ancient Roman religion Religion in ancient Rome consisted of varying imperial and provincial religious practices, which were followed both by the Roman people, people of Rome as well as those who were brought under its rule. The Romans thought of themselves as high ...

, the Lucaria was a

festival A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...

of the grove (Latin ''

lucus In Religion in ancient Rome, ancient Roman religion, a ''lucus'' (, plural ''lucī'') is a sacred grove. was one of four Latin words meaning in general "forest, woodland, grove" (along with , , and ), but unlike the others it was primarily us ...

'') held 19 and 21 July. The original meaning of the ritual was obscure by the time of

Varro Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BCE) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Virgil and Cicero). He is sometimes call ...

(mid-1st century BC), who omits it in his list of festivals. The

deity A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...

for whom it was celebrated is unknown; if a ritual for grove-clearing recorded by Cato pertains to this festival, the

invocation Invocation is the act of calling upon a deity, spirit, or supernatural force, typically through prayer, ritual, or spoken formula, to seek guidance, assistance, or presence. It is a practice found in numerous religious, spiritual, and esote ...

was deliberately anonymous ''( Si deus, si dea)''. The dates of the Lucaria are recorded in the '' Fasti Amiterni'', a

calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A calendar date, date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is ...

dating from the reign of

Tiberius Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus ( ; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was Roman emperor from AD 14 until 37. He succeeded his stepfather Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC to Roman politician Tiberius Cl ...

found at

Amiternum Amiternum was an ancient Sabine city, then Roman city and later bishopric and Latin Catholic titular see in the central Abruzzo region of modern Italy, located from L'Aquila. Amiternum was the birthplace of the historian Sallust (86 BC). Histo ...

(now S. Vittorino) in

Sabine The Sabines (, , , ; ) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains (see Sabina) of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome. The Sabines divided int ...

territory. The Augustan grammarian

Verrius Flaccus Marcus Verrius Flaccus (c. 55 BCAD 20) was a Roman grammarian and teacher who flourished under Augustus and Tiberius. Life He was a freedman, and his manumitter has been identified with Verrius Flaccus, an authority on pontifical law; but for ...

connected the Lucaria to the disastrous defeat of the Romans by the

Gauls The Gauls (; , ''Galátai'') were a group of Celts, Celtic peoples of mainland Europe in the Iron Age Europe, Iron Age and the Roman Gaul, Roman period (roughly 5th century BC to 5th century AD). Their homeland was known as Gaul (''Gallia''). Th ...

at the

Battle of the Allia The Battle of the Allia was fought between the Senones – a Gauls, Gallic tribe led by Brennus (leader of the Senones), Brennus, who had invaded Northern Italy – and the Roman Republic. The battle was fought at the confluence of the Tibe ...

, which was fought on 18 July. The festival, he says, was celebrated in the large grove between the

Via Salaria The Via Salaria was an ancient Roman road in Italy. It eventually ran from Rome (from Porta Salaria of the Aurelian Walls) to ''Castrum Truentinum'' ( Porto d'Ascoli) on the Adriatic coast, a distance of 242 km. The road also passed throu ...

and the

Tiber river The Tiber ( ; ; ) is the List of rivers of Italy, third-longest river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by the R ...

, where the Romans who survived the battle had hidden. The Via Salaria crossed the battlefield about 10 miles north of Rome. The ''lucus'' thus would have been located on the

Pincian Hill The Pincian Hill ( ; ) is a hill in the northeast quadrant of the historical centre of Rome. The hill lies to the north of the Quirinal, overlooking the Campus Martius. It was outside the original boundaries of the ancient city of Rome, and was ...

, which was later cultivated as gardens and leisure parks by

Lucullus Lucius Licinius Lucullus (; 118–57/56 BC) was a Ancient Romans, Roman List of Roman generals, general and Politician, statesman, closely connected with Lucius Cornelius Sulla. In culmination of over 20 years of almost continuous military and ...

Pompeius Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey ( ) or Pompey the Great, was a Roman general and statesman who was prominent in the last decades of the Roman Republic. ...

Sallust Gaius Sallustius Crispus, usually anglicised as Sallust (, ; –35 BC), was a historian and politician of the Roman Republic from a plebeian family. Probably born at Amiternum in the country of the Sabines, Sallust became a partisan of Julius ...

and others. This explanatory story has been compared to that of the

Poplifugia The Poplifugia or Populifugia (Latin: ''the people's flight'') was a festival of ancient Rome celebrated on July 5, according to Varro. This festival commemorated Romans' flight during a critical period when the inhabitants of Ficuleae and Fidenae ...

, which also involved the Gallic sack of Rome. The story may be more

aetiological Etiology (; alternatively spelled aetiology or ætiology) is the study of causation or origination. The word is derived from the Greek word ''()'', meaning "giving a reason for" (). More completely, etiology is the study of the causes, origins ...

than historical. The Lucaria suggests that grove veneration was a practice which the early Romans had in common with the Gauls. Like other "fixed holidays" ('' dies nefasti publici'') on the

Roman calendar The Roman calendar was the calendar used by the Roman Kingdom and Roman Republic. Although the term is primarily used for Rome's pre-Julian calendars, it is often used inclusively of the Julian calendar established by Julius Caesar in 46&nbs ...

, the Lucaria took place on days of uneven number, with an intervening day that was "non-festive". A mention by

Macrobius Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, usually referred to as Macrobius (fl. AD 400), was a Roman provincial who lived during the early fifth century, during late antiquity, the period of time corresponding to the Later Roman Empire, and when Latin was ...

seems to imply that the festival began at night and continued the following day.

Georg Wissowa Georg Otto August Wissowa (17 June 1859 – 11 May 1931) was a German classical philologist born in Neudorf, near Breslau. Education and career Wissowa studied classical philology under August Reifferscheid at the University of Bresl ...

thought that it may have been connected to the Neptunalia on 23 July, when leafy huts, called umbrae, were built as shelters to protect against the hot summer sun and bulls were sacrificed.

Neptune Neptune is the eighth and farthest known planet from the Sun. It is the List of Solar System objects by size, fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 t ...

embodied fresh as well as salt water among the Romans, and the collocation of festivals in July, including also the Furrinalia on 25 May express concerns for drought. Robert Schilling, "Neptune," ''Roman and European Mythologies'' (University of Chicago Press, 1992, from the French edition of 1981), p. 138.

References

{{Roman religion (festival) Ancient Roman festivals July observances

See also

References