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28-618: Ludi Taurii are recorded in 186 BC as a two-day event. Varro mentions them as occurring in the late Republic . During the reign of Antoninus Pius , they were held every five years from 140 to 160 AD, within a period beginning on the day after the Ides of May and continuing through the Kalends of June. Some scholars extrapolate that like the lustrum (purification ritual), the Ludi Taurii were regularly quinquennial . Others caution that

56-522: A corrupt transition between the two events in Livy's text, the word decem ("ten") appears, which Georg Wissowa construed as referring to the ten-member priestly college of decemviri sacris faciundis ; he thought these priests were likely charged with organizing the Taurian Games. Earlier scholars have sometimes taken the adjective taurii to mean that bulls were part of the games, either in

84-469: A "court poet", his Aeneid , the most important of the Latin epics , also permits complex readings on the source and meaning of Rome's power and the responsibilities of a good leader. Ovid's works were wildly popular, but the poet was exiled by Augustus in one of literary history's great mysteries; carmen et error ("a poem" or "poetry" and "a mistake") is Ovid's own oblique explanation. Among prose works,

112-712: A "voluminous" work De re rustica (also called Res rusticae )—similar to Cato the Elder 's work De agri cultura —on the management of large slave-run estates . The compilation of the Varronian chronology was an attempt to determine an exact year-by-year timeline of Roman history up to his time. It is based on the traditional sequence of the consuls of the Roman Republic —supplemented, where necessary, by inserting "dictatorial" and "anarchic" years. It has been demonstrated to be somewhat erroneous but has become

140-470: A Mediterranean tradition of bull-leaping , or as an early form of bullfighting . Because Livy's chronology places the Ludi Taurii (or in some editions Taurilia ) immediately after the news of a victory in Roman Spain , the games have figured in a few efforts to trace the early history of Spanish-style bullfighting . Varro Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BCE) was a Roman polymath and

168-498: A book on architecture. His only complete work extant, Rerum rusticarum libri tres ("Three Books on Agriculture"), has been described as "the well digested system of an experienced and successful farmer who has seen and practised all that he records." One noteworthy aspect of the work is his anticipation of microbiology and epidemiology . Varro warned his readers to avoid swamps and marshland, since in such areas ...there are bred certain minute creatures which cannot be seen by

196-466: A brief reference to the games as occurring in 186 BC per biduum , for a period of two days, religionis causa , "for the sake of religious scruple." On this occasion, the two-day Ludi Taurii preceded ten days of ludi presented by Marcus Fulvius Nobilior as the result of a vow in the Aetolian War . Nobilior's games are notable as the first time a beast hunt ( venatio ) was staged at Rome. At

224-501: A prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome 's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Virgil and Cicero ). He is sometimes called Varro Reatinus ('Varro of Rieti') to distinguish him from his younger contemporary Varro Atacinus . Varro was born in or near Reate (now Rieti in Lazio) into a family thought to be of equestrian rank. He always remained close to his roots in

252-457: A variety of topics. Aside from his many lost works (known through fragments), two endeavors stand out for historians: Nine Books of Disciplines and his compilation of the Varronian chronology . His Nine Books of Disciplines became a model for later encyclopedists , especially for Pliny the Elder ( c.  23 to 79 AD). The most noteworthy portion of the Nine Books of Disciplines

280-514: Is its use of the liberal arts as organizing principles. Varro decided to focus on identifying nine of these arts: grammar , rhetoric , logic , arithmetic , geometry , astronomy , musical theory, medicine, and architecture . Using Varro's list, mediated through Martianus Capella 's early-5th century allegory, subsequent writers defined the seven classical "liberal arts" of the medieval schools. In c.  37 BC, in his old age, Varro wrote on agriculture for his wife Fundania, producing

308-580: The Circus Flaminius . If the games are Etruscan in origin, as Festus and Servius claim, taurii probably comes from the Etruscan word tauru , "tomb." The design of the turning posts (metae) on a Roman race course was derived from Etruscan funerary monuments. Festus, however, offers an etiology based on Latin taurus , meaning "bull." in English. In the tradition recorded by Festus,

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336-467: The Ilerda campaign of 49 BC. He escaped the penalties of having backed the losing side in the civil war through two pardons granted by Julius Caesar , before and after the 48 BC Battle of Pharsalus . Caesar appointed him to oversee the public library of Rome in 47 BC, but following Caesar's death Mark Antony proscribed him, resulting in his losing much of his property, including his library. As

364-673: The Republic gave way to the Empire c.  27 BC , Varro gained the favour of Augustus , under whose protection he found the security and quiet to devote himself to study and writing. Varro had studied under the Roman philologist Lucius Aelius Stilo (died 74 BC), and later at Athens under the Academic philosopher Antiochus of Ascalon (died 68 BC). Varro proved a highly productive writer and turned out more than 74 Latin works on

392-600: The Sabines with instituting the games in response to the pestilentia , and characterizes the transferral of the lues publica (the plague upon the people) onto sacrificial victims (hostiae) as if it were a scapegoat ritual . Festus also provided an additional explanation of the name as taurus ("bull") from Varro, preserved only in fragmentary form by the Codex Farnesianus . A reconstruction dating back to J.J. Scaliger has been taken to mean that youths, under

