View source for Tubilustrium

{{Short description|Ceremony to make the army fit for war}}
{{Refimprove|date=December 2009}}
{{RomanMilitary}}
In [[Ancient Rome]] the month of March was the traditional start of the campaign season, and the '''Tubilustrium''' was a ceremony to make the army fit for war.<ref name="Rüpke2011">{{cite book|author=Jörg Rüpke|title=The Roman Calendar from Numa to Constantine: Time, History, and the Fasti|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pThna2LDwDsC&pg=PA30|date=4 February 2011|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4443-9652-2|pages=30–}}</ref>  The ceremony involved sacred trumpets called ''tubae''.

[[File:Cornu Aalen.JPG|thumb|Cornu Aalen]]

[[Johannes Quasten]], however, argues that the common term for [[Roman tuba|war trumpets]] being ''tubae'' is not the same as the ''tubi'' form here. He states that ''tubi'' was only used for trumpets used in sacrifices and goes on to show how this ceremony was a feast to cleanse and purify the trumpets used in sacrifices - it is a good example, he argues, of the special connection between music and cult in Roman ritual.<ref>J.Quasten, 1983, ''Music & Worship in Pagan & Christian Antiquity'', p.6-7</ref>

The festival was held on March 23, the last day of the [[Quinquatria]] festival held in tribute to the [[Roman God]] [[Mars (mythology)|Mars]] and Nerine, a Sabine goddess.<ref>J.Quasten, 1983, ''Music & Worship in Pagan & Christian Antiquity'', p.8</ref>  The event took place again on [[May 23]].<ref name="SearsKeegan2013">{{cite book|author1=Gareth Sears|author2=Peter Keegan|author3=Ray Laurence|title=Written Space in the Latin West, 200 BC to AD 300|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DOP0hZj5Ek0C&pg=PA90|date=18 July 2013|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-1-4411-8876-2|pages=90–}}</ref>

The ceremony was held in [[Rome]] in a building called the Hall of the Shoemakers (''atrium sutorium'') and involved the sacrifice of a [[Domestic sheep|ewe lamb]].<ref name="jr1992">{{cite book|author=L. Richardson, jr|title=A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K_qjo30tjHAC&pg=PA42|date=1 October 1992|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-0-8018-4300-6|pages=42–}}</ref>  Romans who did not attend the ceremony would be reminded of the occasion by seeing the [[Salii]] dancing through the streets of the city.

==Notes==
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{{Roman religion (festival)}}

[[Category:March observances]]
[[Category:May observances]]
[[Category:Festivals of Mars]]
[[Category:Processions in ancient Rome]]
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