Non. Feb.
February 5 in Ancient Rome
Augustus named 'Father of his Country'
politics2 BC
Julian date · ≈ Feb 3 on our calendar
Ovid calls the Nones of February the greatest honour in the calendar: the day the Senate, the equestrians and the people hailed Augustus as Pater Patriae.
Augustus
Background
By 2 BC Augustus had ruled for nearly thirty years. Peace held across most of the empire, he had rebuilt Rome in marble, and his grandsons Gaius and Lucius were being groomed as heirs. That year he also dedicated his great Forum with the Temple of Mars Ultor.
On the Nones of February the Senate, the equestrian order and the whole Roman people hailed him as Pater Patriae, "Father of his Country". Augustus closes his Res Gestae with this honour, saying it was inscribed in the vestibule of his house, in the Senate house and in his Forum. Suetonius reports that the senator Valerius Messalla made the proposal in the Senate and that Augustus answered in tears per Suetonius. Ovid calls it the greatest honour in his calendar.
The title cast the emperor as head of a Roman family, with a father's authority and duty of care, an idea that fit Roman law, in which a father held enormous power over his household. Later emperors took the title too. That same year Augustus exiled his daughter Julia for adultery, a private crisis behind the public celebration.
Approximate: leap years were misapplied in 45 BC–AD 8, so the exact day may shift by one or two days. Why?
Ancient source: Ovid, Fasti 2.119–144 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 12°/4°C (54°/39°F) · rain 35% of days
Rome in FebruaryFebruary was Rome's month of purification and of the dead.
Columella
Windy weather. (De Re Rust. 11.2)
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
Rumpitur invidia quidam, carissime Iuli, quod me Roma legit.
“Someone is bursting with envy, dearest Julius, because Rome reads me.”
Martial, Epigrams 9.97 · translation ours (literal)
