Eclogue XXIII. — On the Roman Festivals

Now will I tell of the Games of Apollo held at Tiber's mouth and of the Mysteries of the Megalesian mother, and will recount Vulcan's festival that heralds autumn's beginning, and the Quinquatrus, the feast of the goddess Pallas, and the mid-monthly Ides which come round with May and August — the first is Mercury's festival, the second Diana claims as her own — as also those rites which wedded women practise to bring their husbands credit, when the first day of March is returned. I will make mention also of the feast held on the Nonae Caprotinae when matrons doff their robes to clothe their handmaidens, and of those seasons, too, which separate the year into four parts, the solstices and the equinoxes, when night and day are equal. Nor dare I pass over in silence the Regifugium, that glad day for the Romans when they drove their tyrants out. Or would you have me speak first of the feast of Ops, or of the Saturnalia, the slaves' holiday, when masters turn servants? And of those feasts which never come round on fixed days, when each man worships at the crossways according to the district in which he lives?

Or of those twin celebrations — that which they call Neptunalia, and that which is named after Consus and good counsel? Of this festival which is celebrated with naval battles, or that with chariot-races, which unite the Romans and their neighbour-chiefs? Shall I tell also of the festivals and rites of strange gods introduced into Rome, of the birthday of Hercules or the day of the Bark of Isis, and also the merry rites of Flora held in the licentious theatre — rites which they long to see who declare they never longed to see them? Now also the ancient games called Equiria are held: 'tis the chief name known to the Roman circus. The Dionysiac Games Rome also keeps under a Latin name, the same which Liber claims as consecrate to himself. The aediles also of the plebs and curule aediles observe the feast called Sigillaria. And that gladiators once fought out funerary battles in the forum is well known; now the arena claims as its own proper prey those who towards the end of December appease with their blood the sickle-bearing Son of Heaven.