a.d. XVIII Kal. Mai.
April 14 in Ancient Rome
Battle of Forum Gallorum
Hail and civil war at Mutina
politics43 BC
Julian date · ≈ Apr 12 on our calendar
Near Mutina in northern Italy, Mark Antony defeated the consul Pansa, then was beaten back by the other consul, Hirtius, in a day of fighting Ovid remembered for its hail.
scilicet ut fuerit, tamen hac Mutinensia Caesar / grandine militia perculit arma sua
Be that as it may, on this day of hail Caesar struck down the arms of Mutina with his soldiery.
Mark Antony · Augustus · Cicero
Background
A year after Caesar's murder, Rome was again sliding into civil war. Mark Antony was besieging Decimus Brutus, one of the assassins, in the town of Mutina (modern Modena). The senate, urged on by Cicero, declared against Antony and sent the two consuls of the year, Hirtius and Pansa, with the young Octavian, Caesar's heir, to relieve the town.
At Forum Gallorum, a village on the Via Aemilia, Antony first defeated Pansa's army. Later the same day, Hirtius came up and defeated Antony in turn per attalus.org's summary of Cicero. One of the officers present, Servius Sulpicius Galba, wrote an eyewitness account to Cicero that still survives among Cicero's letters (Ad Familiares 10.30).
Ovid, writing his calendar years later, records the day for two reasons: sailors should seek a safe harbour because the west wind will blow mixed with hail, and on this day of hail "a Caesar", Octavian, fought at Mutina per Ovid. The poem turns a bloody fight among Romans into a stage in Augustus' rise. A week later a second battle at Mutina followed, in which Hirtius was killed.
Ancient source: Ovid, Fasti 4.625–628; Cicero, Ad Familiares 10.30 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 18°/8°C (64°/46°F) · rain 40% of days
Rome in AprilApril was full of agricultural festivals at a tense time: last year's grain…
Columella
Windy weather and showers, though not reliably. (De Re Rust. 11.2)
Fields & crops
Spring sowing of millet and panic grass around the Ides; vines dug and vegetables planted out. Mildew on the young grain was the great fear per Columella 11.2; Ovid, Fasti 4.
Courts & law
Many days were taken up by games (Megalesia, Cerealia, Floralia), when courts did not sit; legal business squeezed into the gaps late Republic.
Senate & politics
Aediles who ran the April games used them to win votes; lavish shows could make a political career late Republic.
Military
Armies marched out to campaign; the sea lanes were open, so troops and grain ships moved again.
Festivals & religion
Veneralia (1 Apr.), Megalesia for the Great Mother (4–10 Apr.), Fordicidia (15 Apr.), Cerealia (12–19 Apr.), Parilia, Rome's birthday (21 Apr.), Vinalia (23 Apr.), Robigalia (25 Apr.) and the Floralia from 28 April per Ovid, Fasti 4.
Daily life
April was full of agricultural festivals at a tense time: last year's grain was running low and the new harvest was still weeks away. The Cerealia honoured Ceres, goddess of grain; the Robigalia (25 April) sacrificed a dog to keep mildew (robigo) off the crops per Ovid, Fasti 4.905–42. At the Parilia (21 April), Rome's birthday, shepherds purified flocks and leaped over bonfires per Ovid, Fasti 4.721–82.
Women of different ranks worshipped Venus and Fortuna Virilis on 1 April; Ovid says women of lower status bathed in the men's baths that day per Ovid, Fasti 4.133–50.
Sources: Ovid, Fasti 4 · Columella 11.2
All days in April →
LATIN LINE OF THE DAY
Non est vivere, sed valere vita est.
“Life is not just being alive, but being well.”
Martial, Epigrams 6.70 · translation ours (literal)
