As we have seen, the first ‘moving’ of the ancilia was on the 1st. This
is the second mentioned in the calendars; the third, according to Lydus
(4. 42), was on the 23rd (Tubilustrium, q.v.). As the Salii seem to have
danced with the shields all through the month up to the 24th[101], it
has been supposed that these were the three principal days of ‘moving’;
and Mr. Marindin suggests that they correspond to the three most
important _mansiones Saliorum_, of which two were probably the Curia
Saliorum on the Palatine and the Sacrarium Martis in the Regia[102].
PRID. ID. MART. (MARCH 14). NP.
EQUIRR[IA]. (MAFF. VAT. ESQ.)
FERIAE MARTI. (VAT.)
SACRUM MAMURIO. (RUSTIC CALENDARS[103].)
MAMURALIA. (PHILOC.)
These notes involve several difficulties. To begin with, this day is an
even number, and there is no other instance in the calendar of a
festival occurring on such a day. Wissowa[104], usually a very cautious
inquirer, here boldly cuts the knot by conjecturing that the Mars
festival of this day had originally been on the next, i.e. the Ides, but
was put back one day to enable the people to frequent both the
horse-races (Equirria) and the festival of Anna Perenna[105]. The
latter, he might have added, was obviously extremely popular with the
lower classes, as we shall see from Ovid’s description; and though the
scene of it was close to that of the Equirria, or certainly not far
away, it is not impossible that it may have diverted attention from the
nobler and more manly amusement. Wissowa strengthens his argument by
pointing out an apparent parallel between the festival dates of March
and October. Here, as elsewhere, in the calendar, we find an interval of
three days between two festivals, viz. between March 19 (Quinquatrus)
and March 23 (Tubilustrium), and between Oct. 15 (‘October horse’) and
Oct. 19 (Armilustrium). Now, as we shall see, the rites of March 19 and
Oct. 19 seem to correspond to each other[106]; and if there were a
chariot-race on March 15, it would also answer to the race on the day of
the ‘October horse,’ Oct. 15, with a three days’ interval as in October.
The argument is not a very strong one, but there is a good deal to be
said for it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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