a.d. XIII Kal. Apr.
March 20 in Ancient Rome
Birth of the poet Ovid at Sulmo
One birthday, two cakes
birth43 BC
Julian date · ≈ Mar 18 on our calendar
Publius Ovidius Naso was born at Sulmo in central Italy, in the year both consuls died at Mutina, on the second day of Minerva’s festival.
Lucifer amborum natalibus affuit idem: / una celebrata est per duo liba dies
The same morning star was present at both our births: one day was celebrated with two cakes.
Background
In 43 BC Italy was again at war. After Caesar's murder, the consuls Hirtius and Pansa led the Senate's armies against Mark Antony at Mutina; both were killed. In that same year a son was born to a well-off equestrian family at Sulmo, a town among the cold streams of the Apennines, ninety miles from Rome.
We know the details because the boy, the poet Ovid, wrote his own life story in exile, in Tristia 4.10. He was not the first child: his brother had been born exactly a year earlier, on the same day, so the family celebrated one birthday with two cakes. That day, he says, was during the five-day festival of "armed Minerva", the one "which is usually the first bloody one", the first day of gladiatorial fights. In the Fasti he explains that the first day of the Quinquatrus was bloodless, which places his birthday on 20 March date worked out from the poet's own clues.
His father sent both boys to Rome for an education in rhetoric. The brother aimed at the law courts; Ovid, by his own account, was always drawn to poetry. He became the brilliant poet of love and myth, author of the Metamorphoses and the Fasti, until Augustus exiled him to the Black Sea in AD 8.
Ancient source: Ovid, Tristia 4.10.1–14 · Reference
Sources
Read moreQuinquatrus: Minerva’s festival of crafts
Quinquatrus: Minerva’s festival of crafts
A holiday for everyone who works
festivalRepublic & Empire (annual)
Roman calendar date
The five-day Quinquatrus of Minerva began, a holiday for the goddess of crafts, wisdom and war, honoured by weavers, fullers, shoemakers, doctors and schoolchildren.
Background
The name Quinquatrus originally meant the fifth day after the Ides, but by Ovid's time Romans understood it as a five-day festival of Minerva, running from 19 to 23 March. Minerva was the goddess of wisdom and of skilled work, as well as of war, and her festival belonged to everyone who worked with hands or head.
Ovid sets out the program. The first day was bloodless and sword fights were forbidden, because it was Minerva's birthday. The other four were celebrated with gladiatorial shows, since "the warlike goddess delights in naked swords". He then calls on the people whose livelihoods depended on her: boys and girls should pray to Pallas, because whoever pleases her becomes learned; girls should learn from her to card wool and work the loom; fullers, who cleaned stained clothes, and dyers who heated bronze cauldrons should worship her; even the best shoemaker would fail if she frowned, and doctors should bring her gifts per Ovid.
The list is a snapshot of a working city: textile production, laundries and workshops were everywhere in Rome. The festival was still in the official calendar in AD 354, which lists QVINQVATRIA on this day.
Ancient source: Ovid, Fasti 3.809–848; Calendar of 354 (XIV Kal. Apr.: QVINQVATRIA) · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 16°/6°C (61°/43°F) · rain 22% of days
Rome in MarchMarch, once the first month of the year, reopened the seasons of war and…
Fields & crops
Columella calls March the best time for pruning vines and the first digging of vineyards; spring crops like millet were readied per Columella 11.2.
Courts & law
Legal and public business resumed in full after winter. At the Liberalia (17 Mar.) many boys put on the plain toga of manhood and were enrolled as adult citizens, with a family procession to the Forum per Ovid, Fasti 3.771–88.
Senate & politics
From c. 222 to 153 BC the consuls entered office on the Ides of March; Livy records it for 217 BC, and the starting year is a modern reconstruction per Livy 22.1.4. From 153 BC they took office on the Kalends of January per Livy, Per. 47. Caesar was killed at a Senate meeting on the Ides of March 44 BC per Suetonius, Velleius.
Military
The month of Mars opened the campaign season. The Salii carried the sacred shields, and the Tubilustrium (23 Mar.) purified the war trumpets per Varro and Ovid.
Festivals & religion
Matronalia (1 Mar.), Liberalia (17 Mar.), when boys often took the man's toga, and the Quinquatrus of Minerva (19–23 Mar.), a holiday for craftsmen, teachers and doctors per Ovid, Fasti 3.
Daily life
March, once the first month of the year, reopened the seasons of war and sailing. The Salii, Mars' leaping priests, danced through the city. On the Kalends (Matronalia), married women received gifts and in turn served a meal to the household's enslaved people per Macrobius 1.12.7; Ovid, Fasti 3. Columella treats March as prime time for pruning vines and digging per Columella 11.2.
For soldiers, the campaign season began; for traders, sea routes reopened and grain ships from Egypt and Africa could sail again, easing city food supplies.
Sources: Ovid, Fasti 3 · Varro, De Lingua Latina 6 · Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.12 · Livy 22.1.4 (Latin) · Livy, Periochae 47 (Latin) · Livy, Periochae 116 (Latin) · Suetonius, Divus Iulius 80–81 (Latin) · Velleius Paterculus 2.56 (Latin)
All days in March →
LATIN LINE OF THE DAY
Hoc est vivere bis, vita posse priore frui.
“To be able to enjoy one's past life is to live twice.”
Martial, Epigrams 10.23 · translation ours (literal)
