a.d. XI Kal. Aug.
July 22 in Ancient Rome
Cicero lands at Ephesus to a crowd
travel51 BC
Pre-reform Roman calendar
a. d. XI Kal. Sext. · as written (pre-Julian calendar)
On his way to govern Cilicia, Cicero landed at Ephesus and was greeted by crowds and delegations, a reception he later called the happiest day he had known.
Background
Cicero dates his arrival with a private joke: 560 days "after the battle of Bovillae", the brawl on the Appian Way in which his enemy Clodius was killed. He says the crossing was calm but slow because of the weak Rhodian ships.
In a later letter (Att. 5.15) he tells Atticus that nothing had ever delighted him more than the crowds of that day at Ephesus.
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: Cicero, Letters to Atticus 5.13.1 (a.d. XI Kal. Sext.) · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 31°/20°C (88°/68°F) · rain 14% 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
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LATIN LINE OF THE DAY
Condicio est melior si tibi nulla, veni.
“If you have no better offer, come.”
Martial, Epigrams 11.52.2 · translation ours (literal)
