ARMILUS´TRIUM
ARMILUS´TRIUM a Roman festival for the purification
of arms. It was celebrated every year on the 14th before the kalends of
November (Oct. 19; Mommsen,
Inscr. Lat. Ant. p. 404), when
the citizens assembled in arms and offered sacrifices, to the sound of the
trumpet, in the place called Armilustrum or Armilustrium, on the Aventine
near the Lauretum. The Armilustrium appears to mark the close of the
campaigning season, when the arms were laid up for the winter; as the
Quinquatrus marked the beginning of it. On both occasions the Ancilia were
brought out. (Paul. Diac. p. 19, Mill.; Varro,
de L. L.
5.153, 6.22;
Liv. 27.37;
Plut. Rom. 23; P. Vict.
de Regionibus U. R.;
Inscr. in Gruter, p. 250; Marquardt, 6.417, 419.)
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