Pagan and Christian Rome Part 4

The ancients displayed remarkably bad taste in loading the statues of their G.o.ds with precious ornaments, and in spoiling the beauty of their temples with hangings of every hue and description. A doc.u.ment published by Muratori[35] speaks of a statue of Isis which was dedicated by a lady named Fabia Fabiana as a memorial to her deceased granddaughter Avita. The statue, cast in silver, weighed one hundred and twelve and a half pounds, and was m.u.f.fled in ornaments and jewelry beyond conception. The G.o.ddess wore a diadem in which were set six pearls, two emeralds, seven beryls, one carbuncle, one _hyacinthus_, and two flint arrow-heads; also earrings with emeralds and pearls, a necklace composed of thirty-six pearls and eighteen emeralds, two clasps, two rings on the little finger, one on the third, one on the middle finger; and many other gems on the shoes, ankles, and wrists.

Another inscription discovered at Constantine, Algeria, describes a statue of Jupiter dedicated in the Capitol of that city. The devotees had placed on his head an oak-wreath of silver, with thirty leaves and fifteen acorns; they had loaded his right hand with a silver disk, a Victory waving a palm-leaf, and a crown of forty leaves; and in the other had fastened a silver rod and other emblems.

The hangings and tinsel not only disfigured the interior of temples, but were a source of danger from their combustibility. When we hear of fires destroying the Pantheon in A. D. 110, the Temple of Apollo in 363, that of Venus and Rome in 307, and that of Peace in 191, we may a.s.sume that they were started and fed by the inflammable materials with which the interiors were filled. There is no other explanation to be given, inasmuch as the structures were fire-proof, with the exception of the roof. As for the disfiguration of sacred buildings with all sorts of hangings, it is enough to quote the words of Livy (xl. 51). "In the year of Rome, 574, the censors M. Fulvius n.o.bilior and M. aemilius Lepidus restored the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol.

On this occasion they removed from the columns all the tablets, medallions, and military flags _omnis generis_ which had been hung against them."

The right of performing sacrifices was sometimes granted to civilians, on payment of a fee. An inscription discovered among the ruins of the Temple of Malakbelos, outside the Porta Portese, on the site of the new railway station, relates how an importer of wine, Quintus Octavius Daphnicus, having built at his own expense a banqueting hall within the sacred enclosure, was rewarded with the _immunitas sacrum faciendi_, that is, the right of performing sacrifices without the a.s.sistance of priests. The performances were regulated by tariffs, which specified a price for every item; and one of these has actually survived to our day.[36]

D PROSANGVINE (_nomen animalis_) ETCORIVM SIHOLOCAVSTVM[Symbol: -X] X PROSANGVINEAGNIETPELLE [Symbol: -X] IS SIHOLOCAVSTVM[Symbol: -X]II[Greek: S]

PROGALLO HOLOCAVSTO [Symbol: -X] I[Greek: S]

PROSANGVINE AXIII PROCORONA AIIII PROCALIDAMINHOMINEMAII

D....

For the blood of ---- (perhaps a bull) ---- And for its hide ---- If the victim be entirely burnt xxv a.s.ses.

For the blood and skin of a lamb iv a.s.ses.

If the lamb be entirely burnt vi a.s.ses.

For a c.o.c.k (entirely burnt) iii a.s.ses.

For blood alone xiii a.s.ses.

For a wreath iv a.s.ses.

For hot water (per head) ii a.s.ses.

The meaning of this tariff will be easily understood if we recall the details of a Graeco-Roman sacrifice, in regard to the apportionment of the victim's flesh. The parts which were the perquisite of the priests differ in different wors.h.i.+ps; sometimes we hear of legs and skin, sometimes of tongue and shoulder. In the case of private sacrifices the rest of the animal was taken home by the sacrificer, to be used for a meal or sent as a present to friends. This was, of course, impossible in the case of "holocausts," in which the victim was burnt whole on the altar. In the Roman ritual, hides and skins were always the property of the temple.[37] In the above tariff two prices are charged: a smaller one for ordinary sacrifices, when only the intestines were burnt, and the rest of the flesh was taken home by the sacrificer; a larger one for "holocausts," which required a much longer use of the altar, spit, gridiron, and other sacrificial instruments. Four a.s.ses are charged for each crown or wreath of flowers, half that amount for hot water.

