12.3. Calendars of Ancient Rome. Julian calendar.

Gregorian calendar

In ancient Rome, the calendar first appeared in VIII v. BC e., it was lunar. The year consisted of 10 months, in a year there are 304 days. The year began on the first day of the first spring month. Initially, all months were designated by numerals, then they got names:

· Martius- in honor of the god of war and the patron saint of agriculture and animal husbandry, Mars, agricultural work began this month (31 days);

· Aprilis- aperire (lat.) - grow, open up (29 days);

· Mayus- in honor of the goddess of beauty and growth Maya (31 days);

· Junius- in honor of the goddess of fertility Juno (29 days);

· Quintilis- the fifth month (31 days);

· Sextile- the sixth (29 days);

· September- seventh (29 days);

· Oktober- the eighth (31 days);

· November- the ninth (29 days);

· December- the tenth (29 days).

Superstitious Romans were afraid of even numbers, so each month consisted of 29 or 31 days. V V II century BC NS. - calendar reform, a lunisolar calendar was created, in which there were 355 days, divided by 12 months. Two new months:

· Januarius- in honor of the two-faced god Janus (31 days);

· Februarius- month of purification, in honor of the god of the dead and the underworld of Februaria (29 days).

Calendars- the first day of each month in the ancient Roman calendar.

Nona- 7 day long months, 5 day short.

Ida- 15 days long, 13 days short months. The counting of days by calendars, nons and idam is a trace of the lunar calendar. Kalenda is the day of the new moon, Nona is the day of the first quarter of the moon, Ides is the day of the full moon.

In order to bring the year as close to the tropical one (365 and 1/4 days), once every two years, an additional month was introduced between February 23 and 24 - marcedonia (from the Latin word "marzes" - payment), equal initially to 20 days. This month was supposed to finish all the cash settlements of the past year. However, this measure did not manage to eliminate the discrepancy between the Roman and tropical years.

Therefore, in V v. BC. The Romans, following the example of the Greek calendar, introduced an 8-year cycle, slightly changing it. The Greeks had 3 lengthened years every 8 years, while the Romans introduced a 4-year cycle with two lengthened years. Marsedonia began to be administered twice every four years, alternating with 22 and 23 additional days. Thus, the average year in this 4-year cycle was 366 days and became approximately 3/4 days longer than the tropical year. To eliminate this discrepancy, the priests were given the right to correct the calendar and decide what to insert into it. Intercolation- the introduction of an additional month, the duty of the priests - pontiffs. Using their right to enter additional days and months into the calendar, the priests confused the calendar so much that in the 1st century. BC. there is an urgent need for its reform.

Julian calendar ... This reform was carried out in 46 BC. NS. at the initiative of Julius Caesar. The reformed calendar in his honor became known as the Julian calendar. The calendar reform was based on the astronomical knowledge accumulated by the Egyptians. The Egyptian astronomer from Alexandria Sozigen was invited to create a new calendar. The reformers were faced with the same task - to bring the Roman year as close as possible to the tropical one and, thanks to this, to maintain a constant correspondence of certain days of the calendar to the same seasons.

The Egyptian year of 365 days was taken as a basis, but it was decided to introduce an additional day every four years. Thus, the average year in the 4-year cycle became 365 days and 6 hours. Sozigen kept the number of months and their names, but the length of the months was increased to 30 and 31 days. An additional day began to be added to February, which had 28 days, and it was inserted between the 23rd and 24th, where marcedonia was previously inserted.
As a result, in such an extended year, the second 24th day appeared, and since the Romans counted the day in an original way, determining how many days remain until a certain day of each month, this additional day turned out to be the second sixth before the March calendars (until March 1). In Latin, such a day was called bisectus - the second sixth (“bis - twice, more, sixth - six).
In the Slavic pronunciation this term sounded somewhat differently, and the word "leap" appeared in the Russian language, and the lengthened year began to be called leap year.

January 1 began to be considered the beginning of the year, since that day the consuls began to fulfill their duties. Subsequently, the names of some months were changed: in 44 BC. NS. quintilis in honor of Julius Caesar began to be called July, in 8 BC. sextile - August in honor of Emperor Octavian Augustus. Due to the change in the beginning of the year, the ordinal names of some months have lost their meaning, for example, the tenth month (“december - December) has become the twelfth.

The Julian calendar is purely solar. In the Julian calendar, the year became longer than the tropical one by only 11 minutes 14 seconds. The Julian calendar lagged behind the tropical year by one day every 128 years. originally the Julian calendar was used only in Rome. In 325, the first Ecumenical Council of Nicaea decided to consider this calendar obligatory for all Christian countries. The Julian calendar was adopted in Byzantium on September 1, 550 AD. NS. In the X century. moved to Russia.

Gregorian calendar ... In the Julian calendar, the average length of a year was 365 days 6 hours, therefore, it was more than a tropical year (365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 46 seconds) by 11 minutes 14 seconds. This difference, accumulating annually, led after 128 years to an error of one day, after 384 years - in 3 days, and after 1280 years already in 10 days. As a result, the day of the vernal equinox is March 24 during the time of Julius Caesar in the 1st century. BC.; March 21 - at the Cathedral of Nicaea in I V v. n. NS.; March 11 at the end of X V I century, and this threatened in the future with the relocation of the main holiday of the Christian church - Easter from spring to summer. This affected religious and economic life. Easter was to be celebrated after the vernal equinox - March 21st and no later than April 25th. Again the need arose for a reform of the calendar. The Catholic Church carried out a new reform in 1582 under Pope Gregory XIII.

A special commission of clerics and astronomers was created. The author of the reform project was the Italian scientist - physician, mathematician and astronomer Aloysius Lilio. The reform was supposed to solve two main tasks: firstly, to eliminate the accumulated difference of 10 days between the calendar and tropical years and further prevent this mistake, and secondly, to bring the calendar year closer to the tropical one so that the difference between them would not be noticeable in the future.

The first problem was solved by the administrative procedure: a special papal bull was ordered to count October 5, 1582 as October 15. Thus, the vernal equinox returned to March 21st.

The second problem was solved by reducing the number of leap years in order to reduce the average length of a year in the Julian calendar. Every 400 years, 3 leap years were thrown out of the calendar. 1600 remained a leap year in the new calendar, and 1700, 1800 and 1900. became simple. According to the Gregorian calendar, years with numbers ending in two zeros began to be considered leap years only if the first two digits are divisible by 4 without a remainder. The calendar year approached the tropical year, as the difference of three days, which accumulated every 400 years, was discarded.

The created new Gregorian calendar became much more perfect than the Julian one. Each year now lagged behind the tropical one by only 26 seconds, and the discrepancy between them in one day accumulated after 3323 years. Such a lag has no practical significance.

The Gregorian calendar was originally introduced in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and the Southern Netherlands, then in Poland, Austria, the Catholic lands of Germany and a number of other European countries. The introduction of the Gregorian calendar met with fierce opposition from the clergy of those churches that rival the Catholic Church. The Orthodox, Anglican, Protestant churches, referring to church dogmas and theological interpretations, declared the Gregorian calendar to be contrary to the teachings of the apostles.

