a.d. IX Kal. Feb.
January 24 in Ancient Rome
Birth of Hadrian
birthAD 76
Julian date · ≈ Jan 22 on our calendar
Hadrian was born on 24 January 76. The Historia Augusta says in Rome; many modern scholars favour Italica in Spain.
Hadrian
Background
Publius Aelius Hadrianus came from a family settled for generations at Italica, near modern Seville, a colony of Roman and Italian settlers in the province of Baetica. His father was a senator and a cousin of Trajan, another Italica man rising fast under the Flavian emperors.
The Historia Augusta gives his birth as 24 January 76 in Rome per the Historia Augusta, a late and often unreliable source; many modern scholars think he was born at Italica and that "Rome" was a later tidying of his origins disputed. When his father died around 85, Hadrian, aged about ten, became the ward of Trajan and of the equestrian Acilius Attianus. He developed such a love of Greek culture that he was nicknamed "Graeculus", "the little Greek" per the Historia Augusta.
He married Trajan's grandniece Sabina and, after a contested adoption, became emperor in 117. He pulled back from Trajan's conquests in Mesopotamia, travelled across nearly every province and built the wall in Britain, the Pantheon and his villa at Tibur. His harsh suppression of the Jewish revolt of 132–135 killed huge numbers in Judaea.
Ancient source: Historia Augusta, Hadrian 1.3 ('Natus est Romae VIIII kl. Feb.') · Reference
Sources
Read moreAssassination of Caligula
Assassination of Caligula
deathAD 41
Julian date · ≈ Jan 22 on our calendar
Praetorian officers led by Cassius Chaerea killed Caligula at the Palatine games, the day before he was due to leave for Alexandria.
Background
Gaius, nicknamed Caligula ("little boot") by the soldiers of his childhood, became emperor in 37 to wide joy. Within a few years his reign had turned to treason trials, forced "gifts", heavy new taxes and humiliations of senators and officers. Cassius Chaerea, a Praetorian tribune, was mocked by the emperor, who gave him obscene watchwords per Suetonius.
On 24 January 41, during the Palatine Games held in honour of Augustus, Caligula left the theatre at midday. In a covered passage Chaerea and fellow officers attacked him and killed him with some thirty wounds per Suetonius. His wife Caesonia and their baby daughter were murdered too. He was 28 and was planning to leave for Alexandria per Suetonius and Josephus.
The Senate debated restoring the Republic, but the Praetorians found Caligula's uncle Claudius hiding in the palace and made him emperor. Chaerea was executed for the murder. The episode showed where real power lay: with the guard, not the Senate.
Ancient source: Suetonius, Caligula 58 ('VIIII Kal. Febr.') · Reference
Sources
Read morePaganalia / Sementivae (Jan 24–26)
Paganalia / Sementivae (Jan 24–26)
festivalAnnual
Roman calendar date
Rural festival for Tellus and the sowing season, held from 24 to 26 January.
Background
Winter-sown wheat and barley went into the ground in autumn and sprouted through the cold months. In January farmers prayed for the young crop. The Sementivae ("sowing festival") was a movable feast whose date was announced each year by the pontiffs, and in the countryside it was mirrored by the Paganalia, celebrated by each pagus, or rural district.
Ovid describes the rites: oxen garlanded and rested at their stalls, the plough hung up, offerings of spelt and a pregnant sow to Ceres and Tellus (Earth), and prayers against birds, ants, mildew and weeds per Ovid. Varro explains the Sementivae as a festival for good sowing and the Paganalia as a rite of the rural districts per Varro. The dates 24–26 January are typical, not fixed.
For most Romans, farming was life: the vast majority worked the land as smallholders, tenants, or enslaved labourers on large estates. A failed harvest meant hunger. The festival gathered neighbours from a district, free and enslaved alike, and gave labouring animals a rare day of rest.
⚠ Uncertain date: Movable feast (feriae conceptivae).
Ancient source: Ovid, Fasti 1.657–704; Varro, De Lingua Latina 6.26 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 11°/3°C (52°/37°F) · rain 30% 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
Hoc est vivere bis, vita posse priore frui.
“To be able to enjoy one's past life is to live twice.”
Martial, Epigrams 10.23 · translation ours (literal)
