pr. Id. Mai.
May 14 in Ancient Rome
Argei: the Vestals throw straw men into the Tiber
Straw men off the bridge
festivalRepublic & Empire (annual)
Roman calendar date
From the old wooden bridge, the Vestal Virgins threw rush puppets shaped like old men into the Tiber, a rite whose meaning even Ovid could not settle.
Tum quoque priscorum Virgo simulacra virorum / mittere roboreo scirpea ponte solet.
Then too the Vestal is accustomed to throw rush effigies of men of old from the oak bridge.
Background
Rome had an ancient wooden bridge over the Tiber, which Ovid calls the "oak bridge" (usually identified as the Pons Sublicius). Every May the Vestal Virgins stood on it and threw into the river figures made of rushes, shaped like "men of old". The Romans called them Argei, and by Ovid's time no one was sure why.
Ovid lists the explanations he had heard. Some accused the ancestors of a terrible crime: killing men over sixty. One story said Jupiter once ordered two people to be thrown into the river each year as a sacrifice to Saturn, until Hercules came and substituted men of straw tradition. Another said young men used to throw feeble old men off the bridges to take their votes per Ovid, who does not believe it.
Finally the river god Tiber himself answers. Greeks from Argos who came with Hercules settled on Rome's hills, but longed for home. One of them, dying, asked to be thrown into the Tiber so his dust could float back to Greece. His heir disliked the request, buried him in Italian soil, and threw a rush figure into the river instead per Ovid. Modern scholars still debate the rite disputed, but the scene of priestesses tossing straw puppets into the river was a real annual sight.
Ancient source: Ovid, Fasti 5.603–662 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 22°/13°C (72°/55°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
Hominem pagina nostra sapit.
“My page tastes of humanity.”
Martial, Epigrams 10.4 · translation ours (literal)
