Telluri plenae victima plena datur.’
Footnote 218:
Ovid, l. c. 637.
Ast ubi visceribus vitulos rapuere ministri,
Sectaque fumosis exta dedere focis,
Igne cremat vitulos quae natu maxima Virgo,
Luce Palis populos purget ut ille cinis.
Footnote 219:
See below, p. 83.
Footnote 220:
This appears plainly in Ovid’s account (_Fasti_, 4. 633 foll.), and
also in that of Lydus (4. 49): περὶ τὰ σπόριμα ὑπὲρ εὐετηρίας
ἱεράτευον. Both doubtless drew on Varro. Lydus adds one or two
particulars, that the ἀρχιερεῖς (?) scattered flowers among the people
in the theatre, and went in procession outside the city, sacrificing
to Demeter at particular stations; but he may be confusing this
festival with the Ambarvalia.
Footnote 221:
See Mannhardt, _Myth. Forsch._ 190; cp. Frazer, _G. B._ ii. 43.
Footnote 222:
Fasti Praen.; _C. I. L._ 235, and Mommsen’s note (where Apr. is
misprinted Aug.). ‘[Hoc biduo sacrific]ium maximum Fortunae Prim[i]g.
utro eorum die oraclum patet, II viri vitulum I.’
Footnote 223:
Liv. 30. 39; Friedländer in Marq. 500; Mommsen, _Münzwesen_, p. 642,
note; _Staatsrecht_, i. 586.
Footnote 224:
_C. I. L._ 298.
Footnote 225:
In the Salian hymn _duonus cerus = creator bonus_ (of Janus): cf.
Varro, L. L. 7. 26; Mommsen, _Unteritalische Dialekten_, 133. See
articles _cerus_ (Wissowa) and _Ceres_ (Birt) in _Myth. Lex._;
Bücheler, _Umbrica_, 80 and 99.
Footnote 226:
‘Ceres a creando dicta,’ Serv. Georg. 1. 7. It is worth noting that in
Nonius Marcellus, 44, _cerriti = larvati_, where _cerus_ seems to mean
a ghost. If so, we have a good example of a common origin of ghosts
and gods in the animistic ideas of early Italy.
Footnote 227:
Arnob. 3. 40, quoting one Caesius, who followed Etruscan teaching, and
held that Ceres = Genius Iovialis et Pales. See Preller-Jordan, i. 81.
Footnote 228:
Preller-Jordan, i. 62. They were not even certain whether the Genius
Urbis was masculine or feminine; Serv. _Aen._ 2. 351.
Footnote 229:
Henzen, _Acta Fr. Arv._ p. 48. In later times Ceres took the place of
Mars at the Ambarvalia, under Greek influence.
Footnote 230:
So Henzen, l. c. and his Introduction, p. ix.
Footnote 231:
_Myth. Lex_, s.v. Ceres, 861. He does not, however, dogmatize, and has
little to adduce in favour of his opinion, save the statement of
Servius (Georg. 1. 7) that ‘Sabini Cererem Panem appellant.’
Footnote 232:
Preller Jordan, ii. 26.
Footnote 233:
Aust, _de Aedibus_, pp. 5 and 40. Preller-Jordan, ii. 38.
Footnote 234:
Birt (_Myth. Lex._ 862) gives the authorities.
Footnote 235:
The _trias_ of itself would prove the Greek origin: cf. Kuhfeldt, _de
Capitoliis_, p. 77 foll.
Footnote 236:
Plin. _H. N._ 35. 154. The names of two Greek artists were inscribed
on the temple.
Footnote 237:
Mommsen, _Staatsrecht_, ii. 2, 468, note.
Footnote 238:
Dion. Hal. 6. 89; 10. 42; Liv. 3. 55 says _sacer Iovi_, but the
property was to be sold at the temple of Ceres, Liber, and Libera. The
corn-stealer also was _sacer Cereri_.
Footnote 239:
Liv. 10. 23; 27. 6; 33. 25.
