Lupercalia - Roman purification rite

44 BC

Recurring annual Roman festival on 15 February in which young priests (Luperci) ran near-naked striking bystanders with thongs (februa) cut from sacrificed animals. The earliest firmly datable attestation is the Lupercalia of 44 BCE, at which Mark Antony offered Caesar a diadem; the festival is of much older, possibly Sabine origin. Pope Gelasius I condemned it between 494 and 496 CE.