Salii

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This article is about an ancient Roman priestly order. For the Frankish tribe of the fourth century AD, see Salian Franks.
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The Salii, Salians, or Salian priests were the "leaping priests" of

Egeria
, consort of Numa, who prophesied that wherever that shield was preserved, the people would be the dominant people of the earth.

Each year in March, the Salii made a procession round the city, dancing and singing the Carmen Saliare. Ovid, who relates the story of Numa and the heavenly ancilia in his Fasti,[1] found the hymn and the Salian rituals outdated and hard to understand. During the Principate, by decree of the Senate, Augustus's name was inserted into the song.[2] They ended the day by banqueting. "Table of the Salii" (Saliaris cena) became proverbial in Latin for a sumptuous feast. It is unclear whether the primary aim of the ritual was to protect Rome's army, although this is the traditional view.

King Tullus Hostilius is said to have established another collegium of Salii in fulfillment of a vow which he made in the second war with Fidenae and Veii.[3] These Salii Collini were also twelve in number, chosen from the Patricians, and appeared to have been dedicated to the service of Quirinus.

The Salii are sometimes credited with the opening and closing of the war cycle which would last from March to October.[4]

Name

Saliī is the

plural form of Salius, a noun and adjective that seem to derive from salīre ("to jump, to leap") and to be cognate with saltāre ("to dance, to jump"). They were sometimes known as the Palatine Salii (Salii Palatini) to distinguish them from the priests of Quirinius. They are also known in English as the Salians or the Salian Priests.[5] The Salii Collini were also known as the Agonales or Agonenses.[6]

Origin

According to legend, Numa Pompilius established the Salii Palatini, which honored the god Mars,[7] while Tullus Hostilius established the Salii Collini which honored the god Quirinus.[8]

An origin among the Etruscans is attributed to a founding by

The Aeneid, while in the land of King Evander Aeneas is entertained by the Salii during a feast, who are commemorating the fame and feasts of Hercules.[10]

Ancient authors quoted by

Maurus Servius Honoratus and Macrobius recorded that Salii had existed at Tibur, Tusculum and Veii even before their creation in Rome.[11][12]

Role

The twelve Salii used

Jupiter,[15] Janus,[16] and Mars.[17][18] This dance was referred to as the tripudium. Horace describes the Salii performing this dance by stamping their feet three times. Their dance was also associated with leaping and jumping.[19] Seneca the Younger wrote that it was a popular dance that required professional training to perform. It is possible that the term tripudium referred to a variety of dances. Alongside dancing, the Salii would sing songs known as the Carmen Saliare. Varro claimed that the Salian priests did not understand the meanings of the lyrics they sang. It is possible they contained older spellings and archaic words.[20] Plutarch describes them chanting and dancing with a quick rhythm. He also wrote that they would beat daggers on shields to create music.[21] These shields were known as ancile.[22] Other descriptions stated that used flutes to sing the songs.[23] The Salii wore embroidered tunics under purple trabeae with bronze helmets and belts during their festivals. They also wore garlands of white ribbons, a conical cap known as an apex,[24] and wheat sheaves. Some wore togae praetextae around their waists.[25] Their rituals took place in March, during the Spring equinox.[26] If a Salius was elected consul, flamen, pontifex, or augur, they would resign from their position in the Salii.[27]

Salian virgins

transvestite initiation.[30] An earlier explanation held that the maidens played the role of absent warriors in some form of propitiation.[31] The meaning of their being "hired" is unclear.[32]

Interpretations of the rituals

There is no single overreaching description of the Salii's rituals throughout the month of March from any of the ancient authors, and facts have to be reconstructed from multiple mentions in diverse works; however, there are strong indications that the procession may actually have lasted a full 24 days, from March 1st which opened the festival until March 24th, which closed it, with the procession moving from one station to another each day, and with revels being held each evening; a complete assessment can be found in Smith, Wayte, & Marindin (1890).[33]

Classical

Vedic myths of Indra and the Maruts.[41][42][43]

Because the earliest Roman calendar had begun with the month of March, Hermann Usener thought the ceremonies of the ancilia movere were a ritual expulsion of the old year, represented by the mysterious figure of Mamurius Veturius, to make way for the new god Mars, born on March 1.[44] On the Ides of March, a man ritually named as Mamurius Veturius was beaten with long white sticks in the sacrum Mamurii; in Usener's view, this was a form of scapegoating. Mamurius was the mythic blacksmith who forged eleven replicas of the original divine shield that had dropped from the sky.[45] According to Usener and Ludwig Preller,[46] Mars would be a god of war and fertility while Mamurius Veturius would mean "Old Mars". Mars is himself a dancer,[47] and the head of the Salian dancers, patrician young men whose parents were both living (patrimi and matrimi).

