Roman calendar. Calendar ups and downs or why December is the twelfth and not the tenth month Some months of the calendar year the ancient Romans called

Many of us often wonder what calendar days are. These are consecutive days that have their serial number in the month. This includes all weekends and holidays. In addition, calendar days also include working days. Particular attention is paid to this concept when it comes to the design of official documentation. Read more about all this in this article.

Main

What days are considered calendar days? This is exactly the same question that worries many citizens engaged in labor activities in various organizations. After all, we have to deal with this in everyday life. When drawing up documentation relating to service relations, it is very important to see the fundamental difference between working and calendar days. This will help prevent mistakes in the work of the personnel and accounting department when calculating vacation and travel payments.

What else is there to know? In simple words, every day in a month is a calendar day. But this concept is not fixed in the law.

So, it means that calendar days are all days of the month, including working and holidays. This concept is most often used in labor law. For example, an employee is entitled to leave in calendar days. This means that the rest period of the latter will include not only the period during which he usually works, but also weekends. But how is vacation pay calculated?

According to the rules, the funds must be transferred to the employee three days before the start of his legal vacation. It should also be noted that not only working days, but also weekends (that is, all calendar days) are subject to payment. That is the order.

When calculating the salary of subordinates, the accountant takes into account only working days. For example, if a subordinate works in an organization for eight hours five days a week, then, accordingly, his days off are not paid. That's what the law says.

calendar month

What does this concept mean? What time span does it include? Each calendar month starts on the first day and ends on the last day of that particular month. For example, January runs from the first to the thirty-first. A month consists of calendar days, which, in turn, are divided into working, holidays and weekends. This is also necessary to know.

Additionally

In official documentation, one can often find a requirement to notify the other party of their intentions at least one calendar month in advance. What does this concept mean when it comes to calculating deadlines? Taking into account the previously specified definition, it can be concluded that in order to comply with the warning requirements, a party must notify the other party of the occurrence of any event no later than the first day of the calendar month preceding the one in which the specific action is scheduled (for example, a change in essential conditions service agreement). Only in this case the requirements of the law will not be violated.

Well-deserved rest time

If a person recently came to work in an organization, then only after six months of carrying out official activities, he will have the right to paid leave. As already described earlier, in labor legislation such a period of rest is calculated only in calendar days. But what will be its duration in this case? It turns out that the new employee is entitled to leave for 14 calendar days. After all, the working period is not fully worked out. This means that the manager will not provide such an employee with 28 calendar days of vacation. Otherwise, he will break the law.

Holidays

Available on certain days of the week. The Labor Code establishes public holidays, on which working people are given time for rest. Citizens performing official activities on these days should be given increased wages or an additional day off. Otherwise, the head of the organization will violate the norms of the law.

Holiday calendar days are enshrined in Article 112 of the Labor Code. These include:

• New Year holidays.
• Christmas.
• February 23 - Defender of the Fatherland Day.
• March 8 -
• May 1 - Spring and Labor Day.
• May 9 - Victory Day.
• November 4 - National Unity Day.
• June 12 - Day of Russia.

If any of the above holidays falls on a weekend, it will be moved to the next working day. This is written in the legislation.

Important

The Federal Law No. 107 "On the calculation of periods" of 2011 contains such a definition as a calendar year. Many citizens are immediately interested in the question of what does this mean? So, a calendar year is a period of time that runs from January 1st to December 31st. Its number includes 365 or 366 days. It depends on whether it is a normal year or a leap year. In addition, each year has its own serial number. For example, now 2017, after it ends on December 31, the calculation of 2018 will begin on January 1. Such is the order.

It should also be noted that the main reference point for assigning a specific number to each year is the Gregorian calendar. How is this reflected in the daily activities of organizations and enterprises? Here it is immediately necessary to say that firms, when concluding contracts, must have a clear idea of ​​\u200b\u200bwhat a calendar year is. Nevertheless, very often this concept is used by company leaders without proper understanding.

General

Each week, month and year consists of a certain number of calendar days. This figure includes public holidays and weekends. As a general rule, many organizations operate from Monday to Friday. Weekend days are Saturday and Sunday. Therefore, if a person was offered to work outside of working hours, then he should be compensated for this in double the amount or given an additional day off. But why do we need such concepts as a calendar month, week, year in the legislation? The answer here is very simple. In order to correctly calculate the deadlines for issuing official documentation. For example, if a document says that it can be appealed to a higher authority within a few calendar days, this means that even weekends are included here. You should definitely know about this.

