.      The Ides of September are sacred to the Capitoline triad — Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, for whom temples were dedicated in CCXLV A.V.C. (509 BC). Juno is the wife of Jupiter and the deified queen of heaven and womankind. She protects the growth and well-being, as well as the fertility, of every woman. Minerva is considered to be the sublime female abstraction of thought or mind. The name Minerva is derived from the word memini (to remember). Her realm is that of wisdom, education, industriousness, commerce, and the various arts that women practice, including sewing arts and music. Minerva is considered to be the Roman equivalent of Athena, but not as a warlike personification.
     This is one of the days on which the salt cakes, the mola salsa, were used as part of the sacrificial meal.
     This is the only day of the month in which sacrificing and feasting would occur in public.
     The emperor Titus died this day in DCCCXXXIV A.V.C. (81 AD) in Aquae Cutiliae. He was 41. His last words were the enigmatic “I have made but one mistake.” Having reigned most excellently, it was probably the one that killed him — he apparently died from malaria.