a.d. VI Kal. Mart.

February 24 in Ancient Rome

Regifugium

festivalAnnual

The 'Flight of the King', which Romans linked to the expulsion of Tarquin.

Background

The Regifugium, "Flight of the King", fell on 24 February, near the end of the old Roman year. Romans of Ovid's day connected it with the expulsion of Tarquin the Proud, the last king, in what they dated to 509 BC tradition.

Ovid devotes a long passage to the story: the rape of Lucretia by the king's son Sextus Tarquinius, her suicide after telling her family, and Lucius Junius Brutus swearing over her body to drive out the royal family per Ovid and Livy; legend. Modern scholars doubt the connection with the festival; the Regifugium may have been a rite in which the rex sacrorum performed a sacrifice in the Comitium and then hurried away disputed; per Plutarch.

The Lucretia story placed a woman's violation and death at the founding of the Republic, and Roman writers used it to teach what they saw as female virtue and the evils of tyranny. Hatred of the name "king" remained a powerful force in Roman politics for centuries, which is why Caesar's enemies could use it so effectively against him.

Ancient source: Ovid, Fasti 2.685–852 · Reference

Sources

Ovid, Fasti 2.685–852 · ancient source
Livy 1.57–60 · ancient source
Plutarch, Roman Questions 63 · ancient source
Wikipedia: Regifugium · modern reference

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 →

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LATIN LINE OF THE DAY

Nec tecum possum vivere, nec sine te.

“I can't live with you, nor without you.”

Martial, Epigrams 12.46 · translation ours (literal)