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| The Sun - Photo: NASA |
UPDATED August 2026
(Venice, Italy) In 18 BC, Augustus, the first emperor of the Roman Empire, created the Feriae Augusti, the Festivals of Augustus. Many sources say he consolidated several pre-existing Roman festivals in August to give his people a longer period of time off after their hard work during the harvests.
Others say the future emperor created the festivals when he was called Octavian to celebrate his conquest of Egypt and victory over Mark Antony, who committed suicide on August 1, 30 BC.
But long before that, stretching back to 600 BC, the peak of summertime we now call the Ides of August -- Ferragosto -- celebrated divine female energy. In Italy, honoring August isn't just a tradition; it is woven into the very soul of the country. Let’s go back in time…
JULIUS CAESAR, THE FATHER OF AUGUSTUS, WAS THE FIRST ROMAN TO BECOME A GOD
How does a man become a god?
Julius Caesar, along with Pompey the Great and Marcus Crassus, was one-third of the First Triumvirate, a secret, unofficial Roman political alliance formed in 60 BC that would deteriorate over time under the weight of each man's cunning ambition.
By January 49 BC, General Julius Caesar was the governor of Cisalpine Gaul, a province in the north of the Roman Republic. (If Venice had existed at that time, it would have been part of Gaul.) Caesar had many reasons for wanting to leave Rome. He had taken this northern governorship to win military glory, pay off massive debts, and maintain legal immunity from his political rivals.
While Caesar was becoming rich and famous by conquering territory up north, his secret alliance collapsed. Marcus Crassus died in battle, and an envious Pompey the Great turned against Caesar, teaming up with the Roman Senate. Fearing Caesar's growing power, the Senate ordered him to disband his army and return to Rome as a private citizen.
First you cross the Rubicon
Knowing he would face immediate arrest if he complied, Caesar chose defiance. The Rubicon was a shallow river that was the border between Gaul and the Roman homeland. Caesar knew that by crossing the Rubicon into the core of the sacred homeland with an army, he would start a civil war, famously uttering, "The die is cast."
I was surprised to learn that the Rubicon is not far from Venice, just 28 minutes outside
Rimini.
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The Rubicon - 28 minutes from Rimini - Google Maps
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"You
can see that the Northern part of Italy, now called the ‘Po Valley', is
North of the Rubicon and is labelled ‘Gaul', more correctly the
‘Province of Cisalpine Gaul'.
The
Rubicon is outlined in blue on the above map, and you can see that it
ends (or rather begins), in the Apennine mountains (which is that
rougher terrain on the left side of the Rubicon).
In Roman times, the Rubicon marked the border between Italy, and Cisalpine Gaul, which was administered separately." Keep reading
To make a long, complex story very short, Caesar crossed the Rubicon on the night of January 10 or 11, 49 BC. He defeated Pompey in 48 BC
at the Battle of Pharsalus, and vowed to build the Temple of Venus Genetrix, Venice the Mother, honoring the goddess as his family's divine ancestress.Pompey fled to Egypt, where he was assassinated. Caesar was back in Rome as dictator by July 25, 46 BC. He would go on to reorganize time itself and create the Julian Calendar, but first had some unfinished business to attend to.
Julius Caesar finally defeated the last of the rebel forces at the Battle of Munda in Spain during the Great Roman Civil War on March
17, 45 BC.
The official news of his victory reached the Senate in Rome on the evening of April 20, 45 BC, the day before Rome's birthday. The ancient games commemorating the founding of Rome
in 753 BC, seven centuries earlier, were already scheduled to be held the next day -- chariot
races, gladiator fights, and other spectaculars. After Caesar's victory,
his propaganda team quickly re-dedicated the celebrations to Caesar, as if he were the founder of Rome itself.
After years of turmoil and
civil unrest, the people of Rome were ready to move on. Caesar was given
a house built like a temple on the sacred Palatine Hill. He was the first living man to have his
portrait put on coins.
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The Aphrodite of Fréjus (Musée du Louvre)
Roman marble copy representing Venus Genetrix statue
commissioned by Julius Caesar in 46 BCE |
By early 44 BC, the groundwork for Caesar's celestial ascent had been laid. His family had long claimed to be descended from the goddess Venus. Fulfilling his earlier battlefield vow from the fight against Pompey, he had built a magnificent temple dedicated to
Venus Genetrix. He was the
Pontifex Maximus, the chief high priest in the ancient Roman religion. If he became a living god, his name would be
Divus Julius -- if and when ratified by the Senate.
