QUINQUA´TRUS
or
QUINQUA´TRIA, a festival sacred to Minerva, which was celebrated
on the 19th of March (a. d. XIV Kal. Apr.), and was so called according
to Varro (de Ling. Lat. vi.14, ed. Müller), because it was the
fifth day after the Ides, in the same way as the Tusculans called a
festival on the sixth day after the Ides Sexatrus, and one on the
seventh Septimatrus. Gellius (ii.21) and Festus (s.v.) also give the
same etymology, and the latter states that the Faliscans too called a
festival on the tenth day after the Ideas Decimatrus (cf. Müller,
Etrusker, vol. ii p49). Both Varro and Festus state that the
Quinquatrus was celebrated for only one day, but Ovid (Fast. iii.809,
&c.) says that it was celebrated for five days, and was for this
reason called by this name: that on the first day no blood was shed,
but that on the last four there were contests of gladiators. It would
appear however that the first day was only the festival properly so
called, and that the last four were merely an addition made perhaps in
the time of Caesar to gratify the people, who became so passionately
fond of gladiatorial combats. The ancient Calendars too assign only one
day to the festival.
Ovid
(l.c.) says that this festival was celebrated in commemoration of the
birth-day of Minerva; but according to Festus it was sacred to Minerva
because her temple on the Aventine was consecrated on that day. On the
fifth day of the festival, according to Ovid (iii.849), the trumpets
used in sacred rites were purified; but this seems to have been
originally a separate festival called Tubilustrium (Festus, s.v.;
Varro, l.c.), which was celebrated as we know from the ancient
Calendars on the 23d of March (a. d. X. Cal. Apr.), and would of
course, when the Quinquatrus was extended to five days, fall on the
last day of that festival.
As
this festival was sacred to Minerva, it seems that women were
accustomed to consult fortune-tellers and diviners upon this day
(Plaut. Mil. iii.1.98). Domitian caused it to be celebrated every year
in his Alban Villa, situated at the foot of the hills of Alba, and
instituted a collegium to superintend the celebration, which consisted
of the hunting of wild beasts, of the exhibition of plays, and of
contests of orators and poets (Suet. Dom. 4).
There
was also another festival of this name called Quinquatrus Minusculae or
Quinquatrus Minores, celebrated on the Ides of June, on which the
tibicines went through the city in procession to the temple of Minerva
(Varro, de Ling. Lat. vi.17; Ovid. Fast. vi.651, &c.; Festus, p149,
ed Müller).