a.d. XV Kal. Feb.
January 18 in Ancient Rome
Clodius killed on the Appian Way
death52 BC
Pre-reform Roman calendar
a.d. XIII Kal. Feb. · as written (pre-Julian calendar)
Milo was travelling to Lanuvium for a religious duty when his party met Publius Clodius on the Appian Way near Bovillae. Clodius was killed, and Rome erupted in riots.
Cicero
Background
In the 50s BC Rome's politics had turned into street warfare. Publius Clodius Pulcher, a patrician who had become a plebeian to serve as tribune, led armed gangs drawn from the city's poor and its neighbourhood associations; he had introduced free grain for citizens in 58 BC and was hugely popular in the crowded tenements. Titus Annius Milo, backed by Cicero and the conservatives, ran gangs of his own, including gladiators.
On 18 January 52 BC Milo was travelling to Lanuvium, where he was chief magistrate, for a religious duty. Near Bovillae his large retinue met Clodius, riding back to Rome with a smaller escort. A brawl broke out between their enslaved attendants; Clodius was wounded and taken to a roadside inn, and Milo had him dragged out and killed per Asconius, a careful 1st-century AD commentator; Cicero's speech claims self-defence.
Clodius' supporters carried his body to the Senate house and burned it there as a pyre; the building went up in flames. In the chaos Pompey was made sole consul. Milo was tried and convicted despite Cicero's defence, and went into exile at Massilia.
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?
Ancient source: Cicero, Pro Milone 27 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 12°/4°C (54°/39°F) · rain 30% of days
Rome in JanuaryThe Kalends of January opened the civil year, with new consuls, vows for the…
Columella
South-west wind; signals a storm. (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
Sera nimis vita est crastina: vive hodie.
“Tomorrow's life is too late: live today.”
Martial, Epigrams 1.15 · translation ours (literal)
