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232 OALENDARIUM.

reference to the retrograde direction of the reckon­ing. Such at least is the opinion of Ideler, who refers to Celsus in the Digest (50. tit. 1 6. s. 98).

Flora the fact that the intercalated year has two days called ante diem sejctum, the name of bissextile h;is been applied to it. The terra annus bissextilis^ however, does not occur in any writer prior to Beda, but in place of it the phrase annus bisseoctus.

It was the intention of Caesar that the bisssx-tum should be inserted peracto quadriennii circuitu, as Censorinus says, or quinto quoque incipiente anno, to use the words of Macrobius. The phrase, how­ever, which Caesar used seems to have been quarto quoque anno^ which was interpreted by the priests to mean every third year. The consequence was, that in the year 8 B. c. the Emperor Augustus, finding that three more intercalations had been made than was the intention of the law, gave directions that for the next twelve years there should bs no bissextile.

The services which Caesar and Augustus had conferred upon their country by the reformation of the year, seem to have been the immediate causes of the compliments paid to them by the in­sertion of their names in the calendar. Julius was substituted for Quinctilis, the month in which Caesar was born, in the second Julian year, that is, the year of the dictator's death (Censorinus, c. 22); for the first Julian year was the first year of the corrected Julian calendar, that is, 45 b. c. The

CALENDARIUM.

name Augustus, in place of Sextilis, was introduced by the emperor himself, at the time when he recti­fied the error in the mode of intercalating (Suet. Aug. c. 31), anno Auguatano xx. The first year of the Augustan era was 27 B. c:., viz., that in which he first took the name of Augustus, se vii. et M. Vipsanio Ayrippa coss. He was born in Sep­tember ; but gave the preference to the preceding month, for reasons stated in the senatus-consultum, preserved by Macrobius (i. 12). " Whereas the Emperor Augustus Caesar, in the month of Sex­tilis, was first admitted to the consulate., and thrice entered the city in triumph, and in the same month the legions, from the Janiculum, placed themselves under his auspices, and in ths same month Egypt was brought under the authority of the Roman people, and in the same month an end was put to the civil wars ; and whereas for these reasons the said month is, and has been, most for­tunate to this empire, it is hereby decreed by the senate that the said month shall^be called Augus, tus." " A plebiscituin, to the 'same effect, was passed on the motion of Sextus Pacuvius, tribune of the plebs."

The month of September in like manner received the name of Germanicus from the general so called, and the appellation appears to have existed even in the time of Macrobius. Domitian, too, conferred his name upon October ; but the old word was re­stored upon the death of the tyrant.

Our days of the Month.

March, May, July, October, have 31 days.

January, August, December, have 31 days.

April, June, Sep­tember, November, have 30 days.

February has 28 days, and in Leap Year 29.

1.

kalendis.

kalendis.

kalendis.

kalendis.

2. 3.

VI. ' V. ante

IV. 1 ante III. J Nonas.

IV. \ ante III. J Nonas.

IV. \ Ante III. J Nonas.

4.

IV. " Nonas.

Pridie Nonas.

Pridie Nonas.

Pridie Nonas.

5.

III. ^

nonis.

nonis.

nonis.

6.

Pridie Nonas.

VIII. "

VIII. "

VIII.

7.

nonis.

VII.

VII.

VII.

8.

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VI. ante

VI. ante

VI.

9.

VII.

V. > Idus.

V. > Idus.

V.

10.

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ante

IV.

IV.

IV.

11.

V.

Idus.

III.

III.

III.

12.

IV.

Pridie Idus.

Pridie Idus.

Pridie Idus.

13.

in.

idibus.

idibus.

idibus.

14.

Pridie Idus.

XIX. "

XVIII. "

XVI. "

15.

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Pridie Kalendas

29.

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Martias.

SO.

III.

III.

Pridie Kalendas

31.

Pridie Kalendas

Pridie Kalendas

(of the month

(of the month

(of the month

following).

following).

following).