Roman festivals in February – Episode notes.

I hope you enjoyed the episode, in it I mentioned the Lupercalia – here’s a link to that episode. There are also episode notes for this so check it out!

If you want to read a bit about the Fornacalia – here’s a recent piece I did on it. 

Table of Contents

• Lustratio.

• Tombs.

• Reading List.

• February episode transcription.

Lustratio.

This ritual was quite common and linked to other festivals. The below image is from the Antonine Wall in modern day Scotland and shows a specific version involving the sacrifice of a boar, ram and bull (a suovetaurilia).

This marble relief shows the same type of lustratio and dates to the 1st century AD.

Tombs.

I mentioned necropoleis in the episode and one famous necropolis was the Isola Sacra near Ostia. You can see how built up this was so it might have been that families co-ordinated the rituals they’d undertake during the Parentalia to manage the space.

The necropolis of Isola Sacra

Away from a necropolis you’d find tombs and graves alongside roads, the below is a famous instance. This tomb belonged to Eurysaces, a baker. This dates to circa 50-20 BC and was near one of the gates of Rome (the Porta Maggiore). 

Image from Wikipedia by Livioandronico2013

Reading List.

Cato, On Farming.

Livy, History of Rome.

Marcobius, Saturnalia.

Ovid, Fasti.

Pliny, Natural History.

Plutarch, Roman Questions.

Varro, Latin Language.

Carroll, M. Vox tua nempe mea est. Dialogues with the dead in Roman funerary commemoration.

Dolansky, F. Honouring the family dead on the Parentalia: ceremony, spectacle and memory. 

King, C. The Roman Manes: the dead as gods

The Ancient Roman Afterlife.

Linke, B. Sacral purity and social order in ancient Rome.

Robinson, M. Festivals, fools and the Fasti.

Rupke, J. The Roman Calendar from Numa to Constantine.

Lefkowtiz, M & Fant B. Women’s Life in Greece and Rome

Warde Fowler, W. The Roman festivals of the period of the Republic

Ziolkowski, A. Ritual cleaning up of the city: from the Lupercalia to the Argei

February episode transcription.

Nudity, a festival with a name you might raise an eyebrow to and a spell. It’s time to explore three festivals in February on the Ancient History Hound podcast.

Hi and welcome, my name’s Neil and in this episode I am continuing with the Festivals in ancient Rome miniseries with a look at February and three festivals which took place in that month. In the first episode I discussed the development of the Roman calendar and January – you don’t have to have listened to it as these are standalone episodes, but it might give you some more context and even dare I say enjoyment! I also spoke briefly about Ovid, a poet who wrote the Fasti which described Roman festivals and supplies us with some invaluable information about what went on. That said there is always the caveat when using source material which relates to how reliable it is.

You can find episode notes with a transcription, reading list and other info on my website ancientblogger.com along with all sorts of ancient history content. You can also find me as ancientblogger on Instagram, TikTok, X, Bluesky and with a channel on YouTube. It’s all ancient history in case you wondered.

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Right, let’s get to February.

In the previous episode I spoke about how January took its name from Janus and how the sources were all in agreement with this. February, however, presents us with a very different situation. The theme of the month was certain – it was a month dedicated to purification, but our sources weren’t exactly sure what it took its name from. Ovid gives us one contender, februa. This is the name given to a range of objects used in purification and in particular one which I’ll be mentioning in this episode – the goat-hide strips used in the Lupercalia.

Another candidate was a rather mysterious deity called Februus. He was a god of purification mentioned by later writers such as Macrobius and John the Lydian. In fact the latter, in his work on pagan festivals, linked Februus to an underworld Etruscan deity. Perhaps this was a fuller manifestation of an earlier thought that the god, and rite, had non-Roman beginnings as Varro, writing in the 1^st century BC and therefore much more within the period I am focusing on, noted that Februm is the name the Sabines gave to a purification ritual.

We can draw some early conclusions given all of this. The first is that February was linked to purification and via a couple of suggested etymologies. The second is that there may have external influences in how this all came about as referenced by the mention of Sabines and Etruscans. This isn’t necessarily a surprise, the month itself was apparently added to the Roman calendar by Numa. It’s sometimes forgotten that Numa, with the caveat that he was likely a fictional character, wasn’t Roman. He was a Sabine and was associated with creating Rome’s religious infrastructure. Even if he didn’t exist Rome seems happy to have cultivated a myth about a non-Roman ruler crafting its early religion and religious infrastructure.

It may, or may not, surprise you but Rome had a history of incorporating elements from other cultures into its religion both in its early years and continuing on from there.