420-423: The monumental history of Livy is preeminent for both its scope and stylistic achievement. The multi-volume work De architectura by Vitruvius also remains of great informational interest. Questions pertaining to tone , or the writer's attitude toward his subject matter, are acute among the preoccupations of scholars who study the period. In particular, Augustan works are analyzed in an effort to understand

448-539: The triumviral years, before Octavian assumed the title Augustus . Strictly speaking, Ovid is the poet whose work is most thoroughly embedded in the Augustan regime. Augustan literature produced the most widely read, influential, and enduring of Rome's poets. The Republican poets Catullus and Lucretius are their immediate predecessors; Lucan , Martial , Juvenal and Statius are their so-called "Silver Age" heirs. Although Vergil has sometimes been considered

476-775: The archaic Tarentine Games (ludi tarentini) , which were replaced by the Saecular Games . Horse racing along with the propitiation of underworld gods was characteristic of "old and obscure" Roman festivals such as the Consualia , the October Horse , and sites in the Campus Martius such as the Tarentum (where the ludi tarentini originated) and the Trigarium . The Ludi Taurii were the only games held in

504-563: The area, owning a large farm in the Reatine plain (reported as near Lago di Ripasottile, ) until his old age. He supported Pompey , reaching the office of praetor , after having served as tribune of the people , quaestor and curule aedile . It is probable that Varro was discontented with the course on which Pompey entered when the First Triumvirate formed c. 60 BC, and he may thus have lost his chance of rising to

532-529: The consulship. He actually ridiculed the coalition in a work entitled the Three-Headed Monster ( Τρικάρανος in the Greek of Appian , The Civil Wars , II.ii.9). He was one of the commission of twenty that carried out the great agrarian scheme of Caesar for the resettlement of Capua and Campania (59 BC). During Caesar's civil war of 49 to 45 he commanded one of Pompey's armies in

560-421: The direction of a coach, engaged in ritual gymnastics on a raw bull's hide, perhaps to be compared to exercises on a trampoline . This view has not attracted wide acceptance, but would suggest that the ritual action countervails infant mortality by affirming the fitness of the youth. Ritually, landing on the bull's skin may mimic the "catching" of a safely delivered newborn. The Augustan historian Livy has

588-426: The eyes, but which float in the air and enter the body through the mouth and nose and cause serious diseases. A modern scholar, Bertha Tilly, assesses Varro's work as follows: For the immense mass of work completed, for his patriotic fervour, his high moral sentiments, for versatility in forms of writing and in subjects, for the vast range of material, Varro towers above all his contemporaries and his successors: he

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616-559: The five-year schedule under Antoninus Pius, attested by the Fasti Ostienses , is never mentioned in other sources. The limited evidence suggests the Ludi Taurii were important mainly in the context of religious revivalism during the Augustan and Antonine eras. The Taurian Games were horse races, or less likely chariot races , on a course around turning posts ( metae ) . In the 19th century, they were sometimes confused with

644-457: The games were instituted in the Regal period when Tarquinius Superbus was king . Servius also places their origin during his reign. Festus explains that the games were performed in honor of the gods below (di inferi) . They were established in response to an epidemic (magna … pestilentia) afflicting pregnant women, caused by the distribution of the flesh of sacrificial bulls (tauri) among

672-607: The others, mostly in Gellius' Attic Nights . He was called "the most learned of the Romans" by Quintilian , and also recognized by Plutarch as "a man deeply read in Roman history". Varro was recognized as an important source by many other ancient authors, among them Cicero , Pliny the Elder , Virgil in the Georgics , Columella , Aulus Gellius , Macrobius , Augustine , and Vitruvius , who credits him (VII.Intr.14) with

700-493: The people. Servius implies that the pestilentia was infant mortality : "each delivery of the women came out badly." The remedy of the games was obtained ex libris fatalibus , "from the books of the fates" (either the Sibylline books or Etruscan texts ). According to Servius, the ludi took their name from the word taurea , meaning a sterile sacrificial victim ( hostia ) . Servius gives an alternative version that credits

728-582: The reign of Augustus (27 BC–AD 14), the first Roman emperor . In literary histories of the first part of the 20th century and earlier, Augustan literature was regarded along with that of the Late Republic as constituting the Golden Age of Latin literature , a period of stylistic classicism . Most of the literature periodized as "Augustan" was in fact written by men— Vergil , Horace , Propertius , Livy —whose careers were established during

756-471: The widely accepted standard chronology, in large part because it was inscribed on the arch of Augustus in Rome; though that arch no longer stands, a large portion of the chronology has survived under the name of Fasti Capitolini . Varro's literary output was prolific; Ritschl estimated it at 74 works in some 620 books, of which only one work survives complete, although we possess many fragments of

784-500: Was distinguished for learning as no other man had ever been or was to be. Most of the extant fragments of these works (mostly the grammatical works) can be found in the Goetz–Schoell edition of De Lingua Latina , pp. 199–242; in the collection of Wilmanns, pp. 170–223; and in that of Funaioli, pp. 179–371. Augustan literature (ancient Rome) Augustan literature is a period of Latin literature written during

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