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(18.) We have not yet mentioned the distribution of the days among the twelve months of the year of 355 days. It was as follows:1

Januarius 29 Aprilis
Februarius 28 Maius
Martius 31 Junius

29 Quintilis 31 October,

31

31 Sextilis 29 November, 29 29 September, 29 December,

29

This arrangement which remained in force until the Julian reform, is usually referred to the time of Numa; but as the number of days in the different months is inconsistent with a lunar calendar, it can scarcely have been introduced until the intercalary months of 22 and 23 days were employed. The position of the Calends, Nones and Ides was the same as in the year of Cæsar, the Kalends always marked the 1st of every month, the Nones and Ides the 5th and 13th, except in March, May, July, and October, when they fell upon the 7th and 15th. All dates in works written before B. C. 45, must of course be calculated by the above table. Thus when Cicero, in a letter written B. C. 51, says that he arrived at the camp in Lycaonia "VII. Kal. Sept." we must not translate this "the 26th of August," as we should do had it been written after the beginning of B. C. 45, but "the 24th of August," because Sextilis at that time had 29 days only.

(19.) Plutarch names the intercalary month twice; in the life of Numa he calls it Μερκιδινος ; in the life of Cesar Μερκηδόνιος. It is remarkable that this term is not to be found in any Roman writer; the expressions mensis intercalaris, and mensis intercalarius being alone employed by them.

The intercalations took place in the month of February, between the Terminalia and the Regifugium; that is, between the 23d and the 24th, at least such was the rule, although it may have been violated at times. The remaining five days belonging to February were added after the intercalary month, probably from some superstition; but all the calculations of time in intercalary years were founded upon the supposition that in such years February contained 23 days only. Thus in ordinary years the day after the Ides of February, was A. D. XVI. Cal. Mart., but in intercalary years, A. D. XI. Calendas Intercalares. The Terminalia in ordinary years fell A. D. VII. Cal. Mart., in intercalary years, Pridie Calendas Intercalares.

The intercalary month had its own Calends, Nones and Ides, with the addition of the epithet intercalares, the day after the Ides would be A. D. XV. or A. D. XVI. Cal. Mart., according as the month contained 22 or 23 days, and the five remaining days of February being added, in either case the Regifugium would always stand as A. D. VI. Cal. Mart.

1 Macrob. I. 14. Censorin. XX.

A's examples of what has just been said, we find in the Fasti Capitolini,

C. DUILLIUS COS. PRIMUS NAVALEM DE SICUL. ET CLASSE PŒNICA EGIT AN. CDXCIII. K. INTERKALAR.

and again,

L. CORNELIUS LENTULUS CAUDINUS COS. DE LIGURIBUS IDIB. INTER. AN. DXVI.

To which we may add Liv. XXXVII. 59, speaking of L. Scipio,

Trumphavit mense intercalario, pridie Calendas Martias, and Cicero pro Quinct. XXV.

Dic, Nævi, diem. Ante V. Kalend. intercalares. Bene agis. Quam longe est hinc in saltum vestrum Gallicanum? Nævi, te rogo. DCC millia passuum. Optime. De saltu deiicitur Quintius. Quo die? ......Quid taces?......Deiicitur de saltu, C. Aquilli, pridie Kalend. intercalares, biduo post, aut ut statim de iure aliquis concurrerit, non toto triduo DCC millia passuum conficiuntur.

(20) We have seen that the whole management of the Calendar was originally in the hands of the Pontifices, and even after Cn. Flavius had divulged the secrets of the Fasti, they retained the privilege of adjusting the intercalations. This trust they shamefully betrayed, and to gratify their private animosities, or show favour to their friends, in order that a magistrate might remain in office for a period shorter or longer than the law permitted, that a farmer of the taxes might be defrauded of his just right, or obtain an unfair advantage, they curtailed or drew out the year at pleasure, until the whole Calendar was involved in a degree of uncertainty and confusion, to which we can find no parallel in the history of a civilized people. The ignorance which prevailed with regard to the years in which the intercalations ought to take place, and the mystery observed by the priests, is well illustrated by the expressions of Cicero. Thus in Ep. ad Att. V. 21, we find "Cum scies Romæ intercalatum sit, necne, velim ad me scribas;" again in Ep. ad Fam. VII. 2, “Quotidie vota facimus ne intercaletur, ut quam primum te videre possimus;" and in Ep. ad Att. VI. 1, we find "Accepi tuas literas. A. D. quintum Terminalia;" that is, on the 19th of February, this singular method of fixing the date being employed to prevent ambiguity, since the day would be A. D. XI. Kal. Mart. in a common year, and A. D. VI. Kal. Intercal. in an intercalary year, and Cicero knew not when he wrote, whether an intercalation had or had not taken place.

(21.) Accordingly, when Cæsar became Dictator, the year was

1 Pontificum Arbitrio intercalandi ratio permissa. Censorin. XX. 2 See Censoriu. XX. Macrob. 1. 14. Plutarch. Vit. Cæs. LIX. Ammianus Marcellinus XXVI. Solinus 1.

about two months in advance of the seasons; the spring festivals happened in what were nominally the summer months, and those of summer in autumn To take a single example. Cicero in one of his Epistles to Atticus (X. 17.) says that at the time when he was writing his journey was delayed by the Equinox. The date affixed to this letter is XVII. Kal. Jun. i. e. 16th May.

In order to remedy these defects, it was found necessary to add 67 days to the year B. C. 46, which were divided into two intercalary months, and inserted between November and December. In this year the ordinary intercalations of 23 days took place in February, so that it contained, in all,

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Such was the year B. C. 46, which among modern chronologers has received the name of Annus Confusionis, although, as Ideler observes, Macrobius has more correctly termed it Annus confusionis ultimus.