In 1583 a church council was convened in Constantinople, which recognized the inaccuracy of the Julian reckoning of time. But the new calendar was not recognized as correct either. The advantage was left to the old Julian calendar, as being more consistent with the definition of the day of the celebration of Easter. According to the Gregorian system of time counting, it became possible to coincide the day of the celebration of Christian and Jewish Easter, which, according to the apostolic rules, was strictly prohibited. In those states where the Orthodox Christian Church prevailed, the Julian calendar was used for a long time. For example, in Bulgaria a new calendar was introduced only in 1916, in Serbia in 1919. In Russia, the Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1918, the SNK decree of January 24 ordered to consider the next day of January 31, not February 1, but February 14.

Relationship between Julian (old style) and Gregorian calendars (new style) ... The difference between them is not a constant value, but is constantly increasing. In X V I century, when the reform was carried out, it was 10 days, and in the twentieth century. it was already equal to 13 days. How did this accumulation come about? 1700 was a leap year according to the Julian calendar, but simple according to the Gregorian calendar, since 17 is not divisible by 4 without a remainder. Thus, the difference between the calendars increased to 11 days. Similarly, the next increase in the discrepancy between them occurred in 1800 (up to 12 days), and then in 1900 (up to 13 days). In 2000, the difference remained the same, since this year is a leap year in both calendars, and will reach 14 days only in 2100, which will be a leap year in the Julian calendar, but simple in the Gregorian one.

This is a little story about a lot - about the history of the calendar, about idas and calendars, about the names of months and days of the week in different languages.

Calendar history

Now all the peoples of the world use the calendar inherited from the ancient Romans.
But the calendar and counting of days in the ancient Romans were at first rather confusing and strange ...

Voltaire said on this occasion:
Roman generals always won, but they never knew what day it happened ...)))

The rest of the days were indicated by indicating the number of days, remaining until the next major day; wherein the account included both the day that was indicated, and the next main day: ante diem nonum Kalendas Septembres - nine days before the September calendars, i.e. 24 August, it was usually written in abbreviated form a. d. IX Kal. Sept.
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The calendar of the ancient Romans.

The first Roman year consisted of 10 months, which were designated serial numbers: first, second, third, etc.
The year began in spring- a period close to the vernal equinox.
Later, the first four months were renamed:


First(spring!) month of the year was named after god of spring shoots, agriculture and cattle breeding, and this god was among the Romans ... Mars! It was only later that he became, like Ares, the god of war.
And the month was named martius(martius) - in honor of Mars.

Second month got its name aprilis ( aprilis), which comes from the Latin aperire - "to open", as this month buds open on the trees, or from the word apricus - "warmed by the Sun". It was dedicated to the goddess of beauty Venus.

Third month in honor of the goddess of the earth May and began to be called mayus(majus).
Fourth the month was renamed to junius(junius) and dedicated to the goddess of the sky Juno, patroness of women, wife of Jupiter.

The remaining six months of the year continued to retain their numerical names:

Quintilis - fifth; sextilis (sextilis) - the sixth;

September (September) - seventh; october - eighth;

November (november) - the ninth; december (december) - tenth.

Four months of the year ( martius, mayus, quintilis and oktober) each had 31 days and the rest of the months consisted of 30 days.

Therefore, the original Roman calendar the year had 304 days.

In the VII century. BC. the Romans reformed your calendar and added to the year another 2 months - the eleventh and twelfth.

The first of these months is Januarius- was named after the two-faced god Janus which was considered god of the firmament who opened the gates to the Sun at the beginning of the day and closed them at the end. He was god of entry and exit, of all undertakings... The Romans portrayed him with two faces: one, facing forward, God sees the future, the second, facing back, contemplates the past.

Second added month - febrarius- was dedicated to the god of the underworld Februus... Its very name comes from the word februare - "cleanse", and is associated with a ritual of purification.



Year in the calendar of the Romans after the reform began to consist out of 355 days, and in connection with the addition 51 days (why not 61?) had to change the length of the months.

But still the Roman year was more than 10 days shorter than the tropical year.

To keep the beginning of the year close to one season, we did insert extra days... At the same time, the Romans in every second year between February 24 and 25, 22 or 23 days were "wedged" alternately.

As a result, the number of days in the Roman calendar alternated in the following order: 355 days; 377 (355 + 22) days; 355 days; 378 (355 + 23) days. The plug-in days got their name the month of Mercedonia, sometimes referred to simply as the interim month - intercalary(intercalis).
Word " mercedony " comes from "merces edis" - "payment for labor": then the tenants were settled with the owners of the property.

The average length of a year in such a four-year period was 366,25 days, that is, a day more than in reality.

A drawing engraved on an ancient stone calendar of the Romans. The top row shows the gods to whom the days of the week are dedicated: Saturn - Saturday, Sun - Sunday, Moon - Monday, Mars - Tuesday, Mercury - Wednesday, Jupiter - Thursday, Venus - Friday. In the center of the calendar - the Roman zodiac, to the right and left of it - the Latin designations of the numbers of the month.

The reform of Julius Caesar.

The randomness of the Roman calendar became significant, and urgent reform was needed. And the reform was carried out in 46 BC Julius Caesar(100 - 44 BC). The new calendar was developed by a group of Alexandrian astronomers led by Sozigen.

The basis of the calendar,namedJulian, the solar cycle is set, the duration of which was taken equal to 365, 25 days.

They counted in three out of every four years 365 days, in the fourth - 366 days.

As before the month of Mercedonia, so now this extra day was "hidden" between 24 and 25 February. Caesar decided to add to February second sixth ( bis sextus) the day before the March calendars, that is second day 24 February... February was chosen as the last month of the Roman year. The augmented year began to be called annusbissextus, where did our word come from leap. The first leap year was 45 BC. NS.

Caesar ordered number of days in months according to the principle: an odd month has 31 days, an even month has 30. February in a simple year was supposed to have 29 days, and in a leap year - 30 days.

Moreover, Caesar decided to start the count of days in the new year from the new moon, which just fell on the first of January.

The new calendar for each day of the year indicated which star or constellation had its first morning sunrise or sunset after a period of invisibility. For example, in November, it was noted: on the 2nd - the arrival of Arcturus, on the 7th - the entry of the Pleiades and Orion, etc. The calendar was closely associated with the annual movement of the Sun along the ecliptic and with the cycle of agricultural work.

The Julian calendar began on January 1st, 45 BC. On this day, from which, already starting from 153 BC, the newly elected Roman consuls took office, and the beginning of the year was postponed.
Julius Caesar is the author of the tradition start counting the new year from January 1st.

In gratitude for the reform, and given the military merits of Julius Caesar, the Roman Senate renamed the month of Quinitilis(this month Caesar was born) in julius.

And a year later, in the same Senate, Caesar was killed ...


Calendar changes there were also later.

The Roman priests confused the calendar again, declaring every third (and not fourth) year of the calendar a leap year. As a result, from 44 to 9 years. BC. 12 leap years were introduced instead of 9.

This error was corrected by Emperor Augustus.(63 BC - 14 AD): over 16 years - from 9 BC to 8 AD - there were no leap years. Along the way, he contributed to the spread in the Roman Empire seven day week which replaced the previously used nine-day cycles - nundids.

In this regard, the Senate renamed the month sextilis in the month of Augustus... But the length of this month was 30 days... The Romans found it inconvenient to have fewer days in the month dedicated to Augustus than in the month dedicated to Caesar. Then took away one more day from February and added it to Augustus... So February is left with 28 or 29 days.

Now it turned out that Julius, Augustus and Septeber contain 31 days. So that there were no three months in a row for 31 days, one day of the september was transmitted oktoberu... At the same time, one day of november was moved to december... Thus, the correct alternation of long and short months, introduced by Caesar, was violated, and the first half of the year in a simple year turned out to be four days shorter than the second.

