Compitalia
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Tarquinius Priscus may have instituted the yearly festival known as Compitalia or Ludi Compitalicii, in honor of the lares compitales. Slaves presented sacrifices of honey-cakes (pevlanoi) at the Compitalia, which esd probably celebrated a few days after the Saturnalia. Macrobius (Saturn. i.7) says that at the celebration of the Compitalia, boys were sacrificed to Mania, the mother of the lares. After the expulsion of the Tarquins, garlic and poppies were substituted for the boys.
Magistri vici presided over the Compitalia festival, which included public games until the senate did away with the Compitalia in B.C. 68. During the civil wars the festival fell into disuse, but Augustus revived the Compitalia and made the lares of the emperor the state lares. He created an order of priests (Augustales) to attend to the worship of the lares.
Priests or magistrates selected the day -- as was true of other "feriae conceptivae" -- of the Compitalia each year.
From Lacus CurtiusThe URL for this resources page is
http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_compitalia.htm
Compitalia
