Regifugium
Regifugium was a Roman festival celebrated on February 24 -- 6 days before the Kalends of March during the intercalary month at the end of the ancient Roman year -- to commemorate the expulsion of the kings, specifically (probably), the finally king, Tarquin the Proud. The term combines Latin words for flight and king. Another name for the holiday is FUGA′LIA. As the article on the holiday in William Smith's A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875, says, some doubt the holiday has to do with Tarquin at all, but instead refers to a symbolic flight of the Rex Sacrorum (an important priest) from the Comitium, a place the Rex Sacrorum was not supposed to be except for specific occasions when he was to offer sacrifices there, after which he had to leave immediately.
References:
- "Regifugium," by C. Robert Phillips III, The Oxford Classical Dictionary (4 ed.) edited by Simon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth, Esther Eidinow; 2012
- Regifugium, Lacus Curtius William Smith Dictionary of Roman Antiquities
See Also:
Roman Kings: L. Tarquinius Priscus
Roman Kings: Numa Pompilius
Tarquin the Proud
Early Rome
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