Supplicatio
Roman public prayer
In ancient Roman religion, a supplicatio is a day of public prayer during times of crisis or a thanksgiving for receipt of aid. During days of public prayer, Roman men, women, and children traveled in procession to religious sites around the city praying for divine aid. Supplications might also be ordered in response to prodigies (prodigia); participants wore wreaths, carried laurel twigs, and attended sacrifices at temple precincts throughout the city.
Supplicatio as a form of religious expression is distinct in meaning from the general English definition of supplication as an act of beseeching following a military defeat or surrender, for which the Latin word submissio was more commonly used.
Usage
It was usually decreed as soon as official intelligence of the victory had been received by a letter from the general in command. The number of days during which it was to last was proportioned to the importance of the victory. There are mentions of thanksgivings for forty days, fifty days and even sixty.
Sometimes it was decreed for only one day but more commonly for three or five days. A supplication of ten days was first decreed in honour of Pompey at the conclusion of the war with Mithridates and one of fifteen days after the victory over the Belgae by Caesar, an honour which Caesar himself says had never been granted to any one before.
Subsequently, a supplicatio of twenty days was decreed after his defeat of Vercingetorix.
“Supplicatio” enters the record as roman public prayer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Supplicatio, Roman and public can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Supplicatio” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Supplicatio, Roman and public provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 8, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q1606381. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Supplicatio”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Supplicatio primary sources, Supplicatio archive and Supplicatio research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Supplicatio”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Supplicatio” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.