Capitoline Games

They started out as religious holiday celebrations that "called upon divine support to ensure continued prosperity for the state.

"[1] They were instituted by Camillus, 387 BC, in honor of Jupiter Capitolinus, and in commemoration of the Capitol's not being taken by the Gauls that same year.

According to Plutarch, a part of the ceremony involved the public criers putting up the Etruscans for sale by auction.

They also took an old man, tying a golden bulla (amulet) around his neck, such as were worn by children, and submitting him to public derision.

Festus said that they dressed him in a praetexta, and hung a bull around his neck, not in the manner of a child, but because this was an ornament of the kings of Etruria.

[4] He built the first and only permanent building, the Stadium of Domitian in the Campus Martius, to house these Greek games.

Julius Caesar had temporary stages in the Campus, including ones with an artificial lake designed for mock water fights.

[3] The Romans’ adoption of Greek games underlined a certain kind of thought reversal on Rome’s part.

In a sense, Rome was a cosmopolitan city, spoken in many languages such as Latin, Greek, and Oscan,[7] this shows a multifaceted empire made up of different parts around the Mediterranean area.

In other ways, having Greek-styled games could be a tactic on the part of the Romans enjoying the culture of conquered lands.