Ant._ s. v. Sacra.
Footnote 42:
Varro’s works, _de Antiquitatibus humanis_ and _divinis_, and many
others, only survive in the fragments quoted by later authors.
Footnote 43:
Paul the deacon was one of the scholars who found encouragement at the
court of Charles the Great. His work is an abridgement of that of
Festus, not of Verrius himself. On Verrius and his epitomators, as
well as on the other writers who used his glosses, see H. Nettleship’s
valuable papers in _Essays in Latin Literature_, p. 201 foll.
Footnote 44:
For more information about Lydus see Bury, _Later Roman Empire_, ii.
183, and below under March 14.
Footnote 45:
They will be found in Bücheler’s _Umbrica_ (containing the
processional inscription of Iguvium with commentary and translation),
and Henzen’s _Acta Fratrum Arvalium_.
Footnote 46:
Preller’s _Römische Mythologie_ (ed. 3, by H. Jordan) and Marquardt’s
third volume of his _Staatsverwaltung_ (ed. Wissowa) are both
masterpieces, not only in matter but in manner.
Footnote 47:
Among the others may especially be mentioned Aust, a pupil of Wissowa,
to whom we owe the excellent and exhaustive article on Jupiter; and R.
Peter, the author of the article Fortuna and others, who largely
reflects the views of the late Prof. Reifferscheid of Breslau.
Footnote 48:
‘Hoc paene unum superest sincerum documentum,’ Wissowa, _de Feriis_,
p. 1.
Footnote 49:
This is well illustrated in the _Acta Fratrum Arvalium_ referred to
above.
Footnote 50:
A succinct account of these tendencies will be found in Marquardt, p.
72 foll. There is a French translation of this invaluable volume.
Footnote 51:
A short account of these will be found in the author’s articles in the
new edition of Smith’s _Dictionary of Antiquities_, on ‘Sacra,’
‘Sacerdos,’ and ‘Sacrificium.’ On the domestic rites, there is an
excellent book in Italian, which might well be translated: _Il Culto
privato di Roma antica_, by Prof. De-Marchi of Milan, of which only
Part I, _La Religione nella vita domestica_, has as yet appeared.
Footnote 52:
Marquardt, _Staatsverwaltung_, iii. p. 2.
Calendar.
MENSIS MARTIUS
_Fasti antiquissimi._ _Additamenta ex _Additamenta ex
fastis._ scriptoribus._
1 KAL. 1. Feriae Marti. 1. Matronalia(?).
NP Iunoni Lucinae.
2 F
3 C
4 C
5 C
6 NP
7 NON. 7. Vediovi.
F
8 F
9 C 9. Arma ancilia
movent.
10 C
11 C
12 C
13 EN
14 NP EQUIRRIA 14 (or 15?). Feriae 14. Mamuralia(?).
Marti.
15 EID. 15. Feriae Annae
NP Perennae.
16 F 16 (and 17?). Sacra
Argeorum.
17 NP LIBERALIA
AGONIA
18 C
19 N QUINQUATRUS 19. Feriae Marti.
20 C
21 C
22 N
23 NP TUBILUSTRIUM
24 Q.R.C.
F
25 C
26 C
27 NP
28 C
29 C
30 C
31 C 31. Lunae in
Aventino.
MENSIS APRILIS
_Fasti antiquissimi._ _Additamenta ex _Additamenta ex
fastis._ scriptoribus._
1 KAL. 1. Veneralia(?).
F Fortunae virili in
balneis (Verr.
Flacc.).
2 F
3 C
4 C 4. Matri Magnae.
4-10. Ludi
Megalesiaci.
5 NON. 5. Fortunae publicae
N citeriori in colle.
6 NP
7 N
8 N
9 N 9-10 or 10-11.
Oraculum Fortunae
patet (at
Praeneste).
10 N
11 N
12 N 12-19. Ludi Cereales
13 EID. NP
14 N
15 NP FORDICIDIA
16 N
17 N
18 N
19 N CEREALIA 19. Cereri Libero
Liberae.
20 N
21 NP PARILIA 21. Natalis urbis
(Philoc.).
22 N
23 NP VINALIA 23. Veneri Erycinae.
Iovi.
