Fasti, the Roman calendar where a day marked their holidays, games, ceremonies and everything under the general rubric fasti and nefasti, allowed and prohibited, i.e. the days intended for business and the days intended for rest.

In one place, Varron derives the name of fasti from fari , to speak, quia jus fari licebat and, in another place, he has it from fas , a term which strictly means divine law , which only means human law .

But, whatever their etymology and whatever meaning they have, fasti were not all known by the Romans under Romulus. The days were all the same to them, and their year, composed of ten months according to some, twelve according to others, far from having any marked difference for the days, did not even have a distinction for the seasons since, sooner or later, the hot weather would sometimes happen in the middle of March and the freezing weather would happen in the middle of June: in short, Romulus was better informed about the trade of warfare than the science of the stars.

Everything changed under Numa: this prince drew up a regular order to things. After gaining power, which he won by the greatness of his worthiness and the fiction of his exchange with the gods, he made several regulations, for religion as well as politics, but he particularly set up the year with twelve months according to the course and phases of the moon; and as for the days that made up each month, he intended some for business, and others for rest. The latter were called dies fasti and the former dies nefasti , otherwise called allowed days and prohibited days. That was the original source of fasti.

It seems that Numa’s plan was only, to prevent the indiscriminate convocation of the tribes and the curiae, to establish new laws or to make new magistrates: but through a practice continually observed from the time of this prince until the emperor Augustus, i.e. for almost 600 years, these allowed and prohibited days, fasti and nefasti , were understood by Romans as for the administration of justice for individuals as well as for the handling of business among magistrates. Whatever it was, Numa wished for his people to learn that the regular observing of these allowed and not allowed days was for them a matter of religion that they could not ignore without committing a crime: hence, among good authors, fas and nefas mean what is faithful or contrary to the gods.

A book was made where all the months of the year, beginning with January, were put in order, as well as the days with the description Numa assigned to them. This book was called fasti , from the name of the main days that it contained. In the same book, there was another division of days called festi, prefesti, inercisi, to which were also added, dies senatorii, dies comitiales, dies proeliares, dies fausti, dies atri, i.e. days intended for the religious worship of the gods, for the manual work of men, days shared by one another, days designated for senate sessions, days for the election of magistrates, days suitable for going into battle, days marked for a happy event or for some public calamity. But all these different kinds were found under the first subdivision of dies fasti and nefasti.

This division of days being a matter of religion, Numa deposited the book into the hands of the pontiffs who, exercising sovereign authority over things that had not at all been regulated by the monarch, were able to add to the fasti that they judged appropriate, but when they wanted to bring about some change to what had already been established and confirmed by long usage, their project had to be authorized by a senate decree: for example, the 15 ^th before the ides of the month of Sextilis , i.e. the 17 ^th of June, was a day of feasting and celebration in Rome; but the deplorable loss of the 300 Fabii at the Cremera River in the Roman year 276, and the shameful defeat of the Roman army by the Gauls at the Allia River in the year 372, transformed that holiday into day of sadness.

The pontiffs were declared the sole and perpetual depositories of the fasti ; and this privilege of keeping the book of fasti to the exclusion of everyone else, gave them a singular authority. They could on the pretext of fasti or nefasti , move forward or postpone decisions for the most serious business and cross the best organized plans of magistrates and individuals. Finally, since there were fasti and fixed non-working days among the Romans, there were also days that solely depended on the will of the pontiffs.

If it is true that the contents of the book of fasti was very condensed when it was put into the hands of the priests of the religion, it is no less true that from day to day the fasti became more extensive. It was no longer a simple calendar in the course of time, it was an immense journal of diverse events that chance or the ordinary course of things produced. If a new war arose, if the Roman people won or lost a battle; if some magistrate received an extraordinary honor, such as the success or privilege of dedicating a temple; if one instituted a new festival; in short, something new, something unique that might occur in the state concerning politics and religion; everything was written down in the fasti , which then became the most faithful memoirs by which the history of Rome was composed. See in the mem. of the acad. of the B.L. the scholarly and elegant speech of Abbot Sallier, on the hist. monuments of the Romans .

