inscriptions, is quite small, even if they are important ones as for example the lex de
flamonio Narbonensis(ILS6964). Their number is much more restricted than the
so-called leges sacraeof Greek poleis, dating mostly from the fourth to the first cen-
tury bc(from imperial times, for example, NGSL5, 10).
Thus, during the high empire the most important group of inscriptions conserv-
ing Latin texts originally not conceived as inscriptions is probably that of the calen-
dars. We can focus our discussion on the calendar used in Rome and in the cities
under direct Roman influence, especially the Roman colonies, because until late anti-
quity there was never a unique calendar for the whole empire and not much influence
of the Roman calendars on others, as for example the Greek ones. During republican
times, calendars must have been published for centuries on perishable material,
especially wooden tablets (see Eck 1998; more confident than Rüpke 1995a: 187f.).
Publishing them in a more permanent way became apparently a fashion during the
last decades of the republic and – above all – the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius.
Apparently private and public walls were decorated for large parts (up to 4 square
meters) with wall paintings or marble slabs containing calendars. The Fasti Antiates
maioresdate from republican times (the sixties of the first century bc?), from the
times of Augustus and Tiberius date 39 examples, and from later times only a hand-
ful (Rüpke 1995a: 39ff., chart 1). But this fashion – a so-called epigraphic habit
(Chaniotis 2005: 75 with n. 1) – was limited to Rome and Italy. The most remote
example comes from Tauromenium in Sicily, a city which was during imperial times
a Roman colonia(Plin. Nat.3.88), not a Greek city. There are no examples even
from such Romanized provinces as Baetica or Narbonensis. Without doubt, this epi-
graphic habit has to be connected with the so-called “Augustan epigraphy” (Alföldy
1991) and the reforms of the calendars by Caesar and Augustus. But we cannot deter-
mine the precise motives which induced so many individuals, collegia, and cities of
Italy to monumentalize the calendar used in Rome (with the exception of the Fasti
Praenestini, there are almost no adaptations to local dates or special social groups).
Thus, we are quite well informed about the fundamental characteristics of the Roman
calendar during the early empire, but not during other periods and in other places
of the Roman world. These calendars have to be reconstructed by using other evid-
ence – literary sources, mentions of individual data in inscriptions, and especially
P. Dura54 (see Herz 1975). Within the limits pointed out, these Latin calendars
are a very important source not only for the dates of major rituals of the Roman
cults, but also for the causes and contents of these rituals. The typical layout and the
information resulting from it can best be explained by the scheme shown in fig. 13.1.
In a certain way connected with these calendars are the inscribed regulations of
individuals about endowments to celebrate particular days of a year, often their birth-
days but also certain feasts of gods, and especially important dates in the context of
the imperial cult (for example ILS3546; see now Wörrle forthcoming). Generally,
the imperial feasts adopted by the Roman calendar had probably the most import-
ant influence on other calendars in the empire. The most prominent example is the
decision of the provincial council of Asia to fix the birthday of Augustus as New
Year’s day in the calendars of its members, that is, of all the cities of the province
of Asia (RDGE 65).
178 Rudolf Haensch