pr. Non. Iul.
July 6 in Ancient Rome
The Capitol burns during the civil war
A prophecy of fire comes true
disaster83 BC
Pre-reform Roman calendar
pr. Non. Iul. · Roman date in the pre-Julian calendar (day inferred, not written in the source)
Plutarch says the temple on the Capitol burned on the sixth day of Quintilis in 83 BC, the very day a possessed slave had warned Sulla it would.
Background
In 83 BC Sulla landed in Italy with his veteran army to fight the government in Rome that had outlawed him. It was the start of a brutal civil war that would end with Sulla as dictator and with his proscriptions.
Plutarch, drawing on Sulla's own memoirs, tells a story from the campaign per Plutarch. At Silvium in southern Italy, a slave of a man named Pontius met Sulla in a state of divine possession. He said he brought Sulla power and victory from Bellona, goddess of war, and warned that if Sulla did not hurry, the Capitol would burn. It burned, Plutarch says, on the very day the man had foretold, the sixth day of Quintilis.
The temple of Jupiter Best and Greatest on the Capitol was the religious heart of Rome, and its loss shocked the city. Sulla used the story to present himself as favoured by the gods, and he later took charge of rebuilding the temple. Romans would see it burn twice more, in AD 69 and AD 80, a reminder that fire was a constant danger in a city of wooden roofs and oil lamps.
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: Plutarch, Sulla 27 · 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…
Columella
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
Dat maiora novus proelia mane dies.
“The new day at dawn brings greater battles.”
Martial, Epigrams 5.65.8 · translation ours (literal)
