Id. 13th
The Ides of April belong to Jupiter under the title of Victor: a temple was dedicated to him on that day. On that day, too, if I mistake not, Liberty began to own a hall well worthy of our people.
XVIII. Kal. Mai. 14th
On the next day steer for safe harbours, thou mariner: the wind from the west will be mixed with hail. Yet be that as it may, on tha, t day, a day of hail, Caesar in battle-array smote hip and thigh his foes at Modena.
XVII. Kal. 15th
When the third day shall have dawned after the Ides of Venus, ye pontiffs, offer in sacrifice a pregnant (fordo) cow. Forda is a cow with calf and fruitful, so called from ferendo (“bearing”): they think that fetus is derived from the same root. Now are the cattle big with young; the ground, too, is big with seed: to teeming Earth is given a teeming victim. Some are slain in the citadel of Jupiter; the wards (Curiae) get thrice ten cows, and are splashed and drenched with blood in plenty. But when the attendants have torn the calves from the bowels of their dams, and put the cut entrails on the smoking hearths, the eldest (Vestal) Virgin burns the calves in the fire, that their ashes may purify the people on the day of Pales. When Numa was king, the harvest did not answer to the labour bestowed on it; the husbandman was deceived, and his prayers were offered in vain. For at one time the year was dry, the north winds blowing cold; at another time the fields were rank with ceaseless rain; often at its first sprouting the crop balked its owner, and the light oats overran the choked soil, and the cattle dropped their unripe young before the time, and often the ewe perished in giving birth to her lamb. There was an ancient wood, long unprofaned by the axe, left sacred to the god of Maenalus. He to the quiet mind gave answers in the silence of the night. Here Numa sacrificed two ewes.
The first fell in honour of Faunus, the second fell in honour of gentle Sleep: the fleeces of both were spread on the hard ground. Twice the king’s unshorn head was sprinkled with water from a spring; twice he veiled his brows with beechen leaves. He refrained from the pleasures of love; no flesh might be served up to him at table; he might wear no ring on his fingers. Covered with a rough garment he laid him down on the fresh fleeces after worshipping the god in the appropriate words. Meantime, her calm brow wreathed with poppies. Night drew on, and in her train brought darkling dreams. Faunus was come, and setting his hard hoof on the sheep’s fleeces uttered these words on the right side of the bed: “O King, thou must appease Earth by the death of two cows: let one heifer yield two lives in sacrifice.” Fear banished sleep: Numa pondered the vision, and revolved in his mind the dark sayings and mysterious commands. His wife, the darling of the grove, extricated him from his doubts and said, “What is demanded of thee are the inwards of a pregnant cow.” The inwards of a pregnant cow were offered; the year proved more fruitful, and earth and cattle yielded their increase. This day once on a time Cytherea commanded to go faster and hurried the galloping horses down hill, that on the next day the youthful Augustus might receive the sooner the title of emperor for his victories in war.
XV. Kal. 17th
But when you shall have counted the fourth day after the Ides, the Hyades will set in the sea that night.
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