pr. Id. Ian.
January 12 in Ancient Rome
Senators ordered out of military dress in Rome
politicsAD 382
Julian date · ≈ Jan 13 on our calendar
Within Rome's walls, senators were forbidden to wear the military cloak and told to wear civilian clothes, and the toga at Senate meetings and in court.
Background
In the late empire the military cloak (chlamys or paenula) had become everyday wear for officials, and the old toga was heavy, expensive and impractical. Many senators in Rome had drifted into wearing military-style dress about town.
This law of 382, sent to the city prefect, ordered senators inside the walls of Rome, at any hour, to set aside "the terror of the chlamys" and wear the peaceful tunic and paenula cloak, and to put on the toga for meetings of the Senate or when appearing before a judge. Clerks of government offices were to wear the paenula with a cloak of a different colour that showed their status. Enslaved servants of civilian households were allowed hooded capes. A senator who disobeyed would lose his rank and his right to enter the Senate; clerks and enslaved people faced exile.
It was about image: the emperors wanted Rome's Senate to look like the civic body of tradition, not an army camp. The penalties show who bore the risk: the humblest people in the scene faced the harshest punishment.
Ancient source: Theodosian Code 14.10.1 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 12°/4°C (54°/39°F) · rain 21% of days
Rome in JanuaryThe Kalends of January opened the civil year, with new consuls, vows for the…
Columella
Unsettled sky. (De Re Rust. 11.2)
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
Summum nec metuas diem nec optes.
“Neither fear your last day nor long for it.”
Martial, Epigrams 10.47 · translation ours (literal)
