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Updated: June 27, 2025
Perhaps more scrupulously than the feriae were observed the dies religiosi, days of 'abstinence, on which certain acts, such as marriage, the beginning of any new piece of work, or the offering of sacrifice to the gods, were forbidden: such, in the oldest period, were the days on which the mundus was open, or the temple of Vesta received the matrons, the days when the Salii carried the ancilia in procession, and the periods of the two festivals of the dead in February and May; but for eluding their observance too devices were not unknown.
Then the Salii stand round the lit altar-fires to sing, their brows bound with poplar boughs, one chorus of young men, one of elders, and extol in song the praises and deeds of Hercules; how first he strangled in his gripe the twin terrors, the snakes of his stepmother; how he likewise shattered in war famous cities, Troy and Oechalia; how under Eurystheus the King he bore the toil of a thousand labours by Juno's malign decrees.
It is related that, to reward Mamurius for his workmanship, his name is mentioned in the song which the Salii sing while they dance their Pyrrhic dance; others, however, say that it is not Veturium Mamurium that they say, but Veterem Memoriam, which means ancient memory.
APEX: 'the crown', 'the highest glory'. The word meant originally 'knot', being connected with ap-tus ap-isci ap-ere and other words containing the idea of binding fast or grasping. It was properly applied to the olive-twig bound round with wool, which was stuck in the cap worn by the flamines and salii. Odes, 1, 34, 14. The word is scarcely found elsewhere in a metaphorical sense.
These priests were called Salii, not, as some say, after a man of Samothrace or of Mantinea named Salius, who first taught the art of dancing under arms, but rather from the springing dance itself, which they dance through the city when they carry out the shields in the month of March, dressed in scarlet tunics, girt with brazen girdles, with brazen helmets on their heads and little daggers with which they strike the shields.
If any married again before that time, by the laws of Numa she was to sacrifice a cow big with calf. Numa, also, was founder of several other orders of priests, two of which I shall mention, the Salii and the Feciales, which are among the clearest proofs of the devoutness and sanctity of his character.
Mr Chambers goes on to remark that the dance of the Salii discussed above, was clearly agricultural, "and belongs to Mars not as War god, but in his more primitive quality of a fertilization Spirit." The dancers, seven in number, represented the seven champions of Christendom; the leader, Saint George, after an introductory speech, performed a solo dance, to the music of an accompanying minstrel.
And he chose virgins for the service of Vesta, who should keep alive the sacred fire, and twelve priests of Mars, whom he called the Salii, to be keepers of the sacred shield. And many other things as to the worship of the gods, and the interpreting of signs, and the dealing with marvels and portents, King Numa set in order.
One day, as he was hearing causes in the Forum of Augustus, he smelt the dinner which was preparing for the Salii , in the temple of Mars adjoining, whereupon he quitted the tribunal, and went to partake of the feast with the priests.
The subj. expresses the opinion of others, not the direct affirmation of the author. Deo==hoc deo, sc. Mannus Germ. Mann, Eng. Man. Marsos, Gambrivios. Under the names of Franci and Salii these tribes afterwards became formidable to the Romans. Cf. Prichard's Researches into the Physical History of Mankind, Vol. III. chap. 6, sec. 2. Suevos, cf. note, 38. Vandalios.
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