fasti

In ancient Rome, various lists or registers. Originally fasti were calendars that showed the dies fasti (‘judicial days’) on which legal and governmental business could be transacted. Later, fasti included records of events, registers of magistrates and of those who had been granted a triumph (victory procession), and lists of the year's memorable events.

The fasti included the fasti diurni, an official yearbook with dates and directions for religious ceremonies and market days. It was first published 304 BC on tables posted in the forum by Gnaeus Flavius, a freed slave and secretary of Appius Claudius Caecus. After the introduction of the Julian calendar 45 BC, Julius Caesar published new fasti. The fasti magistrales, also called fasti annales or historici, included chronicles of events issued by the various offices of state. Fasti were also published in other towns and cities of Italy (for example, the Fasti Ostienses from Ostia).

Ovid wrote a work ‘Fasti’, a poetical calender of the Roman year, of which only the first six months survive.