a.d. VI Kal. Feb.
January 27 in Ancient Rome
Death of Nerva
deathAD 98
Julian date · ≈ Jan 25 on our calendar
Nerva died of natural causes after about fifteen months as emperor, and Trajan succeeded him.
Nerva
Background
Marcus Cocceius Nerva, an elderly senator and lawyer, was chosen emperor on the day Domitian was murdered in September 96. He was childless and had no military reputation. He tried to signal a gentler regime: exiles were recalled, treason trials ended, and he is credited with starting the alimenta, a scheme to support poor children in Italian towns per the Epitome de Caesaribus; Trajan certainly expanded it.
But the Praetorian Guard, loyal to Domitian's memory, besieged him in the palace in 97 and forced him to hand over Domitian's killers. Weakened, Nerva adopted Marcus Ulpius Traianus, governor of Upper Germany and a respected general, in October 97. Nerva died in January 98 after a fever per Dio, writing over a century later. The day is uncertain: sources and modern accounts give 27 or 28 January disputed.
Trajan, then on the Rhine, did not hurry to Rome. His accession set the pattern of the "adoptive emperors": rulers chosen for ability rather than birth, which produced nearly a century of relative stability.
⚠ Uncertain date: Wikipedia gives 27 January on Nerva's page and 28 January on Trajan's.
Ancient source: Cassius Dio 68.4; Epitome de Caesaribus 12 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 11°/3°C (52°/37°F) · rain 32% of days
Rome in JanuaryThe Kalends of January opened the civil year, with new consuls, vows for the…
Columella
The bright star in the Lion's breast sets; sometimes signals bad weather; winter is half over. (De Re Rust. 11.2)
Fields & crops
Little field work: Columella says pious farmers rested before the Kalends and restarted every task on 1 January for luck; after the Ides, pruning and weeding of autumn-sown grain resumed per Columella 11.2.
Courts & law
Courts reopened after the Saturnalia. New magistrates took up their duties, and the praetor's edict, the rules for his year in office, was posted late Republic.
Senate & politics
From 153 BC the consuls took office on 1 January, sacrificing on the Capitol; the year was named after them. In the empire, officials and soldiers renewed vows for the emperor's safety on 3 January varies by era.
Military
Armies sat in winter quarters; campaigning in snow was rare and feared. Soldiers on the frontiers renewed their oath to the emperor at the start of the year imperial era.
Festivals & religion
Janus, god of doorways and beginnings, was honoured on the Kalends; the Agonalia (9 Jan.), the Carmentalia for the birth-goddess Carmenta (11 and 15 Jan.) and the movable Compitalia at crossroads shrines followed per Ovid, Fasti 1.
Daily life
The Kalends of January opened the civil year, with new consuls, vows for the emperor's safety and small gifts (strenae) of dates, figs and coins for good luck per Ovid, Fasti 1. The Kalends of every month was also when interest fell due, so for debtors the first of the month could be dreaded; the account book itself was called the kalendarium per Seneca and the Digest.
Winter was the hungry season for many. Rome's free monthly grain ration helped only registered male citizens (about 200,000 under Augustus) per Suetonius, Aug. 40, and Res Gestae 15; others bought at market prices. Columella says pious farmers did no field work in the days before the Kalends and restarted every kind of work on 1 January for good omen per Columella 11.2.
Sources: Ovid, Fasti 1 · Columella 11.2 · Suetonius, Augustus 40–42
All days in January →
LATIN LINE OF THE DAY
Nec tecum possum vivere, nec sine te.
“I can't live with you, nor without you.”
Martial, Epigrams 12.46 · translation ours (literal)