The Roman calendar system spread widely in Western Europe and was used up to the 16th century... With the adoption of Christianity in Russia they also began to use the Julian calendar, which gradually replaced the Old Russian.

In the 6th century, the Roman monk Dionysius Small proposed to introduce new christian era which starts from Nativity of Christ, not from the creation of the world, and not from the founding of Rome.

Dionysius substantiated the date from the birth of Christ. According to his calculations, she fell in the 754th year from the founding of Rome or in the 30th year of the reign of Emperor Augustus.
Era from the Nativity of Christ firmly established in Western Europe only in VIII century. And in Russia for several centuries they continued to count the years from the creation of the world.

Reform of Pope Gregory XIII.

At the end of the III century. AD the vernal equinox accounted for on March 21. Cathedral of nicaea held in 325 in the city of Nicaea (now it is Izvik in Turkey) fixed this date, deciding that the vernal equinox will always fall on this number.

However, the average length of a year in the Julian calendar is 0.0078 days or 11 min 14 s longer than the tropical year... As a result every 128 years, an error accumulated for a whole day: the moment of the passage of the Sun through the vernal equinox moved during this time one day ago - from March to February. By the end of the XVI century vernal equinox moved back 10 days and accounted for 11th of March.

The calendar reform was carried out by Pope Gregory XIII based on a project of an Italian doctor and mathematician Luigi Lilio.

Gregory XIII in his bull prescribed that after October 4, 1582 the year is 15, not 5 October. So the vernal equinox was moved to March 21, to its original place. And so that the error does not accumulate, it was decided out of every 400 years, throw out three days.
It is considered to be simple those centuries, the number of hundreds of which is not evenly divisible by 4. Due to this, there were not leap 1700, 1800 and 1900, and 2000 was a leap year. The discrepancy in one day of the Gregorian calendar with astronomical time accumulates not in 128 years, but in 3323.



Such a calendar system received the name Gregorian or "new style". In contrast to it, the name of the" old style "was entrenched in the Julian calendar.

Countries in which the positions of the Catholic Church were strong, almost immediately switched to a new style, and in Protestant countries the reform was carried out with a delay of 50 to 100 years.

England waited before 1751 g., and then "killed two birds with one stone": corrected the calendar and postponed beginning of 1752 from March 25 to January 1... Some of the British took the reform as a robbery: no joke, three whole months of life have disappeared!)))

Using different calendars caused a lot of inconvenience, and sometimes just curious cases. When we read that in Spain in 1616 on April 23 he died Cervantes, and in England on April 23, 1616 he died Shakespeare, one might think that two great writers passed away on the same day.
Actually the difference was 10 days! Shakespeare died in Protestant England, which still lived according to the Julian calendar, and Cervantes in Catholic Spain, where the Gregorian calendar (new style) had already been introduced.

One of the last countries to adopt the Gregorian calendar in 1928, became Egypt.

In the 10th century, with the adoption of Christianity, chronology came to Russia used by the Romans and Byzantines: Julian calendar, Roman month names, seven-day week... But the years were kept from the creation of the world which happened over 5508 years before the birth of Christ. The year began on March 1, and at the end of the 15th century, the beginning of the year was postponed to September 1.

The calendar in effect in Russia from the "creation of the world" was replaced by Julian Peter I from January 1, 1700 (the difference between the two chronological systems is 5508 years).

Reforming the calendar system Of Russia was severely detained. The Orthodox Church refused to accept it, although back in 1583 at the Council of Constantinople it recognized the inaccuracy of the Julian calendar.

Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR from January 25, 1918 g., in Russia was introduced Gregorian calendar. By this time, the difference between the old and the new style was 13 days. Was prescribed in 1918, after January 31, count not February 1, but the 14th.

Now the Gregorian calendar has become international.
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Now about the Slavic names of the months.
12 months - favorite fairy tale

Month- a period of time close to the period of the Moon's revolution around the Earth, although the modern Gregorian calendar is not consistent with the change in the phases of the Moon.

Since ancient times, segments of the year have been associated with certain natural phenomena or with economic activities.

Not exactly on the topic. From the legend: among the Slavs, the month was the king of the night, the husband of the Sun. He fell in love with the Morning Star, and as punishment the other gods split him in half ...



Names of months

January... Slavic name "Prosinets" - from the blue sky appearing in January.

February- "Szechen", "Lute". Széchen - because it was time to cut trees to clear the land for arable land.

March
"Dry" from the spring warmth, drying moisture, in the south - "Berezozol", from the action of the spring sun on the birch, which at this time begins to fill up with sap and starts budding. "Protalnik" - it is clear why.
April
Old Russian names of April: "Berezen", "Snegogon". In the Ukrainian language, the month is called "kuten" (blossoming).

May- the names "Grass", "Grass" - nature turns green and blooms.
June.
Izok. Izok is a grasshopper, there were especially many of them in June. Another name is "Cherven".

July.

"Cherven" - the name - from the fruits and berries, which in July are distinguished by their reddishness (scarlet, red). Also called "Lipets" - linden blooms in July. "Groznik" - from severe thunderstorms. And simply - "Top of the summer". "Strandnik" - from the painful summer work.
August
And the Slavs are still suffering - "Serpen", "Stubble" - time to mow the wheat. In the north, August was also called "Zarev", "Zornichnik" - from the glow of lightning.
September
The Russian name for the month was "Ruyin", Howler - from the roar of autumn winds and animals, especially deer. "Hmuren" - the weather began to deteriorate. In the Ukrainian language, the month is "Veresen" (from flowering melliferous plant - heather).

October
Wonderful Slavic name - "Listopad". Otherwise - "Dirty", from the autumn rains and abyss. And also "Svadebnik" - at this time the main agricultural work was coming to an end, it is not a sin to celebrate a wedding, especially after the holiday of the Intercession.

November- "Breast", from piles of frozen earth with snow.

December- "Jelly" - it's cold!

Tablet of Slavic names of months


Week and days of the week.

A week is a period of 7 days, existing in most of the world's calendar systems. The custom of measuring time in a seven-day week came to us from Ancient Babylon and is associated with a change in the phases of the moon.
Where did the names of the days of the week come from?

The ancient Babylonian astronomers discovered that, in addition to fixed stars, in the sky are visible and seven movable luminaries which were later named planets(from Greek "wandering"). It was believed that these luminaries revolve around the Earth and that their distances from it increase in the following order: Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

Babylonian astrologers believed that every hour of the day is under the auspices of a certain planet, which "controls" it.
Hours started on Saturday: its first hour was "ruled" by Saturn, the second - by Jupiter, the third - by Mars, etc., the seventh - by the Moon. Then the whole cycle was repeated again.

Eventually it turned out that in the first hour of the next day, sundays, "ruled" The sun, the first hour of the third day was received To the moon, the fourth day to Mars, the fifth to Mercury, the sixth to Jupiter and the seventh to Venus.

The planet that ruled the first hour of the day patronized the entire day, and the day received its name.

This system was adopted by the Romans - the names of the planets were identified with the names of the gods... They ruled by the days of the week that got their names... Roman names migrated to the calendars of many peoples of Western Europe.

"Planetary" names for the days of the week in both English and Scandinavian languages, but the names in them are produced on behalf of the pagan gods of Germanic-Scandinavian mythology.

