Roman
Numerals & the Calendar
The
first Roman calendar had CCCIV
days and X months
and as a result it was incredibly inaccurate. Over the years
the calendar was refined but was still quite inaccurate
and needed to be replaced because it was out of sync with
religious festivals and crop planting.
Eventually
the emperor Julius Caesar consulted an Egyptian astronomer
and introduced a calendar based on the Sun. He called it
the Julian calendar and it came into effect on January
I, XLV BCE
The
new calendar had CCCLXV
days, divided into XII
months and a leap year day every IV
years added to February.
Did
you know the names of our months come from the Romans?
Learn
more about the
origins of the names of the month
In
VIII
BCE the Romans renamed two of the months. The month
of July was named after Julius Caesar for his empire expanding
military conquests and the month of August was named after
Augustus Caesar who defeated Cleopatra and Marc Antony and
saved Rome.
Although
it is unlikely, it is said by some that Julius had an extra
day added to July which was taken from February. It is also
thought that an extra day was added to August, also taken
from February, so no one could say either man was greater
that the other. i.e. both months now have XXXI
days and February XXVIII.
Isn't
it funny that things that happened over MM years ago still
affect us today.