QUINQUATRUS or QUINQUATRĬA, a festival sacred to Minerva, which was
celebrated on the 19th of March. Ovid says that it was celebrated
for five days, that on the first day no blood was shed, but that on
the last four there were contests of gladiators. It would appear,
however, that only the first day was the festival properly so called,
and that the last four were merely an addition made perhaps in the
time of Caesar, to gratify the people, who became so passionately
fond of gladiatorial combats. On the fifth day of the festival,
according to Ovid, the trumpets used in sacred rites were purified;
but this seems to have been originally a separate festival called
_Tubilustrium_, which was celebrated, as we know from the ancient
calendars, on the 23rd of March, and would of course, when the
Quinquatrus was extended to five days, fall on the last day of that
festival. There was also another festival of this name, called
_Quinquatrus Minusculae_ or _Quinquatrus Minores_, celebrated on
the Ides of June, on which the tibicines went through the city in
procession to the temple of Minerva.
QUINQUENNĀLĬA, were games instituted by Nero, A.D. 60, in imitation
of the Greek festivals, and celebrated like the Greek πενταετηρίδες,
at the end of every four years: they consisted of musical, gymnastic,
and equestrian contests.