a.d. XVII Kal. Mai.
April 15 in Ancient Rome
Fordicidia: pregnant cows for Mother Earth
A pregnant cow for a pregnant Earth
festivalRepublic & Empire (annual)
Roman calendar date
Priests sacrificed pregnant cows to Tellus, the Earth, and the oldest Vestal burned the unborn calves to make ashes for purifying the people at the Parilia.
forda ferens bos est fecundaque dicta ferendo
A forda is a cow in calf and fruitful, named from ferendo, "carrying".
Background
Mid-April was a tense time for Roman farmers. The grain was sprouting but not yet safe, and animals were giving birth. Several April festivals were about protecting crops and herds, and the Fordicidia was the most direct: a pregnant (forda) victim for the pregnant Earth.
Ovid explains the rite. Some cows were killed on the Capitol, and thirty went to the curiae, the ancient wards of the Roman people. After the priests had taken the calves from their mothers' wombs and placed the entrails on the altar fire, the oldest of the Vestal Virgins burned the calves. Their ashes were kept and used six days later, at the Parilia, to purify the people. The sacrifice is shocking to modern readers, but in an agricultural society it was meant to give the Earth back fertility.
Ovid gives the origin story tradition. Under King Numa the harvests failed, cattle miscarried and ewes died in labour. Numa slept on the fleeces of two sacrificed sheep in a grove sacred to Faunus, who told him in a dream to appease Earth with two lives from one heifer. His wife, the nymph Egeria, explained the riddle: a pregnant cow. The year then proved fruitful.
Ancient source: Ovid, Fasti 4.629–672 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 18°/8°C (64°/46°F) · rain 39% of days
Rome in AprilApril was full of agricultural festivals at a tense time: last year's grain…
Fields & crops
Spring sowing of millet and panic grass around the Ides; vines dug and vegetables planted out. Mildew on the young grain was the great fear per Columella 11.2; Ovid, Fasti 4.
Courts & law
Many days were taken up by games (Megalesia, Cerealia, Floralia), when courts did not sit; legal business squeezed into the gaps late Republic.
Senate & politics
Aediles who ran the April games used them to win votes; lavish shows could make a political career late Republic.
Military
Armies marched out to campaign; the sea lanes were open, so troops and grain ships moved again.
Festivals & religion
Veneralia (1 Apr.), Megalesia for the Great Mother (4–10 Apr.), Fordicidia (15 Apr.), Cerealia (12–19 Apr.), Parilia, Rome's birthday (21 Apr.), Vinalia (23 Apr.), Robigalia (25 Apr.) and the Floralia from 28 April per Ovid, Fasti 4.
Daily life
April was full of agricultural festivals at a tense time: last year's grain was running low and the new harvest was still weeks away. The Cerealia honoured Ceres, goddess of grain; the Robigalia (25 April) sacrificed a dog to keep mildew (robigo) off the crops per Ovid, Fasti 4.905–42. At the Parilia (21 April), Rome's birthday, shepherds purified flocks and leaped over bonfires per Ovid, Fasti 4.721–82.
Women of different ranks worshipped Venus and Fortuna Virilis on 1 April; Ovid says women of lower status bathed in the men's baths that day per Ovid, Fasti 4.133–50.
Sources: Ovid, Fasti 4 · Columella 11.2
All days in April →
LATIN LINE OF THE DAY
Rumpitur invidia quidam, carissime Iuli, quod me Roma legit.
“Someone is bursting with envy, dearest Julius, because Rome reads me.”
Martial, Epigrams 9.97 · translation ours (literal)
