QUINQUATRUS

or QUINQUATRĬA, a festival sacred to Minerva, which was celebrated on the 19th of March. Ovid says that it was celebrated for five days, 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 only the first day was 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 pa ionately fond of gladiatorial combats. On the fifth day of the festival, according to Ovid, the trumpets used in sacred rites were purified; but this seems to have been originally a separate festival called Tubilustrium , which was celebrated, as we know from the ancient calendars, on the 23rd of March, and would of course, when the Quinquatrus was extended to five days, fall on the last day of that festival. 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 proce ion to the temple of Minerva.