before the beginning of the games proper. With these circensian forms of ritual estab-
lished in Rome in the archaic period by the Etruscan kings – the combination of
procession, sacrifice, and horse or chariot races – an organized staging of the games
for the state had come into being, the most noble component of which consisted
in the cult of Iuppiter Optimus Maximus.
This decisive link between the holding of public games and public religious obser-
vance was adopted by the libera res publicaand emphasized by the patricians who
now headed the Roman community. This ruling elite integrated the rite of the ludi
into the new state’s most important annual celebration, the solemn Capitoline
festival of the highest and almighty guardian deity of the republic. From the ded-
ication of the Capitoline temple to Iuppiter around the years 509 to 507 bc, the
ludi maximi/Romani, as we should initially call them, were held annually, and
gradually further days for games were linked with September 13, a date that adopted
the day of the sanctuary’s foundation. These first ludi publici stati(vi)were the expres-
sion of the small central Italian power’s diligence in the cult of the community’s
highest deity. The magistrate giving games was thus entitled to ride on a biga. Like
Rome’s Etruscan kings, he escorted the deity in solemn procession to the place of
worship, where he made sacrifice to it, and gave the starting signal for the horse
and/or chariot races. This duty at the games was actually vested consistently in the
chief magistrate. He himself saw to the staging of the entire event and, from time
to time, he or other patricians took part in the circensesas charioteers.
However much these permanent ludi maximi/Romanialso laid the basis for fur-
ther development, the staging arrangements for the early Roman games still followed
their own laws, as the votive games held optionally by the chief magistrate alone
make clear. As the name suggests, they were based on a vow made during military
campaigns in order to attain victory. At the same time they were addressed to Iuppiter
Optimus Maximus and are described as ludi magni/votiviby the annalists (e.g. L.
Coelius Antipater, FRH^2 11 frg. 57 =Cic. Div.1.55; Livy 2.36.1). Admittedly, ancient
reports on these spectacles do not merit any credibility for the content of the evid-
ence handed down. It can only be stated that the military commanders of the fifth
and fourth centuries bcalso made vows and staged, as well as equipped, games on
their own responsibility, whereby they probably availed themselves of the booty they
had acquired. But let us return to the permanent games of the young res publica
Romana.
With the settlement of the “Conflict of the Orders” between patricians and
plebeians of 367/6 bc, more complex forms of organization came into being
through a differentiation of the magistrates’ responsibilities. The development of a
kind of supervision by the senate of the staging of public games was one outcome of
that significant settlement. As a result of a comprehensive reorganization of respons-
ibilities for the ludi maximi/Romani, the chief magistrate’s management of the games
was intended to be limited to a single praesidium ludorum. Now the burden incum-
bent on him was eased by the newly appointed aediles curules. As the curatores
ludorum, these magistrates were not only responsible for the tasks of keeping order
within the framework of the expanding games operations, but the general prepara-
tion and staging of the spectacles were probably also delegated to them. The
224 Frank Bernstein