Footnote 240:
Mommsen, _Hist_. i. 284, note. Cp. Schwegler, _Röm. Gesch._ ii. 275,
note 3, who thinks of an _aerarium plebis_ there. See also i. 606 and
ii. 278, note 3. According to Liv. 3. 55 senatus consulta had to be
deposited in this temple.
Footnote 241:
Burn, _Rome and the Campagna_, p. 204; Liv. 3. 31 and 32 fin.; cp. 10.
31.
Footnote 242:
e. g. by Ihne, vol. i. p. 160.
Footnote 243:
Schwegler, _R. G._ i. 783 foll.
Footnote 244:
Mommsen, _Staatsrecht_, ii. 2. 468, note 2, is doubtful as to the date
of the _cura annonae_ of the plebeian aediles. But Plin. _H. N._ 18.
3. 15 attributes it to an aedile of earlier date than Spurius Maelius
(B.C. 438); and though the Consuls may have had the general
supervision, the immediate _cura_, as far as the plebs was concerned,
would surely lie with their officers. Two points should be borne in
mind here—(1) that the plebeian population to be relieved would be a
surplus population _within the city_, not the farmer-population of the
country; (2) that it would probably be easier to transport corn by sea
than by land, as roads were few, and enemies all around.
Footnote 245:
Dion. Hal. 7.1, exposes the absurdity of Roman annalists in
attributing the corn-supply to Dionysius; but he himself talks of
Gelo. Cp. Ihne, i. 160. Ihne disbelieves the whole story, believing it
to be copied from events which happened long afterwards.
Footnote 246:
Ambrosch, _Studien_, p. 208. Tradition told that the Tarquinii had
stored up great quantities of corn in Rome, i. e. had fed their
workmen. Cp. Liv. 1. 56 and 2. 9.
Footnote 247:
Mommsen, _R. H._, bk. i. ch. 13 fin.
Footnote 248:
See under August 13 (below, p. 198) for the parallel foundation of the
temple of Diana on the Aventine, which also had a Greek and plebeian
character.
Footnote 249:
_Fasti_, 4. 681 foll. Ovid does not distinctly say that the foxes were
let loose in the Circus, but seems to imply it.
Footnote 250:
‘Factum abiit, monimenta manent; nam vivere captam
Nunc quoque lex volpem Carseolana vetat.’
The best MSS. have ‘nam dicere certam.’ Bergk conjectured ‘namque
icere captam.’ The reading given above is adopted from some inferior
MSS. by H. Peter (Leipzig, 1889), following Heinsius and Riese. Mr. S.
G. Owen of Ch. Ch., our best authority on the text of Ovid, has kindly
sent me the suggestion _namque ire repertam_, comparing, for the use
of _ire_, Ovid, _Am_. 3. 6. 20 ‘sic aeternus eas.’ This conjecture,
which occurred independently to myself, suits the sense and is close
to the reading of the best MSS.
Footnote 251:
J. Grimm, _Reinhardt der Fuchs_, cclxix (quoted by Peter). Ovid’s
explanation is of course wrong; the story is beyond doubt meant to
explain the ritual, or a law to which the ritual gave rise.
Footnote 252:
Preller-Jordan, ii. 43. See under Robigalia.
Footnote 253:
_Myth. Forsch._ 107 foll.
Footnote 254:
Ovid’s word is _terga_, but he must, I think, mean ‘tails.’
Footnote 255:
Mannhardt, op. cit. 185. Cp. Frazer, _Golden Bough_, i. 408; ii. 3 and
28 (for fertilizing power of tail).
Footnote 256:
_Zoological Mythology_, ii. 138.
Footnote 257:
It may be as well to note that the custom of tying some object in
straw—wheel, pole with cross-piece, man who slips out in time, &c.—and
then burning it and carrying it about the fields, is common in Europe
and elsewhere (Frazer, _G. B._ ii. 246 foll.). At the same time
animals are sometimes burnt in a bonfire: e.g. squirrels, cats, foxes,
&c. (_G. B._ ii. 283). The explanation of Mannhardt, adopted by Mr.
Frazer, is that they were corn-spirits burnt as a charm to secure
sunshine and vegetation. If the foxes were ever really let loose among
the fields, damage might occasionally be done, and stories might arise
like that of Carseoli, or even laws forbidding a dangerous practice.
