History of Valentine's Day By Ashley Vaught   As early as the fourth century B.C., the Romans engaged in an annual young man's rite of passage to the God Lupercus. The names of the teenage women were placed in a box and drawn at random by adolescent men; so, a man was assigned a woman companion for the duration of the year, after which another lottery was staged. After 800 years of this cruel practice, the early church fathers sought to end this practice. They found an answer in Valentine, a bishop who had been martyred some 200 years earlier. According to church tradition St. Valentine was a priest near Rome in about the year 270 A.D.  At that time the Roman Emperor Claudius-II, had issued an act forbidding marriage. This was around the time the pinnacle of the Roman Empire had almost come to an end. Lack of quality administrators led to frequent civil strife. The empire had grown too large to be shielded from external aggression and internal chaos with existing forces. Thus more of the capable men were required to be recruited as soldiers and officers. When Claudius became the emperor, he felt that married men were more emotionally attached to their families, and thus, will not make good soldiers. So to assure quality soldiers, he banned marriage. Valentine, a bishop, seeing the trauma of young lovers, met them in a secret place, and joined them in the sacrament of matrimony. Claudius learned of St. Valentine's pratice of young lovers and had him arrested. The emperor, impressed with the young priest's dignity and conviction, attempted to convert him to the roman gods, to save him from certain execution. Valentine refused to recognize roman gods and even attempted to convert the emperor, knowing the consequences fully. On February 24, 270 A.D., Valentine was executed.