A question you may have is, ok purification was the theme of February. But why and what was the intended purpose of this? A good way of approaching this is to consider purification as a way of maintaining good relations with the gods. One ritual which facilitated this was a lustratio and though this varied it was composed of some basic elements. The most distinct was the procession which might be around the area the ritual was focused on. Or it could be more symbolic. A lustratio would also involve prayers and a sacrifice and the idea was that by doing this you will have engendered good relations with the gods or good outcomes which the gods presided over.

Cato the Elder wrote a treatise on Farming which dated to the mid-2^nd century BC. This included a lustratio to promote good fertility for a piece of land on a farm. This involved leading sacrificial animals around the land, sacrificing them and making the required prayers.

A more public one was the lustratio conducted after a census at Rome which was said to have taken place every 5 years. This took place at the Field of Mars and around the area where the people had gathered. It was an important ritual, Augustus performed this in 28 BC and boasted of doing so in his Res Gestae.

Sometimes a lustratio or similar rite was a response to an emergency. Perhaps there had been a bad omen, a sacrifice had been performed incorrectly or something similar. In those instances Rome turned to its priests to work out what was needed, this might involve consulting the Sibylline Books. I won’t be including these type of rituals but thought it good to point out that Rome had a religious framework which was quite dynamic and capable of responding to unique situations.

The first festival is a good example of a few themes you’ll be hearing about in this episode. It was called the Fornacalia, yes, you heard that correctly and this was a celebration of ovens. Like the Compitalia which I mentioned in January’s episode this was known as a feriae conceptivae, or movable feast which meant that it didn’t have a set date for its beginning. However, it did have an end date. Confused and still thinking, Fornacalia? Good.

Much like many festivals this one was said to have been established by Numa, Rome’s second king. Though this was a public festival it wasn’t undertaken by the whole citizenry in Rome at the same time but through citizen groups known as curia. By the time of the Imperial period there were 30 of these curia, each with its own name and history. The feast would have taken place at that curia’s meeting place or hall or whatever it needed to use. The date was set by the official presiding over the curia, hence there not being a fixed start date because you couldn’t have all of these presumably on the same day. The person in charge of the curia you belonged to would simply let you know.

There was or rather seems to have been a fixed end date for it. This was the 17^th February where the final feast, the Feast of Fools was staged. The curious name comes from its function – to provide the ritual, a sacrifice and feast, to those who weren’t sure what curia they belonged to. Plutarch in his Roman Questions does give a couple of reasons as to why you might not be able to attend other than just not knowing what curia you were in. Perhaps you were away on business, or ill or simply not able to attend. And I suspect that even if that wasn’t the case you’d probably want to say something like that rather than be considered a fool.

The next festival was a bit like the Fornacalia in that it took place over a number of days but this one was very much assigned a set of dates each February. Running from the 13^th till the 21^st was the Parentalia. During this time temples were closed, and marriage was forbidden. It was a festival in which families made offerings to the ancestral dead, or manes.

The name of the festival is thought to refer to this aspect. The Latin word Parentes could mean parents but also ancestors and this could mean an immediate family member, say a child.

Ovid, in his work the Fasti, had some interesting comments about the Parentalia including a ritual spell. It was apparently Aeneas, a Trojan prince, who had brought the custom to what would become Rome. If you weren’t aware Aeneas escaped Troy and settled near to what would become Rome. This also means that this practice predated Romulus and Remus by many generations.

This account is a good example of how Rome came to speculate and form foundation myths for many of its elements. From buildings to beliefs. It’s probable that there was a type of ritual which looked to placate the spirits of the family unit going way back but it was important that this important festival had a foundation myth which could be easily recognised.

Ovid’s description of the events includes a reference to the last day of the festival, known as the Feralia. The etymology of this has been debated. However, both Varro, a 1^st century BC writer, and Ovid concluded that the word came from the verb to bring ‘ferre’ with Varro adding that ‘inferi’, meaning, the dead below, was involved as well. It’s worth noting that though Ovid mentions the Feralia these events he describes aren’t necessarily only taking place on that last day. That would be improbable for reasons I’ll get to in a moment.

Bringing something to the dead was something described by Ovid. This would include food, for example bread soaked in wine and burnt offerings, but also decoration with the use of violets and garlands to decorate the tomb or gravestone. Ovid is at pains to emphasise that the dead were not greedy in needing sumptuous fare or lavish displays, though this was sometimes the case as I will get to shortly.