The site of a sanctuary can be determined not only from its actual ruins, but, in many cases, from the contents of its _favissae_, or vaults, which are sometimes collected in a group, sometimes spread over a considerable s.p.a.ce of ground. The origin of these deposits of terra-cotta or bronze votive objects is as follows:--

Each leading sanctuary or place of pilgrimage was furnished with one or more rooms for the exhibition and safe-keeping of ex-votos. The walls of these rooms were studded with nails on which ex-voto heads and figures were hung in rows by means of a hole on the back. There were also horizontal s.p.a.ces, little steps like those of a _lararium_, or shelves, on which were placed those objects that could stand upright. When both surfaces were filled, and no room was left for the daily influx of votive offerings, the priests removed the rubbish of the collection, that is, the terra-cottas, and buried them either in the vaults (_favissae_) of the temple, or in trenches dug for the purpose within or near the sacred enclosure.

During these last years I have been present at the discovery of five deposits of ex-votos, each marking the site of a place of pilgrimage.

The first was found in March, 1876, on the site of a temple of Hercules, outside the Porta S. Lorenzo; the second in the spring of 1885, on the site of the Temple of Diana Nemorensis; the third in 1886, near the Island of aesculapius (now of S. Bartolomeo); the fourth in 1887, near the shrine of Minerva Medica; the last in 1889, on the site of the Temple of Juno at Veii.

The existence of a temple of Hercules, outside the Porta S. Lorenzo, within the enclosure of the modern cemetery, was first made known in 1862, in consequence of the discovery of an altar raised to him by Marcus Minucius, the "master of the horse" or lieutenant-general of Q.

Fabius Maximus (217 B. C.). This altar is now exhibited in the Capitoline Museum.[38] Fourteen years later, in 1876, the _favissae_ of the temple were found in the section of the cemetery called the Pincio. There were about two hundred pieces of terra-cotta, vases of Etruscan and Italo-Greek manufacture; several statuettes of bronze, and pieces of _aes rude_, and _aes grave librale_, one of them from the town of Luceria. This deposit seems to have been buried at the beginning of the sixth century of Rome.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Nemi and the site of the Temple of Diana. _A_ Platform of the Temple of Diana. _B_ Village of Nemi and Castle of the Orsinis.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Portrait Bust of Person cured at Nemi.]

The excavation of the temple of Diana Nemorensis was undertaken in 1885, by Sir John Savile Lumley, now Lord Savile of Rufford, the English amba.s.sador at Rome, with the kind consent of the Italian government. It seems that this _Artemisium Nemorense_ was not only a place of wors.h.i.+p and devotion, but also a hydro-therapeutic establishment. The waters employed for the cure were those which spring from the lava rocks at Nemi, and which, until a few years ago, fell in graceful cascades into the lake, at a place called "Le Mole."

They now supply the city of Albano, which has long suffered from water-famine. I can vouch for their therapeutic efficiency from personal experience; in fact I could honestly put up my votive offering to the long-forgotten G.o.ddess, having recovered health and strength by following the old cure. Diana, however, was chiefly wors.h.i.+pped in this place as Diana Lucina. I need not enter into particulars on this subject. The ex-votos collected in large quant.i.ty by Lord Savile, representing young mothers nursing their first-born, and other offerings of the same nature, testify to the skill of the priests. Perhaps they practised other branches of surgery, because, among the curiosities brought to light in 1885, are several figures with large openings on the front, through which the intestines are seen. Professor Tommasi-Crudeli, who has made a study of this cla.s.s of curiosities, says that they cannot be considered as real anatomical models, because the work is too rough and primitive to enable us to distinguish one intestine from the other. The number of objects collected by Lord Savile may be estimated at three thousand.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The stern of the s.h.i.+p of the Island of the Tiber.]

Characteristic objects of a like nature--b.r.e.a.s.t.s cut open and showing the anatomy--have been found in large numbers in and near the island of the Tiber, where the Temple of aesculapius stood, at the stern of the marble s.h.i.+p. It seems that the street leading from the Campus Martius to the Pons Fabricius, and across it to the temple, was lined with shops and booths for the sale of ex-votos, as is the case now with the approaches to the sanctuaries of Einsiedeln, Lourdes, Mariahilf, and S. Jago. In the foundations of the new quays of the Tiber, above and below the bridge, the ex-votos have been found in regular strata along the line of the banks, whereas in the island itself they have come to light in much smaller quant.i.ties. As the votive objects deposited in this sanctuary, from the year 292 before Christ to the fall of the Empire, may be counted not by thousands, but by millions of specimens, I believe that the bed of the Tiber must have been used as a _favissa_.

