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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. -
Ritual Cleaning-Up of the City: from the Lupercalia to the Argei*
RITUAL CLEANING-UP OF THE CITY: FROM THE LUPERCALIA TO THE ARGEI* This paper is not an analysis of the fine aspects of ritual, myth and ety- mology. I do not intend to guess the exact meaning of Luperci and Argei, or why the former sacrificed a dog and the latter were bound hand and foot. What I want to examine is the role of the festivals of the Lupercalia and the Argei in the functioning of the Roman community. The best-informed among ancient writers were convinced that these were purification cere- monies. I assume that the ancients knew what they were talking about and propose, first, to establish the nature of the ritual cleanliness of the city, and second, see by what techniques the two festivals achieved that goal. What, in the perception of the Romans themselves, normally made their city unclean? What were the ordinary, repetitive sources of pollution in pre-Imperial Rome, before the concept of the cura Urbis was refined? The answer to this is provided by taboos and restrictions on certain sub- stances, and also certain activities, in the City. First, there is a rule from the Twelve Tables with Cicero’s curiously anachronistic comment: «hominem mortuum», inquit lex in duodecim, «in urbe ne sepelito neve urito», credo vel propter ignis periculum (De leg. II 58). Secondly, we have the edict of the praetor L. Sentius C.f., known from three inscrip- tions dating from the beginning of the first century BC1: L. Sentius C. f. pr(aetor) de sen(atus) sent(entia) loca terminanda coer(avit). -
Public Construction, Labor, and Society at Middle Republican Rome, 390-168 B.C
University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2012 Men at Work: Public Construction, Labor, and Society at Middle Republican Rome, 390-168 B.C. Seth G. Bernard University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons, and the History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons Recommended Citation Bernard, Seth G., "Men at Work: Public Construction, Labor, and Society at Middle Republican Rome, 390-168 B.C." (2012). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 492. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/492 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/492 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Men at Work: Public Construction, Labor, and Society at Middle Republican Rome, 390-168 B.C. Abstract MEN AT WORK: PUBLIC CONSTRUCTION, LABOR, AND SOCIETY AT MID-REPUBLICAN ROME, 390-168 B.C. Seth G. Bernard C. Brian Rose, Supervisor of Dissertation This dissertation investigates how Rome organized and paid for the considerable amount of labor that went into the physical transformation of the Middle Republican city. In particular, it considers the role played by the cost of public construction in the socioeconomic history of the period, here defined as 390 to 168 B.C. During the Middle Republic period, Rome expanded its dominion first over Italy and then over the Mediterranean. As it developed into the political and economic capital of its world, the city itself went through transformative change, recognizable in a great deal of new public infrastructure. -
Newsletter Nov 2011
imperi nuntivs The newsletter of Legion Ireland --- The Roman Military Society of Ireland In This Issue • New Group Logo • Festival of Saturnalia • Roman Festivals • The Emperors - AD69 - AD138 • Beautifying Your Hamata • Group Events and Projects • Roman Coins AD69 - AD81 • Roundup of 2011 Events November 2011 IMPERI NUNTIUS The newsletter of Legion Ireland - The Roman Military Society of Ireland November 2011 From the editor... Another month another newsletter! This month’s newsletter kind grew out of control so please bring a pillow as you’ll probably fall asleep while reading. Anyway I hope you enjoy this months eclectic mix of articles and info. Change Of Logo... We have changed our logo! Our previous logo was based on an eagle from the back of an Italian Mus- solini era coin. The new logo is based on the leaping boar image depicted on the antefix found at Chester. Two versions exist. The first is for a white back- ground and the second for black or a dark back- ground. For our logo we have framed the boar in a victory wreath with a purple ribbon. We tried various colour ribbons but purple worked out best - red made it look like a Christmas wreath! I have sent these logo’s to a garment manufacturer in the UK and should have prices back shortly for group jackets, sweat shirts and polo shirts. Roof antefix with leaping boar The newsletter of Legion Ireland - The Roman Military Society of Ireland. Page 2 Imperi Nuntius - Winter 2011 The newsletter of Legion Ireland - The Roman Military Society of Ireland. -
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. -
Post Scriptum: a Number of Observations, with Hindsight
