Ver sacrum

Ver sacrum ("sacred spring") is a religious practice of ancient Italic peoples, especially the Sabelli (or Sabini) and their offshoot Samnites, concerning the deduction of colonies. It was of special interest to Georges Dumézil, according to whom the ver sacrum perpetuated prehistoric migration practices of Indo-Europeans to the end of the Iron Age and into the beginnings of history, when stable sedentary dwelling conditions had already become general. The practice consisted of a vow (votum) to the god Mars of the generation of offspring born in the spring of the following year to humans or cattle. Among the Sabines, this was the period from March 1 to April 30. The practice is related to that of devotio in Roman religion. It was customary to resort to it at times of particular danger or strife for the community. Some scholars believe that in earlier times devoted or vowed children were actually sacrificed, but later expulsion was substituted. Dionysius of Halicarnassus states the practice of child sacrifice was one of the causes that brought about the fall of the Pelasgians in Italy. The human children who had been devoted were required to leave the community in early adulthood, at 20 or 21 years of age. They were entrusted to a god for protection, and led to the border with a veiled face. Often they were led by an animal under the auspices of the god. As a group, the youth were called sacrani and were supposed to enjoy the protection of Mars until they had reached their destination, expelled the inhabitants or forced them into submission, and founded their own settlement. The tradition is recorded by Festus, Livy, Strabo, Sisenna, Servius, Varro, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Guide animals that led the group sometimes became the eponyms of the new community. These included the wolf (hirpus), after which the Hirpini of Campania were supposed to have been named; the woodpecker (picus), which gave its name to the Piceni or Picentes who settled present-day Marche (hence the green woodpecker as the symbol of the region); the vulture (vultur) of the Vultures; and the horse (equus) of the Aequi or Aequicolae in Latium.