a.d. III Kal. Mart.
February 27 in Ancient Rome
Edict of Thessalonica
religionAD 380
Julian date · ≈ Feb 28 on our calendar
In an edict addressed to the people of Constantinople, Theodosius, with Gratian and Valentinian II, ordered all peoples under their rule to follow the faith of Bishop Damasus of Rome and Peter of Alexandria, calling all others heretics.
Valentinian II · Theodosius I · Gratian
Background
Christians had argued for decades over the nature of the Trinity. Under the emperor Valens, the eastern court had backed the Homoians, and in Constantinople the Nicenes were a small minority. Theodosius, a Nicene from Spain, became emperor of the East in 379 and fell seriously ill at Thessalonica in 380, when he was baptised.
On 27 February 380, in the names of Gratian, Valentinian II and Theodosius, an edict was addressed to the people of Constantinople. It ordered all peoples under their rule to follow the religion that the apostle Peter had handed to the Romans, as followed by Bishop Damasus of Rome and Peter of Alexandria: one deity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in equal majesty. Those who followed it could call themselves catholic Christians; all others were "demented and insane" heretics whose meeting places could not be called churches, and who faced divine punishment and then imperial punishment.
It became the foundation for making Nicene Christianity the empire's official faith, confirmed at the Council of Constantinople in 381. Later laws turned the threat into confiscations, fines and bans for dissenting Christians.
Ancient source: Theodosian Code 16.1.2 · Reference
Sources
Read moreEquirria
Equirria
festivalAnnual
Roman calendar date
With two nights left in February, horse races for Mars were held on his Field, the Campus Martius.
Background
Mars was the god of war and also a guardian of farms and fields, and the end of February and March, his month, marked the season when farming and campaigning resumed. The Equirria, horse races in his honour, were held twice: on 27 February and on 14 March.
Ovid says the races were run on the Campus Martius, the Field of Mars, beside the Tiber; when the river flooded the field, they moved to the Caelian hill per Ovid. He says Romulus founded them per Ovid; tradition. Unlike the great circus races of later times, these were old religious contests on open ground.
The Campus Martius had once been the mustering ground where citizen-soldiers gathered for war and voted in their centuries. By Ovid's day it was filling with temples, porticoes and baths, but it still held open space for exercise, where young men rode, wrestled and swam in the river. Horses were expensive, a sign of wealth; most Romans watched from the side.
Ancient source: Ovid, Fasti 2.857–862 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 13°/4°C (55°/39°F) · rain 35% 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
Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare.
“I do not love you, Sabidius, and I cannot say why.”
Martial, Epigrams 1.32 · translation ours (literal)
