a.d. IV Non. Feb.
February 2 in Ancient Rome
Good news must be delivered free
politicsAD 383
Julian date · ≈ Feb 3 on our calendar
Gratian, Valentinian II and Theodosius ordered that messengers announcing victories, peace or new consuls could not charge the provinces a fee for the good news.
Valentinian II · Theodosius I · Gratian
Background
When an emperor won a war, made peace or took the consulship, messengers rode out to announce it in the provinces, carrying laurelled letters or imperial portraits. By custom the recipients rewarded them, and the reward had hardened into a fee squeezed from provincial towns.
This law of 383, sent to the praetorian prefect Florus, ordered that news of victories, peace, the consulship or the arrival of new imperial images be announced and received without payment. The messenger was to be honest, judges were to watch for collusion, and anyone who took a fee would lose his rank and property; anyone who forced payment faced the same, and the office staff a fine of thirty pounds of gold.
The law says it aimed to stop officials from extracting "the price of rejoicing" from the poor.
Ancient source: Theodosian Code 8.11.4 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 12°/4°C (54°/39°F) · rain 33% 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
Cras te victurum, cras dicis, Postume, semper.
“You say you'll live tomorrow, Postumus, always tomorrow.”
Martial, Epigrams 5.58 · translation ours (literal)
