April 28th-30th | Fastorum Liber Quartus: Aprilis
F NP LVD • FLOR | IV - Pr. Kal. | IV.943-954, Ovid sets up the rites of the Floralia.
Cum Phrygis Assaraci Tithonia fratre relicto
sustulit inmenso ter iubar orbe suum,
mille venit variis florum dea nexa coronis: 945
scaena ioci morem liberioris habet.
exit et in Maias sacrum Florale Kalendas;
tunc repetam, nunc me grandius urget opus.
aufer, Vesta, diem! cognati Vesta recepta est
limine: sic iusti constituere patres. 950
Phoebus habet partem. Vestae pars altera cessit;
quod superest illis, tertius ipse tenet.
state Palatinae laurus, praetextaque quercu
stet domus: aeternos tres habet una deos.
943 When the spouse of Tithonus has left the brother of Phrygian Assaracus,1 and thrice has lifted up her radiant light in the vast firmament, there comes a goddess decked with garlands of a thousand varied flowers, and the stage enjoys a customary licence of mirth. The rites of Flora also extend into the Kalends of May. Then I will resume the theme: now a loftier task is laid upon me. O Vesta, take thy day! Vesta has been received in the home of her kinsman: so have the Fathers righteously decreed. Phoebus owns part of the house; another part has been given up to Vesta; what remains is occupied by Caesar himself. Long live the laurels of the Palatine! Long live the house wreathed with the oaken boughs! A single house holds three eternal gods.2
M, the editor of Ovid Daily, has also written a translation of Liber IV.
According to Homer, Tithonus was a distant cousin of Assaracus. Frater is often used loosely.
When Augustus was made Pontifex Maximus, he should have taken up his residence in the Regia near Vesta’s temple, but instead he built a chapel of Vesta in his own house on the Palatine, and dedicated it on April 28, which was made a public holiday. The mention of Phoebus refers to the temple of Apollo built on the Palatine containing the famous library. Here, as in iii. 425, the poet claims kinship for Augustus with Vesta through Aeneas. For the oaken boughs cf. Lib. I.614, note 5.