Calendopaedia - The Roman Calendar

Month

Number Name Meaning Length

(Days) 1 Martius Mars - god of war 31 2 Aprilis See below * 30 3 Maius Goddess Maia 31 4 Iunius Goddess Juno 30 5 Quintilis Fifth month 31 6 Sextilis Six month 30 7 September Seventh month 30 8 October Eighth month 31 9 November Ninth month 30 10 December Tenth month 30

* The origin of the name Aprilis is uncertain, however there are two possible explanations. It could be named after the goddess Venus whose name in Greek is Aphrodite. As several other months are named after deities this is quite a possibility. Alternately it could be named from the Latin aperire meaning 'to open'. This being a reference to the season when flowers begin to blossom or open.

In the reign of Numa Pompilius (circa 715 - circa 673 BC) two extra months were added. January (Iannarils) at the beginning of the year and February (Februarias) at the end. The total number of days in the year was now 354. One day was deducted from each month of 30 days (six) and added to the extra fifty to give two months of 28 days. As the year now had an even number of days, as did the two new months, an extra day was added to January to make the year length 355. This was done because even numbers were considered unlucky.

The calendar which we now consider to be the Roman Republican Calendar was introduced by Tarquinius Priscus (616 - 597 BC). It still had 355 days but the length of the months was changed as follows :- (using current names)

28 days - February

29 days - January, April, June, August, September, November, December

31 days - March, May, July, October

A later modification by Decemvirs changed the order of the months so that February followed January. The year was still 10 1/4 days short and so an intercalary period was introduced. This was known as Intercalans or Mercedonius and was inserted after 23rd of February in alternate years. Mercedonius was alternately 22 or 23 days in length. The remaining 5 days of February were dropped in intercalary years. This arrangement produced a four year period of 1465 days, an average of 366 1/4 days per year. This was one day too long so every 24 years further adjustment was made by dropping one of the Mercedonius months.

This was a very complicated system and still did not keep in synchronisation with the phases of the moon so the decisions as to when the intercalary month was added and how long it should be fell into the hands of a group of high priests known as the pontiffs. This power was abused for political ends and at the time of Julius Caesar the civil equinox was three months away from the astronomical equinox. This caused Caesar to order the production of a new calendar known as the Julian Calendar.

Days within the month were counted from designated division points within the month: Kalends, Nones, and Ides.