The Roman Calendar the Roman Calendar

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

The Roman Calendar the Roman Calendar The Roman Calendar The Roman Calendar The Julian Calendar: developed by Julius Caesar The Julian Calendar: developed by Julius Caesar 12 Months (given in Acc. Pl.): 12 Months (given in Acc. Pl.): Ianuarias Apriles Iulias Octobres Ianuarias Apriles Iulias Octobres Februarias Maias Augustos Novembres Februarias Maias Augustos Novembres Martias Iunias Septembres Decembres Martias Iunias Septembres Decembres Each month has: Each month has: KALENDAS - 1st of every month KALENDAS - 1st of every month NONAS - 5th (or 7th) NONAS - 5th (or 7th) IDŪS - 13th (or 15th) IDŪS - 13th (or 15th) *N.B. The months March, May, July, October use the 7th and 15th *N.B. The months March, May, July, October use the 7th and 15th Dates Dates To refer to a Kalends, Nones, or Ides, the date is ABLATIVE TIME WHEN: To refer to a Kalends, Nones, or Ides, the date is ABLATIVE TIME WHEN: ie. March 15th - Idibus Martiis ie. March 15th - Idibus Martiis December 1st - Kalendis Decembribus December 1st - Kalendis Decembribus To refer to the DAY BEFORE the Kal., Non., or Id., use the preposition To refer to the DAY BEFORE the Kal., Non., or Id., use the preposition PRIDIE: PRIDIE: ie. April 12th - pridie Idus Apriles ie. April 12th - pridie Idus Apriles August 4th - pridie Nonas Augustas August 4th - pridie Nonas Augustas To refer to ANY OTHER DATE, count backwards from the next Kal., Non., or To refer to ANY OTHER DATE, count backwards from the next Kal., Non., or Id. Use the preposition ANTE DIEM: Id. Use the preposition ANTE DIEM: ie. January 9th - ante diem V Idus Ianuarias ie. January 9th - ante diem V Idus Ianuarias November 29th - ante diem III Kalendas Decembres November 29th - ante diem III Kalendas Decembres May 2nd - ante diem VI Nonas Maias May 2nd - ante diem VI Nonas Maias *N.B. ALWAYS include the STARTING point and ENDING point *N.B. ALWAYS include the STARTING point and ENDING point Years Years 1. in reference the CONSULSHIP in an ABLATIVE ABSOLUTE 1. in reference the CONSULSHIP in an ABLATIVE ABSOLUTE ie. Pompeio Crasso consulibus - 70BC ie. Pompeio Crasso consulibus - 70BC 2. count from the FOUNDING of the city (Ab Urbe Condita) in 753BC 2. count from the FOUNDING of the city (Ab Urbe Condita) in 753BC ie. 509BC - CCXLV A.U.C. ie. 509BC - CCXLV A.U.C. 27BC - DCCXXVII A.U.C 27BC - DCCXXVII A.U.C 13AD - DCCLXVII A.U.C. 13AD - DCCLXVII A.U.C. *N.B. ALWAYS include the STARTING point and ENDING point *N.B. ALWAYS include the STARTING point and ENDING point .
Recommended publications
  • The Evolution of the Roman Calendar Dwayne Meisner, University of Regina
    The Evolution of the Roman Calendar Dwayne Meisner, University of Regina Abstract The Roman calendar was first developed as a lunar | 290 calendar, so it was difficult for the Romans to reconcile this with the natural solar year. In 45 BC, Julius Caesar reformed the calendar, creating a solar year of 365 days with leap years every four years. This article explains the process by which the Roman calendar evolved and argues that the reason February has 28 days is that Caesar did not want to interfere with religious festivals that occurred in February. Beginning as a lunar calendar, the Romans developed a lunisolar system that tried to reconcile lunar months with the solar year, with the unfortunate result that the calendar was often inaccurate by up to four months. Caesar fixed this by changing the lengths of most months, but made no change to February because of the tradition of intercalation, which the article explains, and because of festivals that were celebrated in February that were connected to the Roman New Year, which had originally been on March 1. Introduction The reason why February has 28 days in the modern calendar is that Caesar did not want to interfere with festivals that honored the dead, some of which were Past Imperfect 15 (2009) | © | ISSN 1711-053X | eISSN 1718-4487 connected to the position of the Roman New Year. In the earliest calendars of the Roman Republic, the year began on March 1, because the consuls, after whom the year was named, began their years in office on the Ides of March.
