a.d. IV Id. Mai.
May 12 in Ancient Rome
Mars the Avenger is honoured with games
The Avenger comes to see his temple
religionAugustan era (annual)
Roman calendar date
Ovid describes Mars Ultor descending from the sky to view his temple in the Forum of Augustus, vowed to avenge Caesar’s murder; the day was kept with games in the Circus.
Ultor ad ipse suos caelo descendit honores / templaque in Augusto conspicienda foro
The Avenger himself comes down from the sky to see his honours and his splendid temple in the Forum of Augustus.
Augustus · Julius Caesar
Background
Augustus built his own forum next to Julius Caesar's, and at its centre stood a great temple of Mars Ultor, Mars the Avenger. It was the political heart of his reign: a monument to revenge for Caesar and to Roman victory.
Ovid imagines Mars himself coming down from heaven, weapons clashing, to view his shrine. He describes what the god sees: weapons from conquered lands fixed to the doors; Aeneas carrying his father; ancestors of the Julian family; Romulus carrying the spoils of a defeated king; heroes' deeds written beneath their statues; and the name of Augustus on the front of the temple. According to Ovid, the young Octavian had vowed the temple before the battle against Caesar's murderers, praying that Mars would favour "the better side" and earn the title of Avenger per Ovid.
Ovid says the god earned the name twice: once for Caesar, and again when Augustus recovered the Roman standards lost to the Parthians at the death of Crassus. The day ended with games in the Circus, which the Calendar of 354 still recorded as 24 races. The temple's date is debated disputed, but its message, revenge as duty, was clear to every visitor.
⚠ Uncertain date: Year of dedication disputed.
Ancient source: Ovid, Fasti 5.545–598; Calendar of 354 (IIII ID. MAI.: MARTIALICI CM XXIIII) · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 22°/12°C (72°/54°F) · rain 26% 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
Non est vivere, sed valere vita est.
“Life is not just being alive, but being well.”
Martial, Epigrams 6.70 · translation ours (literal)
