 thumb|300px|a section of the fasti praenestini, with the entry on the "feast of robigo" bottom right in ancient roman religion, the robigalia was a festival held april 25. its main ritual was a dog sacrifice to protect grain fields from disease. games (ludi) in the form of "major and minor" races were held.the ludi cursoribus are mentioned in the fasti praenestini; see elaine fantham, ovid: fasti book iv (cambridge university press, 1998), p. 263. the robigalia was one of several agricultural festivals in april to celebrate and vitalize the growing season,mary beard, j.a. north and s.r.f. price. religions of rome: a history (cambridge university press, 1998), vol. 1, p. 45. but the darker sacrificial elements of these occasions are also fraught with anxiety about crop failure and the dependence on divine favor to avert it.rhiannon evans, utopia antiqua: readings of the golden age and decline at rome (routledge, 2008), pp. 185â188. the late republican scholar varro saysvarro, de lingua latina 6.16. that the robigalia was named for the god robigus, who as the numen or personification of agricultural disease could also prevent it.a.m. franklin, the lupercalia (new york, 1921), p. 74. he was thus a potentially malignant deity to be propitiated, as aulus gellius notes.aulus gellius, attic nights 5.12.14: in istis autem diis, quos placari oportet, uti mala a nobis vel a frugibus natis amoliantur, auruncus quoque habetur et robigus ("auruncus and robigus are also regarded as among those gods whom it is a duty to placate so that they deflect the malign influences away from us or the harvests"); woodard, indo-european sacred space: vedic and roman cult (university of illinois press, 2006), p. 234. but the gender of this deity is elusive.in addition to varro, verrius flaccus (cil 1: 236, 316) and others hold that he is male; ovid, columella (see following), augustine, and tertullian regard the deity as female. a.j. boyle and r.d. woodard, ovid: fasti (penguin books, 2000), p. 254 online. the agricultural writer columella gives the name in the feminine as robigo, 
Agricultural_deities Ancient_Roman_festivals April_observances