IV
The type of sacred dance which we are considering does not seem to have been in vogue among the Romans excepting in the form of the circumambulatory procession; and although the word “dance” can only in an extended sense be applied to a procession, yet, as we have seen (pp. 5 f.), this is justified. The Romans worshipped their gods with sacrifice and prayer; the two, so far as is known, were invariably combined. But
on important occasions, and for particular reasons, these were performed in the course of a procession or circuit round some object—land, city, army, or instruments, such as arms and trumpets—or, again, the whole Roman people, if supposed to be in need of ‘purification’ from some evil influence; in this extended form the ritual was called lustratio; and this ceremonial was perhaps the most characteristic, not only of the Roman, but of all ancient Italian forms of worship[162].
The object of this rite was, according to Wissowa[163], the purification of all that was within the circle formed by the procession; and as the sacred victims intended for sacrifice were taken round, the effect was to keep away all evil influences outside the circuit made.
A striking example of this circumambulatory procession was its performance by the Fratres Arvales at the festival of the Ambarvalia, to which reference is made below ([p. 149]). Another is that of the course of the Luperci round the Palatine Hill at the Lupercalia (see further, p. 150); this, too, had as its object purification whereby fruitfulness was imparted to the fruits of the field, and to the flocks.
As among the Greeks, so, too, the Romans had a purificatory rite for their new-born infants on the dies lustricus, i.e. on the ninth day after birth for boys, on the eighth for girls. Marquardt thinks that perhaps the Romans took over the rite from the Greeks[164].