Id. Dec.
December 13 in Ancient Rome
Diocletian rumoured dead
politicsAD 304
Julian date · ≈ Dec 14 on our calendar
Gravely ill at Nicomedia, Diocletian sank so low that on the Ides of December the palace went into mourning and the city fell silent. The next morning word spread that he was alive.
Diocletian
Background
After the vicennalia celebrations in Rome in late 303, Diocletian left the city in bad weather and fell ill. Lactantius, a Christian teacher of rhetoric at Nicomedia and a bitter critic of the persecuting emperors, describes what followed. Through 304 the illness worsened. Diocletian was carried around in a litter and reached Nicomedia, where he dedicated a circus despite his condition.
On the Ides of December (13 December) he sank so low that the palace fell into mourning, officials wept, and the city went silent; people believed he was dead and that the death was being hidden until Galerius arrived. The next morning the rumour spread that he was alive per Lactantius, our only source for this episode. When Diocletian appeared again in public on 1 March 305, Lactantius says he was barely recognisable after nearly a year of illness.
Lactantius presents the illness as divine punishment for the persecution. Two months later, on 1 May 305, Diocletian abdicated, the only Roman emperor to retire voluntarily, and withdrew to his palace at Split.
Ancient source: Lactantius, De Mortibus Persecutorum 17.5–6 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 13°/5°C (55°/41°F) · rain 35% of days
Rome in DecemberDecember's highlight was the Saturnalia (from 17 December).
Columella
Wintry weather. (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)
