4-Years Cycle | Days in the Year | Days in a Solar Year |
Year 1 | 355 | 365¼ |
Year 2 | 355 | 365¼ |
Year 3 | 378 | 365¼ |
Year 4 | 379 | 365¼ |
Total | 1467 | 1461 |
The new four cycle years now became too long and this state of affairs created considerable confusion and renewed lamentations which lasted until the divine Caesar reformed the calendar and made it as we know it today, that is a cycle of 365 days and a fourth year, the leap year, of 366 days. The original 31-days months were, again, left unchanged. February, too, was left unchanged at 28 days except in the leap year when it had 29 days, and all the other months were given either 30 days or 31 days. Also, the month of Quintilis was renamed Iulius in honour of C. Iulius Caesar, and after his death the month of Sextilis was also named Augustus after the divine emperor Augustus, his nephew and adopted son. See the table below.
| | Latin | Days | English | Italian | French | Spanish | German |
1 | Ianuarius | 31 | January | Gennaio | Janvier | Enero | Januar |
2 | Februarius | 28/29 | February | Febbraio | Fevrier | Febrero | Februar |
3 | Martius | 31 | March | Marzo | Mars | Marzo | Marz |
4 | Aprilis | 30 | April | Aprile | Avril | Abril | April |
5 | Maius | 31 | May | Maggio | Mai | Mayo | Mai |
6 | Iunius | 30 | June | Giugno | Juin | Junio | Juni |
7 | Iulius | 31 | July | Luglio | Juillet | Julio | Juli |
8 | Augustus | 31 | August | Agosto | Aout | Agosto | August |
9 | September | 30 | September | Settembre | Septembre | Septiembre | September |
10 | October | 31 | October | Ottobre | Octobre | Octubre | Oktober |
11 | November | 30 | November | Novembre | Novembre | Noviembre | November |
12 | December | 31 | December | Dicembre | Decembre | Diciembre | Dezember |
A final note must be added about a further subsequent correction introduced by Pope Gregory and which resulted in the Gregorian Solar Calendar. For reasons of Celestial Mechanics the solar calendar repeats completely every 146,097 days, which fill a space of 400 years, and which also corresponf to 20,871 seven-day weeks. Of these 400 years, 303 (the "common years") have 365 days, and 97 (the leap years) have 366 days. This gives an average year length of exactly 365.2425 days, or 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 12 seconds. This correction, at the time of Pope Gregory resulted in an adjustment of 10 days to correct for all the errors accumulated since the beginning of time, never mind AUC. And obviously people were quite annoyed at that time as they were suddenly robbed of 10 days! This reckoning is still in use in Eastern Europe.
One final short note: the intercalaris dies, or intercalary day, i.e. the leap day, was addedd on the 24th of February so that February originally, in the leap year had two 24th days, the first one was the normal 24th day, the second 24th day was called "dies bis sextus" to indicate that it was a day that fell in the year with a double six, i.e. 366 days year.
What about the counting of the days in the month? O dear, do you really want to know?
There were three important days in each month: the first day of the month was called Kalendas, for example Kalendas Martias to say the "first day of March". The second key day of the month was the day of Idus which fell either on the 13th day or on the 15th day of the month. The final key day of the month was the Nonae, which fell 9-days before the Idibus; in other words, if you count nine days backwards from the Idus day you will arrive at the Nonae day. Let's formalise what we have just said.
Kalendae, Nonae, Idus, Pridie
Kalendae (month) was the first day of the month.
Idus was the 13th or the 15th of the month as shown in the table below.
Nonae day was nine days before the Idus day, including the Idus and Nonae day.
Pridie was the "eve" day before the key day; hence in January, Pridie Nonae was the 4th of January. The last day of the month, e.g. 31st January would be called Pridie Kalendae Februarius.
The table below, compiled by myself on an Excel spreadsheet, should make it easier to understand this apparently complex reckoning. In practice it is not really that complex provided you do not try to mentally calculate the corresponding numeric day as we count them today.
For a view of an artistic rendition of this Calendar click here.
How to Indicate Dates in Latin
Today we use the terms B.C. or A.D. to indicate time Before Christ or after Christ, respectively. Lately these terms are increasingly replaced by new terms called BCE or ACE, meaning Before Common Era and After Common Era. For reasons of consistency with the present material I will use BC and AD.
In Latin to indicate a B.C. date, you would count the year of the Foundation of Rome as the year 1, then 2, etc. up to the year 753, the year of Christ. After that year the count restarted from 1.
To say: In 14 AD you would say- Anno quarto decimo p.C.n. (post Christum natum).
To say: In 44 BC you would say- Anno quadragesimo quarto a.C.n. (ante Christum natum).
To say: in the year 100 after the foundation of Rome, you would say: Anno centesimo A.U.C.
To say: Caesar was born on 654 from the foundation of Rome and was killed in the year 44 BC, you would say: Caesar natus est anno sescentesimo quinquagesimo quarto A.U.C. et necatus est anno quadragesimo quarto a.C.n.
To say: Caesar was killed at the age of 56 years, you would say- Caesar quinquagesimum septimum annum agens necatus est. (NB: quinquagesimum septimum means 57 not 56; this is because the Romans expressed their age in terms of the year in which the birthday recurred- a practice that is still in use in Italy.)