a.d. V Id. Dec.
December 9 in Ancient Rome
No appeals for convicted murderers and poisoners
politicsAD 344
Julian date · ≈ Dec 10 on our calendar
Constantius II and Constans ruled that those convicted of murder, poisoning, sorcery, adultery or rape by evidence, witnesses and their own confession could not appeal.
Constantius II
Background
Roman law in the late empire allowed appeals from a governor's sentence to higher courts, and defendants often used appeals to delay punishment. This law of Constantius II and Constans, dated 9 December 344, limited that right.
If someone had been convicted of murder, poisoning, sorcery, adultery or rape, and the guilt was shown by evidence, witnesses and the defendant's own confession, an appeal was not to be accepted. The emperors reasoned that clear guilt should not be delayed by legal manoeuvres.
For victims and their families, this promised faster justice. For defendants, it was a real danger: late Roman courts routinely used torture on lower-status people (and, in treason or magic cases, on almost anyone) to obtain confessions, so a "confession" was not always freely given modern historians stress this context.
Ancient source: Theodosian Code 11.36.7 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 13°/6°C (55°/43°F) · rain 36% 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
Rumpitur invidia quidam, carissime Iuli, quod me Roma legit.
“Someone is bursting with envy, dearest Julius, because Rome reads me.”
Martial, Epigrams 9.97 · translation ours (literal)