The day of Saturn was considered unlucky for the Babylonians; on this day it was ordered not to do business, and he himself received the name " Shabbat "- rest... However, it was postponed at the end of the week. The name passed into Hebrew, Arabic, Slavic (Saturday), some Western European languages.

The Slavs called Sunday "week"," a day on which nothing do not do"(not doing business). And Monday is the" day after the week ", Tuesday is the" second day after the week ", etc.
That's what not sharing ...)))


Days of the week

We see the personification of the days of the week in the names preserved in English, German, French.

Monday- Monday echoes By the moon- Moon, even clearer Lundi (fr.),

Tuesday- in the name of Tuesday Mardi (French), el Martes (Spanish), Martedi (Italian) we recognize the planet Mars... In Tuesday, Dienstag, the name of the belligerent ancient German god Tiu, an analogue of Mars.

Wednesday- guessed Mercury in le Mercredi (French), Mercoledi (Italian), el Miercoles (Spanish).

Wednesday(English) comes from Wodensday, meaning Woden's day(Wotan, Odin). The same god is hidden in Onstag (sw.), Woenstag (head), Onsdag (dat.).

Woden- an unusual god, he is depicted as a tall old man in a black cloak. This character became famous for the invention of the runic alphabet, which draws a parallel with the patron god of written and oral speech - Mercury. According to legend, Woden sacrificed one eye for the sake of knowledge.

In Slavic Wednesday, Wednesday", and also in Mittwoch (German), Keskeviikko (Fin.) the idea of ​​the middle of the week is laid

Thursday- Latin Dies Jovis, Day Jupiter, gave rise to Jeudi (French), Jueves (Spanish), Giovedi (Italian).

And here Thursday(English), Torstai (Fin.), Torsdag (Sw.), Donnerstag (German), and others have a direct connection with the ancient god of thunder Thor, analogue of Jupiter. In Hindi, Thursday is Jupiter Day.

Friday- Venus is clearly visible in Vendredi (French), Venerdi (Italian).
English Friday, Fredag ​​(Swiss), Freitag (German) on behalf of the Scandinavian goddess of fertility and love Freyja (Frigge), an analogue of Aphrodite and Venus. In Hindi, Friday is Venus Day.

Saturday- face Saturn can be seen in Saturday (English) and Saturni (Latin).
Russian name " Saturday”, El Sabado (Spanish), Sabato (Italian) and Samedi (French) go back to the Hebrew“ Shabbat ”meaning“ rest, rest ”.
Lauantai (Fin.), Lördag (Sw.), Loverdag (Dat.) Are similar to the ancient German Laugardagr and mean "ablution day". In Hindi, Saturday is Saturn Day.

Sunday - Sun Day in Latin, English and German, in many languages ​​this day is denoted by various variations of the word "Sun / Son".
Domingo(Spanish), Dimanche (French), Domenica (Italian) in translation mean " Day of the lord"and are the stratification brought to Europe together with Christianity.

Russian " Sunday"appeared in the same way, replacing the old name of this day" Week ", preserved in other Slavic languages ​​- Week (Bol.), Nedilya (Ukrainian), Nedele (Czech.). In Hindi, Sunday is the Day of the Sun.
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And finally, about days and hours.

Day- a unit of any calendar, the allocation of which is based on the alternation of day and night. This division of the day originated in Ancient Babylon, the priests of which believed that day and night consisted of twelve hours. Officially dividing the day by 24 hours introduced by the Alexandrian astronomer Claudius Ptolemy, who lived in the II century. AD

The first hour began at dawn, noon was always six o'clock, and sunset was always twelfth. And the length of the hour was a variable, depended on the length of daylight hours.

4.Roman Empire calendar

When the Romans went outside the city and laid the foundation for the creation of the world Roman Empire, they were culturally backward people. The calendar year in them initially consisted of 10 months of 36 days. They started the New Year with the vernal equinox and they named the first month of the year Mart, in honor of the god of war Mars (Martus, Marzus); second April); the third is May in honor of Maya; the fourth - in June, in honor of the goddess Juno; and the remaining months - in numbers according to their order: Fifth (Quntilius), Sixth (Sextilius), Seventh (Septembrius), Eighth (Octembrius), Ninth (Novevmbrius) and Tenth (Decembrius). From the Romans, these names of the months entered all modern German-Latin languages, including Russian. They began counting the years from the founding of Rome, which, in their opinion, happened in 754 BC. Between the end of the previous year and the beginning of the next year, there were non-calendar days that were set aside for celebration and settlements between debtors and creditors. The beginning and end of the state year was officially announced by the priests of Rome. Very soon this "announcement" became a profitable business, because it could, at the behest of the priestly officials, accelerate or extend the period for settling debts. To avoid these abuses, the successor of Romulus, king Numa Pompilius (715-673), made the Roman calendar months 30 days, and between December (Decembrius) and Martus (Martus) introduced two additional months of 30 days - February (Februarius) and January (Januariuus ). Thus, the calendar year acquired 12 months of 30 days, and the Romans had an extra 5-6 days for the winter.

 holidays ... Calculations of debtors and creditors were to be made in the month of February, immediately after December.

In 46 BC, the Greek scientist Sozigen convinced Gaius Julius Caesar that he immediately occupied the position of “Dictator in perpetuum” to reform the calendar, bringing it in line with the solar year. The Sozigenes calendar, disregarding the phases of the moon, had 365 days a year, which is only about 6 hours less than the actual solar year. And Sozigen, to make up for lost time, proposed to insert an additional day in every fourth (4x6 = 24) year. The “eternal dictator” heeded the advice of the clever Greek and resolutely shook up the traditional Roman calendar. He rearranged January and February to the places that they still occupy. For reasons of state, Caesar announced that Rome was founded on January 1 and from March 1 to January 1, New Years celebrations. According to the seasons, he divided the year into 4 quarters, each with 91-92 days. To supplement the year with 365 days, Caesar added one day to each of the unpaired months (3, 5, 7, 9 and 11), and they began to count 31 days. And every fourth year, one additional day was added. This additional day was inserted after February 6 and was called twice the sixth (bis-sextus), from where the fourth year was named Leap. At the end, Gaius Julius Caesar renamed the fifth month, Quintilius, the month of his birth, to Julius. The calendar came into effect on January 1, 709 from the founding of Rome; according to our chronology - January 1, 45 BC.

After the death of Gaius Julius Caesar, the announcement of the New Year remained in the hands of the official priests. The latter did not read Caesar's calendar decree and began to declare leap years not every fourth, but every third year. Thus, for 36 years, the calendar has moved forward by 4 days. In AD 9, to rectify the situation, Emperor Augustus ordered 12 years not to appoint leap years. On the occasion, His Imperial Majesty agreed that the sixth month of the calendar, Sextilius, should henceforth be called Augustus in its part. And so that August was no less than July itself (the month of Julius Caesar), then from February (February) they took first one day for August (August), and then another one - for January, the month of the Roman city God Januarius. Thus, February was left with 28 days and in a leap year the same sixth number was added twice. The name Julian was assigned to the calendar, and under this name in the Roman Empire and in all Christianized countries it operated until the end of the 16th century. In tsarist Russia - until 1918, and in Greece - until 1923. Orthodox churches in Russia, Georgia, Jerusalem, Serbia, Ukraine use the Julian calendar to this day. True, unlike the decree of Gaius Julius Caesar, the Orthodox Church celebrates the New Year not on January 1, but on September 1, according to its chronology borrowed from Byzantium, the 7.5507 year of rivers from the Creation of the world is now ending.

