a.d. VIII Id. Apr.
April 6 in Ancient Rome
Caesar crushes Scipio and Juba at Thapsus
A veteran remembers Thapsus
politics46 BC
Pre-reform Roman calendar
a.d. VIII Id. Apr. · Roman date in the pre-Julian calendar (day inferred, not written in the source)
In North Africa Julius Caesar defeated the republican army of Metellus Scipio and King Juba of Numidia, a battle a veteran still remembered decades later at the games.
perfida magnanimi contudit arma Iubae
[Caesar] crushed the treacherous arms of proud Juba.
Julius Caesar
Background
After Pompey's death in 48 BC, the civil war did not end. His supporters regrouped in the province of Africa under Metellus Scipio, backed by Juba, king of Numidia, and his army. Caesar crossed from Sicily to finish them.
Near the coastal town of Thapsus, Scipio began building a fortified camp. Caesar moved fast through difficult country, attacked, and took the enemy camps one after another; Juba fled. Plutarch reports that in a small part of one day Caesar took three camps and killed 50,000 of the enemy while losing only 50 men per Plutarch; ancient casualty figures are often exaggerated. He also records another version: that Caesar felt an attack of his "usual" illness, epilepsy, coming on and withdrew from the fighting disputed.
The battle also lived on in memory. Ovid tells how, at the games decades later, an old man next to him said this was the day Caesar crushed Juba's army; he had served as a tribune under Caesar and had won his seat at the show in war, while Ovid had won his in peace as a minor official. A sudden rain shower ended their talk. It is a rare glimpse of veterans in the crowd at Roman games.
Before Caesar's reform (45 BC) the calendar had drifted from the seasons, so the real seasonal date was different; we don't give a modern equivalent. Why?
Ancient source: Ovid, Fasti 4.377–386; Plutarch, Caesar 53 · Reference
Sources
Read moreMegalesia: the Great Mother’s games open
Megalesia: the Great Mother’s games open
Drums, cymbals and the Great Mother
festivalRepublic & Empire (annual)
Roman calendar date
The Ludi Megalenses for Cybele, the Great Mother, opened with drums, cymbals and her eunuch priests carrying her image through the streets.
ipsa sedens molli comitum cervice feretur / urbis per medias exululata vias
She herself, seated on the soft necks of her companions, will be carried with howling through the city’s streets.
Background
Cybele, the Great Mother of the Gods, came to Rome from Phrygia in Asia Minor, and her cult kept a foreign, noisy flavour. Her priests, the Galli, were eunuchs, which fascinated and disturbed Romans. Her games, the Megalesia, opened the season of public festivals.
Ovid describes the scene. The curved Phrygian flute sounds, eunuchs march and beat hollow drums, cymbals clash, and the goddess, seated on the necks of her attendants, is carried "howling" through the middle of the city. The stage is set and the games call; Ovid tells citizens to stop their law cases in the forum and watch. He then asks the Muse why. The din recalls how the Curetes beat shields on Mount Ida to hide the cries of the baby Jupiter from Saturn per Ovid. Lions pull her chariot because she tamed them, and her crown of towers recalls the first cities.
Ovid also gives everyday details. People collected small coins for her, because Metellus once built her shrine from coppers; families invited each other to dinner more than at other times; and her table held a humble dish of pounded herbs with cheese, food of the earliest humans.
Ancient source: Ovid, Fasti 4.179–372; Calendar of 354 (PRIDIE NON. APR.: LVDI MEGALESIACI) · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 17°/8°C (63°/46°F) · rain 32% of days
Rome in AprilApril was full of agricultural festivals at a tense time: last year's grain…
Columella
Sometimes wintry weather. (De Re Rust. 11.2)
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
Nec tecum possum vivere, nec sine te.
“I can't live with you, nor without you.”
Martial, Epigrams 12.46 · translation ours (literal)
