Lustrum
A lustrum ( Latin , to lustrare “to make bright”, “clean”) was originally a sacrifice of purification or atonement in the ancient Roman religion , then also the name for a period of five years.
Lustrum as a sacrifice
The tax assessment and examination of citizens ( census ) carried out by the censors was ended with this victim. It took place on the Field of Mars at the gates of Rome . One of the censors had three sacrificial animals ( Suovetaurilia : boar, ram and bull) led around the assembled people by citizens with auspicious names, who were then sacrificed to Mars . Before that, the censor himself sacrificed wine, while the bloody act of sacrifice on the animals was carried out as usual by special sacrificial servants, the victimarii .
Lustrum as a period
Since the lustrum was repeated every five years, the name was used from the end of the 3rd century BC. Generally for a period of five years, a year five , in use. The word was popular with Roman poets for metrical reasons and has survived in the sophisticated language to this day.
"Anyone who is about to end a twelfth lutrum will do well to pull off a hand from earlier poetic works in order not to rob them of more valuable fruit through further changes than they can gain through greater correctness."
Another historical term for a five-year period with no religious reference was the quinquennium .
literature
- Werner Eisenhut : Lustrum. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 3, Stuttgart 1969, Col. 790 f.
Web links
- Jona Lendering: Lustrum . In: Livius.org (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Thomas Fischer : The army of the Caesars. Archeology and history. Pustet, Regensburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-7917-2413-3 , pp. 35-37.