a.d. III Id. Iun.
June 11 in Ancient Rome
Matralia: mothers’ festival of Mater Matuta
Golden cakes for the goddess of dawn
festivalRepublic & Empire (annual)
Roman calendar date
At the Matralia good mothers brought golden cakes to Mater Matuta, whose temple Ovid says King Servius dedicated on this day in the Forum Boarium.
hac ibi luce ferunt Matutae sacra parenti
On this day there, they say, [Servius dedicated] a shrine to Mother Matuta.
Background
Near the Tiber bridges and the Circus Maximus lay the Forum Boarium, the old cattle market, named, Ovid says, after a statue of an ox. There stood the temple of Mater Matuta, an ancient goddess of dawn and of mothers. Ovid writes that King Servius Tullius consecrated it on this day with his own royal hands tradition.
The Matralia was a women's festival. Ovid calls on "good mothers" to bring the goddess the golden cakes she is owed, and asks why she wants toasted cakes and why she bars female slaves from her threshold per Ovid. His answer is a Greek myth: Mater Matuta was Ino, who nursed the baby Bacchus, was driven mad by Juno's anger and fled with her son into the sea, finally reaching Italy, where she became Matuta and her son Portunus, god of harbours.
Other writers add that women at the rite prayed for their sisters' children before their own disputed. Whatever its meaning, the festival shows Roman married women acting together in public religion, baking at home and walking to a temple in the busiest commercial district of the city.
Ancient source: Ovid, Fasti 6.473–636; Calendar of 354 (11 June: MATRALIA) · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 26°/16°C (79°/61°F) · rain 24% of days
Rome in JuneHarvest meant long days for gangs of hired reapers, often seasonal migrant…
Fields & crops
Grain harvest began in the lowlands: wheat was reaped, threshed on the threshing floor and stored. Columella advises clearing the floor and preparing granaries per Columella 11.2.
Courts & law
Normal court business. As on every Kalends, interest on loans fell due on 1 June, also the day of Carna, goddess of the body's vital organs, honoured with bean porridge and bacon per Ovid, Fasti 6.101–82.
Senate & politics
No fixed political dates, but in the Republic elections were often held in summer, with candidates canvassing in whitened togas late Republic; often July.
Military
Campaigns continued; harvests in enemy territory were sometimes burned or seized to feed armies.
Festivals & religion
The Vestalia (9 June), when bakers and millers garlanded their donkeys and mill-stones and women walked barefoot to Vesta's temple; the temple was cleaned on 15 June per Ovid, Fasti 6. Fishermen's games were held across the Tiber on 7 June.
Daily life
Harvest meant long days for gangs of hired reapers, often seasonal migrant labourers, alongside enslaved workers per Varro, Rust. 1.17, on hiring free labourers for harvests. Summer heat in Rome brought fevers, probably malaria in low, marshy districts; the wealthy left for hill or seaside villas per Horace and Celsus; malaria identification modern. The poor stayed in hot, crowded insulae.
Sources: Ovid, Fasti 6 · Varro, Res Rusticae 1.17
All days in June →
LATIN LINE OF THE DAY
Hominem pagina nostra sapit.
“My page tastes of humanity.”
Martial, Epigrams 10.4 · translation ours (literal)
