This day was sacred to Jupiter
and bridged the festivals of the Meditranalia and the Armilustrium. Sacrifices
made today at the temples would lead to feasting in the streets to which the
public and the poor were all invited. The celebrations would consist of games,
music, dance and much drinking of wine. Horse races were held today in special
honor of Jupiter, and in the two-horse chariot race on the Campus Martius
the right side horse of the winning chariot was sacrificed to Mars. In a curious
ceremony, a mock fight was staged over the head of the horse by the people
on the Palatine (on the Subura) and those on the Esquiline (on the Sacra Via),
with the winner hanging it on their respective tower.
The great Roman poet
Publius
Vergilius Maro was born on this day, the Ides of October,
in DCCLXXXVI A.V.C. (15 October 70 BC). Virgil would write
The Aeneid,
an epic account of the travels of the refugees from Troy as they settled
successively in Carthage and in Latium, giving rise several generations
later to the line of Romulus, the founder of Rome. He also wrote
The
Eclogues, and
The Georgics. Virgil died ANTE DIEM XI CALENDAS
OCTVBRIS DCCXXXV A.V.C. (21 September 19 BC)
VIRGIL ONLINE: (in Latin):
The
Aeneid, The
Eclogues, The
Georgics (in English translations):
The
Aeneid, The
Aeneid, The
Aeneid, The
Eclogues, The
Georgics
Dante Alighieri would make Virgil his companion into the afterworld
in
La
Divina Commedia.
Virgil in paintings: by Ingres:
Virgil
Reading Aeneid to Augustus, Octavia, and Livia (1815) _ by Signorelli
Virgil (1500) &
Dante
and Virgil Entering Purgatory (1500) _ by Bouguereau
Dante
and Virgil in Hell _ by Blake
Dante
and Virgil at the Gates of Hell &
Dante
and Virgil Approaching the Angel Who Guards the Entrance of Purgatory
(1825) &
The
Devils, with Dante and Virgil by the Side of the Pool (1825) &
Virgil
Girding Dante's Brow with a Rush (1825).