a.d. XVII Kal. Ian.
December 16 in Ancient Rome
The poor spared New Year 'tips' for the consuls
politicsAD 364
Julian date · ≈ Dec 17 on our calendar
Valentinian and Valens forbade officials to make poor people pay a 'gratuity' when the new consuls were announced; only former officials and town councillors could give, and as they chose.
Valentinian I
Background
At the start of each year, new consuls took office, and the news was carried around by officials who expected gifts. In practice these "voluntary" gratuities could be squeezed out of anyone, including poor people who could not afford them.
This law of Valentinian and Valens, dated 16 December 364, forbade officials to force the poor to pay a gratuity when the consuls were announced. Only those who had held office, or town councillors, could give, and only of their own free will.
The law is a small window into late Roman life, where much of government ran on fees and tips paid to officials. For people living close to the edge, an extra demand in midwinter, when food was dearest and work scarce, could be a real hardship. Similar laws repeatedly tried, with mixed success, to limit officials' extortion of the poor modern historians note how often such laws were repeated.
Ancient source: Theodosian Code 8.11.1 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 12°/4°C (54°/39°F) · rain 31% of days
Rome in DecemberDecember's highlight was the Saturnalia (from 17 December).
Fields & crops
Olive picking and pressing, wood-cutting, and indoor work on rainy days; sowing ideally finished by the Kalends per Columella 11.2.
Courts & law
Courts closed for the Saturnalia; quaestors gave gladiatorial shows in December in late antiquity per the Chronography of 354.
Senate & politics
New tribunes of the plebs entered office on 10 December; outgoing magistrates closed their accounts before the year ended Republic.
Military
Winter quarters. Soldiers too kept the Saturnalia, choosing a mock 'king' per the Acts of Dasius, a late and disputed martyr text.
Festivals & religion
Faunalia (5 Dec.), Agonalia and Septimontium (11 Dec.), Consualia (15 Dec.), Saturnalia (from 17 Dec.), Opalia (19 Dec.), Divalia (21 Dec.), Larentalia (23 Dec.), and later the birthday of Sol Invictus (25 Dec.).
Daily life
December's highlight was the Saturnalia (from 17 December). Business stopped, people wore the casual pilleus cap and gave small gifts, and households let enslaved people eat with, or even be served by, their owners per Macrobius 1.7, Seneca Ep. 47. Seneca, though, notes that the inversion lasted only days; the rest of the year enslaved people stood silent and hungry while masters dined, and could be beaten for a cough per Seneca, Ep. 47. Seneca himself grumbled that the whole city "sweats" with feasting Seneca, Ep. 18.
On farms, olives were picked and pressed, and enslaved workers repaired tools and baskets on rainy days per Columella 11.2.
Sources: Varro, De Lingua Latina 6 · Chronography of 354 · Seneca, Epistles 18 and 47 · Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.7–10
All days in December →
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)
