in september, ancient rome left 7 dated events: actium: the battle that was won before it began · fifteen days of festival, and back to the beginning · seventeen, eighteen, nineteen. here is what happened, day by day.
on 2 september 31 bce the fleet of antony and cleopatra sailed out of the ambracian gulf after a summer of blockade, fever and desertion. the battle lasted an afternoon; whether the queen's departure was a planned escape is still argued. what is not argued is who won the right to tell it.
read the full entry →on 5 september rome opened the ludi romani, the games it held to be the oldest in the city. a gesture done wrong in the procession was not patched up on the spot: it forced the festival to be run again from day one, and the sources preserve a case in which the city started over a set of games that were themselves already a repeat.
read the full entry →in september of the year 9 three roman legions vanished in germania along with their governor, and the exact day now assigned to them is a modern convention. the three numerals — seventeen, eighteen and nineteen — never appear again in any later inscription.
read the full entry →on the ides of september a magistrate drove a nail into the wall of the capitoline temple, and on that same day jupiter dined reclining with juno and minerva seated beside him. livy does not sign off on the idea that the nail counted the years: he says that is what people said.
read the full entry →on 18 september 96 domitian died at the hands of people from his own household, and that same day rome had a new emperor. suetonius tells of the bandage and the bladeless dagger from the bedchamber; cassius dio, from the other side, names the man who disarmed it.
read the full entry →on 23 september 63 bce gaius octavius was born on the palatine. half a century later, on the proposal of a roman proconsul, the greek cities of asia voted that their year should begin on that day. the decree survives, and almost all of it is paperwork.
read the full entry →pompey the great, defeated at pharsalus, sought refuge in egypt and was killed in a boat, in sight of his wife. a freedman cremated him with the timbers of an old boat. the date of 28 september follows velleius paterculus; plutarch has him die one day after his birthday.
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