Iunius (month)

Juventas ("Youth") pairs Iunius with Maius: the former, she says, comes from junior, "a younger person", in contrast to maiores or the "elders" for whom May was named.

Ovid has Concordia claim that Iunius comes from iungo, iunctus, "join", in honor of her uniting the Romans and the Sabines.

Elsewhere, an even less likely derivation relates the month name to Marcus Iunius Brutus, a member of the gens Iunia who made the first sacrifice to Dea Carna on the Kalends (June 1).

[1] Month illustrations that draw on the Calendar of Filocalus (354 AD) show a nude male holding a torch that may be an allegory of the summer solstice.

On the calendar of the Republic and early Principate, each day was marked with a letter to denote its religiously lawful status.

of June 15 stands for Quando stercum delatum fas, when it was a religious obligation to remove dirt from the Temple of Vesta.

[8] Scullard places the Taurian Games on June 25–26 on a five-year cycle, but other scholars believe these ludi had no regular date and were held as a crisis ritual when needed.