pr. Non. Dec.
December 4 in Ancient Rome
Constantius II condemns magicians
politicsAD 357
Julian date · ≈ Dec 5 on our calendar
An edict to the people declared that those who used magic to disturb the elements, harm the innocent or summon spirits against their enemies should be destroyed as 'strangers to nature'.
Constantius II
Background
Romans of every class used magic: curse tablets against rivals in love, lawsuits or chariot races, amulets against illness, and spells for luck. Lead curse tablets survive in large numbers across the empire. The state had long punished harmful magic, but fourth-century emperors, afraid of plots against their own lives, grew harsher.
This edict, issued to the people in December 357, declared that people who disturbed the elements by magical arts, threatened the lives of the innocent, or dared to summon the spirits of the dead to destroy their enemies were "strangers to nature" and should be wiped out by a cruel death.
The law mainly targeted harmful sorcery, but in practice accusations of magic were dangerous weapons in feuds and court politics. Ammianus describes treason and magic trials under Constantius and Valens in which many were tortured or executed on flimsy evidence per Ammianus.
Ancient source: Theodosian Code 9.16.5 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 14°/6°C (57°/43°F) · rain 37% 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
Lasciva est nobis pagina, vita proba.
“My page is playful; my life is upright.”
Martial, Epigrams 1.4 · translation ours (literal)
