a.d. VII Kal. Iul.
June 25 in Ancient Rome
Cicero reaches Athens on his way to Cilicia
travel51 BC
Pre-reform Roman calendar
a. d. VI Kal. Quint. · as written (pre-Julian calendar)
Sent unwillingly to govern Cilicia, Cicero arrived in Athens and spent days waiting there for his deputy Pomptinus, as he told his friend Atticus.
Background
A new law forced former consuls to take provinces, and Cicero drew Cilicia in southern Asia Minor. His letters to Atticus track the journey day by day.
In Athens he enjoyed the city and the philosophers, but he was impatient: his legate Pomptinus had not arrived and he had no news of him. From here he sailed on to Ephesus.
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: Cicero, Letters to Atticus 5.10.1 (a.d. VI Kal. Quint.) · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 29°/18°C (84°/64°F) · rain 8% of days
Rome in JuneHarvest meant long days for gangs of hired reapers, often seasonal migrant…
Columella
Summer solstice; west wind and heat. (De Re Rust. 11.2)
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
Nil mihi vis et vis cuncta licere tibi.
“You want me to have nothing, and you want everything allowed to you.”
Martial, Epigrams 11.39.8 · translation ours (literal)
