Abstract
The article deals with the traditional public feasts of the Roman world during Late Antique period. The main goal is to determine the dynamics of their implementation and relevance in the Western Empire of the 5th century AD. The author focuses on studying popular non-Christian entertainments such as Lupercalia, consular and praetor games, and the ceremony of the Emperor’s entry into the city (adventus). The basic research problem is to identify the reasons for practice of holding traditional non-Christian mass arrangements preservation against the established Christianity in the fifth century. The main sources were the works of 4th – 5th centuries AD Latin authors such as Salvianus, Macrobius, Flavius Merobaudes, Symmachus, Sidonius, papal correspondence and calendars. The usage of the methods of historical philological analysis (lexico-terminological and hermeneutic) let the author interpret the texts of Late Antique writers, taking into account the specifi city of sources. The author concludes that these entertainments, pagan, have not lost its attractiveness for representatives of various categories of the population not only during the 5th century AD, but also out of this period. The model of behavior of noblemen assuming the holding of public feasts for the confi rming of their high social status serves as one of the foundation of preservation the traditional arrangements practice. The second reason was to define the tries of imperial administration to conform the Late Roman society habits to Church authoritative position. Finally, we have to take into account the attitude of the most Romans to spectacles as the means of severities distraction.
Keywords
Public feasts, paganism, Christianity, West Roman Empire, 5th century AD
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