a.d. V Id. Feb.
February 9 in Ancient Rome
Chariot races close the Gothic Games
festivalListed AD 354
Roman calendar date
The calendar of 354 ends the Ludi Gothici on 9 February with 24 chariot races in the Circus.
Ludi Gothici (Gothic Games)
Background
The Ludi Gothici, listed in the Calendar of 354 from 4 February, ended on 9 February with 24 chariot races in the Circus. Twenty-four races, starting from morning, was the standard full day of racing in the late empire.
The races were run by four factions, the Blues, Greens, Reds and Whites, which owned the horses, employed the charioteers and commanded passionate followings. Charioteers were often enslaved or of low status, yet the best won fame and fortunes; many died young in crashes. Fans cursed rivals with lead curse tablets, some of which survive.
For the city's poor, a day at the Circus Maximus, which could hold well over 100,000 people, was free entertainment and a place where the emperor could be seen and even petitioned by the crowd. The races closing the Gothic Games reminded spectators, too, of victories won by soldiers on the Danube.
Ancient source: Chronography of 354, calendar (V Id. Feb.: GOTTICI CM XXIIII) · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 12°/3°C (54°/37°F) · rain 30% 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
Summum nec metuas diem nec optes.
“Neither fear your last day nor long for it.”
Martial, Epigrams 10.47 · translation ours (literal)
