Zitat:
This song was sung in ancient Rome during the rituals practiced by the Salian priests (or "dancing priests").These rites were essentially organized around the figures of the gods Mars and Quirinus, and took place in mid-March and mid-October. They consisted of processions in which the priests, wearing traditional armor and weapons, performed a sacred dance and sang this carmen saliare. Most of the text remains an enigma for linguists; the Latin words that can be identified seem to refer to thunder, Janus, Jupiter and Ceres. The language used is so archaic that already in the 1st century BC Cicero declared that he was no longer able to understand most of the song in question.
