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For the novel, see Lustrum (novel).

Lustrum, in ancient Rome, was originally a sacrifice for expiation and purification offered by one of the censors of Rome in the name of the Roman people at the close of the taking of the census, which took place every five years.^[1] The name came to mean a period of five years, in the same way that a decade is a period of ten years. This was also a part of the process by which new senators were appointed to the Roman Senate.

Quotation: "Thus I turned over the last ten years in my mind, and then, fixing my anxious gaze on the future, I asked myself, 'If, perchance, thou shoulds't prolong this uncertain life of thine for yet two more lustra ... coulds't thou ... face death ... hopefully...?'" -- Francis Petrarch, "Letter to Dionisio da San Sepolcro [The Ascent of Mount Ventoux]" ca. 1336. Trans. J.H Robinson/H.W. Rolfe.

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^ This five-year interval was only systematically respected at the beginning of the Roman Republic (ca. 509 BC–27 BC), then it became gradually very irregular (see Roman censor: Census statistics). The practice was restored by Octavianus Augustus in 28 BCE after a "41 year gap", as attested by the Res Gestae Divi Augusti (see The Deeds of the Divine Augustus, § 8.)

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia.

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[0] This five-year interval was only systematically respected at the beginning of the Roman Republic (ca. 509 BC–27 BC), then it became gradually very irregular (see Roman censor: Census statistics). The practice was restored by Octavianus Augustus in 28 BCE after a "41 year gap", as attested by the Res Gestae Divi Augusti (see The Deeds of the Divine Augustus, § 8.)

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