The name of Minerva Medica is familiar to students and visitors of old Rome;[39] but the monument which bears it, a nymphaeum of the gardens of the Licinii, near the Porta Maggiore, has no connection whatever with the G.o.ddess of wisdom. Minerva Medica was the name of a street on the Esquiline, so called from a shrine which stood at the crossing, or near the crossing, with the Via Merulana, not far from the church of SS. Pietro e Marcellino. Its foundations and its deposit of ex-votos were discovered in 1887. The shape and nature of the offerings bear witness to numberless cases of recovery performed by the merciful G.o.ddess, the Athena Hygieia or Paionia of the Greeks. There is a fragment of a lamp inscribed with her name, which leaves no doubt as to the ident.i.ty of the deposit. There is also a votive head, not cast from the mould, but modelled _a stecco_, which alludes to Minerva as a restorer of hair. The scalp is covered with thick hair in front and on the top, while the sides are bald, or showing only an incipient growth. It is evident, therefore, that the woman whose portrait-head we have found had lost her curls in the course of some malady, and having regained them through the intercession of Minerva, as she piously believed, offered her this curious token of grat.i.tude. This, at least, is Visconti's opinion. Another testimonial of Minerva's efficiency in restoring hair has been found at Piacenza, a votive tablet put up MINERVae MEMORI by a lady named Tullia Superiana, RESt.i.tUTIONE SIBI FACTA CAPILLORUM (for having restored her hair).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fragment of a Lamp inscribed with the name of Minerva.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Votive Head.]

As regards the mult.i.tude of ex-votos, no other temple or deposit discovered in my time can be compared with the _favissae_ of the Temple of Juno at Veii. In Roman traditions this temple was regarded as the place where Camillus emerged from the _cuniculus_, or mine, on the day of the capture of the city. The story runs that Camillus, having carried his _cuniculus_ under the Temple of Juno within the citadel, overheard the Etruscan _aruspex_ declare to the king of Veii that victory would rest with him who completed the sacrifice. Upon this, the Roman soldiers burst through the floor, seized the entrails of the victims, and bore them to Camillus, who offered them to the G.o.ddess with his own hand, while his followers were gaining possession of the city. The account is certainly more or less fabricated; but, as Livy remarks, "it is not worth while to prove or disprove these things." We are content to know that within the citadel of Veii, the "Piazza d'

Armi" of the present day, there was a temple of great veneration and antiquity, and that it was dedicated to Juno. Both points have been proved and ill.u.s.trated by modern discoveries.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Cliffs under the Citadel of Veii (now called Piazza d' Armi).]

The ex-votos of the Latin sanctuaries were, as I have just remarked, buried in the _favissae_; but at Veii, because of the danger and the difficulty of excavating them within the citadel, and in solid rock, the ex-votos were carted away and thrown from the edge of the cliff into the valley below. The place selected was the north side of the rocky ridge connecting the citadel with the city, which ridge towers one hundred and ninety-eight feet above the canon of the Cremera. The ma.s.s of objects thrown over here in the course of centuries has produced a slope which reaches nearly to the top of the cliff. The reader will appreciate the importance of the deposit from the fact that the mine has been exploited ever since the time of Alexander VII.

