TERMINALIA. — Feast of the god Terminus in Roman religion. Terminus means, in Latin, the boundary and, more specifically, the stone marking the boundary. In private worship, the T. were celebrated precisely beside the stone marking the boundary between two estates: fruits, wine, a lamb, and a sow were sacrificed on an altar; the stone was garlanded on both sides (by the respective owners) and smeared with the blood of the victim. But the T. were also a public festival, fixed in the archaic calendar on 23 February.
A public rite took place, perhaps alluding to the boundaries of Rome, at the sixth milestone of the Via Laurentina. Here too a sheep was killed. This seems to contradict explicit testimony according to which the cult of Terminus was bloodless. Perhaps, however, the older cult, which had its centre in the temple of Capitoline Jupiter, must be distinguished from those mentioned above. According to legend, at the time of its construction all the divinities had yielded their place to Jupiter, except Terminus and Iuventas, who were incorporated into the temple (both divine names also appear as epithets of Jupiter!). Above the place of worship of Terminus, the temple roof was open. That the meaning of Terminus is not limited to the boundary stone is shown, in addition to this Capitoline cult, also by the fact that the T. are the last festival of the Roman year, and thus mark its end.