INTRODUCTION TO THE CARMEN SAECULARE. In the Mon. Ancyranum (Mommsen, c. 22) Augustus tells us that he celebrated the Secular Games in the consulship of C. Furnius and C. Silanus (B. C. 17) with Agrippa as colleague, and on behalf of the 'college of Quindecimviri.' Suetonius (Oct. 31) mentions the Ludi Saeculares' amongst ‘nonnulla ex antiquis caerimoniis paulatim abolita' which Augustus revived. Dion also (54. 18) mentions the celebration, giving the year, and saying that it professed to be the fifth time of the observance. The first extant account of their origin and earlier celebrations is in the treatise of Censorinus (in the second half of the third century A.D.) 'de die Natali,' c. 17. The games of which they professed to be the revival went under the Republic by the name of Tarentini (or Terentini) and Taurii, the former name being connected by all writers with the stagna Tarenti' or 'Terenti,' a spot at the north edge of the Campus Martius, near the river, once a swamp, and probably a warm spring (see Burn's Rome and the Campagna, p. 300), the locality of some of the chief ceremonies even in Augustus' celebration. Their origin according to some of the authorities, according to others their second celebration, was ascribed to Val. Publicola. All agree that they had only been celebrated four times before the age of Augustus. There is no trace of the name 'Saeculares' before that date, and what is said of the different celebrations goes to show that they were called forth by special emergencies, not by any recurrence of epochs. Still, there would seem to have been some tradition of such recurrence to justify Augustus' revival. On the dates of the celebrations Censorinus' authorities differed. The length of the 'saeculum' itself was diversely given at 110, as by Horace, and 100 years, as by Val. Antias, Livy, and Varro, whom Censorinus quotes. The historical performances are at varying periods, but all with some reference to an intended secular date. Merivale writes, 'The emperor Claudius repeated the games in the year A. U. c. 800, disregarding those of Augustus as irregular. Claudius was disregarded in his turn by Domitian, who renewed the celebration in 841, anticipating in his impatience, by six years, the period prescribed by Augustus. To the Augustan computation Severus conformed precisely, and repeated the solemnity in 957, after two intervals of 110 years each. Philippus, however, returned once more to the precedent of Claudius in the year of the City 1000. This was the last celebration.' The occasion of Augustus' revival or institution of these games was the close of what may be considered the first decade of the empire, the renewal to him (though professedly only for five years. more), at his own request, of the 'imperium,' which in B.C. 27 he had, apparently with difficulty, been persuaded to accept for ten years. The quindecimviri' (see on v. 70, and cp. Virg. Aen. 6. 