    [Show full text]
  • Women's Costume and Feminine Civic Morality in Augustan Rome
    Gender & History ISSN 0953–5233 Judith Lynn Sebesta, ‘Women’s Costume and Feminine Civic Morality in Augustan Rome’ Gender & History, Vol.9 No.3 November 1997, pp. 529–541. Women’s Costume and Feminine Civic Morality in Augustan Rome JUDITH LYNN SEBESTA Augustus was eager to revive the traditional dress of the Romans. One day in the Forum he saw a group of citizens dressed in dark garments and exclaimed indignantly, ‘Behold the masters of the world, the toga-clad race!’ He thereupon instructed the aediles that no Roman citizen was to enter the Forum, or even be in its vicinity, unless he were properly clad in a toga.1 In the terms of Augustan ideology, the avoidance of Roman dress by Romans was another sign of their abandoning the traditional Roman way of life, character and values in preference for the high culture, pomp, and moral and philosophical relativism of the Hellenistic East. This accultura- tion of foreign ways was frequently claimed to have brought Republican Rome to the edge of destruction in both the public and private spheres.2 Roman authors of the late first century BCE depict women in particular as devoted to their own selfish pleasure, marrying and divorcing at will, and preferring childlessness and abortion to raising a family. Such women were regarded as having abandoned their traditional role of custos domi (‘pre- server of the house/hold’), a role that correlated a wife’s body and her husband’s household. A Roman wife was expected to maintain her body’s inviolability and to preserve her husband’s possessions, while increasing his family by bearing children and enriching his wealth through her labors.3 The mindful care of the ideal wife was epitomized in the legendary story of the chaste Lucretia, who became an important symbol of wifehood in Augustan literature.
    [Show full text]
  • The Planetary Week in the First Century B. C
    CHAPTER 6 The Planetary Week in the First Century B. C. HERE has not yet appeared any evidence to indicate that the pagan week of days named after the seven planetary deities was in use among the Romans during the period of the Republic. The testimony of both the classical writers and the archaeological discoveries points to the first century before Christ as the time when it was adopted by the Roman people. Not a few1 are the scholars who think that it came to Rome about the time when Julius Caesar was Pontifex Maximus (68-44 B. C.) 1 Here is a partial list of authorities who hold that the astrological or planetary week was introduced into Rome during the first century B. C., or about the beginning of the Christian Era: J. Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, Vol. 3, p. 63, art. “Calendar” (Introductory, sec. 8); E. W. Maunder in The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, Vol. I, p. 299, art. “Astrology”; The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. 23 p. 436, art. “Week”; Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities, p. 1669, art. “Week”; Larousse du XXe Siècle (1933), Vol. 6, p. 287, col. 1, art. “Semaine”; 3. de Witte in the Gazette Archéologique (1877), Vols. 2, 3 (Paris); The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 5, p. 109, art. “Dominical Letter”; The World Book Encyclopedia, Vol. 18, p. 7700, art. “Week”; F. G. Moore, The Roman’s World, p. 282. Caesar’s Other Calendar It was in the first century before Christ that Rome began to play a big military role in the affairs of Egypt and Asia.
    [Show full text]
  • Calendar of Roman Events
    Introduction Steve Worboys and I began this calendar in 1980 or 1981 when we discovered that the exact dates of many events survive from Roman antiquity, the most famous being the ides of March murder of Caesar. Flipping through a few books on Roman history revealed a handful of dates, and we believed that to fill every day of the year would certainly be impossible. From 1981 until 1989 I kept the calendar, adding dates as I ran across them. In 1989 I typed the list into the computer and we began again to plunder books and journals for dates, this time recording sources. Since then I have worked and reworked the Calendar, revising old entries and adding many, many more. The Roman Calendar The calendar was reformed twice, once by Caesar in 46 BC and later by Augustus in 8 BC. Each of these reforms is described in A. K. Michels’ book The Calendar of the Roman Republic. In an ordinary pre-Julian year, the number of days in each month was as follows: 29 January 31 May 29 September 28 February 29 June 31 October 31 March 31 Quintilis (July) 29 November 29 April 29 Sextilis (August) 29 December. The Romans did not number the days of the months consecutively. They reckoned backwards from three fixed points: The kalends, the nones, and the ides. The kalends is the first day of the month. For months with 31 days the nones fall on the 7th and the ides the 15th. For other months the nones fall on the 5th and the ides on the 13th.
    [Show full text]
  • 0 Contents.Qxd
    Chronology Chart 1-6 Roman Calendar Explanation At the time of Christ, the Roman calendar and dating system were used throughout the Roman Empire. The calendar derived from the old lunar calendar of the Etruscans, which was designed to keep record of times for religious observances and festivals, and which retained as principal days of the month the kalends (first), nones (fifth or seventh), and ides (thirteenth or fifteenth), based originally on the phases of the moon. The months had been restructured by the Romans into a solar calendar of twelve months with several intercalary days at the end of February. March was the first Roman month, making September the seventh, October the eighth, etc. These names derive from the Latin words for seven (septem), eight (octo), and so on. The Roman calendar was reformed by Julius Caesar in 45 B.C., which version operated in New Testament times and still forms the basis of our own modern calendar today. Roman years were numbered ab urbe condita, “from the founding of the city.” The year we call 753 B.C. was the Roman year 1, the year that Rome is believed to have been established. References John F. Hall, “March Gods and the Etruscan New Year,” in By Study and Also By Faith (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1990), 1:643–58. A. K. Michels, The Calendar of the Roman Republic (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967). Charting the New Testament, © 2002 Welch, Hall, FARMS Roman Calendar Kalendae First day of the month Named for Mars, Martius the god of the New Year Named for Aprilia, Aprilis Idus The fifteenth of March, a goddess of spring May, July, and October, but the thirteenth of all Named for Maia, other months.
