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

LUSTRATIO. LUSTRUM. 719.
instituta quam humanitas atque leges." Respect- the sea, and the other burnt upon the altars, while
ilg the rites with which they solemnised the Lu- the multitude around prayed to the gods. (Compercalia see LUPERCALIA. [L. S.] pare Liv. xxxvi. 42, and xxix. 27, where also a
LUPUS FE'RREUS, the iron wolf used by prayer is recorded such as generals used to offer
the besieged in repelling the attacks of the be- on these occasions.) When a Macedonian army
siegers, and especially in seizing the battering-ram was lustrated, a dog was cut ill two pieces in the
and diverting its blows. [ARIEs.] (Liv. xxxviii. place where the army was to assemble, and one
3; Veget. de Re Mil. ii. 25, iv. 23.) [J. Y.I- half of the dog was thrown at a distance on the
LUSTRA'TIO (ccdOapTIs), was originally a right and the other totheleft. The army then aspurification by ablution in water. But the lus- sembled in the place between the spots where the
trations, of which we possess direct knowledge, pieces had fallen. (Liv. xl. 6; Curt. x. 9. ~ 12.)
are always connected with sacrifices and other But to return to the Romans. The establishment
religious rites, and consisted in the sprinkling of of a new colony was always preceded by a lustrawater by means of a branch of laurel or olive, and tio with solemn sacrifices. (Cic. de Divin. i. 45;
at Rome sometimes by means of the aspergillum Barth, ad Stat. Tlieb. iv. p. 1073.) The city of
(XepviL), and in the burning of certain mate- Rome itself, as well as other towns within its dorials, the smoke of which was thought to have a minion, always underwent a lustratio, after they
purifying effect. Whenever sacrifices were offered, had been visited by some great calamity, such as
it seems to have been customary to carry them civil bloodshed, awful prodigies, and the like.
around the person or thing to be purified. Lustra- (Appian, Civil. i. 26; Liv. xxxv. 9, xlii. 20.) A
tions were made in ancient Greece, and probably at regular and general lustratio of the whole Roman
Rome also, by private individuals when they had people took place after the completion of every luspolluted themselves with any criminal action. trum, when the censor had finished his census and
Whole cities and states also sometimes underwent before he laid down his office. The lustratio (also
purifications to expiate the crime or crimes corn- called lustrum. Fest. s. s. v.) was conducted by one of
mitted by a member of the community. The most the censors (Cic. de Divin. i. 45), and held with
celebrated purification of this kind was that of sacrifices called Suovetaurilia (Liv. i. 44; Varro,
Athens, performed by Epimenides of Crete, after de Re Rust. ii. 1), because the sacrifices consisted
the Cylonian massacre. (Diog. Laert. i. 10. ~ 3.) of a pig (or ram), a sheep, afid an ox. This lusPurifications also took place when a sacred spot had tratio, which continued to be observed in the days
been unhallowed by profane use, as by burying of Dionysius, took place in the Campus Martius,
dead bodies in it, such as was the case with the where the people assembled for the purpose. The
island of Delos. (Thucyd. i. 8, iii. 104.) sacrifices were carried three times around the asThe Romans performed lustrations on many sembled multitude. (Dionys. Ant.'Roe. iv. 22.)
occasions, on which the Greeks did not think of Another regular lustration which was observed
them; and the object of most Roman lustrations every year in the month of February, was said
was not to atone for the commission of crime, but to have been instituted because the god Februus
to obtain the blessing of the gods upon the persons was believed to be potens lnstrationum, and beor things which were lustrated. Thus fields were cause in this month the solemnities in honour of
purified after the business of sowing was over the dii manes took place. (Macrob. Sat. i. 13;
(Ovid. Fast. i. 669), and before the sickle was compare Hartung, Die Religion der RsMmer, i. p.
put to the corn. [ARVALaS FRATRES.] The 198, &c.) [L. S.]
manner in which sheep were lustrated every year LISTRUM (from luo, Gr. Aocoa), is properly
at the festival of the Palilia, is described by Ovid speaking a lustration or purification of the whole
(Fast. iv. 735, &c.). The shepherd towards even- Roman people performed by one of the censors in
ing sprinkled his flock with water, adorned the the Campus Martius, after the business of the census
fold with branches and foliage, burnt pure sulphur was over [CENSOR; LUSTRATIO.] AS this purifiand various herbs, and offered sacrifices to Pales. cation took place only once in five years, the word
The object of this lustration was to preserve the lustrum was also used to designate the time between
flock from disease, contagion, and other evils. two lustra. Varro (de Ling. Lat. vi. 11, ed. Miill.)
(Cato, de Re Rust. c. 141.) All Roman armies erroneously derives the word lustrum from luo (I
before they took the field were lustrated (Dion pay), because the vectigalia and tributa were paid
Cass. xlvii. 38; Appian, Hisp. c. 19, Civil. iv. 89, every five years to the censors. The first lustrum
et passim), and as this solemnity was probably al- was performed in B. c. 566 by king Servius, after
ways connected with a review of the troops, the he had completed his census (Liv. i. 44; Dionys.
word lustratio is also used in the sense of the mo- iv. 22), and afterwards it is said to have taken
dern review. (Cic. ad Att. v. 20.- ~ 2.) The rites place regularly every dfve years after the census
customary oni such occasions are not mentioned, was ovet. In the eariiest period of the republic
but they probably resembled those With which a the business of the census and the solemnities of
fleet was lustrated before it set sail, and which are the lustrum were performed by the consuls. The
described by Appian (Civil. v. 96). Altars were first censors were appointed ill B. c. 443, and from
erected on the shore, and the vessels iitanned with this year down to B. c. 294 there had, according to
their troops assembled in order close to the coast. Livy (x. 47), only been 26 pairs of censors, and
Every body kept profound silence, and priests only 21 lustra, or general purifications, although if
standing close by the water killed thle victims, and all had been regular, there would have been 30
carried the purifying sacrifices (a6dapoia) in small pairs of censors and 30 lustra. We must therefore
boats three times around the fleet. On these rounds conclude, that sometimes the census was not held
they were accompanied by the generals, who at all, or at least not by the censors. We also
prayed to the gods to preserve the armament from learn from this statement that the census might
all'dangers. Hereupon the priests divided the sacri- take place without the lustrum, and indeed two
fices into two parts, one of which was thrown into cases of this kind are recorded (Liv. iii. 22, xxiV.