The Roman Calendar

1
The Roman Calendar
2
The early Roman Calendar

• The original Roman calendar was made up of about
  304 days, starting in Martius (March) and ending
  in December. They knew that the sun took about
  355 or so days to revolve around the sun, but
  just sort of ignored them, after December and
  before March.
• There have been so many revisions to the
  calendar, because of how many errors were
  recognized, that dates, etc., that what we have
  are often based on best evidence available, and
  may not always be exact.

3
Ianuarius and Februarius

• The original calendar was attributed to Romulus.
  Eventually, one of Romes other kings, Numa
  Pompilius, added Ianuarius and Februarius. The
  year was now officially 355 days long.
• (There were days between the end of December and
  the beginning of Martius, but these were not
  named just sort of existed in limbo.)?

4
The early Roman Calendar

• There were three main days, dependent on the
  phases of the moon
• the Kalends (thus, the word calendar), the
  first day of the month (when the moon would first
  appear in a sickle shape, first day after a new
  moon)
• The Ides, the middle of the month, (usually the
  13th day but sometimes the 15th , corresponding
  to a full moon) and
• The Nones, nine days before the Ides (which is
  usually the 5th day of the month but the 7th in
  long months, and indicating the fourth quarter of
  the moon).

5
How did they name their days?

• If the Romans only three days had names, how did
  they tell the rest of them apart? They would
  always figure out how many days there were until
  the next named day, and count backwards from
  there.
• The day before a named day was known as the
  pridie, or literally day before.
• They counted differently than we do they always
  included the first and last in a series when they
  counted, in modern times we only include the end
  of the series.

6
Anything but the ides, nones, or kalends.....

• For example, the day before the nones of January
  (Ianuarius) would be January 4th in modern times,
  but pridie nones ianuarius in ancient times.
• Two days before the nones would be January 3
  today, but ante diem (days before) III in ancient
  times.
• Three days before the nones would be January 2,
  or ante diem IV.

7
Modern Calendar
8
Ancient Calendar
9
Caesar takes over

• Julius Caesar was credited with many things in
  ancient Rome, but one of his most famous (and
  important) acts was to redo the calendar.
• The calendar was a mess in 46 B.C., based on a
  lunar year instead of a solar one summer months
  were taking place near the winter, etc. He added
  90 days to that one year to get the months back
  where they we supposed to be, and, after having
  spent so much time in Egypt, pretty much stole
  their calendar of 365 ¼ days.
• After his assassination, the priests in charge of
  keeping track of the calendar (who were pretty
  much responsible for messing it up in the first
  place) misunderstood and made leap years every
  three years instead of every four.
• He also moved the beginning of the year from
  Martius to Ianuarius, which caught on some places
  but not in others.
• The new calendar preserved the counting system of
  the original, but no longer relied upon a lunar
  cycle.

10
Emperors honored.

• The senate decided to honor Caesar after his
  death by renaming Quintilis after him, which is
  why we now have July.
• Augustus realized the priests mistake, that by 8
  B.C. too many leap years had been added, so he
  ordered no more leap years happen until things
  caught up. To thank him, the senate renamed
  Sextilis after him.

11
The rest?
www.roman-britian.org/calendar.htm
12
So where were the emperors?

• Thwarted attempts by warped emperors to rename
  months
• Caligula renamed September Germanicus after his
  father in AD37, but this was overturned following
  his assassination and the subsequent condemnation
  of his memory by the senate in AD42.
• September was once more renamed Germanicus in
  AD 89, this time by the Emperor Domitian
  following his triumph over the Germanic Chatti
  tribe he also renamed October Domitianus as
  this was the month in which he was born. Domitian
  was also assassinated, his name condemned, and
  his acts overturned in AD96.
• www.roman-britian.org/calendar.htm

13
Other crazy emperors..

• Commodus (emperor 180 192AD, and just as crazy
  as the movie Spartacus implied) actually renamed
  all of the months after himself, since he had
  given himself twelve names by this time (all
  indicating how amazing he was, names like Pius,
  Invictus, Hercules (whom he thought he was),
  etc..)
• Nero tried to rename Aprilis, Maius, and Iunius
  as Neroneus, Claudius, and Germanicus.

14
What's that BCE all about???

• There is a move to replace the letters AD for
  designating the starting point of the modern
  calendar. The phrase which they stand for, year
  of our lord, might offend people from other
  religions whose Lord, if they have one, was born
  in a different year. AD can now be written CE for
  Common Era, and BC, which stands for Before
  Christ, can be written BCE.
• http//www.wilkiecollins.demon.co.uk/roman/calhis.
  htm

15
Whats that all about???

• Dionysius Exiguus in 531 AD determined when Jesus
  was born, and dated years from his birth. Thus,
  BC and AD. Scholars vary in how many years off he
  was estimates range from 4 years off to 25
  (although that seems a stretch and not as
  reliable closer to four or seven seems most
  likely).
• Actually, a pretty amazing feat when you consider
  the era and lack of internet, never mind a simple
  library!