But the pontiffs, who had control over the fasti , did not give them to everyone; which disheartened those who were not their friends or pontiffs themselves, and who shaped Roman history. However, this power of the pontiffs lasted almost 400 years, during which they prevailed over the patience of individuals, magistrates and, especially, lenders who were at their mercy, the days being when they could get satisfaction in court.

Finally, in the Roman year 450, under the Consulate of Sulpitius Averrion, and Publius Sempronius Sophus, the pontiffs had the dissatisfaction of seeing this precious treasure, which had up to that time made them so proud, disappear. Someone named Cneius Flavius found a way to transcribe the section on fasti that involved Roman jurisprudence from their books and gained glory from the people, who rewarded him with the job of curule aedile: then, to add luster to his first good deed, he had these same fasti engraved on a bronze column during his aedileship in the very place where justice was administered.

As soon as the fasti of Numa were made public, new details were added on the gods, religion, and the magistrates; next, the emperors were included with their birthdays, their dependents, the days that were dedicated to them, the festivals and sacrifices made in their honor or for their prosperity: it was in this way that flattery changed and corrupted the state fasti . They went so far as to call them great fasti to differentiate them from the purely calendrical fasti , which were called little fasti.

Concerning the rustic fasti , it is known that they only marked the festivals of the country folk, who were smaller in number than the city folk; the ceremonies for the kalends, nones, and ides; the signs of the zodiac, the tutelary gods of each month, the lengthening or shortening of the days, etc. Thus, they were a kind of rustic almanac, rather similar to those we call almanacs of the shepherd, laborer, etc.

Finally, the name of fasti was given to the least important registries.

1.° For simple ephemerides, when the year was divided into different parts, according to the orbit of the sun and planets: thus, what the Greeks called έφήμεριδες was called calendarium and fasti by the Latins. That is the reason that Ovid called his work Fasti , which contains the historical or legendary causes for all the festivals that he assigns to each month, the rising and setting of each constellation, etc., a subject which he could strew flowers upon in such a way as to make scholars regret the loss of the last six books that he had composed to conclude the year.

2.° All the short histories where the facts were arranged in chronological order were also called fasti ; that is why Servius and Porphyrion say that fasti sunt annals dierum, et rerum indices.

3.° Also named fasti were the public registers where everything that involved the personal police of Rome was shown; and these years were distinguishable by the names of the consuls. That is why Horace said to Lyce: “You are getting old, Lyce; the wealth of habits and jewels could not bring back to you those rapid years that have gone by since the day of your birth whose date is not unknown.”

Tempora Nostis condita fastis. Od 13. liv. IV.

In fact, as soon as it was known under which consul Lyce was born, it was easy to know his sage, because it was the custom to inscribe those who were born and those who died into the public registers: a very old custom, incidentally, since we see Plato ordering it to be done in the chapels of each tribe. Liv. VI of the Kings.

But instead of continuing to discuss the misuses of a word, I should advise the reader to be informed about the facts, i.e. to study the best works on the fasti of the Romans: for, with as many curious things that they contain, I am only able to throw a little light on the subject, writing in a language foreign to erudition. Greater detail can be found in the mémoires de l’académie des Belles-Lettres , the dictionary of Rosinus, Ultraj. 1701, in - 4⁰ , Pitiscus’, in-fol. and in some Dutch authors, such as Junius, Siccama, and particularly Pighius, who deserve to be mentioned more so than others.

Junius (Adrianus), born in 1511 in Houm, and died in 1575 from the pain of seeing his library sacked by the Spanish, published a book on the fasti entitled fastorum calendarium, Basileoe 1553, in 8⁰.

Siccama (Sibrand Tétard), Frisian by birth, dealt with the same subject in two books printed in Boiswert in 1599, in 4⁰.

But Pighius (Etienne Vinant), born in 1519 in Campen, and died in 1604, is an author who is quite eminent on these matters. After having been completely educated on Roman antiquities, through a long stay in those places, he earned the highest reputation by publishing his annals of the city of Rome, and increased his fame by his commentaries on the fasti.