eric@sri-unix (10/26/82)
The following information is taken from the Encyclopedia Brinttanica, (c) 1958: The Roman Republic calendar consisted of twelve lunar months, Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Iunius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, December, Ianuarius, Februarius. Of these, Martius, Maius, Quintilis and October had each 31 days, the rest 29, save Februarius, which had 28. A good tradition, unjustly suspected in ancient and modern times, declares that Ianuarius and Februarius were additions to an original year of 10 months. Such a year of course was discontinuous; between year and year there was a gap of some 60 days, a phenomenon quite well authenticated among savage and barbarous people. February was popularly thought to end, however, on the 23rd, the Terminalia, and it was after this date that intercalation was made, which took place once or twice in four years. In 153 B.C. Jan. 1 ousted Mar. 1 as the official New Year's day. Julius Caesar abolished the use of the lunar year and the intercalary month, and regulated the civil year entirely by the sun. He fixed the mean length of the year at 365 1/4 days, and decreed that every fourth year should have 366 days, the other years having each 365. For many years it was imagined that Caesar readjusted the year so that the months January, March, May, July, September and November should have each thirty-one days, and the other months thirty, excepting February, which in common years should have only twenty-nine, but every fourth year thirty days. But no ancient or modern authority supports this view. Most modern authorities are agreed that much of the suggestion about Augustan activities is unwarranted and that Augustus had nothing to do with the lengthening of the month bearing his name.