 importance of this island in the month of February. Here you see the Tiber is still quite high. And what we're going to be doing is we're going to be talking about for the month of February major events, religious festivals, particular dedications, and then some events around the lives of Imperial family members, emperors, emperors, would-be heirs, and so forth. But ultimately, what is the month of February about? It's a period of purification. It's a period of, you can say, atonement. It's a period of remembering the dead, remembering your ancestors. This is going to be manifested through a series of key festivals throughout the month. And of course, the Vestal Virgins will be playing a role in that. And here they are. It's a famous relief that comes to us from Palermo. But it is the Vestal Virgins, and the man standing on the right is the Pontifex Maximus, who's in charge of the Priestley College, which includes the Vestal Virgins. Okay, so for the month of February, we start off here on the 1st, and there is a temple that we can still visit today, and we'll see in just a moment the Temple of Juno Sospita, the Savior, next to the cattle market in the Forum Holatorium, which is the vegetable market. It's founded by a consul after a war against the Insubrians of Northern Italy. Battles in 197, the temple is dedicated on the 1st of the month in 194 BC. On the 5th of February, this man right here, who appears, his portrait is in the Tarlonia Collection, which is currently open to the public on the capitaline hill. He dies in York and is succeeded by his sons, Caracalla and Gata. And we know what happens in the sequel, Caracalla kills his little brother Gata within the year. Now in 6th of February, 62 AD, a precursor to the destructive eruption of the Suvius, we have an earthquake, and you can see in the archaeological record the devastation from that particular earthquake. We talk about all the time the earthquake damage to the city of Rome. Well, all of Rome, all of Italy is volcanic, and so there's earthquake damage throughout the peninsula, including Pompeii. And there is a famous relief that shows the various structures and temples at different angles, basically capturing that moment of the topsy-turvy end of the world scenario on February 6th, 62. And then, of course, we know what really devastates the city is going to be the eruption in AD 79. The exact date is still disputed. Was it in the summer? Was it in the fall? But you can see that we're starting off the month of February with the bang. I'm sorry I have to say that. And we've got a little bit of mix of these great events, these famous moments in Roman history in that first week. The temple dedication, the death of a, you know, the starter of a dynasty, the Severan dynasty of Septemberus Severus, and of course then an event that everyone is going to remember. Let's take a look at this church that's in San Nicola in Carchere. And what you have here is in the incorporation of three temples. And the outer temples are built in the Punic War, the first Punic War. And the middle part is going to be what is the core of this church, San Nicola in Carchere. And that's where you have wedged in between the temple of space and Janus, the later 190 BC versus the 260 BC to 240 BC. You have that last of the three temples in the area of the vegetable market. And it is dedicated to Juno, the wife of Jupiter, Juno who saves. So you're making vows as generals. And when you win your war, you think that God or goddess who helped you. And you help and you thank them by a construction. Didn't always have to be a temple. Could be an altar, could be a statue. The temple is about as good as it got. February 8th, we have a lot of interesting personalities. Leo the first is becoming the emperor in the east in 457. Constantius the third is co-emperor with the Norris, famous emperor of the western half in 421. Zeno is co-emperor with his son in the eastern empire. But he's crowned by his little son who's seven years old. Kind of reverse tactic there in 474. And then the figure that we're probably most familiar with out of all these personalities, all these rulers is Britannicus. He's not a ruler at all. He's the son of Claudius, the emperor. So one of our famous Julio-Claudian emperors. And there he is depicted with his mother, Messalina. So one of the number of wives of Claudius, ultimately the most famous is the last wife of Claudius, Agrippina. And what we have here then is that story of the natural born son of Claudius, Britannicus, named after that triumph that Claudius has in Britain, ultimately dying. And then Claudius has to turn to a stepson, Nero. But the idea is that there's something fishy going on here. And the sources really push that theory, that conspiracy theory that Britannicus was indeed poisoned, as was eventually Claudius himself, poisoned probably by eating some tampered with mushrooms. That's happening on the 11th of February in 55 AD. Now, we're getting to the good stuff here. The core of what the February is all about is the parentalia. It's a nine day festival on the 13th that's kicked off, includes on the 21st. And it's rights that involve the Vestal Virgins. And it's all about honoring family ancestors. But as so much is the case for the Romans, you do things publicly, you do things when the privacy of your home. And we have that also in the 13th, the temple of Faunus. So this deity of, well, he's associated really with Pan, so God of the countryside and kind of like a Sylvanus figure, God of the woodlands. But here he has a temple on the Tiber Island. And that's why we kicked off the first view today with the Tiber Island. It's not just the Sclepius who's on that island. They're going to be several deities, Beovus, the Sclepius. Let's not forget about Faunus. And also on this day, Gordon III dies, and you can take your pick on how he does die in 244, murdered by his own army, or he dies in a battle. So it depends on how you want to look at what the sources are saying. But February 13th is a rather auspicious, and then in the case of Gordon III, an auspicious day. And we're not going to forget about the Paterontalia because there are going to be other things associated with that nine day festival. But I just wanted to squeeze in here, Valentine, St. Valentine, who is martyred in Rome in 270, buried nearby the Pontimilbius, the Pontimilbius on the Via Flaminia. It's going to have a church eventually in catacombs, but purportedly his skull is on display in Centurion and Cosmiden, where you have the Boca de la Verita