(1655-1667); and in the spring of 1889, when the most recent excavations were made, by the late empress Theresa of Brazil, the ma.s.s of terra-cottas brought to the surface was such that work had to be given up after a few days, because there was no more s.p.a.ce in the farmhouse for the storage of the booty. Pietro Sante Bartoli left an account of the excavations made on the same spot by cardinal Chigi, during the pontificate of Alexander VII. Modern topographers do not seem to be aware of this fact; it is not mentioned by Dennis, or Gell, or Nibby, although it is the only evidence left of the discovery of the famous sanctuary. "Not far from the Isola Farnese a hill [the Piazza d' Armi], rises from the valley of the Cremera, on the plateau of which cardinal Chigi has discovered a beautiful temple with fluted columns of the Ionic order. The frieze is carved with trophies and panoplies of various kinds; the reliefs of the pediment represent the emperor Antoninus[?] sacrificing a ram and a sow, and although the panels lie scattered around the temple, and the figures are broken, apparently no important piece is missing. There is also an altar four feet high, with figures of Etruscan type, which was removed to the Palazzo Chigi [now Odescalchi]. The columns and marbles of the temple were bought by cardinal Falconieri to build and ornament a chapel in the church of S. Giovanni de' Fiorentini.... Not far from the temple a stratum of ex-votos has been found, so rich that the whole of Rome is now overrun with terra-cottas. Every part of the human body is represented,--heads, hands, feet, fingers, eyes, noses, mouths, tongues, entrails, lungs, symbols of fecundity, whole figures of men and women, horses, oxen, sheep, pigs,--in such quant.i.ties as to make several hundred cartloads. There were also bronze statuettes, sacred utensils, and mirror-cases, which were all stolen or destroyed. I have known of one workman breaking marvellous objects (_cose insigni_) into small fragments to melt them into handles for knives."

When the farms of Isola Farnese and Vaccareccia, in which the remains of Veii and of its extensive cemeteries are situated, were sold, a few years ago, by the empress of Brazil to the marchese Ferraioli, the parties concerned agreed that the right of excavating and the objects discovered should belong to her, for a limited number of years, up to 1891, I believe. The first campaign, opened January 2, 1889, and closed in June, must be considered as one of the most valuable contributions to the study of Etruscan civilization which have been supplied of late to students, either by chance or by design. Had the empress been able to carry out her plans for two or three years more, the whole city and necropolis would have been explored, surveyed, and ill.u.s.trated, in the most strictly scientific manner. Political events and the death of this n.o.ble woman brought the enterprise to a close.

To come back, however, to the bed of votive objects in terra-cotta and bronze, I was able to make a rough estimate of its dimensions, which are two hundred and fifty feet in length, fifty feet in width, and from three to four in depth; nearly forty-four thousand cubic feet.

The objects collected in two weeks number four thousand; the fragments buried again as worthless, double that number. The heads of veiled G.o.ddesses alone amount to four hundred and forty-seven, of which three hundred and seventy are full-faced, the rest in profile. The vein contains fifty-two varieties of types; to Bartoli's list, we must add busts, masks, arms, b.r.e.a.s.t.s, wombs, spines, bowels, lungs, toes, figures cut open across the breast and showing the anatomy, figures approximately human, or male and female embryos ending like the trunk of a tree with stumps corresponding to the feet, figures of hermaphrodites, human torsos modelled purposely without heads, arms without hands, legs without feet, hands holding apples or jewel-caskets, figurines of mothers nursing twins, beautiful life-sized statues of draped women, with movable hands and feet, rats, wild boars, sucking pigs, cows, rams, apples and other fruits, and "marbles."

The first structures dedicated to the G.o.ds in Rome were called _arae_, and had the shape of a cube of masonry, in the centre of a square platform. They were modelled, in a measure, on the pattern of the Pelasgic _hierones_, in which the territory of Tibur and Signia is especially abundant. The _arae_ best known in Roman history and topography are six in number, namely, the _ara maxima Herculis_; the _Roma quadrata_; the _ara Aii Locutii_; the _ara Ditis et Proserpinae_; the _ara pacis Augustae_; and the _ara incendii Neroniani_. The oldest of these were built of rough stones; those of later periods took the characteristic shape of the altar of Verminus, represented on page 52 of my "Ancient Rome," and of the altar raised to Vedjovis by the members of the Julian family, at Bovillae, their birthplace, where it was found by the Colonnas in 1823. It is now in the villa of that family on the Quirinal.[40] In imperial times the conventional shape was preserved, with the addition of two _pulvini_, or volutes, on the opposite edges of the cornice, as represented in the ill.u.s.tration on page 35 of "Ancient Rome" (a marble altar found at Ostia).

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Pelasgic hieron, or platform of altar, at Segni.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Round Temple of Hercules in the Forum Boarium.]