24 C 24. Feriae Latinae
(conceptivae)
usually about this
time.
25 NP ROBIGALIA 25. Sacrificium et
ludi.
26 F
27 C
28 NP 28. Ludi Florae, to 28. Floralia
V. Non. Mai. (May (Plin.).
3).
29 C
MENSIS MAIUS
_Fasti antiquissimi._ _Additamenta ex _Additamenta ex
fastis._ scriptoribus._
1 KAL. 1. Laribus 1. Dies natalis of
F (praestitibus). temple of Bona Dea
(Ovid).
2 F
3 C
4 C
5 C
6 C
7 NON.
[53]F
8 F
9 N LEMURIA
10 C
11 N LEMURIA
12 NP
13 N LEMURIA
14 C
15 EID. 15. Feriae Iovi 15. Sacra Argeorum
NP Mercurio Maiae. (Ovid, &c.).
16 F
17 C
18 C
19 C
20 C
21 NP AGONIA 21. Vediovi.
22 N
23 NP TUBILUSTRIUM 23. Volcano.
24 Q.R.C.
F
25 C 25. Fortunae
publicae Populi
Romani.
26 C
27 C
28 C
29 C 29. Ambarvalla
(feriae
conceptivae).
30 C
31 C
MENSIS IUNIUS
_Fasti antiquissimi._ _Additamenta ex _Additamenta ex
fastis._ scriptoribus._
1 KAL. 1. Iunoni Monetae. 1. Kalendae fabariae
N (Plin.) Ludi.
2 F
3 C 3. Bellonae in
circo.
4 C
5 NON. 5. Dio Fidio in
N colle.
6 N
7 N
8 N 8. Menti in
Capitolio.
9 N VESTALIA
10 N
11 N MATRALIA
12 N
13 EID. 13. Feriae Iovi. 13. Quinquatrus
NP minusculae.
14 [54]N
15 Q.ST.D.
F
16 C
17 C
18 C 18. Annae sacrum.
19 C
20 C 20. Summano ad
circum maximum.
21 C
22 C
23 C
24 C 24. Forti Fortunae.
25 C
26 C
27 C
28 C
29 F
MENSIS QUINTILIS
_Fasti antiquissimi._ _Additamenta ex _Additamenta ex
fastis._ scriptoribus._
1 KAL. N
2 N
3 N
4 NP
5 NP POPLIFUGIA
6 N 6-13. Ludi
Apollinares.
7 NON. N 7. Nonae Caprotinae
(Varro).
8 N
9 N 9. Vitulatio
(Varro).
10 C
11 C
12 C
13 C
14 C 14-19. Mercatus.
15 EID. NP
16 F
17 C
18 C 18. Dies Alliensis.
19 NP LUCARIA
20 C
21 NP LUCARIA
22 C
23 NP NEPTUNALIA
24 N
25 NP FURRINALIA
26 C
27 C
28 C
29 C
30 C 30. Fortunae
huiusque diei in
campo.
31 C
MENSIS SEXTILIS
_Fasti antiquissimi._ _Additamenta ex _Additamenta ex
fastis._ scriptoribus._
1 KAL. F 1. Spei ad forum 1. Laribus
holitorium. compitalibus? (Ovid,
5. 147).
2 NP
3 C
4 C
5 NON. F 5. Saluti in colle
Quir.
6[55] F
7 C
8 C 8 (or 9?) Soli
Indigiti in colle
Quir.
9 F
10 C
11 C
12 C 12. Herculi invicto
ad circ. max.
13 EID. NP 13. Feriae Iovi.
14 F Dianae in Aventino.
15 C Vortumno in
Aventino, &c. (see
p. 198).
16 C
17 NP PORTUNALIA 17. Ianoad theatrum
Marcelli.
18 C
19[56] FP VINALIA
20 C
21 NP CONSUALIA 21. Conso in
Aventino.
22 EN
23 NP VOLCANALIA 23. Volcano in circo
Flaminio, &c.
24 C 24. Mundus patet
(Festus).
