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8. The holy days (feriæ, festa), included under the general denomination of festi dies, were divided into two classes, Feriæ Publicæ, and Feria Privata, the former celebrated by the community at large, the latter peculiar to particular clans, families or individuals. The Feria Publica again were either,

Feria Stativa observed regularly every year on a fixed day, such as the Terminalia on the 23d of February, the Festum Anna Perennæ on the Ides of March, and many others; or,

Feria Conceptivæ observed regularly every year, but on days fixed by the priests or magistrates for the time being. Such were the Feriæ Latina, the Sementiva, Compitalia, &c. There were also

Feria Imperativæ, extraordinary holidays, being for the most part days of supplication or thanksgiving, appointed by the magistrates on occasions of national distress or triumph. We ought also to notice Dies Comitiales, days on which it was lawful to hold assemblies of the people, being for the most part such as were neither Fasti nor Festi nor Intercisi.

9. Nor ought we to forget the Dies Atri, on which it was thought unlucky to undertake any business of importance. To this class belonged the day after the Calends, Nones and Ides of each month, as we are told by Ovid. Fast. I. 57, see p. 69. Macrobius gives a full account of the origin of this superstition, and his words will fully illustrate the lines just referred to.

Dies autem postridianos ad omnia majores nostri cavendos putarunt, quos etiam atros, velut infausta appellatione, damnarunt. eosdem tamen nonnulli communes velut ad emendationem nominis vocitaverunt. horum causam Gellius annalium libro quintodecimo, et Cassius Hemina historiarum libro secundo referunt. Anno ab urbe condita trecentesimo sexagesimo tertio, tribunis militum Virgilio Mallio Aemilio Postumio collegisque eorum in senatu tractatum, quid esset propter quod totiens intra paucos annos male esset afflicta republica; et ex præcepto patrum L. Aquinium haruspicem in senatum venire jussum religionum requirendarum gratia dixisse, Q. Sulpicium tribunum militum, ad Aliam adversum Gallos pugnaturum, rem divinam dimicandi gratia fecisse postridie idus Quintiles; item apud Cremeram multisque aliis temporibus et locis post sacrificium die postero celebratum male cessisse conflictum: tunc patres iussisse ut ad collegium pontificum de his religionibus referretur: pontificesque statuisse postridie omnes Kalendas, Nonas, Idus atros dies habendos; ut hi dies, neque præliales, neque puri, neque comitiales essent. sed et Fabius Maximus Servilianus pontifex in libro XII. negat oportere atro die parentare: quia tunc quoque Ianum Iovemque præfari necesse est, quos nominari atro die non oportet. ante diem quoque quartum Kalendas vel Nonas,

vel Idus tamquam inominalem diem plerique vitant, eius observationis an religio ulla sit tradita quæri solet, sed nos nihil super ea rescriptum invenimus: nisi quod Q. Claudius annalium quinto cladem illam vastissimam pugnæ Cannensis factam refert ante diem quartum nonas Sextiles.

To this we may add a passage from Liv. VI. I. a portion of which has been already quoted, p. 428.

Tum de diebus religiosis agitari cœptum. diemque ante diem XV. Calendas Sextiles, duplici clade insignem, quo die ad Cremeram Fabii cæsi, quo deinde ad Aliam cum exitio urbis fœde pugnatum, a posteriore clade Aliensem appellarunt, insignemque rei nulli publice privatimque agendæ fecerunt. quidam, quod postridie Idus Quintiles non litasset Sulpicius tribunus militum, neque inventa pace deum post diem tertium obiectus hosti exercitus Romanus esset, etiam postridie Idus rebus divinis supersederi iussum; inde est postridie Calendas quoque ac Nonas eadem religio esset, traditum putant.

10. For nearly four centuries and a half after the foundation of the city, the knowlege of the Calendar was confined to the Pontifices alone, whose duty it was regularly to proclaim the appearance of the New Moon, to announce to the people the days of the month on which the Nones and Ides would fall, and to give notice of the Dies Festi, Fasti, Nefasti, and Comitiales. These secrets which might be, and doubtless often were, employed for political ends, were at length divulged in the year B. C. 314, by a certain Cn. Flavius, scriba to the Pontifex Maximus, who drew up tables embracing all this carefully-treasured information, and hung them up in the forum for the inspection of the public.1 From this time forward tables of this description were known by the name of Fasti, and were exhibited for general use in various parts of the city. They contained for the most part an enumeration of the days of the year in regular order; to each was attached a mark pointing out whether it was Fastus, Nefastus, Intercisus, Comitialis, Ater, &c.; the position of the Nones and Ides, and different Festivals, was also laid down, and sometimes a brief notice of some great victory, the dedication of a temple, or similar event, was added, especially in later times, when in this manner a compliment could be paid to the reigning prince.

These Fasti in fact corresponded very closely to a modern almanac, and the Fasti of Ovid may be considered as a poetical Year-Book, or Companion to the Roman Almanac, according to the order of the Julian Calendar. All the more remarkable epochs are examined in succession, the origin of the different festivals is explained, the various

1 Liv. IX. 46. Val. Max. II. 5. Macrob. S. I. 15. Cic. pro Mur. XI.

ceremonies described, and such illustrations added as were likely to prove useful or interesting to the reader.