The calendar of Guy Julius Caesar did not know the seven-day week. In it, the middle, 14-15 days, of each month were called Ides. The days of the first half of the month were called the number of days in Eid. For example: the third day before the Eids of March, or the eleventh day before the October Eids. The first day of the month was called the Calendar. After Eid, the days of the month were called the number of days until the next Kalenda. So, Gaius Julius Caesar was killed in 708 on the day of March Ida, that is, on March 14, 44 BC. The 9th of each month, Nona, was celebrated with special festivities.

Ides, Kalenda and Nona were the days of rest and celebration for the Romans. From the end of the 1st century, a calendar 7-day week was introduced in the Roman Empire with the names of the days in honor of the heavenly bodies. In the year 274, the emperor Aurelian (270-275) proclaimed the Day of the Sun God (Sunday) as a single and common holiday for the entire empire. Ida, Nona and Kalenda were removed from the Julian calendar.

Notes:

The Latin word “Aprelius” meant “Opening”, “The beginning of germination”.

The custom of celebrating several days at the end of the outgoing and at the beginning of the coming year passed from the Romans to the Christianized peoples. The Christian Church subsequently tied the holidays to these days from the birth (December 25) to the baptism (January 6) of Jesus Christ. This period of celebration by believers of the Orthodox and Catholic churches is now called the days of "Winter Christmas".

The Latin word “Februarus” meant “Final (full) settlement”, “Reckoning”, “Atonement”.

The month is named after the two-faced god Januarius, who left his temple during the campaign of the Roman soldiers, sat on the gates (on the threshold) of Rome and looked attentively in two directions at the same time, protecting the city from sudden attacks and watching the behavior of the Romans themselves and, especially, Romans. After the end of the military campaign, or the conclusion of peace, the god Januarius returned to his temple and the door of the temple was closed. The 77-year-old emperor Augustus ordered to write on a bronze plate that from the creation of Rome to the beginning of his leadership of the Roman Empire, "the temple of the god Janus was closed only twice, and during my reign - three times!" The custom of opening the doors of the Temple of Januarius during the war and closing them during the time of peace persisted in Rimedo in 410, until the time when Rome was captured and robbed by barbarians led by the Visigoth king Allaric.

From the Latin word "Bisectus" comes our name of the year - "Leap".

Only much later, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII, by his decree, liquidated "Bis-Sextus", replacing it with the 29th number, which was added until the month of February in a leap year.

The name of this day in its philological content is associated with the word "Calendar".

Such an account and the name of the days was unusual for the entire Greco-Roman world. Hence, regarding those events that will come after a long time or never, they said that he should be expected “Ad greakas calendas” - before the Greek Calendars. There was no Calenda in the Greek calendar.

Today, all the peoples of the world use the solar calendar, practically inherited from the ancient Romans. But if in its current form this calendar almost ideally corresponds to the annual movement of the Earth around the Sun, then about its original version one can only say “it was nowhere worse”. And all probably because, as the Roman poet Ovid (43 BC-17 AD) noted, the ancient Romans knew weapons better than stars ...

Agricultural calendar. Like their neighbors, the Greeks, the ancient Romans determined the beginning of their work by the rising and setting of individual stars and their groups, that is, they linked their calendar with the annual change in the appearance of the starry sky. Almost the main "reference point" in this case was the rising and setting (morning and evening) of the Pleiades star cluster, which in Rome was called Virgil. The beginning of many field work here was also associated with favonia - a warm westerly wind that begins to blow in February (February 3-4 according to the modern calendar). According to Pliny, in Rome "spring begins with him." Here are some examples of the ancient Romans 'linking' field work to changing the appearance of the starry sky:

"Between the favonia and the vernal equinox, trees are pruned, the vines are buried ... Between the vernal equinox and the rising of Virgil (the morning rise of the Pleiades is observed in mid-May), the fields are weeding ..., the willow is chopped down, the meadows are enclosed ..., the olives should be planted."

“Between the (morning) sunrise of Virgil and the summer solstice, dig or plow young vineyards, pinch the vines, mow forage. Between the summer solstice and the rising of the Dog (June 22 to July 19), most are busy with the harvest. Between the rising of the Dog and the autumnal equinox, straw should be mowed (the Romans first cut the ears high, and the straw was mowed a month later).

"It is believed that sowing should not begin before the (autumnal) equinox, because if bad weather begins, the seeds will rot ... From favonia to the rise of Arcturus (February 3-16), dig new ditches and prune in the vineyards."

However, it should be borne in mind that this calendar was filled with the most incredible prejudices. So, the meadows should have been fertilized in early spring only on the new moon, when the young month is not yet visible ("then the grasses will grow just like the young month"), and there will be no weeds on the field. It was recommended to put eggs under the chicken only in the first quarter of the moon phase. According to Pliny, "any chopping, cutting, shearing will do less harm if done when the moon is at a loss." Therefore, the one who decided to have a haircut when "the moon is coming" risked baldness. And if you cut the leaves on the tree at the specified time, then it will soon lose all the leaves. The tree cut down at that time was threatened with rot ...

Months and count of days in them. The existing inconsistency and some uncertainty of the data on the ancient Roman calendar is largely due to the fact that the ancient writers themselves disagree on this issue. This will be illustrated in part below. First, let us dwell on the general structure of the ancient Roman calendar, which took shape in the middle of the 1st century. BC NS.

At the indicated time, the year of the Roman calendar with a total duration of 355 days consisted of 12 months with the following distribution of days in them:

Martius 31 Quintilis 31 November 29

Aprilis 29 Sextilis 29 December 29

Mayus 31 September 29 Januarius 29

The additional month of Mercedonia will be discussed later.

As you can see, with the exception of one, all the months of the ancient Roman calendar had an odd number of days. This is due to the superstitious beliefs of the ancient Romans that odd numbers are lucky, while even ones bring misfortune. The year began on the first day of March. This month was named by Martius in honor of Mars, who was originally revered as the god of agriculture and herding, and later as the god of war, who was called to defend peaceful labor. The second month got the name Aprilis from the Latin aperire - "to open", as this month buds open on the trees, or from the word apricus - "warmed by the Sun". It was dedicated to the goddess of beauty Venus. The third month Mayus was dedicated to the goddess of the earth Maya, the fourth Junius - to the goddess of the sky Juno, the patroness of women, the wife of Jupiter. The names of six further months were associated with their position in the calendar: Quintilis - fifth, Sextilis - sixth, September - seventh, Oktober - eighth, November - ninth, December - tenth.

The name Januarius - the penultimate month of the ancient Roman calendar - is believed to come from the word janua - "entrance", "door": The month was dedicated to the god Janus, who, according to one version, was considered the god of the firmament, who opened the gates to the Sun at the beginning of the day and closing them at the end. In Rome, 12 altars were dedicated to him - according to the number of months in a year. He was the god of entry, of all undertakings. The Romans portrayed him with two faces: one, facing forward, as if God sees the future, the second, facing back, contemplates the past. And finally, the 12th month was dedicated to the god of the underworld, Februus. Its very name comes, apparently, from februare- "to cleanse", but, possibly, from the word feralia. This is what the Romans called the memorial week in February. After it, at the end of the year, they performed a cleansing rite (lustratio populi) "for the reconciliation of the gods with the people." Perhaps because of this, they could not insert additional days at the very end of the year, but produced it, as we will see later, between February 23rd and 24th ...

