Part 6
The _tuba_, as distinguished from the _tibia_, which was the typical Italian instrument, was a long straight tube of brass with a bell mouth[181]. It was used chiefly in military[182] and religious ceremonies; and as the _comitia curiata_ was an assembly both for military and religious objects, this would suit well with Mommsen’s idea of the object of the lustration. The Tubilustrium was the day on which these instruments, which were to be used at the meeting of the comitia on the following day, were purified by the sacrifice of a lamb. Of the Atrium Sutorium, where the rite took place, we know nothing.
There are some words at the end of Verrius’ note in the Praenestine Calendar, which, as Mommsen has pointed out[183], come in abruptly and look as if something had dropped out: ‘Lutatius quidem clavam eam ait esse in ruinis Pala[ti i]ncensi a Gallis repertam, qua Romulus urbem inauguraverit.’ This _clava_ must be the _lituus_ of Romulus, mentioned by Cicero[184], which was found on the Palatine and kept in the Curia Saliorum. We cannot, however, see clearly what Verrius or his excerptor meant to tell us about it; there would seem to have been a confusion between _lituus_ in the sense of _baculum_ and _lituus_ in the sense of a _tuba incurva_. The latter was in use as well as the ordinary straight _tuba_[185]; in shape it closely resembled the _clava_ of the augur, and perhaps the resemblance led to the notion that it was the _clava_ of Romulus and not a _tuba_ which was this day purified with the other _tubae_.
* * * * *
We can learn little or nothing from the calendar of this month about the origin of Mars, and we have no other sufficient evidence on which to base a satisfactory conjecture. But from the cults of the month, and
## partly also from those of October, we can see pretty clearly what ideas
were prominent in his worship even in the early days of the Roman state. They were chiefly two, and the two were closely connected. He was the Power who must be specially invoked to procure the safety of crops and cattle; and secondly, in his keeping were the safety and success of the freshly-enrolled host with its armour and its trumpets. In short, he was that deity to whom the most ancient Romans looked for aid at the season when all living things, man included, broke into fresh activity. He represents the characteristics of the early Roman more exactly than any other god; for there are two things which we may believe with certainty about the Roman people in the earliest times—(1) that their life and habits of thought were those of an agricultural race; and (2) that they continually increased their cultivable land by taking forcible possession in war of that of their neighbours.
Footnote 61:
See Nissen, _Italienische Landeskunde_, i. 404; Ovid, _Fasti_, 3. 235—
Quid, quod hiems adoperta gelu tunc denique cedit, Et pereunt victae sole tepente nives, Arboribus redeunt detonsae frigore frondes, Uvidaque in tenero palmite gemma tumet: Quaeque diu latuit, nunc se qua tollat in auras, Fertilis occultas invenit herba vias. Nunc fecundus ager: pecoris nunc hora creandi, Nunc avis in ramo tecta laremque parat. Tempora iure colunt Latiae fecunda parentes Quarum militiam votaque partus habet.
Here we have the fertility of man, beast, and crop, all brought together: the poet is writing of March 1. The Romans reckoned spring from Favonius (Feb. 7) to about May 10 (Varro, _R. R._ 1. 38); March 1 would therefore usually be a day on which its first effects would be obvious to every one.
Footnote 62:
Sat. 1. 12. 6; Ovid, _Fasti_, 3. 135 foll.
Footnote 63:
Ovid only mentions one ‘curia’: in Macrobius the word is in the plural. Ovid must, I think, refer to the curia Saliorum on the Palatine (Marq. 431), as this was the day on which the Salii began their rites. Macrobius may be including the curia of the Quirinal Salii (Preller, i. 357).
Footnote 64:
See below, on the Vestalia in June, p. 147.
Footnote 65:
Julius Obsequens, 19.
Footnote 66:
Roscher, _Myth. Lex._ s. v. Mars, 2427. Roscher regards the use of laurel in the Mars-cult as parallel with that in the Apollo-cult and not derived from it. The point is not however certain. The laurel was used as an ἀποτρόπαιον at the Robigalia, which seems closely connected with the Mars-cult (Plin. _N. H._ 18, 161); here it could hardly have been taken over from the worship of Apollo.
Footnote 67:
Mommsen, _C. I. L._ 254.
Footnote 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).
Footnote 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.’
Footnote 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.
Footnote 71:
Aust, as quoted above. The date was probably 379 B.C. (Plin. _N. H._ 16. 235).
Footnote 72:
Roscher in _Lex._ s. v. Juno, p. 576.
Footnote 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).
Footnote 74:
_Schol. Cruq._ on Horace, l. c., and the scholiast on Juvenal, l. c.
