AUGUSTUS’S CALENDRICAL YEAR
If the phenomenal pressure of the Principate ’s new power warped the distinctive
patterning of time ’s arrow at Rome, then time ’s cycle, in the form of the calendri-
cal fasti,was even more systematically and overtly redrawn.^74 Here the impact of
Augustus and his family is at its most obvious and pervasive: the changes took
place swiftly and within two generations fixed themselves as normative and
became foundational for the future empire. Simply looking at the Republican Fasti
Antiates and then at an Augustan or Tiberian calendar such as the Fasti Praenestini
or Amiternini brings home what different documents they are, and it soon emerges
what different ideological ends they are serving.
The Republican fastiare a beautifully clean and austere document, one that
embodies the idealized corporatism of the Republic.^75 Each month has a column to
itself, with the total of the month’s days at the bottom; the first sixteen days of
January from the Fasti Antiates may be seen in figure 12. In each column’s left-hand
margin are the nundinal days, the market-day cycle marked by the recurring letters
A–H(an eight-day cycle to our eyes, but a nine-day one by the Romans’ inclusive
counting).^76 Kalends, Nones, and Ides are marked on the first, fifth, and thirteenth
days, while notations give the legal and religious status of each day: the letter C
(comitialis)means that assemblies could meet and vote on that day, F (fastus)
denotes a working day without legal restrictions, and so on.^77 Large letters mark the
major state festivals such as the Carmentalia (11 and 15 January) and Lupercalia
(15 February); in smaller letters are marked other festive days, overwhelmingly the
names of a particular temple cult in the dative (“to Vica Pota,” 5 January; “to Juno
Sospita Mater Regina,” 1 February; “to Concordia,” 5 February). It is very striking
that the calendar shows no names of human beings.^78 Indeed, only two historical
events are recorded, the foundation and the near destruction of the city: 21 April,
Roma condita(“Rome founded”), and 18 July, Alliensis dies(“the day of [the battle
at] the Allia”).^79 Jörg Rüpke has recently argued that the notices of gods in the
dative do have a historical force; according to his argument, these are dedication
days (dies natales)of temples, introduced by Fulvius Nobilior into his fastiin the
temple of Hercules Musarum, intended to commemorate the victories and dedica-
tions of great nobilesand to provide an abbreviated symbolic image of the history
of the Roman people.^80 In a very general sense these notices may have a historical
power in evoking the institution of various cults, and there is no doubt that the dies
natalisis an important part of any cult.^81 But is hard to see a distinctively political
and historical power in such a vague form of notation, in which the traces of a foun-
- Years, Months, Days II: Grids of the Fasti