February 23rd | Fastorum Liber Secundus: Februarius
F • TER • NP | VII Kal. | II.639-684, Ovid relates the rituals associated with the Terminalia festival.
Nox ubi transierit, solito celebretur honore
separat indicio qui deus arva suo. 640
Termine, sive lapis, sive es defossus in agro
stipes, ab antiquis tu quoque numen habes.
te duo diversa domini de parte coronant
binaque serta tibi binaque liba ferunt.
ara fit: huc ignem curto fert rustica testu 645
sumptum de tepidis ipsa colona focis.
ligna senex minuit concisaque construit arte
et solida ramos figere pugnat humo:
tum sicco primas inritat cortice flammas,
stat puer et manibus lata canistra tenet. 650
inde ubi ter fruges medios immisit in ignes,
porrigit incisos filia parva favos.
vina tenent alii; libantur singula flammis;
spectant, et linguis candida turba favet.
spargitur et caeso communis Terminus agno 655
nec queritur, lactans cum sibi porca datur.
conveniunt celebrantque dapes vicinia simplex
et cantant laudes, Termine sancte, tuas:
‘tu populos urbesque et regna ingentia finis:
omnis erit sine te litigiosus ager. 660
nulla tibi ambitio est, nullo corrumperis auro,
legitima servas credita rura fide.
si tu signasses olim Thyreatida terram,
corpora non leto missa trecenta forent,
nec foret Othryades congestis lectus in armis. 665
o quantum patriae sanguinis ille dedit!
quid, nova cum fierent Capitolia? nempe deorum
cuncta Iovi cessit turba locumque dedit:
Terminus, ut veteres memorant, inventus in aede
restitit et magno cum Iove templa tenet. 670
nunc quoque, se supra ne quid nisi sidera cernat,
exiguum templi tecta foramen habent.
Termine, post illud levitas tibi libera non est:
qua positus fueris in statione, mane,
nec tu vicino quicquam concede roganti, 675
ne videare hominem praeposuisse Iovi;
et seu vomeribus seu tu pulsabere rastris,
clamato “tuus est hic ager, ille suus!” ’
est via, quae populum Laurentes ducit in agros,
quondam Dardanio regna petita duci: 680
illa lanigeri pecoris tibi, Termine,
fibris sacra videt fleri sextus ab Urbe lapis.
gentibus est aliis tellus data limite certo:
Romanae spatium est Urbis et orbis idem.
639 When the night has passed, see to it that the god who marks the boundaries of the tilled lands receives his wonted honour. Ο Terminus, whether thou art a stone or stump buried in the field, thou too hast been deified from days of yore. Thou art crowned by two owners on opposite sides; they bring thee two garlands and two cakes. An altar is built. Hither the husbandman’s rustic wife brings with her own hands on a potsherd the fire which she has taken from the warm hearth. The old man chops wood, and deftly piles up the billets, and strives to fix the branches in the solid earth: then he nurses the kindling flames with dry bark, the boy stands by and holds the broad basket in his hands. When from the basket he has thrice thrown corn into the midst of the fire, the little daughter presents the cut honeycombs. Others hold vessels of wine. A portion of each is cast into the flames. The company dressed in white look on and hold their peace. Terminus himself, at the meeting of the bounds, is sprinkled with the blood of a slaughtered lamb, and grumbles not when a sucking pig is given him. The simple neighbours meet and hold a feast, and sing thy praises, holy Terminus: ‘Thou dost set bounds to peoples and cities and vast kingdoms; without thee every field would be a root of wrangling. Thou courtest no favour, thou art bribed by no gold: the lands entrusted to thee thou dost guard in loyal good faith. If thou of old hadst marked the bounds of the Thyrean land,1 three hundred men had not been done to death, nor had the name of Othryades been read on the piled arms. Ο how he made his fatherland to bleed! What happened when the new Capitol was being built? Why, the whole company of gods withdrew before Jupiter and made room for him; but Terminus, as the ancients relate, remained where he was found in the shrine, and shares the temple with great Jupiter.2 Even to this day there is a small hole in the roof of the temple, that he may see naught above him but the stars.3 From that time, Terminus, thou hast not been free to flit: abide in that station in which thou hast been placed. Yield not an inch to a neighbour, though he ask thee, lest thou shouldst seem to value man above Jupiter. And whether they beat thee with ploughshares or with rakes, cry out, “This is thy land, and that is his.”’ There is a way that leads folk to the Laurentine fields,4 the kingdom once sought by the Dardanian chief: on that way the sixth milestone from the City witnesses the sacrifice of a woolly sheep’s guts to thee, Terminus. The land of other nations has a fixed boundary: the circuit of Rome is the circuit of the world.
Between Sparta and Argos: three hundred champions on each side fought for it, and Othryades was the only survivor of the Spartans.
This was taken as a sign that wherever a boundary-stone was once planted, it was to be sacred and immovable.
Apparently ritual demanded that the stone (or altar) which represented Terminus should stand under the open sky.
The Laurentine way ran towards the sea. The Dardanian chief, Aeneas, landed in the Laurentine territory.