In 1875 and subsequent editions, Leonhard Schmitz's entry on the Ludi Saeculares in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities(SMIGRA) identified the Taurian Games with the ludi tarentini. The identification gained currency in English classicizing literary circles, as indicated in the notes to Edward Lytton's translation of Horace's Saecular Ode, published in Schiller and Horace (Routledge, 1875), pp. 423–424, citing a then-current edition of Smith's Dictionary. By the 1890 edition of SMIGRA, a separate entry for Ludi TauriiArchived 2012-07-09 at archive.today had been added, with a few points of dubious factuality (see Bill Thayer's note to the entry Ludi Saeculares in the LacusCurtius edition of the 1875 SMIGRA, as well as his translation of and note to the entry Taurii Ludi in Daremberg and Saglio, Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines). The erroneous identification was nevertheless perpetuated in the Century Dictionary of 1891 (pp. 6189, 6199) and later editions. As early as 1701, however, Thomas Dempster had pointed out in his notes to the Antiquitatum Romanorum Corpus Absolutissimum of Johannes Rosinus that "many confuse the Taurian with the Saecular games, but they are in error: [the two] are entirely different" (p. 340). Ludwig Preller recognized the similarities, but suggested that the ludi taurii were performed irregularly when the Saecular Games would have been untimely; Römische Mythologie (1881), vol. 1, p. 92.
Sed Taurios ludos Varro ait vocari, quod eis ludis discipulus pendens a doctore in crudo corio tauri solitus sit inpelli, atque usque eo inibi cogi docere, quoad consisteret atque virtute talorum constaret pedum firmitas (italicized text is reconstructed); in English, "Varro, however, says that the Taurian Games are so called because it was customary at the games for a student, with a boost from his instructor, to be propelled on the raw hide of a bull (taurus), and to show by the extent of his action how sound he was and how the sureness of his feet 'stuck' by virtue of his heels." ("Stick" here is used in the sense of landing a gymnastics position correctly.) See André Dacier (1826), pp. 960–961.
In 1875 and subsequent editions, Leonhard Schmitz's entry on the Ludi Saeculares in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities(SMIGRA) identified the Taurian Games with the ludi tarentini. The identification gained currency in English classicizing literary circles, as indicated in the notes to Edward Lytton's translation of Horace's Saecular Ode, published in Schiller and Horace (Routledge, 1875), pp. 423–424, citing a then-current edition of Smith's Dictionary. By the 1890 edition of SMIGRA, a separate entry for Ludi TauriiArchived 2012-07-09 at archive.today had been added, with a few points of dubious factuality (see Bill Thayer's note to the entry Ludi Saeculares in the LacusCurtius edition of the 1875 SMIGRA, as well as his translation of and note to the entry Taurii Ludi in Daremberg and Saglio, Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines). The erroneous identification was nevertheless perpetuated in the Century Dictionary of 1891 (pp. 6189, 6199) and later editions. As early as 1701, however, Thomas Dempster had pointed out in his notes to the Antiquitatum Romanorum Corpus Absolutissimum of Johannes Rosinus that "many confuse the Taurian with the Saecular games, but they are in error: [the two] are entirely different" (p. 340). Ludwig Preller recognized the similarities, but suggested that the ludi taurii were performed irregularly when the Saecular Games would have been untimely; Römische Mythologie (1881), vol. 1, p. 92.
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In 1875 and subsequent editions, Leonhard Schmitz's entry on the Ludi Saeculares in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities(SMIGRA) identified the Taurian Games with the ludi tarentini. The identification gained currency in English classicizing literary circles, as indicated in the notes to Edward Lytton's translation of Horace's Saecular Ode, published in Schiller and Horace (Routledge, 1875), pp. 423–424, citing a then-current edition of Smith's Dictionary. By the 1890 edition of SMIGRA, a separate entry for Ludi TauriiArchived 2012-07-09 at archive.today had been added, with a few points of dubious factuality (see Bill Thayer's note to the entry Ludi Saeculares in the LacusCurtius edition of the 1875 SMIGRA, as well as his translation of and note to the entry Taurii Ludi in Daremberg and Saglio, Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines). The erroneous identification was nevertheless perpetuated in the Century Dictionary of 1891 (pp. 6189, 6199) and later editions. As early as 1701, however, Thomas Dempster had pointed out in his notes to the Antiquitatum Romanorum Corpus Absolutissimum of Johannes Rosinus that "many confuse the Taurian with the Saecular games, but they are in error: [the two] are entirely different" (p. 340). Ludwig Preller recognized the similarities, but suggested that the ludi taurii were performed irregularly when the Saecular Games would have been untimely; Römische Mythologie (1881), vol. 1, p. 92.
