Fasti, a Latin word, refers to the Roman calendar and almanac; and especially, to a long, unfinished poem on the religious festivals of the Roman year and their mythological underpinnings, by the poet Ovid. It has been suggested that History of the Latin language be merged into this article or section. ... The Roman calendar changed its form several times in the time between the foundation of Rome and the fall of the Roman Empire. ... An almanac (also spelled almanack, especially in Commonwealth English) is an annual publication containing tabular information in a particular field or fields often arranged according to the calendar. ... The word mythology (Greek: μυθολογία, from μυθος mythos, a story or legend, and λογος logos, an account or speech) literally means the (oral) retelling of myths – stories that a particular culture believes to be true and that use supernatural events or characters to explain the nature of the universe and humanity. ... Engraved frontispiece of George Sandyss 1632 London edition of Publius Ovidius Naso (Sulmona, March 20, 43 BC â€“ Tomis, now Constanta AD 17) Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women, and mythological transformations. ...

In Roman antiquities, fasti is the plural of the Latin adjective fastus, but more commonly used as a substantive, derived from fas, meaning what is binding, or allowable, by divine law, as opposed to jus, or human law. Fasti dies thus came to mean the days on which law business might be transacted without impiety, corresponding to our own lawful days; the opposite of the dies fasti were the dies nefasti, on which, on various religious grounds, the courts could not sit. The word fasti itself then came to be used to denote lists or registers of various kinds, and especially those that had to do with keeping or marking time. It has been suggested that Greco-Roman be merged into this article or section. ... A pocket watch. ...

Contents 1 Dies Fasti and the Roman calendar 1.1 The Roman almanac 1.2 The Roman official chronicles 2 Literary and other uses 2.1 Ovid's Fasti 2.2 Modern fasti 2.3 Fasti in popular culture 3 See also 4 References 5 External link

An inscription containing the Roman calendar. This calendar predates the Julian reform of the calendar; it contains the months Quintilis and Sextilis, and allows for the insertion of an intercalary month.

The Roman calendar, based on a calendar found at Antium. ... The Roman calendar, based on a calendar found at Antium. ... The Roman calendar changed its form several times in the time between the foundation of Rome and the fall of the Roman Empire. ... Quintilis was the former Latin name for the fifth (later seventh) month in the Roman calendar that was after Junius and before Sextilis. ... Sextilis was the Latin name for the sixth month in the Roman calendar. ... Intercalation is the insertion of an extra day or month into some calendar years to make the calendar follow the seasons. ...

Dies Fasti and the Roman calendar

The Roman almanac

Fasti Diurni, divided into urbani and rustici, were a kind of official year-book, with dates and directions for religious ceremonies, court-days, market-days, divisions of the month, and the like. Until 304 BC the lore of the calendaria remained the exclusive and lucrative monopoly of the priesthood; but in that year Gnaeus Flavius, a pontifical secretary, introduced the custom of publishing in the Forum tables containing the requisite information, besides brief references to victories, triumphs, prodigies, and so forth. This list was the origin of the public Roman calendar, in which the days were divided into weeks of eight days each, and indicated by the letters A-H. Each day was marked by a certain letter to show its nature; thus the letters F., N., N.P., F.P., Q. Rex C.F., C., EN., stood for fastus, nefastus, nefastus priore ("unlawful before noon"), fastus priore ("lawful before noon"), quando rex (sacrorum) comitiavit fastus ("lawful after the rex sacrorum has appeared in the assembly"), comitialis ("assembly day") and intercisus ("divided" --- having an unlawful time sometime within that day.) The dies intercisi were partly fasti and partly nefasti. Centuries: 5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC Decades: 350s BC 340s BC 330s BC 320s BC 310s BC 300s BC 290s BC 280s BC 270s BC 260s BC 250s BC 309 BC 308 BC 307 BC 306 BC 305 BC 304 BC 303 BC 302 BC 301... Roman Catholic priests in traditional clerical clothing. ... Roman Forum with Palatine Hill in the background. ... A sacred king, according to the systematic interpretation of mythology developed by Sir James George Frazer in his influential book The Golden Bough, was a king who represented a solar deity in a periodically re-enacted fertility rite. ...

Upon the cultivators fewer feasts, sacrifices, ceremonies and holidays were enjoined than on the inhabitants of cities; and the rustic fasti contained little more than the ceremonies of the calends, nones and ides, the fairs, signs of zodiac, increase and decrease of the days, the tutelary gods of each month, and certain directions for rustic labors to be performed each month.