Caesar’s enemies -- along with some of his most trusted friends -- put a stop to his divine ambitions when they assassinated him on the Ides of March 44 BC.
Or so they thought.
Future emperor Augustus comes on the scene
Augustus was born Gaius Octavius on September 23, 63 BC. He was the grandnephew of Julius Caesar. In his will, Julius Caesar had named Octavius as his adopted son and sole heir. When Julius Caesar was murdered, the 18-year-old Gaius Octavius claimed his legal inheritance and became Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian, instantly becoming one of the wealthiest and most powerful citizens in the Republic of Rome.
I was curious as to why Julius Caesar chose the young teenager, Octavian, over Mark Antony, who had been expected to be the heir, and did some research.
When Octavian was four years old, his father died. His mother, Atia, remarried, and the boy was sent to live with his grandmother, Julia Minor, Julius Caesar's beloved sister, who raised him. Through his grandmother and mother, Octavian shared Caesar's sacred bloodline, the direct descent from the goddess Venus Genetrix.
When Julia died, the 12-year-old Octavian stood before Rome and delivered an eloquent, moving eulogy for his grandmother. Word reached Caesar in Gaul, who was impressed by the young boy's poise and oratorical skill. While Mark Antony was a formidable general, he did not share this divine bloodline. Through the women who raised him, Octavian carried the living lineage of Venus Genetrix, the Divine Mother -- a connection that set him apart in Caesar's eyes as his rightful heir.
Julius Caesar becomes a god
In July 44 BC, four months after Julius Caesar's assassination, Octavian held funeral games in honor of his adopted father, incorporating the games into the celebration of the goddess Venus -- games that Caesar had established two years earlier that ran from July 20th to July 28th (a lovely time for summer festivities since my own birthday is July 27th:-).
Astonishingly, a bright comet appeared in the skies during the games -- a comet that has since been verified by historical records.
Comets are hard to ignore
All of Rome witnessed the comet, which was visible for seven straight days. Julius Caesar had just been assassinated. The games celebrated the goddess Venus. Octavian proclaimed the obvious -- that Julius Caesar had become a god and had joined his ancestor, Venus, in heaven.
Julius Caesar was deified as
Divus Julius in 42 BC and was worshipped as a god by the masses. Octavian took the comet as a sign of his own rebirth and the dawning of a New Age. Octavian had become
Divi Filius, the son of the divine. (Remember, all this was going on before Jesus Christ came on the scene.)
Head of Church + State = Emperor
After nearly two decades of conquering and destroying his strongest enemies -- including Mark Antony and Cleopatra -- and expanding Rome's reach, Octavian received the title "Augustus" from the Roman Senate on January 16, 27 BC, transforming the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire with Augustus as its first emperor.
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A denarius minted c. 18 BC. Obverse: CAESAR AVGVSTVS; reverse: comet of eight rays with tail upward; DIVVS IVLIV[S] (DIVINE JULIUS) - Image: Classical Numismatic Group, Inc
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THE MONTH OF AUGUST
Prior to Emperor Augustus, the month of August was called Sextilis because it was the sixth month in the ten-month Roman calendar. It became the eighth month around 700 BC when January and February were added to the calendar, but was still called Sextilis.
To this day, we still use the wrong numbers for the last four months of the year -- September is not the seventh month, but the ninth, yet we do not call it "November" after the Latin word novem for "nine."
- September = septem = seven - but is the ninth month
- October = octo = eight - but is the 10th month
- November = novem = nine - but is the 11th month
- December = decem = ten - but is the 12th month
Before Julius Caesar came along, the Roman calendar was often manipulated for political purposes. Julius Caesar reformed the calendar on January 1, 45 BC, aligning it with the Sun. But Caesar didn't name July after himself; he was assassinated before he could. It was Mark Antony who pushed a law through the Senate later in 44 BC to rename Caesar's birth month of Quintilis to "Iulius," or July, in his honor, making his birthday July 12, 100 BC.
After Augustus came to power, in 8 BC he renamed Sextilis "Augustus," a month dear to his heart, but not because it was the month he was born -- remember, he was born on September 23, 63 BC. Ironically, Caesar Augustus would die on August 19, AD 14, in the month he created, at the age of 75.
