On This Day: Flaming Foxes and Stalks for Ceres
April 10: In the heart of Rome, boys tied blazing torches to foxes’ tails and set them loose—spectacle or sacrifice?
Salvator Rosa — "Self-Portrait" (ca. 1647), public domain
The wildest halftime show in Rome.
Sometime during the Cerealia, which spanned early to mid-April, Romans staged a bizarre rite: foxes with flaming torches tied to their tails, dashing through the Circus Maximus. Ancient sources like Ovid describe the crowd’s roar as the animals streaked across the sands—part punishment, part pageant.
Why foxes? Even Romans weren’t sure.
Ovid offers a guess: perhaps an old farmer’s tale about a fox found burning crops, or a warning to pests. Maybe it was about driving away blight from the fields. Whatever the root, the fiery foxes became the festival’s most shocking, and most memorable, image.
During the Cerealia, Romans let foxes with burning brands run through the Circus Maximus, a ritual both puzzling and unforgettable.
