Gods could have territorial property. Some of them had temporal property, too. During the Republic, the term feriae signaled a god’s ownership of a particular day. Jupiter owned all the Ides, the 13th or 15th of each month, and Mars owned the 1st and 23rd of March and other days, too, according to the Fasti Praenestini calendar (Inscr. Ital. 13.2.123). However, no deity was permitted to own permanently more than one day in succession. In order to avoid conflicts ofownership, at least one free day usually intervened between two feriae, replicating the spatial principle of a measurable border between divine territories.21
How could divine ownership of time be marked? Just as the usual ritual activity on such a day would be spatially limited, the god’s temporal ownership was likewise negatively expressed: Feriae were not available for many human activities. On the one hand, there were restrictions on agricultural activities. Cato the Elder discussed in his second-century treatise On Agriculture how an intelligent farmer could use such days without breaching religious bans (Cato Agr. 2.4, 138; Colum. 2.21; Serv. Georg. 1.268-72). But because they lacked a general concept of labor, a general ban of labor did not occur to the religious specialists. Public activities, too, were limited: no popular assemblies could be held, and no juridical activities involving magistrates could be performed. Hence, the occurrence of annual feriae or the short-term announcement of extraordinary feriae for the expiation of prodigies could severely interrupt or halt processes of decision-making. The legitimate meeting of the Senate, however, was not subject to these bans.
Feriae, however, while an important religious component within the Roman calendar, did not determine its structure. Important elements originated from the period of the lunisolar calendar. Lunisolar calendars were the normal form of calendars in the ancient Mediterranean basin. The months were designed to correspond to the phases of the moon, either through empirical observation and correction or by assigning each month an appropriate and conventional number of days. Twelve lunar cycles, however, equal only 354 days, so this total had to be harmonized with the solar year of 365.24 days by occasional additions (intercalations) of a thirteenth month. At Rome, the first day of the month, the Kalends (kalendae) was the day when the size of the waning moon indicated when a new crescent moon would next appear, on a day termed the Nones (nonae). The Ides were supposed to correspond to the nights of the full moon. This structure, probably taken over from the Etruscans, was fixed during the early Republic in order to establish a predictable relationship with a recurring week of eight days (without gaps), beginning with a market day (nundinae).22 Although the rituals to determine empirically when months began and ended and the external appearance of a lunisolar calendar were preserved, a calendar based on the solar year was later established, the advantages of which, however, were not fully realized before Caesar. Prior to Caesar’s reforms, the calendar contained twelve months of 28, 29, or 31 days each, which resulted in a year of only 355 days. The addition of intercalary months of 22 or 23 days was required to bring the total number of days up to 365, but this task was performed only irregularly by the pontiffs. Consequently, calendar dates could differ significantly from solar dates. Julius Caesar’s calendar reform increased the number of days in several months and so reduced the period of intercalation needed to equal 365.24 days per calendar year to a single day every fourth year.23 Apart from antiquarian sources, to be found particularly in Macrobius’ Saturnalia (fifth century ad) and Festus’ lexicon De verborum significatu ( On the Meaning of Words, second century ad), only one copy of a pre-Julian calendar has survived, the fairly complete fragments of a painted calendar from Antium, the Fasti Antiates maiores (Inscr. Ital. 13.2.2-27).
Permanently established and annually recurring activities were coordinated with the monthly rhythm. Interest had to be paid on Kalends, loans were drawn on Kalends and repaid on Ides, and birthdays were celebrated on the nearest Kalends or Ides. The Senate met frequently, though far from exclusively, on the Kalends and the Ides. Cicero’s long-term planning took place in terms of Kalends, Nones, and Ides. For the meals on these same days the sumptuary laws of the second century permitted greater expenditures than usual.24 The rituals of these days were addressed to the most important deities of the Roman pantheon - Jupiter, Juno, Mars, and Janus - and performed by the highest priests - pontiffs and the rex and regina sacrorum (king and queen of the sacrifices). Short-term economic, judicial, and political activities, however, were coordinated with the rhythm of the market days. Prohibiting or permitting popular assemblies led by the tribunes of the plebs on these nundinae led to serious political conflict and resulted in the Hortensian Law of 287, which precluded holding assemblies on market days. Legislative proposals had to be announced at least three successive market days ( trinundinum) in advance of the assembly that would vote on them.
The date of its first appearance in the calendar did not necessarily determine the importance of a ritual of communication with the gods. There are no indications that the rituals of many old festivals attracted a large audience. The horse races of the Equirria or the October horse are only known from antiquarian sources. Neither the Saturnalia in mid-December nor the New Year’s Day celebration on the kalen-dae Ianuariae involved the great priesthoods, but these festivals were extremely popular and exported to many areas of the Roman Empire. The ancient ritual activities of the Luperci and Salii were prominent and probably well attended, however. These were groups of (typically) younger priests who performed races or dances in archaic costumes. It was at the Lupercalia of 44 that Antony offered a crown to Caesar.25 And the Salian priest P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus used the period when the Salian dances were being performed at Rome to demonstrate the seriousness with which he took his religious obligations by interrupting the military campaign he and his brother were conducting in Thrace in 190 (Polyb. 21.13.7-14; Livy 37.33.6-7).
It seems as if some ritual forms developed or imported during the fourth century gained increasing popularity in the third. Such new forms grew out of crisis rituals and remained as such or became annual events. These rituals were characterized by their involvement of numerous gods and numerous men. Lectisternia and sellister-nia displayed special or improvised busts of 12 gods on banquet furniture (couches or chairs, respectively) in public spaces. The supplications (supplicationes) or festivals of thanksgiving mentioned above invited the crowd to visit all the temples of the city. The Republic’s most spectacular successes were celebrated in the processions (pompae) of the circus-games and triumphs (the latter attracting large audiences because of the ever increasing amount of booty displayed; see also Chapters 16 and 23) and the ensuing theatrical games or more old-fashioned races (ludi).27
The ludi Romani (Roman games), also known as ludi maximi (greatest games), originated at the beginning of the Republic. They included a procession, sacrifices and races. According to the annalistic tradition (Livy 7.2.1-3; cf. Val. Max. 2.4.4), the expiation of a pestilence caused dramatic performances ( ludi scaenici) to be added, probably as a fifth day, to the old annual festival.2 We cannot say much about the form of these musical and dance performances. In 249, on the occasion of the crisis ritual of the ludi Tarentini, nocturnal performances of dramatic plays took place that Varro saw as part of the history of Roman drama (in Cens. 17.8). Only in 240 did the Romans see translations of Greek plays. In 235 the first dramatic production of Gnaeus Naevius took place (Gell. NA 17.21.45). Occasions multiplied. Probably in 220 the ludi plebeii (plebeian games) and ludi Cereris (games of Ceres) began to be repeated annually. From 217 onwards votive games were a usual expiation measure ordered by the Senate; votive games of victorious magistrates had been given on numerous occasions before this date. In 208 the ludi Apollinares (games of Apollo) introduced in 212 became annual; the ludi Megalenses for Mater Magna or Cybele were given annually from 191 onwards; and likewise the ludi Florales for the goddess Flora from 173. Dramatic productions dominated. That development and the texts produced for the stage are part of the literary history of Rome (see Chapter 25), but primarily these form part of the religious history of the epoch. Dramas were given for the gods.
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