Agonalia

Latin[edit]

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Agonalia

An unknown root +‎ -ālia. One theory states that, while the festival was later performed in the Regia along the Via Sacra, the Regia used to reside on the Collis Quirinalis, which was formerly known as Agōnus and which gave the epithet Agōnensis to the Porta Collina.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Agōnālia n pl (genitive Agōnālium or Agōnāliōrum); third declension

(religion) a Roman festival held on January 9th, May 21st, December 11th, and probably March 17th in which the rex sacrorum sacrificed a ram to the gods

The festival was supposedly founded by Numa Pompilius and continued by the Roman kings until their removal, at which point the rex sacrorum took the position.
The festival of Agōnium Mārtiāle was celebrated in honor of Mars on March 17th, the same day as Līberālia, and was almost certainly another form of Agōnālia.

Third-declension noun (neuter, “pure” i-stem), plural only.

“Agonalia”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
Agonalia in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
“Agōnālia” on page 100/2 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (2nd ed., 2012)

^
c. 3rd century CE, Gaius Julius Solinus, De mirabilibus mundi:
Numa in colle primum Quirinali deinde propter aedem Vestae in regia quae adhuc appellatur.
(please add an English translation of this quotation)
^
c. 3rd century CE, Sextus Pompeius Festus in Paulus Diaconus, De significatu verborum:
Agonalia ejus festivitatem, sive quia agones dicebant montes. Agonia sacrificia, quae fiebant in monte. Hinc Romae mons Quirinalis Agonus et Collina Agonensis.
(please add an English translation of this quotation)
^ Smith, William (1847 CE) “On the Roman Festival of Agonalia”, in Classical Museum: A Journal of Philology and of Ancient History and Literature, volume 4, London, Upper Gower Street: Taylor and Walton, pages 154-157