FASTI, in Roman antiquity, the calendar wherein were expressed the several days of the year, with their feasts, games, and other ceremonies.
There were two sorts of fasti, the greater and less: the former being distinguished by the appellation fasti magistrales, and the latter by that of fasti kalendares.
1. The fasti kalendares, which were properly and primarily called fasti, are defined by Festus Pompeius to be books containing a description of the whole year: i. e. ephemerides, or diaries, distinguishing the several kinds of days, festi, profesti, fasti, nefasti, &c. The author of these was Numa, who committed the care and direction of the fasti to the pontifex maximus, whom the people used to consult on every occasion. This custom held till the year of Rome 450, when C. Flavius, secretary to the pontifices, exposed in the forum a list of all the days on which it was lawful to work; which was so acceptable to the people, that they made him curule ædile.
These lesser fasti, or fasti kalendares, were of two kinds, urbani and rustici.
The fasti urbani, or fasti of the city, were those which obtained or were observed in the city. Some will have them thus called, because they were exposed publicly in divers parts of the city; though by the various inscriptions or gravings thereof on antique stones, one would imagine that private persons had them likewise in their houses. Ovid undertook to illustrate these fasti urbani, and comment on them, in his Libri Fastorum,
Faſtorum, whereof we have the firſt fix books ſtill remaining; the laſt fix, if ever they were written, being loſt.
In the faſti ruſtici, or country faſti, were expreſſed the ſeveral days, feaſts, &c. to be obſerved by the country people: for as theſe were taken up in tilling the ground, fewer feaſts, ſacrifices, ceremonies, and holidays, were enjoined them than the inhabitants of cities; and they had alſo ſome peculiar ones not obſerved at Rome. Theſe ruſtic faſti contained little more than the ceremonies of the kalends, nones, and ides; the fairs, ſigns of the zodiac, increaſe and decreaſe of the days, the tutelary gods of each month, and certain directions for rural works to be performed each month.
2. In the greater faſti, or faſti magiſtrales, were expreſſed the ſeveral feaſts, with every thing relating to the gods, religion, and the magiſtrates; the emperors, their birth-days, offices, days conſecrated to them, and feaſts and ceremonies eſtabliſhed in their honour, or for their proſperity, &c. With a number of ſuch circumſtances did flattery at length ſwell the faſti; when they became denominated Magni, to diſtinguiſh them from the bare kalendar, or faſti kalendares.
Faſti was alſo a chronicle or regiſter of time, wherein the ſeveral years were denoted by the reſpective conſuls, with the principal events that happened during their conſulates; theſe were called alſo faſti conſulares, or conſular faſti.
Faſti, or Dies Faſti, alſo denoted court days. The word faſti faſtorum, is formed of the verb faſi, "to ſpeak," becauſe during thoſe days the courts were opened, cauſes might be heard, and the prætor was allowed faſi, to pronounce the three words, do, dico, addico: The other days wherein this was prohibited were called nefaſti: thus Ovid,
Ille nefaſtus erit, per quem tria verba ſilentur:
Faſtus erit, per quem lege licebit agi.
These dies faſti were noted in the kalendar by the letter F; but obſerve, that there were ſome days ex parte faſti, partly faſti, partly nefaſti; i. e. juſtice might be diſtributed at certain times of the day, and not at others. Theſe days were called interciſi, and were marked in the kalendar thus; F. P. faſtos primo, where juſtice might be demanded during the firſt part of that day.