A Smaller Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities

by William Smith

Ludi Tarentini or Taurii. [[Ludi Saeculares].]

LŪDUS. [[Gladiatores].]

LŪDUS TRŌJAE. [[Circus].]

LŬPERCĀLĬA, one of the most ancient Roman festivals, which was celebrated every year in honour of Lupercus, the god of fertility. It was originally a shepherd-festival, and hence its introduction at Rome was connected with the names of Romulus and Remus, the kings of shepherds. It was held every year, on the 15th of February, in the Lupercal, where Romulus and Remus were said to have been nurtured by the she-wolf; the place contained an altar and a grove sacred to the god Lupercus. Here the Luperci assembled on the day of the Lupercalia, and sacrificed to the god goats and young dogs. Two youths of noble birth were then led to the Luperci, and one of the latter touched their foreheads with a sword dipped in the blood of the victims; other Luperci immediately after wiped off the bloody spots with wool dipped in milk. Hereupon the two youths were obliged to break out into a shout of laughter. This ceremony was probably a symbolical purification of the shepherds. After the sacrifice was over, the Luperci partook of a meal, at which they were plentifully supplied with wine. They then cut the skins of the goats which they had sacrificed, into pieces: with some of which they covered parts of their body in imitation of the god Lupercus, who was represented half naked and half covered with goatskin. The other pieces of the skins they cut in the shape of thongs, and holding them in their hands they ran with them through the streets of the city, touching or striking with them all persons whom they met in their way, and especially women, who even used to come forward voluntarily for the purpose, since they believed that this ceremony rendered them fruitful, and procured them an easy delivery in child-bearing. This act of running about with thongs of goatskin was a symbolic purification of the land, and that of touching persons a purification of men, for the words by which this act is designated are februare and lustrare. The goatskin itself was called februum, the festive day dies februata, the month in which it occurred Februarius, and the god himself Februus. The festival of the Lupercalia, though it necessarily lost its original import at the time when the Romans were no longer a nation of shepherds, was yet always observed in commemoration of the founders of the city. M. Antonius, in his consulship, was one of the Luperci, and not only ran with them half naked and covered with pieces of goatskin through the city, but even addressed the people in the forum in this rude attire.

LŬPERCI, the priests of the god Lupercus. They formed a college, the members of which were originally youths of patrician families, and which was said to have been instituted by Romulus and Remus. The college was divided into two classes, the one called Fabii or Fabiani, and the other Quinctilii or Quinctiliani. The office was not for life, but how long it lasted is not known. Julius Caesar added to the two classes of the college a third with the name of Julii or Juliani, and made Antonius their high-priest. He also assigned to them certain revenues (vectigalia) which were afterwards withdrawn from them.

LŬPUS FERREUS, the iron wolf used by the besieged in repelling the attacks of the besiegers, and especially in seizing the battering-ram and diverting its blows.

LUSTRĀTĬO (κάθαρσις) was originally a purification by ablution in water. But the lustrations of which we possess direct knowledge are always connected with sacrifices and other religious rites, and consisted in the sprinkling of water by means of a branch of laurel or olive, and at Rome sometimes by means of the aspergillum, and in the burning of certain materials, the smoke of which was thought to have a purifying effect. Whenever sacrifices were offered, it seems to have been customary to carry them around the person or thing to be purified. Lustrations were made in ancient Greece, and probably at Rome also, by private individuals when they had polluted themselves by any criminal action. Whole cities and states also sometimes underwent purifications to expiate the crime or crimes committed by a member of the community. The most celebrated purification of this kind was that of Athens, performed by Epimenides of Crete, after the Cylonian massacre. Purification also took place when a sacred spot had been unhallowed by profane use, as by burying dead bodies in it, as was the case with the island of Delos. The Romans performed lustrations on many occasions, on which the Greeks did not think of them; and the object of most Roman lustrations was not to atone for the commission of crime, but to obtain the blessing of the gods upon the persons or things which were lustrated. Thus fields were purified after the business of sowing was over, and before the sickle was put to the corn. [[Arvales Fratres].] Sheep were purified every year at the festival of the Palilia. All Roman armies before they took the field were lustrated; and as the solemnity was probably always connected with a review of the troops, the word lustratio is also used in the sense of the modern review. The establishment of a new colony was always preceded by a lustratio with solemn sacrifices. The city of Rome itself, as well as other towns within its dominion, always underwent a lustratio after they had been visited by some great calamity, such as civil bloodshed, awful prodigies, and the like. A regular and general lustratio of the whole Roman people took place after the completion of every lustrum, when the censor had finished his census and before he laid down his office. This lustratio (also called lustrum) was conducted by one of the censors, and held with sacrifices called Suovetaurilia, because the sacrifices consisted of a pig (or ram), a sheep, and an ox. It took place in the Campus Martius, where the people assembled for the purpose. The sacrifices were carried three times around the assembled multitude.

LUSTRUM (from luo, Gr. λούω) is properly speaking a lustration or purification, and in particular the purification of the whole Roman people performed by one of the censors in the Campus Martius, after the business of the census was over. [[Census]; [Lustratio].] As this purification took place only once in five years, the word lustrum was also used to designate the time between two lustra. The first lustrum was performed in B.C. 566, by king Servius, after he had completed his census, and it is said to have taken place subsequently every five years, after the census was over. The census might be held without the lustrum, and indeed two cases of this kind are recorded which happened in B.C. 459 and 214. In these cases the lustrum was not performed on account of some great calamities which had befallen the republic. The time when the lustrum took place has been very ingeniously defined by Niebuhr. Six ancient Romulian years of 304 days each were, with the difference of one day, equal to five solar years of 365 days each, or the six ancient years made 1824 days, while the five solar years contained 1825 days. The lustrum, or the great year of the ancient Romans, was thus a cycle, at the end of which the beginning of the ancient year nearly coincided with that of the solar year. As the coincidence, however, was not perfect, a month of 24 days was intercalated in every eleventh lustrum. Now it is highly probable that the recurrence of such a cycle or great year was, from the earliest times, solemnised with sacrifices and purifications, and that Servius Tullius did not introduce them, but merely connected them with his census, and thus set the example for subsequent ages. Many writers of the latter period of the republic and during the empire, use the word lustrum for any space of five years, and without any regard to the census, while others even apply it in the sense of the Greek pentaeteris or an Olympiad, which contained only four years.

LỸCAEA (λύκαια), a festival with contests, celebrated by the Arcadians in honour of Zeus surnamed Λυκαῖος. It was said to have been instituted by the ancient hero Lycaon, the son of Pelasgus, who is also said, instead of the cakes which had formerly been offered to the god, to have sacrificed a child to Zeus, and to have sprinkled the altar with its blood.