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

175. Ovid, Fasti, 3. 835 foll.

176. Wissowa in Lex. s. v. Minerva 2986: a model article, to which the reader must be referred for further information about Minerva.

177. Lydus, 4. 42, adds ‘Nerine,’ and further tells us that this was the last day on which the ancilia were ‘moved’ (κίνησις τῶν ὅπλων). The Salii were also active on the 24th (Fest. 278).

178. The note is thus completed by Mommsen from Varro, L. L. 6. 31 ‘Dies qui vocatur sic, Quando Rex Comitiavit Fas, is dictus ab eo quod eo die rex sacrificulus itat [we should probably read litat] ad comitium, ad quod tempus est nefas, ab eo fas’ (see Marq. 323, note 8). The MS. has ‘dicat ad comitium.’ If we adopt litat with Hirschfeld and Jordan, we are not on that account committed to the belief corrected in Praen., that it was on this day and May 24 that the Rex fled after sacrificing in comitio (see Hartmann, Röm. Kal. 162 foll.). The question will be discussed under Feb. 24.

179. Röm. Chronol. p. 241; Staatsrecht, iii. 375.

180. Gaius, 2. 101 ‘Comitia calata quae bis in anno testamentis faciendis destinata erant.’ Cp. Maine, Ancient Law, 199.

181. It may have been of Etruscan origin: Müller-Deecke, Etrusker, ii. 206. A special kind of tuba seems to have been used at funerals: Gell. N. A. 20. 2; Marq. Privatleben, i. 341.

182. For the military use, Liv. ii. 64. They were also used in sacris Saliaribus Paul. 19, s. v. Armilustrium. Wissowa (de Feriis xv) mentions a relief in which the Salii are preceded by tubicines laureati (published in St. Petersburgh by E. Schulze, 1873).

183. C. I. L. 313. He is of opinion that the note was among those ‘non tam a Verrio scriptas quam male ex scriptis eius excerptas.’

184. de Div. i. 17. 30.

185. Varro, L. L. 5. 91.

186. Varro, L. L. 6. 33; Censorinus, 2. 20. Verrius Flaccus in the heading to April in Fasti Praen.: ... ‘quia fruges flores animaliaque et maria et terrae aperiuntur.’ Mommsen, Chron. 222. Ovid quaintly forsakes the scholars to claim the month for Venus (Aphrodite), Fasti, 4. 61 foll. I do not know why Mr. Granger should call it the boar-month (from aper), in his Worship of the Romans, p. 294.

187. Segetes runcuri, Varro, R. R. I. 30. Columella’s instructions are of the same kind (II. 2).

188. C. I. L. 280.

189. Röm. Jahr, 216.

190. February has thirteen, all but two between Kal. and Ides. The Nones and Ides are NP. April has thirteen between Nones and 22nd; or fourteen if we include the 19th, which is NP in Caer. The Ides are NP, Nones N.

191. See the fragmentary heading to the month in Fasti Praen.; Ovid, l. c.; Lydus, 4. 45; Tutela Veneris, in rustic calendars; Veneralia (April 1), Philocalus.

192. Varro, R. R. 1. 1. 6: ‘Item adveneror Minervam et Venerem, quarum unius procuratio oliveti, alterius hortorum.’ Cp. L. L. 6. 20 ‘Quod tum (Aug. 19) dedicata aedes et horti ei deae dicantur ac tum fiant feriati holitores.’ Cf. Preller, Myth. i. 434 foll. The oldest Venus-temple was in the low ground of the Circus Maximus (B.C. 295). “Venus, like Ceres, may have been an old Roman deity of the plebs, but she never entered into the State-worship in early times.” Macrob. 1. 12. 12 quotes Cincius (de Fastis) and Varro to prove that she had originally nothing to do with April, and that there was no dies festus or insigne sacrificium in her honour during the month.

193. 4. 45 Ταῖς τοίνυν καλάνδαις ἀπριλλίαις αἱ σεμναὶ γυναικῶν ὑπὲρ ὁμονοίας καὶ βίου σώφρονος ἐτίμων τὴν Ἀφροδίτην· αἱ δὲ τοῦ πλήθους γυναῖκες ἐν τοῖς τῶν ἀνδρῶν βαλανείοις ἐλούοντο, πρὸς θεραπείαν αὐτῆς μυρσίνη ἐστεμμέναι, κ.τ.λ. Cp. Macrob. 1. 12. 15.

194. C. I. L. 315.

195. We shall find some reason for believing that in the early Republican period new cults came in rather through plebeian than patrician agency (see below, on Cerealia). But in the period of the new nobilitas the lower classes seem rather to have held to their own cults, while the upper social stratum was more ready to accept new ones. See below, on April 4, for the conditions of such acceptance. The tendency is to be explained by the wide and increasing sphere of the foreign relations of the Senatorial government.

196. Fasti, 4. 133-164.

197. Ovid, l. c. 149 foll.

198. Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, p. 456.

199. Quaest. Rom. 74.

200. Ovid, l. c., 4. 160 ‘Inde Venus verso nomina corde tenet.’

201. Aust, de Aedibus sacris, p. 28. About a century earlier a statue of this Venus was said to have been erected (Val. Max. 8. 15. 12; Plin. H. N. 7. 120), as Wissowa pointed out in his Essay, ‘de Veneris Simulacris,’ p. 12.

202. See above, p. 67, note 2.

203. Religion of the Semites, p. 450 foll.

204. Preller, i. 446.

205. Livy, 29. 10 and 14; Ovid (Fasti, 4. 259 foll.) has a fanciful edition of the story which well illustrates the character of his work, and that of the legend-mongers; cp. Preller, ii. 57.

206. Preller, ii. 55.

207. Plin. H. N. 18. 16; Arnobius, 7. 49.

208. Livy, 29. 10, 14.

209. See above, Introduction, p. 7.

210. de Harusp. Resp. 12. 24 ‘Qui uni ludi ne verbo quidem appellantur Latino, ut vocabulo ipso et appetita religio externa et Matris Magnae nomine suscepta declaretur.’

211. Dion. Hal. 2. 19. A very interesting passage, in which, among other comments, the historian points out that in receiving the goddess the Romans eliminated ἅπασαν τερθρείαν μυθικήν.

212. Aust, de Aedibus sacris, pp. 22 and 49.

213. Gell. 18. 2. 11 (patricii); cp. 2. 24. 2 (principes civitatis). Cp. Lydus, 4. 45; Verrius’ note in Praen., ‘Nobilium mutitationes cenarum solitae sunt frequenter fieri,’ &c.

214. See Marq. 370 foll. The Ludi eventually extended from the 4th to the 10th inclusive (C. I. L. 314).