Id. Oct.
October 15 in Ancient Rome
Birth of Virgil
A laurel dream and a poplar tree
birth70 BC
Pre-reform Roman calendar
Iduum Octobrium die · as written (pre-Julian calendar)
Rome’s great poet was born on the Ides of October in a village near Mantua; his ancient biographer tells of portents at his birth.
Natus est Cn. Pompeio Magno M. Licinio Crasso primum coss. Iduum Octobrium die in pago, qui Andes dicitur et abest a Mantua non procul.
He was born in the first consulship of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and Marcus Licinius Crassus, on the day of the Ides of October, in a village called Andes, not far from Mantua.
Background
Publius Vergilius Maro was born in the first consulship of Pompey and Crassus, in a village called Andes not far from Mantua. His Life, compiled by Donatus largely from Suetonius, says his parents were of modest means; his father was said to have been a potter or a hired man who married his employer's daughter and grew his savings by buying woodland and keeping bees.
The Life collects birth omens tradition. While pregnant, his mother dreamed she gave birth to a laurel branch that took root and grew at once into a full tree laden with fruit and flowers. The next day, travelling with her husband to a nearby farm, she turned off the road and gave birth in a ditch. The baby, it was said, did not cry and had so gentle a face that he already promised a happy destiny. A poplar shoot planted on the spot, as the local custom was at births, grew so fast that it matched poplars planted long before; pregnant women and new mothers made vows at "Virgil's tree".
He grew up at Cremona, took the toga of manhood at seventeen and later went to Milan and Rome. He would write the Eclogues, the Georgics and the Aeneid.
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: Donatus (after Suetonius), Life of Virgil 2–6 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 21°/13°C (70°/55°F) · rain 33% of days
Rome in OctoberOctober ended the vintage and the olive harvest began.
Fields & crops
End of the vintage and start of the olive harvest; autumn ploughing and the first sowing of grain began after the rains per Columella 11.2. Cato lists rations for a farm's enslaved workers: more bread when they dig or tend vines, less in winter per Cato, Agr. 56.
Courts & law
Courts busy again after the summer; many wealthy Romans returned to the city. In the late Republic, trials resumed in force after the summer and autumn games, and many famous speeches were given in these months late Republic.
Senate & politics
Under the empire, Domitian briefly renamed October 'Domitianus' after himself; the name vanished after his murder per Suetonius, Dom. 13.
Military
The campaign season closed. The Armilustrium (19 Oct.) purified the army's weapons, and the October Horse sacrifice (15 Oct.) was dedicated to Mars per Varro and Festus.
Festivals & religion
Meditrinalia (11 Oct.), tasting the new wine as medicine; Fontinalia (13 Oct.), garlanding springs and wells; October Horse; Armilustrium per Varro, De Lingua Latina 6.21–22. The October Horse: after a race on the Campus Martius, the right-hand horse of the winning chariot was sacrificed to Mars, and residents of the Sacred Way and the Subura fought over its head per Festus.
Daily life
October ended the vintage and the olive harvest began. On farms, enslaved workers and hired day labourers pressed grapes and stored wine; Cato lists the rations of bread and cheap wine (lora) given to a farm's enslaved workforce per Cato, Agr. 56–57. In the city, the sailing season was closing, so grain had to be stockpiled before winter storms made sea transport dangerous.
Sources: Varro, De Lingua Latina 6 · Columella 11.2 · Cato, De Agri Cultura 56–57
All days in October →
LATIN LINE OF THE DAY
Hominem pagina nostra sapit.
“My page tastes of humanity.”
Martial, Epigrams 10.4 · translation ours (literal)
