was a custom among the early Italian nations especially of the
Umbro-Sabellian stock, in times great danger and distress, to vow to the
deity the sacrifice of everything born in next spring; that is, between the
1st of March and the last day of April, if the calamity under [p. 2.940]
which they were labouring should be removed.
p. 379; Liv. 22.9
; Strab. v. p.250
; Sisenna, ap. Non. 12.18;
Serv. ad Aen. 7.796
sacrifice in the early times comprehended both men and domestic animals, and
there is little doubt that in many cases the vow was really carried into
effect. But in later times the actual sacrifice was thought cruel, and
accordingly the following expedient was adopted. The children were allowed
to grow up, and in the spring of their twentieth or twenty-first year they
were with covered faces driven across the frontier of their native country,
whereupon they went whither-soever fortune or the deity might lead them.
) describes it as
) as a thanksgiving for εὐανδρία
) for propitiation: if the
former, they offer sacrifices, and send out the colony with good omens; if
the latter, in grief, demanding pardon of those sent out. The real occasion,
at least in most cases, was doubtless pressure of over-population in the
Apennine valleys: the emigration, which was a more merciful course than
sacrifice by infanticide, was so like the swarming from a hive that Varro
chooses it as an illustration, “cum examen exiturum est . . . ut olim
Sabini factitaverunt propter multitudinem liberorum” (R.
3.16). Several Italian nations traced their origin to a Ver
Sacrum: Samnites, Lucanians, Bruttii, Picentini, Hirpini; the Umbri and
Sabini being regarded as autochthons. According to the legendary account,
Mars, the national god of Italy, sends guides for the homeless warriors, in
the case of the Hirpini a wolf (hirpus
), of the
Picentini (Plin. H. N..
3.110) a woodpecker (picus
), of the Samnites an ox (cf. Bovianum). It is
probably a truer view to recognise in these legends the ancient animal
totems of these tribes than to suppose that the legend arose from the tribal
name. That this swarming still went on as late as the time of the First
Punic War, is shown by the case of the Mamertini, or “sons of
Mars” in Sicily, whose origin is traced to a Ver Sacrum (Fest. p.
In the two historical instances in which the Romans vowed a ver sacrum, that
is, after the battle of lake Trasimenus and at the close of the Second Punic
War, the vow was confined to domestic animals, as was expressly stated in
the vow. (Liv. 22.10
: for a critical discussion
of the words, see Häsenmuller, in Rhein.
19.1864.) It must be observed that in these two cases it had
only a religious significance as a vow, and had nothing to do with
emigration. (Liv. l.c.
and 33.44; Plut. Fab.
4.) For further discussion see Mommsen, Hist. of
1.122; Marquardt, Staatsverw.
Nissen, Das Templum,
p. 154 ff.