a.d. VI Kal. Ian.
December 27 in Ancient Rome
Rome remembers Bishop Dionysius
religionListed AD 354
Roman calendar date
The Roman church's list of bishops' feast days in the Chronography of 354 commemorates Dionysius, bishop of Rome in the 260s, on 27 December at the catacomb of Callixtus.
Background
Dionysius became bishop of Rome in 259 or 260, after the persecution of the emperor Valerian, in which his predecessor Sixtus II had been executed in 258. When Valerian was captured by the Persians in 260, his son Gallienus ended the persecution and allowed Christians to recover their meeting places and cemeteries per Eusebius.
Dionysius reorganised the Roman church after the upheaval. He is known for a theological exchange with his namesake, Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria, and for sending money to ransom Christians in Cappadocia captured by raiders per Basil of Caesarea, writing a century later. He died in 268.
The Chronography of 354 lists bishops' burial days in its Depositio episcoporum, and gives Dionysius on 27 December in the catacomb of Callixtus on the Via Appia, where many third-century bishops were buried. Such lists helped the Roman church keep its annual round of commemorations at the tombs outside the city.
Ancient source: Chronography of 354, Depositio episcoporum (VI kal. Ian.) · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 12°/4°C (54°/39°F) · rain 37% of days
Rome in DecemberDecember's highlight was the Saturnalia (from 17 December).
Columella
Signals a storm. (De Re Rust. 11.2)
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
Summum nec metuas diem nec optes.
“Neither fear your last day nor long for it.”
Martial, Epigrams 10.47 · translation ours (literal)
