a.d. XIV Kal. Dec.
November 18 in Ancient Rome
Law against the followers of John Chrysostom
religionAD 404
Julian date · ≈ Nov 19 on our calendar
After John Chrysostom's exile, a law told governors to stop the separate meetings of Christians who refused communion with his successor Arsacius and with Theophilus and Porphyrius, and to expel them from the church.
John Chrysostom
Background
John Chrysostom, the outspoken bishop of Constantinople, clashed with the empress Eudoxia and with Bishop Theophilus of Alexandria, and was exiled in 404. His supporters, the "Johannites", refused to worship with his replacement Arsacius. That summer the great church burned, and they were blamed disputed: the cause of the fire was never established.
This law of 18 November 404 told provincial governors to stop the separate meetings of those who rejected communion with Arsacius, Theophilus and Porphyrius of Antioch, and to drive them from the churches. For ordinary believers who loved John's preaching, it meant losing their place of worship or facing official pressure to conform. John died in exile in 407; his body was brought back to Constantinople with honour in 438.
Ancient source: Theodosian Code 16.4.6 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 16°/8°C (61°/46°F) · rain 41% of days
Rome in NovemberFor farmers, the weeks of ploughing and sowing were long and wet.
Columella
The sun enters Sagittarius; signals a storm. (De Re Rust. 11.2)
Fields & crops
Main sowing of wheat and beans; Columella marks winter's start around 10 November and advises finishing sowing by the Kalends of December per Columella 11.2.
Courts & law
The Plebeian Games (4–17 Nov.) closed courts on many days; legal business resumed in late November late Republic.
Senate & politics
Elections for the next year's magistrates were sometimes delayed into autumn in troubled years; Cicero's First Catilinarian was delivered in November 63 BC.
Military
Sailing largely stopped from around 11 November per Vegetius, a late source; armies moved into winter quarters.
Festivals & religion
Ludi Plebeii with the Epulum Iovis on the Ides; in late antiquity the Isia of Isis (28 Oct.–1 Nov.) and the start of the Brumalia (24 Nov.) per the Chronography of 354.
Daily life
For farmers, the weeks of ploughing and sowing were long and wet. In Rome, the Plebeian Games brought free shows, but a holiday meant no pay for day labourers. With sea traffic stopped, city grain prices depended on what had been stored before winter.
The poor lived in crowded apartment blocks (insulae), where upper floors had no water or heating and braziers caused fires; Juvenal mocks the risk of collapse and fire satire, Juvenal 3.
Sources: Columella 11.2 · Chronography of 354 · Juvenal, Satire 3
All days in November →
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)
