pr. Kal. Feb.
January 31 in Ancient Rome
Constantine ends Augustus' penalties on the unmarried
politicsAD 320
Julian date · ≈ Feb 1 on our calendar
Constantine freed unmarried and childless men and women from the legal penalties Augustus' marriage laws had imposed, though spouses still could not freely inherit from each other.
Constantine
Background
Augustus' marriage laws (18 BC and AD 9) pushed the propertied classes to marry and have children. Unmarried people (caelibes) could not inherit from people outside close family, and childless married people (orbi) lost half of such inheritances. The rules were unpopular for centuries.
This law of Constantine, posted at Rome, freed the unmarried and childless from "the threatening terrors of the laws". They were to live as if they were married, and the same relief applied to women, lifting what the law called a yoke from their necks. One exception remained: husbands and wives still could not freely inherit from each other, because, the law says, their flattery was hard to restrain.
It mattered mostly to the wealthy. It also suited a church that honoured celibacy, though the text gives no reason of that kind.
Ancient source: Theodosian Code 8.16.1 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 12°/4°C (54°/39°F) · rain 34% of days
Rome in JanuaryThe Kalends of January opened the civil year, with new consuls, vows for the…
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)
