Every one knows something of the character of this holiday, and especially of the entertainment of slaves by their masters,[464] which has many parallels in Greek custom, and has been recently supposed to have been borrowed from the Greeks.

Various games were played, and among them that of "King," at which we have seen the young Cato playing with his boy companions.[465] Seneca tells us that in his day all Rome seemed to go mad on this holiday.
But we must now turn to the real _ludi_, organised by the State on a large and ever increasing scale.

The oldest and most imposing of these were the Ludi Romani or Magni, lasting from September 5 to September 19 in Cicero's time.

These had their origin in the return of a victorious army at the end of the season of war, when king or consul had to carry out the vows he had made when entering on his campaign.
The usual form of the vow was to entertain the people on his return, in honour of Jupiter, and thus they were originally called ludi _votivi_, before they were incorporated as a regularly recurring festival.

After they became regular and annual, any entertainment vowed by a general had to take place on other days; thus in the year 70 B.C.