73), the custodians of the Sibylline Books, found in them the requisite instructions. Ateius Capito, a great jurist and antiquarian, was appointed to settle the ceremonies. What these were we should have known with exactness if we had possessed the account which Tacitus gave (see Ann. 11. 11), in a book of the Histories now lost, of the celebration in Domitian's reign, on which occasion he was himself one of the quindecimviri and a praetor. As it is, the earliest extant account in literature is that which is printed below from the historian Zosimus (in the middle of the fifth century). He claims, as it will be seen, for it the authority of inscriptions (avayéуpanrai), and a fortunate discovery has recently enabled us to verify and in one or two points to supplement or correct his description. In September, 1890, there were found built into a mediaeval wall near the river bank in the old Campus Martius, by the present Church of S. Giovanni de' Fiorentini, the fragments of two columns which were erected in accordance with a 'senatus consultum' (' eo loco ubi ludi futuri sint') to record severally the celebrations of the Secular Games under Augustus and under Septimius Severus. These fragments have been pieced together, and are now to be seen in the Museo Nazionale by the Baths of Diocletian 1. According to this inscription the games of B. c. 17 took place on the 1st of June and two following days. The sacrifices described in it as offered by the Emperor and by Agrippa, who is associated with him throughout, are I. On three successive nights, 'in campo ad Tiberim.' 1. To the Moerae, an offering of ewe-lambs and goats. 2. To the Ilithyiae, an offering of cakes ('popana,' cp. Juv. 6. 541, 'liba,' 'phthoides '). 3. To Terra mater. II. On three successive days. 1. On the Capitoline to 'luppiter optimus maximus,' an offering of two boves mares.' 2. Also on the Capitoline to Juno, two 'boves feminae.' 3. On the Palatine to Apollo and Diana, an offering of cakes, as in the case of the Ilithyiae. On the last day it is added, 'sacrificioque perfecto pueri xxvII quibus denuntiatum erat patrimi et matrimi et puellae totidem carmen cecinerunt; eodemque modo in Capitolio [words possibly lost] carmen composuit Q. Horatius Flaccus.' It will be noticed that the list of sacrifices omits those to Dis and Proserpina, which are mentioned by Zosimus. In this it is in accord with Horace's Ode which knows nothing of those deities. Dis and Proserpina were, according to Censorinus, the deities to whom the original 'ludi Tarentini' were dedicated, but Augustus, though linking his 'ludi saeculares' to these in respect of place and much of the ceremonial, gave them a new turn, substituting in the nightly sacrifices the more beneficent for the darker of the Chthonian Powers, the Moerae Ilithyiae and Demeter for Dis and Proserpina, and adding the sacrifices by day to the greater deities, the place of honour being given to Apollo and Diana. The Augustan inscription has been edited and commented on by Mommsen (Ephemeris Epigraphica, 1891, pp. 225-274). There is a valuable paper upon its relation to Horace's poem, by Prof. Slaughter, of Iowa, U. S., in the Transactions of the American Philological Association, vol. 26, 1895. Account of the Ceremonies from Zosimus (2. 