QUINQUATRUS
QUINQUATRUS (fem. plur.) or QUINQUATRIA (neut. plur.), a
festival which was celebrated on the 19th of March. The word signified the
fifth day after the Ides, just as
triatrus, sexatrus,
septimatrus, decimatrus signified the third, sixth, seventh, and
tenth days. (See Varro,
L. L. 6.14; Fest. p. 254;
Gel. 2.21; Roby,
Lat. Gr. §
902.) A false etymology led to its being afterwards regarded as a five-days'
festival (
Ov. Fast. 3.809;
Trist. 4.10, 13;
Liv.
44.20), and as such it was observed under the later Republic and the
Empire from March 19-23. Strictly it was (as appears in the Calendars, and
as its name really implies) a one-day's festival, celebrated originally as a
lustratio of the
arma
ancilia, when the arms were brought out to be ready for the
campaigning season, just as the
ARMILUSTRIUM on the 19th of October was the inventory, so to
speak, before they were put away again (Charis. 81, 20). A sacrifice was
offered, and there was a dance of the Salii in the Comitium, the ceremony
being under the direction of the Pontifices and Tribuni Cel. (
Cal.
Praen.; Varro,
L. L. 5.85). [
SALII]
The day acquired a fresh significance from being selected for the dedication
of the temple of Minerva on the Aventine, and, instead of being purely
military, became the festival of various trades (
Ov. Fast. 3.809-834;
artificum dies, Cal. Praen.）
and of arts. Hence it became also a holiday for the schools, extending over
the whole five days, which now became included under the name Quinquatrus or
Quinquatria (Hor.
Ep. ii.
[p. 2.536]2, 197;
Juv. 10.115;
LUDUS LITTERARIUS p.
97): hence also it was a day of receipts for fortunetellers (Plaut.
Mil. Glor. 3.1, 98); and for the same reason Domitian,
who claimed Minerva as his guide, gave prizes, at his Alban villa, at this
time to orators and poets, and established a collegium, the members of which
should exhibit venationes and stage-plays (
Suet. Dom.
4;
D. C. 67.1).
The first and regular day of the festival was marked by the offerings,
&c., as above mentioned, and the commemoration of the temple
dedicated to Minerva; on the other four days there were shows of gladiators,
and a season of general merrymaking (
Suet. Aug.
71,
Ner. 34;
Tac. Ann. 14.4). On the fifth day, March 23, was the
tubilustrium (Fest., Varr. s. v.), sacred to Mars
and Nerio (Lyd.
de Miens. 4.42; Porphyr.
ad
Hor. Ep. 2.2,
209), for whom Ovid (
Ov. Fast.
3.849) substitutes Pallas. On this day the trumpets used in the
sacred rites were passed in review, and purified by the Salii Palatini and
the
tubicines sacrorum populi Romani (
Gel. 1.12;
C. I. L. 9.3609, 10.5394).
There was a festival called Quinquatrus Minusculae on the 13th of June, when
the tibicines went through the city in procession to the temple of Minerva,
and observed a sort of carnival for three days (
Liv.
9.30;
Ov. Fast. 6.651; Varro,
L. L. 6.17;
V. Max. 2.5,
4); they were masked and gaily dressed
(Censorin. 12.2). The “collegium tibicinum et fidicinum, qui sacris
publicis praesto sunt,” is mentioned in several inscriptions
(
C. I. L. 6.3696, 3877; 9.3609; 10.6101). As this
festival was on the Ides, it is clear that the name was not given on any
etymological principle, but, as Varro says, from a connexion of ideas with
the greater Quinquatrus.
It has been observed that the March school festival reappeared in Christian
times as the festival of St. Gregory (Gregory the Great, a founder of
schools), and was kept in some places on March 12th, in others on March
19th.
(Marquardt,
Staatsverw. iii.2 434; Mayor
on
Juv. 10.115.)
[
W.S] [
G.E.M]
