Dictionary

vicennalia en · NOUN

Etymology

From Latin vīcennālia, from vīcennium (“20-year period”) + -ālia (“-alia: forming the names of festivals”), from vicennis (“20-year”) + -ium (“forming abstract nouns”), from vīciēs (“twenty each”) + annus (“year”) + -is (“forming compound adjectives”). Equivalent to vicennium + -alia.

Meanings

1. (historical) The festival and religious rituals celebrating a Roman emperor's 20th year of rule.
   • Apart from the Vicennalia, 136 was an eventful year for the imperial family: the serious illness of Hadrian in the spring, the adoption of Aelius in the summer and the death and consecration of Sabina at the end of the year. 1971, P.V. Hill, "The Dating and Arrangement of Hadrian's COS III", Mints, Dies and Currency, p. 52
   • As a chronological list of Roman emperors makes clear, several rulers reign long enough to enjoy their decennalia, but relatively few were fortunate enough to celebrate their vicennalia, their twentieth imperial anniversary; and from the second century onwards Constantine alone ruled long enough to celebrate a tricennalia. 2012, Gary Forsythe, "Magna Mater and the Taurobolium", Time in Roman Religion, p. 111
   • The exact timing of the tenth and twentieth anniversaries, the decennalia and the vicennalia, has already been discussed at length. The most straightforward solution, that it took place on the emperor's dies imperii ten years after the accession, has its adherents. However, a date earlier in the year, perhaps even the day of the beginning of the tenth year, may also be considered—at least in the second century AD. 2005, Jakob Munk Højte, Roman Imperial Statue Bases from Augustus to Commodus, p. 157

Forms

Coordinates

quindecennalia · quinquennalia · decennalia · tricennalia

Hypernyms

jubilee

Synonyms

vicennial · vicennials

Translations (3)

it vicennali (Translations) · fr vicennales (Translations) · la vīcennālia (Translations)

wikipedia: Constantine the Great · wikipedia: Severus Alexander