From
Wikipedia:
Whereas the emperor Augustus Caesar, in the month of Sextilis, was first admitted to the consulate, and thrice entered the city in triumph, and in the same month the legions, from the Janiculum, placed themselves under his auspices, and in the same month Egypt
was brought under the authority of the Roman people, and in the same
month an end was put to the civil wars; and whereas for these reasons
the said month is, and has been, most fortunate to this empire, it is
hereby decreed by the senate that the said month shall be called
Augustus.
THE VIRGIN MOON GODDESS DIANA
Centuries before Augustus swept onto the stage, Romans had already been celebrating the Nemoralia on the Ides of what would become August. The Nemoralia was a three-day festival in honor of the virgin goddess, Diana.
Diana was a complicated deity -- a triple goddess of the Moon, the hunt, and the underworld -- as well as wild animals, virginity, fertility, and childbirth. She was often depicted with a bow and arrow.
Worshippers carried blazing torches and candles in a night procession to the shores of Lake Nemi, a volcanic lake just south of Rome in the city of Aricia. They adorned hunting dogs with garlands of flowers. It was a day of rest for women and slaves, to whom Diana offered protection.
The Romans co-opted the twelve Olympian Greek gods and
changed their names, but the gods retained much of their essential nature. The Romans conflated the virgin goddess Diana with the virgin Greek goddess Artemis, whose worship stretched back to pre-Hellenic times. Both Diana and Artemis were the daughters of the primary Olympian god, Zeus in Greek mythology, and Jupiter in Roman mythology.
By the time the Romans had conquered the Latin people of Aricia in 338 BC, Diana Nemorensis (Diana of the Wood) had
been worshipped in the sacred grove of the Arician forest since very ancient
times. The Grove of Diana was a healing sanctuary that would grow into a small city with
Hellenized architecture and an international clientele.
The moon
goddess Diana was revered by Augustus, who had ties to Aricia on the
maternal side of his family.
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Virgin and Child on the Crescent Moon with a Diadem by
Albrecht Dürer (1514) Rijksmusem
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THE VIRGIN MARY
Meanwhile, around 4 BC, Jesus Christ was born to a Jewish virgin named Mary in Bethlehem, a city located on the West Bank in Palestine in the Roman province of Judea, six miles south of Jerusalem. With her husband, Joseph, she had traveled from Nazareth -- 90 miles away -- supposedly in order to register in the census ordered by Emperor Augustus (which, in reality, did not take place until AD 6).
The Archangel Gabriel had appeared to Mary and told her she would be the mother of the Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit, chosen above all women on earth for her goodness and purity, fulfilling the prophecy in the Old Testament of the promised Messiah.
At the time of the birth of Jesus, Herod the Great was the King of Judea, a title bestowed upon him by the Roman Senate, with whom he had close relations. Herod died in 4 BC, and his kingdom was divided among three of his sons and his sister. Under Augustus in AD 6, Judea was turned into a Roman province, and the general population was taxed. The Roman prefect was granted the power of a supreme judge and had the authority to order a criminal's execution.
After Augustus died in AD 14, his stepson, Tiberius, was named emperor.
Pontius Pilate was the Roman prefect of Judea when
Jesus Christ flipped Judaism on its head and challenged the pagan gods. With words as his only weapon, Jesus was a charismatic leader who could draw a crowd.
He claimed God was his father. He rode a donkey into Jerusalem on Passover, surrounded by adoring masses. He went into the Temple, tossed over tables and drove out the merchants, accusing them of turning his Father's house into a den of thieves. He was a threat to the Jewish leadership, and an annoyance to Rome.
Around AD 30 or 33, Pontius Pilate condemned Jesus Christ to death, reportedly for claiming to be the Son of God and the King of the Jews. Jesus was crucified on a cross on a Friday and placed in a tomb, his mother Mary and others at the scene.
On Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and found it empty. Jesus then appeared to Mary Magdalene and his disciples before he ascended body and soul into heaven forty days later. Rome and the Jewish leadership had severely underestimated the power of Jesus Christ.
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Christ Pantocrator in the Basilica of San Marco, Venice
Photo: Cat Bauer |
CHRISTIANITY vs. THE ROMANS
As the centuries passed, it became clear that Jesus Christ had founded an entirely new religion: Christianity, with devout worshippers willing to die for their faith. The highest of Christianity's holy days is Easter or Pascha, a movable feast tied to the Moon that celebrates Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead.
There is a difference between the way the date is calculated between the Western Roman Catholic Church, which uses the Gregorian calendar, and the Eastern Orthodox Church, which still uses the Julian calendar.
