footing is demonstrated partly by the barbarous mutilation
of its Greek name, partly by its being employed even
in ritual.(10) That some of the legendary stores
of the Greeks during this period found their way into
Latium, is shown by the ready reception of Greek works
of sculpture with their representations based so thoroughly
upon the poetical treasures of the nation; and the
old Latin barbarous conversions of Persephone into
Prosepna, Bellerophontes into Melerpanta, Kyklops
into Cocles, Laomedon into Alumentus, Ganymedes into
Catamitus, Neilos into Melus, Semele into Stimula,
enable us to perceive at how remote a period such stories
had been heard and repeated by the Latins. Lastly
and especially, the Roman chief festival or festival
of the city (-ludi maximi-, -Romani-) must in all
probability have owed, if not its origin, at any rate
its later arrangements to Greek influence. It
was an extraordinary thanksgiving festival celebrated
in honour of the Capitoline Jupiter and the gods dwelling
along with him, ordinarily in pursuance of a vow made
by the general before battle, and therefore usually
observed on the return home of the burgess-force in
autumn. A festal procession proceeded toward
the Circus staked off between the Palatine and Aventine,
and furnished with an arena and places for spectators;
in front the whole boys of Rome, arranged according
to the divisions of the burgess-force, on horseback
and on foot; then the champions and the groups of
dancers which we have described above, each with their
own music; thereafter the servants of the gods with
vessels of frankincense and other sacred utensils;
lastly the biers with the images of the gods themselves.
The spectacle itself was the counterpart of war as
it was waged in primitive times, a contest on chariots,
on horseback, and on foot. First there ran the
war-chariots, each of which carried in Homeric fashion
a charioteer and a combatant; then the combatants who
had leaped off; then the horsemen, each of whom appeared
after the Roman style of fighting with a horse which
he rode and another led by the hand (-desultor-);
lastly, the champions on foot, naked to the girdle
round their loins, measured their powers in racing,
wrestling, and boxing. In each species of contest
there was but one competition, and that between not
more than two competitors. A chaplet rewarded
the victor, and the honour in which the simple branch
which formed the wreath was held is shown by the law
permitting it to be laid on the bier of the victor
when he died. The festival thus lasted only
one day, and the competitions probably still left sufficient
time on that day for the carnival proper, at which
the groups of dancers may have displayed their art
and above all exhibited their farces; and doubtless
other representations also, such as competitions in
juvenile horsemanship, found a place.(11) The honours
won in real war also played their part in this festival;
the brave warrior exhibited on this day the equipments
of the antagonist whom he had slain, and was decorated
with a chaplet by the grateful community just as was
the victor in the competition.