25 NP OPICONSIVIA
26 C
27 NP VOLTURNALIA
28 C
29 F
MENSIS SEPTEMBER
_Fasti antiquissimi._ _Additamenta ex _Additamenta ex
fastis._ scriptoribus._
1 KAL.
F
2 F
3 F
4 C 4-12. Ludi Romani.
5 NON.
F
6 F
7 C
8 C
9 C
10 C
11 C
12[57] N
13 EID. 13. Iovi epulum.
NP Feriae Iovi.
14 F 14. Equorum
probatio.
15[58] N 15-19. Ludi Romani
in circo.
16 C
17 C
18 C
19 C
20 C 20-23. Mercatus.
21 C
22 C
23 F
24 C
25 C
26 C
27 C
28 C
29 F
MENSIS OCTOBER
_Fasti antiquissimi._ _Additamenta ex _Additamenta ex
fastis._ scriptoribus._
1 KAL. 1. Tigillo sororio
N Acili. Fidei in
Capitolio.
2 F
3 C
4 C
5 C 5. Mundus patet.
6[59] C
7 NON. 7. Iovi fulguri.
F Iunoni Curriti in
campo.
8 F
9 C
10 C
11 NP MEDITRINALIA
12 C
13 NP FONTINALIA 13. Feriae Fonti.
14 EN
15 EID. 15. Feriae Iovi. 15. Sacrifice of
NP October horse
(Festus).
16 F
17 C
18 C
19 NP ARMILUSTRIUM
20 C
21 C
22 C
23 C
24 C
25 C
26 C
27 C
28 C
29 C
30 C
31 C
MENSIS NOVEMBER
_Fasti antiquissimi._ _Additamenta ex _Additamenta ex
fastis._ scriptoribus._
1 KAL.
F
2 F
3 C
4 C 4-17. Ludi plebeii.
5 F
6 NON.
F
7 C
8 C
9 C
10 C
11 C 13. Feriae Iovi.
Iovi epulum.
12 C
13 EID. 13. (or 14?).
NP Feroniae in campo.
Fortunae
Primigeniae.
14 F
15 C
16 C
17 C 14. Equorum
probatio.
18 C 18-20. Mercatus.
19 C
20 C
21 C
22 C
23 C
24 C
25 C
26 C
27 C
28 C
29 F
MENSIS DECEMBER
_Fasti antiquissimi._ _Additamenta ex _Additamenta ex
fastis._ scriptoribus._
1 KAL. 1. Neptuno Pietati 1. Fortunae muliebri
N ad circ. max. (Dionys.).
2 N
3 N 3. Sacra Bonae Deae
(Plutarch, &c.).
4 C
5 NON. 5. Faunalia rustica
F (Horace).
6 F
7 C
8 C 8. Tiberino in
insula.
9 C
10 C
11 NP AG[ONIA] IN. 11. Septimontium
(Festus; Varro).
12 EN 12. Conso in
Aventino.
13 EID. 13. Telluri et
NP Cereri in Carinis.
14 F
15 NP CONSUALIA
16 C
17 NP SATURNALIA
18 C
19 NP OPALIA
20 C
21 NP DIVALIA
22 C 22. Laribus
permarinis in
porticu Minucia.
23 NP LARENTALIA
24 C
25 C
26 C
27 C
28 C
29 F
MENSIS IANUARIUS
_Fasti antiquissimi._ _Additamenta ex _Additamenta ex
fastis._ scriptoribus._
1 KAL. F 1. Aesculapio
Vediovi in insula
2 F
3 C 3-5 (circa).
Compitalia or ludi
compitales.
4 C
5 NON. F
6 F
7 C
8 C
9 [NP] AGONIA
10 EN
11 NP CARMENTALIA 11. ‘Inturnalia’
Servius.
12 C
13 EID. NP
14 EN
15 NP CARMENTALIA
16 C
17 C
18 C
19 C
20 C
21 C
22 C
23 C
24 C 24-26. Sementivae or
Paganalia (Ovid)
(feriae
conceptivae).
25 C
26 C
27 C 27. Castori et
Polluci (dedication
of temple).
28 C
29 F
MENSIS FEBRUARIUS
_Fasti antiquissimi._ _Additamenta ex _Additamenta ex
fastis._ scriptoribus._
1 KAL. 1. Iunoni Sospitae
N (Ovid).
