a.d. XVIII Kal. Feb.
January 15 in Ancient Rome
Murder of Galba
deathAD 69
Julian date · ≈ Jan 13 on our calendar
Galba was killed in the Forum by Praetorian Guards backing Otho, after seven months as emperor.
Galba
Background
By January 69 Galba, in his seventies, had alienated nearly everyone. The Praetorians never got the donative promised in his name, the Rhine armies had renounced him, and his adoption on 10 January of Lucius Calpurnius Piso Licinianus, a stern aristocrat, passed over Marcus Salvius Otho, who had backed Galba from the start and was deep in debt.
Otho bribed a few Praetorian soldiers, and on 15 January he slipped away from a sacrifice Galba was attending and was carried to the Praetorian camp, where the guard hailed him emperor. Galba, misled by rumours that Otho was dead, went out into the Forum in a litter. Soldiers caught him near the Lacus Curtius and killed him; Piso was dragged from the Temple of Vesta and murdered. Tacitus reports several versions of Galba's last words and says no one knew which was true per Tacitus.
Tacitus' verdict became famous: everyone would have thought Galba fit to rule, had he not ruled. Otho lasted three months; he took his own life after his army lost to Vitellius at Bedriacum in April.
Ancient source: Tacitus, Histories 1.41 · Reference
Sources
Read moreCarmentalia (second day)
Carmentalia (second day)
festivalAnnual
Roman calendar date
Second feast day of Carmenta.
Carmentalia
Background
The second day of Carmenta's festival fell on 15 January, four days after the first. Like many festivals the pair framed the Ides, and the calendars mark both days for Carmenta.
Ovid explains the second day with an aetiological tale: the Senate had taken away the right of matrons to ride in carriages (carpenta), and the women in protest refused to bear children, even ending pregnancies; when the Senate relented, the grateful mothers established a second day for the goddess of birth per Ovid; Plutarch tells a similar tale. Ovid also names two Carmentae, Porrima and Postverta, who knew the past and the future per Ovid, and says leather was banned from the shrine so it would not be polluted by death per Ovid.
The story reflects real concerns: who controlled women's movement and status, and how much depended on childbirth in a society where many children died young and wealthy families needed heirs. Whatever its origin, the festival remained largely a women's occasion, kept by mothers and midwives seeking safe deliveries.
Ancient source: Ovid, Fasti 1.617–636 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 12°/3°C (54°/37°F) · rain 25% of days
Rome in JanuaryThe Kalends of January opened the civil year, with new consuls, vows for the…
Columella
Unsettled weather. (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
Sunt bona, sunt quaedam mediocria, sunt mala plura quae legis hic.
“Some are good, some middling, more are bad, of what you read here.”
Martial, Epigrams 1.16 · translation ours (literal)
