Nundinae

The nundinae (/nənˈdɪnaɪ/, /-niː/), sometimes anglicized to nundines,[1] were the market days of the ancient Roman calendar, forming a kind of weekend including, for a certain period, rest from work for the ruling class (patricians).

The lengths of the Republican and Julian calendars, however, were not evenly divisible by 8; under these systems, the nundinae fell on a different letter each year.

It is now glossed as an adjective modifying an understood feriae ("festival; holiday"),[1][9] but not all Romans considered it to be one: a writer named Titius listed the nundinae as a "customary occasion" (sollemnes)[10][11] and the Roman pontiffs themselves told the augur Messala that they did not consider the nones or nundinae to be religious occasions.

[17][16] The regular nundinae were credited by Roman legend variously to Romulus[18][19] when he ruled jointly with Titus Tatius and first established Rome's religious observances,[21] to Servius Tullius when he aimed to improve commerce in the town,[23] or to the plebeians when they began to gather after the expulsion of Tarquin to offer sacrifices to Servius Tullius.

Farmers and craftsmen from Rome's hinterland would rest from work on the nundinae to visit the city,[32] selling groceries and supplies which the Romans or their slaves would purchase for the next eight days.

Later writers praising early Rome's rusticity and spartanness claimed that its farmers would busy themselves with labor during the week and only groom[44] and fully bathe[45] on the nundinae.

[46] Pliny describes the superstition, "religiously believed by many", that trimming one's nails silently during the nundinae or doing so beginning with the index finger provoked bad luck for one's finances.

[49] Under its monarchy, Rome's nundinae were market days for the country plebeians and used as an occasion for the king to settle disputes among them.

If plebeian assemblies had previously been permitted on market days,[54] any public assemblies—including their informal sessions (contiones)[55]—were now positively banned.

[58][65][66] The tribunes of the plebs were obliged to conduct and conclude all of their business on the nundinae, such that if any motion was not carried by dusk it needed to be proposed and announced anew and discussed only after a further three-week period.

[72] Superstitions arose about the ill luck when a nundinae would fall upon January 1st or the nones of any month and the pontiffs who controlled the calendar's intercalation until the Julian reform took steps to avoid such coincidences,[73][36] usually by making the year 354 instead of 355 days long by removing a day from February or the intercalary month.

[76] Macrobius's account of the origins of these superstitions is unsatisfying, however, and it is more likely that 1 January was avoided because its status as a general holiday was bad for business and the nones because of the ill luck attending their lack of a tutelary deity.

[83] The early Roman prejudice against commerce, especially the retail trade of the nundinal markets, means that the nundinae are usually referenced in negative contexts in Latin literature, particularly for the buying and selling of things that should not be sold such as virginity and love, medical treatment, education, government and church offices and favors, and judicial decisions.

[43] This bias endured into medieval Latin, where nundinatio ("marketing") without other qualification meant corruption, especially the purchase of judicial verdicts.