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

, the Lucaria was a festival of the

grove Grove may refer to: * Grove (nature), a small group of trees Places England *Grove, Buckinghamshire, a village * Grove, Dorset * Grove, Herefordshire * Grove, Kent * Grove, Nottinghamshire, a village * Grove, Oxfordshire, a village and civil ...

(Latin '' lucus'') held 19 and 21 July. The original meaning of the ritual was obscure by the time of Varro (mid-1st century BC), who omits it in his list of festivals. The

deity A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greate ...

for whom it was celebrated is unknown; if a ritual for grove-clearing recorded by Cato pertains to this festival, the invocation was deliberately anonymous ''( Si deus, si dea)''. The dates of the Lucaria are recorded in the ''

Fasti Amiterni Ancient Roman ''fasti'' were calendars ''( fasti)'' that recorded religious observances and officially commemorated events. They were typically displayed in the form of an inscription at a prominent public location such as a major temple; seve ...

'', 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 date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physi ...

dating from the reign of Tiberius found at Amiternum (now S. Vittorino) in Sabine territory. The Augustan grammarian Verrius Flaccus connected the Lucaria to the disastrous defeat of the Romans by the Gauls at the Battle of the Allia, which was fought on 18 July. The festival, he says, was celebrated in the large grove between the Via Salaria and the Tiber river, 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, which was later cultivated as gardens and leisure parks by Lucullus,

Pompeius Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey or Pompey the Great, was a leading Roman general and statesman. He played a significant role in the transformation of ...

, Sallust and others. This explanatory story has been compared to that of the Poplifugia, which also involved the Gallic sack of Rome. The story may be more

aetiological Etiology (pronounced ; alternatively: aetiology or ætiology) is the study of causation or origination. The word is derived from the Greek (''aitiología'') "giving a reason for" (, ''aitía'', "cause"); and ('' -logía''). More completely, e ...

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 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 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 planet from the Sun and the farthest known planet in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 times ...

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