5). Τοιοῦτος δέ τις ὁ τρόπος ἀναγέγραπται τῆς ἑορτῆς. Περιϊόντες οἱ κήρυκες εἰς τὴν ἑορτὴν συνιέναι πάντας ἐκέλευον ἐπὶ θέαν, ἣν οὔτε πρότερον εἶδον, οὔτε μετὰ ταῦτα θεάσονται '. Κατὰ δὲ τὴν ὥραν τοῦ θέρους, πρὸ ἡμερῶν ὀλίγων τοῦ τὴν θεωρίαν ἀχθῆναι, ἐν τῷ Καπετωλίῳ καὶ ἐν τῷ νεῷ τῷ κατὰ τὸ Παλάτιον οἱ δεκαπέντε ἄνδρες ἐπὶ 5 βήματος καθήμενοι τῷ δήμῳ διανέμουσι τὰ 2 καθάρσια· ταῦτα δέ ἐστι δᾷδες καὶ θεῖον καὶ ἄσφαλτος· δοῦλοι δὲ τούτων οὐ μετέχουσιν, ἀλλὰ ἐλεύθεροι μόνοι. Συνελθόντος δὲ τοῦ δήμου παντὸς ἔν τε τοῖς ῥηθεῖσι τόποις καὶ ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ τῆς ̓Αρτέμιδος, ὃ ἐν τῷ ̓Αουεντίνῳ λόφῳ καθίδρυται, σῖτον καὶ κριθὴν ἕκαστος φέρει καὶ κύαμον 3. Καὶ ταῖς 10 Μοίραις ἄγουσι παννυχίδας μετὰ σεμνότητος ἐν ἐννέα Heyne) νυξίν. Ενστάντος δὲ τοῦ χρόνου τῆς ἑορτῆς, ἣν ἐν τρισὶν ἡμέραις ἐν τῷ τοῦ ̓́Αρεως ἐπιτελοῦσι πεδίῳ, καὶ ταῖς ἴσαις νυξί, καθιεροῦτο τὰ τελού μενα παρὰ τὴν ὄχθην τοῦ Θύμβριδος ἐν τῷ Τάραντι. Θύουσι δὲ θεοῖς, Διὶ καὶ Ἥρᾳ καὶ ̓Απόλλωνι καὶ Λητοῖ καὶ ̓Αρτέμιδι, καὶ 15 προσέτι γε Μοίραις καὶ Εἰλειθυίαις καὶ Δήμητρι καὶ Αιδῃ καὶ Περσεφόνῃ. Τῇ δὲ πρώτῃ τῶν θεωριῶν νυκτὶ δευτέρας ὥρας ὁ αὐτοκράτωρ ἐπὶ τὴν ὄχθην τοῦ ποταμοῦ τριῶν παρασκευασθέντων βωμῶν τρεῖς ἄρνας θύει μετὰ τῶν δεκαπέντε ἀνδρῶν καὶ τοὺς βωμοὺς καθαιμάξας ὁλοκαυτοῖ τὰ θύματα. Κατασκευασθείσης δὲ σκηνῆς δίκην θεάτρου 20 φῶτα ἀνάπτεται καὶ πυρά, καὶ ὕμνος ᾄδεται νεωστὶ πεποιημένος, θεωρίαι τε ἱεροπρεπεῖς ἄγονται. Κομίζονται δὲ οἱ ταῦτα ποιοῦντες μισθὸν τὰς ἀπαρχὰς τῶν καρπῶν, σίτου καὶ κριθῆς καὶ κυάμων· αὗται γάρ, ὡς εἴρηταί μοι, καὶ τῷ δήμῳ παντὶ διανέμονται. Τῇ δὲ μετὰ ταύτην ἡμέρᾳ εἰς τὸ Καπετώλιον ἀναβάντες κἀνταῦθα τὰς νενομι- 25 σμένας θυσίας προσαγαγόντες, ἐντεῦθέν τε ἐπὶ τὸ κατεσκευασμένον θέατρον ἐλθόντες τὰς θεωρίας ἐπιτελοῦσιν ̓Απόλλωνι καὶ ̓Αρτέμιδι. Τῇ δὲ μετὰ ταύτην ἡμέρᾳ γυναῖκες ἐπίσημοι κατὰ τὴν ὥραν, ἣν ὁ χρησμὸς ὑπηγόρευσεν, εἰς τὸ Καπετώλιον συνελθοῦσαι λιτανεύουσι τὸν θεὸν καὶ ὑμνοῦσιν ὡς θέμις. Ημέρᾳ δὲ τρίτῃ ἐν τῷ κατὰ τὸ 30 Παλάτιον Απόλλωνος ἱερῷ τρὶς ἐννέα παῖδες ἐπιφανεῖς μετὰ παρθέ νων τοσούτων, οι πάντες ἀμφιθαλεῖς, ὅπερ ἐστίν, ἀμφοτέρους τοὺς This is literally from the inscription, if it be rightly completed, 'quod tali spectaculo [nemo iterum intersit].' 2 In the inscr. 'purgamenta' and 'suffimenta.' 3 Cp. Sibyll. v. 27. γονεῖς ἔχοντες περιόντας, ὕμνους ᾄδουσι τῇ τε Ἑλλήνων καὶ Ῥωμαίων φωνῇ καὶ παιᾶνας, δι ̓ ὧν αἱ ὑπὸ Ῥωμαίοις σώζονται πόλεις· ἄλλα τε κατὰ τὸν ὑφηγημένον παρὰ τοῦ θείου τρόπον ἐπράττετο, ὧν ἐπιτελουμένων διέμεινεν ἡ ἀρχὴ Ρωμαίων ἀλώβητος. Ως ἂν δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν πραγμάτων ἀληθῆ ταῦτα εἶναι πιστεύσωμεν, αὐτὸν παραθήσομαι τὸν Σιβύλλης χρησμόν, ἤδη πρὸ ἡμῶν παρ' ἑτέρων ἀνενηγμένον· ̓Αλλ ̓ ὁπόταν μήκιστος ἵκῃ χρόνος ἀνθρώποισι 5 ΤΟ 15 20 25 35 |