[154]. Marq. Privatleben, i. 122 note 2.
[155]. Ovid, l. c., 783 foll.; Marq. l. c. and 123, 124. Military service began anciently at seventeen (Tubero, ap. Gell. 10. 28): though even praetextati sometimes served voluntarily (Marq. op. cit. 131). Even if not called out at once, the boys would begin the practice of arms from the assumption of the toga virilis.
[156]. Marq. op. cit. 124. Libero in Ca[pitolio], Farn. For Iuventas, Dion. Hal. 3. 69, 4. 15.
[157]. This result is obtained by comparing Ovid, Fasti, 3. 791
Itur ad Argeos—qui sint, sua pagina dicet—
Hac, si commemini, praeteritaque die.
(where he refers to his description of the rite of May 15, and appears to identify the simulacra and sacella), with Gell. N. A. 10. 15, who says that the Flaminica Dialis, ‘cum it ad Argeos’ was in mourning dress: also with the fragments of the ‘Sacra Argeorum’ in Varro, L. L. 5. 46-54. These have been shown by Jordan (Topogr. ii. 271 foll.) to be fragments of an itinerary, meant for the guidance of a procession, an idea first suggested by O. Müller. The further questions of the route taken, and the distribution of the sacella in the four Servian regiones, are very difficult, and need not be discussed here. See Mommsen, Staatsrecht, iii. 123 foll.
[158]. L. L. 5. 85 ‘Salii a salitando, quod facere in comitio in sacris quotannis et solent et debent.’
[159]. i. p. 81 (Keil). Why the Comitium was the scene does not appear. Preller has suggested a reason (i. 364), which is by no means convincing.
[160]. It was adopted by Usener (p. 222, note 6), but has obtained no further support. For another curious etymology of the latter part of the word latrus, which, however, does not assist us here, see Deecke, Falisker, p. 90 (Dies ater = dies alter = postridie).