pr. Kal. Mart.
February 28 in Ancient Rome
In leap years 28 February is a.d. III Kal. Mart., not the day before the Kalends: the Julian calendar added the extra (bissextile) day by repeating the "sixth day before the Kalends of March", which pushes the following days back by one.
Sisinnius becomes bishop of Constantinople
religionAD 426
Julian date · ≈ Mar 1 on our calendar
Pressed by the laity, who admired his care for the poor, the church of Constantinople ordained the priest Sisinnius as bishop.
Background
In the early fifth century the bishopric of Constantinople was a powerful and dangerous office, fought over by rival factions of clergy and courtiers. When Bishop Atticus died in 425, factions backed rival candidates, among them the priests Philip and Proclus.
According to Socrates, the people favoured Sisinnius, a priest serving at Elaea, a suburb of the city, who was known for his piety and especially for his generosity to the poor per Socrates, a contemporary. Pressed by the laity, the church ordained him bishop on 28 February 426, in the twelfth consulship of Theodosius II.
His time in office was short; he died at the end of 427. His successor was Nestorius, brought from Antioch, whose teaching about the Virgin Mary soon split the church and led to the Council of Ephesus in 431. Socrates' praise of Sisinnius' care for the poor reminds us that in late antique cities the church had become one of the main sources of relief for the hungry and destitute.
Ancient source: Socrates Scholasticus, Church History 7.26 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 14°/5°C (57°/41°F) · rain 34% 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
Lasciva est nobis pagina, vita proba.
“My page is playful; my life is upright.”
Martial, Epigrams 1.4 · translation ours (literal)
