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    Days and Months

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    1. The Roman calendar originated as a lunar calendar but was later reformed to a solar calendar with 12 months. It was instituted by Numa Pompilius and had 355 days divided into months of varying lengths. 2. To keep it synchronized with the seasons, an intercalary month was added periodically but this led to abuse of power. 3. Julius Caesar later reformed the calendar by eliminating leap months and establishing the Julian calendar still used today.

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    Days and Months

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    1. The Roman calendar originated as a lunar calendar but was later reformed to a solar calendar with 12 months. It was instituted by Numa Pompilius and had 355 days divided into months of varying lengths. 2. To keep it synchronized with the seasons, an intercalary month was added periodically but this led to abuse of power. 3. Julius Caesar later reformed the calendar by eliminating leap months and establishing the Julian calendar still used today.

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    Classical Culture in English. Name of days and months from Latin to our languages

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    1.- Days and months

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    1. The Roman calendar originated as a lunar calendar but was later reformed to a solar calendar with 12 months. It was instituted by Numa Pompilius and had 355 days divided into months of varying lengths. 2. To keep it synchronized with the seasons, an intercalary month was added periodically but this led to abuse of power. 3. Julius Caesar later reformed the calendar by eliminating leap months and establishing the Julian calendar still used today.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    23 views3 pages

    Days and Months

    Uploaded by

    Diphilus
    1. The Roman calendar originated as a lunar calendar but was later reformed to a solar calendar with 12 months. It was instituted by Numa Pompilius and had 355 days divided into months of varying lengths. 2. To keep it synchronized with the seasons, an intercalary month was added periodically but this led to abuse of power. 3. Julius Caesar later reformed the calendar by eliminating leap months and establishing the Julian calendar still used today.

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    Jordi Pérez [IES Músic Martin i Soler de Mislata] Classical Culture IV

    DAYS OF THE WEEK


    Between the 1st and 3rd centuries, the Roman Empire gradually replaced the eight-day Roman nundinal cycle with the seven-day week. The earliest
    evidence for this new system is a Pompeiian graffito referring to 6 February (viii idus Februarius) of the year AD 60 as dies solis ("Sunday").[1] Another early
    witness is a reference to a lost treatise by Plutarch, written in about AD 100, which addressed the question of: "Why are the days named after the planets
    reckoned in a different order from the 'actual' order?".
    The Ptolemaic system of planetary spheres asserts that the order of the heavenly bodies, from the farthest to the closest to the Earth is: Saturn, Jupiter,
    Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, or, objectively, the planets are ordered from slowest to fastest moving as they appear in the night sky. The days were named
    after the planets of Hellenistic astrology, in the order: Sun, Moon, Mars (Ares), Mercury (Hermes), Jupiter (Zeus), Venus (Aphrodite) and Saturn (Cronos). The
    seven-day week spread throughout the Roman Empire in Late Antiquity. By the 4th century, it was in wide use throughout the Empire, and it had also reached
    India and China.
    The early Christians had at first adopted the Jewish seven-day week with its numbered weekdays, but by the close of the third century AD this began to
    give way to the planetary week. . . The use of planetary names by Christians attests the growing influence of astrological speculations introduced by converts
    from paganism…Thus, gradually a pagan institution was engrafted on Christianity".
    This planetary week with its days named after pagan deities is not of Christian God, who created the week with seven days, but he merely numbered the
    days one through seven (Genesis 1:3—2:3). The only day He named was the seventh day, calling it the "Sabbath" (Exodus 16:22-26; 20:8-11).

    Sunday Sunnandæg The sun, in honor of the Sun god. Κυριακή


    diumenge dies Solis (ἡμέρα Ἡλίου), dies Domenica (Christian tradition)
    Monday Mōnandæg The moon, in honor of the moon god. Δευτέρα
    dilluns dies Lunae (ἡμέρα Σελήνης)
    Tuesday Tīwesdæg The planet Mars, in honor of the god Mars. The Saxons named this day after their god Tiw. Τρίτη
    dimarts dies Martis (ἡμέρα Ἄρεως)
    Wednesday Wōdnesdæg The planet Mercury, later named in honor of the Teutonic god Woden. Τετάρτη
    dimecres dies Mercurii (ἡμέρα Ἑρμοῦ)
    Thursday Þūnresdæg The planet Jupiter, later named in honor of the Teutonic god Thor. Πέμπτη
    dijous dies Iovis (ἡμέρα Διός)
    Friday Frīgedæg The planet Venus, later named in honor of the Teutonic goddess Frigg or Freia. Παρασκευή
    divendres dies Veneris (ἡμέρα Ἀφροδίτης)
    Saturday Sæturnesdæg The planet Saturn, in honor of the Roman god Saturn. Σάββατο
    dissabte dies Saturni (ἡμέρα Κρόνου), Sabbath (in Hebraic, «rest», a day of rest for Jews»)
    Jordi Pérez [IES Músic Martin i Soler de Mislata] Classical Culture IV

