a.d. XII Kal. Ian.
December 21 in Ancient Rome
Divalia (Angeronalia)
festivalAnnual
Roman calendar date
Festival of the goddess Angerona, held near the winter solstice.
Background
The Divalia, also called the Angeronalia, honoured Angerona, a mysterious goddess whose statue in the shrine of Volupia showed her with her mouth bound or sealed and a finger to her lips per Macrobius and Pliny. The festival fell on 21 December, close to the winter solstice.
Romans themselves disagreed about her. Varro only records where her sacrifice was made per Varro, De Lingua Latina 6.23. Macrobius reports a view, from the scholar Verrius Flaccus, linking her to angina (throat illness), and says she was honoured for driving away anxieties and sorrows, and that her silence guarded Rome's secret name, which must never be spoken per Macrobius 1.10.7–8; the "secret name" is a late, learned story. Macrobius adds that the pontiffs sacrificed to her in the shrine of Volupia, and Pliny notes her sacrifice on 21 December and her bound, sealed mouth per Macrobius 1.10.7; Pliny, Natural History 3.65.
Modern scholars often link her to the turning of the year at the solstice, when the days begin to lengthen again modern interpretation. For ordinary Romans the day fell inside the Saturnalia holiday period, and little is known of popular observance.
Ancient source: Varro, De Lingua Latina 6.23 · Reference
Sources
Read moreSenate grants Vespasian imperial powers
Senate grants Vespasian imperial powers
politicsAD 69
Julian date · ≈ Dec 19 on our calendar
The day after Vitellius died, the Senate recognised Vespasian as emperor, later formalised as the Lex de imperio Vespasiani.
Vespasian
Background
On 21 December 69, the day after Vitellius was killed, the Senate met amid the ruins of the burned Capitol and voted Vespasian "all the usual powers" of an emperor, with the consulship for him and his son Titus per Tacitus. Vespasian was still in Egypt, controlling Rome's grain supply, and would reach the city only in the autumn of 70.
Part of the law that formalised these powers survives on a bronze tablet found in Rome in the fourteenth century, the Lex de imperio Vespasiani (CIL VI 930). It lists rights such as making treaties, convening the Senate, recommending candidates for office, extending the city's sacred boundary, and doing whatever he judged to be in the interests of the state, often citing the precedents of Augustus, Tiberius and Claudius. Whether it was a standard law granted to each emperor or a special one is debated disputed.
The tablet was displayed by Cola di Rienzo in 1347 as proof of the Roman people's sovereignty, and it is now in the Capitoline Museums.
Ancient source: Tacitus, Histories 4.3; CIL VI 930 (bronze tablet) · Reference
Sources
Read moreSaturnalia begins
Saturnalia begins
festivalAnnual
Roman calendar date
Rome's festival of Saturn began with a public banquet and the cry 'io Saturnalia'. It later stretched to 23 December.
Saturnalia
Background
The Saturnalia, honouring the old god Saturn, was Rome's most loved festival. It began on 17 December with a sacrifice at the temple of Saturn in the Forum, followed by a public banquet; the woollen bonds on the feet of Saturn's statue were loosened for the festival per Macrobius and Statius. Originally one day, it later stretched to several; Augustus set three days and Caligula added a fifth, and by the late empire it ran to 23 December per Macrobius 1.10.
During the festival, business and courts stopped, people swapped the toga for casual dress and the felt cap of freedmen (pilleus), gambled openly, and gave gifts: wax candles (cerei) and small pottery figurines (sigillaria). Catullus called it "the best of days" (14.15). Households let enslaved people eat with, or be served by, their owners, and speak freely per Macrobius, Accius quoted by him, and Seneca.
These reversals were real but temporary; the enslaved returned to their condition when the holiday ended. Seneca, writing in December, notes that the whole city seemed to go wild while he debated whether a wise man should join in per Seneca, Ep. 18. Many Saturnalia customs—feasting, gifts and candles—later fed into Christmas and New Year traditions modern view; the exact links are debated.
Ancient source: Catullus 14.15 ('Saturnalibus, optimo dierum') · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 12°/4°C (54°/39°F) · rain 30% 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
All days in December →
LATIN LINE OF THE DAY
Ille sapit quisquis, Postume, vixit heri.
“The wise man, Postumus, is whoever lived yesterday.”
Martial, Epigrams 5.58 · translation ours (literal)
