Kal. Ian.
January 1 in Ancient Rome
Kalends of January: consuls take office
politicsfrom 153 BC (annual)
Roman calendar date
From 153 BC Rome's consuls took office on 1 January, which made it the start of the civil year.
Background
For most of the Republic, Rome's two consuls had entered office on varying dates, and for a long stretch on the Ides of March. The calendar year and the political year did not line up neatly, and every war or emergency could shift them further.
In 153 BC the consuls began taking office on 1 January per Livy's Periochae. The Periochae give the reason: the Spaniards were in revolt, and the Senate evidently wanted the new commanders in place early enough to reach the front for the campaigning season. On the Kalends the new consuls put on the purple-bordered toga, were escorted by friends and clients to the Capitol, sacrificed to Jupiter and held the first Senate meeting of the year.
The change stuck. Romans named each year after its consuls, so the 1 January start shaped dates, contracts and records for centuries, and it is the reason our own year begins in January. For ordinary people the Kalends were also a day for small gifts and good-luck wishes, and for debtors a grimmer date: interest often fell due on the Kalends, which is where our word "calendar" comes from (the kalendarium was a creditor's account book).
Ancient source: Livy, Periochae 47; Fasti Praenestini · Reference
Sources
Read moreRhine legions refuse their oath to Galba
Rhine legions refuse their oath to Galba
politicsAD 69
Julian date · ≈ Dec 30 on our calendar
On the day Galba and Vinius became consuls, the legions in Germania Superior refused to renew their oath to Galba. It was the start of the Year of the Four Emperors.
Galba
Background
Nero's fall in June 68 left the elderly Servius Sulpicius Galba as emperor, but his support was thin. He was known for stinginess: he refused the donative the Praetorians expected, and on the Rhine he had removed the popular commander Verginius Rufus. The armies of Germany, who had crushed the revolt of Vindex in his name's shadow, felt unrewarded and suspected.
On 1 January 69, when Galba and Titus Vinius entered the consulship and soldiers everywhere routinely renewed their oath, the legions of Upper Germany at Mogontiacum (Mainz) refused. Tacitus says that only a few men in the front ranks repeated the words, and some soldiers smashed Galba's images. To avoid looking like rebels, they swore instead to "the Senate and People of Rome". Word reached the Lower German army at Cologne the next day, and on 2 January its men hailed their commander Aulus Vitellius as emperor.
It was the opening act of the Year of the Four Emperors. Within two weeks Galba was dead in Rome, and Romans would watch legions march through Italy, fight at Cremona and burn the Capitol before the year was out.
Ancient source: Tacitus, Histories 1.55–56 · Reference
Sources
Read moreDeath of Lucius Aelius Caesar
Death of Lucius Aelius Caesar
deathAD 138
Julian date · ≈ Dec 31 on our calendar
Hadrian's adopted heir Lucius Aelius died, and Hadrian then chose Antoninus Pius.
Hadrian
Background
In his last years Hadrian, childless and often ill, had to settle the succession. In 136 he surprised Rome by adopting Lucius Ceionius Commodus, a polished aristocrat with no great record, who became Lucius Aelius Caesar. The choice cost blood: Hadrian forced his aged brother-in-law Servianus and Servianus' young grandson Fuscus to die, seeing them as rivals.
Aelius was sent to govern on the Danube but was in poor health; he coughed up blood per the Historia Augusta. He returned to Rome to give a speech of thanks to Hadrian in the Senate on the first day of the year, but fell ill and died on the very Kalends of January 138 per the Historia Augusta, a late and often unreliable source. Hadrian is said to have remarked that he had leaned on a falling wall per the Historia Augusta.
Hadrian then adopted the respected senator Titus Aurelius Antoninus, on condition that Antoninus in turn adopt Aelius' son Lucius (the future Lucius Verus) and the young Marcus Aurelius. Aelius' early death thus set up the long, stable Antonine age.
Ancient source: Historia Augusta, Aelius 4.7 ('kalendis ipsis Ianuariis perit') · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 11°/4°C (52°/39°F) · rain 29% of days
Rome in JanuaryThe Kalends of January opened the civil year, with new consuls, vows for the…
Fields & crops
Little field work: Columella says pious farmers rested before the Kalends and restarted every task on 1 January for luck; after the Ides, pruning and weeding of autumn-sown grain resumed per Columella 11.2.
Courts & law
Courts reopened after the Saturnalia. New magistrates took up their duties, and the praetor's edict, the rules for his year in office, was posted late Republic.
Senate & politics
From 153 BC the consuls took office on 1 January, sacrificing on the Capitol; the year was named after them. In the empire, officials and soldiers renewed vows for the emperor's safety on 3 January varies by era.
Military
Armies sat in winter quarters; campaigning in snow was rare and feared. Soldiers on the frontiers renewed their oath to the emperor at the start of the year imperial era.
Festivals & religion
Janus, god of doorways and beginnings, was honoured on the Kalends; the Agonalia (9 Jan.), the Carmentalia for the birth-goddess Carmenta (11 and 15 Jan.) and the movable Compitalia at crossroads shrines followed per Ovid, Fasti 1.
Daily life
The Kalends of January opened the civil year, with new consuls, vows for the emperor's safety and small gifts (strenae) of dates, figs and coins for good luck per Ovid, Fasti 1. The Kalends of every month was also when interest fell due, so for debtors the first of the month could be dreaded; the account book itself was called the kalendarium per Seneca and the Digest.
Winter was the hungry season for many. Rome's free monthly grain ration helped only registered male citizens (about 200,000 under Augustus) per Suetonius, Aug. 40, and Res Gestae 15; others bought at market prices. Columella says pious farmers did no field work in the days before the Kalends and restarted every kind of work on 1 January for good omen per Columella 11.2.
Sources: Ovid, Fasti 1 · Columella 11.2 · Suetonius, Augustus 40–42
All days in January →
LATIN LINE OF THE DAY
Sunt bona, sunt quaedam mediocria, sunt mala plura quae legis hic.
“Some are good, some middling, more are bad, of what you read here.”
Martial, Epigrams 1.16 · translation ours (literal)