Censorinus says that 90 days were added to the year, Dion Cassius 67; but there is no contradiction here, for the former includes the ordinary intercalation of 23 days in February, which is not taken into account by the latter. The two additional months seem to have been called Mensis intercalaris prior and Mensis intercalaris posterior, for we find in Cic. Ep. ad Fam. VI. 14.

Ego idem tamen cum A. D. V. Kalendas Intercalares priores, rogatu fratrum tuorum venissem mane ad Cæsarem, &c.

22. The Julian Calendar was founded upon the supposition that the length of the solar or tropical year was exactly 365 days, 6 hours, or 365.25 days. Therefore

The length of the Julian Year being

365d. 6h.

But the true length of the Solar Year being 365d.

It follows that the Julian Year is too long by
This excess in 10 years will amount to

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18h. 34m. 10s.

7d. 17h. 41m. 40s.

To correct this accumulating error; Pope Gregory XIII. published in bull in 1582, by which it was ordained that common years should consist of 365 days, and that a day should be added every fourth year

1 See Censorin. XV. Dion Cassius XLIII. 26. Macrob. S. 1. 16. Plin. H. N. XVIII. 17. Ammian. Macrob. XXVI. 1. Suet. Cæsar XL. Ov. Fast. 111. 155. Appian. B. C. II.

as formerly, with this difference that the intercalation was to be omitted in the last year of those centuries, not divisible by 4; that this, that 97 days instead of 100 should be inserted in 400 years.1 The Gregorian Calendar was almost immediately adopted in all Roman Catholic countries, and to compensate for the error already incurred, 10 days were dropped. The change was not admitted into England until 1752, when 11 days were dropped between the 2d and 14th September, from which arose the distinction between Old and New Style. Russia and other countries which follow the Greek church, still retain the original Julian Calendar, and hence their dates are now 12 days behind those of the rest of Europe.

According to the Gregorian scheme by which 3 leap years are omitted in 400 years

Length of the Gregorian Year being
True length of the Solar Year being

Therefore the Gregorian Year is too long by

365d. 5h. 49m. 12s. 365d.

5h. 48m. 51s.

An excess which will not amount to 1 day in 4500 years.

201s.

If the insertion of a day be omitted each 4000th yearLength of year according to cycle of 4000 years, 365d. 5h. 48m. 50s. which is too short by 1 second-a deficiency which will not amount to a day in 70,000 years.

23. We may now say a few words with regard to the longer divisions of time, the Lustrum and the Sæculum.

The word Lustrum (see p. 448), derived from luo, signified properly the expiatory sacrifice offered up for the sins of the whole people by Censors at the end of every five years, the period during which these magistrates originally held office. Hence lustrum was used to denote a space of five years, and the Censors in performing the sacrifice, were said condere lustrum, to bring the lustrum to a close. Varro, in explaining the term, derives it from luere, is the sense of to pay,

Lustrum nominatum tempus quinquennale a luendo, id est, solvendo, quod quinto quoque anno vectigalia et ultro tributa per censores persolvebantur. L. L. VI. 2.

It is to be observed here that quinto quoque anno, according to the Roman method of computation, might mean every fourth year, and quinquennale tempus, a term of four years, just as Cicero (De Orat. III. 32,) calls the Olympic games "maxima illa quinquennalis celebritas ludorum;" but since we know from other sources that the Censors originally held office for five years, and that the taxes were farmed

1 Thus no intercalation takes place in the years 1900, 2100, 2200, 2300, 2500, all of which, according to the old system, would have been leap years.

out upon five years leases, the interpretation of the above passage is not open to doubt. We may add, that wherever the word lustrum occurs in the older writers, it is always in connection with the duties of the Censors.

When we come down to the age of Ovid, a confusion seems to have arisen, and the meaning of lustrum was no longer definite, in Amor. III. vi. 27.

Nondum Troia fuit lustris obsessa duobus,

it unquestionably stands for five years, and also in Fast. III. 119, where the 10 month year of Romulus is described,

Ergo animi indociles et adhuc ratione carentes,
Mensibus egerunt lustra minora decem,

i.e. the lustra were too short by 10 months. But with singular inconsistency, a few lines farther on (165), where he is explaining the Julian Year, and the intercalation of the Dies Bissextus,

Hic anni modus est. In lustrum accedere debet,
Quæ consummatur partibus una dies,

lustrum must as certainly denote four years.

Again in Trist. IV. x. 96, compared with the E. ex P. IV. vi. 5, (see p. 123, and notes p. 448,) we see the Roman Lustrum identified with the Grecian Olympiad, each being supposed equal to five years. As we come down lower, Pliny twice in one chapter (H. N II. 47), calls the four-year cycle of the Julian year a lustrum; we find in inscriptions the intervals between the successive exhibitions of the Capitoline games instituted by Domitian, and celebrated every four years, designated as lustra ;1 and in the third century the original force of the term seems to have been quite forgotten, for Censorinus, in defining the Lustrum or Annus Magnus, seems to be quite ignorant that it ever did differ from the Olympiad, or denote any period but four years.

This uncertainty may probably be traced to the irregularity with which the sacrifice of the lustrum was performed. It was omitted sometimes from superstitious motives, as when we read in Livy III. 22, "Census actus est anno (B. C. 460), lustrum propter Capitolium captum, consulem occisum, condi religiosum fuit," and often from other causes, for upon looking over the Fasti Capitolini, in which the Censors are registered, and the letters L. F. attached to the names of those who completed this rite, we shall find that although the usual

1 Gruter. C. I. CCCXXXII. 3. Censorin. XVIII.

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