TERMINUS [Lat. a boundary stone], a stone or post which was set up in the ground with the following religious ceremonies. A hole was dug and a fire lighted ; a victim was sacrificed and its blood poured into the hole, together with incense and fruits, honey and wine, and the ashes of the sacrifice. Then the boundary stone, which had been previously anointed and crowned with garlands, was placed upon the hot ashes and fixed in the ground. Any one who removed a boundary stone was accursed (sacer) and might be slain with impunity ; a fine was afterwards substituted for the death penalty. From this sacred object evolved the god Terminus. On Feb. 23 (the end of the old Roman year) the festival called Terminalia, according to Wissowa a festival not of the god but of the boundary stones (termini), was held. The owners of adjacent lands assembled at the common boundary stone and garlanded each his own side of the stone. An altar was set up and offerings
of cakes, corn, honey and wine were made. Later a lamb or a sucking pig was sacrificed. The proceedings closed with songs to the god and a general merrymaking, in which all the members of the family and the servants took part.
A similar festival was held at the old boundary of the Roman territory between the fifth and sixth milestone on the road to Laurentum. When the Capito line temple was to be built the auguries forbade the removal of one of these termini (a boundary mark of some old precinct?) and it was enclosed within the walls of the new sanctuary, an indica tion of the immovability of such stones and of the permanence of the Roman territory.
See Wissowa, Religion and Kultus der Romer (2nd ed.), p. 136 ; W. W. Fowler, The Roman Festivals, p. 324 (1899) •