The Regifugium ("The King's Flight") or Fugalia ("Feast of Flight") was an annual religious festival that took place in ancient Rome every February 24.
Regifugium, the beginning of the Republic of Rome
Varro and Ovid dated the day of the flight of the last king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus, to 510 BCE. In Fasti, Ovid offers the earliest account of the observance:
I must now relate the flight of the king, six days before the end of the month. The last of the Tarquins possessed the Roman nation, an unjust man, but nevertheless strong in war.
Plutarch argues that the rex sacrorum played the role of a substitute for the former king of Rome in various religious rituals. The rex had no civic or military role, but was nevertheless expected to offer a public sacrifice in the comitia at this date.
The "flight of the king" was the rapid exit which the king by proxy was required to make from this place of public affairs. It is possible that the two versions are to be reconciled by taking the "flight" of the rex sacrorum as a reconstruction of the expulsion of Tarquinius.
The last king of Rome will be seen as a moral and political foil. However, history is written by republicans and the overthrow of the monarchy mainly benefited the patricians of Rome. Many modern historians debate, in whole or in part, the historicity of the story of the overthrow of the monarchy and its replacement by the Roman Republic.
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On this day, the Romans celebrated Regifugium, the flight of the fifth and last king of Rome, Tarquinius. Since then, Rome has become a Republic. #mythologylegend #calendar #February 24 #rome #regifugium #tarquinius
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