1) Small shrines, numbering 27 (or 24), distributed throughout Rome "of the four regions," which later became centers of the widespread *compital* cult dedicated to the protective deities of the crossroads (*compita*) into which the city was divided. This cult was revived by Augustus, and on March 17 a procession was held there;
2) Wicker effigies that on May 15 the Vestal Virgins cast into the Tiber from the Sublician Bridge in the presence of the pontiffs. The ceremony had a deeply expiatory character (Plutarch, *Quaest. Rom.*, 86), though mythographic explanations fail to provide a fully satisfactory meaning.
The most persuasive explanation is suggested by the religious *étalon*, which sees in this rite a sacred-magical act to summon rain—a rite that may be considered a substitute for a much older one in which, instead of effigies, living men—perhaps the elders of the community—were sacrificed for this purpose (Festus, s.V. *Sexagenarios de ponte*; Ovid, *Fasti*, V, 621–62). The name *Argei*, meaning "Argive" and thus "Greek," may have been applied to the effigies because, in time, the elders were replaced by war captives; and, given the mythical origin of the Romans from Troy, these captives would have been called *Argivi*, the traditional enemies of the Trojans (G. Wissowa, G. De Sanctis). The rite was a state affair, as evidenced by the presence of the pontiffs and the Vestal Virgins and by the close association of the *Argei* with the *compital* shrines of the ancient city.