# Lucaria > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Lucaria > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Lucaria.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucaria > Source revision: 1318654255 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Ancient Roman festival of the grove}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}} In [ancient Roman religion](/source/Religion_in_ancient_Rome), the '''Lucaria''' was a [festival](/source/Roman_festivals) of the [grove](/source/sacred_grove) (Latin ''[lucus](/source/lucus)'') held 19 and 21 July. The original meaning of the ritual was obscure by the time of [Varro](/source/Varro) (mid-1st century BC), who omits it in his list of festivals.[Varro](/source/Varro), ''De lingua latina'' 6.3. The [deity](/source/List_of_Roman_deities) for whom it was celebrated is unknown;[Kurt Latte](/source/Kurt_Latte), ''Römische Religionsgeschicte'' (C.H. Beck, 1992), p. 88. if a ritual for grove-clearing recorded by [Cato](/source/Cato_the_Elder) pertains to this festival, the [invocation](/source/Glossary_of_ancient_Roman_religion) was deliberately anonymous ''([Si deus, si dea](/source/Si_deus_si_dea))''.Cato, ''On Agriculture'' 139; [Robert E.A. Palmer](/source/Robert_E.A._Palmer), ''The Archaic Community of the Romans'' (Cambridge University Press, 2009), p. 106. The dates of the Lucaria are recorded in the ''[Fasti Amiterni](/source/Fasti_Amiterni)'', a [calendar](/source/fasti) dating from the reign of [Tiberius](/source/Tiberius) found at [Amiternum](/source/Amiternum) (now [S. Vittorino](/source/San_Vittorino_(L'Aquila))) in [Sabine](/source/Sabine) territory.[Jörg Rüpke](/source/J%C3%B6rg_R%C3%BCpke), ''Religion of the Romans'' (Polity Press, 2007, originally published in German 2001), p. 189 The [Augustan](/source/Augustan_literature_(ancient_Rome)) grammarian [Verrius Flaccus](/source/Verrius_Flaccus)As recorded by [Festus](/source/Sextus_Pompeius_Festus): ''Lucaria festa in luco colebant Romani, qui permagnus inter viam Salariam et Tiberim fuit, pro eo, quod victi e Gallis fugientes e praelio ibi se occultaverint''. connected the Lucaria to the disastrous defeat of the Romans by the [Gauls](/source/Gauls) at the [Battle of the Allia](/source/Battle_of_the_Allia), which was fought on 18 July. The festival, he says, was celebrated in the large grove between the [Via Salaria](/source/Via_Salaria) and the [Tiber river](/source/Tiber_river), where the Romans who survived the battle had hidden. The Via Salaria crossed the battlefield about 10 miles north of Rome.[William Warde Fowler](/source/William_Warde_Fowler), ''The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic'' (London, 1908), p. 182. The ''lucus'' thus would have been located on the [Pincian Hill](/source/Pincian_Hill), which was later cultivated as [gardens and leisure parks](/source/Roman_gardens) by [Lucullus](/source/Gardens_of_Lucullus), [Pompeius](/source/Theatre_of_Pompey), [Sallust](/source/Gardens_of_Sallust) and others.Fowler, ''Roman Festivals'', p. 183. This explanatory story has been compared to that of the [Poplifugia](/source/Poplifugia), which also involved the Gallic sack of Rome.Fowler, ''Roman Festivals'', pp. 182–183. The story may be more [aetiological](/source/aition) than historical.[Ken Dowden](/source/Ken_Dowden), ''European Paganism: The Realities of Cult from Antiquity to the Middle Ages'' (Routledge, 2000), p. 107. The Lucaria suggests that grove veneration was a practice which the early Romans had in common with the Gauls.Martin Henig, ''Religion in Roman Britain'' (Taylor & Francis, 1984, 2005), p. 15. Like other "fixed holidays" (''[dies nefasti publici](/source/Dies_nefasti)'') on the [Roman calendar](/source/Roman_calendar), the Lucaria took place on days of uneven number, with an intervening day that was "non-festive".Michael Lipka, ''Roman Gods: A Conceptual Approach'' (Brill, 2009), pp. 38–39 A mention by [Macrobius](/source/Macrobius)[Macrobius](/source/Macrobius), ''Saturnalia'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Macrobius/Saturnalia/1*.html#4.15 1.4.15.] seems to imply that the festival began at night and continued the following day.According to [Julius Caesar](/source/Julius_Caesar), ''Bellum Gallicum'' 6.18, the Gauls regularly reckoned time by nights rather than days: "They compute the divisions of every season, not by the number of days, but of nights; they keep birthdays and the beginnings of months and years in such an order that the day follows the night" ''(spatia omnis temporis non numero dierum sed noctium finiunt; dies natales et mensum et annorum initia sic observant ut noctem dies subsequatur)''. [Georg Wissowa](/source/Georg_Wissowa) thought that it may have been connected to the [Neptunalia](/source/Neptunalia) on 23 July, when leafy huts, called umbrae, were built as shelters to protect against the hot summer sun and bulls were sacrificed.Sarolta A. Takács, ''Vestal Virgins, Sibyls, and Matrons: Women in Roman Religion'' (University of Texas Press, 2008), p. 53. [Neptune](/source/Neptune_(mythology)) embodied fresh as well as salt water among the Romans, and the collocation of festivals in July, including the [Furrinalia](/source/Furrinalia) on the 25th, 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. ==See also== * [Lucus](/source/Lucus) ==References== {{Reflist}} {{Roman religion (festival)}} Category:Ancient Roman festivals Category:July observances --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Lucaria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucaria) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucaria?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.