The Romans used a very peculiar way of counting the days in a month. They called the first day of the month kalends - calendae - from the word calare - to proclaim, since the beginning of each month and year in general was proclaimed by the priests (pontiffs) publicly at popular meetings (comitia calata). The seventh day in four long months, or the fifth in the other eight, was called nonas (nonae) from nonus - the ninth day (inclusive count!) To the full moon. The nones roughly coincided with the first quarter of the moon phase. On the nons of each month, the pontiffs announced to the people what holidays would be celebrated in it, and in the nons of February, moreover, additional days would or would not be inserted. The 15th (full moon) in long and 13th in short months was called idus - idus (of course, in these last months the ides should have been attributed to the 14th, and the nones to the 6th, but the Romans did not like even numbers ...). The day before the Kalendas, Nons and Ides was called the eve (pridie), for example pridie Kalendas Februarias - the eve of the February calendars, i.e. January 29.

At the same time, the ancient Romans counted the days not forward, as we do, but in the opposite direction: so many days left until non, id or calendars. (The Nons, Ides and Kalends themselves were also included in this count!) So, January 2 is the "4th day from the non", since in January the Nons came on the 5th, January 7 - "the 7th day from the Id". January had 29 days, so the 13th was called the Ides, and the 14th was already "XVII Kalendas Februarias" - the 17th day before the February calendars.

Next to the numbers of the months, the first eight letters of the Latin alphabet were put down: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, which were cyclically repeated in the same order throughout the whole year. These periods were called "nine days" - nundins (nundi-nae - noveni dies), since the last day of the previous eight-day week was included in the count. At the beginning of the year, one of these "nine" days - nundinus - was declared a trading or bazaar day, on which residents of the surrounding villages could come to the city for the bazaar. For a long time, the Romans seemed to strive to ensure that the nundines did not coincide with the nones, in order to avoid an unnecessary congestion of people in the city. There was also a prejudice that if the nundinus coincided with the January calendars, then the year would be unlucky.

In addition to the Nundine letters, each day in the ancient Roman calendar was designated by one of the following letters: F, N, C, NP and EN. On the days designated by the letters F (dies fasti; fasti - the schedule of attendance days in court), judicial institutions were opened and court sessions could take place (“the praetor was allowed to pronounce the words do, dico, addiso -“ I agree ”(to appoint a court ), "I indicate" (the law), "I award"). Over time, the letter F began to denote the days of holidays, games, etc. The days marked with the letter N (dies nefasti) were forbidden, in which, for religious reasons, it was impossible to convene meetings, arrange trials and pass a sentence. In the days of C (dies comitialis - "days of meetings"), popular meetings and sessions of the Senate took place. NP days (nefastus parte) were "partially forbidden", EN days (intercisus) were considered nefasti in the morning and evening and fasti in the intermediate hours. At the time of the emperor Augustus, the Roman calendar had days F - 45, N-55, NP-70, C-184, EN - 8. Three days a year were called dies fissi (“split” - from fissiculo - to consider the cuts of the sacrificed animals), of which two (March 24 and May 24 - "were designated as QRCF: quando rex comitiavit fas -" when the sacrificial king presides over "in the people's assembly, the third (June 15) - QSDF: quando stercus delatum fas -" when the dirt is taken out and litter "from the temple of Vesta - the ancient Roman deity of the hearth and fire. In the temple of Vesta, an eternal flame was maintained, from here it was taken to new colonies and settlements. The days of fissi were considered nefasti until the end of the sacred rite.

For a long time, the list of fasti days for each month was proclaimed only on its 1st day - this is evidence of how in ancient times the patricians and priests held in their hands all the most important means of regulating social life. And only in 305 BC. NS. the eminent politician Gnaeus Flavius ​​published a list of dies fasti for a whole year on a white board in the Roman forum, making the distribution of days of the year publicly known. Since that time, the establishment of calendar tables carved on stone boards in public places has become commonplace.

Alas, as noted in the "Encyclopedic Dictionary" by F. A. Brockhaus and I. A. Efron (St. Petersburg, 1895, vol. XIV, p. 15) "the Roman calendar seems to be controversial and is the subject of numerous assumptions." The foregoing can be attributed to the question of when the Romans began the countdown of the day. According to the testimony of the outstanding philosopher and politician Mark Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) and Ovid, the day for the Romans seemed to begin in the morning, while according to Censorin - from midnight. This last is explained by the fact that among the Romans many holidays ended with certain ritual actions, for which the "silence of the night" was supposedly necessary. That is why they added the first half of the night to the already past day ...

The length of the year of 355 days was 10.24-2 days shorter than the tropical one. But in the economic life of the Romans, agricultural work played an important role - sowing, harvesting, etc. And in order to keep the beginning of the year close to the same season, they inserted additional days. At the same time, the Romans, out of some superstitious motives, did not insert a whole month separately, and in every second year between the 7th and 6th days until the March calendars (between February 23rd and 24th), they "wedged in" alternately 22 or 23 days. As a result, the number of days in the Roman calendar alternated in this order:

377 (355 + 22) days,

378 (355+ 23) days.

If the insertion was made, then February 14 was already called the day “XI Kal. intercalares ", on February 23 (" eve "), the terminalia was celebrated - a holiday in honor of Terminus - the god of the borderlands and border pillars considered sacred. The next day, as it were, a new month began, which included the rest of February. Day “Kal. intercal. ", then - the day" IV to non "(pop intercal.), the 6th day of this" month "is the day" VIII to id "(idus intercal.), the 14th is the day" XV (or Xvi) Kal. Martias ".

Intercalary days (dies intercalares) received the name of the month of Mercedonia, although ancient writers called it simply an intercalary month - intercalaris (intercalaris). The word “mercedony” itself seems to come from “merces edis” - “wages for labor”: it was as if it was the month in which the tenants' settlements with the property owners were made.

As you can see, as a result of such insertions, the average length of a year in the Roman calendar was 366.25 days - one day longer than the true one. Therefore, from time to time, this day had to be thrown out of the calendar.

Testimonies of contemporaries. Let us now see what the Roman historians, writers and public figures themselves said about the history of their calendar. First of all, M. Fulvius Nobilior (former consul in 189 BC), writer and scientist Mark Terentius Varro (116-27 BC), writers Censorinus (III century AD) and Macrobius (5th century AD) claimed that the ancient Roman calendar year consisted of 10 months and contained only 304 days. At the same time, Nobilior believed that the 11th and 12th months (January and February) added about 690 BC to the calendar year. NS. semi-legendary dictator of Rome Numa Pompilius (died c. 673 BC). Varro believed that the Romans used the 10-month year even "before Romulus", and therefore he already indicated 37 years of the reign of this king (753-716 BC) as complete (according to Z65 1/4, but in no way not 304 days). According to Varro, the ancient Romans supposedly knew how to coordinate their working life with the change of constellations in the sky. So, they, they say, believed that "the first day of spring falls in the sign of Aquarius, summer - in the sign of Taurus, autumn - Leo, winter - Scorpio."

According to the testimony of Licinius (tribune of the people of 73 BC), Romulus created both a calendar of 12 months and rules for inserting extra days. But according to Plutarch, the calendar year of the ancient Romans consisted of ten months, but the number of days in them ranged from 16 to 39, so that even then the year consisted of 360 days. Further, it is as if Numa Pompilius introduced the custom of inserting an additional month of 22 days.