Footnote 258:
In _C. I. L._ 315 this mark is confused with those of the 23rd.
Footnote 259:
The letters _an_ also appear in a fragment of a lost note in Esq.
Mommsen quotes Ovid, _Fasti_, 4. 775, and Tibull. 2. 5. 81 for the
idea of an _annus pastorum_ beginning on this day. I can find no
explanation of it, astronomical or other. Dion. Hal. 1. 88 calls the
day the beginning of spring, which it certainly was not.
Footnote 260:
For the form of the word see Mommsen, _C. I. L._ 315. (In Varro, _L.
L._ 6. 15, it is Palilia.) Preller-Jordan, i. 416.
Footnote 261:
‘Palilia tam privata quam publica sunt.’ Varro, ap Schol. in Persium,
1. 75. See on Compitalia, below, p. 279.
Footnote 262:
Serv. _Georg._ 3. 1: ‘Pales ... dea est pabuli. Hanc ... alii, inter
quos Varro, masculino genere vocant, ut hic Pales.’ There can be no
better proof of the antiquity of the deity in Italy.
Footnote 263:
_L. L._ 5. 53.
Footnote 264:
There was a _flamen Palatualis_ (Varro, _L. L._ 7. 45, and Fest. 245)
and an offering _Palatuar_ (Fest. 348), connected with a _Diva
Palatua_ of the Palatine, who may have been the urban and pontifical
form of Pales.
Footnote 265:
Ovid is borne out or supplemented by Tibull. 2. 5. 87 foll.; Propert.
4. 4. 75 foll.; Probus on Virg. _Georg._ 3. 1; Dionys. 1. 88, &c.
Footnote 266:
It is noticeable that sheep alone are mentioned in the ritual as Ovid
describes it.
Footnote 267:
_A. W. F._ p. 310. Cp. Frazer, _G. B._ ii. 246 foll.
Footnote 268:
_Chambers’ Journal_, July, 1842. For the custom in London, Brand,
_Pop. Antiquities_, p. 307.
Footnote 269:
So I understand Ovid: but in line 742 _in mediis focis_ might rather
indicate a fire in the _atrium_ of the house, and so Mannhardt takes
it. In that case the fire over which they leaped (line 805) was made
later on in the ceremony.
Footnote 270:
Cp. Hom. _Od_. 22. 481 Οἶσε θέειον, γρηύ, κακῶν ἄκος, οἶσε δέ μοι πῦρ,
Ὄφρα θεειώσω μέγαρον.
Footnote 271:
Tibull. 2. 5. 28 ‘Et facta agresti lignea falce Pales.’ Tib. seems
here to be transferring a rustic practice of his own day to the
earliest Romans of the Palatine. But he may be simply indulging his
imagination; and we cannot safely conclude that we have here a rude
Italian origin of anthropomorphic ideas of the gods.
Footnote 272:
Ovid, _Fasti_, 4. 743-746. esp ‘dapibus resectis.’ We can hardly
escape the conclusion that the idea of the common meal shared with the
gods was a genuine Italian one; it is found here, in the Terminalia
(Ovid, _Fasti_, 2. 655), and in the worship of Jupiter. See on Sept.
13 and Feb. 23.
Footnote 273:
_Fasti_, 4. 763 foll.
Footnote 274:
Four is unusual; three is the common number in religious rites.
Footnote 275:
‘Conversus ad ortus Die quater, et vivo perlue rore manus.’ Ovid may
perhaps be using _ros_ for fresh water of any kind; see H. Peter’s
note (Pt. II, p. 70). But the virtues of dew are great at this time of
year (e. g. May-day). See Brand, _Pop. Ant._ 218, and Mannhardt, _A.
W. F._ 312. Pepys records that his wife went out to gather May-dew;
_Diary_, May 10. 1669.
Footnote 276:
The word is _camella_ in Ovid, _Fasti_, 4. 779; cp. Petron. _Sat_,
135, and Gell. _N. A._ 16 7.
