''Martius'' or ''mensis Martius'' ("
March") was the first month of the ancient
Roman year until possibly as late as 153 BC. After that time, it was the third month, following ''
Februarius
''Februarius'', fully ''Mensis Februarius'' ("month of Februa"), was the shortest month of the Roman calendar from which the Julian and Gregorian month of February derived. It was eventually placed second in order, preceded by ''Ianuarius'' (" ...
'' (
February
February is the second month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The month has 28 days in common years or 29 in leap years, with the 29th day being called the ''leap day''. It is the first of five months not to have 31 days (th ...
) and preceding ''
Aprilis'' (
April). ''Martius'' was one of the few Roman months named for a
deity
A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greate ...
,
Mars, who was regarded as an ancestor of the Roman people through his sons
Romulus and Remus
In Roman mythology, Romulus and Remus (, ) are twin brothers whose story tells of the events that led to the founding of the city of Rome and the Roman Kingdom by Romulus, following his fratricide of Remus. The image of a she-wolf suckling the ...
.
March marked a return to the active life of farming, military campaigning, and sailing. It was densely packed with
religious observances dating from the earliest period of Roman history. Because of its original position as the first month, a number of festivals originally associated with the new year occurred in March. In the
Imperial period, March was also a time for public celebration of
syncretic or
international deities whose ''
cultus'' was spread throughout the empire, including
Isis and
Cybele.
In the agricultural year
The ''
menologia rustica'' told farmers to expect 12 hours of daylight and 12 of night in March. The
spring equinox Spring equinox or vernal equinox or variations may refer to:
* March equinox, the spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere
* September equinox, the spring equinox in the Southern Hemisphere
Other uses
* Nowruz, Persian/Iranian new year which be ...
was placed March 25. The
tutelary deity of the month was
Minerva, and the Sun was in
Pisces
Pisces may refer to:
* Pisces, an obsolete (because of land vertebrates) taxonomic superclass including all fish
*Pisces (astrology), an astrological sign
*Pisces (constellation), a constellation
**Pisces Overdensity, an overdensity of stars in t ...
. Farmers were instructed in this month to trellis vines, to prune, and to sow spring wheat.
Religious observances
Festivals for Mars as the month's namesake deity date from the
time of the kings and the early
Republic
A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...
. As a god of war, Mars was a guardian of agriculture and of the state, and was associated with the cycle of life and death. The season of Mars was felt to close in October, when most farming and military activities ceased, and the god has a second round of festivals clustered then.
During the
Principate, a
"holy week" for Cybele and Attis developed in the latter half of the month, with an entry festival on the Ides, and a series of observances from March 22 through March 27 or 28. Isis had official festivals on March 7 and 20.
Dates
The Romans did not number days of a month sequentially from the 1st through the last day. Instead, they counted back from the three fixed points of the month: the
Nones (5th or 7th, depending on the length of the month), the
Ides (13th or 15th), and the
Kalends (1st) of the following month. The Nones of March was the 7th, and the
Ides of March was the 15th. Thus the last day of March was the ''pridie Kalendas Aprilis,'' "day before the Kalends of April". Roman counting was
inclusive; March 9 was ''ante diem VII Idūs Martias'', "the 7th day before the Ides of March," usually abbreviated ''a.d. VII Id. Mart.'' (or with the ''a.d.'' omitted altogether); March 23 was ''X Kal. Apr.'', "the 10th day before the Kalends of April."
On the calendar of the
Roman Republic and early
Principate, each day was marked with a letter to denote its religiously lawful status. In March, these were:
* F for ''
dies fasti'', days when it was legal to initiate action in the courts of
civil law
Civil law may refer to:
* Civil law (common law), the part of law that concerns private citizens and legal persons
* Civil law (legal system), or continental law, a legal system originating in continental Europe and based on Roman law
** Private la ...
;
* C, for ''dies comitalis,'' a day on which the Roman people could hold assemblies ''(
comitia)'', elections, and certain kinds of judicial proceedings;
* N for ''
dies nefasti
The Roman calendar was the calendar used by the Roman Kingdom and Roman Republic. The term often includes the Julian calendar established by the reforms of the dictator Julius Caesar and emperor Augustus in the late 1stcenturyBC and sometimes ...
'', when these political activities and the administration of justice were prohibited;
* NP, the meaning of which remains elusive, but which marked ''
feriae'', public holidays;
* QRCF (perhaps for ''quando rex comitiavit fas''), a day when it was religiously permissible for the ''rex'' (probably the priest known as the ''
rex sacrorum
In ancient Roman religion, the ''rex sacrorum'' ("king of the sacred things", also sometimes ''rex sacrificulus'') was a senatorial priesthood reserved for patricians. Although in the historical era, the '' pontifex maximus'' was the head of Rom ...
'') to call for an assembly;
* EN for ''endotercissus'', an
archaic form of ''intercissus'', "cut in half," meaning days that were ''nefasti'' in the morning, when
sacrifices were being prepared, and in the evening, while sacrifices were being offered, but were ''fasti'' in the middle of the day.
By the late 2nd century AD, extant calendars no longer show days marked with these letters, probably in part as a result of calendar reforms undertaken by
Marcus Aurelius. Days were also marked with
nundinal letters
The nundinae (), sometimes anglicized to nundines,. were the market days of the ancient Roman calendar, forming a kind of weekend including, for a certain period, rest from work for the ruling class ( patricians).
The nundinal cycle, market ...
in cycles of ''A B C D E F G H'', to mark the "market week" (these are omitted in the table below).
A ''
dies natalis'' was an anniversary such as a temple founding or rededication, sometimes thought of as the "birthday" of a deity. During the
Imperial period, some of the traditional festivals localized at Rome became less important, and the birthdays and anniversaries of the emperor and his family gained prominence as Roman holidays. On the calendar of military religious observances known as the ''
Feriale Duranum
The ''Feriale Duranum'' is a calendar of religious observances for a Roman military garrison at Dura-Europos on the Euphrates, Roman Syria, under the reign of Severus Alexander (224–235 AD).
History and description
The small papyrus roll ...
'', sacrifices pertaining to
Imperial cult outnumber the older festivals, but among the military the importance of Mars was maintained and perhaps magnified. The ''
dies imperii
The vocabulary of ancient Roman religion was highly specialized. Its study affords important information about the religion, traditions and beliefs of the ancient Romans. This legacy is conspicuous in European cultural history in its influence on ...
'' was the anniversary of an emperor's accession. After the mid-1st century AD, a number of dates are added to calendars for
spectacles and games ''(
ludi)'' held in honor of various deities in the venue called a "
circus" ''(ludi circenses)''. Festivals marked in large letters on extant ''fasti'', represented by festival names in all capital letters on the table, are thought to have been the most ancient holidays, becoming part of the calendar before 509 BC.
[Scullard, ''Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic'', p. 41.]
Unless otherwise noted, the dating and observances on the following table are from
H.H. Scullard
Howard Hayes Scullard (9 February 1903 – 31 March 1983) was a British historian specialising in ancient history, notable for editing the ''Oxford Classical Dictionary'' and for his many published works.
Scullard's father was Herbert Hayes S ...
, ''Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic'' (Cornell University Press, 1981), pp. 84–95.
References
{{italic title
Months of the Roman calendar
March