steward (02/10/83)
About a year ago there was a long discussion on the months of the year,
such as their names, length, sequence, etc. Yesterday while reading
Plutarch's Lives, I came across information which may illuminate that
earlier discussion. The following is derived from Plutarch's description
of the life of Numa Pompilius.
At the time of Romulus, there were twelve months in the year. However,
there was no attempt to standardize the length of the months, so some
would have 20 days, others 35 days, or more. The only rule was to have
all twelve months within 365 days. The month names, derivation and
sequence were:
March : Mars
April : Venus
May : Maia, mother of Mercury
June : Juno
Quitilis : 5th month
Sextilis : 6th month
September: 7th month
October : 8th month
November : 9th month
December : 10th month
January : Janus
February : februa, purification month
When Numa Pompilius became the leader of Rome, he instituted some changes in
the calendar. First, he moved the months of January and February to the
beginning of the year. Plutarch speculates this was done to emphasize Numa's
desire to have the Romans live peacefully, as Janus was a lover of civil and
social unity. Numa then tried to coordinate the lunar months with the solar
year. He recognized a lunar year of 354 days and a solar year of 354. His
attempt to mesh the two periods was the addition of a month every other year,
after February, called Mercedinus which had 22 days. This, obviously, was
later dropped.
Later, Quitilis was changed to July in honor of Julius Caesar. Sextilis was
changed to August in honor of Augustus Caesar. Domitian changed September
and October to Germanicus and Domitianus, respectively, in honor of himself.
These last two months were changed back after Domitian was slain.
P.S. Plutarch was writing around 100 A.D. Although he is speculating about
some of these changes in the calendar and the derivations of the month
names, I personally prefer his speculation over the Encyclopaedia's.
At least, he admits to it.