a.d. VIII Kal. Mart.
February 22 in Ancient Rome
Caristia
festivalAnnual
Roman calendar date
The day after the Feralia, families gathered for the Caristia, a meal of reconciliation among living relatives, with offerings to the household gods.
Background
After nine days devoted to the dead, the Romans turned to the living. On 22 February came the Caristia, also called Cara Cognatio, "dear kinship": a family meal for living relatives.
Ovid describes it as a day to gather around the table, reconcile quarrels and offer food and incense to the Lares, the household gods, and toasts to the emperor per Ovid. He adds pointedly that those who had wronged their families, a cruel brother, a mother who mistreated her children, or someone wishing for a parent's death, should stay away per Ovid. The Calendar of 354 still lists the Caristia on this date, more than three centuries after Ovid.
Roman families were large, with remarriages, step-relations, freed slaves who took the family's name, and enslaved members of the household. Inheritance disputes were common and could be bitter. A day set aside for making peace reflects how much depended on family ties for support, property and care in old age.
Ancient source: Ovid, Fasti 2.617–638 · Reference
Sources
Read moreFeast of the Chair of Peter
Feast of the Chair of Peter
religionListed AD 354
Roman calendar date
Rome's list of Christian feasts in 354 marks 22 February as the 'natale Petri de cathedra', the feast of Peter's chair.
Background
The list of feasts in the Chronography of 354 includes, on 22 February, the "natale Petri de cathedra", the feast of Peter's chair. It commemorated Peter's authority as founder of the church of Rome, symbolised by the bishop's chair (cathedra).
The date is striking: it fell on the same day as the Caristia, when Romans honoured their family and their dead with shared meals. Many scholars think the Christian feast may have been set to replace or reshape that custom disputed; Christian families also held memorial meals for their dead at this season. Peter's presence and death in Rome is an early tradition, attested by late first and second century writers tradition.
By 354 the bishops of Rome were growing in wealth and prestige, as aristocrats and emperors gave land and buildings. Feasts like this one built a Christian calendar on top of the old one, shaping the year for ordinary believers, who gathered in basilicas and at tombs rather than at household shrines.
Ancient source: Chronography of 354, Depositio martyrum (VIII kal. Mart.) · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 13°/4°C (55°/39°F) · rain 38% of days
Rome in FebruaryFebruary was Rome's month of purification and of the dead.
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 →
LATIN LINE OF THE DAY
Quod sis esse velis nihilque malis.
“Wish to be what you are, and prefer nothing else.”
Martial, Epigrams 10.47 · translation ours (literal)
