ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the final activities described in the inscription of the Severan Secular Games: the ritual poem and the Trojan Games. It examines the Severan Carmen. The Augustan Carmen also celebrates the birth of Rome and connects Augustus with its foundation by underlining the link between Aeneas and Augustus. The Carmen Saeculare of the third day was first performed on the Palatine hill and then on the Capitoline. The practice of using twenty-seven children in Roman religious rituals was very old, dating back to the republican period. The important role of children in the Secular Games can be traced back to the myth of the origin of Ludi Saeculares, as is recorded by both Valerius Maximus in the first century, and by Zosimus in a later age. The myth is connected to the Ludi Saeculares in the latter part of Valerius Maximus' text, where he mentions that Valesius' example was later replicated by first consul of Rome, Valerius Publicola.
