This article argues that Horace's incorporation of festivals does more than reflect his lived reality and add a Roman veneer to Greek lyric. Horace's festivals weave the poet and his life into publicly shared Roman time. His celebration of private events on public holidays mirrors the kind of penetration of public and private we see in imperial appropriation of the fasti. Just as 28 April, the start of the Floralia, gains new significance with the addition of feriae celebrating the transfer of Vesta's temple to Augustus’ house, so also 1 March comes to signify both the Matronalia as well as the divine rescue of Horace the bachelor. Horace's inclusion of private festivals in his monumentum allows him to create a parallel calendar, one which perhaps competes with the imperial fasti. This exploitation of the fasti plays a key role in Horace's ability to immortalize himself and what he cared most about.

This article examines the context in which Caesar, enthroned in state, attended the Festival of the Lupercalia of 44 B.C. at which he was offered and rejected a diadem; it asks the question what the ritual had to offer to Caesar. An examination of the Festival's character and tradition suggests (a) that it took the form of a street carnival, (b) that it was concerned simultaneously with the purification, fertility and protection of the people of Rome, and (c) that it had no element of a coronation in its rituals. The suggestion is offered that Caesar's prime motivation was to associate himself with the founders of the city, since he and his family were receiving the honour of a new group of Luperci, set up to parallel those of Romulus and Remus. If Antony's offering of the diadem was pre-arranged, the light-hearted and provocative atmosphere of the occasion strongly suggests that the plan must always have been that Caesar should publicly reject the offer, as he did. But the whole incident illustrates the vigour and creativity of religious life at the time.

As a postscript to the two articles on the Lupercalia, and to bridge the gap in time between them, it is argued that there is no evidence to suggest a major reform of the festival in the period of Augustus' principate and that the traditional celebration continued into the Empire. There does, however, seem to be artistic evidence that from the third century onwards the celebrations became more dramatic, perhaps, violent, implying that there was some reform, perhaps to be connected with the suggestion inferred from Gelasius' text that the Luperci or those who took over responsibility from them started to employ actors instead of the original priestly runners. We bring evidence to support this theory.

This article examines the Contra Andromachum, the open letter in which Gelasius of Rome (A.D. 492–496) condemned the continued involvement of members of the now Christian élite in the Lupercalia. It is suggested that the Pope's argument is less straightforward than has been supposed: the current status and recent history of the festival are left unclear, and the Pope's allegations about the motives of its sponsors are of dubious credibility. Of more significance is the public aspect of the festival, and in particular the opportunities it provided for those who organized it to advertise a connection with the heritage of Rome.