Id. Ian.
January 13 in Ancient Rome
Octavian hands the provinces back
politics27 BC
Julian date · ≈ Jan 11 on our calendar
On the Ides of January, Ovid writes, 'every province was returned to our people', the settlement of 27 BC that led to Octavian's new name, Augustus.
Augustus
Background
After defeating Antony and Cleopatra in 31–30 BC, Octavian held unchallenged power: the armies, Egypt's wealth and a string of consulships. But Caesar had been killed for looking like a king, and Romans craved a return to normal government after twenty years of civil war, proscriptions and land seizures.
At a Senate meeting in January 27 BC Octavian announced that he was returning the provinces and the state to the Senate and People. Ovid places this on the Ides of January: "every province was returned to our people". The Senate, as planned, begged him to keep a share. He accepted a large "province" of his own for ten years, including Gaul, Spain and Syria, where most of the legions were stationed per Dio, writing about 230 years later, while the Senate kept the peaceful provinces.
The settlement dressed one-man rule in republican clothes. Augustus called it restoring the Republic; Tacitus and Dio saw it as the start of monarchy. For provincials and soldiers, it meant one paymaster and a long peace after decades of war.
Approximate: leap years were misapplied in 45 BC–AD 8, so the exact day may shift by one or two days. Why?
Ancient source: Ovid, Fasti 1.587–590 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 12°/4°C (54°/39°F) · rain 21% of days
Rome in JanuaryThe Kalends of January opened the civil year, with new consuls, vows for the…
Columella
Windy weather and unsettled. (De Re Rust. 11.2)
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
Nec tecum possum vivere, nec sine te.
“I can't live with you, nor without you.”
Martial, Epigrams 12.46 · translation ours (literal)
