Aprilis

Some antiquarians, as well as Ovid in his poem on the Roman calendar, provide an alternate derivation from Aphrodite, the Greek counterpart of Venus whose festival began the month.

[3] Some modern linguists derive Aprilis from Etruscan Ampile or Amphile, based on a medieval gloss, conjecturing an origin in the Thessalian month name Aphrios.

[6] The farmers' almanacs (menologia rustica) concur that Venus—in Roman religion a goddess of gardens—was the tutelary deity of April, and that sheep were to be purified (oves lustrantur).

[7] In his agricultural treatise, Varro enumerates duties such as weeding crops, breaking ground, cutting willows, fencing meadows, and planting and pruning olives.

"[10] The latter part of April was consumed by games (ludi) in honor of Ceres, the grain goddess thought to have power over growth and the life cycle.

The end of the month brought the beginning of the games of Flora, goddess of blooming plants and listed by Varro as one of the twelve principal agricultural deities.

During the Imperial period, some of the traditional festivals localized at Rome became less important, and the birthdays and anniversaries of the emperor and his family gained prominence as Roman holidays.

On the calendar of military religious observances known as the Feriale Duranum, sacrifices pertaining to Imperial cult outnumber the older festivals.