LIBERA´LIA
LIBERA´LIA were celebrated on March 17. Though the
day was sacred to Bacchus, this must be understood of Liber, the Italian
Bacchus; and the Liberalia must not be confounded with the festivals
Dionysia or Cerialia, which were of Greek origin and celebrated with
ludi at different times. On this day the
boys who took the
toga virilis (called also
toga pura and
toga
libera) went in procession and made an offering in the
Capitol, of cakes (
liba), which were bought in
the streets at little altars. (See the curious description in Varro,
L. L. 6.14, “per totum oppidum eo die sedent
sacerdotes Liberi, anus hedera coronatae cum libis et foculo pro emptore
sacrificantes.” As to the origin of the name, some are disposed
to derive it solely from
toga libera, allowing
no real connexion with the name of the deity, and Marquardt seems to take
this view (
Staatsverwaltung, 3.363): but (1) the day was
certainly regarded as sacred to the god Liber (
Ov.
Fast. 3.371; Varro,
l.c.), and was
probably the day of an old Italian festival in his honour; (2) the offering
was made by the boys at the shrine of Liber in the Capitol (
“Liberalia Libero in Capitolio,” Calend. Fames.); (3) the
toga, when not called
virilis, was oftener
called
pura than
libera; so Cicero (
Cic. Att. 6.1,
12) says, “Quinto Liberalibus
togam
puram cogitabam dare;” and
Tertullian (
de Idol. 16) calls the Liberalia
“sollemnitas togae purae” (cf.
Plin. Nat. 8.194); and in poetry the name
pura is the older (Catull. 68.15). While, however, it seems
most natural to connect the name
Liberalia with
the Italian deity
Liber, there is little doubt
that the idea of freedom from pupilage was always connected in the Roman
mind with this day, on which the boy was “liberatus paedagogo.”
But in truth there is no need to quarrel about it; for even if the name of
the god and the adjective are not etymologically the same (and, though
Curtius distinguishes them, the distinction is by no means certain), there
is no doubt that Liber was regarded as the god of freedom at Rome (see
Preller,
Röm. Myth. 442): so that it is no mere
poetic conceit, when Ovid says of this day:
Sive quod es Liber vestis quoque libera per te
Sumitur et vitae
liberioris iter.
Latin writers sometimes use the word
Liberalia
to translate the Greek festival Dionysia, which must always be distinguished
from the above; and whenever the
ludi liberales
are mentioned, they refer either to the Bacchanalia or the Cerialia (see
those articles), not to the Liberalia properly so called. (See also Serv.
ad
Verg. Ecl. 4.50; Marquardt,
Staatsverwaltung, l.c.; Preller,
Röm.
Myth. p. 445.)
[
G.E.M]
