Iii Non. Ian.-Non. Ian. (Jan. 3-5). C.
3 Ludi } Ludi } 4 Ludi }(Philoc.) Ludi Compitales } (Silv.) 5 Ludi } (Comitalis, Ms.)
The Compitalia were not feriae stativae until late in the Empire, and then perhaps only so by tradition1230. They took place at some date between the Saturnalia (Dec. 17) and Jan. 5; and we may infer from Philocalus and Silvius as quoted above that the tendency was to put them late in that period. Not being a great state-festival, they could be put between Kalends and Nones.
The original meaning of compitum is explained by the Scholiast on Persius, 4. 281231 ‘Compita sunt loca in quadriviis, quasi turres, ubi sacrificia, finita agricultura, rustici celebrabant.... Compita sunt non solum in urbe loca, sed etiam viae publicae ac diverticulae aliquorum confinium, ubi aediculae consecrantur patentes. In his fracta iuga ab agricolis ponuntur, velut emeriti et elaborati operis indicium1232.’ From this we gather that where country cross-roads met, or where in the parcelling out of agricultural allotments one semita crossed another1233, some kind of altar was erected and the spot held sacred. This is quite in keeping with the usage of other peoples: the ‘holiness’ of cross-roads is a well-known fact in folk-lore1234. It may be doubted, however, whether the Scholiast is right in his explanation of the ‘fracta iuga,’ which may rather have been used as a spell of some kind, than as ‘emeriti operis indicium.’ Thus Crooke1235 mentions an Indian practice of fixing up a harrow perpendicularly where four roads met, apparently with the object of appeasing the rain-god.
In the city of Rome the compita were the meeting-places of vici (streets with houses), where sacella were erected to the Lares compitales1236—two in each case. For the inhabitants of the vici which thus crossed each other, the compitum was the religious centre; and thus arose a quasi-religious organization, which, as including the lowest of the population and even slaves1237, became of much importance in the revolutionary period in connexion with the machinery of electioneering. The ‘collegia compitalicia’ were abolished by the Senate in B.C. 64, and reconstituted in B.C. 58 by a bill of Clodius de collegiis. Caesar again prohibited them, and the ludi compitalicii with them; but the latter were once more revived by Augustus and made part of his general reorganization of the city and its worship1238.
The Compitalia, which the Romans ascribed to Servius Tullius or Tarquinius Superbus1239, was probably first organized as part of the religious system of the united city in the Etruscan period, though it doubtless had its origin in the rustic ideas and practice of which we get a glimpse in the passage quoted from the Scholiast on Persius. Two features of it seem to fit in conveniently with this conjecture: (1) that already mentioned, that even the slaves had a part in it, as well as the plebs; (2) the fact that the magistri vicorum, who were responsible for the festival, wore the toga praetexta on the day of its celebration1240—which looks like a Tarquinian innovation in an anti-aristocratic sense.