The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic An...

68. Fasti, 5. 253. There is a good parallel in Celtic mythology: the wife of Llew the Sun-hero was born of flowers (Rhys, Celt. Myth. 384). The myth is found in many parts of the world (Lang, ii. 22, and note).

69. By Usener, in his remarkable paper in Rhein. Museum, xxx. 215 foll., on ‘Italische Mythen.’ He unluckily made the mistake of supposing that Ovid told this story under June 1 (i. e. nine months before the supposed birthday of Mars). There is indeed a kind of conjunction of June and Mars on June 1, as both had temples dedicated on that day; but neither of these can well be earlier than the fourth century B.C., and no one would have thought of them as having any bearing on the birth of Mars but for Usener’s blunder (Aust, de Aedibus sacris Pop. Rom. pp. 8 and 10, and his valuable note in Roscher’s article on Mars, p. 2390). Usener also adduces the derivation of Gradivus in Fest. 97 ‘quia gramine sit ortus.’

70. The practical Roman mind applied the myth chiefly to the history of its state, and in such a way that its true mythic character was lost, or nearly so. What became in Greece mythic literature became quasi-history at Rome. Thus it is that Romulus is so closely connected with Mars in legend: the race-hero and the race-god have almost a mythical identity. The story of the she-wolf may be at least as much a myth of the birth of Mars as Ovid’s story of Juno, in spite of the fatherhood of Mars in that legend.

71. Aust, as quoted above. The date was probably 379 B.C. (Plin. N. H. 16. 235).

72. Roscher in Lex. s. v. Juno, p. 576.

73. Marq. 571, where is a list of passages referring to these gifts. Some are familiar, e. g. Horace, Od. 3. 8, and Juvenal, 9. 53 (with the scholiast in each case).

74. Schol. Cruq. on Horace, l. c., and the scholiast on Juvenal, l. c.

75. See e. g. the mysterious scene on a cista from Praeneste given in Roscher, Lex. 2407, to which the clue seems entirely lost.

76. Lex. s. v. Mars, 2399; s. v. Juno, 584.

77. Ovid, 3. 351 foll.; Plut. Numa, 13.

78. Dion. Hal. 2. 71.

79. Ovid, l. c. 381 foll.

80. Marq. 430, and note.

81. Festus, p. 131; Usener in Rhein. Mus. xxx. 209 foll. Wordsworth, Fragments and Specimens of Early Latin, p. 564 foll. Jordan (Preller, i. 336) had however doubts about the identification of Mars and Mamurius.

82. The place is not quite certain. Ambrosch (Studien, 7), who believed them to be part of the armour of the god, placed them in his sacrarium in the king’s house, with Serv. Aen. 7. 603, and this falls in with Dionysius’ version of the myth, that the shield was found in Numa’s house. With this view Preller agreed. Marquardt, (431) however, believed they were part of the armour of the priests, and as such were kept in the Curia Saliorum, which might also be called sacrarium Martis. The question is not of the first importance.

83. Dionysius (2. 70. 2) says that each was girt with a sword, and carried in his right hand, λόγχην ἢ ῥάβδον ἤ τι τοιοῦθ ἕτερον. Apparently, assuming that he had seen the procession, he did not see or remember clearly what these objects were. A relief from Anagnia (Annali del Inst. 1869, 70 foll.) shows them like a double drumstick, with a knob at each end.

84. See also Myth. Lex. s. v. Mars, p. 2404 and Apollo, p. 425.

85. Virg. Aen. 4. 143.

86. Strabo, 639 foll. The same also appear in the cult of Zeus; Preller-Robert, Greek Myth. i. 134.

87. G. B. ii. 157-182; Tylor, Prim. Cult. i. 298 foll. We have survivals at Rome, not only in the periodic Salian rites, but on particular occasions; Martial 12. 57. 15 (of an eclipse); Ovid, Fasti, 5. 441; Tibull. 1. 8. 21; Tac. Ann. 1. 28 (this was in Germany). I have known the church bells rung at Zermatt in order to stop a continuous downpour of rain in hay-harvest.

