Before there was a Saint Valentine to bring romance into the equation, mid-February was an important date for (1) . From 400 years B.C., the Romans held an annual lottery in the (2) of their god Lupercus. The names of teenage women were put into a box and drawn at (3) by adolescent men. The "winners" were (4) paired for a year. Meanwhile, the mad emperor Claudius banned (5) for young men—he believed that single men made better soldiers. A Christian bishop, Valentine, (6) with his Emperor and secretly performed marriage ceremonies until Claudius (7) out and first imprisoned him, and finally had him clubbed, stoned and beheaded on February 24th, 270. While he was imprisoned, Valentine fell in (8) with the daughter of his jailer and when he was taken to be executed, he left her a (9) signed, "From your Valentine. " Taking Valentine’s name in vain, the Church, in A.D. 496, decided to finally (10) the annual pairing off lottery (11) in honor of the god Lupercus and so decreed a small change in the rules. From then on, both the young men and the young women would (12) a name out of the hat, but instead of getting a (13) of companionship (and often lust), they drew the name of a saint whose life they had to (14) the next year emulating. Must have been quite a (15) for the hot-bloodied young Romans! They named the day (16) Saint Valentine whose involvement, 226 years after his death, was more to usurp the pagan god than to (17) love. Thankfully, public memory was more (18) than political will and Saint Valentine remained associated with lovers. Young Roman men, (19) of their lottery, (20) instead to handing hand-written notes to the women they admired on February 14th.