a.d. VII Id. Iun.
June 7 in Ancient Rome
Germanicus’ son Nero comes of age
politicsAD 20
Julian date · ≈ Jun 5 on our calendar
Nero Julius Caesar, eldest son of Germanicus and a possible heir of Tiberius, put on the toga of manhood, and a cash handout was given to the people of Rome.
Background
This Nero is not the later emperor but his uncle: the eldest son of Germanicus and Agrippina. After Germanicus died in AD 19, Tiberius presented the boy to the senate as a future leader of the state.
Taking the toga virilis marked a Roman boy's entry into adult life. For a prince it was a public event, and a congiarium, a cash gift to the citizens, was handed out. Nero later fell victim to Sejanus and died in exile in AD 31.
Ancient source: Fasti Ostienses, AD 20 (VII Id. Iun.); Tacitus, Annals 3.29 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 26°/15°C (79°/59°F) · rain 23% of days
Rome in JuneHarvest meant long days for gangs of hired reapers, often seasonal migrant…
Columella
West wind or north-west wind. (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
Ego esse miserum credo, cui placet nemo.
“I think a man wretched whom nobody pleases.”
Martial, Epigrams 5.28.9 · translation ours (literal)
