CONSO IN AVENTIN[O]. (AMIT.) XVIII (ANTE CAES. XVI[1169]) KAL. IAN. (DEC. 15). NP. CONS[UALIA]. (MAFF. PRAEN. AMIT. ANT.) FERIAE CONSO (PRAEN. AMIT.) For these see on Aug. 21. If the conclusions there arrived at are sound we might guess that these winter rites of Consus arose from the habit of inspecting the condition of the corn-stores in mid-winter[1170]. It is this day that has the note attached to it in the Fasti Praenestini, ‘Equi et [muli floribus coronantur] quod in eius tu[tela] ... itaque rex equo [vectus?],’ which was commented on under Aug. 21. See also under Aug. 25 (Opeconsivia); Wissowa, s. v. Consus, in _Lex. Myth._; and _de Feriis_, vi foll. XVI (ANTE CAES. XIV[1171]) KAL. IAN. (DEC. 17). NP. SATURNALIA. (MAFF. AMIT. GUID. RUST. PHILOC.) FERIAE SATURNO. (MAFF. AMIT.) SATURN[O] AD FO[RUM]. (AMIT.) FERIAE SERVORUM. (SILV.) This was the original day of the Saturnalia[1172], and, in a strictly religious sense, it was the only day. The festival, in the sense of a popular holiday, was extended by common usage to as much as seven days[1173]: Augustus limited it to three in respect of legal business, and the three were later increased to five[1174]. Probably no Roman festival is so well known to the general reader as this, which has left its traces and found its parallels in great numbers of mediaeval and modern customs[1175], occurring about the time of the winter solstice. Unfortunately, it is here once more a matter of difficulty to determine what features in the festival were really of old Latin origin, in spite of information as to detail, which is unusually full; for both Saturnus himself and his cult came to be very heavily overlaid with Greek ideas and practice. That Saturnus was an old agricultural god admits, however, of no doubt; the old form of the word was probably Săĕturnus, which is found on an inscription on an ancient vase[1176], and this leads us to connect him with _serere_ and _satio_; and popular tradition attributed to him the discovery of agricultural processes[1177]. But the Roman of the historical age knew very little about him, and cared only for his Graecized festival; like Faunus, he is the object of no votive inscriptions in Rome and its neighbourhood[1178]; and this conclusively proves that he was never what may be called popular as a deity. As the first king of Latium there were plenty of legends about him, or as the first civilizer of his people, the representative of a Golden Age[1179]; but no one has as yet thoroughly investigated these[1180], with a view to distinguish any Italian precipitate in the mixture of elements of which they certainly consist. We are still without the invaluable aid of the contributors to Roscher’s _Lexicon_.