Several specimens of Fasti, or ancient almanacs, engraved on stone, have been discovered at different times, more or less perfect, and copies are to be found in the larger collections of Roman antiquities and inscriptions.1

Upon a careful examination and comparison of the marks by which the days of the year are distinguished in these monuments we obtain the following classification:

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F. denotes Fastus; N. Nefastus; N. P. Nefastus priore(parte ;) that is, Nefastus in the early part of the day, and therefore we conclude, Fastus in the after part; F. P. Fastus priore, the converse of the preceding ; Q. Rex. C. F. Quando Rex Comitiavit Fastus; that is, Fastus after the Rex Sacrificulus (see p. 339,) has performed sacrifice in the Comitium, this mark is attached to the 24th of March and the 14th of May; Q. St. D. F. Quando Stercus Defertur Fastus; Fastus, after the sweepings and other filth have been carried out of the temple of Vesta and conveyed to the Tiber, a ceremony performed once a-year on the 15th of June, as we learn from Ovid and Varro; EN. Endotercisus; C. Comitialis.

There is some difficulty in explaining the difference between the days which were N. P. and those which were EN. The Ides of each month were N. P. and most of the other days bearing this mark were sacred to different deities, while those marked EN. do not appear to have been hallowed by any solemnity whatever.

(11.) The Fasti just described have, to prevent confusion, been called

1 See Grævius, Thesaurus Antiqq. Romm. Vol. VIII.

Gruter, Corpus Inscprip. Latt.

Foggini, Fastorum Verrianorum reliquiæ, &c.

Van Vaasen, Animadverss. ad Fastos Rom. sacros, &c.

Calendaria or Fasti Calendares, and must be carefully distinguished from certain compositions also named Fasti by the ancients.

These were regular chronicles in which were recorded each year the names of the consuls and other magistrates, together with the remarkable events, and the days on which they occurred. The most important were the Annales Maximi, kept by the Pontifex Maximus, but similar documents appear to have been compiled by other magistrates, and by private individuals, and we find many allusions to works of this description, which must have afforded valuable materials to the historian. Of these Horace speaks in C. III. xvii. 1.

Eli, vetusto nobilis ab Lamo,=Quando et priores hinc Lamios
ferunt

Denominatos, et nepotum Per memores genus omne fastos
Auctore ab illo ducit originem, &c.

and again in C. IV. xiii. 13, addressed to an old coquette,

Nec Coæ referunt iam tibi purpuræ-Nec clari lapides tempora quæ semel

Notis condita fastis-Inclusit volucris dies,

and lastly in S. I. iii. 112.

Tempora si fastosque velis evolvere mundi.

In the year 1547, several fragments of marble tablets were dug up at Rome, which were found to contain a list of Consuls, Dictators, Censors, &c. from the foundation of the city, until the age of Augustus. These were collected and adjusted as far as possible, and deposited by Cardinal Alexander Farnese, in the Capitol, from which circumstance they have been styled the Fasti Capitolini, and similar collections derived from different sources have received the names of Fasti Consulares, Fasti triumphales, and the like.

(12.) We may now turn our attention to the Roman Calendar as it existed in ages more remote, and to the different forms which it assumed before the Julian Era. Every part of this subject is involved in darkness and uncertainty, and the statements of the ancient writers, who appear to have been themselves very ignorant in such matters, are most perplexing and irreconcileable.

There can be little doubt that a year was in use among the Romans in the earliest times, thence denominated the Year of Romulus, which

1 These expressions are not classical.

consisted of 304 days, divided into 10 months-Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, DeOf these, March, May, Quintilis, and October, contained 31 days, the rest 30.1

cember.

A great variety of etymologies have been proposed for the names of three out of the first four.2 We may feel certain that Martius, was called after the god Mars, it is probable that Aprilis is connected with aperio, and was originally the Spring-month, when the sea is thrown open to navigation, the earth released from the bonds of winter, the trees expand their leaves, and the flowers burst into blossom. In like manner the Athenians had their άvesorngív, and revolutionary France her Germinal and Floreal. Maius was a deity worshipped at Tusculum, identical in attributes with Jupiter, and traces are to be found in Roman mythology of a goddess Maia. Junius is a contraction for Junonius, (from Juno,) an epithet bestowed upon one of their months by several of the neighbouring states.

Inspice, quos habeat nemoralis Aricia Fastos,
Et populus Laurens, Lanuviumque meum.
Est illic mensis Junonius. Inspice Tibur
Et Prænestinæ monia sacra Deæ.

Iunonale leges tempus. Ov. Fast. VI. 59.

That the month of March was originally the first in the year is sufficiently proved by the names of those which follow June, namely Quintilis or the fifth month, Sextilis the sixth, September the seventh, and so on to December the tenth. In addition, many sacred rites and ancient customs long retained point to the same conclusion. On the first of March the holy fire was renewed on the altar of Vesta, at the commencement of the month the old laurels were taken down from the Regia, the houses of the Flamines, and the different Curiæ, and replaced by fresh branches; sacrifices were offered to Anna Perenna, the goddess of the circling year, the salaries of instructors were paid, the taxes farmed out, and matrons gave an entertainment to the slaves, as the masters of families did on the Saturnalia, the object of the latter being to reward the domestics for their industry during

1 Among the older historians, Licinius Macer and Fenestella maintained that the Romans from the first employed a solar year of 12 months (see Censorin. XX.) and Plutarch also (Vit. Num. XVIII.) that the number of the months was originally 12, and that the number of days in each varied from 20 to 35, the sum total being 360. But on the other side we have Junius Gracchanus, Fulvius, Varro, and others (see Censorin. as above,) to whom we may add Ov. Fast. I. 27. 43. III. 99. 119. 151. A. Gell. N. A. III. 16. Macrob. S. 1. 12. Solin. Polyh. I. all of whom speak without any doubt of the 10 month year. The number of days in each month is given by Censorinus, Solinus, and Macrobius. 2 The student will find a multitude of these stated and discussed in the Fasti of Ovid, at the beginning of Bks. IV. V. VI. and in Macrobius S. I. 12. See also Censorin. XXII.

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