pr. Kal. Ian.
December 31 in Ancient Rome
Assassination of Commodus
deathAD 192
Julian date · ≈ Dec 30 on our calendar
Commodus survived poison from his mistress Marcia and was strangled in his bath by the wrestler Narcissus.
Commodus
Background
Commodus, sole emperor from 180, became increasingly erratic. He identified himself with Hercules, renamed Rome and the months after himself, and fought as a gladiator and beast-hunter in the arena, which shocked the senatorial class per Dio, an eyewitness senator, and Herodian. Rome also suffered a severe grain shortage and riots in 190, blamed on his favourite Cleander, whom Commodus sacrificed to the crowd per Dio and Herodian.
At the end of 192 Commodus planned to enter the consulship on 1 January dressed as a gladiator, coming from the gladiators' barracks. His mistress Marcia, the chamberlain Eclectus and the praetorian prefect Laetus, fearing they were about to be killed, plotted against him per Herodian, who claims Marcia found their names on a death list; possibly a dramatic invention. On 31 December Marcia gave him poisoned food or wine; when he vomited it up, they sent the athlete Narcissus, his wrestling partner, who strangled him in his bath.
The Senate condemned his memory with fury. The city prefect Pertinax was made emperor the same night, but was murdered by the guard within three months, opening the civil wars from which Septimius Severus emerged.
Ancient source: Herodian 1.16.1–1.17; Historia Augusta, Pertinax 4.5–8; Cassius Dio 73.22 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 11°/4°C (52°/39°F) · rain 30% of days
Rome in DecemberDecember's highlight was the Saturnalia (from 17 December).
Columella
Windy 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
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)
