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These games (the chief Roman festival) were in honour of Jupiter ( I.401); and so it appears in the Calendars of the Augustan time, the days of the games being Sept. 4 to 19. There was the Epulum Jovis on the 13th, and the Equorum probatio on the 14th. The games in the circus lasted from the 15th to the 19th. In the Calendar of Philocalus (354 A.D.) they run from Sept. 12 to 15. The celebration was in the hands at first of the Consuls , afterwards of the curule aediles. But we must not suppose that these games were regularly established as annual from the beginning. Games, as we have seen, in many cases began from a vow made by the commander, and were celebrated as a special festival after his Triumphal procession. As the army, however, used to go forth as a general rule each summer, it became customary when it returned in autumn to celebrate such games, though connected with no triumph, and though no signal victory had been gained. But still in all cases they were celebrated as extraordinary games, and not as games regularly established by law. They were ''sollemnes,'' "customary," but had not yet become ''annui,'' "yearly" (''sollemnes, deinde annui mansere ludi Romani magnique varie appellati'', Liv. i. 35, 9); for we must remember that ''sollemnes'' need not mean anything more than customary. Livy indeed in the passage quoted identifies the two kinds, the '' Ludi Magni '' and the ''ludi Romani'', and so do Cicero (Repub. ii. 20, 35), Festus (l. c.), and Pseudo-Asconius (pp. 142-3, Or.); but in all his other books Livy observes a distinction which has been pointed out by Ritschl (''Parerga zu Plautus '', &c. p. 290), that ''ludi magni'' is the term applied to extraordinary games originating in a vow (''ludi votivi''), while ''ludi Romani'' is that applied to the games when they were regularly established as annual (''ludi stati''). The latter term, i.e. ''ludi Romani'', is first used by Livy in viii. 40, 2 (see Weissenborn ad loc.); and after that the terms varied according as the games are ''stati'' (e.g. x. 47, 7; xxv. 2, 8) or ''votivi'' (xxii. 9, 10; 10, 7; xxvii. 33, 8; xxxvi. 2, 2; xxxix. 22, 2, &c.; Suet . Aug. 23). The distinction drawn by Ritschl is to be considered proven. But when was the fixed festival, the ''ludi Romani,'' definitely established as annual? Most probably, says Mommsen (Röm. Forsch. ii. 53; cf. R. H. i. 472), on the occasion of the first appointment of the Curule Aediles in 367 B.C. , who were to be the ''curatores ludorum sollemnium'' (Cic. Leg. iii. 3, 7). For in the oldest Roman calendars which date from the time of the Decemvirs (cf. Mommsen, Die röm. Chronologie, &c. p. 30) these festivals are not engraved in capitals but in small characters, therefore are additions (C. I. L. i. 361) made after 449 B.C. ; also in 322 B.C . the ''ludi Romani'' are mentioned as a regular annual festival (Liv. viii. 40, 2): accordingly the final establishment of these games must lie between these dates; and the year 367 B.C., when so many changes were effected, and when we are told a day was added to these games and curule aediles appointed to superintend them, seems the most reasonable to assume. Yet Livy and the other authors who identify the ''ludi magni'' and ''Romani'' are not altogether in error: for the arrangement of the two kinds of games was similar. An incidental proof of this is that when . After the introduction of the Drama in 364, plays were acted at the ''ludi Romani'', and in 214 B.C. we know that ''ludi scenici'' took up four days of the festival (Liv. xxiv. 43, 7). In 161 B.C. the '' Phormio '' of Terence was acted at these games. (The chief work on the ludi Romani is Mommsen's article "Die ludi magni und Romani" in his ''Römische Forschungen'', ii. 42-57 = Rheinisches Museum, xiv. 79-87. Compare also his Roman History, i. 235-237 (where the Greek influences on the Roman games are traced), 472, 473; and Friedländer in Marquardt's Staatsverwaltung, iii. 477, 478.) |
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