a.d. III Non. Ian.
January 3 in Ancient Rome
Upper Rhine army goes over to Vitellius
politicsAD 69
Julian date · ≈ Jan 1 on our calendar
The day after Vitellius was hailed emperor at Cologne, the legions of Upper Germany dropped their oath to 'the Senate and People' and joined him.
Vitellius
Background
After the Upper German legions refused their oath to Galba on 1 January 69, they had sworn only to "the Senate and People", a hollow formula with no man behind it. Their neighbours in Lower Germany moved faster: on 2 January Fabius Valens rode into Cologne with cavalry and saluted their commander Aulus Vitellius as emperor.
Tacitus dates the next step to 3 January: the legions of Upper Germany dropped the empty oath and swore to Vitellius. The Gallic communities near the Rhine, the auxiliaries and the legions in Britain soon followed. Tacitus portrays a frenzy of support in which soldiers and provincials offered money, weapons and horses, while Vitellius himself was lazy and given to feasting per Tacitus, writing about 30 years later and hostile to Vitellius.
Within weeks two armies under Valens and Caecina were marching for Italy across the Alps. On the way, villages and towns along their route paid in food, requisitions and sometimes violence. By April they had beaten Otho, Galba's successor, at Bedriacum, and Vitellius was briefly master of Rome.
Ancient source: Tacitus, Histories 1.57 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 12°/4°C (54°/39°F) · rain 30% of days
Rome in JanuaryThe Kalends of January opened the civil year, with new consuls, vows for the…
Columella
Changeable weather. (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
Lasciva est nobis pagina, vita proba.
“My page is playful; my life is upright.”
Martial, Epigrams 1.4 · translation ours (literal)
