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Secular Games
(375 words)

[German Version]

The interpretation of Rome’s history and present role during the Augustan period found expression in the ludi saeculares. In a mixture of conceptions of time that is no longer perspicuous (including the Etruscan theory of a defined series of saecula; discussed at length by Censorinus, De die natali, 17), the beginning of a new, golden age was celebrated in the year 17 bce, conceived as the fifth recurrence of the centennials of the city of Rome. Whether earlier celebrations of the ludi Tarentini (named for their location on the Campus Martius), for example in 249 bce, had t…

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Rüpke, Jörg, “Secular Games”, in: Religion Past and Present. Consulted online on 28 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1877-5888_rpp_SIM_124696>
First published online: 2011
First print edition: ISBN: 9789004146662, 2006-2013



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