Panathenaea: Or, A Singular Book on the Twin Festival of Minerva

CHAPTER IV.

There are those who have thought them the same as the Quinquatrus of the Romans, or the Quinquatrus the same as the Panathenaea. Thus, we find in Charisius, Book I: "Quinquatrus. Panathenaea." And the authors who write about Roman matters in Greek call the Quinquatrus the Panathenaea. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, Book II: "Their festival is about the time of the Panathenaea, in the month called March." And Xiphilinus in Domitian: "And he celebrated the Panathenaea magnificently." And Athenaeus, narrating an event that occurred in Rome, Book III: "When the festival of the Panathenaea was being performed, for which reason the courts do not sit, he said, 'It is the birthday of the Alektorian Athena a reference to the "Cock-like" or "Guardian" Athena, though the text appears to be referencing a specific local cult title.'" Just as the Greeks interpret the Quinquatrus of the Romans as the Panathenaea, so Pliny, conversely, translates the Panathenaea of the Athenians as the Quinquatrus, Book XXXV, Chapter XI: "Simus [painted] a young man resting in a fuller's workshop, celebrating the Quinquatrus."