pr. Kal. Apr.
March 31 in Ancient Rome
Death of Atticus, Cicero’s friend
Cicero’s best friend says goodbye
death32 BC
Julian date · ≈ Mar 29 on our calendar
Titus Pomponius Atticus, Cicero’s closest friend and correspondent, died at 77 after refusing food during a painful illness.
ut non ex vita, sed ex domo in domum videretur migrare
so that he seemed to be moving not out of life, but from one house to another
Cicero
Background
Titus Pomponius Atticus was a wealthy Roman knight who managed to stay friends with nearly everyone through decades of civil war, from Cicero and Brutus to Antony and Octavian, while avoiding public office. Cicero's hundreds of letters to him are one of our richest windows on daily life and politics in the late Republic. His friend Cornelius Nepos wrote a short biography of him while Atticus was still alive and finished it after his death.
Nepos says Atticus enjoyed such good health that for thirty years he had needed no medicine. At seventy-seven he fell ill with what doctors first thought was a minor intestinal complaint; after three months the disease grew much worse and painful. He called his son-in-law Agrippa and two friends, explained that he had done everything to get well, and told them calmly that he had decided to stop eating, asking them not to try to dissuade him. Agrippa wept and pleaded, but Atticus held to his decision. After two days his fever eased, yet he continued, and he died on the fifth day.
He was carried out, as he had wished, without funeral pomp, accompanied by many people, and buried beside the Appian Way at the fifth milestone, in the tomb of his uncle.
Ancient source: Cornelius Nepos, Atticus 21–22 · Reference
Sources
Read moreAemilius Paullus sets out against Perseus
Aemilius Paullus sets out against Perseus
No pilots on dry land
politics168 BC
Pre-reform Roman calendar
pridie kal. Apriles · as written (pre-Julian calendar)
After the Latin Festival, the consul Lucius Aemilius Paullus left Rome to command the war against King Perseus of Macedon, warning armchair generals to keep quiet.
e terra ne gubernaverit
let him not, on land, assume the office of a pilot
Background
By 168 BC Rome had been fighting King Perseus of Macedon for three years with little success, and people in the city argued constantly about how the war should be run. The new consul, Lucius Aemilius Paullus, an experienced general who had been consul before, was given the command.
Before leaving he addressed the people, and Livy reports his speech. Anyone who thought he could give useful advice about the war, he said, should come with him to Macedonia: he would be given a ship, a horse, a tent and even his travel expenses. But if he preferred city leisure to the hardships of war, "let him not, on land, assume the office of a pilot". The city had plenty to talk about; let it be content with the plans made in camp per Livy, who may have polished the words.
Soon afterwards the Latin Festival was celebrated on the Alban Mount with favourable omens, on the day before the Kalends of April, and Paullus set out disputed. Earlier, in 44.19, Livy has the consul announce the festival for the day before the Ides of April, so his two dates do not agree with the praetor Gnaeus Octavius. Livy says unusually large crowds escorted him, hoping for a quick end to the war. They were right: that summer he crushed Perseus at Pydna. Note that Rome's calendar was then out of step with the seasons pre-Julian date.
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?
⚠ Uncertain date: Date disputed: Livy 44.19 says the Latin Festival had been fixed for the day before the Ides of April (12 April), but 44.22 says it was held on the day before the Kalends of April (31 March).
Ancient source: Livy 44.22 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 17°/7°C (63°/45°F) · rain 29% of days
Rome in MarchMarch, once the first month of the year, reopened the seasons of war and…
Fields & crops
Columella calls March the best time for pruning vines and the first digging of vineyards; spring crops like millet were readied per Columella 11.2.
Courts & law
Legal and public business resumed in full after winter. At the Liberalia (17 Mar.) many boys put on the plain toga of manhood and were enrolled as adult citizens, with a family procession to the Forum per Ovid, Fasti 3.771–88.
Senate & politics
From c. 222 to 153 BC the consuls entered office on the Ides of March; Livy records it for 217 BC, and the starting year is a modern reconstruction per Livy 22.1.4. From 153 BC they took office on the Kalends of January per Livy, Per. 47. Caesar was killed at a Senate meeting on the Ides of March 44 BC per Suetonius, Velleius.
Military
The month of Mars opened the campaign season. The Salii carried the sacred shields, and the Tubilustrium (23 Mar.) purified the war trumpets per Varro and Ovid.
Festivals & religion
Matronalia (1 Mar.), Liberalia (17 Mar.), when boys often took the man's toga, and the Quinquatrus of Minerva (19–23 Mar.), a holiday for craftsmen, teachers and doctors per Ovid, Fasti 3.
Daily life
March, once the first month of the year, reopened the seasons of war and sailing. The Salii, Mars' leaping priests, danced through the city. On the Kalends (Matronalia), married women received gifts and in turn served a meal to the household's enslaved people per Macrobius 1.12.7; Ovid, Fasti 3. Columella treats March as prime time for pruning vines and digging per Columella 11.2.
For soldiers, the campaign season began; for traders, sea routes reopened and grain ships from Egypt and Africa could sail again, easing city food supplies.
Sources: Ovid, Fasti 3 · Varro, De Lingua Latina 6 · Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.12 · Livy 22.1.4 (Latin) · Livy, Periochae 47 (Latin) · Livy, Periochae 116 (Latin) · Suetonius, Divus Iulius 80–81 (Latin) · Velleius Paterculus 2.56 (Latin)
All days in March →
LATIN LINE OF THE DAY
Non est vivere, sed valere vita est.
“Life is not just being alive, but being well.”
Martial, Epigrams 6.70 · translation ours (literal)
