Today in
Ancient RomeHODIE · ROMA

a.d. XIII Kal. Mart.

February 17 in Ancient Rome

Quirinalia

festivalAnnual

Roman calendar date

Festival of Quirinus, identified with the deified Romulus.

Background

Quirinus was one of the three great early gods of Rome, alongside Jupiter and Mars, with his own major priest, the flamen Quirinalis. His name was linked to the Quirites, the Roman citizens in their civilian role, and his temple stood on the Quirinal hill.

By the late Republic Romans identified Quirinus with the deified Romulus. Ovid tells the story: Romulus vanished in a storm while reviewing his army, and later appeared to Julius Proculus, telling him to have the people worship him as Quirinus per Ovid; the story is legend. The Quirinalia on 17 February was also called the "Feast of Fools" (stultorum feriae): those who had failed to take part in the Fornacalia, the festival of roasting grain held by each curia, made up for it on this day per Ovid.

The Fornacalia joke points to everyday life: grain was the staple of every Roman diet, and parching spelt to make it storable and edible was an ancient household task. Augustus rebuilt the Temple of Quirinus in 16 BC.

Ancient source: Ovid, Fasti 2.475–512 · Reference

Sources
Read moreParentalia begin (Feb 13–21)

Parentalia begin (Feb 13–21)

festivalAnnual

Roman calendar date

Nine days for honouring dead family members, beginning on the Ides of February and ending with the public Feralia.

Parentalia

Background

February was the Roman month of purification and remembrance. The Parentalia, "days of the parents", began at noon on the Ides of February and lasted nine days. A Vestal Virgin opened them with rites for the dead per the calendar inscriptions as reported by modern scholars.

During these days families visited the tombs of their relatives along the roads outside the city, bringing simple offerings. Ovid lists them: a wreath, a sprinkling of grain, a little salt, bread soaked in wine, and loose violets per Ovid. Temples were closed, altar fires were not lit, and marriages were avoided per Ovid. The festival ended with the public Feralia on 21 February.

Tombs lined every road into Rome, from great monuments of the rich to the modest niches of burial clubs, where enslaved people and freedmen pooled small payments to secure a decent burial and remembrance. Not everyone had one: the poorest were dumped in mass pits outside the Esquiline gate. The Parentalia shows how strongly Romans felt that the dead needed care from the living.

Ancient source: Ovid, Fasti 2.533–570 · Reference

Sources

Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 12°/3°C (54°/37°F) · rain 31% of days

Rome in FebruaryFebruary was Rome's month of purification and of the dead.

Columella
West wind or south wind with hail and squalls. (De Re Rust. 11.2)

Fields & crops

The west wind (Favonius) brought the first signs of spring around 7 February per Columella 11.2: vines were pruned, trees grafted, and meadows cleared and manured.

Courts & law

February was when the Senate traditionally heard foreign embassies late Republic, per the lex Gabinia and Cicero's letters. Ordinary law courts kept sitting except on festival days.

Senate & politics

As the last month of the old year, February was used for the intercalary month when the pre-Julian calendar needed correcting, inserted after the Terminalia (23 Feb.), a source of political manipulation pre-Julian.

Military

Still the closed season; armies prepared for spring, recruits trained, and supplies were gathered at frontier bases.

Festivals & religion

The month's name comes from februa, means of purification. The Lupercalia (15 Feb.), the Parentalia for the family dead (13–21 Feb.) ending with the Feralia, the Caristia family reunion (22 Feb.) and the Terminalia for boundary stones (23 Feb.) filled it per Ovid, Fasti 2.

Daily life

February was Rome's month of purification and of the dead. During the Parentalia (13–21 February) families brought simple offerings—wreaths, grain, salt, bread soaked in wine, violets—to their ancestors' tombs per Ovid, Fasti 2.533–42. Death was close: perhaps a quarter or more of infants died in their first year, and tombstones for young children are common modern demographic estimate; disputed in detail.

On farms Columella says the west wind (Favonius) starts about 7 February, signalling pruning, grafting and the first spring work per Columella 11.2. The Lupercalia (15 February) saw young men run through the streets striking women with goatskin strips, believed to help fertility and childbirth per Ovid and Plutarch.

Sources: Ovid, Fasti 2 · Columella 11.2

All days in February →

← February 16February 18 →
LATIN LINE OF THE DAY

Ille sapit quisquis, Postume, vixit heri.

“The wise man, Postumus, is whoever lived yesterday.”

Martial, Epigrams 5.58 · translation ours (literal)