LUCARIE. – In the most ancient Roman festal calendar, two days separated by the shortest possible interval (19 and 21 July) appear under the name L. Nothing is known of the deity to whom the double festival was dedicated, nor of the rite celebrated; only the place of the celebration is known: a lucus (sacred grove) between the Via Salaria and the Tiber. The etiological legend connected the festival with the Gallic invasion (but the festival is older): the survivors of the Battle of the Allia were said to have taken refuge in that grove (18 July is the dies Alliensis). Immediately after the Lucaria, the Neptunalia take place.
BIBL.: W. Warde Fowler, The roman festivals, London 1899, p. 182 ff.; G. Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Römer, 2nd ed., Munich 1912, p. 225; Schur, Lucaria, in Pauly-Wissowa, XIII, col. 1553. Angelo Brelich
