§126. For the classical period we may put the age required at sixteen, and if we add to this the _tirocinium_ (§117), which followed the donning of the garb of manhood, we shall have the seventeen years after the expiration of which the citizen had been liable in ancient times to military duty. The day was even less precisely fixed. We should expect the birthday at the beginning of the seventeenth year, but it seems to have been the more usual, but by no means invariable, custom to select for the ceremony the feast of Liber which happened to come nearest to the seventeenth birthday. This feast was celebrated on the 17th of March and was called the _liberalia_. No more appropriate time could have been selected to suggest the freer life of manhood upon which the boy was now about to enter.
§127. The Liberalia.--The festivities of the great day began in the early morning, when the boy laid before the Lares of his house the _bulla_ (§99) and _toga praetexta_, called together the _insignia pueritiae_. A sacrifice was then offered, and the _bulla_ was hung over the hearth, not to be taken down and worn again except on some occasion when the man who had worn it as a boy should be in danger of the envy of men and gods. The boy then dressed himself in the _tunica recta_ (§76), having one or two crimson stripes if he was the son of a senator or a knight, and over this was carefully draped the _toga virilis_. This was also called in contrast to the gayer garb of boyhood the _toga pura_, and with reference to the freedom of manhood the _toga libera_.
§128. Then began the procession to the forum. The father had gathered his slaves and freedmen and clients, had been careful to notify his relatives and friends, and had used all his personal and political influence to make the escort of his son as numerous and imposing as possible. If the ceremony took place on the _liberalia_, the forum was sure to be crowded with similar processions of rejoicing friends. Here were extended the formal congratulations, and the name of one more citizen was added to the official list. An offering was then made in the temple of Liber on the Capitoline Hill, and the day ended with a feast at the father's house.