    [Show full text]
  • Some Background to the Roman Calendar in General Use Today
    July 1996 Frank W. Nelte SOME BACKGROUND TO THE ROMAN CALENDAR IN GENERAL USE TODAY Some background to our modern Roman calendar may be helpful. Here is a brief account of how our calendar came about. 1) According to legend, Rome was founded on April 21, 753 B.C. by Romulus and Remus. Romulus (supposedly) made the year to consist of 304 days, divided into 10 months of nearly equal length. Starting with the first month, they were: Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November and December. (Much later Quintilis was changed to Julius and Sextilis was changed to Augustus.) 2) The next king of Rome after Romulus, Numa Pompilius, added 2 months to the year. He added Januarius at the beginning of the year and Februarius to the end of the year. He made his 12 months to be lunar, consisting of alternately 30 days and 29 days. This made the year 354 days long, but in deference to the popular superstition that uneven numbers were more lucky, he added 1 more day. Thus his year was 355 days long. 3) This was more than 10 days shorter than the true solar year. Therefore Numa (who knew the year was 365,25 days long) ordered that for every 8 years, 90 days should be intercalated as follows: - a month of 22 days was intercalated in every 2nd and 6th year; - a month of 23 days was intercalated in every 4th and 8th year. 4) These intercalations were to be made between February 23rd and February 24th (very confusing), thereby dividing February into two portions every second year.
    [Show full text]
  • Liturgical Calendar for the Dioceses of the United States of America
    LITURGICAL CALENDAR FOR THE DIOCESES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2020 Committee on Divine Worship LITURGICAL CALENDAR FOR THE DIOCESES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2020 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Divine Worship Cover Photo: “The Holy Trinity,” detail, The Trinity dome mosaic, Great Upper Church, Basilica of the National Shrine. Copyright © 2017, Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D.C. Photographer: Geraldine M. Rohling (2017). Copyright © 2018, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright holder. 2 INTRODUCTION Each year the Secretariat of Divine Worship of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops publishes the Liturgical Calendar for the Dioceses of the United States of America. This calendar is used by authors of ordines and other liturgical aids published to foster the celebration of the liturgy in our country. The calendar is based upon the General Roman Calendar, promulgated by Pope Paul VI on February 14, 1969, subsequently amended by the Holy See, and the Proper Calendar for the Dioceses of the United States of America, approved by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.1 This calendar has been updated to reflect the names and titles of the various liturgical
    [Show full text]
  • History of the Calendar
    History of the Calendar The premise of the earliest Roman calendar is the meshing of a thirty-day lunar cycle with an eight-day market week (the interval required for the processing of goat’s cheese). Four months of thirty days each was the soonest these two units can be integrated. 120 days also roughly corresponds with the gestation period of a pig. The first month of the Roman year was March, followed by April, May, and June. March is named after the god of war, Mars. April is derived from the word aper, a boar. May is probably related to an old word for a sow, and June is named after the queen of the gods, Juno. There is evidence to suggest that March and June were originally named Caprotinus and Fabarius, words also related to the raising of pigs. According to tradition, around 738 B.C. Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome, added six months to the calendar. He unimaginatively named them the fifth through tenth months. An additional day was added to March, May, July, and October to maintain the eight-day market week –304 days. Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, added January (29 days) and February (28 days), and he took away one day each from the thirty-day months – 355 days. This calendar does not maintain the eight-day market week, but it does roughly coincide with twelve cycles of the moon, a lunar year. Initially intercalary days were added at the end of February to keep the calendar in line with the eight-day market week; later an intercalary month (Mercedonius) was added in alternate years to bring the lunar year into accord with the solar year and the changes in the seasons.
