On This Day·Ancient Rome·Republican Rome
On This Day: Megalesia Begins in Rome
March 28: Roman nobles raced their chariots to open the festival of Magna Mater—with no ordinary horses allowed.
Annibale Carracci — "The Coronation of the Virgin" (after 1595), public domain
Chariots for a goddess.
On March 28, the Megalesia festival began. Noble families paraded in chariots before the shrine of Magna Mater—no plebeian drivers, no pack animals, only the city’s best horses.
Imported ritual, Roman rules.
After the races, priests performed music and ecstatic rituals for the goddess Cybele. Imported during the Second Punic War, her cult was both foreign and—by now—decidedly Roman.
The Megalesia, honoring the Great Mother, fused Roman spectacle with imported Anatolian rites—and reminded everyone who owned the fastest team in Rome.
