Regifugium
The regifugium ( Latin literally "flight from the king"; also Fugalia ) was a festival in ancient Rome that took place on February 24th .
There were already different opinions about the origin of this festival in ancient times. According to Varro and Ovid , the expulsion of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus , the seventh and last Roman king , was traditionally dated to 510/509 BC. BC, to be thought. The oldest surviving text about it is contained in Ovid's fasts ; he starts like this:
- Nunc mihi dicenda est regis fuga. traxit from illa
- sextus from extremo nomina mense dies.
- ultima Tarquinius Romanae gentis habebat
- regna, vir iniustus, fortis ad arma tamen.
- ("Now I have to report the king's flight, six days before the end of the month. The last Tarquin was a Roman nation, an unjust man, but still successful in the war.")
The Greek polymath Plutarch disagreed with this view. He was of the opinion that after the abolition of kingship it was up to the Rex sacrorum , the sacred successor of the king, although he had no political or military functions, to offer a public offering of thanks on this festival on the comitium and then as soon as possible from the forum to flee. The "flight of the king" is therefore the disappearance of the Rex sacrorum.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ovid, Fasti 2, 685-688 .
- ↑ Including the reporting day (because the Romans were used to counting that way; see Nundinal cycle ).
- ^ Joachim Jahn: Interregnum and electoral dictatorship. Lassleben, Kallmünz 1970 (Frankfurt ancient historical studies, vol. 3), p. 23 f.
literature
- William Smith: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. London 1875.