For Ovid this was a poignant moment, a family remembering the manes by their tomb or grave. And yet there was something else, something a bit more, sinister, and this reflects an important element of the Parentalia. The manes weren’t gone; they were active and wandering around Rome. What better time for a ritual or spell to ask for their assistance.

The ritual or spell took the following form, and I quote:

See, an old woman sitting amongst the girls performs the rites

Of Tacita, the Silent (though she herself is not silent),

With three fingers, she sets three lumps of incense

Under the sill, where the little mouse makes its secret path:

Then she fastens enchanted threads together with dark lead,

And turns seven black beans over and over in her mouth,

And bakes the head of a sprat in the fire, mouth sewn up

With pitch, pierced right through with a bronze needle.

She drops wine on it too, and she or her friends

Drink the wine that’s left, though she gets most.

On leaving she says: ‘We have sealed up hostile mouths

And unfriendly tongues’: and the old woman exits drunk.

End quote

To give some context the character of Tacita mentioned was the mother of the Lares protective spirits who I mentioned in the previous episode with the Compitalia. Ovid gives her backstory as one in which she had her tongue removed by Jupiter for telling Juno, his wife, that Jupiter was infatuated with Juturna, Tacita’s sister. This, and the sealing of the mouth of the fish suggests that this was a ritual aimed at silencing the enemies of that family. If you listened to my episode on Curse Tablets and Figurines you might remember binding spells which were intended to have a particular effect, for example prevent a love affair or a business from flourishing. A common type in ancient Greece was to silence people and this was within the context of that person acting as a witness in court.

Perhaps then the old woman and her group of young girls was aiding a family in supressing a rumour about them or perhaps a possible witness in court. It wasn’t as if the Romans didn’t avail themselves to court cases and gossip.

Asking for the manes to assist the family requires them to have power and this was certainly the case. These weren’t passive entities. Manes were seen by Romans as being capable of helping and harming, which is one reason why you wanted to keep them onside. There were rituals in Rome where the manes of the people might help with agricultural fertility. They might also help an army, a devotio hostium was a ritual a Roman general could perform which pledged the lives of the enemy in a besieged city as offerings to manes if they helped win the siege.

On a more personal level the manes of a family were thought to help provide guidance, perhaps through dreams. Prayers made to manes might also seek to extend the life of a person, with the implication that they could also control the occurrences of death. The manes of a family were therefore powerful entities and the Parentalia was crucial in maintaining a relationship with them.

Where the Parentalia bridged the gap between the living and dead it also linked the public and the private. Though the Parentalia was essentially a private thing it was also very public. The Romans buried their dead outside of the city. A tombs and graves were found in necropoleis, and alongside roads. In the case of the latter popular spots would be near to the main gates to ensure as many passers-by as possible. In this sense the places of the dead were not hidden.

The follow on here is that there was an opportunity for Romans to showcase their wealth and grandeur. Perhaps this was what Ovid was sniping at earlier with the comment about the dead being happy with basic offerings and nothing too excessive. We might picture the Parentalia taking place alongside roads or in a necropolis and whilst people walked past or conducted theirs nearby.

For the majority, especially the poor of Rome, the Parentalia would have been a basic affair but naturally some Romans wanted to ramp things up a bit. Excavations at some necropoleis have revealed a shared water supply and even communal kitchens. There’s even some indication of rooms where people might stay and this probably results from families having to travel a distance. Stick a pin in that point for a moment as I’ll come back to it shortly.

How then might a more elaborate ritual manifest exactly?  Well, we have inscriptions which reveal what went on. I’ll start with a dedication made by Cominus Abascantus to his wife which took place each year at his garden tomb.

This included 10 pairs of wrestlers, the winners getting 8 sesterces, the losers 4. There was also a feast at the dining hall above the tomb which included local magistrates.

Feast at the dining hall above the tomb which includes local magistrates. It’s estimated that there were 6 guests at 16 sesterces a head. The oil poured over his remains, this was nardum (nard-oil) and very expensive. Then of course there was the sacrifice and the decoration of the tomb with violets.

Another inscription, this time by a husband to his wife Clodia Achilles carried details about how she was to be remembered. Her husband gave money to the local seviri Augustales (a professional association of freedmen) to have a libation poured for her on the Parentalia and Rosalia.

Valeria Ursa made arrangements before her death for herself and her husband. She left the money to a girls’ youth organisation in Mediolanum with pouring libations as well as laying rose garlands at their daughter’s tomb at the time of the Parentalia. In Pisa, M Naevius Restitutus left 4k sesterces to the association of the ship builders who were instructed to feast beside his tomb each year at the Parentalia and rosalia.

