Maius
Maius or mensis Maius (May) was the third month of the ancient Roman calendar, following Aprilis (April) and preceding Iunius (June). On the oldest Roman calendar that had begun with March, it was the third of ten months in the year. May had 31 days.
The Romans considered May an infelicitous month. Although it began with one of the most notoriously licentious holidays of the Roman calendar, the Games of Flora (Ludi Florae), the middle of the month was devoted to propitiating the lemures, the restless shades of the dead.[1]
Dates
The Romans did not number days of a month sequentially from the 1st through the last day. Instead, they counted back from the three fixed points of the month: the
On the calendar of the Roman Republic and early Principate, each day was marked with a letter to denote its religiously lawful status. In May, these were:
- F for dies fasti, days when it was legal to initiate action in the courts of civil law;
- C, for dies comitalis, a day on which the Roman people could hold assemblies (comitia), elections, and certain kinds of judicial proceedings;
- N for dies nefasti, when these political activities and the administration of justice were prohibited;
- NP, the meaning of which remains elusive, but which marked feriae, public holidays;
- QRCF (perhaps for quando rex comitiavit fasrex sacrorum) to call for an assembly.[4]
By the late 2nd century AD, extant calendars no longer show days marked with these letters, probably in part as a result of calendar reforms undertaken by Marcus Aurelius.[5] Days were also marked with nundinal letters in cycles of A B C D E F G H, to mark the "market week"[6] (these are omitted in the table below).
On a
Festivals marked in large letters on extant fasti, represented by festival names in all capital letters on the table, are thought to have been the most ancient holidays, becoming part of the calendar before 509 BC.
Unless otherwise noted, the dating and observances on the following table are from
Modern date |
Roman date | status | Observances |
---|---|---|---|
May 1 | Kalendae Maiae | F | • sacrifice of a pregnant sow to Ludi Florae , begun April 27 on the pre-Julian calendar, continue
|
2 | ante diem VI Nonas Maias | F | • Ludi Florae continue |
3 | a.d. V Non. Mai.[9] | C | • Ludi Florae conclude |
4 | IV Non. Mai.[10] | C | |
5 | III Non. Mai. | C | |
6 | pridie Nonas Maias (abbrev. prid. Non. Mai.) |
C | |
7 | Nonae Maiae | F | |
8 | VIII Id. Mai.[11] | F | |
9 | VII Id. Mai. | N dies religiosus |
• LEMURIA |
10 | VI Id. Mai. | C | • dies natalis of Claudius Gothicus (268–270) |
11 | V Id. Mai. | N dies religiosus |
• LEMURIA resumes • sacrifice to Mania
|
12 | IV Id. Mai. | C | |
13 | III Id. Mai. | N dies religiosus |
• LEMURIA resumes |
14 | pridie Idūs Maias (abbrev. prid. Id. Mai.) |
C | • dies natalis of the Temple of Mars Invictus in the Circus Flaminius • procession of the Argei |
15 | Idūs Maiae | NP | • Feriae Iovi, the monthly sacrifice on the Ides to Jupiter and Maia
• merchants' festival and a sacrifice to Mercury |
16 | XVII Kal. Iun.[12] | F | |
17 | XVI Kal. Iun. | C | |
18 | XV Kal. Iun. | C | |
19 | XIV Kal. Iun. | C | • Zenziarius, an otherwise unknown festival on the Calendar of Filocalus (after the mid-1st century AD)[13]
|
20 | XIII Kal. Iun. | C | |
21 | XII Kal. Iun. | NP | • Vediovis
|
22 | XI Kal. Iun. | N | |
23 | X Kal. Iun. | NP | • Vulcan
• Macellus rosam sumat, marked on one calendar as the day when roses were brought to market[14] |
24 | IX Kal. Iun. | F QRCF |
• Feriale Cumanum, 4–14 AD[15] and the Feriale Duranum , 224–235 AD)
|
25 | VIII Kal. Iun. | C | • dies natalis of the Fortuna Primigenia
|
26 | VII Kal. Iun. | C | |
27 | VI Kal. Iun. | C | |
28 | V Kal. Iun. | C | |
29 | IV Kal. Iun. | C | • a common date for the Bean Kalends of June 1 (after the mid-1st century AD)
• dies natalis for Honos and Virtus • Zinza, an otherwise unknown festival on the Calendar of Filocalus[16] |
30 | III Kal. Iun. | C | • Ludi Fabaraci continue |
31 | prid. Kal. Iun. | C | • Ludi Fabaraci continue • military standards with roses[17]
|
See also
- Floréal
- Rosalia, a rose festival celebrated during the Imperial period at varying times mainly in May
References
- H.H. Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic (Cornell University Press, 1981), p. 115.
- ^ The month name is construed as an adjective modifying Kalendae, Nonae or Idūs.
- ^ On the basis of the Fasti Viae Lanza, which gives Q. Rex C. F.
- ^ Mommsen as summarized by Jörg Rüpke, The Roman Calendar from Numa to Constantine: Time, History, and the Fasti (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), pp. 26–27.
- ^ Michele Renee Salzman, On Roman Time: The Codex Calendar of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity (University of California Press, 1990), pp. 17, 122.
- ^ Jörg Rüpke, The Roman Calendar from Numa to Constantine: Time, History, and the Fasti, translated by David M.B. Richardson (Blackwell, 2011, originally published 1995 in German), p. 6.
- ^ Salzman, On Roman Time, pp. 17, 121–122, 133, 137–138, 142.
- ^ Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic, p. 41.
- ^ Abbreviated form of ante diem V Nonas Maias.
- ^ Abbreviated form of ante diem IV Nonas Maias.
- ^ Abbreviated form of ante diem VII Idūs Maias, with the ante diem omitted altogether from this point.
- ^ Abbreviated form of ante diem XVII Kalendas Iunias with the ante diem omitted altogether, as in the rest of the month following.
- ^ Michele Renee Salzman, On Roman Time: The Codex Calendar of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity (University of California Press, 1990), p. 125.
- ^ Salzman, On Roman Time, p. 125.
- ^ Beth Severy, Augustus and the Family at the Birth of the Roman Empire (Routledge, 2003), p. 130.
- ^ Salzman, On Roman Time, pp. 92, 122.
- ^ As preserved in the Feriale Duranum.