Secular Games

The Secular or Saecular Games[1] (Ludi Saeculares) was an ancient Roman religious celebration involving sacrifices, theatrical performances, and public games (ludi). It was held irregularly in Rome for three days and nights to mark the ends of various eras (saecula) and to celebrate the beginning of the next.[2] In particular, the Romans reckoned a saeculum as the longest possible length of human life, either 100 or 110 years in length;[3][4] as such, it was used to mark various centennials, particularly anniversaries from the computed founding of Rome.

According to Roman mythology, the Secular Games began as the Tarentine Games (Ludi Tarentini) when a Sabine man called Valesius prayed for a cure for his children's illness and was supernaturally instructed to sacrifice on the Campus Martius to Dis Pater and Proserpina, deities of the underworld. Some ancient authors traced official celebrations of the Games as far back as 509 BC, but the only clearly attested celebrations under the Roman Republic took place in 249 and in the 140s BC. They involved sacrifices to the underworld gods over three consecutive nights. The Games were revived in 17 BC by Rome's first emperor Augustus, with the nocturnal sacrifices on the Campus Martius now transferred to the Moerae (fates), the Ilythiae (goddesses of childbirth), and Terra Mater ("Mother Earth"). The Games of 17 BC also introduced day-time sacrifices to Roman deities on the Capitoline and Palatine hills. Certain sacrifices were unusually specified to be performed by married women.[5] Each sacrifice was followed by theatrical performances.[6] Later emperors held celebrations in AD 88 and 204, after intervals of roughly 110 years. However, they were also held by Claudius in AD 47 to celebrate the 800th anniversary of Rome's foundation,[7] which led to a second cycle of Games in 148 and 248. The Games were abandoned under later Christian emperors.

  1. ^ Rüpke, Jörg (2018). Pantheon: A new history of Roman religion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. pp. 193–203. ISBN 978-1-4008-8885-6.
  2. ^ Dunning, Susan Bilynskyj (2022-06-06). "The transformation of the saeculum and its rhetoric in the construction and rejection of Roman imperial power". In Faure, Richard; Valli, Simon-Pierre; Zucker, Arnaud (eds.). Conceptions of time in Greek and Roman antiquity. Berlin: De Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9783110736076-008. ISBN 978-3-11-073607-6.
  3. ^ Haase, Mareile; Rüpke, Jörg (2002). "Saeculum". In Hubert Cancik; Helmuth Schneider; Christine F. Salazar; David E. Orton (eds.). Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the ancient world. Leiden: Brill. doi:10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e1027080. ISBN 978-90-04-12259-8.
  4. ^ Bilynskyj Dunning, Susan (November 2017). "Saeculum". Oxford Classical Dictionary. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.8233. ISBN 978-0-19-938113-5.
  5. ^ Darja, Šterbenc Erker (2018-05-02). "Augustus' "New" Festival: The Centrality of Married Women's Rituals at the Ludi Saeculares of 17 BCE". Numen. 65 (4): 377–404. doi:10.1163/15685276-12341504. ISSN 1568-5276.
  6. ^ Boyce, Aline Abaecherli (1941). "Processions in the Acta Ludorum Saecularium". Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association. 72: 36–48. doi:10.2307/283039. JSTOR 283039.
  7. ^ Tacitus, Cornelius. Furneaux, Henry (ed.). Annals XI (in Latin) (1907 ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 17. ludi saeculares octingentesimo post Romam conditam