a.d. IX Kal. Mai.
April 23 in Ancient Rome
Vinalia: the new wine for Jupiter, and a holiday for Venus
Wine for Jupiter, roses for Venus
festivalRepublic & Empire (annual)
Roman calendar date
At the Vinalia the previous year’s wine was offered to Jupiter, while working women crowded the temple of Venus Erycina by the Colline Gate.
numina, volgares, Veneris celebrate, puellae
You prostitutes, celebrate the divine power of Venus.
Background
Wine was everyday drink in Rome, mixed with water at almost every meal, and the vintage mattered to farmers and city dwellers alike. The Vinalia of April belonged to Jupiter, but in Venus' month it was also a festival of Venus, and Ovid tries to explain both.
He begins with an unusual invitation: "You prostitutes, celebrate the divine power of Venus", for Venus suits women who earn by that trade per Ovid. They were to offer incense, myrtle, mint and rushes wound with roses, and pray for beauty, men's favour, charm and witty words. Their goal was the temple of Venus by the Colline Gate, named after Mount Eryx in Sicily; Ovid says Venus moved to Rome after Claudius (Marcellus) took Syracuse and the hill of Eryx, as the Sibyl had foretold.
Why Jupiter? Ovid gives a legend tradition. When Aeneas and Turnus fought for Italy, Turnus bought the help of the Etruscan king Mezentius by promising him the next wine harvest. Aeneas then promised that harvest to Jupiter instead. Mezentius died, and in autumn the wine was paid to the god. So, Ovid writes, the day is called Vinalia: Jupiter claims it and loves to be present at his feast.
Ancient source: Ovid, Fasti 4.863–900 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 19°/9°C (66°/48°F) · rain 34% of days
Rome in AprilApril was full of agricultural festivals at a tense time: last year's grain…
Columella
Signals a storm. (De Re Rust. 11.2)
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
Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare.
“I do not love you, Sabidius, and I cannot say why.”
Martial, Epigrams 1.32 · translation ours (literal)
