NOTE TO THE SECULAR HYMN. For a full account of the Secular Games, see the article "Ludi Seculares" in Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities. Augustus, resolved to mark conspicuously the close of the first ten years for which the imperial power had been placed in his hands, and the distinguished success which had attended his administration and his arms, appointed a great Festival, based upon the model of the ancient Ludi Tarentini or Taurii. These had been held in seasons of public calamity or peril, to propitiate the infernal deities Dis and Proserpina, who were, however, dropped out of view on the present occasion, and the festival held in honour of Apollo (the patron god of Augustus) and Diana. It was desirable to have this festival regarded, not as something new and special, but merely as the observance of a periodic solemnity. The Quindecemvirs, therefore, were directed to consult the Sibylline Books, and they reported, that the cyclical period for its celebration had now revolved (B. C. 17). Ateius Capito, the celebrated jurist, was appointed to arrange the ceremonies, and Horace was requested to prepare an Ode. The festival was celebrated with great splendour. It occupied three days and nights. The Ode was sung at the second hour of the night at the most solemn part of the festival, when the emperor, attended by the Fifteen Men, who presided over re ligious affairs, was offering sacrifice in person on the banks of the Tiber. The chorus consisted of twentyseven boys and the same number of girls of noble birth, whose parents were yet living (patrimi and matrimi). See Ode IV. 6, supra, which is generally regarded as one of the Hymns sung at an earlier part of the Festival. Diana is celebrated under the three names of Ilithyia (The Bringer to Light), the Greek name for Here and Artemis, Lucina, also applied indiscriminately to Juno and Diana, and bearing the same signification, and Genitalis (The Begetter), supposed to be a version of the Greek Γενετυλλίς, which was applied to Aphrodite as well as to Artemis. THE END. Cambridge: Stereotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co. |