dess CARNA, (qua vitalibus humanis præerat), 'of MARS Extramuraneus, whose temple was without the Porta Capena, and of JUNO Moneta; on the 4th, of BELLONA; on the 7th, Ludi Piscatori; the 9th, VESTALIA, to Vesta; 10th, MATRALIA, to mother Matuta, &c. With the festivals of June, the six books of Ovid, called Fasti, end; the other six are lost.

7. In July, on the kalends, people removed (commigrabant) from hired lodgings, Cic. ad. Q. Fratr. ii. 3. Fam. xiii. 2. Suet. Tib. 35. the fourth, the festival of Female Fortune, in memory of Coriolanus withdrawing his army from the city, Liv. ii. 40. on the 5th, LUDI APPOLLINARES, LIU, xxv. 12. xxvii. 23. the 12th, the birth-day of Julius Cæsar; the 15th or ides, the procession of the Equites, (see p. 27.) the 16th, DIES ALLIENSIS, on which the Romans were defeated by the Gauls, (dies ater et funestus), Cic. Att. ix. 5. Suet. Vit. 2. the 231, NEPTUNALIA.

8. In August, on the 13th or ides, the festival of Diana; 19th, VINALIA, when a libation of new wine was made to Jupiter and Venus, Plin. xviii. 29. 18th, CONSUALIA, games in honour of Consus the god of counsel, or of Equestrian Neptune, at which the Sabine women were carried off by the Rọmans, Liv. i. 9. the 23d, VULCANALIA, Plin. Ep. iii. 5.

9. In September, on the 4th, (Prid. Non.) Ludi MAGNI or ROMANI, in honour of the great gods, Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, for the safety of the city; on the 13th, the consul or dictator (Prætor Maximus) used antiently to fix a nail in the temple of Jupiter, Liv. vii. 3. the 30th, MEDITRINALIA, to Meditrina, the goddess of curing or healing, (medendi,) when they first drank new wine.

10. In October, on the 12th, AUGUSTALIA, vel Ludi Augustales, Tacit. Annal. i, 15. the 13th, FAUNALIA; the 15th, or ides, a horse was sacrificed, called Equus Octobris, v. -ber, because Troy was supposed to have been taken in this month by means of a horse. The tail was brought with great speed. to the Regia or house of the Pontifex M. that its blood might drop on the hearth, Festus.

11. In November, on the 13th, there was a sacred feast called Epulum Jovis; on the 27th, sacred rites were performed on account of two Greeks and two Gauls, a man and woman of each, who were buried alive in the ox-market, Liv. xxii. 57. Plutarch. quæst. 83. & in Marcello; Plin. xxviii. 2. s. 3.

12. In December, on the 5th or nones, FAUNALIA, Hồrat. Od. iii, 18. on the 17th, (xvi. Kal. Jan.) SATURNA

LIA, the feasts of Saturn, the most celebrated of the whole year, when all orders were devoted to mirth and feasting, friends sent presents to one another, Suet. Aug. 75. Vesp. 19. Stat. Silv. vi. 9. and masters treated their slaves upon an equal footing, Horat. Sat. ii. 7. at first for one day, Liv. ii. 21. xxii. 1. afterwards for three, and by the order of Caligula, for five days, Dio, lix. 6. Suet. Claud. 17. Macrob. Sat. i. 10. So Claudius, Dio, Ix. 25. Two days were added, called S1GILLARIA, (a sigillis) from small images, which then used to be sent as presents, especially by parents to their children, Macrob. ibid. on the 23d. LAURENTINALIA, in honour of Laurentia Acca, the wife of Faustulus, and nurse of Romulus, Varr. L. L. v. 3.

The FERIE CONCEPTIVÆ, which were annually appointed (concipiebantur vel indicebantur) by the magistrates on a certain day, were.

1. FERIÆ LATINE, the Latin holidays, (see p. 68.) first appointed by Tarquin for one day, Liv. i. 55. After the. expulsion of the kings they were continued for two, then for three, and at last for four days, Liv. vi. 42. The consuls always celebrated the Latin feria before they set out to their provinces; and if they had not been rightly performed, or if any thing had been omitted, it was necessary that they should be again repeated, (instaurari), Liv. passim.

