a.d. IV Non. Dec.
December 2 in Ancient Rome
December gladiator shows begin
festivalListed AD 354
Roman calendar date
The calendar of 354 marks 2 December as the start of the munus, the season of gladiatorial shows that ran on set days until 24 December.
Background
By the fourth century, gladiatorial games (munera) in Rome were concentrated in December. The calendar of 354 marks 2 December as INITIVM MVNERIS, "start of the show", with further munus days through the month until 24 December. The shows were given mainly by the quaestors, junior officials who were expected to pay for them modern reconstruction from the calendar and later laws.
Gladiators were mostly enslaved men, prisoners of war or condemned criminals, though some free men signed up for pay. They trained in schools under harsh discipline. Many fights did not end in death, since trained fighters were expensive, but serious injury and death were common; gravestones of gladiators often record deaths in their twenties per surviving epitaphs. Condemned criminals could also be killed in the arena without any chance of survival.
Christian emperors criticised the games. Constantine issued a law against them in 325, but munera continued in Rome; they seem to have died out in the early fifth century, partly for lack of money the story of their abolition after the monk Telemachus' death is per Theodoret, a later source.
Ancient source: Chronography of 354, calendar (IIII Non. Dec.: INITIVM MVNERIS) · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 14°/6°C (57°/43°F) · rain 39% 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)
