Salii

American  

[sal-ee-ahy] / ˈsæl iˌaɪ /

noun

(used with a plural verb)

1. (in ancient Rome) a college of priests of Mars and Quirinus who guarded the ancilia and led the festivities in their honor.

---

Example Sentences

“I don’t feel like I’m in a shelter,” said Polina Salii, 11, whose family fled the fighting in Pokrovsk, a town in the east.

From New York Times • Aug. 6, 2022

He, like them, has his own flamen; like Mars he has his Salii, and his festival finds its place in the Calendars on February the 17th.

From The Religion of Ancient Rome by Bailey, Cyril

Among the Romans, priests called Salii attended to the sacrifices of Mars, and on festival days went about the city dancing with their shields.

From The Student's Mythology A Compendium of Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Assyrian, Persian, Hindoo, Chinese, Thibetian, Scandinavian, Celtic, Aztec, and Peruvian Mythologies by White, Catherine Ann

We are to begin with Theudomir the first King of the rebelling Salii, called Didio by Ivo Carnotensis, and Thiedo and Theudemerus by Rhenanus.

From Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John by Newton, Isaac, Sir

If Servius correctly reports the practice, it must be compared with the clashing of shields and spears by the Salii, which may thus have had a positive as well as negative object.

From The Religious Experience of the Roman People From the Earliest Times to the Age of Augustus by Fowler, W. Warde