a.d. III Id. Dec.
December 11 in Ancient Rome
Agonalia & Septimontium
festivalAnnual
Roman calendar date
Rome's Agonalia rites and the Septimontium, a festival of the 'seven hills', fell on the same day.
Agonalia
Background
The Agonalia was an ancient sacrifice held four times a year (9 January, 17 March, 21 May and 11 December). The rex sacrorum, the priest who inherited the religious functions of Rome's early kings, sacrificed a ram. Even the Romans were unsure what the name meant; Varro and Ovid offer several guesses, from agere ("to drive" the victim) to agonia, an old word for sacrificial animal per Varro and Ovid.
The Septimontium, held on the same day, was a festival of the "seven hills", not the classic seven but older hilltop communities such as the Palatium, Velia, Cermalus and parts of the Esquiline per Varro and Festus; the exact list is disputed. It probably preserved the memory of a federation of villages before Rome became a single city.
By the late Republic the Septimontium was a local festival kept by the residents of these neighbourhoods rather than the whole people; Suetonius notes that Domitian distributed food baskets to senators and equites at the Septimontium per Suetonius, Domitian 4. Neighbourhood festivals like this were part of how ordinary Romans identified with their quarter of the city.
Ancient source: Varro, De Lingua Latina 6.12, 6.24 · Reference
Sources
Read moreJulian enters Constantinople
Julian enters Constantinople
politicsAD 361
Julian date · ≈ Dec 12 on our calendar
Julian entered Constantinople as sole emperor and led Constantius' Christian funeral procession.
Julian
Background
When Constantius II died in Cilicia on 3 November 361, Julian was marching east against him with his army from Gaul. News of the death reached him in the Balkans, and the eastern army accepted him. He entered Constantinople on 11 December to great public enthusiasm, crowds pouring out to meet him as the city's native son, since he had been born there in 331 per Ammianus.
Julian then received Constantius' body and led the funeral procession to the Church of the Holy Apostles, dressed in mourning per Ammianus. It was a striking gesture: Julian had already revealed that he had abandoned Christianity for the traditional gods.
In Constantinople he quickly cut back the palace staff, expelling armies of cooks, barbers and eunuchs per Ammianus and Libanius, set up a tribunal at Chalcedon that condemned several of Constantius' officials, and issued edicts restoring temples and sacrifices. His reign lasted only twenty months: he was killed during his invasion of Persia in June 363.
Ancient source: Ammianus Marcellinus 22.2 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 13°/5°C (55°/41°F) · rain 35% of days
Rome in DecemberDecember's highlight was the Saturnalia (from 17 December).
Columella
North-west wind or north wind; sometimes south wind with rain. (De Re Rust. 11.2)
Fields & crops
Olive picking and pressing, wood-cutting, and indoor work on rainy days; sowing ideally finished by the Kalends per Columella 11.2.
Courts & law
Courts closed for the Saturnalia; quaestors gave gladiatorial shows in December in late antiquity per the Chronography of 354.
Senate & politics
New tribunes of the plebs entered office on 10 December; outgoing magistrates closed their accounts before the year ended Republic.
Military
Winter quarters. Soldiers too kept the Saturnalia, choosing a mock 'king' per the Acts of Dasius, a late and disputed martyr text.
Festivals & religion
Faunalia (5 Dec.), Agonalia and Septimontium (11 Dec.), Consualia (15 Dec.), Saturnalia (from 17 Dec.), Opalia (19 Dec.), Divalia (21 Dec.), Larentalia (23 Dec.), and later the birthday of Sol Invictus (25 Dec.).
Daily life
December's highlight was the Saturnalia (from 17 December). Business stopped, people wore the casual pilleus cap and gave small gifts, and households let enslaved people eat with, or even be served by, their owners per Macrobius 1.7, Seneca Ep. 47. Seneca, though, notes that the inversion lasted only days; the rest of the year enslaved people stood silent and hungry while masters dined, and could be beaten for a cough per Seneca, Ep. 47. Seneca himself grumbled that the whole city "sweats" with feasting Seneca, Ep. 18.
On farms, olives were picked and pressed, and enslaved workers repaired tools and baskets on rainy days per Columella 11.2.
Sources: Varro, De Lingua Latina 6 · Chronography of 354 · Seneca, Epistles 18 and 47 · Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.7–10
All days in December →
LATIN LINE OF THE DAY
Hoc est vivere bis, vita posse priore frui.
“To be able to enjoy one's past life is to live twice.”
Martial, Epigrams 10.23 · translation ours (literal)