Nomenclature

Ceremonial headgear of the Salii and flamens
  • Numa's Salii Palatini were dedicated to Mars surnamed Gradivus (meaning "he who walks into battle"), and were quartered on the Palatine Hill.
  • Tullus' Salii Collini were dedicated to Quirinus, and were quartered on the Quirinal Hill.[48] Rosinus called them[citation needed] Agonenses Salii. The second group of Salii may in fact have been created during an Augustan reorganization of the priesthood. Paulus ex Festo p. 10 M reads: ... Agones dicebant montes, Agonia sacrificia quae fiebant in monte; hinc Romae mons Quirinalis Agonus et Collina Porta Agonensis: "Agones were called the mounts, Agonia the sacrifices that took place on the mounts; hence in Rome the Quirinal mount (is named) Agonus and the Porta Collina Agonensis".

References

  1. ^ Ovid, Fasti, 3, ll. 259–392.
  2. ^ Res Gestae Divi Augusti, 10.
  3. Ab urbe condita
    , 1:27
  4. OCLC 760889060
    .
  5. ^ "Salian, adj.¹ and n.¹", Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022.
  6. ^ Smith, William, ed. (1875), "Salii", Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: John Murray.
  7. Ab Urbe Condita
    , 1, Sect. 20.
  8. ISBN 978-1-4051-7935-5
    , retrieved 2022-11-07
  9. ^ Joseph Rykwert, The Idea of a Town: The Anthropology of Urban Form in Rome, Italy and the Ancient World (MIT Press, 1988), p. 96.
  10. ^ "The Aeneid Book VIII". Poetry in Translation.
  11. ^ Servius. Aenead. VIII 285.
  12. ^ Macrobius. Saturnalia. III 12, 1-9.
  13. JSTOR 24560608
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  14. ISBN 978-1-108-83166-6
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  18. ISBN 978-1-4443-3838-6
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  19. ISBN 978-1-118-35135-2
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  20. ISBN 978-1-4443-3838-6
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  21. ISBN 978-1-4051-2943-5
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  22. ISBN 978-1-118-35135-2
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  23. ISBN 978-1-316-51533-4
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  24. ISBN 978-0-19-938113-5
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  25. ISBN 978-1-4443-3838-6
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  26. ISBN 978-1-108-84528-1
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  27. Cambridge Core
    .
  28. Aelius Stilo and Cincius
    as his sources.
  29. ISBN 9004092676. citing the prior but independent conclusions of Torelli, M. (1984). Lavinio e Roma. Riti iniziatici e matrimonio tra acheologia e storia. Rome. pp. 76 ff and 106 ff.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  30. ISBN 978-0-8018-8105-3
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  31. ^ L. Deubner, "Zur römischen Religionsgeschichte," Rheinisches Museum 36–37 (1921–22) 14 ff., as cited by Versnel.
  32. ^ Beard, Mary (1990). "Priesthood in the Roman Republic". Pagan Priests: Religion and power in the ancient world. Cornell University Press. pp. 19 and 22.
  33. ^ Smith, William, LLD; Wayte, William; Marindin, G. E. (1890). A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Albemarle Street, London, UK: John Murray – via Tufts U. / Perseus.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  34. ^ Wissowa, Georg (1912). Religion und Kultus der Römer. Munich: C. H. Beck'sche. pp. 480ff.
  35. ^ Varro. Lingua Latina. VI 14. Liberalia ... In libris Saliorum quorum cognomen Agonensium, forsitan hic dies ideo appellatur Agonia
    [Liberalia ... In the books of the Salii they are named of the Agonenses, perhaps this day is thence rather named Agonia.]
  36. ^ Servius. Aenead. VIII 663.
  37. ^ Statius. Silvae. V 128 ff.
  38. ^ Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Roman Antiquities. II 70, 2.
  39. ^ Dumezil, G. (1974). La religion romaine archaique. It. tr. Milano 1974 p. 248-249. Paris, FR. 2nd part 1 chapt. 6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  40. ^ Wissowa 1912, p. 382.
  41. ^ L. von Schoeder Mysterium und Mimus im RigVeda 1908, pp. 126 and 329-330
  42. Tvastar
    the divine blacksmith (cf. Mamurius Veturius)
  43. ^ Oldenburg Die Religion d. Veda 1894 p. 233
  44. ^ Old calendars name the day Caesus Ancili or Natalis Martis: Calend. Philocali et Constantini Feriae Martis, Calend. Praen. CIL I p. 387; Ovid Fasti III 1 ff.; L. Preller Roemische Mythologie 1858 p.319 n. 5
  45. ^ H. Usener Kleine Schriften IV Bonn, 1913 p. 122 and 135 citing Iohannes Lydus de Mensibus IV 36, 71; Properce V 2, 61; Minucius Felix Octav. 243; Varro Lingua Latina VI 45: "Itaque Salii quod cantant: "Mamuri Veturi" significant memoriam veterem". "Thus the Salii when they sing "Mamuri Veturi" mean memories of the past"
  46. ^ H. Usener Kleine Schriften IV Bonn, 1913, p. 193; L. Preller Roemische Mythologie 1858 p. 297
  47. ^ Catullus 17, 6 Salisubsulus
  48. ^ Antonia Traiana Severa. "God Mars". religiioromana.net. Archived from the original on 2005-04-23.
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