Footnote 277:
Or as Propertius has it (4. 4. 77):
‘Cumque super raros foeni flammantis acervos
Traiicit immundos ebria turba pedes.’
Footnote 278:
Ovid, _Fasti_, 4. 801 foll.; Prop. 4. 4. 73; Varro, _R. R._ 2. 1. 9.
Many other references are collected in Schwegler, _R. G._ i. 444, note
1. The tradition was certainly an ancient one, and the pastoral
character of the rite is in keeping with that of the legend. It is to
be noted that the sacrificing priest was originally the Rex Sacrorum
(Dionys. 1. 88), a fact which may well carry us back to the earliest
Roman age.
Footnote 279:
Ovid, _Fasti_, 4. 733 foll. ‘Sanguis equi suffimen erit vitulique
favilla. Tertia res durae culmen inane fabae.’ Whether the bonfire was
burnt on the Palatine itself does not seem certain, but it is a
reasonable conjecture.
Footnote 280:
He points out (p. 316) that the throwing of bones or burnt pieces of
an animal into the flames is common in northern Europe: hence bonfire
= bonefire.
Footnote 281:
_A. W. F._ 316; Frazer, _G. B._ ii. 274 foll.
Footnote 282:
Preller-Jordan, i. 268. Soranus is thought to be connected
etymologically with Sol. With this, however, Deecke disagrees
(_Falisker_, 96).
Footnote 283:
So called by Virg. _Aen._ II. 785 and Serv. ad loc. Who the deity
really was, we do not know. Apollo here had no doubt a Graeco-Etruscan
origin. Deecke (_Falisker_, 93) thinks of Dis Pater or Vediovis;
quoting Servius’ account and explanation of the cult. That the god was
Sabine, not Etruscan, is shown by the word _hirpi_.
Footnote 284:
Or of Soracte, if Soranus = Soractnus (Deecke).
Footnote 285:
Serv. l. c. tells the aetiological legend. Cp. Plin. _N. H._ 7. 11. It
has been dealt with fully by Mannhardt, _A. W. F._ 318 foll.
Footnote 286:
Plin. l. c.; Varro (ap. Serv. l. c.) asserted that they used a salve
for their feet which protected them. The same thing is said, I
believe, of the Harawara in India.
Footnote 287:
According to Strabo, p. 226, this fire-ceremony took place in the
grove of Feronia, at the foot of the hill. Feronia may have been a
corn- or harvest-deity, and of this Mannhardt makes all he can. We may
at least guess that the rite took place at Midsummer.
Footnote 288:
Cp. the cult of Zeus Lykaios in Arcadia; Farnell, _Cults of the Greek
States_, i. 41.
Footnote 289:
_Myth., Ritual, and Religion_, ii. 212.
Footnote 290:
This peculiar notation is common to this day and Aug. 19 (the Vinalia
Rustica), and to the Feralia (Feb. 21). See Introduction, p. 10.
Footnote 291:
Ovid, _Fasti_, 4. 877, asks: ‘Cur igitur Veneris festum Vinalia
dicant, Quaeritis?‘
Footnote 292:
Varro, _L. L._ 6. 16; Fest. 65 and 374. The latter gloss is: ‘Vinalia
diem festum habebant, quo die vinum novum Iovi libabant.’ Ovid,
_Fasti_, 4. 899, after telling the Mezentius story (alluded to in the
note in Praen.), adds
Dicta dies hinc est Vinalia: Iuppiter illam
Vindicat, et festis gaudet inesse suis.
Footnote 293:
Ovid, _Fasti_, 4. 871
Templa frequentari Collinae proxima portae
Nunc decet; a Siculo nomina colle tenent.
He seems to have confused this temple with that on the Capitol (Aust,
_de Aedibus_, 23).
Footnote 294:
Liv. 40. 34. 4.
Footnote 295:
Aust, ib. p. 24. Varro wrote a satire ‘Vinalia περὶ ἀφροδισίων.’
Plutarch (_Q. R._ 45) confuses Vinalia and Veneralia.
Footnote 296:
Festus, 264 and 265; in the Vallis Murcia (or Circus maximus), and the
lucus Libitinae. (In 265, xiii Kal. Sept. should be xiv.) For the date
of the former temple, 293 B.C., Liv. 10. 31. 9.
