[29] Pag. 158. Edit. Rig. Namque hodie apud Lacedæmonas solemnitas maxima est διαμαστίγωσις, id est, flagellatio. Non latet in quo Sacro ante aram nobiles quique adolescentes flagellis afficiantur, adstantibus parentibus atque propinquis, & uti perseverarint adhortantibus.
[30] In Euterpe, Lib. II. Cap. 42. pag. 113. Ἐφ’ ὅτω δὲ τύπτονται, οὐ μοι ὅσιόν ἐστι λέγειν.
[31] Whether those Priests whipped themselves in earnest, or only made a feint so to do, as Beroaldus suspects, is difficult to determine; but with respect to the incisions which they pretended to make in their own flesh, there is just ground to think that they only imposed upon their spectators, since a law was made by the Emperor Commodus, which Dr. Middleton has quoted in his Letter from Rome, by which it was ordered that those Priests should be made really to suffer the amputations which they pretended they made on themselves. Bellonæ servientes brachia verè exsecare præcepit. Lamprid. in Com.
[32] “Itaque ut Tutela navis expiaretur, placuit quadragenas utrique plagas imponi. Nulla ergo fit mora; aggrediuntur nos furentes nautæ cum funibus, tentantque vilissimo sanguine Tutelam placare; & ego quidem tres plagas Spartanâ nobilitate concoxi.”—Pet. Arb. Sat. L. II.——The Story, as it is to be found in Petronius, is this. Encolpus and Giton had embarked, unawares, on the ship of one Lycas, to whom Encolpus had formerly given offence; and on board the same ship was also a Lady named Tryphena, who owed a grudge to Giton, by whom she thought she had on a former occasion been slighted. Encolpus and Giton no sooner discovered in whose ship they were, than they were afraid of being ill-used, and attempted to disguise themselves in the dress of Slaves, and for that purpose cut off their hair; a thing which (though they did not know it) was the worst of omens during a voyage, as it never was done but in a storm, in order to make offerings to the incensed Deities of the sea. Somebody spied Encolpus and Giton while they were performing the above operation; the rumour of such a nefarious act, in fair weather, soon spread about the ship, and the crew thereupon used our two passengers in the manner above related. Encolpus (as himself says) bore the three first blows with great magnanimity; but Giton, who was of a more tender frame, screamed so loud at the first blow, that Tryphena heard him, knew his voice, ran upon the deck, and instead of being moved by the sight of his nakedness, insisted upon the whole number of blows being given him: other passengers then took the part of the two culprits; which brought on a battle between them and the crew: at last the affair was compromised, and Encolpus and Giton were released. As for the latter, a Maid slave found means afterwards to fit him with a wig, and paste false eyebrows to his forehead, which made him appear as charming as ever, and Tryphena’s favour was restored to him.
[33] “Hic exultantes Salios nudosque Lupercos.” Æn. Lib. III.
[34] “Nec prodest agili palmas præbere Luperco.” Juv. Sat. II.
[35] “Steriles mulieres februantibus Lupercis se offerebant, & ferulâ verberabantur.”
[36] From the above sentiments delivered by Prudentius, we might be induced to think that only persons of low condition, in Rome, or even Slaves alone, used to run, in the festival of the Lupercalia; yet this does not seem to have been the case, and the lines of Prudentius appear to have contained more declamation than real truth.
The Luperci were in very early times formed into two bands, which were called by the names of the most distinguished families in Rome, Quintiliani and Fabiani; and to these was afterwards added a third band, called Juliani, from J. Cæsar’s name. Marc Antony, as every one knows, did not scruple to run as one of the Luperci, having once harangued the people in that condition: and if he was afterwards inveighed against, on that account, by several persons, and among others by Cicero, his personal enemy, it was owing to his being Consul, when he thus ran among the Luperci: a thing which, it was said, had never been done by any Consul before him.
The festival in question (which may surprise the Reader) continued to be celebrated so late as the year 496, long after the establishment of Christianity; and persons of noble families not only continued to run among the Luperci, but a great improvement was moreover made about those times in the ceremony; the Ladies, no longer contented with being slapt on the palms of their hands, as formerly, began to strip themselves naked, in order both to give a fuller scope to the Lupercus to display the vigour and agility of his arm, and enjoy, themselves, the entertainment of a more compleat flagellation. The whole ceremony being thus brought to that degree of perfection, was so well relished by all parties, that it continued to subsist (as has just now been observed) long after the other ceremonies of Paganism were abolished; and when Pope Gelasius at last put an end to it, he met with a strong opposition from all orders of Men, Senators as well as others. The general discontent became even so great, that the Pope, after he had carried his point, was obliged to write his own Apology, which Baronius has preserved: one of his arguments, among others, was drawn from the above practice of the Ladies, of stripping themselves naked in public in order to be lashed.—Apud illos, nobiles ipsi currebant, & matronæ nudato corpore vapulabant.