a.d. XVI Kal. Dec.
November 16 in Ancient Rome
Birth of Tiberius
birth42 BC
Julian date · ≈ Nov 14 on our calendar
The future second emperor was born in Rome to Livia and Tiberius Claudius Nero.
Livia
Background
Tiberius Claudius Nero was born on 16 November 42 BC, in the middle of the civil wars after Caesar's murder. Suetonius says he was born on the Palatine, though he notes that others gave Fundi as the birthplace per Suetonius, who reports both. His father, also Tiberius Claudius Nero, sided against Octavian, and the family spent years as fugitives, fleeing to Naples, Sicily and Greece with the infant per Suetonius.
In 39/38 BC his mother Livia divorced his father and married Octavian, the future Augustus, while pregnant with her second son, Drusus. Tiberius thus grew up in the household of the man who would rule Rome.
He became the empire's most experienced general, but Augustus preferred other heirs; only after the deaths of Marcellus, Agrippa and Gaius and Lucius Caesar was Tiberius adopted in AD 4. He succeeded Augustus in AD 14 and ruled for 23 years, a reign later portrayed by Tacitus and Suetonius as dark and suspicious, especially after his withdrawal to Capri.
Approximate: leap years were misapplied in 45 BC–AD 8, so the exact day may shift by one or two days. Why?
Ancient source: Suetonius, Tiberius 5 · Reference
Sources
Read moreLudi Plebeii (Plebeian Games), Nov 4–17
Ludi Plebeii (Plebeian Games), Nov 4–17
festivalRepublic & Empire (annual)
Roman calendar date
The Plebeian Games filled two weeks of mid-November with theatre, a cavalry parade on the 14th and chariot races on the 15th–17th.
Ludi Plebeii (Plebeian Games)
Background
The Plebeian Games were the second great festival of games in the Roman year after the Ludi Romani of September. They were run by the plebeian aediles, junior magistrates who used them to win popularity before seeking higher office. Livy first mentions them in 216 BC; by the late Republic they filled roughly two weeks of November.
The programme mixed theatre, a sacred banquet for Jupiter (the Epulum Iovis, on the Ides), a parade of the cavalry and chariot races in the Circus Maximus at the end. Plautus' play Stichus was staged at these games in 200 BC, according to its production notice.
For ordinary Romans, games days were public holidays when shops and courts closed. Entry to the theatre and circus was free, though seating was arranged by rank. A family could spend a day watching comedies and races, but a day not working also meant a day without wages for labourers who depended on daily hire.
Ancient source: Fasti Maffeiani (Inscr. Ital. XIII.2: ludi plebeii 4–17 Nov.); Chronography of 354 (LVDI PLEBEI 12–15 Nov.); Livy 25.2.10 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 16°/9°C (61°/48°F) · rain 40% of days
Rome in NovemberFor farmers, the weeks of ploughing and sowing were long and wet.
Columella
South wind; sometimes a strong north-easter. (De Re Rust. 11.2)
Fields & crops
Main sowing of wheat and beans; Columella marks winter's start around 10 November and advises finishing sowing by the Kalends of December per Columella 11.2.
Courts & law
The Plebeian Games (4–17 Nov.) closed courts on many days; legal business resumed in late November late Republic.
Senate & politics
Elections for the next year's magistrates were sometimes delayed into autumn in troubled years; Cicero's First Catilinarian was delivered in November 63 BC.
Military
Sailing largely stopped from around 11 November per Vegetius, a late source; armies moved into winter quarters.
Festivals & religion
Ludi Plebeii with the Epulum Iovis on the Ides; in late antiquity the Isia of Isis (28 Oct.–1 Nov.) and the start of the Brumalia (24 Nov.) per the Chronography of 354.
Daily life
For farmers, the weeks of ploughing and sowing were long and wet. In Rome, the Plebeian Games brought free shows, but a holiday meant no pay for day labourers. With sea traffic stopped, city grain prices depended on what had been stored before winter.
The poor lived in crowded apartment blocks (insulae), where upper floors had no water or heating and braziers caused fires; Juvenal mocks the risk of collapse and fire satire, Juvenal 3.
Sources: Columella 11.2 · Chronography of 354 · Juvenal, Satire 3
All days in November →
LATIN LINE OF THE DAY
Nec tecum possum vivere, nec sine te.
“I can't live with you, nor without you.”
Martial, Epigrams 12.46 · translation ours (literal)
