The civil calendars that we know today as the Fasti are our primary sources for the festivals of the cultus civile. In addition there were rustic festivals without fixed dates that were based on the agricultural cycles. There are two rustic calendars known to us. One centered around viticulture, used by Cato for De Agricultura. The other was used by Varro in De Rerum Rustica and was concerned primarily with grain production.

Varro?s rustic calendar begins with the arrival of the spring wind, Favonius, around 7 February. The year was divided into eight parts: from the arrival of Favonius until the vernal equinox, then until the setting of Sirius around 25 April, on to the rising of the Pleiades in May, to the summer solstice, the rise of Sirius in early August, the autumn equinox, the setting of the Pleiades around 28 Oct, to the winter solstice, and on back to Favonius? arrival. Virgil, in Georgics, followed by Pliny in Natural History XVIII, refer to a rustic calendar for winter wheat production that began instead in autumn. Virgil said that wheat and spelt are sown with the setting of the Pleiades (Virgil, Georgics 1.208; Pliny N. H. 18.56). This would go along with the story of Marcus Horatius marking the beginning of each year on 13 September by hammering a nail into the lintel of Minerva?s sacellum in the Capitolium (Livy 7.3). Barley was sown between the autumn equinox and winter solstice, while the sowing of winter wheat did not begin until after the winter solstice. An important rustic festival followed. This was the Sementivae, or "Seedtime Holiday" whose date was not fixed but set by the pontifices sometime in late December or early January. Ovid mentions a feriae conceptivae held 24-26 January, which is believed by some to be the Sementivae. Another festival held around this time was the Paganalia with sacrifices offered to Ceres and Tellus (Ovid Fasti 1.658 ff). Modern historians assume the Sementivae and Paganalia to be the same festival, although Varro clearly distinguishes between them (Lingua Latinae 6.26). We might add to these the Consulia of 17 December. Occurring before the winter solstice, it may originally have served as a festival following the autumn sowing, the Sementivae then following the winter sowing after the winter solstice, with Paganalia held later, just before the arrival of Favonius and the beginning of preparations for spring labor.

While the calendar used by Virgil and referred to by Pliny is similarly divided as Varro?s year, this winter wheat calendar further divides the year according to the rising or setting of certain stars and constellations. Interestingly, too, Virgil speaks of observing the cycles of the different planets, especially that of Saturn?s circuit, roughly every 26 years. Immediately following his mention of the Sementivae and the Paganicae, Varro goes on to mention the Novendialis, or festivals held each ninth day. The divisions of the seasons by star risings roughly follows a pattern of every nine days, and would be comparable to the Egyptian system of decans. That is merely an observable phenomenon. At sunset on any given day one star or another will be seen rising in the east. A different constellation will be seen rising at sunset roughly every nine to ten days. Also the constellation that will follow in this cycle rises roughly an hour later, so that the stars offer a form of clock to any shepherd standing watch over his flock. Observation of this cycle, together with the seasonal changes, produced an entire set of weather lore based on star risings, of the type that Virgil used in the Georgics and that Pliny then added to with reference not only to Roman authors but to foreign authors as well.

The full star cycle that Pliny gives I will post as an article in my domus