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Universität Tübingen - 1997/1998 Winter
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Universität Tübingen - Wintersemester 1997-98 - Uni-Informationssystem und Stadt-Informationssystem.iso
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<H2>A short introduction to Saecular Festivals</H2>
<P>Saecular Festivals (<I>Ludi Saeculares</I>) are ritual festivals
being held every onehundred or more years to maintain the welfare
of the Roman state following the instructions in the Sibyllinic Books.
They may have been celebrated for the first time as a private rite of
the gens Valerii under the name Ludi Terentini 249 B. C. (Liv. ep. 49),
taken over by the republic and first celebrated as Ludi Saeculares 146 B.
C. (Censorin. 17,11). Due to the civil war 46 B. C. no saecular festival
was held; instead 17 B. C. under Augustus, under whom no longer
expiatory sacrifices for Dis Pater and Proserpina, but also pleeding
sacrifices for the Moerae (Fates), the Ilithyiae (goddesses of child-birth),
Mother Earth, and especially for Iupiter and Iuno and for Apollo and
Diana were celebrated.
<P>Though the original Sibyllinic Books were destroyed 83 B. C. by fire,
it has been undertaken to recollect Sibyllinic prophecies after that. Comparing
the protocol of a festival with the text of the oracle and its ritual song,
the Carmen Saeculare, one may gain an insight into principals of the transformation of
ritual items.
<P>
<I>Literature</I>:
<UL>
<LI>H. Diels, Sibyllinische Blaetter, Berlin1890.
<LI>J. Gage, Recherches sur les jeux séculaire, 1934.
<LI>Th. Mommsen, Roemische Chronologie, Berlin 1858, 168-89.
<LI>J. B. Pighi, De ludis saecularibus populi Romani Quiritium, Milano 1941-49.
</UL>
(CH)
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