a.d. III Id. Apr.
April 11 in Ancient Rome
Birth of Septimius Severus, the emperor from Africa
An emperor from Lepcis Magna
birthAD 145 or 146
Julian date · ≈ Apr 10 on our calendar
Septimius Severus, the first Roman emperor born in Africa, was born at Lepcis Magna; Rome still celebrated his birthday on this day two centuries later.
Ipse natus est Erucio Claro bis et Severo conss. VI. idus apriles.
He himself was born when Erucius Clarus (for the second time) and Severus were consuls, on the sixth day before the Ides of April.
Background
By the second century AD, Rome's elite was no longer only Italian. Wealthy families from the provinces of Spain, Gaul and Africa were entering the senate, and one of them would found a dynasty.
The Historia Augusta says that Septimius Severus came from Lepcis Magna in Africa, on the coast of modern Libya. His father was Geta, and his ancestors were Roman knights "before citizenship was given to all" per the Historia Augusta. The same source tells an anecdote about his sister: when she visited him as emperor, she "barely spoke Latin", and Severus was deeply embarrassed, giving her son honours and sending her home per the Historia Augusta, a source that mixes fact and invention. Its date for his birth, 8 April, differs from the Calendar of 354, which marks 11 April as the birthday of "the deified Severus" disputed.
Severus seized power in the civil wars of AD 193 and ruled until 211, founding the Severan dynasty. That his birthday was still a public festival in 354, with 24 races in the Circus, shows how long imperial memory lasted. It also shows how far Rome had come: an emperor from the edge of the desert.
⚠ Uncertain date: Year 145 or 146 and day 8 or 11 April are disputed; this entry follows the Calendar of 354 for the day.
Ancient source: Calendar of 354 (III ID. APR.: N. DIVI SEVERI); Historia Augusta, Severus 1 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 17°/8°C (63°/46°F) · rain 40% of days
Rome in AprilApril was full of agricultural festivals at a tense time: last year's grain…
Fields & crops
Spring sowing of millet and panic grass around the Ides; vines dug and vegetables planted out. Mildew on the young grain was the great fear per Columella 11.2; Ovid, Fasti 4.
Courts & law
Many days were taken up by games (Megalesia, Cerealia, Floralia), when courts did not sit; legal business squeezed into the gaps late Republic.
Senate & politics
Aediles who ran the April games used them to win votes; lavish shows could make a political career late Republic.
Military
Armies marched out to campaign; the sea lanes were open, so troops and grain ships moved again.
Festivals & religion
Veneralia (1 Apr.), Megalesia for the Great Mother (4–10 Apr.), Fordicidia (15 Apr.), Cerealia (12–19 Apr.), Parilia, Rome's birthday (21 Apr.), Vinalia (23 Apr.), Robigalia (25 Apr.) and the Floralia from 28 April per Ovid, Fasti 4.
Daily life
April was full of agricultural festivals at a tense time: last year's grain was running low and the new harvest was still weeks away. The Cerealia honoured Ceres, goddess of grain; the Robigalia (25 April) sacrificed a dog to keep mildew (robigo) off the crops per Ovid, Fasti 4.905–42. At the Parilia (21 April), Rome's birthday, shepherds purified flocks and leaped over bonfires per Ovid, Fasti 4.721–82.
Women of different ranks worshipped Venus and Fortuna Virilis on 1 April; Ovid says women of lower status bathed in the men's baths that day per Ovid, Fasti 4.133–50.
Sources: Ovid, Fasti 4 · Columella 11.2
All days in April →
LATIN LINE OF THE DAY
Sera nimis vita est crastina: vive hodie.
“Tomorrow's life is too late: live today.”
Martial, Epigrams 1.15 · translation ours (literal)
