Numa

Now the Salii were so named, not, as some tell the tale, from a man of Samothrace or Mantinea, named Salius, who first taught the dance in armour; but rather from the leaping [*](The Latin salire, to leap.) which characterized the dance itself. This dance they perform when they carry the sacred bucklers through the streets of the city in the month of March, clad in purple tunics, girt with broad belts of bronze, wearing bronze helmets on their heads, and carrying small daggers with which they strike the shields.

But the dance is chiefly a matter of step; for they move gracefully, and execute with vigour and agility certain shifting convolutions, in quick and oft-recurring rhythm. The bucklers themselves are called ancilia, from their shape; for this is not round, nor yet completely oval, like that of the regular shield, but has a curving indentation, the arms of which are bent back and united with each other at top and bottom this makes the shape ancylon, the Greek for curved.

Or, they are named from the elbow on which they are carried, which, in Greek, is ankon. This is what Juba says, who is bent on deriving the name from the Greek. But the name may come from the Greek anekathen, inasmuch as the original shield fell from on high; or from akesis, because it healed those who were sick of the plague; or from auchmon lysis, because it put an end to the drought; or, further, from anaschesis, because it brought a cessation of calamities, just as Castor and Pollux were called Anakes by the Athenians; if, that is, we are bound to derive the name from the Greek.

We are told that Mamertius was rewarded for his wonderful art by having his name mentioned in a song which the Salii sing as they perform their war-dance. Some, however, say that the song does not commemorate Veturius Mamurius, but veterem memoriam, that is to say, ancient remembrance.