a.d. XV Kal. Iul.
June 17 in Ancient Rome
"If it is a girl, cast it out": Hilarion writes home
birth1 BC
Julian date · ≈ Jun 15 on our calendar
Hilarion, staying on in Alexandria, wrote to Alis: he would send his pay soon; if she bore a boy, keep it, if a girl, expose it; and how could he forget her?
Background
The letter is dated "the 29th year of Caesar (Augustus), Pauni 23". It is one of the most quoted private letters from antiquity: tender and casual in the same breath as it orders the exposure of a baby girl. Exposure was legal and common; abandoned infants were often picked up and raised as slaves.
Ancient source: P.Oxy. 4.744 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 27°/17°C (81°/63°F) · rain 20% of days
Rome in JuneHarvest meant long days for gangs of hired reapers, often seasonal migrant…
Fields & crops
Grain harvest began in the lowlands: wheat was reaped, threshed on the threshing floor and stored. Columella advises clearing the floor and preparing granaries per Columella 11.2.
Courts & law
Normal court business. As on every Kalends, interest on loans fell due on 1 June, also the day of Carna, goddess of the body's vital organs, honoured with bean porridge and bacon per Ovid, Fasti 6.101–82.
Senate & politics
No fixed political dates, but in the Republic elections were often held in summer, with candidates canvassing in whitened togas late Republic; often July.
Military
Campaigns continued; harvests in enemy territory were sometimes burned or seized to feed armies.
Festivals & religion
The Vestalia (9 June), when bakers and millers garlanded their donkeys and mill-stones and women walked barefoot to Vesta's temple; the temple was cleaned on 15 June per Ovid, Fasti 6. Fishermen's games were held across the Tiber on 7 June.
Daily life
Harvest meant long days for gangs of hired reapers, often seasonal migrant labourers, alongside enslaved workers per Varro, Rust. 1.17, on hiring free labourers for harvests. Summer heat in Rome brought fevers, probably malaria in low, marshy districts; the wealthy left for hill or seaside villas per Horace and Celsus; malaria identification modern. The poor stayed in hot, crowded insulae.
Sources: Ovid, Fasti 6 · Varro, Res Rusticae 1.17
All days in June →
LATIN LINE OF THE DAY
Pars maior lacrimas ridet et intus habet.
“Most laugh at their tears and keep them inside.”
Martial, Epigrams 10.80.6 · translation ours (literal)