Footnote 297:
Varro, _R. R._ 1. 1; Fest. 265; Preller-Jordan, i. 441.
Footnote 298:
_C. I. L._ iv. 2776.
Footnote 299:
Varro, _L. L._ 6. 16. See _Myth. Lex._ s. v. Iuppiter, 704 foll.
Footnote 300:
Mommsen, _C. I. L._ 326. Vindemia is the _grape_-harvest. Hartmann,
_Röm. Kal._ 138, differs from Mommsen on this point.
Footnote 301:
_Q. R._ 45.
Footnote 302:
Fest. 65.
Footnote 303:
_H. N._ 18. 287.
Footnote 304:
_L. L._ 6. 16. _Hortis_ is Mommsen’s very probable emendation for
_sortis_ of the MSS. O. Müller has _sacris_, which is preferred by
Jordan (Preller, i. 196).
Footnote 305:
264.
Footnote 306:
Mommsen (_C. I. L._ 326) thinks that there is no mistake in the gloss;
but that the Vinalia Rustica represent a later and luxurious fashion
of allowing a whole year to elapse before tasting the wine, instead of
six months. From the vintage, however (end of September or beginning
of October), to August 19 is not a whole year. See under August 19.
Footnote 307:
‘Tria namque tempora fructibus metuebant, propter quod instituerunt
ferias diesque festos, Robigalia, Floralia, Vinalia.’ That the
Vinalia here referred to is the August one is clear, not only from
the order of the words, but from what follows, down to the end of
sec. 289. Secs. 287 to end of 288 deal with the Vinalia priora
_parenthetically_; in 289 Pliny returns to the Vinalia altera (or
rustica), after thus clearing the ground by making it clear that the
April Vinalia ‘nihil ad fructus attinent.’ He then quotes Varro to
show that in August the object is to avert storms which might damage
the vineyards. Mommsen, _C. I. L. 326_, seems to me to have misread
this passage.
Footnote 308:
Ovid, _Fasti_, 877 foll.: the legend was an old one for it is quoted
by Macrob. (_Sat._ 3. 5. 10) from Cato’s _Origines_. See also Hehn,
_Kulturpflanzen_, 65 foll., who is, however, in error as to the
identification of Jupiter (Liber) with Ζεὶς Ἐλευθέριος.
Footnote 309:
See Columella, 2. 12; Plin. _N. II._ 18. 91; and article, ‘Mildew,’ in
_Encycl. Brit._ For the botanical character of this parasite see
Worthington Smith’s _Diseases of Field and Garden Crops_, chs. 21 and
23; and Hugh Macmillan’s _Bible Teachings from Nature_, p. 120 foll.
Footnote 310:
_N. H._ 18. 273: cp. 154. Pliny thought it chiefly the result of _dew_
(cf. mil_dew_, German mehl_thau_), and was not wholly wrong.
Footnote 311:
The masc. is no doubt correct. Ovid, _Fasti_, 4. 907, uses the
feminine Robigo, but is alone among the older writers in doing so: see
Preller-Jordan, ii. 44, note 2.
Footnote 312:
Indigitation is the fixing of the _local action_ of a god to be
invoked, by means of his name, if I understand rightly Reifferscheid’s
view as given by R. Peter in _Myth. Lex._ s. v. Indigitamenta, p. 137.
The priest of the Robigalia was the flamen Quirinalis: Quirinus is one
form of Mars.
Footnote 313:
_de Spectaculis_, 5.
Footnote 314:
Cato, _R. R._ 141; Preller-Jordan, i. 340.
Footnote 315:
Strabo, 613: see Roscher, _Apollo and Mars_, p. 62. Ἐρυσίβη = mildew,
of which ἐρυθίβη is the Rhodian form.
Footnote 316:
See Mommsen’s ingenious explanation in _C. I. L._ 316.
Footnote 317:
_Fasti_, 4. 901 foll. The victims had been slain at Rome and in the
morning; and were offered at the grove later in the day (see Marq.
184).