Post Scriptum: A Number of Observations, with Hindsight Astronomia Etrusco-Romana was first published in Italian in 2003, following Astronomy and Calendar in Ancient Rome—The Eclipse Festivals in 2001, and Le Feste di Venere—Fertilità femminile e configurazioni astrali nel calendario di Roma antica in 1996. In nigh on a decade of ‘‘crazy, desperate’’ study, as Giacomo Leopardi would have it, I have reconstructed a solid framework of the Roman calendar’s astronomical underpinnings, especially the Numan calendar. Stars, Myths and Rituals in Etruscan Rome makes only minimal adjustments to this framework, as well as adding some interesting elements to the fray. Over this time—and at long last—there has been a radical change in our understanding of man’s relationship with the heavens during the time of Rome’s early kings. The eighth century BCE calendars that have survived the centuries are no longer viewed as the basic calendars of an agricultural and pastoral society, lacking in any consideration for heavenly phenomena or the movements of heavenly bodies; calendar feast days are no longer considered simple anniversaries of natural events, such as storing away grain or lambing time. On the contrary, the Romulean calendar demonstrates an awareness of a number of significant celestial phenomena, while the Numan calendar and cycle are a highly advanced—indeed, close to perfect—mechanism for monitoring observable movements in the solar system. The end result of this research is a demonstration not just that Romans in Augustus’ day were mistaken in their belief—asserted time and time again by Ovid, our best witness1—that Romans were uninterested in and had no understanding of astronomy. -
The Religion of Ancient Rome
The Religion Of Ancient Rome By Cyril Bailey THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION—SOURCES AND SCOPE The conditions of our knowledge of the native religion of early Rome may perhaps be best illustrated by a parallel from Roman archæology. The visitor to the Roman Forum at the present day, if he wishes to reconstruct in imagination the Forum of the early Republic, must not merely 'think away' many strata of later buildings, but, we are told, must picture to himself a totally different orientation of the whole: the upper layer of remains, which he sees before him, is for his purpose in most cases not merely useless, but positively misleading. In the same way, if we wish to form a picture of the genuine Roman religion, we cannot find it immediately in classical literature; we must banish from our minds all that is due to the contact with the East and Egypt, and even with the other races of Italy, and we must imagine, so to speak, a totally different mental orientation before the great influx of Greek literature and Greek thought, which gave an entirely new turn to Roman ideas in general, and in particular revolutionised religion by the introduction of anthropomorphic notions and sensuous representations. But in this difficult search we are not left without indications to guide us. In the writings of the savants of the late Republic and of the Empire, and in the Augustan poets, biassed though they are in their interpretations by Greek tendencies, there is embodied a great wealth of ancient custom and ritual, which becomes significant when we have once got the clue to its meaning. -
Celts and Romans: the Transformation from Natural to Civic Religion Matthew at Ylor Kennedy James Madison University
James Madison University JMU Scholarly Commons Masters Theses The Graduate School Spring 2012 Celts and Romans: The transformation from natural to civic religion Matthew aT ylor Kennedy James Madison University Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/master201019 Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Kennedy, Matthew Taylor, "Celts and Romans: The transformation from natural to civic religion" (2012). Masters Theses. 247. https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/master201019/247 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the The Graduate School at JMU Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of JMU Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Celts and Romans: The Transformation from Natural to Civic Religion Matthew Kennedy A thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty of JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Master of Arts History April 2012 Dedication To Verity, whose faith has been unwavering, and to my mother whose constant encouragement has let me reach this point. ii Table of Contents Dedication…………………………………………………………………………......ii Abstract……………………………………………………………………………….iv I. Introduction……………………………………………………………………1 II. Chapter 1: Early Roman Religion…..…………………………………………7 III. Chapter 2: Transition to Later Roman Religion.……………………………..23 IV. Chapter 3: Celtic Religion.…………………………………………………..42 V. Epilogue and Conclusion…………………………………………………….65 iii Abstract This paper is a case study dealing with cultural interaction and religion. It focuses on Roman religion, both before and during the Republic, and Celtic religion, both before and after Roman conquest. For the purpose of comparing these cultures two phases of religion are defined that exemplify the pagan religions of this period. -
On the Latin Language
m m THE LIBRARY of VICTORIA UNIVERSITY Toronto THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY FOUNDED BV JAMES I.OEB, I.I.. D. EDITED BV t T. E. PAGE, C.H., LITT.D. E. CAPPS, PH.D., LL.D. W. H. D. ROUSE, litt.d. VARRO ON THE LATIN LANGUAGE II VAREO ON THE LATIN LANGUAGE WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY ROLAND G. KENT, Ph.D. PBOFESSOR OF COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY IX THE UKIVEBSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA IN TWO VOLUMES II BOOKS VIII.-X. FRAGMENTS CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD MCMXXXVIII Printed in Great Britain CONTENTS PAOB De Lingua Latina, Text and Translation Book Vm. ...... 370 Book IX. ....... 440 BookX 534 Fragments ...... 598 Comparative Table of the Fragment Numbers 630 Indexes Index of Authors and . Works . .631 Index of Latin Words and Phrases . 634 Index of Greek Words .... 675 VARRO VOL. n B 369 M. TERENTI VARRONIS DE LINGUA LATINA LIBER Vll EXPLICIT ; INCIPIT LIBER VIII QUAE DICANTUR CUR NON SIT ANALOGIA LIBER I I. 1. QuoM oratio natura tripartita esset, ut su- perioribus libris ostendi, cuius prima pars, quemad- modum vocabula rebus essent imposita, secunda, quo pacto de his declinata in discrimina iermt,^ tertia, ut ea inter se ratione coniuncta sententiam efFerant, prima parte exposita de secunda incipiam hinc. Ut propago omnis natura secunda, quod prius illud rectum, unde ea, sic declinata : itaque declinatur in verbis : rectum homo, obliquum hominis, quod de- clinatum a recto. § 1. ^ Sciop.,/or ierunt. § 1. " That is, bent aside and downward, from the vertical. The Greeks conceived the paradigm of the noun as the upper right quadrant of a circle : the nominative was the vertical radius, and the other cases were radii which ' declined ' to the right, and were therefore called irraxjeis ' fallings,' which the Romans translated literalh' by casus. -
