Neptunalia
Neptunalia a festival of Neptune, celebrated at Rome (Varr. L. L. 6.19). The day on which it was held was the 23rd of July. In the ancient calendaria this day is marked as Nept. ludi et feriae, or Nept. ludi, from which we see that the festival was celebrated with games. Respecting the ceremonies of this festival, nothing is known, except that the people used to build huts of branches and foliage (umbrae, Fest. s. v. Umbrae), in which they probably feasted, drank, and amused themselves. (Hor. Carm. 3.28.1, &c.; Tertull. de Spect. 6.) The lines of Ausonius (Ecl. de Feriis, 19 ff.) may perhaps imply that navigia took part in the festival of Neptune, while quadrigae belonged to the Consualia.
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.