Footnote 75:
See e. g. the mysterious scene on a cista from Praeneste given in Roscher, _Lex._ 2407, to which the clue seems entirely lost.
Footnote 76:
_Lex._ s. v. Mars, 2399; s. v. Juno, 584.
Footnote 77:
Ovid, 3. 351 foll.; Plut. _Numa_, 13.
Footnote 78:
Dion. Hal. 2. 71.
Footnote 79:
Ovid, l. c. 381 foll.
Footnote 80:
Marq. 430, and note.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 84:
See also _Myth. Lex._ s. v. Mars, p. 2404 and Apollo, p. 425.
Footnote 85:
Virg. _Aen._ 4. 143.
Footnote 86:
Strabo, 639 foll. The same also appear in the cult of Zeus; Preller-Robert, _Greek Myth._ i. 134.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 88:
_G. B._ ii. 210.
Footnote 89:
Jordan, _Krit. Beiträge_, p. 203 foll.
Footnote 90:
Cato, _R. R._ 143.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 92:
See Marq. 432, and _Dict. of Antiq._ s. v. Salii for details.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 94:
Liv. 5. 52. 7.
Footnote 95:
Dionysius, 2. 71.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 98:
Jordan, in _Commentationes in hon. Momms._ p. 365. There could not b _feriae_ on this day, as it was a _dies fastus_.
Footnote 99:
_Fast._ 3. 429 ‘Una nota est Marti Nonis; sacrata quod illis Templa putant lucos Vediovis ante duos.’
Footnote 100:
Aust, _de Aedibus sacris_, p. 33.
Footnote 101:
Polyb. 21. 10 (13); Liv. 37. 33.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 103:
The day is of course not given in these almanacs; but the position is between Isidis navigium (March 5) and Liberalia (March 17).
Footnote 104:
_de Feriis_, ix. foll. Cp. _C. I. L._ 311.
Footnote 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).
Footnote 106:
Wissowa takes both as lustrations of cavalry. Mommsen, _C. I. L._ 332, disapproves of Wissowa’s reasoning about this day.
Footnote 107:
_C. I. L._ 311.
Footnote 108:
_C. I. L._ 254.
Footnote 109:
Cf. Usener’s article on Italian Myths in _Rhein. Mus._ vol. xxx—a most interesting and suggestive piece of work, which, however, needs to be read with a critical mind, and has been too uncritically used by later writers, e. g. Roscher in his article on Mars. Frazer (_G. B._ ii. 208) adopts his conclusions about Mamurius, but, with his usual care, points out some of the difficulties in a footnote.
Footnote 110:
Usener, p. 211.
Footnote 111:
Lydus, 3. 29 and 4. 36. The words are rather obscure, but the meaning is fairly obvious. See Usener’s paraphrase, p. 210.
Footnote 112:
See above, p. 38.
Footnote 113:
Cp. what he says of the Salii singing of Janus κατὰ τὸν τῶν Ἰταλικῶν μηνῶν ἀριθμόν (4. 2).
Footnote 114:
e. g. in Numa 13.
Footnote 115:
_Aen._ 7. 188. Thilo and Hagen seem to think that Servius wrote _peltas_ (shields) on the evidence of one MS, wrongly, I think.
Footnote 116:
_Octavius_, 24. 3.
Footnote 117:
What is the meaning of _vetera_ here?
Footnote 118:
_Golden Bough_, ii. 208.
Footnote 119:
Mr. Frazer is careful to point out in a note that Lydus only mentions the name Mamurius. But as we know that Mamurius was called Veturius in the Salian hymn, and as Veturius may perhaps mean _old_, it is inferred that the skin-clad man was ‘the old Mars.’ The argument is shaky; its only strength lies in the Slavonic and other parallels.
Footnote 120:
Lydus is thought to have made a mistake in attributing it to the 15th (Ides); if so, he may have confused other matters in this curious note. But he is certainly explicit enough here (4. 36), and refers to the usual sacrifice to Jupiter on the Ides, and to ‘public prayers for the salubrity of the coming year,’ which we may be sure would be on the Ides, and not on a day of even number. I do not feel at all sure that Lydus was wrong as to the date, the more so as the Ides of May (which month has a certain parallelism with March) is the date of another curious ceremony of this primitive type, that of the _Argei_.
Footnote 121:
This was first noticed by Grimm (_Teutonic Mythology_, Eng. Trans., vol. ii. 764 foll.). Since then Mannhardt (_Baumkultus_, 410 foll.) and Mr. Frazer (_G. B._ i. 257 foll. and 264 foll.) have worked it out and explained it (see especially i. 275). It is generally believed that Death, or whatever be the name applied to the human being or figure expelled in these rites, signifies the extinct spirit of vegetation of the past year. I agree with Mr. Frazer, as against Usener and Roscher (_Lex._ s. v. Mars), that it is not any abstract conception of the year, or at least was not such originally.
