[940]. So Marq. 349 and note; Mommsen in C. I. L. 329, 335. I follow Aust, Lex. s. v. Iuppiter, 732. The ‘epulum Minervae’ of the rustic calendars is but slender evidence for an ancient and special connexion of the goddess with this day; but Mommsen thinks that the epulum ‘magis Minervae quam Iovis fuisse.’
[941]. Aust, l. c.
[942]. Aust, Lex. s. v. Iuppiter, 670, 735.
[943]. In Capitolio (Gellius, 12. 8. 2; Liv. 38. 57. 5). For the collegium of epulones, which from 196 B.C. had charge of this and other public feasts, see Marq. 347 foll.
[944]. Val. Max. 2. 1. 2; Plin. N. H. 33. 111; Aust, l. c.; Preller, i. 120.
[945]. Marq. 348.
[946]. R. R. 132. Festus (68) explains daps as ‘res divina quae fiebat aut hiberna semente aut verna,’ and Cato directs the farmer to begin to sow after the ceremony he describes. I do not clearly understand whether Marquardt intended also to connect the epulum Jovis of Nov. 13 with the autumn sowing.
[947]. I am unable to offer any explanation of these words, though half inclined to suspect that Vesta was the original deity of this rite of the farm, and that Jupiter and the wine-offering are later intrusions.
[948]. Fasti, 6. 307. For Vacuna see Preller, i. 408.
[949]. Bk. 2. 23 (cp. 2. 50); Marq. 195 foll. For a comparison of Greek and Roman usage of this kind see de Coulanges, La Cité antique, p. 132 foll.