Julian calendar

The Julian calendar was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, taking force in 45 BC or 709 ab urbe condita. It was chosen after consultation with the Alexandrian astronomer Sosigenes and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year, known at least since Hipparchus. It has a regular year of 365 days divided into 12 months, and a leap day is added every four years, hence the average Julian year is 365.25 days. The calendar remained in use into the 20th century in some countries and is still used by many national Orthodox churches. However with this scheme too many leap days are added with respect to the astronomical seasons, which on average occur earlier in the calendar by about 11 minutes per year, causing it to gain a day about every 128 years. It is said that Caesar was aware of the discrepancy, but felt it was of little importance. In the 16th century the Gregorian calendar reform was introduced to improve its accuracy with respect to the time of the vernal equinox and the synodic month (for Easter). Sometimes the reference Old Style (OS), as opposed to New Style (NS) for the Gregorian Calendar, is used when there is a confusion about which date is found in a text.

Naming of the months

Immediately after the Julian reform, the twelve months of the Roman calendar were named Ianuarius, Februarius, Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Iunius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and December, just as they were before the reform. The reform set the lengths of the months to their modern values, and abolished the old intercalary month, the Mensis Intercalaris, replacing it with an intercalary day. The first month of the year continued to be Ianuarius, as it had been since 153 BC.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Romans renamed months after Caesar and Augustus, renaming Quintilis as Iulius (July) in 44 BC and Sextilis as Augustus (August) in 8 BC. (Note that the letter J was not invented until the 17th century.)

Related Topics:
Caesar - Augustus - 44 BC - 8 BC - J - 17th century

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Other months were renamed by other emperors, but apparently none of the later changes survived their deaths. Caligula renamed September as Germanicus; Nero renamed Aprilis (April) as Neroneus, Maius (May) as Claudius and Iunius (June) as Germanicus; and Domitian renamed September as Germanicus and October as Domitianus. At other times, September was also renamed as Antoninus and Tacitus, and November was renamed Faustina and Romanus. Commodus was unique in renaming all twelve months after his own adopted names (January to December): Amazonius, Invictus, Felix, Pius, Lucius, Aelius, Aurelius, Commodus, Augustus, Herculeus, Romanus, and Exsuperatorius.

Related Topics:
Caligula - Germanicus - Nero - Domitian - Antoninus - Tacitus - Faustina - Commodus

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Much more lasting than the ephemeral month names of the post-Augustan Roman emperors were the names introduced by Charlemagne. He renamed all of the months agriculturally into Old High German. They were used until the 15th century, and with some modification until the 18th century in modern German (January-December): Wintarmanoth (winter month), Hornung (spring), Lentzinmanoth (Lent month), Ostarmanoth (Easter month), Winnemanoth (grazing month), Brachmanoth (plowing month), Heuvimanoth (hay month), Aranmanoth (harvest month), Witumanoth (wood month), Windumemanoth (vintage month), Herbistmanoth (autumn/harvest month), and Heilagmanoth (holy month).

Related Topics:
Charlemagne - Old High German - 15th century - 18th century

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~