The _Luperci_ were in very early times formed into two bands, which were called by the names of the most distinguished families in Rome, _Quintiliani_ and _Fabiani_; and to these was afterwards added a third band, called _Juliani_, from J. Cæsar’s name. Marc Antony, as every one knows, did not scruple to _run_ as one of the _Luperci_, having once harangued the people in that condition: and if he was afterwards inveighed against, on that account, by several persons, and among others by Cicero, his personal enemy, it was owing to his being Consul, when he thus ran among the _Luperci_: a thing which, it was said, had never been done by any Consul before him. The festival in question (which may surprise the Reader) continued to be celebrated so late as the year 496, long after the establishment of Christianity; and persons of noble families not only continued to run among the _Luperci_, but a great improvement was moreover made about those times in the ceremony; the Ladies, no longer contented with being slapt on the palms of their hands, as formerly, began to strip themselves naked, in order both to give a fuller scope to the _Lupercus_ to display the vigour and agility of his arm, and enjoy, themselves, the entertainment of a more compleat flagellation. The whole ceremony being thus brought to that degree of perfection, was so well relished by all parties, that it continued to subsist (as has just now been observed) long after the other ceremonies of Paganism were abolished; and when Pope Gelasius at last put an end to it, he met with a strong opposition from all orders of Men, Senators as well as others. The general discontent became even so great, that the Pope, after he had carried his point, was obliged to write his own Apology, which Baronius has preserved: one of his arguments, among others, was drawn from the above practice of the Ladies, of stripping themselves naked in public in order to be lashed.--_Apud illos, nobiles ipsi currebant, & matronæ nudato corpore vapulabant._ [37] “_Nec mirum si, in plateis & foro rerum venalium, fictus Ariolus stultorum verberet nates._” Lib. II. adv. Juv. Cap. XIX. & Lib. I. Apolog. adv. Austin. Cap. IV.--_Reverà, non_ nates, _sed_ nares (subjungit Author noster) _legendum estimaverunt Erasmus & M. V. Reatinus; sed ex Codicibus Manuscriptis_, nares _in_ nates, _denuò emendaverunt Grævius, & doctissimus Jesuita H. Rosveidus_. [38] _Nùm obsecro, num Ariolus qui ipsus se verberat?_ [39] _Immò potius ii videntur fuisse qui flagris cædebant._ [40] “_Quoties post cibum obdormisceret, quod ei ferè quotidiè accidebat, olearum & palmularum ossibus incessebatur: interdùm ferulâ flagrove velut per ludum excitabatur à Copreis._”