    [Show full text]
  • Renaissance Scholarship and the Athenian Calendar Paul Botley
    Renaissance Scholarship and the Athenian Calendar Paul Botley HERE WERE MANY calendars in use in the ancient Greek world. That the Athenian calendar survived them all T was principally due to the enduring attractions of her literature. Subsequently, this calendar was used by writers who did not fully understand its complexities, and the surviving references to it in ancient texts are often difficult to reconcile. The fifteenth century saw the first attempts since antiquity to reconstruct this ancient system of reckoning. The first part of this paper draws attention to a lost work of Manuel Chrysoloras on the months. It examines what the Greek and Latin reference works available to contemporaries had to say on the subject of the Athenian calendar, and it as- sesses their value in establishing the correct sequence of the months. It looks at a number of versions of this calendar which were used by fifteenth-century translators. Finally, it details the production and diffusion of Theodore Gaza’s influential treat- ise on the Athenian calendar, De mensibus. This first part touches on the erratic and inconsistent ap- pearances of the Athenian months in a number of fifteenth- century lexica. The second part provides a detailed account of the Athenian calendar as it appeared in all the Greek-Latin lex- ica printed between 1478 and 1530. This calendar, very widely diffused, was quite different from that promulgated in Gaza’s De mensibus. These surveys were conducted in the belief that the history of scholarship is a subject worth studying for its own sake.1 In this 1 Three works are valuable for the periods before and after this study: P.
    [Show full text]
  • ROMAN-CALENDARS.Pdf
    ! " #$#$ #! #! ! !"#$% & #" ' ! ( ' ) *+" ' # # +*,-." /)!) ) / 0-*1 & # " ' ! ( ' ) TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE...........................................................................................................................3 PART 1: DIES NATALES ................................................................................................... Introduction ...................................................................................................................9 Julius Caesar ...............................................................................................................11 Augustus ......................................................................................................................15 Tiberius .......................................................................................................................27 Germanicus ..................................................................................................................33 Drusus the Younger ....................................................................................................39 Caligula .......................................................................................................................41 Claudius ......................................................................................................................47
    [Show full text]
  • Ancient Rome Study Guide
    Ancient Rome Study Guide Table of Contents Location of Rome……………………………………………………………………………………………3 Early History……………………………………………………………………………………………………4 The Roman Republic………………………………………………………………………………………5 Patricians and Plebians…………………………………………………………………………………5 Expansion and Wars………………………………………………………………………………………7 The Fall of the Roman Republic………………………………………………………………11 Rise of the Roman Empire ………………………………………………………………………12 The Rich and Poor……………………………………………………………………………………15 Family Life…………………………………………………………………………………………………17 School……………………………………………………………………………………………………………19 Clothing………………………………………………………………………………………………………20 Religion…………………………………………………………………………………………………………22 Entertainment……………………………………………………………………………………………24 Architecture………………………………………………………………………………………………28 Roman Numerals………………………………………………………………………………………….33 Roman Language………………………………………………………………………………………….34 Roman Achievements…………………………………………………………………………………35 Famous People……………………………………………………………………………………………..36 Famous Chemists and Physicsts ………………………………………………………………38 Questions for Further Thought.… ………………………………………………………….47 Resources..……………………………………… …………………………………………………………..48 2 *The Location of Rome (geography) Ancient Rome developed along the Tiber River in what is now Italy. Rome’s location offered four advantages (good things). First, Rome was built on several hills, so it was difficult for enemies to attack. Second, the Tiber River allowed food and goods of inland areas to be brought to Rome. It helped commerce flourish in ancient Rome by providing a travel route to the
    [Show full text]
  • Ancient Rome Was a Civilisation That Developed in Rome, Italy. Over Time, Ancient Rome Invaded Other Lands, Creating an Empire That Stretched from Britain to Egypt
    Ancient Rome was a civilisation that developed in Rome, Italy. Over time, Ancient Rome invaded other lands, creating an empire that stretched from Britain to Egypt. The Roman Republic (509 BC to 45 BC.) Rome started as a Republic. This meant that its leaders were elected officials that served for a limited amount of time. It was not a monarchy where one person is born into leadership and rules for life. The Roman Empire In 45 BC, Julius Caesar took over the Roman Republic and declared himself the supreme dictator. The republic ended. Then in 27 BC, Caesar Augustus became the first Roman Emperor. The Roman Empire began. While much of the lower level government stayed the same, Rome was now a monarchy: the Emperor had supreme power. The Empire Splits (285 AD) Eventually, the Roman Empire became too big to rule very well. In 285 AD, Emperor Diocletian split the Roman Empire in two halves : the Western Roman Empire, ruled from Rome and Eastern Roman Empire , ruled from Constantinople (today's Istanbul in Turkey). Fall of Rome (476 AD) The Fall of Rome (in 476 AD) generally refers to the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The Western Empire ended in 476 but the Eastern Empire carried on nearly 1000 Years, ending in 1453. The legend of Romulus and Remus Legend tells us that Romulus founded the city of Rome. Romulus was a twin, his brother was Remus. They were abandoned by their parents as babies who left them in a basket in the River Tiber. The basket and the twins were discovered by a female wolf when it ran aground.
    [Show full text]