Saecular Festivals ( Ludi Saeculares ) are ritual festivals being held every onehundred or more years to maintain the welfare of the Roman state following the instructions in the Sibyllinic Books. They may have been celebrated for the first time as a private rite of the gens Valerii under the name Ludi Terentini 249 B. C. (Liv. ep. 49), taken over by the republic and first celebrated as Ludi Saeculares 146 B. C. (Censorin. 17,11). Due to the civil war 46 B. C. no saecular festival was held; instead 17 B. C. under Augustus, under whom no longer expiatory sacrifices for Dis Pater and Proserpina, but also pleeding sacrifices for the Moerae (Fates), the Ilithyiae (goddesses of child-birth), Mother Earth, and especially for Iupiter and Iuno and for Apollo and Diana were celebrated.
Though the original Sibyllinic Books were destroyed 83 B. C. by fire, it has been undertaken to recollect Sibyllinic prophecies after that. Comparing the protocol of a festival with the text of the oracle and its ritual song, the Carmen Saeculare, one may gain an insight into principals of the transformation of ritual items.
Literature
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