13 Processions in ancient Rome

In the Roman Empire during Late Antiquity, the adventus was a ceremony held to celebrate the arrival at a city of a Roman emperor or other dignitaries. The imperial adventus was the period's "ceremonial par excellence", celebrating both the emperor's arrival and the blessing of the imperial presence itself on the city's security. The term is also used to refer to artistic depictions of such ceremonies.

Ambarvalia was a Roman agricultural fertility rite held on 29 May in honor of Ceres and Dea Dia.

The Amburbium was an ancient Roman festival for purifying the city; that is, a lustration (lustratio urbis). It took the form of a procession, perhaps along the old Servian Wall, though the length of 10 kilometers would seem impractical to circumambulate. If it was a distinct festival held annually, the most likely month is February, but no date is recorded and the ritual may have been performed as a "crisis rite" when needed.

The rituals of the Argei were archaic religious observances in ancient Rome that took place on March 16 and March 17, and again on May 14 or May 15. By the time of Augustus, the meaning of these rituals had become obscure even to those who practiced them. For the May rites, a procession of pontiffs, Vestals, and praetors made its way around a circuit of 27 stations, where at each they retrieved a figure fashioned into human form from rush, reed, and straw, resembling men tied hand and foot. After all the stations were visited, the procession, accompanied by the Flaminica Dialis in mourning guise, moved to the Pons Sublicius, the oldest known bridge in Rome, where the gathered figures were tossed into the Tiber River.

The Navigium Isidis or Isidis Navigium was an annual ancient Roman religious festival in honor of the goddess Isis, held on March 5. The festival outlived Christian persecution by Theodosius (391) and Arcadius' persecution against the Roman religion (395).

In ancient Roman religion, the October Horse was an animal sacrifice to Mars carried out on October 15, coinciding with the end of the agricultural and military campaigning season. The rite took place during one of three horse-racing festivals held in honor of Mars, the others being the two Equirria on February 27 and March 14.

In ancient Rome, the pompa circensis was the procession that preceded the official games (ludi) held in the circus as part of religious festivals and other occasions.

The profectio was the ceremonial departure of a consul in his guise as a general in Republican Rome, and of an emperor during the Imperial era. It was a conventional scene for relief sculpture and imperial coinage. The return was the reditus and the ceremonial reentry the adventus.

The Roman triumph was a civil ceremony and religious rite of ancient Rome, held to publicly celebrate and sanctify the success of a military commander who had led Roman forces to victory in the service of the state or in some historical traditions, one who had successfully completed a foreign war.

In ancient Roman religion, a supplicatio is a day of public prayer when the men, women, and children of Rome traveled in procession to religious sites around the city praying for divine aid in times of crisis. A supplicatio can also be a thanksgiving after the receipt of aid. Supplications might also be ordered in response to prodigies (prodigia); again, the population as a whole wore wreaths, carried laurel twigs, and attended sacrifices at temple precincts throughout the city.

The supplicia canum was an annual sacrifice of ancient Roman religion in which live dogs were suspended from a furca ("fork") or cross (crux) and paraded. It appears on none of the extant Roman calendars, but a late source places it on August 3 (III Non. Aug.).

The Transvectio equitum was a parade of the young men (iuventus) of the Roman equestrian class (equites) that took place annually on 15 July. Dionysius of Halicarnassus states that the procession began at the Temple of Mars in Clivo situated along the Via Appia some two kilometers outside the Porta Capena. The procession stopped at the Temple of Castor and Pollux in the Forum Romanum before continuing on to the Temple of Iuppiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill. The religious rite traced its origins to the battle of Lake Regillus when the Dioscuri gave aid to the Romans during the battle itself.

In Ancient Rome the month of March was the traditional start of the campaign season, and the Tubilustrium was a ceremony to make the army fit for war. The ceremony involved sacred trumpets called tubae.