Ancient Roman farmers' almanacs (in Latin, menologia rustica) are a type of Roman calendar providing month-by-month information on conditions and activities pertaining to agriculture. They were displayed as public inscriptions. Menologia Rustica Colotianum measures 0'654 cm in height, 0'410 cm in width. Examples that survived to the modern era are the Menologium Rusticum Colotianum and the Menologium Rusticum Vallense, both dating to the period 19–65 AD or 36–39 to the end of the 1st century AD. Both were discovered in the 16th century, but the Menologium Valense has been lost.
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Description
The Menologium Rusticum Colotianum was discovered by Angelo Colocci, and is held by the Naples Museum. It appears on a four-sided marble altar base, inscribed in twelve columns. Each column contains:
Villas on working estates often displayed mosaics and wall painting depicting seasonal or monthly agricultural activities, in some sense illustrations of the menologia rustica.
Van L. Johnson conjectured that the four-sided form of the menologia preserved an original four-month Roman "year" or festival cycle.