Conclusion

In order to better navigate the time, citizens in communicating with each other and when filling out documents use such concepts as working days, holidays, days off. So, all these days are included in the calendar. If the contract states that the work will be done in a certain number of calendar days, then it will be so. This time period includes both holidays and weekends. You need to know about this. It is for this reason that many organizations prefer to limit themselves to carrying out their duties only on weekdays. That's what it says in the contract.

If we are talking about vacation, then it is also counted in calendar days. For the reason that such a rule is spelled out in the TC. In addition, if we are talking about vacation pay, then all calendar days (excluding holidays) are taken into account. Therefore, in order not to violate the norms of the law, citizens and organizations, institutions must have an idea of ​​​​the correct calculation of time.

Roman calendar. History has not kept us accurate information about the time of the birth of the Roman calendar. However, it is known that during the time of Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome and the first Roman king, that is, around the middle of the 8th century. BC e., the Romans used a calendar in which the year, according to Censorinus, consisted of only 10 months and contained 304 days. Initially, the months did not have names and were designated by serial numbers. The year began on the first day of the month in which the beginning of spring fell.

Around the end of the 8th century BC e. some months have their own names. So, the first month of the year was named Martius (Martius) in honor of the god of war Mars. The second month of the year was named Aprilis. This word comes from the Latin “aperire”, which means “to open”, as the buds on the trees open this month. The third month was dedicated to the goddess Maya - the mother of the god Hermes (Mercury) - and received the name Mayus (Majus), and the fourth in honor of the goddess Juno (Fig. 8), wife Jupiter, was named Junius. This is how the names of the months of March, April, May and June appeared. The following months continued to retain their numerical designations:

Quintilis (Quintilis) - "fifth"
Sextilis (Sextilis) - "sixth"
September (September) - "seventh"
Oktober (Oktober) - "eighth"
November (November) - "ninth"
December (December) - "tenth"

Martius, Maius, Quintilis and October had 31 days each, and the rest of the months consisted of 30 days. Therefore, the most ancient Roman calendar can be represented in the form of a table. 1, and one of his samples is shown in Fig. nine.

Create a 12-month calendar. In the 7th century BC e., that is, during the time of the second legendary ancient Roman king - Numa Pompilius, the Roman calendar was reformed and two more months were added to the calendar year: the eleventh and twelfth. The first of them was named January (Januarius) - in honor of the two-faced god Janus (Fig. 10), whose one face was turned forward and the other backward: he could simultaneously contemplate the past and foresee the future. The name of the second new month, February, comes from the Latin word "februarius", which means "purification" and is associated with the rite of purification, celebrated annually on February 15th. This month was dedicated to the god of the underworld, Februus.

The history of the distribution of days according to months. The original year of the Roman calendar, as already mentioned, consisted of 304 days. To equalize it with the calendar year of the Greeks, one would have to add 50 days to it, and then there would be 354 days in a year. But the superstitious Romans believed that odd numbers happier than even ones, and therefore they added 51 days. However, from such a number of days it was impossible to make 2 full months. Therefore, from six months, which previously consisted of 30 days, i.e. from April, June, sextilis, September, November and December, one day was taken away. Then the number of days from which new months were formed increased to 57. From this number of days, the months of January were formed, containing 29 days, and February, which received 28 days.

Thus, a year containing 355 days was divided into 12 months with the number of days indicated in Table. 2.

Here, February has only 28 days. This month was doubly "unlucky": it was shorter than the others and contained an even number of days. This is what the Roman calendar looked like for several centuries BC. e. The established length of the year of 355 days almost coincided with the length of the lunar year, which consisted of 12 lunar months but 29.53 days, since 29.53 × 12 == 354.4 days.

Such a coincidence is not accidental. It is explained by the fact that the Romans used the lunar calendar and determined the beginning of each month by the first appearance of the lunar crescent after the new moon. The priests ordered the heralds to publicly "call out" for general information the beginning of each new month, as well as the beginning of the year.

Randomness of the Roman calendar. The Roman calendar year is shorter than the tropical year by more than 10 days. Because of this, calendar numbers every year less and less corresponded to natural phenomena. To eliminate this irregularity, an additional month was inserted every two years between February 23 and 24, the so-called mercedonium, which alternately contained either 22 or 23 days. Therefore, the duration of the years alternated as follows:

355 days

377 (355+22) days

355 days

378 (355+23) days.

