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SECULAR GAMES (Lodi Saeculares, origi...

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 573 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SECULAR See also:GAMES (See also:Lodi Saeculares, originally Terentini) . These were celebrated at See also:Rome for three days and nights to See also:mark the commencement of a new saeculum or See also:generation. It is important to See also:note that there was a saeculum civile, the length of which was definitely fixed at Too years, and a saeculum naturale, which, under See also:Greek and See also:Etruscan See also:influence, came to be accepted by the quindecimviri as 110 years. According to tradition, the secular games had their origin in certain sacrificial See also:rites of the gens See also:Valeria, which were performed at the Terentum, a volcanic cleft in the Campus See also:Martius. According to the See also:Roman antiquarians themselves, they were derived from the Etruscans, who, at the end of a mean See also:period of too years (as representing the longest human See also:life in a generation), presented to the chthonian deities an expiatory offering on behalf of the coming generation. The first definitely attested celebration of the games took See also:place in 249 B.C., on which occasion a See also:vow was made that they should be repeated every hundredth See also:year (their name being also changed to Saeculares), a regulation which seems to have been immediately disregarded, for they were next held in 146 (not 149, although the authorities are not unanimous) ; in 49 the See also:civil See also:wars prevented any celebration. They would probably have fallen entirely into oblivion, had not See also:Augustus revived them in 17 B.C., for which occasion the Carmen Saeculare was composed by See also:Horace. In explanation of the selection of this year it is supposed that the quindecimviri invented celebrations for the years 456, 346, 236, 126, the saeculum being taken as lasting 110 years. In later times various modes of reckoning were adopted. The See also:dates were: A.D. 47 (under See also:Claudius), celebrating the 800th year of the See also:foundation of the See also:city; 88 (under See also:Domitian), an See also:interval of only 105 instead of no years; 147 (under See also:Antoninus See also:Pius), the 9ooth year of the city; 204 (under Septimius See also:Severus), exactly two saecula (22o years) after the Augustan celebration; 248 (under See also:Philip the Arabian), the l000th year of the city; 262 (under See also:Gallienus), probably a See also:special ceremony in See also:time of calamity; in 304 (which should have been 314) Maximian intended to hold a celebration, but does not appear to have done so. From this time nothing more is heard of the secular games, until they were re. ived in the year 1300 as the popish See also:jubilees instituted by See also:Boniface VIII.

At the beginning of the See also:

harvest, heralds went See also:round and summoned the See also:people to the festival. The quindecimviri distributed to all See also:free citizens on the Capitol and in the See also:temple of See also:Apollo on the See also:Palatine various means of expiation—torches, See also:sulphur and See also:bitumen. Here and in the temple of See also:Diana on the Aventine, See also:wheat, See also:barley, and beans were distributed, to serve as an offering of firstfruits. The festival then began, at which offerings were made to various deities. On the first See also:night the See also:emperor sacrificed three rams to the Parcae at an underground See also:altar on the See also:banks of the See also:Tiber, while the people lighted torches and sang a special hymn. On the same or following nights a See also:black hog and a black See also:pig were sacrificed to Tellus, and dark victims to Dis (See also:Pluto) and See also:Proserpine. On the first See also:day See also:white bulls and a white cow were offered to See also:Jupiter and See also:Juno on the Capitol, after which scenic games were held in See also:honour of Apollo. On the second day See also:noble matrons sang supplicatory See also:hymns to Juno on the Capitol; on the third, white oxen were sacrificed to Apollo and twenty-seven boys and maidens sang the " secular hymn " in Greek and Latin. The above particulars are from See also:Zosimus (ii. 5, and 6, which contain the Sibylline See also:oracle), who, with Censorinus (De See also:Die Natali, 17), See also:Valerius See also:Maximus, ii. 4, and Horace (Carmen Saeculare) is the See also:chief See also:ancient authority on the subject;, see also See also:Mommsen, Romische Chronologie (1858) ; C. L.

See also:

Roth, Uber die romischen Sacularspiele " in the Rheinisches Museum, viii. (1853); and See also:Marquardt, ROmische Staatsverwaitung, iii. (1885), p. 386. The inscription commemorating the ludi of 17 inc. was discovered in 1890 and is printed in the See also:Ephemeris epigraphica, vol. viii. The best See also:account of the whole subject is in H. Diels, Sibyllinische Blatter (189o), p. 109 See also:foil.

End of Article: SECULAR GAMES (Lodi Saeculares, originally Terentini)

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