88. G. B. ii. 210.

89. Jordan, Krit. Beiträge, p. 203 foll.

90. Cato, R. R. 143.

91. Liv. 1. 20. Cp. 9. 40, where the chosen Samnite warriors wore tunicae versicolores. In each case the dress is a religious one, of the same character as that of the triumphator, and would have its ultimate origin in the war-paint of savages, which probably also has a religious signification. The trabea was the old short cavalry coat.

92. See Marq. 432, and Dict. of Antiq. s. v. Salii for details.

93. Fest. 131. The fragments may be seen in Wordsworth’s Fragments and Specimens of Early Latin, pp. 564 foll. In the chief fragment the name of Janus seems almost certainly to occur (cf. Lydus, 4. 2); and in another Lucetius (= Iupiter?). Juno and Minerva are also mentioned. See Dict. of Antiq. s. v. Salii. It is curious that Mars is more prominent in the song of the Arval Brothers.

94. Liv. 5. 52. 7.

95. Dionysius, 2. 71.

96. Usener in Rhein. Mus. xxx. 218; Roscher, Lex. s. v. Mars 2419, can only quote two very vague and doubtful passages from late writers in support of the view that the shields were symbols of the months; Lydus 4. 2. who says that the Salii sang in praise of Janus, κατὰ τὸν τῶν Ἰταλικῶν μηνῶν ἀριθμόν; and Liber glossarum, Cod. Vat. Palat. 1773 f. 40 v.: Ancilia: scuta unius anni.

97. For the evidence on this point, and others connected with the Salii, I must refer the reader to Mr. G. E. Marindin’s excellent article ‘Salii’ in the new edition of Smith’s Dict. of Antiquities, the most complete and at the same time sensible account that has appeared in recent years. (The article ‘Ancilia’ in the new edition of Pauly’s Real-Encycl. is disappointing.) Dionysius, Varro, and Plutarch are all at one about the shape of the shields, and Mr. Marindin is quite right in insisting that Ovid does not contradict them. (See the passages quoted in the article.) The coins of Licinius Stolo and of Antoninus Pius (Cohen, Méd. Cons. plate xxiv. 9, 10, and Méd. Imp. ii, no. 467) give the same peculiar shape. The bronze of Domitian, A.D. 88 (Cohen, Méd. Imp. i. plate xvii), and the coins of Sanquinius, B.C. 16 (both issued in connexion with ludi saeculares), on which are figures supposed to be Salii with round shields, have certainly been misinterpreted (e. g. in Marq. 431). See note at end of this work.

98. Jordan, in Commentationes in hon. Momms. p. 365. There could not b feriae on this day, as it was a dies fastus.

99. Fast. 3. 429 ‘Una nota est Marti Nonis; sacrata quod illis Templa putant lucos Vediovis ante duos.’

100. Aust, de Aedibus sacris, p. 33.

101. Polyb. 21. 10 (13); Liv. 37. 33.

102. See his article in Dict. Ant. He further suggests that in Philocalus’ note ancilia is an adjective, and that arma ancilia means the shields only, as the spears of Mars do not seem to have been used by the Salii.

103. The day is of course not given in these almanacs; but the position is between Isidis navigium (March 5) and Liberalia (March 17).

104. de Feriis, ix. foll. Cp. C. I. L. 311.

105. The usual sacrifice to Jupiter on the Ides is also mentioned by Wissowa in this connexion; but I should hardly imagine that it would have had a sufficiently popular character to cause any such alteration as he is arguing for. But the first full moon of the year may have become over-crowded with rites; and it was the day on which at one time the consuls entered on office, B.C. 222 to 154 (Mommsen, Chron. 102 and notes).

106. Wissowa takes both as lustrations of cavalry. Mommsen, C. I. L. 332, disapproves of Wissowa’s reasoning about this day.

107. C. I. L. 311.