Lustrum

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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 .

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Image of a lustrum on the census relief of the so-called Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus. In the middle, the censor receives the wine to be sacrificed from a sacrificial servant, while the sacrificial animals are brought in from the right, the actual counting takes place on the left, during which the citizen's statements are recorded and oathed, and armed citizens are also able to control the military equipment published. It is one of the few illustrations of the military of the late republic. The tall figure dressed as an officer to the left of the altar is usually interpreted as the god Mars, who is to protect Rome for the next five years. Next to him, two musicians with Kithara and Aulos accompany the act of sacrifice.

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."

- Karl Streckfuß , preface to Ariosto ’s Rasender Roland, 1839

Another historical term for a five-year period with no religious reference was the quinquennium .

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: Lustrum  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Fischer : The army of the Caesars. Archeology and history. Pustet, Regensburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-7917-2413-3 , pp. 35-37.