[259]. The letters an also appear in a fragment of a lost note in Esq. Mommsen quotes Ovid, Fasti, 4. 775, and Tibull. 2. 5. 81 for the idea of an annus pastorum beginning on this day. I can find no explanation of it, astronomical or other. Dion. Hal. 1. 88 calls the day the beginning of spring, which it certainly was not.
[260]. For the form of the word see Mommsen, C. I. L. 315. (In Varro, L. L. 6. 15, it is Palilia.) Preller-Jordan, i. 416.
[261]. ‘Palilia tam privata quam publica sunt.’ Varro, ap Schol. in Persium, 1. 75. See on Compitalia, below, p. [279].
[262]. Serv. Georg. 3. 1: ‘Pales ... dea est pabuli. Hanc ... alii, inter quos Varro, masculino genere vocant, ut hic Pales.’ There can be no better proof of the antiquity of the deity in Italy.
[263]. L. L. 5. 53.
[264]. There was a flamen Palatualis (Varro, L. L. 7. 45, and Fest. 245) and an offering Palatuar (Fest. 348), connected with a Diva Palatua of the Palatine, who may have been the urban and pontifical form of Pales.
[265]. Ovid is borne out or supplemented by Tibull. 2. 5. 87 foll.; Propert. 4. 4. 75 foll.; Probus on Virg. Georg. 3. 1; Dionys. 1. 88, &c.
[266]. It is noticeable that sheep alone are mentioned in the ritual as Ovid describes it.
[267]. A. W. F. p. 310. Cp. Frazer, G. B. ii. 246 foll.
[268]. Chambers’ Journal, July, 1842. For the custom in London, Brand, Pop. Antiquities, p. 307.