The Poplifugia or Populifugia (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

: ''the people's flight''), was a festival of

ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom ...

celebrated on July 5, according to Varro, in commemoration of the flight of the Romans, when the inhabitants of Ficuleae and Fidenae appeared in arms against them, shortly after the burning of the city by the

Gaul Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...

s (see Battle of the Allia); the traditional victory of the Romans, which followed, was commemorated on July 7 (called the '' Nonae Caprotinae'' as a feast of Juno Caprotina), and on the next day was the

Vitulatio The ''Vitulatio'' was an annual thanksgiving celebrated in ancient Rome on July 8, the day after the '' Nonae Caprotinae'' and following the Poplifugia on July 5. The Poplifugia is a lesser-known festival that was of obscure origin even for the Rom ...

, supposed to mark the thank-offering of the pontifices for the event. Macrobius, who wrongly places the Poplifugia on the '' nones'', says that it commemorated a flight before the Tuscans, while Dionysius refers its origin to the time when the patricians murdered Romulus after the people had fled from a public assembly on account of rain and darkness. Joachim Marquardt, ''Romische Staatsverwaltung,'' iii. 325.

Notes

References

* ''This entry incorporates public domain text originally from'' (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin), ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities'', Albemarle Street, London. John Murray. 1890. Ancient Roman festivals July observances {{festival-stub