2 N
3 N
4 N
5 NON. 5. Concordiae in
NP arce (Praen.).
6 N
7 N
8 N
9 N
10 N
11 N
12 N
13 EID. 13. Fauno in insula 13-21. Parentalia.
NP (Esq.).
14 N
15 NP LUPERCALIA
16 EN
17 NP QUIRINALIA 17. Last day of
Fornacalia (feriae
conceptivae).
‘Stultorum feriae’
(Paulus, &c.).
18 C
19 C
20 C
21[60] FP FERALIA
22 C
23 NP TERMINALIA
24 N REGIFUGIUM
25 C
26 EN
27 NP EQUIRRIA
28 C
Footnote 53:
N. Maff. Cf. Mommsen, _C. I. L._ 294 b.
Footnote 54:
F. Tusc. Cf. Mommsen, _C. I. L._ 294 b.
Footnote 55:
NP. Antiat. N. minores 6.
Footnote 56:
F. Antiat. Allif. NP Vall.
Footnote 57:
NP Vall. C. Antiat. _C. I. L._ 294.
Footnote 58:
C. Vall. Antiat.
Footnote 59:
N. Antiat. Cf. _C. I. L._ 294.
Footnote 60:
F. Maff.
MENSIS MARTIUS.
The mensis Martius stands alone among the Roman months. Not only was it
the first in matters both civil and religious down to the time of Julius
Caesar, but it is more closely associated with a single deity than any
other, and that deity the protector and ancestor of the legendary
founder of the city. It bears too the name of the god, which is not the
case with any other month except January; and it is less certain that
January was named after Janus than that March was named after Mars. The
cult of Janus is not specially obvious in January except on a single
day; but the cult of Mars is paramount all through March, and gives a
peculiar character to the month’s worship.
It follows on a period which we may call one of purification, or the
performance of piacular duties towards dead ancestors and towards the
gods; and this has itself succeeded a time of general festivity in the
homestead, the group of homesteads, the market, and the cross-roads. The
rites of December and January are for the most part festive and social,
those of February mystic and melancholy—characteristics which have their
counterpart in the Christian Christmas, New Year, and Lent. The rites of
March are distinct from those of either period, as we shall see. They
again are followed by those of April, the opening month, which are gay
and apt to be licentious; then comes the mensis Maius or month of
growth, which is a time of peril for the crops, and has a certain
character of doubt and darkness in its rites; lastly comes June, the
month of maturity, when harvest is close at hand, and life begins to
brighten up once more. After this the Roman months cease to denote by
their names those workings of nature on which the husbandman’s fortune
for the year depends.
By a process of elimination we can make a guess at the kind of ideas
which must have been associated with the month which the Romans called
Martius, even before examining its rites in detail. It is the time when
the spring, whose first breath has been felt in February, begins to show
its power upon the land[61]. Some great _numen_ is at work, quickening
vegetation, and calling into life the powers of reproduction in man and
the animals. The way in which this quickening Power or Spirit was
regarded by primitive man has been very carefully investigated of recent
years, and though the variation is endless both in myth and in ritual,
we may now safely say that he was looked on as coming to new life after
a period of death, or as returning after an absence in the winter, or as
conquering the hostile powers that would hinder his activity. Among
civilized peoples these ideas only survive in legend or poetry, or in
some quaint bit of rural custom, often semi-dramatic, which may or may
not have found its way into the organized cults of a city state of
Greece or Italy, or even into the calendar of a Christian Church. But
when these survivals have been collected in vast numbers both from
modern Europe and from classical antiquity, and compared with the
existing ideas and practices of savage peoples, they can leave no doubt
in our minds as to the general character of the primitive husbandman’s
conception of the mysterious power at work in spring-time.
