Februarius
Februarius, fully Mensis Februarius ("month of
Februarius was the only month in the pre-Julian calendar to have an even number of days, numbering 28.[3] This was mathematically necessary to permit the year itself to have an odd number of days.[4] Ancient sources derived Februarius from februum, a thing used for ritual purification. Most of the observances in this month concerned the dead or closure, reflecting the month's original position at the end of the year. The Parentalia was a nine-day festival honoring the ancestors and propitiating the dead, while the Terminalia was a set of rituals pertaining to boundary stones that was probably also felt to reinforce the boundary of the year.[5]
In the agricultural year
Many
The agricultural writer Columella says that meadows and grain fields are "purged" (purguntur), probably both in the practical sense of clearing away old debris and by means of ritual. The duties of February thus suggest the close bond between agriculture and religion in Roman culture. According to the farmers' almanacs, the tutelary deity of the month was Neptune.[7]
Dates
The Romans did not number days of a month sequentially from the 1st through the last day. Instead, they counted back from the three fixed points of the month: the
February had one and possibly two
Each day was marked with a letter to denote its status under religious law. In the month of February:
- F for dies fasti, days when it was legal to initiate action in the courts of civil law;
- C for dies comitalis, a day on which the Roman people could hold assemblies (comitia), elections, and certain kinds of judicial proceedings;
- N for dies nefasti, when these political activities and the administration of justice were prohibited;
- NP, the meaning of which remains elusive, but which marked feriae, public holidays;
- EN for endotercissus, an sacrifices were being prepared, and in the evening, while sacrifices were being offered, but were fasti in the middle of the day.[12]
By the late 2nd century AD, extant calendars no longer show days marked with these letters, probably in part as a result of calendar reforms undertaken by Marcus Aurelius.[13] Days were also marked with nundinal letters in cycles of A B C D E F G H, to mark the "market week"[14] (these are omitted on the table below).
On a
Festivals marked in large letters on extant fasti, represented by festival names in all capital letters on the table, are thought to have been the most ancient holidays, becoming part of the calendar before 509 BC.
Unless otherwise noted, the dating and observances on the following table are from
Modern date | Roman date | status | Observances |
---|---|---|---|
Feb. 1 | Kalendae Februariae | N | • dies natalis of the Temple to |
2 | ante diem IV Nonas Februarias | N | |
3 | a.d. III Nonas Februarias[17] | N | |
4 | pridie Nonas Februarias[18] | N | |
5 | Nonae Februariae | N | • dies natalis of the Temple to Concordia on the Capitoline Hill |
6 | ante diem VIII Idūs Februarias | N | |
7 | a. d. VII Id. Feb.[19] | N | |
8 | VI Id. Feb.[20] | N | |
9 | V Id. Feb. | N | |
10 | IV Id. Feb. | N | |
11 | III Id. Feb. | N | Ludi Genialici ("Games for the Genius", perhaps the Genius of the Roman People[21]), after the mid-1st century AD |
12 | pridie Idūs Februarias[22] | N | Ludi Genialici continue |
13 | Idūs Februariae | NP dies religiosus |
• dies natalis of a Temple to Vestals for the collective di parentes or ancestors of the Roman people
|
14 | ante diem XVI Kalendas Martias | N | • Parentalia continues |
15 | a.d. XV Kal. Mart.[23] | NP dies religiosus |
• • Parentalia continues |
16 | XIV Kal. Mart.[24] | EN | • Parentalia continues |
17 | XIII Kal. Mart. | NP dies religiosus |
• QUIRINALIA • last day of the Fornacalia • Parentalia continues |
18 | XII Kal. Mart. | C | • Parentalia continues |
19 | XI Kal. Mart. | C | • Parentalia continues |
20 | X Kal. Mart. | C | • Parentalia continues |
21 | IX Kal. Mart. | F dies religiosus |
• FERALIA, marking the end of the Parentalia with offerings to the Manes |
22 | VIII Kal. Mart. | C | • Caristia, family celebration that finished the Parentalia |
23 | VII Kal. Mart. | NP | • TERMINALIA |
24 | VI Kal. Mart. | N | • REGIFUGIUM |
25 | V Kal. Mart. | C | * Lorio, established by Hadrian to commemorate the adoption of Antoninus Pius as Caesar[25] |
26 | IV Kal. Mart. | EN | |
27 | III Kal. Mart. | NP | • EQUIRRIA |
28 | pridie Kalendas Martias [26] | C |
See also
- Month names: .
- Leap month: Intercalaris.
References
- distich, which reads in full: umbrarum est alter, quo mense putatur honore / pervia terra dato manibus esse vagis ("The second month is in honor of ghosts the 'shades'), when the earth is thought to be pervious to the wandering Manes"). A. E. Housman, "Disticha de Mensibus (Anth. Lat. Ries. 665, Poet. Lat. min. Baehr. I ppp. 210f.)," in The Classical Papers of A. E. Housman: 1915–1936, edited by J. Diggle and F. R. D. Goodyear (Cambridge University Press, 1972), vol. 3, p. 1187.
- ISBN 978-0-415-52217-5.
- ^ Forsythe, Time in Roman Religion, p. 14.
- ^ Macrobius. Saturnalia, Vol. I.
- ^ Forsythe, Time in Roman Religion, pp. 14, 17.
- Varro, De re rustica 1.36.
- H.H. Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic (Cornell University Press, 1981), p. 69.
- ^ The month name is construed as an adjective modifying Kalendae, Nonae or Idūs (all plural nouns of feminine gender).
- ^ Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic, p. 82.
- ^ Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic, p. 73.
- ^ Jörg Rüpke, The Roman Calendar from Numa to Constantine: Time, History, and the Fasti, translated by David M.B. Richardson (Blackwell, 2011, originally published 1995 in German), pp. 73–74, 112–113.
- ^ Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies, pp. 44–45.
- ^ Michele Renee Salzman, On Roman Time: The Codex Calendar of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity (University of California Press, 1990), pp. 17, 121–122.
- ^ Rüpke, The Roman Calendar from Numa to Constantine, p. 6.
- ^ Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic, p. 41.
- ^ Salzman, On Roman Time, p. 122.
- ^ Abbreviated form of ante diem III Nonas Februarias.
- ^ Abbreviated prid. Non. Feb.
- ^ Abbreviated form of ante diem VII Idūs Februarias.
- ^ Abbreviated form of ante diem VI Idūs Februarias, with the ante diem omitted altogether, as in the dates following.
- ^ Mary Beard, J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, Religions of Rome: A Sourcebook (Cambridge University Press, 1998), vol. 2, p. 77.
- ^ Abbreviated prid. Id. Feb.
- ^ Abbreviated form of ante diem XV Kalendas Martias.
- ^ Abbreviated form of ante diem XIV Kalendas Martias, with the ante diem omitted altogether, as in the following dates.
- ^ Salzman, On Roman Time, p. 141.
- ^ Abbreviated prid. Kal. Mart.