2. PAGANALIA, celebrated in the villages (in pagis) to the tutelary gods of the rustic tribes. See p. 79.

3. SEMENTIVE, in seed-time for a good crop, Varr.ibid. 4. COMPITALIA, to the Lares, in places where several ways met, (in compitis).

FERIÆ IMPERATIVE, were holidays appointed occasionally; as, when it was said to have rained stones, Sacrum NOVENDIALE velferiæ per novem dies, for nine days, Liv. i.' 31. for expiating other prodigies, Liv. iii. 5. xxxv. 40. xlii. 2. on account of a victory, &c. to which may be added JUSTITIUM, (cumjura stant), a cessation from business on account of some public calamity, as, a dangerous war, the death of an emperor, &c. Liv. iii. 3, 27. iv. 26, 31. vi. 2, 7. vii. 6. 28. ix. 7. x. 4, 21. Tacit. Annal. ii. 82. SUPPLICATIO et LECTISTERNIUM, &c. See p. 321.

Feria were privately observed by families and individuals on account of birth-days, prodigies, &c. The birth-day of the emperors was celebrated with sacrifices and various games, as that of Augustus the 23d September, Dio, lii. 8, 26, 34

The

The games then celebrated were called AUGUSTALIA, Dio, Ivi. 29. as well as those on the 12th of October, (iv. Id. Octob.) in commemoration of his return to Rome, Dio, liv. 10. lvi. 46. which Dio says continued to be observed in his time, under Severus, liv. 34.

DIES PROFESTI, were either Fasti or Nefasti, &c. (See P. 333.) Nundina, quasi Novendina, (see p. 84.) marketdays which happened every ninth day; when they fell on the first day of the year, it was reckoned unlucky, Dio, xl. 47. Macrob. Sat. i. 13. and therefore Augustus, who was very superstitious, Suet. Aug. 92. used to insert a day in the foregoing year to prevent it, which day was taken away from the subsequent year, that the time might agree with the arrangement of Julius Cæsar, Dio, xlviii. 33. PRÆLIARES, fighting days, and non præliares; as, the days after the kalends, nones, and ides; for they believed there was something unlucky in the word post, after, and therefore they were called Dies religiosi, atri vel infausti: Ovid. Fast. i. 58. as those days were, on which any remarkabe disaster had happened; as, Dies Alliensis, &c. Liv. vi. 1. The ides of March, or the 15th, was called PARRICIDIUM; because on that day, Cæsar, who had been called PATER PATRIE, was slain in the senate-house, Suet. Cæs. 85. & 88. Conclave, in quo casus fuerat, obstruc tum et in latrinam conversum, Dio, xlvii. 19.

As most of the year was taken up with sacrifices and holy days to the great loss of the public, Claudius abridged their sumber, Dio, lx. 17.

ROMAN GAMES.

GAMES among the ancient Romans constituted a part of religious worship. They were of different kinds at different periods of the republic. At first they were always consecrated to some god; and were either stated, (Ludi STATI), the chief of which have been already enumerated among the Roman festivals; or vowed by generals in war, (VOTIVI), or celebrated on extraordinary occasions, (EXTRAORDINARII).

At the end of every 110 years, games were celebrated for the safety of the empire, for three days and three nights, to

Z 2

Apollo

Apollo and Diana, called Ludi SECULARES. (See p. 177.) But they were not regularly performed at those periods.

The most famous games were those celebrated in the Circus Maximus; hence called Ludi Circenses; of which the chief were Ludi Romani vel Magni, Liv. i. 35.

