Robigalia
Encyclopedia
In ancient Roman religion
, the Robigalia was a festival
held April 25. Its main ritual was a dog sacrifice to protect grain fields from disease
. Games (ludi
) in the form of "major and minor" races were held. The Robigalia was one of several agricultural festivals in April to celebrate and vitalize the growing season, but the darker sacrificial elements of these occasions are also fraught with anxiety about crop failure and the dependence on divine favor to avert it.
The late Republican scholar Varro
says that the Robigalia was named for the god Robigus, who as the numen
or personification of agricultural disease could also prevent it. He was thus a potentially malignant deity to be propitiated, as Aulus Gellius
notes. But the gender of this deity is elusive. The agricultural writer Columella
gives the name in the feminine as Robigo, like the word used for the disease itself, and says that the sacrificial offering was the blood and entrails of an unweaned puppy (catulus). Most animal sacrifice
in the public religion of ancient Rome
resulted in a communal meal and thus involved domestic animals whose flesh was a normal part of the Roman diet; the dog occurs as a victim most often in magic and private rites for Hecate
and other chthonic deities
, but was offered publicly at the Lupercalia
and two other sacrifices pertaining to grain crops.
Robigo is a form of wheat rust, and has a reddish or reddish-brown color. Both Robigus and robigo are also found as Rubig-, which following the etymology
-by-association of antiquity was thought to be connected to the color red (ruber) as a form of homeopathic or sympathetic magic
. The color is thematic: the disease was red, the requisite puppies (or sometimes bitches) had a red coat, the red of blood recalls the distinctively Roman incarnation of Mars as both a god of agriculture and bloodshed. William Warde Fowler
, whose work on Roman festivals remains a standard reference, entertained the idea that Robigus is an "indigitation" of Mars, that is, a name to be used in a prayer formulary to fix the local action of the invoked god. The priest who presided was the flamen Quirinalis
, the high priest of Quirinus
, the Sabine
god of war who become identified with Mars; the ludi were held for both Mars and Robigo. The flamen recited a prayer that Ovid
quotes at length in the Fasti, his six-book calendar poem on Roman holidays which provides the most extended, though problematic, description of the day.
The Robigalia was held at the boundary of the Ager Romanus
. Verrius Flaccus
sites it in a grove (lucus
) at the fifth milestone from Rome along the Via Claudia.
The chariot races (ludi cursoribus) held in honor of Mars and Robigo had two classes, "major and minor," which may be junior and senior divisions. In chariot racing, younger drivers seem to have gained experience with a two-horse chariot (biga
) before graduating to a four-horse team (quadriga
).
The Fasti Praenestini also record that on the same day the festival celebrated a particular class of sex workers: "pimped-out boys," following the previous day's recognition of meretrices, female prostitutes regarded as professionals
of some standing.
Like many other aspects of Roman law
and religion, the institution of the Robigalia was attributed to the Sabine Numa Pompilius
, in the eleventh year of his reign as the second king of Rome
. The combined presence of Numa and the flamen Quirinalis may suggest a Sabine origin.
Other April festivals related to farming were the Cerealia
, or festival of Ceres
, lasting for several days in mid-month; the Fordicidia
on April 15, when a pregnant cow was sacrificed; the Parilia
on April 21 to ensure healthy flocks; and the Vinalia
, a wine festival on April 23. Varro considered these and the Robigalia, along with the Great Mother
's Megalensia late in the month, the "original" Roman holidays in April.
The Robigalia has been connected to the Christian
feast of Rogation
, which was concerned with purifying and blessing the parish and fields and which took the place of the Robigalia on April 25 of the Christian calendar. The Church Father Tertullian
mocks the goddess Robigo as "made up," a fiction.
Religion in ancient Rome
Religion in ancient Rome encompassed the religious beliefs and cult practices regarded by the Romans as indigenous and central to their identity as a people, as well as the various and many cults imported from other peoples brought under Roman rule. Romans thus offered cult to innumerable deities...
, the Robigalia was a festival
Roman festivals
In ancient Roman religion, holidays were celebrated to worship and celebrate a certain god or divine event, and consisted of religious observances and festival traditions, usually with a large feast, and often featuring games . The most important festivals were the Saturnalia, the Consualia, the...
held April 25. Its main ritual was a dog sacrifice to protect grain fields from disease
Wheat diseases
-In Europe:Cereals are at risk from numerous diseases due to the level of intensification necessary for profitable production since the 1970s. More recently varietal diversification, good plant breeding and the availability of effective fungicides have played a prominent part in cereal disease...
. Games (ludi
Ludi
Ludi were public games held for the benefit and entertainment of the Roman people . Ludi were held in conjunction with, or sometimes as the major feature of, Roman religious festivals, and were also presented as part of the cult of state.The earliest ludi were horse races in the circus...
