E Roman Calendar 297

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82 C!"#!$ D! B!""# G$""%&# ! e Roman Calendar 297. ! e Months. % e Latin names of months are adjectives, not nouns as are ours. In the times of Caesar and Ci- cero the names of the months were Iānuārius (-a, -um), Fēbruārius, Mārtius, Aprīlis (-e), Maius, Iūnius, Quīntīlis, Sextīlis, September (-bris, -bre), Octōber, November, and December. Later Quīntīlis was changed to Iūlius, in honor of Julius Caesar, and Sextīlis to Augustus, in honor of the emperor Augustus. Before 46 &'", that is, till near the death of Caesar and Cicero, March, May, July, and October had 31 days, February had 28, and each of the others had 29. In 46 &'", Caesar reformed the calendar and gave the months their present number of days. 298. Calends, Nones, and Ides. % e Romans counted the days backwards from three points in each month, the Calends, the Nones, and the Ides, instead of forward from the ( rst as we do. In other words, they called the days “the third before the Ides,” “the fourth before the Calends,” etc. % e Calends (Kalendae, -ārum, f. pl.) were always the ( rst of the month. % e Nones (Nōnae, -ārum, f. pl.) were the seventh, the Ides (Īdūs, -uum, f. pl.) the ( ) eenth of March, May, July, and October. In all other months they were the ( ) h and thirteenth. 299. Method of Reckoning. In calculating dates, they counted both the ( rst day and the last day; for example, while we would speak of Monday as the second day before Wednesday, a Roman would have counted Wednesday as one, Tuesday as two, and Monday as three, and would thus have called Monday the third day before Wednesday. In counting back from the Calends, remember that the Calends do not belong to the month in which the required day is. Add one to the number of days in the preceding month, then count backwards, counting both ends as usual. 300. Method of Expressing Dates. An idiomatic formula is commonly used, which can neither be parsed nor translated literally; for example a. d. IV. Īd. Ian.= ante diem quārtum Īdūs Iānuāriās. % e logical, but less usual form is diē quārtō ante Īdūs Iānuāriās, on the fourth day before the Ides of January. For examples, take the dates: Jan. 1 = Kal. Ian. Jan. 10 = a. d. iv. Īd. Iān. (four days [see §299] before the Ides, i.e., the thirteenth of January) Feb. 22 = a. d. viii. Kal. Mār. (eight days [see §299] before the Calends, i.e., the ( rst, of March) July 4 = a. d. iv. Nōn. Iūl. (four days [see §299] before the Nones, i.e., the seventh, of July).

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