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.

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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

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

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

From hence the priests of the Sun were called Soli and Solimi in Cilicia, Selli in Epirus, Salii at Rome, all originally priests of fire.

From A New System; or, an Analysis of Antient Mythology. Volume I. by Bryant, Jacob

There were also an order of female Salii.

From The Dance (by An Antiquary) Historic Illustrations of Dancing from 3300 B.C. to 1911 A.D. by Anonymous