Poplifugia

• a festival in memory of the people's flight to the rescue of the Latins, celebrated on the nones of July, POPLIF. NP., Calend. Maff. ap. Inscr. Orell. 2, p. 394; cf. Varr. L. L. 6, 3, § 18; Piso ap. Macr. S. 3, 2.

The festival of the flight of the people when the troops of Fidenae, Ficuleae, and other neighbouring communities appeared in arms against Rome. As this attack followed closely after the departure of the Gauls, the Romans were panic-stricken and fled (Varro, L. L. vi. 18). It was celebrated on the fifth of July. Macrobius (Sat. iii. 2) supposes the festival to refer to the flight of the Romans before the Etruscans, and Dionysius (ii. 76) thinks it commemorated the panic that prevailed when Romulus was translated to heaven. See Marquardt, Staatsverwaltung, iii. 325.