Kal. Dec.
December 1 in Ancient Rome
Marcus Aurelius receives tribunician power
politicsAD 147
Julian date · ≈ Nov 30 on our calendar
The day after his daughter's birth, Antoninus Pius gave Marcus the tribunician power and imperium.
Marcus Aurelius
Background
Since Augustus, the tribunician power (tribunicia potestas) had been one of the core legal foundations of an emperor's authority: it gave the right to propose laws, to veto, and personal inviolability. Granting it to a younger man signalled that he was co-ruler and heir.
Marcus Aurelius had been adopted by Antoninus Pius in 138 at Hadrian's wish. On 1 December 147, the day after his first child was born, Pius gave him tribunician power and proconsular imperium per the Historia Augusta, a late and often unreliable source; here supported by the regnal numbering on coins and inscriptions.
From then on Marcus counted his tribunician years from this date, and he shared in government for the rest of Pius' long, peaceful reign. When Pius died in 161, Marcus succeeded smoothly and at once made his adoptive brother Lucius Verus co-emperor, the first time Rome had two equal Augusti.
Ancient source: Historia Augusta, Marcus 6.6 · 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
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