) in the form of "major and minor" races were held. The Robigalia was one of several agricultural festivals in April to celebrate and vitalize the growing season, but the darker sacrificial elements of these occasions are also fraught with anxiety about crop failure and the dependence on divine favor to avert it.
The late Republican scholar Varro
Varro
Varro was a Roman cognomen carried by:*Marcus Terentius Varro, sometimes known as Varro Reatinus, the scholar*Publius Terentius Varro or Varro Atacinus, the poet*Gaius Terentius Varro, the consul defeated at the battle of Cannae...
says that the Robigalia was named for the god Robigus, who as the numen
Numen
Numen is a Latin term for a potential, guiding the course of events in a particular place or in the whole world, used in Roman philosophical and religious thought...
or personification of agricultural disease could also prevent it. He was thus a potentially malignant deity to be propitiated, as Aulus Gellius
Aulus Gellius
Aulus Gellius , was a Latin author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome, where he held a judicial office...
notes. But the gender of this deity is elusive. The agricultural writer Columella
Columella
Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella is the most important writer on agriculture of the Roman empire. Little is known of his life. He was probably born in Gades , possibly of Roman parents. After a career in the army , he took up farming...
gives the name in the feminine as Robigo, like the word used for the disease itself, and says that the sacrificial offering was the blood and entrails of an unweaned puppy (catulus). Most animal sacrifice
Animal sacrifice
Animal sacrifice is the ritual killing of an animal as part of a religion. It is practised by many religions as a means of appeasing a god or gods or changing the course of nature...
in the public religion of ancient Rome
Imperial cult (ancient Rome)
The Imperial cult of ancient Rome identified emperors and some members of their families with the divinely sanctioned authority of the Roman State...
resulted in a communal meal and thus involved domestic animals whose flesh was a normal part of the Roman diet; the dog occurs as a victim most often in magic and private rites for Hecate
Hecate
Hecate or Hekate is a chthonic Greco-Roman goddess associated with magic, witchcraft, necromancy, and crossroads.She is attested in poetry as early as Hesiod's Theogony...
and other chthonic deities
Chthonic
Chthonic designates, or pertains to, deities or spirits of the underworld, especially in relation to Greek religion. The Greek word khthon is one of several for "earth"; it typically refers to the interior of the soil, rather than the living surface of the land or the land as territory...
, but was offered publicly at the Lupercalia
Lupercalia
Lupercalia was a very ancient, possibly pre-Roman pastoral festival, observed on February 13 through 15 to avert evil spirits and purify the city, releasing health and fertility...
and two other sacrifices pertaining to grain crops.
Robigo is a form of wheat rust, and has a reddish or reddish-brown color. Both Robigus and robigo are also found as Rubig-, which following the etymology
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
-by-association of antiquity was thought to be connected to the color red (ruber) as a form of homeopathic or sympathetic magic
Sympathetic magic
Sympathetic magic, also known as imitative magic, is a type of magic based on imitation or correspondence.-Similarity and contagion:The theory of sympathetic magic was first developed by Sir James George Frazer in The Golden Bough...
. The color is thematic: the disease was red, the requisite puppies (or sometimes bitches) had a red coat, the red of blood recalls the distinctively Roman incarnation of Mars as both a god of agriculture and bloodshed. William Warde Fowler
William Warde Fowler
William Warde Fowler was an English historian and ornithologist, and tutor at Lincoln College, Oxford. He was best known for his works on ancient Roman religion....
, whose work on Roman festivals remains a standard reference, entertained the idea that Robigus is an "indigitation" of Mars, that is, a name to be used in a prayer formulary to fix the local action of the invoked god. The priest who presided was the flamen Quirinalis
Flamen Quirinalis
In ancient Roman religion, the Flamen Quirinalis was the flamen devoted to the cult of god Quirinus. He was one of the three flamines majores, third in order of importance after the Flamen Dialis and the Flamen Martialis....
, the high priest of Quirinus
Quirinus
In Roman mythology, Quirinus was an early god of the Roman state. In Augustan Rome, Quirinus was also an epithet of Janus, as Janus Quirinus. His name is derived from Quiris meaning "spear."-History:...
, the Sabine
Sabine
The Sabines were an Italic tribe that lived in the central Appennines of ancient Italy, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome...
god of war who become identified with Mars; the ludi were held for both Mars and Robigo. The flamen recited a prayer that Ovid
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
quotes at length in the Fasti, his six-book calendar poem on Roman holidays which provides the most extended, though problematic, description of the day.
The Robigalia was held at the boundary of the Ager Romanus
Ager Romanus
Geographically, the Ager Romanus is the name given to the immense rural area around the city of Rome. Politically and historically, it has represented the area of influence of Rome's municipal government...
. Verrius Flaccus
Verrius Flaccus
Marcus Verrius Flaccus 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 chronological reasons the name of Veranius Flaccus, a writer on augury,...
sites it in a grove (lucus
Lucus
In ancient Roman religion, a lucus is a sacred grove.Lucus was one of four Latin words meaning in general "forest, woodland, grove" , but unlike the others it was primarily used as a religious designation...
