or QUINQUATRIA**, was a festival celebrated at Rome in honour of Minerva, and which was celebrated on the 19th of March, and lasted five days. On the first day they offered sacrifices and oblations without the effusion of blood, and was considered the festival proper; the second, third, and fourth were spent in shows of gladiators; and on the fifth day they went in procession through the city. Scholars had a vacation during the solemnity, and at this time presented their masters with a gift or fee, called *Minerval*. Boys and girls used to pray to the goddess Minerva for wisdom and learning, of which she had the patronage. Plays were acted and disputations held at this feast on subjects of polite literature. The quinquatrus was so called because, according to Varro, it was held the fifth day after the Ides.