Kal. Iul.
July 1 in Ancient Rome
Egypt’s legions hail Vespasian emperor
An empire chosen in Alexandria
politicsAD 69
Julian date · ≈ Jun 29 on our calendar
On 1 July 69 Tiberius Alexander, prefect of Egypt, had his legions swear allegiance to Vespasian; the day was kept ever after as the start of his reign.
Tiberius Alexander praefectus Aegypti primus in verba Vespasiani legiones adegit Kal. Iul., qui principatus dies in posterum observatus est.
Tiberius Alexander, prefect of Egypt, was the first to make his legions swear allegiance to Vespasian, on the Kalends of July, which was afterwards observed as the first day of his reign.
Background
The year 69 saw four emperors. Nero's death was followed by Galba, then Otho, then Vitellius, each backed by a different army. In the east, the general Titus Flavius Vespasianus was fighting the Jewish revolt with three legions, and the eastern commanders began to wonder why the Rhine armies should choose the emperor.
According to Tacitus, the first offer of the throne came from Alexandria, where the prefect of Egypt, Tiberius Alexander, promptly had his troops take the oath of allegiance to Vespasian on 1 July per Tacitus. Suetonius gives the same date and adds that it was "observed ever after as the day of his accession" per Suetonius. The army in Judaea followed a few days later in Vespasian's presence; Tacitus says its soldiers were so eager that they did not even wait for their general's son Titus to return.
Egypt mattered enormously: it supplied much of Rome's grain, and whoever held it could squeeze the capital's food supply. Within months Vespasian's supporters defeated Vitellius in Italy. The Flavian dynasty that began this day gave Rome the Colosseum and a decade of stability after the chaos.
Ancient source: Suetonius, Vespasian 6; Tacitus, Histories 2.79 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 30°/19°C (86°/66°F) · rain 13% of days
Rome in JulyWater was precious: Rome's aqueducts fed public fountains, from which most…
Columella
West wind or south wind and heat. (De Re Rust. 11.2)
Fields & crops
Harvest finished in the uplands; threshing and storage, stubble burned or grazed, and the first ploughing of fallow per Columella 11.2. Cato advises that olive groves be hoed and vines tied in summer, and that the threshing floor be ready before grain is brought in per Cato, Agr. 2, 91.
Courts & law
Courts sat less during the Ludi Apollinares (6–13 July); much elite business paused as senators left the hot city late Republic.
Senate & politics
Renamed from Quintilis in 44 BC for Julius Caesar, born in this month. Republican consular elections were often held in July late Republic. Caesar was born on 12 or 13 July disputed: sources differ on the day; after his death the month was renamed in his honour by a law of Mark Antony in 44 BC per Macrobius 1.12.34.
Military
Peak campaign season. On 15 July the equites paraded through Rome (transvectio equitum), revived by Augustus per Suetonius, Aug. 38.
Festivals & religion
Ludi Apollinares (6–13 July), founded during the war with Hannibal; the Poplifugia (5 July); the Lucaria in sacred groves (19 and 21 July); Neptunalia (23 July) with leafy shelters against the heat per Varro and Festus.
Daily life
Water was precious: Rome's aqueducts fed public fountains, from which most people carried water up the stairs of their apartment blocks per Frontinus, De aquis. Food spoiled quickly; those without kitchens bought cooked food at taverns and street stalls. Graffiti at Pompeii record prices for bread, wine and oil, and rents for rooms per Pompeian inscriptions. Martial jokes that he lives up three tall flights of stairs, a common lot for renters satire, Martial 1.117. The well-off escaped to villas; the poor had no such option.
Sources: Frontinus, De aquis · Suetonius, Augustus 38
All days in July →
LATIN LINE OF THE DAY
Quod tibi vis dici dicere, Fusce, potes.
“What you want said to you, Fuscus, you can say.”
Martial, Epigrams 7.28.10 · translation ours (literal)
