a.d. V Id. Iul.
July 11 in Ancient Rome
The sun goes dark during Apollo’s games
Midday darkness under a clear sky
science190 BC
Pre-reform Roman calendar
a. d. quintum idus Quinctiles · as written (pre-Julian calendar)
Livy records that on 11 July 190 BC, as the consul left for war during the Ludi Apollinares, the daylight was darkened at midday as the moon passed under the sun.
a. d. quintum idus Quinctiles caelo sereno interdiu obscurata lux est, cum luna sub orbem solis subisset
On the fifth day before the Ides of Quintilis, under a clear sky, the daylight was darkened, as the moon passed beneath the disc of the sun.
Background
In 190 BC Rome was preparing for war against King Antiochus III of Syria. The consul Lucius Cornelius Scipio was to lead the army, with his famous brother Scipio Africanus beside him, and some five thousand veterans volunteered to follow them.
Livy notes that just as the consul set out, during the Apollinarian games, on the fifth day before the Ides of Quintilis, "though the sky was serene, the light was obscured in the middle of the day, when the moon passed beneath the orb of the sun" per Livy. Remarkably, Livy gives the correct explanation instead of treating the eclipse as a terrifying prodigy.
The date hides a puzzle. Modern astronomers find no solar eclipse visible in Rome in July 190 BC, but there was one in March of that year. If so, the Roman calendar was running about four months ahead of the solar year at the time disputed. Before Caesar's reform, priests added extra months irregularly, and the official date could drift far from the seasons. For Romans at the games, a midday darkness under a clear sky was simply unforgettable.
Before Caesar's reform (45 BC) the calendar had drifted from the seasons, so the real seasonal date was different; we don't give a modern equivalent. Why?
Ancient source: Livy 37.4.4 · 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
Mutavere meas Itala regna comas.
“The Italian realms have changed my hair.”
Martial, Epigrams 10.103.10 · translation ours (literal)
