ante diem xii kalendas januarias

• Saturnalia continues (day 5)
• Divalia Angeronae — Angerona was a goddess named for the disease angina (she apparently had remedies for it) who also represented the ‘secret name’ of Rome, which presumably could not be uttered out of fear it would give Rome’s enemies the opportunity to ‘call out’ Rome’s own gods (i.e. to get them to abandon the city). Secret rituals, of course, would honour her on this date …
• 69 A.D. — Vespasian is officially recognized as emperor by the Senate
• 253 A.D. — martyrdom of Themistocles