a.d. VIII Kal. Dec.
November 24 in Ancient Rome
Theodosius I enters Constantinople
politicsAD 380
Julian date · ≈ Nov 25 on our calendar
Theodosius I formally entered Constantinople, which became his main seat.
Theodosius I
Background
Theodosius I was a Spanish general made emperor by Gratian in January 379, after the eastern emperor Valens died with much of his army at Adrianople in 378. For nearly two years Theodosius stayed in Thessalonica, closer to the Gothic war in the Balkans. There, during a serious illness in 380, he was baptised as a Nicene Christian per Socrates.
On 24 November 380 he made his formal entry into Constantinople per Socrates; the Consularia Constantinopolitana give the same date. From then on the city was his main residence, and it became, more firmly than before, the settled capital of the eastern emperors.
His arrival had immediate religious effects. Within days he ordered the Arian bishop Demophilus to accept the Nicene creed or give up the city's churches. In 381 he called the Council of Constantinople, which reaffirmed the Nicene faith. For the city's inhabitants, the emperor's presence also meant a court, building projects and food supplies directed toward the capital.
Ancient source: Socrates Scholasticus, Church History 5.6; Consularia Constantinopolitana · Reference
Sources
Read moreBrumalia begins (BRVMA in the Calendar of 354)
Brumalia begins (BRVMA in the Calendar of 354)
festivalListed AD 354
Roman calendar date
The Calendar of 354 marks BRVMA on 24 November, the start of the Brumalia: a winter season of about thirty days leading up to the bruma, the winter solstice.
Background
"Bruma" was the Latin word for the shortest day, from brevissima, "the shortest" per Varro. Roman writers placed the winter solstice at different dates, often around 25 December in the Julian calendar, though Columella notes that Hipparchus put it about 17 December per Columella 11.2. The calendar of 354 marks BRVMA on 24 November, the start of a period leading up to the solstice.
The Byzantine writer John Lydus, in the sixth century, describes the Brumalia as a winter season of about thirty days in which people feasted, honoured Kronos (Saturn) and Dionysus, and invoked friends by the letters of their names per John Lydus, writing about two centuries after the calendar. Christian authorities later criticised the Brumalia, but it remained popular at the Byzantine court into the tenth century.
For farmers, the period around Bruma marked the end of autumn sowing: Columella advises finishing the grain sowing by the Kalends of December where possible per Columella.
Ancient source: Chronography of 354, calendar (VIII Kal. Dec.: BRVMA); John Lydus, De Mensibus 4.158 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 15°/7°C (59°/45°F) · rain 35% of days
Rome in NovemberFor farmers, the weeks of ploughing and sowing were long and wet.
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
Non est vivere, sed valere vita est.
“Life is not just being alive, but being well.”
Martial, Epigrams 6.70 · translation ours (literal)
