a.d. XI Kal. Mai.
April 21 in Ancient Rome
Parilia: shepherds leap through fire
Shepherds jump through the flames
festivalRepublic & Empire (annual)
Roman calendar date
At the festival of Pales, goddess of flocks, shepherds purified their sheep and themselves with smoke and water, prayed for healthy herds and leapt over burning straw.
i, pete virginea, populus, suffimen ab ara; / Vesta dabit, Vestae munere purus eris.
Go, people, fetch the purifying smoke from the virgins’ altar: Vesta will give it, and by Vesta’s gift you will be pure.
Background
Long before Rome had marble temples, its people were shepherds, and the Parilia (also called Palilia) kept that memory alive. It honoured Pales, protector of sheep and shepherds, at the moment of the year when flocks were giving birth and moving to fresh pasture.
Ovid says he took part himself: he carried in his hands the ash of a calf and bean stalks for purification, leapt over the triple line of flames and was sprinkled with wet laurel. The people collected a purifying mixture from the Vestals' altar: the blood of a horse, the ash of the calves burned at the Fordicidia, and empty bean stalks. In the countryside the shepherd swept the sheepfold, hung it with green branches, burned sulphur so the sheep bleated in the smoke, and offered millet cakes and milk to Pales.
The shepherd's prayer, as Ovid gives it, is very practical. He asks forgiveness if he grazed sacred ground or sat under a sacred tree. He prays to keep wolves away, to have grass and water, full udders, cheeses that sell and soft wool "that doesn't scratch the girls". Then, facing east, he washed his hands in dew, drank milk and new wine, and jumped through the crackling straw.
Ancient source: Ovid, Fasti 4.721–806 · Reference
Sources
Read moreThe founding of Rome
The founding of Rome
Rome’s birthday
politics753 BC (traditional)
Roman calendar date
By tradition, Romulus ploughed the first furrow of Rome’s walls on the day of the Parilia, and the city kept 21 April as its birthday.
'sic'que 'meos muros transeat hostis' ait.
"So may any enemy cross my walls," he said.
Background
Romans had no records from their city's beginnings, but they agreed on its birthday. Plutarch says it was "universally agreed" that Rome was founded on 21 April, which the Romans kept holy as their country's birthday, and that at first no blood was shed on that day per Plutarch. The year 753 BC comes from the later reckoning associated with Varro tradition.
Ovid tells the story tradition. Romulus and Remus agreed to let birds decide who would found the city. Remus, on the Aventine, saw six; Romulus, on the Palatine, saw twelve. Romulus chose the festival of Pales to begin. A trench was dug to bedrock, fruits of the harvest were thrown in and covered, an altar and fire were set on top, and Romulus ploughed the line of the walls with a white cow and a snowy ox. He put a man named Celer in charge, with orders to kill anyone who crossed the walls. Remus mocked the low wall, leapt it, and Celer struck him down with a shovel.
Ovid's Romulus hides his tears in public, saying "so may the enemy cross my walls", but weeps at the funeral: "Farewell, my brother, taken against my will". Plutarch adds that Varro asked the astrologer Tarutius to cast Rome's horoscope.
Ancient source: Ovid, Fasti 4.807–862; Plutarch, Romulus 12; Calendar of 354 (XI KAL. MAI.: N. VRBIS) · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 19°/9°C (66°/48°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
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