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In the middle of a discussion on different pagan Roman festivals, the Talmud in Tractate Avodah Zara 11b describes a certain Roman festival:

"Rav Yehuda says that Shmuel says: They have another festival in Rome: Once every seventy years they bring a man who is whole and free from any defect and have him ride on a lame man. And they dress him in the garments of Adam the first man and place on his head the scalp [karkifelo] of Rabbi Yishmael [which the Romans flayed when they executed him].

The clothes of Adam were garments of skins (typically thought to be animal skins) according to Jewish tradition (see Genesis 3:21 and Genesis Rabbah 20:12). Was there any Roman festival that featured something comparable to the description in the Talmud?

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It turns out that back in the middle of the 19th century, it was suggested by Shlomo Yehudah Rapoport (Erech Milin, pp. 30-33) that the festival referred to in this Talmudic source is the Ludi Saecularis (at least that of ca. 247, 248 or 249 CE), which featured a lame dancer carrying a healthy person dressed in leather and wearing a mask. This suggestion seems to have been accepted by many scholars. See here, pp. 156-157, here and here, pp. 337-339.

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