a.d. III Non. Iul.
July 5 in Ancient Rome
Apollo’s games get a fixed date
A plague vow that became a summer holiday
festival208 BC
Pre-reform Roman calendar
ante diem tertium nonas Quinctiles · as written (pre-Julian calendar)
During a pestilence in 208 BC, the urban praetor vowed the Ludi Apollinares for a fixed day forever and held them on the third day before the Nones of July.
fecitque ante diem tertium nonas Quinctiles. is dies deinde sollemnis seruatus.
And he held them on the third day before the Nones of Quintilis; that day was thereafter kept as a solemn festival.
Background
The Ludi Apollinares, games in honour of Apollo, began during the darkest years of the war with Hannibal. Livy says they were first held by the urban praetor Publius Cornelius Sulla, and that each later praetor repeated them, but only by a vow for one year at a time and with no fixed day per Livy.
In 208 BC, Livy continues, a grievous pestilence struck the city and the countryside, causing long illnesses more than deaths. Prayers were offered at every crossroads. The urban praetor Publius Licinius Varus was told to propose a law that the games be vowed for a fixed day forever. He made the vow himself and held them on the third day before the Nones of Quintilis, "a day which was henceforth kept sacred". Apollo was a healing god, so the choice made sense to Romans facing disease.
The games grew over time into a festival of more than a week of theatre and chariot races in early July. Four centuries later the Calendar of 354 still marks LVDI APOLLINARES on 5 July, followed by days of LVDI. For ordinary Romans, a vow made in a plague year became a regular summer holiday at the theatre.
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: Livy 27.23.5–7 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 30°/19°C (86°/66°F) · rain 11% of days
Rome in JulyWater was precious: Rome's aqueducts fed public fountains, from which most…
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
Cras te victurum, cras dicis, Postume, semper.
“You say you'll live tomorrow, Postumus, always tomorrow.”
Martial, Epigrams 5.58 · translation ours (literal)