    MONTHS OF THE YEAR


    January Ianuarius in honor of the Roman god Janus.
    February Februarius in honor of the Roman festival of general expiation and purification.
    March Martius, in honor of the Roman god Mars.
    April Aprilis derived from aperio «to open». April is the month when the earth opens to produce new fruits.
    May Maius in honor of the Greek goddess Maia.
    June Iunius in honor of the Roman goddess Juno.
    July Quintilis [Iulius ] number 5 > in honor of Julius Caesar
    August Sextilis [Augustus] number 6 > in honor of Roman emperor Augustus Caesar
    September September number 7
    October Octobrer number 8
    November November number 9
    December Decembrer number 10

    The months originated as a way to mark time and break up the year into shorter periods based on the Moon’s orbit around Earth. The word month is
    even derived from the word Moon (mensis Lat. and μήν Gr.). As far as we know, months were first used in Mesopotamia sometime between the years 500 BCE
    and 400 BCE to measure the natural period related to the lunar month, or synodic month, which is the time it takes for the Moon to go through all the Moon
    phases. Our current Gregorian calendar and its predecessor, the Julian calendar, both have 12 months. However, the month names we use today are derived
    from the Roman calendar, which initially had only 10 months, with the calendar year starting in March (Martius). The Romans named some of the months after
    their position in the calendar year: September means the 7th month, October the 8th, November the 9th, and December the 10th month. However, when
    January and February were eventually added and the beginning of the calendar year, the position of these months no longer corresponded with the original
    meaning of their names. Today, we still call the 9th month of the year September, the 7th month. The Islamic calendar, the Hebrew calendar, and the Hindu
    calendar also use months to divide up the year. Although the Gregorian calendar is the most commonly used calendar today, other calendars are still used in
    many parts of the world to calculate certain holidays and annual feasts.
    Jordi Pérez [IES Músic Martin i Soler de Mislata] Classical Culture IV

    The Roman calendar is the time reckoning system used in ancient Rome. However, because the calendar was reformed and adjusted countless times
    over the centuries, the term essentially denotes a series of evolving calendar systems, whose structures are partly unknown and vary quite a bit.
    Here, we focus mainly on the calendar used in the Roman Republic (509-27 BCE). Also known as the Republican calendar, it is the earliest calendar
    system from Rome for which we have historical evidence. It was used until 45 BCE, when it was replaced by the Julian calendar. The Republican calendar
    was derived from a line of older calendar systems whose exact design is largely unknown. It is believed that the original Roman calendar was a lunar calendar
    that followed the phases of the Moon. This basic structure was preserved through the centuries, which is the reason why we use months today.
    According to tradition, Romulus, the legendary first king of Rome, oversaw an overhauled the Roman calendar system around 738 BCE. The
    resulting calendar, whose structure borrowed heavily from the ancient Greek calendar system, had only 10 months, with March (Martius) being the first
    month of the year. The winter season was not assigned to any month, so the year only lasted 304 days, with 61 days unaccounted for in the winter.
    Following another calendar reform, which later Roman writers attributed to Romulus' successor, Numa Pompilius, the Republican calendar was
    instituted. To account for the days of winter between the years, two additional months were introduced: Ianuarius and Februarius.
    This meant that some of the month names no longer agreed with their position in the calendar. For example, September means “the 7th month,” but it was now
    the 9th month of the year—an inconsistency that was preserved and is still part of the Gregorian calendar we use today. A common year was now divided into
    12 months of different lengths: 4 “full” months with 31 days, 7 “hollow” months with 29 days, and 1 month with 28 days.
    The Republican calendar year lasted for 355 days, which is about 10 days shorter than a tropical year, the time it takes Earth to revolve around the Sun.
    To keep the calendar in sync with the seasons, a leap month called Mercedonius or Intercalaris was added in some years—normally every two to three years.
    By custom, the insertion of the leap month was initiated by the pontifex maximus, the high priest of the College of Pontiffs in ancient Rome. However, this
    system was vulnerable to abuse. Since the Roman calendar year defined the term of office of elected officials, a pontifex maximus was able to control the
    length of his term simply by adding a leap month.
    When Julius Caesar became pontifex maximus, he ordered a calendar reform which eliminated leap months and resulted in the implementation of the
    Julian calendar in 45 BCE, the direct predecessor of today's Gregorian calendar.

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