The Roman official chronicles

Fasti Magistrales, Annales or Historici, were concerned with the several feasts, and everything relating to the gods, religion and the magistrates; to the emperors, their birthdays, offices, days consecrated to them, with feasts and ceremonies established in their honor or for their prosperity. They came to be denominated magni, by way of distinction from the bare calendar, or fasti diurni. Of this class, the fasti consulares, for example, were a chronicle or register of time, in which the several years were denoted by the respective consuls, with the principal events which happened during their consulates. The fasti triumphales and sacerdotales contained a list in chronological order of persons who had obtained a triumph, together with the name of the conquered people, and of the priests. Look up deity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A magistrate is a judicial officer with limited authority to administer and enforce the law. ... Roman Emperor is the term historians use to refer to rulers of the Roman Empire, after the epoch conventionally named the Roman Republic. ... Consul (abbrev. ... Triumph is a British car brand (see Triumph Motor Company), as well as a motorcycle brand (see Triumph Motorcycles). ...

The word fasti thus came to be used in the general sense of annals or historical records. A famous specimen of the same class are the fasti Capitolini, so called because they were deposited in the Capitol by Alexander Farnese, after their excavation from the Roman forum in 1547. They are chiefly a nominal list of statesmen, victories, triumphs, &c., from the expulsion of the kings to the death of Augustus. A considerable number of fasti of the first class have also been discovered; but none of them appear to be older than the time of Augustus. The Praenestine calendar, discovered in 1770, arranged by the famous grammarian Verrius Flaccus, contains the months of January, March, April, and December, and a portion of February. The tablets give an account of festivals, as also of the triumphs of Augustus and Tiberius. There are still two complete calendars in existence, an official list by Funda Dionysius Philocalus (354), and a Christian version of the official calendar, made by Polemius Silvius (448). But some kinds of fasti included under the second general head were, from the very beginning, written for publication. The Annales Pontificum different from the calendaria properly so called were annually exhibited in public on a white table, on which the memorable events of the year, with special mention of the prodigies, were set down in the briefest possible manner. Any one was allowed to copy them. Like the pontifices, the augurs also had their books, libri augurales. In fact, all the state offices had their fasti corresponding in character to the consular fasti named above. Annals are a form of historical writing which record events year by year. ... Generally a chronicle (Latin chronica) is historical account of facts and events in chronological order. ... Categories: Families | Farnese | Italian history | Italian nobility | Political families ... Events January 16 - Grand Duke Ivan IV of Muscovy becomes the first Tsar of Russia. ... Augustus (Latin:IMPERATOR CAESAR DIVI FILIVS AVGVSTVS[1]; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), known to modern historians as Octavian in English for the period of his life prior to 27 BC, was the first and one of the most important of the Roman Emperors, though he downplayed... This article deals with the ancient town, for the composer see: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Palestrina (ancient Praeneste) was and is a very ancient city of Latium (modern Lazio) 23 miles (37 km) east of Rome, and was reached by the Via Praenestina (see below). ... 1770 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Marcus Verrius Flaccus (c. ... Tiberius Caesar Augustus, born Tiberius Claudius Nero (November 16, 42 BC – March 16 AD 37), was the second Roman Emperor, from the death of Augustus in AD 14 until his own death in 37. ... Events Gallus deposed, executed at Antioch. ... A Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ. ... Events Eutyches is accused of heresy at a council held in Constantinople. ... In the Roman Republic, the Pontifex Maximus was the head of the Roman religion. ... The Augur was a priest or official in ancient Rome. ...

Literary and other uses

Ovid's Fasti

Ovid's Fasti is a long, unfinished Latin poem by the Roman poet Ovid. It is believed that Ovid wrote the poem during his exile in Tomis towards the end of his life. It has been suggested that History of the Latin language be merged into this article or section. ... Poetry (from Ancient Greek: (poiéo/poió) = I create) is traditionally a written art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ... Engraved frontispiece of George Sandyss 1632 London edition of Publius Ovidius Naso (Sulmona, March 20, 43 BC â€“ Tomis, now Constanta AD 17) Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women, and mythological transformations. ... EXILE is a 6-member Japanese pop music band. ... Tomi (also called Tomi) was a Greek colony in the province of Scythia on the Black Seas shore, founded around 500 BC for commercial exchanges with local Dacian populations. ...

