Id. Iul.
July 15 in Ancient Rome
Castor’s day and the parade of knights
Divine horsemen bring the news
festivalRepublic & Empire (annual)
Roman calendar date
The Ides of July honoured Castor and Pollux, said to have brought news of the victory at Lake Regillus; their temple was dedicated that day, and the knights paraded.
Castoris aedis eodem anno idibus Quintilibus dedicata est
The temple of Castor was dedicated that same year on the Ides of Quintilis.
Background
Early in the Republic, the exiled king Tarquin made a last attempt to win back Rome with an army of Latins. The armies met at Lake Regillus. In that battle, Plutarch says, Castor and Pollux appeared, and right after the battle they were seen in Rome at the spring where their temple now stands, their horses foaming with sweat, announcing the victory to the people in the Forum tradition. The fifteenth of July, the day of the victory, became a holiday sacred to the twins per Plutarch.
Livy adds that the temple of Castor was dedicated on the Ides of Quintilis, vowed by the dictator Postumius during the Latin war and dedicated by his son per Livy. Its three surviving columns still stand in the Forum today.
Because the twins were horsemen, the day belonged to Rome's cavalry class. The Calendar of 354 marks it EQVIT RO PROB, the review of the Roman knights, and other sources describe a grand parade of young equestrians riding through the city wearing olive wreaths and showing off their military decorations disputed. For spectators along the route, it was one of the finest shows of the year.
Ancient source: Livy 2.42.5; Plutarch, Coriolanus 3; Calendar of 354 (15 July: EQVIT RO PROB) · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 30°/19°C (86°/66°F) · rain 12% of days
Rome in JulyWater was precious: Rome's aqueducts fed public fountains, from which most…
Columella
Signals a storm. (De Re Rust. 11.2)
Fields & crops
Harvest finished in the uplands; threshing and storage, stubble burned or grazed, and the first ploughing of fallow per Columella 11.2. Cato advises that olive groves be hoed and vines tied in summer, and that the threshing floor be ready before grain is brought in per Cato, Agr. 2, 91.
Courts & law
Courts sat less during the Ludi Apollinares (6–13 July); much elite business paused as senators left the hot city late Republic.
Senate & politics
Renamed from Quintilis in 44 BC for Julius Caesar, born in this month. Republican consular elections were often held in July late Republic. Caesar was born on 12 or 13 July disputed: sources differ on the day; after his death the month was renamed in his honour by a law of Mark Antony in 44 BC per Macrobius 1.12.34.
Military
Peak campaign season. On 15 July the equites paraded through Rome (transvectio equitum), revived by Augustus per Suetonius, Aug. 38.
Festivals & religion
Ludi Apollinares (6–13 July), founded during the war with Hannibal; the Poplifugia (5 July); the Lucaria in sacred groves (19 and 21 July); Neptunalia (23 July) with leafy shelters against the heat per Varro and Festus.
Daily life
Water was precious: Rome's aqueducts fed public fountains, from which most people carried water up the stairs of their apartment blocks per Frontinus, De aquis. Food spoiled quickly; those without kitchens bought cooked food at taverns and street stalls. Graffiti at Pompeii record prices for bread, wine and oil, and rents for rooms per Pompeian inscriptions. Martial jokes that he lives up three tall flights of stairs, a common lot for renters satire, Martial 1.117. The well-off escaped to villas; the poor had no such option.
Sources: Frontinus, De aquis · Suetonius, Augustus 38
All days in July →
LATIN LINE OF THE DAY
Sunt bona, sunt quaedam mediocria, sunt mala plura quae legis hic.
“Some are good, some middling, more are bad, of what you read here.”
Martial, Epigrams 1.16 · translation ours (literal)
