a.d. XVI Kal. Feb.
January 17 in Ancient Rome
Death of Theodosius I
deathAD 395
Julian date · ≈ Jan 18 on our calendar
Theodosius I died at Milan, and the empire passed to his sons Arcadius in the East and Honorius in the West.
Theodosius I
Background
In September 394 Theodosius had defeated the western usurper Eugenius and his general Arbogast at the river Frigidus, in the Julian Alps. For a few months he was sole master of the whole Roman world, east and west. But the campaign had been brutal; many of his Gothic allies died in the battle, and he himself was ill.
He died at Milan on the night of 17 January 395, aged about 48 if the usual birth year of 347 is right disputed; Socrates says he lived sixty years. Bishop Ambrose delivered the funeral oration forty days later, praising his piety and his public penance after the massacre at Thessalonica in 390. His body was taken to Constantinople for burial.
He left the empire to two young sons: Arcadius, about seventeen, in the East, and Honorius, ten, in the West, under the guardianship of the general Stilicho. The two halves were never again ruled by one man. Within fifteen years Alaric's Goths, many of them veterans of Theodosius' own wars, would sack Rome.
Ancient source: Socrates Scholasticus, Church History 5.26; Ambrose, De obitu Theodosii · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 12°/3°C (54°/37°F) · rain 30% of days
Rome in JanuaryThe Kalends of January opened the civil year, with new consuls, vows for the…
Columella
Wintry 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
Lasciva est nobis pagina, vita proba.
“My page is playful; my life is upright.”
Martial, Epigrams 1.4 · translation ours (literal)
