Februarius, fullyMensis Februarius ("month ofFebrua"), was the shortest month of theRoman calendar from which theJulian andGregorian month ofFebruary derived. It was eventually placed second in order, preceded byIanuarius ("month ofJanus",January) and followed byMartius ("month ofMars",March). In the oldest Roman calendar, which the Romans believed to have been instituted by their legendary founderRomulus, March was the first month, and the calendar year had only ten months in all.Ianuarius andFebruarius were supposed to have been added byNuma Pompilius, the secondking of Rome, originally at the end of the year. It is unclear when the Romans reset the course of the year so that January and February came first.^[2]

Februarius was the only month in the pre-Julian calendar to have an even number of days, numbering 28.^[3] This was mathematically necessary to permit the year itself to have an odd number of days.^[4] Ancient sources derivedFebruarius fromfebruum, a thing used for ritual purification. Most of the observances in this month concerned the dead or closure, reflecting the month's original position at the end of the year. TheParentalia was a nine-day festival honoring the ancestors and propitiating the dead, while theTerminalia was a set of rituals pertaining to boundary stones that was probably also felt to reinforce the boundary of the year.^[5]

ManyRoman festivals andreligious observances reflect the Romans' agrarian way of life in their early history. In his treatise on farming,Varro divides the agricultural year into eight phases, with Spring beginning officially on February 7, whenFavonius the west wind was thought to start blowing favorably and it was time to ready the fields.^[6] The grain fields were to be weeded, vineyards tended, and old reeds burned. Some kinds of trees were pruned, and attention was given to olive and fruit trees.

The agricultural writerColumella says that meadows and grain fields are "purged"(purguntur), probably both in the practical sense of clearing away old debris and by means of ritual. The duties of February thus suggest the close bond betweenagriculture and religion in Roman culture. According to thefarmers' almanacs, the tutelary deity of the month wasNeptune.^[7]

The Romans did not number days of a month sequentially from the 1st through the last day. Instead, they counted back from the three fixed points of the month: theNones (5th or 7th, depending on the length of the month), theIdes (13th or 15th), and theKalends (1st) of the following month. The Nones of February was the 5th, and the Ides the 13th. The last day of February was thepridie Kalendas Martias,^[8] "day before the Kalends of March". Roman counting wasinclusive; February 9 wasante diem V Idūs Februarias, "the 5th day before the Ides (13th) of February," usually abbreviateda.d. V Id. Feb. (or with thea.d. omitted altogether); February 23 wasVI Kal. Mart., "the 6th day before the Kalends of March."

February had one and possibly twomoveable feasts(feriae conceptivae). TheAmburbium ("City Circuit") was a purification of the whole city with no fixed date, but seems to have been held in February.^[9] TheFornacalia ("Oven Festival") was celebrated by the thirty ancient divisions of the Roman people known ascuriae. Eachcuria celebrated a festival separately under its own leader(curio) on various days following the Nones. These dates were established and publicized by thecurio maximus, the chiefcurio. Anyone who missed the Fornacalia celebrated by his owncuria, or who didn't know hiscuria, could attend a public festival which was always held as the concluding ceremony on February 17.^[10] The Fornacalia overlapped with the festival of the ancestral dead that dominated the month, and on its last day coincided with theQuirinalia, a day also known as theFeast of Fools(feriae stultorum).Februarius was thus such a religiously complex month that during the Julian reform of the calendar, when days were added to some months, it was left as it had been, even though it was the shortest month.^[11]

Each day was marked with a letter to denote its status under religious law. In the month of February:

• F fordies fasti, days when it was legal to initiate action in the courts ofcivil law;
• C fordies comitalis, a day on which the Roman people could hold assemblies(comitia), elections, and certain kinds of judicial proceedings;
• N fordies nefasti, when these political activities and the administration of justice were prohibited;
• NP, the meaning of which remains elusive, but which markedferiae, public holidays;
• EN forendotercissus, anarchaic form ofintercissus, "cut in half," meaning days that werenefasti in the morning, whensacrifices were being prepared, and in the evening, while sacrifices were being offered, but werefasti in the middle of the day.^[12]

By the late 2nd century AD, extant calendars no longer show days marked with these letters, probably in part as a result of calendar reforms undertaken byMarcus Aurelius.^[13] Days were also marked withnundinal letters in cycles ofA B C D E F G H, to mark the "market week"^[14] (these are omitted on the table below).

On adies religiosus, individuals were not to undertake any new activity, nor do anything other than tend to the most basic necessities. On the calendar under the Republic, adies natalis was an anniversary such as a temple founding or rededication, sometimes thought of as the "birthday" of a deity. During theImperial period, some of the traditional festivals localized at Rome became less important, and the birthdays and anniversaries of theemperor and his family gained prominence as Roman holidays. On the calendar of military religious observances known as theFeriale Duranum, sacrifices pertaining toImperial cult outnumber the older festivals.

Festivals marked in large letters on extantfasti, represented by festival names in all capital letters on the table, are thought to have been the most ancient holidays, becoming part of the calendar before 509 BC.^[15] After the mid-1st century AD, a number of dates are added to calendars forspectacles and games(circenses) held in honor of various deities in the venue called a "circus".

Unless otherwise noted, the dating and observances on the following table are fromH.H. Scullard,Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic (Cornell University Press, 1981), pp. 69–84.

• Month names:Martius,Aprilis,Maius,Junius,Quintilis,Sextilis,September,October,November,December.
• Leap month:Mercedonius orIntercalaris.

• Months of the Roman calendar
• February

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