a.d. XVIII Kal. Ian.
December 15 in Ancient Rome
Birth of Nero
birthAD 37
Julian date · ≈ Dec 13 on our calendar
Nero was born at Antium to Agrippina the Younger and Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus.
Background
Nero was born at Antium (Anzio), on the coast south of Rome, on 15 December AD 37, nine months after the death of Tiberius per Suetonius. His mother was Agrippina the Younger, great-granddaughter of Augustus and sister of the new emperor Caligula; his father was Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, from an old noble family that Suetonius describes as violent and arrogant per Suetonius, a hostile biographer. Suetonius says the baby was born just as the sun rose, so that its rays touched him before they touched the ground, which was later seen as an omen per Suetonius.
His father died when he was about three, and his mother was exiled by Caligula, so he was briefly raised in his aunt's household. After Agrippina married her uncle, the emperor Claudius, in 49, she secured Nero's adoption in 50 and his marriage to Claudius' daughter Octavia.
Nero became emperor in 54 at 16. His reign began with good government guided by Seneca and Burrus but grew notorious for the murder of his mother, the persecution after the Great Fire of 64, and lavish spending. It ended with his suicide in June 68.
Ancient source: Suetonius, Nero 6 · Reference
Sources
Read moreBirth of Lucius Verus
Birth of Lucius Verus
birthAD 130
Julian date · ≈ Dec 14 on our calendar
Lucius Verus, co-emperor with Marcus Aurelius from 161, was born.
Background
Lucius Ceionius Commodus, later called Lucius Verus, was born in Rome on 15 December 130 per the Historia Augusta, a late and often unreliable collection; the date is generally accepted. His father, also Lucius Ceionius Commodus, was adopted by Hadrian in 136 as heir but died on 1 January 138.
Hadrian then adopted Antoninus Pius on the condition that Pius in turn adopt both the young Marcus Aurelius and the seven-year-old Lucius. Lucius thus grew up in the imperial family, though Pius clearly favoured Marcus.
When Pius died in 161, Marcus insisted that Lucius be made co-emperor with equal rank, the first time Rome had two Augusti. Lucius led the Parthian war of 161–166 from Antioch while generals did the fighting. Returning troops seem to have brought the Antonine Plague, probably smallpox, which killed large numbers across the empire over the following years modern identification; mortality estimates vary widely. Lucius died in early 169, probably of a stroke, while travelling with Marcus.
Ancient source: Historia Augusta, Verus 1.8 ('XVIII kal. Ianuariarum') · Reference
Sources
Read moreConsualia (winter)
Consualia (winter)
festivalAnnual
Roman calendar date
The second festival of Consus, god of stored grain, was held on 15 December.
Background
Consus was an old Roman god connected with the storing of grain; his name was often linked to condere, "to store away" ancient etymology, uncertain. His altar in the Circus Maximus was kept underground and uncovered only on his festival days. He had two festivals: 21 August, after the harvest, and 15 December, after the autumn sowing per Varro.
Tradition said Romulus founded the Consualia, and that at the first celebration the Romans seized the Sabine women who had come to watch the games tradition, per Livy and Plutarch. Horse and mule races were held, and working animals were crowned with flowers and rested per Plutarch.
The double festival shows how the Roman year followed the grain cycle. Grain was the foundation of the diet—most calories came from bread, porridge (puls) and other cereals—so the safety of the stored harvest through winter mattered to everyone, from farmers to the urban poor who depended on it.
Ancient source: Varro, De Lingua Latina 6.20 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 12°/5°C (54°/41°F) · rain 33% of days
Rome in DecemberDecember's highlight was the Saturnalia (from 17 December).
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
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