The gate of the year

The rite of Mamurius Veturius

Mosaic from a Roman villas (III century A.D.) of El Djem, Tunisia, representing the month of March.
In the same period of the feast of Anna Perenna, March 14 or 15, the populace brought in procession a man covered with skins, who was beaten with white sticks, and was called Mamurius Veturius. It is possible that the scene shown in the mosaic could refer to this festival.
According to Dumézil’s interpretation, this ritual represented the expulsion of the old year, under the name of “Old March” or “March Old Man” (Dumézil, 1974, p. 224). The name Mamurius is probably to be interpreted as an old alternative name for the god Mars, which can be related to the epithet Mamers, with which this god was called among the Osci, a Samnitic population of pre-Roman Campania.
In the month of March was also the beginning of the military season, which was celebrated on March 1 with the procession of the Salii (from salire, “to leap”, “to dance”), a fraternity of dancer-priests who paraded through the streets performing an armed dance, executing chants in an archaic language (carmina saliaria) and accompanied themselves beating their shields with sticks. One of these shields (ancilia), had, according to tradition, fallen from the sky as a gift of the god Mars. The other eleven shields were copies of the first, realized by a blacksmith called Mamurius Veturius. It is probable that the number twelve, characterizing the Salii, had originally a calendrical significance. The armed dance of the fraternity shows numerous analogies with the dance of the Greek Kuretes and was probably the primary nucleus around which were developed the various sword dances of European folklore, especially celebrated during the first months of the year.

[Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sousse_mosaic_calendar_March.JPG]




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The rite of Mamurius Veturius Mosaic from a Roman villas (III century A.D.) of El Djem, Tunisia, representing the month of March. In the same period of the feast of Anna Perenna, March 14 or 15, the populace brought in procession a man covered with skins, who was beaten with white sticks, and was called Mamurius Veturius. It is possible that the scene shown in the mosaic could refer to this festival. According to Dumézil’s interpretation, this ritual represented the expulsion of the old year, under the name of “Old March” or “March Old Man” (Dumézil, 1974, p. 224). The name Mamurius is probably to be interpreted as an old alternative name for the god Mars, which can be related to the epithet Mamers, with which this god was called among the Osci, a Samnitic population of pre-Roman Campania. In the month of March was also the beginning of the military season, which was celebrated on March 1 with the procession of the Salii (from salire, “to leap”, “to dance”), a fraternity of dancer-priests who paraded through the streets performing an armed dance, executing chants in an archaic language (carmina saliaria) and accompanied themselves beating their shields with sticks. One of these shields (ancilia), had, according to tradition, fallen from the sky as a gift of the god Mars. The other eleven shields were copies of the first, realized by a blacksmith called Mamurius Veturius. It is probable that the number twelve, characterizing the Salii, had originally a calendrical significance. The armed dance of the fraternity shows numerous analogies with the dance of the Greek Kuretes and was probably the primary nucleus around which were developed the various sword dances of European folklore, especially celebrated during the first months of the year. [Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sousse_mosaic_calendar_March.JPG]