a.d. XII Kal. Aug.
July 21 in Ancient Rome
Earthquake and tsunami across the Mediterranean
Ships on the rooftops of Alexandria
disasterAD 365
Julian date · ≈ Jul 22 on our calendar
Ammianus describes how on 21 July 365 an earthquake drew the sea back from the shore, then a huge wave smashed coasts and threw ships onto rooftops at Alexandria.
horrendi terrores per omnem orbis ambitum grassati sunt subito, qualis nec fabulae nec veridicae nobis antiquitates exponunt
Fearful terrors suddenly spread through the whole circuit of the world, such as neither fables nor truthful ancient histories tell us of.
Background
In 365 the emperors Valentinian and Valens were in their first joint consulship, and the usurper Procopius was still in revolt in the east. Ammianus, who was alive at the time, interrupts his political story to describe a catastrophe "such as are related in no ancient fables or histories" per Ammianus.
A little before sunrise, he writes, there was a terrible earthquake, preceded by constant lightning. The sea drew back from the land, leaving the seabed bare, so that sea creatures were stranded in the mud, and valleys and hills that had always been under water now saw the sun. Ships were left on dry ground, and people wandered about the shallows picking up fish with their hands. Then the waves came roaring back, swelling over islands and coasts and levelling cities and houses. Many thousands drowned, and bodies floated on the water.
Ships were thrown onto rooftops at Alexandria, and some were carried two miles inland. Ammianus says he himself saw one rotting near Methone in the Peloponnese. Geologists link the event to a large earthquake near Crete disputed. It is one of the best eyewitness-based descriptions of a tsunami to survive from antiquity.
Ancient source: Ammianus Marcellinus 26.10.15–19 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 31°/20°C (88°/68°F) · rain 15% 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
Tu, puto, quod non est, Flacce, videre potes.
“You, I think, Flaccus, can see what is not there.”
Martial, Epigrams 11.101.2 · translation ours (literal)
