Day characters in the Roman calendar
The Roman calendar assigns a day character to each day , which determined the permitted or forbidden activities, especially of the magistrates , and had a religious character. The pontiff minor was responsible for keeping the calendar .
C = dies comitialis
On the days marked with a C, the people were allowed to meet in a meeting convened by a magistrate, which was not allowed on other days. However, should it be necessary, the gods had to be calmed down again through costly expiatory sacrifices. C days could therefore also fall on Fas days. Senate resolutions ( senatus consulta ) to dies comitialis are well known. If a mobile holiday fell on a day with the character C, however, it overlaid this ban.
F = dies fastus
On the Fas days ( dies fastus ) the praetor could judge and accept new cases. The Numanic calendar knew 42 of these days of judgment. The cases had to be decided in one day, between sunrise and sunset. Lower offices were not bound by this regulation.
N = dies nefastus
On Nefas days ( dies nefastus ), in contrast to the Fas days, no legal incidents could be submitted to the praetor. Negotiations for ongoing and already submitted proceedings were not affected by the Nefas regulation.
NP = dies nefas piaculum
Religious acts were performed on the 49 days with the abbreviation NP . By some they are interpreted as publicly set holidays common to the whole people .
EN = dies Endoitio Exitio Nefas
The dies Endoitio Exitio Nefas represented divided days. In the morning and evening they had the character of dies nefas, that is, sacrifices could be made, but in between they were considered fasti. There were 11 days of this character.
FP
FP can no longer be fully interpreted today. Some also, like the dies endotercisus, assume divided days and interpret FP as fastus principio , i.e. days that are fastus at the beginning.
See also
List of festivals and holidays in the Roman Empire
literature
- Jörg Rüpke : Calendar and Public. The history of representation and religious qualification from time in Rome . de Gruyter, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-11-014514-6 .
- Wallace M. Lindsay: Sexti Pompei Festi De verborum significatu quae supersunt cum Pauli epitome . Olms, Hildesheim 1978 (reprint of the Leipzig 1913 edition), ISBN 3-487-05135-4 .
- Angelika König, Ingemar König : The Roman festival calendar of the republic . Reclam, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-15-008693-0 .
- Agnes Kirsopp Michels: The calendar of the Roman republic . Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 1967 (Reprinted: Greenwood Press, Westport CT 1978, ISBN 0-313-20226-5 ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Festus: De verborum significatu , p. 34.12
- ↑ Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius : Saturnalia , I 16,14
- ^ Brind'Amour: Calendrier , p. 227
- ↑ a b A. K. Michels
- ↑ Macrobius: Saturnalia : "intercisi deorum hominumque communes sunt" - the divided days belong to the gods and men together, I 16,2
- ^ Brind'Amour: Calendrier , p. 230
- ^ Attilio Degrassi : Inscriptiones Italiae. XIII 2, pp. 334f.