There are no festivals in any way connected with Mars from this day to the Roman new year, March 1. As Roscher has remarked, his activity, like that of Apollo, is all in the warm season—the season of vegetation and of arms. His priests, who seem in their dances, their song, and their equipment, to form a connecting link between his fertilizing powers and his warlike activity, are seen no more from this day till his power is felt again on the threshold of spring.
We learn from Varro[[1095]] that the place of lustratio on this day was the Aventine ‘ad circum maximum.’ I can find no explanation of this: we know of no Mars-altar in that part of Rome, which was the seat of the cults of Hercules and Consus. It was probably the last point in a procession of the Salii[[1096]].
MENSIS NOVEMBER.
Of all the months in the Roman year November is the least important from a religious point of view. It was the month of ploughing and sowing—not of holiday-time[[1097]]; then, as now, it was a quiet month, and in the calendars, with the exception of the ludi plebeii, not a festival appears of any importance. Later on, the worship of Isis gained a hold upon the month[[1098]], which remained open to intruders long after city-life had taken the place of November agricultural operations.
The ludi plebeii, as a public festival, date from 220 B.C.; they took place in the Circus Flaminius, which was built in that year[[1099]]; they and the epulum Iovis (Nov. 13) are first mentioned by Livy four years later. The epulum has already been discussed in connexion with the ludi Romani. The plebeian games were probably at first on a single day (Nov. 13), and were gradually extended, like the ludi Romani; finally, they lasted from Nov. 4 to Nov. 17[[1100]].
The 8th was one of the three days on which the mundus was open: see under Oct. 5.
Id. Nov. (Nov. 13). NP.
FERONIAE IN CAMPO[[1101]]. (ARV., a later addition to the original.)
FORTUNAE PRIMIGENIAE IN COLLE. (ARV., a later addition to the original.)
This is the only mention we have of Feronia in Rome. She was a goddess of renown in Latium and central Italy, but never made her mark at Rome, as did others of her kind—Diana, Fortuna, Ceres, Flora—all of whom appear there with plebeian associations about them, as not belonging to the earliest patrician community[[1102]]. It is curious to find this Feronia too in the calendar only in the middle of the ludi plebeii, and probably on the day which was the original nucleus of the games. We may either date the cult from the establishment of the ludi or guess that it was there before them, and was subsequently eclipsed by the cult of Jupiter.