in the form Boarium. And ultimately, he's declared a saint in 495. So it takes a while, but I think we're all familiar with Valentine's Day, which is around the corner, and the associations with that festival. But it's getting its start with a guy who is martyred in Rome. And in the third century, of course, there's a little touch and go with being a Christian, sometimes persecuted, sometimes not. Making your way through the Paterontalia festivals, we do have the Februa, and that is a festival of purification that lasts two days. And that's where February, it's a thing about fever, February is coming from, it's purifying, burning off the bad as it were. And then we also have this very famous festival called the Lupercalia, which lasts a number of days. It's a fertility right. And we have this famous image, not from antiquity, but much later depicting then this kind of pageantry that's involved. And essentially guys go around in their underwear, flicking whips made from strips of flesh from sacrificed goats. And if you want to get pregnant, you hope you get whacked with this little whips that the guys are almost naked running around with. And that would lead to your pregnancy. So it is a rather boisterous and, you know, there's a lot of revelry involved in this particular festival. And then famously during that time, you have one of these very public attempts for Julius Caesar, who's participating with Mark Antony, to be crowned in front of everyone, not with the crown of gold, but just with, you know, the kind of Laurel leaps and so forth as a gesture. But it takes on its own meaning and the pageantry that's involved. And ultimately, it's like should he be crowned or should he not be crowned? And although Mark Antony tries several times, the response from the crowd is no, we do not want him crowned, we do not want a king. And that's one of these poignant kind of episodes. When we think about the ways in which so often the case, the background and the skeletal framework within your existence through the Roman life, through the Roman calendar, are going to have these religious moments, these processions, these things that everybody participated in. And that's the thing in which the gossip happened, the incident happened, the assassination happened. Like the political statement on the part of Julius Caesar happened. And that's why we're looking at these months and more than just looking at Roman festivals, more than just ascension of an emperor, but also that the political actions and famous moments that take place with throughout the year. Okay, 17th through the 21st, Fort Nakalia, we're celebrating the god, Fornax, and that's just the goddess of the oven. And how important is, you know, electricity to us, internet, probably more important nowadays than flushing toilets and electricity. But the goddess of the oven, she is key. They're remembering these various deities throughout the year. Cronalia honors the god, queerness, that is, the deified Romulus. We have an emperor dying, Jovian. And then we're also looking then the 21st to the last year, the parentalia, you end it with the Feralia, and you're then at that point celebrating the Manes. And when you look at so many ancient Roman inscriptions to the dead, it says DM all the time abbreviated for the de Manes, these spirits of the dead. And that everything is ostentatious. You're giving flower reeds and the tombs, sprinkling some brain, sprinkling some salt, soaking bread in wine and leaving that. So it doesn't have to always be something precious, something that is not affordable. This is for everyone to participate in is the basic idea. And then we have this young man here, Gaius Caesar, one of the two grandsons, Augustus destined as his he adopted his grandchildren. And neither one, neither Gaius nor Lucius survived. He dies here in AD 4 on the 21st of February. And think about how much more devastating that was to Augustus. He writes about how Caesar, Fortuna, the goddess, ripped away by grandsons from me, took them away. And it's just, I'm sure that had extra meaning. And he died on the day at the end of the celebration of the dead that would not have been missed upon any run. Every woman recognized that added meaning to that particular day. Rounding out the month of February, we have on the 22nd, the Caristia, which as opposed to the Feralia is a private celebration of the dead, particularly held in the household, venerating the household lorries. Now, next on the 23rd, we have the Terminalia. And this is a great god for the Romans. He refused to budge on the capital line hill to make room for the later and greater Temple of Jupiter, Optimus Maximus. So this is something that the Romans hold in great esteem. This is the boundary marker. And this is the sign of how the early religion was respectful of what pre-existed. The Terminalia goes back to the earliest beginning of Rome. On the 24th, we have the Festival of the Regevugium, which remembers the expulsion of the kings through the figure of the Rexachro arm that goes through that process, probably even an actual physical movement through the city, again, remembering the expulsion of the Tarquin kings from Rome. Also on the 24th, we have the Great Persecution of the Christians by Diocletian. This place takes place in 303. And it's kind of the beginning of the end. It's the last grand attempt to wipe the Christians out of the Roman Empire. On the 25th, Hadrian adopts Antonis Pius and makes Antonis Pius adopt Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Ferris. So a double succession was laid out by Hadrian. And it worked for that time being never to be replicated. On the 26th, we have the Ascension of Valentinian I and 364. On the 27th, we have the Festival of the Aequiria. It's in the campus marshes, possibly the Targaryen, which is near the today's Via Giulia. It's dedicated to the god Mars. It also has death and underworld associations. We're at the end of the calendar year in the original 10 month calendar in ancient Rome. The first month of that original calendar system was March. So here we have that kind of end, that celebration, that recognition of death in the lives of the Romans. On the 27th, we have the Constantine the Great's Earth in 272. Also on the 27th, in 380, we have the Great Edict of Thessalonica, which makes Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire, making illegal the veneration of the old gods. Despite that decree, a number of those traditions will continue to persist, including the famous Lupercalia in the month of February.