) at the fifth milestone from Rome along the Via Claudia.
The chariot races (ludi cursoribus) held in honor of Mars and Robigo had two classes, "major and minor," which may be junior and senior divisions. In chariot racing, younger drivers seem to have gained experience with a two-horse chariot (biga
Biga (chariot)
The biga is the two-horse chariot as used in ancient Rome for sport, transportation, and ceremonies. Other animals may replace horses in art and occasionally for actual ceremonies. The term biga is also used by modern scholars for the similar chariots of other Indo-European cultures, particularly...
) before graduating to a four-horse team (quadriga
Quadriga
A quadriga is a car or chariot drawn by four horses abreast . It was raced in the Ancient Olympic Games and other contests. It is represented in profile as the chariot of gods and heroes on Greek vases and in bas-relief. The quadriga was adopted in ancient Roman chariot racing...
).
The Fasti Praenestini also record that on the same day the festival celebrated a particular class of sex workers: "pimped-out boys," following the previous day's recognition of meretrices, female prostitutes regarded as professionals
Prostitution in ancient Rome
Prostitution in ancient Rome reflects the ambivalent attitudes of Romans toward pleasure and sexuality. Prostitution was legal and licensed. Some large brothels in the 4th century, when Rome was becoming officially Christianized, seem to have been counted as tourist attractions and were possibly...
of some standing.
Like many other aspects of Roman law
Roman law
Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, and the legal developments which occurred before the 7th century AD — when the Roman–Byzantine state adopted Greek as the language of government. The development of Roman law comprises more than a thousand years of jurisprudence — from the Twelve...
and religion, the institution of the Robigalia was attributed to the Sabine Numa Pompilius
Numa Pompilius
Numa Pompilius was the legendary second king of Rome, succeeding Romulus. What tales are descended to us about him come from Valerius Antias, an author from the early part of the 1st century BC known through limited mentions of later authors , Dionysius of Halicarnassus circa 60BC-...
, in the eleventh year of his reign as the second king of Rome
King of Rome
The King of Rome was the chief magistrate of the Roman Kingdom. According to legend, the first king of Rome was Romulus, who founded the city in 753 BC upon the Palatine Hill. Seven legendary kings are said to have ruled Rome until 509 BC, when the last king was overthrown. These kings ruled for...
. The combined presence of Numa and the flamen Quirinalis may suggest a Sabine origin.
Other April festivals related to farming were the Cerealia
Cerealia
In ancient Roman religion, the Cerealia was the major festival celebrated for the grain goddess Ceres. It was held for seven days from mid- to late April, but the dates are uncertain....
, or festival of Ceres
Ceres (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion, Ceres was a goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships. She was originally the central deity in Rome's so-called plebeian or Aventine Triad, then was paired with her daughter Proserpina in what Romans described as "the Greek rites of Ceres"...
, lasting for several days in mid-month; the Fordicidia
Fordicidia
In ancient Roman religion, the Fordicidia was a festival of fertility, held April 15, that pertained to animal husbandry. It involved the sacrifice of a pregnant cow to Tellus, or Mother Earth, in proximity to the festival of Ceres on April 19....
on April 15, when a pregnant cow was sacrificed; the Parilia
Parilia
thumb|250px|Festa di Pales, o L'estate , a reimagining of the Festival of Pales by [[Joseph-Benoît Suvée]]In ancient Roman religion, the Parilia is an agricultural festival performed annually on April 21, aimed at cleansing both sheep and shepherd. It is carried out in acknowledgment to the Roman...
on April 21 to ensure healthy flocks; and the Vinalia
Vinalia
The Vinalia were Roman festivals of the annual vintage, in honour of Jupiter and Venus. The first was held on August 19, and the second on May 1...
, a wine festival on April 23. Varro considered these and the Robigalia, along with the Great Mother
Cybele
Cybele , was a Phrygian form of the Earth Mother or Great Mother. As with Greek Gaia , her Minoan equivalent Rhea and some aspects of Demeter, Cybele embodies the fertile Earth...
's Megalensia late in the month, the "original" Roman holidays in April.
The Robigalia has been connected to the Christian
History of Christianity
The history of Christianity concerns the Christian religion, its followers and the Church with its various denominations, from the first century to the present. Christianity was founded in the 1st century by the followers of Jesus of Nazareth who they believed to be the Christ or chosen one of God...
feast of Rogation
Rogation days
Rogation days are, in the calendar of the Western Church, four days traditionally set apart for solemn processions to invoke God's mercy. They are April 25, the Major Rogation, coinciding with St...
, which was concerned with purifying and blessing the parish and fields and which took the place of the Robigalia on April 25 of the Christian calendar. The Church Father Tertullian
Tertullian
Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian , was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He is the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and...
mocks the goddess Robigo as "made up," a fiction.