saecŭlāris (sēcŭ-), e, adj. [saeculum],
I of or belonging to a saeculum: ludi, secular games, celebrated at very long intervals (the interval was fixed, in the time of Augustus, at one hundred and twenty years), and continuing three days and nights, Varr. and Liv. ap. Censor. de Die Nat. 17; Suet. Aug. 31; id. Dom. 4; id. Vit. 2; Plin. 7, 48, 49, § 159; Tac. A. 11, 11: carmen, a hymn sung at the secular games , a secular hymn; the best known hymn of this character is that composed by Horace, at the command of Augustus, to be sung at the secular games, A. U. C. 737; cf. Suet. Vit. Hor. 34—Hence, substt.
A saecŭlāres , ium, m. (sc. ludi), the secular games , Suet. Claud. 21.—
B saecŭlārĭa , ium, n. (sc. sacra), the secular games , Val. Max. 2, 4, 4 al.—
II Worldly , temporal , profane , lay , secular; pagan , heathen (eccl. Lat.): homines (opp. monachi), Hier. Ep. 60, 11: historia, Sedul. in Conc. post Ep. 7, 9: exempla, Tert. Exhort. ad Cast. 13 (al. saeculi): feminae quaedam (Dido, Lucretia), id. ib. 13 fin. —As subst.: saecŭlārĭa , ium, n., worldly matters : redditur in culpā pastor saecularia servans, Commod. 94, 69.— Hence, adv.: saecŭlārĭter , in a worldly manner (eccl. Lat.): mulierem saeculariter ornari, Cypr. Testim. 3, 36.