There’s quite a lot of information in these examples. The fact that associations were involved to continue the offerings, the feasts and also the involvement of non-family members. I’m not going to chase this rabbit too far down a hole but it seems that there may have been instances where the grave or tomb side ritual involved non-family members. How did this work as presumably they had to conduct their own rites as well? This might be why the festival covered the number of days it did – because you may not only conduct rites for the manes of your family but be a guest at the rites for another family. There’s also the element of travel, which I mentioned earlier. The Parentalia seems to have incorporated logistics which needed more than a day.

The experience of a Roman family might be from performing a simple rite, to essentially hosting something more substantial, being a guest and all variations thereof. Overarching all of this all was a sense that the Romans embraced this festival and had genuine respect, affection – call it what you will to their manes. Emotionally it must have been a complex affair, remembering those long passed who you had never met and those you were speaking with recently.

Whatever the experience of the family the central element was the same. To keep the manes happy and this theme of familial balance was a feature of the Caristia, which took place on the 22^nd. The main feature of this was a meal in which any issues or arguments in the family were set aside. Though we don’t have a lustratio in place both these incorporate a theme I mentioned earlier, to regulate relationships, both with the living and the dead.

The next festival definitely did include a lustratio and it was quite a sight. You want a solemn procession with prayers and the like. Look elsewhere because on the 15^th of February the lustratio took the form of nude young men armed with goat hide thongs. This was the Lupercalia.

I should start by mentioning that I did an episode specifically on the Lupercalia which you can listen to as it will include some details I won’t mention here. Don’t worry though unlike those runners I will cover the basics.

The route the Lupercalia took has been argued and in truth it may have changed at points but we know it started at the Lupercal. This was the cave which supposedly was where the she-wolf who nursed Romulus and Remus lived. It then went round the Palatine hill and ended in the Forum. The ending of the route at the Forum gave rise to one of history’s famous moments. It was after running in the Lupercalia that Mark Antony offered Julius Caesar the crown, in fact a diadem, which Caesar refused. Cicero’s attack on Marc Antony in his second Philippic included this event as well as Marc Antony’s undress in the act as a further outrage.

After a sacrifice had been made at the Lupercal the runners, members of a priesthood known as the Luperci, set off. It wasn’t a race but there was a requirement that the runners strike or most likely tap women with goat hide thongs. I mentioned earlier that these were known as februa and significant enough to be considered as the reason behind the month’s name.

To be struck by one of the runners or rather the thong was considered very lucky. In fact it was thought that this would increase a woman’s fertility or if she was pregnant help ensure a good birth. This then is a good example of a ritual which was formed of two separate elements. One of purification and of fertility. But why exactly? According to Livy this element was added in 276 BC following an outbreak of stillbirths in the city.

Ovid, however, has his own mythical rationale. When the city, under Romulus, was suffering from a lack of children being born the goddess Juno spoke from her sacred grove. Her words “let the sacred he-goat pierce the Italian wives” was interpreted as thongs cut from the hide of a sacrificed goat being used to hit the backs of wives to remedy the situation.

In his history of Rome Livy mentions elsewhere where Rome incorporated new elements into religious rites. For example the inclusion of the lectisternium in the Saturnalia. It’s plausible then that there was an addition to the initial lustratio though one argument I read posited that the use of the februa was always part of that original lustratio. They may have been used in a symbolic context, used to avert pollution and malign influences by waving them around. This act was then later tweaked and repurposed as one which imbued fertility.

A final point I want to make is that the Lupercalia took place during the Parentalia. On a wider note it’s good to realise that festivals sometimes overlapped. But here it may have been intentional. The purification aspect of the Lupercalia acted as a check on those welcome, but still possibly dangerous manes who were in the city. It was a sort of ritual check and control.

February had several other festivals including the Terminalia, associated with boundary markers and the Regifugium. We have sparse detail on either of these with the latter associated in some way with the expulsion of the kings. This brings with it a perspective on festivals in February those elsewhere through the year – they were history re-enacted, albeit mythic history. I go into it more in detail on the separate episode on the Lupercalia but part of the experience the Romans may have had through the ritual on the 15^th was to connect to their cultural history.

Along other things the three festivals fostered a sense of community, it’s easy to see why people enjoyed them. The chance for a bit to eat mixed with more serious themes. And of course, nudity, why not.

I hope you have enjoyed this episode, up next is March which includes another procession, albeit one involving much more dancing and a prop, sort of. Until then, keep safe and stay well.