Footnote 122:
This fusion of two apparently different ideas in a single ceremony has previously been explained by Mr. Frazer, pp. 205 foll. On p. 210 he notices the curious and well-authenticated rite of driving out hunger at Chaeronea (Plutarch, _Quaest. Conviv._ 6. 8), which would offer an interesting parallel to the Roman, if we could but be sure of the details of the latter. Another from Delphi (Plut. _Quaest. Graec._ 12, mentioned by Usener, does not seem to me conclusive); but that of the ‘man in cowhide’ from the Highlands (_G. B._. ii. 145) is singularly like the Roman rite as Lydus describes it, and took place on New Year’s eve.
Footnote 123:
See above, p. 47.
Footnote 124:
I am the more disposed to suspect Lydus’ account, as in the same sentence he mentions a sacrifice which is conducted by priests of the Magna Mater Idaea: ἱεράτευον δὲ καὶ ταῦρον ἑξέτη ὑπὲρ τῶν ἐν τοῖς ὄρεσιν ἀγρῶν ἡγουμένου τοῦ ἀρχιερέως καὶ τῶν κανηφόρων τῆς μητρόχου· ἤγετο δὲ καὶ ἄνθρωπος κ.τ.λ. For the difficulties of this passage, and suggested emendations, see Mommsen, _C. I. L_. 312, note on Id. Mart; Marq. 394, note 5. What confusion of cults may not have taken place, either in Lydus’ mind or in actual fact?
Footnote 125:
Both these notes are _additamenta_: Anna does not appear in the large letters of the Numan calendar. We cannot, however, infer from this that her festival was not an ancient one; for, as Wissowa points out, the same is the case with the very primitive rite of the ‘October horse’ (_de Feriis_, xii). The day is only marked EID in _Maff. Vat._, the two calendars in which this part of the month is preserved; i. e. the usual sacrifice to Jupiter on the Ides was indicated (cp. Lydus, 4. 36), and the Ides fixed for the 15th. The additional notes, according to Wissowa, were for the use of the priests; but, considering the popular character of the festival, I am inclined to doubt this rule holding good in the present instance.
Footnote 126:
Ovid, _Fasti_, 3. 523 foll.
Footnote 127:
‘Via Flaminia ad lapidem primum’ (Vat.): this would be near the present Porta del Popolo, and close to the river.
Footnote 128:
See Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, p. 240, for the jovial character of some primitive forms of religion, and the absence of a sense of sin.
Footnote 129:
Ov. l. c. 541 ‘Occurri nuper: visa est mihi digna relatu Pompa. Senem potum pota trahebat anus.
Footnote 130:
_Sat._ 1. 12. 6. Cp. Lydus, _de Mens_. 4. 36.
Footnote 131:
_Annare perennare_ is to complete the circle of the year: cp. Suet. _Vespas_. 5 ‘puella nata non _perennavit_.’ Anna Perenna herself is probably a deity manufactured out of these words, and the idea they conveyed (cf. Janus Patulcius and Clusius, Carmenta Prorsa Postverta); not exactly a _deity of the year_, but one whom it would be desirable to propitiate at the beginning of the year.
Footnote 132:
Ov. l. c. 545 foll. Sil. Ital. 8. 50 foll. Ovid also says that some thought she was the moon, ‘quia mensibus impleat annum’ (3. 657): but this notion has no value, except as indicating the belief that she represented the circle of the year.
Footnote 133:
_Aeneas und die Penaten_, ii. 717 foll. The cautious Merkel long ago repudiated such fancies; preface to Ovid’s _Fasti_, p. 177.
Footnote 134:
Liv. 1. 2. The Punic Anna is now thought to be a deity = Dido = Elissa: see Rossbach in the new edition of Pauly’s _Encyl._ i. 2223.
Footnote 135:
Her grove was not even on the Tiber-bank, but somewhere between the Via Flaminia and the Via Salaria, i.e. in the neighbourhood of the Villa Borghese: as we see from the obscure lines of Martial, 4. 64. 17 (he is looking from the Janiculum):
Et quod virgineo cruore gaudet Annae pomiferum nemus Perennae. Illinc Flaminiae Salariaeque Gestator patet essedo tacente, &c.
There is no explanation of _virgineo cruore_: but I would rather retain it than adopt even H. A. J. Munro’s _virgine nequiore_. See Friedländer, ad loc.