Thus, each four years consisted of two simple years and two extended ones. The average length of the year in such a four-year period was 366.25 days, that is, it was a whole day longer than in reality. In order to eliminate the discrepancy between calendar numbers and natural phenomena, it was necessary from time to time to resort to increasing or decreasing the duration of additional months.

The right to change the duration of the additional months belonged to the priests (pontiffs), headed by the high priest (Pontifex Maximus). They often abused their power by arbitrarily lengthening or shortening the year. According to Cicero, the priests, using the power granted to them, lengthened the terms of public posts for their friends or for those who bribed them, and shortened the terms for their enemies. The time of paying various taxes and fulfilling other obligations also depended on the arbitrariness of the priest. To all this, confusion began in the celebration of the holidays. So, the harvest festival sometimes had to be celebrated not in summer, but in winter.

We find a very apt description of the state of the Roman calendar of that time in the outstanding French writer and educator of the 18th century. Voltaire, who wrote: "The Roman generals always won, but they never knew what day it happened."

Julius Caesar and the calendar reform. The chaotic nature of the Roman calendar created such great inconvenience that its urgent reform turned into an acute social problem. Such a reform was carried out over two thousand years ago, in 46 BC. e. It was initiated by the Roman statesman and commander Julius Caesar. By this time, he had visited Egypt, the center of ancient science and culture, and got acquainted with the peculiarities of the Egyptian calendar. It was this calendar, with the amendment of the Canopic Decree, that Julius Caesar decided to introduce in Rome. He entrusted the creation of a new calendar to a group of Alexandrian astronomers headed by Sosigenes.

Julian calendar of Sosigenes. The essence of the reform was that the calendar was based on the annual movement of the Sun between the stars. The average length of the year was set at 365.25 days, which exactly corresponded to the length of the tropical year known at that time. But so that the beginning of the calendar year always falls on the same date, as well as at the same time of day, they decided to count up to 365 days in each year for three years, and 366 in the fourth. This lastthe year was called a leap year. True, Sosigenes should have known that the Greek astronomer Hipparchus, about 75 years before the reform planned by Julius Caesar, established that the duration of the tropical year is not 365.25 days, but somewhat less, but he probably considered this difference insignificant and therefore neglected them.

Sosigene divided the year into 12 months, for which he retained their ancient names: January, February, March, April, May, June, quintilis, sextilis, September, October, November and December. The month of Mercedonia was removed from the calendar. January was adopted for the first month of the year, since already from 153 BC. e. newly elected Roman consuls took office on 1 January. The number of days in months was also ordered (Table 3).

Consequently, all odd months (January, March, May, quintilis, September and November) had 31 days each, and even ones (February, April, June, sextilis, October and December) had 30. Only February of a simple year contained 29 days.

Before the implementation of the reform, in an effort to achieve the coincidence of all holidays with their corresponding At seasons of the year, the Romans added to the calendar year, besides Mercedonia, which consisted of 23 days, two intercalary months, one of 33 days and the other of 34. Both of these months were placed between November and December. Thus, a year of 445 days was formed, known in history under the name of disorderly or "year of confusion." This was the year 46 BC. e.

In gratitude to Julius Caesar for streamlining the calendar and his military merits, the Senate, at the suggestion of the Roman politician Mark Antony, in 44 BC. e. renamed the month quintilis (fifth), in which Caesar was born, to July (Julius)

Roman Emperor Augustus (63 BC-14 AD)

The account according to the new calendar, called the Julian, began on January 1, 45 BC. e. That day was the first new moon after the winter solstice. This is the only moment in the Julian calendar that has a connection with the lunar phases.

August calendar reform. The members of the highest priestly college in Rym - the pontiffs were instructed to monitor the correct calculation of time, however, not understanding the essence of Sosigen's reform, for some reason they inserted leap days not after three years on the fourth, but after two on the third. Due to this error, the calendar account was again confused.

The error was discovered only in 8 BC. e. during the time of Caesar's successor Emperor Augustus, who brought about a new reform and destroyed the accumulated error. By his order, starting from 8 BC. e. and ending with 8 AD. e., skipped the insertion of extra days in leap years.

