KALENDAE FABARIAE Nefas (1 June)

The kalends of each month is dedicated to Juno Capitolina. On 1 June there is celebration of the dedication of two temples to two different Junos. On the Capitoline Hill a Temple of Juno Moneta was dedicated in 344 BCE. This was the Juno Capitolina whose sacred geese had warned of an impending assault by the Gauls on the Capitolium. Later this temple became the state mint. Also on this date a Temple of Juno Regina was dedicated on the Aventine Hill 395 BCE. This was the goddess Veia brought by Camillus from the city of Veii. Originally these two temples were dedicated to two different goddesses, only later assimilated as the same goddess. Just as every man has his genius and every women her juno, every goddess can be said to have a Juno. "Juno Regina" is a title, rather than a name, that signifies the protective goddess of a city. Juno Capitolina can therefore be taken as a Juno Regina of Rome, as She was called in imperial times. Veia, the Juno Regina of Veii, had Her temple placed outside of the pomerium because She was recognized at the time to be a foreign goddess and distinctly different from Juno Capitolina. The other Juno Regina who was to have a temple dedicated to Her in the Forum Holitorium on 23 Dec. 179 was yet another goddess.

Also on this date a Temple of Mars was dedicated in the Campus Martius in 388 BCE. This was where the lapis manalis was stored. During the month of June the pontifices would roll this stone from the Temple of Mars through the Porta Capena to the Capiltolium in the aquaelicium rite, asking Jupiter to provide rain. Magistrates walked in procession without their insignia of state, and matrons would follow barefoot. Also on this date a Temple to Mars Ultor was dedicated by Augustus in the Forum Augusti, 20 BCE. This was the first temple of Mars to be dedicated inside the pomerium. Temples of Mars were usually placed outside the City because He was intended to defend the city from disease and enemy attacks, preventing them from reaching inside the City.

The Temple to the Tempestes was dedicated on this date, in 259 BCE.

Thanks be to Neptunus and the Tempestates, for returning me safe home again, my venture a success! (Plautus Stichus 402).

On 1 June, according to Ovid, private rites shared a meal with Carna, Goddess of healthy bodily organs. The meal consisted of beans, spelt and bacon fat for good health. Ovid seems to have deliberately confused Carna with the goddess Cardea, protectress of houses. As part of a wedding ceremony the bride would conduct certain rites to magically protect her husband's house from disease and evil influences. Ovid's confusion of these two goddesses may indicate that such rites were renewed each year on this date. Women, in some ways thought always to remain children and innocent, and therefore more pleasing to the Gods, were also thought to possess greater magical powers than had men. The rites performed by the bride at her wedding, and we assume by a wife on this day, anointed the front door hinges and marked the threshold three times with olive oil using arbutus leaves. Woolen fillets were then wrapped three times around the hinges as a further purification, each time calling on Cardea to protect the household. A bride also carried a sprig of whitethorn (hawthorn), which she probably hung above the front door as another protective amulet. Pliny the Elder mentions similar use of twigs hung especially over the windows in rooms where children slept as a form of magical protection.


Ludi Saeculares

CIL VI 32323 (ILS 5050): Acta sacrorum saecularium celebratorum anno 737 AUC:
Lines 103-7:
On the Kalends of June, on the Capitoline Hill, the emperor Caesar Augustus sacrificed a bull to Jupiter Optimus Maximus burnt whole for him, and in the same place Marcus Agrippa sacrificed a second. They spoke a prayer, as follows: "Jupiter Optimus Maximus, as it is prescribed for you in those books ?and for this [reason] may good fortune attend the Roman people, the Quirites ? let sacrifice be made to you with this fine bull. I beg you and pray." The rest as above. [i.e.: that you may increase the power and majesty of the Roman people, the Quirites, in war and peace; and that the Latins may always be obedient; and that you may grant eternal safety, victory and health to the Roman people, the Quirites; and that you may protect the Roman people, the Quirites, and the legions of the Roman people, the Quirites; [and that you may keep safe and make greater] the state of the Roman people, the Quirites, and that you may be favorable and propitious to the Roman people, the Quirites, to the collegium of the quindecimviri, to me, to my house, to my household; and that you may accept this sacrifice of a bull, to be burnt whole for you in sacrifice. For these reasons be honoured with the sacrifice of this bull, become favourable and propitious to the Roman people, the Quirites, to the collegium of the quindecimviri, to myself, to my house, to my household."]
At the sacred vessel were Caesar, Agrippa, Scaevola, Sentius, Lollius, Asinius Gallus, and Rabilis (all the members of the quindecimviri).
Lines 108-110:
Then the Latin Games were celebrated in a wooden theater which had been erected on the Campus Martius next to the Tiber, and in the same manner matrons held sellisternia, and the games which had begun to take place at night were not interrupted.
Lines 115-118:
Then by night, next to the Tiber, the emperor Caesar Augustus made sacrifice to the divine Ilythia with nine libum cakes, nine popana cakes, and nine phthoes cakes. Then he spoke the following.
"Ilythia, as it is prescribed for you in those books - and for this reason [may every good fortune attend] the Roman people, the Quirites, - let sacrifice be made to You with nine popana cakes, nine libum cakes and nine phthoes cakes. I ask and I pray... [The rest as above.]

"You who are compassionate towards women, who suffer with great labor pains, their bodies strained in slow birth of the hidden child, gently attend her, Ilythia, and favor my prayers." (Ovid Amores II.14.19-24).