16
But if the Romans didnt use BC

• If the Romans didnt know that their years were
  BC, how did they name them?
• During the time of the republic and into the
  early years of the empire, the years were named
  after the two men who were consuls at that time
  (consuls were still elected in the early empire
  as the emperors tried to pretend Rome was still a
  republic). No two men were ever consul together
  more than once, so although this system worked,
  it was awkward.
• Eventually they begin naming years AUC ab urbe
  condita in other words, from the start of the
  city of Rome itself. 1 AUC would be 753 BC.
• Figure out what the year is today if we were
  still using AUC!

17
What happened next?

• Pope Gregory XIIIth changed the calendar in 1582,
  to account for the fact that a year is not
  exactly 365 ¼ days long.
• There will be a leap year only on
  century-changing years only when the century is
  exactly divisible by 400. So 2000 was a leap
  year, but 2100 will not be.

18
Riots happened next!

• The Roman Catholic world went crazy when Pope
  Gregory first did this because, in order to get
  the calendar back in line once more with
  equinoxes and seasons and things like that, they
  had to subtract 13 days.
• Since most people were uneducated, they thought
  that 13 days had been deducted from their
  lifespans.
• Ever since then, 13 has been considered an
  unlucky number! (Actually, I made that up, but it
  seems pretty logical to me!)?
• www.roman-britian.org/calendar.htm

19
History..

• What was going on in 1582?
• This is in the midst of the Reformation, when
  Martin Luther was doing things like nailing
  theses to doors and English kings were creating
  their own religions so they could divorce their
  wives.
• Not everyone adopted the Popes change
  immediately since so many places were rebelling
  against the Pope, even if what he did made sense
  they werent going to follow it.

20
Adoption through the ages.

• The Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox churches
  have never adopted the Gregorian calendar, and
  have always used the Julian. Its why some
  holidays fall on different days than other
  Christian religions.
• Im not sure how that works since the Russian
  government adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1918
  (good-bye czars, welcome Bolsheviks).

21
The Brits adopt Gregory

• The British isles and colonies adopted the
  Gregorian calendar in 1752.
• Their new year had begun up until this time on
  March 25 (traditional date of spring equinox).
• By this time the Julian calendar was eleven days
  behind the Gregorian, so that year September 14
  came after September 2, no 3 through 13.
• http//penelope.uchicago.edu/grout/encyclopaedia_
  romana/calendar/romancalendar.html

22
Other countries adopt.....

• Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, and the
  Netherlands adopt the Gregorian calendar around
  1700.
• Sweden adopted the calendar in 1753.
• Most Baltic nations switched right after World
  War I (collapse of the Ottoman empire), and
  Turkey itself adopted this calendar in 1926.
• Japan signed on in 1873, Korea in 1896, Egypt in
  1875.
• Alaska adopted the calendar in 1867. Lost an
  entire week that year.
• http//europeanhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa
  041301a.htm

23
France goes fou

• So France for the most part adopts the Gregorian
  calendar in 1582. However, from 1792 to 1805,
  they created their own French Republic Calendar,
  with months of 30 days and a few extra days
  thrown in here and there. A French poet named
  Fabre d'Eglantine renamed the months Wind, Frost,
  Blossom, Seed Time, etc. He was later
  guillotined.
• Napoleon takes power, and restores the calendar
  back to Gregorian.
• http//www.norbyhus.dk/calendar.html

24
Days of the Week

• A planetary week of seven days is thought to have
  started in Persian theology, and by the end of
  the first century AD was in pretty common use
  throughout the entire Mediterranean world. The
  Roman week was eight days long until the time of
  Constantine, which followed the ancient Etruscan
  custom of seven days followed by a market day.
  Many places found themselves having to pay
  attention to both, dealing with Roman rulers and
  local people at the same time.
• www.roman-britian.org/calendar.htm

25
Days of the week .
www.roman-britian.org/calendar.htm
26
Days of the week Episode III.

• I am NOT going into the Norse god bit feel free
  to go to roman-britian.org if you want to know
  more.
• For those that have studied/know other modern
  Romance languages, do those Roman days sound
  familiar?

27
fragment of calendar excavated from the Forum
28
the letters A H indicate market days, every
eighth daythe letters after the numbers
indicate what type of day it was C
comitiales, or days when assemblies are allowed
F fasti, ordinary citizens are allowed to do
what they need to, but courts cannot be in
session, although judges can carry on official
duties N dies nefasti, no judicial events can
occur at all NP dies nefasti publici,
ordinary citizens are not supposed to work unless
absolutely necessary
(and could be fined if they were seen doing
physical labor), slaves are allowed a day off
work, EN dies endotercisi, nefasti in the
morning and evening, but fasti in the middle of
the day there were more but these are the main
ones..
29
(No Transcript)
30
(No Transcript)
31
creating your own Roman calendar for this year

• Always label your kalends, ides, and nones first.
• Then label each pridie.
• Then, counting backwards, label each ante diem.
  Believe me, if you count forwards you will
  invariably make a mistake!
• The four long months were October, Martius,
  Maius, and Quintilis (Iulius).
• Abbreviate where possible!!!!