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