{"id":45712,"date":"2026-04-20T18:09:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T16:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/2026\/04\/20\/the-legends-and-ancient-traditions-behind-romes-birth\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T18:09:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T16:09:27","slug":"the-legends-and-ancient-traditions-behind-romes-birth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/2026\/04\/20\/the-legends-and-ancient-traditions-behind-romes-birth\/","title":{"rendered":"the legends and ancient traditions behind Rome&#8217;s birth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<br \/><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Rome&#8217;s birthday, on 21 April, is known as Natale di Roma. This year the city will celebrate its 2,779th birthday<\/strong>.<\/h2>\n<p>Traditionally the Eternal City marks its birthday with historical re-enactments of ancient Roman rituals, costumed parades\u00a0and gladiator fights in the Circus Maximus.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>What is Natale di Roma?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The annual\u00a0Natale di Roma\u00a0celebration &#8211; known in ancient times as\u00a0<em>Dies Romana<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0<em>Romaia<\/em>\u00a0&#8211; is based on the legendary founding of Rome by Romulus in 753 BC.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Why does Rome celebrate its\u00a0birthday on 21 April?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>While there\u00a0has always been some uncertainty over the year, the ancient Romans were certain of the date Rome was founded: 21 April.<\/p>\n<p>This was the day that Romans dedicated a festival to Pales, goddess of flocks and herds, who was celebrated with the traditional the Parilia (or Palilia).<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\">Photo credit: Stefano Carocci Ph \/ Shutterstock.com.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Dating back to before the founding of Rome, the Palilia ceremony involved vestal virgins distributing straw and the ashes and blood of sacrificed animals before jumping over a bonfire three times.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Foundation of Rome<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The most commonly accepted date given for the foundation of Rome, 753 BC, comes from the Roman antiquarian Titus Pomponius Atticus, and was adopted by Roman scholar Marcus Terentius Varro.<\/p>\n<p>Celebrating Rome\u2019s 2,776th birthday in style with the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NatalediRoma2023?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" title=\"#NatalediRoma2023\">#NatalediRoma2023<\/a> parade <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7HzApk0IDh\" title=\"pic.twitter.com\/7HzApk0IDh\">pic.twitter.com\/7HzApk0IDh<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Wanted in Rome (@wantedinrome) <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wantedinrome\/status\/1650094848966369280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" title=\"April 23, 2023\">April 23, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<p>On 21 April the Romans also held a trench-digging ritual, known as the <em>tracciato del solco<\/em>, which recalls the founding of ancient Roman towns when a trench or mundus was dug and offerings thrown into it to encourage the gods to watch over the inhabitants.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Die Natalis<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Another spectacular event that occurs in Rome on 21 April is the <em>Dies Natalis<\/em> phenomenon at the Pantheon.<\/p>\n<p>Each year on this date the midday sun enters the oculus of Rome&#8217;s Pantheon and creates a disk of light that centres perfectly on the entrance doorway.<\/p>\n<p>At that exact time, the emperor would enter the temple, his body bathed in golden sunlight, according to Italy&#8217;s culture ministry.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Natale di Roma pageantry<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The historical re-enactments for Natale di Roma take place in the Circus Maximus, organised by the Gruppo Storico Romano which, for more than 30 years, has brought ancient Roman history to life.<\/p>\n<p>This year the festival is taking\u00a0place from 17-21 April, for 2026 programme details see official\u00a0website.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rome&#8217;s birthday, on 21 April, is known as Natale di Roma. This year the city will celebrate its 2,779th birthday. Traditionally the Eternal City marks its birthday with historical re-enactments of ancient Roman rituals, costumed parades\u00a0and gladiator fights in the Circus Maximus. What is Natale di Roma? The annual\u00a0Natale di Roma\u00a0celebration &#8211; known in ancient<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[3742,21165,3720,3007,29138],"class_list":["post-45712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eventi","tag-ancient","tag-birth","tag-legends","tag-romes","tag-traditions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}