Supplicia Canum

This holiday was took place on August 3, and was a day where Romans suspended dogs on forks or crosses and paraded them around the city. At the same time, geese were triumphantly carried around the city.

In 390 BC, Rome was at war with the Gauls who routed the soldiers 10 miles north of Rome. Romes had to retreat to the capital on a hill while the Gauls laid siege. One night, the Gauls secretly attacked. The guard dogs didn't wake anyone up, but the geese did. A Roman consul, Marcus Manlius Capitolinus was the first to respond. He threw down the first man to scale the wall and killed several others. Because the watch dogs failed to alert the Romans, they were ritually punished for hundreds of years to come. This story is legend and some historians think this was going on long before the Gaul's attack. Ironically, Marcus Manlius supposedly used his title of hero to try to establish himself as a tyrant king (Tyrannos). The Romans deeply despised this. A trial was held outside the gates, and no one could see the hill that Manlius had saved. He was sentenced to death and thrown off the same hill he had saved three years prior (the Tarpeian Rock)