page_title: September (Roman month)
section_title: Under the emperors
hierarchical_section_title: September (Roman month) / Under the emperors
caption_attribution_description: Português: Imperador Cômodo com os atributos de Hércules. Museus Capitolinos, Roma English: Commodus as Hercules. Musei Capitolini, Rome
context_page_description: September or mensis September was originally the seventh of ten months on the ancient Roman calendar that began with March. It had 29 days. After the reforms that resulted in a 12-month year, September became the ninth month, but retained its name. September followed what was originally Sextilis, the "sixth" month, renamed Augustus in honor of the first Roman emperor, and preceded October, the "eighth" month that like September retained its numerical name contrary to its position on the calendar. A day was added to September in the mid-40s BC as part of the Julian calendar reform.
  September has none of the archaic festivals that are marked in large letters for other months on extant Roman fasti. Instead, about half the month is devoted to the Ludi Romani, "Roman Games", which developed as votive games for Jupiter Optimus Maximus. The Ludi Romani are the oldest games instituted by the Romans, dating from 509 BC. On the Ides of September, Jupiter was honored with a public banquet, the Epulum Jovis. A nail-driving ritual in the temple marked the passing of the political year during the Republican era, and in the earliest period, the consuls took office on the Ides of September.
context_section_description: September has a concentration of imperial birthdays (dies natales): Aurelian on the 9th, Trajan on the 18th, Antoninus Pius on the 19th, and Augustus on the 23rd. Inscriptions throughout the Empire record religious dedications made on these days, often by military personnel. The Genius of Legio II Italica Pia, an Italian legion stationed in Noricum, received a dedication on September 18, 119 AD, the anniversary of Trajan's birth and Nerva's accession. This date may also have been the "birthday" of the unit (natalis aquilae). At least two inscriptions record religious dedications on September 19, the birthday of Antoninus Pius. In the province of Germania Inferior, on this date in 190 AD, a camp prefect (praefectus castrorum) and his three sons dedicated an altar to Jupiter Optimus Maximus (IOM), Hercules, Silvanus, and the Genius of the "divine house" (domus divina, the imperial household). In the same province, a prefect of Legio I Minerviae marked the renovation of a temple to Mars Militaris on September 19, 295, with a dedication to the wellbeing (salus) of the emperor. Several inscriptions record dedications on the birthday of Augustus, including one in honor of the Eagle made in Roman Britain dually to the numen of Augustus and the Genius of Legio II Augusta (144 AD), and an inscribed bronze Genius from Germania Superior donated to an association of standard bearers (246 AD).
  There were occasional attempts to rename September, emulating the successful renaming of the Roman months originally called Quinctilis (July, after Julius Caesar) and Sextilis (August, after Augustus). According to Suetonius, Tiberius declined the honor of having September named after himself, and October after his mother Livia. Caligula insisted futilely that September be called Germanicus after his father. Domitian (reigned 81–96 AD) also briefly renamed September, the month of his accession as emperor, mensis Germanicus after the triumph he celebrated over the Germanic Chatti. 
  More sweepingly, in 184 AD Commodus renamed all the months of the year after names and aspects of himself. Cassius Dio lists Amazonius (January), Invictus, Felix, Pius, Lucius, Aelius, Aurelius, Commodus, Augustus, Herculeus, Romanus, and Exsuperatorius. In this sequence, August as his birth month was renamed Commodus, and September was called by his title Augustus, with each of the months from May to September (Lucius to Augustus) represented by elements of his official nomenclature in their usual order. The Historia Augusta also indicates that August was the month named Commodus, but is internally inconsistent: at one point, Hercules, the  patron deity chosen by Commodus, is said to have been the namesake for September, while elsewhere October is the mensis Herculeus, as it is on Dio's list. Several sources from late antiquity—among them Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, and Jerome—state that September was the mensis Commodus. Dates recorded in the month of Commodus are exceedingly rare, with a graffito from Ostia Antica reading VII Kal. Commodas (July 26 or August 26, depending on whether Commodus was August or September); a date of III Nonas Commodias (August 3) in the Historia Augusta; and a fragmentary reference to the Idus Commodas ("Ides of Commodus") on a marble base at Lanuvium. The innovation was repealed after his murder in 192.
caption: Commodus with the attributes of Hercules, holding a club and an apple of the Hesperides, and wearing the Nemean lionskin
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