For its first 300 years, Christianity was viewed by Rome as an illegal religion, and most Roman citizens, who were pagans, sought to repress it. Initially, persecution of Christians was carried out on a local level, instigated by pagan mobs. Christians were forced to renounce their religion and sacrifice to the Roman gods upon fear of death. One particularly gruesome form of capital punishment was
damnatio ad bestias, condemnation to beasts, a blood sport reserved for the worst criminals and Christians.
In AD 68, Mark the Evangelist, Venice's own patron saint and the founder of the Church of Alexandria, was killed by a pagan mob when they put a rope around his neck and dragged him through the streets until he died.
The local persecutions escalated until in 303 AD, during the Great Persecution, the Roman state ordered the destruction of churches, the seizure of Christian property and the burning of Christian texts. Christians were tortured and burned alive or mutilated and forced to work in the copper mines in Egypt.
EMPEROR CONSTANTINE CONVERTS TO CHRISTIANITY
Constantine the Great put an end to the persecution of Christians in AD 313, together with his eastern counterpart, Licinius, with the Edict of Milan, granting the freedom for each individual to worship as he pleased.
Constantine was a pagan who converted to Christianity in AD 312. He decreed that Sunday, sacred to the official Roman Sun god, Sol Invictus, would be a day of rest. He reunited the Roman Empire under one emperor and moved the capital to the Greek city of Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople, founded in AD 324. He built churches, ordered up Bibles, and promoted Christians to high-ranking offices. Constantine was baptized on his deathbed on May 22, AD 337.
Christianity became the official state religion of the Roman Empire with the Edict of Thessalonica on February 27, AD 380. Similar to how Rome absorbed the Greek gods, it changed the images and feast days of the pagan gods to represent the Christian religion.
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| Church of Santa Maria Assunta, Torcello, Venice - Photo: Cat Bauer |
THE ASSUMPTION OF MARY & THE EASTER OF SUMMER
There is no mention of how the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, died, and it has been a topic of discussion throughout the ages, including whether to call her the
Theotokos, the Mother of God, the
Christotokos, the Mother of Christ, or even the contentious role of Co-Redemptrix, a concept suggesting that Mary actively co-operated in the saving of humanity by offering her own maternal suffering at the foot of the cross.
For centuries, it was debated whether:
- she died a natural death
- Christ transported her soul to heaven, and on the third day her body was resurrected
- she was still alive at the time of the Assumption
The Virgin Mary's ascent into heaven is called the Dormition in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Assumption in the Roman Catholic Church. It is the same celebration with different interpretations.
The earliest records about the celebration of the Virgin Mary are lost to history, but reference was made to a feast day as far back as the 3rd century. Then, in AD 431, during the time of the Council of Ephesus, it was decided that the Virgin Mary was to be called the Theotokos, "the one who gave birth to God."
The Byzantine emperor Maurice (539-602) selected August 15th as the feast of the Dormition, the passing of the Virgin Mary from earthly life.
The Easter of Summer
The Greek Orthodox Church celebrates the Dormition of the Theotokos on August 15, and calls it the "Easter of Summer." It is preceded by a two-week fast, broken by a traditional feast with family and friends.
The Orthodox Church teaches that Mary died a natural death at the house of John the Evangelist in Jerusalem, surrounded by the Apostles except for Thomas. The Apostles buried her in the garden of Gethsemane. When Thomas arrived three days later, he visited her tomb and found it empty. So, the Orthodox Church believes that Mary died on earth, Christ took her soul to heaven, and then her body was assumed.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Papal State institutionalized the Feast of the Assumption as a Catholic holiday on August 15th and moved the pagan Ferragosto festival so it would coincide with the religious festival of the Virgin Mary.
FASCISTS HOP ON THE FESTIVAL
During Fascism in the late 1920s and 30s, the regime organized discounted train trips so that working classes in Italy could have an opportunity to relax and visit the sea or the mountains on August 13, 14, and 15, establishing a tradition of traveling to different regions that continues to this day.
In the Roman Catholic Church, it was not until 1950 that Pope Pius XII made the Assumption of the Virgin Mary part of Church dogma, declaring "that the immaculate Mother of God, Mary ever virgin, when the course of
her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into the glory
of heaven." He did not say whether or not she was already dead.
So in Italy, the pagan festival of the ancient moon goddess, Diana, was absorbed into the Roman Imperial festivities of Ferragosto, which was absorbed into the Catholic feast of the Assumption of Mary, the Mother of God, which was absorbed into the Fascist festivities of Ferragosto...
Happy August from Venezia,
Cat Bauer
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog
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