At the same time, the Senate decided to rename the month sextilis (sixth) to August - in honor of Emperor Augustus, in gratitude for correcting the Julian calendar and the great military victories won by him in this month. But there were only 30 days in the sextilis. The Senate considered it inconvenient to leave fewer days in the month dedicated to Augustus than in the month dedicated to Julius Caesar, especially since the number 30, as an even number, was considered unlucky. Then another day was taken away from February and added to sextiles - August. So February was left with 28 or 29 days. But now it turned out that three months in a row (July, August and September) have 31 days each. This again did not suit the superstitious Romans. Then they decided to move one day of September to October. At the same time, one day of November was moved to December. These innovations completely destroyed the regular alternation of long and short months created by Sosigenes.

Thus, the Julian calendar was gradually improved (Table 4), which remained the only and unchanged in almost all of Europe until the end of the 16th century, and in some countries even until the beginning of the 20th century.

Historians point out that the emperors of Tiberius, Nero and Commodus tried the next three month to call by their names, but their attempts failed.

Counting days in months. The Roman calendar did not know the ordinal count of days in a month. The account was kept by the number of days up to three specific moments within each month: calends, non and id, as shown in Table. five.

Kalends were called only the first days of the months and fell on a time close to the new moon.

Nons were the 5th of the month (in January, February, April, June, August, September, November and December) or the 7th (in March, May, July and October). They coincided with the beginning of the first quarter of the moon.

Finally, the ides were called the 13th of the month (in those months in which nones fell on the 5th) or the 15th (in those months in which nones fell on the 7th).

Unlike the forward counting we are used to, the Romans counted the days from calends, non and id in the opposite direction. So, if it was necessary to say "January 1", then they said "in the January kalends"; May 9 was called “the 7th day from the May ides”, December 5 was called “on the December nones”, and instead of “June 15”, they said “on the 17th day from the July kalends”, etc. It must be remembered that that the original date itself was always included in the count of days.

The considered examples show that when dating the Romans never used the word "after", but only "from".

In each month of the Roman calendar, there were three more days that had special names. These are the eve, i.e., the days preceding nons, ides, and also kalends of the next month. Therefore, speaking of these days, they said: “on the eve of the Ides of January” (i.e., January 12), “on the eve of the March kalends” (i.e., February 28), etc.

Leap years and the origin of the word "leap year". During the calendar reform of Augustus, errors made during the incorrect use of the Julian calendar were eliminated, and the basic rule of a leap year was legitimized: every fourth year is a leap year. Therefore, leap years are those whose numbers are divisible by 4 without a remainder. Considering that thousands and hundreds are always divisible by 4, it is enough to establish whether the last two digits of the year are divisible by 4: for example, 1968 is a leap year, since 68 is divisible by 4 without remainder, and 1970 is a simple year, since 70 is not divisible by 4.

The expression "leap year" is associated with the origin of the Julian calendar and the peculiar counting of days used by the ancient Romans. When reforming the calendar, Julius Caesar did not dare to place an extra day in a leap year after February 28, but hid it where mercedonium used to be, that is, between February 23 and 24. Therefore, February 24 was repeated twice.

But instead of "February 24," the Romans said "the sixth day before the March calendars." In Latin, the sixth number is called "sextus", and "once again the sixth" is called "bissextus". Therefore, the year containing an extra day in February was called "bissextilis". The Russians, having heard this word from the Byzantine Greeks, who pronounced "b" as "v", turned it into "high-rise". Therefore, it is impossible to write “high”, as is sometimes done, since the word “high” is not Russian and has nothing to do with the word “high”.

Accuracy of the Julian calendar. The Julian year was set at 365 days and 6 hours. But this value is 11 minutes longer than the tropical year. 14 sec. Therefore, for every 128 years, a whole day accumulated. Consequently, the Julian calendar was not very accurate. Another important advantage was its considerable simplicity.

Chronology. In the first centuries of its existence, the dating of events in Rome was carried out by the names of the consuls. In the 1st century n. e. the era “from the creation of the city” began to spread, which was important in the chronology of Roman history.

According to the Roman writer and scholar Mark Terentius Varro (116-27 BC), the estimated date of the founding of Rome corresponds to the third year of the 6th Olympiad (Ol. 6.3). Since the day of the founding of Rome was annually celebrated as a spring holiday, it was possible to establish that the epoch of the Roman calendar, that is, its starting point, is April 21, 753 BC. e. The era "from the founding of Rome" was used by many Western European historians until the end of the 17th century.

As We have already learned that the names of the Months are identical in the Julian and Gregorian calendars.

They also learned that Julius reformed the Old Roman calendar, radically than Pope Gregory.

