Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
06.11 Roman Calendar Use the following Web link to learn about the Roman calendar. Roman calendar from WebExhibits The names for our months came from the Roman calendar. __________________ The first month of the old Roman calendar The school year began on March 24 The beginning of the old agricultural year when spring planting was done The beginning of the fighting season which lasted until the autumn Sacred to Mars, the Roman god of war __________________ Name derived from the Latin word "aperio," meaning "to open" Flowers and crops began to "open" during April __________________ Named after Maia, the mother of Hermes (Mercury). Maia was the daughter of Atlas who caught Zeus' roving eye Considered an unlucky month for weddings __________________ Named after Juno, the goddess in charge of marriage Although the first half of the month was considered unlucky for weddings because it contained several holy days dedicated to Vesta, we still consider June a bridal month today. __________________ Originally called Quintilis (the fifth month) Later renamed for Julius Caesar who was born on July 13. Caesar's official birthday celebration was moved to July 12 because July 13 was already sacred to Apollo. This is the reason many sources give July 12 as his date of birth. Today, we still have official birthdays, e.g., President's Day in February which celebrates the birthdays of Lincoln (February 12) and Washington (February 22), and Martin Luther King Day on the Monday in January following his real birthday. __________________ Originally called Sextilis (the sixth month) Renamed for Caesar Augustus, the first Roman emperor and adopted son of Julius Caesar. He was by blood the grandson of Julius's sister. __________________ Named the seventh month (from septem) since the Romans started counting with March. __________________ Named the eighth month (from octo) __________________ Named the ninth month (from novem) __________________ Named the tenth month (from decem) Numa, the second king of Rome, is credited with adding two months to the Roman calendar: January, named after Janus, the two-faced god in charge of doorways, and beginnings and endings, who looked backward and forward February, named after a festival of purification held in that month March was the month in which the new governmental officials took office. Our presidents were inaugurated in March up to the middle of the twentieth century. We also used to pay our taxes on March 15, the day on which Caesar was assassinated. The Ides of March was a day everybody knew, and even in Rome, debts had to be paid by the Ides of the month. The ex-officials left in March to head up the armies. However, by the middle of the second century B.C., they had to travel so far to reach the front lines that it sometimes took them two to three months to reach those armies. The campaigning season was half over! Therefore, in 154 BC, the Romans changed the beginning of their year to January. The new officials were inaugurated on January 1, which gave the ex-officials more time to travel to the provinces and allowed them to make use of the good weather to fight their battles. In 46 BC, Julius Caesar reformed the calendar with the help of an Egyptian astronomer named Sosigenes. The calendar was originally a lunar one and was constantly going out of sync with the solar year. Caesar is the one who set the number of days for each month, including 28 for February, and inaugurated the leap year to occur every four years with the extra day to come in February. The Romans did it a little bit differently from the way we do, however. They repeated the day of February 24 in a leap year. Who said you can never live a day over again!!! The calendar we use today is one of the more obvious and pervasive ways Rome still influences our lives 2000 years later.