We have evidence from Macrobius that the Romans did not divide the period of time remaining after a 10-month year of 304 days into months, but simply waited for the arrival of spring to start counting again by months. Numa Pompilius allegedly divided this period of time into January and February, with February before January. Numa also introduced a 12-month lunar year of 354 days, but soon added another, 355th day. It was Numa who allegedly established an odd number of days in months. As Macrobius further argued, the Romans counted the years according to the Moon, and when they decided to measure them with the solar year, they began to insert 45 days every four years - two intercalary months at 22 and 23 days, they were inserted at the end of the 2nd and 4th years. At the same time, it was as if (and this is the only evidence of this kind) for the alignment of the calendar with the Sun, the Romans excluded from the count 24 days every 24 years. Macrobius believed that the Romans borrowed this insert from the Greeks and that this was done around 450 BC. NS. Before that, they say, the Romans were counting lunar years, and the full moon coincided with the day of id.

According to Plutarch, the fact that the months of the ancient Roman calendar, which have a numerical name, at the beginning of the year in March end in December, is proof that the year once consisted of 10 months. But, as the same Plutarch notes elsewhere, this very fact could be the reason for such an opinion ...

And here it is appropriate to quote the words of D. A. Lebedev: “According to the very witty and highly probable assumption of G. F. Unger, the Romans called 6 months by their proper names, from January to June, because they fall on that half of the year when the day increases, why she was considered happy and only on her in ancient times there were all the holidays (from which the months usually received their names); the remaining six months, corresponding to that half of the year in which the night increases and in which, therefore, as in an unfavorable one, no festivities were held, did not have this special names in mind, but simply only counted from the first month of March. A complete analogy with this is the fact that with the lunar

year, the Romans observed only three lunar phases: new moon (Kalendae), 1st quarter (popae) and full moon (idus). These phases correspond to the half of the month when the lighter part of the moon increases, marking the beginning, middle and end of this increase. The last quarter of the moon, which falls in the middle of that half of the month when the light of the moon decreases, did not interest the Romans in the least and therefore did not have any name for them. "

From Romulus to Caesar. In the previously described ancient Greek parapegmas, two calendars were actually combined: one of them counted the days by the phases of the moon, the second indicated a change in the appearance of the starry sky, which was necessary for the ancient Greeks to establish the timing of certain field work. But the same problem faced the ancient Romans. Therefore, it is possible that the above-mentioned writers noted changes in various types of calendars - lunar and solar, and in this case it is impossible to reduce their messages "to a common denominator" at all.

There is no doubt that the ancient Romans, comparing their life with the cycle of the solar year, could well count the days and months only during the "year of Romulus" of 304 days. The different lengths of their months (from 16 to 39 days) unambiguously indicate the consistency of the beginning of these time intervals with the timing of one or another field work, or with the morning and evening rises and sets of bright stars and constellations. It is no coincidence, as E. Bikerman notes, in ancient Rome it was customary to talk about the morning sunrise of one star or another, as we talk about the weather every day! The very art of "reading" signs "written" in the sky was considered a gift from Prometheus ...

The lunar calendar of 355 days was apparently introduced from the outside, it was probably of Greek origin. The fact that the words "calendars" and "ides" are most likely Greek was recognized by the Roman authors themselves, who wrote about the calendar.

Of course, the Romans could slightly change the structure of the calendar, in particular, change the count of days in a month (remember that the Greeks counted only the days of the last decade in reverse order).

Having adopted the lunar calendar, the Romans, apparently, first used its simplest version, that is, the two-year lunar cycle - trietheridium. This means that they made the insert of the 13th month every second year, and this eventually became a tradition for them. Considering the superstitious adherence of the Romans to odd numbers, it can be assumed that the simple year consisted of 355 days, the embolismic - of 383 days, that is, that they inserted an additional month of 28 days and, who knows, maybe even then “they were hiding it "In the last, incomplete ten days of February ...

But trietheride - the cycle is still too imprecise. And therefore: “If in fact they, apparently, having learned from the Greeks that in 8 years it is necessary to insert 90 days, distributed these 90 days for 4 years, 22-23 days, inserting this poor mensis intercalaris in a year, then, obviously , they have long been accustomed to inserting the 13th month a year later, when they decided to bring their time reckoning into harmony with the sun with the help of the octaetheride, and therefore preferred to cut back the insertion month rather than abandon the custom of inserting it 1 time every 2 years. Without this assumption, the origin of the poor Roman octaetheride is inexplicable. "

Of course, the Romans (perhaps they were priests) could not help looking for ways to improve the calendar and, in particular, could not help but learn that their neighbors, the Greeks, use octaetherida for counting time. Probably, the Romans decided to do the same, but they found it unacceptable how the Greeks made inserts of embolismic months ...

But, as noted above, as a result, the average length of the Roman calendar over four years - 366 1/4 days - was one day longer than the true one. Therefore, after the expiration of three octaetherids, the Roman calendar lagged behind the Sun by 24 days, that is, more than a whole intercalary month. As we already know from the words of Macrobius, the Romans, at least in the last centuries of the republic, used a period of 24 years, containing 8766 (= 465.25 * 24) days:

once every 24 years, the insertion of Mercedonia (23 days) was not carried out. A further error in one day (24-23) could be eliminated after 528 years. Of course, such a calendar did not agree well with both the phases of the moon and the solar year. The most expressive description of this calendar was given by D. Lebedev: “Abolished by Julius Caesar in 45 BC. X. the calendar of the Roman republic was ... a real chronological monstrum. It was not a lunar or solar calendar, but a pseudo-lunar and pseudo-solar one. Possessing all the drawbacks of the lunar year, he did not have any of its merits, and he stood in exactly the same relation to the solar year. "

What has been said is further strengthened by the following circumstance. Since 191 BC BC, according to the "law of Manius Acilius Glabrion", the pontiffs, headed by the high priest (Pontifex Maximus), received the right to determine the duration of additional months (“to appoint for the intercalary month as many days as required”) and establish the beginning of months and years. At the same time, they very often abused their power, lengthening the years and thereby lengthening the terms of office of their friends and shortening these terms for enemies or those who refused to bribe. It is known, for example, that in 50 BC. Cicero (106 - 43 BC) on February 13 did not yet know if an additional month would be inserted in ten days. However, a little earlier, he himself argued that the concern of the Greeks about adjusting their calendar to the movement of the Sun was just eccentricity. As for the Roman calendar of that time, as E. Bikerman notes, it did not coincide either with the movement of the Sun or with the phases of the Moon, but "rather wandered completely at random ...".

And since the payment of debts and taxes was carried out at the beginning of each year, it is not difficult to imagine how firmly the priests held in their hands the entire economic and political life in ancient Rome with the help of the calendar.

Over time, the calendar became so confused that the festival of the harvest had to be celebrated in winter. The confusion and chaos that prevailed in the Roman calendar of that time was best described by the French philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778) with the words: "The Roman generals always won, but they never knew what day it happened ...".

There is no exact information about the origin of the Roman calendar. According to tradition, the first version was introduced in 738 BC. founder and first king of Rome, (753 - 715 BC). This calendar, the year of which consisted of 10 months and contained 304 days, was borrowed from the Greeks and was called Romulus... The months in it had no names and were designated by serial numbers, and the year began with the month in which the beginning of spring fell.