It was this Power, we can hardly doubt, that the Latins knew by the name
of Mars, the god whose cult is so prominent throughout the critical
period of the quickening processes. We know him in Roman literature as a
full-grown deity, with characteristics partly taken from the Greeks,
partly extended and developed by a state priesthood and the usage of a
growing and cosmopolitan city. We cannot trace him back, step by step,
to his earliest vague form as an undefined Spirit, Power, or _numen_; it
is very doubtful whether we can identify him, as mythologists have often
done, with anything so obvious and definite as the sun, which by itself
does not seem to have been held responsible by primitive peoples for the
workings of nature at this time of year. We do not even know for certain
the meaning of his name, and can get no sure help from comparative
philology. Nevertheless there is a good deal of cumulative evidence
which suggests a comparatively humble origin for this great god, some
points of which we shall meet with in studying his cult during the
month. The whole subject has been worked up by Roscher in the article on
Mars in his _Mythological Lexicon_, which has the great advantage of
being based on an entire re-examination of the Mars-cult, which he had
handled in an earlier essay on Apollo and Mars.
KAL. MART. (MARCH 1). NP.
FERIAE MARTI. (PRAEN.)
N̄ MARTIS. (PHILOC.)
IUN[O]NI LUCINAE E[S]QUILIIS QUOD EO DIE AEDES EI [DEDICA]TA EST PER
MATRONAS QUAM VOVERAT ALBI[NIA] ... VEL UXOR ... SI PUERUM ... [AT]QUE
IPSA[M].... (PRAEN.)
This was the New Year’s day of the Roman religious calendar. From
Macrobius[62] we learn that in his day the sacred fire of Vesta was now
renewed, and fresh laurels fixed on the Regia, the Curiae, and the
houses of the flamens; the custom therefore was kept up long after the
first of March had ceased to be the civil New Year. Ovid alludes to the
same rites, and adds the Aedes Vestae as also freshly decorated[63]:
Neu dubites, primae fuerint quin ante Kalendae
Martis, ad haec animum signa referre potes.
Laurea flaminibus quae toto perstitit anno
Tollitur, et frondes sunt in honore novae.
Ianua tunc regis posita viret arbore Phoebi;
Ante tuas fit idem, curia prisca, fores.
Vesta quoque ut folio niteat velata recenti,
Cedit ab Iliacis laurea cana focis.
The mention of these buildings carries us back to the very earliest
Rome, when the rex and his sons and daughters[64] (Flamines and
Vestales, in their later form) performed between them the whole
religious duty of the community; to these we may perhaps add the
warrior-priests of Mars (Salii). The connexion of the decoration with
the Mars-cult is probable, if not certain; the laurel was sacred to
Mars, for in front of his _sacrarium_ in the regia there grew two
laurels[65], and it has been conjectured that they supplied the boughs
used on this day[66].
March 1 is also marked in the calendar of Philocalus as the birthday of
Mars (N̄ = natalis Martis). This appears in no other calendar as yet
discovered, and is conspicuously absent in the Fasti Praenestini; it is
therefore very doubtful whether any weight should be given to a
fourth-century writer whose calendar had certainly an urban and not a
rustic basis[67]. There is no trace of allusion to a birth of Mars _on
this day_ in Latin literature, though the day is often mentioned. There
was indeed a pretty legend of such a birth, told by Ovid under May
2[68], which has its parallels in other mythologies; Juno became
pregnant of Mars by touching a certain flower of which the secret was
told her by Flora:
Protinus haerentem decerpsi pollice florem;
Tangitur et tacto concipit illa sinu.
Iamque gravis Thracen et Iaeva Propontidis intrat
Fitque potens voti, Marsque creatus erat.
Of this tale Preller remarked long ago that it has a Greek setting: it
is in fact in its Ovidian form a reflex from stories such as those of
the birth of Athena and of Kora. Yet it has been stoutly maintained[69]
that it sprang from a real Italian germ, and is a fragment of the lost
Italian mythology. Now, though it is certainly untrue that the Italians
had no native mythology, and though there are faint traces, as we shall
see, of tales about Mars himself, yet the Latins at least so rarely took
these liberties with their deities[70], that every apparent case of a
divine myth needs to be carefully examined and well supported. In this
case we must conclude that there is hardly any evidence for a general
belief that March 1 was the birthday of Mars; and that Ovid’s story of
Juno and Mars must be looked on with suspicion so far as these deities
are concerned.
The idea that Mars was born on March 1 might arise simply from the fact
that the day was the first of his month and also the first of the year.