January

January got its name in honor of the two-faced Roman god of time, doors and gates, Janus (Ianuarius), the name of the month symbolically means "door in the year" (the Latin word for "door" is ianua). Traditionally, the original Roman calendar consisted of 10 months of only 304 days without winter, which was considered as a time of "monthless"

that's how they make you study Roman mythology. Well, you'll have to read.

Around 713 BC, Romulus' semi-mythical successor, King Numa Pompilius, is said to have added the months of January and February to equal the calendar's standard lunar year of 365 days. Although March was originally the first month of the year in the old Roman calendar, Numa placed January first, although, according to some Roman writers, January only became the first month of the year under the decemvirs around 450 BC. e. (original sources are inconsistent). Be that as it may, we know the names of two consuls who took office on May 1 and March 15 before 153 BC, after which they took office on January 1.

February

Etruscan god of the underworld Februus

February - februarius mensis - the ancient Romans called the calendar month, introduced, according to legend, by Numa Pompilius or Tarquinius the Proud. The oldest (Romulian) calendar, according to which the year was divided into 10 months and consisted of 304 days, did not include this month, as well as January. The reform of the calendar that followed under Numa (or Tarquinius) was intended to establish a solar-lunar year (perhaps a solar-lunar cycle); for which two new months, January and February, were introduced, and the month of February, which ended the year, contained 28 days (the only ancient month with an even number of days; the remaining months had an odd number of days, since an odd number, according to the belief of the ancient Romans brought happiness). It is authentically known that at the latest from 153 BC. e. the beginning of the year was moved to January 1, and February took second place in the order of the Roman months.

I think we should not forget which calendar is solar or lunar, or maybe solar-lunar?

The name of the month February comes from the Etruscan god of the underworld, Februus, and is associated with the rites of purification (februa, februare, februum), which fell on the feast of Lupercalia (February 15 - dies februatus), falling on the full moon according to the old Roman lunar calendar. When the introduction of intercalary months was required during the establishment of the solar-lunar cycle, these latter were inserted between February 23 and 24 (with a 4-year cycle - in the second and fourth years). Under Julius Caesar, who introduced a four-year cycle, consisting of three years of 365 and one year of 366 days, February of the latter contained 29 days, and February 23 was considered the seventh day of the pre-March calendars (ad VII Kal. Mart.), February 24 - the sixth previous, and February 25 - the sixth subsequent day of the pre-March calends (ad VI Kal. Mart, posteriorem and priorem). Since there were two of these sixth days of the pre-March calends, the year in which February contained 29 days was called annus bissextus (hence année bissextile, our leap year).

March

The month got its name in honor of the Roman god of war and protection of Mars. In ancient Rome, where the climate was relatively mild, March was the first month of spring, the logical point for the beginning of the agricultural year, and was considered an auspicious time to start a seasonal military campaign.

The name "March" came into Russian from Byzantium. In ancient Russia, until 1492, March was considered the first month; when the year began to be counted from September, until 1699 it was the seventh; and from 1700 - the third. Since March, the Russian flight began (“spring”, a word that has now gone out of book use). In Czech, the first day of March is called letnice, and in some Russian dialects, novice. In the past, on March 1, the terms for winter hiring ended for Russian peasants and spring hiring began.

April

The name April probably comes, as the ancients already recognized, from the Latin verb aperire - “to open”, because this month in Italy opened, spring began, trees and flowers bloomed. This etymology is supported by comparison with the modern Greek usage of ἁνοιξις (anoixis) - "opening" for spring. According to another version, the name of the month comes from the Latin word apricus - "warmed by the sun."
Since some of the Roman months were named after deities, April was also dedicated to the goddess Venus, (Festum Veneris). Since the festival of Fortunae Virilis is held on the first day of the month, it has been suggested that the very name of the month Aprilis comes from Aphrilis, which is a reference to the Greek goddess Aphrodite (also Aphros), associated by the Romans with Venus, or from the Etruscan version of the name of this goddess Apru ( April). Jacob Grimm suggested the existence of a hypothetical god or hero, Aper (Aper) or Aprus (Aprus).
April now has 30 days, but before the reform of Julius Caesar it had only 29. At this time, the longest season dedicated to the gods (19 days) opened, during which all judicial institutions did not work in Ancient Rome. In April 65, after the disclosure of Piso's conspiracy against the person of Emperor Nero, the frightened Roman Senate announced the renaming of the month of April to "Neroniy", this name was not used after the death of Nero, which followed in 68.

