a.d. VIII Kal. Iul.
June 24 in Ancient Rome
Fors Fortuna: boating and drinking on the Tiber
No shame in coming home tipsy
festivalRepublic & Empire (annual)
Roman calendar date
Ovid invites Romans to the festival of Fors Fortuna, walking or in garlanded boats on the Tiber, adding that it is no shame to come home tipsy.
quam cito venerunt Fortunae Fortis honores!
How quickly the rites of Fors Fortuna have come!
Background
Fors Fortuna was the goddess of luck and chance, and her shrines stood across the Tiber, outside the city on the road downstream. Midsummer was a good time for a river outing, and the festival became one of Rome's most cheerful popular holidays.
Ovid sets the scene per Ovid. Citizens should come and celebrate Fors with joy; she has her royal show on the Tiber's banks. Some hurry on foot, others in swift boats, and "it's no shame to return home tipsy". Garlanded barges carry bands of young people who drink deep in midstream. The common people worship her, Ovid explains, because her founder was one of them: King Servius Tullius, said to be born a slave, rose to the throne and built the nearby shrines tradition. For that reason, the cult was thought to suit slaves too.
In the next lines, for 26 June, Ovid even shows a drunk worshipper coming back from the suburban shrine and chatting with the stars. The Calendar of 354 still marks FORTIS FORTVNAE on 24 June, together with the solstice. Here, for once, the Roman calendar shows a party where slaves and free poor could share in luck, wine and a day on the water.
Ancient source: Ovid, Fasti 6.773–790; Calendar of 354 (24 June: FORTIS FORTVNAE) · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 29°/18°C (84°/64°F) · rain 8% of days
Rome in JuneHarvest meant long days for gangs of hired reapers, often seasonal migrant…
Columella
Summer solstice; west wind and heat. (De Re Rust. 11.2)
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
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)