The poem is an extensive treatment on the Roman calendar, loosely imitated from the Works and Days by Hesiod. Each of its separate books discusses one month of the Roman calendar, beginning with January. It contains some brief astronomical notes, but its more significant portions discuss the religious festivals of the Roman religion, the rites performed upon them, and their mythological explanations. These explanations preserve much mythological and religious lore that would have otherwise been lost. The poem was written to illustrate the Fasti, or almanac and official calendar, published by Julius Caesar after he remodelled the Roman year. The Roman calendar changed its form several times in the time between the foundation of Rome and the fall of the Roman Empire. ... Hesiod (Hesiodos) was an early Greek poet and rhapsode, believed to have lived around the year 700 BCE. From the 5th century BCE, literary historians have debated the priority of Hesiod or of Homer. ... Hesiod (Hesiodos, ), the early Greek poet and rhapsode, presumably lived around 700 BC. Historians have debated the priority of Hesiod or of Homer, and some authors have even brought them together in an imagined poetic contest. ... Astronomy (Greek: αστρονομία = άστρον + νόμος, astronomia = astron + nomos, literally, law of the stars) is the science of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earths atmosphere, such as stars, planets, comets, aurora, galaxies, and the cosmic background radiation. ... Religion in ancient Rome combined several different cult practices and embraced more than a single set of beliefs. ... The word mythology (Greek: μυθολογία, from μυθος mythos, a story or legend, and λογος logos, an account or speech) literally means the (oral) retelling of myths – stories that a particular culture believes to be true and that use supernatural events or characters to explain the nature of the universe and humanity. ... An almanac (also spelled almanack, especially in Commonwealth English) is an annual publication containing tabular information in a particular field or fields often arranged according to the calendar. ... Gaius Julius Caesar (IPA: ; Classical Latin: IMP•C•IVLIVS•CAESAR•DIVVS1), July 12, 100 BC – March 15, 44 BC) was a Roman military and political leader. ...

Unfortunately, only the first six books of the poem are extant. It is not certain whether Ovid never finished it, or whether the remaining half is lost. Ovid apparently wrote, or at least revised, the poem while he was in exile at Tomis, or whether what we have of the poem reworks earlier material. Ovid also wrote poems such as the Tristia, complaining of the conditions of his exile, at Tomis. The Tristia mentions the poem, and that its completion had been interrupted by his exile; in that poem he mentions that he had indeed written the whole thing, and finished revising six books; no ancient source quotes even a fragment from the six that are not left. The poem is dedicated to Germanicus, a high ranking member of the emperor Augustus's family. These circumstances have led some to speculate that the poem was written on religious, patriotic, and antiquarian themes in order to improve Ovid's reputation and standing with the rulers of Rome, and secure his release from exile. Tristia (Sorrows) is a work of poetry written by the Roman poet Ovid some time after 8AD, during his exile from Rome. ... Bust of Germanicus in the Louvre Germanicus Julius Caesar Claudianus, possibly Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus before adoption (15 BC–AD October 10, 19) was a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty of the early Roman Empire. ... Roman Emperor is the term historians use to refer to rulers of the Roman Empire, after the epoch conventionally named the Roman Republic. ... Augustus (Latin:IMPERATOR CAESAR DIVI FILIVS AVGVSTVS[1]; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), known to modern historians as Octavian in English for the period of his life prior to 27 BC, was the first and one of the most important of the Roman Emperors, though he downplayed... The Julio-Claudian dynasty was the series of the first five Roman Emperors. ... Defense of the homeland is a commonplace of military patriotism: commemorating the students at the École Polytechnique, Paris, 1814 Patriotism denotes positive attitudes by individuals to their own civic or political community, to its culture, its members, and to its interests. ... An antiquarian or antiquary is one concerned with antiquities or things of the past. ...

Modern fasti

While the original senses died as Roman paganism was replaced by Christianity, and the Roman empire was gradually devored by invading barbarians and Islam, the vocabulary did not.

Apart from occasional uses of the terminology in other contexts (especially the word nefast remains, but generalized from a taboo to anything with grave negative consequences) the word fasti, or a translation (e.g. fastes in French, still a plurale tantum) has been used for more modern writings, such as the (official, treasured) history and traditions of a regiment (e.g. in Belgium).

Fasti in popular culture

In the HBO television series "Rome", a priest is shown updating a fasti at the beginning of each episode to indicate the amount of time that has lapsed since the previous episode. HBO (Home Box Office) is a premium cable television network with headquarters in New York City. ... Rome is a critically acclaimed historical drama, produced for television by HBO and the BBC. The shows first season originally aired on HBO between August 28th and November 20th, 2005, and subsequently broadcast on BBC Two in the UK between November 2nd, 2005 and January 4th, 2006. ...

See also

• Julian calendar
• Roman mythology

The Julian calendar was introduced in 46 BC by Julius Caesar and took force in 45 BC (709 ab urbe condita). ... Roman mythology, the mythological beliefs of the people of Ancient Rome, can be considered as having two parts. ...

References

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. Encyclopædia Britannica, the 11th edition The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...

External link

• The Fasti, annotated Latin edition of Ovid's poem, from Project Gutenberg.

• Fasti Online: an interactive list of archaeological sites wihtin the Classical World