Minervals, Roman festivals in honor of Minerva. They were celebrated on January 3 and March 19, and they each lasted for 5 days. The first days were spent in prayer and in bestowing good wishes to the goddess; the other days were spent on sacrifices and on gladiatorial combats; tragedies were also performed, and scholars through lectures of diverse works, fought for a prize founded by the emporer Domitian. During this festival, schoolboys had vacation and took money to their teachers or an honorarium named minerval. Hoc mense , says Macrob, mercedes exsolvebant magistris quas completus annus deberi fecit; Romans, always delicate in their expressions, had given to that legitimate salary a name taken from the goddess of the beaux-arts.