THE ARA MAXIMA HERCULIS. This altar, the oldest in Rome, was raised in memory of the visit of Hercules to our country. Tacitus and Pliny attribute its construction to Evander the Arcadian, forgetting that in prehistoric times the tract of land on which the altar stood, between the Forum Boarium and the Circus Maximus, was submerged by the waters of the Velabrum. It was at all events a very ancient structure, held in great veneration. Its rough shape and appearance were never changed, as shown by a precious--yet unpublished--sketch by Balda.s.sarre Peruzzi which I found among his autographs in Florence. A round temple was built near the altar, in later times, of which we know two particulars: first, that it had a mysterious power of repulsion for dogs and flies;[41] second, that it contained, among other works of art, a picture by the poet Pacuvius, next in antiquity and value to the one painted by Fabius Pictor, in the Temple of Health, in 303 B. C.[42] The Temple of Hercules, the Ara Maxima, and the bronze statue of the hero-G.o.d were discovered, in a good state of preservation, during the pontificate of Sixtus IV., between the apse of S. Maria in Cosmedin (the Temple of Ceres), and the Circus Maximus.

We have a description of the discovery by Pomponio Leto, Albertini, and Fra Giocondo da Verona; and excellent drawings by Balda.s.sarre Peruzzi.[43]

Except the bronze statue, and a few votive inscriptions, which were removed to the Capitoline Museum, everything--temple, altar, and platform--was levelled to the ground by the ill.u.s.trious Vandals of the Renaissance.

THE ROMA QUADRATA. According to the ancient ritual, the founder of a city, after tracing the _sulcus primigenius_ or furrow which marked its limits, buried the plough, the instruments of sacrifice, and other votive offerings, in a round hole, excavated in the centre of the marked s.p.a.ce. The round hole was called _mundus_, and its location was indicated by a heap of stones, which in course of time took the shape of a square altar. The _mundus_ of ancient Rome was located in the very heart of the Palatine, in front of the Temple of Apollo, and the altar upon it was named the _Roma Quadrata_. This name has been much discussed, and it has even been applied to the Palatine city itself, although it is an established fact that there is, strictly speaking, no connection between the two. The controversy has been resumed lately by Professor Luigi Pigorini in a paper still unpublished which was read at the sitting of the German Inst.i.tute, December 17, 1890; and by Professor Otto Richter in his pamphlet _Die alteste Wohnstatte des romischen Volks_, Berlin, 1891.

In view of the ignorance of ancient writers on this subject, and the almost absurd definitions they give of the word, we had come to the conclusion that the altar had been removed or concealed by Augustus, when he built the Temple of Apollo and the Portico of the Danaids, in 28 B. C. A remarkable inscription discovered September 20, 1890 (to which I shall refer at length later), by mentioning the Roma Quadrata as existing A. D. 204, shows that our opinion was wrong, and that the old altar, the most venerable monument of Roman history, had survived the vicissitudes of time, and the transformation of the Palatine from the cradle of the city into the palace of the Caesars.

In December, 1869, when the nuns of the Visitation were laying the foundations of a new wing of their convent on the area of the Temple of Apollo,[44] I saw a line of square pilasters at the depth of forty-one feet below the pavement of the Portico of the Danaids, and in the centre of the line a heap of stones, either of tufa or peperino, roughly squared. It is more than probable that, in 1869, I did not think of the Roma Quadrata, and of its connection with those remains, so deeply buried in the heart of the hill; but I am sure that a careful investigation of that sacred spot would lead to very important results.

THE ARA OF AIUS LOCUTIUS. In 1820, while excavations were proceeding near the western corner of the Palatine (at the spot marked No. 7, on the plan, page 106, of "Ancient Rome"), an altar was discovered, of archaic type, inscribed with the following dedication: "Sacred to a Divinity, whether male or female. Caius s.e.xtius Calvinus, son of Caius, praetor, has restored this altar by decree of the Senate."

Nibby and Mommsen believe Calvinus to be the magistrate mentioned twice by Cicero as a candidate against Glaucias in the contest for the praetors.h.i.+p of 125 B. C. They also identify the altar as (a restoration of) the one raised behind the Temple of Vesta, in the "lower New Street," in memory of the mysterious voice announcing the invasion of the Gauls, in the stillness of the night, and warning the citizens to strengthen the walls of their city. The voice was attributed to a local Genius, whom the people named Aius Loquens or Locutius. As a rule, the priests refrained from mentioning in public prayers the name and s.e.x of new and slightly known divinities, especially of local Genii, to which they objected for two reasons: first, because there was danger of vitiating the ceremony by a false invocation; secondly, because it was prudent not to reveal the true name of these tutelary G.o.ds to the enemy of the commonwealth, lest in case of war or siege he could force them to abandon the defence of that special place, by mysterious and violent rites. The formula _si deus si dea_, "whether G.o.d or G.o.ddess," is a consequence of this superst.i.tion; its use is not uncommon on ancient altars; Servius describes a s.h.i.+eld dedicated on the Capitol to the Genius of Rome, with the inscription: GENIO URBIS ROMae SIVE MAS SIVE FEMINA, "to the tutelary Genius of the city of Rome, whether masculine or feminine."

