Sacred Spring, vow of the , the vow of the sacred spring was the one by which was consecrated to the gods all that would be born from the first of March up until the first of May. It was specified in this vow what was promised: ... quod ver attulerit, vel ex suillo, vel ex ovillo, vel ex caprino, vel ex bovillo grege .... [... what the spring shall have produced of swine, sheep, goats and cattle....  [1]].

This sort of vow was called in Latin ver sacrum [ sacred spring ], as it appears in Livy, book XXII , Servius [his commentary] on VII , of the Aeneid , and Nonius; they all say that the sacred spring comprised the livestock born within the calends [2] of March and the last day of May; but they do not say that as to the Romans this vow included the fruit of women, that is, children. Festus and Strabo, book V , assure us only that formerly other peoples of Italy who practiced this vow, when they were in some great danger, also included children who were born during that spring ; in this case, they raised them until the age of adolescence; and then, after having veiled them, they would send them outside of their boundaries in order that they go seek other lands and other places to live. Superstition is capable of stripping away even man's natural feelings: Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum! [3]

Translator’s Notes

1. Titus Livius, Livy: From the Founding of the City [ Ab Urbe Condita ], trans. B.O. Foster, in Loeb Classical Library , eds. T.E. Page, et al., 14 vols. (the quoted material in Latin is included in the Latin text referenced as Line “3” on p. 232, vol. 5 of this Livy: From the Founding of the City . The Latin text as it appears in this Hathitrust version varies slightly from the Encylopédie quote. The Hathitrust version shows the Latin text from Book 22, as ... quod ver attulerit ex suillo ovillo caprino bovillo grege, .... ), vol. 5, p. 232 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1957); (First printed 1929, reprinted 1948, 1953, 1957), 232-233 <http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001808941>. Hathitrust version.

2. The term calends is defined in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “the first day of the ancient Roman month from which days were counted backward to the ides.” See the online dictionary Merriam-Webster.com . Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 15 Aug. 2015. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/calends>.

For detailed information on the ancient Roman calendar and the ver sacrum , see Edward Greswell, Origines Kalendariæ Italicæ [ On the Calendars of Ancient Italy ] : Nundinal Calendars of Ancient Italy, Nundinal Calendar of Romulus, Calendar of Numa Pompilius, Calendar of Thedecemvirs, Irregular Roman Calendar, and Julian Correction, Tables of the Roman Calendar, From U.C. 4 of Varro B.C. 750 to U.C. 1108 A.D. 355 , vol. 3, diss. 13, ch. 5, section 1, 4 vols. (Oxford: UP 1854), vol. 3, pp. 84-92. Web. 25 Aug. 2015.

<http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008630078>.

3. "So potent was Superstition in persuading to evil deeds." Titus Lucretius Carus, Lucretius: De Rerum Natura , trans. W.H.D. Rouse, revised by M.F. Smith, in The Loeb Classical Library , ed. G.P. Goold, no. 181 (Cambridge, MA; London, Eng.: Harvard UP 1975, 1992, first published 1924, new version by M.F. Smith 1975, revised 2d ed. 1982, reprinted with revisions 1992, reprinted 1997), Book 1, Line 101, p. 10 (Latin), p. 11 (English). Print.