SALII. – Priests of the Roman religion, who are also found in various centers of Latium (Alba, Lavinium, Tusculum, Anagni, Ariccia, Tibur), though without specific data on their local organization. In Rome, the Salii form two priestly sodalities of 12 members each, distinguished as the Salii Palatini and the Salii Collini or Agonenses, with their seats respectively on the Palatine and the Quirinal.
According to some indications, the latter may have been priests of the god Quirinus: a possibility not excluded, since at Tibur there are known Salii of Hercules Victor, from which it may be inferred that not all the Salii were necessarily connected with the cult of Mars. But what is known about the Roman priestly activity of the Salii pertains exclusively to the cult of Mars: in the great festal cycles of this god, in March and October, the Salii carry about the sacred arms (spears and the twelve ancilia, sacred shields) of the god and perform in public their war dances (whence the popular etymology: Salii from *saliendo*). Their ritual costume also alludes to war, being identical with the uniform of the Roman army. The Salii have at their head a magister. They are elected by co-optation from among men of patrician rank who have both parents living and are married according to the rite of confarreatio. All this points to the antiquity of their institution, which tradition attributes to King Numa or even traces back to pre-Roman origins (Arcadian, Samothracian, or Etruscan). The archaic language of the *carmen Saliare*, the ritual song of the Salii, was studied from the very beginnings of Roman literary culture.