a.d. XVI Kal. Mai.
April 16 in Ancient Rome
Young Octavian is hailed imperator
Venus speeds the day for Octavian
politics43 BC
Julian date · ≈ Apr 14 on our calendar
After the fighting near Mutina, the nineteen-year-old Octavian was hailed imperator by his soldiers for the first time, a day Ovid’s calendar later honoured.
ut titulum imperii cum primum luce sequenti / Augusto iuveni prospera bella darent
so that, on the very next day, successful war might give young Augustus the title of command.
Augustus
Background
In the Roman Republic, imperator was a title soldiers shouted to honour a victorious general on the battlefield. It was not yet a word for "emperor". But under Augustus, who counted these acclamations carefully, it would become the core of the monarch's title.
In April 43 BC, Octavian, Caesar's adopted son, was only nineteen and held a command granted by the senate in the war against Antony around Mutina. After the fighting there, his troops hailed him imperator for the first time per Ovid; the precise link to the battle of 14 April is a modern reconstruction. Some ancient writers later counted the start of his reign from this point, according to the date list at attalus.org.
Ovid's version is poetic flattery. Venus, ancestress of the Julian family, made the previous day pass more quickly and drove the Sun's horses faster, so that the "young Augustus" could receive the title sooner per Ovid. In real life the victory came at a high price: five days later the consul Hirtius was killed in a second battle at Mutina. The scene shows how Augustan poetry rewrote civil war as destiny.
Ancient source: Ovid, Fasti 4.673–676 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 18°/8°C (64°/46°F) · rain 38% of days
Rome in AprilApril was full of agricultural festivals at a tense time: last year's grain…
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
Hominem pagina nostra sapit.
“My page tastes of humanity.”
Martial, Epigrams 10.4 · translation ours (literal)
