 |
 | |
| |
How the Roman calendar works
Although the Romans usually reckoned the year by mentioning who was consul for that year (consul is and office equivalent to president or prime minister), on other occasions they reckoned time in years since the founding of the city of Rome in 753bc. Within the year the Romans had 12 months with names similar to those used today world wide. Originally the first and last 3 months were named for gods (January for Janus, March for Mars etc.) and the remaining months were named for the sequence they appeared within the year. Within each month there were three named days: the Kalends, the Nones and the Ides. The Kalends always fell on the first of the month and the Nones fell on either the 5th or 7th and the Ides on the 13th or 15th.
To reckon a day within a month the Romans counted down to the next named day (e.g. the 3rd day before the ides of march). The day just before a named day did not employ a number but used the special word "pridie". Taken together we have:
ad III Mar. DCCV auc
ad = ante diem = days until
III = roman numeral three
Mar. = march
DUCCV = roman numeral 705
auc = ad urbe conditae = since the city's founding
= the third day before the ides of march, 705 years after the city's founding.
The Roman calendar evolved significantly during and after the period of the Roman empire and republic and is essentially the direct predecessor of today's calendar. Initially the year began in March making the names of the months more sensible (i.e. October, octo = eight, was then the eight month). Also during the republic the calendar fell wildly short of the tropical year and it was up to the priests to bring it up to date more or less as they say fit by adding entire extra months to certain years. Since elections were determined by calendaric date, this system came to be wildly abused. At the end of the Republic, Julius Caesar radically reformed the calendar introducing one very similar to the one we use today. Later the Roman senate changed the names of certain months: Quinctilis was eventually renamed for Julius Caesar and Sextilis was renamed for Augustus (other name changes were introduced form time to time but did not take permanent hold). The simulation above reflects the calendar put in force by Julius Caesar in 46BC which was slightly less accurate than our Gregorian calendar and today would, as the simulation shows, be off by about 20 days.
|
| |
| |
