Salii- Roman GroupCollective"Leaping Priests"

The Shield from Heaven

During the reign of Numa Pompilius, a shield fell from the sky. It was figure-eight shaped, unlike any Roman shield of the time, and the king recognized it as a divine pledge of Rome's safety. To prevent it from being stolen, Numa commissioned the smith Mamurius Veturius to forge eleven identical copies. Mamurius worked so well that no one could tell the original from its replicas.

Numa founded the Salii to guard all twelve. He chose twenty-four patricians, split into two colleges of twelve: the Salii Palatini on the Palatine, who served Mars, and the Salii Collini on the Quirinal, who served Quirinus. The shields were stored in the Regia, the ancient royal palace in the Forum.

The March Procession

On the first of March, the Salii carried the ancilia out into the streets. They wore embroidered military cloaks, bronze breastplates, and pointed caps called apices. At designated stations they performed the tripudium, a three-beat stamping dance, striking the shields with rods while chanting the Carmen Saliare.

The Carmen was so old that by the classical period even educated Romans could not understand the words. The text invoked Mars, Jupiter, and Janus in formulae that preserved Latin older than any written record. The priests sang them exactly as they had been taught, meaning or no meaning.

Each evening the Salii held banquets so lavish that "fit for a Salian feast" became a Roman idiom for excess. The rites continued through March and ended on the 23rd with the Tubilustrium, the purification of the war trumpets. The campaigning season was open.

The Armilustrium

In October the Salii processed again, this time to close the season. On October 19, the Armilustrium, weapons were ceremonially purified and stored for winter. The ancilia went back into the Regia. What March had opened, October sealed.