a.d. III Kal. Feb.
January 30 in Ancient Rome
Birth of Livia
birth59 BC
Pre-reform Roman calendar
Livia Drusilla, wife of Augustus and mother of Tiberius, was born.
Livia
Background
Livia Drusilla was born into the old aristocracy: her father, Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus, was a Claudius adopted into the Livii. The calendar inscription known as the Fasti Verulani records her birthday on 30 January per modern editions of the Fasti; not checked online. She grew up in the last decades of the Republic, a world of political marriages in which noble daughters were used to bind alliances.
At about fifteen she married her cousin Tiberius Claudius Nero, who fought against Octavian; her father, a supporter of the assassins of Caesar, took his own life after Philippi. Livia fled Italy with her husband and baby son Tiberius per Suetonius. After an amnesty they returned, and in 38 BC Octavian, eager for an alliance with the old nobility, married her while she was six months pregnant with her second son, Drusus; her husband gave her away.
Livia was Augustus' wife for over fifty years, a trusted adviser with her own wealth, enslaved staff and freedmen. Tacitus and Dio hint at poisonings per Tacitus and Dio, hostile and later sources. She was deified by her grandson Claudius in AD 42.
Before Caesar's reform (45 BC) the calendar had drifted from the seasons, so the real seasonal date was different; we don't give a modern equivalent. Why?
⚠ Uncertain date: The day comes from a calendar of the Julian era (III Kal. Feb.); the pre-Julian January had only 29 days, so the day in the calendar she was born under is uncertain.
Ancient source: Fasti Verulani; Suetonius, Tiberius 4 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 12°/3°C (54°/37°F) · rain 32% of days
Rome in JanuaryThe Kalends of January opened the civil year, with new consuls, vows for the…
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
Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare.
“I do not love you, Sabidius, and I cannot say why.”
Martial, Epigrams 1.32 · translation ours (literal)
