APOLLINARIAN GAMES, in Roman Antiquity,
were instituted in the year of Rome 542. The occa-
sion was a kind of oracle delivered by the prophet Mar-
cus after the fatal battle at Cannæ, declaring that to
expel the enemy, and cure the people of an infectious
disease which then prevailed, sacred games were to be
annually performed in honour of Apollo; the priest
to have the direction of them, and the decemviri to of-
fer sacrifices after the Grecian rite. The senate ordered
that this oracle should be observed the rather, be-
cause another of the same Marcus, wherein he had
foretold the overthrow at Cannæ, had come true; for
this reason they gave the priest 12,000 asses out of the
public cash to defray the solemnity. There were sacri-
ficed an ox to Apollo, as also two white goats, and a
cow to Latona; all with their horns gilt. Apollo had
also a collection made for him, besides what the people
who were spectators gave voluntarily. The first pre-
ctor by whom they were held was P. Cornelius Sulla.
For some time they were moveable or indiffusive; but at
length were fixed, under P. Licinius Varus, to the fifth
of July, and made perpetual. The men, who were
spectators at these games, wore garlands on their heads;
the women performed their devotions in the temples at
the same time, and at last they caroused together in the
vestibules of their houses, the doors standing open. The
Apollinarian games were merely scenical; and at first
only observed with singing, piping, and other sorts of
music; but afterwards there were also introduced all
manner of mountebank tricks, dances, and the like:
yet so as that they still remained scenical, no chariot
races, wrestling, or the like laborious exercises of the
body, being ever practised at them.