I. LUDI CIRCENSES.

THE Circus Maximus was first built by Tarquinius Priscus, and afterwards at different times magnificently adorned. It lay betwixt the Palatine and Aventine hills, and was of an oblong circular form, whence it had its name. The length of it was three stadia or furlongs and a half, i. e. 437 paces, or 2187 feet; the breadth little more than one stadium, with rows of seats all round, called Fori or spectacula (i. e. sedilia unde spectarent), rising one above another, the lowest of stone and the highest of wood, where separate places were allotted to each Curia, and also to the Senators and to the Equites; but these last under the republic sat promiscuously with the rest of the people. (See p. 8.) It is said to have contained at least 150,000 persons, Dionys, iii. 68. or, according to others, above double that number; according to Pliny, 250,000, Plin. xxxvi. 15. s. 24. Some moderns say 380,000. Its circumference was a mile. It was surrounded with a ditch or canal, called Euripus, ten feet broad, and ten feet deep; and with porticos three stories high (coat Teisyou) both the work of Julius Cæsar. In different parts there were proper places for the people to go in and out without disturbance. On one end there were several openings, (ostia), from which the horses and chariots started, (emittebantur), called CARCERES vel Repagula, and sometimes Carcer, (quod equos coercebat, ne exirent, priusquam magistratus signum mitterit, Varro L. L. iv. 32.) first built A. U. 425. Liv. viii. 20. Before the carceres stood two small statues of Mercury, (Hermuli), holding a chain or rope to keep in the horses, Cassiodor. Tar. Ep. iii. 51. in place of which there seems sometimes to have been a white line, (alba linea), or a cross furrow filled with chalk or lime, ibid. at which the horses were made to stand in a straight row (frontibus æquabantur), by persons called MORATORES, mentioned in some ancient inscriptions. But this line, called

also

also CRETA or CALX, seems to have been drawn chiefly to mark the end of the course, or limit of victory, (ad victoriæ notam), Plin. xxxv. 17. s. 58. Isidor. xviii. 37. to which Horace beautifully alludes, Mors ultima linea rerum est, Ep. i. 16. fin.

On this end of the circus, which was in the form of a semicircle, were three balconies or open galleries, one in the middle, and one in each corner; called MANIANA, from one Menius, who, when he sold his house adjoining to the Forum, to Cato and Flaccus the censors, reserved to himself the right of one pillar, where he might build a projection, whence he and his posterity might view the shews of gladiators, which were then exhibited in the Forum, Ascon. in Cic. Suet. Cal. 18.

In the middle of the Circus, for almost the whole length of it, there was a brick wall, about twelve feet broad, and four feet high, called SPINA, Scholiast. in Juvenal. vi. 587. Cassiod. Ep. iii. 51. at both the extremities of which there were three columns or pyramids on one base, called METÆ, or goals, round which the horses and chariots turned, (flectebant), so that they always had the spina and mete on their left hand, Ovid. Am. ii. 65. Lucan. viii. 200. contrary to the manner of running among us. Whence a carceribus ad metam vel

calcem, from beginning to end. Cic. Am. 27. Sen. 23.

In the middle of the spina Augustus erected an obelisk 132 feet high, brought from Egypt; and at a small distance another 88 feet high. Near the first Meta, whence the horses set off, there were seven other pillars, either of an oval form or having oval spheres on their top, called OVA, Varr. de re Rust. i. 2. 11. which were raised or rather taken down, (tollebantur, ibid.) to denote how many rounds the charioteers had completed, one for each round; for they usually ran seven times round the course. Above each of these ova was engrav ed the figure of a dolphin. These pillars were called FÁLÆ or PHALE. Some think there were two different kinds of pillars, one with the figure of an ovum on the top, which were erected at the Meta prima; and another with the figure of a dolphin, which stood at the Meta ultima. Juvenal joins them. together, Consulit ante falas delphinorumque columnas, vi. 589. They are said to have been first constructed, A. U. 721, by Agrippa, Dio, xlix. 43. but ova ad metas curriculis numerandis, are mentioned by Livy long before, A. 577 Liv. xli. 27. as they are near 600 years after by Cassiodorus, iii. Var. Ep. 51. The figure of an egg was chosen in honour of Castor and Pollux, Dioscuri, i. e. Jove nati, Cic. Nat. D. iii. 21. agonum præ

sides):