Footnote 136:
This seems to be Usener’s suggestion, p. 207.
Footnote 137:
_Fasti_, 3. 675.
Footnote 138:
No doubt this should be Nerio: see below on March 17.
Footnote 139:
There is some ground for believing that the two words implied two deities on occasion or originally: Varro, _Sat. Menipp._ fr. 506 ‘Te Anna ac Peranna’ (Riese, p. 219).
Footnote 140:
Wissowa (_de Feriis_ x) thinks Ovid’s tale mere _nugae_: but this learned scholar never seems to be able to comprehend the significance of folk-lore.
Footnote 141:
_Fasti_, 3 661 foll.
Footnote 142:
Varro (_L. L._ 6. 14) calls them ‘sacerdotes Liberi,’ by courtesy, we may presume: and it is noticeable that Ovid describes this old Anna as wearing a _mitra_, which, in Propert. v. (iv.) 2. 31, is characteristic of Bacchus: ‘Cinge caput mitra: speciem furabor Iacchi.’
Footnote 143:
Op. cit. 208.
Footnote 144:
See Pauly, _Encycl._ vol. i. 2223. This is Wissowa’s opinion.
Footnote 145:
See on Jan. 9.
Footnote 146:
Cic. _ad Fam._ 12. 25. 1; _Att._ 9. 9. 4; _Auct. Bell. Hisp._ 31.
Footnote 147:
Varro, _L. L._ 6. 14 ‘In libris Saliorum, quorum cognomen Agonensium, forsitan his dies ideo appellatur potius Agonia.’ So Masurius Sabinus (in Macrob. _Sat._ 1. 4. 15), ‘Liberalium dies a pontificibus agonium Martiale appellatur.’
Footnote 148:
See above, p. 53, where I have expressed a doubt whether this custom originally belonged to the Liberalia. It is alluded to in Ovid, _Fasti_, 3. 725 foll., and Varro, _L. L._ 6. 14.
Footnote 149:
This is the view of Wissowa in _Myth. Lex._ s. v. Liber, 2022. Cp. Aust, _Lex._ s. v. Iuppiter, 662.
Footnote 150:
It is only once attested of Roman worship, viz. in the calendar of the Fratres Arvales (Sept. 1 ‘Iovi Libero, Iunoni Reginae in Aventino,’ _C. I. L._ i. 214); but is met with several times among the Osco-Sabellian peoples.
Footnote 151:
So Hehn, _Kulturpflanzen_, &c., p. 70 foll. But Hehn is only thinking of the later Liber, whom he considers an ‘emanation’ from Jupiter Liber = Dionysus, introduced with the vine from Greece. See Aust, _Lex._ s. v. Iuppiter, 662.
Footnote 152:
See on April 23.
Footnote 153:
Ovid, _Fasti_, 3. 771 foll.
Footnote 154:
Marq. _Privatleben_, i. 122 note 2.
Footnote 155:
Ovid, l. c., 783 foll.; Marq. l. c. and 123, 124. Military service began anciently at seventeen (Tubero, ap. Gell. 10. 28): though even praetextati sometimes served voluntarily (Marq. op. cit. 131). Even if not called out at once, the boys would begin the practice of arms from the assumption of the toga virilis.
Footnote 156:
Marq. op. cit. 124. Libero in Ca[pitolio], Farn. For Iuventas, Dion. Hal. 3. 69, 4. 15.
Footnote 157:
This result is obtained by comparing Ovid, _Fasti_, 3. 791
Itur ad Argeos—qui sint, sua pagina dicet— Hac, si commemini, praeteritaque die.
(where he refers to his description of the rite of May 15, and appears to identify the _simulacra_ and _sacella_), with Gell. _N. A._ 10. 15, who says that the Flaminica Dialis, ‘cum it ad Argeos’ was in mourning dress: also with the fragments of the ‘Sacra Argeorum’ in Varro, _L. L._ 5. 46-54. These have been shown by Jordan (_Topogr._ ii. 271 foll.) to be fragments of an itinerary, meant for the guidance of a procession, an idea first suggested by O. Müller. The further questions of the route taken, and the distribution of the sacella in the four Servian regiones, are very difficult, and need not be discussed here. See Mommsen, _Staatsrecht_, iii. 123 foll.
Footnote 158:
_L. L._ 5. 85 ‘Salii a salitando, quod facere in comitio in sacris quotannis et solent et debent.’
Footnote 159:
i. p. 81 (Keil). Why the _Comitium_ was the scene does not appear. Preller has suggested a reason (i. 364), which is by no means convincing.
Footnote 160: