a.d. IV Kal. Mart.
February 26 in Ancient Rome
John Chrysostom becomes bishop of Constantinople
religionAD 398
Julian date · ≈ Feb 27 on our calendar
Brought from Antioch, John Chrysostom was consecrated bishop of Constantinople; Theophilus of Alexandria, who opposed him, was pressured into performing the ordination.
John Chrysostom
Background
John, later called Chrysostom ("golden-mouthed") for his preaching, was a priest at Antioch famous for sermons that attacked luxury and urged care for the poor. When the bishopric of Constantinople fell vacant in 397, the powerful eunuch Eutropius, chief minister of the emperor Arcadius, chose him.
John was brought from Antioch quietly, since the people of Antioch would not have let him go willingly per Sozomen, a church historian writing some fifty years later. Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria, had his own candidate and opposed John, but was pressured into consecrating him; Socrates says Eutropius threatened to bring charges against Theophilus per Socrates. John was consecrated on 26 February 398.
As bishop he cut the household expenses of the bishop's palace, put money into hospitals, and preached hard against the rich and powerful, including, people believed, the empress Eudoxia. He made enemies quickly. Theophilus engineered his deposition at the Synod of the Oak in 403, and after riots and a second exile, John died in 407 on a forced march to the Black Sea.
Ancient source: Socrates Scholasticus, Church History 6.2 · Reference
Sources
☁ Rome today (1991–2020 avg): 13°/4°C (55°/39°F) · rain 31% 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
Sunt bona, sunt quaedam mediocria, sunt mala plura quae legis hic.
“Some are good, some middling, more are bad, of what you read here.”
Martial, Epigrams 1.16 · translation ours (literal)