Footnote 318:
Villis mantele solutis (cp. Serv. _Aen._ 12. 169).
Footnote 319:
_R. R._ 141.
Footnote 320:
So we may perhaps translate _quo sidere moto_: but Ovid certainly
thought the star rose (cf. 904). Hartmann explains Ovid’s blunder by
reference to Serv. _Georg._ 1. 218 (_Röm. Kal._ 193). See also H.
Peter, ad loc.
Footnote 321:
Mannhardt, _Myth. Forsch._ 107 foll.
Footnote 322:
Festus, 285; Paul, 45. It was outside the Porta Catularia, of which,
unluckily, nothing is known.
Footnote 323:
_N. H._ 18. 14 ‘Ita est in commentariis pontificum: Augurio canario
agendo dies constituantur priusquam frumenta vaginis exeant et
antequam in vaginas perveniant.’ For ‘_et_ antequam’ we should perhaps
read ‘_nec_ antequam.’ The _vagina_ is the sheath which protects the
ear and from which it eventually protrudes; and it seems that in this
stage, which in Italy would occur at the end of April or beginning of
May, the corn is peculiarly liable to ‘rust.’ (So Virg. _Georg._ 1.
151 ‘Ut mala _culmos_ Esset robigo’: i. e. the stalks including the
_vagina_.) See Hugh Macmillan, op. cit. p. 121.
Footnote 324:
_Myth. Forsch._ 106. Mr. Frazer (_G. B._ ii. 59: cp. i. 306) takes the
other view of this and similar sacrifices, but with some hesitation.
Footnote 325:
It must be confessed that the occurrence of red colour in victims
cannot well be always explained in this way; e. g. the red heifer of
the Israelites (Numbers xix), and the red oxen of the Egyptians (Plut.
_Isis and Osiris_, 31). But in this rite, occurring so close to the
Cerialia, where, as we have seen, _foxes_ were turned out in the
_circus maximus_, the colour of the puppies must have had some meaning
in relation to the growing crops.
Footnote 326:
‘Ludi cursoribus maioribus minoribusque.’ What these were is not
known: Mommsen, _C. I. L._ 317.
Footnote 327:
Usener, _Religionsgeschichte_, i. 298 foll.
Footnote 328:
See Introduction, p. 15.
Footnote 329:
Plin. _N. H._ 18. 286; two years earlier, according to Velleius, 1.
14. This is, I think, the only case in which a deity taken in hand by
the _decemviri sacris faciundis_ cannot be traced to a Greek origin;
but the characteristics of Flora are so like those of Venus that in
the former, as in the latter, Aphrodite may be concealed. The games as
eventually organized had points in common with the cult of Aphrodite
at Hierapolis (Lucian, _Dea Syr._ 49; Farnell, _Cults_, ii. 643); and
it is worth noting that their date (173 B.C.) is subsequent to the
Syrian war. Up to that time the games were not regular or annual
(Ovid, _Fasti_, 5. 295).
Footnote 330:
Tac. _Ann._ 2. 49; Aust, p. 17.
Footnote 331:
Plebis ad aediles: Ovid, ib. v. 287; Festus, 238, probably in error,
calls the Publicii _curule_ aediles.
Footnote 332:
Ovid, ib. 5.277 foll., in which he draws a picture of the misdoings of
the landholders. Cp. Liv. 33. 42, for the temple of Faunus _in
insula_, founded by the same means.
Footnote 333:
Ovid, ib. 5. 352.
Footnote 334:
Steuding in _Myth. Lex._ s. v. Flora. There was a Sabine month
Flusalis (Momms. _Chron._ 219) = Floralis, and answering to July.
Varro considered Flora a Sabine deity (_L. L._ 5. 74).
Footnote 335:
Varro, _L. L._ 7. 45. Flora had an ancient temple _in colle_, near the
so-called Capitolium vetus (Steuding, l. c.), i. e. in the ‘Sabine
quarter.’
Footnote 336:
Henzen, _Acta Fratr. Arv._ 146.
Footnote 337:
Ov. 5. 331 foll ‘Volt sua plebeio sacra patere choro.’
Footnote 338:
Val. Max. 2. 10. 8. Steuding in _Myth. Lex._ has oddly misunderstood
this passage, making Val. Max. write of this custom as an ancient one,
whereas he clearly implies the opposite. It was no doubt the relic of
some rude country practice, degenerated under the influence of city
life.
Footnote 339:
Lactantius, _De falsa religione_, i. 20.
Footnote 340:
Aug. _Civ. Dei_, ii. 27.
Footnote 341:
Friedländer on Martial, 8. 67. 4.
Footnote 342:
H. Peter takes this to mean that they were let loose from a net and
hunted into it again. See note ad loc. 5. 371.
Footnote 343:
See above, p. 77.
Footnote 344:
_Sat_. 5. 177:
Vigila et cicer ingere large
Rixanti populo, nostra ut Floralia possint
Aprici meminisse senes.—Cp. Hor. _Sat._ 2. 3. 182.
Footnote 345:
Friedländer, _Sittengeschichte_, ii. 286; and his note on Martial, 8.
78.
Footnote 346:
_Kind. u. Korn._ 351 foll.
Footnote 347:
Another point that may strike the reader of Ovid is the wearing of
parti-coloured dress on these days (5. 355: cp. Martial, 5. 23)—
Cur tamen ut dantur vestes Cerialibus albae,
Sic haec est cultu versicolore decens?
Flora answers him doubtfully. Was this a practice of comparatively
late date? See Friedländer, _Sittengeschichte_ ii. 275.
Footnote 348:
Mommsen in _C. I. L._ vi. p. 455 (Tabula fer. Lat.). The day was March
15 from B.C. 222 to 153; in earlier times it had been frequently
changed. See Mommsen. _Chron._ p. 80 foll.
Footnote 349:
On this office and its connexion with the _feriae_ see Vigneaux,
_Essai sur l’histoire de la praefectura urbis_, p. 37 foll.
Footnote 350:
Plin. _H. N._ 3. 69; Dionys. 4. 49. The difficult questions arising
out of the numbers given by these authorities are discussed by Beloch,
_Italischer Bund_, 178 foll., and Mommsen in _Hermes_, vol. xvii. 42
foll.
Footnote 351:
Aust, in _Myth. Lex._ s. v. Iuppiter, p. 689.
Footnote 352:
_C. I. L._ vi. 2021.
Footnote 353:
Condensed from the account given by Aust, l. c. See also
Preller-Jordan, i. 210 foll. The chief authority is Dionys. 4. 49.
Footnote 354:
e. g. Liv. 32. 1, 37. 3, in which cases some one city had not received
its portion. The result was an _instauratio feriarum_.
Footnote 355:
See below, p. 294 (Feriae Sementivae). The meaning of the _oscilla_
was not really known to the later Romans, who freely indulged in
conjectures about them. Macrob. 1. 7. 34; Serv. _Georg._ 2. 389; Paul.
121. My own belief is that, like the _bullae_ of children, they were
only one of the many means of averting evil influences.
Footnote 356:
See the passages of Livy quoted above, and add 40. 45 (on account of a
storm); 41. 16 (a failure on the part of Lanuvium).
Footnote 357:
Macrob. 1. 16. 16 ‘Cum Latiar, hoc est Latinarum solemne concipitur,
nefas est proelium sumere: quia nec Latinarum tempore, quo publice
quondam indutiae inter populum Romanum Latinosque firmatae sunt,
inchoari bellum decebat.’
Footnote 358:
See under Sept. 13.
Footnote 359:
For the characteristics and meaning of the common sacrificial meal see
especially Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, Lect. viii.
Footnote 360:
Helbig, _Die Italiker in der Poebene_, 71.
Footnote 361:
Robertson Smith, op. cit., 278 foll.
Footnote 362:
Cic. _pro Plancio_, 9. 23.
MENSIS MAIUS.
Was the name of this month taken from a deity Maia, or had it originally
only a signification of _growing_ or _increasing_, such as we might
expect in a word derived from the same root as _maior_, _maiestas_, &c.?
The following passage of Macrobius will show how entirely the Roman
scholars were at sea in their answer to this question[363]: