July 25
ante diem VIII Kalendas AugustLudi Victoriae Caesaris
Furrinalia Festival for Furrina. Furrina or Furina was the Earth-mother goddess-wife of Neptune, possibly a nymph, with public sacrifices on the Janiculum hill, in Trastevere [see Map of the City of Roma], at the lucus Furrinae ["The Cults of Ancient Trastevere," by S. M. Savage; Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, Vol. 17, (1940), pp. 26-56]. By the end of the Republic Furrina had become an obscure goddess, possibly, originally Etruscan, but she had once had her own flamen. In his review of The Lucus Furrinae and the Syrian Sanctuary on the Janiculum, by Nicholas Goodhue, R. M. Ogilvie (The Classical Review, New Series, Vol. 28, No. 2 (1978), pp. 368-369) says he doubts the Etruscan origin because the only other place where a sanctuary of Furrina has been found was the Italic, not Etruscan, community of Satricum. Her grove had been the scene of the death of Gaius Gracchus. Cicero confused her with the Furies. The head of the Gorgon had been found on an altar in the area, which Van Deman Magoffin says explains the Furies connection because he says the Gorgon was one of the Furies ["The Grove of Furrina on the Janiculum," by Ralph Van Deman Magoffin; The Classical Weekly, Vol. 2, No. 29 (May 29, 1909), pp. 244-246].
A.D. 306 - Emperor Constantius died at York. His son Constantine I counted the day his dies imperii -- the day from which he counted the beginning of his reign. [DIR: Constantine.]
A.D. 325 - < URL = www.christianitytoday.com/history/features/twich/31.html > The Council of Nicea ends rejecting the Arians as heretics.
This Day in Ancient History, This Day for July
Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece
On the inaccuracy of This Day in Ancient History
