Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

LUDI SAECULARES. LUDUS. 717
A fearful plague broke out, by which all pregnant Ithe various solemnities is given by Zosimus. Soire
women were affected in such a manner that the days before they commenced, heralds were sent
children died in the womb. Games were then in- about to invite the people to a spectacle which no
stituted to propitiate the infernal divinities, and one had ever beheld, and which no one would ever
sacrifices of sterile cows (taureae) were offered tip behold again. Hereupon the quindecimviri disto them, whence the games were called ludi Taurii. tributed, upon the Capitol and the I'alatine, amIong
These games and sacrifices took place in the Circus the Roman citizens, torches, sulphur, and bitunien,
Flauninius, that the infernal divinities might not by which they were to purify themselves. In the
enter the city. Festus (s.v. Saec. ludi) and Cen- same places, and on the Aventine in the temple
sorinus ascribe the first celebration to the consul of Diana, the people received wheat, barl.%, and
Valerius Poplicola. This account admits that the beans, which were to be offered at night-time to
worship of Dis and Proserpina had existed long the Parcae, or, according to others, were given as
before, but states that the games and sacrifices pay to the actors in the dramatic representations
were now performed for the first time to avert a which were performed during the festive dayls.
plague, and in that part of the Campus Martius The festival took place in summer, and lasted for
which had belonged to the last king Tarquinius, three days and three nights. On the first day the
from whom the place derived its name Tarentumn. games commenced in the Tarentum, and sacrifices
Valeritis Maximus aud Zosimus, who knew of the were offered to Jupiter, Juno, Neptune, Minerva,
celebration of these games by Valerius Poplicola, Venus, Apollo,:Mercury, Ceres, Vulcan, Mars,
endeavour to reconcile their two accounts by repre- Diana, Vesta, Hercules, Latona, the Parcae, and
senting the celebration of Poplicola as the second to Dis and Proserpina. The solemnities began at
in chronological order. Other less important tradi- the second hour of the night, and the emperor
tions are mentioned by Servius (ad BAe. ii 140) opened themn by the river side with the sacrifice of
and by Varro (ap Censorin.). three lambs to the Parcae upon three altars erected
As regards the names Tarenti or Taurii, they are for the purpose, and which were sprinkled with
perhaps nothing but different forms of the stome the blood of the victims. The lambs theniselves
word, and of the same root as Tarquininus. All the wera burnt. A temporary scene like that of a
accounts mentioned above, though differing as to theatre was erected in the Tarentumn, and illumithe time at which and the persons by whom the hated with lights and fires.
Tarentine games were first celebrated, yet agree in In this scene festive hymns were sung by a
stating that they were celebrated for the purpose chorus, and various other ceremonies, together
of averting from the state somine great calamity by with theatrical performances, took place. During
which it had been afflicted, and that they were the morning of the first day the people went to
held in honour of Dis and Proserpina. From the Capitol to offer solemn sacrifices to Jupiter;
the time of the consul Valerius Poplicola down to thence they returned to the Tarentum to sing
that of A ugustus, the Tarentine games were only choruses in honour of Apollo and Diana. Onl the
held three times, and again only on certain emer- second day the noblest matrons, at an hour fixed
gencies, and not at any fixed time, so that we by an oracle, assembled on the Capitol, performed
must conclude that their celebration was in no way supplications, sang hymns to the gods, and also
connected with certain cycles of time (maeculca). visited the altar of Juno. The emperor and the
The deities in whose honour they were held during quindecimviri offered sacrifices which had been
the republic, continued, as at first, to be Dis and vowed before, to all the great divinities. On the
Proserpina..As to the times at which these three third day Greek and Latin choruses were sung in
celebrations took place, the commentarii of the the sanctuary of Apollo by three times nine boys
quindecimviri and the accounts of the annalists did and maidens of great beauty whose parents were
not agree (Censorin. 1. c.), and the discrepancy of still alive. The object of these hymns was to
the statements still extant shows the vain attempts implore the protection of the gods for all cities,
which were made in later times to prove that towns, and officers of the empire. One of these
during the republic the gamnes had been celebrated hymns was the carmen saeculare by Horace, which
once in every saeculum. All these misrepresenta- was especially composed for the occasion, and
tions and distortions arose in the time of Augustus. adapted to the cirumstances of the time. During
Not lono after he had assumed the supreme power the whole of the three days and nights, games of
in the republic, the quindecimviri announced that every description were carried on in all the ciraccording to their books ludi saeculares ought to cuses and theatres, and sacrifices were offered in
be held, and at the same time tried to prove from all the temples.
history that in former times they had not only The first celebration of the ludi saeculares in the
been celebrated repeatedly, but almost regularly reign of Augustus took place in the summer of the
once in every century. The games of which the )Year B.C. 17 (Tacit. Ann. xi. 11.); the second
quindeciInviri made this assertion, were the ludi took place in the reign of Claudius, A.D. 47 (Suet.
Tarentini. Clateud. 21); the third in the reign of Domitian,
The celebrated jurist and antiquary Ateius Capito. AD. 88 (Suet. Domit. 4, with Ernesti's note); and
received from the emperor the command to deter- the last in the reign of Philippuis A.D. 248, and,
mine the ceremonies, and Horace was requested to as was generally believed, just 1000 years after
compose the festive hymn for the occasion (carme, the building of the city. (Jul. Capitol. Cord. Tert.
saecldare), which is still extant (Zosim. ii. 4.). c. 33; compare Scaliger, De Entend. Tempor. p.
But the festival which was now held, was in 486 aHartung, Die Religion der RiiS;zer, vol. ii.
reality very different from the ancient Tarentine p. 92, &c., and the commentators ad Horat.
games; for Dis and Proserpina, to whom formerly Ciarme. Saec.) [L. S.]
the festival belonged exclusively, were now the last LUDUS. [GLADIAtTOREs, p. 574, b.]
in the list of the divinities in honour of whom the LUDUS DUO'DECIM SCRIPTO'RUM.
ludi saeculares were celebrated. A description of [LATRvaUNCLI.]