The Lesser Quinquatrus and the Flute Players

By N.S. Gill, About.com Guide

The Value of Flute Players

Roman religion required solemn adherence to rituals. Deviation, they thought, could be disastrous. The Roman flute players (tibicines) played a role in the religious sacrifices (normally, their role was to provide a beat of sorts, but in sacrifices, they probably countered the sacrificial animal and other distracting noises), but they also had a solidly debauched reputation.

• Lacus Curtius entry on the Greco-Roman flute and flute players

Their Short-Lived Protest

When Roman censors in 311 B.C. decided the tibicines couldn't hold their annual celebrations in the temple of Jupiter, the flautists did what the Roman politically disenfranchised of the time did: they left the city. Roman officials, who knew the tibicines had to be placated, weren't adverse to trickery to get their way. They got them drunk and brought them back from Tibur [modern Tivoli] to Rome where the people persuaded them to stay. In the end, the tibicines got to enjoy good times again, legally, while wearing dress up garb and masks.

The Quinquatrus for Tibicines

The tibicines acquired a holiday known as the Lesser Quinquatrus or Quinquatria, which, like the Greater Quinquatrus, honored the goddess credited with creating the flute, Minerva. That great Augustan Age complier of mythology, Ovid, explains the holiday and the goddess's connection in the Fasti entry for the Ides of June (June 13).

Historical Writing on the Subject

Ovid wasn't the only one to write about it. His story is a bit different from that of the historical writers -- who themselves vary in the details -- as you can see if you follow the Fasti link. The historian Livy (59 B.C. - A.D. 17) found the religious problem significant enough to include what he otherwise considered trivial, in his history of Rome and the biographer Plutarch (c. A.D. 45-125) included it in his Roman Questions. Translations of the relevant passages from Livy and Plutarch appear below:

Livy Passage

An incident of a somewhat trifling character occurred this year which I should have passed over did it not appear to be connected with religious customs. The guild of flute-players had been forbidden by the censors [Note: Plutarch says it's the decemviri] to hold their annual banquet in the temple of Jupiter, a privilege they had enjoyed from ancient times. Hugely disgusted, they went off in a body to Tibur, and not one was left in the City to perform at the sacrificial rites. The senate were alarmed at the prospect of the various religious ceremonies being thus shorn of their due ritual, and they sent envoys to Tibur, who were to make it their business to see that the Romans got these men back again. The Tiburtines promised to do their best, and invited the musicians into the Senate-house, where they were strongly urged to return to Rome. As they could not be persuaded to do so, the Tiburtines adopted a ruse quite appropriate to the character of the men they were dealing with. It was a feast day and they were invited to various houses, ostensibly to supply music at the banquets. Like the rest of their class, they were fond of wine, and they were plied with it till they drank themselves into a state of torpor. In this condition they were thrown into wagons and carried off to Rome. They were left in the wagons all night in the Forum, and did not recover their senses till daylight surprised them still suffering from the effect of their debauch. The people crowded round them and succeeded in inducing them to stay, and they were granted the privilege of going about the City for three days every year in their long dresses and masks with singing and mirth; a custom which is still observed. Those members of the guild who played on solemn occasions in the temple of Jupiter had the right restored to them of holding their banquets there. These incidents occurred while the public attention was fixed on two most serious wars.

Livy 9.30 5-10

Plutarch Passage

55 1 Why is it that on the Ides of January the flute-players are allowed to walk about the city wearing the raiment of women?125

Is it for the reason commonly alleged? They used to enjoy, as it seems, great honours, of which King Numa had given them by reason of his piety towards the gods. Because they were later deprived of these honours by the decemviri, who were invested with consular power, they withdrew from the city. There was, accordingly, inquiry made for them, and a certain superstitious fear seized upon the priests when they sacrificed without flutes. But when the flute-players would not hearken to those sent to summon them to return, but remained in Tibur, a freedman secretly promised the officials to bring them back. On the pretext of having sacrificed to the gods, he prepared a sumptuous banquet and invited the flute-players. Women were present, as well as wine, and a party lasting all the night was being celebrated with merriment and dancing, when suddenly the freedman interrupted, saying that his patron was coming to see him, and, in his perturbation, he persuaded the flute-players to climb into wagons, which were screened round about with skins, to be conveyed back to Tibur. But this was a trick, for he turned the wagons around, and, without being detected, since the flute-players comprehended nothing because of the wine and the darkness, at dawn he had brought them all to Rome. Now the majority of them happened to be clad in raiment of feminine finery because of the nocturnal drinking-bout; when, therefore, they had been persuaded and reconciled by the officials, it became their custom on that day to strut through the city clad in this manner.

Plutarch Roman Questions #55