Thoughts on Antiquity, Patristics, putting things online, freedom of speech, information access, and more
Bill Thayer writes to say that he has located a 1921 thesis devoted to sifting the evidence for the ancient Roman festival of the Lupercalia. He’s typed it in, and uploaded it to the web. It can be found here. If you are not familiar with Bill’s site, Lacus Curtius, it goes considerably further than the [...]
I thought that I had blogged about this, but it seems I did not, or at least, can’t find it if I did. The ancient festival of the Lupercalia was only abolished late in the 5th century. Pope Gelasius wrote a letter to the senator Andromachus, justifying the move. It’s found in the Collectio Avellana, [...]
Apparently there is a legend that Valentine’s Day derives from the ancient Roman festival of the Lupercalia. I admit that I had never heard this one — but the excellent Bill Thayer has gone to some trouble to research it, so clearly it does. He has also added an article from Classical Philology about the festival in [...]