Reconstruction
In late May 17 BCE, Rome prepared for a celebration advertised as occurring only once in a human lifetime. Augustus and Marcus Agrippa supervised the Ludi Saeculares, or Secular Games, whose central rites ran from the night before June 1 through June 3. Their organization survives in exceptional detail because official proceedings, now known as the Acta Augustea, were inscribed for public memory. Citizens collected purification materials and presented first-fruits before a precisely ordered cycle of nighttime and daytime sacrifices began.
Food entered that cycle as a language of exchange with the gods. On the first night, beside the Tiber in the Campus Martius, Augustus sacrificed nine ewes and nine female goats to the Moerae, or Fates. The inscription identifies them as whole-burnt offerings, so they did not provide meat for a human banquet. On June 1, Augustus and Agrippa each sacrificed a bull to Jupiter on the Capitoline. That night Augustus offered the childbirth goddesses called Ilithyiae three groups of nine cakes: liba, popana, and phthoes.
On June 2, two cows were sacrificed to Juno Regina, while the following nocturnal rite offered a pregnant sow to Terra Mater. The damaged inscription probably identifies this sow as another whole-burnt victim. On June 3, Augustus and Agrippa presented the same three named categories of cake in rites for Apollo and Diana on the Palatine. Their recipes are not recorded. Although libum elsewhere could denote a flour-and-cheese cake, it would be unsafe to impose a later surviving recipe on these particular offerings; popanon and phthois are Greek ritual terms whose exact formulations could vary.
The festival also included sellisternia, ceremonial banquets in which seats and offerings were arranged for Juno and Diana. One hundred and ten designated married women conducted these rites and prayed for Rome, while twenty-seven boys and twenty-seven girls later sang Horace’s Carmen Saeculare. The repeated numbers, paired male and female participants, fertility deities, pregnant victim, and prayers for families made reproduction and continuity central themes. Scholars therefore interpret the celebration as both worship and an Augustan presentation of civic renewal after decades of civil war.
Calling these ceremonies “feasts” requires caution. Roman sacrifices could culminate in shared consumption, and the daytime cattle may have been divided according to customary practice, but the surviving Acta do not explicitly record a public distribution or meal of their meat. What is directly documented is a carefully differentiated system of animal victims, whole burnt offerings, first-fruits, ritual cakes, and divine banquets. No continuous culinary descendant can be demonstrated. Their lasting significance lies instead in showing how a state could use foods, species, gender, number, place, and preparation to express an entire political theology of renewal.
Historical context
Augustus had ruled as Rome’s leading political figure for a decade, having received the title Augustus in 27 BCE after the civil wars ended with the defeats of Antony and Cleopatra in 31–30 BCE. Rome governed territories around most of the Mediterranean, and the capital was becoming the ancient world’s largest city, although estimates of its population remain debated. The Games followed Augustan marriage legislation enacted around 18 BCE and staged fertility, family continuity, and civic order as public concerns. The rites moved among the Campus Martius, Capitoline, and Palatine, linking Rome’s river plain and major sacred hills within a single ceremonial geography.
Evidence
Archaeological
StrongThe principal evidence is a monumental marble inscription, CIL VI 32323–32324, preserving official decrees and a chronological record of the Augustan celebration.
Written sources
StrongThe Acta directly name the dates, officiants, deities, victims, cake categories, ritual locations, matrons, and children’s chorus. Horace’s surviving Carmen Saeculare independently preserves the commissioned festival hymn.
Recipe evidence
LimitedThe inscription names liba, popana, and phthoes but provides no ingredient lists, proportions, shapes, or cooking instructions for the cakes used in 17 BCE.
Food identification
StrongEwes, female goats, bulls, cows, a pregnant sow, first-fruits, and three named categories of cake are directly recorded, although the precise composition of the cakes is uncertain.
Dating
StrongConsular dating and the internal sequence of the Acta securely place the central ceremonies between the night of May 31 and June 3, 17 BCE.
Preparation method
ModerateThe ewes and goats are explicitly described as whole-burnt, and the damaged Terra Mater passage is commonly reconstructed similarly. The processing of the daytime cattle and the preparation of the cakes are not stated.
Geographic attribution
StrongThe inscription identifies rites beside the Tiber in the Campus Martius and on the Capitoline and Palatine hills at Rome.
Historical interpretation
ModerateRenewal, fertility, imperial security, and family continuity are strongly supported by the prayers, divine recipients, participants, and Horatian hymn. Their integration into a unified Augustan political program is a scholarly interpretation rather than an explicit statement of the Acta.
Visual reconstruction
LimitedLocations, participants, numbers, and offerings can be reconstructed textually, but the Acta do not preserve the appearance of the cakes, arrangement of meat, table settings, clothing details, or most serving vessels.
Sources
- 1.Roman Senate and quindecimviri sacris faciundis; English translation adapted from Naphtali Lewis and Meyer Reinhold (2026). Latin Inscription: Secular Games of Augustus (CIL VI 32323–32324). Attalus. www.attalus.org/docs/cil/games.htmlHistorical primary source
- 2.Bärbel Schnegg, with François Chausson and Wolfram Schneider-Lastin (2020). Die Inschriften zu den Ludi saeculares: Acta ludorum saecularium. De Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9783110607833Modern synthesis
- 3.Celia E. Schultz (2016). Roman Sacrifice, Inside and Out. The Journal of Roman Studies 106. doi:10.1017/S0075435816000319Scientific literature
- 4.Darja Šterbenc Erker (2018). Augustus’ “New” Festival: The Centrality of Married Women’s Rituals at the Ludi Saeculares of 17 BCE. Numen 65(4). doi:10.1163/15685276-12341504Scientific literature
- 5.Quintus Horatius Flaccus (-17). Carmen Saeculare. Perseus Catalog. catalog.perseus.tufts.edu/catalog/urn:cts:latinLHistorical primary source
Limitations
- moderatetitle and description
The phrase “Sacrificial Feasts” and the reference to sacrificial meat may imply a documented public meat banquet. The Acta explicitly describe the nocturnal sheep, goats, and probably the pregnant sow as whole-burnt offerings, while they do not state that meat from the daytime cattle was distributed or eaten. Sellisternia were ritual banquets for Juno and Diana, but their foods are not preserved.
