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Question 34. What is the reason that, when the other
Romans did offer their offerings and libations to the dead
in the month of February, Decimus Brutus (as Cicero
saith) did it in December? He verily was the first who,
entering upon Lusitania, passed from thence with his
army over the river Lethe.
Solution. May it not be that, as many were wont to
perform funeral rites in the latter part of the day and end
of the month, it is rational to believe that at the return
of the year and end of the month also he would honor
the dead? For December is the last month. Or were
those adorations paid to the infernal Gods, and was it the
season of the year to honor them when all sorts of fruits
had attained ripeness? Or is it because they move the
earth at the beginning of seed-time, and it is most meet
then to remember the ghosts below? Or is it that this
month is by the Romans consecrated to Saturn, whom
they reckon to be one of the infernal Gods and not of the
supernal? Or that whilst the great feast of Saturnals did
last, thought to be attended with the greatest feasting and
voluptuous enjoyments, it was judged meet to crop off
some first-fruits of these for the dead? Or what if it be
a mere lie that only Brutus did sacrifice to the dead in
this month, since they solemnize funeral rites for Laurentia and offer drink-offerings at her tomb in the month
of December?
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 2.
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