Februa poscenti pinea virga data est.
Denique quodcunque est, quo corpora nostra piantur,
Hoc apud intonsos nomen habebat avos.
Objects such as these, called by a name which is explained by piamen, or purgamentum, must have been understood as charms potent to keep off evil influences, and so to enable nature to take its ordinary course unhindered. Only in this sense can we call them instruments of purification.
The use of the februa in the Lupercalia was, as we shall see, to procure fertility in the women of the community. Here then, as well as in the rites of the Fornacalia and Parentalia, is some reason for calling the month a period of purification; but only if we bear in mind that at the Parentalia the process consisted simply in the performance of duties towards the dead, which freed or purified a man from their possible hostility; while at the Lupercalia the women were freed or purified from influences which might hinder them in the fulfilment of their natural duties to their families and the State. Beyond this it is not safe to go in thinking of February as a month of expiation.
Kal. Feb. Iunoni Sospitae. N.
This was the dedication-day of a temple of the great Lanuvian goddess, Juno Sospita, in the Forum olitorium[[1343]]. It was vowed in the year 197 B.C. by the consul Cornelius Cethegus, but had fallen into decay in Ovid’s time[[1344]]. For the famous cult of this deity at Lanuvium, see Roscher, in Lex. s. v. Iuno, 595.
Id. Feb. Fauno n insul[a]. C. I. L. vi. 2302. NP.
This temple was vowed almost at the same time as the last, 296 B.C., by plebeian aediles; it was built by fines exacted from holders of ager publicus who had not paid their rents[[1345]]. See under Dec. 5, p. 257.