Fasti

About “Fasti”

The Fasti is a Latin poem written by Ovid and published in AD 8. It was left incomplete when Ovid was exiled to Tomis by Emperor Augustus in the same year. The work is composed of six books, each covering a month of the Roman calendar, from January to June. Written in elegiac couplets, it draws on Greek and Latin didactic poetry traditions. The poem presents accounts from the first-person vates, who interviews Roman deities to explain the origins of holidays and customs. The Fasti serves as an important source for understanding ancient Roman religion. It was written several years after Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.)