Lupercus

• The Roman name of the Lycean Pan (so called because he protected the flocks from wolves), Just. 4, 3, 1.—Far more freq.,
• II A priest of the Lycean Pan: nudi Luperci, Verg. A. 8, 663; Ov. F. 2, 267: nec prodest agili palmas praebere Luperco, Juv. 2, 142. There were at first two classes of these priests, the Fabiani and the Quintiliani, to whom afterwards, in honor of Caesar, were added the Juliani, Suet. Caes. 76. At first the priests were chosen only from the herdsmen, but afterwards young persons of the highest rank were received among them: ita eras Lupercus, ut te consulem esse meminisse deberes, Cic. Phil. 2, 34, 85; Suet. Aug. 31.— There were also Luperci at Velitrae, Inscr. Murat. 1, 3.

an ancient Italian divinity, who was worshipped by shepherds as the protector of their flocks against wolves, and at the same time as the promoter of the fertility among sheep, whence he was called Inuus or Ἐφιάλτης. On the north side of the Palatine hill there had been in ancient times a cave, the sanctuary of Lupercus, surrounded by a grove, containing an altar of the god and his figure clad in a goat-skin, just as his priests the Luperci (Dionys. A. R. 1.79; Just. 43.1, 4; Liv. 1.5; Serv. ad Aen. 6.776; Isidor. 8.11, 103, &c.; Artemid. Oneir. 2.42). The Romans sometimes identified Lupercus with the Arcadian Pan. Respecting the festival celebrated in honour of Lupercus and his priests, the Luperci, see Dict. of Ant. s. v. Lupercalia and Luperci. [L.S]

a friend of the younger Pliny, to whom the latter occasionally sent his orations for revision. (Plin. Ep. 2.5, 9.26.) He is probably the same as the Lupercus who frequently asked Martial for his epigrams. (Mart. 1.118.)

(Λούπερκος), of Berytus, a learned grammarian, lived a little time before the Roman emperor Claudius II. (reigned A. D. 268-270). He was the author, according to Suidas, of the following works :-three books on the particle ἂν, Περι τοῦ ταώς, Περὶ τῆς καριδος, Περὶ τοῦ παρὰ Πλάτωνι ἀλεκτρυόνος, a Κτίσις of the Egyptian town Arsinoetus or Arsinoe, Ἀττικαὶ λέξες, Τέχνη γραμματική, and thirteen books on the three genders, in which Suidas says that Lupercus surpasses Herodian in many points.

a Roman legate, and commander of the winter-quarters of two legions of the army of the Rhine, was sent by Hordeonius Flaccus against Civilis, by whom he was defeated and driven into Vetera Castra, the fortifications of which he repaired, and where he maintained himself bravely against the insurgents, till his soldiers, starving and dispirited, and solicited by the emissaries of Classicus, surrendered to Civilis, A. D. 69-70. [Civilis; Classicus.] Lupercus was sent among the presents to the German prophetess Veleda, who had predicted the success of the insurgents; but he was killed on the journey. (Tac. Hist. 4.18, 22, 23, 61.) [P.S]

• lupus + ARC-, protector against wolves, a title of the Lycean Pan; hence, a priest of the Lycean Pan, C., V., Iu.

or Sulpicius Lupercus Servastus Iunior. A poet, who appears to have lived during the latter period of the Western Empire. He has left an elegy on cupidity and a sapphic ode on old age, printed in the Poetae Latini Minores of Bährens, iv. 107.