Compĭtālia

, festivals celebrated by the Romans the 12th of January and the 6th of March, in the cro ways, in honour of the household gods called Lares. Tarquin the Proud, or, according to some, Servius Tullius, instituted them on account of an oracle which ordered him to offer heads to the Lares. He sacrificed to them human victims; but Junius Brutus, after the expulsion of the Tarquins, thought it sufficient to offer them only poppy heads, and men of straw. The slaves were generally the ministers, and during the celebration they enjoyed their freedom. Varro , de Lingua Latina , bk. 5 , ch. 3 .— Ovid , Fasti , bk. 5 , li. 140 .— Dionysius of Halicarna us , bk. 4 .