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 [I]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. FORNICALIA: FERIAE CONCEPTIVAE, ending Feb. 17. I have drawn attention to the change in the character of the festivals at this season. But before we go on to the Parentalia and Lupercalia, which chiefly mark this change, we have to consider one festival which seems to belong rather to the class which we found in December and January. This was the Fornacalia, or feast of ovens; one which does not appear in the calendars, as it was a moveable feast (conceptivae); and one which was a _sacrum publicum_ only in the sense of being pro curiis, as the Paganalia were pro pagis, the Septimontium pro montibus, and the Argean rite pro sacellis[1346]. Each curia conducted its own rites, under the supervision of its curio and (for the last day) of the Curio Maximus[1347]: the great priests of the State had no official part in it. In this it differs in some degree from the Fordicidia (April 15), the other feast of the curiae, which appears in three of our calendars, and in which the Pontifices and Vestals took some part[1348].