Kal. Mai.
May 1 in Ancient Rome
Kalends of May: the Guardian Lares and the Good Goddess
Guardian spirits and a goddess men could not see
festivalRepublic & Empire (annual)
Roman calendar date
Ovid marks the Kalends of May with the altar of the Lares Praestites, the city’s guardian spirits, and the Aventine temple of the Bona Dea, closed to men’s eyes.
Praestitibus Maiae Laribus videre Kalendae / aram constitui parvaque signa deum
The Kalends of May saw an altar set up to the Guardian Lares, with small images of the gods.
Livia · Augustus
Background
Every Roman house had its Lares, small protective gods kept in a household shrine, and the city had its own. On the Kalends of May, Ovid says, an altar with small statues was set up for the Lares Praestites, the Lares who "stand before" and guard Rome. A carved dog stood at their feet, because both the Lares and dogs keep watch and chase away thieves per Ovid.
Ovid admits the old statues had fallen "with the weight of years". In his day, he says, the city had "a thousand Lares" at its crossroads, and each district honoured three divinities, including the Genius of the emperor who gave the shrines to the people. Augustus had linked the street cults of Rome's neighbourhoods to his own family, so local festivals also honoured the ruler.
The same day belonged to the Bona Dea, the "Good Goddess". Ovid places her temple on the rocky part of the Aventine called the Saxum, "hostile to the sight of men". It was dedicated by a Vestal of an old noble family and later restored by Livia, Augustus' wife, "so that she could imitate her husband" per Ovid. Her cult was famous because men were excluded, which made it a subject of curiosity and scandal in Rome.
Ancient source: Ovid, Fasti 5.129–158 · Reference
Sources
Read moreDiocletian gives up the throne
Diocletian gives up the throne
An emperor retires
politicsAD 305
Julian date · ≈ May 2 on our calendar
Near Nicomedia the ailing Diocletian resigned in tears before his troops, named two new Caesars and, to everyone’s surprise, passed over the young Constantine.
Statuit imperator proelium diei Kalendarum Maiarum, quae octavum annum nuncupationis eius implebant
The emperor fixed the battle for the day of the Kalends of May, which completed the eighth year since [Daia] was proclaimed.
Diocletian · Constantine
Background
Roman emperors normally ruled until they died, often violently. Diocletian, who had reorganized the empire under four rulers, the Tetrarchy, did something almost unheard of: he retired. Our most vivid account comes from Lactantius, a Christian writer at Nicomedia who hated him for the Great Persecution, so his tone is hostile per Lactantius.
The ceremony took place on a hill about three miles from Nicomedia, where a column with a statue of Jupiter stood. Soldiers were assembled. Diocletian, in tears, told them he was infirm and needed rest after his labours, and would hand power to stronger men. Everyone expected Constantine, son of the emperor Constantius, to be named Caesar. Instead Diocletian announced Severus and Maximin. People wondered whether Constantine's name had been changed; then Galerius pushed Constantine aside and brought forward Daia, a young man few recognized. Diocletian took off his purple robe, put it on Daia, and became plain Diocles again.
He rode through Nicomedia in a carriage and went home "like a veteran soldier freed from service". Lactantius claims the new Caesar had lately been a herdsman. Within a year, the disappointed Constantine was proclaimed emperor by his own troops, and the system Diocletian built began to fall apart.
Ancient source: Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 19; 46.8 · Reference
Sources
Read moreFloralia: games for the goddess of flowers begin
Floralia: games for the goddess of flowers begin
A thousand garlands for Flora
festivalRepublic & Empire (annual)
Roman calendar date
The games of Flora opened, running into early May, with garlands, colourful clothes, torches and a famously free-and-easy stage.
mille venit variis florum dea nexa coronis; / scaena ioci morem liberioris habet.
A goddess comes framed in a thousand varied garlands of flowers, and the stage has freer licence for mirth.
Background
Spring flowers meant more than beauty to Romans: if the blossoms on grain, vines, olives and beans failed, there would be no harvest. Flora was the goddess of that flowering, and her games were among the most cheerful of the year.
Ovid introduces her at the end of April: a goddess comes "framed in a thousand varied garlands of flowers", and "the stage has freer licence for mirth". He saves the full story for May. There Flora herself tells him she was once the nymph Chloris, and that her games began when the plebeian aediles, the Publicius brothers, prosecuted rich men for grazing their herds illegally on public land; part of the fines paid for new games in her honour per Ovid.
Ovid also lists the festival's habits. While white clothes were worn for Ceres, Flora's worshippers dressed in many colours, because flowers come in every colour. There were lights and torches, and Flora explains that night-time licence suits her pleasures. Instead of lions, gentle deer and shy hares were hunted, because her care was gardens and fields, not the wild. The message, Ovid's Flora says, was simple: enjoy life's beauty while it blooms, because "the thorn is spurned when the rose has fallen".
Ancient source: Ovid, Fasti 4.943–948, 5.183–378; Calendar of 354 (PRIDIE KAL. MAI.: LVDI FLORALES) · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 20°/11°C (68°/52°F) · rain 35% of days
Rome in MayLate spring was a time of hard field labour and fresh food: beans, greens and…
Fields & crops
Hay was cut, barley harvested in warm places, beans threshed, and vines and young crops weeded and hoed per Columella 11.2. Sheep were washed and sheared.
Courts & law
A busy legal season. Romans avoided marrying in May, which was considered unlucky, especially before the Ides per Ovid, Fasti 5.490.
Senate & politics
Senate and assemblies met normally. The temple of Mercury, dedicated on the Ides of May, was the seat of an early guild of merchants per Livy 2.27; on that day traders sprinkled their goods with water from his spring to wash away the month's lies per Ovid, Fasti 5.663–92.
Military
Full campaigning season: armies marched and supply convoys used good roads and calm seas.
Festivals & religion
Floralia ended on 3 May; the Lemuria (9, 11, 13 May) drove ghosts from the house at midnight with black beans; the Argei, rush puppets, were thrown into the Tiber on 14 or 15 May per Ovid, Fasti 5.
Daily life
Late spring was a time of hard field labour and fresh food: beans, greens and the first barley. Enslaved farm workers, often chained in the ergastulum on large estates, did the heaviest work per Columella 1.6–8, who advises on their supervision. In the city, the Floralia's games included mimes and, by tradition, performers who undressed at the crowd's demand per Valerius Maximus and Lactantius; hostile or late sources. Childbirth was a major risk for women at any season; inscriptions record many deaths of young mothers per surviving epitaphs.
Sources: Ovid, Fasti 5 · Columella 1 and 11.2
All days in May →
LATIN LINE OF THE DAY
Hoc est vivere bis, vita posse priore frui.
“To be able to enjoy one's past life is to live twice.”
Martial, Epigrams 10.23 · translation ours (literal)
