FASTI

fasti, in roman antiquities, plural of the latin adjective _fastus_, but more commonly used as a substantive, derived from _fas_, meaning what is binding, or allowable, by divine law, as opposed to _jus_, or human law. _fasti dies_ thus came to mean the days on which law business might be transacted without impiety, corresponding to our own "lawful days"; the opposite of the _dies fasti_ were the _dies nefasti_, on which, on various religious grounds, the courts could not sit. the word _fasti_ itself then came to be used to denote lists or registers of various kinds, which may be divided into two great classes. 1. _fasti diurni_, divided into _urbani_ and _rustici_, a kind of official year-book, with dates and directions for religious ceremonies, court-days, market-days, divisions of the month, and the like. until 304 b.c. the lore of the _calendaria_ remained the exclusive and lucrative monopoly of the priesthood; but in that year gnaeus flavius, a pontifical secretary, introduced the custom of publishing in the forum tables containing the requisite information, besides brief references to victories, triumphs, prodigies, &c. this list was the origin of the public roman calendar, in which the days were divided into weeks of eight days each, and indicated by the letters a-h. each day was marked by a certain letter to show its nature; thus the letters f., n., n.p.,