Q.R.C.F. (_Quando Rex Comitiavit Fas_) will be explained under March 24; the only other day on which it occurs is May 24. Q.St.D.F. (_Quando stercus delatum fas_) only occurs on June 15, and will there be fully dealt with.
FP occurs thrice, but only in three calendars. Feb. 21 (_Feralia_) is thus marked in Caer.[26], but is F in Maff. April 23 (_Vinalia_) is FP in Caer. but NP in Maff. and F in Praen. Aug. 19 (_Vinalia rustica_) is FP in Maff. and Amit, F in Antiat. and Allif., NP in Vall. Mommsen explains FP as _fastus principio_, i. e. the early part of the day was _fastus_, and suggests that in the case of the _Feralia_, as the rites of the dead were performed at night, there was no reason why the earlier part of the day should be _nefastus_. But in the case of the two Vinalia we can hardly even guess at the meaning of the mark, and it does not seem to have been known to the Romans themselves.
The basis of our knowledge of the old Roman religious year is to be found in the fragments of calendars which still survive. None of these indeed is older than the Julian era; and all but one are mere fragments. But from the fragments and the one almost perfect calendar we can infer the character of the earlier calendar with tolerable certainty.
The calendar, as the Romans generally believed, was first published by Cnaeus Flavius, curule aedile, in 304 B.C., who placed the _fasti_ conspicuously in the Forum, in order that every one might know on what days legal business might be transacted[27]; in other words, a calendar was published with the marks of the days and the indications of the festivals. After this we hear nothing until 189 B.C., when a consul, M. Fulvius Nobilior, adorned his temple of Hercules and the Muses with a calendar which contained explanations or notes as well as dates[28]. These are the only indications we have of the way in which the pre-Julian calendar was made known to the people.
But the rectification of the calendar by Julius, and the changes then introduced, brought about a multiplication of copies of the original one issued under the dictator’s edict[29]. Not only in Rome, but in the municipalities round about her, where the ancient religious usage of each city had since the enfranchisement of Italy been superseded, officially at least, by that of Rome, both public and private copies were made and set up either on stone, or painted on the walls or ceiling of a building.