The month of May was named after the Greek goddess Maya, who was identified with the Roman fertility goddess Bona Dea (Good Goddess), whose feast day fell on this time. On the other hand, the Roman poet Ovid stated that the month of May was named after maiores or "elders" and that the next month (June) was named after iuniores or "young people" (Fasti VI.88).

June

The Roman poet Ovid, in his book Fasti, offers two options for the etymology of the name of the month. The first version (today the most recognized) derives the naming of June (mensis Junonis) from the Roman goddess Juno, the wife of Jupiter, combined with the ancient Greek goddess Hera. Juno patronized marriage and family life, so it was considered lucky to get married this month. The second version of Ovid assumes the product of the name June from the Latin word iuniores, which means "young people", in contrast to maiores ("elders"), after whom the previous month of May is allegedly named (Fasti VI.1-88). There is also an opinion that June was named after Lucius Junius Brutus, the first Roman consul.

July

Initially, the month was called Quintilis (lat. quintus - "five"). Subsequently, it was renamed in 45 BC. e. at the suggestion of Octavian Augustus in honor of his predecessor - the Roman emperor Julius Caesar, who was born in this month

August

Initially, the month was called "sextilium" (from lat. Sextilis - sixth) and contained 29 days. Julius Caesar, reforming the Roman calendar, added two more days in 45 BC. e., giving it a modern look, 31 days long.
August received its real name in honor of the Roman emperor Octavian Augustus, whose name, in 8 BC. e. the Roman Senate named a month that was especially happy in the life of the emperor. According to the Senatus consultum quoted by Macrobius, Octavian chose this month for himself because it accounted for several of his great victories, including the conquest of Egypt. lat. Quintilis - the fifth) was renamed to "July" (lat. Julius).
According to a common legend (introduced by the 13th-century scholar Sacrobosco), the original “sextilium” allegedly consisted of 30 days, but Octavian Augustus increased it to 31 days so that it would not be shorter than the month named after Julius Caesar, and February took one day, which is why he has only 28 days in ordinary years .. However, there is a lot of evidence that refutes this theory. In particular, it does not agree with the length of the seasons given by Varro, who wrote in 37 BC. BC, before the supposed reform of Octavian, a 31-day sextile is recorded in an Egyptian papyrus from 24 BC. e., and the 28-day February is shown in the Fasti Caeretani calendar, which dates from the time before 12 BC. e.

September

It got its name from lat. septem - seven, since it was the seventh month of the old Roman year, which began before the reform of Caesar from March.

October

It got its name from lat. octo - eight.

November

It got its name from lat. novem - nine.

December

It got its name from lat. decem - ten. After shifting the beginning of the year to January, it became the twelfth and last month of the year.

Well, now we know why we have 12 Months and why they are called that.

To be continued.......

Let's talk about the reforms of the calendar system in Russia, the Russian Empire, etc.

History has not kept us accurate information about the time of the birth of the Roman calendar. However, it is known that in times of Romulus(mid-VIII century BC), the Romans used lunar calendar, which was at odds with the actual astronomical cycle on Earth. The year began in March and consisted of only 10 months (contained 304 days). Initially, the months did not have names and were designated by serial numbers.

In the 7th century BC e., i.e. during the time of the second legendary ancient Roman king - Numa Pompilius, the Roman calendar was reformed and two more months were added to the calendar year. Roman calendar months bore the following names:

The names of the months were adjectival definitions for the word mensis - month, for example, mensis Martius, mensis December.

Julian calendar.

The chaotic nature of the Roman calendar created such great inconvenience that its urgent reform turned into an acute social problem. Such a reform was carried out over two thousand years ago, in 46 BC. e. It was initiated by the Roman statesman and commander Julius Caesar. He entrusted the creation of a new calendar to a group of Alexandrian astronomers headed by Sosigenes.

The essence of the reform was that the calendar was based on the annual movement of the Sun between the stars. The average length of the year was set at 365.25 days, which exactly corresponded to the length of the tropical year known at that time. But so that the beginning of the calendar year always falls on the same date, as well as at the same time of day, they decided to count 365 days in each year for three years, and 366 in the fourth. This last year was called a leap year.

Sosigene divided the year into 12 months, for which he retained their ancient names. The year began on January 1st. This coincided with the beginning of the Roman economic year and with the entry into office of new consuls. At the same time, the duration of the months was established, which exists at the present time.

