poplifugia

POPLIFU´GIAor POPULIFU´GIA, the day of the people's flight, was celebrated on the 5th of July, according to Varro (L. L. 6.18), in commemoration of the flight of the Romans, when the inhabitants of Ficuleae and Fidenae appeared in arms against them, shortly after the burning of the city by the Gauls; the traditional victory of the Romans, which followed, was commemorated on the 7th of July (called the Nonae Caprotinae as a feast of Juno Caprotina), and on the next day was the Vitulatio, supposed to mark the thank-offering of the pontifices for the event. Macrobius (Macrob. Sat. 3.2), who wrongly places the Poplifugia on the nones, says that it commemorated a flight before the Tuscans, while Dionysius (Dionys. 2.76) refers its origin to the flight of the people when Romulus disappeared from the earth. (Marquardt, Staatsverw. 3.325.)