a.d. III Non. Dec.
December 3 in Ancient Rome
Catilinarian conspirators arrested
politics63 BC
Pre-reform Roman calendar
a.d. III Non. Dec. · Roman date in the pre-Julian calendar (day inferred, not written in the source)
With evidence from Allobroges envoys, Cicero had Lentulus, Cethegus and three others arrested in Rome.
Cicero · Catiline
Background
After Catiline left Rome in November 63 BC, his allies in the city, led by the praetor Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura, planned arson and murder to coincide with his march. They made a fatal mistake: they approached envoys of the Allobroges, a Gallic people in Rome to complain about debts and the greed of Roman governors, hoping to win Gallic cavalry.
The envoys reported to their Roman patron, who told Cicero. On Cicero's instructions they asked the plotters for sealed written pledges. On the night of 2–3 December praetors ambushed the envoys at the Mulvian Bridge and seized the letters. Lentulus, Cethegus, Statilius, Gabinius and Caeparius were arrested and confronted with their own seals in the Senate per Sallust and Cicero's Third Catilinarian; Cicero dramatises his role, and the exact day is debated.
On 5 December, after a famous debate in which Caesar urged life imprisonment and Cato demanded death, the Senate backed execution. The men were strangled in the Tullianum prison that night without trial before the people, a decision that later led to Cicero's exile in 58 BC.
Before Caesar's reform (45 BC) the calendar had drifted from the seasons, so the real seasonal date was different; we don't give a modern equivalent. Why?
⚠ Uncertain date: Sources give 2 or 3 December.
Ancient source: Sallust, Catiline 46–47; Cicero, In Catilinam 3 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 14°/6°C (57°/43°F) · rain 38% 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
All days in December →
LATIN LINE OF THE DAY
Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare.
“I do not love you, Sabidius, and I cannot say why.”
Martial, Epigrams 1.32 · translation ours (literal)