After the death of Julius Caesar, the fifth month of Quintilis was named Iulius (July) in his honor, and in 8 AD. Sextilis was named after the Emperor Augustus.

The account according to the new calendar, called the Julian, began on January 1, 45 BC. e. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII amended the Julian calendar, according to which the year began 13 days earlier. It has been accepted all over the world. In Russia, the "new style" was introduced in 1918. The Russian Orthodox Church still uses Julian calendar.

Counting days in months. The Roman calendar did not know the ordinal count of days in a month. The account was kept by the number of days up to three specific moments within each month: calends, non and id. The designation by the Romans of the numbers of the month was based on the allocation of three main days in it, originally associated with the change of the phases of the moon.

new moon day(1st day of the month) was called kalends (Kalendae, abbr. Kal.). Initially, the high priest announced its approach (from the Latin calare - to convene; zd.: to announce the new moon). The whole calculation system during the year was called Kalendarium (hence the calendar), the debt book was also called, since interest was paid during the calendars.

full moon day(13th or 15th day of the month) was called ides (Idus, abbr. Id.). According to the etymology of the Roman scientist Varro - from the Etruscan iduare - to divide, i.e. The month was divided in half.

Day of the first quarter of the moon ( 5th or 7th day of the month) was called Nones (Nonae, abbr. Non.). From the ordinal numeral nonus - the ninth, because it was the 9th day until the next milestone in the month.

In March, May, July, October, the ides fell on the 15th, nones on the 7th, and in the rest of the months, the ides on the 13th, and nones on the 5th.

Dates were indicated by counting from these three main days of the month, including both this day and the day of the date indicated: ante diem tertium Kalendas Septembres - three days before the September calendars (i.e. August 30), ante diem quartum Idus Martias - after four days before the Ides of March (i.e. March 12).

Leap year. Expression " leap year"is associated with the origin of the Julian calendar and the peculiar counting of days used by the ancient Romans. During the reform of the calendar, February 24 was repeated twice, that is, after the sixth day before the March kalends, and was called ante diem bis sextum Kelendas Martium - on the repeated sixth day before the March kalends.

A year with an extra day was called bi(s)sextilis - with a repeated sixth day. In Latin, the sixth number is called "sextus", and "once again the sixth" is called "bissextus". Therefore, the year containing an extra day in February was called "bissextilis". The Russians, having heard this word from the Byzantine Greeks, who pronounced "b" as "v", turned it into "high-rise".

Days of the week. The seven-day week in Rome appeared in the 1st century. AD under the influence ancient east. Christians introduced a regular holiday after every 6 working days. In 321, Emperor Constantine the Great legislated this form of the week.

The Romans named the days of the week according to the seven luminaries then known, which bore the names of the gods. Latin names, having changed, are partly preserved to this day in the names of the days of the week in many European languages.

In the Slavic names of the days of the week (through the Greek Orthodox Church), the designation was adopted by their numbers. In the Romance languages, the tradition of naming the days of the week after the names of pagan gods (despite the stubborn struggle of the Christian church) has survived to this day. IN Germanic languages the names of the Roman deities were replaced by the corresponding Germanic ones. The Roman god of war Mars in German mythology corresponds to Tiu, the god of trade Mercury - Wodan, the supreme deity of the sky and thunderstorms Jupiter - Donar (Thor), the goddess of love Venus - Freya. The name "Saturday" is a modified Hebrew word sabbaton (shabbaton) - rest. Sunday early christians celebrated as "the day of the Lord", that is, the day of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

chronology. In the first centuries of its existence, the dating of events in Rome was carried out by the names of the consuls, who were elected two per year. Thanks to the thoroughness of the historical recording of the names of the consuls and their constant use in historical writings and documents, we know the names of the consuls, starting from brutus(509 BC) and ending Basilius(541 AD), i.e. for over 1000 years!

The year was designated by the names of the two consuls of a given year, the names were put in the ablative, for example: Marco Crasso et Gnaeo Pompejo consulibus - to the consulate of Mark Crassus and Gnaeus Pompey(55 BC).

FROM Augustan era(from 16 BC), along with dating by consuls, the chronology from the alleged year of the founding of Rome (753 BC) comes into use: ab Urbe condita - from the foundation of the city, abbr. ab U.c. An abbreviation was placed before the year number, for example, 2009 of the Gregorian calendar corresponds to 2762 of the Roman era.