By the end of the 8th century BC. the first four months got their names. They were Martius ( in honor of the god of war Mars), Aprilis(lat. aperire – open, on the buds that open on the trees),Mayus(in honor of the goddess Maya, mother of the god Mercury) andJunius(in honor of the goddess Juno, wife of the god Jupiter). The remaining six months retained their ordinal designations -Quintilis(fifth), Sextilis(sixth), September(seventh), Oktober(eighth), November(ninth) and December(tenth). Martius, Mayus, Quintilis and Oktober had 31 days each, and the rest had 30 days each.

The first reform of the calendar was carried out by the second Roman king (715 - 674 BC). He added to the existing 10 two more months - Januarius (in honor of the two-faced god Janus) and Februarius (lat. februare – purify, according to the purification rite, which took place annually this month).

To equalize a year of 304 days with the year of the Greeks, it was required to add another 50 days to it. Superstitious Romans believed that odd numbers were happier than even ones and added 51 days. Nevertheless, out of this number of days, two full months were not made up, and the Romans took one day away from six 30-day months, having received 57 days for the new two. 29 of them went to Januarius and 28 to Februarius.

Thus, a year of 355 days was divided into 12 months with the following number of days:

Martius 31
Aprilis 29
Mayus 31
Junius 29
Quintilis 31
Sextilis 29
September 29
Oktober 31
November 29
December 29
Januarius 29
Februarius 28

Why 355 days? The fact is that the Romans used the lunar calendar and the beginning of each month was determined by the appearance of the lunar crescent after the new moon. The lunar year lasts 354.4 days. However, a solar year has a duration of 365.25 days. To eliminate the discrepancy of more than 10 days in every second year between the 23rd and 24th days of Februarius, an additional month of Mercedonia was inserted, containing alternately 22 and 23 days. The length of the year, respectively, varied as follows: 355 days, 377 days, 355 days, 378 days, 355 days, 377 days, 355 days, 378 days, etc. At the same time, the average length of the year turned out to be one day longer than the actual one, and from time to time it was necessary to resort to reducing the duration of additional months. The right to change the length of these months belonged to the pontiffs (priests), who often abused their power, causing confusion in public life.

The oldest extant Roman calendar, Fasti Antiates. 84-55 BC Reproduction. Museo del Teatro Romano de Caesaraugusta, Zaragoza, Spain. The original, painted on plaster, was found in 1915 and is in the Roman National Museum in the Baths of Diocletian.

Voltaire wrote: "The Roman generals always won, but they never knew what day it happened."

He put an end to this uncertainty. In 46 BC. he, on the advice of the Egyptian astronomer Sozigen, carried out a radical reform of the calendar according to the Egyptian model. A four-year cycle (365 + 365 + 365 +366 days) was established with unequal length of months, adopted so far. The month of Mercedonia has disappeared from the calendar forever. The beginning of the year was postponed to January 1, since it was from that day (starting from 153 BC) that the consuls took office and the Roman economic year began. The year with the extra day was called bisexilis("With the second sixth day", which, as before the month of Mercedony, was inserted before February 24, ie before the sixth day before the March calendars), from where the Russian "leap" came from.

Before the implementation of the reform, in order to achieve the coincidence of all holidays with the corresponding seasons, i.e. to remove the accumulated errors, the Romans added a couple of months to the calendar year, in addition to the 23-day Mercedonium, at 33 and 34 days. They were inserted between November and December. Thus, a year of 445 days was formed, which is called the "year of confusion." It was 46 BC. Counting according to the new calendar began on January 1, 45 BC.

In gratitude to Julius Caesar for the reform of the calendar and military services, the Roman Senate in 44 BC. renamed the month of Quintilis, in which Caesar was born, to Julius (July).

The reckoning of time was still in the hands of the pontiffs. Not understanding the essence of the reform, they began to insert leap days not three years later into the fourth, but two years later into the third, again confusing the calendar account. The error was discovered in 8 BC. during the time of the emperor, who had to carry out a new reform to eliminate it. At the direction of Augustus from 8 BC. to 8 A.D. extra days were not inserted.

The Senate decided to rename the month of Sextilis to Augustus in gratitude to Augustus for correcting the calendar and for the great victories he won this month. However, Sextilis had 30 days - an even number that was considered unlucky. I had to take one day away from Februarius, leaving him 28 (29) days. Now three months in a row - Julius, Augustus and September - had 31 days each, which, for some reason, again did not suit the superstitious Romans. One day September was given to Oktober, and November to December. In this form, the Roman calendar remained unchanged throughout Europe until the end of the 16th century (and in some places until the beginning of the 20th century).


Stone Roman calendar. 3-4 centuries. Sticks were inserted into the holes corresponding to the month, day and day of the week.

The emperors Tiberius, Nero and Commodus tried to call by their own names for the next three months, but these names did not take root.

Since the emergence of the Roman Republic (509 BC), the years were designated by the names of two consuls (consuls were re-elected in pairs annually). So about the events of 55 BC. it was said - to the consulate of Mark Crassus and Gnaeus Pompey... Starting from 16 BC, without canceling the dating by the consuls, dating from the supposed year of the founding of Rome comes into use - ab Urbe condita (from the foundation of the city).This date (April 21, 753 BC) was "calculated" by the Roman writer and scientist Mark Terentius Varro (116 - 27 BC), having established that it corresponds to the 3rd year of the 6th Olympiad. This dating was used in Europe until the end of the 17th century.

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 phases of the moon. The 1st day of each month was called kalends ( Kalendae ) ... This was the first day of the new moon announced by the high priest (lat. calare – convene). The 13th or 15th day of the month was calledidami (Idus ), full moon afternoon (Etruscaniduare – divide). 5th or 7th day was callednonami (Nonae ) and was the day of the first quarter of the moon and the 9th day before the Ides (lat.n onus- ninth).

In March, May, July and October (we will already use the familiar names), the ides fell on the 15th, and the nons - on the 7th. In the rest of the months, the ids corresponded to the 13th, and the nones to the 5th. The days immediately preceding the kalends, nons and idam were calledpridie (eve). For example, March 14 iseve of the march id . To indicate the remaining days, their number was indicated, which remained until the next main day. The account included both the designated day itself and the next main one. 20th of March -13 days before the April calendars . It can be seen that when dating was always used "before" and never - "after".The review of the year was calledkalendarium .


Originally Roman week, nundine(lat. nundinae), consisted of 8 days, designated by the letters of the alphabet A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H. The seven-day week came to Rome in the 1st century BC. from the East. Her days, with the exception of the Sabbath, which had its own name (Old Heb.sabbath – rest), were designated by serial numbers. The Romans gave them the names of seven luminaries, themselves named after the gods:

Monday Lunae dies moon
Tuesday Martis dies Mars
Wednesday Mercuri dies Mercury
Thursday Jovis dies Jupiter
Friday Veneris dies Venus
Saturday Saturni dies Saturn
Sunday Solis dies The sun

The Romans divided the day into 2 parts - day and night. Their division into clocks came into use in 291 BC. with the advent of the sundial in Rome (horologium solarium ) , which in 164 BC. inherited the water clock (solarium ex aqua ). Day and night were divided into 12 equal hours, but in the understanding of the Romans it was daylight hours (from sunrise to sunset) and the night itself (from sunset to dawn). This approach led to the fact that the daytime hour was equal to the nighttime (and modern, familiar to us hour) only at the equinoxes. In the rest of the year, their duration, of course, changed and varied.

The papal government of Rome continued to use this measurement of time until 1842 (!), After which it nevertheless switched to world time.