It is possible however to account for it in another way. It was the
_dies natalis_ of the temple of Juno Lucina on the Esquiline, as we
learn from the note in the Fasti Praenestini; and this Juno had a
special power in childbirth. The temple itself was not of very ancient
date[71], but Juno had no doubt always been especially the matrons’
deity, and in a sense represented the female principle of life[72]. To
her all kalends were sacred, and more especially the first kalends of
the year, on which we find that wives received presents from their
husbands[73], and entertained their slaves. In fact the day was
sometimes called the Matronalia[74], though the name has no technical or
religious sense. Surely, if a mother was to be found for Mars, no one
could be more suitable that Juno Lucina; and if a day were to be fixed
for his birth, no day could be better than the first kalends of the
year, which was also the dedication-day of the temple of the goddess. At
what date the mother and the birthday were found for him it is
impossible to discover. The latter may be as late as the Empire; the
former may have been an older invention, since Mars seems to have been
apt to lend himself, under Greek or Etruscan influence, somewhat more
easily to legendary treatment than some other deities[75] But we may at
any rate feel pretty sure that it was the Matronalia on March 1 that
suggested the motherhood of Juno and the birth of Mars; and we cannot,
as Roscher does, use the Matronalia to show that these myths were old
and native[76].
Yet another legend was attached to this day. It was said that the
original _ancile_, or sacred shield of Mars, fell down from heaven[77],
or was found in the house of Numa[78], on March 1. This was the type
from which were copied the other eleven belonging to the collegium of
Salii Palatini; in the legend the smith who did this work was named
Mamurius, and was commemorated in the Salian hymn[79]. These are simply
fragments of a tangle of myth which grew up out of the mystery attaching
to the Salii, or dancing priests of Mars, and to the curious shields
which they carried, and the hymns which they sang[80]; in the latter we
know that the word _Mamuri_ often occurred, which is now generally
recognized as being only a variant of the name Mars[81]. We shall meet
with the word again later in the month. This also was the first day on
which the shields were ‘moved,’ as it was called; i. e. taken by the
Salii from the _sacrarium Martis_ in the Regia[82], and carried through
the city in procession. Dionysius (ii. 70) has left us a valuable
description of these processions, which continued till the 24th of the
month; the Salii leaped and danced, reminding the writer of the Greek
Curetes, and continually struck the shields with a short spear or
staff[83] as they sang their ancient hymns and performed their
rhythmical dances.
The original object and meaning of all these strange performances is now
fairly well made out, thanks to the researches of Müllenhoff, Mannhardt,
Roscher, Frazer and others. Roscher, in his comparison of Apollo and
Mars[84], pointed out the likeness in the spring festivals of the two
gods. At Delphi, at the Theophania (7th of Bysios = March), there were
decorations, sacrifices, dances, and songs; and of these last, some were
ὔμνοι κλητικοί, or invocations to the god to appear, some παιᾶνες, or
shouts of encouragement in his great fight with the dragon, or perhaps
intended to scare the dragon away. For Apollo was believed to return in
the spring, to be born anew, and to struggle in his infancy with the
demon of evil. At other places in Greece similar performances are found;
at Delos[85], at Ortygia[86] near Ephesus, at Tegyra, and elsewhere. At
Ortygia the Κουρῆτες stood and clashed their arms to frighten away Hera
the enemy of Apollo’s mother Leto, in the annual dramatic representation
of the perilous labour of the mother and the birth of her son. These
practices (and similar ones among northern peoples) seem to be the
result of the poetical mythology of an imaginative race acting on still
more primitive ideas. From all parts of the world Mr. Frazer has
collected examples of rites of this kind occurring at some period of
real or supposed peril, and often at the opening of a new year, in which
dances, howling, the beating of pots and pans, brandishing of arms, and
even firing of guns are thought efficacious in driving out evil spirits
which bring hurt of some kind to mankind or to the crops which are the
fruits of his labour[87]. This notion of evil spirits and the
possibility of expelling them is at the root of the whole series of
practices, which in the hands of the Greeks became adorned with a
beautiful mythical colouring, while the Romans after their fashion
embodied them in the cult of their city with a special priesthood to
perform them, and connected them with the name of their great priest
king.