El Djem
The lateness of this account has raised questions about the festival's authenticity or antiquity, since references in Republican and Imperial calendars or literary sources are absent or oblique. Lydus may have misunderstood descriptions of the Salian rites. Servius says that a day was consecrated to Mamurius on which the Salii "struck a hide in imitation of his art," that is, the blows struck by a smith. A passage from Minucius Felix indicates that the Salii struck skins as the shields were carried in procession. Two mosaics of the Imperial era have been interpreted as illustrating the rite of Mamurius. The calendar mosaic from El Djem, Tunisia (Roman Africa), which places March as the first month, shows three men using sticks to beat an animal hide.