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Augustus, the Lupercalia and the Roman identity

2015; Akadémiai Kiadó; Volume: 55; Issue: 1-4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1556/068.2015.55.1-4.16

1588-2543

Diana Guarisco,

Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies

It is widely agreed that Augustus dealt with the festival Lupercalia . However, the evidence about his intervention is scanty and discussable; in addition, both the reconstruction of the celebration and an outline of its historical development are almost impossible tasks. Nevertheless, ancient authors agree on placing the origins of the Lupercalia in the furthest antiquity, at the beginning of the town or at the beginning of mankind. Coherently, the descriptions which they provide suggest that the festival aimed at a temporary and ritually controlled regress to the primeval savagery. Therefore, the involvement of Augustus in the (re-)organization of the Lupercalia results to be consistent with his programmatic connection to Romulus, the founder. In fact, the representations of the pre-civic world at the festival and in the Augustan poetry (especially by Virgil) are consonant. It is worth noting that Lupercalia were celebrated for centuries after Augustus. It is possible to infer that the regress into the wild primeval world was essential to Roman identity, just like the stories about the founder. Since a festival Louperkalion was held in Constantinople, it can be supposed that Lupercalia were one of the identitary symbols that the second Rome chose as heritage from the first one.