1 the Fifth Century Crisis1 This Essay Seeks to Establish the Parameters Of
1 The Fifth Century Crisis1 ABSTRACT This essay seeks to establish the parameters of our uncertainty concerning one of the most difficult periods of Roman history, the period between the traditional end of the Roman monarchy and the passing of the Licinio-Sextian legislation. In addition to some methodological observations, the essay attempts to offer a model for understanding Roman choices and decisions in a period of change and transformation. This collection of essays offers a variety of approaches to what is in many respects the most complicated and least well understood period of Roman history, viz. the period from the end of the sixth century BC, which the ancient tradition associated with the fall of the monarchy, to the Licinio-Sextian legislation of the fourth century, which at least potentially represents the moment in which the Roman republican constitution, with two annual magistrates, became a stable feature of Roman history. Although the essays in this collection also cover earlier and later periods, I shall focus on the central problems of the first century and a half of the Republic.2 Modern authors have sometimes spoken of a fifth century crisis,3 but I am using the term here to indicate not only the possibility of a genuine historical downturn but also the highly problematic nature of our engagement with this period. Paradoxically, whilst the sixth century BC is more distant in time, and arguably less well supported by the sources, it seems to some extent rather more comprehensible.4 It is not that we have invented a crisis because the sources have let us down; rather, the problematic nature of the source material may itself be indicative of the problems faced by central Italy at this time. -
An Archaeology of Brief Time: Monuments and Seasonality in Roman Britain Author: Raphael M
Paper Information: Title: An Archaeology of Brief Time: Monuments and Seasonality in Roman Britain Author: Raphael M. J. Isserlin Pages: 45–56 DOI: http://doi.org/10.16995/TRAC1994_45_56 Publication Date: 31 March 1995 Volume Information: Cottam, S., Dungworth, D., Scott, S., and Taylor, J. (eds.) (1994) TRAC 94: Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference, Durham 1994. Oxford: Oxbow Books. Copyright and Hardcopy Editions: The following paper was originally published in print format by Oxbow Books for TRAC. Hard copy editions of this volume may still be available, and can be purchased direct from Oxbow at http://www.oxbowbooks.com. TRAC has now made this paper available as Open Access through an agreement with the publisher. Copyright remains with TRAC and the individual author(s), and all use or quotation of this paper and/or its contents must be acknowledged. This paper was released in digital Open Access format in April 2013. 5. An Archaeology of Brief Time: monuments and seasonality in Roman Britain by Raphael MJ. Isserlin Introduction It is a fundamental tenet of Romano-British studies that inscriptions with Imperial or other official titles can date buildings. But to what does one assign them - the calendar year or the season? Archaeologists' perceptions of time, by and large, use linear (or institutional) time (Lewis & Weigart 1990: 84), and cyclical'1ime ('a dance on one spot'~ Gurvitch 1990: 71) only rarely. I would like to explore whether it is possible to relate activity at a site to a particular time of year, for I feel that recent work (Barrett 1993) has barely scratched the surface of this problem. -
On the Latin Language
s iiiilllhlj STUDIA IN THE LIBRARY of VICTORIA UNIVERSITY Toronto THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY FOUNDED ay JAMES I.OEB, LL.D. EDITED BY t T. E, PAGE, C.H., LITT.D. E. CAPPS, PH.D.. LL.D. W. H. D. ROUSE, Lrrr.D. VARRO ON THE LATIN LANGUAGE VAREO ON THE LATIN LANGUAGE WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY ROLAND G. KENT, Ph.D. PROrESSOR OF COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY IJJ THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA IN TWO VOLUMES I BOOKS v.- VII. LONDON WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS MCMXXXVIII Printed in Great Britain CONTENTS Introduction page \'arro's Life and Works . vii Varro's Grammatical Works . , . viii \'arro's De Lingua Latina . , ix The Manuscripts of the De Lingua Latina . xii The Laurentian Manuscript F . , xv The Orthography of the De Lingua Latina x\ii The Editions of the De Lingua Latina . xxvii Bibliography ..... .xxxiii Our Text of the De Lingua Latina . xliii The Critical Apparatus .... xliv The Translation of the De Lingua Latina xlv The Notes to the Translation . , xlvi S}Tnbols and Abbre\iations . xlix De Lingu.\ Latina, Te.\t and Translation BookV 2 BookVL 172 Book VII 266 INTRODUCTION VARRO'S LIFE AND WORKS Marcxs Terentius ^'ARRO was born in 116 B.C., probably at Reate in the Sabine country, where his family, which was of equestrian rank, possessed large estates. He was a student under L. Aelius Stilo Praeconinus, a scholar of the equestrian order, widely versed in Greek and Latin literature and especially interested in the history and antiquities of the Roman people. He studied philosophy at Athens, with Anti- ochus of Ascalon.