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taurobolium

taurobolium noun: the ritual slaughter of a bull.

taurobolium: the ritual slaughter of a bull
Image: Bernhard Rode, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

taurobolium (plural taurobolia)

  1. (Ancient-Rome, historical) The ritual slaughter of a bull.
    • The cult of the Magna Mater, borrowing the civic spirit proper to Roman religion, made of the official taurobolium a manifestation of loyalty to the institutions of the Roman Empire.1927, George La Piana, Foreign Groups in Rome During the First Centuries of the Empire, Harvard University Press, page 300
    • It is safe to conclude that the taurobolium at this stage in its development was a substitution rite³³ at least in its original and most basic purpose, although it may soon have become an initiatory rite for women.1968, Phoenix, Volume 22, Classical Association of Canada, University of Toronto Press, page 236

Forms of taurobolium

pluraltaurobolia
alternative formtauroboly

Origin of taurobolium

Borrowed from Latin taurobolium, from Ancient Greek ταυροβόλιον (taurobólion).

Words formed from taurobolium

Questions about taurobolium

What does taurobolium mean?
Taurobolium means the ritual slaughter of a bull.
What part of speech is taurobolium?
Taurobolium is a noun.
What is the plural of taurobolium?
The plural of taurobolium is taurobolia.

Words near taurobolium in the dictionary

  1. Taurini
  2. taurinomethyl
  3. Tauris
  4. taurobolia
  5. taurobolic
  6. taurobolium
  7. tauroboly
  8. taurocephalous
  9. taurochenodeoxycholate
  10. taurochenodeoxycholates
  11. taurochenodeoxycholic acid

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: taurobolium (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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