01-27-2018, 05:31 PM
To-day is the nineteenth day before the Kalends of February (ANTE DIEM XIX KALENDAS FEBRVARII), generally known as the day after the Ides of January (POSTRIDIE IDVS IANVARII), in modern reckoning the fourteenth of the month. It is marked EN, ENDOTERCISVS, a mid-split day. There is an annotation in the Fasti of Praeneste:
Mid-split Day. By [decree] of the senate an unlucky day: [the birthday of Antonius]. [This day is a sacred day, for] the same reason as all the days following Kalends and Nones.
The Antonius referred to is none other than M. Antonius the triumvir, Mark Antony, who was born to-day in 82 or 83 B.C.E., of the City 671 or 672.
To-day, as with all ''days after'', is a DIES ATER, a black day of ill omen, ''on these days... [we] might not start anything new'' (Varro, ''Latin Language'', Book Six Chapter 29).
The modern reader would find a contradiction between ''sacredness'' in the modern sense and ''accursed'', however, the Latin adjective SACER embraces both senses, signifying anything set apart for the gods, whether for good or for destruction.
Lewis and Short give, inter alia, the following definitions:
a) ''dedicated or consecrated to a divinity, holy''
b) ''devoted to a divinity for destruction, forfeited... accursed, criminal, impious, wicked.''
Warde Fowler notes that these DIES ATRES, the POSTRIDVANI, were of ill omen on account of the Disaster of the Allia [the breaking of the Roman line by a miscellanaeous host of Gauls led by Brennus the Senonian, in the year 390 B.C.E., of the City 364] , which was preceded by breaches of the ritual observed on the day after the Ides of July. See Livy, in the first chapter of the sixth book of his ''Roman History'':
'' The consular tribune Sulpicius had not offered acceptable sacrifices on July 16 (the day after the Ides), and without having secured the good will of the gods the Roman army was exposed to the enemy two days later. Some think that it was for this reason that on the day after the Ides in each month all religious functions were ordered to be suspended, and hence it became the custom to observe the second and the middle days of the month in the same way.''
Mid-split Day. By [decree] of the senate an unlucky day: [the birthday of Antonius]. [This day is a sacred day, for] the same reason as all the days following Kalends and Nones.
The Antonius referred to is none other than M. Antonius the triumvir, Mark Antony, who was born to-day in 82 or 83 B.C.E., of the City 671 or 672.
To-day, as with all ''days after'', is a DIES ATER, a black day of ill omen, ''on these days... [we] might not start anything new'' (Varro, ''Latin Language'', Book Six Chapter 29).
The modern reader would find a contradiction between ''sacredness'' in the modern sense and ''accursed'', however, the Latin adjective SACER embraces both senses, signifying anything set apart for the gods, whether for good or for destruction.
Lewis and Short give, inter alia, the following definitions:
a) ''dedicated or consecrated to a divinity, holy''
b) ''devoted to a divinity for destruction, forfeited... accursed, criminal, impious, wicked.''
Warde Fowler notes that these DIES ATRES, the POSTRIDVANI, were of ill omen on account of the Disaster of the Allia [the breaking of the Roman line by a miscellanaeous host of Gauls led by Brennus the Senonian, in the year 390 B.C.E., of the City 364] , which was preceded by breaches of the ritual observed on the day after the Ides of July. See Livy, in the first chapter of the sixth book of his ''Roman History'':
'' The consular tribune Sulpicius had not offered acceptable sacrifices on July 16 (the day after the Ides), and without having secured the good will of the gods the Roman army was exposed to the enemy two days later. Some think that it was for this reason that on the day after the Ides in each month all religious functions were ordered to be suspended, and hence it became the custom to observe the second and the middle days of the month in the same way.''
Patrick J. Gray
'' Now. Close your eyes. It's but a short step to the boat, a short pull across the river.''
''And then?''
''And then, I promise you, you'll dream a different story altogether''
From ''I, Claudius'', by J. Pulman after R. Graves.
'' Now. Close your eyes. It's but a short step to the boat, a short pull across the river.''
''And then?''
''And then, I promise you, you'll dream a different story altogether''
From ''I, Claudius'', by J. Pulman after R. Graves.
