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In ancient Roman religion, the Quinquatria or Quinquatrus was a Roman festival sacred to the Goddess Minerva, celebrated 19–23 March. According to Varro, de Ling. Lat. vi.14 it was so called because it was held on the fifth ( quinqu-) day after the Ides, in the same way as the Tusculans called a festival on the sixth day after the Ides Sexatrus or one on the seventh Septimatrus.In similar fashion, Festus states that the Faliscans called a festival on the tenth day after the Ides Decimatrus. Both Varro and Festus state that the Quinquatrus was celebrated for only one day, but Ovid Fasti iii.809, &c. says that it was celebrated for five days, hence the name: on the first day no blood was shed, but that on the last four there were contests of . The first day was the festival proper, and that the following four were an expansion made perhaps in the time of Julius Caesar to gratify the people. The ancient Roman calendar assign only one day to the festival.
Ovid says that this festival was celebrated in commemoration of the birthday of Minerva, but according to Festus it was sacred to Minerva because her temple on the Aventine Hill was consecrated on that day. On the fifth day of the festival, according to Ovid, Fasti iii.849 the trumpets used in sacred rites were purified; but this seems to have been originally a separate festival called Tubilustrium, which ancient calendars place on 23 March. When the celebration of Quinquatrus was extended to five days, the Tubilustrium would have fallen 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. Domitian caused it to be celebrated every year in his Alban villa, situated at the foot of the Alban hills, and instituted a collegium to superintend the celebration, which consisted of venatio, of the exhibition of plays, and of contests of orators and poets.Suetonius, The Life of Domitian, 4
There was also another festival of this name called Quinquatrus Minusculae or Quinquatrus Minores, celebrated on the Ides of June, on which the aulos went through the city in procession to the temple of Minerva.
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