The Palatine altar, of which I give an ill.u.s.tration, cannot fail to impress the student, on account of its connection with one of the leading events in history, the capture and burning of Rome by the Gauls, 390 B. C.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ara of Aius Locutius on the Palatine.]

THE ARA DITIS ET PROSERPINae. On the 20th of September, 1890, the workmen employed in the construction of the main sewer on the left bank of the Tiber, between the Ponte S. Angelo and the church of S.

Giovanni dei Fiorentini, found a mediaeval wall, built of materials collected at random from the neighboring ruins. Among them were fragments of one or more inscriptions which described the celebrations of the _Ludi Saeculares_ under the Empire. By the end of the day, seventeen pieces had been recovered, seven of which belonged to the records of the games celebrated under Augustus, in the year 17 B. C., the others to those celebrated under Septimius Severus and Caracalla, in the year 204 A. D. Later researches led to the discovery of ninety-six other fragments, making a total of one hundred and thirteen, of which eight are of the time of Augustus, two of the time of Domitian, and the rest date from Severus.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Pillar commemorating the _Ludi Saeculares_.]

The fragments of the year 17 B. C., fitted together, make a block three metres high, containing one hundred and sixty-eight minutely inscribed lines. This monument, now exhibited in the Baths of Diocletian, was in the form of a square pillar enclosed by a projecting frame, with base and capital of the Tuscan order, and it measured, when entire, four metres in height. I believe that there is no inscription among the thirty thousand collected in volume vi. of the "Corpus" which makes a more profound impression on the mind, or appeals more to the imagination than this official report of a state ceremony which took place over nineteen hundred years ago, and was attended by the most ill.u.s.trious men of the age.

The origin of the saecular games seems to be this: In the early days of Rome the northwest section of the Campus Martius, bordering on the Tiber, was conspicuous for traces of volcanic activity. There was a pool here called Tarentum or Terentum, fed by hot sulphur springs, the efficiency of which is attested by the cure of Volesus, the Sabine, and his family, described by Valerius Maximus. Heavy vapors hung over the springs, and tongues of flame were seen issuing from the cracks of the earth. The locality became known by the name of the fiery field (_campus ignifer_), and its relations.h.i.+p with the infernal realms was soon an established fact in folk-lore. An altar to the infernal G.o.ds was erected on the borders of the pool, and games were held periodically in honor of Dis and Proserpina, the victims being a black bull and a black cow. Tradition attributed this arrangement of time and ceremony to Volesus himself, who, grateful for the recovery of his three children, offered sacrifices to Dis and Proserpina, spread _lectisternia_, or reclining couches, for the G.o.ds, with tables and viands before them, and celebrated games for three nights, one for each child which had been restored to health. In the republican epoch they were called _Ludi Tarentini_, from the name of the pool, and were celebrated for the purpose of averting from the state the recurrence of some great calamity by which it had been afflicted. These calamities being contingencies which no man could foresee, it is evident that the celebration of the _Ludi Tarentini_ was in no way connected with definite cycles of time, such as the _saeculum_.

Not long after Augustus had a.s.sumed the supreme power, the _Quindecemviri sacris faciundis_ (a college of priests to whom the direction of these games had been intrusted from time immemorial) announced that it was the will of the G.o.ds that the _Ludi Saeculares_ should be performed, and misrepresenting and distorting events and dates, tried to prove that the festival had been held regularly at intervals of 110 years, which was supposed to be the length of a _saeculum_. The games of which the Quindecemviri made this a.s.sertion were the Tarentini, inst.i.tuted for quite a different purpose, but their suggestion was too pleasing to Augustus and the people to be despised. Setting aside all disputes about chronology and tradition, the celebration was appointed for the summer of the year 17 B. C.