a.d. VI Id. Iul.
July 10 in Ancient Rome
The martyrs of 10 July: Felix, Philip and companions
religionListed AD 354
Julian date · ≈ Jul 8 on our calendar
VI id. Iul. · as written (pre-Julian calendar)
The Roman martyr calendar of 354 marks 10 July for seven martyrs buried in four different catacombs along the Salarian Way.
Background
This is one of the busiest days in the Depositio martyrum: Felix and Philip in the catacomb of Priscilla, Martial, Vitalis and Alexander in that of the Jordani, Silanus in that of Maximus, and Januarius in that of Praetextatus. The list adds that "the Novatians stole" the body of Silanus.
Later legend made the seven the sons of one mother, Felicitas, but the calendar of 354 does not say so.
Ancient source: Chronography of 354, Depositio martyrum (VI id. Iul.) · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 30°/19°C (86°/66°F) · rain 12% of days
Rome in JulyWater was precious: Rome's aqueducts fed public fountains, from which most…
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
Tonsor, copo, cocus, lanius sua limina servant.
“Barber, innkeeper, cook and butcher keep to their thresholds.”
Martial, Epigrams 7.61.9 · translation ours (literal)
